After Being Forced to Marry the Evil Star General – Chapter Twenty-Seven

Zhao Yelan ate a few mouthfuls, met the eyes of the group who were waiting to be fed, and said, “Why don’t you pick up your chopsticks?”

He Cuizhang scratched his head and said with a foolish smile: “We eat too fast, and you don’t get enough to eat every time, so we discussed it just now. This time, we must wait for you to finish eating first before we start.”

“Do you think I can eat with you staring at me like this?” Zhao Yelan asked.

“Then should we……turn around?”

“No need, just eat,” Zhao Yelan said lightly.

Yan Mingting laughed: “Okay, don’t pretend to be reserved. Hurry up and do it, I’ve already ordered the kitchen to add chicken legs for each of you. There will be enough tonight.”

“The General is mighty!”

Everyone shouted in unison, picked up their bowls, and started to eat.

Before now, Zhao Yelan only felt that when they were eating, their chewing sounds were too harsh, but today he was in a bit of a mood to observe how they ate. He found that Zhong Yuehong’s eating speed was no slower than other people’s.

Perhaps noticing his gaze, Zhong Yuehong explained: “If you don’t fight with them, you will have nothing to eat.”

Zhao Yelan inadvertently curled the corners of his mouth: “Indeed.”

Zhong Yuehong was taken aback, and the others also looked at him with surprise: “Zhao-daren, did you just smile at us?”

Zhao Yelan: “Did I?”

“You did!” He Cuizhang said excitedly: “We all know you didn’t want to meet us, my lord. I didn’t expect such a day to come!”

“Right!”

Zhao Yelan smiled mockingly, but this group of people became even more excited, as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

“……” What was wrong with them?

Yan Mingting kept silent, and just gazed at Zhao Yelan and laughed with them.

The servants brought up a large platter of chicken drumsticks, and the group of people went to pick them up one after another. Yan Mingting preemptively took the biggest one and put it into Zhao Yelan’s bowl.

“This piece is for the biggest hero tonight, are there any objections?”

“Of course there are no objections! Zhao-daren, eat more, if it’s not enough, I’ll give you mine too!” He Cuizhang said.

“You’ve already taken a bite, how dare you give it to someone else?” Zhong Yuehong said.

The group of people laughed. Zhao Yelan smiled lightly, looked down at the chicken drumstick, and ate it wholeheartedly.

After dinner, it was getting late. The rain outside had stopped at some point, and everyone left one after another.

Zhong Yuehong was the last one to leave. She sat on the chair, rubbed her hands on her thighs, and hesitated to speak, glancing at Zhao Yelan from time to time. Seeing that he was about to go back to his room, she stood abruptly and mustered up her courage: “Zhao-daren.”

“Speak, what is the matter?” Zhao Yelan waited.

Zhong Yuehong looked at Yan Mingting nearby, and he shrugged: “Okay, you two take your time talking. I’ll go back to the room first.”

When there were only two people left, Zhong Yuehong blushed and said: “My mother gave me the dress……thank you very much, my lord. But I know the money my mother gave you could never buy such nice clothes. However much is left, I will make it up to you.”

“What if you can’t make it up?”

Zhong Yuehong was startled: “Then……can the clothes be returned? I haven’t touched them yet.”

“They can’t be returned, they were custom made according to your size. Other ladies won’t wear them.” Zhao Yelan continued, “There is no need to make it up, this little bit of money is nothing.”

It took Zhong Yuehong a while to say solemnly: “Thank you, my lord. If you need me in the future, just ask.”

Zhao Yelan nodded: “Understood. It’s time to go back.”

“One more thing.” Zhong Yuehong took a small crossbow and arrows from her sleeve. “The General ordered me to look for a weapon that suited you before, but I couldn’t find one that was particularly suitable, so I improved this one. Do you think it fits you?”

Due to physical differences, Zhong Yuehong preferred lightweight weapons and made use of flexible props such as nine-tailed whips and crossbows. It was just that although the crossbows in the military camp had a long range, they were also a bit heavy, not suitable for carrying around. She had nothing to do recently, so she made a smaller crossbow and arrows by herself, which could be grasped in one hand and had a high impact. The disadvantage was that the range was a bit short, but it was enough for self-defense.

