The soldiers rushed into the camp and detained everyone separately. Ye Zhizhou was "very lucky" to enjoy the treatment of a private jail. He looked around the inconspicuous little tent standing at the corner of the campsite. His gaze moved from the burning resin, the rug on the ground, then landed on the bowl of noodles and plate of cut fruits on the small table.

He bent down to touch it. Very good, the noodles are still hot.

He directly sat down, picked up the chopsticks and ate the noodles.

"You're not scared it has poison in it?"

Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.

He rolled his eyes, not in the mood to even look at the other person. "I'm eating what you served me." I won't die from eating it anyway, Tongtian the medicine peddling system is the greatest!

Yan Mingyong was speechless. He went over to Ye Zhizhou's side, a bit unhappily. He sat down and pressed close to him, wrapping his hand around his waist. "Later on, you're not allowed to leave me for more than a day."

Ye Zhizhou plugged his mouth with a piece of cantaloupe then continued busying himself with his noodles. The Emperor's and Yan Mingyong's self-produced play troubled him all night. He was tired and hungry and didn't have the mind to humour the brat who was back with his antics.

Yan Mingyong bit the melon, looking a bit stunned and as if he wanted to spit it out. However, thinking that this is the first time Le'er fed him melon, he obediently swallowed. His head tilted seeing Ye Zhizhou gobbling up his meal, feeling a bit distressed. His arm tightened around him, "You didn't sleep the whole night? Or eat a single thing?"

Ye Zhizhou only looked up to him when he was wiping his mouth after having swallowed the last bit of noodles and soup. He pulled a long face, "You must've been deliberate yesterday, angering me so I'll go back home. What's this play you're acting out with the emperor? What about the other princes?"

"My elder brothers, third and fifth princes are catching the moles planted by seventh brother in the capital while the first and second prince are clearing up seventh brother's private army. The troops brought by Lord Lei are under Lei Baofei's management now, after tonight all of seventh brother's forces will be cleaned up. We will be able to get married and live out our lives," Yan Mingyong's rosier complexion he had spent effort cultivating was back to pale colouring, his exhaustion appeared on his face. "Afterwards the struggle for that position will no longer have anything to do with us. Whoever comes to power in the end, the House of Zhen Guo will remain as it is now. Le'er, you can rest assured."

Ye Zhizhou looked at the dark shadows under his eyes, in an instant all the fury in him dissipated. He sighed as he hugged Yan Mingyong sideways and stroked his long hair, "Because you're still so young, I thought you can grow up slowly with me by your side..." In the end he still received his lover's care and protection... He was too useless.

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"I've grown up." Yan Mingyong smiled because he finally got Ye Zhizhou to pay attention to him. He intimately rubbed against the other's neck and arched into his embrace. "Le'er, you're so good. You're mine, only mine. How can you be this good? I like you so much."

Ye Zhizhou couldn't stop his own smile at his lover being like this. He pulled on his hair gently and patted on his back, "Alright, sleep for now, I'm with you."

In his arms Yan Mingyong nodded to his chest and contentedly closed his eyes, quickly falling asleep.

In a villa outside the capital, Lei Baofei kicked open the prison gate and led the elite soldier's charge. He yelled, "Count how many are locked in and confirm their identity one by one, write down their names, take them to the ministry of justice."

All of the soldiers replied "yes" in unison and checked the cells one by one.

The man kept in the deepest part of the prison moved suddenly, quickly throwing himself to the cell front and shouted, "Is it brother Lei? Brother Lei! It's me, An Chengjie! Tha seventh prince locked me up in here and tortured me for a long time! Please, take me out! Brother Lei, save me!"

An Chengjie? Lei Baofei was stunned but still strode over. He squatted down and examined the disheveled man in the prison cell and asked in surprise, "Why are you here? Didn't I arrange someone to send you northwest?"

An Chengjie's badly mangled hands gripped the wooden door tightly. He pressed his face to the opening, His expression distorted in his excitement, "Brother Lei, the seventh prince can't die peacefully! I want him to suffer!"

Lei Baofei unconsciously moved backward and his brows deeply furrowed at the other's crazed eyes.

[Probability of Lei Baofei falling in love with the protagonist has fallen to 0%. Congratulations to the host for removing the second flag, may the host persist in his efforts.]

