“Your Highness? Your Highness! Your Highness~”
“Your Highness Zhaoye?”
“A’Ying, A’Ying… pay attention to me. We haven’t seen each other for days. Did you miss me?”
The moment court ended, Wei Fu started chattering endlessly in his ear. Every trace of his usual calm, dignified bearing had vanished, leaving nothing but his collection of ridiculous habits. Yugong Zhaoye leaned against one side of the carriage with a dark expression. Every time Wei Fu tentatively sidled closer, he raised an index finger, planted it between Wei Fu’s brows, and pushed him back.
After several attempts, Wei Fu could no longer bear the injustice. With a plaintive “Wuao!” he came crashing down on Yugong Zhaoye like Mount Tai and forcibly wrapped him in his arms. “Fine, the truth is, I wanted to appear suddenly and give you a surprise… Husband, don’t be angry with me anymore, alright?”
He had given no warning whatsoever, then suddenly popped out and nearly frightened Yugong Zhaoye to death. What exactly did he have to feel aggrieved about? More importantly, Yugong Zhaoye really had been fooled by him.
He swept Wei Fu with a chilly sidelong glance. “Oh? So I’m supposed to praise you for doing such a beautiful job? You’ve certainly grown capable.”
Like a dog that knew it had done something wrong, Wei Fu guiltily buried his face against Yugong Zhaoye’s neck. “I was wrong.”
“How could Chancellor Wei possibly be wrong? You’re practically Longsha’s ancestor now. The King respects you, and even Yeguang obeys your every command. Forget three years or five. Why not tidy yourself up and proclaim yourself emperor?”
“I was wrong, I was wrong. I really know I was wrong.” Wei Fu hurriedly followed his lead and repented. “I shouldn’t have hidden it from you and conspired with the King, and I definitely shouldn’t have stopped Jin Han from secretly warning you.” Then he wagged his invisible tail and tried to ingratiate himself. “But I really did intend to come to Bihan City and sell candied hawthorns to support you! It was His Majesty who said I’d be idle anyway, and selling candied hawthorns could never bring in as much money as being Chancellor could embezzle—no, earn.”
“…”
Yugong Zhaoye did not particularly mind that Wei Fu and the King had plotted behind his back. What he was thinking about instead was why something seemed to go wrong every single time Jin Han escorted Wei Fu. Apparently, this person really did have to remain directly beneath his own eyes before Yugong Zhaoye could feel at ease.
Then again, however difficult Wei Fu might be, could he possibly be more difficult than the emperor of Xiling had it?
Mu Heng had sent a perfectly good trusted minister away for three years. The moment it was time for that minister to come home, he started clamoring about resigning and selling candied hawthorns, forcing Mu Heng to painstakingly pave a road for him in a foreign kingdom. And once these three years ended, there was no guarantee Wei Fu would behave during the next three either…
Everything depended upon comparison.
As Yugong Zhaoye silently sympathized with Mu Heng from afar, Wei Fu spotted an opening and stole a kiss. Yugong Zhaoye turned his face slightly aside, letting it land on his cheek instead. His tone remained cold as hard ice.
“Letters going back and forth between you and Xiling take at least a month. When did you learn about the King’s illness and start planning all of this?”
“Mhm? When you went to receive Yugong Ming.”
Wei Fu stared resentfully at those pale-red lips after his sneak attack failed, then answered casually, “The moment he heard Yugong Ming was coming back, the King became so furious he almost tore the building apart. Anyone could tell something was wrong.”
Back then, Wei Fu had restrained the raging Yugong Lie with a single sentence:
“Why is Your Majesty anxious and afraid?”
No matter what else, Yugong Ming was still his biological younger brother, a prince stranded abroad without any real power. Even if he had colluded with Dongyu, once he returned to Longsha territory, it was not certain he could stir up much trouble.
Worry would have been understandable.
Fear was strangely abrupt.
Unless Yugong Lie possessed some fatal weakness—
and that deadly vulnerability had very likely fallen into the other man’s hands.
