Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 43

Huo Fenghua bathed and changed in his own room, put on a fresh set of clothes, and neatly tied his long hair back. Seeing it was about the right time, he figured Su Zeyang’s meeting with the Prime Minister’s people should be over by now, so he left the side courtyard again and went to look for Su Zeyang in his room.

Su Zeyang still wasn’t there. He and Lu Xi were in the front courtyard. When Huo Fenghua arrived, Su Zeyang was having Liu Yong transfer the jade ruyi they’d found in the storeroom into a clean box.

Huo Fenghua couldn’t help asking, “Who’s this birthday gift for, anyway?”

“Wang Chu,” Su Zeyang said.

Huo Fenghua froze. “You’re going to pay your respects at his birthday banquet?”

Su Zeyang nodded. “After all, Tianzong and Eldest Brother are still officials of the court.” The surface courtesies still had to be done.

Huo Fenghua asked, “When?”

“Tonight,” Su Zeyang answered.

“Tonight?” Huo Fenghua hadn’t expected that. “You’re going alone?”

Su Zeyang nodded.

Huo Fenghua thought of Feng Tianzong. Feng Tianzong must already be in the city but he just couldn’t openly return to the General’s Manor. Tonight he’d probably come back to find Su Zeyang.

Huo Fenghua mulled it over. Once Feng Tianzong returned, Su Zeyang definitely wouldn’t be willing to be intimate with him anymore. It had taken real effort to get Su Zeyang to agree to let him have his turn once. If they didn’t do it in the daytime, he probably wouldn’t get another chance at night.

So he circled around Su Zeyang, taking a few steps, moving from one side of him to the other.

Lu Xi was in the middle of talking to Su Zeyang and got squeezed aside. He couldn’t help asking, “Young Master Huo, do you need something?”

“I have a few words I want to say to Young Master Su,” Huo Fenghua said.

Lu Xi looked him up and down, thinking Huo Fenghua sure had an awful lot he wanted to say to Su Zeyang in private, but he still said, “Everything’s ready. Tonight, just have Liu Yong accompany you, Young Master, and make the trip.” Then, still uneasy, he added, “If you don’t like staying over there, I’ll send someone to fetch you and say there’s something urgent at the Manor and bring you back early.”

“It’s fine. Steward Lu, you don’t need to worry,” Su Zeyang said.

Lu Xi nodded. “Then I’ll put everything in order. Young Master Su, if you have something to do, go ahead.”

Su Zeyang turned to Huo Fenghua. “What is it now?”

Huo Fenghua lowered his voice. “In your room.”

They returned to Su Zeyang’s room, one after the other. Walking behind him, Huo Fenghua reached back and latched the door shut, then stepped up and hugged Su Zeyang around the waist from behind. He whispered in his ear, “Senior Brother, now you’ve got time.”

Su Zeyang raised a hand to touch his face, but said, “Now there’s no time. I need to change and get ready to go to the Right Prime Minister’s residence.”

Huo Fenghua wanted to say, Come on, it’ll be quick, but the words reached his lips and he swallowed them back. It felt humiliating. He could only let go and sigh. “I’m not comfortable with you going alone. I’ll go with you.”

Su Zeyang lifted his hands and began to undress. “You’re coming with me? Missing your old drinking buddies?”

Huo Fenghua sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to stroke his smooth side waist. “No. I’m worried Wang Anzhi will bully you.”

Su Zeyang shot him a look. “You think he can bully me?”

“He runs his mouth,” Huo Fenghua said. “Who knows what he’ll say. It’s better if I’m there with you.”

Su Zeyang changed into a white outfit with subtle silver embroidery at the cuffs. It looked much more elegant. “If you want to go, then come. I know you can’t stand being cooped up in this residence.”

That line left Huo Fenghua momentarily stunned. After a while he looked up and asked, “If you know I can’t stand it, then why do you still want to lock me up?”

Su Zeyang gazed out the window, his expression going distant. “If you’re determined to leave, then go. It’s just a matter of how you leave. It has to be planned carefully.”

“Wouldn’t you miss me?” Huo Fenghua asked.

Su Zeyang said softly, “What good would missing you do? Your heart isn’t here. You’ve tried every way you can to run. Am I supposed to lock you up for my own selfish desires?”

Huo Fenghua reached out and caught his hand. “You shouldn’t be trapped inside these high walls either. Come with me.”

Su Zeyang clasped his hand back, but said, “I can’t.”

Huo Fenghua pulled him into his lap and Su Zeyang didn’t struggle. Huo Fenghua kissed him.

Su Zeyang returned the kiss, lingering and deep. After a moment he stood and smoothed his clothes where they’d wrinkled from sitting. “Wait a little longer. I need to think about how to handle this.”

