MLIAM Chapter 116

Chapter 116: After the City Fell – Disaster! Prime Minister Wei is Awake!

Chapter 116: After the City Fell – Disaster! Prime Minister Wei is Awake!

The Xizhao Emperor was trapped in the fire, the massive Imperial Palace had become a dead city, and the feudal lords arrived in time, attempting to profit from the chaos. However, the Da Liang army was too fierce, advancing with unstoppable momentum.

In the end, all the feudal lords were powerless to reverse the situation. The people of Xizhao, weary of war, and under immense pressure, the feudal lords had no choice but to jointly write a letter of surrender.

Yu Shuli woke up three days later.

His entire body ached, and he couldn’t move his limbs. He blinked, looking at the unfamiliar bed curtains, unsure of the year or era.

Chen Li was standing guard nearby. Seeing him wake up, he exclaimed loudly towards the outside.

In an instant, the small room was packed with generals of all ranks.

Yu Shuli’s forehead twitched. Looking at the pitiful doctor who was squeezed to the side, with no room to stand and his left foot stepping on his right, he said irritably, “What are you all crowding around here for? Got nothing better to do? You weren’t so diligent when it came to fighting the war, but now you’re all here, slacking off?”

“You’re one to talk… Wuwuwu… You scared us to death!” Chen Li threw himself forward, “Do you know that the day you fell off the city wall with Prime Minister Wei, you terrified the soldiers so much that their legs went weak? Their hands holding their lances were trembling!”

Yu Shuli glared at him, “You have the nerve to say that… With your half-baked skills, why didn’t you know beforehand that there was a secret passage in the main hall of the Xizhao Imperial Palace…”

Chen Li blinked, “Unfair… That secret passage was built later, after Wanyan Jun took over. He probably anticipated being besieged one day, so he left it for himself to escape. How could I have known about such a thing? I’m not a god…”

Mu Shaoyang also said, “That day on the city wall, when Flying Dragon Junior General and Prime Minister Wei fell down together, we were scared half to death.”

Yu Shuli frowned. He only vaguely remembered carrying Wei Yan and rushing out of the fire before the Imperial Palace collapsed.

But he didn’t know where the secret passage led.

It was pitch black inside. His blood gradually solidified, and his strength was only being sustained by inner force. When he saw a glimmer of light, he lunged towards it, and then he fainted.

When he woke up again, he was here.

He had no idea about the city wall or the fall.

“What happened?” Yu Shuli asked Ding Sheng, who was relatively more reliable when it came to narrating events.

Ding Sheng said, “That day, as the battle raged, a crack suddenly appeared in a corner of the city wall, gradually forming a secret passage. Flying Dragon Junior General, carrying Prime Minister Wei on his back, suddenly pushed the rocks out from there. At that time, both of you were almost unconscious, hanging precariously on the city wall. Zhong Nian saw this and was shocked. He decisively ordered soldiers to go and catch you. Fortunately, when you two fell, the soldiers were already in position. Aside from smashing a few old cloths and breaking a few soldiers’ arms, everything was fine… To save you two, everyone put their backs into attacking the city, and soon after, they captured the Xizhao Imperial City.”

Zhong Nian added, “Even after they fell, Flying Dragon Junior General and Prime Minister Wei were clinging to each other. It took a lot of effort to separate them.”

Yu Shuli’s mouth twitched.

Wanyan Jun’s secret passage was too unreliable… Any misstep, and they would have gone from escaping a tiger’s mouth to entering a wolf’s den. If it weren’t for the Da Liang army, he and Wei Yan would probably have ended up with broken limbs at best, or corpses in the streets at worst.

That would have been too tragic.

Thinking of this, Yu Shuli, who had been relieved, suddenly paused.

He struggled to sit up, but Chen Li held him down, “What are you doing? You just woke up. The doctor said you can’t move around!”

“I’m going to see Wei Yan…”

“Prime Minister Wei, he…” Chen Li scratched his head, looked away, and hesitated.

Yu Shuli’s face turned pale, “What’s with that expression?!”

His heart was filled with panic. He struggled, “Let go of me! I want to see him!”

