Arc 2.13

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Everyone was still in festive mood even though the new year has already passed. On the surface was peaceful and harmonious but underneath, the storm was brewing.

The people presented inside the imperial study were all high ranking, Zheng Zhi being the general was obviously one among them.

The Emperor with a grave face said,’’Our spies had reported that Tuhun is starting to make a move on us.’’

Unlike Great Wu which was blessed with good geography, Tuhun was not. 70% of its land covered with barren land and having cold weather almost all year round so they have never considered them as a threat.

Tuhun also knew its own place so they never dared to try invading the Great Wu but what’s with this situation?

‘’Gretian.’’

Zheng Zhi who has been silent for all this time, finally opened his mouth to speak. Everyone who heard this immediately turned to look at him.

Gu Yanwu was the one to voice out his opinion,’’How can that be? You know that those two never get along with each other.’’

His face was calm but inside his heart was filled with anxiety the moment Gretian was suddenly being mentioned.

To his reply, Zheng Zhi unhurriedly put down his sentence,’’Gretian has money while Tuhun has people.’’

He Zhouyan quickly caught up with his words,’’You mean, Gretian push Tuhun to the front, while staying behind to reap the benefits?’’

Seeing Zheng Zhi responded with a nod, He Zhouyan continued,"Why they suddenly formed an alliance?"

In front of his father-in-law, Zheng Zhi obviously wouldn't hide anything so he lightly glanced at Gu Yanwu then said,’’Situ family is related with the imperial family of Gretian.’’

Once everyone heard this, their expressions instantly turned ugly.

This was precisely the maternal family of Gu Yanwu’s concubine that was sentenced to death not long ago.

They only knew that he was from a wealthy merchant family so it never occurred to them that he was actually related to the royalty of Gretian!

When all said and done, it was not Gu Yanwu who forced him to get a death sentence but the root of the problem was originated from him. Situ Yao was his favorite concubine so he used to dote on him a lot but after meeting Xu Huang, he began to neglect him which led to that incident.

Zheng Zhi and He Zhuoyan also played the part in his death but even without them interfere the Emperor wouldn’t let himself lose face and let him go after harming a royalty either! Therefore, for the first time, the Emperor gave a disapproving look toward the Crown Prince.

Gu Yanwu secretly clenched his fist inside his sleeve, his heart was full of resentment toward them. Obviously, they also played the part but immediately put all of the blames on him!

The Emperor retracted his eyes from him to look at Zheng Zhi then gave a sigh.

If he were to push the marriage to an early date, there was no more chance in persuading Zheng Zhi to go to the battlefield afterward and he might even provoke the Chancellor for making his son a widow!

Zheng He had an internal injury which was why he resigned early and let his son inherited his title so he could not participate in this matter.

Everything would be fine as long as Zheng Zhi was the one to lead the troops but he just came back a little bit over half a year so telling him to go back was not appropriate. Not to mention, he was going to get married soon but then again, a war was about to break out so letting the General get married was also not right….

Therefore, best option was to let Zheng Zhi volunteered to go by himself and get married after he brought back the victory!

However, he didn’t dare to state his opinion out loud!

If the Emperor can think of this, Zheng Zhi, too would have already long figured it out but he didn’t take the initiative to speak, pretending to be ignorant.

It was not like in the entire country there was only him who could command the army.

Finally, the meeting ended with Gu Yanwu volunteered to go to the battlefield. Zheng Zhi didn’t hover for long and immediately went back home while He Zhouyan staying behind by the Emperor’s order.

He Tian who eavesdropped their conversation was currently having an ugly look on his face. He grumpily said,’’Did you expect this since a long time ago?’’

Shi Shen was currently on his way back from the Treasure Pavilion, while reviewing the report of his shop he replied,’’It was just one of the possibility that I thought of when I got on that horse with Xu Huang.’’

