CH 42

After the rebels slaughtered all of the common people in the city, they killed themselves with their own swords, leaving curses one after another before they went. In the next life, they would be born as hungry wolves and tigers, and kill the royal family and all the dog officials. Some of the rebels who slit the throats of the common people but not their own were captured alive by the Yan army, and tremblingly confessed the matter to Gao Lin.

“It’s also possible that in their next lives, the world will be stable,” Liu Xian’an said slowly. “Piles of beautiful clothing everywhere, a surplus of pearls and silk clothing in every household. There is also cured wine, chicken, and pork in the village houses, and the fragrance of rice and flowers spreads ten li away. Anyone who goes there can ask for a meal. So there is no need to have hatred anymore, no need to be a wolf or a tiger, they can just be peaceful people in peaceful times.”

Peaceful people in peaceful times. Gao Lin was rough and accustomed to life, but at this time, for some reason, these words suddenly hit his heart. With a lump in his throat, he quickly found an excuse to slip away elsewhere and ponder the good old days of peace and prosperity.

It took the soldiers two full days to bury all the corpses of the common people, and Qingyang City was almost emptied. Liang Shu did not escort Lu Xiang back to Wangcheng. Instead, he took him to continue westward, locked in an improvised prison cart, to see the devastation of the surrounding fields with his own eyes.

The noontime autumn sun was still so hot that people became dehydrated. From Lu Xiang’s birth until now, when had he ever suffered such crimes? He knew that this was a lynching that violated the laws of Dayan, but had no courage to object, because he knew that Liang Shu really would dare to kill him before the emperor issued the order.

That was a lofty, cruel, and violent lunatic.

. . . . . .

Liu Xian’an pressed Liang Shu’s head down: “Don’t move.”

As of late, when he was resting at night, he often came to give Liang Shu acupuncture. The soldiers around him were all moved, and lamented that His Royal Highness Xiao Wang was so ill that he looked like a hedgehog, yet he still had to march day and night. He really worked hard.

Liang Shu also felt that he worked very hard. From the head, all the way to the shoulders and neck, he couldn’t move. He looked like a half-carved wooden man who could only sit upright, a tingling sensation running down his back from time to time. Under the guise of passing by, Gao Lin looked back and forth three or four times, and at last found a time when Liu Xian’an was not around, trotting all the way over to ask: “Your Highness, do you want me to think of an excuse for you to slip away early tonight?”

Liang Shu’s face was also pierced with needles. He haughtily and stiffly spat out a sentence: “No need.”

Was it true or false that there was no need? Gao Lin was still worried. If it were before, he would not have such doubts. After all, everyone in the palace knew that when His Royal Highness Xiao Wang saw an acupuncture doctor, it was as if seeing a ghost. If he could be willing to sit there honestly and get stabbed, it must be because it really worked. But it was different now. Now, his prince was full of shameful thoughts, and Lieutenant General Gao felt that he had the responsibility to ask clearly whether this was treating a disease or losing one’s head over lust, lest the battle be imminent and the commander be unable to do his job properly after being pricked numb.

Liang Shu said: “Scram.”

Gao Lin didn’t scram. Not only did he not scram, but he also sat down and continued to make trouble. Liang Shu didn’t feel much pain at first, but when he saw this person standing before his eyes like a pillar, he immediately felt uncomfortable everywhere. Seeing that a second “scram” was already on his lips, Gao Lin interjected in a timely manner: “I have observed the past few days, and I feel that Second Young Master Liu is also very concerned about the prince.”

Liang Shu grudgingly said “En,” and decided to give him a few more chances to spit out ivory.

But facts proved that Gao Lin’s ivory quantity was not much, and after saying “very concerned,” he immediately turned the topic to military affairs and war. Even the half-dead Lu Xiang in the prison cart was carried out by him, and all the forces in the dynasty were carefully analyzed for a long time. Liang Shu really didn’t want to listen, but he had to, so he could only brace himself and deal with it. In the end,  Second Young Master Liu turned back in time, and only then did His Royal Highness Xiao Wang’s ears quiet down for a moment.