Ye Zhizhou paused while putting on his clothes. His head dipped to look at Yan Mingyong, who stared at him from within the blankets, and asked, "You said Lei Baofei is taking charge of Lei Shihong's troops now? What are they off to do?"

"They're cleaning up the craftsmen who made those bombs for seventh brother." Yan Mingyong answered him obediently. He moved closer and hugged his waist, his tone started to sink, "Le'er, do you like that Lei Baofei a lot? Why are you so concerned about him?"

How can he only be healed for a while before relapsing! Ye Zhizhou swatted at his head and pried open his hands, then warned him seriously, "Get jealous at random again and I'll make sure you stay virgin all your life!"

Yan Mingyong was lying in the blanket face down, when he heard that he stiffened, then, he sat up with a really dark expression, turning well-behaved.

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"I want to marry." Only after marriage can they have wedding night.

Ye Zhizhou turned by his ear, he gloomily grinded his teeth, "What are you harping on about?"

Yan Mingyong turned and showed him his back, showing a rare display of his teen aged childishness.

Just after the Wu hour, the princes who had received orders to clean up the seventh prince's forces reached the camp and a quarter of an hour later Lei Baofei arrived with blueprints and letters to present to everyone. Yan Mingyong came out from the tent, he checked the things brought back before lighting up a signal flare.

Yan Mingli was forcing the emperor to write a will naming him heir in the main tent, the flare alarmed him.

When he came out to check Lei Shihong attacked him from behind and he was swiftly tied up and thrown before the emperor.

"You.. You all..." Yan Mingli was shocked seeing Lei Shihong standing behind the emperor once more and the Emperor of Yan who now regained his usual regality. His expression distorted, "You worked together to deceive me! Lei Shihong, you traitor!"

"Treacherous son, shut your mouth!" Emperor Yan ruthlessly kicked him in the chest, not covering up his loathing and anger at all, "Cruel immoral bastard! You actually thought to kill all your brothers and take the throne by force. How can My own son be so vicious! Guards, seize this beast. Put him in the royal prison, set a date and cut off his head!"

Yan Mingli fell to the ground with a muffled groan of pain. He struggled wildly hearing those words, "No! You can't! You only have one son left! You can't kill me! Fourth and Sixth won't heal from their injuries— Sooner or later they'll die! You can't kill me!"

"Who said I only have you left?" The Emperor of Yan smiled grimly, "Rest assured. All of My sons will live on well, except for you." He waved his hand at the soldiers who came in, he didn't want to look at the person on the ground anymore.

Yan Mingli was dragged away while snarling. Emperor Yan closed his eyes, the cold and hard mask he had on fell apart, revealing a face holding a trace of fatigue, "My subject Lei, Have I done something wrong?"

Lei Shihong remained silent. He dare not comment on the matters of the royal family.

The farce-like autumn hunt ended. The seventh prince and his subordinates were eliminated so swiftly that the ministers couldn't react to it properly. The court's unrest gradually calmed. The big cake left behind by the seventh prince was quickly divided up amongst the other princes and they continued with their struggle.

One month later the seventh prince was executed and the last flag was removed.

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Winter of the same year, when the border requested for backup, Lei Baofei offered himself to lead the army to face the enemy. An Chengsheng threw away his scholarly pursuit and joined the army despite the first prince's objection, gradually fading out from the first prince's inner circle.

Yan Mingyong reached the full age of fourteen as they approached the new year. Emperor Yan bestowed him the title of King Xiaoyao on his birthday and also sanctioned his marriage with the second son of Duke Zhen Guo, An Chengle. The Zhen Guo family had debated hard on the marriage date until it had been set on the winter four years later, exactly when Yan Mingyong would have reached the age of eighteen.

The court officials looked stumped, the princes were all bewildered and Yan Mingyong who heard the word "marriage" broke the cup he was holding. Ye Zhizhou happily smiled until his eyes squinted.

The following day after the marriage decree was issued Ye Zhizhou moved back to the Zhen Guo residence because "grooms-to-be cannot be allowed to see each other before their wedding", but he soon joined the army, off to the border with the supply troops. Yan Mingyong who ran over to catch his wife back had to return empty handed, in addition he had to face the cold eyes of his future mother-in-law so he was left very sullen by it.

