EHW Ch31

Pei Xin still wasn’t fully comfortable with Gu Fangzhi’s touch, but for the sake of a good night’s sleep, he obediently lay face-down on the bed without needing to be told. His face remained stern, but his posture said, Let’s get this over with.

Gu Fangzhi asked cheerfully,

“Would Your Majesty like to hear a story tonight?”

Pei Xin: “……”

“No need.”

Gu Fangzhi’s stories were completely nonsensical, incoherent, absurd, as if he thought Pei Xin was an idiot. He’d have to be mad to listen again.

Gu Fangzhi only murmured an “oh,” then began pressing Pei Xin’s shoulders.
Perhaps because he’d recently eaten honey tangerines, the usual faint scent of osmanthus on him now carried a trace of citrus peel.

Then Gu Fangzhi spoke up suddenly above him:

“Oh, right, Your Majesty.”

Pei Xin hummed to signal him to go on.

“Your Majesty, yesterday this minister’s outer robe was left here. May I ask where Your Majesty placed it?”

Only then did Pei Xin remember.

When he had woken that morning, he’d found Gu Fangzhi’s robe pressed beneath his arm, evidently, Gu Fangzhi hadn’t wanted to wake him and had left it behind when returning home.

“I haven’t seen it.” Pei Xin said evenly. “Perhaps Yang Luhai took it to be washed.”

“Ah, I see,” said Gu Fangzhi. “Then I’ll ask Eunuch Yang tomorrow.”

No sooner had he spoken than thunder rumbled outside.

Lightning briefly illuminated the chamber, followed by the patter of heavy rain against the windows.

“It’s raining?” Gu Fangzhi remarked. “Autumn rain always brings the chill, it’ll be cold again tonight. Later I’ll put a few warming stones inside Your Majesty’s blankets.”

Pei Xin gave no reply.

Gu Fangzhi noticed that his mood had suddenly grown heavier.

“Is something troubling Your Majesty?”

“I’m merely thinking.” Pei Xin replied.

“If it pleases Your Majesty.” said Gu Fangzhi gently, “this minister would be honored to help ease your worries.”

Pei Xin frowned slightly, hesitating.

A voice deep inside warned him not to trust Gu Fangzhi so easily.
But another voice, sly, insistent, whispered that this strange, vexing man might actually have a solution if he shared what troubled him.

After a pause, Pei Xin said quietly, “Winter will be hard for the army.”

The northern border of Great Qi was brutally cold in winter.

When Pei Xin was fifteen or sixteen, he had spent two years there, food and firewood were scarce, and even without war, men froze to death. The common people suffered even worse.

He had already dispatched supplies this year, but against the coming cold, they were far from enough.

Gu Fangzhi made a soft sound of acknowledgment.

Silence fell between them, broken only by the faint crackle of the candle flames.

Pei Xin lifted a hand, intending to tell him to stop the massage, when Gu Fangzhi suddenly exclaimed,

“Ah, right!”

“Your Majesty,” he said eagerly, “do you have a map?”

There were plenty of maps, of course, but most were covered in military markings, not something he could casually reveal.

After a moment’s thought, Pei Xin remembered an unmarked one.

“On the book shelf.”

Gu Fangzhi got up to retrieve it.

He found the blank map and spread it open on the table.

Pei Xin also rose, pulled on his robe, and went to stand beside him.

Gu Fangzhi bent over the map with unusual seriousness.

As a transmigrator, he couldn’t help recalling Founding Emperor, the strategy game he’d once played, it, too, mixed empire-building with resource management.

In that game, players could train soldiers to increase strength, gather intelligence at tea houses, or manage farmland and mining operations season by season, sowing in spring, harvesting herbs in summer, and mining coal in autumn to survive the winter.

He stared intently at the parchment.

Pei Xin, seeing him motionless, asked,

“Teacher?”

Gu Fangzhi looked up, eyes bright with sudden inspiration.

If the empire struggled for fuel, why not share the coal-mine locations he remembered from the game’s map?

Their gazes met; Gu Fangzhi smiled faintly and pointed to a spot.

“Your Majesty, do you recognize this place?”

Pei Xin glanced at him.

Gu Fangzhi’s expression was serious, so he answered in kind.

“Xuancheng.”

“And here?” Gu Fangzhi’s slender finger slid across the parchment.

“Yanmen.”

Yanmen, the fortress where he had served longest. Xuancheng, where he had nearly been defeated.
Pei Xin couldn’t guess Gu Fangzhi’s purpose in naming them, but he answered anyway.

Gu Fangzhi kept going.

“And here? … Here? … And this one?”

The next few points weren’t even locations Pei Xin had commanded. He grew increasingly confused, was this man testing him?

“Your Majesty, and this one?”

Pei Xin: “……”

What in heaven’s name is this? A midnight geography exam?

Still, he answered mechanically.

After several rounds, Gu Fangzhi finally sighed with satisfaction and smiled.

“Your Majesty is truly brilliant! Quick-witted! With an exceptional memory!”

Pei Xin: “…”

Was that… supposed to be praise? Those were basic facts any competent officer should know.

He wanted to frown but somehow found the corners of his mouth twitching upward.

He had just opened his mouth to speak when his vision suddenly went black.

When it cleared again, he was no longer standing where he had been, and there was Gu Fangzhi before him once more, spreading the map on the table.

“Your Majesty, if you would come here a moment,” Gu Fangzhi called lightly.

Pei Xin narrowed his eyes. He had a suspicion of what was happening but approached anyway.

When he stopped beside the table, Gu Fangzhi’s finger traced several points in turn.

