The smile faded slightly from Chao Yan’s face.
“I arrived several hours ago. I was just about to leave. I have court this morning.”
Gu Yun made a soft sound of acknowledgement. The sound was not the beginning of a conversation. It was the end of one.
Chao Yan gazed steadily at him.
After responding, Gu Yun drew up his knees, wrapped his arms around them, rested his chin atop them, and sat there quietly in a daze.
“You have nothing to say to me?” Chao Yan asked.
Turning his head, Gu Yun looked at him and gently shook it. There was the slightest hesitation in the movement.
In truth, he did have things he wanted to say. Not merely one thing. Many things. But that had been several days ago. After they had parted at the city gates, he had missed Chao Yan greatly.
Only Xu Jingzhou occupied a higher place in his thoughts.
The feeling probably stemmed from all the protection Chao Yan had provided since his arrival in this era. A kind of fledgling attachment. That was how Gu Yun explained it to himself.
He did not believe he had developed romantic feelings for Chao Yan. Who fell in love with their employer? Wasn’t that absurd?
As far as he was concerned, their relationship was very simple.
He was the employee. Chao Yan was the employer.
A feudal employer, at that. Nothing more.
After spending such a long period immersed in work, he had finally settled his mind.
He concluded that his previous dreams about Chao Yan had resulted from accidentally using him as a template when imagining an ideal partner.
The association had occurred unconsciously.
As for the unease he felt upon receiving Chao Yan’s letters, that had merely been a lingering side effect of those dreams. Because he had missed him, countless things had once welled up inside him, things he had desperately wanted to share. But the long days of work had gradually dulled those emotions. The urge to say those things had faded as well.
As for his proposals concerning improvements to the workshop, he had already organised them into a written document after careful consideration.
The papers were packed among his belongings. Once the fire-lance issue was resolved, he intended to hand them over to Boss Chao.
Chao Yan rejected his answer. He could clearly feel his heartbeat accelerating.
“Truly nothing?” He cupped Gu Yun’s face. “A Yun, are you certain?”
Gu Yun looked at him. Chao Yan’s jaw tightened. It almost seemed as though he were grinding his teeth.
“But I have many things I want to say to you.”
“Your Highness,” Gu Yun said softly.
Bathed in the faint glow of lamplight, he appeared gentle as water. His curved eyes shone brightly, like a river of stars flowing within them. When he looked at someone, there was a strange power in that gaze. As though it could drown them completely.
Chao Yan closed his eyes. Then he opened them again.
He knew perfectly well that this path led nowhere. Yet he still wanted to draw closer. The sensation of losing control unsettled him.
Never before had he experienced such feelings. Not even when burdened by countless affairs of state.
He reached out and covered Gu Yun’s eyes. His palm was broad and warm. Beneath it, Gu Yun blinked slowly. The sensation travelled from Chao Yan’s palm all the way to his heart. An unbearable itch.
“Couldn’t you at least lie to me a little?” The voice sounded helpless.
Hearing it, Gu Yun felt as though someone had fed him a sweet-and-sour popping candy. The sensation crackled through him from body to heart.
Strange. He disliked it.
Then he felt warmth drawing nearer. The man’s deep, steady breathing brushed against his face.
Gu Yun disliked it even more.
“You…” The word escaped his lips. The next never followed.
Reason intervened, forcing him to swallow it back. In a tone that was polite yet firm, he said, “Your Highness, have you forgotten what you promised me?”
Something brushed lightly against his cheek twice. Then Chao Yan withdrew.
Rising to his feet, he said, “I won’t force you. I should go. There’s no more time to waste.”
He turned and left.
Only then did Gu Yun realise he had misunderstood. A trace of annoyance surfaced within him.
The warmth of Chao Yan’s palm still lingered around his eyes. Looking up, he saw the other man already striding towards the door.
The room contained no partitions. Even the screen usually shielding the bed had been folded away and placed against a wall.
From anywhere in the room, the doorway remained clearly visible.
