After Being Mistakenly Taken for a Fellow Traveler by Emperor Long Aotian - Chapter 65

The team sent to investigate the trade routes was the same one dispatched a few days ago to Yunzhou in the west. The Emperor thought for a moment and said, “We received news from there a few days ago that they are close to entering Yunzhou. They sent a new letter last night, so they must have already met with Ma Yi. But I haven’t had a chance to read it yet…”

 

Zhou Xun: “And?”

 

The Emperor: …

 

… Alright, no need to ask more questions. Zhou Xun silently swallowed the next question he had in mind.

 

… It seemed the Emperor had just received the letter and hadn’t had time to read it. Hearing that Zhou Xun was about to stay out overnight, the Emperor hurriedly followed him out of the palace.

 

As for what happened after leaving the palace, especially the events in the Smoke Cloud Square, it was best left unsaid.

 

The two maintained a polite silence, creating an atmosphere of perfect harmony. The storyteller downstairs had left, and the break was over. The Emperor wiped his hands and said, “There’s another appointment this afternoon. Shall we set off?”

 

Zhou Xun nodded, choosing not to bring up the earlier comment about the Emperor being impatient. However, just as he was about to leave the private room and had just closed the door, the Emperor, who had been walking ahead of him, turned around.

 

… This turn of the Emperor’s body directly trapped Zhou Xun between him and the door.

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

… Honestly, this position was too intimate and uncomfortable; he felt a bit uneasy and flustered.

 

The Emperor, however, was completely unaware of how strange this position was. He had simply remembered something and turned around to talk to Zhou Xun. The fact that Zhou Xun happened to be caught between him and the door was just an incidental detail to him.

 

“Actually, what you said about me being too impatient… was right.” The Emperor’s warm breath brushed against Zhou Xun’s ear. Zhou Xun couldn’t help but press himself against the door as if trying to merge into it. “I… I… Do you know how I feel coming to this world?”

 

“… It’s a sense of disparity. I have so much knowledge and experience that surpasses this era—it’s like a waterfall, like potential energy, like the immense osmotic pressure between two membranes. It’s the gap between two eras. It’s like river water flowing to a high place, looking down at the lake below the cliff, and you can’t help but want to pour yourself into it, to fill it with all the energy and rush down. There are so many things I want to change in this world, but I’m just an ordinary person, and looking at them makes me feel powerless…”

 

The Emperor’s voice entered Zhou Xun’s ears, and his previous discomfort slowly faded away.

 

… The Emperor was lonely.

 

This thought came suddenly to Zhou Xun.

 

From any external perspective, the Emperor seemed far from lonely. He was always so cheerful and optimistic, with boundless enthusiasm and joy. But…

 

He remembered a line of poetry.

 

— Alone in a foreign land as an outsider.

 

The Emperor was an outsider in this era. Zhou Xun didn’t know what the world the Emperor came from was like, but he knew it must have been very beautiful—filled with flowers, sunshine, and the Emperor’s past friends and family.

 

— He would have loved that era. Even though he had become an outsider in this world.

 

Zhou Xun thought.

 

— No one would know what the Emperor once had, no one would know what shaped him, and what was common knowledge in the Emperor’s time had become unconventional here… He was a special color block that didn’t fit into this world.

 

This sense of incongruous loneliness was a type of solitude the Emperor hid deep in his heart, a loneliness that even he himself might not fully realize.

 

But Zhou Xun felt it.

 

— In a way, during that time when he was confined to the mansion, betrayed by everyone, and even lost his career, he had felt a similar loneliness. In such a situation, he could either choose death or watch himself become a lifeless object.

 

— Until the Emperor pulled him up from the floor of the Imperial Study.

 

That was the first connection he had re-established with a world that had already abandoned him.

 

“I understand,” Zhou Xun said softly.

 

He looked at the Emperor, thinking.

 

Alone in a foreign land as an outsider.

 

But many years later, Zhou Xun would come to know another phrase.

 

“Where my heart is at peace, that is my home.”

 

“… Actually, there’s something else I want to say. Why do I always feel like you’re particularly… careful when speaking in front of me?” The Emperor continued, his eyes fixed on Zhou Xun, who was trapped between him and the door. “I don’t know why, but I always feel that… you think you’re not qualified to say… many things to me?”

 

Zhou Xun was stunned.

 

He clasped his hands and heard the Emperor continue, “I don’t quite understand. Sometimes…”

 

The Emperor himself seemed hesitant, and finally said, “When I look at you, I clearly feel that you have things you want to say, but in the end, you don’t say a word. Including just now, you hesitated for a long time before saying I was too aggressive… It’s as if you feel you have no right to say that. I don’t like it. Obviously, there was nothing wrong with what you wanted to say.”

 

With a dry throat, Zhou Xun took a long time to reply, “You…”

 

“But if you won’t tell me the truth, I won’t find anyone else who will be honest with me in the future.” The Emperor said, a bit frustrated as he scratched his head. “I don’t want to make mistakes without anyone daring to remind me. And you should be different from others.”

 

“… Alright.”

 

Zhou Xun said softly, “I understand.”

 

The Emperor: …

 

For some reason, he felt a strange sense of tension in Zhou Xun’s words?

