Elio’s Notes: Sorry everyone! We somehow skipped the update for this story yesterday. Here are two chapter updates for you all.
Hiss.
And here he had thought Wei Fu was capable of something more impressive. Yu Gong Zhao Ye was driven slightly backward by the attack and touched the side of his face, suspecting that Wei Fu had gnawed a pit into it. Fairly, he assessed, “Your teeth really are quite hard. It hurts when you peck people.”
Wei Fu: “……”
Although that bite had been heavy and solid, it was indeed, beyond any doubt, an act of “molestation.” Yet Yu Gong Zhao Ye was not angry and had not dodged, but he also showed no hint of shyness or passion. His clear eyes, nearly molten gold in the sunlight, and every curve of his brows, eyes, nose, and lips seemed carved to perfection by Heaven itself—he was simply too calm. Utterly clear, utterly still, so pure and tranquil that he instead seemed cold, hard, and even a little heartless.
How could Wei Fu unsettle him, make him unable to hold anything else in his heart, make his eyes see only him?
Those pale red lips hovered on the verge of curving upward, like a trap brimming with honey. Wei Fu clearly knew that if he stepped into it with such outrageous boldness, what awaited him was likely a saber pressed against his neck, yet his throat still rolled uncontrollably. As though bewitched, he bent down and bit toward that fishhook.
“Hey, behave yourself.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye had no need to draw his saber. With two fingers, he pinched Wei Fu’s mouth and held him firmly three inches away. “One peck is enough. Why are you still going on and on?”
The failed ambusher Wei Fu drooped in dejection, the corners of his eyes and brows sagging with grievance. If he had a tail and pointed ears, they would probably have wilted as well. His entire body radiated a miserable aura of You don’t like me, so I’m going to jump into the lake.
Yu Gong Zhao Ye casually flicked away a small bee drawn over by the fragrance and threatened him, “Still thinking of acting up? Aren’t you afraid your mother won’t feel at ease and will secretly follow you the whole way, only to see you pecking people here?”
Wei Fu lifted his eyelids and gave him a resentful glance, then made two muffled sounds to signal for him to release his mouth. “My mother knows.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “?”
Wei Fu took his hand and fitted their fingers tightly together, then lifted them before Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s eyes and shook them as though showing off. “Mother asked whether I had married. I said no. She asked whether I had someone I liked. I said it was you. She asked whether I wanted to consider it more carefully. I said, ‘Mother, I’ve already decided on him.’”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye was speechless. “Your mother just… accepted it?”
“She said I really am her biological son, and that my tastes are inherited straight from her.” Wei Fu deliberately pinched his throat, making several strange sounds like a duck quacking. “After all, a hero descending from the heavens to save the beauty really is hard to resist.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “Then resist a little!”
“According to Xiling customs, after a baby is born, the parents bury a jar of Wanxiang Spring under a tree, and when the child marries, they dig it up to serve as the wedding-cup wine.” Wei Fu looked at him with innocent eyes, black and white clearly defined. “When my mother invited you to drink that wine, that was the wine she meant. I told her you hadn’t agreed to me yet, so she was too embarrassed to say it directly.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “……”
So, because there was no official status yet, they intended to trick him into drinking it first and explain afterward, was that it? He had known it—someone capable of giving birth to two absolute prodigies like Xie You Lan and Wei Fu could never possibly be an easy woman to deal with!
Wei Fu asked, “So, um… A’Ying, are we still going to Xiling?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye ground out a single word through clenched teeth: “Yes.” Then he added, “I’m going to find that father of yours who wore a dragon robe and ask for a return.”
Liuzhi Alley, the old Wei residence.
Beneath the cool shade of the cassia tree, Wei Fu held a shovel and dug with great enthusiasm, panting with effort as soft, damp soil piled up in little mounds beside the pit. Yu Gong Zhao Ye supervised from beneath the corridor. On the small table beside him sat four kinds of seasonal fruits, and in his hand was fragrant tea attentively served by the old servant Wei Rong. Bathed in the warm sunlight, he yawned.
