I Rely on Beauty to Stabilize the Country - Chap 41

Our… eyes are burning.

Gu Yuanbai was about to gouge out his own eyes, but then he suddenly spotted a scar on Xue Yuan’s waist. It was a scar from a terrible knife wound, and even now it looked so severe that it was obvious it had been life threatening.

“How did it end up like that?” Gu Yuanbai frowned, wondering what kind of encounter could cause the novel’s protagonist to suffer such a grievous injury.

“I was born like this.” Xue Yuan frowned. “I’m a rough man, not as refined as Your Highness.”

Gu Yuanbai’s eyebrow twitched. “I’m talking about that scar on your waist!”

Xue Yuan’s expression suddenly closed off, and he pulled up his pants in silence, turning around to head out and pick up firewood with the rest of the guards.

Gu Yuanbai said sternly, “Get back here!”

Xue Yuan paused for a moment before turning around to face Gu Yuanbai again.

His eyebrows were pressed together, his eyes were dark, as if covered by a black mist, and anyone would’ve been able to tell that he was in a very bad mood at that moment.

He looked like a barrel of oil that was about to explode, leaning away from Gu Yuanbai in fear of hurting the Emperor.

Gu Yuanbai suppressed the lecture that was about to spill out of his mouth. He huffed and asked, “Aren’t you going to treat Us?”

Xue Yuan’s expression changed a few times, and finally he stepped in closer and muttered, “Your Majesty, where were you injured?”

Previously, he had been begging Gu Yuanbai to let him take a look, but when he mentioned the scar on his waist, the mad dog stopped his requests completely.

Gu Yuanbai said unhappily, “Under the left calf.”

Xue Yuan looked down and placed one knee on the ground, lifting Gu Yuanbai’s left leg up. The suit had been tied tight, and he had to loosen the ties one by one before rolling the trouser’s leg up.

Gu Yuanbai was wearing a broad red coat today. If he got injured and started bleeding, it’d be hard to tell from the outside. Gu Yuanbai just felt a bit of pain, and, when Xue Yuan exposed his left leg, he saw that there was actually a hole on the pants.

It had probably been caused by a branch or something similar tearing it without him noticing. When Xue Yuan saw the wound, his face sank and his touch became softer. He took out the medicine bottle that he hadn’t finished using up and, after cleaning the wound, he applied the medicine on Gu Yuanbai.

The hand applying the medicine took it very seriously, without shaking at all. He feared that Gu Yuanbai would pull his leg back if it hurt, and he took his other hand to grasp Gu Yuanbai’s ankle firmly.

His palms were as hot as fire.

Gu Yuanbai glanced at the wound casually. “Xue Jiuyao, We asked you something and you just turn around and walk away?”

Xue Yuan replied, “Your Highness, Lord Zhang and the others have returned.”

Gu Yuanbai looked up and realized they had returned, and, in the blink of an eye, Xue Yuan had stepped back to prepare himself to light up the wood that had been soaked by the rain.

After a while, the captain of the guard took a wet handkerchief and walked over, explaining in a warm voice, “Your Majesty, young master Xue said that, once this wet wood is ignited, it’ll release a lot of smoke. Covering the mouth and nose would be a good idea.”

Gu Yuanbai took the wet handkerchief and glanced at Xue Yuan’s back. The guard captain followed his gaze. Even if he didn’t like Xue Yuan, the man, who was loyal and reliable, still said, “Young master Xue knows a lot.”

Gu Yuanbai covered his mouth and nose with the handkerchief and finally said, “You should learn more good things from him.”

Zhang Xu’s face twisted, and he almost wanted to say ‘Does Xue have anything else good in him?’. But since the one saying that was the Emperor, he just thought that maybe he had been prejudiced against Xue Yuan and ignored his good points, so he nodded and said, “I will do as you say, Your Majesty.”

Gu Yuanbai nodded slightly.

After the fire was ignited, the smoke in the cave slowly dissipated.

Gu Yuanbai was sitting by the fire, his face lit up by the flames. Xue Yuan was being extremely quiet, just fiddling with the fire on the side.

Gu Yuanbai said, “Guard Xue, We want to ask you a few questions.”

Xue Yuan glanced at him. The warm light illuminated the young Emperor’s face, making it go a bit red and looking tender as tofu. He softened his voice unconsciously. “What does Your Majesty want to know?”

Gu Yuanbai said, “About the military’s needs, We want to ask about your army’s soldiers and cavalry, the new and old recruits, and about the wounded veterans.”

Naturally, Gu Yuanbai already knew about these issues, but there could be things to be gained from asking someone else for their point of view.

Xue Yuanbai was very familiar with these matters, and he told him about all of it. Who was alright, who felt scornful, and some ideas that matched with what Gu Yuanbai already had in mind.

Gu Yuanbai raised his eyebrows and looked at him with a smile. After he finished talking about the friction between the people in charge of distribution of military resources and new and veteran soldiers, Gu Yuanbai asked the question he most wanted to know. “What about the wounded veterans?”

Xue Yuan said with a smile, “Your Majesty, they’re miserable. There’s no need to use medicine on those with light injuries, and there’s no need to use medicine on those with severe injuries. Instead, you can just wait for their deaths. As for those that have their legs broken or their hands amputated, since they cannot go to battle nor hold a sword or spear, there’s no need to heal them up.”

Xue Yuan’s expression was indifferent, and he glanced at the guards that were listening to him with a smile full of teeth. “It’s a pretty good way to save up on medicine, isn’t it?”

The guards’ had complex expressions. They could tell that Xue Yuan’s words were full of irony.

