Chapter 87: Meeting a Clear Day Chapter 66: Are You Willing to Let Me See?

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Protagonist:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

Hearing this praise, the servant was even more dumbfounded.

One must know that the Head of Household had previously been on bad terms with Marquis Ling Ke and the Ling Empress; the Head of Household held opposing political views to the Ling Empress, and also disliked how overpowering Ling Ke was, with the brother and sister relying on each other.

But the Great Qian founding Empress, who was the current Emperor's mother, the late Empress Dowager Qu, and the Former Emperor could be said to have ruled jointly as two sages — with this founding mother laying the foundation and setting the tone, matrilineal customs still lingered; Great Qian Empresses have always had their own guards, and the Empress's Seal could also mobilize troops.

Therefore, although the Head of Household was displeased with the Ling Empress and Marquis Ling Ke, after arguing for many years, he still could not stop the Ling Empress from implementing policies during her lifetime, nor Marquis Ling Ke from continuing to command troops.

Until the disaster of the Deposed Crown Prince suddenly descended...

In short, the Head of Household's discord with the Ling clan was known to all; this time, this Tang Changshi brazenly invited him, and before leaving the Head of Household was still coldly snorting that he wanted to go see just what kind of wine-sodden waste the Ling Empress's surviving little son had grown into.

He very much meant to go watch the spectacle and laugh at his former enemy's joke.

But who knew that upon turning his face, he would instead be laughing and praising, as if that one arrow had struck precisely into the Head of Household's heart.

This manservant named Laishi had followed Zhuang Yuanzhi since childhood and had some insight; at this moment there was no one else in the carriage, so he asked in a low voice: "The Sixth Prince publicly shot and killed the Deputy Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guards; does the Head of Household not think this act was too impulsive?"

"If this act had occurred before the stripping of clothes, it would certainly be impulsive and blindly stupid." Zhuang Yuanzhi: "But acting only after stripping to prove himself, it shows flexibility and is not lacking in courage."

"This arrow should only have pierced Huang Jie's throat; if it could not kill in one shot, it would be mere childish tantrum, only inviting more contempt and trouble." Zhuang Yuanzhi said meaningfully: "Even if this act indeed carries some suspicion of acting on impulse, it is not a bad thing; he ought to have some spirit and grievance, being too able to swallow insults is not good."

"As I observe this son, he actually has the bearing of the current Emperor in his youth..." Zhuang Yuanzhi's voice slowed as he spoke to this point.

He could not help but think of the current Crown Prince Liu Cheng in the palace.

He had once observed from the side in Weiyang Palace as His Majesty examined Crown Prince Cheng; never mind his learning and insight, when this Crown Prince answered he was always hesitant and uneasy, his gaze wavering, deeply afraid that any sentence might be improper or provoke His Majesty's displeasure.

He clearly saw a trace of helpless gloom appear between His Majesty's brows and eyes, waving his hand to signal that uneasy child to withdraw.

This uneasy Crown Prince is enough to put His Majesty at ease, but in that excessive ease, when His Majesty is melancholy and silent, does he also think of that once warm and determined child?

This is a question no one dares to inquire about.

But in Zhuang Yuanzhi's view, the year Crown Prince Liu Gu died tragically was in fact an "accidental killing" instigated by others; His Majesty at the start had not thought to move against his Crown Prince, initially only wanting to weaken the Ling family... but countless people and matters intertwined and acted upon each other, turning that accidental killing into an inevitability.

Zhuang Yuanzhi fell into recollection and contemplation, until the manservant asked again: "Since the Head of Household affirms the Sixth Prince so much, why then leave in a huff?"

"He turned his back and shut the door, not even looking at or acknowledging this official, and still won't let this official leave?" Zhuang Yuanzhi snorted, but his demeanor clearly was not truly sulking.

