“Ahem. So that’s how you see it…”
The terms of Longsha’s peace negotiations with Qiyun were known only to the rulers of the two countries and a tiny handful of their most trusted senior ministers. As for well-informed schemers such as Yugong Ming, they could more or less infer from the court’s later actions that the achievement had actually belonged to Yeguang. They had simply pushed a respectable, legitimate figure onto the stage to claim the credit so that other nations would have no evidence with which to accuse Longsha of secretly maintaining an organization of assassins.
In truth, that was precisely the effect Wei Fu had wanted. But now that someone had exposed the arrangement directly to his face, Yugong Zhaoye—who was unaccustomed to taking advantage of other people—felt so guilty it was as though someone had pinned his tail beneath a chair. Unable to sit still, he tried weakly to defend Wei Fu. “Well… actually, Chancellor Wei is a fairly decent person.”
Only moments earlier, while lecturing Yugong Ming, Yugong Zhaoye had been righteous, stern, and cold. Those two sentences, however, came out utterly without conviction. Anyone could tell immediately that Yugong Ming had struck a sore spot.
Naturally, Yugong Ming noticed. “Of course someone who sits back and harvests the benefits would pretend to be a good person in front of you.” “Precisely because he can bring advantages to Longsha, he dares use his position to pressure others.” “Did Yugong Lie use that same argument to persuade you to hand your achievement over to him?”
“…”
His reasoning sounded perfectly solid. Yugong Zhaoye had no reply. He awkwardly rubbed his nose.
Taking advantage of the opening, Yugong Ming pressed further. “I really am curious. Royal Uncle, what treasure did you bring out that actually persuaded Qiyun to yield?” “The commercial taxes from two ports are no small amount.”
“That isn’t something you should be curious about.” Yugong Zhaoye rejected him outright. “Whether it is the Purple Empyrean Court or Bihua, they obey only the King.” “You may be holding a trump card, but you’re still far from sitting in that position.” “For now, tuck your tail between your legs and behave yourself.”
“Then do you want to kill me, Royal Uncle?”
Yugong Zhaoye frowned. “What?”
“Yugong Lie probably wouldn’t dare openly order you to kill me.” “If you became suspicious, he wouldn’t be able to keep pretending anymore.” Yugong Ming studied his frost-cold expression with evident interest. Then he lowered his voice temptingly. “But what about you?”
“Now you know Yugong Lie’s weakness.” “There are only the two of us here.” “If you kill me, then return and get rid of Yugong Lie, you could take the throne yourself.” “From then on, no one would be able to control you.”
Yugong Zhaoye stared at him in disbelief. He had no idea where this bastard had found the dog-like courage to incite him into rebellion.
If Yugong Zhaoye truly carried the Yugong bloodline, why would he need to agonize over two lousy choices in the first place? He would have sent this troublesome creature to meet the ancestors with a single slash long ago!
“Does having people call you a rebel sound pleasant?” Yugong Zhaoye said irritably. “I don’t have a hobby of letting people curse me behind my back.”
Yet Yugong Ming seemed to taste sweet blood in his evasiveness. Slowly, a smile spread across his face. “But listening to Royal Uncle just now—worrying for the country and the people, loyal and righteous to the bone…” “With such broad-minded concern, you almost sound as though you already consider yourself master of these rivers and mountains.”
The words were vicious enough to pierce the heart. Yugong Zhaoye’s expression immediately chilled. “Watch your words.”
Yugong Ming refused to relent. “Is it that Royal Uncle doesn’t dare?” “Or that you can’t?”
“Are you tired of living?!”
“Hahahaha…”
Yugong Ming had swallowed his anger all this time precisely for the pleasure of reaching this moment, when he finally held everything in his hands. And the brief shock Yugong Zhaoye had failed to conceal was the final indispensable seasoning.
“I only spoke a few truths and Royal Uncle is already anxious.” He wiped away the tears of laughter at the corners of his eyes. His voice became gentle. “You are not Grandfather’s biological son.” “You have no blood relation whatsoever to the Yugong family.” “The matter may be secret, but there is no wall in this world through which wind cannot pass.”
“Besides, since Father entrusted you with lethal authority like Bihua, how could he possibly have taken no precautions against you?” “How could he simply let you remain beside Yugong Lie—that useless thing who cannot even be propped up—watching him like a tiger eyeing prey?”
