Amnesiac General and Infatuated Brothel Keeper 14

The people of Zhuhua Kingdom recently had more after-dinner gossip to talk about. The gamblers who had previously placed bets that General Feng would definitely drown himself under Hua Wuyan's Peony Tattoo also won a fortune—because that great general of the Chongluo Kingdom had indeed entered the Huaqi Pavilion and never came out again.

"Hey, have you heard? That Divine Doctor Yun has finally left the pavilion! But in the end, General Feng plunged right in, hahaha—"

"Isn't that the truth! Young Master Wuyan's Splendid Peony Tattoo isn't something just anyone can resist. If I wasn't tight on money these past few days, I would also want to enter the pavilion to experience it!"

"Whoa! Hua Wuyan is now General Feng's person. Aren't you afraid General Feng will tear you apart alive?"

"He's just a prostitute, why would General Feng care..."

Su Jinzhi was still listening closely to the idle chatter of the young noblemen passing by their painted boat when he was suddenly pulled by the man beside him. Subsequently, a cloak still bearing his scorching body temperature enveloped his body. The man's deep voice sounded in his ear: "It's still cold out, don't catch a cold."

Hearing this, the young man lowered his head, reaching out fingers as slender and white as jade to pull the cloak tighter. His voice was soft, carrying a trace of grievance in its tone: "You were the one who insisted on bringing me out..." 'Bringing me out but not letting me listen to gossip!'

Feng Jiuli glanced at him in amusement, raising a hand to rub his smooth hair, before pressing the young man's head to lean against his shoulder. "I'll take you to stroll around here a bit more. Once the weather in March completely warms up, I'll take you back, otherwise your body won't be able to bear it."

Although Zhuhua Kingdom was a small country surviving by relying on Chongluo and wedged among the remaining three kingdoms, returning from Zhuhua to Chongluo required crossing an extremely desolate desert. The spring chill was sharp, the temperature difference between day and night in the desert was extreme, and sandstorms raged. Back then, it was on this very road that the foundation of Jun Changle's body was ruined. Later, because of the depression in his heart, his health grew increasingly worse.

"I don't want to go back." Su Jinzhi turned his head away, avoiding his large palm. His eyelids drooped as he watched the splashes of water brushing past the bottom edge of the painted boat.

Feng Jiuli's eyes darkened. He took a light breath and coaxed him, "Alright, then I will accompany you and stay here. Whenever you want to leave, I'll take you away. Anyway, the Chongluo border doesn't need—"

"Can't you understand my words?" The young man raised his eyes, turning his head to look at him calmly. After meeting the man's pupils, which were even more composed than his own, he turned his head away again and said helplessly, "Fine, I have already forgotten him too. You don't need to stay here serving me like an ancestor; go back to where you should be, someone is waiting for you there."

"Did you catch a cold and get a fever? Otherwise, why are you talking nonsense again?" The man frowned, cupping his head to turn it toward himself, pressing their foreheads together. "Isn't the only person waiting for me this fool right here?"

The young man was furious, his entire body trembling: "Who are you calling a fool?"

"Oh, so you aren't a fool." Seeing him like this, Feng Jiuli laughed. He leaned in to kiss the side of the young man's face, his high-bridged nose rubbing against his cheek, brushing past the corner of his lips several times, almost kissing that spot.

Su Jinzhi could feel all of the man's scorching breath spraying onto his cheeks. He avoided him several times, only to be forcefully pulled back by the man. The more he struggled, the tighter the man held him. After going back and forth several times, Su Jinzhi suddenly stopped his movements.

Feng Jiuli was just wondering why he had stopped when he found the young man's warm lips climbing up his jaw and kissing him intimately. He took the initiative to open his moist, warm mouth to engulf his lips, sticking out the tip of his tongue to trace and sketch his, repeatedly grinding and rubbing, tempting him to open his mouth and respond.

As a result, it was now the man's turn to retreat.

He dodged so fast that Su Jinzhi hadn't yet had time to retract his probing tongue. A small scarlet section was left exposed outside, still bearing some crystal clear moisture. The hand he rested against the man's chest could clearly feel the intense degree of the heartbeat pounding within.

"Why are you hiding?" Su Jinzhi retracted the tip of his tongue and licked the corner of his lips. Tilting his head, the corners of his eyes carried a seductive charm. "Isn't this exactly what you want..." the young man murmured in amusement, his eyes staring at him, yet the focus of his gaze wasn't on him.