But a scene like that, no matter how it was told, wouldn’t have the same impact as seeing it in person. However, because Xue Yuan had personally experienced such a battlefield, when he spoke he carried a rather convincing aura.

Gu Yuanbai asked again, “What caused the scar on your waist?”

Xue Yuan slowly turned to look at him, his lips curled into a smile. “Your Majesty, do you really want to know?”

His expression looked off, as if a large beast was about to rise up violently.

Gu Yuanbai nodded.

Xue Yuan suddenly pushed Gu Yuanbai to the ground like a vicious wolf. He put his hands on the sides of Gu Yuanbai’s head, his eyes looking red, and his whole body loomed, a black shadow over Gu Yuanbai. “Your Majesty, have you ever heard of two-legged sheep?”1

“Yoru Majesty!” The guards got up quickly, drew their swords, pointing them at Xue Yuan, and surrounded the two of them. “Xue Yuan, let go of the Emperor!”

The mad dog had obviously gone mad, and he looked terrible, but even though the push was obviously heavy, Gu Yuanbai didn’t even feel any pain.

Xue Yuan may not have even noticed himself, but his actions when he pushed Gu Yuanbai down on the ground were very restrained.

Gu Yuanbai asked, “What is a two-legged sheep?”

“On the battlefield, the losing side will be looted and plundered.” Xue Yuan smiled grimly. “When there’s no good to take, they treat the women as beasts, as food, as military prostitutes; they bring them around as their pay. They call them two-legged sheep. Those barbarians also split those women into three, six or nine types, and cook them differently, Your Majesty. The beautiful ones would be placed in a pot and cooked slowly over a small fire. That’s their preferential treatment for beautiful women.”

A blue vein on Xue Yuan’s neck bulged in anger, and he pressed on. “We, the ones guarding the border, wanted to kill those nomads, but, no matter how many times we told the Imperial court, we wouldn’t be allowed to! We were told to drive them away, but how many times can we simply drive them away? They won’t learn the lesson if we don’t kill them! We don’t get paid, the court won’t send us goods, and our fucking weapons are blunt! We need to recruit new soldiers, from where are we supposed to get them?!”

Xue Yuan sneered and continued. “That day, I saw the nomads coming back again, so we headed in to guard the population’s homes ahead of time. The people were scared. They were scared, seeing us standing at the border every day without going to battle. They thought we were working with the nomads. After we showed in front of their doors, they thought that we were going to snatch their daughters away to eat them. An old woman with a head full of white hair rushed out of a house holding a kitchen knife, and a soldier raised his sword and cut her up without thinking.

“This confirmed to them that our battalion were all gangsters.” Xue Yuan lowered his head, his hot breath falling on Gu Yuanbai’s face. “They revolted, to either kill us or die. Our army suppressed the riot and they didn’t want to kill them, but they desperately tried to kill us. My2 injury was caused by a little boy with a knife.”

There was silence in the cave, and the only thing that could be heard was Xue Yuan’s heavy breathing.

“But thanks to that riot,” Xue Yuan said, suddenly grinning, “we managed to stay alive, by stealing the food from those that now had died.”

Some of the guards heard this and furiously said, “How could you—”

Xue Yuan turned his head and glanced at them harshly, and the speakers could just shut their mouth.

“Your Majesty has asked me so many questions. Now this official wants to ask Your Majesty one thing.” Xue Yuan looked down at Gu Yuanbai, staring directly at the delicate young Emperor, completely different from him, and stretched out a hand to lift the Emperor’s chin. He needed to control his hands’ strength, so he began to shake a bit. “Your Majesty, what were you doing at the time?”

The Emperor frowned slightly and said, “Xue Yuan, it hurts.”

Xue Yuan’s hands shook harshly.

He looked at Gu Yuanbai stiffly and, as if he had received a major blow, his madness vanished completely. He slowly got off the young Emperor, then pulled him up, saying quietly, “Where does it hurt?”

Crazy, Xue Yuan thought, I’ve gone completely crazy.

Gu Yuanbai just said ‘it hurts’ and that instantly dispelled the anger and resentment that were flooding Xue Yuan’s heart.

The painful memories from just a moment ago disappeared abruptly, and his hatred towards the ruler and the grievances that threatened to eat him alive calmed down once more. Because of that, his renewed anger and cruelty also seemed to have been put out by a sudden splash of cold water.

Gu Yuanbai sat up, his hair dirty with dust from the ground, and the marks of the fingers on his chin were clearly visible. Xue Yuan looked at the fingerprints he had left behind, and the anger in his eyes turned towards himself.

Xue Jiuyao, don’t you know how weak he is?

Xue Yuan raised his hand and slapped himself.

He also thought you’re finished, Xue Yuan.

You cannot keep holding onto all that hatred and resentment.

Gu Yuanbai calmed down. In fact, it didn’t hurt much. Xue Yuan had unconsciously protected him. He said it just to remind Xue Yuan, who seemed to have been going crazy.

He just didn’t expect the effect of that sentence to be so good.

It was so good… that it went beyond Gu Yuanbai’s expectations.

Gu Yuanbai exhaled and then turned to the side. Just like Xue Yuan had, he also grabbed Xue Yuan’s chin and turned his face around so that he could look at him directly.

The flames jumped around, and the other people around them didn’t dare say a word. He could hear the other man’s breathing, louder than his own.

“Since We are here and We are in charge, those things you speak of will never happen again,” Gu Yuanbai declared simply. “Do you believe in Us, official Xue?”

Xue Yuan raised his head and looked at Gu Yuanbai. Before he could reply to him, he heard a strange sound.

It was a thumping sound that seemed to come from inside his own chest.