Huo Fenghua stared blankly, looking hurt.

Su Zeyang looked at him and said, “If you keep making that face, I’ll lock you up and won’t let you leave.”

Huo Fenghua lowered his head and sighed. When he raised it again, his expression was clear and bright. “By the way, back at Luofeng Ridge, that curse formation had three slips of paper. Whose birth data was on the one in the middle?”

Su Zeyang unhurriedly adjusted his sleeves. When he looked up to answer, he only said, “This has nothing to do with you. Don’t ask again.”

Huo Fenghua frowned. “Fine, I won’t ask. Who cares whether the Feng family ends up with no heirs!”

By evening, Su Zeyang and Huo Fenghua took a carriage to the Right Prime Minister’s residence. It was Wang Chu’s sixtieth birthday, and he was hosting a huge banquet. Nearly all the dignitaries and nobles in Yujing had prepared gifts to pay their respects. Even the emperor had sent longevity peaches from the palace.

When they arrived at the Wang residence, the place in front was packed with bustling carriages and hordes of people.

There were too many guests that Wang Chu had no energy to pick a fight with Su Zeyang. He accepted the gift, exchanged a few perfunctory pleasantries, and invited them in to sit.

Just as Su Zeyang and Huo Fenghua reached the inner courtyard, a servant hurried after them and called, “Young Masters, please wait.”

At once, many guests turned to look.

Su Zeyang asked, “What is it?”

The servant didn’t recognize them. Uneasy, he said, “My Young Master says… He invites the two Young Masters to go to the side courtyard and stay with the women of the household.” Huo Fenghua glared at him, and his voice grew smaller and smaller.

Su Zeyang’s face showed neither pleasure nor anger. He nodded. “Please thank Young Master Wang for me. We won’t be going to the side courtyard. It would make the ladies uncomfortable. Tell Young Master Wang we’ll find a place to rest on our own.”

The servant glanced toward the front courtyard. Huo Fenghua saw Wang Anzhi standing in the crowd, looking their way with a half-smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

Huo Fenghua gave him a cold, mocking smile back.

Su Zeyang seemed not to have seen him at all. He turned and walked deeper inside.

Huo Fenghua followed behind, folding fan in hand, clicking his tongue with a “Tsk.”

“Don’t mind him,” Su Zeyang said.

Huo Fenghua asked, “We delivered the birthday gift. Why aren’t we leaving?” His skin was thick, but he still didn’t like being humiliated like this.

“I have serious business to handle,” Su Zeyang said softly. “You just eat and drink and enjoy yourself.”

Huo Fenghua snapped the fan open and fanned his face, puzzled what “serious business” Su Zeyang could possibly mean.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a place to talk.

Passing through an arched gate beneath a rockery, they entered the inner courtyard. Only then did Huo Fenghua realize the Right Prime Minister’s Manor was much larger than the General’s Manor. In the middle of the vast inner grounds was a huge pond, complete with covered walkways and pavilions. Weeping willows were planted all around it, and guests were chatting under the willow branches and admiring lotus flowers.

Su Zeyang was the sort of person who drew eyes everywhere. But even more people began whispering the moment they recognized Huo Fenghua.

Huo Fenghua had once been a notorious playboy in the capital. Even as a hostage prince, he’d run with Wang Anzhi and other well-born youths for years, haunting brothels and taverns, always stirring up trouble.

In Yujing, plenty of people recognized him, whether they held office or not.

But ever since an imperial decree had married him to General Feng Tianzong as a male concubine, he’d never appear in the city again. No one expected to see him at the Right Prime Minister’s birthday banquet.

Someone asked in a low voice, “Who’s the man beside Huo Fenghua?”

Someone else answered, “That’s General Feng’s male wife, Su Zeyang.”

The first person seemed to realize it, then smiled ambiguously and praised, “A beauty. Both are beauties.”

Both beauties naturally meant Su Zeyang and Huo Fenghua.

Huo Fenghua stood there, fanning himself as he endured everyone’s stares. After a while he grew irritated and said to Su Zeyang, “I’m going to get some pastries.”

Su Zeyang nodded.

Huo Fenghua walked into the crowd. A group of middle-aged men had been chatting together, but when he approached, they immediately fell silent, watching him leave with disgusted looks before resuming their conversation.

On a stone table in a pavilion were delicately made osmanthus cakes. Huo Fenghua popped one into his mouth, finding it soft, fragrant, sweet, melting in his mouth. He immediately reached for another to bring to Su Zeyang.

Just as he stepped out of the pavilion, lanterns all around the pond were being lit. Night had fallen. It looked like the banquet was about to begin.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>