Binding the Dragon for the Empress Chapter 84

Get Out of Here

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The man did not turn around, but stepped through the door a few breaths later, and Hu Le watched as Xiao Zhanzi stepped forward to close the door gently, his hands hanging at his side in a tight grip.

The wax on the candlestick had burned down to a small flame, and the dim candlelight barely illuminated the scene in the hall. As Xuan Long drifted off to sleep, he heard footsteps approaching on his side of the bed, and he raised his eyes to see that the tall figure was somewhat indistinct.

The man crouched down on the side of the bed.

"... I'm late."

The other person was wearing Yan Yuan's face, but was not Yan Yuan. When you love someone deeply, no matter what the other person becomes, you will not mistakenly identify them.

Xuan Long looked at the face that was identical to Yan Yuan's, only colder, and asked wearily, "Who are you?"

"An old friend." The man's voice was low and hoarse, and it sounded familiar.

Xuan Long murmured, "An old friend..." He never had any old friends.

As Xuan Long watched, the other man moved his hand to the base of his ear and slowly removed a human skin mask from where his jaw met his neck, revealing his original face.

Xuan Long remembered the night of the assassination in the Hall of Peace, remembered the day when he was being talked about in the palace, and how this man had relieved him and returned his mask.

"It is you..."

Yan Huo Heng looked deeply into the man's pale face, "It's me. I've come to take you away."

Xuan Long didn't quite understand why the other man would say such a thing. He had tried to kill him that night. Instead of taking it personally, he had gone to the trouble of disguising himself as Yan Yuan and appeared here. Why?

If he wanted to take revenge, he figured he could succeed at this moment.

"Why are we leaving?"

There were emotions under Yan Huo Heng's dark eyes that Xuan Long couldn't understand: "Because you've had a bad time."

Xuan Long sullenly said, "I am not familiar with you."

Yan Huo Heng was silent for a long time, then lifted his right hand and lifted up his wide sleeve robe, revealing a large, hideous wound on his lower arm, which was the same as the burn marks on Xuan Long's face, even the colour was similar in shade.

"It's something I was born with, the same as you. I have often seen you in my dreams... I know that your name is A’Po... Do you believe in past lives and present lives? I do."

Because the dream was too real. From the time he was a child, there was a little Xuan Long running behind him and his brother, who was naughty and always teased him and treated him like a slave. Later, when the little dragon grew up and became a popular general in the heavens, his brother inherited the throne and married the dragon as his empress.

The face that his younger brother wore was that of Yan Yuan.

Before he met Xuan Long in this life, Yan Huo Heng had always thought that it was just an illusory dream, until the three faces in his dream came together in reality.

The moment he saw Xuan Long, his heart tossed up waves of shock. All of the excitement, happiness, was never fake... which included the silly feelings in his heart.

The person who treated Xuan Long the best was clearly him, but Xuan Long eventually became Yan Yuan's empress. Even in this life, at the time of their meeting, Xuan Long was already Yan Yuan's pet.

He could always get this dragon easily, but he had never cherished it...

In his last life, he did not protect him properly until the last moment...

"I don't have a name." Xuan Long said calmly, looking upwards. “Han Po... is the name Yan Yuan gave me."

The hoarse voice pulled back Yan Huo Heng's thoughts and he spoke in a low voice, "That's not important. What's important is the future. Out of this palace gate, the sky is high and the sea is wide, yet you are still circling."

It sounded so beautiful that Xuan Long smiled in a daze, gently tugging at the corners of his mouth, "I no longer know how to fly."

The person on the side of the bed was silent for a long time: "Then it is better to walk."

Xuan Long seemed to be tired and his voice dropped significantly: "I can't walk anymore."

The cold, beady face of Yan Huo Heng showed some unseen tenderness under the dim candlelight: "There are many war horses at the border, they can carry you wherever you want to go. If you get tired of the bumps, we can continue in a carriage."

He didn't want to ride in the carriage, he just wanted to lie still, to sleep and not wake up again, so that he wouldn't hurt or feel sad anymore.

The man in the bed was sleepy and did not speak, so Yan Huo Heng told him about his past life. He did not remember everything, only a few scattered major events that he remembered clearly, and only the strong feelings in his heart which he remembered clearly.

The scattered dreams of broken images over the years were enough to form a story that was not quite complete.

Xuan Long listened, finding it interesting. He opened his turquoise eyes, twisted his head to look at him and asked in a low voice, "I am the General, then what are you?"

Yan Huo Heng: "Like you, I was a divine general guarding the Heavenly Palace of the Nine Heavens. I guarded the south and you held the north, and there were times when we would go to war together."

Xuan Long: "Is that so..."

“En."

Other people always seem to be grand when they say such ethereal words, but when they came from Yan Huo Heng's mouth, it seemed like it really happened.

No matter whether it was true or not, there was no way to find out. Xuan Long was glad that he had come here to tell him this, no matter what the purpose was. At least in the last days of his life, he had felt a little more care and warmth.

Seeing the man close his eyes to sleep, Yan Huo Heng spoke in a low voice:

"The Empress' birthday is in three days' time, there will be many courtiers and emissaries from the foreign countries coming to the palace for the dinner. We can leave in the chaos when the dinner is over."

"Come with me."

"I'll take you away from here."

Xuan Long moved his lips slightly: "Where will we go?"

Yan Huo Heng: “Anywhere, not this abyss-like Imperial City anyway."

