Fu Xi Yan suddenly bellowed, “Uncle! You’re here!”
Chu Shao Yang did not break stride. He kept running.
Did Fu Xi Yan really expect the same trick to work twice? Did he take Chu Shao Yang for a three-year-old?
“What is all this shouting? Have you no sense of propriety?”
Fu Xuan’s voice rang out from beyond the crowd.
Chu Shao Yang stopped dead.
The pear on his head had neither anticipated the emergency stop nor fastened a safety belt. It promptly rolled forward and fell. Chu Shao Yang reached out and caught it by reflex.
The crowd parted naturally as Fu Xuan entered. His gaze first swept over Fu Xi Yan, who was standing obediently to one side, then cut through the crowd and landed on Chu Shao Yang.
Energy surged toward Chu Shao Yang from every direction.
It pressed against him like seawater, seeping into every gap and locking down his entire body. He could not move so much as a finger.
Realm suppression!
Fu Xuan had singled him out precisely through a crowd. To control the pressure so freely, he had to be at least near the upper end of the middle Vajra Stage.
Chu Guang, who had remained in the early Vajra Stage for years, had lost fair and square.
Hu Yu had been hiding among the onlookers. When he saw Fu Xuan glance toward him, he had no choice but to step forward. “The youngsters were merely eager to compete and decided to exchange a few moves.”
He was of the same generation as Fu Xuan, so calling them youngsters sounded perfectly natural.
Fu Xi Yan immediately walked toward Chu Shao Yang with great enthusiasm. “Exactly! Brother Chu and I took to each other like old friends the moment we met. He insisted on sparring with me. Clearly, word of my strength has already spread throughout the land, and people everywhere look up to me as they would a lofty mountain.”
Chu Shao Yang: “…”
While avoiding the slingshot, he had put twenty or thirty feet between himself and the crowd. The empty space around him was why Fu Xuan could suppress him without anyone else noticing.
But the moment Fu Xi Yan approached, Fu Xuan withdrew the pressure.
Freed without warning, Chu Shao Yang swayed. The pear slipped from his fingers.
Fu Xi Yan bent down and caught it.
He stroked the pear tenderly, his gaze drifting pointedly toward the top of Chu Shao Yang’s head. “Brother Chu is an outstanding young talent as well. Our contest was so close that neither of us could gain the upper hand. We were truly worthy opponents.”
Worthy opponents, my ass! I was playing Go while you were playing five-in-a-row!
Chu Shao Yang and his uncle had both misjudged Fu Xi Yan.
Under their original plan, when Chu Shao Yang proposed the challenge, Fu Xi Yan would have only two options.
He could grit his teeth, accept, and be publicly humiliated.
Or he could make excuses and refuse, disgracing the Fu family.
What they had never expected was that the upright, rigid Fu Fu could raise a son with absolutely no shame. Fu Xi Yan had laughed, argued, and joked his way through the contest until their entire scheme fell apart.
Stormy waves raged through Chu Shao Yang’s heart. He longed to smash them directly into the faces of the uncle and nephew before him.
Unfortunately, the situation was against him. He still had to force a smile. “Brother Fu is correct.”
Unable to leave it there, he added, “The future is long. I hope we will have the opportunity for a genuine contest someday.”
The future was long, so future problems could wait.
Fu Xi Yan smiled. “My, Brother Chu has only just met me, yet you already aspire to follow in my footsteps. Excellence truly is a burden.”
Chu Shao Yang: “…”
If your uncle weren’t here…
If my uncle were here…
You might not be here at all!
Fu Xi Yan could not hear the vicious thoughts inside Chu Shao Yang’s head, but he knew how to read a face. Sensing it was time to stop, he returned to Fu Xuan’s side.
He was about to bite into the pear when Fu Xuan confiscated it.
Fu Xuan held the pear and swept an icy gaze over the crowd. “Have all of you finished your training?!”
Everyone hurried to form ranks.
Zhu Yu Da slipped over to Fu Xi Yan and whispered, “We didn’t think things through this time.” They had intended to intimidate Chu Shao Yang, but had nearly trapped one of their own instead. The thought alone made Zhu Yu Da’s chest tighten with frustration.
