The following morning passed normally, with the only difference being that Lu Qinyi explained to Fei Li that he would have meetings to attend later in the day. He might not be back until evening, if Fei Li needed anything then Lin An would be around. After his explanation, he seemed to notice that the book in Fei Li’s hand was turned to the last few pages so he added, “If you need a new book then you can just take one from my study. There’s certainly no shortage of military books there but if you want something else then you might have to do some searching.”
Fei Li glanced at him before giving an idle sound of acknowledgement.
True to his words, Lu Qinyi left to attend meetings, leaving Fei Li to stare at the closed book in his hand, fingers tapping against it as he thought. He then got up, heading to Lu Qinyi’s room. The guards watched him but had no reason to stop him, allowing him to enter and close the door behind him. It wasn’t like it was uncommon for Fei Li to spend his time in Lu Qinyi’s study.
Fei Li felt that Lu Qinyi was far too trusting however, giving even an mentally unstable enemy general free access to where you keep confidential military documents was, frankly, quite stupid. Fei Li had never really snooped before but he didn’t think Lu Qinyi could be that stupid… There surely wasn’t anything important in here, but he still felt it was worth looking at.
So he soundly closed the door behind him, ensuring the blind on the window was closed before he started poking around the bookshelves. He looked through various papers on unimportant things like petitions to change the contents of meals and bookkeeping records for expenses like paper and ink. He then came across neatly folded papers that were tied in a stack, pressed between books on either side. He pulled the string on one of the stacks, unfolding the top paper.
It was a letter, presumably from Lu Qinyi’s sister. It contained a brief update on court occurrences and discussed the progress of the request for further finances for General Lu’s army. The writer summarised that the progress was good and the approval was pending. Fei Li raised an eyebrow. What did General Lu have in mind that required more money? The end of the letter was a few sentences that their parents were in good health and Maiden Chen sent her well wishes. The final sentence told him simply to take care and keep warm.
He set these papers aside on an empty part of a shelf, picking up the next stack to read the top letter. His eyes widened the moment he started to read it. It was a report from one of the groups of soldiers stationed by the border. The soldier reported that the cold had driven the opposing forces back, with the only movement being scouts that kept an eye on the situation. The snow was starting to build up and with poor weather incoming, the report stated it was likely there would be no attacks for the time being. As such, the soldier stated it seemed okay to go ahead with moving to the new location and preparing supplies to keep the soldiers warm. Fei Li even recognized the location mentioned.
He glanced up at the map pinned on the wall, dragging his fingertip across its surface until he found the spot. It was backed onto small mountains on one side that would help block out wind and shielded by forests on the other side. It would be a terrible location to try to fight in but it was an excellent location to wait out winter storms, even close enough to still keep an eye on enemy movements. Fei Li couldn’t believe Lu Qinyi had actually left something like this so easily within his reach.
Just as he was about to read another of the letters, he heard footsteps. Fei Li hastily shoved the stacks back in place but he didn’t have enough time to tie them back up. However, since they were in the right location and pressed between books, it shouldn’t have been noticeable unless someone looked close. He pulled a book from the shelf at random, acting as if he was inspecting it.
Lu Qinyi opened the door, a warm smile on his face as he saw Fei Li in his study, not at all bothered. The light in the room dimmed as a cloud rolled over the already weak winter sun and a cold breeze blew into the room from the door Lu Qinyi left open when he walked in. He pulled the snow dusted cloak from his shoulders, tossing it over the desk before strolling over to Fei Li. Fei Li felt a chill settle in him but on the surface he remained unperturbed. The gaze that followed Lu Qinyi was lazy in appearance, as if Fei Li only somewhat cared about whatever Lu Qinyi was up to.
Lu Qinyi stopped at Fei Li’s side, curiously glanced at the book Fei Li held. His gaze then passed over the bookshelf in front of them, fixing on that stack of letters that had been returned to their place. Who would have thought Lu Qinyi had such a keen gaze? Fei Li was instantly on alert, watching Lu Qinyi closely. The other’s smile seemed to widen.
“Looking for a new book, General Fei?” He said lightly, a glint in his eyes that only furthered Fei Li’s sense of unease.
Lu Qinyi leaned in slightly and although there was still some distance between them, it felt as if he was speaking into Fei Li’s ear. “Or were you looking for something else?”
There was something dangerous lurking in that tone of his.
Fei Li felt the hairs on his arms stand on end, the blood in his veins turning cold as he instantly knew he had been caught. He could feel the impending danger and thus he acted fast as lightning. Before the book he dropped had even hit the floor, Fei Li had the hairpin from his hair in hand, shoving Lu Qinyi back against the bookshelf, the tip of that hairpin pressed against his throat.
