Heavenly Star

Still in the northern side of the Tian Long City.

This was a very peaceful grove. Ye Wuchen and Long Huang-er each had a fat rabbit leg and ate with great interest. Long Huang-er had already tasted rabbit meat numerous times, but she had never tasted something more delicious than the one in her hands this moment.

This rabbit was personally caught by Long Huang-er, with a “little” assistance from Ye Wuchen at her side.

“I am full!”

Her small hands indecently tossed the long away, it lightly smashed onto the ground full of dead leaves. Being together with Ye Wuchen, she could do whatever she wanted, completely forgetting her position as a princess.

Patting her small belly, she said without much thought, “Let’s go and catch another one, I didn’t that rabbits were that easy to catch.”

‘That’s because I controlled its will, making it run in your direction.’

Ye Wuchen secretly smiled.

Ye Wuchen helped Long Huang-er wipe the corner of her mouth and tidy up her clothes and hair, then he said smiling, “Huang-er, do you know how to play hide and seek?”

“Hide and seek?” Long Huang-er’s eyes brightened, she nodded at once, “Of course I know. I always play with the palace eunuchs and maids. It’s just that they are very stupid, I always find them easily.”

Ye Wuchen obviously knew that they were not being stupid, but instead were using their stupidity to please the princess. He smiled and said, “Since Huang-er is very awesome, then let’s just play hide and seek… in the woods.”

Although the grove extended to a distance of less than one kilometer, it was already quite long. Thick and solid trees could be found everywhere; most were big enough to completely hide an adult.

“Okay, okay. Are there any punishments when someone lose?”

“The loser must kiss the winner. Huang-er, do you still dare to play?” Ye Wuchen said.

Long Huang-er’s eyes gently sparked, she blinked her eyes as if she remembered something and her face slightly blushed. “Of course I will, but, you must hide first, I’ll seek…… Don’t hide too far too, or else you lose.”

“Okay.” Ye Wuchen stuck her little nose, then gently turns her body around, “Close your eyes, you can turn around after you count up to five, don’t slack.”

His hands quietly moved away from Long Huang-er’s shoulder. Long Huang-er closed her eyes, before she started to count as she already felt him disappear from behind her, because she could no longer smell his body’s scent.

After she finished counting to five, she promptly turned her body around. Front, back, left, right, she could no longer see his figure. In the middle of the spacious and empty clearing, it seemed like she was the only person there.

“I’ll begin to seek now.” She yelled, then striding small steps, she advanced little by little to carefully search every corner that could hide a person.

Above her head, a vast stretch of dried up tree branches densely covered by the leaves completely covered Ye Wuchen, who was standing on top of a tree branch. He silently looked at the petite figure of Long Huang-er and softly sighed, “Doing something like this, can it be right, or wrong?”

He had numerous kinds of methods to attain the same goal, but to start off with Long Huang-er was the simplest and most straightforward method. Since it has already started, Ye Wuchen had no plans to change his mind. No matter how different was the outcome, from his own prediction, he promised to give Long Huang-er the most perfect ending. She should not be a sorrowful princess.

Sha… sha… sha…

It happened to be mid-autumn, so no sounds of birds chirping can be heard. The only sound that Long Huang-er could hear was the sound of her footsteps. She walked straight ahead, occasionally, she would try to take roundabout routes, eyes looking around, but her heart started to feel uneasy.

“Quickly come out, I’ve seen you.” She yelled to the front.

No sound of a response, but a dead leaf floated down from above. In the bleak autumn, it slowly fell to the ground, producing a light sound.

She proceeded a few steps ahead. For a princess who stayed in the palace for thirteen years, she could easily get lost within such a small grove, unable to determine the directions, or even find where she had come from.

Only a short span of time had passed, yet she felt like she had been walking for too long. Her quiet heart started to feel terrified and worried. She was scared of this kind of feeling, she regretted having agreed to play hide and seek with him which had caused her to lose his presence. She hoped that he would suddenly appear before her eyes, then hug her to chase away her inner fears.

“Come out now, I don’t want to play anymore, can we just play something else...” For the fear that he would be too far away and might not be able to hear her, she had used her loudest voice to yell.

Still no response, the entire surrounding was so scary silent. Unlike the sounds of thunder and rain yesterday, today even the wind was so gently quiet.

“I don’t want to play anymore… Can you quickly come out?”

“I lose, you must come out quickly… I don’t want to be alone, I’m really scared.”

She shouted loudly, the silence of the surroundings expanded her inner fears more and more… She started to think that he had abandoned her and left secretly. When this thought came to her mind, it was impossible to get rid of it.

“You must come out now. I don’t want to play anymore! I don’t want to play anymore!” Long Huang-er’s voice started to tremble. This kind of feeling was even scarier than the nights of thunder and lightning. Perhaps for in her life, she had never experienced such tremendous fear like this before.

