Lord, Your Immortal Plant has Slipped Away Again Chpt: 53

LYIPhSAA (liii)

Edited: 08.30.2023

Ye Zi didn’t say anything as he silently took a cushion and placed it behind Gu Yan before helping him up. He used a porcelain spoon to scoop up a spoonful of medicine, blew it to cool it down, and brought it to Gu Yan’s mouth.

Gu Yan didn’t open his mouth but just looked at him in a daze. His expression was confused, as if his consciousness was somewhat muddled: “A Zi, is it really you?”

Ye Zi couldn’t bear to see him like this as he turned his head and asked in a trembling voice, “Why don’t you find someone to take care of you when you’re this sick?”

The room was silent for a while. Gu Yan coughed gently and pretended he was fine, “But aren’t you here now?”

“……I know that you won’t leave me behind.”

Ye Zi’s hand trembled, whispering: “But what if I really leave?”

If he hadn’t met Guangxu Zi outside the city in the morning, he might have left Chang’an by now, and he would never have known that this man had become so ill.

Gu Yan closed his eyes, and his voice was quiet: “Leaving…..might’ve been a better choice.”

“Siwei said that the Wen family invited a demon exorcism master. If you stay in the Prince Rui Manor, you will be in danger. It’s better for you to leave, as long as you can live well and comfortably…….I’ll be at ease.”

Ye Zi was trembling with pain in his heart and could hardly hold the porcelain bowl and spoon in his hand. He took a deep breath and tried his best to calm his voice: “Drink the medicine first.”

Gu Yan didn’t say anything else and obediently drank the medicine.

Ye Zi fed Gu Yan all the medicine unhurriedly one spoon after another. For a moment, there was only the sound of the spoon striking the bowl and the sound of drinking in the room.

After finishing the bowl of medicine, Ye Zi helped Gu Yan lie back down and took a handkerchief to wipe the thin sweat on his forehead.

The medicine seemed to have the effect of calming the mind and aiding sleep, Gu Yan closed his eyes and lay down on the bed, murmuring drowsily: ”A Zi, you shouldn’t have returned. The Wen family spread rumors of demons in the city and invited a priest to come to the manor, it’s obvious that they are coming for you……”

Ye Zi covered Gu Yan with the quilt, knelt and sat on the edge of the bed, and whispered: “If I didn’t come back, were you going to let yourself die of illness in this room?”

Gu Yan’s lips moved but he didn’t make any sound.

Ye Zi felt unbearable and angry in his heart and couldn’t help but say: “Why are you like this? I was the one who walked away so willfully without taking your feelings into account at all. Why aren’t you blaming me? Why are you worried about me instead? Don’t you care about yourself at all?”

Ye Zi’s voice was dry as he buried his head in Gu Yan’s palm and said in a muffled voice: “How can you be like this?……”

Gu Yan’s hand moved. He gently brushed Ye Zi’s face with his fingertips and said softly: “Don’t be sad, it’s my fault.”

Ye Zi blinked his sore eyes and said hoarsely: “You did nothing wrong, it’s all my fault. You didn’t know anything……”

“I know.” Gu Yan closed his eyes and his head felt dizzy, as if he was in a dream, “You’ve been to that secret room in the villa, I know all about it.”

Ye Zi was stunned and looked up at him.

Gu Yan’s voice was low and hoarse: “You think I have someone else in my heart, but at the same time, you’re too scared to come ask me about it. But because of this, you ended up keeping it bottled up and wrong yourself for most of the month, why are you so stupid?…….”

Ye Zi bit his lips and didn’t answer. After a long while, Gu Yan softly murmured: “There is no one else……A Zi, there is no one else in my heart, only you.”

Ye Zi’s heart twitched violently.

He was about to say something when there was a sudden sound from outside the door.

“Your Majesty, did you say something?” The voice of a servant echoed in.

Gu Yan was seriously ill and since no one was allowed to enter the room to serve him, Great Princess Rui had to send a good number of extra people to stand guard in his courtyard. They had spoken a little louder just now and were accidentally overheard by the sharp-eared servant.

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Ye Zi maintained his original posture, not daring to make any more noise.

After waiting for a while, there was no more noise outside the door, and the person who originally spoke seemed to have left.

Ye Zi breathed a sigh of relief and raised his head to look towards Gu Yan. He was breathing smoothly, as if he was asleep, and his expression was much calmer than it originally was.

“Your Majesty?” Ye Zi gently called out.

The latter only frowned slightly but didn’t wake up.

Ye Zi sighed as he gazed at Gu Yan’s face and softly said: “Gu Zicheng, I’ll trust you one more time, don’t lie to me.”

