Ink Blade Chapter 5 (Part 1)
Translated by Sylver
Edited by kleio
Chapter 5: Waking Up (part 1)
Mo Ren weakly opened his eyes. He felt that he had been asleep for a long time, and it felt like it’s been decades since he last slept this peacefully.
He slowly blinked a few times, his dull and drowsy mind gradually clearing.
The surface under his body felt soft and plush. How could he be….lying on a bed?
"You’ve finally woken up, this Master has been worrying about you for so many days, really... have you slept enough now?" The voice that rang in his ears carried a hint of a deep smile, a familiarity deeply engraved in his bones.
Mo Ren instantly sobered up. He turned around in a panic, a corner of inky-black sleeve with gold-patterns entering his view. The color immediately drained from his face.
He's actually...the Palace Master is actually here!?
Mo Ren was momentarily unable to react. As per his instincts, he struggled to get up without thinking. Unfortunately, he barely had any strength in his body, tumbling off the bed. The muffled sound of his body colliding with the ground was unpleasant.
Mo Ren didn't care about the pain from the wounds all over his body, nor did he scream. Instead, he weakly propped himself up with his trembling arms, attempting to kneel.
He didn't die–
No, he actually slept by the Master's side in such a presumptuous and disrespectful way!!
Like an arrow being released after being pulled taut, this thought surged in Mo Ren’s mind, and he couldn’t help but feel his heart sink in the cold depths of the sea. His vision gradually began to quiver, and from the corner of his eyes, he could vaguely make out his Master’s figure suddenly standing up. Maybe he was really displeased.
Mo Ren's heart became even colder, and he wanted to kowtow to apologize. But his body seemed to betray him and lost balance as he fell forward all of a sudden, having exhausted all his strength
What a useless body, truly just an annoying waste.
He cursed in his heart and simply closed his eyes, resigning to his fate as he gritted his teeth and waited for the pain.
But the pain never came. He vaguely heard the whistling of wind blowing through wide sleeves, and in the next moment a pair of arms wrapped around him, pulling him in a warm and firm embrace.
"Master..." Mo Ren helplessly raised his head, but his pupils shrank all of a sudden. Chu Yan’s youthful face of the past, which had not yet fully matured, had been treasured in the depths of his memory for a long time. As that familiar and nostalgic gaze met his, Mo Ren felt as if he was struck by lightning.
"What are you doing?! You still dare to move around so carelessly after being gravely injured!?"
Chu Yan, on the other hand, felt anxiety and distress coursing through his chest, and even the ecstasy of finally seeing the guard awake was washed away. He never expected Mo Ren to damage his body further right after waking up.
As if his condition wasn’t already bad enough as it is.
Seeing the wounds—that had finally begun to heal in the past three days—showing signs of being torn open, Chu Yan felt that they had been added to his heart alongside the other wounds, and burned.
Burned, like setting his heart aflame.
His one arm hugged Mo Ren close, while the other pulled the brocade quilt off the bed, wrapping it around the pale body. The man in his arms shivered from the cold, and Chu Yan couldn’t help but glare at him.
"This...this subordinate…”
Mo Ren stared at Chu Yan in utter disbelief, unable to form a proper sentence.
According to Chu Yan's temperament, if a subordinate didn't follow his wishes, he would be sentenced with a light punishment and be reprimanded to death.
But merely glancing at Mo Ren in such a state, his heart suddenly ached———
The guard was curled up at the foot of the bed, his whole body trembling and thoroughly drenched with cold sweat. The bewilderment on his face and anxiety in his eyes were unbearable, making people inexplicably panic.
“Master." Mo Ren called out hoarsely, with obvious tremors.
"........”
Chu Yan's cold and stern tone could no longer be maintained. He placed his hand on the quilt, clumsily avoiding the wounds, gently patting him. He patiently comforted him, "...it's okay Ah Ren. Don't move around if you are injured. This Master should not have punished you, he was just a bit confused. Never again in the future, never again, okay?"
Mo Ren's lips moved, but no sound came out. He seemed to have forgotten the etiquette and rules—a rare occurrence—, and merely stared blankly at Chu Yan's bright eyes for a long time.
Then he turned his head silently, slowly pursing his colorless lips, and his eyes misted over, seeming to have lost focus.
He didn't seem to understand anything.
Yet it also seemed like he understood everything in an instant.
It turned out that….that…..he had somehow been reborn......
Yes, he should have been dead.
The unbearable memories of the previous life still played vividly in front of his eyes. Each scene contained Chu Yan, and each scene made him feel despair like nothing he had ever felt before, as if plummeting down an endless abyss.
These memories eventually stilled, the last image displaying his Master’s torture.
Torturing the traitor kneeling in the heavy snow.
Mo Ren’s mind muddled up unbearably, his pale and thin hands gripping the quilt firmly until his veins bulged.
He just felt exhausted—physically and mentally—, and his brain felt like it had been rusted and refused to function.
Chu Yan's gaze never left the person in his arms, and he naturally caught the fleeting glint of sorrow in Mo Ren's eyes. But it merely puzzled him, for he couldn't figure out why Mo Ren reacted like this.
His heart felt empty, as if there was something he was unaware of, causing a faint trace of uneasiness skim through his chest.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, interrupting Chu Yan's musing. A maid entered the room. She held a tray in her hands, atop which lay medicine prescribed by the Medicine Hall to replenish Mo Ren's health, and a bowl of porridge.
Chu Yan had not neglected the fact that Mo Ren hadn’t eaten a single bite, having been in a coma for many days. Hence, he ordered his servants to cook some light porridge as well, and bring it in alongside the medicine.
Chu Yan motioned for the maidservant to set down the porridge and medicine and retreat, then turned to Mo Ren and said, "You must be starving after sleeping for so long. Drink some porridge to warm up first, and then drink the medicine after."
As he spoke, he helped Mo Ren onto the bed, and set pillows for him to comfortably lean on. The Palace Master of the Jiuzhong Palace was used to being pampered. This kind of job of serving others should have been very awkward for him, but at this moment, he couldn’t care less. Chu Yan picked up the bowl with his own hands, and sat down beside the bed, "Come."
Mo Ren's thoughts tangled, throwing his mind in chaos, and it wasn’t until now that he realized the porridge was for him.
Recalling the last time he was in the Side Hall in his previous life, let alone warm food, even having one or two bites a day would be considered a rare blessing. Mo Ren had almost forgotten what the taste of warm food felt like on his tongue.
Feeling at a loss, he said in a daze, "This subordinate...thanks the Master for the reward."
"It's just a bowl of porridge, what's there to thank this Master for?" Chu Yan was naturally unaware of his thoughts. Mo Ren's lost expression made him feel novel, and he couldn't help chuckling softly.
Mo Ren was speechless, mentally scolding himself for failing to quickly adapt to the fact of rebirth and being rude in front of the Palace Master.
Rebirth is rebirth, but why is the Master so gentle with him?
He glanced at Chu Yan's face again, secretly estimating the date.
That's right, it stands to reason that at this time, the only one in Master's heart should have been Bai Hua. As for him, naturally, he became more and more boring in his Master’s eyes, and Master was getting tired of him day by day. But he couldn't remember when the Master had treated him this well.
