Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Chapter 13 (Part 2)

“… All I can give is this cup of wine, to show my regard for you.” Cai Yan offers Wu Du a second cup of wine. Wu Du doesn’t say anything back this time either, and he drinks it in silence.

“It’s a little bitter,” Wu Du says thus.

“What?” Cai Yan looks caught off guard, and Wu Du shakes his head, and smiling, he scans Cai Yan’s face. Cai Yan hates nothing more than people staring at him, and he’s all at once uneasy. At just the right time, Lang Junxia rises to set a seal down in front of Wu Du.

And so Wu Du’s attention is turned to the seal.

Cai Yan says to him, “This seal can be used in the four private banks of Tongbao, Changlong, Yunji, Qianxing2, and any of their branches, to withdraw money that you can use in recruitment. There’s no need for a signature; all you need is the stamp.”

Again, Wu Du gives a slight start, then putting one hand on his knee he rises to his feet.

“I can’t take it.” Wu Du says, “I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint Your Highness’s great expectations in me.”

The room falls into an oppressive silence after he says this, as all three of them do not speak. A long time passes before Wu Du lets out another breath. “The late emperor recognised my worth, and that kindness will of course be carved into my heart always. I will do my utmost for you. However, I’m unsure as to how far I will go.”

Cai Yan’s expression is rather chilly at first, but a smile returns to his face once he hears these words, as though he’s breathed out a sigh of relief. “Wu Du, I don’t mind telling you something quite solemnly — in this whole wide world, aside from Wuluohou Mu and you, I can think of no one else that I can trust.”

Wu Du smiles softly and gives him a nod, then with a fist in hand salute at Cai Yan, he bows and says, “I shall take my leave.”

“You haven’t drank this third cup of wine yet,” Lang Junxia speaks once more.

“I’ll drink it later. But first, I must recover the Zhenshanhe for His Highness. Otherwise, I really don’t think I can be so shameless as to think I deserve this cup of wine.”

He turns and goes, and the door closes behind him once more, leaving Cai Yan and Lang Junxia sitting quietly inside, the seal still placed squarely on the table.

Cai Yan is inclined to smash the wine cup off the floor, but ultimately resists the urge to do so lest the sound of his throwing a tantrum reaches Wu Du who hasn’t yet gone far, and in turn expose that he’s lost his composure.

“He can’t trust you.” Lang Junxia says finally, “People who are true to their feelings are often thus; he can become hopelessly devoted to you over something you said, and he can also hold a grudge over one thing or another that you’ve done. Our decision to go with the tide and attempt to install him in the chancellor’s estate as a spy was a wrong move in the first place.”

“Anyone else would have understood the reasoning. What could I ever have hoped to gain by killing him?”

“Not everyone can figure things out so clearly.”

Cai Yan says helplessly, “I already explained things to him.”

“He accepted that logically, but he hasn’t accepted it emotionally.”

“Then is he hopelessly devoted to me, or is he saying one thing and thinking quite another?”

“With someone like that, you have to win him over with sweet words.”

Cai Yan doesn’t say anything for a long time.

“Lang Junxia, I beseech you once more. Please stay.”

“There’s no need to say that again. You just have to coax him often to make him trust you. Sooner or later he’ll devote himself to you. And sooner or later, he’ll take my place.”

Cai Yan opens his mouth, as though he wants to say something else, but Lang Junxia has already started speaking again, “He will keep you safe. And besides, he doesn’t know anything. There is no redemption for me in this lifetime. I’ll be spending the next life and even the next in hell to burn in a raging fire, to wade through seas of flames and climb mountains of swords, to be disembowelled and to have my tongue plucked out — forever and ever after. There will never be absolution for me.”

Lang Junxia rises.

“We hardly understand life, so how can we know what goes on after death?3 You killed one man, but you saved the whole realm. And I also swore that I’ll never do anything to you …”

Lang Junxia looks up and meets Cai Yan’s eyes. “In my heart, the executioner who’ll cut me to pieces … is none other than myself.”

Cai Yan stares fixedly at Lang Junxia, and for a long time, he says nothing at all.

Meanwhile, Duan Ling is lying on a bed eating grapes while casually flipping through a book of erotic illustrations.

He has discovered that he’s rather interested in erotica. He has no idea if it’s because the amorous atmosphere of his surroundings has piqued his base desires and set his blood bubbling over, or if he’s just reached the right age to begin with. Although, the idea of doing what’s drawn on these illustrations fills him with an overwhelming sense of shame. Duan Ling has been flipping through the pages for a while, and his mouth has gone dry; he’s holding a grape in his mouth that he doesn’t bite through, but is instead absentmindedly pushing around with his tongue.

