The person who came in was a young man with a slightly dark complexion and strong features. A scar ran down the left side of his face, giving him a somewhat fierce look. Anyone who had been in the palace in the past would have definitely recognized this man as the personal attendant of Prince Yong’an.
Wu Geng knelt on one knee by the couch, and when he saw Li Fengqi who was unable to move on the bed, his eyes were filled with anger, heartache, self-blame and many other emotions. After a few breaths, he clenched his fists and managed to calm down his turbulent emotions. He said in a slightly hoarse voice: “How is Wangye’s health?”
“I’m not dead yet.” Unlike his agitated subordinates, Li Fengqi didn’t show much emotion. He seemed to have anticipated this day and asked about outside matters methodically.
“How is the situation outside now? How many people do we still have?”
Wu Geng said: “Everything still seems peaceful on the surface, but secretly, the Emperor is already taking steps to cut off our wings.As soon as I received His Highness’s summons, I immediately informed everyone to hold back and act cautiously. Right now, the emperor couldn’t blame them for the attack. He could only tell Cui Xi to deploy the Shence Army to strengthen the capital’s defenses. All entry and exit points were checked, and communications at the post were secretly cut off. Ambushes were also secretly set up at the gates of the three states of the capital to prevent anyone from going to northern border to report the situation.”
“The incident happened suddenly. We didn’t have many people left in the capital, and we lost many this time. Now we only have five or six xiōngdi left. I didn’t dare to let them go to report the situation recklessly again.”
Li Fengqi was stationed in Northern Xinjiang all year round and rarely returned to the Prince’s palace in the capital.
The reason for his return was the approach of the Mid-Autumn Festival, coupled with hearing that the elderly Wangfei, who was worshiping Buddha in Rongyang was not in good health. He then decided to go back to the capital at the last minute.
Because it was a sudden decision, he didn’t have many guards with him. He never expected that he would be targeted for assassination.
The emperor’s reaction was so fast that he seemed to have been prepared for it. Li Fengqi had only been poisoned for three days before he killed ruthlessly and decisively.
While he trapped the poisoned Li Fengqi in the mansion and ignored him, he killed all Li Fengqi’s confidants. At the same time, he also cut off communications between all parties to prevent anyone from sending letters to Northern Xinjiang, and kept the news in Shangjing.
Immediately noticed the crisis after being poisoned, Li Fengqi sent a secret message to Wu Geng, who had not returned with him, asking him to hide his whereabouts and not return to the palace. He also asked him to send letters to officials who were usually close to him, urging them to act as though they knew nothing. Otherwise, Shangjing would have had blood flowing like a river by this time.
Thinking of those xiōngdi who were killed for nothing, Wu Geng’s eyes turned red with hatred, and he said fiercely: “I’m afraid it was the white-eyed wolf Li Zong who brought this poison to the Prince. He’d been so fortunate to have the Prince’s loyalty all these years! I should go back to the northern border and send a message to General Zhu to bring troops to kill back to Shangjing and take the Prince back!”
Li Fengqi glanced at him. “Who said this poison was given by Li Zong?” He shook his head and said: “Li Zong was just taking advantage of the situation.”
Wu Geng was stunned. “But the Prince has been poisoned…” Obviously, the Prince must have been poisoned by the Emperor when he met him for a drink.
“I know very well who the person who poisoned me was.” Li Fengqi didn’t say more to him. He only ordered: “Be careful outside and find a way to send a message back to Northern Xinjiang as soon as possible. Tell Zhu Wen and the others to hold their troops; do not be provoked to act rashly and get into trouble.”
Li Fengqi was not worried about his own safety these days. What he was most worried about was Zhu Wen and others in Northern Xinjiang.
Li Zong wanted to preserve his reputation, so he would not kill easily him when he was sure that the poison would do him in soon. And the real person who poisoned him didn’t do so to kill him. Therefore, although he suffered, his situation was not life-threatening. In contrast, Zhu Wen, who was far away in Northern Xinjiang, was impulsive and didn’t know what was going on in the capital. If he was provoked into rashly leading his troops back to the capital, he would be playing right into Li Zong’s hands.
There was another reason why Li Zong didn’t dare to kill him: he was afraid that, after killing him, nothing would hold back the Xuanjia Army from returning to the capital regardless. But if nothing happened to him and Zhu Wen and others didn’t hold their tongues, Li Zong could label them as rebels and attack the Xuanjia Army openly. It wouldn’t be worth the loss.
Li Fengqi lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, then reported a list of medicine names and said: “After you go out, find a reliable doctor for me and prepare the medicine according to my prescription. After every ten days, I will ask someone to send a new prescription to get the medicine
Wu Geng was puzzled. “The guards in the Palace are not as tight as before. What does the Prince want? Why don’t you let me send it in directly?”
