𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐲'𝐬 𝐇𝐮𝐬𝐛𝐚𝐧𝐝 || 敵の旦那様 (𝐁𝐋) ✔ [COMPLETE]

65. Death by comrades

It was safe to concur Fu Lin was in quite the dangerous predicament.

Ever since his return from the escape mission two weeks ago, he had been in hiding. He could clearly remember the day his family awaited his boarding onto the oak brown ship, anxious and endearing, as they looked at him with hopeful eyes. They were about to cross the Kanglun Continent and seek shelter in the Taihe Continent nearby until things settle down. And yet all he had done was to smile and say,

"Farewell. Have a safe journey."

He had not explained anything to his family as he stormed away from the boat that was wiggling in the water, disregarding that his words caused an uproar in the ship. His family had called after him and even tried to drag him back to the ship but all he did was to walk away, not looking back. When they finally resorted to coercion by binding his hands and carrying him to the ship, he uttered, embittered, resentment burning in his voice, "Go before I curse that your journey may end with you drowning in the ship."

His family, partly terrified of this unfound anger in him and partly worried for their lives because Fu Lin had three spots on his tongue–a myth widely believed in Kanglun which embodied that persons with three spots in their tongue could utter prophecies, ran with their tails between their legs. He didn't want to answer the questions his family asked because he himself didn't know how to answer them.

Why was he going back to the Blazing Sun once again? What was there any longer for him to look forward to? What... Did he actually want all this time?

He laughed.

Who was he kidding? He knew what he wanted. But there was a problem he couldn't resolve any longer about it: The one he wanted was already six feet under.

But he had crossed the whole Empire and scrambled his way to the Blazing Sun gates by begging for some merchants to journey him through the barren lands. Now he was standing within the familiar yet unfamiliar place yet again.

His chest tightened at the sight of it–everything about this place had demanded he shed his blood for it. All because of something he cherished and wanted to protect, his Empire.

And now he'd lost all that he loved to the throes of war. All.

Stretching his body, that was sore from getting cramped within the cart, he began picking up scraps of information about the state of the Empire.

Apparently, as soon as the death of the General was announced, insurgencies against the General on account of him being a traitor had begun. Ministers of various departments had taken the lead in these movements and commoners, manipulated by the corruptive words of the educated elite, had duly joined them. The Blazing Sun had harboured years long resentment towards the and at the news of their General betraying the country for the love of one from the had maddeningly fuelled the throes of these rebellions.

However, Emperor Guang was not one to let such inconveniences pass under his very nose; he had taken severe actions and banned any retaliation against the General as the case was yet to be investigated. But it seems he couldn't save everything.

Fu Lin stood before the Zhou Manor that had a seal made of red paint smeared on a yellow cloth, secured by a heavy lock. It was deemed as outlaw premises now. Half of the manor was torn and burned down, only the skeleton of the once glorious manor remained.

As he was lost in his thoughts, he saw a pair of eyes peeking at him from behind the vendors. Hands shaking, he quickly threw his veiled bamboo hat around his head and turned around. It was a bounty hunter. And he was currently on the lookout for Fu Lin.

At this point, even a miserable nose hair of his could fetch somebody a bag of gold. Because he had become a bounty to the whole of Blazing Sun.

Fu Lin almost wanted to laugh at the misery of these fellows who thought his sorry self was worth anything more than an underwear with a hole. Nobody could care less what he was or

who he was before he met the General. And now that the man had gone and foolishly killed himself for Fu Lin's sake, everybody wants him–although mostly dead. He stared at the wanted posters with drawings of him, or rather something that resembled him, with a hundred thousand gold as prize for his headless corpse. He shivered. Snapping his head back to make sure nobody was following him, he quickly entered a tea stall to seek cover.

"Have you heard?" A gruff voice sounded from the counter. "About the General–"

"Shush!" The gruff voice snapped, chiding the other. "Lower your voice, I ain't got money to pay for fines if the palace officials caught whiff of my shop."

Fu Lin's ears perked up at the mention of Haoran and he pretended to sip tea, though there was none in his cup. It was an old man and a young woman, likely a customer, conversing in hushed whispers.

"So, what is it about?" The woman asked, "His cremation is tomorrow, isn't it? Is the imperial family going to confiscate the Zhou family property after the ceremony?"

The old man rubbed his hands. "Oh no. This story is even juicier than that! Highly confidential information this is, so you better not spill it to anybody. It is that... the General actually seems to be alive!"

Before the woman could give any reaction, Fu Lin had tumbled to the ground with his tea cup getting thrown across the floor. Fu Lin bowed his head apologetically at the old man who glared at him for a second and quickly returned to his conversation.

"How is that even possible?"

"It is quite the tale I tell ya," The old man clapped the table on his stall energetically as he said, "apparently after the General stabbed himself, and the three lieutenants had declared him dead in the chaos of it all they had almost begun burying him before he they noticed one of his eyes had fluttered. And so a physician was summoned and apparently he almost beat the three lieutenants with his medical needles for almost killing a very much alive man from burial."

"Oh, Suns! And then?"

"To quote the doctor, 'The Imperial General is a formidable man that even death fears, hence his death wouldn't be one of the Gods nor fate; the only thing capable of being his death are his comrades."

"What..." The woman lowered her voice a notch deeper. "Does the Emperor intend to do with him?"

"That...I'm not really sure," the man said, shrugging. "There are several conjectures out of which the strongest is that the Emperor wants the General alive. That he was the one who ordered the General's recuperation and safety."

"Why would he do that to a traitor? Humph, if it were up to me I'd have sliced his neck to a thousand dozen pieces."

"You must remember that kill or be killed isn't how politics work." The man's gaze darkened. "I think the Emperor only really ordered his cure so that he could make an example out of him. So that he'd be alive when the Emperor himself orders the execution and according to what I've heard, his execution is tomorrow."

* * * * * 

I'm sorry about the late update but real life sometimes gets a bit too hard to handle, phew! 

⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝ Can I  have my treat now for releasing you from last chapter's  torture?? Can I? Can... I... never mind....

I might as well run for my life. 

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

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