When Fu Xi Yan and Shou Nan Shan returned to Count Yongfeng’s Estate, Xiao Sang and Xiao Zhang were kneeling on the ground asking forgiveness. The Hidden Dragon Unit, which normally never showed itself in public, had appeared in full force, and even the white tiger was shaking itself out majestically, ready to follow Pei Yuan Jin in the search.
Seeing everyone armed and prepared to leave, Shou Nan Shan looked puzzled. “Where are you all going? Is there a fight? Count me in.”
Pei Yuan Jin said coldly, “Without you, there wouldn’t be one.”
Shou Nan Shan blinked and immediately understood what he meant. He gave a wry smile. “Don’t tell me I’m the one everyone plans to fight?”
Yu Su Huan took the initiative to give him an escape route. “Did you abduct Young Master Fu, or did you rescue Young Master Fu?”
Shou Nan Shan looked toward Fu Xi Yan with a silent plea in his eyes.
Under ordinary circumstances, if a mighty Martial King actually turned around and begged him for mercy, Fu Xi Yan would have given him at least a little face. But today, he had nearly become a traitorous rebel guilty of defying the sovereign, and the heart in his chest was still going thump-thump in panic. These were most certainly not ordinary circumstances.
“Just now, Martial King Shou abducted me and tried to storm the imperial palace to assassinate His Majesty.” With Pei Yuan Jin standing right there, Fu Xi Yan’s courage abruptly swelled. “I wonder whether Young Master Pei knew about this?”
“Of course he didn’t,” Shou Nan Shan cut in. “Something as outrageous as abducting the Young Madam—if the Young Master knew, he would obviously have stopped me. Why would I tell him beforehand?”
Hearing “Young Madam” come out of his mouth yet again made Pei Yuan Jin’s eyebrow twitch. He warned mildly, “Enough.”
Yu Su Huan sighed inwardly and was just about to smooth things over when she heard Shou Nan Shan say smugly, “Young Master, don’t worry. I never did make it into the palace. The Young Madam stopped me in his capacity as the Young Madam.”
Fu Xi Yan looked expectantly around at everyone. “You can imagine what the situation was like, right? I had no choice.”
Shou Nan Shan objected, “A gentleman’s promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold.”
Fu Xi Yan said, “I made that declaration under duress and against my true intentions. I can petition to have it rescinded. It doesn’t count!”
Shou Nan Shan was remarkably agreeable. He nodded. “Then let’s go again.”
Fu Xi Yan shot behind Pei Yuan Jin in a single step, cautiously poked his head out, and borrowed the tiger’s might to shout, “Impudent! Your Young Master is standing right here!”
Shou Nan Shan laughed. “I’m a Martial King. Even the Young Master can’t stop me.”
Fu Xi Yan laughed from sheer anger. “But the Young Madam can?” Wasn’t there something deeply wrong with the cause-and-effect logic here?
Shou Nan Shan looked toward Pei Yuan Jin and found it difficult to read anything from that handsome face. It seemed that once Shou Nan Shan had brought Fu Xi Yan safely home, all the emotion Pei Yuan Jin had revealed earlier had withdrawn again.
Neither pleased nor angry.
Deep and unfathomable.
But Shou Nan Shan had watched him grow up. Never mind reading that expressionless face—even by watching a few strands of his hair tremble in the wind, Shou Nan Shan could still guess the thousand changes occurring inside him. Right now, for instance, beneath the calm surface of that lake lay the bewilderment of water that no longer knew where it was meant to flow.
So it seemed he still needed a little push.
Shou Nan Shan’s smile grew even more unrestrained. “No matter. The emperor in the palace isn’t going anywhere.”
Listen to that. Is that something a human being says?!
Fu Xi Yan stretched out one finger and secretly poked Pei Yuan Jin in the back.
Pei Yuan Jin finally spoke. “I truly can’t beat him.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…” Then throw your weight around! The dignity of the Young Master is sacred and inviolable! Punish him mercilessly for insubordination!
