Rebirth As a Fatuous and Self-indulgent Ruler

Shi smiled. “How can you say that? Don’t worry. I’m not that fragile. It’s just an accident this time.”

Long lowered his head, and then looked up. He said with mixed feelings, “Qingzhou, in my impression, you’ve always been all-powerful. I always thought that any problem would be solved when you were the one who dealt with it. However, I forgot that you were also a human being, who could get ill, injured or be defeated by nature. Qingzhou...” Long said sadly, “Qingzhou, do you know how regretful I was when I knew that you were trapped in the mountain? I should have gone with you. I shouldn’t have left you alone in danger...”

“Your Majesty.” Shi suddenly sat up and took Long’s hand. “Please don’t say that.”

Long looked at Shi in confusion. Shouldn’t he say that? But that was exactly what he thought.

Shi fixed his eyes on Long and said word by word. “It was an accident this time. It’s nothing to do with you. Don’t blame yourself. It’s not anyone’s fault. Understand?”

Long slightly curled his lips upwardly, but that smile was so ugly. “Qingzhou, you don’t want me to feel guilty, right?”

“More than that,” Shi said, “I mean it. It’s not your fault. It was just an accident.”

Since it was an accident, Long shouldn’t blame himself.

Long looked at Shi and finally nodded slowly. He sighed and hugged Shi tightly. “Qingzhou, promise me not to get hurt again. Seeing you get hurt, I... I feel heartbroken.”

Anyone would suffer some injuries in a lifetime. Shi wanted to laugh, but he still felt so warm deep inside.

So, Shi nodded and said seriously and softly, “Okay, I promise you.”

Long smiled. He held Shi in his arms and hugged him tightly before letting him go.

After a while, the porridge was delivered there. Shi wasn’t so sick that he didn’t even have the strength to eat, but Long insisted on feeding Shi and didn’t allow him to move a bit.

As a result, Shi didn’t move at all and let Long feed him two bowls of porridge.

Long didn’t dare to let Shi eat too much at once, for fear that Shi’s stomach couldn’t take it. Two bowls of porridge should be okay, because the bowl wasn’t very big and the porridge was medicinal, which was good for Shi’s health.

At night, while Shi was resting, Long summoned a Shadow Guardian to ask about the condition of the Shadow Guardians who were with Shi earlier. He got a positive answer that all those men had recovered and the toxins had been removed.

However, since they failed to protect the empress, all of them needed to be punished. They had all admitted their error and asked for punishment.

Long looked at Shi, “Qingzhou, how should I punish them?”

Shi smiled slightly. “It was a natural disaster. No one wanted that. So be lenient with them.”

After hearing those words, Long puckered his lips slightly, but still nodded. “I’ll take your advice.”

They were short of hands at the moment, so it wouldn’t be a good thing if the Shadow Guardians got hurt.

So, Long decided to postpone it and the Shadow Guardians wouldn’t be punished until they went back to the palace.

Knowing that those men were fine, Long waved away the Shadow Guardian and then went to bed.

Looking at Long, Shi asked, “Shall we go on tomorrow?”

Long gently pursed his lips and nodded. “Well, you should rest at the inn. I’ll go.”

“No way.” Shi immediately frowned. “Your Majesty, it’ll be too dangerous for you. I’m totally fine now. Let me go.”

Long stared at Shi. “You still need to take more medicine to completely remove the remaining poison in your body. How can you say you’re totally fine?”

Shi felt a little helpless. “It’s just some more medicine. I can take it after I come back.”

“There’s no room for discussion. You must rest in the inn,” Long said firmly.

Shi gritted his teeth and said, “No way! I must go. Your identity must not be exposed!”

“You...” Seeing that Shi talked back, Long gritted his teeth and stared at him. “I am the emperor!”

Shi pressed his lips together. “Yes, I know, but are you sure you want to stop me with your identity?”

“You...” Long was so angry that his body trembled. Shi stared at Long and didn’t make a concession.