"This is not what I want." Feng Jiuli laughed out of extreme anger, gripping the young man's chin. Suppressing his weak struggles, he fiercely pressed down onto those rosy lips.

The man's teeth bumped against his upper lip, accompanied by a wave of piercing pain. Su Jinzhi tasted the flavor of rust in his mouth. The man kissed him fiercely, his moist and hot tongue sweeping over every inch of his mouth, before tangling with his own, carefully licking and sucking, intertwining together, so violently that it was as if he wanted to tear him apart, swallow him, and devour his entire being.

A familiar scent once again occupied all of his breath. This person, whom he had yearned for day and night, kept at the tip of his heart, and remembered for seven whole years, had finally returned to his side once again, leaning together with him in intimate closeness, as if they had never been separated—Jun Changle still wanted to be with him.

Even if he had waited for so many years, even if he couldn't wait until he came back, he would still continue waiting forever.

The seven sufferings of Buddhism: birth, aging, sickness, death, encountering what one hates, parting from what one loves, and not obtaining what one seeks. Everyone has to experience them. However much pain and despair is endured during this time, it cannot compare to the moment the person one is waiting for returns to meet them—you can forget me, but you must not forget to fall in love with me all over again when we meet.

These words suddenly appeared in Su Jinzhi's mind, as if someone had once held his hand tightly and said them to him. The feeling of being forgotten by the person you love is so painful, and what was even more despairing was that that person completely didn't remember there was someone waiting for him.

The exciting and boiling emotions within his chest steamed Su Jinzhi's eyes until they felt swollen and astringent. For a moment, he actually couldn't distinguish whether this was Jun Changle's obsession towards Jiang Lishan, or his own.

The man finally took a fierce bite on the side of his neck, but the force wasn't heavy, as if he was afraid of hurting him. After his teeth rubbed against that delicate, snow-white skin, he used the tip of his tongue to lick back and forth. His high-bridged nose continuously nudged against his jaw, making the young man tremble all over before he finally stopped.

"Why aren't you continuing?" Su Jinzhi lay on his back on the soft couch, parting his lips as he panted slightly. He looked up at the top of the painted boat, at the pale pink gauze curtains the man had newly hung specifically according to his preferences. As he spoke, as if not feeling it was enough, he reached out to pull open his own waistband. His fingertips touched the half-bloomed peony bud at his collarbone, smiling seductively, "The flower hasn't fully bloomed yet, don't you want to take a look?"

He himself hadn't even seen it yet; was it really that miraculous? If it really bloomed, could he find a mirror to take a look?

However, if he really had to go to bed with Feng Jiuli, he probably wouldn't be able to accept it. After all, Feng Jiuli was Jiang Lishan, and the person he liked should be Jun Changle, not him.

Actually, No. 1 was right; he needed to control himself well and couldn't get too deeply into character.

In a place where Su Jinzhi himself couldn't see, an expression of loss appeared on his face.

Feng Jiuli suddenly spoke up: "I want to see."

Su Jinzhi subconsciously looked up, only to stare into those dark gray eyes that were almost identical to Qin Yezhou's.

He smiled again, the curve at the corners of his lips not differing in the slightest from that person's: "But we can save it for our wedding night."

Su Jinzhi's eyes widened as he asked him, "What did you say?" He hadn't heard clearly.

Feng Jiuli looked at him quietly, a melting pool of soft light in the depths of his eyes. "When you are willing, we will get married and be together forever."

"Marry a prostitute?" The young man's eyes first lit up, but quickly dimmed again. "You're not afraid of being ridiculed by the whole world."

"What am I afraid of? After this general returned triumphant to the court, I was rewarded with countless gold and beauties, yet I didn't enjoy a single one. Even the King of Xiyou is laughing at me for being a natural eunuch." The man pressed against the side of his ear, laughingly recounting his own embarrassing anecdotes to him. "Besides... who said I was going to marry you?"

Su Jinzhi stared blankly at him. A clear breeze carrying the scent of peach blossoms brushed past the pale pink gauze curtains, gently lifting them up to drift behind the man. The gorgeous and vibrant colors continuously dazzled his line of sight. In a daze, he seemed to have become Jun Changle, seeing that person from back then again, in the prime of his youth and elegance, looking deeply at him with a smile.

And the person appearing before him again now had shed the greenness of youth from his brow bones and eyes, blending in the maturity tempered by the wind and sand. Yet, it was still the face he yearned for day and night, as if he could only see it again after half a lifetime had passed.