Lu Qinyi was as calm as still waters, a thoughtful look on his face even as he could feel the pointed tip of the jade hairpin digging in slightly against his throat. In the face of Fei Li’s fierce gaze, he only asked, “So you’ve recovered then?”
Fei Li was silent for a moment before answering, “I have.” Upon seeing that Lu Qinyi’s smile had been replaced with a complicated expression, he added, “Disappointed?”
But Lu Qinyi only smiled again, even wider than before, eyes shining in the weak light that poured in from the open door. “No… No, not at all. Actually, I’m quite excited. I’ve been waiting to find out what you’re actually like for some time now, General Fei.”
“That so? Sorry to have kept you waiting then.” Fei Li responded coolly as he tried to buy time to think, his mind whirring to find a solution for his current predicament.
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.
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Of course Lu Qinyi wasn’t dumb enough to freely give him access. Although Fei Li felt those letters were real, Lu Qinyi seemed to have decided to sacrifice the information in them to test if Fei Li had recovered or not. He knew that Fei Li had to get out of here to be able to make use of it anyway.
Irritation welled up in Fei Li. Lu Qinyi had him trapped perfectly. Letting him have access to a tidbit of classified information was like mockery, throwing it into Fei Li’s face how helpless he was. He couldn’t do anything. And Lu Qinyi knew it.
He gritted his teeth in anger, his fingers gripping the front of Lu Qinyi’s robes tighter, shoving him back against the bookshelf even harder. Lu Qinyi grimaced as pain spread across his back but he didn’t make a sound. However, the shove had shaken the bookshelf slightly and a small decorative vase used to hold brushes fell, shattering loudly when it hit the ground.
“General Lu?” One of the guards called out, the sound of footsteps growing closer.
Fei Li felt panic gripping his chest, glancing toward the door for just a moment. But it was enough.
Lu Qinyi, who had been perfectly complacent just before, shot out his hand to grip Fei Li’s wrist. He pulled that wrist away, the jade hairpin leaving his neck. He then threw his weight forward, setting Fei Li off balance before flipping him around, switching their positions. Fei Li, who was now pressed against the bookshelf, glared at him fiercely, lip curling slightly.
The guard poked his head in the doorway, his eyes widening at the concerning scene before him. “General Lu, are you alright?!”
“It’s fine. General Fei and I are just playing around.” Lu Qinyi dug his fingers into Fei Li’s wrist painfully until the latter was forced to let go of the hairpin. It fell to the floor with a clatter but luckily didn’t break. “I want anything potentially sharp removed from General Fei’s room,” he ordered, letting go of Fei Li and crouching to pick up the hairpin, spinning it around his fingers as he walked to the door. “Let’s go have a chat, shall we General Fei?”
Fei Li wanted nothing less, rubbing at his sore wrist. Still, he said nothing, following silently.
Lu Qinyi sat across from him at the table as if nothing were different. He poured them both tea, stirring honey into Fei Li’s as ordinary. It’s just that this time, he didn’t sip from it as he handed it to Fei Li. Fei Li eyed him but accepted the tea.
“I’m happy to answer whatever questions you have and you’re welcome to make a request if you’re missing anything now you’ve come to your senses. Of course, I won’t be letting you have any correspondence for obvious reasons.” Lu Qinyi went to recline back into the chair but abruptly sat forward the moment his back touched the chair. He frowned lightly as he tenderly touched the bruise on his back.
Fei Li watched him expressionlessly, sipping his tea. He decided to start with easy questions. “What is this place?”
“An estate of mine that I had renovated to accommodate temporary operations, and house myself and some of my soldiers. It’s a bit further back from the border, a couple days worth of travel,” Lu Qinyi replied helpfully without hesitation.
“What soldiers do you have here? The ones who guard the door aren’t ordinary. Some of the soldiers during the assessments were beyond ordinary however.”
Lu Qinyi raised an eyebrow, not sure if he should be offended at his soldiers being called ‘beyond ordinary’. “I have most of Division One here, however there are also newcomers who are being prepared to be placed in a Division and sent out. I also have some Division Six to help run things smoothly.”
Fei Li thought for a moment. Now that he had the full capacity of his mind, he could recall some things about the Divisions and his observations of the assessments had furthered his understanding of how it worked. But this Division system had been recently revised under General Lu, thus he didn’t have a clear understanding of which Division was for which specialty. So he decided he would simply ask.
“What are Division One and Six for?”
Lu Qinyi had gotten what he wanted from this answer, it seems the Northern Army understood both the concept of the Division system and that he had changed it. He smiled at the other. “Division Six specialize in support activities. Division One are the best of my soldiers, anyone who has proven themselves to have exceptional talents. I pick my favourites from this division to be your guards. For example, one of the men currently at the door is named Shen Hai. He is skilled in the use of improvised weapons, much like yourself.” Lu Qinyi joked, lightly scratching the spot on his neck where the tip of the hairpin had pressed. The memory was still fresh in his mind, he could almost feel the cold jade on his neck again.