He deliberately craned his neck and stole a look at Pei Yuan Jin’s face.
Pei Yuan Jin sensed it and glanced back.
Fu Xi Yan pointed through the air toward Shou Nan Shan. Look at that bastard’s smug face! Don’t you feel even the tiniest urge to smash his dog head in?
Pei Yuan Jin’s gaze drifted away, avoiding Fu Xi Yan’s insistent stare, and he walked back inside with steps that were just slightly stiff.
Watching his back, Fu Xi Yan felt as though a thousand Er Kang hands were reaching out from inside his heart, crying, Young Master, why did you give up treatment?!
Elio’s Notes: “Er Kang hands” refers to the melodramatic outstretched-hand gesture associated with Er Kang from the television drama My Fair Princess and widely used as a meme. “Why did you give up treatment?” is also a Chinese internet catchphrase joking that someone’s behavior is beyond saving.
The white tiger let out an awoo! at Shou Nan Shan, and Fu Xi Yan nearly shed tears of paternal emotion. At a critical moment, you really can only rely on your own flesh and blood. Men you pick up outside truly can’t be trusted!
The white tiger suddenly pounced and planted itself against Shou Nan Shan, rubbing all over him affectionately.
Shou Nan Shan looked disgusted. “Get away from me. Otherwise, my donkey will start disliking me again.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…” Ungrateful tiger. I can’t stay in this place anymore.
Watching him storm off in a huff, Yu Su Huan said helplessly, “Was all that really necessary?”
Shou Nan Shan felt that he had accomplished something tremendous. “A marriage begins either with the name but no substance, or the substance but no name. The Young Master doesn’t want to move too quickly, so I can only proceed step by step.”
Yu Su Huan sighed. “I’m only afraid Young Master Fu will take his anger out on you and you’ll end up making things worse.”
“Call him Young Madam.” Shou Nan Shan swept his gaze over everyone present. “From now on, that’s what all of you will call him. No mistakes. Every mistake earns a punishment. Once everyone calls him that long enough… eventually the Young Madam himself will get used to it.”
Yu Su Huan stole a glance at Pei Yuan Jin, who had returned indoors.
Pei Yuan Jin was calmly petting the cat as though he had seen and heard absolutely nothing happening outside… and everyone understood.
＊
Naturally, the news that the Immortal Treasury Palace had acquired a “Young Madam” could not escape Count Yongfeng’s Estate, which was keeping a close watch on their every move.
That very night, Fu Xi Yan was hauled into the ancestral hall by his own father.
“Kneel!”
Fu Xi Yan looked at his furious father, then at the memorial tablets of generations of ancestors, and showed excellent judgment. He bent both knees and knelt perfectly straight.
With his hands behind his back, Fu Fu stared at the ancestral tablets. “Go on. Explain this ‘Young Madam’ business!”
Fu Xi Yan said, “It’s because of the Harmonized Yang Pills.”
Fu Fu spun around in disbelief, spraying spit everywhere. “And you just accepted it?!”
Fu Xi Yan wiped his face and glanced at him. “What else am I supposed to do? Have my father go beat up his father?”
Fu Fu was rendered speechless. After choking on the question for quite some time, he finally managed, “You’re a man! His father can agree to that?”
Fu Xi Yan tilted sideways and simply sat down on the spot, sighing. “If he doesn’t agree, his son is ruined. If it were you, would you agree or not?”
Fu Fu felt as though his chest had stopped working. He wanted to lose his temper but had no idea whom he could reasonably be angry at. In terms of how miserable anyone felt about this, his son was the person directly involved and must surely feel worse than he did. And if he blamed Pei Yuan Jin, the other boy was a victim too.
But!
He had raised a son. Such a big son! Such a fat son! How had his son somehow turned into a Young Madam?!
