CH 19

The moment Wu Xi followed Ping An's lead and stepped foot inside Nan Ning Wang's Residence, he immediately heard a female singing voice lingering and drifting over in harmony with the melody of zither from the inside. His footsteps came to a halt as he suddenly realized that this singing belonged to the Lady of the Moon on the Wang Yue River that day. After all, since the beginning of his existence, he had never heard any other woman who could sing that beautifully.

He listened attentively, and the lyrics of Su Qingluan's song travelled to his ears: "Phoenix Pavilion and Dragon Tower adjoin the heavenly sky. Tree of jade and branches of jasper trail after distant clouds. How many times —" (1)

As soon as he looked up, Jing Qi was already there to personally welcome him in; with a beaming face, the other pulled him along: "Just right when we have this rare visitor that just came by, you surely have the luck for musical pleasure. Come in quickly and have a seat with us!"

The little sable lept out from Jing Qi's sleeve. The moment its special, buddy-buddy kinsman Wu Xi was in sight, the sable immediately abandoned the man who had been lovingly supplying it with fancy food and tasty drink, swiftly throwing itself at Wu Xi's chest. Upon witnessing that, Jing Qi derided bitterly: "You little ungrateful bastard." Then, he decided to just ignore it.

Wu Xi asked: "Is that the Lady of the Moon? What did you call me over for?"

"Oh my, you could tell that was her by just listening." Jing Qi winked at Wu Xi a few times as if the latter's second question had not reached his ears at all: "What is it? Our little young man has just grown up and already started to 'seek her and find her not, waking and sleeping laden with thoughts about her'? (2)1

Wu Xi did not understand what was the meaning behind those words, but looking at the despicable expression on the other person's face, he could still tell that they were not decent words; hence he just blatantly ignored them and asked: "What is she singing about?"

"A lovely piece." A gentle smile grazed Jing Qi's lips: "A rhyme that was left behind by the ancestors. The lament of a fallen state."

While Wu Xi was still unclear about why "the lament of a fallen state" could be considered a lovely piece, Jing Qi had already dragged him to the garden. There was a beautiful woman playing the zither in the middle, and sitting around her to listen were a few other people — Helian Yi was in the center of the group; next to him, except Zhou Zishu whom Wu Xi had already been introduced to that night, there were two other unfamiliar faces.

One of them had a slender oval face, his skin fair; his manner of clothing was that of an intellectual, his body donned in the scholar's blue robes. The other person was over eight Chinese feet (3) in height, his eyes shaped like a pair of bronze bells, his shoulders wide; although he also dressed in a scholarly fashion, on the side of his belt hung a double-edged sword.

As they saw Wu Xi entering, all except Helian Yi rose to their feet.

Wu Xi felt that he himself had chosen the wrong time to arrive, yet it was already too late for him to retreat and take his leave, thus he had no choice but to give in and let Jing Qi drag him all the way in. Standing at the entrance, he faced Helian Yi and bowed slightly: "Your Highness the Crown Prince. And also Zhou..."

He paused a little, not quite sure how to address Zhou Zishu.

Jing Qi chimed in: "Sword Master."

Zhou Zishu replied with a smile: "This commoner absolutely cannot afford receiving the words 'Sword Master' from Your Royal Highness. I am just merely a wanderer riding in the jianghu. Since I am the third in my family, Young Sorcerer can just call me Zhou San for your convenience."

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Wu Xi shook his head and answered solemnly: "Sir Zhou, you are a man of great ability and accomplishments, thus should be respected."

Jing Qi added: "I am afraid that everyone who is present here, except my humble self, is a man of great ability and accomplishment. This..." He pointed at the scholar in blue robe: "This individual is the new Zhuangyuan (4) of this year, Master Lu Shen, who is currently working at the Imperial Academy for the time being, and is the important future pillar of our Da Qing nation."

It was not like Jing Qi was exaggerating unnecessarily: he remembered that when he died in his past life, Lu Shen was already the Prime Minister of the Emperor's court — at the moment, having to running errands and assisting with trifles like copying books at the Imperial Academy, he must have felt very wronged and humiliated.

Lu Shen was, in fact, Lu Renqing's nephew, and since a very young age, he had acquired his reputation as a prodigy. While it was his true academic talent that had legitimately earned him the title "Zhuangyuan," unfortunately, scholars often failed to see each other face to face, constantly involved in the belittling and shaming battle — on their lips there always existed words of admiration, but behind the person's back they would blabber slanderous gossip and sarcasm. Furthermore, everytime people mentioned his name, either directly in his presence or privately among themselves, they would make sure to first and foremost add the phrase "nephew of the Great Scholar's Lu" to their talk, as if he had been borrowing his uncle's name to climb up to this level.

