Chapter 144
Xie Shoujun lifted a hand to stroke the young man’s hair. “I’ve missed you, too,” he said hoarsely.
As he fought through blood on the battlefield, as his black spear took enemy heads, he had wanted to ask the child left behind in the capital why he never answered his letters, why he never came to visit.
Wasn’t he afraid his brother might die in battle, and that they would never see each other again?
But at the sight of Xie Chengze’s smile, he swallowed every question he had meant to ask. This was enough, Xie Shoujun thought. As long as his brother was still happy to see him.
After greeting him, Xie Chengze began feeling him all over.
Just what you’d expect from a military man. That firm waist, those powerful muscles, that solid chest… He was extremely, exceptionally, VERY… well suited to being a skiing companion!
And the soldiers catching up behind him all looked tall and strapping, even from a distance. To stand against the fierce, brutal Xiongnu, the frontier army recruited mostly burly northern men. What a feast for the eyes this was –
Wouldn’t the wealthy young ladies go crazy for them?
He was already half smitten himself.
Xie Shoujun went rigid under the young man’s hands. After years on the frontier battlefield, he rarely had such close physical contact with anyone, except when carrying fallen soldiers’ bodies or letting army doctors treat his wounds. Instinctively assuming Xie Chengze was checking him for injuries, he said in a slightly hoarse voice, “Second Brother, I’m unharmed.”
Xie Chengze looked up at him in confusion. “What?”
Seeing that puzzled look, Xie Shoujun realized the young man wasn’t checking for wounds, but for something else.
What else…?
Before he could think it through, Xie Chengze asked, “Big Brother, are there many unmarried men in your army?”
Why was he asking that?
Puzzled though he was, Xie Shoujun nodded. “Quite a few. Why do you ask?”
“Mm… I need their help with a few things. I’ll pay them, of course.” Xie Chengze took his arm. “Let’s go into town. We’ll get the soldiers settled first.”
The army was housed in a grove not far from the Hun River. Xie Shoujun had brought all his troops with him on this return to the capital. For one thing, the Xiongnu along the frontier had signed a peace agreement, so a large garrison was no longer necessary. For another, the court needed men. Many of the frontier soldiers would likely be absorbed into the imperial guards to defend the capital.
Their numbers were therefore considerable. Even if Xie Chengze could feed them, he could only have them continue sleeping in tents.
There was, however, plenty of coal for warmth. The temperature in Liaozhou was much lower than on the frontier, but to the soldiers, conditions here were already far better. Most importantly, they didn’t have to eat wild grass and bark here, and they had heard they would even be paid for working.
“This stuff sure burns a long time.” With their camp set up, the soldiers rubbed their hands around braziers of coal. “If we’d had this while guarding the frontier, we wouldn’t have frozen our asses off like that.”
“You said it! I heard the Second Prince found this stuff they call coal, too!”
“Whoa! The same Second Prince who made blasting powder and threatened to blow up the grasslands?”
“That’s right. I was near the front of the column at the city gate, and I saw him!”
“Really? Tell us what he looks like! Is he as fresh-faced and beautiful as the stories say?”
Everyone in the army knew that the Second Prince was called the Jade-Faced Demon King out on the grasslands, while the frontier’s common people called him the Jade-Faced Bodhisattva. Jade-faced, jade-faced – surely only a remarkably handsome young gentleman deserved such a fine description. The Eldest Prince was already strikingly handsome; his younger brother could hardly be any less so.
“Well, I have to say -” The soldier, who had actually only glimpsed the Second Prince from a distance, deliberately drew out his words. In a mysterious tone, he said, “Jade-Faced Demon King describes him perfectly. His face is as white as the fluffy northern snow, his lips redder than the blood at a Xiongnu’s throat, and his eyes bigger than those fiery warhorses on the grasslands! And when he moves, he’s like a ghost. He doesn’t even have to move his legs to fly from one place to another!”
“Whoa!” The others listened in amazement. “Incredible! I’d love to see him!”
And so, that noon, Xie Chengze kept feeling eyes on him as he supervised the work by the river.
Yet whenever he turned around, those gazes vanished at once, as though they had never been there.
“Strange… Am I imagining it?” Xie Chengze scratched his head, then lowered it to explain the effect he wanted to Xie Shoujun. “This will go here. It’s fairly high, so the girls might be frightened when they sit on it. We’ll need soldiers behind them to keep them safe. Big Brother, choose your handsomest soldiers who know how to charm a girl. I’ll teach them what to do myself.”
“And here, we’ll need a group of agile soldiers to train. I want you and Shen Yuan to join us, too. You’re the Eldest Prince, and he’s handsome. Having you two there will give people a reason to watch.”
“Then over here…”
The young man gave careful, detailed instructions. Xie Shoujun listened attentively, while glancing at the soldiers who kept trying to pass nearby and get a look at Xie Chengze. A warning flashed in his usually restrained eyes.
The soldiers hurried away, pushing and jostling one another.
“What’s wrong?” Noticing that Xie Shoujun seemed distracted, Xie Chengze looked up.
“Nothing.” Xie Shoujun withdrew his gaze. “Go on. I’m listening,” he said gently.
“Oh.” Xie Chengze continued assigning the soldiers’ work. Once he had finished talking himself dry-mouthed, he listened to Xie Shoujun repeat it all back to him. Only then did he leave the ice rink, satisfied, to warm up in the army camp.
The moment he entered, however, the sensation of being watched returned.
“Hey, hey, is that the Second Prince…?”
“I think so? His clothes look right. But isn’t he too beautiful? Didn’t they say the Second Prince has eyes bigger than an ox’s, a face paler than snow, and a huge, bloody maw?”
Xie Chengze: ?
Who was spreading rumors now?
“You heard wrong. Old Jia clearly said the Second Prince can bite through a Xiongnu’s throat, scare a fiery grassland horse to death with one glare, and disappear into the snow with that white skin of his to secretly plant blasting powder in every enemy camp!”
Xie Chengze: ?
That was even more ridiculous!
“You all heard wrong. Old Jia was simply saying His Highness is handsome,” another soldier said calmly.
Xie Chengze nodded to himself. At least this fellow had his head on straight and knew better than to invent or spread rumors.
“Fine, if you say he’s handsome, he’s handsome. But I remember Old Jia also saying his lightness skills are like a ghost’s, and he can cover dozens of meters in one step. This fellow looks so frail. He doesn’t look like he knows martial arts.”
“That’s where you’re mistaken.” The soldier who supposedly knew better than to invent or spread rumors explained with perfect assurance, “As they say, the more beautiful the beauty, the more deadly the hidden poison. With such unmatched looks, the Second Prince must be concealing extraordinary abilities, making it easy to deceive his enemies. He doesn’t take lives with crude blades. Instead, he’s famed in the enemy camps for his ruthless blasting powder, killing enemies a thousand li away without getting a drop of blood on himself!”
The soldier bobbed his head. “Elegant. Truly elegant!”
The other soldiers couldn’t help agreeing wholeheartedly.
“Royalty, all right. Elegant. So elegant!”
Xie Chengze: …