“Ding Fei! Stop, stop, stop! Turn around!”
A sudden commotion broke out inside the carriage. The coachman, Ding Fei, nervously pulled on the reins.
“What is it, Chancellor Wei?”
Yugong Zhaoye could not be bothered speaking. He simply gave Wei Fu a forceful look that clearly asked, What madness are you having now?
Wei Fu said, “You already agreed! Why are we still going back to the residence? Let’s leave the city and return to Xiling right now! Ding—”
Yugong Zhaoye clamped his mouth shut with one hand and called loudly outside:
“It’s nothing. Return to the residence.”
The pattering rain drowned out the muffled voices inside. Thoroughly bewildered, Ding Fei flicked the reins again, and the wheels that had begun slowing resumed their steady rumble.
Yugong Zhaoye could feel a pair of eyes glittering with thievish light staring at him through the dim carriage interior.
For once, he almost did not dare turn his head.
Wei Fu: “Mmph-mmph-mmph!”
Yugong Zhaoye released him.
“It’s not—”
“They say you can’t trust what a man says in bed. Turns out you can’t trust what he says in a carriage either!”
Wei Fu looked deeply betrayed.
“It was only two words! I hadn’t even had time to warm them up before you took them back!”
To twist logic to this degree was already a talent in itself.
Yugong Zhaoye sighed with heartfelt admiration.
“…You really don’t examine your own behavior at all, do you, Young Master Wei?”
He genuinely wanted to unleash Wei Fu on Yugong Ming.
He had the feeling the fox spirit would tie that poisonous snake into a knot and swing him around for entertainment.
Wei Fu tucked Yugong Zhaoye’s cold hand back into his arms and hugged him.
“But I didn’t get the slightest advantage in the first place.”
“I’m only saying you can’t take advantage of me today. Don’t make it sound as though someone has abandoned you after playing with your feelings.”
Yugong Zhaoye rubbed his aching head.
“You’re returning to Xiling next month. At the very least, I have to wait until the court situation settles and properly hand over this whole mess called Yeguang before I can go find you. I need to finish what I started. Otherwise, if I simply throw everything aside and run off, ruining my good name right at the finish, it would look terrible.”
Wei Fu curiously took hold of his chin and turned his face around for careful inspection, making several sweet, sticky little noises.
“Your Highness—”
After raising a fox spirit for three years, Yugong Zhaoye was intimately familiar with his habits. From the twists and turns of that single “Your Highness,” he could already identify Wei Fu’s mood.
He lifted the corner of his eyes.
“Yes, I think about the future too. What else did you expect? That I’d play with the Minister-Regent’s feelings and then sit around worrying Xiling had nowhere to train its army?”
Wei Fu nodded repeatedly.
“I also think long-term separation is bad for a married couple’s relationship. But Yeguang is the foundation you worked so hard to build. Giving it up now would be such a pity. Besides, the King can’t possibly let you leave that easily, can he?”
“…”
Yugong Zhaoye thought that the King might leave before he did.
Once Yugong Ming kicked Yugong Lie off the throne and took his place, the next person dealt with would probably be Yugong Zhaoye himself.
After all, Yeguang was a murderous weapon.
It needed to be placed in obedient hands.
“Last time you came to find me. This time I’ll go find you. Isn’t that fair?”
Yugong Zhaoye had no intention of dragging Wei Fu into this tangled mess.
Wei Fu’s term was complete. Returning safely to Xiling would be the perfect conclusion to his service. This was not the moment to create more complications.
And even with Dongyu supporting him, Yugong Ming would not be stupid enough to throw himself onto Xiling’s blade. He would certainly wait until Wei Fu departed before making his move.
Yugong Lie’s incurable disease meant he was doomed to lose against Yugong Ming. Yeguang handled external affairs, not domestic politics, while Yugong Zhaoye was an outsider with even less standing to interfere in a royal succession.
The road ahead was already blocked.
There was no room left to maneuver.
All he could do was surrender Yeguang’s authority as smoothly as possible.
“Your Highness.”
Wei Fu’s long brows drew together. He lightly bit that mouth which insisted on saying one thing while meaning another.
“You seem to have misunderstood something.”
“What?”
“I came to Longsha because I love you.”
“I didn’t come here to collect a debt, and I sure as hell didn’t come for some damned ‘fairness.’”
“…”
The sudden confession struck Yugong Zhaoye squarely in the heart, making it tremble violently.
Those peach-blossom eyes held enough shimmering tenderness to drown a person.
