“Your Highness? Your Highness! Your Highness~”
“Your Highness Zhao Ye?”
“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 began chattering endlessly in his ear. Every trace of his usual calm and dignified air had vanished, leaving nothing but all his bird-brained habits. Yu Gong Zhao Ye leaned against one side of the carriage with a dark expression. Each time Wei Fu sidled over tentatively, 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 howl, he pounced on Yu Gong Zhao Ye like Mount Tai crashing down and forcibly wrapped him in his arms. “All right, the truth is, I wanted to appear suddenly and surprise you… Husband, please don’t be angry with me anymore, all right?”
He had said nothing beforehand and suddenly popped out to frighten him half to death, yet somehow he was the one acting aggrieved. More importantly, Yu Gong Zhao Ye really had been fooled by him. He swept Wei Fu with a cool sidelong glance. “Oh? So I’m supposed to praise you for doing such a fine job? You’ve certainly grown capable.”
Like a dog that had done something wrong, Wei Fu guiltily buried his head against Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s neck. “I was wrong.”
“How could Chancellor Wei possibly be wrong? You’re now Longsha’s revered ancestor. 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 truly 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, or stopped Jin Han from secretly informing you.” Then he wagged his 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 couldn’t possibly bring in as much money as being chancellor could embezzle—no, earn.”
“…”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye did not particularly mind that he and the king had been plotting behind his back. He was merely considering why something always went wrong whenever Jin Han escorted Wei Fu. It seemed people still had to be kept beneath his own eyes before he could feel at ease. Then he thought again: no matter how difficult Wei Fu was, could he possibly be more difficult than the emperor of Xiling? Mu Heng had sent out a perfectly good trusted minister for three years, only for him to start clamoring about resigning and selling candied hawthorns the moment he was due to return. Mu Heng even had to painstakingly pave the way for him in a foreign country. Once these three years ended, there was no guarantee he would behave during the next three either…
Everything depended on comparison. As Yu Gong Zhao Ye silently sympathized with Mu Heng from afar, Wei Fu seized the opening and stole a kiss. Yu Gong Zhao Ye turned his face slightly aside, letting the kiss land on his cheek instead, and his tone remained cold as hard ice. “Letters going back and forth between you and Xiling would take at least a month. When did you learn about the king’s illness and begin planning all this?”
“Mm? When you went to receive Yu Gong Ming.” Wei Fu, resentfully staring at the pale-red lips after his sneak attack failed, answered casually, “The moment he heard Yu Gong Ming was returning, the king became so furious he nearly tore the building apart. Anyone could tell something was wrong.”
At the time, Wei Fu had restrained the raging Yu Gong Lie with only one sentence: “Why is Your Majesty anxious and afraid?”
No matter what else, Yu Gong 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’s territory, it was not certain he could stir up much trouble. Worry would have been understandable, but fear was strangely abrupt.
Unless Yu Gong Lie had a 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 the flaw, exploiting Yu Gong Lie’s vulnerability, supplementing it with honeyed words, and using his previous achievements as a guarantee, persuading the king to continue treating Xiling as his support was not difficult.
That explained everything, but Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s attention was not entirely focused there. He questioned him incredulously, “So for at least a month and a half, you knew perfectly well what was happening but pretended ignorance, used your supposed imminent departure as an excuse to make all manner of unreasonable demands, and acted pitiful in front of me for so long merely because I couldn’t escort you back to Xiling?”
Wei Fu: “…”
His Highness’s priorities were so strange!
“Because I like you!” Wei Fu hugged Yu Gong Zhao Ye and cried out indignantly. “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?!”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “…”
But your “reluctance to leave” was rather too intense. It had nearly worn him out.
Still, on closer thought, it did seem to make sense. Yu Gong Zhao Ye glanced at him sidelong. “You and the king joined forces to set this trap and told me nothing. Weren’t you afraid I might truly board Yu Gong Ming’s pirate ship?”
His Highness appeared difficult to please, but his heart was actually very soft. As long as one persisted in acting spoiled, he could eventually be worn down into granting a little favor. Wei Fu keenly sensed the shift in his mood and tentatively leaned in to peck him. This time, he successfully kissed the corner of Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s mouth. The sweetness of reunion after a brief separation was exquisite, and he hummed in contentment.
Yu Gong Zhao Ye asked, “What does ‘mm’ mean?”
