Chapter 8

At the end of their tour of the south, as they made their way back to the imperial capitol, a mudslide occurred at the foot of a mountain. The debris from the hillside fell sharply, roaring as it rolled towards their convoy.

“Your Royal Highness, a mudslide …”

“Your Royal Highness, run, run!”

He Ziming was seated inside the carriage. He first heard the sound of a boulder rolling down and striking the roof, and then the sound of the guards panicking.

“Your Royal Highness?” Gu Chen frowned tightly, startled.

He Ziming seemed to be infected by the guard’s panic, and couldn’t care about courtly manners. He seized Gu Chen’s hand and pulled him from the carriage.

They watched as the turbulent and stone rushed across the ground, overwhelming anything in its path.

The whole earth shook under the power of the mudslide.

He Ziming no longer cared about the others and held Gu Chen’s hand, pulling him as they ran to distance themselves from the destruction. Gu Chen was taken aback at the prince’s closeness, but the danger of their situation made him no longer care about anything else. He ran subconsciously, holding He Ziming’s hand, running like hell, as if they could run to the ends of the earth.

But in the end, they were a step too slow.

When the mudslide caught up to them, He Ziming reflexively pulled Gu Chen into his arms, protecting him. He turned his back to the rocks, withstanding the impact of the stones and mud.

“Your Royal Highness–” Gu Chen looked at him with amazement.

He knew that He Ziming was interested in him, but Gu Chen never thought that in such a crisis, He Ziming, whose rank was so much higher than his own, would sacrifice himself to protect him.

Taking care of his body like this, how could he allow He Ziming to treat him like this?

Gu Chen helped support He Ziming, but before recovering from the shock of the first strike, the two of them were completely engulfed in mud.

Tribulation reveals truth. Suffering is the easiest way to engender love, especially if one of the pair protects the other at the risk of his own life.

Gu Chen woke up in total darkness, and anxiously called for the crown prince, panicking: “Your Royal Highness! Your Royal Highness-” He was afraid that something happened to He Ziming.

“Zi Qing woke up, I was alone for so long.” Fortunately, however, he soon heard He Ziming’s low answer.

Gu Chen moved his hands, and realized that He Ziming still firmly gripped his hand in his own. Although he could not see the crown prince in the darkness, he could feel that they had never separated.

Gu Chen breathed a sigh of relief, only a little sigh of relief, before realizing that they seemed to be trapped beneath the mudslide, stuck in a narrow gap with no light.

“Your Royal Highness, are you badly hurt? Are you wounded? Does it hurt, can you still move?” Gu Chen suddenly thought of something and asked anxiously.

He still remembers that He Ziming blocked the rubble with his own body to protect him before they lost consciousness …

After such a violent impact, it is almost impossible for He Ziming to be uninjured now.

“I’m okay, I’m just a bit cold, I really want to sleep …” He Ziming was awake, his speech completely clear, so Gu Chen was relieved for the moment, but He Ziming’s voice became weaker and weaker.

Gu Chen was frightened to hear him say this. He quickly pinched He Zimeng’s hand, fearing that he’d fall asleep: “Your Highness, you mustn’t sleep!” ,

Gu Chen was unsure just how injured the crown prince’s body was.

In the worst case, if He Ziming were to sleep … maybe he would die.

“… Okay, I won’t sleep.” He Ziming responded to Gu Chen immediately but his voice sounded weak and thin. It made the listener feel that he could fall asleep at any moment.

Gu Chen didn’t know how to keep He Ziming awake. He gripped his hand tightly and kept repeating: “Don’t sleep, there should be someone to save us soon, very soon.”

“……okay.”

The long wait in the dark is very difficult, and it is easy for tired, injured people to drift off.

Gu Chen listened to He Ziming’s increasingly weak voice and responded to his shorter and shorter words. Afraid that he would fall asleep, Gu Chen began to chat with He Ziming, trying to force him to be alert.

“What did Your Highness mean by his actions? Why would you block such a huge rock for me?” Despite their chatter, Gu Chen’s voice became weaker and weaker. Hearing this, Gu Chen suddenly surprised him with the question that had been bothering him since the mudslide.

He Ziming’s body became agitated. He bit his own tongue, tasting the blood filling his mouth, forced himself to wake up a bit, and then whispered: “There is no reason, no thought. My body just moved…you should already know the reason why I would be like this. If you don’t know, this prince doesn’t know how to answer you.”

His answer was very bland, but Gu Chen was shocked.

After being personally protected by He Ziming, he almost didn’t know how to face He Ziming’s affection …

“Can Ziqing call my name?” Just then, He Ziming asked quietly in the darkness.

Gu Chen froze.

He Ziming then added: “Sincerely, not just… to follow an order. Like the way you call Xiao Shengzi.”

Gu Chen’s hand tightened unconsciously around He Ziming’s.

“I originally thought that I still had a lot of time with Ziqing, to earn Ziqing’s sincere feelings. To become Ziqing’s true friend, until he would willingly call me Changfeng from his heart… but now it seems that I no longer have that much time.” He Ziming’s voice quietly sounded in the darkness.