Wei Fu was exceptionally skilled at reading expressions. Once he caught hold of that flaw, exploiting Yugong Lie’s vulnerability, adding a few honeyed words, and using his previous achievements as a guarantee made it easy enough to persuade the King to continue treating Xiling as his support.
That explained everything.
Unfortunately, Yugong Zhaoye’s attention was not entirely focused there.
He stared at Wei Fu incredulously.
“So for at least a month and a half, you knew perfectly well what was happening, yet pretended not to know. You used your supposed imminent departure as an excuse to make every sort of unreasonable demand, and because I couldn’t escort you back to Xiling, you spent all that time acting pitiful in front of me?”
Wei Fu: “…”
His Highness’s priorities are so strange!
“Because I like you!”
Wei Fu hugged Yugong Zhaoye and cried out indignantly.
“Yes, it was wrong of me to deceive you, but if I hadn’t shown the slightest reluctance to leave, wouldn’t that have exposed everything?!”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
But your ‘reluctance to leave’ was a little too intense.
You nearly wore me out.
Still, once he thought about it carefully, it did make some sense.
Yugong Zhaoye glanced at him sidelong.
“You and the King joined forces to set this trap and told me nothing. Weren’t you afraid I might actually board Yugong Ming’s pirate ship?”
His Highness looked difficult to please, but his heart was actually very soft. So long as someone persisted in acting spoiled, eventually they could wear him down enough to receive a little indulgence.
Wei Fu keenly sensed the shift in his mood and experimentally leaned forward to peck him.
This time, he successfully kissed the corner of Yugong Zhaoye’s mouth.
The sweetness of reunion after a brief separation was exquisite.
Wei Fu hummed in contentment.
Yugong Zhaoye asked, “‘Mhm’ means what?”
“It means I wasn’t afraid.”
Wei Fu unilaterally decided they had reconciled and affectionately scooted closer until their shoulders touched.
Fortunately, this man did not possess an actual tail.
Otherwise, Yugong Zhaoye might already have been strangled by it.
“The King wanted to take the opportunity to test you. I knew Yugong Ming would certainly try to win you over too. Your Highness has your own judgment. You didn’t have to follow my plan.”
“Longsha’s future isn’t in Xiling’s hands.”
“It’s in yours.”
Wei Fu wore the face of a powerful chief minister, yet his fingers tangled shamelessly through Yugong Zhaoye’s palm as he casually spoke words capable of getting people killed.
“Whoever Your Highness chose, I would support. If you’d wanted to kick both of them aside and become King yourself, I wouldn’t have objected to that either.”
“In any case, all I want is to stay beside you forever.”
The outcome of the struggle between dragon and tiger did not matter.
In Wei Fu’s eyes, Yugong Lie and Yugong Ming were evenly matched in mediocrity. Neither was particularly impressive.
What mattered was that muddy water was the best place to catch fish.
He could use the opportunity to petition His Majesty to let him remain in Longsha—and give Yugong Zhaoye a surprise in the bargain.
After all, His Highness had already weathered far too many great storms. Opportunities to genuinely startle him were extraordinarily rare.
Little did Wei Fu know that these wild words were the true fright.
Yugong Zhaoye even lifted the curtain and glanced outside to make sure no one was hiding there.
Next time, I absolutely have to write Mu Heng and ask what sort of creature he raised.
Thank goodness this walking disaster came to Longsha.
If he’d stayed somewhere else in Xiling, would Mu Heng ever have been able to sleep at night?
Wei Fu looked curiously at what he was doing.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.”
Yugong Zhaoye withdrew his gaze and vengefully pinched his cheek.
“I was only checking whether our ancestors were floating above us in the sky.”
Wei Fu: “?”
Miserable cries echoed continuously through the outer sections of the prison, yet its deepest reaches were so silent they scarcely seemed human. Darkness stretched endlessly like an abyss, as though the place had been abandoned by the mortal world, leaving those within no choice but to sit there and quietly decay into piles of dry bone.