Wu Du comes back into the room, and Duan Ling hides the book immediately. He wipes off the saliva at the corner of his mouth and conspicuously straightens his clothes, remaining seated and not getting up to greet Wu Du. “Back so soon?”

Wu Du stares at Duan Ling, momentarily distracted with a sudden and strange feeling. Perhaps it’s the contrast from the overly heavy atmosphere around Wuluohou Mu and the crown prince earlier, so that when he returns to Duan Ling’s side, a lustre seems to fall over everything as though the world has brightened all around him.

“Are you quite alright?” Duan Ling just feels that something is off about Wu Du’s expression.

Wu Du shakes his head, and turns around to sit down on the bed. He says to Duan Ling, “Let’s stay here for a bit, and wait for them to leave before we get going.”

Duan Ling has a feeling that Wu Du has been touched by their words; his eyes are a little bit red, as though on the verge of tears. Duan Ling watches him for a while before tentatively reaching out to place a hand on Wu Du’s neck, giving the back of his head a pat.

Wu Du shakes his head, turning his attention back to the present.

Duan Ling asks, “Who was it?”

“The crown prince.”

A crack of thunder rings through Duan Ling’s mind as the thought strikes him like lightning, and countless complicated emotions rush into his head. “The crown prince is across the hall?”

Wu Du then succinctly summarises what was said earlier, but none of it is getting through to Duan Ling right now; myriad ideas emerge one after the other, only to scatter and crumble all over again. His mind wanders for ages before he turns to look at Wu Du.

Now it’s Wu Du’s turn to be dumbfounded, and he asks Duan Ling, “What is it?”

Duan Ling shakes his head.

Wu Du asks again, “Did you have alcohol?”

Frowning, Wu Du leans in to sniff at Duan Ling’s breath, but he doesn’t smell any alcohol. Meanwhile, Duan Ling is thinking about the “crown prince”. What did the crown prince want to see Wu Du for? Actually, Wu Du has already told him everything, it’s just that for a moment Duan Ling didn’t hear him.

The motion of Wu Du drawing near brings Duan Ling back to himself, where their faces are leaning really close to each other; Duan Ling starts blushing immediately, and Wu Du also feels a bit awkward, so without thinking he reaches out and gives Duan Ling’s face a pat. “Hey.”

And that gesture is even more flirtatious — while Wu Du has slapped Duan Ling before and he doesn’t really mean anything by this now, they both feel suddenly embarrassed for some reason. Duan Ling is getting fidgety. Wu Du can hear girls laughing outside, seeing guests off downstairs, and assuming that the people he was meeting must have left, he turns to Duan Ling. “Let’s leave as well.”

Duan Ling gives him a nod and gets up with him, but as soon as they push their door open, they see the door to the Sky Room across the way opening, and Cai Yan and Lang Junxia stepping out of the room.

Duan Ling is utterly shocked in that instant; they’ll walk into each other at the stairs at this rate, and there’s nowhere to hide. With one brief glance Can Yan has already spotted Wu Du, and he can see that there’s a young man just behind him.

“Why are they still here?” Wu Du wasn’t expecting this either, and he says to Duan Ling, “Let’s go say hello.”

This mishap has come too quickly; so quickly that Duan Ling nearly has no time to think about it at all. He immediately does something that causes Wu Du an equal amount of shock.

Duan Ling wraps his arms around Wu Du’s neck and gets on his tiptoes, making Wu Du lower his head. In a mere instant Wu Du’s cheeks turn bright red, his hands stiffening uncomfortably at his sides.

“You can’t let them know,” Duan Ling says quietly next to Wu Du’s ear.

He covers the side of Wu Du’s face with one hand then, as if about to kiss him. Wu Du hasn’t really thought things through yet, but he cooperates anyway and pushes Duan Ling against the wall.

“If they find out you’re with someone from the chancellor’s estate,” Duan Ling has his nose pressed up against Wu Du’s, and a slight furrow appears between his brows, “they’ll suspect you’re tattling on them …”

This way, it’ll look like Wu Du is saying an intimate goodbye to a male prostitute from the brothel just before he leaves, acting like they’re the only people in the hall.

