Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 83

It's Better To Not See Each Other

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"Not good, your child is naturally for you to raise yourself, what kind of thing would it be to leave little master to me?" Hu Le's voice was hoarse. "Impossible... I will never agree. If you dare to die, I will never forgive you, much less raise your child for you."

The reason Yan Yuan held him prisoner was to use him to hold Xuan Long at bay.

If Xuan Long was alive, he would not let him go. If he was willing to let him go, it would be because Xuan Long was no longer alive. Xuan Long now had nothing, as his Tao was scattered, and all he could use as leverage was his heart.

Hu Le knew this, and so did Xuan Long.

One of them was outside the door in his eunuch's clothes, the other inside the hall in his profane clothes. Xuan Long was leaning against the door, the bulk of his weight resting on it, supporting his failing body, "Hu Le... I do not have much time left..."

"I don't care, you're not allowed to die." Hu Le's lowered voice had a thick nasal note. "I will find a way... even if we are destined to be imprisoned here and unable to leave, I will stay with you until I die."

Xuan Long knew that Hu Le had a hard mouth and a soft heart, and that if he was ever gone, he would never leave the child behind. There was no point in saying more, lest someone overheard and Yan Yuan found out, it would cause unnecessary trouble again.

A moment later, the closed door of the hall was opened.

The hand was pale but beautiful, with long, straight finger bones and a very clean look. In his hand he held large pieces of food wrapped in kraft paper, the aroma enticing.

"... You like this."

It was roast chicken.

Looking along the hand. Behind the not-so-large open doorway was the man's bloodless, handsome face, his long hair blocking the scar on the right side of his face, his golden-turquoise pupils upright and piercingly cold, but it made Hu Le feel warm. He smiled as he reached out to take it.

"It's been a long time since I've had chicken, it's still A'Po who treats me well, unlike the smelly jailers in the prison who only know how to treat me to a whip."

"......"

Hu Le felt that he had said the wrong thing and looked up, only to see Xuan Long looking at him in silence. Although there was no expression on his face, Hu Le knew that the other party must be having a hard time in his heart.

This dragon was cold on the outside and warm on the inside, seemingly unapproachable but actually more pure and gentle than anyone else.

Hu Le grinned, "I have thick skin, it doesn't hurt."

Xuan Long gently closed the door, blocking the line of sight between the two sides, his icy turquoise eyes misting with water.

Pregnant and sleepy, and with his injuries, Xuan Long rarely woke up every day and slept almost the whole day. Sometimes, when he closed his eyes and opened them later, it would be dark.

His time was getting shorter and shorter.

That day, Yan Yuan said he would give him a silver hairpin, and when he came back at night, he asked the palace staff to bring him a wooden tray with brocade pads on which were dozens of hairpins, each of which was more exquisite than the one bought at the stall. Even someone as illiterate as Xuan Long knew that they must be worth a lot of money.

Yan Yuan did not ask him to pick them out, but gave them all to him and asked him to take them.

Xuan Long refused to take them and returned the 'token of love' to Yan Yuan, asking him to take it away with him. As a result, Yan Yuan was furious and did not come over for a few days, so Qiankun Palace was much quieter.

The wound on his back was not fully healed and had to be medicated every day. Hu Le was mostly outside the palace, and would only come in when he had to, such as to medicate Xuan Long.

He would cry every time he looked at the gruesome wounds, at first choking back tears of pain, but now he was much better, his eyes were red at best, and he held back his tears.

The wound medicine left behind by Hua Niang was not as good as the Immortal Muscle Powder of the Dragon Healer, and it was very painful to pour the powder into the flesh and blood. Xuan Long was always half dead after each dose of medicine and would fall asleep when he touched the bed and closed his eyes.

This day, after dinner, Hu Le and Xiao Zhanzi came in to remove the dishes, and Hu Le stayed behind to administer the medicine to Xuan Long as usual.

Xuan Long sat on his knees on the bed, his back facing outwards, and removed his loose-fitting robe to reveal his scabbed back. At this point, there was actually no need for external medicine, just internal medicine. However, the wound was so large that when he got up every day, it would be stretched and cracked in several places, which made the healing process slower and slower.

Hu Le approached with the vial of medicine and carefully sprinkled the powder over the scabbed cracks, which oozed blood from the deep cracks, stinging his eyes.

The body beneath his hand shivered imperceptibly.

"If you are in pain... then shout out, shout out and you will feel better."

Xuan Long spoke in a hoarse voice, "It's nothing, it's not very painful."

Hu Le didn't speak anymore, afraid that if he spoke, his crying voice would leak out and upset Xuan Long. There was silence in the hall when the door suddenly opened outside and the sound of steady, strong footsteps approached, soon followed by a gloomy voice.

"What are you doing?"

Hu Le turned his head to look. Yan Yuan had stopped at a spot not far away, the dim candle light reflecting dangerously on his face, obviously misunderstanding something again.

It was a funny question, who was the person who had done this to Xuan Long? He had the nerve to ask what they were doing. Subconsciously, he wanted to dislike him, but the only words that came out were two faint ones:

“Applying medicine."

A good man will not eat his words. One day, this dog emperor will fall into his hands, and he will see how he will seek justice for A'Po.

Yan Yuan frowned and went over to take a look. He was indeed applying medicine, but he was still uncomfortable when Xuan Long was taking off his clothes and belt in front of others like this. He held out his hand towards Hu Le, "Give it to me. Get out."

A man and a fox stood at a standstill for a moment. Hu Le looked at Xuan Long's back and finally relented, indignantly putting the medicine bottle into Yan Yuan's hand and saying in a soft voice, “A'Po, I'll go out first, call me if you need anything."

