Chapter 413 – He Still Hasn’t Woken Up (2)

Ye Zhen was even more confused as to who would want to kill her. She looked back at Mo Rongzhan, and an ache suddenly appeared in her heart. She hurriedly turned away, not taking another look at him.

“Right, Teacher, I divinated for this trip before. The result was a fighting dragon in the wilderness, whose blood was a black-yellow. I had always thought that I had done it wrong. Could it have something to do with this matter?” She thought back to the divination she had done two days ago. The more she thought of the image of Mo Rongzhan fighting with the tiger, the more she thought it had something to do with this divination.

“A fighting dragon in the wilderness, whose blood was a black-yellow?” Huangfu Chen was taken aback, divinating himself, before shaking his head and sighing. “That is indeed his divination sign.”

“—” Ye Zhen didn’t know what to say. “Teacher, when I was divinating, I wasn’t divinating for the emperor.”

Huangfu Chen said, “The trip you divinated for was not one you took alone. So, even if you did not divinate for A’Zhan, as you traveled together, the result you divinated would be the same.”

“This is an ominous hexagram.” Ye Zhen said quietly, “Would it be bad for him?”

“Hasn’t everything already been resolved? After great dangers come great fortunes.” Huangfu Chen said with a smile.

Ye Zhen’s heart felt bitter, helplessly looking towards the unconscious Mo Rongzhan. Today, when he selflessly saved her, she was really surprised. Why would he protect her, even with no regard for his own life? How was she supposed to take revenge now?

She had already made her mind when deciding to ruin his reign. How could he… move her?

“You don’t need to be too worried for him nor do you need to blame yourself. These injuries are incomparable to his earlier ones,” Huangfu Chen said with a light smile.

Ye Zhen asked with confusion, “Did he used to get hurt a lot?”

Huangfu Chen smiled and said, “Didn’t you see that his body was covered with scars today? Injuries set up by others, accidents from training, poisoned arrows from the enemy in battle… The fact that he’s still alive today can be owed to his fate.”

Ye Zhen stared at the slumbering carved, handsome face. An indescribable feeling emerged in her heart once again. She had never known… he had made his way here like this…

“— So, don’t take such wounds to heart. If he is still alive today, he is fine.” Huangfu Chen comforted Ye Zhen whose face seemed to be wreathed with guilt.

“He was a duke. Why was his life so hard?” Ye Zhen said quietly.

“Not every duke is able to gain the love of the emperor,” Huangfu Chen said, refraining from revealing the true reason Mo Rongzhan had earned the disgust of the former emperor.

♚

Before, Ye Zhen had only known that Mo Rongzhan wasn’t favored. But little did she know of the hards.h.i.+ps he had endured. When she helped him wipe away his sweat, she found that the areas of his body not wrapped by white bandages were covered with scars, colored in different shades, an obvious indication that there once had been wounds here at various times.

If Mo Rongzhan hadn’t rebelled and become Emperor… What would have been waiting for him?

At that time, he had already obtained military power by the border. The first thing the emperor did after a.s.suming the throne was to seize his military authority, despite the fact that they were currently at war and Mo Rongzhan needed the power to continue fighting the invaders. The new emperor… His Majesty was a very spoilt and corrupted man.

Thinking of that new emperor, who was now under house arrest, Ye Zhen lightly shook her head. When she was little, she had seen him. At that time, one of her Shu-born* cousins had been his concubine. Back then, the crown prince had seemed a very kind and gentle person to her.

[*Shu-born are concubine born while the offsprings of the main wife are Di. So, the person her is her cousin, but she is born of her uncle’s concubine and not the main wife.]

How had he turned out the way he did?

Hm? Ye Zhen looked with confusion at the handkerchief in her hand. The white fabric was somehow dirty, turning a shade of black. This was… Mo Rongzhan’s sweat?

She quickly recollected. The first time she had drunk the lingquan, she had also sweated a layer of black sweat. After that, she seemed to have changed completely. Could it be that the reason Mo Rongzhan had yet to awake was that she had used too much of the lingquan on him this morning?

Ye Zhen hurriedly cleaned his body of the sweat, before someone else could see and question.

“Is he still not awake?” Huangfu Chen asked, seeing Ye Zhen wiping Mo Rongzhan’s sweat as he walked in, holding a bowl of medicine.

“Not yet.” Ye Zhen shook her head, taking the bowl of blackened water out.

Huangfu Chen fed the medicine into Mo Rongzhan’s mouth. Only when he confirmed that all of the medicine had been swallowed did he lightly lay him down again. He looked at Ye Zhen, who seemed prepared to continue watching over him. “I’ll be here. You can go back now.”

Ye Zhen resolutely shook her head. “I need to see him wake before I can be a.s.sured.”

“You’re very concerned for A’Zhan.” Huangfu Chen smiled. He had thought that she hadn’t the slightest feeling for that man. But now it seemed that was not the case.

“He was injured because of me. If anything happens to him, I can’t be at ease,” Ye Zhen said quietly. She just didn’t want to owe him anything, so, she would take care of him until he woke up.

Huangfu Chen was taken aback. “You are only doing this out of guilt?”

It seemed like Ye Zhen couldn’t hide anything from Huangfu Chen. He knew whatever she was thinking about. She lightly sighed. “I can owe anyone, but not him.”