The iron wall that seemed frozen in ten-thousand-year ice, impossible for any wind or rain to break, was finally melted by a poison called suspicion.
“What else do you know?”
Heavy shadows fell across Yugong Zhaoye’s brows beneath the candlelight, giving him a murderous aura cold enough to make anyone tremble. Yet Yugong Ming showed no fear. He maintained that infuriatingly courteous tone from beginning to end. “Can you tell me now?” “What exactly did you offer Qiyun?”
“…”
The silent stalemate seemed longer than all their previous conversation combined. Patience was like a candlewick swaying in the depths of night, burning shorter and shorter.
After a long while, Yugong Zhaoye released an almost inaudible sigh.
As an “outsider,” this was a step he would have to yield sooner or later. And he would have to keep yielding, again and again, for as long as he intended to remain at the Purple Empyrean Court and continue serving Longsha.
“Mountains of gold and silver.”
The corner of Yugong Ming’s mouth twitched. He said nothing, but his face clearly read: Well, obviously.
“I mean literal mountains of gold and silver.” Yugong Zhaoye said, “Our covert agents in Qiyun accidentally discovered an unworked gold mine. In addition, there was a deserted island off Longsha’s coast occupied by bandits. After the navy cleared them out, a silver mine was discovered there.” “The King used those two mines as bargaining chips to buy the two ports back from Qiyun.”
Yugong Ming: “…Heh.”
He clearly found the story absurd. Yet Yugong Zhaoye had no obvious reason to lie about something like this. Precisely because it sounded so outrageous, it almost seemed more believable. Eventually, Yugong Ming could only remark sourly: “My elder brother’s luck really is uncanny.” “Even Heaven is helping him.”
Yugong Zhaoye thought that the luck was indeed uncanny enough. Yugong Lie had never missed his annual worship of Heaven, incense offerings, or prayers, yet Heaven had never once shown him a pleasant face. In the end, the one whose prayer had somehow received an answer was the Xiling fox spirit Yugong Lie had nearly poisoned to death.
Yugong Ming had judged exactly one thing correctly. The fox spirit really did “pressure” people. He simply did not rely on power to do it. What he relied upon was a heart full of sincerity and tenderness.
Naturally, Yeguang’s Moon Envoys were not so idle that they wandered through remote mountains and ancient forests prospecting for mines. The locations of those gold and silver deposits had come from the Earth Mirror Map that Jiang Fengxun passed to Wei Fu.
After they returned from Xiling the year before last, Wei Fu had already begun considering how to make use of the map. It was Wei Fu who proposed using mineral deposits to exchange for the two ports Qiyun held.
Yeguang would send covert agents into Qiyun, compare the terrain against the Earth Mirror Map, and confirm the locations of the veins. Then they would report to the King that they had “accidentally” discovered an unworked deposit that could serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Qiyun.
That way, Wei Fu did not need to expose the map’s secret, while the intelligence itself gained a perfectly clean provenance through Yeguang. They had their capital and their achievement, and they could use a mine located in Qiyun to exchange for Longsha’s own territory. It cost them almost nothing, while the return was practically incalculable.
The plan was perfect. Yet Yugong Zhaoye found it extremely difficult to persuade himself to accept it without reservation.
Longsha was merely a temporary stopping place for Wei Fu. The salary he earned as Minister-Regent was insignificant beside literal mountains of gold and silver. Simply performing the duties of his office would already have been enough. Wei Fu had no responsibility whatsoever—and no necessity—to think about Longsha’s future.
Yet Wei Fu had argued with complete self-righteousness: “Back then, you told me to protect myself and stop risking my life. Haven’t I kept my own fox tail safely hidden?”
“You’re remarkably self-aware…”
At the time, Wei Fu had crowded Yugong Zhaoye until there was nowhere left for him to stand. Yugong Zhaoye could only sit back on Wei Fu’s desk, trapped inside his arms and kneaded this way and that, while still having to raise his head to discuss serious business. “Even so, you can’t cut your own rations to feed Longsha.” “Does your Imperial Father know you came here to be a bodhisattva?”
