Chapter 2: The Femme Fatale

Chapter 2: The Femme Fatale

On a forest trail, a person gallops at full speed. Horse hooves shatter the layered fallen leaves, and the wind flips the veil on the hood up and down.

It would have been a scene of ethereal beauty, except Lu Changping knew all too well that the slightest inattention would plaster the veil across his face, suffocating him.

Presently in disarray, a moment's inattention could reveal his cross-dressing secret. After much deliberation, Emperor Lu, disguised as a woman, resigned himself to his fate—the hood must be worn, the face must be concealed.

All his thoughts culminated in one sentence: "Being a woman is truly difficult."

When he finally returned to where the bridal procession had been ambushed, he found nothing but corpses strewn about, with not a single survivor in sight.

The soldiers guarding the princess were among the elite of Southern Chu's army. Even if one or two treacherous assassins infiltrated their ranks, they should not have been so easily defeated.

It seemed the survivors either went for reinforcements or to search for the abducted "Princess Zhao Yun."

Lu Changping lingered for a while, but seeing no one in the desolate wilderness, he was unwilling to wait any longer.

Feeling hungry, he thought if the next group to arrive were assassins, fighting on an empty stomach, even with his skill, he wouldn't last long.

Regrettably, the two royal chefs who had accompanied the matrimonial convoy to Beiwei had vanished without a trace.

The imperial city of Lincheng in Beiwei was strategically located, easy to defend but hard to attack, surrounded by endless desolate mountains. Even with some valuables on him, Lu Changping had nowhere to exchange them for food.

In the end, he had to fend for himself, spending half a day hunting a pitifully thin wild chicken, plucking and roasting it over a fire.

Without any seasoning, the taste was far from good, but Lu Changping was not picky. Being able to eat meat in such a place left him completely satisfied.

In the end, he even foresightedly saved two chicken legs as provisions for the next day…

As the golden sun sets in the west, the tall youth in women's clothing still aimlessly wanders the mountains. Although his immediate concern for food has been resolved, where to spend the night remains undecided.

Lu Changping, who finds no rest even in the imperial palace, fears he won’t be able to close his eyes all night if he has to make do with the open sky as his blanket.

Just when he was at a loss, he suddenly spotted a faint light in the distance. It turned out there was a thatched hut on the mountain top still inhabited.

From afar, it wasn't clear, but upon approaching, he found that the hut was actually a mountain god temple.

Someone had lit a fire in front of the deity's statue, and in the dancing shadows, the mountain god's face, with its flaking paint, looked particularly fierce and terrifying.

Stepping over the threshold, Lu Changping cautiously moved forward, always on guard for any assassin who might wish to take his life.

Trained in martial arts from a young age and more perceptive than most, he had barely entered the temple when he acutely sensed another person's breathing, along with a faint trace of blood in the air.

It was clear that only one person was hiding in the temple, wounded, and likely not one of the attackers from the morning given the severity of his injuries.

Lu Changping relaxed slightly, about to greet the hidden person, when suddenly a noise came from behind him, and a shadow with a dagger charged straight at him…

This sudden attack was meant to be fierce, but unfortunately, the assailant's knees buckled before he could reach Lu Changping, and he fell heavily to the ground.

The attack was more bark than bite, and Lu Changping couldn’t help but laugh. He almost quipped, "What a grand gesture for our first meeting," but stopped himself.

Regrettably, currently disguised in women's clothing and assuming his sister's identity, he had to speak as little as possible to avoid complications.

The person on the ground, clearly having heard Lu Changping laughing, struggled to stand but collapsed again due to severe leg injuries after barely moving an inch.

With a mix of anger and resentment in his eyes, he stubbornly raised his head, locking eyes with Lu Changping, who had leaned down.

The young man in black that Lu Changping saw had a pale, somber face with strikingly delicate and bright features.

Two starkly different styles intertwined within the same person, blossoming into an extreme sense of decadent beauty that was captivatingly hard to look away from.

Upon seeing Lu Changping, the other party was also shocked for a moment, then coldly threatened, "Control your eyes. Dare to look again, and I will gouge them out to feed the dogs."

He seemed accustomed to speaking harshly, threatening others without even blinking an eye.

For some reason, such venomous words changed their flavor when they came from his mouth, inadvertently reminding Lu Changping of the seductive femme fatales in the romance novels his sister read.

Unfortunately, just as the femme fatale finished speaking, his stomach embarrassingly growled. In an instant, the fierce aura he had built up vanished without a trace.

