Chapter 37
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Wen Biesang did not have much to pack. The Crown Prince’s residence had everything one could need, and he had brought almost nothing with him.
All he had to do was pack the thunderfire bombs in his box that he had barely used. Most importantly, of course, he had to take that large bag of genuine gold and silver with him.
“My lord, what are you doing?”
At that moment, Wen Biesang was carrying the box in one arm and a large bag of money over his shoulder. He had even put his gauze veil back on, looking every inch like someone about to run away from home.
“I’m not staying here anymore.”
“Then where will you go?”
“Anywhere.”
As Wen Biesang spoke, he continued toward the exit. Pang Qi hurried after him.
“Look, the Crown Prince is still setting off fireworks for you in the back.”
Wen Biesang raised his face again. Through the eaves, he could see great swathes of fireworks bursting across the night sky.
“I made all of those.”
“This old servant already knows. My lord truly is an extraordinary man. The fireworks you made are dazzling beyond compare.”
Wen Biesang smiled. He glanced once more at the fireworks in the sky, then continued toward the gate.
Pang Qi did not quite understand what was happening, but he followed closely behind all the same.
“My lord, does the Crown Prince know that you’re leaving?”
“He knows.” Wen Biesang lifted his robe as he stepped over the threshold. “I told him that, unless absolutely necessary, we should never see each other again.”
Pang Qi finally understood. He hurriedly asked, “Have you two quarreled again?”
Wen Biesang stopped dead.
His clear eyes were as cold and sharp as ice-tipped arrows as he stared at Pang Qi without blinking.
Pang Qi stiffened from head to toe. That look was even more terrifying than the Crown Prince’s anger.
“I dislike that description,” Wen Biesang said. “He and I have not quarreled. I am leaving because I want to leave, and I am not staying because he cannot make me stay. Choose your words carefully.”
“Yes, yes.” Pang Qi hastily nodded. “Then, as for the Crown Prince…”
“That has nothing to do with me.”
Wen Biesang stopped once more before the tightly closed gates of the Crown Prince’s residence.
By the lake in the rear courtyard, the fireworks had gradually come to an end.
Lou Zhaoji and Qi Song exchanged a glance. Both of them sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere in the pavilion.
After an unknown length of time, the Crown Prince, who had been leaning against the railing with one hand, slowly raised his eyes toward Han Bing and straightened.
In the front courtyard, under Wen Biesang’s unwavering gaze, Pang Qi had no choice but to order the guards to open the gates.
The snow had been swept to either side outside the entrance, leaving the road clean and dry. Wen Biesang stepped out lightly, just as he had the first time he left the residence, without once looking back.
The covered walkways wound through the compound. The Crown Prince’s figure flashed through them, his pace growing faster and faster.
He met Pang Qi head-on. The eunuch was panting for breath and had not yet spoken when the Crown Prince demanded, “Where is he?”
“He has already left the residence!”
Before the words had even faded, the Crown Prince’s figure had shot ten feet away.
“Wen Biesang!”
At the gates, the Crown Prince strode onto the imperial road. The person ahead had already gone a hundred yards without turning back.
He could not hear him.
Wen Biesang truly had not heard. He held the wooden box in one arm and the silver in the other, and by now his arms were beginning to ache—a feeling both happy and painful.
At the same time, he was wondering where he would spend the night.
Gong Wuchang might have been wrong in a thousand ways, but there was one thing he had said that was absolutely true.
If Wen Biesang went to the fireworks shop, he would inevitably draw Zhou Cangshu’s attention to it.
Still, he was not particularly worried. He had plenty of money now.
The only regrettable thing was that there was nowhere in the capital where he could exchange counterfeit silver. If such a place existed, he would already have ten bags of money that size to spend.
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Wen Biesang’s vision blurred, and he instinctively took a step back.
The Crown Prince, dressed in broad robes with sweeping sleeves, had suddenly appeared in front of him and blocked his path.