Although the palace had seemed empty in the past, it had actually been tightly guarded inside and out. That was why he hadn’t been able to find the opportunity to come in earlier. But it had been more than a month since the incident occurred, and the guards around the palace had become much more lax. With his skills, it was not difficult to get in and out.
“Cui Xi is now in charge of the Shence Army. Cui Xi is cunning and devious. The guards in the palace appearing to be lax may be a trap. He may have deliberately relaxed the guards to lure you in so that you be eliminated all at once.” Li Fengqi emphasized his tone: “Do everything according to my instructions. Be careful not to act recklessly. In the future, you shouldn’t go in and out of the palace at will. If anything happens, I will ask someone to send you a message.”
“Yes, at Your Highness’s command.” Wu Geng nodded in agreement. After hesitating for a moment, he asked again: “Do you want to send a message to the elder Wangfei and ask her to return to the house?”
The previous Prince passed away early, and the old Wangfei had never been close to the Prince. After the previous Prince died, she went to Rongyang to rest and recover. Now that such a grave situation had happened to the Prince, despite the weak relationship between mother and son is, she should return to check up on him. Nowadays, the Emperor can be so brazen as to trap people in his mansion and torture them. Half of the reason for this was that there was only one master in the palace. The Prince had fallen and no one in the palace could take charge. Outsiders didn’t dare speak out, either, so was it any wonder that the Emperor could crush them so simply?
If the old Wangfei was in the palace, at least the Emperor would not dare to be so arrogant, and would have to be more cautious.
Li Fengqi was silent for a long time after hearing this, and then said: “Let someone send a letter to mother and ask her to come back to her home.”
When Wu Geng heard the words, the anxiety on his face was swept away, and he said excitedly: “This subordinates will go now.”
At those words, Wu Geng was about to climb through the window and leave, but was called back.
“Wait.”
“Wangye, do you have any other orders?” Wu Geng turned around.
“Do you have any money on you?” Li Fengqi asked.
“???”
Wu Geng was stunned for a moment, and after groping around in his arms, scrapped together five taels of silver. “I only have these now. What does Wangye want the silver for?”
With the current situation in this mansion, there was nowhere to spend money on, right?
“…” He probably didn’t expect his subordinates to be so poor. Li Fengqi looked at the meager five taels of silver and fell silent.
Wu Geng saw this and asked cautiously: “Do you still want them, Your Majesty?”
“…” Li Fengqi closed his eyes and said, “That’s fine. Find an opportunity to send some money and rice in.”
“Yes.” Wu Geng took the silver back. As he climbed through the window to leave, he was still thinking: What would Wangye want money for?
***
When Ye Yunting woke up from his sleep, the Golden Crow1 had already climbed to the top of his head.
After sleeping on the narrow consort’s daybed for a whole night, Ye Yunting did not feel relaxed, and moreover felt dizzy, had back pain, and felt sore in the side of his neck.
He rubbed his neck and stood up to first check on Li Fengqi’s condition.
Li Fengqi didn’t seem to be awake yet. His eyes were closed tightly, his long eyebrows were spread out, his eyes were narrow and long, with the edges tilting upwards slightly, making him appear more alive than yesterday.
Seeing that he looked much better than yesterday, Ye Yunting felt relieved. He rubbed his neck and walked out, muttering: “It looks like I can’t sleep here tonight.”
I felt so uncomfortable after sleeping that I might as well not sleep at all.
“What’s wrong with you?” came Li Fengqi’s voice from behind.
“Wangye is awake?” Ye Yunting turned and went back to the daybed. Frowning, he said, “Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night. Some of the pillows have fallen.”
He said this while still rubbing his neck.
Li Fengqi raised his eyes and looked him over, and saw that his slightly open collar exposed part of his slender neck. There was an obvious bruise mark on the right side near the base of his neck. The bruise looked particularly dark, probably because his skin color was so fair.
“…” Li Fengqi remember that the bruise was due to Wu Ge being too heavy-handed the previous night.
He looked at Ye Yunting, who didn’t know the truth, and felt a rare feeling of guilt. He coughed and said, “It looks like there are some bruises; maybe your neck was injured while sleeping at night.”
Ye Yunting said: “The guifei couch is a bit small. Ji Lian and I might as well squeeze together in the outer room tonight.”
After a few days, once he found out more about the situation in the house, they could consider if they should move to a side room.
“The luohan bed2 in the outer room won’t be able to fit two men.” Li Fengqi saw his frowning expression and hesitated for a moment before adding, “If you don’t mind, just sleep on the bed. The bed is big enough: adding one more person won’t make it crowded.”