“This is still your fault!” Fu Fu finally found someone to blame. “If you hadn’t spent all day thinking about marriage alliances, would any of this have happened?”
Fu Xi Yan: “…”
Was I the one obsessed with arranging a marriage alliance? Back then I’d been driven into a corner! I was useless at scholarship, useless at martial arts, and couldn’t even make soap, so I thought I might as well sacrifice myself for the family—and they still looked down on me!
Fu Xi Yan retorted without the slightest courtesy, “If you’d just let me peacefully become a shopkeeper back then, none of this would have happened.”
Fu Fu glared at him. “You still dare talk back?”
Fu Xi Yan grumbled and shuffled around until all Fu Fu could see was his stubborn back.
Fu Fu became even angrier. “Insolent! How dare you turn your back on your ancestors?”
…The ancestors really are innocent. Fu Xi Yan reluctantly turned around again.
“You’ll stay here tonight and reflect properly!” Regardless of who was right or wrong, a father’s dignity had to be maintained. Fu Fu put on the full authority of an old father. “And there’s something else. His Majesty is preparing to make his move. Be careful in everything you do from now on. Whatever happens, don’t let anyone get hold of something they can use against you.”
Fu Xi Yan raised his eyebrows. “I’m involved too?”
Fu Fu’s expression became grave. “The Censorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of War will all launch attacks. But the Rong family will not sit there waiting to die. You’re my son, and you’re also in the Censorate. They may choose to start with you. If Shi Wei Liang orders you to do anything, come home and ask me first. Don’t agree on your own.”
“I’m afraid there won’t be time for that,” Fu Xi Yan said. “He’s my superior, and he’s in the same camp as you. If something actually comes up, refusing him would look worse.”
Fu Fu thought about it and had to agree. He had simply become muddled from worrying too much.
After all, according to the original plan he and Fu Xuan had made, Fu Li An should have been serving outside the capital by now, Fu Dong Wen traveling for his studies, Fu Xia Qing married into the Grand Commandant’s household, and Fu Xi Yan remaining in Luoyang. No matter who won or lost this struggle at court, none of them should have been caught in it.
But Fu Xi Yan had not only returned to Haojing; he had become the Capital Patrol Commissioner and plunged directly into the center of the whirlpool. How could Fu Fu not worry?
Seeing the deep frown on his face, Fu Xi Yan could not resist fooling around a little. “Relax. Even if they don’t respect the monk, they’ll respect the Buddha. I’m the Young Madam of the Immortal Treasury Palace now, after all. If anyone dares come after me, I’ll shut the doors and unleash a Martial King.”
Fu Fu: “…”
His liver hurt from rage.
＊
Fu Fu’s worries were anything but groundless.
The next morning, the moment Fu Xi Yan arrived at work, Left Censor-in-Chief Shi Wei Liang summoned him and told him to add his name to a memorial. The memorial impeached Rong Yue for drinking and making merry during the mourning period for Consort Dowager Chen, giving the appearance that he was celebrating her death.
Fu Xi Yan hesitated. “But… I didn’t see it myself.”
Shi Wei Liang said, “After the Censorate prison was attacked, Liao Shang of the Ministry of Justice visited the Rong residence to ask about Rong Yue’s whereabouts that day. Rong Yue admitted it himself. We have the time, the place, and the list of everyone who drank with him. There is no room for dispute.”
Fu Xi Yan remembered that Lou Wu Zai had indeed mentioned the matter in passing. He simply had not imagined that something so minor could be inflated into such a serious accusation, and a chill crept down his back. If the Rong family counterattacked and started digging for dirt on him, who knew how many things they might uncover that even he had never thought of?