The fight at the border went on and off for three years and Yan Mingyong ran around the border for all those three years.

These three years Ye Zhizhou was like a loach, slipping through his hands without a trace. He couldn't catch him, let alone touch him, to catch even a glimpse of him would be high luxury!

After arriving at the border Ye Zhizhou immediately joined the logistics and were tasked with settling the wounded people at a neighboring city. When Yan Mingyong arrived at the city Ye Zhizhou would have ran off to the Central Plains to buy medicine, and once he reached the Plains, Ye Zhizhou would have already gone back to the border. He then simply waited at the border, but in the end, even after driving away waves after waves of enemy attacks he never saw the shadow of Ye Zhizhou, and the moment he left, Ye Zhizhou would eagerly run back to the border.

Yan Mingyong suspected someone at his side leaked his whereabouts to Ye Zhizhou, after investigating left and right he finally made a move on his own, but Ye Zhizhou was still able to completely evade him. He couldn't even touch one single hair on his darling's head.

So now the man formerly called the Eighth Prince and currently known as King Xiaoyao finally gave up trying to catch person. He earnestly went back to the capital and began brushing up his parents-in-law's good opinion of him, he also sent one gifts after another to the border.

One more year passed. The discontented and sulky brat Yan Mingyong of the past had slowly matured into a handsomely built youn.... Eh, no, beautiful young man standing at eight chi. The longer Ye Zhizhou was away the shorter his words became. Later, the emperor visited him but Yan Mingyong clasped his book the entire time and no words came out of his mouth. Emperor Yan swore at him, saying he was an unfilial son.

The remaining princes still secretly fought against each other, however, they all had a tacit agreement to leave Yan Mingyong out of it. This man, who loved one man more than a whole country and held control over a strange army of private soldiers, they couldn't afford to provoke him, and they had no need to start with him. What was important to them was to make the most of the situation now and strengthen their own forces.

The people of the capital were very interested about King Xiaoyao's love story. Year after year gossips would spread and they even were more concerned about the day Zhen Guo's second son would return than the King was.

With the arrival of the new year, Ye Zhizhou who had enough excitement outside finally returned to the capital city. He stopped by a village a few kilometers away from the city gate, watching a beggar huddled up on the side of the road with a somewhat complicated expression.

On the night of seventh prince's rebellion, An Chengjie was caught by Lei Baofei, but he later sneaked away taking advantage of the chaos. Ye Zhizhou had always been looking for him but didn't expect to come across him like this at the foot of the capital city.

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"Only I can transmigrate.... Only me alone, just me....." A beggar of unknown age muttered to himself, his eyes looked unfocused as his scarred hands pawed the ground aimlessly. His fingernails were purple and he looked very strange.

Ye Zhizhou sighed. He dismounted and walked up to the beggar, but he didn't know what he should do with the man. These few years he would often wonder if he was too excessive in blocking the protagonist's road. If he had given him a leeway so he could still climb up, would the protagonist not become a paranoid madman who sets fire and plants bombs?

Unfortunately, those were all what-ifs, what he should and shouldn't do had already been done. Before, he had been curious if the other man had made him out as a fellow transmigrator and about that explosion near Chuan Yue.... He found out soon after that Yan Mingyong had used the rumours to trick An Chengjie into believing Chuan Yue's owner had died in that explosion to shift his attention away from An Chengle.

The beggar lying down on the ground finally noticed the man standing before him. He tilted his head a bit and watched him.. before fearfully crawling up and curling into himself. He hoarsely shrieked, "Ghost! It's a ghost! Don't haunt me, I didn't mean to kill you! I didn't mean to kill you! Go away... Go away!"

Ye Zhizhou halted and hesitated, then, he stuffed Tongtian's antidote pill into a bag of rations he was carrying and left it in front of An Chengjie. He heard that the seventh prince poisoned An Chengjie at that time. Looking at his appearance now, the poison in him must not have been cleared out yet.... He hoped this antidote was not too late.

Ye Zhizhou looked back at the man gorging on the rations as he mounted his horse. Thinking of his own status, he whipped his horse and paced away from An Chengjie.

Translator: Padam | Editor: Divetus