“To violate the natural order and disrupt the laws of the state is a crime beyond measure; the evil was self-wrought and cannot be tolerated by law. Third Prince Ming, heedless of the greater interests of family and country, harbored deep resentment over being sent away from the palace, colluded with a foreign nation, spread sinister rumors, relied upon the power of his maternal clan, gathered treacherous men in support, coveted the throne, and secretly plotted rebellion. He severed all human morality; his nature was more wicked than that of beasts, his vicious crimes plain for all to see, his conduct no different from that of jackals and wolves. He sowed discord between sovereign and ministers and caused strife between brothers. His crimes are heinous and would ordinarily warrant the destruction of his household. Yet in consideration of his many years as a hostage abroad, his great service to the country, and the bond between brothers, His Majesty cannot bear to see his severed head displayed. He is therefore stripped of rank and reduced to commoner status, permanently exiled to the borderlands, and forbidden to return to court without a special edict.”
Elio’s Notes: The formal condemnation echoes the style of historical imperial punishment edicts; the source annotation specifically points to a Tang-dynasty edict concerning Liu Yan.
Yugong Ming sat outside the small patch of light cast through the skylight, filthy and disheveled, his knees drawn against his chest.
After listening to the Ministry of Justice official read the edict, he remained silent for a long time.
Then he spat coldly.
“That damned bastard really knows how to disgust people!”
“What fucking bond of brotherhood do I have with him? Why doesn’t he just kill me? Exile? Have I not been exiled enough in this lifetime already?”
“Yugong Zhaoye, you came to laugh at me too, didn’t you? You’re acting as that leprous freak’s dog. Be careful he doesn’t turn around and bite you!”
“Today I fall, tomorrow it’ll be you. Don’t think kneeling will let you escape! I’ll be waiting to see how you end up!”
Hearing such unbearable abuse, the Ministry of Justice official anxiously looked toward the prince.
Yet the black-robed Prince Xiaohui could not even be bothered to crease his brows.
He merely raised one hand and motioned for the official to leave first.
“I have something to ask you.”
Yugong Ming spat.
“I have nothing to say to you!”
“A miserable life is still better than a good death. You keep shouting that you’d rather die, but you’ve been locked in here for days and still eat and drink normally. You’ve never once tried to end your own life.”
Yugong Zhaoye looked down at him mockingly.
“If you want to live, answer me honestly. Otherwise, I imagine the King would be delighted to hear that you committed suicide in prison.”
Yugong Ming: “…”
They had exposed one another’s origins the moment they first met, so Yugong Zhaoye naturally had no need to pretend at familial affection with him, unlike the King, who still had appearances to preserve.
Killing Yugong Ming now would be easier for Yugong Zhaoye than stepping on an ant by the roadside.
Besides, crushing an ant was wicked.
Killing Yugong Ming might even earn him a favor from the King.
Yugong Ming resentfully shut his mouth.
Yugong Zhaoye gave a silent sneer.
Even as a prisoner, this man still had no sense of the situation. A blade practically had to be pressed to his neck before he understood how to yield.
“When did you learn of the King’s illness?”
“Who gave you the information?”
Yugong Ming asked, “Why do you want to know?”
Yugong Zhaoye had no twists or turns to waste on him.
“The palace has already been searched thoroughly. We found several agents you planted, but every one of them was too far removed from the King. This secret was guarded extremely closely. Your people had no way of coming into contact with it.”
“I’m looking for the deepest-hidden traitor.”
“Who are they?”
Yugong Ming’s eyes suddenly blazed.
He stretched his neck and stared fixedly at Yugong Zhaoye, trying to find even the slightest hint of frustration on that ice-pure, snow-cold face.
After a long while, he finally laughed in malicious delight.
“Ha! Royal Uncle prides himself on his intelligence. So there are things even you can’t calculate?”
“I’ll tell you the truth. I learned about it less than two months before you did, and the people of Dongyu approached me on their own.”
