Yellow dust billowed beneath the horse’s pounding hooves. With the scorching sun suspended high in the sky, Bai Heting eventually came upon a small oasis. Reining in his mount beside the lake, he brought it to a halt and swung himself down from the saddle.
Pei Yan rubbed his eyes and followed suit, jumping down from the horse’s back.
He had been exhausted to the point of sleepiness throughout the journey, but he had forced himself to stay awake, not even daring to yawn. His eyes remained fixed on the young man, following his every movement as he settled beside the lake and shrugged off his outer garment, revealing a slender back streaked with blood.
He knew nothing about the mysterious young man; not his identity, not his name, nor even his age.
But he knew he had caused a huge mess.
The youth had saved him twice, yet he had caused him to get hurt.
Bai Heting twisted his neck to briefly check his own injury. He had intentionally adjusted his positioning at the time; though he failed to completely evade the attack, being wounded in this spot was not life-threatening, and it had stopped bleeding by now.
It could not be considered a severe injury.
He cupped a handful of lake water and poured it over his shoulder and down his back to clean the wound as he quietly mapped out the next leg of his journey in his mind.
Heading southeast from here would allow him to simultaneously avoid the pursuers within the borders of Urdan and the reinforcements from the capital. At this moment, war was breaking out everywhere along the border; he had always operated alone, so a brief disappearance should not arouse any suspicion.
However, whether to take this brat back to his fief or to the capital was a problem.
Although he owned a castle within his fief, it was garrisoned by ministers and guards sent by the king to manage the fief at the time of his enfeoffment. On the contrary, there were one or two trustworthy people inside his estate in the capital.
But if this kid was going to cause trouble again—
“Wait…”
A tender voice abruptly interrupted Bai Heting’s train of thought.
He turned his head to look. The annoying brat was walking toward the riverside, cradling a few pieces of freshly broken cactus in his arms. His thick eyebrows were knitted into a frown, and his mouth was slightly pouted.
He looked extremely vexed.
“Wait a moment.” Pei Yan nodded with his eyes toward the things in his hands. “Apply this, it can stop the bleeding and reduce the swelling.”
Bai Heting paused in his movement of putting on his upper garment.
He’s not very old, yet he knows quite a bit.
He didn’t seem as foolish as he had imagined either.
He reached out to take it, but Pei Yan’s hands dodged backward. “Let me do it.”
He glanced at Bai Heting timidly, then drooped his brows and eyes again. “For this wound, it’s inconvenient to apply medicine yourself.”
Bai Heting did not reply, but he did not reach out to snatch it either.
Pei Yan took it as his tacit consent.
He knelt down behind Bai Heting and carefully washed away the blood stains on his back with water. It was his first time treating a sword wound of this depth, yet the wounds on the youth’s body were far more than just this one; the remaining scars looked like they were from years ago.
His movements were sluggish. Bai Heting looked back and glared at him. “Stop dawdling.”
Only then did Pei Yan squeeze out the juice from the cactus and carefully apply it bit by bit around the wound.
He was not skilled at treating wounds, but the youth remained completely silent from beginning to end, merely drawing out the rhythm of his breathing with his hands clenched tightly into fists against his thighs.
Pei Yan looked at his whitening knuckles, only feeling the tightness in his own chest grow even heavier. He bit his lip hard, and after a moment, uttered a low yet solemn, “I’m sorry.”
Bai Heting didn’t want to pay him any attention. He raised a hand and patted his own shoulder, motioning for him to hurry up.
“Why do they want to kill us?” Pei Yan couldn’t help but ask. “Is it because of that person named Pei Ming?”
Bai Heting froze for a few seconds before turning his head to look at him. “You don’t know him?”
Pei Yan shook his head. “No.” He paused, then asked uncertainly, “Is he… my biological father?”
Bai Heting turned his head back, staring at the calm lake before him as he fell into deep thought.
This was strange. Treason was indeed a capital offense, but from the kid’s tone, it wasn’t even certain if Pei Ming knew of his existence. Yet His Majesty had gone to such great lengths, specifically issuing a secret execution order and sending dozens of men just to take this illegitimate son’s life.