He rubbed the other party’s cold fingers as his eyes slightly reddened: “If you dare lie to me, I will really leave……I will go far away and never see you again.”

Ye Zi lowered his head and gently kissed the back of the other party’s hand.

There was a flash of white light in the room and Ye Zi’s figure disappeared into thin air.

On the following day, Ye Zi dressed back as the little Taoist boy beside Guangxu Zi and accompanied Guangxu Zi into the palace together. In front of Emperor Jinghe, Guangxu Zi repeated his old trick and successfully bluffed Emperor Jinghe with his paper figurines.

According to what Wen Shuhou had agreed to in advance, Guangxu Zi pretended to set up an altar in the palace to search for the location of the demon and finally came to the conclusion that the demon was now hidden in the Prince Rui Manor.

Emperor Jinghe immediately ordered that Wen Yi, with Guangxu Zi and several guards, head towards the Prince Rui Manor to catch the demon.

Ye Zi followed Guangxu Zi and a group of people marched towards the Prince Rui Manor.

Ye Zi had been worried about Gu Yan’s condition the whole day and only hoped that Guangxu Zi could find a way to deal with it as soon as possible, so as not to affect that person’s rest.

Just as the group of people arrived at the entrance of the Prince Rui Manor, they were stopped by the manor’s servants.

Ye Zi assisted Guangxu Zi out of the carriage. Outside the manor gate, the old housekeeper guarded the door with a group of servants and said without a doubt: “The Prince is in poor health and has refused any visitors these days. General Wen, please return.”

Wen Yi was prepared for this and let out a light laugh: “I naturally know that Prince Rui is seriously ill, if not, why would I have traveled a long way to find Taoist Priest Guangxu to get rid of the demon plaguing the Prince?”

As he said this, he glanced in Guangxu Zi and Ye Zi’s direction: “Taoist Priest Guangxu has already figured out that the demon that is plaguing Chang’an City these days is hiding in the Prince Rui Manor, if we don’t get rid of the demon, how can His Majesty’s recurring illness be cured?”

However, the old housekeeper refused to budge and the two sides confronted each other for a few moments when a voice was suddenly heard from behind them: “Stand down.”

The crowd parted and Gu Yan slowly walked out.

He was neatly dressed, walked steadily, and looked cold and indifferent. Except for his pale complexion, he looked nothing like his appearance last night, where he was too sick to get out of bed.

Wen Yi’s expression changed and he suddenly had an ominous premonition.

Before they came, they had clearly heard that Gu Yan’s condition had worsened in the past few days, to the point where he could only stay in bed, but he never expected that this person would still be able to come to greet them at the entrance.

Gu Yan wasn’t easy to deal with, if they weren’t afraid of him, the Wen family wouldn’t have picked the time when Gu Yan was seriously injured and bedridden to come and get rid of the demon.

Gu Yan didn’t seem to take Wen Yi seriously at all, his eyes swept over the crowd outside the Prince Rui Manor one by one and when they landed on Ye Zi, there was a flash of surprise in his eyes.

The ice-cold look on his face instantly softened and a gentle and warm smile even overflowed from his eyes.

Ye Zi locked eyes with him across the crowd for a moment and seemingly worried about being discovered, he lowered his head first.

Gu Yan quickly withdrew his gaze as well.

Wen Yi didn’t seem to notice this little hiccup and stepped forward: ”Your Majesty, I’m sorry to bother you. His Holiness has just ordered me to bring Taoist Priest Guangxu to the Prince Rui Manor so that he can take care of the demon. I hope Your Majesty will allow us to do so.”

Gu Yan faintly said: “I didn’t know that Little General Wen was so caring that he was willing to solve this Prince’s problems.”

“Your Majesty is too serious.” Wen Yi said with a smile, “The so-called ‘abnormalities’ cannot be trusted. All demons are crooked and evil and they should be eliminated.”

Gu Yan didn’t pick up the subtle meaning in his words as he turned his head to the servants: “All of you stand down, Little General Wen is here with an Imperial decree, do you want to disobey the decree?”

The servants looked at each other in dismay and could only retreat as they were told.

Gu Yan waved back the blocking servants and said nonchalantly: “Please make yourselves at home, this Prince is ill and will not be accompanying you.”

“Wait.” Wen Yi called out to him, “May I ask if Princess Consort Rui is in the manor right now?”

Gu Yan’s footsteps paused as he responded in a faint voice: “He naturally is.”

Wen Yi pursued: “In the past, the princess consort and Your Majesty were inseparable, why didn’t you guys come out together today?”

Gu Yan was silent for a moment and replied: “The princess consort took care of me all night last night and has just fallen asleep. Why? Do you need his help to catch the demon or something?”