Tears started to circle around her eyes and the world before her became fuzzy. She crouched down onto the ground as the fear made her powerless. She curled her body, shivering, and started crying. That mournful cry transmitted outward with an obviously childish tone with an extreme depth of sorrow echoing throughout the woods.

A pair of hands embraced her slender waist from behind, hugging her tightly against a bosom. The owner of the hands softly said, “Who made my little princess cry? Your future husband will go and teach them a lesson.”

“I got you,” suddenly the crying Long Huang-er turned tears into laughter, with both of her hands firmly hooked around his neck, for the fear that he might escape from her side again, “so you lose.”

Her laugh was real, her tears were also real, yet she did not get angry or complain. Ye Wuchen’s heartstrings had been gently pulled, he hugged her shoulders and could not help but hold her more tightly.

“Okay, I lose. How will my little princess punish me?”

“As you’ve said, the loser must kiss the winner once… No, it should be many times. Don’t be slacking.” She gently pouted her lips, closed her eyes, then quietly approached Ye Wuchen a little bit. Her face as tender and lovely as snow were still studded with specks of pearl-like sparkles.

There were unbounded and pitiful thoughts generating from Ye Wuchen’s mind. He gently kissed her on the face and her eyes, kissing away the tears. Finally, one landed on her delicate lips, gently sucking the sweetness from the young lady. Even he himself was surprised as to why he would do such actions. Maybe it was because of her tears and that smile on her face when he appeared before her.

Long Huang-er blushed, shyly enjoying his affections and intimate actions which made her heart beats faster.

Long Huang-er’s original reason for being silly with Ye Wuchen was greatly because of the instinctive dependence she had with those very close to her, but this gentle kiss caused her affections to slowly transform. This feeling Long Huang-er had for Ye Wuchen would gradually transform into a much deeper feeling.

From that moment on, Long Huang-er would no longer be just a simple chess piece that Ye Wuchen would use to plot against the Tian Long Nation. The original plan that he had been scheming for a very long time had completely transformed itself around.

…………………………

When Ye Wuchen returned home it was nearly sunset. He happened to come across Ye Wei at the doorway, who was just about to enter as well. His expression caused Ye Wuchen to stir his mind and ask, “Is there anything going on?”

Roughly calculating the time, Ye Wuchen understood and hooks up an undetected smile in a corner of his mouth.

“Yes. This afternoon, the Empress had a sudden attack of a serious illness. Her whole body darkened, and her vitality declined. She is lying on the bed without the strength to talk. All the imperial physicians and wizards throughout the palace are unable to do anything about it. All of them are saying that they have never encountered this kind of strange illness before.” Ye Wei said, wringing his brows. The people in the palace were continuously guessing that somebody had used a very odd method to secretly try to kill the Empress. The Lin Family was anxiously and irritably worried as they insinuate it to be the Ye Family.

“Oh, so that’s it. Tian Long Nation has countless famous doctors. It may be assumed that based on the Emperor’s capability, this minor illness will not pose a problem for him.” Ye Wuchen nonchalantly said, obviously not caring about this matter at all.

“This is not just some minor illness.” Ye Wei shook his head with a cautious expression, “The whole body darkened, but they weren’t able to find the cause of the illness. According to the imperial physician, based on the current situation, the Empress will die tomorrow afternoon, at the latest.”

When the Empress of a nation died, the matter could be either huge or small. The Lin Family would greatly fuss about this incident and before the whole truth was revealed, they would blame this matter on the Ye Family. Such was their style. For such a huge matter, the Lin Family’s reaction to it would not be a minor.

Ye Wuchen reacted indifferently, striking a posture to show that he was completely unrelated to this incident and unwilling to get involved in this matter, he leisurely returned to his own courtyard. Nearing the entrance to his courtyard, he called out, “Xue-er, Tong Xin, let’s take a stroll down the street!”

Ning Xue was resting on the bed, teaching Tong Xin to read and write. Although she recognized only a few words, which were taught by Ye Wuchen, she was teaching Tong Xin in a specially serious way. Tong Xin earnestly listened along, never absent-minded, appearing like a very obedient student.

“Brother has returned!” upon hearing the yell, the two of them jump down from the bed at the same time. One in the front and the other followed behind, as they ran excitedly out of the courtyard gates.

………………………

Inside the Imperial Palace, the people were greatly confused. The imperial physicians, Tian Long City’s most well-known physicians continually entered and exited. Each and every one of them had heads full of sweat—cold sweat.

The Empress, Lin Xiu, lay on the bed unmoving, she did not even have the strength to speak; she could only half open her eyes in despair. Her face was covered by a strange layer of grey air. That layer of grey air obviously did not just cover the surface of her body, but was exuding from the within her body and out onto the surface.

Translated by: Fatty_Uncle

Edited by: seriouspotato and patrick_father_of_dragons