Foolish Beauty Is Bound to the Sage Emperor Nurturing System Chapter 86

Chapter 86: Wei Wanlan Clutches His Belly

The volley of arrows descended like a sudden, violent downpour!

Fu Jun swept his longsword. The blade, though merely an inch wide, instantly flashed with a brilliant light, forming a shimmering shield. With each swing, he either deflected or sliced the incoming arrows.

Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting!

Seven or eight arrows clattered to the ground, embedding themselves at an angle.

How could one man, with a single sword, block so many arrows?

It seemed an impossible feat, and the enemy soldiers gasped in shock.

Yuan Xizai’s expression shifted as well. His tall scholar’s cap tilted slightly with the movement. He quickly righted it, but his fingers trembled imperceptibly. His voice was a little hoarse when he spoke.

“Stop them!”

The soldiers obeyed, nocking and releasing another round.

But Fu Jun, pulling Wei Wanlan along, didn’t retreat. Instead, they charged forward, closing the distance to Yuan Xizai at the end of the stone bridge.

They moved so fast the wind felt like it was tearing at them.

Wei Wanlan’s heart was about to leap out of his chest.

By the time he realized they were getting dangerously close to Yuan Xizai, the rain of arrows had thinned. Wei Wanlan was puzzled for a moment. Yuan Xizai was a scholar, not a fighter. His brow twitched, and sensing danger, he yelled at his own men:

“Gen-gentlemen… please, hold your fire—”

And just like that, the archers all stopped.

The enemy formation froze for a moment, as if someone had pressed pause.

Wei Wanlan seized the opportunity. Pulled by Fu Jun, they broke through Yuan Xizai’s encirclement and got off the stone bridge.

Wei Wanlan was a slow runner, panting heavily. Amidst the harsh, wheezing sounds of his own breathing, he heard the soldiers shouting coarse curses. He couldn’t understand some of the words, perhaps because they were yelled in such a hurry.

From behind them came Yuan Xizai’s command, his tone so vicious it sounded like the words were being squeezed through his teeth.

“After them! The one who slays the foolish emperor will be rewarded with ten thousand gold taels!”

A handsome reward always attracts brave men. The pursuers immediately gave chase.

If the Luoyang Imperial Villa was built in the exact image of the one in Chang’an, then after the stone bridge, heading south, there would be two paths leading to the main palace gate.

One fork led to the Hanyuan Hall, where grand court assemblies were held. The grounds before it were vast and open.

The other path to the south was a longer, smaller road. It wound past the Jixian Hall and the Court of Noble Dames, then through the Zhaoting Gate and over the Imperial Bridge, eventually reaching the same main gate.

Without a second thought, Wei Wanlan chose the latter.

The area outside Hanyuan Hall was a massive plaza thousands of square feet in size, the very place where all the officials of Chang’an would stand during grand assemblies. If he led Fu Jun there, they would become living targets for the archers.

They rushed into the Jixian Hall without daring to stop.

The Jixian Hall was an academy for scholars, a place where great Confucian masters lectured on the classics and taught their students.

The moment Wei Wanlan stepped inside, he faltered. Something brushed against his face, blocking his view. Painted scrolls hung from the ceiling. He tightened his grip on Fu Jun’s hand, not daring to pause. As they ran, he glanced around, his bright eyes taking in the portraits of the sages.

But the portraits terrified him.

They were clearly the faces of Confucius, Mencius, Cheng, and Zhu, men he had seen countless times in his textbooks. But while the faces were the same, their postures were entirely different.

Yuan Xizai had borrowed their faces, but his delicate brushwork had altered the original paintings. He had deliberately depicted them in disgraceful poses—some with their chests and bellies exposed, others baring their teeth and claws, their faces and bodies covered in tattoos, or frolicking obscenely with dancing girls.

He then ran headfirst into hanging sheets of gold-flecked paper.

The wind rustled the paper, making the characters dance, the gold leaf dazzling his eyes!

The large characters, written in the Slender Gold style, were both elegant and ostentatious, a contradictory kind of beauty:

“Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom… What a load of crap.”

“Worldly Ethics… A pile of dog shit.”

“…”

Scroll after scroll hung from the ceiling. Unlike the Hall of Purple Empyrean, this place was filled with absurd pronouncements. It felt less like a display of calligraphy and more like some kind of emotional outburst.

