As he stepped out of the gates of the palace, Luo Wei’s legs went soft all of a sudden, and he fell again. The frustration he’d held back in his heart was too real. Was he angry at Long Yu and the Empress, or was he feeling some sort of unbidden guilt for Long Xuan, or was it something else he felt for Long Xuan… Perhaps it was the sight of Long Xuan sick in bed. Luo Wei bit his lip. Even today, was he still capable of feeling sorry for that man?
“Young master!”
Luo Wei looked up and saw Wei Lan.
“Did you fall?” Wei Lan saw that Luo Wei’s face was pale, and busied himself with checking the youth over, afraid that Luo Wei was injured somehow.
“I’m fine,” Luo Wei borrowed Wei Lan’s arm and pulled himself up, “Let’s go home.”
“But your hand?” Wei Lan caught sight of a patch of skin scraped raw on Luo Wei’s right hand.
“I’m really unlucky today,” Luo Wei looked at the injury with indifference, “With this fall just now, I’ve already taken two tumbles.”
Seeing that Luo Wei was still walking rather briskly, Wei Lan let go of the breath he’d been holding and made rest his worry. He helped Luo Wei into the carriage, and once inside, dipped a fresh handkerchief into some tea so he could wipe the injury on Luo Wei’s hand clean.
“It’s not bleeding,” Luo Wei saw that Wei Lan’s mouth was still pressed into a line, so he tried to pacify him, “I’ll watch where I’m going next time.”
“Rather than just saying it all the time, young master ought to be putting it into action.” Wei Lan carefully checked over the wound again, afraid that he’d missed a spot, “If something dirty from the ground got into a wound like this, it won’t heal properly.”
“Lan, you’re behaving like an old mother hen right now,” The nervous and worried look on Wei Lan’s face made Luo Wei’s heart feel suddenly warm, and he can’t help the smidgen of smile at the corner of his lips, “I just scraped my hand is all, what’ll you do if I break it next time?”
“You said you were going watch where you’re going,” Wei Lan knew very well that Luo Wei was joking, but he still wasn’t happy about it. How can a person be this bad at taking care of themselves? “Young master, aren’t you afraid of getting hurt?” This wasn’t just a small piece of skin that he scraped, there was an entire patch that’d been rubbed raw.
“It’s a little injury, how much could it hurt?” Luo Wei pulled his hand from Wei Lan’s, “Stop worrying, we’ve fought on the front lines already, keep acting like this and people are going to laugh at me.”
“We should bandage it up,” Wei Lan said.
“Do you have a clean handkerchief?” Luo Wei looked at the piece of wet cloth on the little table in the carriage and asked Wei Lan. This handkerchief was his own, he didn’t have another.
Wei Lan hesitated for a moment, “I have one, if the young master doesn’t mind…”
“I don’t mind, here,” Luo Wei stuck out his injured hand again.
Wei Lan quickly pulled out his own handkerchief, and as carefully as he could, bandaged up Luo Wei’s hand.
Luo Wei watched Wei Lan tending to him. He blinked, and suddenly asked, “Lan, today, His Imperial Majesty asked me if there’s a place I’d like to go.”
Wei Lan asked, “Why would he ask the young master that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then… where does the young master want to go?”
“I don’t know that either… I don’t leave the capital very often,” Luo Wei tilted his head and propped his cheek on one hand, thinking, “Lan, do you have a place you’d like to go?”
Wei Lan shook his head, “I’ve been to a lot of places with Master Luo back at the villa.”
“What are you bringing him up for?” Luo Wei said, “I’m asking where you want to go.”
“I’ll go wherever the young master goes.”
“Mm… Lan, where did you come from?” Luo Wei asked again.
“Xu Zhou(1).”
“That’s really far from the capital.”
“It’s a border town, very small.”
“I heard that Xu Zhou is famous for its jade. Lan, what are some fun sights to see in Xu Zhou?”
While his hands tied a clever bow with the handkerchief over Luo Wei’s hand, Wei Lan was doing his best trying to remember what Xu Zhou looked like. But he’d been away for so long that the only thing he remembered was that it was a very, very small city, and beyond its walls lay endless sand.
“Lan, I want to go to Xu Zhou,” Luo Wei made up his mind then.
Wei Lan lifted his gaze. The sunlight sneaked into the cart by the side of the window blinds, forming a luminous veil between him and Luo Wei. The small tea kettle was boiling on the table, gurgling quietly, and Wei Lan couldn’t quite distinguish all the features on Luo Wei’s face. He felt as if his body had been submersed in a dream.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Xu Zhou – Not to be mistaken with any Xu Zhou that currently exists. The characters used for this “Xu Zhou” had been assigned to places that exist historically, though the location (desert, border town) is likely fictional.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTES:
I realllllly loved this chapter… I think here is where I started to really root for the two of them. : )) Wei Lan’s love for Luo Wei is so pure… Also a double update as I’m going to be working a long shift tomorrow and won’t be able to get to my computer. <3