“Still haven’t found it?”
Wei Fu had told Wei Rong to simply take good care of Yu Gong Zhao Ye, rolled up his sleeves, declared, “Leave it to me,” and seized the hoe himself. After digging for half an hour without encountering so much as a larger stone, he continued diligently excavating the pit.
“Almost, almost… hm?”
The hoe in his hand struck something with a dull thud. It was neither soft nor hard, and the sensation was entirely different from digging soil. Wei Fu’s spirits lifted. Carefully clearing away the layer of earth covering it, he announced in delight, “Found it!”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye had extremely complicated feelings toward that jar of aged wine. Yet unwilling to dampen Wei Fu’s enthusiasm, he set down his teacup and lazily walked over for a look, then applauded for Wei Fu. “It’s covered in dirt. Take it down and rinse it clean first.”
Wei Rong came forward to help lift the wine jar from the earth and brush off the mud clinging to it. Wei Fu suddenly made a sound of surprise. “There’s something under the jar. What is this?”
He crouched down and dug a square oil-paper package from the bottom of the pit, weighing it in his hand. “It’s pretty heavy. Could it be private money they secretly hid away?”
“Probably the dowry they saved for you,” Yu Gong Zhao Ye said, like someone out walking a dog, arms folded as he watched Wei Fu play in the dirt. “After all, it was supposed to be dug up only when you married.”
“Oh.” Wei Fu thought that made perfect sense and immediately turned around to hand the package to Yu Gong Zhao Ye. “Then you hold onto it.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “……”
Fortunately, Wei Rong had gone to fetch water to wash the wine jar and was not nearby. Yu Gong Zhao Ye gritted his teeth and scolded in a low voice, “Wei Xiao Guan! Are you ever going to stop?”
“Don’t be so fierce.” Having gained the upper hand verbally, Wei Fu squeezed up beside him with a beaming smile and opened the outer layer of oil paper, peeling out a four-inch-square black iron box covered in hammered patterns. “It seems to be meteorite iron…”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye took it and examined it closely, only to discover that the box was completely seamless, like an iron turtle with nowhere to bite. “Madam Jiang said she had a broken-bladed sword forged from meteorite iron, and that it had been melted down, with a few scraps made into the ring. But she doesn’t seem to have said what the melted portion was made into.”
Wei Fu shook the box to listen for movement. “It doesn’t sound like there’s anything inside.” Then he turned it over and examined all six sides. “No keyhole, no seams, all of one piece… What did my mother make this thing for? A paperweight? Did she pass down an ancestral paperweight to me?”
“An ancestral brick, specially made to knock sense into unfilial descendants like you.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye brushed the dirt from Wei Fu’s sleeve and reminded him, “Madam Jiang mentioned the sword and mentioned the wine under the tree, but she alone didn’t mention that there was a box beneath the wine jar. Do you think she had a poor memory and forgot, or was she guarding against someone?”
“Your Highness truly has a mind as fine as hair and eyes sharp enough to perceive the smallest detail. My mother was absolutely right to entrust me to you.” Wei Fu took out the glazed box from his sleeve. As he pushed aside a small movable iron plate on the bottom of the iron box and fitted the meteorite-iron ring into the circular groove, he emotionally recited a sour love poem: “What night is this, to see such a fine beloved? What day is this, to share a boat with the prince…”
Click—
The mechanism triggered, and from the side of the seamless iron box, an embedded compartment sprang out.
The box felt surprisingly heavy in the hand. The mechanism alone occupied half its weight, and the inner compartment was narrow. There were no dazzling treasures hidden inside, no priceless jewels radiating golden light—only a light piece of white silk folded neatly within.