Feeling like He Tian might not understand he added,’’There was no way, a normal merchant could get his son to be an imperial concubine of the Crown Prince. What’s more in the original story, even though he harmed Xu Huang, Gu Yanwu didn’t do much to him. It showed that Situ Yao was not a normal person.’’

He Tian exclaimed in shock,’’You mean Gu Yanwu knew of this? But why didn’t he rush to stop the Emperor back then?’’

Shi Shen mocked,’’Tell him what? He, the crown prince is having a relationship with an enemy country and even hid this matter from others saying that his concubine was only from a wealthy merchant? He won’t get punished but his reputation will be damaged and lost the Emperor’s trust.’’

Only this much showed that Gu Yanwu was a greedy and selfish person.

All of a sudden, He Tian shouted,’’Be careful! There are assassins!’’

Right after he finished his words, the carriage violently shook and the sound of the swords being clashed was heard.

Ah Lin’s expression slightly changed and immediately stuck close to his young master preparing to block any attack coming his way. Shi Shen timely put on a panic face while calmly inquiring inside his mind,’’How many?’’

‘’Seven.’’

He then replied an oh then went silent. Seemed like he didn’t even care to think of how to escape this situation.

He Tian couldn’t help but ask,’’You are not worried?’’

Instead of answering Shi Shen asked a question,’’Why do I feel like you are becoming more stupid?’’

He Tian,’’……’’Why do I feel like your tongue is getting sharper?

It had to be said that after knowing that He Tian was on his side, Shi Shen let down his guard a lot so he was willing to speak more words with him.

‘’I have He Zhouyan’s and Zheng Zhi’s shadow guards with me. And even if they somehow managed to get to me, I still have a bunch of needles coat with poison left. Do you doubt my surviving skill?’’

He Tian didn’t reply, he just turned to look at how the assassins got cut down like cabbages by the shadow guards and began to reflect on himself.

Okay, I admit that I have become stupid recently.

While he was thinking that things were about to be over, he heard Shi Shen muttered,’’This shouldn’t be over yet.’’

Dare to attack in broad daylight just like this meaning their objective needed to be done no matter what.

As expected, while the guards were busy with those seven, another batch suddenly appeared and joined in the fight while two assassins secretly made their way toward the carriage. They killed the coachman then immediately took over the reign urging the horse to sprint forward in full speed while another person went into the carriage to look over the hostage.

However, the moment that person entered Shi Shen secretly shot a needle toward his left leg causing it to immediately turn numb successfully buying enough time for Ah Lin to slash his throat with his dagger and kicked him down the carriage.

The one who was madly driving didn’t know of his comrade’s fate since he didn’t have the rearview mirror to look at….

Ah Lin then proceeded to silently move outside. Since Shi Shen knew that there were no more assassins except for the driver, he let Ah Lin moved out. Ah Lin may be a Ger but he had also undergone training so his skill was enough to take one assassin by himself.

The people behind this incident obviously didn’t expect for a martial artist to be in the carriage with their target so they thought that as long as they could steal the carriage, everything would be fine. What’s more, the person who went into the carriage was also one of the strongest, therefore, they would never imagine that he would get killed the moment he got in.

Shortly after Ah Lin made his way to the driver’s seat, there was a bit of disturbance then things suddenly calmed down as the carriage finally came to a stop.

[A/N: I’m not good with writing this kind of scene haha.]

Ah Lin quickly jumped down and went to look at his young master and his heart almost dropped when he saw the latter was holding his chest with an extremely pale face and not long after he fainted.

Ah Lin cried out,’’Young Master!’’

Zheng Zhi immediately rushed into the room with a rarely seen panic face. He was in time to see Wu Qi pulled the blanket to cover Shi Shen.

Although he was dissatisfied with him, he still knew that it was not the time to be jealous so he instantly made his way to the bed but Wu Qi stopped him from doing so.

‘’He’s okay. Let him rest for now.’’

Zheng Zhi didn’t want to listen to him but he didn’t dare to disrupt his rest either so after glancing over for a while to confirm that he was really okay, his heart finally calmed down.