Yugong Zhaoye instinctively turned his head away, then, finding nothing else to say, seized upon the smallest possible fault.
“Speak properly. Don’t curse.”
Wei Fu turned his face back.
“Everything I just said was a lie.”
He spoke very seriously.
“Actually, I never intended to take you back to Xiling at all.”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…Now I’m going to curse.”
“The Purple Empyrean Court has only just been established. Yeguang finally managed to walk out of the darkness and into the light. Your achievements have only just begun. How could you withdraw at the height of success now?”
“Your Highness Zhaoye, you’ve risked your life for Yeguang since you were a teenager. You’ve gone through life and death for Longsha. How much of your blood and effort went into the peace and stability Longsha enjoys today?”
“How can you simply let go because you say you can?”
Yugong Zhaoye had spent years hidden in the night, traveling with a blade and unseen by the world.
He had no attachment to fame.
Naturally, he regarded merit just as lightly.
It had been terribly difficult to earn.
Yet he could abandon it with extraordinary ease.
Because he was accustomed to being covered up.
Accustomed to being ignored.
Accustomed to being the part sacrificed first and discarded earliest.
Wei Fu drew over that hand weathered by years of wind and frost, a hand completely unrelated to any pampered “princely highness,” and placed a reverent kiss against its lean knuckles.
“You are Longsha’s moon, Your Highness.”
“This is the country you protect.”
“You don’t have to accommodate anyone.”
“I already told His Majesty that once my three-year term ended, I would return to Xiling, hand over my duties, and resign.”
Wei Fu promised with ringing conviction:
“Even if I have to come back to Bihan City and sell candied hawthorns, I’ll spend the rest of my life beside A’Ying!”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
One truly ought to perform more good deeds while wandering the jianghu.
Anyone who had never experienced a fox spirit repaying a kindness had simply wasted this life.
“Candied hawthorns are a northern specialty. The south is hot. You’ve lived in Bihan City for three years—have you ever seen anyone selling them on the streets?”
Yugong Zhaoye pinched Wei Fu’s cheek, caught between laughter and exasperation.
“Young Master Xiao Guan, this vow of yours is almost on the same level as ‘thunder rumbling in winter and snow falling in summer.’”
Elio’s Notes: “Thunder rumbling in winter and snow falling in summer” comes from the Han-dynasty yuefu poem Shang Ye. The speaker lists impossible natural events that would have to occur before their love could end.
Before the fox spirit could howl in protest, Yugong Zhaoye blocked his mouth. Between the entanglement of lips and teeth, he soothed him softly:
“Don’t worry. The prince’s residence may not compare with the century of accumulated wealth behind the household of the Duke Who Stabilizes the Nation, but it’s more than enough to support one of you.”
“I won’t really make you set up a stall and sell candied hawthorns.”
In early December, the Xiling delegation departed for home.
Three hundred Royal Army troops escorted them. King Yugong Lie personally led the civil and military officials outside the city to see them off, while the Purple Empyrean Court sent Wang Yue—Jin Han—and several Star Envoys to accompany them secretly and provide protection along the road.
Considering the possibility of unrest once Wei Fu left, together with Yugong Ming’s restless presence at court, Yugong Lie did not allow Yugong Zhaoye to escort the delegation this time.
Instead, he kept his royal uncle beside him as a protective talisman.
Only a month earlier, Wei Fu had sworn solemnly that Yugong Zhaoye did not need to accommodate anyone.
Now, in the blink of an eye, the King had “accommodated” Wei Fu instead and nearly made him cry the roof beams down.
Even on the day before his departure, Yugong Zhaoye was still apologizing on Yugong Lie’s behalf. He had come to feel that Wei Fu had spoken exactly one true sentence that day:
A man’s damned words could not be trusted anywhere.
This bastard really had come to Longsha to collect a debt!
After seeing off the Xiling delegation, the royal procession turned back toward the city.
The Royal Army cleared the road ahead, while officials followed on horseback and in carriages, the entire procession grand and imposing. Countless commoners gathered along both sides of Kaiyang Avenue to watch the spectacle.
Bihan City had been trapped beneath persistent fine rain for days, but today the sky was unusually clear and the air fresh. A cool breeze brushed over the gauze umbrellas and carriage curtains.
Even Yugong Lie, seated inside the royal carriage, was drawn by the beautiful weather and looked through the crystal-bead curtain toward the crowds outside.
Suddenly, a group of ragged little beggars with filthy, tangled hair burst from a narrow alley beside the street.