Zhao Yelan took it in surprise, checking it over repeatedly. There were short arrows in a box, and he aimed towards the high wall in the distance. With a slight movement of his arm, the arrow shot out like the wind and with a bang, it was firmly embedded in the wall.

“Not bad.” Zhao Yelan touched the crossbow appreciatively.

“If my lord likes it, I’ll make a few more spares later,” Zhong Yuehong said happily.

“Many thanks.”

“You don’t need to thank me. I just followed the General’s orders. I tried other types of weapons before, but they were all rejected by the General.”

“When did he ask you to do it?”

“The second day of your wedding.”

Zhao Yelan was slightly surprised, thinking of that night in the bridal chamber. When he failed to threaten him with a dagger, Yan Mingting had detested the gaudy weapon and said he would get him a few handier weapons. He had originally thought that he was just talking without thinking the matter through, not expecting him to actually keep it in mind.

When Zhao Yelan returned to the room, Yan Mingting was already lying on the ground.

“Did she want to thank you for the dress, but was too embarrassed to say it in front of other people?” Yan Mingting aske leisurely with his arms pillowed under his head.

“En.” Zhao Yelan closed the door and asked abruptly: “Are you alert?”

“What do you mean?”

As soon as Yan Mingting turned his head, he saw Zhao Yelan raise his hand to expose a dark shape in his sleeve. In the next moment, an arrow shot straight at him.

He turned over and leaped up, and the arrow went straight into the place where he had been lying down. Pulling the arrow out to check it, he asked: “This was given to you by Zhong Yuehong?”

“En. Zhao Yelan passed by him and took the arrow from his hands without a sideways glance. “Thank you.”

Yan Mingting was slightly startled, and stood there for a long time before taking two steps: “Hey, why are you being so polite, our relationship……”

With a whoosh, another arrow shot over.

Yan Mingting: “……”

If he suddenly regretted it, what should he do? He wouldn’t receive an arrow while he was asleep, would he?

In the blink of an eye, it was the day when the results of the preliminary round of the Imperial examinations were announced. Gao Tan went to buy fruit, searched through the list for a long time, and rushed back to report: “My lord, that Wang Guisheng really did it!”

“En.” Zhao Yelan drank tea calmly, took the basket, and looked through it for a long time. It was full of fruit, none of them unusual, so he asked for them to be washed before eating them.

Ever since he had entered the General’s Mansion, he had asked his informants to transmit as little information as possible, so as not to be discovered by Yan Mingting. The man had grabbed his cherries twice at the beginning, whether it was intentional or unintentional, but he hadn’t paid attention to this matter afterward, which finally dispelled some of his doubts.

Gao Tan put the washed apples on the table and asked in a whisper: “Will this Wang Guisheng be the top scorer?”

“I can’t say for sure, but if he can enter the Imperial examinations now, he will definitely be admitted to the first class, depending on whether he is in first or second place.”

“Then can we go say hello? Or wait for him to become the top scorer?”

“Why would I want to show favor?”

“But, my lord, you asked him to have dinner before, wasn’t it just to win him over?”

“Then it is even better not to show favor. This man has great ambition, and he already had a grudge against me. Those who go to make friends with him will definitely break the threshold. If I go again, he will only think that I have ulterior motives and intend to climb the dragon and cling to the phoenix.”[1]

“Then you want to ignore him?”

“Who said that?” Zhao Yelan smiled slightly. “If I don’t look for him, he will come to me.”

“What will he do when he comes to my lord?”

“Perhaps he admires my talents and wants to make friends with me?” Zhao Yelan smiled.

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Gao Tan was getting more and more confused: “But didn’t my lord say he had a grudge against you? How could he admire you and take the initiative to make friends with you?”

“Because of Ruan Xian,” Zhao Yelan said.

Gao Tan didn’t ask any more questions since he couldn’t understand anyway, and simply went to the courtyard to play with the maids and servants.

Around noon, Yan Mingting returned to the mansion.