The painted boat gently pulled up to the shore. Countless peach blossoms by the long embankment fell one after another from the branches, brushing past the tips of his hair along with the blowing breeze, with a few petals even falling onto his shoulders—just like that night outside the Huaqi Pavilion, when he had stood until dawn watching his tightly shut southern window. Today, he still had to continue waiting for him.

"Why do I have to marry you? Can't you marry me instead?" The man took his hand and devoutly placed a kiss on his fingertips, devoid of any lust.

"Congratulations Host for successfully saving the Salvation Target, he has now obtained a new lease on life!" With a ding, No. 0 played a recording of a series of applause for him. Su Jinzhi looked at the Progress Value of 100/100 above Feng Jiuli's head, and then at the value of 75/100 in Jun Changle's column. He withdrew his fingers from the man's hand and lowered his head in silence.

After disembarking, both of them remained silent, as if there was an insurmountable chasm between them. To leap across it, one had to possess the determination of having one's body smashed to pieces.

As they walked, Su Jinzhi fell behind Feng Jiuli. He raised his head and blankly stared at the man's tall back in a daze. Suddenly, the man turned around, grabbed his hand, and pulled it into his own cloak: "Tired? Do you want me to carry you on my back?"

"I'm not tired... Where are you taking me?" Su Jinzhi tried to pull his hand back, but upon finding he couldn't pull it out, he relaxed his strength and let him be. He turned his head to look around and found that Feng Jiuli had brought him to a spacious but unfamiliar grassy meadow, prompting him to ask aloud.

Feng Jiuli said, "Taking you to do something men would do."

Something men would do?

Hearing this, Su Jinzhi thought he was mocking his current identity. But when he saw the white horse snorting hot air at him in front of him, he was suddenly stunned, muttering, "This is what you meant by... something men would do?"

"Is it not?" Feng Jiuli turned his head with a smile. He suddenly picked Su Jinzhi up horizontally, placed him onto the horse's back, and then mounted the horse himself. Pulling the reins, he wrapped his arms around the young man and nibbled on his neck. "Have you ever seen any family's young miss come to this kind of place to ride a horse and enjoy the spring?"

Caught off guard by his actions, Su Jinzhi was startled into leaning forward and hugging the horse's neck, which was how he finally stabilized his body. Feng Jiuli, however, laughed loudly and pulled the reins, riding the horse and galloping with him towards the outside of the city.

The feeling of spurring a horse into a gallop was absolutely wonderful. They rode towards the east against the brilliant morning sun. Su Jinzhi could see the green grass beneath his feet gradually receding and hear the wind whistling in his ears. It blew away the newly emerged swallows' songs and orioles' cries of Ye City's early spring behind them, the decadent music that didn't cease all night, and the pointing and gossiping of the neighborhood passersby towards him. It was as if, in an instant, the entire world was left with only that blazing sun before his eyes and the boundless, magnificent desert beneath them. Even when they finally stopped, Su Jinzhi still couldn't recover from his surging emotions for a long time.

Feng Jiuli took him to a sand dune outside the city and pulled the reins. The white horse neighed and reared up on its iron hooves. Su Jinzhi could only fall back along with it, crashing into Feng Jiuli's embrace. As a result, this shameless Feng Jiuli simply held him and jumped down from the horse. Without letting go, he maintained this posture standing on the ground.

"Does it look good?" Feng Jiuli asked while holding him.

Su Jinzhi raised his eyebrows, casting a sidelong glance at him with his exquisite peach blossom eyes. "Why doesn't General Feng put Wuyan down first before asking questions?"

Feng Jiuli smiled, still in the mood to joke with him. "There's a lot of dust here. This concubine was afraid of dirtying my husband's white shoes." Although he said this, Feng Jiuli still set Su Jinzhi down. He raised his hand to touch the white horse's neck, but who knew that the white horse would immediately give a low whinny, turn around, bump into Feng Jiuli once, and then take to its heels and run off.

Su Jinzhi stared dumbfounded as the horse ran far away. Seeing Feng Jiuli still standing in place as if he hadn't noticed, he spoke up to remind him, "Your horse ran away."

Feng Jiuli replied calmly, "I already saw that."

Su Jinzhi asked him, "Aren't you going to chase it?"

"Why should I chase it? You are still here, so how could I go chase after anyone else?" Feng Jiuli held his hand and walked slowly on the sand dune. Thinking he was worried about how they would get back later, he continued, "Gaixue is just like this. It will come running back on its own in a while, so don't worry about us not being able to return."

