Back then, he really should have hit him harder. Xie You Lan thought resentfully. Anyone connected to that little debt collector was bound to come collecting debts sooner or later.
When people could not see eye to eye, even half a sentence was too much. Xie You Lan could never get on the same wavelength as him, and he could not be bothered to concern himself with the affairs of the mother and son inside the cave any longer. Lifting his leg, he turned to leave.
“You Lan!”
A call suddenly came from within the cave. This time, it was Jiang Feng Xun stopping him. “Come here.”
Unwillingly, Xie You Lan walked back. Jiang Feng Xun said, “Your Highness Yu Gong, please come over as well.”
For some reason, Wei Fu’s heart suddenly skipped several beats. “Mother, what are you going to do?”
The three men stood before her like a great wall, completely blocking out the daylight from outside. Sitting calmly upon the stone bed, Jiang Feng Xun said to Xie You Lan, “Are you still carrying that meteorite-iron ring? Give it to Guanlang for me.”
The moment the words left her mouth, a glazed box shot through the air with a whistle. Yu Gong Zhao Ye caught it one-handed in midair and immediately passed it to Wei Fu.
Xie You Lan rolled his eyes dramatically in disgust. Yu Gong Zhao Ye acted as though he saw nothing. Hidden behind Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s back, Wei Fu winked his left eye at Xie You Lan and bared his teeth in a grin.
Jiang Feng Xun: “…”
If these two troublemakers had grown up under her care, she probably would have packed her bags and retired to the mountains before she ever reached thirty.
“Enough,” she said helplessly, putting an end to their childish competition. “I possess no worldly goods. When I fled Beizhu Palace, the only thing I carried with me was a sword with a broken blade. It had been a gift from my father when I married, forged from meteorite iron that fell from the heavens.”
“I left the Xingcang Scripture to You Lan. As for that sword… it was melted down many years ago. Only a few scraps remained, and they were made into this ring. The gemstone on it was a gift from your father.”
“His remains were never recovered. Before anyone could collect them, the Yanyuan army burned everything to ashes. You needn’t keep searching. You won’t find anything. After you return to Xiling, build him a memorial tomb. He liked high places where the wind could reach.”
Wei Fu answered softly, “Alright.”
Xie You Lan said nothing. Jiang Feng Xun’s meaning was perfectly clear. This ring was the only thing she would leave behind. One day it would inevitably be buried together with Wei Huai Jun. She and Xie Jing had long since severed all ties, and as the son of her former husband, Xie You Lan had neither reason nor right to contend for this final possession.
“Back then, your father buried a jar of wine beneath the osmanthus tree in our old residence in Fengdu. He said he would open it to celebrate when you came of age, but unfortunately…” She took a deep breath, suppressing the tremor in her voice. “Guanlang, Mother can no longer accompany you. When you were fifteen, it was His Highness Yu Gong who saved you. A life-saving grace is equal to the grace of one’s parents. Let that jar of wine serve as my thanks. Please have His Highness Yu Gong drink it on our behalf.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye immediately replied, “Madam, you overstate it. We merely helped one another. How would this junior dare claim such credit?”
“You deserve it,” Jiang Feng Xun said hoarsely. “You are Wang Shu’s child. It was fate ordained by Heaven. I should have had him acknowledge you as his sworn elder brother… Your Highness Yu Gong, Guanlang has been alone since childhood. He grew up without the love and protection of his parents and suffered terrible misfortunes at a young age. It was only because he met you that he survived. Mother and son were separated by flesh and blood for more than a decade, and the fact that we can meet today is entirely thanks to your kindness.”
“As his mother, I shamelessly beg one final favor of you.” She bowed deeply to Yu Gong Zhao Ye. “Your Highness, I entrust Guanlang to you. Please take good care of him. Do not let bad people bully him.”
“Madam Jiang! You mustn’t do this. Please rise at once. This junior cannot bear such a gesture.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye was startled. He had never expected there would be a matter of entrusting an orphan here—and not to his elder brother Xie You Lan, but to him instead. For a moment, he wondered whether Jiang Feng Xun had noticed something. Then, upon reflection, he realized her decision made perfect sense. With Xie You Lan’s temperament, the fact that he had secretly looked after his younger brother several times was already an extraordinary exception. To force him face-to-face into taking responsibility for Wei Fu would only make him miserable.
He glanced at Wei Fu beside him. The younger man’s jawline had become sharp and distinct from the effort of holding back his emotions. With a silent sigh in his heart, Yu Gong Zhao Ye solemnly returned the bow. “Please rest assured, Madam. This junior has known your son for many years. We are closer than brothers. I will do everything in my power to keep him safe.”