Xuan Long responded, and when Hu Le went out, Yan Yuan spoke as he wrapped his bandages, "From now on, I will be the one to help you change the medicine, or call Xiao Zhanzi to come, that fox is not allowed to be this close to you."

Xuan Long had become accustomed to Yan Yuan's overbearing despotism and incomprehensibility, and it was useless to resist, so he just kept silent.

After half a column of incense had passed, Xuan Long picked up his clothes and tried to put them on, but Yan Yuan bent down and snatched the blood-stained robes: "It's all dirty, change it."

He then ordered Xiao Zhanzi to fetch clean robes.

At his angle, he could see the front of Xuan Long's body, his long, waterfall-like hair tucked to one side and hanging down on the bed. Looking from the top down, his nose was high and well-defined. Yan Yuan's eyes fell on his round stomach and raised his hand to touch it, "It's only been a few days since I've seen you, why does it feel like your belly has grown some more..."

Xuan Long’s boy froze, reflexively clasping Yan Yuan's wrist, his eyebrows slightly wrinkled.

Yan Yuan retracted his hand: "I just want to touch it. This little one is growing too fast."

Xiao Zhanzi soon brought the robes. Xuan Long put them on quietly and lay down on the bed, face in and back out, with a lazy attitude towards Yan Yuan.

Yan Yuan sat down on the side of the bed, fished out a silver hairpin from his lapel, climbed onto the bed and encircled Xuan Long from behind, holding the silver hairpin up in front of him.

"Look, I had this specially made by a silversmith, it's different from the one I gave you last time. The design was drawn by me personally, doesn't it resemble your original form?"

The silver hairpin was of old craftsmanship, with a ball-shaped tail and a living dragon coiled on a small silver ball, with one of its horns broken off. The shape truly resembled that of Xuan Long. The most novel feature was that an iris blossomed in the dragon's curved body.

"......" Xuan Long wondered what Yan Yuan was trying to do again.

Did he want to tell him to take the silver pin and end the child... or were there not enough dragon scales again?

Yan Yuan did not know what Xuan Long was thinking, he just felt that this dragon was ignoring him. It was very different from before and made him very uncomfortable, so he tried to cheer him up.

His right arm went under Xuan Long's neck and changed to hold the silver hairpin in his right hand, while his left hand encircled Xuan Long's body and lightly covered his towering stomach, smiling as he explained, "The dragon is you and the iris represents me. I know you don't like those things that are everywhere, so I had a unique one made. You’ll always like it, right?"

Xuan Long pushed Yan Yuan's hand away from touching his stomach and whispered, "... I don't like it."

Yan Yuan cheekily put his hand back, "Why don't you like it? Aren't you just angry that I gave A'Yu a hairpin and didn't give it to you? This hairpin was made by the imperial craftsman in the palace, it's much better than A'Yu's, and a hundred times better than those in the state treasury."

Xuan Long murmured, "I don't like any of the ones you gave me."

What he wanted was not a silver hairpin, what he wanted was a unique bond, a heartfelt relationship, something he cherished. Yan Yuan could not give him that. He had once expected it, but now he did not want it.

He didn't want anything anymore.

Yan Yuan suppressed the unhappiness rising up in his heart: "Then who will you be happy with receiving something from?"

Xuan Long: "I will be happy with anyone's gift. Only you… it’s better not to see each other. Seeing you, it’s annoying."

Doesn't this mean that seeing him is annoying?

Yan Yuan's face instantly changed. He withdrew his hand and sat up, pulling Xuan Long's arm to force him to turn around.

"Do you want to be upset?"

Rubbing his back across the bed, there was a sharp stabbing pain. Xuan Long's face turned pale, his lips pursed and he quietly turned his face away, closing his eyes and ignoring him.

"Fine, take it or leave it."

There was a thunderous thud from his side, and Yan Yuan got up and got out of bed, throwing the hairpin heavily to the floor, the not-so-sharp end of the hairpin making a crater in the dark wood floor.

"Looks like I've been treating you too well!"

Yan Yuan's habit of slamming doors had probably only come about after he met Xuan Long, and the door to the side hall was probably almost broken by him, but fortunately he was the emperor and could be capricious enough to repair ten thousand doors even if he broke them.

The silver hairpin rolled under the bed with a plop, leaving a small pit in its place. Xuan Long stared at the missing piece of paint, as if he was thinking about something, but also as if he was thinking about nothing.

Almost every time Yan Yuan came to Qiankun Palace, he left in a rage, and as soon as his back disappeared, Hu Le had to nervously enter the palace door to see if Xuan Long was alright.

Only when he saw that the man was fine did Hu Le go out with relief.

In fact, this was a good thing for Xuan Long. If Yan Yuan had stayed and asked Xuan Long to relieve his desires like a beast, Xuan Long would not have been able to bear it with his current body.

With such a big belly, he could not afford to do it.

He thought that tonight would be a night of hard-earned peace and quiet, but an hour after Yan Yuan left, he returned, wearing a different set of clothes.

The original dragon robe was replaced with a silver robe of the highest quality, and his aura was icy cold, but he showed no signs of anger.

Xiao Zhanzi bowed with trepidation and opened the hall door for Yan Yuan, and Hu Le stared intently at his back, his brow wrinkling.

"Wait."

The man paused in his tracks.

Hu Le looked warily at his tall back, "Who are you?"

Xiao Zhanzi shuddered and lowered his voice, "Xiao Hu Le, are you stupid, this is the Emperor, who else could..."

‿︵‿︵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: September 21, 2022