Vomit blood.
Translation Checker: jellypeaches
Editor: jellypeaches, Miiya
It would perhaps take Anur a long time to come back to the world of the conscious. Unable to learn anything from him, Lin Bozhou left the government office.
With his latest trail of a clue not going anywhere, Lin Bozhou could only instruct Chen An, “Put up notices throughout the city, conduct more searches, and reward any informer handsomely.”
Due to limited leads, they could only search for the needle in the haystack.
But the more people they searched, the greater the possibility of finding Meng Huan. Time was tight and only by finding Meng Huan as soon as possible could he feel at ease.
Lin Bozhou sat in the carriage on the way to the compound, rested on the pillow and closed his eyes wearily. Chen An advised in distress, “Your Royal Highness, Physician Zhou has been waiting to do your treatment for a long time. This time, when Your Royal Highness return, regardless of how important the matter is, the treatment of your eyes must be placed first.”
Lin Bozhou tightly pursed his lips. “This Regent is well aware.”
Because of Meng Huan’s sudden disappearance, he had not shut his eyes the whole night. He gestured for Chen An to be quiet, so he could take a short break in the carriage.
As he rested his fingers on his forehead, a ripple rose from his fingertips, followed by a sharp burst of pain in his chest and head. This was a kind of pain in the head that followed exhaustion and stress, but it felt more like a cold. He pressed his finger on the center of his eyebrows, hard enough that the muscle twitched and he furrowed his brows from the pain.
“Your Royal Highness?” Chen An’s startled voice sounded.
The white gauze covering Lin Bozhou’s eyes was stained with a hint of red. He was clearly bleeding from his eyes.
Chen An’s voice was choked with emotion, “Your Royal Highness, think of it as for the sake of the Royal Consort and please do not work so tirelessly! Take care of yourself! Otherwise, Your Royal Highness’s health will fail before the Royal Consort comes home safely; it will only give him anxiety.”
Chen An was someone who always kept calm and steady, but for the first time, he felt that based on Lin Bozhou’s current uncontrollable emotional state, if he were to continue to worry and suppress like crazy, his body was bound to give out.
Lin Bozhou raised his hand and gently touched the white gauze before his eyes, leaving his fingertips wet with something.
He pursed his lips and said, “It is nothing.”
“It is best for Your Royal Highness to rest once back at the compound. This subject will inform Your Royal Highness immediately upon learning any news on the Royal Consort. Your Royal Highness once told me that one must remain calm against any encounter. To lose one’s composure is to play right into the opponents’ hands, right?”
Lin Bozhou shook his head. “This situation is different. Huan Huan’s fate is uncertain, and as it stands, this Regent cannot sleep in peace.”
After saying this, he closed his eyes and rested his head in his hand.
When the carriage stopped at the entrance of the compound, Lin Bozhou heard that the brocade-clad guard was here to present a report and lifted the curtain. “Any news?”
“Reporting to Your Royal Highness, this is not about the Royal Consort, it is the information on Echul that Your Royal Highness asked us to investigate a few days ago.”
Lin Bozhou’s pale and smooth fingers paused, seeming a little disappointed.
Chen An said, “Report another day, His Royal Highness is going to rest.”
But Lin Bozhou stopped him. As he closed his eyes, he said, “Go ahead.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The brocade-clad guard cupped his fists. “Cui Lang, the elder grandson of the Cui family, indeed has a companion named Echul. This person is undoubtedly Jurchen, but he is not a part of the scattered Jurchen tribes on the prairie, but the adoptive son of Mao Chengchang, the commander of Liaodong.”
“Zjb Jtfcumtjcu’r jvbqafv rbc?” Olc Dbhtbe gfqfjafv.
The Zong Dynasty put a conscription system into place, with hereditary military families. Mao Chengchang’s family had been serving in Liaodong for generations, undertaking the arduous task of defending the Zong Dynasty’s borders, returning to the capital occasionally to give reports. Due to generations of accumulation and the distance from the imperial capital, Mao Chengchang’s family had more or less become the unofficial provincial governor of Liaodong, living a divine lifestyle.
“Vtbeivc’a tlr jvbqafv rbc yf rajslcu lc Oljbvbcu? Qts vlv tf jqqfjg lc atf Jel ojwlis’r mbwqbecv lc atf mjqlaji?” Jtfc Cc kjr qehhifv jcv aegcfv ab Olc Dbhtbe. “Cvvlalbcjiis, lo atlr wjc lr jc beaijcvfg, kts vlv Zjb Jtfcumtjcu jvbqa tlw?”
