I’ve Got This Target’s Back (24)
Lu Chiqiu lifted his head and smiled at him.
His white, thin fingers fell into the wide, rough palm of the imperial marshal, and the slightest touch was firmly clasped. Gu Gui took his wife’s hand and pulled him to himself, deep starlight falling from his dark pupils.
The music suddenly changed to a lighter tune, the beat was clear and bright, and Gu Gui smiled back, guiding him onto the dance floor.
Silence reigned on the floor.
Everyone had the impression that their marshal was stoic, serious, hard, training himself to a sharp edge, silent and uninteresting, even a little intimidating in his rejection.
No one knew that when that cold face became like a spring breeze, it would also be filled with such pure tenderness.
Gu Gui’s dance steps were learned at the military academy as part of standardized education, with mandatory credits and the risk of delaying graduation if he didn’t practice properly. He has practiced it with self-confidence and reassurance, and it was still having the vigor of a military fist.
Lu Chiqiu couldn’t help but curl his lips, steadily taking his arm, guiding his lover’s movements to relax, his feet spinning slightly, sliding sideways towards the slightly softer light.
As his body drew closer, Gu Gui dropped his gaze, looking at the smiling shadow with his moist eyes.
Lu Chiqiu raised his hand and wrapped it around the back of his shoulder, giving his body to the strong, rigid arm without reservation, and raised his head to kiss him.
The marshal closed his eyes, the last bit of sharpness between his brows blurring into the dull, warm light.
By the end of the song, both of them were panting a little.
It’s just that the heartbeats in their chests were so intense, echoing each other silently but distinctly, and the dazzling colors that blossomed were enough to drive the blood throughout their bodies to burn completely.
Lu Dong had never been this flamboyant before, but for the first time, he didn’t feel nervous at all, just inexplicably excited.
“Take a break and blow off some steam.”
Gu Gui smiled and lowered his head down to replace his glass of cold coke, adding a small dollop of vanilla ice cream that he conjured up to the tall glass containing the coke.
Not expecting more than just sweet milk to be prepared, Lu Chiqiu’s eyes widened slightly as he took the cup and tried a small sip.
The coke was refreshing, wrapped in sweet, smooth ice cream that crisped and popped little bubbles in his mouth, making his eyes light up with it, “Delicious.”
“Drink this for now. If there’s nothing else to do after this, I’ve also brought a bit of sweet wine. We can add it to the coke.”
Gu Gui smiled and instructed in a warm voice, tucking the ends of his hair, pulling out a silk scarf with one hand, and carefully wiping the thin sweat from his little wife’s forehead. “Think of it as a banquet cocktail, drink it and let’s go home…”
The imperial marshal leaned over his lover in his arms, coaxing him softly. His deep pupils raised without warmth and swept the surroundings, causing many eyes to quickly move away.
Gu Gui returned his gaze with satisfaction and stuffed the ice cream machine that he had brought from the cake shop into the space bracelet.
Lu Chiqiu was not a very good drinker, or rather not a drinker at all – Gu Gui once tried to feed him a little light beer from the planet Linta, and the bloodthirsty vines that grew freely nearly turned the house into a bloodthirsty jungle. After his wife had drifted off to sleep, the marshal, who had tried to lie down with him, was greeted by the bloodthirsty vines that had sprung up from under the covers and hugged him firmly.
Others might have been too scared to have another fifty-five days.
The two had a natural ability to shield themselves from the idle people around them wherever they were, and as they watched the marshal and his little omega whisper patiently with their heads down, the crowd who had planned to take the opportunity to come and try to make friends had to withdraw their thoughts and quickly look away before the marshal’s sharp gaze swept over them.
The only person Marshal Gu would be extra soft on was the one in his family. Anyone else who tried it would have to be lucky and bold enough not to freeze to death.
Didn’t you see that after the head of the planet’s resources department had only looked twice at that extraordinarily delicate-looking omega, he was chased by the marshal’s cold, freezing eyes and was still cowering in the corner, not daring to come any closer?
Whether they knew the truth or not, the crowd was reminded by the selective coldness released from the marshal’s body to move sensibly and soberly away from the area where the omega was.
A space soon appeared around Lu Chiqiu, and even a few of the noblemen’s spoiled brats, who were usually unruly and untamed, shrank back and didn’t dare to say a word. Even if the marshal briefly left to get food and drink, they would never dare to even have half an idea about that omega.
“Is there anything else you like? I’ll bring back a few and have them try to make them.”
Leaving Lu Chiqiu who was holding a cup of cola ice cream, Gu Gui briefly got up, picked out a few foods that had little chance of being tampered with, and brought them back, setting them on a different table and opening the packaging one by one for him to try.
Although he had brought enough snacks for his wife, it was still torturous to look at the wide variety of food at the banquet and not be able to touch any of it.
The body quality of Lu Chiqiu has long eliminated the need to worry about threats such as poisoning. However, if those people wanted to do so, they still had the means to take advantage of the special qualities of his body and find a way to kill him.
Even with him by his side, Gu Gui still didn’t want his lover to face such a helpless situation.
Lu Chiqiu lifted his gaze, arched his eyebrows and shook his head, and was about to speak when his expression suddenly moved slightly and he raised his hand to cover the back of Gu Gui’s hand.
Gu Gui was aware of this and let his hand fall into his palm, his mind tracking along the same subtle difference.
The change was sudden.
Both of them reacted almost immediately.
