Chapter 112: The Prime Minister's Thoughts

He immediately dropped to his knees and spoke earnestly: "As a subordinate, I need no rewards or honors; I will obey the Prime Minister completely, and I am willing to lay down my life and brains for him!"

This remark surprised Si Tu Wei quite a bit.

Upon further thought, this person not only could wipe out the enemies who had captured Xiao Qidi and rescue him, but also had considered everything thoroughly, knowing not to publicize it, and promptly brought Xiao Qidi to the Royal City to report to him.

He is indeed both brave and resourceful.

People with such ability are not easy to find.

What's more rare and valuable is that this person has not the slightest trace of arrogance about his achievements.

Talent, he is indeed a talent.

Killing him would be a real shame.

Si Tu Wei pondered for a moment, turned around with a friendly smile, personally helped Li Yao up, and said, "General Li, you've worked hard at the frontier; just rest here in the Prime Minister's Residence for these few days."

"Thank you, Prime Minister!" Li Yao bowed deeply.

Si Tu Wei summoned servants, arranged the best guest room for Li Yao, and assigned ten attendants and maids to look after his daily needs.

Although he didn't say much openly, his attitude had been made clear.

After Li Yao returned to the guest room, the anxiety in his heart finally settled, and his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

It was a close call; he almost lost his life.

Over the next three days, Li Yao never saw Si Tu Wei again; the people of the Prime Minister's Residence wined and dined him, even summoning singers and dancers from the Royal City, including the top courtesan, for his enjoyment.

Li Yao was not one to indulge in drink and women, but to avoid arousing the Prime Minister's suspicion, feeling that this man's lack of desire was actually a hidden danger, he reluctantly accepted the arrangements.

On the night after the third day.

Si Tu Wei secretly left the Royal City and arrived the next morning at the residence he had arranged for the puppet.

Upon entering the house, he heard the sound of music.

Looking at the hall's doorway, he saw the puppet embracing left and right, feasting and drinking wantonly.

He was accustomed to this scene.

Besides, he wasn't short of money; as long as the puppet obeyed, how they played in private wasn't an issue.

"The old master has come; everyone, step back!" Si Tu Wei's attendant stepped onto the threshold and shouted loudly.

A steward in the hall heard the order and hurriedly saw everyone out.

Xiao Qidi put on a drunken appearance, glancing sideways at the doorway with the corner of his eye.

The person outside, clad head to toe in a black robe with face hidden under a hooded cloak, might not be recognized by others, but he recognized him instantly.

After the attendants cleared the area, Si Tu Wei slowly walked into the hall.

Then the attendants closed the door and stood guard outside.

Xiao Qidi, eyes half-closed, shouted: "Where are my beauties? Where are my singers and dancers? How did they all run off! I'll kill you!"

Si Tu Wei lifted the hood, walked over, grabbed a jug of wine and splashed it on Xiao Qidi's face, coldly rebuking: "Sober up, I have important matters to discuss with you."

"Ah... Prime Minister!" Xiao Qidi wiped the wine from his face and hastily scrambled up from the bed.

Si Tu Wei frowned, sizing him up from head to toe, and asked, "Are you sober now?"

Xiao Qidi forced an embarrassed smile: "I'm awake, I'm awake..."

Over these three days, he gleaned from the servants attending him, through indirect questioning, the puppet's usual behavior, and also learned that a mysterious old master visits once or twice a month.

Including the puppet's attitude when seeing the old master, he had pretty much figured that out as well.

That's why he suppressed his inner discomfort and put on an act, lest he give himself away.

Fortunately, the puppet, in front of all the servants, acted as he pleased with unpredictable moods; whatever he did, the servants weren't surprised, so Xiao Qidi didn't have to imitate the puppet by publicly cavorting with women and wasting lives for amusement.

However, this pretense couldn't last too long; fortunately, only three days had passed when Si Tu Wei arrived.

"What are your orders, Prime Minister?" Xiao Qidi asked, keeping a fawning smile.

Si Tu Wei stood before him, staring intently without saying a word.

Xiao Qidi's heart suddenly tightened with nervousness.

Could it be... that he had revealed some flaw?

"Sigh..." Si Tu Wei suddenly sighed, "Listen well, I will soon have you put to use; after keeping you for so long, you'd better not disappoint me."

Xiao Qidi noticed that Si Tu Wei's face was gaunt, his eye sockets dark, his eyes full of bloodshot veins, and asked again, "Prime Minister, are you still in good health?"

Si Tu Wei slowly sat down, his expression somewhat dazed, "These three days I've been unable to sleep at night, haven't rested well, but... it's nothing serious."

"Prime Minister, you said you'll soon have me put to use—what do you mean by that?"

"Xiao Qidi... he has met with misfortune."

"Ah?"

