"If you don't want to be watched by Chenxi, you can go sleep on the wooden bed." Looking at Xie Chang'an's expression, Ye Jingchen suggested with a smile.

"I...sleep...in...bed!" Xie Chang'an said these three words slowly and deliberately, almost grinding his teeth to powder.

Within a quarter of an hour, his mood fluctuated like a rollercoaster, and he was almost driven crazy by Ye Jingchen's few words.

He didn't even know how he felt at that moment.

He lay numbly beside Ye Jingchen.

"Cover yourself with a blanket. Are you trying to freeze to death if you don't cover yourself with a blanket in this cold weather?" Ye Jingchen saw that he didn't move, so he got up, lowered the bed curtains, covered him with a blanket, and thoughtfully tucked in the corners of the blanket on his side.

Xie Chang'an: ......

When he heard Ye Jingchen tell Chenxi without hesitation that he liked her, his heart almost stopped with joy.

He pushed open the door with tender feelings, but unexpectedly, Ye Jingchen gave him a rude awakening.

His keen intuition told him that a gaze was watching him through the bed curtains.

He knew, of course, that Chenxi was always by Ye Jingchen's side, but if Chenxi concealed her presence, he wouldn't be able to detect her location unless he deliberately looked for her.

If you can't detect it, you can pretend it doesn't exist.

Now, things are much better; he can sense the presence of dawn at all times.

Forget about playing dirty tricks, how is he supposed to sleep at night?

"Let me massage your hands and feet first. That shouldn't be considered overstepping my bounds, right?" Xie Chang'an asked, suppressing his annoyance.

If he doesn't get a massage, Ye Jingchen's condition might be affected tomorrow.

"I massaged it myself while taking a bath, and I can do it myself from now on," Ye Jingchen replied.

Actually, he could press these spots himself. Xie Chang'an had been pressing them for him for so long that he had learned the techniques and locations quite well. He just didn't do it himself before because he was too lazy.

I dare not entrust things to others now.

Xie Chang'an was somewhat disappointed. He should have restrained himself more last night and this morning...

But he's not a saint, how can he control himself?

Xie Chang'an was even more irritated. "Could you please stop having your bodyguard keep watching me? He can't sleep with him watching me!"

Ah, this—

Ye Jingchen mentally gave Chenxi a thumbs up; this older brother is great!

However, constantly watching Xie Chang'an isn't a good idea. What if it drives him to a mental breakdown?

“Brother Chenxi, there’s no need to keep such a close eye on us,” Ye Jingchen said loudly.

With a loud "thud," something fell to the ground.

"How could you lie next to me and call another man 'brother'?" Xie Chang'an suddenly sat up, put his hand on Ye Jingchen's neck, and asked him incredulously.

"I'm not calling him 'brother lover,' so why can't I?" Ye Jingchen asked with a smile, his expression at ease.

Xie Chang'an clenched his fist against Ye Jingchen's neck, making a cracking sound.

The acidic water was about to drown him.

“If you call someone else, you have to call me too!” he said to Ye Jingchen, his eyes red.

"Chang'an, do you still want me to call you brother? Even if anyone is going to call someone, it should be you calling me brother, right? Don't forget, I'm older than you!" Ye Jingchen casually reminded him.

"I don't care! If you called someone else, you have to call me!" Xie Chang'an approached Ye Jingchen, his voice filled with exasperation.

"It's just a form of address, why get so worked up? You're too impatient—"

Seeing Xie Chang'an's murderous glare, Ye Jingchen wisely changed his address, "Chang'an—brother."

This "brother" was completely different from when he called Chenxi. His voice seemed to have a hook, so hooking that Xie Chang'an forgot that Chenxi was still staring at him and leaned down to kiss Ye Jingchen's lips.

That mouth of his is so infuriating, yet so alluring; he needs to shut it up.

"Are you going to sleep or not?" Chenxi's cold, resentful voice rang out from outside the bed curtains.

Xie Chang'an froze, stared at Ye Jingchen for a long time, and finally resignedly withdrew his hand, turned over and lay back down.

"Hehe—" The culprit showed no embarrassment whatsoever and even laughed out loud.

Xie Chang'an and Chen Xi were on the same page at that moment: How could there be such a shameless person as Ye Jingchen in the world?!

After teasing Xie Chang'an and Chenxi, Ye Jingchen fell asleep shortly afterward.

Xie Chang'an turned to the side, staring at him with a resentful gaze for half the night.

Ye Jingchen was completely unaffected by Xie Chang'an and had a good night's sleep. When he was woken up the next day, his morning grumpiness was not as bad as it had been in the previous days.

Life in the military is very structured, and once you get used to that structure, time starts to fly by.

After practicing thrusting the spear continuously for a month, he could easily thrust the spear fifty times in half an hour without making a mistake. Therefore, Xie Shaoling increased the number of times he was tasked with from fifty to one hundred.

He could easily complete the weighted run during his daily morning training, but he mostly trained alone, only occasionally running with the soldiers to increase his favorability.

After Ye Jingchen was able to keep up with the daily training, he wrote a letter to Marquis Wu'an, asking him to send one hundred centurions and chiliarchs to the Shenwei Army's garrison to learn the Shenwei Army's training methods.

These people are here to learn from experience; whether they will follow suit after they return is none of Ye Jingchen's concern.

However, he stipulated that every three months thereafter, the Shenwei Army and the Border Defense Battalion would conduct a military exercise, each selecting 3,000 soldiers to participate, with rewards for the winners and those who performed outstandingly in the exercise.

Every six months, a large-scale exercise involving 5,000 people is conducted, with the winners receiving even greater rewards and the results being presented to the emperor.

He refused to believe that with such obvious benefits right in front of them, the border defense battalion would continue to slack off!

Aside from the arrangements for the border defense battalion, his focus remained on the Divine Might Army and the young men in the imperial city.

After he left the capital, Ye Jinghe wrote to him every day. Although he could not receive these letters in time and did not reply every day, Ye Jinghe never missed a single letter.

Since moving to the guard camp, he has never returned to the palace or contacted his other brothers and sisters. Some of the letters he wrote to Ye Jingchen were about the daily life of the guards, while others were about the big and small things in the capital.

The guard battalion was composed of a diverse group of people, including many scions of noble families. Ye Jinghe used his ruthlessness to win over many of them and get them to work for him.

He was clever and knew what kind of information Ye Jingchen needed. Through these letters, he knew almost everything that happened in the capital, even though Ye Jingchen wasn't physically there.

Given time, Ye Jinghe will surely have a complete intelligence network, and in terms of information gathering, he may be no less capable than the emperor's imperial guards.

Ye Jingming's choice of a princess consort has been decided. They will just need to wait until he turns eighteen to choose an auspicious day for the wedding.

Ye Jingyu and Gu Beichen's marriage will be announced after Ye Jingyu's sixteenth birthday. However, given Gu Beichen's age and situation, he may not be able to wait until Ye Jingyu turns eighteen.

With this in mind, the two of them reached a consensus during their first meeting that even if they got married ahead of schedule, they would not consummate their marriage until Ye Jingyu turned eighteen.