He then said: "Everyone knows I was on bad terms with the Ling family in the past; my appearance here today also counts as speaking a few words for him; if he were to take the opportunity to curry favor and win me over now, spreading the word would bring harm and no benefit."

"The Head of Household means... this Sixth Prince is deliberately avoiding suspicion?" Laishi recalled the Sixth Highness's demeanor at the time and could not help muttering softly: "This servant did not see the slightest bit of it; could it really not be the Head of Household overthinking?"

"Waiting for a dullard like you to see it, wouldn't that mean everyone under heaven would see it clearly?" Zhuang Yuanzhi said at once: "If you don't believe me, dare you make a wager with me?"

Laishi looked at his gambling-addicted master: "How does the Head of Household want to wager?"

"If I guess correctly, within three days he will surely send a secret message to this official; if I guess wrong and overthink..." Zhuang Yuanzhi proposed: "Two soy-braised pig elbows, one basket of longan, this is the stake; do you dare accept?"

Laishi's face instantly showed a bitter expression: "Why does the Head of Household always target this servant's meager private savings?"

The world all says the Head of Household is the First Scolding God of Great Qian, yet they do not know that in private the Head of Household is clearly the First Glutton of Great Qian.

When first exiled, the Head of Household still worried under gloomy clouds daily; but upon arriving in the South, passing through a lychee grove, the Head of Household wandered in a trance into the woods, momentarily dizzy and entranced, repeatedly crying "paradise, paradise," just short of dancing in ecstasy.

Those fresh fruits transported to the Capital, expensive to the point people dared not touch them, were very affordable in the South; the Head of Household ate compensatorily, gorging on lychees wildly for two months.

Lychees finally could not bear the burden and were eaten out of season; recently the Head of Household has set his sights on longan.

So-called longan is dragon eye; the Capital avoids the character 'dragon', and because dragon eye ripens right after lychee, with similar taste and shape, it is called lychee slave.

Besides fruit, the Head of Household is also quite enthusiastic about all kinds of Southern delicacies, causing the already not plump money bag to quickly become thin and shriveled under the expenses along the way, so he set his sights on him!

Hearing the manservant complain, Zhuang Yuanzhi directly called the little slave heartless: "Lately you've been following this official searching for food everywhere; have you ever eaten a single mouthful less than this official?"

Laishi could not refute this; not only recently, ever since he followed the Head of Household, the Head of Household had never mistreated him; back when he was still a little beggar, the Head of Household took pity on him, handed him the marble cake in hand, and said: 【Come eat, come eat!】

From then on he had a name, had food, had monthly money.

Forced to accept the wager, Laishi said softly: "Then this servant can only hope the Sixth Prince won't pay the Head of Household any mind..."

Zhuang Yuanzhi raised his hand and knocked his head in reprimand.

Laishi rubbed his head, no longer joking, and turned to ask softly: "... If this Sixth Prince truly has the schemes and courage the Head of Household believes, then the matter of harboring the Ling clan's son — could it be true?"

"When you should be dull you're not dull." Zhuang Yuanzhi glanced at the manservant: "Without evidence it is false; it is not for you and me to investigate."

He does not care about the truth of this matter at all; even though he once opposed the Ling family, it does not amount to hatred, let alone requiring their line to be cut off absolutely.

And if it is true, it shows this Sixth Imperial Son has deep loyalty; this is truly risking death to save... not only has courage, but is a living being with courage, isn't that good upon good?

He is not the Emperor, he need not worry about the throne's stability; as a subject, he has always preferred a capable strong ruler; Great Qian's founding was not easy, people's hearts are not uniform, the Xiongnu are powerful; if a weak ruler holds the state, how can they bear the great task?

His Majesty is a truly peerless heroic ruler, but now his body declines with many illnesses, and the body often influences a person's wisdom and decisions...

The matters to come will inevitably cause worry; he hopes a young strong ruler will appear to secure the bottom line, and if this strong ruler can also hold some moral bottom line of loyalty, that is naturally joy upon joy.