Wei Fu laughed and ground his teeth lightly against Yugong Zhaoye’s neck, as though planning to eat him for the rest of his life. “I’m not trying to save all living beings.” “I only want you to live a little more comfortably in your own home.” “A little more cleanly.” “Without outsiders pointing fingers at you.”
“The Earth Mirror Map is family property accumulated over several generations of ancestors. I couldn’t possibly use all of it by myself even if I spent my whole life gnawing through it.” “Besides, there’s also the principle that possessing precious jade invites disaster.” “This is a hot potato that has to be eaten in secret.” “Other than you, who could I trust enough to hand it to?”
Elio’s Notes: 怀璧其罪, literally “to possess jade is itself a crime,” is an old idiom meaning that possessing something exceptionally valuable can invite danger even when the owner has done nothing wrong.
“I studied the map carefully. ‘All the mineral deposits beneath heaven’ sounds frighteningly impressive, but more than half the veins marked on it have already been discovered.” “The Jiang family’s prospecting work ended with my mother’s generation. By the time it reached me, nearly forty years had passed.” “Who knows how many more deposits on the map have already been discovered by other people?” “What remains genuinely useful to us now is probably only ten or twenty percent.”
“This isn’t like dowry wine, improving the longer you let it age.” “If we don’t use it while we still can, in another few decades I’m afraid we won’t even get a mouthful of soup.” “Besides, later on…” He lowered his eyes meaningfully toward the lower halves of their bodies. Then he leaned mysteriously toward Yugong Zhaoye’s ear and whispered: “We won’t have anyone to pass it down to anyway, right?”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
The words were crude. The reasoning was sound. But the words were really extremely crude.
Seeing His Highness about to become annoyed, Wei Fu hurriedly tried to save himself. “And it isn’t just us. Xie Youlan can’t be counted on either.” “Rather than letting outsiders profit from it, why not let Longsha benefit?” “Just treat it as my betrothal gift to Your Highness, alright?”
“…”
The most shocking thing about Wei Fu was not that he could casually give away several mines without even blinking. It was that this man had already grown into a human wall and normally went about outside putting on his dignified fox act, summoning wind and rain wherever he pleased—yet when facing Yugong Zhaoye, he could still say things like alright? in the most shamelessly coaxing tone imaginable without changing expression.
Wei Fu tilted his head to study Yugong Zhaoye. Seeing signs that His Highness might be softening, he continued pestering him. “Your Highness can send people to investigate first. This is only an idea. Whether it works is another matter.” “If Qiyun’s deposits have already been excavated, then there’s nothing I can do.” “I have neither home nor property, and those few meager taels of court salary are worth practically nothing.” “I suppose I’ll have no choice but to rely on this face and marry above my station into Your Highness’s household.”
The little pretty boy whined while clutching Yugong Zhaoye’s sleeve and swaying it. Yugong Zhaoye had never encountered anyone so accomplished at acting spoiled. At last, Wei Fu wore him down until he laughed helplessly. He reached out and pinched Wei Fu’s cheek. “It’s not that difficult.” “Have you forgotten that I’m a fake Highness?” “This face alone is enough.”
That meant he had agreed. Satisfied, Wei Fu wrapped an arm around his waist, pulled him over, and kissed him. “Whether you’re really a Highness doesn’t matter.” “Our family has produced plenty of princely consorts over the generations. One more won’t make any difference.” “In any case, I like A’Ying best.”
Old acquaintances had scattered like wind and clouds. Now, in this entire world, Wei Fu alone still knew the name Xie Ying. To everyone else, Prince Xiaohui, Yugong Zhaoye, was his only true identity.
He had worn that false shell for too long. The painted skin seemed to have fused with his flesh and blood. Now, at the thought of tearing it away, he unexpectedly found the pain almost unbearable.
Yugong Zhaoye lowered his eyes. His gaze settled on the pattern along the hem of his robe. “You said the late King left behind a contingency against me.” “What was it?”
Yugong Ming had already obtained the answer he wanted. So this time, he readily laid everything bare. “When Father was bedridden, my mother consort attended him at his bedside.” “She once overheard Father summon my elder brother, explain your origins to him, and hand him a posthumous edict.” “He warned him that if one day something unexpected happened, he was to make the edict known throughout the realm—” Yugong Ming paused.
“The rivers and mountains of the Yugong clan will not fall into an outsider’s hands.”