Wen Biesang looked at him through the gauze veil.
The sky was already dark, and the veil made it even harder to see. He had no idea what expression the other man wore.
The silver in his arms pressed together, making a faint clinking sound.
Wen Biesang said nothing. He was not certain whether being rejected would drive the other man into rage and humiliation, prompting him to commit some fresh outrage.
“You cannot leave.”
“Why not?”
“If you leave the Crown Prince’s residence, you will certainly fall into Zhou Cangshu’s hands.”
“I can legally possess firearms now. I’ll shoot him.”
“If you truly meet him face-to-face, you may be able to shoot him. But what if he uses underhanded methods?”
Wen Biesang thought for a moment. “I’ll proceed carefully.”
“You have now been granted the title of Lord Phoenix Cry. The imperial edict and rewards have yet to arrive. If you truly hide yourself away, what will happen to your reward money?”
Wen Biesang had not considered that at all. His expression went blank.
“There’s reward money?”
“Do you think Lord Phoenix Cry was merely an empty phrase? Since it is a title, naturally it comes with corresponding rewards and a stipend. You do not want them?”
“…”
His silence meant that his heart had been moved.
Cheng Yun continued, “Do you know where to collect your stipend?”
“…” The head beneath the veil shook.
“When the time comes, I can take you there to collect it.”
“…”
Wen Biesang’s heart wavered back and forth.
This belonged to him. He could not simply refuse it.
“But I hate you,” Wen Biesang said. “Even so, are you still willing to help me?”
Wen Biesang still could not see the Crown Prince’s expression. After several breaths, he heard him ask, “Do you like the Crown Prince’s residence?”
“I do.”
“Do you like Pang Qi?”
Wen Biesang turned his head. The round-faced eunuch was standing not far from the gate. When he saw Wen Biesang look back, he waved.
“Do you like Lou Zhaoji?”
The gray-robed Daoist held a horsetail whisk and looked over with a smiling face.
“Do you like Qi Song?”
The young guard held his sword in his arms, watching the situation with concern.
“I like all of them,” Wen Biesang said. “But I do not like you.”
“…”
Cheng Yun’s breath trembled faintly.
“Before this,” he asked, “did you ever like me?”
“No.”
“But weren’t we getting along perfectly well before?”
“It is different now.” Wen Biesang spoke with complete seriousness. “At first, ours was an equal exchange. We each took what we needed. But now you want to marry me.”
“…”
The Crown Prince smiled bitterly, looking helpless.
“I want to marry you. You do not have to marry me.”
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“Since I have no feelings for you, I should draw a clear line between us, so that we do not become entangled.”
Cheng Yun’s gaze fell upon the money bag in Wen Biesang’s arms. Wen Biesang turned sideways to block it from view.
“This is what I earned by providing you with information about Xizhou and rendering meritorious service. It is not something I took for free because you like me.”
“I also had a great many clothes made for you. You do not want them?”
“I don’t.”
“They were tailored to your measurements. If you do not wear them, no one else will fit into them.”
“I cannot take anything from you.” Wen Biesang made the distinction very clearly. “My mother told me that if you do not love someone who loves you, you must keep to your own side of the river and let him keep to his. Hope gives birth to expectation, expectation gives birth to disappointment, and disappointment gives birth to resentment. It is easy to bring disaster upon yourself.”
“But in my heart, you and I are destined to become one.”
“Imagination is not a crime.”
“…”
Cheng Yun changed the subject.
“Did you notice that something was wrong with Zhou Cangshu’s performance at court today?”
“What?”
“There was one decisive move he could have used to prevent Mother from granting you the title of Lord Phoenix Cry, yet he did not use it.”
Wen Biesang could not think of what it might be.
“What move?”
“What reason did I use to rescue you from the King of Chu?”
A bolt of lightning flashed through Wen Biesang’s mind.
