RMACAUH Chapter 74
by Volare“My lord, what are you saying? Even if it were to use your life to exchange for His Majesty’s, His Majesty would not agree.”
“He saved me.”
“But that was also because of him that you encountered danger,” Sang Cai muttered softly.
“A’Cai, he and I are one, sharing fortune and misfortune, life and death together.”
Sang Cai: “I know, you value him more than yourself, but I just want you to be a little selfish, don’t always revolve around him.”
“I don’t,” Wei Xiaofeng’s eyes were clear and firm, “What he wants to do is what I want to do. I was originally an ordinary person, if I hadn’t met him, I would have lived a mediocre life, confused and without anything I wanted to do, perhaps ending my life in bleak loneliness.”
“Without him, you would have met someone very good!” Sang Cai frowned deeply, “You’re so good, someone will see it.”
“Where would I have such good luck?” Wei Xiaofeng couldn’t help but smile, “Some fates, once missed, are missed. You won’t encounter them again in this lifetime. I think people’s lives are always more difficult than smooth. Having one or two strokes of good luck in a lifetime is already better than eighty or ninety percent of the people in the world. What you said, like meeting someone very good again, are all ethereal things.”
Sang Cai seemed to understand and not understand: “Don’t overthink these things, when the carriage reaches the mountain, there will be a road, when the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten. As long as you are well, I’ll go get you some hot water to wash up.”
*
Feng Yue woke up in a violent coughing fit. He sat up, supported himself on the edge of the bed, and felt a fishy sweetness in his throat, spitting out a mouthful of blood. Yuan Gonggong, who was guarding the door, came over at the sound and quickly took a handkerchief to wipe the bloodstains from the corner of his mouth.
“Your Majesty, should I summon the imperial physician?”
Feng Yue waved his hand, his voice hoarse, “No need, spitting out this stagnant blood makes me feel more comfortable. What time is it?”
“The second watch.”
Yuan Gonggong raised the pillow a little for him and helped him sit up.
“In two days is the Feng Yue’s Feng Queen ceremony. Before that, I want to leave the palace.”
Yuan Gonggong’s breath caught in his throat: “His Majesty’s physical condition, I’m afraid, is not appropriate.”
“I want to leave the palace, to see them. You know where they are, right?”
Yuan Gonggong lowered his head and remained silent for a long time. Seeing that he didn’t speak, Feng Yue became even more curious: “What is your relationship with them? And with me… what is the relationship? Even now, you can’t say?”
“I founded the Cold Crow Fourteen Manor with my own hands. Everyone inside is a top expert. Assassins cannot have emotions, so the manor has a rule: those who enter the Cold Crow Fourteen Manor must be detached and loveless in this life, and cannot violate it.”
After hearing this, Feng Yue sighed, “People’s flesh and blood are warm, so there will be temperature. The heart is beating, so there will be emotions. No matter how powerful an assassin is, they are just mortal beings, how can they avoid the mundane?”
“His Majesty is absolutely right,” Yuan Gonggong smiled helplessly, “So in the ten years in Cold Crow, I killed many faces I was familiar with, first abolished their martial arts, and then severed their tendons, expelling them from Cold Crow Fourteen Manor. If this person could live for more than ten days, from then on, there would be no connection with Cold Crow Fourteen Manor.”
Feng Yue guessed, “But among these people, there was an accident?”
Yuan Gonggong fell silent, his expression sad, “He was a child I raised with my own hands, also my younger brother. He was extremely talented, even when I fought him, I could only admit defeat. He was the sharpest knife in Cold Crow Fourteen Manor, and also the next manor lord.”
“But it was such a sharp knife that grew the selfishness of loving someone. Once an assassin has emotions, he is no longer a qualified assassin.”
“He took that young master and escaped for a long, long time, but was still caught. He never kneels, doesn’t kneel to heaven and earth, doesn’t kneel to gods and Buddhas. In order to let his young master live, he knelt down and begged me, saying, ‘Brother, I have never asked you for anything, now I only ask you to let go of the person I love.’ After saying that, he reversed his meridians, in front of my eyes, and abolished all his martial arts. He knew I would feel sorry, this kid always knew how to make people feel sorry for him.”
“He, like you, is a cold-hearted madman. Once he falls in love with someone, he will disregard everything, even his life.”
A surge of bitterness welled up in Feng Yue’s heart: “He died?”
“No,” Yuan Gonggong took a deep breath, “I had a moment of compassion. Although I personally severed his tendons, I secretly fed him a life-saving elixir. He lay in the rain and mud, and finally survived.”
“What about the person he loved?”
“The person he loved, hated him.”
“Why?”
“Don’t you already have the answer?”
Feng Yue closed his eyes in pain and remained silent for a long time.
“He killed all two hundred people of the Jinshui Sect, only taking that person away, but that person really hated him to the bone. Only later, when he was about to die, was the young master willing to look back at him.”
“My silly brother, has never been loved in his life. Others just gave him a little sugar and deceived him, crying and wanting to die and live together with that person, but what could I do? I only have this one relative in my life. As the Cold Crow manor lord, I took the lead in violating the rules I had established.”
Feng Yue smiled bitterly, “So, you made a deal with the empress to save your brother?”
“I wanted to save him, but the power of Cold Crow Fourteen Manor alone was not enough. The prescription to prolong his life, every ingredient was extremely rare and precious, only the royal treasury could supply it continuously. The empress knew he had a son, she needed an heir who could trade with the emperor, had a clean background, and could appease the Chen family army, so I carried you into the palace.”
