Chapter 7 – His Majesty Starts to Swindle People

Chu Wei had an unsightly expression with a raged look within his phoenix’s eyes. However, Gu Yuanbai, who opened the bed curtain, wore an even more unsightly expression. He only glanced at him, flung his sleeves, and walked away.

For the first time, Chu Wei was tied to a bed for others to do as they please. It was also the first time he saw disgust in the eyes of others. He saw it clearly. When this originally muddleheaded, tyrannical, and incapable ruler looked at him, there was a definite shock and disgust in his eyes.

It seemed as though Chu Wei was a dirty thing, that a glance at him could stain his eyes.

The emperor didn’t intend to get fresh with him, and yet the rage in Chu Wei’s heart was not diminished but magnified instead. He stared rigidly at the curtain made of gauze and looked at the hazy bright yellow figure outside.

Gu Yuanbai calmly sat on the soft recliner outside, waiting for Tian Fusheng’s explanation.

After learning that it was Chu Wei, the shou male protagonist in the book, lying on his bed, Gu Yuanbai slapped his hand on the armrest. The dull sound made people’s hearts tremble. Gu Yuanbai squeezed the armrest firmly to the point his fingertips turned white.

Tian Fusheng had never seen this angry look of the emperor. His heart trembled, knowing that he was in trouble.

“Tian Fusheng,” the emperor’s voice was distorted when it reached the inner palace hall, “what kind of licentious and immoderate image Zhen is in your heart cough…!”

The emperor was angry. All the people in the Imperial Sleeping Palace fell on their knees with a ‘’plop’’.

Chu Wei, who was tied truss up on the bed, heard these words and saw the people kneeling on the ground. His eyes were cold as he hid a sneer. After a moment, a palace attendant came in and lit a lamp. The dim inside of the Imperial Sleeping Palace was suddenly bright as day.

Chu Wei blinked uncomfortably a few times. Outside the bed curtain, the bright yellow figure was supporting himself on the soft recliner, stooping while coughing. The sound was dull but pressing and urgent.

The emperor wore only an inner garment; his figure was slender and thin. The rage in Chu Wei’s heart gradually calmed down and turned into an unfathomable ice pool.

After stopping the fit of cough with difficulty, Gu Yuanbai strenuously straightened his back and slowly walked to the bedside.

Chu Wei stared directly at him through the bed curtain. If the emperor himself did not know about his kidnapping, it meant the emperor’s control over the inner court was truly weak. How did such an emperor disarm the powerful minister Lu Feng?

Chu Wei was studying abroad for the last seven years. Although he was far away from the Imperial Court, he learned some news from his father. However, his father’s low official position and unambitious in his official career made Chu Wei also unclear about the politics of the imperial government.

In a flash, thousands of thoughts rushed into his mind, but a hand reaching into the bed curtain abruptly cut off these thoughts.

This hand was so beautiful, slender, and white. It was no more than a quick look when the emperor lifted the bed curtain with a ‘’swish’’.

Gu Yuanbai was not an egoist. After he assumed the position of an emperor, he had not gotten muddle-headed by power. He put himself in the other’s shoes and thought for a moment. If he got forcibly tied on another man’s bed, he would have murderous intentions toward that person.

Regardless of the method or who the opponent was, he would kill him.

Therefore, he quickly pardoned Chu Wei for showing his murderous intent toward him. He even sounded much gentler to appease the male protagonist, who was implicated by Tian Fusheng.

“No one will know about this…” Halfway through the sentence, an itch rose in his throat. Gu Yuanbai pressed a fist against his lips, coughing sideways.

A full head of fine black hair disheveled along with the slight shaky movement. The palace attendants, who were kneeling on the ground outside, trembled. No one dared to go forward and help the emperor at this time.

The cough was unceasing, and it was heart-wrenching until the end. Gu Yuanbai’s hands trembled as he bent over and powerlessly pressed at the side of the dragon bed.

