“Back then, after we left the Chisong Mountain Range, we settled at a base in Fuyun City of Yan Yuan. You were going to Dongyu’s Linghua Sect to find your parents.”
Jiang Guan—now Wei Fu—nodded. Then, remembering that Yu Gong Zhao Ye couldn’t see clearly, he added a soft “Mm.” “My father left home when he was young, took my grandmother’s surname, assumed the alias ‘Ning Jun,’ and entered the Linghua Sect to study. My mother’s surname is Jiang, and my childhood name was Guan-lang—so that’s how ‘Jiang Guan’ came about.”
“Around the time I was three, my parents returned to Fengdu and bought this residence, living here for a while. Later, for reasons unknown, they left me in my grandfather’s care and hurriedly departed. They never came back after that.”
“If you weren’t sure where they were, why insist on going to the Linghua Sect?”
“Back then, Your Highness said I seemed able to make a little sound. I wanted to find my parents and ask how I got injured and became mute, and whether there was a way to cure it.” Wei Fu knew he was in the wrong and softened his tone. “I used to stay home waiting for them, but after many years they never returned. My grandfather said my father was a reckless wanderer, and my mother was a woman of unknown origin from the jianghu. I thought maybe my father worried the family wouldn’t accept her, so they lived away from home all these years. Since I finally got the chance to go out, I figured I’d go to the Linghua Sect myself to ask around.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye let out a cold snort. “Utterly reckless.”
Playing weak clearly worked—aside from that remark, there was no further scolding. Wei Fu seized the opportunity to push a little further. “The one you sent to escort me—Brother Jin Han—accompanied me all the way to the Linghua Sect and personally saw me into the gates. How did Your Highness come to think I had died?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye sighed, sounding reluctant to bring it up. “You tell me first—what happened after that?”
“I met my father’s martial uncle, Elder Yu He Yun. He told me my father had left the sect over ten years ago and never returned. They didn’t know my mother’s identity either. It seemed the two of them had offended Beizhu Palace of Dongyu and were once heavily pursued, but there hadn’t been any news of them for years.” Wei Fu scratched his head awkwardly. “Since I couldn’t find them, I planned to ask the Linghua Sect to send me back to Xiling. But unfortunately, there were spies from Beizhu Palace within the sect. When they heard that the son of a ‘gifted person’ had come voluntarily, they exposed themselves overnight, captured me, and took me back for a reward.”
“….” Yu Gong Zhao Ye closed his eyes in exhaustion. “Did you dig up the ancestral grave of Tai Sui that year? How are you so unlucky?”
Elio’s Notes: Tai Sui (太岁) refers to a powerful deity in Chinese folk belief associated with time, fate, and yearly zodiac cycles. Each year has its own “Tai Sui,” and offending it is believed to bring extreme bad luck.
Wei Fu gave a sheepish smile. “I-it wasn’t that bad…”
He shook Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s hand in a pleading manner, exactly like he used to when he was younger. Yu Gong Zhao Ye wanted to scold him for acting on his own, but couldn’t quite find the opening. Thinking of how many times he had crossed paths with him after coming to Xiling, how obvious the hints had been and yet he hadn’t recognized him, even threatening him several times with a dagger—he felt a lingering sense of guilt. In the end, he accepted the act of coaxing and let the old grievances go. “Back then, I already thought your plan to go to the Linghua Sect was unreliable. I instructed Jin Han to not leave immediately after delivering you there, but to observe for a few days and make sure you were safe before returning.”
Wei Fu hadn’t realized his concern had been hidden so deeply. The smile on his face faltered and fell away.
“I thought…” he murmured, “it was just a simple escort. Didn’t you find it troublesome? I caused so much trouble.”
When Yu Gong Zhao Ye spoke about important matters, his tone was always calm, almost indifferent. “If you’re going to do a good deed, you see it through to the end. Precisely because your luck is so strange, I had to think ahead and be extra cautious. And even then, something still went wrong.”
Wei Fu’s eyes and nose stung, and he felt like crying. Since leaving Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s side, he hadn’t shed tears for many years.
“Sorry…”
“Hold it in,” Yu Gong Zhao Ye said with foresight. “You’ve grown into a wall of a man—no crying. What if you collapse?”
Wei Fu: “……”
Great. The tears receded, and the heat rushed straight to his head.
Back then, they had used aliases in the mountains and knew nothing of each other’s identities or pasts. Yet it was precisely those harsh conditions that fostered the purest bond. Yu Gong Zhao Ye hadn’t wanted to bring up that relationship before—first, because he didn’t know how to acknowledge it without awkwardness; it wasn’t like he could just hug him and call him brother upon meeting. Second, their current identities and positions were different, and he feared turning past companionship into a debt of gratitude.
But once that thin layer was pierced, the awkwardness was only temporary. Their relationship quickly settled into place. The easy back-and-forth soon dissolved the faint stiffness after reunion. Wei Fu was still the gentle and understanding Jiang Guan, and Yu Gong Zhao Ye was still the composed and unruffled Xie Ying.
Afraid he would cry endlessly, Yu Gong Zhao Ye continued before he could ask more. “Jin Han waited outside the Linghua Sect for three days. When he heard you had been abducted and the culprit might be a Beizhu Palace spy, he tracked the trail all the way to Wanxu Mountain in Dongyu, assumed a false identity, and infiltrated Beizhu Palace to try to rescue you.”
Wei Fu was stunned. “Your Bihua really is a top assassin organization… Brother Jin is incredible…”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye shot him a sideways glance. “He is. Rescuing you was far harder than killing Helan Zhenjia—that only took two people.”