Their clamor as they rushed through the hall startled the songstresses, dancers, and Silla maids who served in the Jixian Hall. The women, with their charming smiles and heavy, seductive makeup—some even wearing scholar’s caps—thought the two were guests of the villa and moved to greet them.

The air instantly filled with a cloying scent of rouge and powder.

One of the women called out to the tall Fu Jun from a distance, her voice teasing, “My lord, since you’ve come, why not stay the night? Why the long face? With so many sisters here, surely one of us can be your companion?”

“Hee, hee hee hee hee.”

But Fu Jun didn’t even glance at them. He didn’t push through the crowd either; the sheer force of his presence parted them. He led Wei Wanlan through the hall, the chill emanating from him growing colder still.

Wei Wanlan was gasping for air, his lungs feeling like they were about to explode. He shot Fu Jun a pleading look, his words broken.

“Wuuu, so, so tired… can’t run anymore… so tired… QAQ”

His fitness tests had never been this hard!

From the Central Secretariat to the Jixian Hall was well over 1500 meters, and a life-or-death 1500 meters at that.

Just then, the pursuers outside the Jixian Hall caught up. The women, having been rebuffed by Fu Jun, turned to greet the soldiers.

A soldier barked heartlessly, “Out of the way! These are the men Lord Yuan has put a bounty on! Get out of the way, now! Scram!”

Twang.

The pursuers were close. The sound of a bowstring was like a crack of thunder. An arrow shrieked through the air.

Wei Wanlan’s back tensed. But suddenly his legs gave out, his feet dangling uselessly in the air. Fu Jun had swept him up into his arms.

“Wuuu, my hero! QAQ”

Fu Jun ran swiftly, exiting the Jixian Hall first. He then hooked the door with the toe of his boot, pulling it shut and bolting it from the outside. The wooden door would temporarily hold back the people inside.

A commotion erupted from within the hall!

Wei Wanlan was terrified, his eyes ringed with red. He gasped for breath, clinging tightly to Fu Jun’s neck. He noticed that Fu Jun wasn’t rushing towards the next building. Instead, holding him, Fu Jun used a cassia tree outside the hall to climb onto the roof.

The scenery below lurched, rising and then falling away.

Fu Jun brought Wei Wanlan with him, and they both lay flat on the tiled roof.

Fu Jun’s chest pressed against Wei Wanlan’s back. Because the slope of the palace roof wasn’t steep, they had to press themselves tightly against it to stay hidden.

Wei Wanlan was still breathing in long gasps from the run, his heart thumping wildly. He couldn’t seem to control his breathing.

Fu Jun gently covered Wei Wanlan’s mouth with his large hand.

Wei Wanlan: “Huu—huuhuu… huu.”

His palm smelled of blood and the sharkskin leather of his sword hilt. It wasn’t a tight seal, but as Wei Wanlan’s breath escaped through his fingers, the sound of his panting was muffled.

“Huu, huuhuu.” His heart began to slow.

But then, Wei Wanlan became aware of a somewhat awkward situation. Fu Jun’s breath was tickling the back of his neck.

That slightly overpowering scent, unique to Fu Jun, unintentionally drifted into Wei Wanlan’s nose and ears. Although his breathing had steadied, the butterfly bones of his shoulder blades trembled, sending an inexplicable shiver through his body. His heart, which had just calmed down, began to beat erratically again.

So itchy…

And it’s getting a little hard to breathe…

The woody fragrance slowly seeped in, as if invading every pore.

If a scent could stir one’s thoughts…

Wei Wanlan’s eyes grew wetter and wetter.

Those fantasies he’d had on the stone bridge outside the Central Secretariat were unintentionally stirred up again by Fu Jun. Pinned beneath him, he unconsciously arched his back. His fingertips dug into the cracks between the roof tiles. Wei Wanlan was about to be driven to tears by this strange feeling.

Fu Jun, seemingly oblivious, asked, “Are you cold? Why are you trembling?”

Wei Wanlan felt as if his entire neck had been set ablaze by the man’s breath. He gripped the tiles even harder, his curled fingertips shaking.

At that moment, a loud crash came from the Jixian Hall. The doors had been violently smashed open, followed by the sound of shuffling footsteps. The pursuers had broken through and were now outside.

Their angry shouts were mixed with many words Wei Wanlan couldn’t understand.

But the sounds grew more distant. The pursuers hadn’t found them and were heading towards the next stop, the Court of Noble Dames.

Fu Jun removed his hand.

