Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 48

Embarrassment

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"You're back." Xuan Long allowed him to wrap his wounds and spoke awkwardly.

Hu Le spoke in a good-natured way, "I've only been away for one night and you're already in this state... If I didn't come back, there's no telling what you'd be tossed into."

"......"

Hu Le saw that Xuan Long did not say anything, so he knew that the dragon did not know what to say again. He hated in his heart, but his hands moved more and more lightly, and he spoke with difficulty, "I left and you didn't even come to me, I squatted by the pool and waited for you all night, but you didn't even get up on the shore, am I really that unimportant to you?"

Xuan Long: "... No."

He had never believed that people who really wanted to leave could be held back.

Although Hu Le's Tao was shallow, his spiritual power was not bad and he was capable enough to mingle in the world. Instead of staying by his side and staying in this lonely ancient pond, he might be able to live a better life by leaving.

What reason did he have to keep him?

"Then why didn't you come to me?” Hu Le asked accusingly.

"......" Xuan Long pursed his lips.

"Then if I get angry with you in the future, you must come to me.” Hu Le didn't want to make things difficult for this stupid dragon at all.

Xuan Long looked at his absolutely charming face, "… Okay."

"Actually, I just want you to coax me, like my brother did, give me a step up and I'll come back naturally.” Hu Le frowned, squirming.

"I understand." Xuan Long spoke seriously.

"Don't keep getting yourself hurt in the future, okay?” Hu Le lifted his reddened eyes. "I'll worry. You and I are the only ones left in this world, and I don't want you to get hurt or have anything happen to you."

"Okay." Xuan Long said. 

It was only then that Hu Le was satisfied. Seeing Xuan Long's forehead dense with cold sweat and his face becoming increasingly ugly, he frowned sharply, "Is it abdominal pain again?"

"It's no big deal." Xuan Long's expression was flat and his voice was feeble.

It was obviously caused by the kneeling when he blocked the whip for the dog emperor, which probably affected his abdomen. Hu Le glanced coldly at Yan Yuan, who was standing not far away like a wooden man, and pinned the long hair on the side of Xuan Long's face behind his ear so that the sharp outline was completely exposed.

Hu Le took out a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat from his forehead, "I'll go and make some medicine, if you can't stay up, lie down for a while.”

“En." Xuan Long answered.

Hu Le put away the handkerchief, got up, and disappeared into the room.

Yan Yuan thought he knew Xuan Long very well, but he did not expect that after only half a month of separation, Xuan Long had a foxy-looking demon by his side, and it seemed that the two demons were very close. He finally had room to speak now, and nervously approached him, “A'Po..."

Xuan Long leaned back against the bed and turned his head to look at him.

"What is your relationship with him..."

Yan Yuan has always been self-confident and did things with ease, rarely having this kind of downward spiral. Xuan Long didn't know what it was like in his heart, in short it was very bad. He withdrew his eyes and closed them, "It's none of your business."

"How can it have nothing to do with me... if it's about you, it's about me." Yan Yuan walked to the bedside and asked in a small voice. "Just now he said that you had abdominal pain again, why would you have abdominal pain?"

This question was actually very ridiculous; almost all of the injuries suffered by Xuan Long were caused by Yan Yuan, who was actually coming to care for him now.

It would have been better if he had been slapped and given a sweet date to make it hurt more. The sweet date was sour, astringent, and even had sharp, broken porcelain dross inside.

Xuan Long didn't have the strength to ignore him, so he simply closed his mind and rested.

"If you don't want to care about me, just ignore me." Yan Yuan had completely lost his former arrogant air, "Rest well."

Hu Le used his spiritual power to boil medicine and returned shortly afterwards, carrying a white jade medicine bowl in his hand. He walked to the side of the bed and saw Yan Yuan sitting on the edge of the bed, blocking the way, so he spoke coldly: "Get out of the way."

Yan Yuan's face turned sour, but he got up from the side of the bed. Hu Le sat beside the bed, handing the bowl of medicine to Xuan Long: "I have used my spiritual power to cool it down, it is suitable to eat."

Xuan Long took the bowl and drank the dark medicine in a few gulps.

The medicine was extremely bitter, but he didn't even frown. Hu Le saw it in his eyes and was heartbroken. When he opened his hand, a pale yellow dried apricot appeared in his palm, wrapped in icing sugar, which looked very relieving. 

"Sweet fruit."

Xuan Long froze, twisting the dried fruit from his hand and putting it in his mouth.

"Is it good?” Hu Le laughed.

“En." Xuan Long responded in a low voice.

It was delicious.

The icing sugar melted in his mouth, and the bite was sweet and sour.

No one had ever been so attentive to him.

"I bought it when I was shopping before coming here with you. If you take one after drinking the medicine, it won't be so unpleasant.” Hu Le felt very satisfied with his own wit.

The demon was treating Xuan Long too well, and Yan Yuan looked at him with great displeasure, as if his heart was being pressed down by a big stone, suffocating him to the point that he could not breathe. Xuan Long had treated him so well before, but he had never cherished it.

He wanted to get rid of the foxy thing, but this was Xuan Long's territory, and now he was the one who was unwelcome. This was not in the palace, and he was even less of an emperor in front of the demons. Yan Yuan realised then that this dragon was not at all as easily controlled as he had thought.

In the past, Xuan Long had indulged him and pampered him because he cared for him and liked him, but if Xuan Long did not like him anymore, he would be nothing.

“A'Po... are you really ignoring me?" Yan Yuan stepped forward with red eyes.

