Futile Devices Scans

No one could say how deep a weasel’s feelings for a chicken might be, but Wei Fu’s feelings for Yu Gong Zhao Ye were clearly more than merely “wanting to eat him.” He was also fiercely protective of his food—using every trick imaginable to cling to Yu Gong Zhao Ye, wheedling and acting spoiled to keep him from getting out of bed. And he liked to play with his food as well—after they got up, he insisted on personally helping His Highness get dressed and comb his hair.

Yu Gong Zhao Ye could not even be bothered to expose the little schemes in his heart.

Young Master Wei was reasonably capable of taking care of himself and exceptionally skilled at reading people’s moods, but his ability to attend to others truly left much to be desired.

It was not that he was clumsy, rash, or awkward. On the contrary, Wei Fu was so meticulous that he bordered on fussy. He was the sort who would practically want to start by taking measurements and tailoring a garment from scratch before helping someone put it on. As for why a simple bath the previous night had lasted until the water turned cold, it was entirely because he had treated Yu Gong Zhao Ye like a prized walnut, repeatedly washing, polishing, and buffing him.

His Highness Yu Gong reclined against the headboard and, during the lull while waiting for the weasel to come pay New Year’s greetings, seriously considered whether he ought to simply climb out the window and flee. But Fengdu was Wei Fu’s territory. If he really slipped away, would that dragon-robed father and that Egret Guard chief of a brother take offense at Longsha for the crime of him not obediently allowing himself to be fondled and fussed over by their young master, thereby affecting relations between the two nations?

The door creaked open. Unhurried footsteps approached the bed. Wei Fu carried a stack of clothes and accessories, set them down on the small table beside the bed, casually hooked up the bed curtains, and asked in a gentle, virtuous manner, “It’s rare for me to come home. Let’s not trouble Uncle Wei to prepare breakfast today. How about we go out and eat later?”

This was, after all, his home and his hometown. It was only a meal. However he chose to arrange it was entirely up to him; there was no need to discuss it so solemnly.

But Wei Fu very obviously did not want to be the “host” and place the two of them into the roles of master and guest.

He possessed the earnest seriousness of a child playing house. Having decided that sleeping together made them husband and husband, he adopted the dignity and attentiveness of a newlywed spouse, wanting to live with Yu Gong Zhao Ye in harmony, discussing everything together and sharing their days side by side.

Unfortunately, Yu Gong Zhao Ye had not noticed these subtle shifts in his mentality, much less spared any thought for breakfast.

Wei Fu waved a hand before his eyes. “Your Highness? A’Ying? What are you thinking about?”

When the translucent bed curtains were drawn aside, daylight poured in unobstructed. Standing in the morning glow was a tall, handsome young gentleman, straight as jade, elegant and refined, as though an immortal had suddenly descended into this humble side room.

Yu Gong Zhao Ye rarely experienced the sensation of being struck over the head by beauty, but in the short time since rising, Wei Fu had groomed himself to the point where he looked fit to participate in a royal consort selection. Dark blue brocade stretched smoothly across his straight shoulders and back without a single wrinkle, narrowing at the waist beneath a palm-wide black satin belt before falling gracefully along his long legs. Delicate gold-threaded floral leaves at his collar and shoulders appeared and vanished amid the movement of his hair, complementing the understated bamboo-leaf pattern woven into the belt.

“You…” Yu Gong Zhao Ye faltered for once. Clearing his throat, he looked away. “You still dare go outside looking like that? Aren’t you afraid people will crowd around you, cause a disturbance and a stampede, bring your brother running over, and then alarm your father as well?”

Wei Fu: “…”

Was that supposed to be praise? It certainly did not sound like praise.

Yu Gong Zhao Ye sighed. “Also, that belt looks like mine.”

Wei Fu pressed his lips together in a smile, embarrassed but not denying it. In fact, he seemed rather pleased with this little flourish. Reaching out, he dug Yu Gong Zhao Ye out from under the blankets. “Allow me to help Your Highness get dressed.”

Already near death from the assault of beauty, Yu Gong Zhao Ye made one final feeble attempt to resist. “Why can’t His Highness dress himself?”

Even so, he cooperatively spread his arms, allowing Wei Fu to slip a soft white silk underrobe over him.

Leisurely, Wei Fu gathered the thick mass of pale gray hair and drew it behind his back, carefully straightening the collar and hiding both the small mole and the varying shades of red marks. Then he leaned in to press a light kiss to the corner of Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s mouth and laughed softly, his breath brushing warm against him. “So uncomfortable? Has Your Highness forgotten that you once helped me change clothes too?”

Though he knew better than to challenge Wei Fu’s memory over anything, Yu Gong Zhao Ye still asked doubtfully, “Did I?”

