Chapter 140

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

The youth on the bed shifted from lying prone to lying on his side facing outward; his movements were labored, and because he turned his body, his breathing when answering was slightly uneven: "The poisoning is real; I turned their scheme against them."

Once he had settled, Liu Qi immediately began regulating his breath, but through the curtain he saw her move that Hu bed another two steps closer to him, as if to hear his voice more clearly, and as if to spare him some effort when he spoke.

Shaowei had just reseated herself when she said: "I heard only one eunuch was dealt with; surely someone borrowed a knife to kill?"

"Yes, seizing the chance to poison, borrowing a knife to kill." Liu Qi's voice was low yet clear: "The stratagems here have never lain in how complex they are, only in being effective when carried out, allowing both advance and retreat. The fewer people involved, the simpler, the more secure."

Whether he had detected the curiosity and eagerness to learn in her tone, Shaowei now distinctly felt he was following her line of questioning, discussing with her the military treatises and works on statecraft she had read in the past.

Shaowei pondered and compared, and could not help nodding: "This scheme is no grand scheme; one supposes it was merely tossed out casually by the opponent. If it fails, and you guard against it, disposing of a single eunuch is also convenient and clean, and it can probe your reality to some extent. If it succeeds, it is a small stake for a great gain, then it could not be more profitable."

Liu Qi nodded, but before he could speak, he saw her gaze through the curtain fixed on him: "Succeed or fail, both advance and retreat are suitable, but they surely never expected the present situation where it is half-succeeded and half-failed, forced into a position between advance and retreat."

If Liu Qi died, it would naturally fulfill the other side's wish, and all other costs could be ignored. If he completely defended against it, unharmed in the slightest, this matter would not stir the slightest ripple—

"But you have walked a round between life and death, and stirred this matter up into an uproar, so it can no longer be quietly settled." Shaowei analyzed meticulously: "Just as you said before that my fall into the tomb at Changling would drive a nail into the Emperor's heart, this matter will likewise drive in a nail."

Liu Qi could not help saying: "You have the ability to integrate and master thoroughly; whatever you learn is indeed fast."

"But this nail of mine differs slightly from yours." He said: "The nail you planted grew the Son of Heaven's suspicion. This nail of mine buried the Sovereign Father's disappointment."

Shaowei this time could not immediately understand, frowned and asked: "You are dying yet not dead, yet this Sovereign Father of yours feels disappointment?"

These words were cruel and blunt, yet Liu Qi smiled faintly: "It can also be put that way."

He said without any taboo: "Imperial Uncle has grown increasingly frail in recent years, and failed to find the method of longevity as he wished; on top of that calamities arise on all sides, internal worries and external troubles, he is exhausted and anxious... At such a time, a Crown Prince who is merely obedient and well-behaved, unable to share his worries and unable to awe the four directions, can no longer satisfy him."

Shaowei thought of that Ling Taizi Liu Gu who was praised by others, and frowned even more: "Truly hard to serve; satisfied to the point of wanting to kill to be at ease. At ease to the point of becoming dissatisfied again."

No wonder the pulse showed a heart-knot like a dead knot.

A mocking glint also surfaced in the depths of Liu Qi's somewhat shadowed eyes: "Yes, he originally planned to be at ease and then seek longevity, to continue his great enterprise. Who knew he would not see longevity, only Mars."

"He cannot let go of this realm, nor bear the great crime of letting the realm shatter; if the Crown Prince can stand alone, it can offset some of his worries." Liu Qi said in a flat voice: "If I am poisoned just like that, he might have a few parts grief and anger, kill some people to vent and intimidate, and the matter would be considered settled. And seeing the Crown Prince forced to show some means and resolve under threat, who knows he might not feel a trace of secret relief in the depths of his heart?"

"Conversely, if one strike misses and that is the end of it, but stirs up so much trouble, it will only make him disappointed and disgusted."