Wei Fu: “……”
He fidgeted, squeezing Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s palm, asking curiously like a child listening to a story, “And then?”
“And then there was no trace of you inside Beizhu Palace. The person who took you—and all information about you—vanished without a trace.”
Wei Fu: “Uh…”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye asked coolly, “Young Master Wei, do you have anything to explain?”
“I was indeed taken by a Beizhu Palace spy, and I was indeed intercepted midway by a kind person, who even thoughtfully sent me back to Xiling.” Feeling guilty, he fiddled with things in his hands to ease his nerves, nearly twisting Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s fingers into knots. “So I told you—it wasn’t all bad. There are still plenty of kind people in the world…”
“A kind person?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye let out a cold laugh, rare hostility surfacing. “You mean that Young Master of Beizhu Palace, Xie You Lan?”
Wei Fu froze, not expecting him to know even that. Reading his expression, he quickly denied it. “Xie You Lan is definitely not a good person! He’s terrible—the second greatest villain in the world, and only his father could be first.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye said, “You speak of your savior like that?”
Wei Fu: “……”
This was like the classic dilemma—if both of your saviors fall into the water, who do you save first? He thought neither praise nor insult would work, so he slyly chose flattery to avoid the question. “Xie You Lan saving me back then was purely because of my mother—how could he compare to Your Highness, who is selfless and righteous? But earlier you said there was no information about me in Beizhu Palace, so how did you know it was Xie You Lan who took me?”
He had just said his parents had offended Beizhu Palace, and then claimed Xie You Lan saved him because of his mother—without explanation, clearly avoiding the topic. For someone like Wei Fu, even if he was foolish at times, he wouldn’t fabricate such inconsistent lies without reason.
Yu Gong Zhao Ye had only made a casual remark, yet it unexpectedly revealed a hidden clue. He noted it silently and answered, “Jin Han investigated who suddenly left Beizhu Palace during those days. After eliminating all others, only the Young Master Xie You Lan remained—so it had to be him.”
Wei Fu’s heart leapt to his throat. He didn’t even know why he felt nervous, but he instinctively tightened his grip on Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s hand. “And then?”
“He had already traced all possible leads. Unsure how to proceed, he withdrew from Beizhu Palace and found a way to send me a message,” Yu Gong Zhao Ye said. “So I went to find Xie You Lan.”
There was no inner monologue, no weighing of pros and cons, no embellishment, no joking, and no reproach.
After crossing mountains and rivers, after traveling thousands of miles, his decision was entirely condensed into that single short sentence of eight words.
Wei Fu’s voice trembled: “What did Xie You Lan say to you?”
“He said your whole family were enemies of Beizhu Palace, that he couldn’t get your parents’ whereabouts out of you, and keeping you alive was useless—so he killed you casually.” Even now, recalling that arrogant and dismissive attitude made Yu Gong Zhao Ye angry; he let out a tired breath. “That bastard…”
“I was part of that too.” Wei Fu’s spine seemed to shrink inch by inch as he confessed in shame. “Xie You Lan received information from an insider, intercepted him midway, and silenced him.”
“He said the Palace Master of Beizhu Palace, Xie Jing, had an irreconcilable hatred toward my parents, and didn’t know they had a child. Once my identity was discovered, I would definitely be killed. He told me never to reveal my identity to anyone, and especially not to say that I had been saved by him. Then he sent me back to Xiling.”
“That makes sense.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye naturally wouldn’t blame him for something like this. He pondered and said, “He defied his father’s orders to spare your life, so publicly claiming you were already dead was reasonable.”
“Your Highness,” Wei Fu leaned closer, curiosity getting the better of him, and asked quietly, “He said I was dead—did you really believe him?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “…”
He pushed Wei Fu’s shoulder away. “This bed is already small enough—you’re practically lying on top of me. Move.”
Wei Fu: “You believed him.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye snapped, losing patience: “Of course I didn’t believe it right away. If someone’s alive, I need to see the person; if dead, I need to see the body. Do you think everyone is like your family?”
Wei Fu let out a cheerful “Oh?” and smiled sweetly, as if dipped in honey. “Your Highness even knows about that?”
Did that unlucky antidote pill also have side effects like muddling the brain and making the mouth run loose?
But since things had already been said to this extent, the past buried deep in his heart didn’t seem so hard to speak of anymore:
“I didn’t believe it at first either. Xie You Lan showed me a piece of evidence.”
“I thought it wasn’t something you would easily lose or casually give away, so it must have been taken from you by force.”
Wei Fu listened half-understanding, completely confused. “What evidence? I had nothing on me back then—what could prove my identity? Don’t tell me he showed you a finger and claimed it was mine?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye lightly smacked the back of his hand, making a crisp sound that didn’t hurt. He often told jokes that weren’t funny, yet couldn’t stand Wei Fu making such flippant remarks.
“If he had really shown me a finger, I wouldn’t have believed it. I hadn’t even seen what your fingers looked like at the time.”
Wei Fu sat there like a sulky little victim, rubbing the back of his hand, too aggrieved to protest. Then he heard Yu Gong Zhao Ye say calmly:
“It was a pouch containing dried gentian flowers.”
An ordinary pouch, plain in both craftsmanship and material, like something freshly bought from a roadside stall. Inside was a small handful of dried, faded gentian flowers—like someone had picked them one by one from a withered flower crown, carefully preserved them, carried them over a long journey, and finally treasured them in a pouch worn close to the body, trying to hold on to a bond as fleeting as flowers once they leave their branch.
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