Fu Xi Yan patted him on the shoulder. “They came prepared. Even if we hadn’t handed them an opening, they would have manufactured one.”
Zhu Yu Da turned the words over carefully. Then his expression changed. “You’re right. I need to investigate who suggested this welcoming ceremony in the first place. And Hu Yu—he hid himself well!”
Fu Xi Yan watched Zhu Yu Da walk away with a grave expression, then glanced at the Chu faction members huddled around Chu Shao Yang.
He sighed silently.
Once a person entered the jianghu, they could no longer act entirely as they pleased. As someone who had gained his post through family connections, his very existence was an unforgivable offense to anyone determined to resent him.
Still, after surviving this test, Fu Xi Yan’s status within the Fu faction rose slightly.
He was no longer merely a flaw.
He was now a flaw capable of patching other flaws.
Fu Xi Yan, simultaneously bug and patch: “…”
Thanks for the praise. Never again.
Of course, there was no chance the Fu faction would sincerely admire or adore him. Most of them were hot-blooded fools who believed a person ought to keep fighting even with blood pouring from their head.
That day’s training was harsher than ever.
By the time they were dismissed, Fu Xi Yan could think of nothing but his aching waist, sore back, and cramping legs. He wanted Mega Calcium. He wanted Brain Platinum. He wanted to curl up in his father’s arms and sing about why the sky was full of little stars.
Sigh.
Elio’s Notes: Mega Calcium and Brain Platinum were heavily advertised Chinese health-supplement brands. Fu Xi Yan’s thoughts spiral from old-person aches into the desires of an exhausted child.
Zhu Yu Da caught up from behind. “Fourth Young Master, tomorrow is your rest day.”
Fu Xi Yan’s face brightened. “How sudden.”
“You’ll rest during the day and take the night shift.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
His smile disappeared. “Much too sudden!”
After several days together, Zhu Yu Da knew exactly how to tempt him. “There is little to do at night. You might even find time to doze off.”
But Fu Xi Yan had been deceived too many times. He was no longer the sweet, innocent fool he had once been.
This was the imperial palace. Security was strict, and the Chu faction would be watching him like hawks. How much sleep could he possibly get? One slow-motion blink?
Spare him.
For a fatty like him, turning day and night upside down would only worsen his already questionable health.
As soon as Fu Xi Yan returned home, he begged Fu Xuan to use his influence and transfer him away from night duty. Naturally, if Fu Xuan could also grant him a long holiday so he could repair the glass heart Chu Shao Yang had frightened into pieces, that would be even better.
Fu Xuan had been planning to discuss the day’s events with him. “Tell me how Chu Shao Yang frightened you.”
Fu Xi Yan immediately came alive. With passionate gestures and vivid emotion, he described the brutality and cunning with which Chu Shao Yang had tried to force an innocent man down a dark path, emphasizing his own confusion, fear, and helplessness.
Fu Xuan summarized, “So you used underhanded tricks to force a draw?”
Fu Xi Yan frowned. “We are uncle and nephew. Calling them ‘underhanded tricks’ is rather hurtful.”
Fu Xuan sneered. “Because we are uncle and nephew, why would I stop at being merely rather hurtful?”
His expression darkened. “You were recklessly bold! You actually accepted a challenge from someone in the Bone Forging Stage. Had Chu Shao Yang not been young and concerned with saving face, I might have arrived only in time to bury you!”
Fu Xi Yan thought that was far too serious. “There were so many people there. Uncle Zhu was present…”
“What did you expect? For everyone to start an armed riot inside the imperial palace on your behalf, so the whole lot of you could be dragged out and beheaded?”
Fu Xi Yan lowered his eyes. “Surely I’m not hated enough to inspire that.”
Fu Xuan snorted. “The Chu family has always been petty and narrow-minded.”
That was why he had deliberately used realm suppression against the younger Chu Shao Yang. By bullying the junior himself, he had drawn some of the hatred away from his foolish nephew.
Fu Xi Yan asked gloomily, “Was I too clever for my own good? Did I make things worse?”
