Edited by renderedreversed
Three months later; it was now midwinter. Wei Country had issued a decree declaring war on Qi Country. At this time, the emperor and the empress dowager were also locked in an intense battle with each other.
Before going to send the troops, the emperor summoned me to the palace again to both appease and intimidate me. Since he was keeping an eye on me, I didn’t think I’d be able to slip away from the battlefield.
Back to the general’s mansion, Chu Kong was gnawing on a roasted chicken while he bitterly grumbled: “Damn Wei Country! Why start a war in midwinter, causing xiaoye to run here and there in this weather. Xiao Xiang Zi, go, go fight a battle or two with them. Abuse them a little before running away.”
Just as I was wondering what things I needed to bring with me, Chu Kong had to go and say something like that.
“You’re not the one who needs to go to the battlefield. You only know lip service. If you want to abuse them, go abuse them yourself.”
Chu Kong bit into a large piece of meat and vaguely mumbled: “Who says xiaoye isn’t going?”
My eyes lit up and I stared at him.
“Do you want to impersonate me and go to the battlefield in my place? Princess Kong, after becoming a woman, you’ve become more human.”
Chu Kong took once faint glance at me before he suddenly sneered. Then, he continued to bite into his chicken without additional comment. That he didn’t refute me was supposed to be a good surprise, but it still made my mind uneasy.
A few days after that, even seeing Chu Kong’s shadow became an impossible task. I still didn’t see him on the day of departing, either. I began to worry, not about him, but about myself. Only the Gods knew what game he was playing...
On the day of my departure, I sat at a long table with the emperor. We drank blood wine together before I had to leave.
I had to wear heavy armor as I rode my warhorse. The warhorse staggered a little and shook its head. Actually, maybe this was a little too much armor...
In front of the citizens of the capital who came to see me off, I led the horse forward and left the capital.
I had heard word that this General Chu was very brave before he died. He also was quite the war tactician. Every war he battled in, even if he was at a disadvantage, he still came out the victor.
Wei Country feared this General Chu considerably. Of course, on the way to the frontline, I still suffered many assassination attempts.
It was just that, though this lifetime was undoubtedly filled with trial and tribulation… When being poisoned, Chu Yi would block it for me. When being assassinated, Chu Yi would block it for me. He really was a human shield. My ‘gold’ armor would also block it for me. Every time an assassin came close, I didn’t move or run; I just firmly sat there and waited. When my would-be murderer was about to strike a deathly blow, no matter if it was upon his head, shoulder, or abdomen, the first thing that would fall first was Chu Yi’s sword. Over time, rumors developed that the general was invincible. The rumors in the army said that the general was extremely powerful, and that he cultivated a golden hard body that would never wither.
Of course, they were mortals. They didn’t know any better. I, on the other hand, knew that this general’s golden hard body was not, in fact, invincible. It was really hard to run away with this body.
The biggest problem that came with the assassination attempts was Chu Yi. He was always attentive to a fault afterwards. All day long, he stood beside me with that wooden face. It became really difficult to escape.
Day after day, the frontline grew nearer. I was so anxious that I was an insomniac every night.
On one of these particular nights, the army was camping on the outskirts. I was sitting in a tent with a headache. Suddenly, I could hear Chu Yi’s voice yelling: “Presumptuous! Whose underling are you? How dare you sneak into the general’s tent!”
An assassination attempt again? I waited for half a day and still didn’t hear a sound. My anxiety got the best of me, so I walked out of the tent, only to find Chu Yi holding a skinny soldier. This skinny soldier’s eyes were impressive; he wasn’t intimidated at all and in fact was staring at Chu Yi with a cold, unyielding look. Seeing that I had come out, his eyes fell onto me. With raised eyebrows, his lips moved and said, “Xiao Xiang Zi.”
I also raised an eyebrow. I didn’t expect Chu Kong to dress like a soldier and mix into the army. But why didn’t he come to look for me after so many days? Why did he come today? I coughed and said, “Soldier, what do you have to report?”
In the sunlight, Chu Kong’s face was a little pale. He deliberately lowered his voice and hoarsely said, “General, it’s life-threatening information.”
I nodded. “Come in and talk.”
Chu Yi refused to release him.
“General, this is probably a bad idea...”
“No harm.”
I waved my hand and took Chu Kong with me into the tent. It was just that this place wasn’t like the general’s mansion. Anyone could overhear us outside. I let Chu Kong come to my desk. There, I handed him a brush and asked: “What do you have to report?”
