The One I Like Best Is Your Ah-Die.
“Your Highness, something terrible has happened!”
Xian Yu hurried in at speed. The matter was urgent, and he had no choice but to interrupt the three men while they were discussing matters.
Lu Ronghuai lifted his eyes, calm and steady in the face of change. “What matter has left you so flustered?”
Xian Yu took out a letter and handed it to him, speaking quickly as he did so. “Xian Yue has sent an urgent report. Chu Kingdom previously took five cities in the south. Now they are using those as leverage and are currently negotiating with Lu Kingdom. The contents of those negotiations are in the letter.”
Lu Ronghuai lowered his head and read the letter.
After reading it, he did not say a single word, but passed it to Nie Siran and Bai Qingyu, who sat at his side.
After the two of them finished reading it, their faces darkened as well.
Chu Kingdom was willing to return the five cities to Lu Kingdom, and even bow its head in submission, taking the initiative to surrender. Its only condition was that Lu Kingdom hand over Chu Yuan.
On one side lay lost territory and homeland, matters tied to Lu Kingdom’s face. On the other lay the displeasing Prince Consort. What choice Empress Dowager Xu would make, everyone present knew clearly in his heart.
Bai Qingyu said, “What scheme is Chu Kingdom playing at?”
Earlier, he had heard Lu Rongshen mention that Chu Yuan had once been Chu Kingdom’s Crown Prince, that after being deposed he lived alone in a temple, and that later he was sent to Lu Kingdom as the selected candidate for a marriage alliance.
From only a few short sentences, how could he fail to hear how lightly Chu Kingdom had regarded Chu Yuan?
At such a moment, to name Chu Yuan specifically, their malice was obvious.
Nie Siran’s brows and eyes were gentle yet flecks of chill spread within them. “A pack of pigdogs and petty vermin, and now they still dare dream of bullying Ah-Yuan. We have not yet gone to settle accounts with them, yet they come crawling to us of their own accord, with no sense at all of whether they live or die.”
Xian Yu was anxious in his heart. By the time this urgent report had reached their hands, perhaps an imperial decree had already been issued in Ye Jing. If Empress Dowager Xu truly meant to hand the Prince Consort over to Chu Kingdom...
He could not help but worry. At the same time, he knew clearly that his prince’s affection for the Prince Consort was not false, and that it would be utterly impossible for him to let the Prince Consort return. He feared only that if Empress Dowager Xu’s faction was driven into a corner, they might do something like a desperate dog leaping the wall.
“Your Highness...” Xian Yu spoke out. All three men present turned their eyes toward him. He drew in a breath. “There is one more matter. The Retired Emperor has passed away.”
“...”
The room was silent for quite some time.
Nie Siran’s temple twitched. He looked at Xian Yu in disbelief. “Such a major matter, and you placed it last?”
Xian Yu replied with full confidence, “My master’s matter is the important matter.”
Words this deeply disrespectful, if overheard by anyone at the palace, would have earned him no small amount of punishment.
As for Lu Ronghuai, after Xian Yu finished speaking, he instead gave a languid laugh.
With great interest, he asked, “Then when did that old thing die?”
Xian Yu replied, “Sometime in the early hours of yesterday morning, around the Third watch. The beacon towers in Ye Jing sounded five thunder-like cannon blasts, and afterward the beacon towers across the realm all sounded in turn.”
If the beacon towers met with war, then wolf smoke would be raised. Cannon blasts, however, signified only one thing, a great national mourning.
Lu Ronghuai’s brows and eyes curved. With genuine sincerity, he remarked, “Those poisonous elixir pills that old thing took apparently still had some use. A man who should have died last year managed to drag things on for nearly another year...”
These words of his were arrogant and lawless, and between the lines he held not the slightest reverence for Emperor Hongjia. His tone was even light and drifting, as though he were casually appraising wild grass at the roadside.
He dared say such words. The others, however, could not agree with them aloud.
Lu Ronghuai laughed twice, then thought of something else. “Now that that old thing is dead, Lu Rongze should be not much farther behind. Those two really could endure. Why do we not make a wager, that Lu Rongze will suddenly die within three months?”
Everyone: “...”
Nie Siran pressed a hand to his brow in helplessness and reminded him, “Your Highness, according to the laws of the realm, you ought to observe mourning for the Retired Emperor for one year. Also, Prince Rui is now, after all, the Emperor. You should still... speak a little less.”
“Very well then.” Prince Li drew in his smile with an air of regret, then resumed a serious appearance. “Since this is a national mourning, Empress Dowager Xu will certainly send someone to summon this Prince back to perform filial rites. Think of a way.”
At present they had already torn faces completely with Empress Dowager Xu’s faction, and much filth had been splashed over them, to the point that court and realm alike had no small number of criticisms toward Lu Ronghuai. Now that Emperor Hongjia had died, this was a sensitive time. As an imperial son, Lu Ronghuai ought by all rights return to keep vigil and perform filial piety.