Fei Li’s only thoughts were that if he were given another chance to threaten his enemy with a hairpin, he would do it again. But Lu Qinyi had very smartly put the hairpin away, so he could only sip his tea.
Fei Li felt the possibility of escape was even smaller. He wasn’t just surrounded by enemy soldiers, he was surrounded by the best of the enemy soldiers. That left Fei Li with just one more question he wanted to ask. He stared down at the light coloured liquid in the cup in his hand before voicing, “Why?”
Lu Qinyi looked puzzled. “Why what?” He was met with silence but this wasn’t anything new so he tried to guess at what the other meant. “Are you… asking why I’ve captured you or why I’m keeping you alive? Shouldn’t you be able to understand why?” He asked in confusion.
Fei Li looked up at him, expression unreadable. “No. I’m asking why you would treat a captured enemy general the way you have.”
“Ah. That.” Lu Qinyi smiled, propping his chin in his hand as he looked at the other from across the table. “I can answer you but it’s up to you whether you believe the answer,” he replied mysteriously, earning an annoyed glare from the other for faffing around. “It’s because I respect and admire you, General Fei.”
Fei Li was stunned, rendered speechless. Of all the answers he had thought the other might give, this wasn’t one of them. His brows slowly furrowed together, a frown forming on his face. “You’re right. I don’t believe you.” It was hard enough to believe he respected and admired his enemy, let alone to the point of personally eating the same food every meal and tending to the other’s wounds every night.
Lu Qinyi only laughed. “See? I knew you wouldn’t believe it. Mei Mei and Yang Ye didn’t either when they demanded I explain. They didn’t believe I was serious, practically spitting blood at me for joking about such a thing. They only realized I was serious when I brought you back here. It really did seem like they would spit blood then. As you can probably tell, they’re still mad about it.” Lu Qinyi seemed greatly amused as he recalled this. It wasn’t hard to understand why Zhao Mei and Yang Xun would be infuriated with him.
Fei Li couldn’t understand this explanation however. As he thought about that night he was captured, he only felt more confused. “That ambush… really seemed aimed to kill me.” He had wanted to know if Lu Qinyi had intended for it to kill him then changed his mind or if it just seemed like they were trying to kill him. But the response he got was nothing of this sort.
“Oh they definitely were trying to kill you. They would have succeeded too if I hadn’t found you first and even then, it was a near thing. It took a whole week to stabilize your condition.” When he saw the bewildered look on Fei Li’s face, his brows furrowed. “You… thought that ambush was my doing?”
Fei Li said nothing but Lu Qinyi let out a ‘ha!’
“General Fei, you think too little of yourself. There are plenty of people besides me who might want your head. Actually, I was given explicit instructions not to get involved. And I didn’t, I showed up after the ambush.” He looked rather pleased with himself as he said that last line, it seemed this loophole must have been a point of argument. And Lu Qinyi had won the argument.
“Then do you mind if I ask who was behind the ambush?”
Lu Qinyi hmphed. “Some men you wronged. From what I’ve found out, during one of your campaigns, you uncovered a ring of merchants from the North doing trade and providing supplies to our side. You imprisoned the ones you found as a warning to others and burned all their businesses down. It’s a shame that the merchants involved that you didn’t find and imprison didn’t take the warning and wanted revenge. They switched sides, using their connections to cosy up to some powerful court officials. Seems they were even able to get one of your men to defect. That’s how you got cornered, right? If it’s any comfort, the man who betrayed you didn’t seem to be doing it of his own freewill as we found his body at the scene. Anyway, the court officials used their influence to have this plan approved and I was told to stay out of it.” He scoffed as he finished explaining but Fei Li was lost in thought. Fei Li admitted Lu Qinyi was right on this one, it seemed he wasn’t short on enemies.
“I see.” Since that was all he had to ask, he said no more and silence settled over the room for a few moments.
“If there’s any other questions you have, feel free to ask them. But if that’s all you have to ask for now then it’s my turn to ask something.”
Fei Li glanced at him, motioning with his hand for him to continue.
“Is it true that the armies of the North eat watermelon rinds without cooking them?”
Fei Li blinked a few times, his expression both judging and disbelieving. Of all the questions he could ask, this was the most important? Still, Lu Qinyi had answered all of his questions fully so he decided to humour the ridiculous question with a reply. “Sometimes. We don’t waste food. Watermelon is sometimes eaten while marching and the rinds will be eaten as well.”
