Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 9
Huo Fenghua was snatched out of the brothel by a man in black. Before he could even react, someone struck him hard on the back of the neck, and he passed out.
He didn’t know how long he’d been unconscious. When he came to again, he only felt that the ground beneath him was cold and hard. Beside him there seemed to be a fire, roasting him until he felt parched with heat. He was about to open his eyes when he suddenly heard someone say, “He’s not awake yet.” So he closed his eyes again and stayed silent, pretending he hadn’t woken up.
The speaker was a young man.
A moment later, another young man said, “Look at how delicate and weak he’s gotten after being kept in Donglin all these years. He probably won’t wake up for a while.”
The first man scolded softly, “Jiang Yuan, don’t talk nonsense.”
The man called Jiang Yuan said, “Am I wrong? Xichou was wiped out by Donglin, and he, the dignified Second Prince, not only didn’t find a way to save the country, he actually debased himself and married our enemy Feng Tianzong as a male concubine.”
At that moment, a third voice spoke up. It was a middle-aged man’s voice, low and steady. “He was sent to Donglin as a hostage at eight years old. Even the maids serving him were Donglin people. What could he possibly have done to save the country?”
Jiang Yuan said, “If I were him, I’d rather kill myself than suffer this kind of humiliation from Donglin!”
Huo Fenghua’s heart pounded. He’d guessed before that as a hostage handed over by Xichou, his status had to be royal somehow. But he hadn’t expected he was Xichou’s Second Prince. After the initial shock, though, he thought that Xichou was gone. A prince of a fallen nation didn’t sound like anything worth celebrating. Even if he returned to Xichou, it would only mean a life on the run.
Then the first young man said, “If the Second Prince truly committed suicide, Xichou’s royal bloodline would be cut off as well.”
Suddenly the middle-aged man spoke again. “Since you’re awake, why aren’t you getting up?”
Huo Fenghua froze. That was directed at him. He put on a just-waking-up act, stretched languidly, propped himself up with one hand, rubbed his eyes with the other, and said, “Where am I?”
When he opened his eyes, he realized he was in a ruined temple. Under him was nothing but dried straw; no wonder it felt so cold. Not far away a fire burned, and three men sat around it.
Seeing him sit up, one of the middle-aged men stood and went over. He dropped to one knee and saluted. “Imperial Guard Commander Tao Yifei pays respects to the Second Prince!”
The other two men, seeing their commander kneel, had no choice but to stand and kneel behind him, saluting Huo Fenghua as well.
The real Huo Fenghua had left Xichou at eight and grown up in Donglin. He definitely wouldn’t recognize these people. That saved Huo Fenghua the trouble of faking amnesia. He just widened his eyes and stared at the three of them, pretending to be frightened. “How did you end up here?”
He saw contempt flash across one young man’s face, though the man still kept his head lowered respectfully.
Tao Yifei looked to be in his thirties or forties, broad-shouldered and powerfully built, the very image of a military officer. Hearing Huo Fenghua’s question, he shook his head with something like helplessness. “Second Prince, do you truly not understand the situation back home?”
If Huo Fenghua said he didn’t know, he’d be overacting. So he said, “I know Xichou has fallen, but I don’t know the current state of things. I’ve been a hostage in Donglin since I was young. There’s never been a single person I could trust at my side.”
The three exchanged looks. Finally Tao Yifei spoke. “When Xichou fell, Feng Tianzong led his troops into Huijing. His Majesty set fire to Yongle Hall and died with the country. The Imperial Guard escorted the Crown Prince out of Huijing and met up with what remained of General Shao’s forces. We planned to gather the remaining strength in the country and rise again to restore the nation. But who would’ve thought… the Crown Prince caught a plague while fleeing. He died despite treatment. Now the entire royal bloodline of Xichou has only one person left: you, Second Prince.”
Huo Fenghua’s emotions surged at the account. For a moment he didn’t know what reaction he was supposed to have.
