Camphor is an evergreen tree that sheds its leaves in spring. Now that winter is approaching and everything is withering, the camphor leaves on the branches of this camphor tree are still green and lush.
Gu Xinglang stood with his back against a camphor tree, his head lowered, looking listless.
Jiang Zhuojun walked up to Gu Xinglang and stopped, then asked in a low voice, "Do you still want to kill someone?"
Gu Xinglang shook his head, frowned, and looked up at Jiang Zhuojun. The bloodshot eyes and the pattern that occupied his entire face were gone. With his eyebrows and eyes as beautiful as a painting, Gu Xinglang said to Jiang Zhuojun in a hoarse voice, "I'm fine."
Jiang Zhuojun looked at the corner of Gu Xinglang's mouth, where the bright red blood was very eye-catching.
Seeing Jiang Zhuojun staring at his mouth, Gu Xinglang quickly raised his sleeve to wipe the corner of his mouth, then stared at the blood on his cuff in a daze.
Jiang Zhuojun took a long time to say, "Your own blood?"
Gu Xinglang wanted to nod. Hurting himself was not a big deal after all. But in the end, Young Master Gu still shook his head honestly.
Jiang Zhuojun quickly glanced at Gu Xinglang's body and didn't see any blood. Looking down, General Jiang noticed that a bird with dark brown feathers had fallen at Gu Xinglang's feet. The color of the bird's feathers was similar to that of the soil, so Jiang Zhuojun didn't notice it at first.
"What is this?" Jiang Zhuojun looked at the bird closely. Its neck was broken.
Gu Xinglang kicked the bird's corpse, causing it to flip over.
Jiang Zhuojun saw that the bird's neck was not only broken, but also had a cut. Without the bird's corpse covering it, Jiang Zhuojun could see a patch of bright red soil.
Gu Xinglang lowered his brows, looked at the soil, and stood there somewhat stiffly.
Jiang Zhuojun raised his foot and kicked the bird corpse deep into the forest, and said to Gu Xinglang: "It's good that you didn't drink the raw blood."
Gu Xinglang suddenly looked up at Jiang Zhuojun.
"There's so much blood on the ground," Jiang Zhuojun stood side by side with Gu Xinglang and said, "If you were to drink its blood, how could there be so much left on the ground?"
Gu Xinglang said after a long while: "I can't drink."
Jiang Zhuojun kicked some dirt to cover the mud soaked with bird blood and said, "I've eaten a dish made with duck blood, and it tasted pretty good. If you want to eat blood, you might as well ask Mammy to cook with duck blood, chicken blood, or something like that. I'll ask someone to find the recipe, and I'll give it to you when I find it."
Gu Xinglang laughed at what Jiang Zhuojun said.
Jiang Zhuojun looked at Gu Xinglang seriously and said, "You can eat pig blood. When I was demoted to a slave, the guards killed dogs and ate their meat. I also drank raw dog blood. It tasted terrible, but after drinking it, I wasn't so hungry anymore."
Gu Xinglang said: "You want me to eat these things?"
Jiang Zhuojun said: "You didn't eat during the march?"
Gu Xinglang shook his head decisively and said, "No."
Jiang Zhuojun looked at Gu Xinglang with a "you're kidding me" expression. When he was on the march, he had eaten dishes made with horse blood. When the Fengtian people were on the march and ran out of food and fodder, didn't they kill horses and bleed them?
Gu Xinglang said: "I have seen dishes cooked with horse blood."
Jiang Zhuojun said: "Didn't you try it?"
"I don't like it, and my eldest brother never lets me eat it," Gu Xinglang said, and then added, "I don't like horse meat either."
Jiang Zhuojun... Is it really okay for Prime Minister Gu to pamper his younger brother like this? Also, it's really hard for him to be with the princess, who thinks everything she eats is delicious.
Gu Xinglang asked Jiang Zhuojun: "Are my eyes still red?"