“That person was not one of mine.”
He added with false concern:
“I hope they’ve hidden themselves well.”
“Ideally, you’ll never find them.”
Yugong Zhaoye’s brow lifted in surprise.
“Someone from Dongyu?”
“I’ve made it perfectly clear already. Since you pride yourself on being clever, use your head.”
“How many people in this world possess the authority to decide that I should be sent back to Longsha?”
Yugong Zhaoye: “…”
That made the entire matter even stranger.
He had always assumed Yugong Ming had colluded with a foreign power and persuaded Dongyu to send him back to seize the throne. He had even suspected that Tian Qing, the eunuch beside Yugong Lie, was Yugong Ming’s inside man and deliberately tested him that night.
Yet the truth was that Dongyu had uncovered the information first and only afterward pushed Yugong Ming forward to take advantage of it?
When it came to uncovering secrets and rumors, Yeguang ranked among the finest organizations in the world.
True, it followed the rule of handling external affairs rather than domestic matters and would not turn around and spy upon its own side.
But even Yugong Zhaoye, such a close and trusted confidant, had noticed nothing wrong with the King.
Yet a Dongyu spy had uncovered something this deeply hidden.
Where could that person possibly be concealed?
Dongyu had never displayed particularly remarkable skill in this field before.
Had they simply stumbled upon the secret by chance?
Wait—
“Hold on!”
Seeing Yugong Zhaoye about to leave, Yugong Ming blurted out the words to stop him.
Then he choked awkwardly for a moment.
“I also have something to ask you.”
Yugong Zhaoye was busy thinking and somewhat distracted.
He made a gesture for him to continue.
“Why didn’t you choose me?”
“How am I inferior to him?”
“You would rather let a man with leprosy remain King than help me?”
His questioning voice echoed through the dim cell, neither loud nor soft, just as it had that day in Qianchun Hall when he asked whether his abilities could earn him a place within Bihua.
For some reason, his hatred toward Yugong Lie was pure and uncomplicated.
But when he faced Yugong Zhaoye, even knowing perfectly well that Yugong Zhaoye had deceived him, what he felt was not truly hatred.
It was closer to unwillingness to accept defeat.
He was always unwilling to accept defeat.
Yugong Zhaoye was pulled back from his thoughts by the question.
He lifted his thin eyelids and swept Yugong Ming with a glance.
Perhaps because the man would soon be removed from the prison and sent into exile, Yugong Zhaoye did not mock him indirectly or display any particular additional emotion.
“The Bihua agent who protected you on your journey to Dongyu, and whom you eventually had eliminated, was called Tian Si.”
Yugong Ming froze.
Yugong Zhaoye continued evenly:
“The eunuch who put pufferfish poison into the noodle soup for you was called Han Jiang.”
“The woman who cared for you all those years and secretly conceived your child was called Xiang Jun.”
“But you abandoned her, then deliberately seduced the daughter of Dongyu envoy Du Deyou so that your future father-in-law would accompany you back and help you pursue your grand cause.”
With every word, more color drained from Yugong Ming’s face.
“You even discovered that…”
“It wasn’t difficult.”
Yugong Zhaoye said, “You abandoned them unilaterally and were far too eager to sever every connection.”
“That only made it harder for them to forget you.”
Yugong Ming trembled.
“I did it for my great cause…”
“Your great cause seems to have room for only one person.”
“Everyone else is firewood.”
“When you’re cold, you burn one stick. When darkness falls, you burn another.”
“And the moment you find something sturdier, you throw the old one away beside the road.”
In the pitch-black dungeon, Yugong Zhaoye looked at him through the iron bars.
Yet he seemed as distant as a deity in the clouds, someone Yugong Ming could never drag down.
“I didn’t help you because I’m also a member of Yeguang.”
“Yeguang may sacrifice their lives for their country.”
“But I do not want to hear one day that you took my people and fed them into your furnace.”
“Still less do I want to become a handful of ash beneath your great cause myself.”
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