Tao Yifei, thinking he’d been struck dumb by grief, sighed inwardly and said, “Second Prince, this is still the outskirts of Yujing. We can’t stay long. Please come with us at once.”
As he spoke, the two young men behind him moved to help Huo Fenghua up. Huo Fenghua pretended to be weak, legs powerless, but they didn’t care. They practically hauled him out of the ruined temple.
Huo Fenghua hurriedly asked, “Then where are we going?”
One of them said, “To meet up with General Shao.”
Huo Fenghua asked again, “And after we meet up, then what?”
The man said, “Naturally we’ll gather the remnants of Xichou, kill Feng Tianzong, and restore the country.”
The man holding him on the left was Jiang Yuan. He said irritably, “Jia Duo, you don’t need to tell him so much.”
Tao Yifei extinguished the fire inside the ruined temple and carefully erased the traces of their stay before leaving as well.
Outside, several horses were tied to a tree. Huo Fenghua immediately said, “Wait, I can’t ride a horse.”
Tao Yifei said, “Jiang Yuan, take the Second Prince with you. Ride together.”
Jiang Yuan’s expression was rigid. He answered, “Yes,” then helped Huo Fenghua onto a horse first. He then swung himself up in front of him, tugged the reins, and said, “Don’t fall off.”
Huo Fenghua hadn’t even processed that when Jiang Yuan kicked his heels into the horse’s belly. The horse lunged forward at once. Huo Fenghua pitched backward and hurriedly wrapped his arms around Jiang Yuan’s waist so he wouldn’t tumble off.
With Huo Fenghua clinging to him, Jiang Yuan’s face looked even worse. He spurred the horse on harder.
Time was tight and danger was pressing, so Tao Yifei had only summarized. In truth, ever since Huijing fell, he’d fled with the Crown Prince Huo Fengnian through countless hardships. They had finally reunited with the remnants of General Shao’s forces, only for Huo Fengnian to contract the plague and die in the end.
If that hadn’t happened, they never would’ve thought of the Huo Fenghua who was still in Donglin.
Huo Fenghua had been timid and cowardly since childhood, dull in aptitude. That was why he’d been sent as a hostage to Donglin. In these nearly ten years in Donglin’s capital Yujing, he’d run with Wang Anzhi and other pampered young wastrels of the city, eating, drinking, whoring, gambling, and doing nothing of worth. It was precisely because he drifted along in a haze that he survived. If he’d shown even a little promise, then when Xichou fell, his life as a hostage would’ve ended right then.
Whether it was Xichou or Donglin, no one had ever taken this Second Prince of Xichou seriously. To suppress the Feng family’s rising momentum and to humiliate the already fallen Xichou, the Donglin Emperor issued an edict marrying Huo Fenghua to Feng Tianzong as a concubine. One didn’t want to marry, one didn’t want to take him, but an imperial command was not something they could defy. In the end, a soft sedan chair carried Huo Fenghua from the hostage residence into the General’s Manor. Trapped in a side courtyard from then on, he threw himself into the lake and ended his life.
If Huo Fenghua stayed in the General’s Manor, his life was worthless. But if he was taken out of Donglin and brought back to Xichou, the situation flipped entirely—Donglin would have to be on guard.
So this time, Tao Yifei led two highly skilled subordinates, Jiang Yuan and Jia Duo. The three disguised themselves and slipped deep into Donglin, lying in wait near Yujing for almost ten days. At last they seized an opportunity to pull Huo Fenghua out of Yujing, and now they rode without pause, determined to deliver him back to Xichou.
From the moment Huo Fenghua woke, they drove the horses hard. Other than brief pauses to let the horses graze and rest, they didn’t stop for a moment, until night fell and they finally halted in a forest.
Across two lifetimes, Huo Fenghua had never ridden for this long. When he dismounted, his legs trembled uncontrollably. The insides of his thighs burned with pain. When he reached down and touched them, his hand came away with blood—he’d been rubbed raw.
He leaned against a tree and looked down at the abrasions.