Zhao Yelan was sitting in the main hall drinking tea. The new year’s Mingqian tea had been delivered, and when he had nothing to do, he would make two cups.

“Why are you so late today?”

“Don’t mention it.” Yan Mingting put the sword on the table, sitting down with a sigh. “The Emperor will hold the martial arts exam this year, which was originally the responsibility of the Ministry of War, but today he asked me in morning court to be the chief examiner.”

“Apart from those old fellows from the Ministry of War, the only military officials in court are you and your lieutenants. He really is worried,” Zhao Yelan said. “However, resuming the martial arts exam is a good thing for the common people.”

“It is a good thing. I also hope to encourage more people to practice martial arts. It’s just that the Emperor not only asked me to be the chief examiner, but also asked me to assign some manpower to the Imperial army, and asked me to be in charge of the Spring Hunt again. Does he think I’m superhuman?” Yan Mingting said unhappily.

Zhao Yelan joked: “It turns out you also want to be lazy?”

“Also?” Yan Mingting looked at him and suddenly smiled. “That’s right, Zhao-daren spends his days leisurely in the mansion, I can pilfer a bit of laziness.”

Zhao Yelan raised his eyebrows and smiled: “It is good to get used to this kind of thing. Once you are idle, you won’t want to move again.”

“How about I retire and go back to my hometown? I won’t be a general anymore, and we can go out and have a good time,” Yan Mingting said temptingly.

Zhao Yelan laughed and said: “You can leave if you want. Who do you want to leave this terrible mess to?”

Yan Mingting sighed deeply.

Seeing his dejected look, Zhao Yelan wanted to laugh, but thought of something and asked: “Did you just mention the Spring Hunt?”

“That’s right, ah. The date is set to be after Qingming, when the final results of the civil and military examinations will be announced. The Emperor wants to take advantage of the Imperial examination banquet to invite all the officials to participate in the Spring Hunt together.” Yan Mingting tapped the table. “Are you going?”

Zhao Yelan said: “Since all officials can go, why wouldn’t I?”

“You can go, but you have to do something first,” Yan Mingting said mysteriously, leaning in across the table.

“What?”

“You draw a second portrait of me first, bigger than Bao Lun’s. Cuizhang and the others have said these days that my portrait is not as good-looking as Bao Lun’s, and I’m furious.” Yan Mingting thumped the table angrily.

Zhao Yelan directly refused.

“Didn’t you just say that you have nothing to do? Just draw a portrait for me,” Yan Mingting begged.

“Don’t even think about it.” Zhao Yelan couldn’t stand the harassment and got up to leave, but Yan Mingting grabbed his sleeve.

“Zhao-daren, please~” Yan Mingting tried his best to stare with big, innocent eyes, and even winked at him.

“Let go, don’t hinder me.” Zhao Yelan wore a complicated expression.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to spit out my New Year’s Eve dinner.”

“……”

A few days later, it was Qingming. There was an ancient poem which said that during the Qingming festival, it would rain heavily and the pedestrians on the road would lose their souls. The continuous rain filled this festival with a stronger sense of loneliness and solitude. The heavy rain did not stop, making travel more complicated.

Yan Mingting was going to visit his family’s tombs and make offerings. Seeing that the rain had no intention of stopping, and the tombs were on a mountain, he asked Zhao Yelan to stay in the mansion for the sake of survival. Traveling lightly by himself, he went to pray to his family alone.

When he came back in the afternoon and found that Zhao Yelan was not in the mansion, he found Housekeeper Qin and asked: “Where did Zhao Yelan go?”

“He went out with Xiao Gao.”

“No one else is with him?”

“En.”

Yan Mingting walked to the gate anxiously. The heavy rain came in at a slant. He didn’t know where the master and servant had gone. Although he knew that Gao Tan was proficient in martial arts, and there were forty-eight people arranged by himself to protect him covertly, when he thought about Zhao Yelan’s situation when it rained last time, his heart felt like it was on fire and he was in a hurry to run out.