Xiao Qidi feigned surprise, "So I need to replace him? That's far too sudden."

Si Tu Wei half-closed his eyes, "Exactly, I've been keeping you just in case, to prepare for the day Xiao Qidi completely slips from my control and you take his place; I never imagined... it would happen like this, it really is sudden."

"What situation?" Xiao Qidi continued, smiling as he asked.

Si Tu Wei gave a cold snort, "You seem rather pleased about it!"

Xiao Qidi said with a smile, "Being useful to the Prime Minister and also gaining Xiao Qidi's identity would make anyone happy. Prime Minister, rest assured, I will continue to obey your arrangements in all things as before. Thereafter you needn't worry about Xiao Qidi seizing your authority—aren't you happy?"

"Happy?" Si Tu Wei's face darkened slightly, "If it weren't for Xiao Qidi's growing power and increasing independence from my control, there would be no room for you to replace him."

He then added, in a rather despondent whisper, "If only he could listen to me as you do, how wonderful that would be..."

Having said that, Si Tu Wei picked up a jug of wine and gulped it down to the dregs.

From the moment Si Tu Wei entered until now, his various reactions and behavior have surprised Xiao Qidi somewhat.

He wasn't as happy as Xiao Qidi had expected; instead, he appeared quite sorrowful.

But Xiao Qidi didn't dare press further, so he could only stand quietly to the side.

"Come... have a drink with me." Si Tu Wei commanded.

""Yes."" Xiao Qidi picked up the wine cup, preparing to pour wine.

Si Tu Wei said: "Just drink straight from the wine jug; I haven't touched alcohol in a long time, today I want to drink more."

Xiao Qidi immediately brought all the wine on the long table closer, then he and Si Tu Wei drank, each with their own jug, for about half an hour.

Si Tu Wei's alcohol took effect; he suddenly kicked over the table, eyes red, and said: "A bunch of beasts! Beasts!"

""Prime Minister!"" Xiao Qidi quickly knelt, ""You…… what happened?""

Si Tu Wei gritted his teeth and said: "Xiao Qidi was captured by the enemy at the frontier, his limbs cut off, eyes gouged out, ears and nose sliced off, and tongue torn out! If those who rescued him hadn't already killed that bunch of beasts, I would…… I would have them subjected to every torture and then executed by Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts) (death by a thousand cuts) (death by a thousand cuts) (death by a thousand cuts) (death by a thousand cuts)!"

Xiao Qidi's heart twitched slightly; he could clearly feel that the anger in those words was genuine.

Moreover, in front of the puppet, Si Tu Wei didn't need to pretend to have any feelings for Xiao Qidi.

This made him even more surprised.

""Prime Minister……"" Xiao Qidi said with his head lowered, "How do you plan to deal with Xiao Qidi?"

Si Tu Wei exhaled a breath of alcohol, then slowly said: "Just keep him alive…… unfortunately he's become a Human Stick, and even his tongue is gone; otherwise he could still offer me strategies later, a pity about his ability."

Xiao Qidi tentatively said: "Since he's of no use at all, we might as well kill him."

Smack!

Si Tu Wei suddenly swung a slap over, landing hard on Xiao Qidi's face: "If you dare say again that we should kill him, I, the Prime Minister, will abolish you!"

Xiao Qidi's feelings were very complex; he bowed low and said: "Yes, I dare not."

"Ah, I've drunk too much, I've drunk too much." Si Tu Wei rubbed his temples, "Get up."

Xiao Qidi stood up; Si Tu Wei raised his head to gaze at his face for a while, then reached out and patted his arm, saying: "When you officially replace him, you will call me 'second father'; he used to address me that way."

Xiao Qidi lowered his eyes, ""Yes, sir…… Prime Minister.""

Si Tu Wei said nothing more, rose with some difficulty, and slowly walked toward the hall's outer door.

Xiao Qidi looked at his back, and a hard-to-describe complex emotion welled up in his heart.

For eighteen years, Xiao Qidi had almost no impression of his biological father, who abandoned his wife and children when Xiao Qidi was three and fled back to Xuan Guo.

Since he could remember, during the years he was a hostage prince in Wasteland Nation, only Si Tu Wei would secretly visit Wasteland Nation a few times each year.

Later, Xiao Qidi and his mother were also brought back to Xuan Guo by Si Tu Wei……

Memories of the past surfaced uncontrollably.

But as soon as they began to surface, Xiao Qidi forcibly suppressed them.

""Prime Minister,"" Xiao Qidi suddenly said, "I want to see Xiao Qidi."

If it weren't for Ning Jinli from another parallel universe changing events here, according to the original secret history, the person who would soon become a Human Stick and be imprisoned in the underground palace would be himself.

He wanted to go and see; if nothing had changed, he wondered where he would spend his remaining life.