Thanks to Emperor Jianhong’s maneuvering, Shi Wei Liang already knew that Count Yongfeng Fu Fu, Commander of the Yulin Guard Fu Xuan, and he himself were all in the same camp, so he naturally regarded Fu Xi Yan as one of their own. He spoke frankly. “Don’t worry. When ten thousand arrows are loosed at once, this will be one insignificant arrow among them and won’t attract anyone’s attention. Besides, as the Censorate’s Capital Patrol Commissioner, supervising the conduct of Haojing’s officials is already part of your duty. If you fail to submit a memorial, that would actually be dereliction of duty.”
The chill down Fu Xi Yan’s back grew even colder.
He remembered how Fu Fu had previously tried every possible means of sending the family away from Haojing. Meanwhile, Fu Xi Yan had been all the way in Luoyang when an imperial decree abruptly summoned him back. Afterward, he entered the Censorate, and now he had become Capital Patrol Commissioner, leaving him duty-bound to participate in exactly this sort of thing. The traces of deliberate human arrangement behind all of it were painfully obvious.
But Fu Xi Yan knew he had no right to refuse. Shi Wei Liang’s meaning was clear: if Fu Xi Yan refused to sign, forget gaining any goodwill from Rong Yue—the Censorate itself would punish him first.
Fu Xi Yan piled on a smile. “This subordinate was negligent. Something so obvious actually required Lord Shi to remind me.” He promptly and decisively signed his name.
Shi Wei Liang was very satisfied with his tact. “The Minister of Justice spoke to me yesterday. Head Constable Liao will come see you today. He has already captured the mastermind behind the attack on the Censorate prison. Cooperate with him and provide another statement.”
Fu Xi Yan nodded with a smile.
The key word in that sentence was— cooperate.
As for how he was meant to cooperate…
Liao Shang made that perfectly clear the moment he arrived.
“On the day of the attack, did you hear the assassins speak? Did they sound like they had Southern Yu accents?”
Could the leading question possibly be any more blatant?
Fu Xi Yan: “…” How the hell would I know what a Southern Yu accent sounds like?
He racked his brains for a long while. “Dui mou gai? Xia-xia nong?” Of all the southern speech he knew, those were the two phrases he could say most fluently—one Cantonese, one Shanghainese. Surely one of them had to hit the mark.
Elio’s Notes: Fu Xi Yan is imitating two southern speech expressions he knows—one Cantonese and one Shanghainese. Written with these Chinese characters, the sounds also evoke “hen” and “shrimp,” which is why Liao Shang takes them literally.
Liao Shang’s expression became indescribable. “While they were trying to assassinate you, they were thinking about hens and shrimp?”
Fu Xi Yan looked just as confused. “Mou gai, mou gai. I really am mou gai.”
Liao Shang drew a deep breath and wrote in the record: “During the assassination, the assailants appeared to say two sentences in an unusual accent.” He looked up and smiled. “Capital Patrol Commissioner Fu has lived in Haojing for many years and is unfamiliar with accents from other regions, so it is understandable that he could not determine their meaning.”
Fu Xi Yan nodded cooperatively. “Exactly, exactly.”
“Do you think their martial arts style resembled the Spirit Sect’s?”
Fu Xi Yan pondered for a moment. “What kind of martial arts does the Spirit Sect use?”
Liao Shang wrote again: “Capital Patrol Commissioner Fu found the opponents’ martial arts style extremely unfamiliar and suspects it did not originate in Northern Zhou’s martial world.”
“Precisely, precisely.” Fu Xi Yan nodded while thinking, What does ‘Northern Zhou’s martial world’ even mean? Does the Immortal Treasury Palace count?
Liao Shang put down his brush with satisfaction and was just about to stand when he suddenly asked, “Since Capital Patrol Commissioner Fu returned to the capital, have you seen Zhang Da Shan?”
Fu Xi Yan paused. “No. Has Head Constable Liao?”
“I have. At the Rong residence.”
Fu Xi Yan was surprised. “Then why didn’t Head Constable Liao arrest him on the spot?”
Liao Shang said, “That case has already been assigned to Head Constable Lou Wu Zai. It would be inappropriate for me to interfere. But I’m willing to do Capital Patrol Commissioner Fu this favor.”
