HMIME Chapter 50: Don’t Insult the Deer, Deer Aren’t as Stupid as You

Bai Lu was stunned, thinking there was something wrong with his ears. Subconsciously, he asked, “What did you just say?”

“I arranged an assassin in the hunting ground,” Chu Ya repeated, while pulling the reins, controlling the black horse to slowly walk towards the depths of the forest. Bai Lu was still thinking about the rabbit he had just seen, constantly looking back, but the grey rabbit had disappeared without a trace.

Bai Lu had to sit properly in Chu Ya’s arms, his gaze falling on Chu Ya’s hand holding the reins, and continued to ask, “You arranged an assassin? Who do you want to kill?”

Then he inexplicably added, “~! It’s not me you want to kill, right?! If you have a change of heart, just say it, I’ll leave if you want, no need to resort to extreme measures, right?!”

“…” Chu Ya looked at him speechlessly, “What’s usually on your mind? I won’t kill you. This assassin is prepared to let you become the empress.”

“For me?” Bai Lu still didn’t understand, still confused, and looked blankly.

Chu Ya sighed helplessly. If he were talking to Si Zhu, Shen Chu Yun, or even Eunuch Wang, at this point they would have understood. Chu Ya was used to being surrounded by intelligent people and expressing himself subtly, forgetting that the person in front of him couldn’t understand hints.

He patiently explained to Bai Lu, “It’s like this. I want you to become the empress, but I need to find a suitable reason for you. Building merit takes too long, so it’s faster to save the emperor.”

“I arranged for an assassin to assassinate me, and you need to find the right opportunity to save me in front of everyone, but don’t worry, it’s just acting, you won’t be hurt.”

Although Chu Ya could forcibly appoint Bai Lu as his empress due to his great achievements in governing the country, he couldn’t stop the murmurs of the people.

Words can kill, and Chu Ya wasn’t afraid of others discussing him, scheming against him, or slandering him, but he wouldn’t allow anyone to speak ill of Bai Lu. So he had to find a significant reason for Bai Lu to legitimately ascend to the throne as empress.

In this lifetime, he would arrange everything for their future using various means, relying on royal authority to envelop Bai Lu under his strong and abundant wings, never letting him be harmed again.

Even though Bai Lu was slow, he now understood Chu Ya’s intentions. A warm current surged in his heart like a spring tide.

How could someone like him be liked by such a good person? What he didn’t think of, Chu Ya had already considered. He didn’t need to worry about anything anymore, as long as he believed in him and trusted him.

But this wasn’t blind dependence; Bai Lu knew that they both needed each other very much.

Bai Lu wanted to thank him from the bottom of his heart, but he felt embarrassed to say it outright. After several attempts, he finally changed the subject, “So how exactly are we going to do this? When do we start?”

“After the hunt ends today, we’ll set up camp at sunset and hold a wild banquet. After the sky is completely dark, I’ll have someone release smoke to create chaos. At that time, you should pay attention to a person in black clothes with a mask. That’s Ling Feng, the ‘assassin’ I arranged. You just need to cooperate with him.”

It sounded simple. Bai Lu nodded solemnly and went over the process again, “After sunset and dark, release smoke, find the person in black, and perform a hero-saving-beauty act in front of everyone, right?”

Chu Ya smiled, praised him by patting his head, and said, “You’re right. You’ve learned martial arts, Ling Feng won’t resist. Just knock him down, don’t worry if he feels pain.”

Bai Lu: “…Do your subordinates always have it this bad?”

Having to be on duty, accompany, kill, protect the master, and occasionally participate in the master’s emotional life for free, being cannon fodder extras, this was unacceptable! If Bai Lu were in charge, he would definitely revolt, rebel against the unscrupulous boss, and demand overtime pay.

They didn’t chat for too long, as the guards soon arrived following the horse tracks. Chu Ya and Bai Lu tacitly avoided the topic and calmly started hunting.

Chu Ya’s archery skills were very accurate; even riding a galloping horse, he almost always hit the target. Although Bai Lu was not familiar with archery, his vision and hearing were very good, and no matter how small or fast the prey, it couldn’t escape his eyes.

They cooperated tacitly, and by the afternoon, they had hunted a red fox, a wild sheep, three wild rabbits, and two wild geese. Among them, the guards surrounded a beautiful deer, but Bai Lu noticed that it seemed pregnant, and since there was a connection between the deer and his name, he let it go.

But the other prey weren’t as lucky; they were all skinned, bled, de-boned, and cut into even strips by the imperial chefs. Some were marinated with spices and sauce for the banquet, while others were tied with red ropes and mug wort and distributed to the accompanying attendants, with a symbolic blessing.

By dusk, the camp was already filled with the rich aroma of food from the cooking area.