The bright yellow silk satin embroidered with dragon patterns got wrinkled one after another by the grip of his pale hand. In between, there was suddenly an alluring illusion of poignant.

Chu Wei slowly frowned. Only then did he remember that the emperor just turned 20-year-old last year and that his body also was so frail.

……

He was really useless.

“Your Majesty,” the voice echoed like iced water falling into the pool, “Are you alright?”

Gu Yuanbai abruptly squeezed the bedsheets in his hand.

The blue veins bulged on the back of his pale hand were like veins carefully carved on a jade pendant. Gu Yuanbai leaned against the bedside; the sound of his coughing gradually weakened.

The sound of cough had ceased, but the sound of heavy breathing was still there. Gu Yuanbai closed his eyes and breathed big mouthfuls of fresh air. After quite a while, he tremblingly pressed on the bed and stood.

Gu Yuanbai used to this kind of body.

He stood up laboriously, clearly cutting a sorry figure, but calmly continued to say the words to Chu Wei, “Don’t worry about others knowing, Zhen will order people to send you home secretly and also punish the servants who kidnapped you without authorization.”

Chu Wei calmly looked at him.

The young emperor’s body was worse than he had thought. After coughing, the corners of his eyes were red, and his lips looked like they were dyed with rouge as if he had cried.

Also, his appearance was so much better than he had imagined.

Chu Wei was known as the No. 1 beautiful man in the capital. Nowadays, male homosexuality was taken as a refined activity of the intellectuals. However, after experiencing a lot of suggestions from older and younger men, Chu Wei almost hated all men who bore improper thoughts of him.

When he was tied truss up, he had a heinous killing intent in his heart. After knowing that he got sent to the dragon bed, his killing intent became even fiercer. Even if it was disgraceful to involve his nine clans1, he had to make this incapable ruler pay the price!

Yet, he didn’t expect this was not the emperor’s idea, nor did he expect that the emperor was so beautiful.

Chu Wei wickedly used the word ‘’beautiful’’ in his heart to describe the emperor to relieve the rage he had to push down in his heart previously.

If this beautiful young emperor was disgusted at the first sight of him, then he didn’t like men either, right?

If Gu Yuanbai knew his thoughts, perhaps Gu Yuanbai was left speechless. Chu Wei was obviously homophobic.

The people in the book were a straight man and a homophobic. How did they get together in the end?

The beauty that Chu Wei was born with was not the beauty of a male born with a womanly appearance. His beauty elaborated the word of handsomeness to the limit, like a bright moon and strong wind on the cloudless sky. His features were very heroic, and even his figure was slender and vigorous, similar to a power-loaded cheetah.

If Gu Yuan were to choose, he liked this kind of body the most, which was handsome and healthy. Compared to Chu Wei, his appearance now lacked a little gallantry.

Chu Wei was silent. Gu Yuanbai thought he was still revolting. He sighed and sat on the side of the bed casually, “If Zhen remembers correctly, your father is an official in the Ministry of Rites?”

This attitude of the emperor starting a casual conversation would really flatter the other person.

After Chu Wei got freed, he respectfully got off the bed and saluted the emperor, “Your Majesty remembers it right.”

Gu Yuanbai seamlessly measured him up. He waved his sleeves and let someone fetch a chair. He then draped on an outer garment and sat at the table where he usually handled government affairs.

“Your father once wrote Zhen a memorial about how to manage the Yellow River flood,” the emperor said with a smile, “Zhen also clearly remembers the contents. Although there are some shortcomings, it is a good plan. But at that time, Zhen’s power fell into another’s hands. Nevertheless, Zhen couldn’t immediately implement it.”

Chu Wei unconsciously frowned.

His father had a deep understanding of flood management. He had read the memorial and shamelessly boasted that his father wrote the most ingenious methods in the world. Yet, this emperor who had never been out of the palace gate said the memorial still had some shortcomings?

The future capable minister bowed his head and asked for advice in a deep voice, “Your Majesty, please enlighten me.”

