ITF Chapter101

Jiang Han opened his eyes amidst the gentle rocking of the waves and looked toward the porthole.

The sun broke through the clouds, its sharp light scattering the thick mist over the sea’s surface. The clouds were pristine white, and the sky stretched into a clear, translucent blue, as though last night’s wind and waves had never existed.

He tested his forehead with the back of his hand; it was still very hot, and his body lacked strength.

But the sicker one was, the more important it was to eat something to replenish one’s energy. Propping himself up against the bedboard to sit up, he only then noticed that he was covered with two blankets.

He looked at the extra blanket in confusion, and before he could fully figure it out, a loud sneeze suddenly echoed from outside the door.

*

Bei Yang turned his head sharply, forcing a second sneeze back down.

He was not the type to get sick easily, but after giving up his own quarters and then giving up his own blanket as well, catching a cold didn’t seem all that surprising. He jumped down from the hammock, but his capacity for speech had uncontrollably failed him, leaving him unable to utter even a standard greeting.

Holding the cabin door open with one hand, Jiang Han looked at him and said hesitantly, “That blanket…”

Unconsciously, Bei Yang’s gaze fell upon those lips, which were tinged with the pallor of illness, before he hurriedly looked away. “It’s fine.” Looking down at his feet, he self-consciously ran a hand through his messy hair a couple of times. “I’ll just go to the cargo hold and grab another one.”

The lighting in the corridor was dim, but a prominent shadow of exhaustion was still visible under his eyes. Scanning the crude hammock, Jiang Han added a touch of apology to his tone, “You probably didn’t sleep well like this, did you?”

Bei Yang froze, a wave of heat instantly burning its way from his neck up to his ears.

His behavior today was somewhat peculiar, but Jiang Han truly lacked the energy to exchange pleasantries with him, so he cut the conversation short and nodded a farewell. Yet before he could take more than a few steps, a voice suddenly came from behind him, “Physician Jiang.”

Jiang Han stopped in his tracks and turned back in confusion. “What is it?”

Bei Yang had not expected him to just lift his feet and walk away, much less that he would casually toss out a question as if nothing had happened. He belatedly realized he had misunderstood the meaning behind Jiang Han’s previous words, and the momentum of his speech instantly plummeted. “You…”

He kept his mouth open on the word “you” for a long time without any follow-up, leaving Jiang Han feeling increasingly bewildered. “What’s wrong?”

His tone was too natural—so natural that it left Bei Yang a bit dazed. Could that kiss last night have just been a dream he had while sleeping off a daze?

But he immediately dismissed the thought.

He hadn’t been able to close his eyes the entire night; how could it possibly have been a dream?

He still clearly remembered the tactile sensation of that kiss, remembered its temperature, and remembered the rhythm of his own heartbeat along with that loss of control, as if his reason had been utterly obliterated.

But Jiang Han’s face had already taken on that expression he knew all too well. Whenever Physician Jiang wanted to refuse him but felt too embarrassed to do so, he would display this exact look of discomfort.

Bei Yang could not make sense of it at all. He desperately wanted to confront Jiang Han to ask him what he honestly meant by this, and why he was pretending nothing had happened; yet he couldn’t bring himself to ask no matter what. In the end, he only managed to ask a low question, “Last night… did you sleep well?”

Jiang Han’s expression suddenly turned a bit nuanced.

His gaze drifted elsewhere as his lips pressed tight. After a brief silence, he let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“It was alright.” He replied flatly.

He couldn’t really say whether he slept well last night or not. The only certainty was that he had truly been muddled by the fever.

He had actually dreamed that Bei Chengzhou kissed him.

Even in a dream, it was impossible for Bei Chengzhou to kiss him.

“Thank you for your concern.” He let his gaze fall back onto Bei Yang’s face, looking even more fatigued than before. “Is there anything else?”

*

Even earlier than Bei Yang had anticipated, on the third night after their departure, this flagless fleet silently docked in a long-abandoned harbor.

