Chapter 019 – His Majesty looks at a dirty swine

The man held his bare foot firmly. The strange feeling made Gu Yuanbai’s face darken instantly. He wanted to pull his foot out, but he was no match for Xue Yuan’s strength.

Xue Yuan was doing it completely on purpose.

Gu Yuanbai lifted his other foot that still had a boot on, and kicked Xue Yuan violently, but Xue Yuan was already prepared for it and took the kick without issue. Raising his eyelids, he smiled cheerfully at Gu Yuanbai.

“Give Us…” the foggy air went down Gu Yuanbai’s throat, making him cough harshly. Even the foot Xue Yuan was holding shook from how strong his coughing was. The Emperor was coughing, but Xue Yuan took off the other boot and the brocade sock, and took the other delicate ankle in his hand.

Tian Fusheng had been there just a moment ago, but there was no one else around now. Xue Yuan looked at the young Emperor, his eyes red from the coughing fit, and watched him as he held his feet, making it so the Emperor couldn’t move, and he felt a strange satisfaction arise in his mind. There was no one there, and the young Emperor was no match for Xue Yuan’s strength. Xue Yuan grinned, feeling almost as if he were bullying the Emperor.

The coughing gradually stopped. As his chest rose and fell, Gu Yuanbai’s eyes became calmer. After steadying his breathing, the first sentence he said was, “Very good, Xue Yuan.”

It was the same words he’d said when Xue Yuan was punished that day.

Xue Yuan kept smiling. He deliberately stroked the Emperor’s feet and said slowly, “This official fears Your Majesty will get cold, I’m devoted.”

“Devoted.” Gu Yuanbai nodded, a cold smile on his lips, and the next moment he said loudly. “Men, here!”

Dozens of guards suddenly rushed into the hall, with the guard captain taking the lead. He walked quickly to Gu Yuanbai and said in a deep voice: “This servant has arrived.”

Gu Yuanbai wanted to withdraw his foot from Xue Yuan’s hold, but Xue Yuan still dared to not let him go. Gu Yuanbai was angry, but found it almost laughable. “Release Us.”

Xue Yuan smiled and released his hold.

The Emperor walked barefoot to the edge of the pool, turned around, and looked at Xue Yuan with a smile on his face. “Throw him into the water.”

The guards didn’t hesitate for even a moment. They moved and, in the next instant, Xue Yuan was thrown into the water. Four of them jumped out of the pool and held Xue Yuan down to prevent him from escaping.

Xue Yuan didn’t struggle, instead looking straight at Gu Yuanbai as if he were expecting to see what Gu Yuanbai could do.

There were many things Gu Yuanbai could do.

The future regent was pushed down and sank in the water until he couldn’t breathe, and then pulled back up several times. The only thing that could be heard inside the hall was the violent splashing of the water. Xue Yuan’s hair spread out, and his breathing was very heavy. Once Gu Yuanbai felt that it had been enough, he told the men to stop it.

Gu Yuanbai walked to the pool and sat down, speaking slowly. “Xue Yuan, are you comfortable?”

“I’m comfortable,” Xue Yuan huffed and gasped, his eyes red and bloodshot, and the corner of his mouth twitched. “This is the bath water that the Emperor soaks in, so of course, this official feels comfortable.”

Gu Yuanbai’s face sank, thinking that Xue Yuan was trying to gross him out on purpose.

Xue Yuan, of course, was grossing him out on purpose. He had gotten so angry when he’d touched his foot. Are all men doing this sort of touching? Did Xue Yuan also like men?

The young Emperor disliked being touched, but Xue Yuan couldn’t bear his anger either.

The guards’ faces were furious, and the strength they were using to hold onto Xue Yuan increased. Xue Yuan didn’t say a word, but he occasionally glanced at the four guards surrounding him, with a dark and frightening look in their eyes.

Gu Yuanbai, with an ugly expression on his face, said: “Release him.”

The four guards let go of Xue Yuan reluctantly. Xue Yuan stood up straight in the water. The water only reached his crotch. He rubbed his wrist and grimaced, showing his fangs.

“Your Highness,” he said in a pleasant voice, “should this official serve you as you bathe in the spring?”

“Out,” Gu Yuanbai said. “Go outside and kneel and apologize to my pool of spring water.”

He was dunked in said pool, unable to catch his breath over and over, but now he had to go apologize to it.

Xue Yuan stepped out of the pool and walked out with the guards. This hall was used by the Emperor to soak in the springs, so of course, there was more than one pool. When he was about to exit the gate, right as he turned around, Xue Yuan took the chance to look out of the corner of his eye and he saw the young Emperor getting up to walk elsewhere.

The young Emperor left water stains on the ground as he walked the entire way. He was still barefoot, and his jade-like feet were fairer than the white jade on the ground. Xue Yuan, his body also dripping with water, thought to himself: the young Emperor is so weak and sickly, wouldn’t he get sick, walking around barefoot in a thin robe?