Gu Yuanbai didn’t reject him. He just rummaged a little and found the memorial of Chu Wei’s father from the pile of memorials. Chu Wei saw this, and his face slightly eased up. At least, the emperor really cared.

“The Yellow River flood has been a headache for the past dynasties since ancient times. Chu Qing stated three points: the first is prevention before floods, the second is rescue during floods, and the third is disaster relief after floods.” Gu Yuanbai moved his finger along with the words on the memorial. Chu Wei unconsciously followed his pointing fingertip as he looked. “Tang Taizong2 set up a public granary and ever-normal granary to prepare for a famine year. He made a good start. The Tang Dynasty developed irrigation works. The Western Han Dynasty had Jia Rang’s Three Strategies. Presumably, your father is familiar with it. The first strategy is to divert the water source, the second is to bypass, and the third is to increase the height and thicken the original embankment…”

The emperor was neither hurried nor slow as he talked about his thoughts, bit by bit. When he became interested, he picked up a brush to draw the bends of the Yellow River. The river was turbulent but tranquil and tame under his strokes.

He spoke frankly with assurance, carrying a smiling expression.

Chu Wei was practically astonished. He didn’t expect that the emperor would have such a side of him. His smart brain made him understand the emperor’s meaning easily. It was because of this understanding that he was amazed.

The emperor felt his hands and feet were ice-cold only after he finished speaking, and his nose was pitifully red. After people brought him hand stoves, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked at Chu Wei, who was thinking carefully, and the corner of his lips flashed mischievousness. He paced slowly and suddenly said, “Chu Wei, do you know what kind of Great Heng Zhen wants?”

Zhen wants to start swindling talented people!

*

Chu Wei returned home in the middle of the night, wrapped in the cold wind. He silently rejected the concerns of his family members and locked himself in the study alone.

He sat idly in the study all night. When the horizon slightly cooled, and the bird’s songs came through the window, he knew that it was already dawn.

Chu Wei stood up and pushed open the door of the study. The early morning air was cold and fresh; his swollen mind instantly calmed down.

There were gullies3 in the heart of the emperor.

He sat all night and came to this conclusion.

The emperor was not as weak and useless as he thought. No, the emperor might be weak and perhaps unable to control the military power or even the inner court, but within that weak and frail body, hidden an obsessively ambitious, sagacious monarch.

The image of the emperor bending and coughing last night suddenly flashed across Chu Wei’s mind.

The thin white fingers clutched the satin of the bed and buried between the bedding.

He coughed so much that there was water in his eyes. The corners of his eyes were red, but his stubbornly pursed lips were redder than that.

Slowly, Chu Wei turned around. His steps were rigid and then gradually became firmer. Step by step, he walked toward the bookshelf.

*

When Chu Daren came to the study, he saw his son was holding a book and studying.

Hearing the sound, the son naturally put down the book in his hand and looked at him calmly, “I want to participate in the conference examination4 on the third lunar month.”

As early as seven years ago, Chu Wei passed the examination and became a Juren.5 He was the Jieyuan6 of that session. He was only seventeen years old at that time, and his brilliance had attracted a lot of attention.

However, Chu Wei had no intention of becoming an official, and he never continued the imperial examination for the next seven years. Right now, Chu Daren didn’t know what he was thinking about overnight, but it was an inadvertently good thing to continue the imperial examination.

“Good, good,” The rims of Chu Daren’s eyes were slightly wet, “Good!”

Chu Wei nodded toward Chu Daren and continued to read the book in his hand.

Since he wanted to take the exam, who was going to be the Number One Scholar7?

1. if he commits a crime against the crown, his whole clan is implicated
2. Emperor Taizong of Tang, reign name of second Tang Emperor Li Shimin (599-649), reigned 626-649
3. A metaphor for dilemma/profound prospects
4. the last examination before the palace exam
5. Recommended man; a qualified graduate who passed the triennial provincial exam
6. Top escorted examine; the first-placed candidate in the provincial imperial examinations
7. title conferred on the one who came first in the highest imperial examination