But whether a sapling can grow into a strong one, there is still much road to walk; the Sixth Prince also has a leg disability, and the disabled are seen as incomplete and inauspicious signs, not lightly able to ascend the great throne...

Zhuang Yuanzhi has the heart to wager, but also dares not be blindly optimistic.

And these are all later matters; today he saw the sharpness and arrogance on this boy did not seem feigned; what if he resents those past grievances of the elders, and truly refuses to acknowledge him?

After all, he is still a youth.

Zhuang Yuanzhi only fears he won't get the chance to sit at this gambling table; in a moment he stroked off several whiskers.

And thinking that today he didn't even get to eat, and after returning he still has to handle a pile of barbaric trivialities at the yamen, the bitter taste in his mouth couldn't help but grow a few degrees stronger.

His seat of governance is still a hundred li south of Wuling Commandery; disputes among the common people are many, and not just the common chicken-stealing dog-touching matters.

Today someone accuses a neighbor of releasing poisonous insects to bite them; tomorrow someone cries holding a pet flower snake broken in two, demanding he pursue the snake-killing murderer; the day after two women fight for this year's Nuo Ceremony Priest position, demanding he discern who has more power to communicate with ghosts and spirits, even competing in Divine Entertainment Dance right in the hall.

Moreover, locally there are many tribes that do not submit to Court discipline; they frequently fight each other; besides armed brawls, poisoning incidents also emerge endlessly.

One region's water and soil raises one region's insects; the snakes and insects here are more venomous than elsewhere, and larger too; once during a trial he saw a man with a spider squatting on his shoulder, as big as a bowl mouth; in a short while it sprayed out a pile of spider silk... he saw it with his own eyes, and once thought, if this spider could be farmed on a large scale, would this spider silk perhaps rival silkworm silk?

The Commandery Prince's official, who cared about the people's livelihood, not only wanted to enslave spiders but also refused to let poisonous insects go; hearing that many poisonous insects, including poisonous snakes, could be used in medicine, and were extremely precious and rare medicines, he wondered whether these poisonous creatures could be raised under regulation to form a South-region specialty industry, while also making those barbarians and insect children busy.

The mule cart carried the worried Guoyu away, and the Brocade Guard withdrew completely from the Commandery Prince's Mansion.

"Your Highness, the surroundings have been cleaned, everyone has left!" Deng Hu came back from outside, closed the room door, and saluted Liu Qi to report.

Liu Qi, leaning against the low table behind him, nodded.

A Ya immediately turned her head to make urging gestures to A He.

A He hurriedly approached, knelt down beside Liu Qi, but did not forget to look at Shaowei sitting opposite the low table.

Shaowei had an injury on her leg and had long since changed from kneeling to sitting flat; at this moment, seeing A He look at her, she immediately understood and was about to rise to avoid him, but then heard Liu Qi opposite ask: "Are you very curious about my injuries?"

While waiting for the people outside to clear away all sorts of people, she did not speak, but had looked at his arm several times.

Between the two people was only a low table; Shaowei's movement of rising halfway upon hearing the words stalled, she raised her eyes to look at the person opposite, seeing that his expression could be called gentle and friendly, without the slightest gloomy sharpness from fighting just now, so she asked directly: "Are you willing to let me look?"

This matter was strange enough to arouse Shaowei's desire for knowledge; if the other party did not speak, it would be fine, but since he took the initiative to invite, it was hard for people to refuse.

This question named "Are you willing to let me look?" made Liu Qi inexplicably feel a difficulty in responding; if he just nodded and said "willing," it seemed somewhat subtly strange.

Therefore, after pausing for a moment, he chose to answer indirectly: "If you are not afraid of having nightmares again at night."

Shaowei immediately sat back down very decisively, using action instead of an answer.

A Ya, who had hurriedly taken the items and returned, saw Shaowei actually sitting there leisurely waiting to watch; in surprise, her complexion inevitably changed.

