CH 25.2

After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Chapter 25.2

Gu Changyun heard no response from Xu Du, so he turned his head to look at him. He saw Xu Du staring at the chess game on the board, expressionless and lost for words.

Gu Changyun smiled and teased him, and followed his gaze to the chess board: "What's so captivating about this chess board? It's just..."

His speech came to an abrupt halt.

On the board, Xu Du's white piece had forced his black piece into a desperate situation, but after Huo Wujiu's piece had settled, the black piece, like a trapped beast, bit down on the white piece's throat.

The situation on the board had turned tables. The black piece recovered from its losing position and was gaining momentum.

Gu Changyun froze and laughed.

"He's quite good at chess, huh?" He said.

Xu Du, however, shook his head.

Just now, Huo Wujiu dropped that piece and raised his eyes to look at him when he withdrew his hand.

His deep and cold black eyes, akin to the black chess pieces, were raging and ruthless; they were so cold that it made him feel like he had  plunged straight into a cold pool.

For a moment there, Xu Du felt a chill down his back. It was as if Huo Wujiu wanted to kill all the white pieces on the chessboard.

A moment passed, and he shook his head.

Gu Changyun asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Xu Du stayed silent for a moment.

"Nothing," he said, "I just wonder...when did I provoke General Huo?"

——

After noon, it drizzled a bit.

Jiang Suizhou’s eyes were blue underneath. After the morning court session, he wearily rushed to the Ministry of Rites again.

Even though Ji You had taken great care of him, he couldn’t just do nothing. Today, seeing that Jiang Suizhou looked terrible, Ji You took a look at the early morning sky outside and asked him to go outside the city to inspect a batch of materials needed to decorate the venue.

Ji You smiled and told him that after he had made an inventory according to the account book, Jiang Suizhou didn’t have to return to the Ministry of Rites; he could just have the carts carrying the materials driven to the courtyard of the Ministry of Rites.

Jiang Suizhou knew that Ji You was deliberately letting him off the hook so that Jiang Suizhou could return to his house early after his official work.

He was very grateful. He not only thanked Ji You for his gentle nature and being a good man, but also thanked himself for shooting his mouth that day and chatted with Ji You more.

However, after he left the Ministry of Rites, the rain fell heavier and heavier.

Just as he left the northern city gates, someone came to report that the carriage transporting the materials had gotten stuck in the mud ten miles outside the city and could not get free.

Now, that was a good deal of torment.

The rain outside the city was worse than in the city, plus Lin'an roads were muddy outside. After the emperor arrived in Lin’an, he utilized what little money he had left in his hands to repair his own imperial city and had never considered repairing the roads.

Thus, the materials that could have been delivered in the afternoon didn’t make it to the city gate until it was dark.

Jiang Suizhou tagged along in the damp and cold wind outside the city for a whole day. When the caravan arrived, he had to command his men to count the goods and clean up the mud.

By the time he returned to the royal residence, it was already the second night watch1.

He ate something for dinner outside the city. When he returned to the house, he felt so tired that he could barely open his eyes. The moment he completed a little cleaning, he fell asleep.

Meng Qianshan carefully waited for Jiang Suizhou to lie down on the bed, and then raised his eyes to look sideways.

Madam Huo was sitting on his wheelchair next to the couch by the window. He lowered his head and quietly flipped through the book in his hand.

Meng Qianshan roughly remembered that Madam Huo usually would not sleep so late...was it because the book he was reading was particularly interesting, and not because he was waiting for the King?

Meng Qianshan didn't dare to ask, he just walked out quietly.

The door to the room closed.

The book in Huo Wujiu's hand rustled to another page.

In the book, a poor talented scholar climbed over the courtyard wall of the Prime Minister's house and had a private tryst with a beautiful young lady under the moon. The young lady shyly handed him a silk handkerchief that she had embroidered herself, but the scholar grasped her soft hand…

Huo Wujiu's eyes fell on the page, but his gaze was empty.

He was halfway through the book, but he didn't even understand what kind of book he was reading.

A moment later, he raised his eyes and glanced in the direction of the bed.

Jiang Suizhou was lying there, seemingly asleep.

Huo Wujiu's fingers slowly crumpled the pages of the book.

From the time he finished his evening meal alone at nightfall today, he was inexplicably annoyed, so annoyed that he couldn't register a single word.

Huo Wujiu only thought that this irritation came from his legs.

The injuries on his legs were gradually healing, but he hadn't been able to feel anything. It wasn’t until a few days ago when the sky began to turn gloomy that he felt a twinge in his legs.

But it was a vague tingling pain from the damaged meridians in his legs.

The pain was different from the severe pain of being cut. It wasn’t too severe, but felt more like a dull knife scraping his bones. But because that pain wasn’t all that intense, a few days down the road, Huo Wujiu also did not suffer from it.

Until it rained today.

The dampness was provoking, and it was as if his injuries had sensed something. It affected his meridians all the way to his lumbar spine, and produced a bone-eating kind of pain.

Huo Wujiu quietly endured it.

Footnote:

1 Second night watch - 21:00-23:00