Lord of the Desert

Chapter 513 Arrogance
On the eleventh day of the third month of the thirty-third year of Zhenghe, at the residence of Princess Xiande.

A breeze swept through the room, causing the gauze curtains to flutter and sway outside the window frame.

The bushes in the courtyard are covered with gardenias, their obovate petals with six lobes, forming a large expanse of pure white.

Xiao Chu wore a pale yellow dress, her long, unbound hair falling obediently over her shoulders, nestled against her gentle face.

Hong Fan sat next to him, inhaling the pleasant fragrance in the room, unsure whether it came from people, hair, or flowers.

"A letter arrived from home these past two days, mentioning that things are not going well in Liangzhou, which must be due to pressure from Jin Ziming."

He mentioned it casually.

"Should I go talk to the third brother?"

Xiao Chu took the initiative to ask.

"No need."

Hong Fan shook his head.

"These are all minor nitpicking issues. We can deal with them as they come, and it's just a matter of losing some money. Besides, I don't think the Third Prince will continue—now that I've made an agreement with the Martial Arts Academy, any further thoughts between the two princes are none of my concern."

Xiao Chu nodded.

Xiao Ji was not exactly vindictive, but he was not exactly magnanimous either; most people who offended him did not fare well.

But Hong Fan was no ordinary person; even the princes considered him someone who should not be offended unless absolutely necessary.

"Military reports have also come back from Shengzhou, saying that the scattered insectoids in the state have been basically wiped out, and the area from Erbai City to Maoyan has been completely liberated. However, due to the lack of vegetation in the surrounding areas, most places are still not suitable for habitation."

Xiao Chu deliberately announced some good news.

Upon hearing this, Hong Fan thought of Gu Yixin, and a fleeting smile crossed his lips.

The fruit tea on the bronze stove boiled, and Xiao Chu rolled up his sleeves to pour it.

Out of the corner of their eyes, a golden-blue butterfly hovered among the gardenias in the distance, the sound of its wings fluttering faintly reaching their ears.

"Your Highness, I have something I'd like to ask."

Hong Fan stared at the scales on the butterfly's wings and hesitated for a moment.

"Four years ago, when Jin Ziming took office in Liangzhou, he was locked in a stalemate with the Liu family of Xijing. As a result, the Fubo Gang under the latter's command suddenly took it upon themselves to assassinate the Imperial Guard and seize control of the Martial Academy. Have you heard any inside stories about this incident?"

Xiao Chu was momentarily bewildered.

"I remember that at that time, the political situation in the capital was turbulent and unpredictable, with waves of impeachments against Jin Ziming coming one after another; the third brother did his best to keep his position as the mentor, but I don't know about the specific implementation level in Xijing."

Although she was perceptive, as the eldest princess, she wouldn't know anything about the river gangs thousands of miles away. However, since Hong Fan had asked, she tried her best to recall.

Was the Control Yuan involved at the time?

Hong Fan couldn't help but press for answers, and his words, once spoken, were tinged with regret.

"I really don't know."

Xiao Chu gazed at the young man sitting opposite him—his brows were slightly furrowed, his eyelashes gently veiled his eyes like a gauze curtain, and his cheeks were a flawless, jade-like pale white.

“Unlike the Martial Arts Academy, the budget, structure, and personnel of the Censorate are all independent of the imperial court’s supervision, so even I don’t get much information about it.”

Hong Fan fell silent.

The Control Yuan sounds like a secret service agency similar to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but it is not actually like that.

Because of the weakness of imperial power and the strength of the military class, the Great Hua court's oversight of civil and military officials was quite overt, leaving no room for secret investigations, and institutions similar to imperial prisons did not exist.

Aside from special events involving deities, such as the Impermanent Realm, the general public is hardly even aware of the existence of the Overwatch Council.

"Did you receive any news?"

Xiao Chu asked.

"It was during the Purple Impermanence incident, when a garrison commander from the Censorate risked his life to save me, that he expressed his regret for what happened in Xijing four years ago."

Hong Fan pressed his brow with his hand, revealing veins on his wrist that were lighter in color than those of an average person.

"That year, I was dashing and reckless in Xi'an, doing whatever I pleased and almost always succeeding..." His words were full of self-deprecation.

"After much thought, the only thing he could be talking about is the assassination of my colleague; outside of the Control Yuan, it seems that only Zhan Yegong knows about this matter."

"Ye Zhan may seem carefree, but he is actually a very measured person."

Xiao Chu cautiously reminded him.

“I know, I won’t force him to talk.”

Hong Fan answered without hesitation.

"Looking back now, Ao Fuwei, the leader of the Fubo Gang, might have been of the same status as the garrison commander who saved me. Besides, the past is the past, so what right do I have to bring it up now?"

He took a deep breath, his clothes slightly loosened, rising and falling with his erratic breathing.

Seeing this, Xiao Chu gripped the wooden armrest of the chair tightly. The wood lacquer under her red nail polish had peeled off over time, mixed with mottled red and purple.

Hong Fan turned his gaze away as if avoiding a fire, and his pale face suddenly flushed with color.

The room was quiet for a moment.

Xiao Chu stared intently at his profile, seeing glittering golden light within the deep, unfathomable darkness.

"what happened to you?"

She was anxious and concerned, but when she came to her senses, she thought she had misread it.

"At that time, I was on the verge of death, and I actually retreated."

Hong Fan gritted his teeth and spoke in broken sentences.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Chu felt an indescribable pang of sorrow in his heart.

In her twenty-nine years, she believed that Hong Fan was the most similar to her and the only person she truly loved.

With this in mind, when he saw his particularly vulnerable side, Xiao Chu felt a surge of responsibility and protectiveness from the bottom of his heart, and every word he spoke at this moment had to come from the bottom of his heart.

"I don't think you're afraid of death!"

Her voice was firm, sharp, and precise.

"You proved you weren't afraid to die when you charged towards the summit of Fengyun."

As he uttered these words, all the emotions Xiao Chu felt for the person before him burst forth, overwhelming the reserve and shyness that came with her identity as a princess, commander, and woman.

"You know, in my eyes, or in everyone else's eyes, you are a very special person."

"You came from a poor family and lost your mother at a young age, yet you possess an inner confidence; anyone with a bit of experience can see how high you regard yourself—how high? Higher than me, higher than celestial beings and martial saints, as if you are floating high above this world, thinking about everything, worrying about everything, and even dreaming of solving everything with the eyes of an outsider..."

"Oh, you're so arrogant!"

Xiao Chu sighed, his tone gentle yet full of admiration.

“Hong Fan, I don’t know where your former confidence came from, I don’t know what happened in Zi Wuchang or what you saw, because you were hurt so much that I didn’t dare to ask you today; but I can see clearly that you have lost that confidence now, you have fallen from the clouds and realized that you are just a person…”

By the end, she was almost crying.

"I think this is what you're afraid of."

The princess's shriek silenced all the noise.

The wind stopped for a moment, and the gauze curtains, losing their momentum, hung down, flimsy and wrinkled.

Hong Fan stared blankly, and it wasn't until long after hearing this comforting remark that he realized he had already clenched his fists.

He first sensed anger.

An eruption of anger, hot as lava, welled up from the depths of his heart, motivated by denial, forcing his tongue to refute.

However, Hong Fan was speechless.

His upbringing instilled in him a strong moral compass, making him instinctively reject the accusation of "arrogance." However, at the same time, his reason, guided by anger, accepted Xiao Chu's judgment.

(End of this chapter)