I promise you [我答应你]

The Last Meeting

It was done, Bei Dao is no more. Corrupted officials have been weeded out. Faithful soldiers are rewarded. Citizens will be divided no more. Jianghu will no longer need to intervene for justice in secret. Bei Feng will be the new wise emperor.

Wei Lanwan shuffled across his courtyard garden, still learning how to navigate the world without his eyes. It stung fiercely, but he had learnt to savor the pain. He couldn't tell apart the textures of various flowers he felt on his fingertips yet, but he knew his which is which. After all, a gardener knows his plants from heart, like a mother who knows her son. 

Now that his missions have been met, the guild is surely expecting his return. And so, like a mother abandoning her child for the heavens, must he leave his flourishing garden into the care of nature and chances. And so, too, must he leave the affairs of his heart.

"Long live the Emperor!"

The distant doorman's announcement stirred Lanwan's out of his wandering state and he knelt down right where he stood, facing his left with hands held out in a salute.

"Must you kneel for me in your own house?"

The voice rippled with a sigh as a rough hand pulled Lanwan to his feet. Lanwan smiled with his head tilted up, as if he was meeting eye to eye with Bei Feng, "This favored official must set disciplinary example, and lead not any subordinate astray with casual demeanor. This favored official dares not allow any chance of casual interaction be taken wrongly by the people who can cause much opposition with mere rumors!"

Bei Feng really wanted to punish a certain official at the moment!

Unbeknownst to Lanwan, Bei Feng waved his hand and the imperial hidden guard left without a sound. He then walked slowly around the unmoving Lanwan with dark eyes. Lanwan could only stay still guess in his heart of the situation he is in and smiled helplessly.

Bei Feng caught the smile and pulled Lanwan abruptly into the house.

❖❖❖❖

The sound of solitary calm breath was loud under the hazy teal bed canopy, accompanied with ambiguous scent of spring(lovemaking). Lanwan imagined the puff of his warm breath diffusing with the cold air. His hand still grasping tightly onto the sheets where Bei Feng had laid earlier in an embrace, but later left afterwards to prepare for the official crowning ceremony in the imperial palace. The cold air caresses Lanwan's exposed skin, his clothes was completely torn, and his waist and lower back was pleasantly sore. The blindfold, however, was untouched. Still neat after a vigorous session.

The dull pain in his eye still stung but the dull sensation of planted strawberries(love-bites) on his skin diverted the sensation. It must be bruising purple by now. Lanwan touched them with feathery touches, like kingfishers dancing on a lake, and the blindfolds became damp with specks of bloody tears. 

It was at this moment, Lanwan had made an important decision.