Wei Fu praised the craftsmanship, then pinched the silk between his fingers and was just about to unfold it when, beside him, Yu Gong Zhao Ye suddenly drew his blade. The weapons he used never reflected light. Wei Fu only saw a white flash before his eyes; a sharp gust of wind swept past, as though a razor-edged blade had skimmed across the tip of his nose. His mind had not yet caught up with what was happening, but the hairs on the back of his neck had already shot upright.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Hidden weapons flying toward Wei Fu from several directions were swept aside by the blade, producing a series of sharp, ringing impacts. Several black-clad figures appeared soundlessly atop the walls like poisonous mushrooms after rain. Holding gleaming sabers, they closed in, forming a half-circle and surrounding the two of them in the courtyard.
Yu Gong Zhao Ye clicked his tongue impatiently.
“What a nuisance.”
Xie You Lan arrived only after everyone else had taken their positions. Dressed in purple robes beneath a black outer garment, with a silver snake-patterned crown and silver belt, he carried himself with even more pomp than the King of Hell. Arrogantly crooking a finger at Wei Fu, he said, “Hand it over.”
Wei Fu slipped the box behind his back and pretended not to hear him.
“What an honored guest. What sinister wind blew Palace Master Xie all the way here?”
“Not at all,” Xie You Lan replied coldly. “I’ve been waiting here for you for quite some time.”
“For me?” Wei Fu smiled. “Could it be that Palace Master Xie also wants a share of the wine my father and mother buried?”
“The wine can stay. I’m not interested.” Xie You Lan said, “But what she left behind—I’m taking it.”
No one needed to specify who “she” was. Both sides knew perfectly well.
Wei Fu put on a troubled expression.
“I thought that after the age of ten, older brothers stopped stealing their younger brothers’ toys. Who knew Palace Master Xie could actually lower himself to this level? … I don’t even know what’s inside yet. Surely I’m allowed one look?”
“I strongly advise you not to court death,” Xie You Lan said. “Otherwise I won’t just have to rob you—I’ll have to silence you as well. Save that photographic memory of yours for being His Highness Yu Gong’s lapdog.”
“Enough nonsense. Hand it over.”
“I don’t like hearing that,” Wei Fu protested. “We’re genuinely in love. How can that be called being a lapdog—”
“Gentlemen.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye interrupted. “The hidden weapons have already been thrown. Stop pretending to be such a harmonious family and get to the point instead of talking nonsense.”
Xie You Lan replied, “Haven’t I been talking about the point this whole time? He’s the one babbling nonsense and playing dumb.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye glanced at Wei Fu.
“See? Even a bystander thinks you’re mismatched.”
Xie You Lan: “?”
Wei Fu: “…”
“What does he know?!” Wei Fu exploded. “He’s over thirty years old and doesn’t even have a wife. What right does he have to criticize our relationship?!”
Xie You Lan: “… Stop talking nonsense!”
“Fine then. Since you’ve asked me so sincerely, let’s talk about this piece of cloth.” Wei Fu smiled in satisfaction. “Dear big brother, why do you want it so badly?”
“Why should I tell you?” Xie You Lan shot back.
Wei Fu let out a cold snort. Slowly and deliberately, he produced a fire starter from his sleeve, struck a spark, and brought the flame close to the compartment inside the iron box.
The flickering fire hovered less than an inch from the silk. It was just about to catch the edge when Xie You Lan finally lost all patience and shouted:
“What are you doing?!”
Wei Fu blinked innocently.
“Burning it.”
Xie You Lan: “……”
“To you, it’s a priceless treasure. To me, it has no value whatsoever. I don’t know what’s written on it, so to me it’s just an ordinary piece of cloth.” Wei Fu stared at him without yielding an inch. “What my mother left me is mine to do with as I please. If I want to burn it to ashes, I won’t feel a bit of heartache.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye also joined in with a sincere tone of persuasion.
“Brother, throughout history, countless priceless treasures have been destroyed by fools. Why provoke him when you know what he’s like? Just pretend you got bitten by a dog. Come on, don’t stoop to his level.”
Futile Devices Scans 
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