“There is no need to worry that much. The moment I defeated Chu Guang, the Fu and Chu families became enemies.” Seeing Fu Xi Yan’s dejected face, Fu Xuan finally softened. “Go to work as usual tomorrow. I will deal with the night shift.”
Having someone at court truly made everything easier.
Reassured, Fu Xi Yan returned to researching soap.
Fu Xuan went back to his room, changed his clothes, then immediately went to see Fu Fu.
Fu Fu was in the study sampling pastries sent by several concubines. When Fu Xuan entered looking grave, his mood sank with him. “Did Fourth cause trouble?”
“We can discuss that later.”
So he had caused trouble.
The pastry in Fu Fu’s mouth instantly stopped tasting sweet. His eyes drifted toward the saber rack.
“The Chu family may be preparing a major move.”
Fu Xuan’s words pulled his attention back.
“Hm?” Fu Fu said. “Isn’t Chu Guang still recovering?”
Fu Xuan briefly explained what had happened that morning. “Chu Shao Yang is one of the Chu family’s most outstanding younger members. They would not place him in the Yulin Guard without a purpose. I have already asked Eunuch Zhang to keep watch in secret.”
There was no need to ask what he was watching.
Fu Fu could no longer sit calmly. “There has still been no word of transfers from the palace?”
Over the past several days, officials in every department had fought openly and covertly. Some were promoted, others demoted, and people had been moved in every direction.
Why was the Fu family alone still suspended in uncertainty?
Had the dog emperor decided to stop behaving like a human being yet again?
After some thought, Fu Fu said, “Xia Qing is discussing marriage with the Grand Guardian’s Estate. I’ll have Madam send a calling card tomorrow and visit the Grand Guardian’s wife. If Noble Consort Liu supports us within the palace, we will not be so passive in the future.”
Fu Xuan looked startled. “Brother?”
Fu Fu smiled bitterly. “His Majesty is ambitious. If I remain trapped in the old ways, I may truly destroy the Fu family’s century-old foundation.”
Grand Guardian Liu Yan Sheng had been the emperor’s childhood study companion. The two had grown up together and understood each other perfectly. When the emperor wanted someone beheaded, Liu Yan Sheng passed him the knife. When the emperor tired, he rubbed his back.
He was truly one of the emperor’s most trusted men.
After the empress’s death, the management of the inner palace had been entrusted to Liu Yan Sheng’s younger sister, Noble Consort Liu. Her favor was obvious.
The declining Fu family had only secured these marriage talks because Fu Li An and the Grand Guardian’s concubine-born son were classmates. Yet Fu Fu had hesitated after negotiations began. He feared offending the hereditary military nobles who formed his own political circle, so he kept the Liu family at arm’s length.
Now circumstances forced him to choose.
Would the Fu family quietly fade into obscurity?
Or would it risk everything on one final move?
Fu Xuan said, “We will have to trouble Sister-in-law.”
Madam Fu came from an aristocratic house and excelled at diplomacy. The Fu family’s collateral relatives had not appeared to make trouble for years largely because of her. Her talents had merely gone unnoticed because the Fu family itself had little presence within elite circles.
While Madam Fu prepared to rally and expand the family’s diplomatic efforts, Fu Xi Yan stared in disbelief at the bar of soap that had finally taken shape.
He was thoroughly impressed by his own brilliance.
“As expected, I am this dynasty’s… light of science and technology!”
He stretched one hand dramatically toward the sunlight.
The glow of sunset traced the round contours of his palm and fingers with perfect evenness.
Fu Xi Yan marveled, “What an incredible golden finger!”
“Young Master,” his servant’s calm voice intruded, “is it used the same way as pancreas soap?”
Fu Xi Yan snapped out of his ecstasy.
He turned.
His soul almost flew away.
The servant was holding a basin of water, ready to test the soap.
“What are you doing? Put it down. There’s no need to be hasty. We can discuss this.”
Fu Xi Yan carefully rescued the soap from the bewildered servant.
It had survived endless hardship.
Countless failed attempts.
Long and painful anticipation.
Every method he could think of.
At last, it had been born.
He touched it.
Rubbed it.
Kissed it.
Licked it—
“Ugh!”
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