“You did.” Wei Fu reminded him. “The first time we met, you stripped my clothes off—”

“……”

Yu Gong Zhao Ye remembered.

It had been at the Ten Aspects Sect headquarters. After knocking out He Lan Zhen Jia, he had intended to move Wei Fu elsewhere. The red robes used to dress up a True Spirit were both conspicuous and cumbersome, so Yu Gong Zhao Ye had stripped them off in a few swift motions. Since Wei Fu had been unable to move, the attendant’s clothing he wore afterward had indeed been personally put on him by Yu Gong Zhao Ye.

Was that really something worth holding a grudge over? Besides, hadn’t there been a perfectly valid reason?

“Of course it wasn’t revenge. Am I really that petty?”

Under Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s skeptical gaze that plainly said aren’t you?, Wei Fu shook out a black outer robe. He looked somewhat regretful that their builds differed so much and that their usual styles of dress were so different. Otherwise, they could have exchanged clothes directly instead of playing games with small details like belts.

“At the time, I thought I was definitely finished. I’d already prepared myself to be silenced forever. Who could have guessed you’d suddenly do something like that?” Supporting Yu Gong Zhao Ye as he turned half a circle, Wei Fu tied the cords of the dark blue brocade waist sash and sighed softly. “It was very difficult not to fall for you, Your Highness.”

That narrow, elegant waist gathered neatly beneath the sash was perfectly suited to being hooked with one arm and pulled into an embrace. Wei Fu’s willpower was weak, and sure enough, he could not resist the temptation.

He practically treated Yu Gong Zhao Ye like a fluffy, oversized cat, wanting to carry him around tucked in his arms at all times. Moreover, Yu Gong Zhao Ye possessed a particularly wonderful habit—he almost never initiated hugs, but if Wei Fu wrapped his arms around him on the spot, although there was a high chance he would retaliate with sarcasm, teasing, eye-rolls, or even pinching cheeks and mouths, he would not run away.

“Your Highness doesn’t remember what I looked like back then, so it definitely wasn’t love at first sight.” Wei Fu suddenly asked curiously, “Then when exactly did you start liking me? After you realized who I was? Or in Bihan City? On the day you rejected me? …It couldn’t possibly have been yesterday, could it?!”

Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “……”

The color gradually drained from Wei Fu’s face at his speechless silence. Through clenched teeth, he squeezed out two chilling words:

“A’——Ying.”

Yu Gong Zhao Ye slowly, evasively, turned his head away. “Wait. Let me think about how to explain this.”

Wei Fu caught his chin and turned him back. “You still haven’t thought of anything?!”

Yu Gong Zhao Ye was clearly terrible at opening up and discussing genuine feelings. Whenever the subject arose, his first instinct was always to crack a joke and let the serious conversation quietly slip away through the cracks in the atmosphere so that he would not end up at a disadvantage with his weak point exposed.

But whether it was a weak point or a handle to grasp, it had already been seized—one could even say he had personally handed it over to Wei Fu. If he still tried to evade the truth now with jokes and banter, it would not only seem frivolous but would also be genuinely hurtful.

He raised a hand to his forehead, conveniently covering his eyes as well, and muttered in a tone like someone nursing a toothache, “Being blind really does have a huge impact on a person…”

Wei Fu: “?”

“Back then… I didn’t know what you looked like. I thought you were dead. There were things I did simply because I did them, without thinking too much about them.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye carefully chose his words, doing his best to find an accurate way to describe it. Unfortunately, his feelings themselves were a tangled mess of accounts, and he had only just barely begun to sort them out.

“After bringing you back to Bihan City from Xiling, there was a great deal happening at court. Things were chaotic for a long time, and amid all that busyness, I forgot about something,” he said softly. “One day, when I returned to Yeguang Hall, I overheard the attendants responsible for cleaning discussing how there hadn’t been a flower wreath placed before the statue for a very long time.”

Ever since Yu Gong Zhao Ye returned from Yanyuan at the age of fifteen, he had placed a handwoven flower wreath before the shrine in Yeguang Hall every month without fail. Through all four seasons, year after year, the habit had continued uninterrupted for a full six years.

Afraid of disturbing him, Wei Fu asked softly, “Was it for me?”

Yu Gong Zhao Ye gave a low hum of affirmation and continued, “There are only so many people coming and going through Yeguang Hall. They all knew who put the wreaths there, so they gathered together speculating about why I’d forgotten.”

“Nobody could possibly have guessed there was such a thing as ‘recovering what was lost.’ At the time, I was secretly laughing to myself, when I heard them guessing whether I’d finally avenged my great grudge and stepped out of the shadows, or whether I’d found someone new and forgotten my old love. Their conclusion was that no one can pretend to be devoted for an entire lifetime, and that men are all the same.”