Frowning, Gu Yun called out to him.
Chao Yan turned around. “What is it?”
Gu Yun spoke sincerely. “Your Highness, I misunderstood you just now. Please forgive me.”
After all, his treatment must not deteriorate. When one made a mistake before one’s employer, one should admit it promptly and smooth things over.
Chao Yan smiled.
A teasing smile.
He stood in the doorway and looked at Gu Yun for a few moments before saying, “It was not a misunderstanding. I did have that thought. I had it from the moment we first met. But I remember the agreement between us. I have tested the fire lance. It is excellent. As for the misfire issue, I hope you will do everything in your power to solve it, but do not exhaust yourself. I would hate to see that, darling.”
…
Darling.
A treasure in every sense of the word.
Chao Yan did not feel there was anything inappropriate about the way he addressed him. Of course, if the other party disliked it, he could refrain from using it. However, everything in this world had its price. He had already taken a step back; naturally, the other party would have to give him something he wanted in return.
Lowering his gaze, Chao Yan recalled Gu Yun’s reaction upon hearing that form of address before he left. As always, there had been resistance and discomfort. It was not dislike, exactly. The more he reflected on it, the more he found it rather adorable.
Chao Yan let out a low chuckle, leaned against the wall of the carriage, and closed his eyes, recalling the moment when his emotions had been stirred by another person. After the violent turbulence came a kind of exhilaration that was difficult to describe.
It was as though a brilliant splash of colour had been poured into his excessively bleak world.
He enjoyed it immensely.
Yet he did not wish to experience it a second time. Compared with that, he wanted far more to have the other person for himself. The longer they spent together, the less able he was to let go. Gu Yun was a mystery, constantly drawing him in and compelling him to dig deeper.
He desperately wanted to know everything about him.
Perhaps it was because he was too desperate that he suddenly understood why the other man was unwilling to accept him. Apart from the reasons he had understood from the beginning, that his status as Crown Prince would place pressure upon him, and the matter of gender, there was another reason: he himself was not particularly remarkable in Gu Yun’s eyes. A person as outstanding as Gu Yun, in his own country, would undoubtedly be matched with people who were equally exceptional.
Among a crowd of competitors, he possessed no advantage whatsoever. Not only did he lack advantages, he came with burdens of his own.
For the first time, the young Crown Prince whose wings were not yet fully grown became uncertain whether he could win Gu Yun’s heart.
What frightened him even more was the realisation that if Gu Yun wished to leave, there was no way for him to keep him by his side.
Once Gu Yun had revealed his edge, he was no longer the frail and helpless beauty who required protection, whose survival depended entirely upon Chao Yan’s attitude towards him. Now, he not only possessed the ability to protect himself, but also the ability to threaten others.
Chao Yan himself was already unable to do without him. This was not a matter of feelings, but of interests.
If Gu Yun were ever to harbour other intentions, he could potentially throw the entire Great Xuan into chaos.
Gu Yun was not merely a treasure. He was also a potential threat.
Xu Jingzhou… was that monk Xu Jingzhou the same?
The carriage came to a halt at the palace gates.
Chao Yan smoothed the creases from his robes, lowered his eyes, stepped down from the carriage using the mounting stool, and headed towards the imperial court.
Dawn was only just breaking. Officials of every rank walked in small groups of two or three along the broad avenue leading to the court. When they caught sight of the Crown Prince, they all offered their salutations.
Chao Yan smiled and nodded in acknowledgement, but his thoughts were elsewhere. He thought that they must be watched closely and never allowed to shake the foundations of the state. If…
Then he would have no choice but to make a decision that even he did not wish to make.
Having come this far, Chao Yan understood all too well what people were capable of. Therefore, he never dared gamble. Everything had to be calculated step by step.
…
After Chao Yan left, Gu Yun spread out his arms, lay back down, and went back to sleep.
It was not until the sun was high overhead that he finally got up, his mind still entirely occupied by the problem of misfires.
