Gongsun E did not answer immediately. Lowering his eyes, he let his gaze drift over the sachet hanging at Wei Xiao’s waist. He seemed to smile, though the expression was barely noticeable, before replying slowly:
“The sights of the imperial city change from year to year. His Majesty happened to summon me today, and after leaving the audience, I wandered here. It really is quite different from years past.”
He never mentioned the previous night, nor did he explain why he had kept that sachet all this time. For no apparent reason, it left Wei Xiao even more vexed.
Wei Xiao paused so slightly it was almost imperceptible.
He could not stop recalling how Gongsun E had set down the sachet last night and left without saying a word. Countless questions had piled up inside him. He wanted to know why Gongsun E had kept the sachet for so long.
Yet when he saw Gongsun E looking so perfectly untroubled, all those words lodged in his throat. He could not force out a single one.
With everything he wanted to say trapped inside, all that remained was a cool, cutting mockery.
“Lord Gongsun is so occupied with affairs, and yet you still find time for such leisurely pursuits.”
Gongsun E smiled faintly and paid no mind to the sarcasm. Slowly closing his folding fan, he took the initiative to make conversation. “Where has Your Excellency been?”
Wei Xiao narrowed his eyes. “I was unaware the Criminal Investigation Office had grown so overbearing that even my movements must be reported to Lord Gongsun.”
Gongsun E seemed not to notice the barb in Wei Xiao’s words at all. He replied gently:
“It was only an idle question. If Your Excellency prefers not to answer, how could I possibly insist?”
Wei Xiao sneered inwardly.
For all Gongsun E’s air of unconcern, he had never stopped investigating the missing salt-tax silver. Now that a clue had appeared, how could he bear to let it slip away?
Wei Xiao spoke in a low voice that betrayed neither pleasure nor anger. “And what if I told you I just came from the Imperial Silverwork Office?”
“Indeed?” Gongsun E finally seemed a little interested. With a smile that was not quite a smile, he asked, “Has Your Excellency discovered something about that ring?”
Wei Xiao arched his brows coldly. His tone was sharp with scorn. “What? Does Lord Gongsun want to know?”
Gongsun E showed not the slightest fear of the coldness in his eyes. A faint smile touched his lips as he slowly approached Wei Xiao’s side. His deep voice sounded kindness itself, yet every word was a quiet probe:
“With Your Excellency’s influence and connections, you must have learned something. Why not tell me, so that I can help you consider what it means?”
Wei Xiao said nothing. His expression abruptly chilled.
He slowly raised his gaze to Gongsun E. For some reason, he lifted a hand and laid it inch by inch upon the other man’s lapel, a gesture so lingering it was almost intimate. But the next moment his fingers tightened sharply around the collar, and he dragged Gongsun E forcefully toward him.
The sudden force caught Gongsun E off guard. Losing his balance, he stumbled forward. Their shoulders pressed together, their breaths mingled, and the little distance left between them vanished. They were pressed close in a pose at once intensely intimate and bristling with hostility.
Gongsun E showed no sign of panic. Lowering his gaze, he looked at the hand clasped around his waist, then raised his eyes to Wei Xiao. The hint of a smile lingered at his lips.
“What does Your Excellency mean by this?”
Wei Xiao looked at him coldly. After a moment’s silence, he enunciated each word slowly. “You want to know the clue concerning that ring?”
Gongsun E lifted an eyebrow, neither confirming nor denying it.
“Why should I tell you?” Wei Xiao demanded coldly.
Gongsun E understood at once, a half-smile flashing in his eyes. Was Wei Xiao trying to turn the tables and gain leverage over him?
He played along. “Then…what would Your Excellency require in exchange for telling me about the ring?”
Silence instantly settled around them. Only the cold wind rustled through the palace buildings.
At that moment, even Wei Xiao himself seemed not to know the answer.
He stood there, stunned, while dark currents surged in his eyes where no one could see them.
What did he want, exactly?
He only wanted to soothe the pain that had kept him tossing and turning for years, to put an end to the obsession that grew wildly inside him day and night. Yet no matter what methods he tried, he could find no way to free himself.