“Your Majesty, Xuancheng, Yicheng, and Jincheng all have abundant coal reserves. If men were sent to mine them…”

Pei Xin stared wordlessly at his overly serious expression.

“……”

Of course. He’d guessed right.

All that flattery about “sharp memory” had just been a setup.

Gu Fangzhi clearly hadn’t understood the map at all, he’d only been fishing for answers.

Pei Xin: “…………”

Exhausting.

He drew a long breath, forcing down his exasperation, and asked,

“Are you certain there’s coal in these places?”

He had already sent out many prospectors, but few deposits had been found, and the yield was small.

If what Gu Fangzhi said was true…

Gu Fangzhi bowed slightly.

“This minister cannot guarantee it, but… I happened to hear it mentioned once.”

Hearing that, Pei Xin’s sharp eyes flicked toward Gu Fangzhi.

Even he hadn’t known about those mining sites, so how could Gu Fangzhi possibly know?
Most likely, the “person” Gu Fangzhi mentioned who’d told him about it… was Gu Fangzhi himself.

Still, Pei Xin hadn’t expected that aside from turning back time, Gu Fangzhi seemed to have other inexplicable abilities as well.

…Though aside from those coal mine coordinates, it didn’t seem he knew anything else useful.

Pei Xin’s thoughts turned quietly. One hand adjusted the robe draped over his shoulders while the other tapped the table lightly with a knuckle.

The dark outer robe hung loosely from his frame, its hem nearly brushing the floor, making his lazy posture seem all the more regal and oppressive.

As he pondered, his lower back unconsciously pressed against the edge of the table, his inner shirt sliding up just enough to reveal a faint strip of bare skin.

Pei Xin’s complexion was pale, and under the lamplight his skin seemed to glow with a cold, jade-like luster.

The only imperfection was the long, jagged scar running across his lean, taut side.

It was a deep, torn-looking scar, redder than the skin around it, painful to look at, even without touching it.

Gu Fangzhi reached out and brushed his fingers against the mark.

Pei Xin jerked back instantly.

The map and the brush Gu Fangzhi had used to mark it clattered off the table and onto the floor.

The warmth of Gu Fangzhi’s fingertip against his waist sent a tingling, itchy sensation up Pei Xin’s spine, leaving him thoroughly uncomfortable.

“What are you doing?!” he snapped, face darkening.

Gu Fangzhi didn’t dare admit that he’d simply acted on impulse.
He immediately reloaded, back to the moment right after he’d reported the coal mine locations.

Pei Xin: “……”

So… had he just been molested?

And the worst part, he couldn’t even get angry about it.

He was so tired.

So pent-up and frustrated, the kind of weary indignation you’d feel after washing eighty-one dirty diapers for children that weren’t even your own.

The next day was a rest day. Gu Fangzhi didn’t have to attend court or go to work.

But he did have to work overtime.

The Vice Minister of Rites had organized a department dinner to “strengthen camaraderie.”

By the time Gu Fangzhi woke up, Pei Xin was already awake, reciting texts from memory. Gu Fangzhi greeted him politely before heading off to wash, and just happened to run into Yang Luhai.

“Oh, right, Eunuch Yang.”

“Yes, Lord Gu?”

“Last time, I accidentally left an outer robe here. Did you happen to pick it up?”

“A robe?” Yang Luhai paused, then quickly remembered. “Ah, the blue one? I sent it to the laundry hall. I was planning to deliver it back once it’s cleaned.”

Gu Fangzhi nodded, unconcerned.

“I see. Thank you, Eunuch.”

After leaving the palace, Gu Fangzhi stopped by the Gu residence.

Manman’s illness had nearly recovered. The boy even played a round of cuju (kickball) with him, which Gu Fangzhi only managed to win by reloading several times.

Then he headed out for the dinner party.

As usual, no banquet was free of alcohol.

A group of men took turns toasting, playing drinking games, but after what had happened before, Gu Fangzhi knew his limit and refused to take more than a sip.

Thanks to his save-and-reload ability, his win rate at the guessing games was a flawless hundred percent.

Song Jingzhou looked at him with open admiration.

“Brother Gu, your luck is amazing!”

Gu Fangzhi chuckled modestly.

“Oh, just average.”

Half an hour earlier, in the imperial palace—

Pei Xin’s expression was calm and content as he leaned back in a steaming medicinal bath.

The night before, he’d ordered people to verify one of the coal mine sites Gu Fangzhi had mentioned, the one closest to the capital.

To his surprise, less than a day later, word arrived confirming the existence of a coal deposit there.

Pei Xin’s mood soared. Even Yang Luhai looked cheerful by association.

From behind the screen, the eunuch said joyfully,

“Congratulations, Your Majesty! Truly, the Son of Heaven is blessed with the divine fortune of the dragon itself!”

Pei Xin arched an eyebrow, amused, and decided he’d soaked long enough.
He rose to step out—

—only for his vision to go black.

The next instant, he was back in the bathwater.

Yang Luhai’s voice repeated dutifully from beyond the screen,

“Congratulations, Your Majesty! Truly, the Son of Heaven is blessed with divine dragon qi!”

Pei Xin: “……”

He tried to stand again, and once more, the world flashed, and he dropped right back into the water.

He tried three more times. Each time, the same thing happened.

Outside, Yang Luhai continued the same line with unwavering enthusiasm:

“Congratulations, Your Majesty! Truly, the Son of Heaven is blessed with divine dragon qi!”

Pei Xin: “……”

Enough with the dragon qi.

At least a real dragon can get out of the water.

He, meanwhile, was about to turn into a soaked corpse.