Li Zong’s face darkened when he understood Li Fengqi’s words. He pointed at the two beasts in the cage and laughed. “I’m afraid Prince Yong’an won’t be able to get his white tiger skin. Look, the wolf king is about to lose.”
In the giant cage, a swipe of the white tiger’s claws sent the the wolf king slapping against the ground. Its limbs and neck were held down by the white tiger. Once the white tiger lowered its head, it could bite its neck.
It seemed that the ending had been decided.
Li Zong looked at this scene and kept smiling. He seemed to be sighing as he said, “Prince Yong’an sometimes makes mistakes.”
Li Fengqi was not surprised by the situation in the cage and continued to sit calmly in the wheelchair.
“Of course I make mistakes sometimes.” He glanced at Li Zong with cold eyes. “Not this time, but with His Majesty.”
He turned the wheelchair and approached Li Zong, his smile not reaching his eyes. “Apart from this bet, does Your Majesty not have nothing else to say to me?”
Li Zong’s eyes flashed, and he turned around with his hands behind his hands: “What does Prince Yong’an want to hear from me?” He raised his head and looked into the distance with an unclear expression. “These hands of mine possess only few things, and I don’t want to give any of them away.
“In the past few years, I have given in enough and endured enough.” He turned around and looked at Li Fengqi as he said this word by word.
He was the second son of Emperor Xianzong, and his mother was the queen of a country. Apart from the eldest brother, he should be the most honored.
But what actually happened?
When his father was still the Crown Prince, he was greedy for beauty, and there were so many beauties in the East Palace. Although his mother held the title of Crown Princess, she was not favored by his father.
The power of the harem fell into the hands of others. Fortunately, although she hadn’t been favored, she had a good son who was.
The father had few heirs. Apart from the brothers, he only had one son and two daughters. Among the four children, the one he favored the most was the eldest.
The eldest brother had been granted the title of Crown Prince for a long time, and had been brought up by the side of the emperor since childhood. But in contrast, the emperor was indifferent to his other children, doubting them, and even deliberately allowing palace officials to suppress them, deliberately turned them into useless people.
One of his brothers, two sisters, and even Li Zong himself, had been put down and bullied by the palace official since they were young, living a humble life helplessly.
He still remembered watching with his own two eyes as his second brother jumped from the drum tower1.
He had been seven years old that year, and had been about go out to look for Li Fengqi, but when he turned his head, he saw his second brother jumping down from the high drum tower.
His second brother was only one year younger than the eldest brother, and his birth mother was a beauty without status. What he remembered most about him was his flushed face and the smell of alcohol, as well as a handful of somewhat melted, sticky candy beans.
——One winter day, he bumped into his second brother who was drunk and sleeping among the flowers. It was freezing cold in winter, and he was afraid that his brother would freeze to death if he slept there all night.
He stepped forward to wake him up and asked the palace servants to help him back. Before the second brother left, he took out a pack of jelly beans from his sleeve and gave it to him, saying, “Second brother doesn’t have a lot of good food. These are my favorite jelly beans. If you feel bitter, just eat one, but don’t imitate your second brother’s drunkenness.” After saying that, he shook his head and staggered away.
He was young at that time and did not understand the deeper meaning of his words, but looking back, he thought that he looked like a white bird that was about to fall.
Then he actually saw his second brother flying down from the drum tower with his own eyes.
He’d been barefoot and wore white clothes, the sleeves of his robe were blown up by the strong wind, like a bird about to fly to freedom despite being broken into pieces.
Li Zong watched him fall with his own eyes. Bright red blood stained his white clothes, and even a few drops fell onto his face, sticky and warm.
That day, he did not leave the palace to find Li Fengqi.
The second brother died after jumping from the drum tower. It was a royal scandal. The emperor was furious and ordered officials to suppress the news. At the same time, he thoroughly investigated the palace servants who served the second brother.
Things that had been deliberately covered up were also uncovered. Grandfather called his father and reprimanded him severely, and those who served in the palace were killed, dismissed and dispersed.
After the death of his second brother, the situation for him and his two remaining sisters improved.