Before Wen Yi could reply, Gu Yan added: “Even if you did need his help, I won’t allow it.”

Gu Yan glanced back at him and said in a cold voice: “The princess consort has been working very hard these past few days. If any of you dares to disturb his rest, you can try and see if I will let you walk out of my manor alive.”

After Gu Yan finished saying this, he walked back into the Prince Rui Manor without looking back.

Wen Yi stood still, a flash of hatred in his eyes.

If it wasn’t for that Princess Consort Rui, Gu Yan wouldn’t have rejected Wen Zhi’s marriage and it wouldn’t have caused her to become the way she was today.

Since Wen Zhi’s accident, he had been sending people to follow Ye Zi. Gu Yan was Prince Rui, with a noble status, so it was not easy to lay hands on him, but that Princess Consort Rui, who was a commoner, was a different story.

And the people he sent to follow that person finally discovered that person’s secret.

It was such an interesting thing that Princess Consort Rui was a demon.

He wanted Gu Yan to taste what it was like to lose a loved one as well.

Wen Yi took a deep breath, collected his mind, and turned his head to Guangxu Zi: “I’ll leave the rest to Taoist Priest then.”

Guangxu Zi set up an altar in the center of the backyard.

Although he said it was used to catch demons, Guangxu Zi seemed like he was not in a hurry at all. He found himself a recliner to lie down in the courtyard and directed Ye Zi to rush around and set up a formation in the courtyard.

Wen Yi and the group of guards he brought were not idle and were arranged by Guangxu Zi to guard the eye of the formation.

The afternoon sun gradually grew hotter. Wen Yi and several guards were sweating profusely from the scorching sun, but they didn’t dare to move half a step.

Guangxu Zi was lying under the shade of the tree to cool off. He squinted his eyes and looked at Ye Zi, who was busying around, and called out softly: “My dear disciple.”

Ye Zi answered and walked to his side: “What’s wrong, Master?”

He had a thin layer of sweat on his forehead from the sun and his cheeks were flushed, making him very attractive.

Guangxu Zi’s eyes slightly closed: “It’s almost ready, right?”

Ye Zi responded: “Yes, it’s all set up according to your instructions.”

Guangxu Zi nodded: “That’s good, you can go take a break first.”

Ye Zi asked: “Aren’t you going to catch the demon?”

Guangxu Zi laughed lightly: “Don’t you also have to pay attention to the right time and place when catching demons? Anyway, it’s not time yet, go stroll around the manor and I’ll call you over after I start casting spells.”

Ye Zi didn’t understand why he was suddenly asked to leave and Guangxu Zi laughed in a low voice: “Still not leaving? I’m afraid your lover is waiting impatiently, Princess Consort Rui.”

Ye Zi was stunned: “Taoist Priest, you……”

Guangxu Zi winked at him: “Don’t worry, they still have to sunbathe for at least two more hours, no one will disturb you.”

Ye Zi was bewildered, but he couldn’t be bothered to ask more questions, he hurriedly thanked Guangxu Zi and left the backyard. Guangxu Zi looked at his retreating figure and shook his head with a smile: “This child……”

He paused for a moment, looked towards the people standing at the other end of the courtyard, and raised his voice: “Little General Wen, don’t fall asleep, the eye of the formation is to be suppressed by someone as heroic and rigid as you. As long as you can suppress it for two hours, it’ll guarantee that the demon absolutely cannot escape the formation.”

Wen Yi couldn’t even open his eyes against the blazing sun, but as soon as he heard Guangxu Zi say that this would be helpful in catching the demon, he immediately replied aloud: “Don’t worry, Taoist Priest, we will not slack off.”

On the other end, Ye Zi quickly walked towards the courtyard where Gu Yan stayed. He probed his head and stepped into the courtyard, only to find that the servants had already been removed and the entire courtyard was empty. Ye Zi looked around, walked to the door, and knocked lightly on the door.

“Your Majesty?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the door of the room opened a gap, and Ye Zi was pulled in.

Ye Zi only felt the sky spinning and when he came back to his senses, he was already pressed against the door panel and kissed hard on the lips.

The familiar kiss was a little less gentle and patient than in the past, Gu Yan ferociously pressed the person against the door, pried open his lips, and plundered them wantonly. Ye Zi couldn’t breathe from being kissed and gradually realized something was wrong.

The person in front of him was burning up.

Ye Zi reached out and gently pushed back a bit, whispering: “Your Majesty, you still have a fever……”

Gu Yan slackened his movements and hugged him tightly as he said with a sickly tone in his voice: “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time, you should be punished.”

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