"Gaixue? Is that the white horse's name?"

"No." Feng Jiuli paused. "It's called Wuyun Gaixue."

Hearing this, Su Jinzhi laughed out loud and asked him, "Isn't that the name of a type of cat?"

"Yeah, but its temperament is exactly like a cat's anyway, so this name suits it perfectly." As Feng Jiuli spoke, Su Jinzhi had no heart to listen, lowering his eyes to stare at their intertwined hands. "Besides, Gaixue isn't a pure white horse. It actually has a patch of black fur on its back, it's just covered by the saddle so you couldn't see it."

Su Jinzhi snapped back to reality. He looked up at Feng Jiuli and suddenly smiled, "It's not like I didn't see it."

Earlier, Feng Jiuli hadn't caught the meaning of the young man's words. When he followed the young man's gaze and saw his own plain black attire, he finally understood what the young man was referring to. Feng Jiuli raised his eyebrows and pulled Su Jinzhi into his embrace. Suppressing the young man's weak struggles, he pressed his forehead against his and said in a low voice, "Finally willing to talk to me, hmm?"

Su Jinzhi raised a hand, pressing against the man's approaching chest with slight force, and said, "Haven't I been talking to the General the whole time?"

Hearing this, the man lowered his voice even further. If one listened carefully, it even carried a bit of grievance: "But you haven't spoken a word to me since we got off the boat."

Su Jinzhi glanced at him, then gently sighed. The voice that came out was almost too soft to hear: "General, I..."

"What do you want to say to reject me this time?" Feng Jiuli directly interrupted his words, turning his head straight to meet his gaze. "I don't want to hear anything other than an 'Okay'."

Su Jinzhi smiled bitterly, "You are different from me. Just being able to see you has already made me very happy. You currently have a bright future ahead of you, there is absolutely no need to—"

"Whether there's a need to or not, I have the final say." Feng Jiuli smiled lightly. "You have thousands of troops and horses, while I am alone and hard-pressed to resist. I willingly disarm and surrender, to become the loyal minister of you, Hua Wuyan."

"But... this isn't worth it at all..." Su Jinzhi stared back at him blankly, his body and voice trembling together.

"If I am not worth it for your sake—" Feng Jiuli stopped smiling. Expressionless, he looked deeply at him, "Then was Jun Changle worth it for Jiang Lishan's sake?"

Su Jinzhi grasped his front lapel and blinked his eyes. Tears suddenly fell, only to be brushed away by the man's gentle fingers. He was then gathered into his embrace. This embrace was so broad and warm; in almost an instant, it awakened all the tenderness and deep affection buried deep beneath the wind and snow of midwinter in the past.

"Since you refuse to go back with me, then I could only bring you here." Feng Jiuli put an arm around him and turned him in another direction, pointing at the expanse of yellow sand across the dune, his voice deep. "You can't see the end of this place at a glance, but when you miss home, you can stand on the city walls and look this way."

Su Jinzhi of course knew which home Feng Jiuli was referring to—at the end of the desert was Chongluo, the hometown that required crossing dunes and traversing the desert to reach.

"I know..." The young man's voice seemed to tremble from the yellow wind blowing from the desert, losing the calmness he forcibly maintained in the past. It was because the window of his room in Huaqi Pavilion opened towards this exact direction—opening towards the person he deeply loved, and the home he missed.

At this moment, however, Feng Jiuli raised his hand to cover his eyes. Feeling the warmth in his palm, he chuckled softly, "The wind in the desert is too strong, did sand get in your eyes?"

"Yeah... let's go back." The young man took a breath to adjust his voice, yet he didn't pull down the hand the man was using to cover his eyes.

Feng Jiuli used his cloak and cape to conceal his and Su Jinzhi's faces, taking him to play around the outskirts of Ye City. It wasn't until the sun set in the west that he escorted him back to the Huaqi Pavilion.

It was like this for the next few dozen days as well. Feng Jiuli would either take him out to play, or stay inside the Huaqi Pavilion to help weed and prune the peonies he had planted, pestering Su Jinzhi to teach him how to pour tea and warm wine. As long as Su Jinzhi brought up that day in the Peony Pavilion when the man had claimed he was a coarse person who disliked these refined matters, Feng Jiuli would pounce on him and pin him to the ground, kissing his breath into a mess, making him unable to say another word.

