Chapter 21: This is a Joyful Pulse!
After being put down by Dabao, Li Jianyu’s head was still ringing. He couldn’t even stand steadily and had to lean against the phoenix’s body, pressing on his own head.
At the side, when Zhao Linxu saw the phoenix and the person on its back, his heart immediately leaped with joy. Wasn’t that the sorceress from that day? But the phoenix enveloped the sorceress with its wings, its fierce eyes staring warily at the surrounding people. Zhao Linxu couldn’t get close either and just stood to the side, observing, to see if the sorceress was injured and needed help.
“Finally caught him.” Xing Huan and the Joyful Moon Cult were well-versed in the world. They had fought with jiaoren before for pearls, so they weren’t so shocked by the phoenix that they couldn’t move or think.
Xing Huan had someone tie up the man and even fed him a poison that suppressed secret arts, then one by one, he dispelled the formations.
“It’s alright…” Li Jianyu barely came back to his senses. He suppressed the ringing in his head and patted Dabao’s wing. “They’re acquaintances. You go first.”
Dabao shook its feathers in dissatisfaction.
“Be good. Don’t cause trouble for me.” Li Jianyu was afraid that the Joyful Moon Cult would suddenly want to capture the phoenix. He wouldn’t be able to stop them.
Dabao reluctantly retracted its wings, letting Li Jianyu out, then spread its wings and flew into the air, disappearing.
Only then did Zhao Linxu get a clear look at Li Jianyu, and his whole body stiffened.
The piercing pain and dizziness in his head finally subsided. Li Jianyu dazedly stood up, shook his head, and looked at Zhao Linxu. “What’s wrong? Are you catching an assassin?”
Zhao Linxu didn’t speak, just stared at him with a blank expression, looking as if he had been struck by lightning, his entire worldview refreshed.
…What was wrong?
Li Jianyu felt that something was off with Zhao Linxu, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Wow, the tattoo on your body is really beautiful,” Xing Huan said curiously. “Is it natural or?”
“…”
…!!!!!
Li Jianyu touched his face and neck. The phoenix tattoo was gradually fading, but what needed to be seen had already been seen.
…
Li Jianyu finally understood why Zhao Linxu was giving him such a world-shocking expression.
Zhao Linxu stood to the side, lost in thought, not saying a word, as if his soul had left his body. Li Jianyu guessed that Zhao Linxu was probably trying to recall whether the person from that day was male or female, and was struggling to rebuild his worldview.
The cat was out of the bag. Li Jianyu steadied himself and pretended he knew nothing.
His current identity was an unknown sorceress in the mountain forest, and it had nothing to do with “Li Jianyu.” Stay calm, stay calm. I’ll just kill off this identity later.
“Thank you for your help, miss.” Li Jianyu had been injured for this, so Xing Huan felt he had to give him an explanation. Thus, Xing Huan’s Left Protector, the bewitching woman who had previously pretended to have sprained her ankle to deceive Zhao Linxu and Li Jianyu, stepped forward and smiled. “In order to catch this assassin, my cult has set up an inescapable net of formations in these nearby mountains. As long as this assassin uses a secret art formation, our formations will react, one after another, letting us know his location.”
“It’s a pity he hid very well and didn’t use any secret arts or formations. It’s thanks to you, miss, that he appeared. I imagine the assassin wanted to make a last-ditch effort and use you as a hostage. But he didn’t expect you to have the help of a mythical beast.”
Li Jianyu nodded.
Xing Huan turned to Zhao Linxu. “Well, the man is caught. Can we go back now?”
“…Is His Majesty possessed?”
Zhao Linxu continued to stare fixedly at Li Jianyu, his eyes obscure, but a faint smile hung on his lips, making it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
“Do you know your crime?” Zhao Linxu said, looking at Li Jianyu. “The crime of deceiving the sovereign.”
Li Jianyu’s body stiffened, and he immediately knelt down.
“This commoner does not understand.”
Xing Huan also asked curiously, “The person before us shouldn’t have anything to do with our operation this time?”
Zhao Linxu said, “We will only ask once. Are you male or female?”
…Huh?
Xing Huan blinked, his eyes filled with the excitement of smelling gossip.
Li Jianyu’s heart began to pound.
It’s over, it’s over.
How should he answer?
If he said he was female, Zhao Linxu had already asked the question, so he would definitely be suspicious and might even tie him up and take him back to be checked. If he said he was male, wouldn’t that be indirectly admitting that he was the person from that night?
“Shuo Lin.” Zhao Linxu called out his shadow guard.
“This commoner is guilty!” Li Jianyu immediately prostrated himself. “This commoner is guilty! I beg Your Majesty to spare me from the crime of deception!”
“Heh.”
So he really was male.
Zhao Linxu turned around. “We’re going back.”
Xing Huan was stunned.
Just like that?
Seeing Zhao Linxu mount his horse without a second glance, no longer paying any attention to the sorceress, Xing Huan glanced at Li Jianyu unwillingly, then pouted and left with his followers, feeling bored.
Li Jianyu barely reacted.
…He was saved?
Zhao Linxu wasn’t going to pursue it?
Recalling what Zhao Linxu had said to him before about wanting to give up the search, could it really be so?
“Who is that person? Why can he command a phoenix? Do you know him?”
On the way back, Xing Huan had his horse catch up to Zhao Linxu and kept asking questions.
Zhao Linxu didn’t answer a single word.
“Oh my god, is His Majesty heartbroken?”