Yet once he went back, whether he would be able to leave Ye Jing again would be difficult to say.
Bai Qingyu said, “Claim grave illness?”
Nie Siran smiled brightly. “Your Highness is strong and robust, able to punch an ox to death in one blow. He eats well, sleeps well, and has wife and child beside him. Just look at this face of spring wind and triumph. If he claims illness, will anyone believe it?”
Bai Qingyu paused, raised his eyes to look at Lu Ronghuai, then honestly shook his head. “They will not.”
With these two singing one line and the next together, Lu Ronghuai curved his lips. “Nie Yuanzhou, at present This Prince lacks a record-keeping book boy to manage the registers. Lord Su writes an excellent hand. Shall I call him over?”
Nie Siran’s smile stiffened. He sat up straight. The two looked at one another for a long while. In the end, he yielded, though his mouth still said, “I am ashamed. I cannot compare with Your Highness in being a true petty man.”
Lu Ronghuai laughed aloud. “Each much the same. Elder Brother must not be too modest.”
That one “Elder Brother” thoroughly disgusted Nie Siran. He had to drink two cups of tea before he could barely calm his mood.
The three of them discussed matters for a long time and at last settled upon a strategy.
At present, Chu Kingdom had fixed its gaze upon Chu Yuan. Whatever its purpose, they could not let it succeed. Lu Ronghuai ordered Xian Yu to deploy the shadow guards, arranging every last one of them properly to protect Chu Yuan and Lu Duoyu with all their strength.
Just as he had anticipated, in less than three days the imperial decree, traveling eight hundred li at urgent speed from Ye Jing, arrived before his eyes.
Only, regrettably, Empress Dowager Xu’s wishful calculations were destined to fall empty.
After receiving the decree, Prince Li coughed up a mouthful of blood before the whole army, called out “Father Emperor” toward the heavens with tears in his eyes, and immediately fainted on the spot.
It was said that the sight of Prince Li weeping in grief made those who saw it shed tears and those who heard of it break into sorrow. Not only that, after waking, Prince Li forced himself upright and personally wrote a ten-thousand-word letter of remorse, which he then made public.
The letter first expressed profound grief over Emperor Hongjia’s death. Its language was mournful and sharp, as though cutting at his lungs and bowels, its feeling sincere and true. After that, he bitterly condemned his own lack of filial piety, was wracked with guilt, and wept openly. Finally, he explained the reason he was unable to return to the capital to fulfill filial duty, every line striking straight into the heart.
He first moved people through feeling, then convinced them through reason. He wrote at sweeping length through ten thousand words. Even across the thickness of that text, it seemed one could still see Prince Li’s grief and helplessness.
The ten-thousand-word letter spread with lightning speed, from south to north, crossing over the Ye River, and before long it reached Empress Dowager Xu’s ears.
After the people of Ye Jing learned the contents of the ten-thousand-word letter, they were all deeply moved. They had never imagined that a man as hard-hearted as Prince Li could also feel such heartbreak and despair. It seemed they had previously demonized Prince Li too much and nearly forgotten that he too was but an ordinary mortal, with seven emotions and six desires, and also with many helplessness and many things he could not help.
The common people did not know the inner truth. Empress Dowager Xu, however, how could she fail to distinguish true from false? Let alone Prince Li publicly coughing blood and weeping himself unconscious, even that moving letter had likely not been written by Prince Li himself.
Empress Dowager Xu wore white mourning silk upon her head and cursed loudly within the palace, nearly bursting with rage.
“What a shameless Prince Li. Truly, truly excellent!”
“He says he cannot return to the capital to fulfill filial duty because he wishes to complete the former Emperor’s final wish. Since when did this Dowager know the former Emperor had a wish to recover the Six Kingdoms? Clearly it is his own wolfish ambition!”
Seeing that the Empress Dowager was in no light anger, the eunuchs and palace maids of the palace all knelt to beg her to calm her wrath.
This letter of remorse proved unexpectedly useful. Perhaps because in everyone’s impression Prince Li was cold and hard in method, it was difficult for people to imagine that he would write something so deeply moving and sorrowful.
For a time, the ten-thousand-word letter was at the height of its momentum. Because it had been written so well, there even arose among the people a situation in which a single copy was hard to obtain.
Even Emperor Hongjia’s national mourning was buried beneath the fame of the ten-thousand-word letter.
The oath Lu Ronghuai wrote in the letter, “If I do not break the Six Kingdoms, I shall not return,” stirred up the hearts of Lu Kingdom’s people and at the same time destroyed the last sliver of luck still held by Duan, Chu, and Liu Kingdoms.
On one side, there was excitement and cheering. On the other, there was grief as though mourning one’s own parents.
North and south had stood opposed for many years. Lu Kingdom had powerfully entrenched itself in the north for long ages, and its national strength had grown stronger day by day. By contrast, the Six Kingdoms in the south were unwilling to strive, greedy for luxury and indulgence.
