Waking Up 2

In that case, there was hardly any need for subtlety, was there? Huangfu Yun sighed as he caught hold of the young woman's waist. Her name was Yang Xiaoli, but she had always been called Lili for short. He knew this because Huang Fuyun had been paying attention to her for some time now. Or to be exact, he had been paying close attention to someone else in her family.

To be honest, it was Yang Xiaoming, her older brother, that he had been watching like a hawk. The same one who had just gone off to join the Lu Kingdom army, that very Summer. Huangfu Yun grunted as he remembered how Huang Fuyun had been so excited to see Yang Xiaoming in his simple army private's uniform, and gushed about how manly he had appeared. And how despondent the fat idiot had been when the man left with the rest of the army.

Huang Fuyun might have been able to hide the fact that he had unnatural tendencies from everyone else. But Huangfu Yun had access to his mind and all of his memories, so there was no way that the latter was unaware of how Huang Fuyun really felt. And what he actually been doing.

Not that it mattered now, of course. Since Huangfu Yun had taken over his body, he should have no difficulty making sure that the fat young man got rid of all suspicions with regards to his sexual tendencies hereonafter!

And there was also the small issue of his lackadasical attitude towards his so-called profession. Huang Fuyun was supposed to be an alchemist, like his father, Huang Tiancheng, who was the one and only Fourth Ranked Alchemist in the whole of the Lu Kingdom. Of course, given his laziness and his disregard for his standing, Huang Fuyun had only barely managed to squeeze his way to Rank Nine, which is the lowest possible rank that one could hold, and still pass oneself off as an alchemist.

Still, the fat boy had managed to get away with a great deal, since he had access to his father's rather substantial stockpile of various alchemical pills. And miraculous formulae. And medicinal herbs.

In fact, he had promised one of the first to the young woman who was sharing his bed at the moment. She was the one who had desperately sought him out because of it, to save her injured brother's life. Someone had apparently told her that it would take one of those marvelous alchemical pills to keep him from breathing his last. And from becoming a cripple, due to the injuries that had been inflicted on him.

Not Yang Xiaoming, no. The object of Huang Fuyun's hot and forbidden dreams was still attached to the army, and had already gone out to fight in the war that the Lu Kingdom was waging against their hostile neighbour, the Le Kingdom. Which was close to eight hundred or more li away to the Southwest.

That was something that immediately pigued his attention. But Huang Fuyun, that useless fat pig! The young man had been totally uninterested in the whole situation. Probably because he was thinking that his father would be able to protect his whole family, if things got out of hand. All of the neighbouring Kingdoms would be more than happy to welcome such a powerful alchemist, and his family, wouldn't they?

So Huangfu Yun was frustrated by the lack of information with regards to the War, and quickly turned his thoughts to other matters. Like this strange situation that he had found himself in. As well as the young woman who was now lying on top of him:

Yang Xiaoli had sought one of his miraculous Bone Setting Pills not for her older brother but for her younger one. There were three of them in her family as far as Huang Fuyun could remember. With Yang Xiaoming being the eldest, followed by Yang Xiaoli, then Yang Xiaochun.

Quite frankly, there wasn't any particular rhyme or reason why they were given those names. Probably just because their mother had thought that they sounded nice. That was what Huang Fuyun thought. He had been looking down on the siblings, of course. Their father had been nothing more than a soldier, and had perished close to eight years ago, in another border war. Not long after teaching Yang Xiaoming everything that he knew, according to the stories that Huang Fuyun had heard.

Little wonder then, that the eldest sibling ended up joining the army as soon as their mother died as well. It was the only way that he could hold onto the family farm after all. There was no one else who could serve in the Army, and so keep the property which had been purchased through the same.

Huangfu Yun frowned then, as he found himself dredging through Huang Fuyun's memories of the same Bone Setting Pill. That was a rather low level alchemical pill, that could be created by even the lowest ranked Alchemist. Like Huang Fuyun. Unfortunately, it was not as miraculous as the many Medicine Halls that dealt in it had claimed.

So it was barely sufficient to help Yang Xiaochun heal only a part of the injuries that he had received. A small part. It would only help the boy to heal the breaks in his bones, and would not do a thing for his internal injuries. Besides, the pill would also suck away the energy and nutrients that would be required by the broken bones, and so cause deficiencies. Which was the sort of thing that would only aggravate Yang Xiaochun's internal bleeding and his perforated lung!

Which meant that he had been merely reassuring the girl. The memories of the fat pig were fragmented at this point. Probably because Huang Fuyun wasn't really paying attention? And was too busy dreaming about Yang Xiaoming instead? Or it was possible that Huang Fuyun had no intention of really healing Yang Xiaochun at all!

Honestly, Huangfu Yun didn't believe that he had that sort of capability in the first place!

Huangfu Yun cursed the original owner of the body that he was inhabiting as soon as he got a sense of that! What sort of scumbag was this Huang Fuyun, who had lied about his abilties, and given false hope to Yang Xiaoli. How could he do such a thing to the young woman like that? Not to mention the fact that this was the younger sister of someone that he had desired for so long!

What did he believe Yang Xiaoming would think, if and when he got back, and found out what he had done? Or was he harbouring the illusion that the young man would not learn about it at all?

Another fragment of the fat boy's memories came floating up into Huangfu Yun's mind then, as if to answer his question. And he found himself grunting out in anger as soon as he 'read' it. So, it seemed that more than two-thirds of the soldiers that were sent to the Southeast tended to perish, and half of those that survived were usually offered places elsewhere in the Kingdom.

Hence, it was likely that Yang Xiaoming would not be able to return. That explained why Huang Fuyun had been so callous. And why he had decided to console himself with Yang Xiaoming's sister instead.

Well, Huangfu Yun didn't agree with his tactics, and his pessimism. Perhaps it was because he was more familiar with War than the fat idiot, but he knew that there were more factors involved in a soldier surviving a fight than what was generally known.

And that also meant that he might be able to help Yang Xiaoming keep himself alive in this War! Which would keep Yang Xiaoli tied to him for a good while too!

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