Jia Duo came over and handed him a small box of ointment. “This is a hemostatic wound medicine.”
Huo Fenghua took it. Jia Duo then offered him a piece of dried flatbread. Huo Fenghua bit into it, found it dry and rock-hard, impossible to swallow, and immediately spat it out.
Jiang Yuan leaned against another tree, watching him coldly.
Huo Fenghua didn’t care about their looks. He was exhausted, his spirit drained. In his previous life his family had been poor, and he’d suffered some hardships as a child, but it had still been far more comfortable than this. And after getting used to the fine food and clothing in the General’s Manor, just one day of hard travel already made him feel like his body couldn’t take it.
But hardship was only one side of it. The soul in this body wasn’t Xichou’s Second Prince. He felt no attachment to Xichou, and he wasn’t yearning to return and restore the nation. He’d studied history as a kid—very few princes of fallen kingdoms who screamed about restoration ever succeeded. He wanted to escape the General’s Manor, yes, but what he wanted was to change his name, live as an ordinary person, run a small business. He didn’t want to be a fugitive prince. If Donglin’s army caught him then, it would be a dead end, a miserable death.
He took a few swallows from the waterskin. Seeing Tao Yifei sit down by the newly lit fire, he spoke. “Commander Tao.”
Tao Yifei looked over.
Huo Fenghua said, “Is it really true that the Xichou royal line only has me left? Even collateral relatives—if they’re of the Huo clan, they still carry the royal blood, don’t they?”
Before Tao Yifei could answer, Jiang Yuan snapped, “What are you implying?”
Huo Fenghua smiled. “I’m thinking… Everyone in the world knows I, Huo Fenghua, married Donglin’s Feng Tianzong as a male concubine. If I return to Xichou and we actually manage to restore the country, even if I become emperor, I’d be an emperor who used to be a male concubine. Wouldn’t that make Xichou a laughingstock under heaven?”
The moment the words left his mouth, the other three men’s expressions turned dark and ugly.
Huo Fenghua continued, “I have no grand ambitions. Why don’t you let me go? Go find another royal-blood heir to take the throne. I’m willing to change my name, live in seclusion in the mountains, and never appear again.”
Jiang Yuan and Jia Duo both looked to Tao Yifei.
Tao Yifei raised a hand, cutting Huo Fenghua off. “Second Prince, there’s no need to say more. You married Feng Tianzong as a male concubine not of your own will, but because you had no choice. When we capture Feng Tianzong someday, you can personally kill him. Victors write the history. No one under heaven will dare mock you then. And the royal bloodline cannot be confused. Besides you, who else could unify Xichou and make the people follow with one heart to resist the enemy?”
Huo Fenghua grew anxious. “I—”
“Enough!” Jiang Yuan suddenly barked, cutting him off. “Coward!”
“Jiang Yuan!” Tao Yifei said heavily. “Mind your manners!”
Jiang Yuan glared at Huo Fenghua, then sat by the fire with his rations and waterskin, head lowered.
Huo Fenghua had no choice. He punched at his stiff legs and shoulders, picked up the dry, cold flatbread, and chewed it in small bites, forcing it down.
They slept in the forest that night. Huo Fenghua was exhausted; leaning against the tree, he fell heavily asleep. Sometime later he woke up. The fire still hadn’t gone out. He glanced at the other three and saw their eyes closed, then braced himself to stand quietly.
He’d only just risen when Jia Duo asked, “Second Prince, where are you going?”
Huo Fenghua couldn’t help letting out a bitter laugh. “To piss.”
Jia Duo stood. “This subordinate will accompany you.”
Huo Fenghua sighed to himself. He could only nod. “Fine.” In his heart he knew there probably wouldn’t be a chance to escape on this trip.
Before they set out the next morning, Huo Fenghua suddenly had an idea. He left a mark on the ground. He thought Su Zeyang had no reason to let someone kidnap him and simply ignore it. If Su Zeyang came after him and saw the mark, he’d at least know which direction they’d gone.