He probably hadn’t expected him to be so agreeable. Ye Yunting was stunned for a moment, and then he felt a little moved. After all, the bed really was so big as to fit four people. There was only one of him now, so it really wouldn’t be crowded.
“Of course I don’t mind, but does Wangye… really not mind?”
Li Fengqi shook his head and closed his eyes again without speaking.
Ye Yunting became happy when he saw this, thanked him, and walked briskly outside to fetch water and wash up. Ji Lian had prepared the water a long time ago. After Ye Yunting washed up, he brought another basin of water in for Li Fengqi to rinse his mouth and wipe his face.
Li Fengqi’s muscles and meridians were now severed and he was lying on the bed, unable to move. Ye Yunting could only help him sit up and rinse his mouth, then helped him lie down and wipe his face with a wet handkerchief.
His movements were very skillful, as though this wasn’t his first time to take care of a patient.
“Have you take care of patients before?”
“Mn3.” Ye Yunting had nothing to hide. He placed the handkerchief that he’d used to wipe his face in the basin and wiped his neck and hands. His movements were very unaffected, gentle and without the slightest hint of intimacy. Even someone like Li Fengqi, who always hated being touched by others, did not feel any resistance.
“In the past, the wet nurse who took care of me fell ill and became bedridden. I took care of her for a while.”
He said these words lightly, but Li Fengqi saw his skillful movements and knew that he must have done his best at that time.
Moreover, although he was obviously the eldest son of the Duke’s palace, he had to personally take care of the gravely-ill wet nurse. He seemed to be no stranger to hardship.
“What happened afterwards? Did the wet nurse recover?” Li Fengqi asked.
“No.” Ye Yunting shook his head, some nostalgia in his eyes. “She lasted about a month, and then she passed away. After that, Ji Lian and I were left to depend on each other.”
The wet nurse was Ji Lian’s biological mother.
As soon as he was born, Yu Yenting’s own biological mother died in childbirth. His father probably found him unfilial and so didn’t like him.
Ever since he could remember, he had lived in the most remote courtyard of the Duke’s mansion, with only the wet nurse taking care of him. At that time, he had been young and ignorant, and would often ask his wet nurse why his father and mother never came to see him. Why did the wet nurse never let him and Ji Lian play outside the courtyard? Why did the wet nurse never allow him to go to his parents to complain when domineering servants bullied him and Ji Lian?
It wasn’t until he grew up and saw Ye Wan laughing and playing in his parents’ arms that he gradually understood the wet nurse’s hesitant expression whenever faced with his childish questions.
His mother died on the day she gave birth to him. His current mother was not his biological mother. And his father didn’t like him.
If he could choose, Ye Yunting felt that he probably didn’t want his son at all.
The only people who really loved him and protected him were the wet nurse and Ji Lian.
Later, the nurse passed away, and only Ji Lian was left.
There were many things revealed in his words, but Li Fengqi did not ask any further questions, instead saying: “People are cold-blooded, and you are fortunate to have someone to depend on. Ji Lian is very loyal to you.”
Ye Yunting smiled. “Well, we might be called master and servant, but in fact, we’re almost like brothers.”
After saying this, he picked up the basin and went outside to pour out the water.
On the other hand, Li Fengqi’s expression darkened when he heard the word “brother” and remembered Li Zong.
To this day, he still couldn’t figure out how he and Li Zong came to this point, and why Li Zong hated him so much. Before he was poisoned, his heart regarded Li Zong as a little brother who had not yet grown up and needed his protection. He had read all the history books, had seen many stories of birds disappearing and hiding behind their bows, but he never thought that one day this would happen to him.
If it had been all an act, then Li Zong’s acting skills were excellent indeed.
He still remembered the first time he met Li Zong. He had only been five years old, like a little dumpling no bigger than his thigh, wrapped in a thick cotton robe, clinging to his legs and calling him brother.
At that time, he would learn that the reason his mother had never been close to him all those years was because he had once had a dead twin brother. Because it was considered unlucky to die at birth, this had never been known to outsiders all these years. He only found this out after he secretly saw his mother pay homage to his brother’s tablet.
So when he met Li Zong, he thought that if he had a younger brother, his mother would probably be happier.
For more than ten years, he had truly protected Li Zong as if he were his own brother.
At that time, Prince Li Wei was still alive, and Li Zong was not valued. The late emperor even intended to abolish him. Li Fengqi personally taught Li Zong how to read and practice martial arts, and instructed him in the art of war and strategy… Even after he left to join the army in Northern Xinjiang, the two of them often exchanged letters.