Xing Huan, fearing the world wasn’t chaotic enough, continued, “Is he so upset he can’t speak?”
Zhao Linxu finally spoke. He drew his whip and smiled. “As brothers, do you really want Us to knock you off your horse right here?”
Xing Huan rolled his eyes and behaved.
Zhao Linxu’s heart was a mix of emotions.
He had spent a night of pleasure with that person, and then announced it to the world to find him. It was indeed wrong of him. He hadn’t expected that person to hide in the mountains and change his gender to avoid him. That person hated and resented him so much; Zhao Linxu had felt it keenly today.
Zhao Linxu was an emperor, born in the Cold Palace, and after growing up a little, he went to the military camp, where he developed the habit of speaking with his fists. If he wanted something, he would just snatch it. The army, his status, the throne—all were like that.
The person from that night had saved him, held him gently to heal his wounds, his voice clear and crisp, telling him not to be afraid, to just bear with it… At the very beginning, Zhao Linxu’s vision was blurry, and he had thought of resisting, but that person had both coaxed and scolded him.
There was a thunderstorm that night, and then they had crossed a line. Zhao Linxu had thought, this is my person. All he had to do was go find him, tell everyone that this person was his, as simple as that. Even if that person didn’t like him or rejected him, he was still Zhao Linxu’s.
But it seemed it wasn’t that simple.
That person didn’t belong to him. He was the Emperor, but that person had gone to such great lengths to reject him. This was a problem Zhao Linxu had never considered.
XXXXXX
After returning to the manor and changing his clothes, Li Jianyu rested on the soft couch in his room, feeling extremely uncertain and uneasy.
Had Zhao Linxu really just let it go like that? With his pride, wasn’t he angry?
What had he been thinking at that time?
“City Lord!”
Someone knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
Meng Qingshu came in holding a rabbit. “Doctor Lu is here!”
An old man followed behind Meng Qingshu. It was the Li family’s exclusive doctor, Lu Ai’s relative, Lu Chunhui.
Although Lu Chunhui was old and stooped, his medical skills had not diminished over the years. In fact, they were even more exquisite and profound.
“Is the City Lord feeling unwell?” The small old man sat down in front of Li Jianyu with a kind expression. Meng Qingshu was busy feeding the rabbit and left first.
“I encountered a Great Xi formation in the mountains today. My head is still a little dizzy, and my hearing isn’t sharp.” Li Jianyu extended his hand. Lu Chunhui, like Lu Ai, was someone he trusted. Lu Chunhui had excellent medical ethics and was tight-lipped about his patients’ conditions, so he didn’t have to be evasive.
“Oh my, let me see.” Lu Chunhui took out a soft pillow and a silk handkerchief to take Li Jianyu’s pulse.
“…Huh?”
Lu Chunhui frowned slightly.
“Hmm?” Seeing Lu Chunhui’s surprised expression, Li Jianyu was also a little curious.
“Let me check again…”
Lu Chunhui checked again and again, several times.
“Oh my… oh my… this… this, oh my…” Lu Chunhui was somewhat incoherent.
“What on earth is it?”
“This… this…” Lu Chunhui went from initial shock to uncertainty, then to disbelief, and now his face was flushed, as if there was some great happy event.
“Doctor, please speak freely.”
“City Lord!” Lu Chunhui said, trembling, “This is a joyful pulse!!”
…
…
Huh?
“Congratulations, City Lord! Congratulations!”
“I’ll prescribe medicine for the City Lord right away! I guarantee that the City Lord will smoothly give birth to a healthy, chubby little City Lord!”
“…”
Can you f-ing say that again?
“City Lord, are you feeling unwell anywhere now?”
“Doctor…”
“Hmm?”
“I think… I’m a little dizzy right now…”
Outside the room, Meng Qingshu was feeding the rabbit in the courtyard when he saw Zhao Linxu arrive alone.
“Greetings, Your Majesty!”
Zhao Linxu said, “Where is your City Lord?”
Meng Qingshu put down the rabbit and said obediently, “The City Lord is in his room with Doctor Lu.”
“The City Lord is sick?”
Meng Qingshu shook his head, saying he wasn’t sure.
“Does Your Majesty have urgent business?”
“It’s nothing urgent. I’m in a bad mood and came to find Beauty for a drink.” Zhao Linxu smiled and held up the wine flask in his hand for Meng Qingshu to see.
Seeing Zhao Linxu sit down at the stone table in the courtyard, Meng Qingshu immediately stood up. “Then this subject will inform His Majesty right away!”
Meng Qingshu went to Li Jianyu’s door and happened to run into Lu Chunhui coming out with a beaming face. He brushed past Meng Qingshu.
So happy? Could it be that the City Lord is in particularly good health?
Full of doubts, Meng Qingshu pushed open the door, only to see his City Lord huddled in a corner, his back to him.
“C-City Lord?”
“What’s wrong with you?”
Li Jianyu was still squatting in the corner, shrouded in a gloomy fog. The aura around him was so low that even the slow-to-react Meng Qingshu could feel the dark clouds gathering over his head.
W-what happened!
“Go away,” Li Jianyu said.
“Um, His Majesty has come to see you. He says he wants to see you…”
“I’m not seeing him.” Li Jianyu’s voice sounded as if it came from the bottom of an abyss.
“Th-th-this… why?” Meng Qingshu was about to be scared to tears.
“Because I’m on my man-period.”
“Ah?”
“If men can get pregnant, isn’t it normal to have a man-period!”
Meng Qingshu stared blankly at Li Jianyu.
Huh?