Si Tu Wei's steps halted, he slightly turned his face, and asked: "Why?"

Xiao Qidi naturally wouldn't say the real reason, so he said he was merely curious.

Si Tu Wei pondered for a moment, then said: "Go change your clothes, cover your face as well, and I'll take you into the Royal City."

Having received permission, Xiao Qidi immediately complied.

Next, he rode in Si Tu Wei's carriage and arrived at the Royal City late that night.

Finally, his eyes were blindfolded, and he was brought into a secret underground palace.

The underground palace wasn't large, roughly equivalent to an ordinary commoner's dwelling.

Xiao Qidi followed Si Tu Wei through the stone gate into a stone chamber, untied the cloth binding his eyes, and looking around saw that the place was well furnished.

Apart from lacking windows, nothing was missing; it looked no different from a normal bedroom above ground, and even the materials of all items were the finest—one might mistake it for a noble's residence if unaware.

Although underground, the air was not at all damp and cold, but carried a fragrant scent mixed with medicinal aromas.

This shows Si Tu Wei put a great deal of thought into it.

""How is the situation?"" Si Tu Wei asked, his face tense, of the servant attending here.

The servant said: ""Report to the Prime Minister, I just changed his medicine, fed him some medicinal porridge, and he fell asleep.""

""That's good……"" Si Tu Wei walked over gently, gazing at the mutilated body on the bed, "For the past two days he kept passing out from pain and then waking from it, but now he can finally sleep."

Si Tu Wei waved his hand, signaling the few servant women to retreat.

As soon as the stone chamber's door was closed, he sat down beside the bed.

""If only I hadn't allowed you to leave the Royal City a few months ago."" Si Tu Wei spoke.

Xiao Qidi stood to the side, silent.

Si Tu Wei continued to mutter to himself: "I really didn't expect that a perfectly fine person would return in this state. I've spent most of my life on officialdom, with no sons or daughters; whenever I heard you call me 'second father,' I felt as if I had a son."

"But you are ultimately a member of the royal lineage, your veins carry the former king's blood; even if you call me 'second father,' I cannot call you 'son'."

"You suffered hardship in Wasteland Nation for many years as a child, I know that, but the timing wasn't right—I had to assist the former king and couldn't bring you back earlier."

"By the time I could bring you back, your temperament had changed greatly, and you had become very different from me."

Saying this, Si Tu Wei's voice grew a little choked.

He paused a moment, took a deep breath, and extended his hand to lightly rest on the mutilated body's shoulder, saying: "Xiao Qidi…… your mother, Jiang Peihuan, though she was a singer whom I once took as a concubine, is the woman I loved most."

The real Xiao Qidi, standing silently to the side listening to these words, felt his pupils twitch slightly.

Si Tu Wei continued speaking softly: "Back then, for the sake of my official career, I presented Peihuan to the former king; that was my most difficult decision."

"Later I often fantasized that, if I hadn't harbored such great ambition initially and hadn't handed her over, perhaps now, although I lack power in the Daxuan court, I would still be wealthy, and then have several more children with Peihuan, possibly one of them being you."

"Alas…… I can no longer go back to the past to make a different choice, and I am no longer the person I once was……"

After saying all that, Si Tu Wei remained silent for a long time.

Then, as if only now remembering there was another person beside him, he turned his head, stared fixedly at the tall figure standing behind him, and warned coldly: "The Prime Minister momentarily lost control, unconsciously spilling all these thoughts—did you hear them all?"

Xiao Qidi lowered his head, ""I heard nothing.""

Si Tu Wei nodded satisfactorily, ""Remember this, Prime Minister: although you will be Xiao Qidi in everyone else's eyes from now on, never forget who made you into him, never forget you are a substitute. The Prime Minister can use you as a substitute, and could also replace you with someone else.""

Xiao Qidi said: "Yes, the Prime Minister's teachings, I keep them in mind."

Si Tu Wei glanced at the person on the bed, rose, and said, "Follow me out."

The two left the bedroom one after another and entered another stone chamber.

"The Prime Minister has decided," Si Tu Wei said, standing before a wall painting with his hands behind his back, "Within the next few days, as soon as possible, have you officially replace Xiao Qidi; show some presence so I can see it."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Qidi straightened his back and regained some of his normal composure.

"Hmm, the Prime Minister had previously worried that your bearing differed greatly from his, but now it seems the training wasn't wasted," Si Tu Wei nodded in evaluation, then added, "But you still need to appear more confident."

"Xiao Qidi is a sovereign of a nation; he inherently bears the pride and domineering nature of the Daxuan royal family, and being in his youthful vigor, if you lack this aspect too much, even if your appearance is nearly identical to his, the Empress Dowager will likely notice the discrepancy."

"Come, try to display such bearing; the Prime Minister will see how much of it you can manage."