Fu Xi Yan had no desire to owe him one. “Zhang Da Shan is only an insignificant petty man. Why bother with him?”
Liao Shang fanned the flames. “Capital Patrol Commissioner Fu is magnanimous indeed. If someone tried to kill me, I would have him sliced into a thousand pieces.”
Fu Xi Yan sighed sincerely. “That only means not enough people have tried to kill you yet.”
Liao Shang: “…”
＊
Fu Xi Yan had put his name on the memorial without consulting anyone, yet Fu Fu did not scold him. Supervising the conduct of officials in Haojing was indeed part of the Capital Patrol Commissioner’s duties. If Fu Xi Yan refused to sign, the Rong family could seize upon that very refusal as leverage against him later.
Fu Fu said, “Drinking during a mourning period is a minor matter. Besides, Lord Shi previously defended Chen Wen Ju and displeased His Majesty, so this time he’ll certainly make a proper show of himself. He won’t let you steal the limelight. Zhang Da Shan is more interesting. We once suspected he belonged to Chu Guang, then the City of Ten Thousand Beasts suddenly appeared to protect him, and now he has gone to the Rong family. There are too many tangled connections behind him to make sense of.”
Thinking of Pei Yuan Jin’s usual approach to problems, Fu Xi Yan found the matter quite straightforward. “Treat him as a clue and assume all these people belong to the same group. Doesn’t everything immediately become clearer?”
Fu Fu shook his head. “The City of Ten Thousand Beasts and the Rong family have absolutely nothing to do with each other.”
Fu Xi Yan countered, “Count Yongfeng’s Estate and the Immortal Treasury Palace don’t exactly look like one family either.”
“Young Madam, that remark wounds the heart.” Shou Nan Shan’s figure appeared outside the window. “Count Yongfeng’s Estate is your natal home. In the hearts of everyone at the Immortal Treasury Palace, we are already one family.”
Fu Xi Yan hurriedly patted Fu Fu’s chest to help him breathe. “I’ve got him, I’ve got him. Don’t worry.”
He stood, turned around, and pushed open the window.
Shou Nan Shan offered him the wine gourd in his hand. “Thirty-year-old Daughter Red wine. Wonderfully mellow.”
Elio’s Notes: Daughter Red is a traditional aged rice wine associated with the custom of storing wine after a daughter’s birth and opening it for an important later occasion, traditionally her marriage.
Fu Xi Yan accepted the gourd. “Excellent wine. You’re not allowed to drink it again next time, or you’ll start talking drunken nonsense. Also, my family’s estate is enormous, and there are plenty of empty places. Martial King Shou may go wherever he likes. There’s no need to squeeze yourself beneath the eaves. If someone mistakes you for an eavesdropper, it would damage the dignity of a Martial King.” With that, he prepared to close the window.
Shou Nan Shan said leisurely, “I can kill Rong Yue.”
Fu Xi Yan reopened the window. Shou Nan Shan took back the gourd, tilted his head, and drank. “He’s merely at the Dao-Entry Stage. If I leave now, I can be back before midnight.”
“Wait.” Fortunately, Shou Nan Shan’s sleeves were wide enough for Fu Xi Yan to catch one in time. “Why would you suddenly go kill him?”
Shou Nan Shan said, “I heard Zhang Da Shan tried to assassinate the Young Madam, and the Rong family is harboring him. Whether Rong Yue knows about it or not, the offense is unforgivable. Shouldn’t he die?”
Fu Xi Yan looked at him strangely. “You certainly hear a lot.”
“I may not necessarily obey the Young Master, but I will always obey the Young Madam. I’m on the Young Madam’s side.” Shou Nan Shan winked at him.
Fu Xi Yan had to admit that this tactic was extremely effective. If he were a woman and his husband’s family contained someone who would blindly take his side without caring who was right or wrong, he would probably be delighted beyond words.