Hearing this, Shaowei's feelings were inexplicably complex; she asked first: "You have already determined this matter was done by Liu Cheng?"

She observed Liu Cheng's words and conduct carried a cautious, dull air.

Liu Qi said: "These years, whether I was in Wuling or on this journey back to the capital, I have encountered countless open spears and hidden arrows; among them the Rui Family and its partisans' handiwork has never been lacking. Their style of operation, I know all too well."

"This time my poisoning caused a great stir; Liu Cheng hurriedly came to visit, it should be from his own personal intention; in his panic he tried to cover it up and only made it more obvious, but this act actually goes against his usual style of operation."

"Liu Cheng may not have personally planned this scheme, but whether it is trouble arising under his tacit approval, or his inability to suppress those around him, to the Sovereign Father these are both dereliction of duty by the Crown Prince."

Hearing these words, Shaowei realized for the first time that a person's position could be so important, important to the point of far surpassing that person's own will and temperament. Countless people surround that position, long since woven into a whole; there is no need to look at what this person is thinking, only at what he has brought about.

Looking again at the person inside the curtain in an awkward, dangerous position, Shaowei vaguely understood: "The Emperor summoned you back to the capital; besides suspicion and testing, he also harbored the thought of using you as a whetstone, wanting to use you to sharpen Liu Cheng this blade?"

And suddenly thought of a crucial point: "That claim that you are an auspicious omen descended from heaven — could it also be precisely this Emperor who spread it?"

Liu Qi shook his head: "This matter I have not yet investigated the source, but he did not question this rumor, never interrogated me; this too is a kind of stance."

Shaowei only felt this stance could be called insidious; not asking, not interrogating, Liu Qi then also cannot explain or prove himself, entangled by this "auspicious omen," attracting who knows how many gazes, and enraging the Crown Prince's faction.

The Emperor's move is clearly to quietly watch this pouncing and biting.

Shaowei could not help a surge of anger; she said to the person on the bed: "Then why are you still playing the suffering-flesh scheme? Your Sovereign Father is so heartless; no matter how convincingly you act, he will not pity you in the slightest."

"No, he will." Liu Qi's eyes held a smile: "He will pity me; he is also not entirely heartless."

Shaowei was almost shocked by his naivety, yet how could he be a naive person?

In her astonishment, Shaowei asked directly: "You clearly know his intent, yet still believe he has father-son affection for you?"

"Yes." Liu Qi answered very decisively: "On the premise that I will not resent him for threatening him, there is some."

"He has two hearts, one for the ruler, one for the man; the ruler's heart occupies the upper hand, so being a man is not very competent."

"Anyone of flesh and blood cannot discard humanity." Liu Qi's voice gradually lowered: "Lust for power, selfishness, greed, unwillingness — these are also his humanity; he also contradicts himself, wavers."

"He was originally a sensitive person full of emotion; that year his maternal uncle would rather sever his arm before the Palace Gate, he would not have been without the slightest stirring; he merely dared not face it."

"I am the relic of Mother and maternal uncle; that inch of subtle wavering in the depths of his heart is my weapon." Liu Qi said: "I have tried it; it is usable. Back then I survived by relying on this. Of course, it is minute as a spark, and may be extinguished at any moment, so one cannot harbor the illusion that it will always exist."

He seemed to be explaining to the person outside the curtain, and also seemed to be reminding himself.

And this was a complex humanity Shaowei had never touched; a layer of waves slowly rose in shock in her heart, and her spine felt a thread of chill.

She was the boldest person in the world, yet at this moment she actually felt a trace of fear because of this unseen thing.

What she feared was: Liu Qi still believes his father treats him with a thread of paternal love, and even so, he still walks unwaveringly on the road of revenge.

Shaowei tried to imagine: if she herself had been cherished by Qin Fu since childhood, then in that stone house she would still have killed him, because no one was more important than Mother; but at the moment she struck and after she struck, could she truly have done it without the slightest pain?