While Chu Kong said aloud, “A matter of life and death,” he wrote on the paper, “There’s another child in my belly.”
I was so shocked that all I could do was stare dumbfounded at Chu Kong. I even forgot to answer him.
Heavens, after he lost the child, I really didn’t touch her! Could it be that in these short three months he...he found a man outside? I instantly felt my face become green with anger. This was really too bizarre. Celestial Star Chu Kong was...was really one of a kind? So when he finally had a woman’s body, he couldn’t wait and...this was really something unexpected.
Seeing that my expression grew weirder by the minute, he wrote: “Cut it out. Your imagination is too wild.”
Then, Chu Kong wrote seriously once more: “Only half of the fetus came out that time.”
I was surprised again. Did this princess miscarry only by half?
Chu Kong glared at me and wrote: “This body is weak.”
After he told me one big news after another, Chu Kong had successfully made me completely speechless. I was frozen for a moment. Then, I stooped down and opened his hem without a word. There was a red mark slowly expanding on his blue undergarments.
I froze again, but then a thought flashed through my mind. I asked, “Does it hurt?”
He answered immediately. “Hurts.”
I nodded and stood up. In his ear, I whispered, “I think your period has come.”
“Pu,” Chu Kong shivered and turned his head. His expression was like a lost child’s. I patted his shoulder.
“This is really normal. You should get accustomed to it.”
Chu Kong squatted, clutching his stomach. He was in shock. The sigh softened my heart long enough to make me drag him to my bed and lay him down. I exited the tent and said to Chu Yi, who was standing guard right outside, “Bring me some clean clothes and some cotton and thread.”
After hearing what I said, Chu Yi gave me a strange look. It took a while before he nodded and hesitantly left.
I didn’t know why he was acting so strangely and swept my gaze across the soldiers. They also gave me an awkward look. I turned, looked back at the tent, and saw that the fire’s light had cast Chu Kong’s shadow upon the cloth walls, visible for all to see. In fact, I clearly saw him rolling around on my bed. The meanings of their expressions instantly became clear to me.
This, how can I explain this...
I squeezed the bridge of my nose and waited for Chu Yi to bring the things that I needed. Then I went inside the tent and put the fire out, decisively putting an end to their imaginations.
The first thing to do was to let Chu Kong change into some clean clothes. In the dark, I sewed a piece of cotton-filled cloth inside for him. Chu Kong lied on the bed with a pale face and softly said to me: “You women really don’t have an easy life.”
I always had a healthy body, so I never knew the pain of periods. But this time, Chu Kong had actually said such a sentence, so even though I had never experienced it before, I felt that this pain he was going through must’ve been more painful than death.
I probed with my hand under the quilt. As I rubbed his belly, I murmured back to him: “It’s good that you know. See how you can bully me in the future now without a guilty conscience.”
“Why can’t I?” Chu Kong said, self-righteous. “Now, I’m the woman.”
I pressed down on his belly. “You’re really thick-skinned.”
I rubbed his stomach for a while. Eventually, I also began to feel sleepy, so I lied down next to him on the bed. With no particular emphasis, I asked, “When will we run away? After a few more days, we’ll be at the frontline.”
“I said I want to abuse Wei Country a little for letting xiaoye suffer. If I don’t give them an opportunity to compensate me for all this trouble, this body would’ve suffered in vain.”
I sighed. “It’s not Wei Country that’s caused your period. Why do you bother with these mortals? Quickly running away is the important issue now.”
“I don’t want to.”
My mouth twitched. Inwardly, I thought that Chu Kong was really obsessed with this.
Fine, I thought, tomorrow I’ll abandon Chu Kong and run away alone. His period came, so surely he couldn’t play any sort of games to stop me.
But the plans of yesterday could not keep up with the changes of today. The next day, I suffered another assassination attempt. But this time...the ‘one’ that Wei Country sent to assassinate me was actually a troop of two thousand men.
We were currently in the middle of a forest. At one side was a mountain; at another side was a cliff. Beneath us was a river.
Wei Country wanted to ambush us here: their goal was to make us either climb up the mountain or jump off the cliff.
I rode on a horse, Chu Kong riding right beside me. On his steed, his dodging ability was flawless. Not a stone hit him. My horse was a good horse as well, but due to its weight, his reaction was always a half beat slower. It was a team effort between my horse and I to dodge everything. And even when I dodged the big stone, there would always be smaller stones that hit my head. It didn’t take long for the damage to build up, causing my reaction speed to slow even further.