And how could it be that those two questions did not cross Lin Bozhou’s mind immediately.
On this clear and sunny day, Lin Bozhou got out of the carriage and stood in the sunlight. The tension and exhaustion in his body and mind wore out his energy and manifested in a burst of dizziness in his skull.
An inexplicable sense of foreboding made him stumble a few steps. His eyes ached, and a rampaging wave surged up in his chest.
“Cough, cough—”
Lin Bozhou covered his lips and suddenly, a few drops of blood spilled from between them.
The blood drained from Chen An’s face as he gasped, “Your Royal Highness!”
The people around were shocked and quickly knelt down.
Lin Bozhou raised his hand and rejected Chen An’s help. He felt the cold blood on his fingertips, but his mind was still stuck in the momentary dizziness.
His eyes were half-closed, and his lips were stained with blood, making his lips appear even paler. He stammered words out of his mouth, “The Zong Dynasty…is actually going to…”
The last few words came to a sudden halt, leaving what he wanted to say incomplete.
Chen An was on the verge of tears. “Your Royal Highness, hurry inside and get some rest. You over there, hurry and summon Physician Zhou! Have him check on His Royal Highness’s condition.”
He led Lin Bozhou towards the compound, and when they reached the door, Lin Bozhou turned his head and ordered, “Keep an eye on Echul’s whereabouts. If he has any contact with those criminal Jurchen, no matter if he is Mao Chengchang’s adopted son or not, don’t bother informing Senior Cui, immediately detain him in custody and escort him to the Criminal Investigation Service for severe punishment.”
“Understood!”
The orders were answered with confident voices.
–
A rainstorm suddenly poured down over the capital for two to three days consecutively, sapping away the heat and bringing a rare breath of cold air.
A few of the roof tiles on the firewood shed were rotten. It was fine when the sun was out, but once the storm came, rainwater leaked intermittently into the shed from above, with enough water pooling on the ground to soak through shoes, socks, and trousers. Meng Huan could only climb onto the dirty bed, hug his knees and aimlessly watch the water gathering on the ground, occasionally gazing out of the small square window.
This was the fourth day of his kidnapping.
He had no idea where Echul was hiding him. In the past four days, apart from the shouting of a few outlanders, he had not sensed any other living person.
Every day, Echul came to check on how the seal copying was progressing.
“You are still working on it?” Echul’s patience was on the verge of eruption.
Meng Huan quickly pointed to Lin Bozhou’s seal. “Take a look, this seal was obviously struck with a hammer, which left a very unique and complex pattern. Moreover, the characters are not in the standard regular or semi-cursive scripts, but small-seal script, making the complexity of the engraving even higher, nevermind me copying it. Think about it, big guy. This is the personal seal of Lin Bozhou, the Prince Regent. If it is something that people are able to learn how to copy in just a couple days, doesn’t that mean that anyone would easily be able to fake his orders? That would be very poor anti-counterfeiting work.”
These remarks were the result of Meng Huan’s careful consideration.
Echul, cranky as he was, had to admit these were very good arguments.
So, every time Meng Huan made a copy, he would get extremely close to the original in a lot of major parts, however, there were mistakes in the small, finer details that were hard to ignore. This allowed Echul to know that he was working hard, but because of the level of difficulty, Echul could not blow up even if he wanted to.
After Meng Huan finished fooling Echul, he began to ponder what kind of fake order Echul wanted to get out.
Because of Meng Huan’s poor memory, he could only think as much as he could remember.
As he stared out of the window in boredom, his mind inevitably wandered back to the night he spent with Lin Bozhou before he was kidnapped. On that night, he saw the seal, and an uncanny sense of familiarity flooded through his mind.
He was desperately struggling to sort out and recall the contents of the original book.
The outline of the plot was almost identical to the storyline he was currently encountering, namely—[being snatched into the compound], [developing the romance plot], [encountering an opportunity to escape from the compound], [Lin Bozhou losing his sight], [Meng Huan successfully leaving the compound].
It was just that he and the original host had vastly different motivations.
Meng Huan felt that after he was transmigrated into this book, according to the original framework of the story, he more or less changed the novel from angst to fluff. Although he felt very happy every day, there were actually very few sweet moments in the original book. At the time, the readers were reading for a love-hate relationship leaking with sexual tension.