In the end, Long gave in. “Let’s go together.”

Shi still shook his head. “No, I’ll go. You wait for the news here.”

“Shi Qingzhou!” Long got furious.

Shi fixed his eyes on Long. There wasn’t fear, only grim determination, in his eyes.

Long got wrathful. He directly lay down and wrapped the quilt around him. Then, he turned his back to Shi and stopped talking to him.

Shi’s expression softened. A moment later, a wry smile flashed across his face, but he said nothing and didn’t plan to give in.

Long was waiting for Shi to say something nice to him. Well, it would be fine if Shi didn’t say any sweet words, but he just wanted Shi to give up the idea.

Damn it! Long waited for all night and he was so desperate to sleep, but Shi still didn’t say anything to him!

Long fell asleep with anger, while Shi... After daybreak, Shi took several Shadow Guardians to continue his journey...

So, when Long woke up, what he saw was only the empty bed beside him! Long got so angry that he almost smashed the inn!

“Zhang Yuan!” Long roared.

One Shadow Guardian came in. “My Lord, Zhang Yuan has gone with Mr. Shi.”

“What? They’ve left together?” Long felt that his anger subsided a little.

“Yes.”

Long pressed his lips together. “How many people did Mr. Shi take with him?”

“Ten guards, along with Zhang Yuan.”

So he took ten Shadow Guardians with him? There were enough people... Long calmed down a bit more.

Finally, Long waved.

“Well, go and bring some food here.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

After the Shadow Guardian left, Long stared at the other half of the bed beside him and lost himself in thought.

He felt that... his empress seemed to pay less and less attention to his feelings.

When he was furious, his empress still dared to disobey the imperial edict and act without permission!

Thinking about that, Long got angry again.

But, he thought it over and found that it was also a good thing that his empress was so brave.

At least, his empress had seen him as an equal lover, instead of the emperor that all ministers should always obey.

Otherwise, no matter how Shi wasn’t satisfied, he wouldn’t dare to disobey the imperial edict.

What’s more, Shi did that... just because Shi worried about him. Shi was afraid that Long’s identity would be exposed and others might assassinate him.

Alas...

Long sighed and felt it was such a bittersweet experience.

It was good that his empress no longer treated him as an outsider, but... it also angered him that his empress didn’t take his advice at all!

Look, Shi even dared to ignore him!

After a while, some food was delivered there. Long got out of bed, put on his clothes and then began to eat at the table. Those dishes were actually very delicious, but since his lover wasn’t with him, he felt all the food was tasteless!

After taking a couple of bites, Long put his chopsticks down... and asked the servant to take the food away...

Waiting was also so torturous.

Long was in no mood to go out for a walk, so he just shut himself up in the inn to sleep.

Then, Long had a dream.

In his dream, he saw himself in the previous life. He saw... what happened after he died.

He died of illness. His mother cried in front of his bed and his father comforted her, but his eyes were also red.

And his younger brother... clenched his fists tightly and kept lowering his head.

He saw a lot of people attending his funeral and his brother standing numbly in front of his coffin.

Then, he saw that his family buried him and his parents and brother burned paper money in front of his grave.

“Elder brother, it’s good. You’re finally free. If there’s really an afterlife, I hope you can have a healthy body. Then you’ll be able to do everything. You can run. You can jump. You can eat anything you like.”

Long really wanted to cry at this moment... Then, he woke up.

Lying on the bed, he looked at the inn and could not help murmuring. “I’ve got myself a healthy body now. I can eat whatever I want. I can run. I can jump. I also can do a little martial arts... Don’t worry, brother.”

“Brother...”

After this dream, Long found that he really missed his family... his real family...

Fortunately, although he had no relatives in the current life, he had found his real love.

If his brother found that he’d fallen in love with a man... would that silly boy be angry... or happy?

Long couldn’t help looking forward to seeing his brother’s reaction.

However, Long knew it clearly that he would never see his brother again... Thinking about that, he felt sadness welling up inside of him.