“Before the late Empress entered the palace, she was regarded as a thorn in the side by the Consort De for two years, and she was deliberately made things difficult for her. I am Empress Chen’s dog, her knife. I pretended to be Empress Zhou, she felt guilty in her heart, and was frightened and went crazy, until her liver and gallbladder ruptured and she died.”
This was a secret that the late Emperor never knew. The late Emperor always thought it was the Empress Dowager who had done it.
“I watched you grow to four years old, and then Empress Chen transferred me elsewhere, not letting me see you again.”
Hearing this, Feng Yue felt mixed emotions in his heart. For a moment, he didn’t know whether he should hate the person in front of him or pity him.
“You… why did you do this?”
He felt that rules were important, so he hurt his brother because of these rules, but his brother was more important to him than the manor lord, so he self-harmed and entered the palace, willingly becoming a running dog under power.
In the end, what was he pursuing?
“Don’t worry, this old servant won’t let anything happen to you. Since this old servant can snatch your father’s life back from King Yama, he can snatch your life back again. This old servant doesn’t agree, and King Yama shouldn’t even think about touching you.”
Feng Yue’s heart constricted into a ball, his eyes were sore and painful, “I want to see them, can I?”
“If you always have this obsession in your heart, it’s okay to see them.”
Yuan Gonggong was silent for a long time, and then said, “Empress Chen didn’t have no feelings for you at all, otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone to your side to protect your safety along the way.”
He said this, and Feng Yue also knew his intention. He hoped that the hatred in his heart could be less, and he could live more happily.
Early the next morning, Feng Yue and Yuan Gonggong secretly left the palace.
When Wei Xiaofeng came to have breakfast with him, the person had already been out for a long time.
“Why did you suddenly leave the palace? You didn’t even tell me.” Wei Xiaofeng was worried about his health, afraid that he would not be able to withstand the cold wind outside, and if he caught a small cold, it would simply be fatal.
The carriage traveled all the way out of the city gate, away from the official road, and the road became narrower and narrower. Yuan Gonggong picked the smallest carriage, but the road ahead was still impassable.
He helped Feng Yue out of the carriage, intending to carry him forward, but was rejected by Feng Yue.
“It’s okay, I’m not weak to that point.”
“Then this old servant will support you.”
“Okay.”
The mountain road was difficult to travel, but fortunately, the weather had been clear these days, and the road underfoot was fairly easy to walk on and did not slip.
There were few people living here, willows and flowers, and the scene in front of them suddenly opened up, a paradise was in sight.
They went down the mountain along a long flight of stone steps, and entered the depths of this peach forest.
Suddenly Yuan Gonggong stopped and pointed forward: “You keep going forward, the next house you see is the person you are looking for.”
The closer to home, the more timid one becomes, making Feng Yue hesitate. He turned to look at Yuan Gonggong: “Aren’t you going together?”
Yuan Gonggong had a look of difficulty, with complex emotions in his eyes: “I haven’t seen them in more than twenty years…”
He hadn’t seen them in more than twenty years, but he still remembered the way to get here, and knew their recent situation very well.
“I understand, then you wait here, I’ll go see them.”
“Okay! And don’t rush to come out, the scenery here is very good, this old servant will enjoy the scenery.”
Saying that, he turned around and went to the path next to him alone. Feng Yue watched his lonely figure leave, and his heart ached inexplicably.
Until his figure disappeared into the forest, Feng Yue withdrew his gaze, bypassed the lush peach branches, and passed through this forest, a thatched cottage appeared in front of him.
The thatched roof was slightly slanted, barely sheltering from the wind and rain, surrounded by green trees, and a jujube tree was planted in the front yard. The jujube tree crossed the fence, and when the forest wind blew, the green long leaves danced gracefully, and the light and shadows falling on the wall were mottled.
In this corner of heaven and earth, even though it was a humble house, it was elegant and pleasant.
Feng Yue’s impetuous heart gradually calmed down, and he went forward and looked into the courtyard for a while, and found a man sitting in a wheelchair, lazily basking in the sun with his eyes closed.
A cyan simple long shirt, a slender and thin figure, surrounded by sunlight, he sat in that quiet world, comfortably and contentedly.
Feng Yue could only see his side, and could not see his true face.
“Excuse me, can I come in to ask for a cup of water?”
Hearing the sound, the man didn’t move, still squinting his eyes to enjoy the warm morning sun, and shouted into the house, “Second son, there’s someone outside asking for water to drink, you take care of it.”
“Coming!” After a while, a fair and handsome young man walked out of the house, trotting forward to open the wicker door.
He looked at the tall and handsome man in front of him, and was stunned for a moment. In these ten miles and eight villages, he had never seen a man who was better-looking than his eldest brother!
“Quick, please come in, please, sir.”
Hearing that his second son’s tone was different from usual, the man in the wheelchair couldn’t help but curiously turned his face to look at Feng Yue.
Seeing that the man who came in was tall and jade-like, with a compelling noble aura, definitely not an ordinary person, he couldn’t help but become a little vigilant.
“Looking at this young master’s brocade clothes and gorgeous clothes, how come there is no servant by his side?”
The young man winked at his father, people are just here to ask for a drink of water, don’t be so mean.
The man snorted coldly, his second son is just too simple, seeing that people look good, he invited people into the house like this.