Xue Yuan couldn’t help but smile.

How could someone be so weak?

When Gu Yuanbai walked out of the hall, he was already wearing a clean and neat inner robe.

Palace attendants were holding the rest of his clothes, and, when he stepped out of the hall, they’d put them on him layer after layer. A palace maid wiped off the water for him and said, “Your Highness, the new Jinshi have already finished greeting the ministers, and the streets are very lively.”

“Today is a good day for the new Jinshi.” Gu Yuanbai smiled slightly. “After being successful in the Palace examinations, it’s natural to be happy.”

The Imperial court spent a lot of money after each examination to give the new Jinshi the day of their dreams when they succeed. The more famous the Imperial court made the day to be, the more scholars across the country would long to pass the Imperial examinations.

Gu Yuanbai was happy to see the day’s success. “Two years from now, during the military examinations,1 it’ll be even more lively.”

The military examinations in the Great Heng Dynasty were held every five years, and the successful military talents received the same treatment as the Jinshi. The Students didn’t only have to test their fighting skills and physical strength, they also had to be familiar with military books, geography, and understand various concepts such as planning military strategy on a sand table, camping, transporting provisions on plank roads, guarding from surprise attacks by taking the offensive, and various other topics.

The country’s treasury would limit any grand measures that the Imperial court might want to take. However, the soldiers would be given priority for the best provisions and money. The infantry got to fill their stomach every day with coarse grains2 and flat cakes, and heavy infantry and cavalry occasionally got to eat meat. However, that wasn’t enough. If they wanted the soldiers of Great Heng to be strong, tall and sturdy, they also needed to eat meat and fruit.

That winter, Gu Yuanbai had originally planned to open up the border exchange market when the nomads in the border became short of food and oil, in order to open trade for cattle and horses raised by small clans and to buy good livestock at low-cost. Then, he’d sell some of them at high prices in the prosperous lands of Great Heng, and set some aside and reserve for the army to use and to provide the soldiers with some meat to eat.

But the cold winds that season had extended the winter for longer than usual, and he could only wait for the next opportunity.

Gu Yuanbai valued ​​soldiers and was willing to spend money to raise them. Of course, the Great Heng soldiers knew this as well. Even before winter had arrived, there would be warm clothes issued by the Emperor in the middle of autumn. They never were paid in arrears. The money was distributed on a monthly basis. The soldiers would go ask for it by themselves, and each and every one of them would get their pay in their own hands. There was a Supervision Office in the military to prevent anyone from embezzling the money or mistreating the soldiers, and, when the payment was getting distributed, the high ranking generals would have to oversee it in person, even if there was rain or snow.

The people in the Supervision Office placed in the army were also very principled. They had long deeply accepted Gu Yuanbai’s brainwashing, and they worked tirelessly to inform the soldiers of the Emperor’s appreciation for them and his desire for them to be treated well.

Even though Gu Yuanbai was unable to show up in person when the army pay was given out, ‘the Emperor’s benevolence’ was what the soldiers talked about. They felt that they were fighting for the Emperor, not for their general. Regardless of the opinion of the generals and captains, the workers in the Supervision Office were very proud of it and full of fighting spirit.

They were motivated just because of the Emperor’s preferential treatment. The Imperial army in the palace was also very diligent and didn’t dare to slack off. A while ago, when they had to handle a few imprisoned soldiers who had been tricked by Li Huan,3 the guards in the palace were even more angry than Gu Yuanbai.

It wasn’t the first time Xue Yuan had been in the palace, but it was his first time having close contact with the palace guard. The moment they stepped out of the hall, the guards stared at him with a dark look, as if they couldn’t wait to kill Xue Yuan on the spot.

It was more dramatic than a dog protecting its master.

The guard Zhang Xu said coldly, “Young master Xue, since you have entered the palace and have become part of the Emperor’s guard, His Highness must become your first priority. His Majesty’s thoughts are our goal, and His Majesty’s orders are the meaning of our existence.”

”
”
Xue Yuan was soaked, and the guard uniform clung closely to his strong, powerful body. The strength of his muscles didn’t lose to that of these guards. He was like a wild wolf ready to fight, looking for a chance to attack.

“It’s just as Official Zhang says,” Xue Yuan replied with a gentle smile. “This official is also worried about His Majesty’s body.”

Zhang Xu didn’t know what had happened before he entered the hall, but he obviously didn’t believe Xue Yuan’s comment. He snorted coldly and said in a dark voice, “You better be.”

The guards beside Zhang Xu glared at Xue Yuan, but none of them spoke up. Xue Yuan found a place to kneel down and straightened the messy strands of his hair. Once the clothes he was wearing had practically dried out under the sun, finally some sound came from inside the building.