"Enough, mm... enough!" Su Jinzhi turned his head away and collapsed to the side, panting continuously. His pitch-black hair scattered behind his head adorned the pale green bamboo mat. The peony bud spreading from his right shoulder blade to the side of his collarbone had also fully bloomed due to their several rounds of passionate movements, vividly red as it blossomed across the young man's snow-like skin.

Feng Jiuli's eyes darkened. He leaned down to lick away the saliva flowing from the corner of the young man's lips to the back of his neck before suddenly standing up. Reaching out, he pulled Su Jinzhi's loosened collar back together and carefully adjusted his messy clothes. Looking up at the color of the sky outside the window, he said hoarsely, "It's dark, I should go back."

These past few days, Su Jinzhi had been eating and sleeping well, with a rosy complexion. Furthermore, after successfully saving Yun Mengchen and Feng Jiuli, these two misguided youths, his tuberculosis had significantly improved, not to mention that even his waist had grown a tiny bit of meat. Xile had always been worried about his health. After discovering that Yun Mengchen had left, he didn't even come to ask Su Jinzhi the reason, afraid of making him feel embarrassed. Now seeing the smile on his face growing increasingly bright and beautiful, his Progress Value, which had previously been stuck at "90/100", immediately filled up all at once. This made Su Jinzhi have no choice but to sigh in admiration that he truly was a kind-hearted child.

But while others' Progress Values had filled up just like that, Jun Changle's still hadn't changed in the slightest.

What exactly did he want?

Could it be that it absolutely required the union of soul and flesh? Su Jinzhi pondered deeply.

So when the man turned around wanting to leave, he raised a hand to pull at the corner of his sleeve: "Are you not... staying behind to accompany me?"

Hearing this, Feng Jiuli paused. After a long moment of silence, he turned around and half-knelt in front of the young man. Gently stroking his face, he asked back in a hoarse voice, "You want me to stay behind and accompany you?"

The young man, however, turned his head away at this time, lowering his eyes and restraining his gaze in silence.

Do you want to or not?

"Alright, I'll stay behind to accompany you. I remember your bedroom is this way, right?" Feng Jiuli let out a laugh, picking him up horizontally from the floor and walking towards his bedroom.

"...How do you know where my room is?" Su Jinzhi froze upon hearing his words. After being picked up, he hurriedly hugged his neck to prevent himself from falling to the ground.

"I've seen it." Feng Jiuli leaned down and gave him a kiss, directly lifting his foot to kick open the tightly shut wooden door of Su Jinzhi's bedroom.

Su Jinzhi: "..."

Feng Jiuli chuckled. Only after entering the room did he set him down on the ground: "Does this concubine need to wait upon my husband to change his clothes?"

Su Jinzhi also laughed upon hearing this. However, he didn't laugh for long before he heard a beep notification sound, and the Salvation Target Progress Value for Jun Changle on the interface actually began to drop at a regular speed. This shocked No. 0 into immediately speaking up to remind him, "Host! Jun Changle's Progress Value has started dropping!"

No candles were lit inside the room; there was only a slight glimmer of lights from the night market spilling into the room through the paper of the southern window. It flickered on and off like the countless interwoven threads of sorrow in a person's heart, burning to ashes during the day, only to grow wildly after night fell.

From the corner of his eye, Su Jinzhi swept a glance over the bronze mirror. One person in the mirror had a frail figure, being young in age yet having white hair at his temples; while the other person was tall and handsome, in his glorious prime, with power, wealth, and beauties easily within his grasp.

These were clearly people from two different worlds.

Longing to reunite, yet not daring to reunite.

This was probably the reason why Jun Changle's Progress Value had delayed from moving for so long, and was now even dropping in reverse.

During the time Su Jinzhi was spaced out, Feng Jiuli had already removed his clothes for him and stuffed him under the soft brocade quilt. Afterwards, he also lay down on it, embracing the young man, and said softly by his ear, "Go to sleep, I'm here accompanying you."

"I... missed you very much," Su Jinzhi closed his eyes, leaning into Feng Jiuli's embrace and murmuring softly.

'I no longer have the qualifications to be with you, but this longing, I want to let you know.'

Feng Jiuli didn't speak, only holding him even tighter.

It rained during the night.

In his dream, Su Jinzhi faintly heard the pattering sound of rain, but after waking up, he found that Feng Jiuli was gone. The long street outside was shrouded in thick moisture, yet the room was warm and comfortable.

Su Jinzhi stepped down from the bed and found a letter on the table, weighed down by a teacup.