Liu Xian’an set down the things in his hands: “What are you talking about, Your Highness?”

Liang Shu said: “War.”

Liu Xian’an felt that he needed to have a talk with Gao Lin. In the future, it would be best to keep talk of war to the daytime, lest all the needles for calming nerves be in vain. Liang Shu sat on the soft stool and let him remove the needles from his head one by one. He also didn’t know if it was truly effective, if the medicinal scent of the other party’s sleeves was too good-smelling, or if his hands were too beautiful, but in short, the headache that Gao Lin’s mouth gave birth to just now really did go away. Instead, there was a sort of relaxed fatigue that seemed to make him float, and he could immediately go to sleep if he closed his eyes.

Liu Xian’an put away the silver needles and watched Liang Shu lie down before returning to the other side of camp. A-Ning poured hot water for him to wash and said: “It’s getting colder and colder these days.”

“The terrain of Sanshui City is high, so it will be colder,” Liu Xian’an said. “Divide the cold proofing medicinal materials prepared before into small packets, so that they can be used at any time. I will prepare the prince’s portion myself.”

“Okay.” A-Ning said with a smile, “Young Master, I’ve found that your relationship with the prince is getting closer. Uncle Li, who raises horses, said today that he has never seen anyone who dared to hold the prince’s head and put needles in it. Everyone admires you very much.”

“I’m a doctor.” Liu Xian’an sat by the fire. “However, the prince has been thinking too much recently, and he has been tense and unable to relax. Relying on medicine and acupuncture can treat the symptoms, but not the root cause.”

“If you think too much about heart disease, you need heart disease medicine.” A-Ning propped up his cheeks. “It’s best to find some good events to make the prince happy, so that he’s not always thinking about the war.”

The words were correct, but in these stormy marching hours, with rebels ahead and refugees behind and Baihe still leaking water like a sieve from time to time, not to mention finding a happy event that could enter His Royal Highness Xiao Wang’s eyes, even just finding one family holding a wedding banquet was harder than climbing to heaven.

A-Ning offered to undertake the task: “I’ll ask Lieutenant General Gao! He has been staying in the northwest for so many years, so he must know the prince’s preferences better than we do.” Having said this, he stood up and tiptoed over to look into the distance. Gao Lin happened to be talking to someone, so he trotted over immediately.

“Just in time.” Gao Lin pointed. “A pheasant is roasting over there, do you want to eat some?”

“I won’t eat, I came here to ask something,” A-Ning said. “What does the prince usually like?”

Gao Lin immediately sobered up a bit. Wait a moment, why did you come over to ask this for no reason? Combined with his prince’s unspeakable dream……he grabbed A-Ning’s arm and asked in a whisper: “Is it your family’s young master who wants to know?”

A-Ning was thoroughly confused by his excitement and eagerness: “Yes, it’s my family’s young master who wants to know.”

Gao Lin said: “Good, good, good, very good.”

A-Ning was more and more puzzled. Why was it so good?

Gao Lin was inexperienced in matchmaking, far less proficient in this than in killing people. Facing the red string that came out with great difficulty from his prince, he didn’t dare to say a word, for fear of messing it up, so he tried to put it off: “I have to think about it.”

A-Ning was greatly shocked. Think about it?

Gao Lin resolutely explained that the prince was usually busy with war and rarely revealed his personal preferences, and Gao Lin himself was careless, so he had to recall carefully.

A-Ning returned to his young master and relayed these words to him, saying: “I don’t know why, but Lieutenant General Gao seemed very happy.”

Liu Xian’an didn’t understand either. What was there to be happy about? The master and servant murmured together for a long time, and finally came to the conclusion that he was probably happy about something else.

And Gao Lin was still feeling emotional at this time. He had thought it was his prince’s own wishful thinking and unrequited love, but he never expected that there would now be signs of mutual affection, what a great story, ah! He would have reported the good news at once, but the soldiers told him that the prince had already drank a bowl of calming soup and gone to bed, so he had no choice but to hold back his words. He couldn’t sleep the whole night, and the next day, he ran around energetically with dark circles beneath his eyes.