He said, “Zhou Cangshu could have used my identity as the son of a spy to reject the Empress’s proposal, but…”
Cheng Yun nodded.
“Yet he chose the most laughable excuse possible.”
He had claimed that Wen Biesang suffered from a brain disorder.
“Then he did not dare reveal the matter openly in court,” Wen Biesang said.
“Mother appeared today not only because she knew I would defy the imperial order, but also because she intended to grant you a title.” Cheng Yun’s voice grew slow and measured. “Your title is the key to reviving the Thunderfire Battalion. No matter how unstoppable the Fire God Arrows appeared today, no one can be certain that every weapon in the Thunderfire Battalion possesses such power. As long as Father is unwilling, we will not receive even a single piece of silver.”
“Moreover, the title of Lord Phoenix Cry was not merely meant to ignite the officials’ patriotic fervor. Beyond all those slogans, it also served as a warning to Zhou Cangshu. Some time ago, I went to the Chancellor’s residence and spoke with him about events from more than twenty years ago, yet that old fox gave no indication that he had been disturbed. But today, when Mother made her move, he exposed another flaw.”
“If Zhou Cangshu had brought up the old matter again, then with the might of your Fire God Arrows, she could have adapted to the situation and proposed reopening the investigation into what happened back then, clearing your name. Yet he did not.”
Wen Biesang held the silver in his arms. Only after a long while did he speak.
“So there is a guilty conscience in his heart. He truly is hiding something… My mother…”
“I heard that you were not born in Shengjing.”
“No… I was born in Yunzhou. Back then, Zhou Cangshu wanted my father to marry into the He family, but my father already had my mother. Zhou Cangshu looked down on my mother because of her status, so my father left the family with nothing and took my mother away from Shengjing. We settled in Yunzhou, where we had a fireworks shop. My mother made her living producing firecrackers…”
“She was a strong-willed woman. Since Zhou Cangshu refused to acknowledge her, she had no desire to enter the Zhou family register either. That is why my name is Zhou Zi instead of Zhou Lianzi…”
“When was your mother entered into the family register?”
“When I was five. My grandmother sent a letter saying that Zhou Cangshu had forgiven my father. My mother had not wanted to return, but my father thought that Shengjing had many doctors and that perhaps someone there could cure my brain…”
“…”
Cheng Yun said, “Perhaps, at that time, he truly did want to accept your father and mother.”
“Then what happened afterward?”
“Was your mother connected to the Star-Moon Tower?”
“When Zhou Cangshu killed her, he said that she came from the Star-Moon Tower.” Wen Biesang remembered something. After hesitating for a moment, he continued, “The madwoman in the dungeon mentioned the Star-Moon Tower while raving…”
Cheng Yun nodded.
“She was the leader of the Web of Spies of the Qi Kingdom. The Web of Spies was the largest intelligence organization in the Qi Kingdom. Back then, she single-handedly threw Shengjing into chaos. Three of the Emperor’s brothers all died by her hand.”
“I want to ask her whether she knew my mother…”
“You cannot see her.” Cheng Yun’s gaze was calm. “She is severely insane. Food can only be delivered to her through mechanisms. If anyone approaches within a hundred feet, her bizarre martial art will suck them in. She opens their skulls and gouges out their eyes. Their deaths are horrific.”
“When I was young, I heard that Zhou Cangshu rose to the position of Chancellor by eliminating the Web of Spies.”
“That is correct.” Cheng Yun continued, “At the time, he was merely Minister of Justice, yet he exposed all the secret agents the Qi Kingdom had planted in Shengjing. He captured the leader of the Web of Spies, Shen Yuerong, while every other spy was killed. The once-famous Star-Moon Tower, which had shaken all of Shengjing, was burned to the ground. His achievements astonished the court, and the Emperor was overjoyed. As fate would have it, the Chancellor died around the same time, allowing Zhou Cangshu to take his place. He had both heaven and earth on his side.”