Xuan Long half opened his turquoise eyes: "He is watching me very closely... If I leave, it will surely drag the palace staff down with me, I can't leave... Take Hu Le away for me."

Yan Huo Heng knew who Hu Le was. He had already checked out all the details of the people around Xuan Long during this period of time.

"Then take the two young eunuchs with you. If you stay, you will have a hard time, and he will kill you. And the child in your womb... what will happen? Will he be able to tolerate it?"

Hearing him talk about the child, Xuan Long finally reacted, the hand under the bedding slowly sliding to the small of the bulging belly.

The child, Yan Yuan could not tolerate it.

Silence fell over the hall, and suddenly the frightened voice of Xiao Zhanzi came from outside the door.

"Your…  Your Majesty?"

"You just… were you not just..."

"What happened just now?" Yan Yuan stopped his steps towards the hall and turned his head to look at the stammering little eunuch, a smell of unabated gunpowder in his words.

"Just now you..."

"You just left, why are you back again?" Hu Le snatched the words.

Yan Yuan sneered, "I can leave if I want to, I can stay if I want to, do I need you, an eunuch, to care?"

The naked humiliation made Hu Le's face turn blue and he opened his arms in front of Yan Yuan before he could enter: “A'Po is already asleep, you are not allowed to go in and disturb him!"

"Get lost!"

Listening to the commotion coming from outside, Yan Huo Heng said unhurriedly, "In the evening, three days from now, my carriage will be waiting for you at Willow Lane near the Cold Palace. During the dinner, Yan Yuan will certainly mobilise many guards to the Hall of Peace, and there will be no guards near the Cold Palace, so once the hour of the sun has passed, you should immediately take the two little eunuchs and set off."

"I will wait for you."

The moment Yan Yuan pushed the door in, Yan Huo Heng tumbled out of the window silently, and with one leap he was on the roof, quickly disappearing into the night.

The man who came inside was filled with anger, even in his footsteps, as if he was afraid that no one in the palace knew he was coming. Xuan Long pretended to sleep with his eyes closed. Yan Yuan stopped in front of the bed, and the more he thought about it, the more angry he became. He was having such a hard time, but this dragon slept soundly.

Sitting down on the side of the bed, he reached out and pushed Xuan Long's shoulder.

"Wake up."

He pushed so hard that Xuan Long could not continue to pretend, and he opened his eyes gently, turning his bulky body sluggishly not to look at him.

Yan Yuan became even more furious, wanting to pick him up and teach him a lesson so that he would know what the rules were.

But after all, he was pregnant and had a problem with depression, and besides, there was no comparison between a dragon who knew what the rules were and Ning Zhiyu.

"Lie down."

Xuan Long turned his back to him and asked softly, "What do you want now?"

Yan Yuan: "To sleep! This is my bedchamber, so what? Do I have to ask you to come back and sleep?"

Xuan Long did not move, "There is plenty of room in the palace for you to sleep."

Why did he have to come to him?

"I will sleep here tonight." Yan Yuan stood up, undressed in a few seconds and climbed into bed. When Xuan Long did not move, he slept on the inside of the bed, laying down and pulling the man into his arms.

Xuan Long's body ached all over from his rough movements and his sweat stained hands lifted to push him, "Don't touch me..."

"Don't move, then I will be gentle." Yan Yuan's voice came from above his head.

When Xuan Long stopped struggling, Yan Yuan really did loosen his grip a bit, and the hand circling his waist and abdomen shifted to rest on his hip, where there was no injury that would hurt him.

"You silly dragon, what the hell do I have to do to get a good look from you? I'm tired of seeing you look like a sulking oil bottle."

Xuan Long took a long time to reply, "If you're tired of looking... don't look at me."

Yan Yuan's face was black: "Shut up and go to sleep!"

He had originally gone to Luanfeng Hall, but he turned back halfway to the entrance of the palace. This dragon said that he was annoyed by the sight of him, so he had to hang around in front of his eyes and make him look at him.

The next day, Yan Yuan had breakfast at Qiankun Palace before leaving. As soon as he left, Hu Le hurried in and asked who the person who had come last night was.

At that time, after the man entered, Hu Le distracted Xiao Zhanzi for a moment, then went around to the window near the inner hall and listened at the corner for a while, making sure that the man was not a threat to Xuan Long before leaving, which is why he stopped Yan Yuan when he was about to enter to buy time for the two in the hall.

Xuan Long truthfully told Hu Le what had happened since Yan Huo Heng had arrived, and Hu Le frowned, "Is that man worth trusting?"

In theory, there was no reason for Xuan Long to trust someone he had only met a few times, and after suffering Yan Yuan's deception, he had become even more wary. But the other party gave him the impression that he was not as ruthless and dangerous as Yan Yuan had said, and what was more, he was a dragon who had lost all his Tao skills, so what reason did Yan Huo Heng have to lie to him?

It was better to gamble than to spend time in this cold prison... Even if Yan Huo Heng approached him with an ulterior motive, whatever he wanted, he would give it to him, as long as he kept Hu Le and the child in his womb safe.

"Supposedly, we can trust him."

Hu Le asked, "Then shall we go?..."

Xuan Long sat at the table, staring out the window at the overcast sky, his slim body shrouded in the shadows of the hall, permeated by an unspeakable loneliness.

"Let's go."

"In the evening, three days from now… we'll leave this place."

‿︵‿︵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