On the second afternoon following the revolutionary army’s landing, Shao Yixiao met Shao Yiqing, who was nearly seven months pregnant, in the Queen’s chambers.

Shao Yiqing was lying back on a magnificent, carved canopy bed, propped against a soft pillow. Seeing Shao Yixiao arrive, he attempted to sit up, but before the maid servant could step forward to assist, Shao Yixiao raised a hand to stop him.

The pregnancy was already quite far along, and Bai Jiashu did not allow him to walk around freely, meaning Shao Yiqing could only hear bits of palace gossip from the maids.

“I heard about it. That group of rebels has caused trouble again.” The young Omega looked haggard and spent, yet his belly bulged immensely as if all his life force were being drained by the entity inside it.

Shao Yixiao took a seat on the wooden chair beside the bed and spoke to him in a displeased tone, “You shouldn’t be worrying about this.”

This morning, the king had received an urgent, confidential letter from Zhong Maoru. He had previously disclosed to them that the arms dealer he was trading with seemed to belong to the same faction that had supported the Omega uprising in the south a few years ago. This time, he delivered two new pieces of information in the letter—the dealer had just closed a major transaction with the Urdan people, and according to that dealer, the Urdan people seemed to be planning to use military force to reclaim Pei Ming’s fiefdom once again.

At first, this news did not garner much attention from Bai Jiashu. Armed rebellions by the Urdan people were nothing new and caused him fewer headaches than the frequent private wars among the nobility. However, the second piece of information in the letter was different.

According to Zhong Maoru, the merchant had inquired in great detail about the specifics of Bai Heting’s death. Only after several rounds of pressing did the other party reveal the truth. The Urdan people were highly confident this time; they claimed to have an invincible commander—the former supreme commander of the infantry corps, Bai Heting.

Bai Jiashu did not announce this second piece of news during the imperial council meeting; he only kept Shao Yixiao behind after dismissing everyone else.

Shao Yiqing did not know these details, but he knew that his older brother had already accepted the king’s command and was about to head to Urdan to suppress the rebellion. Over the years, he increasingly felt that the land of Urdan was not a reward from Bai Yi to Shao Yixiao. It was fundamentally a shackle, a shackle his brother could never break free from.

“Do you really have to go in person? Can’t you just let your subordinates go on their own?” Shao Yiqing forced himself to sit up a little more by propping himself up against the soft bed, then grabbed Shao Yixiao’s hand with some urgency. “I don’t know why, but ever since I heard this news, I’ve had a terrible premonition.”

Shao Yixiao frowned. “Don’t make a fuss out of nothing. You’re pregnant, which is why you’re being so sentimental.”

But this was merely a word of comfort spoken for his brother’s sake. Shao Yixiao knew perfectly well himself that those who had committed acts of betrayal were not to be lightly trusted. He did not trust Zhong Maoru, but just as Bai Jiashu had said, no matter what, he had to go to the front lines to investigate and find out the truth.

After all, compared to the Urdan people who were only capable of minor skirmishes, Bai Heting was the true threat that could potentially overthrow the political regime.

This perfunctory reply clearly failed to convince Shao Yiqing either. To ensure a safe pregnancy, he would soon enter the delivery chamber, where he would remain in that dim place until giving birth. During this period, no one would be conveying any news to him about Shao Yixiao on the front lines.

“Gege.” The mild-mannered Omega looked even more anxious, gripping Shao Yixiao’s hand even tighter. “When I come out of the delivery chamber, you will come to see me, right?”

Shao Yixiao replied with impatience, “Naturally.”

He often failed to understand how the two of them, clearly full biological brothers born of the same father and mother, could have characters that were worlds apart. Placing Shao Yiqing’s hand back onto the bed, he gave a stern injunction, “Remember, for you, the most important thing is to give birth to a healthy prince for His Majesty as soon as possible. Do not engage in pointless worries.”

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