Chapter 30 Rest Well

“Zhan Peng, you can’t be carrying me like this the entire walk,” she objected.
“Are you worried that I’ll get tired, or that you will fall deeper in love with me?” he questioned narcissistically.
She glared at him. “Obviously it’s because my weight will hinder you! Put me down!”
The mischievous prince had been carrying her for twenty minutes straight, and she already had enough. He let her down and she stood up, straightening her leg. That dull ache had since then disappeared, leaving her feeling warm and invigorated in his arms. He had that magical touch on her.
Did he have that effect on other women? She had just thought when she realised she was being insecure and quickly cast aside that self-doubt of hers.
They descended the vacant hills and arrived at a desolate village. By that time, it was getting dark and the sun was about to set, so Zhan Peng decided to stop there. At least, there wasn’t the threat of another dark inn.
He selected one of the smaller houses for them to spend the night at. There wasn’t any food on the shelves of the pantry in the house and neither were there any berry bushes or fruit trees to fuel their hunger. For the first time, she accompanied him hunting.
According to Zhan Peng, hunting was a common sport of the royals in Longsu. While they didn’t depend on the meat from wild game for survival, it was considered a skill that showed how competent each of the princes were. For this, he ranked second last, after the younger prince Di Chaoyang.
Each of the princes owned surnames of their own, but the only one among them who had a title was the tyrannical crown prince Miao. He was so treacherous that none of them even dared to mouth his name and only called him by his title, ‘Talented and Blessed Miao’.
Yuxi listened to the end of his story about the princes’ hunting game and contemplated her lover’s life back in his faraway kingdom. It was starting to become more understandable that he didn’t feel very welcomed in his own place. When she met him at the guard’s office, she never expected that he had this kind of life. She considered him spoiled and never having to suffer a day of his life, and that was why she detested him.
But at least he should have a friend or someone who supported him while he was at the palace? She pondered as they trudged almost noiselessly back with their harvest. Zhan Peng succeeded in securing some wild fowl, which they would roast under the fire.
“Yuxi, are you worried that if we go back to my land, I will not abide by my promise to you, and take interest in another? If that’s what you’re worried about…”
He leaned over her playfully, and continued, “Then keep me here. Don’t allow that possibility. While I’m here, there’s no likelihood of me being infidel to you.”
“What are you talking about?” She dismissed him, annoyed. “Do I seem that shallow to you?”
“It seems someone is jealous,” he puckered his lips, leading her into the bedroom. “Let’s have some fun before dinner, to remedy those ill feelings.”
“I’m not!” She denied, but it seemed Zhan Peng wasn’t listening to what she said as she was soon lying under him bare-chested. He slowly untied the cloth she wrapped around her bottom.
“It’s been a few days. I presume all is clear?”
She blushed profusely, and answered with a mere nod. He pulled off his own clothes and whispered, “What about you? If we return to Longsu, will you be infidel to me?”
“I..”
She couldn’t focus on an answer because he was going so fast inside her that she could barely think. At this rate, she was getting addicted to this naughty business with him. He suckled her buns like a noisy baby, making her moan louder. She didn’t want this moment to end.
They came together and she lay in his arms for some time before they got down from the bed. It was the most fabulous encounter she had. Maybe because they had just done it on a soft bed and not in a cave, or in a hut like their second time.
She was growing used to their little adventures and found it hurt less for her than the previous times. In fact, she enjoyed it so much that she couldn’t control the sounds leaving her mouth. She actually wanted him to go wilder on her, but she kept her thoughts to herself, knowing that it would affect what he saw in her.
“You made me starve for almost one whole week,” he teased, slipping a strand of her dishevelled hair behind her ear. “You made me want you so much, and not just your body.”
She mustered her strength and spoke. The lovemaking had been so vigorous that she was still slightly numbed from the activity, but the warmth of his body on hers invigorated her.
“That day, you mentioned something that was more than pinky promises. What did you mean by that?”
“You’ll know soon.”
She cast him a dirty look. He knew she was an impatient person, and keeping her waiting was just torturous to her. But she was now tired and hungry.
They headed outside after cleaning up. Zhan Peng easily set up a small fire by rubbing stones together and igniting small flames on some blades of grass. It was the first time she was reduced to such hardships, but it didn’t seem to be the first time for Zhan Peng. Goodness knows what happened in the one year he and Yang Tian lived in Shang-Yi.
There wasn’t any rice or bread, making her feel a level of absurdness. But still, they were together and alive, and that was what mattered the most. She didn’t know if this was what she wanted, living with Zhan Peng in the wild and away from the rest of the world. Despite him being a prince of Longsu, their relationship would be highly despised and her father might disown her.
But it would be a different story if she was the one who initiated it, and let it look as if she pursued him and forced him to have a relationship with her. A few decades ago, a woman tricked a man into sleeping with her. He was of a lower caste and the woman was the daughter of a minister. She had drugged him and given him her body, and then forced him to marry her. After her constant pushing, he gave in and married her.
In the beginning, it was a bit harsh for the couple. He had to lose his own surname and take on the woman’s surname, and work like a horse for his new father-in–law. Because she was from a prominent family, they didn’t look up to this commoner and treated him like a servant. However, the woman ended up falling pregnant, and everything changed for the better.
She had devised a plan. But knowing he was a prince didn’t make her feel it was right for her to make him adopt her surname, although she could make it look like she forced him into this unwilling relationship.
She could drug him and make it seem like she seduced him to sleep with her, but Qian Muyi was not one to be easily fooled. In addition, their employer and mercenary relationship made it even harder for anyone to empathise with them.
So, the best option was for them to lay low for now and not let anyone know about this relationship. It was helpful that she had childbearing issues and vice versa, but she also thought that getting pregnant with his child would be an ‘excuse’ to enable them to be together with little resistance from her traditional father.
“When we go back to our mission, is it possible if we could keep our relationship a secret?” She asked after finishing the last morsel of meat.
“Yuxi, I perfectly understand your situation. You don’t want anyone to know about us, right? Especially when I have nothing worthy of you.”
She trembled, but he just hugged her more tightly.
“We can be clandestine if that’s what you want. But one day, the truth will still come to light. Right now, this isn’t what we should focus on, but instead, how to prevail over your nemesis.”
He was correct. She had forgotten about Booyeong.
“So, what’s your plan? How should we win this battle?”
He just smiled. “Rest well, Yuxi. Without rest, you won’t have the strength.”