After leaving Longxiao Palace, Yugong Zhaoye only had to turn a corner to reach the Purple Empyrean Court.
As he calculated the itinerary for his upcoming journey, he quickly wrote a secret letter and ordered someone to deliver it to Shang Xian and Xia Xian, who were permanently stationed in Dongyu.
He had just stood at the front and taken a vicious scolding from the King.
Yeguang was clearly destined to shoulder the blame for this one.
But Yugong Zhaoye refused to suffer the anger for nothing.
At the very least, they needed to find out exactly where the mistake had occurred.
The Star Envoy on duty that day accepted the sealed dispatch box, then reached back and produced a bamboo letter tube closed with sealing wax.
“Your Highness, someone delivered this to the gatehouse this morning. They said it was a birthday gift for you and requested that you open it personally.”
Yugong Zhaoye’s long brows shifted slightly.
Since establishing his own residence and being enfeoffed as prince, he had never made a grand event of his birthday. Even outsiders hoping to ingratiate themselves with him found it difficult to find a way in.
Who would suddenly send him a gift now?
He accepted the tube but did not immediately open it.
The bamboo was light, and when shaken, something inside produced a faint rustling.
A letter, probably.
Could Wei Fu have decided that giving me the title deed to an entire hot-spring estate still wasn’t enough and drawn up a betrothal-gift list as well?
“Who sent it? Did they give a name?”
The Star Envoy replied, “The gatehouse said the person who delivered it was a street child who normally wanders around town and frequently runs errands for people. Apparently, a man dressed as an attendant paid him to bring the tube to the Purple Empyrean Court and specifically told him that it was a birthday gift prepared for Your Highness and had to be placed directly into Your Highness’s hands.”
“We did not dare accept an object of unknown origin carelessly, but the child was merely paid to perform an errand and knew nothing else. This subordinate tested the tube with a silver needle. There is no poison inside, and judging from its weight, it cannot contain any mechanism.”
“Only then did this subordinate dare present it to Your Highness.”
“Very cautious. You did well.”
Yugong Zhaoye nodded in approval.
“Go on. I’ll take a look.”
Only then did the Star Envoy relax. He bowed and silently withdrew.
Yugong Zhaoye took out the small knife he carried with him and scraped away the sealing wax.
The knife was almost identical to the one he had once given Wei Fu.
The only difference was the pendant hanging from its end—a little white-jade bird.
Whoever had carved it possessed rather mediocre skill. The flying bird lacked every trace of slender, lively grace.
Calling it a puffy steamed bun would hardly have been unfair.
Yet the cord threaded through it showed obvious wear.
One glance was enough to tell that it had hung there for a very long time and had never been replaced.
Inside the bamboo tube lay a thin letter rolled tightly together.
Both the paper and ink were ordinary, inexpensive things.
Only a few sparse lines had been written.
Half an hour later, the doors of the inner hall opened a narrow crack from inside.
Yugong Zhaoye ordered someone to summon Wang Yue.
The Star Envoy waiting in the courtyard hurried off to obey.
Perhaps it was merely his imagination, but in that fleeting moment, he seemed to catch an extremely faint trace of smoke drifting from the room.
Did His Highness burn the birthday gift?
Several days later.
Sixteen fine horses surrounded a blue-canopied carriage.
After bidding farewell to the officers of the Dongyu garrison who had come to see them off, the party galloped rapidly out of the military camp at Quting City.
The country road was riddled with potholes.
The carriage jolted violently as it traveled, yet the guards urged their horses onward at high speed, with no intention of slowing down merely to make the Highness inside more comfortable.
Yugong Ming rolled up the bamboo blind over the window.
Amid the clouds of dust, he narrowed his eyes at the lean, upright figure riding guard before the carriage.
“Royal Uncle.”
Hearing him, Yugong Zhaoye glanced back and slowed his horse slightly until he rode level with the window.
“What?”
“Little Uncle.”
Yugong Ming squeezed out a somewhat ingratiating smile.
“May I call you that?”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
“I hardly had any opportunity to spend time with you in the past. I never imagined you would be the one to come and bring me home. I’ve caused you trouble.”
He sighed with melancholy.
“After so many years away from Longsha, I suppose all my friends and relatives in Bihan City have already forgotten me…”
“Little Uncle is my closest elder. Once I return, perhaps I’ll need some time before I can adapt.”
“For the sake of all these years I’ve spent drifting about without anyone to teach or raise me, I hope Little Uncle will look after me in the future.”
Yugong Ming was three years younger than the King, but wrinkles had appeared on his face prematurely. Combined with his haggard, wounded appearance, they made him look especially weathered and weak.
He raised his eyes and gazed earnestly at Yugong Zhaoye, lowering himself to an almost pitiful degree.
Eight years as a hostage seemed to have worn him soft as cotton.
He appeared so frightened that the moment he caught hold of a straw, he treated it like a life-saving piece of driftwood.
They had not even traveled two li before he was already wagging his tail and begging pity from a relative who was little different from a stranger.
Unfortunately, Yugong Zhaoye had spent years surrounded by the greatest expert in acting spoiled beneath heaven.