“Just woke up, and you’re already causing trouble?” Zhao Lan slowly stepped into the room and exclaimed in surprise: “Oh my, everyone is here? You guys sure are loyal to your Flying Dragon Junior General.”

“Your Majesty…” The group of rough generals were about to perform a salute in the crowded room when Zhao Lan laughingly stopped them, “Don’t bump into me. One punch from each of you would send me flying.”

“Your Majesty, we didn’t mean anything by it… We just came to see Flying Dragon Junior General now that he’s finally awake…”

“I know…” Zhao Lan smiled, “I understand your brotherhood. After all, the ones who broke their arms, upon hearing the news of Ji’an’s awakening, were still grinning foolishly. You don’t need to be so restrained. I’m not that suspicious.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty, for your understanding…”

Zhong Nian winked, leading the crowd out and leaving the space to Zhao Lan and Yu Shuli.

Chen Li was about to follow when Zhao Lan beckoned him, “Wait a moment.”

Chen Li then touched his nose and stayed behind.

“Ji’an, you’ve scared everyone these past few days.” Zhao Lan sat down by Yu Shuli’s bed, “Finally, Xizhao is defeated, and the plan for unifying the world is almost complete, but you and Wei Yan almost had an accident… How am I supposed to explain that to the generals and the people?”

Yu Shuli chuckled awkwardly, “I didn’t originally… plan to die for my country, I value my life a lot.”

“There was an incident in the palace.” Chen Li helped explain, “That day, I followed the agreement to take Prime Minister Wei to meet Flying Dragon Junior General, but when we came out of the secret passage, we found that Flying Dragon Junior General was not waiting in the room as agreed. We immediately felt that something was wrong.”

“Prime Minister Wei didn’t say a word along the way and silently chased after him. I had a bad feeling at the time, suspecting that Wanyan Jun had forcibly dragged Flying Dragon Junior General to get married…” Chen Li glanced at Yu Shuli and continued, “That night, the Imperial Palace was cleared, and not a single palace servant was left. If it weren’t for the festive red silk hanging around, it would have truly been like a dead city. Who would have thought that when the two of us reached the entrance of the main hall… we saw… we saw…”

Zhao Lan, seeing Yu Shuli’s displeased expression, smiled and said, “Saw what?”

Chen Li was too embarrassed to say it, so Yu Shuli took over, “I was having a wedding ceremony with Wanyan Jun.”

Zhao Lan exclaimed in surprise and leaned over to look at him while laughing, “If our Prime Minister Wei saw that, wouldn’t he turn the world upside down?”

He suddenly became serious and said, “Didn’t you tell Wanyan Jun? You and Wei Yan are married by imperial decree, and no random person is allowed to interfere in your marriage.”

“Your Majesty… don’t make fun of me at this time.” Yu Shuli sighed, “I had no choice at that time… He threatened me with the antidote…”

Speaking of the antidote, Yu Shuli paused again. “Your Majesty… I ultimately failed to get the antidote… Wei Yan’s poison…”

“It’s been cured.” Zhao Lan frowned and said, “I was just about to ask you about this. You said Wanyan Jun threatened you with the antidote, and you didn’t get it. Then why did we find the only antidote in your waistband?”

Yu Shuli blinked, opened his mouth, but couldn’t say a word.

So… Wanyan Jun, he…

“Wanyan Jun still gave you the medicine.” Zhao Lan said, “It seems that his feelings for you are genuine.”

Yu Shuli murmured, “I… really don’t know.”

Perhaps in that moment before the wedding ceremony, when he wrapped his arm around my waist…

But… he actually still chose to give the antidote?

If that’s the case, then did he also guess that I would still take the risk and enter the secret passage with Wei Yan? Otherwise, if Wei Yan was destined to die, giving the antidote would be pointless.

…So… the secret passage originally didn’t have any restrictive mechanisms. There was no such thing as Yu Shuli being highly skilled in martial arts and luckily avoiding the mechanisms, or him and Wei Yan being pitied by the heavens.

Wanyan Jun must have originally wanted to leave with me, but later, there was an incident in the palace, and he saw Wei Yan coming. After a dispute between the three parties, his heart turned to ashes, and he finally chose to die.

Yu Shuli was silent for a long time, feeling a little sad in his heart.