The medical officer said that he was in shock and needed to recuperate. He was moved to a better courtyard, and his grandfather even came to the East Palace to visit him two or three times. The new servants in the palace treated him with respect, and the food and drinks were all excellent. He thought he would have such a happy life in the future. But within a month, everything changed.
The eldest brother looked at him with disgust in his eyes, saying that he wanted things he didn’t deserve; his father repeatedly struck and scolded him, urging him not to have any other thoughts. Even his mother spoke in a resentful tone, saying that he shouldn’t be fighting with his eldest brother; if only she had known that it would have been more peaceful not to have given birth to him.
His food and clothing were still superb, and the palace servants still treat him with respect and dignity, but they would pick on him and curse him when no one was looking.
They even stabbed him with a needle and threatened him in order to stop him from reporting to his grandfather, as this was ordered by his mother and a punishment for him.
Fengqi didn’t want to leave him behind, and said that he would often send him letters in the future, and would come back for him when he became a general.
He didn’t need to hear it, but felt that he was back on that day when he watched his second brother jump from the drum tower, helpless and afraid, like falling into an ice cave.
Later, his teacher told him that the royal family was different from ordinary folk. If he wanted to live a good life, he’d have to fight and rob. There was no one else he could rely on except for himself.
He kept these words in mind and practiced them personally.
Later, his eldest brother died and his body was transported back to the palace. When he saw his father’s expression of grief and hidden fear, his heart felt happy.
From then on, he knew that weakness was the most useless emotion. You have to grab what you want.
No matter who his opponent was, he would never give in again.
This was also true for Li Fengqi.
Li Zong stared at him closely, but saw that Li Fengqi’s face was expressionless.
He had always been like this, aloof and concerned about everything, as if everything was under his control.
Li Zong didn’t like this feeling at all. It always reminded him of his long-dead elder brother. He suddenly laughed. “Well, then. I don’t need to talk to you about this right now.”
After he went to Northern Xinjiang, the relationship between the two was never the same as before. Although they still appeared close, there were many words between them that would not be said again.
Time and distance had separated the two of them too much.
And he was no longer that ignorant child seeking refuge.
Li Fengqi saw his expression change, but did not argue with him. Instead, he raised his finger, pointed at the cage and said, “The wolf king has won.”
Li Zong suddenly turned around and saw that the situation in the cage had changed at some point. The dying wolf king actually fought back and bit the white tiger’s throat.
The white tiger was immense in size. Even though its throat had been bitten, it still struggled violently and tried to fight back against the wolf king’s weak blow.
However, it didn’t let go, and finally the white tiger’s struggle gradually weakened, and its tall body fell down, its limbs twitching, its blood gushing out.
The wolf king still didn’t let go. It wasn’t until the white tiger went completely limp and stopped moving that he let go and struggled to stand up on all fours, eager to lick the blood overflowing from the white tiger’s throat.
Li Zong stared at the dead white tiger, his expression changing. He subconsciously wanted to ask the chamberlain to drive away the Wolf King, but as soon as he raised his hand, he put it down again.
He went down and said with a smile at the corners of his lips. “I am willing to admit defeat. Since the Wolf King has won, this tiger skin will go to Prince Yong’an.”
Li Fengqi nodded lightly, turned to Ye Yunting behind him and said, “This white tiger had been raised with care, and its fur is of the highest quality. Once its been tanned, we’ll lay it out in the study as a mat for you.”
Ye Yunting glanced at Li Zong, who had a slightly stiff smile, and nodded in agreement.
“Wangye is very considerate toward his Wangfei. It seems that I arranged the marriage correctly .” Li Zong said in a strange tone.
Li Fengqi nodded calmly. “Your Majesty has done thousands of wrong things, but this is the one thing he did right.”
His attitude was frank and natural, and his gratitude was sincere. But in Li Zong’s eyes, he was deliberately mocking himself. He started to think again.
He looked at the palace servants opening the cage and dragging out the body of the white tiger, and said in a cold voice, “Of course I am not as skilled at strategizing as the young general Prince Yong’an. But in the end, I am still the one sitting on the throne. Heaven and earth are as the monarchs and ministers. The monarch leads and the ministers follow. This is how it is. Prince Yong’an should be careful about his words in the future.”