He could not stomach this teeth-aching performance of humility at all.
Far from moving him, Yugong Ming’s behavior raised goosebumps over his entire body.
“My dear nephew,” Yugong Zhaoye advised earnestly, “with that wolfish ambition written all over your face so clearly that you couldn’t hide it if you tried, don’t imitate other people by pretending to be some poor innocent little thing.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being bad.”
“But you can’t be bad without any style.”
Yugong Ming: “…”
Yugong Zhaoye pulled down the carriage blind and urged his horse forward.
Without much concern, he added:
“Once you figure out where you actually stand, you can come find me.”
The falling blind nearly threw dust into Yugong Ming’s face.
He jerked backward and sat dazed against the carriage wall, turning Yugong Zhaoye’s words over several times in his mind.
Then a wave of almost collapsing relief surged through him.
That evening, the party stopped at a relay station to rest.
Yugong Zhaoye left one lamp burning and waited until his dear nephew, now cleaned and tidied up again, came to see him.
Yugong Ming had put away his pitiful molting-quail act.
His features were handsome and deep-set, carrying a slight gloom because of his thinness, while his shoulders and back were habitually held exceptionally straight.
This time, one glance was enough to tell that he belonged to the Yugong family.
He calmly took a seat opposite Yugong Zhaoye.
With an air of concern, he asked:
“Royal Uncle, is my elder brother well?”
“See? I told you that you can’t even pretend to be innocent properly.”
Yugong Zhaoye lazily propped up his head and tapped the table.
“If you were really that honest, would you only now remember to ask about your brother?”
Yugong Ming: “…”
He lowered his head.
“Royal Uncle’s lesson is correct.”
“As you wished, he is not well.”
Yugong Zhaoye glanced at him sidelong.
“When he heard that you had slipped into Quting City right under his nose, he flew into a rage on the spot. From what I saw, he was more terrified than when Yanyuan invaded years ago.”
Those two words were like dried fish tossed to a cat.
Yugong Ming smiled with satisfaction.
“‘Terrified’… Royal Uncle’s assessment seems slightly biased. Why would my elder brother be afraid of me?”
“I wondered the same thing.”
Yugong Zhaoye said, “He’s already firmly seated on the throne. Why would he remain so guarded against his own younger brother, who has neither power nor influence?”
“Thanks to your birthday gift, I understand now.”
“But you were far away in Dongyu.”
“How did you learn these secrets?”
“‘These secrets.’”
Yugong Ming repeated the phrase meaningfully and smiled.
“Do you mean the fact that our King suffers from an unspeakable hidden illness?”
“Or the fact that Royal Uncle is the successor leader of Bihua?”
“Speaking of which, I suppose it isn’t called Bihua anymore.”
“I should call it the Purple Empyrean Court now, shouldn’t I?”
This time, it was finally Yugong Zhaoye’s turn to remain silent a little longer.
After a moment, he gave a faint scoff.
“You’re surprisingly well informed.”
Yugong Ming smiled at him with false affection.
“Naturally, I have my own ways of surviving. Otherwise, I would have died in Dongyu long ago.”
“None of you cared about me.”
The words sounded almost like the spoiled complaint of an abandoned child, yet once one remembered the purpose behind them, the hatred concealed underneath became startling.
“When I heard the news, I was so anxious that I spent an entire night searching through medical books. I even remember the symptoms perfectly.”
“‘When the skin dies, it becomes numb and unfeeling; when the flesh dies, a blade cuts without pain; when the blood dies, sores break down and run; when the sinews die, the finger joints fall away; when the bones die, the bridge of the nose collapses.’”
He smiled.
“Which stage has he reached?”
Elio’s Notes: The symptom list comes from traditional Chinese medical descriptions of severe leprosy. Yugong Ming’s later line about a “Heaven-sent affliction” alludes to the Guliang Commentary, where bodily affliction is discussed in relation to eligibility for ancestral rites.
He recited the medical text with all the effect of a curse.
Delight twisted Yugong Ming’s handsome features, and a nearly vicious madness appeared involuntarily in his eyes.
“If Yugong Lie hadn’t concealed his illness, he should have been the one sent to Dongyu back then!”
“I should have remained in Longsha and inherited the throne!”
“Those with a Heaven-sent affliction may not enter the ancestral temple, yet all of you had eyes and still failed to see—you chose a man with leprosy as crown prince!”
“…”
This was the part that gave Yugong Zhaoye the worst headache.
However little he thought of Yugong Ming, he still had no choice but to brace himself and argue the matter out.
Leprosy was regarded as an incurable malignant disease.
There was hardly any need for elaborate evidence. If a Royal Physician examined Yugong Lie publicly, the condition would be exposed.
With Yugong Ming holding such a weakness over him, Yugong Lie had virtually no way to reverse the situation.
The late King had not been blessed with many children.
He had only two sons.
Yugong Lie still had no heir.
Thus, whether Yugong Lie ultimately died of illness or abdicated, Yugong Ming—as the sole remaining legitimate heir of Longsha’s royal line—would sooner or later inherit the throne.
