Runaway Flounderers

9. General Zhou Is Married!?

"When you came into that basement room, did you see a woman?"

"A woman?"

So if Zhou Zishu hadn't seen her, then was that a hallucination? If she really did disappear just like that then she must be...

"I have something to ask you.." and Wen Kexing's thoughts were interrupted by Zhou Zishu who seemed to be more interested in the 'woman' standing in front of him than the one he was being asked about. They were standing outside that house and Zhou Zishu was trying to untie the knots at Wen Kexing's wrist.

Wen Kexing knew what was coming at him and just nodded while rapidly thinking for an excuse. Zhou Zishu spoke as he managed to untie one knot, "so, back there, how did you know the- *cough* *cough* ohhh.. umm..." while looking at his wrists, his eyes fell on the side of Wen Kexing's thighs, where a patch of bare skin was exposed by the ripped cloth.

Zhou Zishu hastily turned away and Wen Kexing asked "what's wrong?" with a puzzled look. Great, now the knot from Wen Kexing's hands had jumped to Zhou Zishu's tongue. He hastily thought, if he didn't tell her now, then wouldn't he seem like a pervert when she finds it out later? But if he tells her now, with tied up hands, what could she do to protect herself? Or even worse, what if she ends up feeling too embarrassed to ever step out again? no no no, the world cannot lose a good doctor, so he had to untie the knots as fast as possible.

He tried so hard to keep his eyes only on his hands but, the more he tried not to look the clearer the skin came into his view. His hands started shaking slightly and sweat drops formed on his forehead. He had never been so nervous even in a battlefield. He finally lost it and said, "this isn't going to work out like this" and he retracted his hands to pull out the White Cloth Sword wrapped around his waist under the belt.

He carefully cut the rope and Wen Kexing rubbed at his reddened wrist. Zhou Zishu quickly removed his black outer cloak and wrapped it around a-qing, "uhh..it's cold...so wear it so you won't fall sick"

Wen Kexing blankly blinked, then looked at the blinding sun and then at a sweaty Zhou Zishu and blinked again. Cold? wait, why did his legs suddenly felt warm when he wrapped the cloak on him as if they were cold before? Wen Kexing looked down in confusion and finally noticed his gown being torn about a palm's length at the side of his right thigh. So this is what that had made the ripping sound while he had kicked that guy in that underground storeroom. "Oh..ahem...yea its cold..thanks", he played along while painfully holding back from bursting into a laughter.

Now that Zhou Zishu had removed his outer cloak, his uniform which had more silver linings now came into view, especially the rank badge. The badge for generals had two intertwining snakes baring their fangs and forked tongues at each other with a sword passing down in between them. The stark red eyes of the snakes, though so small, stood out the most. Wen Kexing sighed internally in relief that he had managed to get promoted.

"eh? General Zhou, I see you got promoted, then what are you still doing at the capital?" Usually by this time the promoted candidates would have been assigned their duties and most of them would be sent to the borders.

"They assigned me to work at the imperial guards for a few months. Maybe when I'm trained well and have gained enough trust, they will send me to the borders again"

"ohh", This ShenShen ugh!, thought Wen Kexing in annoyance. Since Zhou Zishu had been double promoted to general directly from troop commander instead of colonel, ShenShen had his suspicions. So Wen Kexing wasn't surprised that he was going tough on Zhou Zishu.

"Miss Qing-"

"ah? what 'miss Qing' didn't you already call me a-qing back there?" Wen Kexing tried to change the topic again. Zhou Zishu gave an embarrassed laugh and said, "okay, a-qing, how do you know the military code?"