CH 155

March 7, 2023Merchie

Qi Changyi suddenly stepped forward and grabbed Pei Zheng, but the force of the fall was too great; it pulled him downward as well.

The two rolled down the sand dune. After tumbling several times, they finally stopped on a pile of sand.

Qi Changyi was extremely dizzy, and the wound on his arm was burning with pain; it seemed that the area had been scraped.

But right now, he wasn’t in the mood to care; he panted softly as he crawled over to where Pei Zheng was lying not far away.

His fingers plunged into the sand as he slowly pulled himself along. His skin scraped against the rough sand and pebbles. There wasn’t a single place on his body that didn’t hurt.

He finally crawled over to Pei Zheng’s side. Qi Changyi didn’t have the strength to stand back up. He could only slowly reach out and grab Pei Zheng’s fingers.

His throat was so dry that he could hardly speak. The small man leaned into Pei Zheng’s ear, and called out in a soft, weak voice, “Pei-gege…”

But Pei Zheng’s eyes remained closed. After losing so much blood, he had already fallen unconscious.

Qi Changyi clasped his hand and felt the scratches on the other’s fingertips. He looked down; there were cuts on a few of his fingers that were neither too deep nor too shallow. They were deep enough to bleed, but the blood could still be staunched.

He rememebered that he had tasted blood during a dream. The small man seemed to have understood something; his vision blurred, but he was so dehydrated that he couldn’t even shed tears.

Qi Changyi slowly wrapped his arms around Pei Zheng, just as Pei Zheng had hugged him during these past few nights.

He leaned his head against Pei Zheng’s chest, listening to his gradually weakening heartbeat, and closed his eyes as well.

Were they… really going to die here?

But… he still had so many things he had to clear up with Pei-gege.

It seemed like there were still so many things that he hadn’t remembered.

But now, there would never be another chance…

Lulled by the sound of a heartbeat, the small man lost consciousness.

When he awoke again, he felt as though everything was swaying, and he didn’t know where he was. Then, blinding sunlight flashed in his vision.

He turned his face away to avoid the light, when a black-clad figure happened to block his line of sight.

A soft voice sounded from above his head, “You’re awake?”

Qi Changyi could tell that it was Pei Zheng’s voice. His lashes trembled, and he slowly opened his eyes.

It was Pei Zheng, his gaze warm and gentle, the corners of his lips carrying a hint of a smile.

Qi Changyi thought that he was hallucinating; he reached up and tried to touch his face.

His hand was clasped, before it was placed on Pei Zheng’s cheek.

Pei Zheng slowly locked his fingers with the small man’s, affectionately stroking his little chin.

“Are you thirsty? Do you want to get up and drink some water?”

Qi Changyi licked his dry lips and nodded.

Pei Zheng gently helped him sit up, leaning him against his chest, before he picked up the flask at the side, and fed him a bit of water.

Qi Changyi was already waiting with his mouth open, and was anxious to take a huge gulp, but Pei Zheng wouldn’t allow him to drink too much in one sitting.

“Drink slowly.”

Qi Changyi licked his mouth again; his originally pale lips had finally recovered a bit of ruddiness.

He looked around; no wonder he felt that everything was swaying, the two of them were currently lying in a cart pulled by camels. There were also various goods in the cart, which had all been pushed aside in order to make space for the two of them.

There were dozens of camels in front of them, all pulling carts, and there were three or four people walking beside each cart. This caravan happened to come from the Imperial City and was headed toward the barbarian tribe to deliver goods. On their way through the desert, they rescued Pei Zheng and Qi Changyi.

The leader of the caravan knew Pei Zheng, since he had also traded with Pei Zheng’s businesses in the Imperial City. At that time, he had once been fortunate enough to see Pei Zheng in person.

Once he saw that the people in the back had woken up, the leader of the caravan had the others stop for a break, before he walked to the end of the caravan.

“Lord Pei, you’re awake.”

Pei Zheng put down the flask, and nodded at the leader of the caravan, “Many thanks, how should I address you?”

The leader of the caravan was a kind-looking old man. He cupped his hands toward Pei Zheng and said, “Lord Pei, my family name is Liu. In the beginning, when I saw you two lying on the sand dunes, I didn’t dare to believe it, I never expected that it was really you.”

Pei Zheng said, “Boss Liu, many thanks again.”

Boss Liu’s gaze shifted, and he glanced at the person protected within Pei Zheng’s arms. When he had just rescued the two of them, the small man had been huddled in Pei Zheng’s arms, just as he was now.

“Lord Pei, who might this person be?”

Pei Zheng glanced down at the small man, before he looked back at Boss Liu.

Boss Liu seemed to have an epiphany, and he looked incredibly shocked, “Could he be, could he be…”

“Could he be who?” Pei Zheng asked lightly.

“Could he be His Royal Highness, who’s been missing for the past three years, whom everyone believed was already dead?!”

Qi Changyi could hear that they seemed to be talking about him, so he lifted his gaze and looked at Boss Liu as well.

Boss Liu caught a glimpse of his pale and sickly but still beautiful face. He had already heard rumors about Prince Qi Changyi’s beauty; now that he was being stared at by two people at the same time, Boss Liu felt as though he could hardly speak.

“Y-Your Highness, L-Lord Pei, the two of you are both injured, I already had someone bandage your wounds, but the two of you must rest well, please rest first, I-I won’t disturb you any longer.”