“It means I wasn’t afraid.”
Wei Fu unilaterally decided that they had reconciled and affectionately pressed close, sitting shoulder to shoulder with him.
Fortunately, this man did not possess an actual tail, or Yu Gong Zhao Ye might have been strangled by it.
“The king wanted to use the opportunity to test you. I knew Yu Gong Ming would certainly try to win you over as well. Your Highness has your own judgment. You didn’t have to act according to my plan. Longsha’s future is not in Xiling’s hands—it is in yours.”
Wei Fu wore the expression of a powerful chief minister, yet his fingers tangled and hooked through Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s palm as he casually uttered words that could cost lives. “Whoever Your Highness chooses, I’ll support. If you wanted to kick both of them aside and become king yourself, I wouldn’t object to that either. In any case, all I want is to remain beside you forever.”
The outcome of the struggle between dragon and tiger did not matter. In his eyes, the king and Yu Gong Ming were equally mediocre and both rather useless. What mattered was that only muddy water allowed one to catch fish. He could use this chance to petition the emperor to let him remain in Longsha—and surprise Yu Gong Zhao Ye as well. After all, His Highness had weathered too many great storms. Opportunities to genuinely startle him were extremely rare.
Little did Wei Fu know that these wild words were the true fright. Yu Gong Zhao Ye even lifted the curtain and glanced outside to see whether anyone was hiding there. Next time, he absolutely had to write Mu Heng and ask what sort of creature he had raised. It was fortunate this calamity had come to Longsha. Had Wei Fu remained anywhere else in Xiling, would Mu Heng have been able to sleep at night?
Wei Fu looked curiously at his movements. “What is it?”
“Nothing.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye withdrew his gaze and retaliated by pinching his cheek. With a sigh, he said, “I was merely checking whether our ancestors were floating in the sky above us.”
Wei Fu: “?”
Miserable cries rose continuously around the outer sections of the prison, while the deepest part was instead so silent that it was almost inhuman. The darkness stretched endlessly like an abyss, as though abandoned by the mortal world, leaving one with no choice but to sit there and silently decay into a pile of dry bones.
“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 beasts, his vicious crimes plain to all, and 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 execution of his entire household. Yet in consideration of his many years as a hostage abroad, his great service to the country, and the bond of brotherhood, His Majesty cannot bear to see his severed head displayed. He is therefore to be stripped of rank and reduced to commoner status, permanently exiled to the borderlands, and forbidden to return to court without a special edict.”
Yu Gong Ming sat outside the small patch of light cast through the skylight, disheveled and filthy, his knees drawn against his chest. After listening to the Ministry of Justice official read the edict, he remained silent for a long time before suddenly spitting coldly. “That damned bastard certainly 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?”
“Yu Gong Zhao Ye, 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 allow you to escape! I’ll be waiting to see how you end up!”
Listening to those unbearable curses, the Ministry of Justice official anxiously looked toward the prince’s expression. Yet the black-robed Prince Xiaohui could not even be bothered to crease his brows. He merely raised a hand and motioned for the official to leave first.
“I have something to ask you.”
Yu Gong Ming spat. “I have nothing to say to you!”
“A miserable life is still better than a good death. You shout that you would rather die, yet after being locked here for so many days, you’ve continued eating and drinking and never once considered ending your own life.” Yu Gong Zhao Ye looked down at him mockingly. “If you want to live, answer honestly. Otherwise, I imagine the king would be delighted to hear that you committed suicide in prison.”
Yu Gong Ming: “…”
They had exposed one another’s origins the moment they first met, so Yu Gong Zhao Ye naturally had no need to show him any familial affection, unlike the king, who still had to preserve appearances. Killing him now would be easier for Yu Gong Zhao Ye than crushing an ant by the roadside. Besides, crushing an ant was wicked, while killing him would even earn Yu Gong Zhao Ye favor with the king.
He resentfully shut his mouth. Yu Gong Zhao Ye gave a silent sneer. Even as a prisoner, Yu Gong Ming still lacked the sense to read the situation. He had to have a blade pressed to his neck before he knew how to yield. “When did you learn of the king’s illness? Who passed the information to you?”
Yu Gong Ming asked, “Why do you want to know?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye had no twists or turns to waste on him and spoke directly. “The palace has already been thoroughly searched. We found several agents you planted, but every one of them was too far removed from the king. Moreover, this secret had always been guarded with extreme care. Your people had no way of coming into contact with it.”