A He removed Liu Qi's left robe sleeve, exposing half of his shoulder and arm.

Shaowei's expression was serious, her gaze fixed intently on A He's movements; and at this moment, being extremely close, she was able to discover that the skin texture on Liu Qi's arm was somewhat unreal.

A He used a bottle of medicinal oil to moisten a clean cloth, and then used that cloth to wipe Liu Qi's left arm; sure enough, a layer of powdery substance was wiped off, revealing the original skin.

Liu Qi's complexion was already very white; wiping off the powdery substance did not produce any color difference; it was thought that the powdery substance only served to evenly cover and blend transitions.

But Shaowei still could not clearly see where the wound was; she turned her head to stare closely, and only then noticed the clue, but could not help feeling surprised: "What is this?"

A He removed the thing used to wrap and cover the wound; this thing was extremely thin, perfectly fitting the wound, almost without weight.

"It is made by A He using a spider silk unique to the South..." Liu Qi answered her: "It can cover the wound and prevent blood from seeping out, preventing blood Qi from overflowing."

Shaowei was very surprised, but she knew that this alone was far from enough; under the wrapping, it could only stop bleeding and cover, but if one wanted no trace to be seen, the appearance must be flat and natural; therefore, it was necessary to also remove the blood scab and cut away the rotten flesh around the wound.

Sure enough, after the spider silk was removed, a nearly sunken wound was exposed; the medicinal powder buried in the wound had been soaked by fresh blood and changed color.

Shaowei did not know how much flesh he had cut away; seeing this scene, imagining it, she felt her own arm also vaguely ache.

A He needed to dig out the medicinal powder buried in the wound, re-clean the wound, and apply medicine and bandage it.

This process was naturally extremely painful; Liu Qi's back soon condensed cold sweat, and his pitch-black eyebrows and eyes were soaked by sweat; Deng Hu wiped him from the side.

Liu Qi could no longer answer gracefully; Shaowei no longer asked more, nor continued to stare at him; she half-lowered her eyes, looking at the wine vessels on the table, and thought a great deal in her heart for a moment.

After applying medicine and bandaging was properly done, Deng Hu put a robe on Liu Qi; A He cleaned everything up and withdrew to destroy it; A Ya also went to cook medicine.

Shaowei thought it over and over, then raised her head and said: "So you deliberately went into the mountain yourself, and used your own injuries as bait, so that Zhu Zhi would have the confidence to have the Brocade Guard come to the door, thereby reversing to clear suspicion."

It turned out this was what he had said before: to use Zhu Zhi to prove his innocence.

And besides this, even though Shaowei had not yet personally dealt with official matters, she could still imagine that Zhu Zhi would have great trouble next.

In this matter, Shaowei did not know whether there truly existed a child of the Ling Family.

If not, then Liu Qi had set a trap to lure Zhu Zhi to the South; the whole matter was a trap.

If such a person existed, then he was saving Ling Congnan while extracting himself from the middle, and injuring the Brocade Guard and Zhu Zhi in return.

Shaowei's gaze fell again on his wound covered by the robe; covering the wound was only one thing; recalling this person's bearing and speech when facing the Brocade Guard just now, there was clearly maneuvering everywhere; even a slight defeat would still have the possibility of immediate exposure.

Today only one Brocade Guard died; the true knife light and sword shadow were not in the blood, but in the scheming and maneuvering of human nature.

And this was only what she saw and thought of at this time; secretly, the preparations she had not seen, he must have done many as well.

Liu Qi still had some weakness after exhaustion at this moment; facing Shaowei's inference, he did not hurry to speak, only smiled at her and weakly nodded.

Shaowei inexplicably fell silent for a while, suppressed the untimely jealousy in her heart, then said: "Just now seeing you so fearless, I thought there were two of you in the mountain that night, and the injured one was someone pretending to be you."