Kill Gongsun E?
The thought sprang abruptly into his mind, vicious and absurd enough to send a chill through his whole body.
Wei Xiao clenched his teeth soundlessly. His dark expression nearly slipped beyond his control. He felt Gongsun E truly must have driven him mad. Otherwise, how could such a horrifying, deranged thought have taken root?
But beneath the absurdity lay a clarity that reached his very bones.
It had begun when Gongsun E brought out that sachet last night.
It had begun when he walked beneath this palace wall today.
At last, he understood one thing completely.
All these years of restless agony and bitter resentment had, in the end, sprung from one person.
And there had only ever been two ways to escape it.
Either destroy him utterly.
Or possess him completely…
For a thought to arise, for a man to fall from the human world into hell, it took no more than a single instant.
Suddenly, Wei Xiao no longer cared about the divide between righteousness and wickedness, or the impossibility of black and white standing together. Nor did he want to examine whatever schemes Gongsun E was hiding. If the man wanted to join his side, let him. Did Wei Xiao lack the courage to accept him?
All he wanted was this man.
He would lock him firmly at his side, never let him take a step away, and never allow him to escape for the rest of his life.
That secret affection he had buried in a corner of the palace walls ten years ago had spent a decade taking root and lying dormant. At last, last night, it silently broke through the earth and grew madly in his heart until it blotted out the sky and sun.
How deranged. How terrifying.
Yet something close to crazed delight surged in Wei Xiao’s chest. He nearly laughed under his breath.
He was like a madman trapped for years who had finally found the only path to survival.
Wei Xiao’s chest rose and fell violently. He struggled to suppress the trembling madness surging up his throat and the fierce possessiveness raging in his eyes. When he spoke, his voice was low and hoarse, every word measured, carrying an obsession restrained for years and now finally broken free:
“Gongsun E,”
he said,
“what if what I want…is you yourself?”
The wind stopped abruptly.
Gongsun E stiffened almost imperceptibly, startled. He lowered his eyes, searching Wei Xiao’s cold, menacing expression for the slightest hint of a joke. All he found was fierce fixation and a grim sincerity, both as deep as a dark pool.
After a moment, the faint smile returned to his face. “Only that? Your Excellency need only have said so. I told you before that I wanted to enter your service…”
Before he could finish, Wei Xiao cut him off sharply. “It isn’t the same!”
Wei Xiao’s eyes darkened, and the viciousness surrounding him was nearly impossible to contain. He stared fixedly into Gongsun E’s eyes, his gaze cold enough to pierce bone. Repeating himself slowly, word by word, he said:
“Not. The. Same.”
“Gongsun E, do you understand the difference between entering my service and staying by my side?”
Entering his service could mean serving as an adviser or a strategist.
People gathered where there was profit and scattered when it ran out. Betrayal was always possible.
But staying by Wei Xiao’s side meant shackles that would never let him take a step away, confinement that made him Wei Xiao’s alone.
There would be no way back, and no permission to leave.
Gongsun E was taken aback once more. The habitual teasing light finally disappeared from his smiling eyes. He regarded Wei Xiao with quiet surprise and caution. They had been apart only one night, yet the man before him had changed his attitude with astonishing speed.
After a long pause, Gongsun E spoke without hurry:
“If Your Excellency intends to exchange a single ring for my entire person, isn’t the price rather too low?”
The grip on his collar tightened abruptly.
Gongsun E leaned closer with the pull and heard Wei Xiao say coldly, “Gongsun E, you’ve been hampered at every turn in court these past years. Life hasn’t been easy, has it? From now on, so long as you do not obstruct my affairs, investigate whomever you please and bring down whomever you please. Your road will be smooth.”
He asked with icy coolness, “Well?”
Gongsun E lowered his eyes without speaking. He did not answer immediately.
Wei Xiao waited for his reply, but as the silence stretched on, irritation began to grow. “I’m not in such a mood every day. Think carefully before you answer.”