Liang Shu said: “Have you been cursed, or were you beaten?”

Gao Lin had an unfathomable expression on his face, and after finishing his report on military affairs, he approached mysteriously: “Your Highness, there is a happy event.”

His breath fell on his neck when he spoke, raising goosebumps all over Liang Shu’s body. He said in a panic: “Stand up straight and speak loudly.”

Gao Lin said: “This matter must not be spoken of loudly.”

Liang Shu frowned: “What kind of happy event cannot be spoken of loudly?”

Gao Lin cleared his throat. This is what you asked me to speak of loudly, ah! So he raised his voice and said: “Last night, Second Young Master Liu sent A-Ning to come to me and ask what  the prince – cough, cough, cough!”

Before he could finish speaking, Liang Shu grabbed his collar and dragged him to a secluded place. A generation of famous generals almost died on the spot, and he was forced to say: “He asked what?”

Gao Lin suffered such an unearned disaster and said with his last breath: “He asked what the prince likes.”

Liang Shu’s eyebrows twitched slightly: “Oh?”

Gao Lin firmly grasped the moment to take a breath, and after recounting what A-Ning asked him in detail, he said: “I thought about it carefully. A-Ning went back and joined the Second Young Master again, and they talked for a long time. They must have been talking about the prince.”

Liang Shu said calmly: “Why ask this?”

Although Gao Lin was a bachelor, he knew what should be done: “Naturally because of concern.” This kind of inference was very reasonable, ah. If someone didn’t care or have affection, why would they care about what someone else liked?

Liang Shu was in a good mood.

“Then how should I answer?” Gao Lin was still pondering this. “I can’t honestly tell Second Young Master Liu that the prince likes to hunt wolves in the desert, right? That sounds too much like looking for trouble. I saw when the matchmakers in Yueya City were proclaiming marriages to old bachelors, everyone knew that the crooked melons and split dates[1] were painted with a layer of glossy varnish, praising them up to the sky.”

But there was no way to say he liked poems, songs, instruments, chess, or calligraphy and painting. The slightest mistake would expose him, which would be even more embarrassing.

Gao Lin didn’t usually think about it, but now that he listed them out, only then did he realize that his prince was so ignorant.

He suggested, I have a xun here, why not learn to play it now, at least it is an instrument, and playing songs about homesickness in the northwest sounds very lonely and tragic, which is very moving.

Liang Shu said: “So you feel that at this time, this lord can spare an hour every day to go to a deserted place eighteen li away and learn to play the xun by himself?”

Gao Lin: “……Then we can think up something else.”

Nothing that required learning, nothing cruel, nothing shameful, nothing revealing.

With great difficulty, they landed on the same thing.

A-Ning ran to find his young master: “Lieutenant General Gao came looking for me just now.” He was almost out of breath. “He said that when the prince was in the northwest, he liked to go to the depths of the desert to view the stars and sky.”

This was a “hobby” that Gao Lin thought up after almost digging out his brain. It was a simple one. Almost everybody would look up at the sky, and it had the same lofty loneliness of playing the xun. Also, one did not just look up at the sky, but it must be accompanied by some thinking, didn’t this immediately raise his quality? Speaking or not speaking, he looked like a romantic poet, fundamentally different from desert ruffians who liked to beat wolves.

Sure enough, Liu Xian’an was also moved, and thought of the northwest described by the poets, with its vast expanses and sea of stars.

This was not a desert, but there were equally beautiful places to view stars. So he approached Liang Shu and offered an invitation: “If the prince suffers from insomnia in the middle of the night again, he can come look at the stars with me.”

Liang Shu said in a dignified way: “All right.”

Then he lost sleep that night.

Although Liu Xian’an was called out from under his blanket, he was not angry, as he could sleep during the day or at night. He just wondered, didn’t the sleep medication work just fine a few days ago? Why did it fail tonight?

Liang Shu placed the man on Xuan Jiao’s back and took him into the wilderness.

They looked at the stars.

[1] “Crooked melons and split dates” are people who are deficient in some way. ⮐