Wang Dian felt a long-lost sense of relaxation the day he left the palace.
He had chosen the house himself, and he didn’t hold back with Liang Ye. He worked hard and chose a large house with a good view, adjacent to the business center. It had to be surrounded by top-notch medical halls and restaurants. After much consideration, he chose a house quite far from the palace. The house was located in Ying Sufang. It was quiet once you entered the gate, and just one street away was the busiest market in the capital.
Everything from clothing, food, housing, and transportation was handled very smoothly by Yun Fu. Without Liang Ye’s disturbance, Wang Dian slept comfortably for three days. On the fourth day, he put on a mask and went to the market.
There were still three days left before he had to report for duty, and Wang Dian cherished this rare holiday. He only brought two guards given by Liang Ye, went to a restaurant to listen to storytelling for a morning, had a big meal at noon, and went to a riverside houseboat to listen to the qin in the afternoon.
The musician’s qin skills were outstanding. Wang Dian sipped his sake intermittently, nibbled on grapes in the cabin, watched the graceful beauty dancing on the deck, and was about to fall asleep.
But he heard a splash outside, followed by screams.
“Someone fell into the water!”
“Help!”
“Someone come!”
Wang Dian opened his eyes, sat up straight, and looked out to see what was happening. He saw a young man in white struggling in the water. Some followers had already jumped into the water to save him, but the young man seemed to have choked on water and was sinking. By the time he was rescued, he had already lost consciousness. He was revived by a girl, and there was a sudden commotion outside.
Wang Dian was separated from them by four or five houseboats, and he couldn’t see the excitement clearly, so he lay back on the couch. As soon as he lay down, he felt something was wrong. There was a strong smell of water plants around him. His eyes narrowed, and before he could move, a dagger was pressed against his neck.
“Don’t move.” A voice filled with menace sounded in his ear, “If you dare to move, I’ll cut your throat.”
Wang Dian raised his hand to indicate that he wouldn’t move. His neck had already been cut, and it stung a bit. He lowered his voice and said, “This gentleman, we don’t know each other and have no grudges. I wonder where I have offended you?”
The other party was soaked through, and the hand holding the dagger was still trembling, probably from the cold. Even in the height of summer, the river water was very cold. Wang Dian’s breathing became even lighter, “You see, my two guards are outside. Although I don’t know how you managed to get in without them noticing, if I make a sound, you definitely won’t be able to escape.”
“Shut up.” The other party gritted his teeth, “Why do you talk so much!”
“I’m scared.” Wang Dian swallowed, “Aren’t you scared when someone holds a knife to your throat?”
“Damn it.” The other party coughed, and Wang Dian’s eyes narrowed. He grabbed the dagger in his hand and pushed it away fiercely, while the sleeve arrow in his other hand was aimed at the man’s brow.
Obviously, the other party didn’t know martial arts either, he just used brute force to twist with him, and the dagger was pressed against his neck again, and the two immediately fell into a stalemate.
Wang Dian looked at the other party’s pale face and wet hair. This person’s eyes were frighteningly bright, with a bit of uncontrollable evil spirit. He steadied his arm and said calmly, “Do you think your dagger is faster or my arrow?”
“Damn it.” The other party looked like a human but spoke foully, “I’m so unlucky.”
“I’m the unlucky one, okay.” Wang Dian said with a frustrated face, “Finally, the boss gave me a holiday, and I was hijacked.”
“Stop—— I just came to find some silver.” The other party sighed with a headache, “I don’t like killing people.”
“Neither do I.” Wang Dian said, “If you want silver, you should have said it earlier, I’m not short of silver.”
“Damn it, whose silver is blown by the wind, if I ask you for silver without kinship, will you give it?” The other party looked at him as if he was a fool.
“No, aren’t you hijacking me?” Wang Dian found this person quite interesting, “How much silver do you want?”
“Three taels.” The other party frowned.
Wang Dian said, “I’ll count one, two, three, and we’ll let go together, and I’ll give it to you.”
The other party raised an eyebrow, “Do you keep your word?”
“Keep my word.” Wang Dian moved his sleeve arrow back a bit, “I don’t know martial arts either, one, two, three.”
As soon as the voice fell, no one let go.
“Brother, this is not interesting.” Wang Dian laughed.