“I am searching for the deepest-hidden traitor. Who exactly are they?”
Yu Gong Ming’s eyes suddenly blazed. He stretched his neck and stared fixedly at him, trying to find the slightest trace of defeat 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 cannot calculate?”
“I’ll tell you the truth. I learned of it less than two months before you did, and the Dongyu people approached me of their own accord. That person was not one of mine.” He added with false concern, “I hope they’ve hidden well. Ideally, you’ll never find them.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye’s brow lifted in surprise. “Someone from Dongyu?”
“I’ve already made it perfectly clear. Since you boast of your cleverness, use your mind. How many people in this world possess the authority to decide that I should be sent back to Longsha?”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye: “…”
That made the matter even stranger. He had always assumed Yu Gong Ming had colluded with a foreign power and persuaded Dongyu to send him home to seize the throne. He had even suspected that Tian Qing, the eunuch beside the king, was Yu Gong Ming’s inside man and had deliberately tested him that night. Yet the truth was that Dongyu had first uncovered the information and only then pushed Yu Gong Ming forward to take advantage of it?
When it came to gathering secrets and rumors, Yeguang ranked among the finest in the world. Although it had a rule of handling foreign affairs rather than domestic matters and would not turn around to spy upon its own secrets, even Yu Gong Zhao Ye, such a close and trusted confidant, had failed to notice anything wrong with the king. Yet a Dongyu spy had discovered something this deeply hidden. Where could that person possibly be concealed?
Dongyu had never shown any particularly outstanding achievements in this field before. Had they simply stumbled upon it by chance?
Wait—
“Hold on!”
Seeing that Yu Gong Zhao Ye was about to leave, Yu Gong Ming blurted out to stop him. Then he choked awkwardly for a moment. “I also have something to ask you.”
Yu Gong Zhao Ye was occupied with his thoughts and appeared somewhat distracted. He made a gesture inviting him to continue.
“Why didn’t you choose me?”
“How am I inferior to him? You would rather let a leper remain king than help me?”
The questioning voice echoed through the dim cell, neither loud nor soft, just as it had that day in Qianchun Hall when Yu Gong Ming asked whether his abilities could earn him a place within Bihua.
For some reason, his hatred toward Yu Gong Lie was pure and uncomplicated. But when facing Yu Gong Zhao Ye, even knowing full well that he had deceived him, what he felt was not truly hatred. It was closer to unwillingness to accept defeat.
He was always unwilling to accept it.
Yu Gong Zhao Ye was pulled back from his thoughts by the question. He lifted his thin eyelids and swept Yu Gong Ming with a glance. Perhaps because the man was soon to be released from the prison and sent into exile, Yu Gong Zhao Ye did not mock him indirectly or display any additional emotion.
“The Bihua agent who protected you on your journey to Dongyu, and whom you eventually had eliminated, was called Tian Si.”
Yu Gong Ming froze.
Yu Gong Zhao Ye continued at an even pace, “The eunuch who placed the pufferfish poison into the noodle soup for you was called Han Jiang. The woman who cared for you all those years and secretly became pregnant with your child was called Xiang Jun. But you abandoned her, then turned around and deliberately seduced the daughter of Dongyu’s envoy Du De You, so your future father-in-law would accompany you back and help you plot your great enterprise.”
With every word, the color drained further from Yu Gong Ming’s face. “You even discovered that…”
“It was not difficult,” Yu Gong Zhao Ye said. “You abandoned them unilaterally and were far too eager to sever all connections. That only made it harder for them to forget you.”
Yu Gong Ming trembled. “I did it for my great cause…”
“Your great cause seems to have room for only one person. Everyone else is merely firewood. When you are cold, you burn one stick. When darkness falls, you burn another. Once you find something sturdier, you discard the old one by the roadside.”
In the pitch-black dungeon, Yu Gong Zhao Ye looked at him through the iron bars, yet seemed as distant as a deity in the clouds whom Yu Gong Ming could never drag down.
“I did not help you because I am also a member of Yeguang.”
“Yeguang may sacrifice their lives for the country, but I do not wish to hear one day from someone else that you took my people and fed them into your furnace. Still less do I wish to become a handful of ash beneath your great cause myself.”
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