Lu Qinyi scrunched his nose up. “Strange. It’s better cooked,” he commented before getting up, straightening his robes. “I have some work to attend to. Both Lin An and Lin Jiao are around if you need anything.” He gave a wave over his shoulder as he walked out. Fei Li thought to himself that General Lu really was a strange man.
— ~~~ —
Fei Li didn’t see Lu Qinyi again until the next day. He sat at the table with him for breakfast just like their routine had been for the past months, much to Fei Li’s dismay. At the very least however, he could drop the act now, straight up glaring at this man who dared enter his room while he tied his hair up before sitting at the table. Long hair ribbons and cloth strips had been given to him for his hair in place of the jade hairpin, which he was thankful for as this was much more familiar to him and didn’t require Lu Qinyi’s help.
Lu Qinyi had paid no mind to his glares, coating one of the bowls of rice porridge with a fine layer of cinnamon sugar. He then took a bite and placed it before Fei Li. It seems he had acted out of habit as when he saw the other’s dark expression, his eyes widened slightly and he immediately swapped the bowl for his own untouched bowl. “Ah, sorry sorry. I didn’t mean to, I really wasn’t trying to mock you.” Despite the apologies, Fei Li still looked displeased, but he picked up the fresh bowl and started eating. Lu Qinyi could only sigh lightly, picking up the bowl originally meant for Fei Li. As he ate, his expression showed minute traces of displeasure, even pausing to look down at the offending bowl. But he kept eating regardless, though it didn’t particularly seem he liked it. Although Fei Li noticed this, he didn’t care to pay it mind or ask about it.
Following breakfast, he figured Lu Qinyi would leave him be but he was unpleasantly surprised to find he didn’t. Lu Qinyi sat some distance away from him, reclined by the window as he read from a book in his hand. Although there was now a distance between them compared to the previous months, it still wasn’t enough. He’d rather the room to himself so he finally asked Lu Qinyi with some impatience, “What exactly are you doing General Lu?”
Lu Qinyi looked up from his book, a slight smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “What does it look like? I’m keeping an eye on you.”
“Whatever for? As if I could do anything. You’ve got guards at my door. Are you just here to get on my nerves?”
“That too.” Lu Qinyi carelessly turned the page of his book to keep reading. Fei Li pinched the bridge of his nose before putting on an air of indifference. He wasn’t going to give Lu Qinyi the satisfaction of getting under his skin.
He was just becoming accustomed to the stifling silence and Lu Qinyi’s restless tapping on the cover of his book when the other spoke up. “General Fei, are you still getting headaches?”
The answer was yes and you’re currently causing one. But Fei Li wouldn’t indulge him with that either, ignoring him as he read his own book.
Lu Qinyi was long used to this response though and simply continued on anyway. “If you are, I can have some more medicine prepared for you. And some sweet tea since you seem to dislike drinking medicine so much.”
Fei Li frowned indignantly. Who was he to comment on Fei Li’s dislike for the bitterness of medicine? Fei Li was an adult and a general at that, he didn’t need sweet tea to drink medicine. “No need to trouble yourself.”
“It’s hardly any trouble, after all I’ve tended to your wounds every night for over two months,” Lu Qinyi stated ever-so-casually, one leg crossed over the other and his head tilted back slightly to look at Fei Li with a side glance. He was the picture of infuriating nonchalance. Fei Li suddenly felt like he was being pricked all over, a cold feeling crawling up his spine as the memories flooded up unbidden. The feeling of Lu Qinyi’s gentle and careful touch on his skin had been vividly burned into his mind.
His fingers twitched with the urge to strangle Lu Qinyi as he hissed a “Get out” between gritted teeth. Fei Li felt frustrated to be at Lu Qinyi’s mercy, he knew if Lu Qinyi didn’t want to leave, there wasn’t much he could do.
But surprisingly, Lu Qinyi obediently got up.
“Take care then General Fei. If you change your mind do feel free to ask for the medicine.” Once Lu Qinyi shut the door, Fei Li could feel his head pounding. The medicine was more tempting than he cared to admit.
Author’s Notes:
Caught already? Fei Li would be an awful spy.
Fei Li: …I’m a general, not a spy.
Such a bad spy! With a bad headache named Lu Qinyi…hahahaha! Thanks for the chapter! ❤️🤣
Hi Driftingclouds! Nice to see you again.
Right?! I’d never pick him to be a spy but Lu is an unfair opponent to be up against!
You’re most welcome ❤ Thanks for reading and for the comment!
Fei Li was caught!
And you can say what you want, but the whole chapter felt like Lu Quinji was flirting with him<3.
PS: Nooo!
Fei Li lost one of the gifts, the jade hairpin…
Although he still has the earring ; ).
Busted!
Hehe, Lu’s got a fun personality, doesn’t he?
Yep, Lu’s taken his hairpin back! Hairpin rights revoked!