Before his words finished echoing, Gu Chen reacted, calling firmly without any hesitation: “Changfeng…”

“Zi Qing is finally willing to call my name. Good, good.” He Ziming was so happy he wanted to laugh. but his injuries quickly turned the laugh into severe coughs. “I thought I would never hear Ziqing call my name so sweetly in my life. I didn’t expect to die so soon. But now that I’ve heard Ziqing say it, even if I die it’ll be worth it… Cough, cough, but in this situation, I only fear that Ziqing will be killed here with me…”

He suddenly thought of something and asked Gu Chen: “I just worry that if Ziqing and I died together, no one would find our bodies. Wouldn’t it be regrettable?”

“We won’t die, neither Changfeng nor I. We will survive well, neither of us will die.” This time, Gu Chen had interrupted him firmly, before his words could finish falling.

He Ziming listened to him, fell silent for a moment, before smiling and echoing: “Okay, okay, Ziqing said that we will not die, then I believe that we will not die. Ziqing is always so good, how can heaven not help him.”

In the darkness, the two breathed with each other.

“I know Changfeng loves me. I didn’t know how to respond to Changfeng before. But now, I have already thought about it. If Changfeng and I can go back alive, I will give Changfeng a response.” “Gu Chen suddenly thought of something, and spoke resolutely.

The system prompt in He Ziming’s mind sounded almost synchronously: “Ding! The host has increased the favorability of the character Gu Chen by 15 points. At present, the character favorability towards the host is 60 points. Gu Chen now romantically likes the Crown Prince. Asking the host to please work hard!”

“I … you …” He Ziming was so excited that his whole body came awake. After pondering for a moment, he said, “Zi Qing doesn’t have to do this. I saved Ziqing out of my own selfishness. I don’t want to force Ziqing to give me a response out of gratitude.”

Before his words fell, Gu Chen interrupted him: “Changfeng doesn’t need to overthink it. I made this decision based on careful thought, and it is not an impromptu impulse or to repay kindness. Changfeng takes care of me so, how can it not move my heart? “

“If you and I can go out alive, I will give Changfeng an account after I go out.” He was very decisive.

Gu Chen is not an ungrateful person. The reason why He Ziming of the previous life did not move him, despite becoming lovers, was not because Gu Chen is cold, but rather he had never believed in the indecisive and sloppy prince from the beginning. He never felt that the irascible and arrogant prince had sincerely loved him…. but now, having seen how He Ziming protected himself, having seen his true nature in a crisis, Gu Chen cannot doubt the sincerity of the prince’s feelings.

Gu Chen naturally couldn’t leave him hanging, and felt he must give a response to He Ziming.

“Okay … everything will wait until you and I escape.” He Ziming whispered to Gu Chen, but it sounded more like he didn’t think they could go back alive.

Gu Chen did not make anymore promises to appease him. Gu Chen decided to prove himself through his actions, not his words.

As the crown prince, local officials and the Royal Guard rallied on a large scale to find him as soon as the mudslide ended.

Not long after, they were discovered by the rescuers.

Gu Chen was hardly injured. After the officers and men moved away the giant wood pressing him down, he immediately stood up and was able to move.

But He Ziming was in a coma.

He had many wounds on his body, and his clothes were filthy with mud and blood. There was a huge wound on his back almost a foot long, and his hair was matted with blood.

In order to impress Gu Chen, He Ziming did not let his golden finger, the system, heal his wounds. A high fever ravaged He Ziming’s body because of the dirt ground into his many open wounds.

“His Royal Highness!” Seeing his ghostly appearance shocked the Prince’s guards and officials who came to rescue them.

If the most beloved prince dies here, they will be all be killed!

However, Gu Chen responded very quickly. After testing the pulse and breath of He Ziming, and confirming he was alive and merely unconscious, Gu Chen immediately ordered: “Immediately go prepare a doctor for the crown prince, have him ready with medicine to attend the prince as soon as we arrive!”

“Yes!”

He Ziming’s men were in chaos, and Gu Chen ignored court protocol and immediately took charge of the men. Following his orders, a guard jumped on a horse and galloped away.

Several clumsy guards came forward to lift He Ziming, but their rough actions seemed to hurt the comatose He Ziming, and made him cry out in pain.

Gu Chen immediately kicked them away.

“Master Gu?” The Crown Prince’s guard were startled.

Gu Chen directly hugged the muddy He Ziming to his chest and said, “I’ll carry him!”

The best doctors in the city were on standby at the gate, and all wounds on He Ziming’s body were treated properly. Although there were many wounds on He Ziming’s body, none of them were fatal.

Gu Chen personally wiped He Ziming’s mud-covered body, and changed his clothes.

Gu Chen had never paid attention to He Ziming ’s looks before. He only felt that he was arrogant and difficult to get along with. Now when he looks at him with clear eyes, he finds that He Ziming is naturally good looking. Although different from He Zisheng ’s delicate and youthful beauty, he has strong eyebrows and dark eyes. He even has a solid set of very manly eight-pack abs… He possessed a sexiness unique to an adult man.

Gu Chen already liked men …

Taking care of He Ziming’s body, Gu Chen suffered two nosebleeds.The unconscious He Ziming had no way of knowing this…

He Ziming was unconscious for five days before waking up from the lethargy caused by a high fever.

He had just struggled to sit up, when Gu Chen hurried to his bed and sat down, embracing him: “Changfeng …”

Although he didn’t speak, Gu Chen’s answer to He Ziming was clear …