Thinking like this, Qin Fu as a person still has one "merit": at least he never cherished her, never treated her as a human, his attitude was consistent from start to finish, at least letting one hate him purely.

By comparison, if one has hated to the extreme, yet still must face the other party still having a thread of residual emotion, it is instead more cruel than admitting that person is completely without feeling.

This is not naivety; it is the clear-headedness of self-torment and the game played on the cliff's edge of humanity.

Only now did Shaowei thoroughly understand that double-edged sword Liu Qi had spoken of that could be used by him.

Shaowei likes to use the saber, because when the saber point aims at the enemy, the saber back will absolutely not injure herself.

The sword is different; it is double-edged, injuring others and injuring oneself; revolving under this sword of emotion, one will keep bleeding.

Shaowei suddenly fell silent, only watching the figure inside the curtain.

Her silence made Liu Qi also follow into silence; Liu Qi realized belatedly, stared blankly then regretted: she only came to visit him, only asked a sentence about his poisoning, why did he have to tell her these unspeakable calculations he had never laid bare to anyone?

The youth lowered his eyelids, said in a low voice: "Very base, very hypocritical, right."

To survive by relying on such subtle calculations, to play such a two-faced filial son.

Indeed, he had never concealed his own actions, but after laying bare all these thoughts, facing her silence now, he unexpectedly felt at a loss.

She finally fell silent no more: "Yes."

The youth with lowered eyes smiled soundlessly; she had always been frank, and the facts were indeed so, yet he had superfluously asked, appearing even more hypocritical.

"But so what?" Shaowei's tone was matter-of-course: "He was the one who was even more despicable, even more hypocritical first."

Liu Qi stared blankly and looked up at her; the bed was a low couch, almost the same height as a Hu bed, he was lying down, she was sitting, so he had to look up at her slightly, only to see her sitting ramrod straight, black clothes, black braid, black eyes, like a hell messenger, solemnly delivering judgment on this despicable hypocritical ghost of him: "He was hypocritical first, you doing this, there's not a bit of wrong."

Liu Qi used some time before truly realizing, this was fundamentally not a judgment, it was a pardon.

"Yes, I should learn from him." He said slowly: "I was originally like him, this is also one of my despicable advantages."

"An advantage is for using, who cares what it is, am I not also deceiving people?" Shaowei: "We're here to do business, to take revenge, to survive, not to cultivate some spotless saintly Dao. When the day comes that revenge is complete, it won't be too late to speak of those existent or non-existent things."

Liu Qi looked at her quietly; he had long known, she was so vivid that even separated by a gauze curtain she was very clear.

She possessed an animal-like ferocity and purity, a flourishing sense of power from inside out, like a tiger in the snow, the embodiment of innate pure yang.

He was a mass of dark clouds accumulating endless blood-soaked enmity and love, only waiting for a certain day to turn into a torrential rain, destroying enemies and also disintegrating himself, this was the only endpoint he had been able to imagine for a long time.

At this moment that mass of dark clouds was temporarily blocked by pure yang clear light, so he could also possess this instant of relief.

And she was asking some strange questions: "However I'm nursing his body for him, and also refined pills for him, tomorrow they must be sent into the palace, you don't mind, right?"

Liu Qi: "If I mind, will you not do it?"

Shaowei: "That won't do, I——"

Liu Qi laughed and cut off her words: "You're here on business, you must put your own matters first, I know."

This was what she had already said to him when she left Wuling Commandery.

Shaowei nodded in satisfaction, then said: "I wanted to tell you, you don't mind, this is just a delaying tactic, my elixirs also cannot make him live forever."

Liu Qi laughed again, responded "Good", then said:

"He cannot die at this time either. These years I've been investigating the matter of my maternal uncle being framed for colluding with the enemy back then, and have already ascertained that the so-called evidence of guilt at that time was submitted to the capital by the then Governor of Jizhou, Chang Mo, and the reason Chang Mo obtained this thing was that an official under his rule, Qi Huaiwei, secretly presented it. I secretly interrogated Qi Huaiwei, according to his confession, that secret letter and evidence back then appeared out of thin air on his book desk."

