Chapter 579: Overwhelming Longing

Chapter 579: A Tide of Longing

"Guess who I am, and if you guess right, there's a reward." She said teasingly.

Luo Junhe, who had been painting, suddenly froze, and the brush in his hand slipped soundlessly from his fingers, falling onto the carefully completed fan.

Black ink bled across the beautiful fan, marring the misty landscape of rivers and mountains with dark splotches, but he didn't care in the slightest.

He reached back and pulled the woman behind him into his arms in one swift motion, with such force as if he wanted to press her into his very being.

With her warm, fragrant form in his arms, Luo Junhe rested his chin on her shoulder, the warmth of his arm around her waist seeping through the fabric to her skin, radiating an overwhelming sense of security.

After a long moment, his low, husky voice finally broke the silence.

"A Tang, you're finally back."

Pulled suddenly into his embrace, the familiar feeling put Ji Yuntang at ease.

She pressed her head against Luo Junhe's chest and gently hugged him back.

"A He, I've missed you."

"I missed you too. I thought about seeing you every single day." Luo Junhe held her close, and if you listened closely, you could hear the barely contained joy in his voice.

Every day she was gone, he counted the days on his fingers.

When he missed her, he'd take out her belongings and imagine she was still there with him.

It was the first time Luo Junhe truly understood what it meant for days to feel like years.

When Ji Yuntang was by his side, he hadn't felt it so keenly, but after she left, she occupied his thoughts day and night.

No matter what he did, Ji Yuntang was the first thing on his mind.

At his wit's end, Luo Junhe had taken to painting fans to distract himself until Ji Yuntang returned.

Little did he know, he'd only just started on the fan today when she walked through the door.

To say Luo Junhe wasn't deeply moved would be a lie.

He held Ji Yuntang for a full hour, unwilling to let her go.

Finally, Ji Yuntang muttered softly, "A He, I'm hungry."

She'd ridden at top speed without even a sip of water, and after returning, she'd had to deal with Luo Jingshen for quite a while. Now she was truly exhausted and famished.

Luo Junhe looked at her with a pang of heartache. In just half a month, she seemed to have grown thinner.

He reached out, gently stroked her hair, and said softly, "A Tang, what do you want to eat?"

Ji Yuntang thought for a moment and said, "I want boiled sliced pork, honey-glazed roast chicken, squirrel fish, and chicken soup with baby bok choy..."

Ji Yuntang rattled off seven or eight dishes, none of which she could get in the Xishu Kingdom.

Luo Junhe gazed at her with blazing eyes, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

"Alright, A Tang, go rest in the room for a bit. I'll have someone prepare food for you right away."

With that, he reluctantly released her and wheeled himself over to arrange her meal.

Ji Yuntang watched him, a faint smile curving her red lips.

After three months in a wheelchair, Luo Junhe had become quite adept at using it.

Now that she had the antidote, she believed it wouldn't be long before he could stand and walk like a normal person again.

Ji Yuntang rested briefly, and by the time she was ready, Luo Junhe had already had the kitchen prepare her meal.

He personally set the table for her, and the two sat down to eat and catch up on recent events.

Ji Yuntang told Luo Junhe about her time in the Xishu Kingdom, piece by piece.

When she got to the tangled grievances between Empress Dowager Yuan and Hua Feixue, Luo Junhe frowned.

"I've heard about what happened in the Xishu Kingdom. An empress dowager secretly harming the royal family, committing adultery, plotting rebellion, and pushing her son to the throne—any one of those crimes alone would make her death well-deserved."

Word of the coup in the Xishu Kingdom had already spread across the four nations.

Lately, in the capital, from high-ranking officials to the common folk, everyone was buzzing about it.

Empress Dowager Yuan's image had shifted from "a woman of remarkable courage" to "the most poisonous of hearts," and her reputation had plummeted.

Luo Junhe knew Ji Yuntang had certainly had a hand in this.

It was her arrival that exposed Empress Dowager Yuan's misdeeds, helping Hua Feixue and the Chu imperial clan clear their names and letting the world see the truth.

At the same time, the coup had served as a wake-up call to the royal houses of the other three nations.

They couldn't allow aristocratic families to overshadow imperial power and rule unchecked.

Nor could they allow the harem to meddle in politics and throw the court into chaos.

They all knew Empress Dowager Yuan had been able to wield imperial power only because of the formidable aristocratic families backing her.

This was a common occurrence across all four nations.

But what shocked everyone most wasn't that—it was the two mysterious weapons.

Now everyone knew Crown Prince Chu Yi's successful revenge and restoration to the throne wasn't because he was so formidable.

Rather, it was because he possessed two devastating weapons that could kill without a trace.

One could strike from a distance, its projectiles killing a highly skilled martial artist in the blink of an eye.

The other was like gunpowder but far more powerful—thrown into a crowd, it would explode and kill hundreds, even thousands, outright.

It was precisely because Empress Dowager Yuan's and the aristocratic families' armies of several hundred thousand had run into these two weapons that they had no way to fight back.

When Emperor Jingyang learned of this, he was wary but also desperately coveted these two weapons.

If he had these two things, how far off could unifying the world be?

To that end, he'd sent people to investigate, but they'd all come back empty-handed.

It was as if, after that great battle, the two mysterious weapons had vanished into thin air, leaving no trace behind.

But Luo Junhe knew full well that both weapons came from Ji Yuntang's space.

If she could produce them, she could just as easily make them vanish without a trace.

Thinking about this, Luo Junhe reached out and took Ji Yuntang's hand, saying to her, "A Tang, after the coup in the Xishu Kingdom, the royal families of the other three kingdoms are likely eyeing the two weapons in your possession. You must be careful when you go out."

"According to the intelligence I've gathered, the Emperor has already sent people to search for them, and in the Dongchen Kingdom, he's not the only one after these two weapons—at least four or five others have dispatched spies to the Xishu Kingdom to gather intel."

Luo Jingshen is one, Emperor Jingyang is one, Luo Feizhou has also sent people, and there are a few others that Luo Junhe hasn't identified.

But he knows none of these people have good intentions.

Ji Yuntang is well aware of the impact of this matter. When she took out the hand grenades and the sniper rifle, she knew that these people would definitely set their sights on them.

So, right after the battle ended, she immediately had Xie Liuzheng and Hua Feixue destroy all traces of the hand grenades and the sniper rifle.

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