But am I a woman?
No.
So when that delight reached him, the flavor somehow changed. He could no longer tell whether it was sweet, salty, or spicy.
Fu Xi Yan rubbed between his brows. “Don’t kill him yet. We’ve accumulated an entire basin of dirty water over here. Let us throw that first.” The campaign against the Rong family had been personally orchestrated by His Majesty. Why would Fu Xi Yan insert himself unnecessarily?
Shou Nan Shan looked disappointed. “Is there really nowhere for me to make myself useful?”
Having a Martial King as backup would obviously be useful, but this particular ancestor was forever proposing to storm the imperial palace and kill the emperor. When his madness acted up, he was genuinely terrifying. Fu Xi Yan did not dare entrust him with anything important, but neither did he dare let him wander around looking for trouble. After thinking for a moment, he said, “Help me keep an eye on the Young Master.”
Shou Nan Shan widened his eyes in confusion. “Hm?”
“Miss Xia came to the estate a few days ago looking for him. Keep watch and see whether any Miss Spring or Miss Autumn shows up next.” Fu Xi Yan abruptly remembered something. “Oh, right. Miss Xia said a Miss Ban is already in Haojing. Look into her too.”
Shou Nan Shan plugged his wine gourd and smiled knowingly. “If any of those young ladies were actually capable of having something happen with the Young Master, I wouldn’t need to come here and make a nuisance of myself to you.”
Fu Xi Yan put on a fake smile. “Some things are best left mutually understood.”
After Shou Nan Shan left, Fu Fu walked to the window and looked outside. Suddenly he sighed. “With the Immortal Treasury Palace behind you, at least you also have a Martial King bodyguard. It isn’t entirely bad.”
The night outside was dark, and Fu Xi Yan’s expression was just as dark. “Courtesy comes before force. Today he’s a bodyguard. Who knows what he’ll be later?”
Father and son stared out the window, both somewhat melancholy.
＊
The Ministry of Justice concluded that Southern Yu spies had assassinated the Four Young Lords of Haojing and colluded with Chen Wen Ju in an attempt to break him out of prison. After the Court of Judicial Review examined the case, it was transferred to the Ministry of Rites so that a formal letter demanding an explanation could be drafted.
At the same time, Northern Zhou’s troops stationed along the Southern Yu border advanced twenty li, demonstrating the Northern Zhou emperor’s thunderous fury.
Just as everyone throughout the Northern Zhou court believed Emperor Jianhong was preparing for a war between the two states and intended to exploit the conflict between the Southern Yu emperor and the Regent to march south and plunder the country, Left Censor-in-Chief Shi Wei Liang used Rong Yue’s drinking in celebration during Consort Dowager Chen’s mourning period as the fuse at morning court, dramatically opening the campaign against the Rong family.
Although Rong Yue did not attend court, he had no shortage of supporters among the officials. This operation, however, was personally directed by Emperor Jianhong. Its targets encompassed more than a hundred officials of varying ranks associated with the Rong family, almost to the point of preferring to strike the innocent rather than let anyone slip through. Naturally, none of the supporters who spoke up for Rong Yue came away unscathed. In fact, the accusations leveled against some of them were even more serious than those against Rong Yue himself.
For a time, turbulence swept through the Northern Zhou court inside and out, and everyone feared for themselves.
Fu Xi Yan did not understand. “Wasn’t His Majesty planning to take advantage of Southern Yu’s troubles? Why attack the Rong family at exactly this moment?”
Fu Fu said, “Precisely because everyone at court and throughout the country thinks His Majesty is going after Southern Yu, this is the perfect time to move against the Rong family.” Those who knew of the plan had been painstakingly preparing the campaign, and secrecy had always been their highest priority. Until Shi Wei Liang launched the offensive, those outside the conspiracy had heard absolutely nothing.