He knew his sadness was unjustified, the person he loved was Ning Zhiyu, so who cares if Xuan Long had changed his heart. However, it was just hard for him, very hard, as if he had lost his most precious treasure.

Hu Le laughed coldly and raised his hand, a white light appeared in the air and shot Yan Yuan far away: "Do you really think you're some kind of figurehead? Get as far away as you can, there are no demons here willing to spoil you. I'm not going to kill you for the sake of Han Po."

Yan Yuan staggered backwards and bumped into the wardrobe, he steadied himself and limped forward, “A'Po, don't ignore me..."

"Go away." Xuan Long's eyes fell on the brocade quilt.

"I'm not going..." Yan Yuan said hoarsely.

Xuan Long: "That man must be waiting for you."

Both of them knew who the person he was talking about was.

But Yan Yuan was so stubborn.

"I won't leave until you go back with me."

After going back to the original point, Xuan Long knew that there was no point in continuing this conversation with Yan Yuan, so he stopped talking.

He had not slept all night, and was so weak both mentally and physically that he passed out before he could lie down, and Hu Le tucked him in.

Yan Yuan stepped forward to see him, but Hu Le rose to block him, and the cold light in the latter's ice-blue eyes was like a sword as he lowered his voice and said, "If you dare to disturb him, I will whip you to death."

If eyes could kill, both sides would have killed each other a million times over by now. Yan Yuan was shaking with anger: "You vixen..."

"I didn't expect you, a dog emperor with shit in his head, to have some eyesight, I am a fox spirit.” Hu Le tsked and laughed. "What? Never seen a demon as beautiful as me, right? You're so wide eyed, if you stare again, you'll be in trouble." 

"You..."

"You what, get lost!"

Hu Le’s long whip circled Yan Yuan's waist, threw him out, and at the same time, the door to the room closed and a layer of fluctuating transparent barrier appeared outside, a boundary.

Yan Yuan fell heavily to the ground, his leg bones in severe pain, and he did not get up for a long time. He struggled to get up against the pain when a large pile of thick firewood appeared out of nowhere in front of him.

Hu Le threw his axe to the ground and clapped his hands, "Chop this pile of firewood."

“Don't even think about it." Yan Yuan looked up with scarlet eyes.

Hu Le laughed, "Fine, no lunch until you finish. If you want to stay, you have to work, there's no such thing as free food."

"......" Yan Yuan had never been so humiliated before, and his hands were embedded deep in his palms.

"Even the emperor will have to be obedient when it comes to me.” Hu Le kicked the axe on the ground towards Yan Yuan. "Don't make things difficult for yourself."

He could not force the man away, but it was easy to give him some pain, and if he did not hurt his flesh, he would not cause trouble for Xuan Long, which was good. Leaving his words behind, Hu Le disappeared into the small courtyard and went to the kitchen to prepare food for Xuan Long.

Yan Yuan got up from the ground with difficulty, his originally clean white robe was scuffed, the hem of his coat was dirty, and his hair was in disarray; there was no trace of his dignified imperial posture. He turned to look at the house that was surrounded by a boundary, knowing that he could not enter, so he did not bother to do anything useless. 

After standing in place for a long time, he finally picked up the heavy axe.

Having grown up in a life of luxury, with thousands of people waiting on him, he had never done this kind of rough work before. Before chopping even a few pieces of wood, his delicate palms were worn by the rough axe, and they were hot and painful.

After chopping firewood all morning, the smell of food wafted out of the house when it was time for lunch.

His stomach growled indignantly. Yan Yuan pursed his dry lips, raised his sleeve to wipe the sweat from the corner of his forehead, and continued chopping wood.

Inside the house.

Xuan Long sat down at the table and Hu Le set the dishes in front of him.

"Is he gone?"

Hu Le's chopsticks, which were serving Xuan Long's food, stopped and he frowned, "... No."

Xuan Long looked up.

Hu Le snorted coldly, "I saw that he was too idle and assigned him some work to do."

......

The door to the room suddenly opened, the boundary dispersed, and Hu Le walked out of the house.

Yan Yuan stopped moving and turned his head to look expressionlessly.

Hu Le walked up to him, looked at the unevenly chopped firewood on the floor, and snorted, "And the emperor, you're so clumsy, you can't even chop firewood properly, there's no use for a bird.” (Angel: Bird is used as derogatory slang for useless.)

"......"

"Go in and eat."

Yan Yuan followed Hu Le into the house in silence, and when he saw Xuan Long, his expression changed, but unfortunately the latter didn't even look at him.

“A'Po..."

Yan Yuan sat down at the table and Hu Le threw chopsticks into his hand.

After working so hard for so long, Yan Yuan's hands spasmed uncontrollably. He picked up the chopsticks and was about to take a dish when Hu Le slapped them away with his chopsticks, leaving two red marks on the back of his white hands.

He reflexively retracted his hand.

"The food on this table is not for you to touch. This is your share."

Hu Le put the broken bowl with the missing spout in front of Yan Yuan, which contained two steamed buns made of white flour.

It was obvious that he was being treated like a beggar.

He looked up angrily and met Hu Le's sneering gaze.

"What?"

"Disgusted, huh?"

"It's good to have something to eat, if you don't want to eat, get out."

Yan Yuan looked at Xuan Long and found that he had no intention of paying any attention to him. With sourness in his eyes, he lowered his head and picked up the steamed bun in the bowl with his dirty hands.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: June 16, 2022