Li Fengqi spat lightly, with an furrowed look on his face. “A monarch, a minister, a father, and a son are but the guardians of fools. If the father is unkind, he will not be served; if the monarch is heartless… he will not be obeyed.”
Li Zong was stunned for a moment, then he showed a harsh expression2 and sneered. “Is Prince Yong’an such a fool to rebel?” He took a few steps, drew out his sword from his waist, and said grimly, “Don’t think that I don’t dare to kill you!”
“You can give it a try.” Li Fengqi patted his belly and said calmly: “Even if I show you my belly, you are no match for me.”
What’s more, there were 100,000 Xuanjia troops in Northern Xinjiang. If Li Zong dared to take action, Li Fengqi had hundreds of ways to make his position unsteady.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t, it was just that he was not stupid to do so.
He would make Li Zong pay the price if Li Zong tried to kill him, but this price did not include rebellion. He was not afraid of bearing infamy, but he could not bear to see Beizhao fall into the flames of war. He had led the border soldiers day after day to defend Beizhao’s peace; he did not want to destroy this peace with his own hands.
But this required that Li Zong not bully others too much.
Li Zong held up the sword, chest heaving, eyes red. After a long time, he threw down the sword and looked at Li Fengqi with a dark expression. “I should have killed you directly in the first place. For the sake of the future! “
“But you didn’t,” Li Fengqi’s expression was clear. “Let me guess, you are thinking of the small lotus root of brotherhood between us. Or was it that Han Chan refused?”
Li Zong stared at him, teeth tightly clenched, and didn’t speak.
“You still listen to Han Chan’s words. “Li Fengqi sighed and gave the answer. “Do you think that he’s truthful to you?” The look in his eyes contained some sympathy: “Don’t you know that, during my illness, he came to see me twice?”
“So what?”
“No, but he sought me out twice, using the antidote as a bargaining chip. He asked me to work with him to achieve great things. Then, afterwards….. ” Li Fengqi looked at his trembling eyes and continued: “I would become the emperor, and he the prime minster.
“Why do you think I got poisoned so easily? Didn’t you have any such doubts in your heart?”
Li Zong’s teeth clenched audibly, and he forced out from between his teeth: “So he wants to be the prime minister. I can give him that. Why work with you? Do you think I believe this?”
“You know in your heart if what I said is true or not. You just don’t want to believe it.” Li Fengqi said with a dull wave of his hand as he watched Li Zong still deceive himself. “Didn’t Your Majesty call us into the imperial palace today to make up for the rewards? It’s getting late and we’ve finished talking. We should receive the reward from the palace.”
He turned a blind eye to Li Zuo’s terrifying expression and was still urging for rewards.
Li Zong looked at him darly for several breaths, but in the end still closed his eyes and called Cui Xin in. “Bring the rewards and send Prince Yong’an out of the palace.”
Li Fengqi’s eyes shone with satisfaction, and his tone became polite. “Thank you, Your Majesty. Your Majesty, please take care of your dragon body. “
Li Zong didn’t answer. He approached the large cage, took a look at the white tiger corpse, and said, “Skin the white tiger and send it to Prince Yong’an.” After saying that, he looked at the dying wolf king in the cage, and added grimly: “And this wolf king, skin it as well, and sent it to Prince Yong’an.”
After saying this, he seemed to be unable to restrain himself any longer, flung his sleeves and left.
===Author’s Notes===
On How to Become Rich
77:KaoBo see, I made money.
Tingting:……?
Li Zong: I! I’m not sure what I’m talking about, but I’m not sure what I’m talking about. I’m not going to be able to do that. Horses!
—
===Translator’s Notes===
- According to here, the Drum Tower is “a building where large drums are placed in ancient cities or traditional temples”. ↩︎
- The literal statement here was “an expression that was indeed the case”, referring to how Li Zong’s expression indeed matched Li Fengqi’s earlier words (i.e., a harsh or heartless monarch), but the wording kept sounding awkward in English, so I just restated it this way. ↩︎
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Hi, I think we are missing Chapter 27. Thanks
ReplyDeleteAww... poor second brother 😥
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