As the name suggests, a wild banquet is a banquet held outdoors. In addition to the people accompanying from the palace, there were also dozens of military officers from the barracks.

Bai Lu really liked the atmosphere of the wild banquet, it was lively and enthusiastic, without the strict rules of the palace, and there was no need to follow etiquette to eat something. The military officers were bold and unrestrained, eating meat and drinking alcohol heartily, creating a very comfortable and relaxed atmosphere.

On the east side of the camp was the cooking area where the imperial chefs cooked. There were barbecue grills here and big pots there, grilling, boiling, steaming, frying, everything was cooked deliciously, making people’s mouths water.

Bai Lu looked at the sky and estimated that there was still some time before Chu Ya’s planned action, and saw Chu Ya reading a book in the main tent, feeling bored, so he went out to find something to do.

He stood in front of the barbecue grill, rolled up his sleeves, and prepared to grill some lamb skewers for himself.

The skewers were all prepared by the imperial chefs in advance, with lamb cut into evenly sized pieces, marinated with oil, salt, flour, yellow wine, etc., then skewered with bamboo sticks and grilled over charcoal. The fatty and lean pieces of meat sizzled, and after brushing on the sauce, they looked shiny and were sprinkled with a thin layer of chili powder, simply heavenly.

Bai Lu doubted that this was also from Chu Ya’s recipe book, because what he was eating now was exactly the same as modern grilled skewers, just missing a beer.

Leaning on a wooden table, Bai Lu chatted with the head chef as he grilled.

As they chatted, suddenly a dense white smoke rose from the south, followed by someone shouting, “Fire! Bring water quickly!”

The smoke rose upwind and quickly swept through the entire camp with the mountain wind, choking everyone, but no flames were visible.

So the guards quickly reacted, drawing their swords and moving towards the direction of the main tent. Someone shouted loudly, “Assassin! Protect the emperor!!”

Bai Lu finished his skewer, wiped his mouth, feeling strange. Why did it seem like it started early? And why didn’t anyone notify him, the main actor?

Time was of the essence. Bai Lu threw away the skewer and began to look for the male lead.

After searching for a while, Bai Lu finally saw a masked man in black behind a tree.

He walked over somewhat unhappily and questioned, “Didn’t we agree to wait until it was completely dark? You’re not keeping to the schedule, and I’m not ready yet.”

The masked man hesitated for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, “The situation has changed, so the plan was moved up. The smoke will dissipate soon, hurry!”

Bai Lu nodded, then turned and walked towards the main tent where Chu Ya was.

The masked man grabbed his arm and pulled him back, pointing to another direction. “Not there, go this way!”

Bai Lu was a bit confused, thinking that Chu Ya might have changed locations? Oh, he understood, maybe there were more people over there, and there would be more witnesses to witness his heroic act.

His brain was probably not working properly due to the smoke, so he followed the masked man without thinking and walked forward. As they walked, they walked out of the smoke circle, out of the camp, leaving the uproar behind.

Behind a boulder hundreds of meters away, there was a horse-drawn carriage hidden. Bai Lu actually felt that something was wrong, but he hadn’t fully realized it yet. He followed the masked man onto the carriage.

The masked man sat in the carriage, sighed, and lowered his mask, revealing an ordinary middle-aged man’s face.

Bai Lu: “???”

Who are you?

The coachman in front cracked his whip, and the two horses neighed and trotted away. Bai Lu sat in the swaying carriage, completely bewildered.

The plot seemed to be developing in a weird direction? No, it completely went off track! Why aren’t you following the script?!

The middle-aged man glanced at Bai Lu, seeming concerned, and asked, “Are you okay? No injuries?”

Bai Lu shook his head blankly, cautiously asking, “…Should I have something wrong?”

“You’ve been in the emperor’s hands for half a year, and we thought something had happened to you. But now it seems like you’re doing fine.”

The man looked Bai Lu up and down, his gaze seemed to contain some secretive suspicion. He said, “There were some troubles in the teaching recently, so the second master delayed sending us to rescue you until now. Xia’an, what have you done in the palace? Have you found out any secrets?”

Bai Lu didn’t dare to speak.

He now roughly understood that these people were the legendary Sky Wolf Sect, and the second master was probably Chen Hu mentioned by Chu Ya. He was now like a little deer, mistakenly entering the tiger’s den—not to mention, saying he was a little deer was a compliment; he was just as stupid as a dumb deer!

Bai Lu remained silent, looking out of the window, not saying a word.

Because he didn’t know anyone from the Sky Wolf Sect, this was a thief’s den. If he were discovered, this Lin Xia’an’s body would have changed ownership long ago. Bai Lu was afraid he would come here with a fate and leave without one…

T/N: The “lu” in Bailu Palace(白鹿宫) means “deer,” different from Bai Lu(白陸), but they are pronounced the same.