A blush crept over the face of the young man in black, who hurriedly pressed his hand against his stomach, trying to cover up the embarrassing sound. Regrettably, contrary to his wishes, a second "gurgle" soon followed...

Lu Changping, being soft-hearted, saw his discomfort from hunger and casually handed over a roasted chicken leg he had intended to keep as a reserve.

Unexpectedly, the young man was not at all grateful, merely staring coldly at the chicken leg with his beautiful phoenix eyes, without reaching out to take it.

Truly difficult to please!

Muttering under his breath, Lu Changping lifted a corner of his veil and took a fierce bite of the chicken leg, then boldly stuffed it into the hands of the young man in black.

The night breeze stirred, causing the light veil on the hat to sway back and forth. The youth, kneeling on the ground reluctantly, caught a glimpse of the "woman" who offered him the chicken leg as he looked up inadvertently.

The "woman" had fair skin, a high nose bridge, and a pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes that shimmered and shone.

Even after seeing countless noble ladies in the northern imperial city, none could compare to the person before him.

After observing the stunning beauty of unparalleled elegance, and then looking at the chicken leg with a big bite taken out of it, his ears involuntarily warmed up, yet the words he uttered were still extremely unpleasant:

"Shameless. Have your parents never taught you the principle that men and women should not touch hands when giving or receiving objects?"

Hearing this, Lu Changping was genuinely infuriated.

He had kindly offered the chicken leg, fearing poison he refused to eat; after taking a bite and offering it to him, he accused him of shamelessness.

People who are so picky deserve to starve to death in this dilapidated temple!

To think, a sovereign of a nation, dressed as a woman, has to endure such indignity. Lu Changping was quite angered, ready to retract the chicken leg and leave the person to fend for themselves.

Yet, in just a moment of distraction, the young man in black who had just shown disdain had already devoured half of the chicken leg.

Lu Changping wanted to grab him and ask if the principle of men and women not touching had been eaten by dogs.

Before he could figure out how to properly address this, his attention was drawn away by the increasingly strong scent of blood in the air.

Soon, he discovered that the young man in black was bleeding from a wound on his leg. A large patch of blood had soaked through the fabric, forming a stark and alarming stain on the ground. If left unattended, the young man might not last much longer.

Lu Changping's heart skipped a beat, and without much deliberation on whether to save him or not, his body moved on its own accord.

He vaguely remembered, at the age of ten, playing hide and seek with Zhao Yun in the imperial garden. Zhao Yun got her leg stuck in a crevice of a rockery, bleeding profusely and crying heartbreakingly.

He couldn't remember how Zhao Yun was rescued, only that her legs were nearly crippled afterwards. Despite the imperial physician's careful treatment, several scars remained, indelible.

Though neither Zhao Yun nor the late emperor blamed him, those scars were etched deeply into his memory. Since then, he could no longer bear to see anyone with injured legs bleeding profusely.

At this moment, the figure of the young man kneeling on the ground overlapped with the injured Zhao Yun in his mind…

With trembling hands, Lu Changping tore off the hem of his robe, found the wound, and tightly bound it with a strip of fabric. The young man gasped in pain but bit his lip, refusing to cry out.

After a makeshift bandage, Lu Changping pressed a few acupoints near the wound to temporarily halt the worsening of the injury.

After the ordeal, both individuals in the mountain god temple were drenched in cold sweat, one from pain and the other from the shock of the grave injury.

When the young man in black had fully recovered from the pain and his consciousness cleared, his gaze no longer held the sharpness it did before.

Seeing the shortened hem of Lu Changping's dress and the glimpses of his fair legs as he moved, the young man's expression darkened further.

After a long silence, he spoke in a hoarse voice, "I will compensate you for the dress."

Lu Changping, still reveling in the joy of saving a life, was abruptly brought back to reality by these words.

Growing up in the Southern Chu Imperial Palace, he had no idea people outside were so petty. Saved from peril, one would expect gratitude, at least some semblance of sincerity.

Yet this person, saved from danger, didn’t even utter a "thank you," merely mentioning compensation for a dress in an indifferent tone.

In the Southern Chu Imperial Palace, there were countless dresses far more luxurious than the one he wore; his act of kindness was not for some tattered dress!

"Are you upset?" the young man in black, peering into Lu Changping's eyes through the veil, asked in a cool, pleasant voice tinged with confusion, "Is it because I've caused you to lose your reputation that you resent me?"

Then, as if suddenly understanding, he tried to reassure Lu Changping, "You needn't worry. If anyone dares to gossip because of this, I'll kill them for you."