Gongsun E deliberately hesitated at length. “This is a matter of great consequence. Could Your Excellency give me a few days to consider…”
“Give me your answer now!” Wei Xiao interrupted. There was no room for argument in his voice.
Only then did Gongsun E raise his eyes. With an inexplicable smile, he asked softly, “If I agreed just like that, would Your Excellency dare believe me?”
Wei Xiao’s face darkened. He said nothing.
Gongsun E smiled, as though he had anticipated precisely this reaction, and took a step back. “Then how about this? Allow me a few days to think it through before I answer.”
Wei Xiao remained silent for a long time, his eyes growing colder. At last he ground out, “Very well. I’ll allow you a few days.”
But before the words had faded, he imposed another condition in a low, unquestionable voice:
“In three days I’m going down to Yangzhou to investigate the missing salt silver. You must come with me.”
This time Gongsun E did not hesitate. Even had Wei Xiao said nothing, he had planned to visit Yangzhou again. “Naturally. I shall follow Your Excellency’s orders.”
Wei Xiao felt even more stifled. He turned to leave, but had taken only two steps when someone suddenly seized his wrist. He stopped, looking back with dark, chilling eyes, only to hear Gongsun E say at his leisure:
“If Your Excellency has finished with that ring, could you return it to me?”
Wei Xiao’s face fell. He had thought Gongsun E had stopped him over something important, but it was only a wretched ring. Taking a brocade pouch from his sleeve, he flung it into Gongsun E’s arms, wrenched his wrist free, and strode away without looking back.
Gongsun E remained where he was, glancing down at the brocade pouch and then at Wei Xiao’s disappearing figure around the palace wall. Only then did he stroll over to the steps and sit. Rather than opening the pouch, he tipped back his head, closed his eyes lazily, and basked in the growing daylight.
Earlier, he had deliberately dragged the Crown Prince into the salt-tax affair. If the Crown Prince had secretly colluded with Shen Wanjin, he would not have been so overwhelmed and helpless now. Evidently, the ring had not belonged to the Empress.
Prince Cheng was still young and had not yet established his power. His mother, Consort Lan, had always kept a low profile, and her natal family had little influence.
By contrast, Prince Jin and Noble Consort Yin had been making frequent moves at court in recent years.
With that thought, Gongsun E slowly opened his eyes, the hint of a knowing smile glinting in them.
That ring belonged to Noble Consort Yin…
At the time, Wei Xiao had no idea that Gongsun E had already worked out the ring’s origin.
On the eve of his departure for Yangzhou, the officials under his command suddenly learned that Gongsun E would be accompanying them south. The news threw them into uproar.
Every one of these men was corrupt or dishonest, with plenty of dirt of his own to hide. How could they dare share a room with Gongsun E? Once he entered Yangzhou’s salt administration and began digging layer by layer, their secret dealings would sooner or later be dragged into the light.
Their faces taut with worry, the officials came forward one after another to dissuade Wei Xiao.
“Your Excellency! You must not take Gongsun E south! He shows no mercy in his investigations. The waters in Yangzhou are already muddy enough. Taking him along would be inviting disaster upon yourself!”
“That’s right, Your Excellency! The salt-silver case has far-reaching implications. There are countless secrets beneath the surface that cannot bear close scrutiny, and even our own hands aren’t clean. We absolutely must not do this!”
“Please reconsider, Your Excellency! It’s one thing to leave him safely in the capital. Why invite a wolf into our own house?”
The study was filled with the chaotic voices of their panicked objections.
Only Wei Xiao, seated in the place of honor, had remained silent from beginning to end.
Perhaps the candlelight hurt his eyes. His fingers rested lightly against the corner of his forehead, just concealing the sightless, bluish eye. The magnificent crimson python robe gave his features a touch of striking, almost dangerous beauty, yet he seemed cloaked in a cold gloom no warmth could dispel.
No matter how desperately the men pleaded, he said not a word.
Finally, they noticed the suffocating chill in the air and fell silent one by one. The study that had been so noisy just moments before grew quiet enough for a falling needle to be heard.