Jiang Feng Xun continued, “That Young Master Cheng was absent the other day. Please convey a message to him on my behalf, Your Highness Yu Gong. My eldest son distinguishes clearly between gratitude and grievance. He is a good child, loyal and full of feeling. It is only that he has lost too much because of his parents over the years. If he has ever acted rashly or caused offense, I hope Young Master Cheng will be lenient, considering the hardships of his life.”
Xie You Lan: “…”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye replied, “Yes, Madam. This junior will deliver your words exactly as spoken, not omitting a single word.”
“How boring.” Xie You Lan had stood there all this time only to hear that. With a furious flick of his sleeve, he turned and left. “I’m going!”
His figure was swift and vigorous as an eagle. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished without a trace.
“Guanlang.” Having spoken for so long, Jiang Feng Xun seemed tired now. In a weary voice, she said, “You should go as well.”
“Why?”
Ever since Jiang Feng Xun had begun arranging her affairs for after her death, Wei Fu had stood quietly to the side, enduring his distress in silence. Now, hearing her say this, he finally could not hold back any longer and blurted out, “I only just found Mother. Are you already sending me away?”
Turning her face aside to avoid his gaze, Jiang Feng Xun sighed. “‘When duty has been fulfilled, it must be fulfilled; there is no need for excessive lingering concern.’ My wish has been granted. I have no regrets left.”
“But I do!”
Wei Fu had not yet fully recovered. The moment he raised his voice, it cracked. Covering his mouth, he bent over in a fit of coughing. Without drawing attention to it, Yu Gong Zhao Ye steadied him with a hand and murmured softly into his ear, “Don’t get agitated. Speak properly.”
Wei Fu looked at her stubbornly, almost pleading. “It won’t happen so soon. Just give me a few more days…”
Jiang Feng Xun felt that her final hour was drawing near. The longer Wei Fu immersed himself in this fleeting reunion, the greater his suffering would be when the separation finally came. Rather than forcing him to witness her departure with his own eyes, it would be better to sever the ties of this mortal world herself before they became too deeply entangled once again.
“You should go.”
She even smiled at him. Her face was pale as frost about to melt away. “Last time, you stood inside the doorway and watched your father and mother leave. This time, let Mother watch you leave instead. Alright?”
“Guanlang, back then Mother did not look back. You must not look back either.”
“Good child. Go.”
She was already nearing fifty years of age. Whether because of the poison she had suffered or because of her cultivation of the Xingcang Scripture, her appearance had hardly changed, retaining even a delicate, willow-like grace.
Yet a person who had spent her entire life tossed about amid raging storms possessed a will stronger than iron and stone.
No matter how Wei Fu begged, she refused to change her mind. In the end, with no other choice, he tearfully kowtowed to her three times before withdrawing from the cave.
He remembered Jiang Feng Xun’s instructions and kept his head down as he walked away. Yet when he reached the bottom of the sinkhole, Wei Fu suddenly turned back. Tears burst from his eyes as he shouted with all his strength toward the stone cliffs:
“Mother—!”
His blood-choked cry echoed throughout the vast sinkhole like a stone cast into water, ripples spreading in all directions and startling countless birds from the forest.
Clouds drifted across the sky. The sun slanted westward. Gentle daylight illuminated the towering stone walls, gray and sharp as blades, standing silent and unmoving.
The two of them climbed out of the sinkhole along the mountain path they had taken on the way in. They spent the night in the mountains and reached the place where they had tethered their horses at the foot of the mountain the next morning. Wei Fu absentmindedly chewed a few bites of dried rations, lacking all spirit, and asked Yu Gong Zhao Ye listlessly, “Are we heading back now?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye replied, “Since we’ve already come this far, your father left something for you at the old residence in Fengdu, didn’t he? Crossing the border to Tianxuan Mountain was a bit dangerous, but going to Xiling is just returning to your hometown. Even if your Emperor discovers it, he’ll definitely help cover for you.”
Sometimes Wei Fu felt that he was already bold enough, but compared to Yu Gong Zhao Ye, he seemed positively well-behaved.
“A’Ying,” he said, standing beneath the lush shade of the trees with a dispirited expression like a gloomy mushroom, “why are you helping me to this extent?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye raised an eyebrow. Before he could begin delivering one of his grand speeches, Wei Fu blocked off all his excuses first.
