Martial King's Retired Life

Book 16: Chapter 1

Ming Feizhen still had his brows locked together when he stepped out of the room Mountain Monster rented. The shadow that the sun cast on his face only made whatever he had on his mind seem even grimmer. By the time he finished touching his chin, he had vanished as if his presence was but only an illusion. While he remained as a part of the crowd, his presence went unnoticed.

The warning to Li Chengzhi was only a deed performed out of convenience. Having to go out of his way to tame Li Chengzhi was not worth that much effort for Ming Feizhen, which was also why he chose Li Chengzhi. Putting aside Li Chengzhi’s non-existent potential, he was the only Prince that His Majesty valued, yet did not link Mount Daluo to the imperial court and did not put him in a spot where he was partial towards the imperial court. Hence, even Zizi, who was the most obedient of the Princes, was off the table – not to mention there was his mother to deal with.

Warning Emperor Yuansheng was a necessity. There was nothing wrong with His Majesty coveting Ming Feizhen’s support, and Ming Feizhen would have had preferred for Emperor Yuansheng to stay in power for as long as possible for the people’s sake. Nevertheless, assuming he was someone who could be threatened was another matter. Being valued was perhaps beneficial; however, it also demanded loyalty. Considering Ming Feizhen’s stock had reached a point where it could not be reduced, all he could do was give special value to his worth. No matter how high his stock rose, he needed to remain outside of the imperial court’s main program.

Once he wrapped up those tasks, Ming Feizhen thought he was done in the capital until the imperial edict was announced. Jingan’s return to the capital was the most urgent matter at hand.

The unpredictable and unreadable Princess did not pose any obvious threat yet, but that was what classified her as the scariest threat. Just as she had never been able to apply logic to Ming Feizhen, he had never been able to predict her moves.

Ming Feizhen’s vigilance against Li Jingan derived from previous experiences, while her interest in him sprouted from a strange motivation that not even she could explain. Every time she tried to get close to him, he suspected a ploy, while she perceived every response of his to be entertainment.

As he walked through the crowd with his arms folded, Ming Feizhen pondered what Li Jingan was up to. It was as clear as day that she had been planning her return to the capital for a long time and chose to have His Majesty announce it when it was nearly time for him to leave the capital. Laying low for this plot explained why none of her activities up until now impacted the big picture, yet there was never clear-cut evidence that she was involved in anything. Her goal was to leverage Fiends’ Genesis’ mayhem as an excuse to return to the capital.

The rules of the imperial family forbade Princesses from staying in the imperial palace and, by extension, the capital, but His Majesty could justify making an exception for a few years given his love for his daughter and the danger of staying in Hangzhou.

Anything could have happened during Ming Feizhen’s absence from the capital if Li Jingan was there.

“Fuma, aren’t you happy to see your wife?” Li Jingan advanced one step at a time towards her husband, giving him goosebumps.
“I am, I am… Your Highness, why did you not tell me beforehand you were coming back? So… what happened to our home?” Upon feeling a chill on the nape of his neck, Ming Feizhen nearly screamed, “No fiend shall desecrate this devoted monk,” until he caught a whiff of a nice scent that hit his nose at the same time a cold pair of hands touched his neck.

As she stroked her husband, Li Jingan tugged up the corners of her lips slightly. “You’ve lost weight.’

“Huh?”

Li Jingan removed her hands to cover herself chuckling. “Fuma, you’ve lost weight. Come home tonight. I shall cook you a meal. We also,” with rosy cheeks, she lowered her head and continued, “haven’t been intimate in a long time.”

Ming Feizhen instantly jumped through the window without even knowing why. That was why he used Li Chengzhi as a punching bag for therapy afterwards.

Ming Feizhen returned to Dongpo to clean up the mess he made when he held the two-days’ long banquet. As he left in a rush when he was summoned to the imperial palace, he did not realise how far overboard he went until he returned to Dongpo. Seeing as he had troubling travelling around without stepping on cutlery, it would have been reasonable to assume that all the bowls and plates in the capital were there.

Lass Yu doesn’t drink, but I saw her when I woke up that morning, didn’t I? When did she arrive? Why did she join me under the pile of plates?

Once he recalled what happened during those two days, Ming Feizhen heard two heart beats. The familiar heart beat and breathing belonged to Zizi, which was easy to identify based on his Pure Yang One Qi training. The other one…

A girl suddenly sat up from beneath the stack of plates, still bleary as she yawned. “Who are you?” she asked upon seeing Ming Feizhen.

“And who are you?”

The girl who could have passed off as a flower boy if she cross dressed casually replied, “Bu Xusan.”

“Ming Feizhen.”

Both of them raised a brow each.

“Oh?”

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