“You didn’t let go either.” The other party said, “I know you young masters too well, each of you is a hypocritical bastard.”
“Why are you cursing people for no reason.” Wang Dian said, “There is silver in my sleeve, you can take it yourself.”
The other party touched his sleeve pocket suspiciously, touched it, and pulled out two round stones, one large and one small, “What is this?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he was about to throw it, and Wang Dian hurriedly shouted, “Hey, don’t throw it for me!”
The other party paused with the stone in his hand, puzzled, “What are you treasuring about two broken stones?”
“They were given to me by my boyfriend.” Wang Dian saw that his expression was still confused, changed his statement, coughed lightly and said, “They were given to me by my sweetheart, brother, you can take the silver as you like, but you can’t touch these two stones.”
The other party looked at him strangely, and pulled out two shiny yellow copper coins from his sleeve.
“Hey ——” Wang Dian braced himself under his gaze as if looking at a madman, and said, “This is also my sweetheart’s, I touched it and hid it for fun, maybe he will want it sometime, and I have to give it to him.”
The other party slapped the two copper coins heavily on the table, and pulled out a pocket of broken silver from his sleeve.
“You can take this.” Wang Dian didn’t even lift his eyelids.
The other party refused to be misled by fallacies, and continued to pull out a handkerchief from his sleeve, a small wooden stick that didn’t know what it was, a ginkgo leaf, and a dried flower clamped in the middle of the paper…
“My sweetheart’s handkerchief, his favorite wooden stick… the leaf we picked up when we were dating… the flower he gave me…” Wang Dian looked at the roof of the cabin nonchalantly.
The other party had a face that looked like he had been soured, “What kind of person is this sweetheart of yours? It’s fine to be stingy, but it’s like he’s not right in the head, what are all these things?”
“Can you even talk?” Wang Dian disagreed, “My sweetheart is not only smart but also good-looking. It’s not his fault that his family is poor, and I’m willing.”
The other party glanced at the odds and ends on the table again, and said sourly, “You’re still considered a man.”
“Take the silver and go quickly.” Wang Dian’s sleeve arrow was very steady, and he warned, “Don’t touch these things.”
“Damn it, who cares.” The other party sneered, took about three taels from the silver pocket, and tucked it into his sleeve, “What’s your name?”
“Why?” Wang Dian squinted his eyes.
“My name is Zhao Wu, I’ll pay you back later.” The other party said.
“No need, it’s a gift.” Wang Dian said, “Take care.”
Zhao Wu looked at him, “Madman.”
Wang Dian moved his sleeve arrow, and Zhao Wu retreated cautiously. Then he retreated again, and with a splash, the other party disappeared in front of him.
Wang Dian covered his bleeding hand and looked down to see that a hole had been dug under the couch he was lying on at some unknown time. It seemed that the hole had been there for quite a while. He took a cloth strip and wrapped it around his palm haphazardly, then put all the odds and ends on the table back into his sleeve pocket.
Although Liang Ye didn’t have the habit of touching his robe sleeves —— this guy usually touched him directly, he still decided to hide the things a little more.
Although these were just some of his small hobbies, from the perspective of normal people, it was indeed a bit strange, like a pervert.
He coughed uncomfortably, touched the round little stone, of course, he was not a pervert, aside from their “private affairs”, he just had a bit of… inexplicable liking and care for Liang Ye, just like when he was a child, he liked stones and cotton dogs.
The kind of liking where he wanted to hug and bite and take a deep breath, but after all, he was not as capricious as Liang Ye, he just thought about it occasionally.
Wang Dian touched his nose, hid his unspeakable little hobby, and transformed into a human-like appearance. He took the two guards who were like decorations to the medical hall to disinfect and bandage his wound, and then slowly returned to the mansion.
As soon as he entered the backyard, he saw Liang Ye standing under a tree with his hands behind his back. The lantern candlelight flickered, reflecting his eyes in a mix of light and dark.
Liang Ye’s gaze fell on his hand wrapped in cloth, and he gave him a questioning look.
Wang Dian looked down at his hand that was wrapped like a dumpling, raised it imperceptibly under the dim candlelight to make it more noticeable, then frowned and sucked in a breath of cold air, “Hiss.”