"That secret letter corresponding with the Xiongnu is indeed my maternal uncle's handwriting..." Liu Qi said: "The mastermind behind this matter has not yet been ascertained, if the Son of Heaven passes away at this time, the situation under heaven will surely collapse along with it, and investigating that year's matter will be even more difficult."

Shaowei couldn't help thinking, in his previous life he also didn't know whether he had found out this mastermind or not.

However, Qi Huaiwei...

This name seemed familiar, Shaowei thought for a moment, her eyes clearing with realization: "So that Prefect Qi who returned to his hometown to worship ancestors and mourn at the ancestral graves, was killed by you?"

Liu Qi smiled and nodded: "Killed by me."

It was that time she used a slingshot to smash his wine pot.

He didn't want to speak of these anymore, turned to ask her: "The reply letter I gave you, have you read it?"

Shaowei nodded with some doubt.

As expected he asked: "The character forms on the letter, how do you find them?"

Shaowei tried her utmost to maintain composure: "... Not bad."

Liu Qi: "Only not bad? I find them quite good."

Shaowei stared wide-eyed in shock, how could someone praise themselves like this?

Liu Qi said with a smile: "I feel these character forms have common ground with you, so I wrote them for you to see."

Hearing this sentence, Shaowei fell into another kind of shock, so it wasn't praising himself but praising her?

Constrained by her experience interacting with Jiang Fu, Shaowei momentarily held her breath in vigilance, guarding against a trap of a twist in the other's words, if she rashly gave a reaction, it would cause a stumbling joke.

Seeing her not speak, Liu Qi asked curiously: "You don't think they're similar?"

By this point it was already a flat-out compliment, Shaowei's heart felt a trace of faint shame, she said: "I thought you deliberately wrote to show off to me——"

Liu Qi couldn't help laughing, nodded: "That was also a convenient side matter."

That trace of shame in Shaowei instantly turned to smoke: "Just knew you weren't wronged!"

The person inside the curtains said: "I already can't beat you, still not allowed to write better than you?"

Shaowei opened her mouth to say "Not allowed", then felt it was too unreasonably domineering, then heard him say: "Actually there's nothing to show off, only because I was born with famous teachers teaching me, if it were you, perhaps you'd learn even better than me, this is not my ability, it's me relying on power to bully others."

This strangely angled rhetoric made Shaowei very pleased, she nodded: "In the future leaving Chang'an, with plenty of leisure, I'll also learn and give it a try."

At this moment her mind was full of killing and revenge, clearly unable to calm down to learn these things.

Inside the curtains, the youth's smile at the corner of his mouth faded.

Shaowei didn't notice, turned her head to look toward the outer room guarded by Deng Hu and A He, the door was pushed open, someone walked in.

The one who entered was A Ya delivering medicine, seeing Shaowei here, she stared wide-eyed in surprise.

That bowl of tea at the parting before made Shaowei feel that upon reunion they should treat each other politely, so she spoke to call her: "A Ya, it's me."

A Ya nodded lightly, handed the medicine to A He, performed a greeting to Shaowei, then withdrew to one side to stand in attendance.

Deng Hu also entered to serve, the bed curtains were lifted, Liu Qi propped up his body and sat up, he wore a dark blue robe, white bandages wrapped around his front, a few strands of his topknot scattered, somewhat disheveled, somewhat fragile, but beneath the layer of violet shadow cast by his pitch-black eyelashes there lingered an ineradicable coldness.

One look and he was a person who, even broken, was very hard to bully — Shaowei made a simple summary in her heart.

At this time, that person who looked very hard to bully looked up at her, gave her a weak smile, after all this only counted as the two of them formally meeting tonight.

?? Good night everyone! Super thanks for the monthly tickets!