Wei Wanlan rolled over, lying on his back on the roof and taking deep gulps of air. His chest rose and fell like a fish on the verge of suffocating. The pitiful sight made Fu Jun stare, lost in thought for a moment.

But Wei Wanlan grabbed his lapels, trying to sit up. He moved too quickly, however, and ended up pulling Fu Jun down on top of him. Their breaths instantly intertwined, their bodies and the tips of their noses pressing tightly together.

“…”

Wei Wanlan froze, completely dumbfounded.

For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.

Because it looked for all the world like he had initiated the embrace.

In that instant, he was in a total panic. He wasn’t thinking about making babies or five cubs. A different feeling had taken over, one so overwhelming he was at a complete loss.

As he looked up at the clean, sharp lines of Fu Jun’s jaw, his heart felt as if it were suspended in mid-air, a soft, floating sensation.

He even found that he really liked the solid feeling of Fu Jun’s full weight pressing down on him. Then his whole body felt so sensitive he wanted to hide. When he tried to bury his head, he found there was nowhere to go. It seemed the more he tried to hide, the deeper he had to burrow into the crook of Fu Jun’s neck.

His body was shaking.

He felt like he couldn’t even bear to be looked at, couldn’t bear the evening breeze on the rooftop…

How could he have these feelings, again and again, for someone he had only known for a few days?

Wei Wanlan started to cry.

Fat tears truly rolled down from the corners of his eyes.

He could only blame this pathetic state on being scared. He was always scared, after all. It wasn’t the first time he had cried from fear. If it was fear, then so be it. Better to be called a coward than to face the embarrassment.

“Fu Jun, Fu Jun, let’s get up. Let’s go to the next place. If we stay here any longer and Yuan Xizai finds us, we’re finished.”

Wei Wanlan begged.

But Fu Jun remained on top of him. He leaned down and seemed to carelessly wipe away his tears. “We’ll stay here. We’re not going to the next stop.”

Wei Wanlan clutched his belly.

He didn’t know why he clutched his belly when he heard those words.

But his little dragon claws suddenly clenched tight, covering his still very flat dragon tummy.

Will it really hold five little dragon cubs? QAQ

Wei Wanlan’s face was flushed and hot. The hand covering his belly was also burning, and his stomach rumbled a few times.

Fu Jun pulled him up and very naturally brushed the dust from his chest and legs.

As the dust swirled, Wei Wanlan, who hadn’t yet caught his breath, coughed a little, tears still clinging to his eyelashes.

This made Fu Jun frown. “You just finished crying and now you’re coughing.”

“No!” Wei Wanlan denied it instantly, the tips of his ears trembling. No matter how distracted he was, he knew what was at stake. He couldn’t be a burden to Fu Jun. “Not at all. It’s just my stomach being disobedient. I’m hungry, but I can endure it!”

Wei Wanlan pointed at his stomach. Fu Jun let out a soft scoff. Standing on the roof, he scooped Wei Wanlan up in a princess carry and leaped to the ground.

But they were going in the opposite direction, backtracking.

Wei Wanlan was confused. He almost thought Fu Jun had gotten turned around and quickly whispered a reminder, “That’s the wrong way, Fu Jun, the wrong way…”

Fu Jun replied, “I know. We’re going back. To the Hanyuan Hall. We’ll take a different route out of the villa. I had Xiao Ji split up and find a secluded spot to set off a signal flare. Reinforcements should be arriving at the Imperial Bridge soon. Someone will be there to meet you.”

It was the opposite of what the enemy would expect.

Just as Fu Jun had avoided the pursuers by hiding on the roof, now he was doubling back to exit through the Hanyuan Hall, a move the enemy would likely not anticipate.

Wei Wanlan was stunned, then delighted. “So the Valiant Warrior wasn’t captured? You had him call for the people from Heavenly Sword Manor?”

Fu Jun didn’t answer, remaining noncommittal.

But when he landed, Fu Jun noticeably stumbled. His steps faltered for a moment on the stone bricks outside the Jixian Hall, a lapse that almost made Wei Wanlan die of embarrassment.

Wei Wanlan covered his dragon head, thinking he had gotten heavier.

But Fu Jun’s silence was lasting a bit too long.

In that silence, Wei Wanlan seemed to see a hazy, white film in his eyes. He thought his gaze looked cloudy. Terrified, Wei Wanlan quickly jumped down from his arms and steadied him instead. “What’s wrong, Fu Jun? Were you injured just now?”

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