“I see.” Wu Du stares intently at Duan Ling’s eyes, and says suddenly, “Careful you don’t end up taking this seriously. You wouldn’t really be …”

This chapter is scrapped from readlightnovel.org

Their breaths intertwine, and only now does Duan Ling realise that he’s having a rather odd reaction. He’s never felt so embarrassed, but he doesn’t dare part from Wu Du either; their eyes meet, and both of them are looking at the other’s face. Duan Ling’s heart races and his gaze wanders, but soon enough, they return to Wu Du’s eyes. He’s just now noticing that this guy has an exceedingly handsome nose. He never realised it before, but now he feels Wu Du has the kind of face that gets more handsome the more you look at him.

“Can you … say something?” Duan Ling is just far too embarrassed.

“If you were a woman … After holding you like this, I’ll have no choice but to marry you.”

“Do you have a girl you like?” Without thinking, Duan Ling says this in an attempt to change the subject, but once the words are out of his mouth they sound like a confession, making the atmosphere even more awkward.

“I used to. Not now though. I’ll tell you when we have time.”

The two of them only pull apart once they can hear footsteps moving down the stairs. Fearful that they may be able to look up and see him, Duan Ling dashes quickly back inside the room.

“Are they gone?” Duan Ling asks from behind the door.

Wu Du doesn’t say anything.

“Wu Du?”

Wu Du finally regains his composure. That moment earlier has sent his mind wandering.

“They’re gone.” Wu Du replies, “We’ll wait a bit longer.”

They wait for a little while longer, and Wu Du says, “Let’s go.”

Duan Ling comes out of the room then and the two go down the stairs. Duan Ling’s head is all over the place. Wu Du adds, “You really are a calculating sort of person.”

“Living is really tiring when you’re calculating all the time.” Duan Ling lets out a sigh.

“You can totally sell me out as soon as we get back. The chancellor may even give you a huge residence.”

With a perfectly straight face, Duan Ling says, “What’d you say earlier? After you said ‘crown prince’, I was so shocked I didn’t hear a thing. Why don’t you repeat the whole thing one more time? I’ll make sure to jot it all down in detail so I can better sell you out tomorrow.”

Wu Du laughs. The two of them leave the Bouquet Pavilion behind.

Inside the carriage, Cai Yan opens the curtain and says to Lang Junxia sitting in the coachman’s seat, “Was the one who left before us and Wu Du someone from the chancellor’s estate?”

“I didn’t get a good look. The carriage is already gone, but from the brief glimpse I caught of it, it bore some resemblance to the chancellor estate’s.”

“Did Wu Du bring them?” Cai Yan is wearing a deep frown.

Lang Junxia stops the carriage, ruminates for a moment, and says, “Unlikely. But I’m worried he may have been followed … however, even if they were following him they probably wouldn’t have used an official carriage.”

It’s growing quieter on the avenue; the markets are beginning to close and the crowd is dispersing. What peddlers that remain are packing up their wares. Wu Du and Duan Ling walk amongst them side by side.

“And so what if the crown prince wants to recruit me?” Wu Du sounds preoccupied. “He’s taken a shine to your Master Wu’s skills.”

“Mastering the literary and martial skills is for the sake of benefiting the imperial family. That’s the way things ought to be, but what are you going to do about your standing with the Mu estate?”

Wu Du thinks about this for a moment, and shakes his head. Duan Ling gets it, more or less; it’s most likely that the fake crown prince still needs a right-hand man, and if the fake crown prince was brought back by Lang Junxia, then he’s going to have to get rid of the man who knows all his secrets sooner or later. After all, once he gets rid of Lang Junxia, he’ll have nothing else to worry about.

Yet Lang Junxia isn’t that easy to kill, and the crown prince needs someone whose loyalty lies only with him. Wu Du is the only one who fits the bill.

“It shouldn’t bring me in conflict with the grand chancellor at first. But whether that continues to be the case is going to depend on luck.”

“The way I see it,” Duan Ling says, “If it were me, perhaps I’d accept the offer, but I would never let either side command me. How do I put this? When it comes down to it, you must find your own …”

The two keep walking, taking a turn into a small street that leads to the chancellor’s estate.

Duan Ling is halfway through a sentence when he abruptly stops speaking.

Wu Du’s brows furrow slightly, and follows Duan Ling’s gaze into the alley to find someone standing within —

— Lang Junxia.

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

These private banks were not the banks as the way we think of banks today, but places where you exchange loose coppers and silvers into taels, or vice versa. The names are not location names, and they’re not important, just stuff that sounds vaguely lucky and have to do with prosperity, with the exception that “Tongbao” means “circulated treasure”, and that Kaiyuan Tongbao was the name of a kind of coin. ↩︎

This is from Analects of Confucius. To paraphrase: we do not understand people, so how can we know anything about ghosts? We barely understand life, so how are we to know what comes after? ↩︎