At the morning briefing, the court staff consented to offer a peace treaty to the Jin tribe, and to send prime minister Wen Ke Xing as peacemaker, since he had great literacy and swordsmanship.
They did not agree to send prince ZiShu as his subordinate though. First because most of the staff thought the emperor would make him crown prince. Second because the prince played a primordially important role in the Song army. He was their military general. They could not risk it. Should he become a prisoner of war, they would lose their country's most valuable asset.
Prince ZiShu would have - should have - already predicted that, were he not blinded by love to the point his brains stopped working. Now he regretted it. The court had made its decision and there was no going back.
Knowing that Wen Ke Xing would be crossing the border on his own, prince ZiShu got extremely worried.
If Lao Wen truly was prince Yuan Ngan Ke of the Jin tribe, then he might cross the border and never return. He had spent enough time in the Song court to gather all of the opponent's information already, why bother to come back. Since he had photographic memory, he might have memorized most, if not all, of their fortification maps, political documents, military secrets.
If Lao Wen was not a spy, then crossing the border alone like that, to offer peace to the enemy tribe, was too big of a risk to take. He might not come back alive.
The prince knew that regardless of which way things would turn out, the outcome would be the same: he would lose Lao Wen soon.
The peace deal was scheduled for 4 days from today.
He wanted those 4 days to be their happiest days ever.
He asked for official permission from his emperor father so he could take a few days off with the prime minister. It was approved, mainly because the emperor himself knew that there was only a 50% chance for Wen Ke Xing to come back alive anyway. So let the man get a few days off, should those be his last living days.
Before leaving the palace, they tried to visit Ah Xiang in prison, but she refused to see them.
They packed some clothes, and went to town. They booked three rooms again, like last time, at the same tavern, as last time. They stayed in the middle room too, just like last time.
On their first day, they visited the Six Arts Club (六藝). There, they attended an archery competition, and then played music in a live band. Wen Ke Xing and ZiShu both played the flute. After shopping around a little, they played chess at the park with some elders, and discussed calligraphy with a group of scholars who were sitting not too far away. At dawn, they went to a local lantern festival and played some word games and they won each a lantern for free. They exchanged their lanterns, as a gift to each other. At night they went hunting for crickets and captured the bugs in little bamboo containers.
As soon as they returned to their room at the tavern, Ah Xu made passionate love to him, before Lao Wen even had the chance to light up the room's lantern. Lao Wen knew how much Ah Xu loved him, and their feelings for each other were mutual. In fact, he was surprised how patient Ah Xu was, to have waited until they were alone in their room. A few times, when nobody was around, Ah Xu had teased Lao Wen by touching him lightly on the waist, brushing his chest, bumping their shoulders, bouncing their hips, or staring at him with eyes full of desire and affection. That drove Lao Wen wild with temptations. To the point he even wished Ah Xu would just lead him back to the tavern already, or book a room on the spot nearby and have his wicked way with him. But Ah Xu didn't. He kept building up the tension. And it worked. When they were finally back at the tavern, alone in the dark room, Ah Xu immediately pushed him onto the door that just closed, and pressed his full body against Lao Wen, letting him feel the rock hard erection sliding up and down his lower back. And he couldn't wait. He needed Ah Xu inside so badly, and when they finally joined, thrusting into each other on the table, Ah Xu top and Lao Wen bottom, it made them feel so complete, so content, so perfectly fit for each other. They belonged together. There was no doubt.