Failing to get an answer, Pei Yan continued on his own, “My mother always said my father was a very incredible person. Whenever she spoke of him, her eyes looked as if they were shining.”
Bai Heting hadn’t expected this kid to be so talkative. Just as he was about to tell him to shut up, the boy kept speaking on his own, “But every month, she would lock herself in her room for several days, looking so miserable she could die.” His voice sounded muffled as his breathing grew heavy. “She thought I didn’t understand anything, but I actually knew. The reason she was in pain was because he wasn’t there.”
Finally, he ground his teeth and said, “What is there to admire about someone so irresponsible?”
Once these words were spoken, both of them fell silent together, leaving only the populus trees rustling quietly in the lonely desert.
But this peace did not last long. Bai Heting suddenly dodged forward like a startled bird before turning around to snap sharply, “What are you doing?”
Pei Yan was startled by his intense reaction.
He blinked innocently, his tone entirely serious. “If I blow on it, the wound won’t hurt anymore.”
Bai Heting pushed him away before picking up his shirt from the ground to put it on.
Psychopath.
How could blowing on it possibly have a pain-relieving effect?
This youth turned hostile in the blink of an eye. Lost and bewildered, Pei Yan said, “When I used to get hurt, my mother would also…”
But he refused to say the rest of his words, and the rims of his eyes turned red once again.
Your mother, your mother. Bai Heting grew inexplicably irritable. “Why do you love to cry so much?”
Pei Yan fought back the tears gathering in his eyes and quickly lifted a hand to wipe them away.
“You are not allowed to cry.” Bai Heting’s eyes were fierce as he glared at him in warning. “I’ll kill you if you cry again.”
Pei Yan swallowed his sobs back into his stomach.
Bai Heting stopped speaking.
After getting dressed, he walked a short distance away and settled at the base of an old tree, drawing up his knees. Resting the left side of his body against the trunk, he slowly closed his eyes.
Only after a good while did he hear the boy’s dragging footsteps approaching from afar.
Bai Heting glanced at him.
The boy’s eyes were red and swollen, but his expression was calm. There seemed to be several wounds on his hands where he had been pricked by the cactus, and he only had one shoe left on his feet.
It was a truly wretched sight.
“Luo Congye.” Bai Heting called out to him.
Pei Yan stood frozen in place, still unaccustomed to this unfamiliar name.
“You are not allowed to tell anyone else about things from before ever again.” Bai Heting closed his eyes once more.
There was no tone of scolding in his voice; from his appearance, he just looked exhausted.
Seeing that the boy remained silent, he reminded him again, “From now on, when someone calls you ‘Luo Congye’, you must answer, ‘Yes’.”
Only then did Pei Yan react, answering in a low voice, “Yes.”
Bai Heting nodded.
Once, someone had given him a name and was willing to offer him a sanctuary. That favor… he had finally paid it back in full today.
He spoke no further. Pei Yan assumed he had fallen asleep and was about to look for a place to rest, when Bai Heting suddenly asked, “What was your mother like?”
“She…” Pei Yan was caught off guard by the question.
“She knew how to do everything,” he said earnestly. “And she was very beautiful.”
The corners of Bai Heting’s mouth curved slightly.
When it came to a mother’s looks, there weren’t many people who could outmatch his own.
“Tell me about it.” He let out a soft breath and asked again, “Besides blowing on your wounds, what else did she do?”
The youth kept his eyes closed the entire time. While a faint, lingering smile remained on his lips, his brow was slightly furrowed as if he were savoring something that was both joyful and sorrowful.
Pei Yan carefully took two steps forward and crouched down in front of him.
An arm slipped around his waist and reached toward his back. Unaccustomed to physical contact, Bai Heting instinctively tried to pull away, but Pei Yan’s other arm soon encircled him as well.
The youth’s body in his arms was stiff, like a startled fawn frozen with fear.
Pei Yan pressed his face tightly against the youth’s thin shoulder. After a moment of silence, he said softly, “When I am sad, she holds me like this.”
