He was Almost Absorbed by the System

Chapter Seventy - Time is Like An Arrow

The changes within the Twin Moon Imperial Palace did not have much impact on the most of the Empire, with the exception of Huang Jia's fall in the south leaving a large void in power.  Of course, several Houses were quick to take advantage and were happy to fill said void.  Still, internal power struggles and small assassinations caused the recovering South to suffer four more years of poverty.  The East was recovering slowly.  Although food was no longer a problem here, scars still remained on people's hearts.  Almost eight years they had struggled and no officials had bowed down to help them.

Both Princesses had been married off to Princes outside of the Empire, securing trade and peace along parts of the border.  But in the West, old conflicts were not too quick to die.  The Emperor instructed the third army to join the second in an attempt to settle things there, once and for all.

"Father.  We wish to join the third army and bring peace to the West."

The Emperor had brought both sons to attend court with him since both turned fourteen.  Wáng Jie Long was developing into a handsome man, with chiselled features and sunny, bright eyes.  There always seemed to be a hint of amusement upon his face and his nature was passionate and restless.  Any man would be proud to call him son.  But as much as the Emperor enjoyed displaying this specimen of a man before his ministers, he loved the beauty of Wáng Yu Long more. 

At sixteen, the Second Prince had lost much of the femininity displayed within his childish days, but this had not retracted from his pale beauty.  If anything, his soft, thin lips and jade like skin was even more prominent than before.  He had proud, cool lines, but his black eyes held liquid warmth despite his icy features.  Both young men had many girls, wealthy family or no, weeping into their pillows at night hoping that they might just one day turn their way and smile at them!  The First Prince was a great martial artist, the Second Prince had the heart of a scholar, what was there not to want?

So from his warrior son, the words said were not unexpected.  However what followed distressed the Emperor.  "Please allow us, Father," Wáng Yu Long requested.  The Princes called him Father on his instruction, not for any love their bore him.  Old wounds did not always heal fast.

The Emperor truly wished to deny the Second Prince; how would he be able to suffer the whining ministers without his most lovely son brightening the dowdy court with his beauty?  But the ministers, who were still distressed by the lack of a named heir since the Third Prince had found this path cut from beneath him, argued in the Princes favour, after all, was this not a good trial to see which one of them might one day rise to claim the dragon throne?  The Emperor began to sulk.  He had sprinkled his garden with a more masculine touch and savoured the uniqueness of those Male concubines, but none surpassed the beauty of this one son.

He finally relented, but let it known he was not pleased with the decision by holing up in his harem for most of the month!

*****

Thwamp!

The sound of the arrow embedding itself in flesh was followed by a sharp squeal and a thump.

"Well done, your highness!" Yu Long shared a meaningful look with his brother as the fawning soldier praised his aim. What was there to praise? The large boar had been upwind, drinking from the forest lake and had let its guard down.

"Take it back to camp with the other," Jie Long instructed, after clearing his secret chuckle with a slight cough. The two soldiers bowed and ran to claim the boar carcass. As he watched them disappear in the distance, he turned to face his brother. "You know, you don't need to hunt meat for the army, there are farms we can collect food from nearby."

"No," Yu Long argued. He'd seen the fear and resigned looks in the faces of the farmers that they had passed so far and the further they moved West the more pitiful those looks became. "What kind of men are we to bully those we are supposed to protect by taking what little they have?"