Cui Ruo Tian kept his word. They rode all day until they found an inn just before the border of Baolei.
The innkeeper was not pleased; apparently, the men had stopped here before when they entered Sanhe. Nevertheless, he prepared the rooms and had some food prepared for them in the kitchen.
While the men were busy eating and celebrating, Tian Le took the opportunity to freshen up.
The inn was quite large, and so were the bath tubs that could be ordered to the room.
When the servants had finished filling the tub with hot, steaming water, they sprinkled dried flowers and oils into it before taking their leave with a curtsy.
Tian Le ran his finger through the hot water. He may have been of royal blood, but he had always hated the smell of essential oils. He sighed before slipping off the red wedding robe he was still wearing and sliding into the water.
Who could have guessed how dirty a hostage-taking would be? For days, they had done nothing but ride, sleep on the ground or in caves. Tian Le stroked the bruises on his skin when the door suddenly flew open.
"A'Le, I have something for you to eat..." Ruo Tian fell silent when he saw Tian Le in the bathwater.
His eyes took on a dark, feverish gleam, and Tian Le frantically searched for something to throw at him. Ruo Tian put down the tray with the food and quickly locked the door.
"How brave of you to bathe in the middle of my room," he remarked as he stood in front of the tub and openly scrutinized Tian Le. The prince sank even deeper into the water.
"None of your men, not even Fugui, would dare enter your room without permission," he bubbled. Ruo Tian quickly undressed.
"That's not what I mean," he said and climbed into the tub with Tian Le. The prince protested, water splashing everywhere as Ruo Tian grabbed him and sat him on his lap.
"You," Tian Le hissed threateningly as he felt the monster beneath him.
"You don't have anything to hit me with, do you?" Ruo Tian laughed hoarsely.
"You know what I've noticed after all the beatings I've taken?" he asked, covering Tian Le's white skin with hot kisses that left red marks.
Tian Le tensed and held on tightly to the edge of the tub. Frighteningly, his body acted completely differently from what his head was telling him to do, and so he slapped his hand over his mouth when a deep, dark moan escaped his throat.
Ruo Tian pressed him even closer to him and Tian Le cried out briefly.
"You didn't even say no!" the general answered his own question.
"You wouldn't dare!" Tian Le gasped under Ruo Tian's kisses and searching fingers.
He flinched when he took something in his hand that had taken on a life of its own. Tian Le stared down at himself in disbelief.
He was sure that wasn't how it was supposed to be when two men were together. However, he didn't care, because it felt good.
When Ruo Tian embraced him with his rough, hot hands, Tian Le clawed at his shoulders. Ruo Tian paused briefly. The wound the prince had inflicted on him had reopened and a small trickle of blood ran down his arm.
"Can't you ever be nice?" he asked teasingly.
A heat raged inside Tian Le, he felt drunk and hadn't even noticed that he had started to move toward Ruo Tian. Only when the general held him tight and looked as if he was about to devour him did he stop.
"See," Cui Ruo Tian gasped, "no 'no.'"
Then he grabbed the prince and lifted him out of the bathwater that was sloshing all over the floor. He wiped the blood from his shoulder and threw Tian Le onto the bed.
Before the prince could roll himself back into the blanket, Ruo Tian threw it on the floor, where it was instantly soaked through.
"R-Ruo Tian?" Tian Le tried to appease him. He had no idea what was coming, but he was sure he wouldn't get out of it unscathed.
But Ruo Tian just pushed him onto the bed and traced the lines of his slender body.
"I told you, without a wedding night, the marriage isn't valid!"
Pain was all Tian Le felt the next morning. He lay on his stomach with his arms propped up on the mattress.
He couldn't move his lower abdomen or his legs. How could he have known what love between men meant?
He was still reeling from the shock of Ruo Tian's possession and flinched every time the general came within three steps of him.
He turned his red face away from him, ashamed. What he had done last night, the sounds he had made, were certainly not worthy of a crown prince, and now he was feeling the consequences.
He shouldn't have enjoyed it so much. Ruo Tian had laid out some fresh clothes for him and left the room so that Tian Le could get dressed.
His men were waiting to move on. Today they would leave the border of Sanhe behind and return to native soil. He couldn't hold them back much longer.
Nervously, he saddled his horse a few times, packed his things, and unpacked them again to check that he had everything.
Tian Le was surely angry with him. Had he gone too far too soon? Until now, Tian Le had always expressed his anger clearly, but Ruo Tian swore that he enjoyed his company, and even last night, it hadn't sounded like he didn't want it too. He sighed heavily.
Fugui and a few other men watched the spectacle from a distance. Fugui had raised an eyebrow and was staring at the general with his mouth open and his head tilted to one side.
He had followed and served him for ten years, and never once had he behaved so absent-mindedly. Had he perhaps made a mistake when he brought the concubine from the palace? Was she bewitching the general, who was considered immortal on the battlefield?
He stroked his beard and drummed his fingers on his stomach. He snapped out of his lethargy. This would not end well.
"No, no, no, Fugui, you have no say in this!" he scolded, turning away again.
They were making slower progress than in the previous days, but no one dared to say anything.
Tian Le had exchanged his red wedding robe for a plain white one. Ruo Tian's fur-trimmed cloak protected him from the curious glances of his men. But the pain was driving him mad.
Riding all day with his battered buttocks was pushing him to his limits. He gritted his teeth to keep from crying out loud, and tears burned in his eyes.
He would not allow Ruo Tian to behave so brazenly again. Unless he was not allowed to ride a horse for a long time afterward.
Ruo Tian rode carefully, cautiously. On the one hand, there was Tian Le's anger, and on the other, the displeasure of his men. He sighed heavily. His men would not raise a hand against him. Tian Le would immediately seize the next opportunity to stab or throw something at him if he acted too harshly.
So they crept along the bridle paths to Baolei rather than galloping.
They reached the city walls of Wushang well after nightfall.
The city was gigantic; to cross it once required a march of several days without rest. Even carriages traveling from one end to the other had to make at least one stop at an inn along the way.
So if a nobleman invited another to a celebration and had to cross the city, it was not uncommon for this to turn into a journey lasting several days.
The imperial palace lay far behind, deep in the arms of the sprawling mountains.
After sending his men home, he lifted Tian Le down from his horse and handed the stallion over to the stable boys. Tian Le's expression showed what he thought of this.
"An inn, again?" he growled grumpily. "Don't you have your own house, General?" he asked sarcastically. Cui Ruo Tian took a deep breath.
"My house is not safe and at least a day's ride away," he replied.
"Not safe?" echoed Tian Le. How could the house of an imperial general not be safe?
"Cui Ruo Tian!" came the loud, clear voice of an agitated woman.
A young girl rushed out of the inn. She was so young that Tian Le guessed she was not even twenty. She wore an elaborate, multi-layered robe made of warm fabrics.
The jewelry in her hair jingled and her dark, large eyes looked up at Ruo Tian.
"Why are you keeping your fiancée waiting so long?" she pouted. Ruo Tian caught her before she could throw herself at him and looked at Tian Le with the expression of a beaten puppy.
The prince flinched briefly. With wise foresight, Ruo Tian had not given him anything he could throw or strike with.
And to be fair, he didn't know which of the two he would have hit first.