Days passed. Tian Le was in pain everywhere. His back, his buttocks, and his legs. Although he had spent the entire day sitting on horseback, he was so stiff that Ruo Tian needed all his strength to get the stiff prince off the horse in the evening.
The meals took some getting used to, and at night he had no choice but to lie in Ruo Tian's arms to keep warm against the icy ground frost.
They didn't speak, and when they did, it was only to make each other angry.
Although the general was by his side the whole time, he felt further away than he had in the last eighteen years Tian Le had waited for him.
The icy nights were followed by cool mornings, which gave way to the spring sun and surprising warmth around noon.
They were riding through a rough stretch of forest when the horses became restless and began to prance. Cui Ruo Tian calmed his stallion and looked around. The Baolei men were immediately on guard.
Something cracked in the thick undergrowth, someone screamed. The soldiers immediately rushed forward. Ruo Tian swung himself off his horse and drew his sword.
Tian Le looked around, agonizing seconds passed, then suddenly a handful of men stormed out of the undergrowth. With loud cries, they rushed toward the general and the remaining men.
Although Tian Le's heart was beating faster, he realized that the men did not have real swords. They were armed with sticks, pitchforks, and farm tools.
"They're peasants!" he exclaimed.
Although they seemed uncoordinated and crude, their attack was much more effective than his own attempt to harm Ruo Tian.
He had merely pricked him with a hairpin, but now he was taking blows with a wooden club and someone hit him with a digging tool, leaving long bloody welts on his back.
Nevertheless, the uprising was crushed within minutes. As the peasants knelt on the damp earth and the soldiers bound them, they glared at the prince.
"Who is that?" whispered one of the peasants.
"I heard that a royal concubine threw herself at the enemy general," replied another, spitting on the ground.
Tian Le gritted his teeth. He was everything: a liar, a deserter, a mistress, but not a crown prince, let alone a man.
"What did you hope to achieve with this attack?" Ruo Tian asked sharply, drawing attention to himself.
"What? Should we have waited for you to find us first?" one of the peasants hissed at him.
Fugui, who had led the other half of Ruo Tian's men, came slouching back. He greeted Tian Le, who was still sitting on his stallion, politely before turning to the general.
"They must have fled before our troops reached the capital of Sanhe. They have set up camp in a cave nearby," he reported.
Turning to the farmers, he shouted angrily, "You should be beheaded for threatening our general!" Cui Ruo Tian raised his hand and the soldiers lowered their swords. Fugui clicked his tongue.
"You are too soft," he growled. But Ruo Tian just shook his head.
"Send them back. Right now, Sanhe needs all the help it can get," he said calmly.
Tian Le looked at him unflinchingly. Anyone else would have killed the men. They were not only refugees who had left their country before the war, they had also attacked him with the intent to kill.
"Tear down their shelter and let them march on today!"
He summoned three of his men and ordered them to accompany the peasants a few miles and make sure they reached the capital. What the people of Sanhe did with them was up to them. The men nodded.
"The rest of you prepare the cave for us, we'll rest for a few days," Ruo Tian decided. He grabbed the reins of his horse and left the farmers behind without a second glance.
When they reached the spacious cave, they found that it was quite comfortably furnished. The peasants must have lived here all winter.
They packed a few things, then Ruo Tian sat down on one of the beds and threw a bag to Tian Le. When the prince opened it, a pungent smell hit his nose. His eyes watered.
"What am I supposed to do with that... WHAT IS THIS!" he cried indignantly as Ruo Tian began to undress.
He threw his leather armor on the floor and tore the undergarment from his body. Then he sat down with his back to Tian Le. The prince saw the three large, long welts. They were still bleeding and looked terrible.
"If you don't want my men to become skeptical at some point, do something nice for me," Ruo Tian replied.
"Should I attack your family and send them to their deaths?" Tian Le replied angrily.
"Stop it. You don't shed a tear for your family!" said Ruo Tian harshly. He breathed out sharply when Tian Le slapped a damp cloth on his back.
"That hurts," growled the general.
"Good, it's supposed to!" hissed the prince.
As the other men watched their spectacle, Tian Le swallowed and pulled himself together. He cleaned the wounds and began to spread the stinking, biting ointment on them.
After a while, they were left alone again and the rest of the men had found another place to camp, which they converted for their own use. The silence between them was strangely loud.
"I almost didn't recognize you," Ruo Tian said suddenly. "You're even more beautiful than you were back then." Tian Le angrily threw the pot of ointment on the ground.
"You think this is all funny?" he shouted angrily. Ruo Tian turned to him.
"I'm just glad to see you again, that's all," he said soothingly, but Tian Le's anger flared up again.
"For you, it was probably just one day, one encounter, something you had already forgotten the next day. But for me, it was more. It was hope, your promise was a light.
A freedom I had waited eighteen years for," he cried, unable to hold back his tears.
How could he put into words what he had felt that day? Alongside his daily anger and frustration, there had been something like hope for the first time. He had actually believed that the cheeky boy would come for him one day.
"A'Le," Ruo Tian began hesitantly, but Tian Le cut him off.
"Leave it, I don't want to hear your lies anymore. Do you even know what you're doing? What are you planning? To hide me in women's clothes for the rest of my life?"
"My lies?" Cui Ruo Tian's voice had taken on a dangerous undertone.
"I searched for you, Tian Le, and every time I was rejected with the words, 'You don't want to see me.' And then one day your father told me you were dead. No funeral, no ceremony, no white cloths, and no money was burned for you. I rode home, took my sword, and tore your father from his throne to avenge you."
Tian Le stared into Ruo Tian's dark, sparkling eyes.
"You believe it was your right to start a war?" he asked, stunned. Ruo Tian exhaled deeply.
"War had been inevitable for a long time. I was only the first to draw my sword to be the first to knock your father off his throne.
When I saw you, I thought I had fallen on the battlefield and that it was all just a dream. To touch you and realize that you are alive, breathing..."
A resounding slap echoed off the covered cave walls.
"No matter how good your reasons may be, you did nothing better," Tian Le said harshly, clearing his throat.
Ruo Tian's words had made him think of the kiss, and his hand had slipped automatically. Ruo Tian slumped down.
"I want you to know that I didn't break my promise. The thought of you being dragged quietly and silently out of this world, after you had already been denied the right to live freely in it, made me angry.
You're right. That doesn't justify war, even if it was already on the horizon," he confessed.
Tian Le trembled. The realization that he had waited all these years while Ruo Tian was perhaps only a few meters away from him sank in.
Had his father really prevented him from ever leaving the palace? He had always believed that his father would be happy when his son, his burden, finally disappeared, and yet he had blocked his only way out.
Tian Le looked at the floor, but that didn't make what Cui Ruo Tian had done any better.
"Hate me if it makes you feel better. But I won't leave you behind again," Ruo Tian whispered, looking him straight in the eyes.
He reached out his hand, ran it through Tian Le's hair and over his cheeks, and gently rubbed Tian Le's lips with his thumb.
"You are the only one for me!"