“Don’t tell me anything about being afraid a flood will drown Bihan City. I’m not that important. I also know that, when considering the bigger picture, staying obediently in the capital would have been the safest option.”
Though he appeared easygoing and tactful, rarely putting anyone in an awkward position and as slippery as a fox, once Wei Fu set his mind on something, not even eight oxen could drag him back. No matter how many detours he had to take, he would accomplish what he wanted. In a sense, he could be described as someone willing to stop at nothing to achieve his goals.
“Five years ago, my mother was ambushed near Luoyue Mountain in Xizhou. She fought desperately to break through and returned to Bihan City carrying grievous injuries,” Yu Gong Zhao Ye said. “In truth, her wounds were so severe that there was no possibility of saving her life, let alone traveling thousands of miles. Yet somehow she endured.”
Wei Fu had barely begun his line of attack, and Yu Gong Zhao Ye had already answered honestly. It felt as though Wei Fu had picked up a stone to smash open a clam shell, only for the shell to dodge aside while the stone landed squarely on his own foot. He froze where he stood.
“Uncle Xiang exhausted everything he knew, but she had already fallen unconscious, almost no different from a dead person. She no longer responded to anything happening around her.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye paused, as though swallowing down some emotion before continuing. “Only when I went to her bedside, took her hand, and told her I was there did that final breath slowly leave her.”
“The last thing she told me was that there are some people you absolutely must see. Even if you have to cross thousands of mountains and rivers, not even the King of Hell can stop you.”
Dazed, Wei Fu lifted a hand and touched beneath Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s eye with cold fingertips, trying to wipe away a tear that was not there.
“There are too many regrets in this world. The distant ones are beyond our reach. But if something happens right in front of us, what’s wrong with helping to make it happen?” Yu Gong Zhao Ye removed his hand, his tone remaining calm. “Besides, even if I hadn’t helped you, you would have secretly run away anyway. Rather than letting everything descend into chaos after the fact while people chased you down, it was better for me to escort you here safely and let you fulfill this wish.”
“That sounds very thorough,” Wei Fu said softly, “but you’re the one doing the most work and taking the greatest risks, Your Highness.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye was momentarily taken aback. Then he smiled as though it were nothing. “It’s not like I have to kill anyone, set anything on fire, or draw my saber. At worst, I’ll exchange a few arguments with your moody brother. What’s so exhausting about that?”
To him, traveling over mountains and rivers was hardly worth mentioning, and storms of bloodshed and flashing blades were things that merited no more than a slight frown. Wei Fu suspected that, among all of Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s emotions, there simply was no such thing as fear of difficulty.
On the way down the mountain, Yu Gong Zhao Ye had casually picked several wildflowers. He had finally finished weaving them now. Placing the pink-and-purple flower crown atop Wei Fu’s head, he said leisurely, “Besides, once you’ve considered the greater picture and weighed the pros and cons, people are still allowed a little selfishness, aren’t they?”
Whatever flowers he had used, their fragrance immediately enveloped him. The cool breeze drifting through the wilderness and forests became infused with their scent, and suddenly it no longer felt quite so biting.
The pain of losing his parents felt as though heaven and earth themselves were crushing down upon him. That loneliness was more desolate than standing alone in an endless wilderness. He would have to weather wind and rain there for the rest of his life. Yet amid that loneliness, he also felt strangely fortunate. During the hardest moments, someone had remained by his side the entire time, like a solitary tree upon a thousand-mile plain, like a steadfast rock amidst boundless waters.
Though the mortal world was vast and unpredictable, no matter where fate’s storms of wind, frost, snow, and cloud might carry him, he would always have a place to stand and something to lean upon.
Before Yu Gong Zhao Ye, Wei Fu could once again become that little Guanlang who secretly felt downhearted and was then quickly comforted. Tugging at his sleeve, he said, “Your Highness has shown me such profound kindness that I have no way to repay it except by offering myself in marriage…”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye answered honestly, “Isn’t that still just you taking advantage of me?”
The great tree of the plains and the rock in the waters instantly transformed back into an unshakable blockhead. Yu Gong Zhao Ye remained exactly the same Yu Gong Zhao Ye he had been at fifteen.
“I don’t care!” Wei Fu exclaimed in exasperation. “Do you want it or not? If you don’t, then I’ll… I’ll…”
Curious, Yu Gong Zhao Ye asked, “You’ll what?”
Wei Fu lunged forward and wrapped him in a hug, then fiercely planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Then I’ll do it by force!”
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