Suddenly, it grew dark. I looked up and saw a gigantic stone coming straight towards me. To be honest, I blanked. I thought that this time, I was really minced meat and was about to receive my one-way ticket to the Netherworld to kiss Yanwang.
But in that split moment, another horse hit my horse. I felt someone crash into me, throwing the both of us off horseback and onto the ground. The giant stone flew right over us, almost touching my leg.
I stared blankly at the person lying above me. A little dumbfounded, I said, “Chu Kong, you’re in a woman’s body, how did you throw me off my horse...”
Running away alone was going to be really hard now, ah...
Chu Kong grabbed hold of my collar and cursed: “You’ve become more and more stupid, ah! Do you really want to go and kiss Yanwang’s cheek?!”
I was about to explain that I really couldn’t move, but before I could even open my mouth, the ground suddenly shook. I was surprised. The color of Chu Kong’s face also changed.
“Not good! The giant stone is causing an avalanche!”
He tried to stand up, but before he could stabilize his body, we both felt the ground shake again. I couldn’t control my body and began to roll down the mountainside. The river below promised a slow death.
This... I might as well just get crushed by the stone; it’d be quicker than drowning, or being dragged along with the current and hitting my head on all the sharp rocks…
Something tightened around my hand. I turned and saw Chu Kong, lying on the ground with his hand clutching mine. His face was pale. There was pain written all over his face.
“You...fucking...you…so...so heavy!”
Sorry, the heavy thing was the golden armor, not me...
“Let go,” I said. “You don’t need to die with me.”
I was always a person with a good heart. In front of death, I didn’t want to drag a scapegoat along with me. After all, in this lifetime, Chu Kong treated me pretty well. Both of us got along harmoniously. There’s no need to die together here.
Chu Kong gritted his teeth, but still kept his grip on my hand. My heart fluttered. Seeing this man with his delicate face scrunched up in desperation, my heart began to beat chaotically.
Suddenly, an old sentiment crossed my mind. So this lifetime’s play of the little wife chasing the husband was like this, ah. So this was how the little wife chasing the husband felt like, ah. So, even knowing that he was Chu Kong, I’d still have moments where I couldn’t control my heartbeat, ah...
The golden armor was really heavy. Chu Kong’s body had been dragged down the cliff with me.
With a “putong“ sound, we fell into the river. I felt the cold water flood into the gaps of my clothing, rushing right against my skin. The heavy armor dragged me directly into the deepest parts of the river. Suddenly, I thought about Chu Kong; he was still on his period. He...must really be in pain now.
My neck felt tight. A slender arm was grabbing at my head. I felt someone pulling me to the surface, but this armor was really heavy and dragged both of us to the bottom of the river. Chu Kong, who came to save me, fiercely slapped my face. He seemed to be very angry.
I sunk all the way down until I was lying on the riverbed. I dimly felt Chu Kong anxiously getting rid of my armor. When I was about to lose consciousness, I subconsciously opened my mouth to breathe, but I gulped some river water instead. Again, my body wanted to struggle. Bubbles formed in my mouth and I gulped down more water.
In this moment of confusion, I felt warm lips on my lips. Warm breath went into my mouth. My mind cleared up. At the same time, I felt my body become lighter. The heavy armor fell off, causing clouds of sand to fly into the river’s current.
Chu Kong grabbed my collar and swam to the surface. His movements were a little slow. He must also be...almost out of breath.
My gaze was fixed on the moon, its shape reflected on the surface of the river. I suddenly felt something grabbing my feet. I didn’t know where this aquatic plant was coming from, but its grip was firm on my leg. Shocked, I began to struggle. A little above me, Chu Kong hadn’t yet reached the surface when he turned and looked. His face turned pale.
Suddenly the aquatic plant began to pull me down, using its leverage on my leg. I wondered, this wasn’t right...this was obviously like a living thing pulling me down...
I looked back and saw the plant had turned into a chain. It wrapped around my whole leg, tugging me down with it. I was totally unable to resist. My eyes widened in horror and I looked at Chu Kong. At that moment it exerted more strength, pulling and pulling as I was unable to fight back. My head slammed against the floor of the river. In the darkness, I felt someone tightly holding onto my hand. Regardless of the turbulent flow, he didn’t let go.