Wei Fu: “…Ah? Ah???”

Even more outrageous than their conclusion was the fact that Yu Gong Zhao Ye suddenly found himself unable to laugh.

Because he abruptly realized that everything he had done for “Jiang Guan” over the years—including but not limited to fighting Xie You Lan to the death, hunting down Hu Yan Zhao, making offerings every month and commemorating him year after year without forgetting him for a single day—looked, in the eyes of outsiders, like the actions of someone who was deeply and sincerely in love.

He had always thought it was friendship.

Yet when he thought about it carefully, he did not treat living friends this way. It was only because that person had supposedly died that those vague feelings never had a chance to take shape and could not be examined closely. Like a flower that withered before it ever bloomed, there was no way to prove it had truly existed. So he had simply categorized it all under the broad label of “an old friend,” lingering beneath the tree time and again.

Now, however, the Wei Fu whom he had personally brought back was alive and well in Bihan City, someone he could see and touch. All those years of longing suddenly filled the same outline. Regrets vanished like smoke. The flower blooming once more upon a dead tree had finally gained a name.

It was called “liking.”

“So if there absolutely has to be a specific time, then it was the day I finally realized it.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye pinched his temple in embarrassment and let out a heavy sigh. “Before that, there wasn’t even a proper identity attached to it. The person wasn’t even there anymore. No matter how you look at it, that can’t really count, can it?”

The truth was simply too absurd. It felt like spending six years mourning at a grave only to discover that the person buried there had been your first love all along.

In the next instant, his hand was pulled away by Wei Fu. Yu Gong Zhao Ye could practically see a pair of drooping ears suddenly spring upright. Then his chin was lifted, and before he could react, he was kissed without further discussion.

Their lips met and lingered together, brushing and rubbing in the gentlest, most lingering manner.

Those fluttering, trembling feelings—impossible to describe, subtle and endless—no longer needed words.

Before the paper window had been pierced, there had at least been some restraint. Now that their relationship had been confirmed, Wei Fu no longer bothered to hide anything. Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s face was held between the hands of a thoroughly satisfied fox spirit as he was kissed several more times. The stiffness and awkwardness filling his chest helplessly softened into a pool of spring water. At the same time, he found it somewhat amusing and poked Wei Fu in the shoulder. “Still acting spoiled, Young Master? At the rate you dawdle, I doubt we’ll make it in time for lunch.”

Wei Fu wished he could have His Highness three times a day. Fortunately, he had not completely forgotten that he still possessed the identity of a “newlywed husband.” Reluctantly, he released Yu Gong Zhao Ye and promised, “I’ll be done in a moment. I’ll take you somewhere delicious.”

Glancing at the accessories piled beside the bed, Yu Gong Zhao Ye said despairingly, “How about just giving me a flatbread first so I can put something in my stomach?”

Wei Fu: “……”

There was a certain sense of possession in undressing him and leaving him disheveled, but dressing him layer by layer and making him neat and proper again brought an entirely different, strangely subtle sense of satisfaction.

This was especially true because Yu Gong Zhao Ye wore countless odds and ends. Two thin leather straps were used to hang his blades. There was a short knife strapped to one calf and a dagger strapped to his thigh… In short, by the time Wei Fu fastened his wrist guards and completed the final step, he let out a long breath of suppressed heat and felt that he was the most self-controlled man in the world.

Perhaps Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s yearning for a simple flatbread had wounded Young Master Wei’s fragile sympathy and delicate pride. He quickly finished arranging Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s hair, dressed him neatly from head to toe, admired his handiwork with satisfaction, intertwined their fingers, and swaggered out to stroll through the streets together.

“What?!”

Mu Heng was so shocked that his hand jerked. Half a jar of fish food spilled into the pond, sending the koi into a frenzy as they darted across the surface like dumplings come to life.

“Didn’t the Egret Guards report that there was nothing serious? What does your latest intelligence say? What happened recently?”

Zhong Yi’s expression turned grave. Choosing his words carefully, he answered, “This minister has not received any new information either. It would seem that… nothing major has happened.”

Mu Heng slammed the fish-food jar down with a loud clunk, visibly upset. “Impossible. Something definitely happened. He was angry enough to go back to his mother’s family, and you’re telling me nothing happened? What kind of nonsense is Longsha pulling? They can’t even keep an eye on one person!”

Zhong Yi hurriedly tried to calm him. “Your Majesty! Please calm your anger. Shuchen did not return alone. His Highness Yu Gong accompanied him back.”

Mu Heng: “……”

He stared at Zhong Yi uncertainly, bewilderment filling his voice. “Then… is this… a return visit after marriage?”

Zhong Yi: “Huh?”

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