Meanwhile, at the side, Wu Qi was resentfully staring at the man in front of him. He understood that he was not qualified to be with that person but what’s about this person?

What qualification does he have to be forgiven?!

However, no matter how much he thought that it was unfair, he still knew that his chance of courting him was none so it’s best to cut off his feeling.

’’Those people actually want to kidnap you to be their bargaining chip. What a not so smart move!’’

In return, Shi Shen slightly shook his head,’’Their true motive is to make Zheng Zhi felt alarmed and stay behind. What’s more, I’m likely to be killed right after I got sent over.’’

That kind of kidnapping was way too sloppy.

Hearing this He Tian spoke,’’You don’t believe that holding you as a hostage was important and don't believe that Zheng Zhi and your parents would do whatever they could to let you live?’’

Shi Shen indifferently said,’’No.’’

They would be distressed but nevertheless, they needed to accept the reality and weight pros and cons.

One life and a whole country, it was obvious at a glance which one was more important.

After seeing the report that he has just gotten from his subordinate, Zheng Zhi’s eyes were full of murderous intent.

They were really courting death!

He Zhouyan at the side finally voiced out his opinion,’’General, how about you go?’’

No matter how much Zheng Zhi wished to destroy them with his hands, he still knew that leaving Shi Shen’s side would never be on his plan so he coldly rejected this idea,’’No.’’

‘’I know that you are worried about Rong’er but what if things went wrong and what would others think of you when they heard that you stubbornly staying behind while letting the crown prince with no experience into the battlefield?’’

Zheng Zhi still wouldn’t budge,’’Did the Emperor tell you to persuade me?’’

He Zhouyan helplessly replied,’’He did but I also think that this is for the best. The border is cold and Tuhun has the advantage in that place so it is not guaranteed that something won’t go wrong.Plus, what if their goal was actually to make sure that you don’t participate in this war?’’

Of course, Zheng Zhi also knew of this but he was still reluctant in leaving.

He was afraid that once he has taken his eyes off of him, he would disappear….

While he was in his deep thought, a servant quickly entered and reported,’’Your Highness has woken up!’’

The two heard this immediately dropped their discussions and made their way to Shi Shen’s room.

Gu Shang was already in there when they arrived. The former had tears filled in his eyes while tightly hugging his son.

He Zhouyan walked toward them then worriedly asked,’’Rong’er, are you okay? Still uncomfortable anywhere?’’

In return, Shi Shen weakly shook his head,’’I was just bit startled, that’s all.’’

Zheng Zhi thought that he should give them some family time so he was about to slip away when suddenly Shi Shen’s voice floated over,’’Zheng Zhi, I have something to talk to you.’’

Only after seeing that everyone has exited the room did Shi Shen talk to Zheng Zhi,’’I already heard everything from Ah Lin.’’

Zheng Zhi guiltily looked at him,’’I’m sorry, I should have been there with you but don’t worry I will never let something like that ever happen again.’’

In return, Shi Shen just wordlessly stared at him then lightly said,’’Don’t worry about me and go.’’

Zheng Zhi abruptly paused once he heard this. Only after confirming that the other person really meant it did he hoarsely said with a hurt expression,’’You don’t want to stay with me?’’

Shi Shen was about to shake his head when Zheng Zhi’s next words made him momentarily stun,’’I know that you are not Gu Rong. I had seen him before but I felt nothing, I always feel like I don’t belong here. Only when I met you did I feel a sense of familiarity.’’ He made a small pause then continued with a helpless voice,’’How to put it…It was just like when you were in a new environment with new people then suddenly you found someone you know, that’s kind of feeling. Then before I know it, I have already fallen for you.’’

Shi Shen silently watched him without the intention of stopping him.

Once again, he couldn’t decide whether he was acting or being sincere.

But he knew that a part of him actually believed that it was not entirely an act.

If not, he wouldn’t tell him his real name back then either.

****
The next chapter is the end of Arc 2.

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