* 'pretending garlic' (装蒜) is an idiom used for playing dumb/making a pretense

The Marquis of Order — Great Liang's number one garlic asked him cheerfully: "Right, did you bring my medicine? In the evening, I will take you to Xue Mei Zhai at the back. There are a few new songstresses that just arrived. It is said that they will all be competing for the number one spot at Qi Yuan Tower at the end of the year, let us go check them out in advance."

Chang Geng thought that as Gu Yun had said to take his medicine with him, there must be a matter of urgency. As it turned out, it was because deaf ears were no good for enjoying flower wine*, he instantly let out an unamused smile: "The medicine contains three parts poison, when there is nothing of urgency, yifu should drink less."

*drinking wine with the company of a prostitute.

Gu Yun gave him a completely irrelevant answer: "Mm, good, it's good that you brought it, the water here is very nice. Come have a soak to unwind."

Chang Geng: "..."

He no longer wanted to reason with him. "The Emperor already received the Northwest line's report. Everything is secure, you can rest assured."

Gu Yun nodded slowly: "Mm — you already came here, you're not going to soak for a while with me?"

"...No," Chang Geng said, his expression ice cold. "Yifu, enjoy it yourself."

Gu Yun clucked his tongue in disappointment. Then, without shying away from Chang Geng at all, feeling that there was nothing to shy away from, he calmly undressed and went directly into the water.

Chang Geng was caught off guard and quickly averted his sight. There was nowhere to place his eyes upon; he grabbed a cup of wine, taking a sip as if to conceal something. Only after his lips touched it did he remember — this was Gu Yun's cup!

He stood up awkwardly and almost knocked down the small table. He said dryly: "I only came to inform yifu, it's good that you know, I... I have some things to take care of, I will take my leave first."

"Xiao Chang Geng." Gu Yun called him, put aside the liuli glass that had already been fogged up by the hot steam — his line of sight was slightly out of focus, yet he still appeared like a dragon king commanding water — he leaned on the edge, and carelessly said, "We are both men, I have what you have, what you don't have I don't have either, there's nothing new."

Chang Geng held his breath and finally lifted his gaze. Gu Yun's figure was a little indistinct, but the scars were shockingly striking. One of them crossed his chest under his neck, making his upper body almost seem like he had been split in two then stitched back together again.