“You feel sorry for him?” Zhao Lan raised an eyebrow, “Feeling sorry is the beginning of falling in love with a man… Unfortunately, Wanyan Jun is already dead. The fire was too big, and he was burned to ashes.”

Yu Shuli sniffed, “I don’t feel sorry for him. I’m just a little… a little sad. He did too many bad things. Even if he were alive, I definitely wouldn’t have let him go. Now that he’s dead, I don’t have to bother taking action, so you could say he had an easy death.”

“Now that there’s an antidote… then… Wei Yan should be fine, right?” Yu Shuli blinked and looked at Zhao Lan, “Can I go see him?”

Zhao Lan shook his head, “I’m afraid not for now.”

“First, your injuries are more serious than his. Your inner force is chaotic, and your meridians are knotted. You must rest quietly for a year and can’t use your martial force again.”

Yu Shuli’s eyes widened, and he listened to Zhao Lan continue, word by word, “As for Wei Yan… his poison has been cured. Other than being slightly weak, there’s nothing else wrong with his body, but… he hasn’t woken up yet. The doctor said that he inhaled too much smoke in the fire, and it’s unclear if that’s the reason. I already sent people to invite Imperial Physician Yang earlier, and he arrived these past two days. He’s currently helping Wei Yan with his diagnosis. If you go over there, you’ll just be adding to the chaos.”

Yu Shuli felt as if the sky had fallen. He lowered his face, “Your Majesty, why don’t these two pieces of news follow the script? They’re all bad news, it’s hard for me not to become depressed.”

“Everyone’s alive, that’s already a blessing. In the future, you should also rest and recuperate properly, carefully heal your injuries, and try to improve your temper. That might not be a bad thing.” Zhao Lan stood up, winked at him, and smiled, “Your wish from back then, I’ve now helped you achieve it. I’ll keep your title for you, and you’ll still get your salary. Eat and play for a year, just think of it as giving you and Wei Yan a vacation, isn’t that good?”

Yu Shuli mumbled, “But Wei Yan hasn’t woken up yet.”

“You tormented his life so much, and he’s still stubbornly alive. You should already be thanking the heavens.” Zhao Lan saw Yu Shuli lower his eyes, with tears glistening in them, so he coaxed him, “Don’t worry, as long as you’re still alive, he won’t be willing to die.”

Zhao Lan glanced over at Chen Li, “Let’s go, come with me.”

Chen Li exclaimed, “Why is there something for me to do too?!” He also wants to get paid on vacation without working…

“You don’t need to work? The map of the secret passages in Xizhao isn’t complete, and it almost killed my Duke Zhenguo and Prime Minister. It’s already good enough that I didn’t punish you.”

“Unfair… Your Majesty…” Chen Li cried, “I knew about the secret passage beforehand, but Wanyan Jun built the new one later…”

After noticing Zhao Lan’s smiling eyes, Chen Li realized he had been tricked. He grunted twice and turned his face away, “Anyway, Your Majesty just favors Yu Shuli and Wei Yan!”

“Of course I favor them.” Zhao Lan smiled openly, “More than ten years ago, I was hoping that they could be together, and later my wish finally came true, but they have gone through twists and turns again and again. Now that the storm has passed, they can be said to finally have a good life coming. Can you understand my old-mother-like concern?”

Yu Shuli lay on the head of the bed, his eyes filled with tears of gratitude, “Your Majesty, I used to misunderstand you as a fan of Wei Yan. It turns out that’s not the case, you are actually a loyal fan of both of us.”

Zhao Lan glanced at him, “So… you should recuperate well, treat Prime Minister Wei well. That guy is very jealous and possessive, so don’t provoke or bully him in the future.”

Yu Shuli curled his lips, “Alright.”

He didn’t bully Wei Yan.

He’s the one who bullied me!

Bullying me in bed, making decisions for me outside of bed, not wanting me to face death with him, leaving the only chance of survival to me.

He clearly likes me very much, but when faced with life and death, he is extremely cowardly, unable to even die together.

Just as Zhao Lan was about to leave with Chen Li, Zhong Nian suddenly barged in, “Flying Dragon Junior General! Disaster! Prime Minister Wei is awake!”