There were very few people on the streets outside the gate, and those who bustled past held umbrellas and carried a basket with some incense sticks in it, likely in a hurry to visit a grave.

Not knowing what he was thinking, he picked up an umbrella and rushed into the curtain of rain. Running along the street for a while, he finally arrived at Zhao Mansion.

The guards of Zhao Mansion looked at him in surprise: “……General? Why are you here?”

“Has Zhao Yelan come back?” Yan Mingting asked urgently.

“Yes, he returned early in the morning.” The guards quickly sent him in.

There was an unexpected smell of medicine from afar, and when he looked into the kitchen, Gao Tan was there decocting medicine. He stepped forward swiftly: “What medicine are you making?”

“General, you’re here!” Gao Tan’s eyes were red. He seemed to find his backbone at once, babbling, “My lord just fainted again……we came here this morning and it was raining heavily on the way, the umbrella couldn’t cover everything and my lord got wet, then went to pray again……he just fainted. The doctor left just now, and the medicine will be finished soon.”

Yan Mingting roughly understood the situation and patted Gao Tan on the shoulder: “Don’t panic, I’ll go and see him. You proceed here and bring the medicine when it is ready.”

“All right.” Gao Tan sniffed.

Yan Mingting turned around and went to the bedroom, going straight to the bedside. Zhao Yelan was lying there with his eyes closed, his face pale and his lips bloodless. However, his cheeks were a little red and his forehead was covered in sweat. His brows were tightly furrowed and he was talking nonsense.

When Yan Mingting touched his forehead, it was very hot. He anxiously tucked him in, but he kicked the blanket away, turning over in pain.

Yan Mingting went to get another face towel, soaked it in cold water and wrung it out, then turned the person over and put the wet cloth on his forehead. After a while, the other started kicking at the blanket again.

“General, the medicine is ready.” Gao Tan came in carefully carrying the medicine bowl.

Yan Mingting sat on the edge of the bed and helped Zhao Yelan sit up, holding his upper body as he said: “You come feed him.”

Just as Gao Tan was about to feed him, Yan Mingting stopped him. He grabbed the spoon, blew on it, and then fed it to Zhao Yelan. Unexpectedly, Zhao Yelan spit it out and instinctively resisted taking the medicine.

“Zhao Yelan, be obedient,” Yan Mingting said.

Whether or not the other party heard it, he drank the medicine in the end. Gao Tan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and whispered: “The doctor said that after drinking the medicine, my lord should rest and recuperate, and be covered in bedding to sweat it out.”

“En, you go out first. Leave this to me, and close the door,” Yan Mingting said.

Gao Tan nodded and stepped back.

Yan Mingting laid the person down. Just after covering him with the blanket, Zhao Yelan kicked it away, muttering with a frown: “……Hot.”

Yan Mingting started to take off his outer robe: “Whether you can hear me or not, let me explain to you first that I only want to help you. These clothes got wet on the road, so I took them off, I don’t mean to take advantage of you. If you don’t agree, jump up and hit me now.”

After a moment, he climbed into bed: “Okay, it seems that you agree.”

Yan Mingting hugged him into his arms. The other person’s body was hot like a stove. No wonder he thought the blanket was too hot.

Zhao Yelan struggled unconsciously for a while. Yan Mingting patted his back lightly and said in a soft whisper: “It’s not hot, it’s not hot, just sleep and you’ll be fine.”

Zhao Yelan gradually calmed down under his comfort, subconsciously hugging him.

Yan Mingting’s body was stiff as his hands continued to pat the other’s back. That thin body seemed as if it could be easily broken at any time. He lowered his eyes to look at Zhao Yelan’s face. Stretching out his fingers, he smoothed the brow that was tightly furrowed in sleep, and his voice couldn’t be softer: “What kind of dreams are you having?”

He was answered by sleep talk.

Unable to hear clearly, he leaned his ear closer: “What did you say?”

Afterwards, Yan Mingting heard him call out: “Mother……”

 

[1] To climb the dragon and cling to the phoenix (攀龙附凤) is an idiom stemming from Chinese mythology that means indulging in the favor of powerful people in order to gain benefits. ⮐

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