At first he didn’t know what mark to leave. Then he remembered the sect leader token from the Xianyuan Sect in his chest. There was a half-circle symbol on it. He didn’t know what it meant, but Su Zeyang would. So before leaving, he drew that symbol on the ground. When Tao Yifei called him to depart, he hurriedly mounted up and followed them west.
After that came a relentless rush, day and night. Nearly twenty days passed before they reached a small town. It lay close to Donglin’s border. After the war, it was eerily deserted. Every household had their doors shut tight and windows bared. There was only one inn in the whole town, and not a single guest stood outside.
When Huo Fenghua got down from the horse, he looked up at the sky. Dark clouds gathered overhead showing signs a rainstorm was imminent.
Tao Yifei was looking at the sky too. “We won’t travel today. Ahead is wilderness. If the storm hits, there’ll be nowhere to shelter. We’ll stay here tonight.”
Jiang Yuan and Jia Duo went to tie up the horses. Tao Yifei took Huo Fenghua inside first and asked for two upper rooms.
They’d mostly slept outdoors these past days, or begged shelter at farmhouses. A proper night in an inn was rare. Huo Fenghua couldn’t help saying, “Why not take four rooms? I’ll pay the difference.”
Tao Yifei glanced at him and told the innkeeper, “Two rooms.”
They sat in the common hall and ordered some food. By the time Jiang Yuan and Jia Duo came in after tying the horses and feeding them hay, the rain had already begun pouring down.
There were no other guests in the hall besides them. Huo Fenghua stood and went to the window to look outside. The rain fell in sheets, blotting out the world as if night had dropped all at once. Cold wind, carrying the rank smell of wet earth, slapped through the open window, making him shiver.
As Jiang Yuan served food, he said coldly, “Come back, Young Master. You’re weak. Don’t catch a chill.”
Huo Fenghua now wore coarse cloth, but his skin was still pale and fine, his features still refined. No matter how you looked at him, he still seemed like a pampered young master. And after all the injuries, illnesses, and sleepless travel, he looked even thinner and more fragile, like a strong gust might knock him over.
He returned to the table, saw the rough, coarse rice, and deliberately said, “Just looking at it kills my appetite. I’m not eating.”
These past days he’d acted spoiled on purpose, hoping Tao Yifei would get fed up and dump him. But somehow, all the way until now, Tao Yifei had endured it.
Jiang Yuan flared. “Eat if you want. If you won’t, then don’t!”
But Tao Yifei shook his head and told Jiang Yuan, “Get the young master a bowl of noodles. Slice two liang of beef.”
Jiang Yuan immediately protested, “This—”
Tao Yifei waved him off. “Go.”
Jiang Yuan had no choice. He shot Huo Fenghua a resentful look and raised a hand to call the server.
When the noodles and beef arrived, Huo Fenghua carried his bowl to another table closer to the window. He ate while watching the storm outside. The inn stood on the town’s edge; ahead truly was a vast, bleak wilderness with nothing to block the view. The rain fell fine and dense, unending as it hammered the earth. The sight was oddly magnificent. In his previous life, Huo Fenghua had lived in a city. He’d never seen anything like this. Curious, he kept staring out.
After dinner, they returned to their rooms. Tao Yifei and Jiang Yuan shared one; Huo Fenghua shared the other with Jia Duo.
With nothing to do, Huo Fenghua sat on the edge of the bed and made small talk. “What exactly is your plan for this trip back? Feng Tianzong is still in Xichou territory with his army, isn’t he?”
Jia Duo lay on a straw mat on the floor. Hearing that, he said, “This isn’t a place to talk. Young Master shouldn’t speak recklessly.”
Huo Fenghua sighed, bored stiff.
Just then, a gust of wind blew the window wide open. Cold air and rain burst into the room. Jia Duo jumped up to close it, but they heard someone downstairs shout, “Whose horse got loose?”