Gu Gui’s body shot out as he pounced on the emperor, who was still oblivious about the situation while having a conversation with others, and the laser grazed the clothing on his shoulder. Lu Chiqiu raised his hand to release the vines and leaped up onto the edge of the table, shattering the brightest chandelier and instantly dimming the light in the room.
All of his minds were focused on preventing Lu Chiqiu from being set up, and he hadn’t expected the carefree emperor to come out to the reception at such a time when there was a risk of assassination.
The entire place was suddenly filled with intense gunfire, bringing out chaos everywhere. Gu Gui’s eyes grew darker as he covered the emperor, who was still struggling to talk to him about instruction material, and opened his shield to protect him, “Chiqiu!”
In response, Lu Chiqiu landed on the ground, his body falling down gracefully and steadily beside him.
Gu Gui’s heart settled a little, and after a brief pause, he lowered his voice and spoke quickly, “Take His Majesty to a safe place, I’ll be back soon.”
The current situation was extremely chaotic. He originally thought that people wanted to deal with him, but he did not expect that someone had actually moved to usurp the throne.
It was not clear whether it was because they wanted to usurp the throne and assassinate the emperor that they had to eliminate him as the biggest obstacle in advance or were there originally two sets of forces that just happened to come together and were using each other to cover up their actions?
Most of the people who came to the banquet today were noble and high-ranking officials with mediocre strength, so in order not to cause further chaos, at least, the current threat had to be contained first.
Lu Chiqiu’s hand reached out and Gu Gui handed him the shield generator, warm slender fingers covering the broad palm in a steady grip.
Gu Gui turned around, his eyes settling in the calm dark eyes.
These days he had tried to fight Lu Chiqiu a few times, and the results were even more impressive than expected. Lu Chiqiu had a natural sense of combat, and without the limitations of his relatively large and bulky mecha, he became even more fluent and agile, almost capable of wiping out the sonic booms, and with the aid of the vines created by his spiritual power, he could only fight him to get a draw.
If Lu Chiqiu wanted to run, no one would be able to stop him.
“Be careful.”
Gu Gui shook his hand, and with a quick movement of his body, he was already lunging towards the attack he had just identified as coming through the cover of the dark environment and the chaotic crowd.
Although he had given his marshal a dozen of omegas, this was the first time the emperor was alone with an omega. He was so stiff that he didn’t know where to put his hands, trying to sit up a bit. “Sister-in-law…”
“Your Majesty, call me Chiqiu.”
Smiling from His Majesty’s ingenious address, Lu Chiqiu gave him a hand and pulled him up, going over the topographical map Gu Gui had shown him in his mind and leading him through the crowd, towards a lounge.
The emperor, who was already used to being assassinated, didn’t feel nervous at this point, and quickly followed him, seizing the precious time he didn’t have to be blocked by a certain person to give a detailed account.
“The one who wanted to deal with me was the Imperial Uncle, his son is the third in the line of succession after my brother and I. My brother is serving under the marshal, and is now the 13th Army Commander, sent by the marshal on a tour of the Oka galaxy because he was targeted so much a while back…”
That was the reason the emperor was able to buy the afrodyn of the Oka galaxy at the internal price.
The unrestrained thoughts took a detour on the edge of asking Lu Chiqiu if he needed the afrodyn. But realizing that he was dealing with what was likely to be an omega who had put the alpha down, the emperor wisely decided not to say more than necessary. He simply followed him into the temporary safe lounge.
“The ones who targeted the marshal before were a different set of people. The members of which cannot be identified yet, but the aim should be to control the direction of the votes for the next election and take control of the Imperial office. It’s not clear to me yet whether they are colluding or not.”
The center of power in the Solin Empire is the Imperial Office, which is responsible for most of the government’s affairs, as the emperor is not able to manage everything on a daily basis.
As the imperial family is still hereditary, the election of the head of the Imperial Office is the most important aspect of the change of power.
With one side wanting his early abdication and the other wanting to snipe the next election win, it was not that strange for these two groups to collude even if they did.
Although he did not know if the quiet and young omega in front of him could understand, he was at least capable of conveying these words to Gu Gui, so that even if something did happen to him, Gu Gui would be able to react in time.
The emperor finished his business in one breath and looked at the young omega who was sweeping out of the window with a stoic look on his face and one hand protecting him as he sighed lightly in worry.
From all the qualities, it seemed that the omega he had bestowed on his marshal did have the potential to take his marshal down…
“The list of those involved in the campaign, can I have a copy?”
Not knowing how many important matters the emperor was worrying about, after confirming that no one was coming after him for the time being, Lu Chiqiu turned back to look at the emperor, his black eyes still quiet and steady.
The emperor was stunned and subconsciously nodded. “Yes, it is possible–”
Lu Chiqiu nodded, turned his light brain on the share mode, and handed it over to the emperor.
Gu Gui is a military man, representing the image of the military. Even if he is no longer proud of it, he must still abide by the basic rules of politics. Things like a spiritual giant eagle smashing someone’s window could only be done once at most.
So, the rest was left to him to smash.
The emperor hesitated for a while but cooperated by writing down a few names and handing the light brain back.
Gu Gui’s action was even faster than expected, and the noise that was so chaotic a moment ago had already quieted down, giving people the illusion that they were completely safe.
The emperor breathed a long sigh of relief and was about to find a place to sit down when Lu Chiqiu looked alert instead, pulling him up sharply and shoving him towards the corner. “Your Majesty, do you have a tracking device on you?”
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Additional note: We’ll be changing our update schedule to *Sunday*. Thank you for your support. ^_^