So to outsiders, the attack appeared both sudden and ferocious.
The Rong family’s supporters were completely unable to fight back. For several days, the Ministry of Justice and Censorate were run ragged, practically sweeping up the entire Rong faction in one net. Even personnel connected to the Rong family in regional garrisons and local government offices were implicated: some were placed under surveillance, others dismissed from their posts.
When Fu Fu had first spoken of “bringing down the Rong family,” Fu Xi Yan had not really grasped what that meant. Only when case files began piling high enough to crush his desk did he finally understand the breadth of the purge.
Several of the cases seemed to him like matters smaller than sesame seeds or mung beans—things that barely warranted a reprimand—yet they were solemnly dragged out and declared worthy of rigorous investigation and severe punishment. The workload became so overwhelming that Fu Xi Yan began to wonder whether the Rong family had offended the emperor, or whether the Ministry of Justice and Censorate had offended him and he had simply invented an excuse to make them work a 007 schedule.
Elio’s Notes: “007” is Chinese internet shorthand for working from midnight to midnight, seven days a week—effectively being on duty all the time.
Fu Xi Yan once carried a stack of files to Shi Wei Liang to complain.
Shi Wei Liang, looking utterly exhausted himself, said it was His Majesty’s order.
So Fu Xi Yan went to complain to Fu Fu and Fu Xuan instead.
Fu Fu told him to do his own job and ignore everything else. As things stood, the campaign against the Rong family was proceeding extremely smoothly. Perhaps because their timing had been good and their preparations thorough, they had encountered almost no counterattack.
However, everyone currently being dragged into the Ministry of Justice or Censorate was merely a supporter of the Rong family. The family head himself was still living perfectly well in his residence. Even the original accusation—“Consort Dowager Chen’s bones are scarcely cold; why did you raise your cup in celebration?”—had ultimately been brushed aside with nothing more than three months of confinement at home.
So Fu Xuan still did not dare lower his guard.
The difference between every major cultivation stage was as vast as Heaven and earth. Someone at the Vajra Stage like him was not even enough to count as a stumbling block before a Dao-Entry Stage expert. Fu Xuan had previously asked Emperor Jianhong whether they should invite martial experts to assist them. Emperor Jianhong refused and gave a baffling reason that Fu Xuan could hardly believe: “We are the Son of Heaven. How would he dare resist Us?”
What could Fu Xuan possibly say? He could only reply, “Your Majesty is wise.”
Fu Xi Yan had come to complain to Fu Xuan and instead ended up listening to Fu Xuan complain. He nearly laughed his teeth out. “My last audience with His Majesty was too rushed, so I didn’t get a good look. I really wonder which of him and Pei Yuan Jin has the higher badassness quotient.”
Fu Xuan asked, “Your father said you and Pei Yuan Jin…”
Fu Xi Yan covered his ears. “Don’t ask.”
Fu Xuan said, “Does refusing to ask make the problem disappear?”
Fu Xi Yan said, “Then why has Uncle never married?” The moment he asked, he regretted it slightly. What if Fu Xuan really did have some tragic, moving love story from his past? Wouldn’t Fu Xi Yan have just jabbed a finger straight into an old wound?
He was about to change the subject when Fu Xuan said, “Back then, in order to cultivate true essence, I took some very potent medicine.”
Fu Xi Yan: “…” S-so…?
Fu Xuan did not continue. He merely rubbed Fu Xi Yan’s head. “You children are no different from my own.”
Fu Xi Yan’s imagination prostrated itself in complete submission. He desperately wished he could swallow the question he had just asked.
Deeply moved, Fu Xi Yan comforted him. “In my heart, I’ve long regarded you as my father too.”
Fu Fu had come looking for his son only to hear said son making a heartfelt declaration to his own younger brother. He roared furiously, “You unfilial brat! Then what am I to you?!”
Fu Xi Yan scratched his cheek and gave a dry laugh. “Uncle?”