He always thought that the affection between brothers never changed. Even though Li Zong later became more and more radical and stubborn, he only thought that this was his younger brother growing up and having his own ideas.
But he didn’t expect that Li Zong would become so thorough, even using the things that Li Fengqi had taught him before against him.
Sure enough, the world had changed, and people’s hearts were unpredictable.
Li Fengqi scoffed, his eyes full of anger.
He had previously thought of asking Li Zong face to face if all those years of brotherly affection were fake. But now that he saw Ye Yunting and Ji Lian getting along, he suddenly came to a realization.
Regardless of whether their former friendship was real or not, from the moment Li Zong attacked him, he had already betrayed their brotherhood.
There could be no more friendship at all between them: they could only be life-or-death enemies.
And enemies should simply be killed.
*
Outside, Ye Yunting had just poured water when he saw Ji Lian coming over with a food box. He raised his eyebrows slightly. “Did someone deliver food today?”
Ji Lian glanced at the maids standing on both sides, entered the room and closed the door, then opened the food box and complained: “This was delivered, but this is all there is.”
Ye Yunting looked into the food box and saw a small plate of salted vegetables and three bowls of rice, which was not beyond what he had expected.
“I’m afraid this portion is not enough for you,” he said with a smile.
“Master, why aren’t you worried at all? You even have the heart to smile.” Ji Lian muttered.
“Worry won’t make food out of nothing.” Ye Yunting tapped his head with his finger, picked up a bowl of rice and some salted vegetables, and went to the inner room. “You eat first, no need to wait for me.”
Entering the inner room, he saw Li Fengqi on the couch with stern-looking eyebrows and a gloomy expression. The violent aura around him was palpable. If Ye Yunting hadn’t known for a fact that this man couldn’t move right now, he would almost have thought that this man would go on a murderous rampage the next moment.
Ye Yunting’s easy smile faded and he tentatively called, “Wangye?”
Except for yesterday morning, he had never seen Li Fengqi show such a sinister expression. The person who spoke to him in a gentle voice just now seemed to be someone else entirely. But on second thought, he felt that this was the real Prince Yong’an, and this hostile expression was exactly the same as what he had seen at the palace banquet.
Ye Yunting paused cautiously, maintaining a gentle tone as he said: “A servant brought food just now. Will Wangye eat now or wait for a while?”
Li Fengqi, who was wallowing in the past, came back to his senses and was about to reply, but realized that he was holding a bowl and standing cautiously a step away without approaching.
With some amusement in his heart, he raised his eyebrows and said, “I was just thinking of some old things now. Did I scare you?”
Of course, Ye Yunting couldn’t admit it. He shook his head and sat down by the bed with a bowl in hand: “Eat the food while it’s hot.”
He didn’t ask any more questions, so Li Fengqi didn’t say anything more.
Ye Yunting took a piece of salted vegetable with a spoonful of rice and put it to his mouth. Li Fengqi opened his mouth to eat. For a while, there was only the sound of shallow breathing and the slight sound of porcelain clinking in the room.
Ye Yunting wanted to feed him some more, but after only four or five mouthfuls, Li Fengqi shook his head. “That’s enough.”
Ye Yunting was surprised. “That was less than half of the bowl.”
Li Fengqi’s jaw tightened slightly. “It’s enough to stop hunger. It’s inconvenient to eat too much.”
He spoke implicitly. Ye Yunting didn’t understand what he meant at first, but when he realized what he meant, he nearly couldn’t hold back his laughter. Just now, Li Fengqi’s aura of death seemed to him like the God of Fury, making people look at him with fear. But now he felt that even the most powerful god of war is still a mortal in the end.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
He pursed his lips to hold back his smile. “Wangye doesn’t have to be like this. Just call me when needed.”
After speaking, he put another spoonful of rice to his lips. “Your health is the most important thing.”
“…” Li Fengqi looked at him expressionlessly for a while, then lowered his eyes again and ate the food that was put to his mouth.
Ye Yunting finished feeding him a bowl of rice and gave him half a cup of water before he packed up the dishes and left. Instead, Li Fengqi stared at his back for a long time, thinking that he might have made a mistake.
Not only was this Duke’s eldest son not cowardly; he was also bold.
===Author’s Notes===
77: Where’s the money?
Wu Geng: spent QAQ
————————
===Translator’s Notes===
- 金乌: Referring to the “three-legged crow“, a mythological creature in various mythologies and arts of East Asia that inhabits and represents the sun ↩︎
- See here for image reference: https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/home/thbed.htm ↩︎
- Actually more like “n” (嗯) but that doesn’t translate to English as well as “mn” does, I think ↩︎
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Who poisoned our ML? Hmm...
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