Jia Duo leaned out to look. In the yard, a horse seemed spooked, pounding its hooves as it bolted for the exit. His heart jolted. He shouted, “It’s our horse!”
From the next room, a window was shoved open. Tao Yifei appeared, looked down into the yard, and called to Jia Duo, “Don’t go. Jiang Yuan will chase it.”
Huo Fenghua heard someone from the next room climb out into the wind and rain; it was probably Jiang Yuan.
He stayed seated on the bed and said, “The horse wasn’t tied properly? How did it run off?”
Jia Duo stared outside without blinking. His face gradually went pale. “I don’t know.”
Something in his tone felt off. Huo Fenghua looked at him more closely and saw a sheen of sweat on his forehead, his lips trembling faintly. “What’s wrong with you?”
Jia Duo turned back, one hand pressing his lower abdomen, embarrassed. “This subordinate suddenly has terrible stomach pain.”
“Diarrhea?” Huo Fenghua asked.
Jia Duo’s eyes flickered away. “It’s swollen and aching. I can’t endure it much longer.”
Huo Fenghua waved him off. “Then go. Why are you still holding it in?”
Jia Duo looked at him, hesitant.
Huo Fenghua said, “I’m not going to run. Your commander is right next door. Besides, with rain like this, where would I even go?”
Jia Duo nodded. Seeming unable to bear it any longer, he clutched his belly and hurried out of the room.
Huo Fenghua found it somewhat amusing. He stretched his arms and lay back on the bed, only for the bedboards beneath him to suddenly drop away. His body had nothing to brace against so he fell straight down into emptiness.
He plunged through a hidden passage beneath the bed and finally landed on a straw mat. Still dizzy and not sure where he was, he was grabbed by the ankle and dragged forward by a large hand.
Huo Fenghua propped himself up with his hands and saw only the broad back of a tall man. He kicked at him with his free foot and shouted, “Who are you?”
The space around them was pitch-dark and damp, like a cellar. He couldn’t make out the surroundings.
The man didn’t react to the kick. He switched to gripping both of Huo Fenghua’s legs and dragged him into a slightly brighter room. Candles burned on the walls. Besides that, the walls were hung with all kinds of instruments for torture and punishment. Stains mottled the stone and he wondered if they were bloodstains.
Someone had been standing there sharpening a blade. When Huo Fenghua was hauled in, that person joined the tall man. Together they yanked him upright and cuffed both his hands to the wall.
Only then did Huo Fenghua see clearly. The man sharpening the knife was the innkeeper.
The innkeeper pulled a small paper packet from his belt and handed it to the tall man. “Boss, knockout powder. So he won’t scream his head off.”
The man didn’t take it. He grabbed Huo Fenghua’s jaw, forcing him to lift his head and meet his eyes. Those narrow, sinister eyes flashed with excited light. “No need. I want to hear him scream.”
The innkeeper pocketed the packet again and stepped aside to keep sharpening the blade.
The tall man grabbed Huo Fenghua’s collar and tore it open, grinning obscenely as he used rough fingers to stroke from Huo Fenghua’s neck downward.
Huo Fenghua understood his intent at once. Goosebumps exploded across his skin. “Hey! What are you doing?!”
The moment the words left his mouth, he saw the innkeeper’s body jerk stiff. His head snapped up, eyes bulging. A thin line of blood slid down his forehead. Huo Fenghua looked closer and realized the tip of a silver sword had pierced straight through the innkeeper’s forehead and emerged from the front.
As the sword withdrew slowly, the innkeeper collapsed.
Behind him stood a figure in plain white.
Joy flashed across Huo Fenghua’s face.
The tall man who was touching him noticed the abnormality turned around. A cold glint of sword light swept past before the man felt a chill at his throat. When he looked down, blood was already gushing out as he helplessly slid to the ground.
Su Zeyang stepped forward, slashed through Huo Fenghua’s cuffs, and said, “Come with me.”
<<< || Table of Contents || >>>
Kinky Translations 