Xue Yuan looked and saw that the young Emperor’s complexion was slightly flushed, now looking much healthier than his previous paleness. Xue Yuan lowered his head, and he saw that the bright yellow dragon boots the young Emperor had worn were no longer there. Instead, they had been replaced by a pair of crescent white embroidered dragon boots. Presumably, the pair he had touched earlier would definitely never be seen again.

Everything used by the Emperor was always top notch. If there was water on his hair, the water droplets wouldn’t even soak in the clothes, instead immediately sliding off like beads.

Gu Yuanbai talked to a young eunuch next to him as he walked. He had sent Tian Fusheng to rest, and now Tian Fusheng’s young apprentice was the one attending him. “When I go to bed at noon, call the Minister of Civil Personnel and the Minister of Public Affairs and tell them to come meet Us at Xuanzheng Hall an hour later.”

“Yes,” the young eunuch jotted it down carefully, and then stopped writing. “Your Majesty, you haven’t eaten yet…”

“We’re not hungry,” Gu Yuanbai frowned, thought about his stomach, and sighed, accepting a compromise. “Call for the meal, tell the Imperial kitchen to not cook much, just something light to nourish the stomach that won’t take much effort.”

“Yes.”

Although he had said that there was no need to put much thought into it, as of late, the Emperor had been eating less and less. Many of the cooks in the Imperial kitchens were already worried, anxious to put their skills to good use, and they didn’t dare be inattentive

The Emperor had said he wanted to eat something light, so, when he finally arrived at the table, Gu Yuanbai saw a piece of white jade tofu with a creamy skin. The white jade tofu was warm and hot, without even the slightest scratch. It really looked like a piece of jade, sprinkled with rice noodles and soup, and it melted when the spoon dug into it.

In addition to the white jade-like tofu, the Imperial kitchen had also prepared small, exquisite dumplings. Fresh broth burst out of them into the mouth with one bite, the thin skin was almost transparent. A plate of vinegar was set to the side. The size of this dumpling was small enough that even a child could eat it. Gu Yuanbai ate, and he didn’t eat just a few.

The palace attendants around him all smiled with joy. Xue Yuan, who, after all, still was the son of General Xue, was accompanying Gu Yuanbai, next to Zhang Xu. At that time, the two of them were standing at the side in the hall, watching the Emperor have his meal.

The guard, Zhang Xu, looked at him in silence for a while, and he couldn’t entirely suppress the restrained smile on his face.

After finishing his meal, Gu Yuanbai’s servants helped him clean his hands and rinse his mouth, and he went to the inner rooms to take a nap.

The doors and windows in the hall were closed, and he felt groggy, the spring making his body feel extremely lazy. It didn’t take long for Gu Yuanbai to fall fully asleep.

Gu Yuanbai woke up, uncomfortable.

He sat up halfway, his voice dry and muted, and the dizzy feeling in his head didn’t go away, instead becoming heavier, as if his head was filled with water. He even felt that it was too heavy to lift it up.

“Come here-…” Gu Yuanbai gripped the bed frame tightly, breathing heavily.

He hadn’t slept for an hour yet, so there was no one in the inner room at that moment. Gu Yuanbai closed his eyes and, after gathering his strength, he picked up a jade pendant beside the bed and dropped it heavily onto the ground.

A few moments later, a group of people rushed into the inner room, which was suddenly flooded with light. Gu Yuanbai frowned.

“Your Majesty!”

The guard captain was shocked when he saw Gu Yuanbai’s face. He turned around and ran out to call an Imperial doctor. Gu Yuanbai coughed a few times and the palace attendants rushed around him, pouring water, taking towels and towels, bringing a brazier closeby and bringing better clothes for the Emperor.

Xue Yuan stood aside and looked at Gu Yuanbai’s condition. He hadn’t really expected him to be sick.

He really was… too delicate.

Gu Yuanbai was helped up, his feet hanging off the bed. The young eunuch was about to put on socks and shoes on him, but he was pushed aside.

Xue Yuan knelt on one knee and took Gu Yuanbai’s foot with a rather smooth and natural movement. When he squeezed it, he frowned. Looking like a real loyal official, he asked anxiously, “Why is it so cold?”

The palms of his hands were hot, and the warmth felt very comfortable, at least more than putting on socks and shoes.

Gu Yuanbai was wearing a fox fur and sitting on the bed, still wrapped in a quilt, his feverish face looking expressionless underneath the layers. He looked at Xue Yuan as if he was looking at a beast with a useful hide. Mutely, he ordered: “Then you can warm them up.”

Xue Yuan raised his eyelids and glanced at him. He took the young Emperor’s jade feet into his arms and placed them over his lower abdomen, then covered his hands with layer after layer of his wide sleeves and said, “As Your Majesty commands.”