CH 163

Jiang Suizhou regained his consciousness in a blur.

At first, he vaguely felt some changes in his body. It was a refreshing feeling that he was deprived of for a few days in a row, back when he felt filthy from blood stains. Then, the smell of medicine lingered around the tip of his nose. It was bitter, but also mixed with a bloody smell.

His eyelashes fluttered, and light seeped in between his eyelids.

He frowned, and heard a subtle noise right next to him.

Someone seemed to be guarding him beside the bed. At this moment, the person propped up at the edge of the bed and leaned forward.

He moved his eyelids and laboriously opened his eyes.

Almost in an instant, the light of the candles around him blinded his eyes. He closed his eyes again, but immediately, he heard a familiar but hoarse voice.

“Are you awake?”

It was Huo Wujiu.

Jiang Suizhou’s muddled consciousness cleared up a bit. He again struggled to open his eyes and saw Huo Wujiu, who was guarding the bedside amidst the brilliant candle flames and cascading canopy.

“You…”

Jiang Suizhou was about to speak when discomfort struck his throat. He immediately coughed. His coughing tugged at him and made his body ache all over again. He gasped for breath in between coughs.

Huo Wujiu next to him immediately panicked.

He panicked, wanting to smooth his breath, but was also afraid of hurting him. Hence, he held him in his arms for a while. He stiffened, not daring to move.

“Li Changning!” Huo Wujiu raised his voice anxiously.

The sound of panicked footsteps approaching from afar sounded shortly. Li Changning rushed in and checked Jiang Suizhou’s pulse, and then examined his wounds.

“General, don’t worry. It’s nothing serious.” Li Changning said, “It’s just that he choked on smoke in the fire. He only has to take two doses of medicine and recuperate well for several days, then he’ll be fine.”

Huo Wujiu was relieved and said, “That’s good. Is there still medicine decocted on the stove? You should go back and watch it.”

Li Changning responded and withdrew.

After a coughing fit, Jiang Suizhou’s consciousness and memory gradually came back.

He remembered the drunk Hou Zhu and the burning flames of the palace hall. In his exhaustion, he only managed to retrieve the evidence of Huo Yuyan’s betrayal of Huo Wujiu, and then collapsed by the throne, watching the roof being burnt down by the flames.

His memory afterward was fuzzy, as if an illusion.

Amidst the crackling flames, he seemed to have heard Huo Wujiu’s voice calling him. Then, he fell into an embrace that was quite familiar. It was Huo Wujiu.

At that time, he only thought that God heard his dying obsession, so he conceived such an illusion.

But now it seemed… everything might be real.

Looking back on what he could remember last,  he seemed to have made a last struggle to take out those pages of evidence from his arms, and then said to Huo Wujiu…

When Jiang Suizhou recalled this, his heart throbbed in fright.

He actually relied on his short life span and told Huo Wujiu what he had hidden in his heart.

When his coughing gradually stopped, he cautiously glanced at Huo Wujiu.

He realized that Huo Wujiu didn’t have time to change his clothes. He was wearing thick black armor and was covered with dark red blood which was dried up now.

He had turned away and was pouring tea at the table. As soon as he turned around, Jiang Suizhou saw the badly burnt red cloak behind him. He must not have noticed it, and no one dared to remind him to change it.

Just then, Huo Wujiu turned back around.

Jiang Suizhou panicked. He wanted to close his eyes quickly, and pretend that he hadn’t woken up at all.

But it was already too late. Huo Wujiu supported him to sit  up. Due to his injuries, he was too slow in moving, so it was too late to lie down. In just one breath, Huo Wujiu had already turned back, holding a cup of warm to his lips.

“Moisten your throat first.” Huo Wujiu said. “Li Changning’s medicine will be ready in a moment.”

Jiang Suizhou reached out to take it, but Huo Wujiu held his wrist and forcefully shoved it back under the covers.

“Don’t move around,” Huo Wujiu ordered.

Jiang Suizhou couldn’t resist him, so he just drank a few mouthfuls of water with butterflies in his stomach.

Huo Wujiu probably never even thought of it, right? Jiang Suizhou actually went back on his word. He told him that he was no cut sleeve, but then after a while, he said he liked him. Straight men had always been disgusted with this sort of issue, so he had no idea if Huo Wujiu was being nice to him because of the evidence he had found for him.

Jiang Suizhou mulled over it for a while until the tea in the cup had bottomed out.

Huo Wujiu took the teacup away, and Jiang Suizhou promptly opened his lips, trying to find a topic that wouldn’t embarrass him.

“Where are Pang Shao and Jiang Shunheng?” he asked.

Huo Wujiu turned to put the teacup away while saying, “Jiang Shunheng was burned to death, and Pang Shao is imprisoned for the time being.”

“Then Pang Wei…”

“He lost his mind because of his father’s capture that he brought a hundred thousand cavalry. They arrived this morning and were captured at dusk. He tricked those soldiers into thinking that they were entering the capital to rescue the Emperor, only to find out that it was General Lou who beat them. They naturally refused to do so, so it didn’t take me much effort,” Huo Wujiu said.

Jiang Suizhou breathed a sigh of relief: “That’s good, then…”

But Huo Wujiu turned around and asked, “Didn’t you hear what Li Changning said just now? You’ve just woken up. Why do you have so much to say?”

It was clearly a ferocious question, but Huo Wujiu’s tone sounded inexplicably soft. He was clearly admonishing him, but why did it sound a bit loving?

Jiang Suizhou merely considered it an illusion and shut his mouth in embarrassment.

In Huo Wu Jiu’s eyes, his expression was full of grievances.

All he felt was his heart melting into a puddle of spring water.

He turned around and walked to the bed. He squatted down on one knee in front of the bed, exactly at eye level with Jiang Suizhou.

“Since you want to talk, why don’t I do the asking?” Huo Wujiu looked at him and said.

Jiang Suizhou nodded.

Huo Wujiu stared at him for a moment, then reached out his hand. His knuckles touched the side of his face and gently stroked it.

“Then let me ask you, do you still remember what you told me today?”

The look on that face was serious, but deep in those eyes, there was nothing but an entirely gentle smile.