For once, Yugong Zhaoye actually felt guilty.
He avoided that piercing gaze and answered concisely:
“The King has always relied on medicine to keep his condition under control. The Royal Physicians and trusted attendants around him have concealed it very well.”
“There are no signs that it has worsened.”
Heaven alone knew how something this serious could have remained hidden for so many years.
When Yugong Zhaoye received the letter, his soul had nearly flown from his body.
So this was what people meant when they said Heaven’s wheel eventually came around.
He had only just finished taking a furious scolding from the King when, in the very next moment, he personally experienced what it felt like to have someone secretly slip through a hidden route behind his back.
As he ordered Wang Yue to investigate immediately, he had nearly turned around and charged straight back to Qingliang Pavilion to yell at Yugong Lie too.
Yeguang primarily handled external affairs and rarely interfered with domestic politics.
Being struck from behind without the slightest warning was, Yugong Zhaoye had to admit, astonishingly refreshing.
The blow had landed so cleanly that even now, his hands remained tied.
Yugong Ming drew out a regretful, “Ah—”
“I heard that in the past, people with leprosy were sent deep into the mountains and isolated so they would not infect others.”
“But I wouldn’t send my elder brother away.”
“I would settle him somewhere without other people and support him properly for the rest of his life…”
Yugong Zhaoye’s temples throbbed.
This poisonous sapling was somehow even more deranged than the divine-muttering lunatics of the Ten Aspects Sect.
He had no interest in continuing to discuss such outrageous, treasonous nonsense.
Stiffly, he changed the subject.
“The covert agent Bihua stationed beside you back then—did he also…”
He had intended to say collude with you.
But that sounded slightly impolite.
He paused.
Yugong Ming immediately understood what he meant and thoughtfully finished for him:
“Although Tian Si has spent these years turning a blind eye to many things I did, he remained extremely loyal to Bihua.”
“So before I left, I had someone dispose of him.”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
“Who?”
Yugong Ming blinked.
“Hmm?”
“Who did it?”
Yugong Ming smiled.
“Whoever’s blade I am, that person is also a blade in my hand.”
“Royal Uncle, are you planning to avenge him?”
Yugong Zhaoye understood the unfinished meaning.
His expression darkened.
“You’ve allied yourself with Dongyu.”
“When the day comes, you intend to turn toward them?”
“Longsha and Xiling have been terribly intimate these past few years. How could Dongyu not become anxious?”
Yugong Ming spoke leisurely.
“No one wants to sit and watch the space outside his own front door become someone else’s fence.”
“Dongyu wants a King of Longsha who is willing to cooperate with them.”
“Whatever benefits Xiling can offer Longsha, Dongyu can naturally offer as well.”
Yugong Zhaoye suddenly asked:
“After Longsha severed relations with Yanyuan, do you know who has been supplying Yanyuan with the white salt and grain it needs?”
Yugong Ming froze.
Then he understood.
His smile became strained.
“Yes, Dongyu profits from both sides.”
“But allies aren’t empresses. Who says you’re only allowed to have one?”
“Besides, isn’t Longsha currently attached to Xiling too?”
“Xiling needs Longsha’s salt, grain, goods, and waterways.”
“Dongyu does not. They already have all of those things.”
“What Dongyu values is this strategically vital stretch of land—not the people or crops living upon it.”
Yugong Zhaoye’s voice remained even, carrying a trace of almost invisible mockery.
“If Yanyuan invades Longsha again, do you think Dongyu will stop them?”
“Or do you think they’ll be delighted to form a pincer with Yanyuan and seal off Xiling’s doorstep together?”
“Yanyuan is in internal turmoil. They won’t invade Longsha again in the short term…”
Yugong Zhaoye sneered silently.
He did not bother mentioning that Yanyuan’s internal turmoil existed partly because Yeguang had sent people to risk their lives stirring those muddy waters.
Instead, he asked calmly:
“Even without an external enemy, if Dongyu promises Longsha benefits no worse than those we receive now, have they discussed their conditions with you?”
“My guess is that in order to contain Xiling, what they want most is permission to station troops inside Longsha.”
“You want to turn the whole country into Quting City?”
“I…”
Every argument Yugong Ming might have made died on the spot beneath that brutally direct statement.
“After the two ports were recovered, Quting and Dingtao ranked at the very bottom among Longsha’s sixteen cities in tax revenue.”
“Because the common people there have to provide half the military provisions for Dongyu’s stationed troops.”
“Dongyu is no different from Qiyun.”
“They’re both blood-sucking leeches lying on Longsha’s body.”
The candle flame swayed faintly.
The room became so silent that a falling needle could have been heard.
It felt as though Yugong Zhaoye had just slapped him twice across the face.
“You’re right.”
The two remained locked in silence for a long while.
Yugong Ming endured that storm of questioning, then looked at him and coldly countered:
“But what good thing is Xiling?”
“Royal Uncle, recovering those two ports was originally your achievement, yet you had no choice but to hand all the credit to that Xiling fox.”
“Do you truly feel no resentment at all?”
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