The difference between the two sides was like a heavenly moat. Had Emperor Hongjia not been muddle-headed and weak, Lu Kingdom would most likely have crossed the Ye River long ago and unified north and south.
As one great victory report after another came back from Lu Ronghuai in the south, of the Six Kingdoms that had once occupied the south, now fewer than half remained. They had been beaten until they no longer possessed the strength to fight back.
A distinguished elderly scholar, greatly renowned in the south, upon learning that Lu Ronghuai had taken Liu Kingdom, declared that he was a military talent not seen in Lu Kingdom in a hundred years, and that sooner or later the Six Kingdoms would all become things in his grasp.
Because of this one sentence of praise, the people almost began to speak of Lu Ronghuai as though he were a war god reincarnated. One battle after another that he had previously won was dragged out once more and publicly proclaimed at great length. At such a time, it seemed people had already forgotten how much they had once feared him, and how many times they had spoken ill of him behind his back.
No matter how Empress Dowager Xu turned it over in her mind, she could not understand it. She had schemed bitterly for so long, had time and again used rumors to stir up the people’s hatred toward Lu Ronghuai, yet why, why was it that Lu Ronghuai could always so easily overturn it all?
It was as though in the unseen, even Heaven itself stood on his side. Timing, terrain, the hearts of men, he possessed every one of them.
As for the clamor and confusion outside, Lu Ronghuai did not place a single part of it in his heart.
At that very moment, he was accompanying Chu Yuan and Jiang Ni as they boarded a great vessel moored at the shore.
All along the shore were his personal guards, and the surroundings had long since been cleared. Nie Siran and the others waited below, seeing them onto the ship.
“Big ship ship~!”
Lu Duoyu sat in the crook of Lu Ronghuai’s arm. His grape-bright black eyes shone with excitement as he looked at the giant ship. It was the first time he had ever seen a ship so enormous. He waved his arms and danced with delight, wriggling all over in his embrace.
The boy ate well and grew quickly, and he also had great strength. It was only because Lu Ronghuai was the one holding him that he could be kept in hand. Had it been anyone else, they truly might not have been able to hold him.
Lu Ronghuai lowered his head to look at him, a smile full of bad intentions hanging at his lips as he deliberately frightened him. “Do not wriggle around. Otherwise I will throw you into the sea to feed the fish.”
After several months of dealing with Lu Ronghuai, Lu Duoyu had learned when to bend and when to stretch. He took the initiative to hug Lu Ronghuai’s neck and answered in a crisp little voice, “Fishies do not eat Little Fish. Little Fish is good.”
Lu Ronghuai raised a brow. “You are good?”
The little fellow nodded. “I am good.”
Lu Ronghuai laughed. Though he knew the answer well, he still asked, “In what way are you good?”
The child was a whirlwind of energy from morning to night, his capacity for destruction without rival. Xian Yu now looked like an old nursemaid, following behind the little fellow every day to clean up the messes, yet not only did he harbor no resentment, but he also even finding it a source of considerable enjoyment.
There was nothing for it. The little one had a sweet mouth and a talent for winning hearts, and once his features began to open up, he became so beautiful it dazzled the eye. He had successfully captured the hearts of his many elder brothers and elder sisters.
Lu Duoyu thought for a moment, then suddenly tilted his head and leaned affectionately against Lu Ronghuai’s neck, his child’s voice soft and sticky. “Father likes Little Fish best.”
When Lu Ronghuai heard this soft and tender flattery from the little one, he found that though he was young, he had already learned how to pat a horse’s backside. Smiling with his brows and eyes, he deliberately sang a different tune.
“That is not necessarily so,” he said.
The little fellow blinked, then looked at him in a somewhat dazed way.
Lu Ronghuai said leisurely, “The one I like best is your Ah-Die.”
Chu Yuan, walking in front: “...”
He turned back and glared at him once. “Your Highness, do not say such nonsense to the little one.”
Lu Ronghuai still wanted to speak, yet by this time the three of them had already reached the ship and come face to face with several people waiting upon the deck.
He lifted his eyes and glanced over. It was the most ordinary of glances, yet it brought his steps to a halt and left him standing stunned in place.
“Clan Leader...” Jiang Ni spoke first and quickly went forward several paces. Looking at the old man before him, he was filled with emotion. “Your hair has all turned white.”
Clan Leader Jiang had hair and beard both gone white. His plain-patterned robes stirred in the wind. He looked to be sixty or seventy years of age. Yet his back was straight, and what astonished people even more was that there were not many wrinkles upon his face. The skin still remained firm, and he even looked younger than Nie Xuxing.
Clan Leader Jiang spoke a few quiet words with Jiang Ni. Afterward, he lifted his head and cast his gaze over toward Chu Yuan’s side. In the end, his eyes fell upon Lu Ronghuai’s face.
There was in the old man’s gaze a clear wisdom that could not quite be explained. Upon closer scrutiny, it somehow made one not dare meet it directly.
Only then did he ask, “This young friend, could it be that you recognize this old man?”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Dog: Mother, I think I just saw a ghost.
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