After he finished speaking, Boss Liu set down some food and water, before he hurried away.

But Pei Zheng called out to him.

“Boss Liu, if I may, do you know if there is an oasis in this desert?”

Boss Liu racked his brains, “There is, but I don’t know if the one Lord Pei is asking about is the same one I’m thinking of.”

“There are other oases here?”

“This desert is vast, I don’t think anyone’s ever explored the entire area. I only know of one, so as for if there are any others, I’m not too sure.”

Pei Zheng understood.

“Lord Pei, are you going to the oasis? Our caravan will pass by it, we can take the two of you there.”

“Many thanks for the offer.”

Boss Liu nodded and didn’t say anything more, before he hurried back to the front of the caravan.

Although he didn’t know what was going on between those two, his intuition told him that leaving quickly was the right thing to do.

Pei Zheng broke off a piece of bread and put it into his mouth. The taste was average, he could swallow it, but under their current circumstances, they couldn’t be picky. How could they hope that anything would taste like a meal from the Imperial City’s Yi Pin Xiang?

He broke off another piece and placed it at the small man’s lips.

“Open up.”

They hadn’t eaten for several days. No matter it was, he had to eat something to fill his stomach.

But after the small man sniffed the bread, his brow creased.

“I don’t want to eat this, I want more water…”

Pei Zheng lifted the flask, and let him take another sip, before he used the opportunity to shove the bread into the small man’s mouth.

As expected, the small man’s tongue twisted and he tried to spit it out, but Pei Zheng’s finger pressed his soft, delicate tongue down.

“You can’t spit it out.”

The small man lifted his eyes and looked at Pei Zheng in aggrievement, but Pei Zheng still wouldn’t let go. He would not withdraw his hand unless he swallowed.

The small man had no way out; he could only chew a few times and swallow the bread.

He wasn’t refusing to eat because he couldn’t stand the taste of the food; his stomach felt extremely uncomfortable, he didn’t want to eat anything, nor did he want to swallow anything.

But Pei Zheng still fed him a large piece of bread, before he let him have a few more sips of water.

After eating a bit, the small man really did feel like he had regained a bit of strength, but he was still very weak.

Pei Zheng also had a bite of bread and drank some water.

The scratches on his back had already been carefully bandaged. He didn’t know what kind of medicine had been applied to his wounds, but it was cool and alleviated most of the pain.

The caravan continued on its journey; the two of them didn’t know where they were, or if they had strayed even further away from Shen Huan and the others.

As evening rolled around, the caravan stopped. Everyone set up their tents, lit up charcoal braziers, and even made some soup for Pei Zheng and Qi Changyi.

“Lord Pei, drink something warm. The conditions here are too crude, forgive us for forcing you and His Highness to bear with it.”

Pei Zheng smiled and took it. Besides ‘thank you’, he didn’t know what else there was to say.

QI Changyi also lifted his face and smiled at Boss Liu, “Thank you, Boss Liu.”

This sweet ‘thank you’ made one feel much warmer than Pei Zheng’s cold words did.

Boss Liu laughed cheerfully before he left.

Once he was gone, Pei Zheng fed Qi Changyi some soup, but they didn’t exchange a single word.

After Qi Changyi took a few sips, his entire body felt quite cozy and warm. His eyes curved, and he sighed softly, “So tasty…”

Pei Zheng put the bowl down, and pinched the small man’s waist, “In the future, you’re not allowed to smile at anyone else.”

He also took a sip of the soup, “How is this tasty, I can hardly swallow it.”

After he finished speaking, he placed the bowl far away at the side.

Qi Changyi was a bit irritated, “I can’t smile?”

Pei Zheng said, “Of course you can. At me.”

“But Boss Liu saved us, and even gave us food and water, I can’t thank him?”

“You can’t smile.” Pei Zheng added, “You can’t smile that sweetly.”

“Then I won’t smile anymore.”

Qi Changyi pouted, and twisted his head away from Pei Zheng, sulking and muttering to himself.

“I’ve always smiled like this, how can there be conditions for a smile? What am I supposed to do, I don’t know how- hmph, so annoying…”

Pei Zheng heard him complaining and couldn’t keep the corners of his lips from rising.

The little figure in front of him was very stubborn, but very cute. He made one want to pull him into their arms and nuzzle him a few times.

And that was exactly what Pei Zheng did.

The small man had been unconscious the entire time they were at the barracks. And when he was awake, he was extremely hostile toward Pei Zheng. After the two had spent several days alone with each other, Pei Zheng could tell that the small man’s attitude toward him had improved significantly.

Sometimes, blessings and curses weren’t all divided into black or white.

He hugged the small man from behind, wrapping his arms around his waist, his breaths spilling over the back of his neck.

The man in his arms stiffened like a stick. He tried to struggle out of Pei Zheng’s embrace, but he was hugged even tighter by that pair of strong arms.

“Don’t move, there’s something on you.”

Qi Changyi immediately stopped moving. He actually became a bit nervous; he was afraid that a bug or something similar had jumped onto his body.

“What? What is it?”

Pei Zheng suddenly kissed the back of his neck, before he stretched out the tip of his tongue, gently touching the skin beneath.

“There’s a kiss.”

Notes

DON’T DO THAT THAT’S CREEEPYYYYY

Thank you for reading~