Jiang Zhuojun looked at Gu Xinglang's eyes, which were now clearly black and white, and said, "It's not red anymore. What's wrong? Are you still uncomfortable seeing things?"
Gu Xinglang took a look at the artery on the side of Jiang Zhuojun's neck. Not only did he feel uncomfortable seeing things, he could also hear the sound of blood flowing in the blood vessels.
Jiang Zhuojun touched his neck and said to Gu Xinglang, "Forget it, if you can't help it, then don't bear it. Wait for me here."
Gu Xinglang said: "Where are you going?"
Jiang Zhuojun waved at Gu Xinglang and said, "I'm going to the imperial kitchen."
Gu Xinglang was embarrassed. Should they go to the Imperial Hospital at this time?
Jiang Zhuojun ran to the imperial kitchen. Because Her Royal Highness the Princess was going to have lunch in the palace, the imperial chefs were busy in the imperial kitchen.
Seeing Jiang Zhuojun standing at the door of the imperial kitchen, the eunuch chief of the imperial kitchen hurriedly trotted to Jiang Zhuojun, knelt down and saluted, saying: "Your servant greets the prince."
Jiang Zhuojun said, "Stand up."
The chief eunuch stood up from the ground, followed Jiang Zhuojun's gaze and found that Prince Jiang was looking at the large chopping board in the imperial kitchen. "Prince, do you have any instructions?" the chief eunuch asked Jiang Zhuojun cautiously.
Jiang Zhuojun paused for a moment on the chopping board, where the chickens, ducks, and geese had been plucked, washed, and were waiting to be cut. He asked the chief eunuch, "Are there any live poultry?"
The chief eunuch said, "Your Highness, this, this is not enough, not enough for Her Royal Highness the Princess to eat?"
Jiang Zhuojun looked at the person in front of him coldly. What kind of image did the princess have in the eyes of these people?
The eunuch chief was stared at by Jiang Zhuojun and wanted to pee. Why are you, a dignified prince of Suzaku, running to get food for our princess? Don't you know that the princess already has His Majesty Jing Mo by her side? ! (You are enough-_-|||)
"Get some blood and boil it, Jiang Zhuojun and the chief eunuch will do it.
The chief eunuch asked, "What kind of blood do you want, my lord?"
Jiang Zhuojun asked: "Which is better, chicken blood or duck blood?"
The chief eunuch said, "All of them are delicious."
"Then I'll have one bowl each," Jiang Zhuojun said, "How long do you want me to wait?"
The eunuch chief looked at Jiang Zhuojun in a daze. When did the princess like eating chicken and duck blood? (Why do you have to think that this is what your princess wants to eat?!)
"Is there a problem?" Jiang Zhuojun looked at the eunuch chief and asked again, his voice a little louder.
"No problem, Your Highness, please wait a moment," the eunuch chief ran to the imperial kitchen.
"Just put less salt," Jiang Zhuojun added behind the chief eunuch, "Don't cover up the smell of blood."
The eunuch chief staggered. What kind of strange taste was this?
"It's probably not what the princess wants to eat," a royal chef muttered to his companion.
"Hmm," he looked up at Lord Jiang standing at the gate and whispered, "Maybe the tastes of the Suzaku people are just so strange." (That's enough...)
Gu Xinglang was now sitting in the camphor woods. All the birds that had made their home in this forest had flown away without a single one left. There was no sound of birds or insects in the entire forest, it was eerily quiet. However, this kind of environment made Young Master Gu feel comfortable. He preferred this kind of dead silence to the hustle and bustle of the world.
A team of palace guards patrolling the imperial palace passed by outside the woods. Gu Xinglang listened to the heartbeats and the sound of blood flowing from these people, and his eyes turned red again.
"You guys go in and take a look," the captain ordered his four men outside the woods.
The four imperial guards received the order and filed into the camphor forest.
A note to readers:
The first update is here.
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