Laughing and shoving one another, they plunged into the crowd and darted wildly about while singing a horribly off-key children’s rhyme:
“Crows cry at dawn, geckos sever their tails;
a great wind blows—mei loses water, fei turns upside down.”
Their childish voices were high and piercing, rising and falling from within the crowd.
Beneath the bright daylight, the sound somehow carried an eerie quality that made everyone’s hair stand on end.
“Where did these little bastards come from?”
“Aiyo! Have you rebelled against Heaven?! You even dare run into people!”
“Stop! Don’t run!”
The street erupted into commotion.
The Royal Army had no choice but to stop and maintain order, shouting:
“Silence!”
Royal Army Commander Qin Changliu immediately summoned his deputy.
“Take a squad and seize the ones singing. Quickly!”
Quite a few people were already quietly repeating the children’s rhyme.
The sound surrounded the royal procession from every direction.
The military officials of the Royal Army and Capital Security Bureau were still completely bewildered as they hurried to restore order, but which of the civil officials present had not read histories?
The instant they heard a prophecy disguised as a nursery rhyme, their expressions changed.
Cabinet Chancellor and Minister of Personnel Fuyu Wei urged his horse forward.
“Stop blocking the road! Let the royal carriage pass first!”
A scream suddenly erupted from the crowd.
“Crows!”
“Ah!!”
“Aaaaah—!”
The terrified cries nearly split people’s eardrums.
The light overhead abruptly dimmed.
Black feathers blotted out the sky.
A vast flock of crows had appeared from nowhere, their hoarse, mournful cries filling the air. Sharp claws and beaks rained down like a violent storm, viciously attacking the royal carriage.
Within moments, the embroidered curtains were shredded.
Fuyu Wei nearly fainted on the spot.
Eyes practically splitting with fury, he roared at the Royal Army:
“Save His Majesty!!”
The soldiers surrounding the carriage were battered dizzy by wings and desperately swung the ceremonial fans to drive the crows away.
Horses panicked.
The crowd surged.
The entire procession jammed together from front and back until it became a pot of porridge too thick even to stir.
Everyone screamed at the top of their lungs.
No one could tell where the King actually was.
Amid the overwhelming clamor of human shouting, neighing horses, and shrieking birds, the crash of the crystal-bead curtain breaking was almost too faint to hear.
Yugong Zhaoye braced himself against the wooden frame and stood firm inside the royal carriage as it rocked violently from side to side, nearly overturning.
Several black-gray down feathers had fallen across his shoulders, and a trace of ash stained his pale face.
His long lashes were lowered.
Yet he looked more austere and murderous than the bloodstained blade in his hand.
“Your Majesty.”
Yugong Lie wore powder over his face to conceal its deathly pallor, so at the moment he looked almost normal.
He did not appear particularly panicked.
Only his trembling voice betrayed him.
“Crows attacking the royal carriage… Heaven is sending a warning. I fear disaster is coming.”
“Oh.”
Yugong Zhaoye glanced at the knife in his hand, reversed his grip on the hilt, then casually pulled over a cloak and covered Yugong Lie’s head and face with it.
“This subject has heard that crows like shiny things. Perhaps they mistook the patterns on the curtains for gemstones. It’s simply animal instinct. Your Majesty needn’t take it too seriously.”
Yugong Lie: “…”
Very good.
Royal Uncle was extremely talented at comforting people.
Yugong Lie could hardly continue being melancholy even if he tried.
Wrapped into a long rice dumpling by Yugong Zhaoye, unable to move at all, he nevertheless refused to give up.
“Royal Uncle, did you hear the rhyme outside? A gecko is only a four-legged snake, and my name contains the character Lie. It’s saying that I’m no true dragon…”
Amid the violent jolting, Yugong Zhaoye bent down and hauled the King upside down over one shoulder like a sack.
“My name has the character Zhao in it too. I’m not a true dragon in the first place. Maybe that line is talking about me.”
Yugong Lie: “…”
A pitch-black beak flashed through a gap in the torn curtains.
The dense beating of wings and scratching of claws all around them made the scalp prickle.
Amid the dizzying weightlessness, Yugong Lie somehow felt his heart settle back into his chest.
He sniffed.
“Little Uncle… it’s digging into me.”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…Endure it.”
Mutes were still less troublesome.
Back when the mute was actually mute, he had never complained about something digging into him.
Carrying an entire King over his shoulder, Yugong Zhaoye flew from the royal carriage, mounted a horse, leapt over the human wall, and galloped toward the palace.
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