The military faction, with the Ying Guo Mansion being the most prominent, meant that Fu Shen was inevitably singled out by the emperor for a few words of encouragement. His legs were numb from kneeling on the stone bricks before the emperor finally showed mercy and returned to the palace.
As the imperial carriage continued forward and the imperial guards passed by, Fu Shen knelt obediently waiting for the emperor to leave. Suddenly, a horse’s hooves stopped in front of him.
He raised his head in confusion, meeting a pair of deep, smiling eyes.
Fu Shen’s gaze slid from the eyes to the hand holding the reins, noticing a pink-white flower in his palm.
…It was the imperial guard from earlier.
Fu Shen was too late to pull his sleeve again. He could only watch as the other’s pale lips curved slightly, riding away and casually throwing the flower into his embrace.
The flower perfectly nestled at his collar. It seemed… intentional.
Fu Shen stood up like a scholar bewitched by a fox spirit, his mind blank, that smile lingering in his vision.
“Hey, Brother Fu, what are you looking at? Let’s go,” a voice called.
Inexplicably, he didn’t throw away the flower but held it in his hand, mounted his horse, and casually asked the person beside him, “Do you know that imperial guard?”
“
Riding alongside him was Chen Guo Mansion’s heir, Yi Siming, already appointed as a fourth-rank Gold Prohibition Guard lieutenant. Hearing this, he looked disdainful: “That guy? Brother, let me warn you, he’s not worth our attention.”
Fu Shen asked, “What do you mean?”
Yi Siming replied, “That person is Yan Xiaohan, lieutenant of the Left Dragon Martial Guard.”
Fu Shen understood immediately. The Gold Prohibition Guard was the chief of the Southern Imperial Guards, while the Dragon Martial Guard belonged to the Northern Guards, which were always at odds.
Yi Siming continued, “You don’t know, he’s the adopted son of Duan Linglong. No matter how good-looking he is, what’s the use? Who knows how he climbed up…”
Duan Linglong was the top eunuch of the current court. One can imagine how Yan Xiaohan, who had a eunuch as an adoptive father, was viewed even lower than eunuchs in their eyes.