 

He was about to say something else when suddenly, he felt something warm touch his shoulder.

 

It was Zhou Xun’s forehead.

 

Zhou Xun hugged him.

 

The Emperor: …

 

He didn’t move, and after maintaining the embrace for a while, the Emperor finally stammered, “Why are you suddenly hugging me?”

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

Does the Emperor really have to be such a buzzkill?”

 

“A hug out of great friendship,” Zhou Xun said casually, adding to the awkwardness.

 

The Emperor: “… Oh.”

 

For some reason, Zhou Xun felt a hint of disappointment in the Emperor’s voice, though his heartbeat was racing.

 

A few people passed by in the corridor and gave odd looks at the pair of male “friends” embracing in front of the door.

 

“Let’s go, and check out the next place.” Seeing the Emperor still lost in thought, Zhou Xun nudged his shoulder, “Your Majesty… weren’t we supposed to go somewhere else?”

 

The Emperor: “Wait!”

 

As if suddenly awakening from a dream, he said to Zhou Xun, “It’s not very safe to call me ‘Your Majesty’ out here, is it?”

 

Zhou Xun: “It does seem a bit risky.”

 

The Emperor: “How about we use a pseudonym? Something like Mr. Huang or Young Master Huang…”

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

“Alright,” he smiled, looking at the Emperor who was deep in thought, “but there’s no need to come up with a new name. We already have a ready-made one.”

 

The Emperor: “? What?”

 

“Hao Yu,” Zhou Xun suggested.

 

The Emperor: …

 

At that moment, Zhou Xun felt like he was seeing a heart-shaped salted egg suddenly burst.

 

Zhou Xun: “Is it not acceptable?”

 

The Emperor: “Go-go-go, well, it’s fine, I suppose.”

 

… For some reason, the Emperor’s response sounded particularly weak and evasive.

 

The two turned around and went downstairs. As Zhou Xun stepped into the corridor, he heard the sound of the private room door opening behind him.

 

… Two guards came out.

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

Oh, in his habit of closing doors behind him, he had accidentally locked the guards in the room with them.

 

And during the time the Emperor had pinned him to the door for their conversation, the guards had been unable to open it.

 

… They had to wait until the two of them left to come out.

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

He turned back to apologize to the guards, but his hand was pulled by another hand.

 

… Almost intertwined fingers.

 

Zhou Xun turned suddenly and met the equally surprised gaze of the Emperor. The moment the Emperor saw Zhou Xun looking at him, he quickly moved his hand from Zhou Xun’s hand to his arm.

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

The Emperor: “Hahaha, let’s hurry up, or we’ll miss getting back to the palace by evening.”

 

Zhou Xun: … Oh.

 

He let the Emperor pull him into the carriage.

 

The two “friends” who had inadvertently imprisoned two guards earlier now rode in a carriage traveling through the capital. This trip was longer than the previous one; they left the south gate of the city and traveled to a very remote valley.

 

The mountain road was a bit rough, and Zhou Xun felt a bit dizzy from the carriage ride. By halfway through the journey, he was feeling uncomfortable and nauseous.

 

However, seeing the Emperor so enthusiastic throughout the trip, he didn’t say anything.

 

As he closed his eyes, leaning against the carriage wall to endure, he was suddenly pulled towards someone and found himself resting against the Emperor.

 

“If you’re feeling unwell, lie down in the carriage and sleep a bit. You’ll feel much better afterwards,” the Emperor said.

 

Zhou Xun nodded, leaned on the Emperor’s shoulder, and fell into a drowsy sleep.

 

When he woke up again, the carriage had stopped. Zhou Xun noticed he was still resting on the Emperor’s shoulder. As he turned to look, he saw the Emperor sitting upright, with a straight back, gazing up at the sky, and his hands neatly placed on his knees, like an unyielding steel statue.

 

Zhou Xun: ?

 

The Emperor’s overly upright posture made it seem as though he had done something guilty while Zhou Xun was asleep.

 

He got up from the Emperor’s shoulder, and the Emperor said, “We’ve arrived.”

 

… Still not looking at his face.

 

Zhou Xun: … What’s this? Why does it feel like the Emperor is suddenly afraid of him?

 

The Emperor was always a bit unpredictable, so Zhou Xun didn’t think much of it. He followed the Emperor out of the carriage and saw a heavily guarded base surrounded by mountains.

 

The base was guarded by many soldiers, and anyone entering or leaving had to show proof. When they saw the Emperor, the soldiers saluted and let them pass.

 

“This is…” Zhou Xun asked.

 

“A place for researching firearms, explosives, war chariots, and blade forging,” the Emperor whispered. “There’s also a warhorse research institute on the other side.”

 

Zhou Xun: …

 

The Emperor spoke without looking at him.

 

“Does Your Majesty plan to use these weapons to conquer the world?” Zhou Xun asked softly, observing the smoke in the base.

 

“No,” the Emperor said cheerfully, “I only plan to persuade others with the truth.”

 

**Author’s Note:** Zhou Xun thought, alone in a foreign land as an outsider, the Emperor must be very lonely standing in this unfamiliar era.

 

But at that time, he didn’t realize another phrase.

 

“Where my heart is at peace, that is my home.”