However, he remembered that there was a short chapter or two of sweetness between the original host and the original gong, before the original host made his escape from the compound.
At that time, the comment section was howling, thinking that romance was nearly upon them.
However…
At that time, a few days into the original gong’s recurrence of eye illness and loss of sight, the commenters were all speculating that although the original shou was seemingly indifferent and prideful, his heart was definitely moved by the original gong. This was because when the original gong had just lost his sight, the first time the original shou saw him blind, not only did he put away his usual mocking words, his gaze would sometimes fall on the original gong.
The original gong was inconvenienced because of his eyes. Once, the original shou actually personally fed him medicine.
Another time, he removed a chair that was in the way without a word.
On yet another occasion, he even reached out and wiped away the stain by the original gong’s lips with his own hand!
If this was not love, then what could it be? That was always the way tsundere shou expressed their love!
At the time, the readers were happily shipping the CP and thought that the two protagonists would finally start communicating with each other. Unexpectedly, they thought they were on page five, but they were actually on page one.
The original shou’s small inadvertent gestures were all perceived by the original gong. His thoughts were the same as the reader, that the original shou had a change of heart about him. Under the illusion of love, he let down his guard against the original shou.
Then, in the atmosphere where every reader was shouting [Sweet! So sweet! Super sweet! I am dying from this ship!], the book suddenly threw a curveball—
The original shou secretly became allies with Echul through the Pear Garden and used a bit of kindness to get the original gong to open his heart to him and drop his guard.
And then—
The original shou stole the original gong’s seal.
Sitting on the bed, Meng Huan suddenly snapped his head up.
He remembered now. The reason why the seal looked so familiar.
At that time, he was so absorbed in reading the original shou feeding the original gong medicine, smooching, and snuggling. Then as soon as Echul appeared, he knew the story was about to enter the plot. He felt so annoyed that he only read every other chapter.
Which was why he only vaguely remembered the original shou taking the original gong’s seal, instead of having a stronger impression.
As for which letter was stamped with the seal, Meng Huan rubbed his head and once again felt a cloudy sense of familiarity but could not exactly remember—
Thinking to this point, he sighed.
So, the appeal of the original book at that time was that the original shou lightly offered a sweet date, which completely conquered the original gong, stole his seal, and used it on a letter that greatly affected the original gong’s reputation.
Not only was the original gong emotionally deceived, but also cheated out of his career.
When the original shou ran off after stamping the letter with the seal, it was equivalent to the original gong losing his wife. Even without his sight, he chased after him on horseback, but ultimately because of his urgency, he fell from the horse.
Meng Huan supported his head on his palm with half-lidded eyes, but when he thought of his plot, his heart gave a violent beat.
There was a throb of fear.
…Will Lin Bozhou still fall off his horse in pursuit of him?
Meng Huan did not want this part of the plot to come true.
He had no issues with the original book.
But at the thought of Lin Bozhou, his heart turned sour.
He let out another deep sigh, trying to recall the contents of the letter once more.
Clank, clank.
The lock on the door rattled, indicating that he had visitors.
The first one was Echul.
The second one…
As Meng Huan looked up, he locked eyes with Cui Lang.
The author has something to say:
The original gong: The big sucker is me, I am the big sucker.
This is not to bash the original shou. Personally, I believe that in the original book’s values, there is only win or lose, no right or wrong.
However, our Huan-bao is someone who grew up under the red flag, so the moment Huan-bao entered the story, I will add his sense of value, and the rest depends on what the readers think (scratching head)
Oh gosh I really they had someone following Cui Lang and saw him meeting with Echul 😳
Hopefully Lin Bozhou does end up injured or falling off his horse! 😥
I hope that you accidentally left out the “not” word, otherwise that was ruthless 😭 poor man is already in the grave with one leg, a fall from a horse would send him all the way there
AHHHHH I DID LEAVE OUT THE WORD ‘NOT’ 😰😰😰
Lin Bozhou please don’t come after me it was an accident I swear! 😭😭
Cui lang you’re so dead. Echul too. Bet lin bozhou won’t even spare a single hair on them once huanhuan is found
oh i hope its so joever for the two of them
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Yeah, where is the fluff?!
Thank You for the new chapter ( ๑ ᴖ ᴈ ᴖ)♥
Damn Cui Lang! I’m just waiting for him to d1eeee 🤬🤬🤬🤬
Thanks for the update
Thanks for the chapter por Lin Bozhou…tha author have no consideration with him