As a result, what Lu "Zhuangyuan" hated the most in this world was when people brought up his uncle in the conversation; yet, since such sentiment was considered unfilial, he could not bring himself to convey to others, thus had only been embracing this feeling of misery all to himself for a very long time. But when he heard Jing Qi introduce him, albeit with words of immense veneration, there was no mention of Lu Renqing at all — that made Lu Shen feel delighted more than ever.

He hastily bowed his head right away: "I do not dare to accept. Your Royal Highness has given me too much praise."

Then, Jing Qi pointed to the man with the double-edged sword: "This person is the one and only son of Marquis Jing Jie, the Young Marquis He Yunxing, an outstanding talent who is well-versed in both literature and martial arts. These days, the streets are full of self-indulgent, dandy elite sons who stir up trouble every few steps and make a big fuss over trifles. Brother Yunxing, you have truly set yourself apart from the crowd."

He Yunxing walked over to pay respects with a humble smile that said "I am not worthy of your praise" on his face.

Helian Yi shot a glare at him: "Beiyuan, stop with your endless ramble. Hurry up and invite the Young Sorcerer to take a seat." Then, he turned his head around and faced the female who had long concluded her zither playing and quietly retreated to the side: "This person is the Young Sorcerer from South Xinjiang. He was also there to listen to your performance on the boat that day. It is just that he left early that night so he didn't get a chance to meet you."

Su Qingluan gathered the sleeves of her robes together and greeted Wu Xi with a bow.

As Wu Xi looked at this female attentively and thought that she was truly beautiful — even without layers of makeup, her face still exuded a natural, romantic, and distinguished kind of charm that was different from the alluring, fascinating kind of beauty she had that day on the Wang Yue River, adding on a touch of childishness to her features; and when she looked down, it made others feel a genuine sense of calmness from her.

However, for some unknown reason, Wu Xi sensed that there was something about this woman that made him feel uncomfortable; he couldn't specify what that was either, only instinctively felt that he was not very fond of her.

Thus he only gave her a simple nod without saying anything further.

Once the group settled down on their seats again, Su Qingluan tuned the zither and played a different song. Wu Xi sat next to Jing Qi and listened to these people rambling on with frivolous talks about romance, but, for most parts, he could not make any sense out of it. The reason was, at his hometown, if a person liked someone, he would just marry and bring her home — there was no such thing as getting entangled in those playful "willow and peach blossoms" pursuits of the youths (5). He did not even know that in this world there existed the kinds of sentiments and longing that would be written into poetry, introduced into painting, and composed into music like that.

At first, listening to it was a fairly novel experience that induced moments of self-indulged fantasy; but after a few times, it was basically just the same thing being repeated all over, thus Wu Xi found them rather dull and tasteless.

Wu Xi thought, if you really like someone, every corner of your heart will always be full with the thoughts of her; at night, all you can dream about is her; and how you wish to put a smile on her face even at the cost of your death: in this entire world, she is the most beautiful person that has ever existed. This kind of feeling is truly indescribable.4

Those "moonlight this, flowers that" were completely irrelevant matters — if any, they were just merely borrowed by composers for the purpose of feigning wistful, lingering sentiments of love, from then showing off either their literary talent or something else, thus it was awfully boring.

After sitting for awhile, Helian Yi finally spoke up: "Take Miss Qingluan to the back garden so she could take a rest from singing. Although we love to hear her voice, but it would be wrong of us to not have a tender heart for the fair lady (6). We wouldn't be able to afford a compensation if you ended up hurting your voice for singing."

As Ji Xiang rushed in to lead Su Qingluan out, he also called the little maid who had been waiting outside to come in and help her to carry the zither outside. Jing Qi then hurriedly said: "Tell the servant to add honey to the chrysanthemum tea and bring it to Miss Su. Also, my place may not have other things, but when it comes to antique objects I do have a few. Whichever item that pleases your eyes, please feel free to take them — consider them fortunate to be noticed by you. The servants are a clumsy bunch, if there is any delay or inconvenience, I beg for your forgiveness."

Su Qingluan hurriedly bowed her head and softly delivered her thankful words to the prince's courteousness. Then she gathered up her sleeves and paid respects to the rest of the group before following Ji Xiang and the little maid to head out.

Ping An ordered to have the wine taken away and replace it with green tea — Helian Yi's face finally began to cloud over, and he asked: "So what's the matter with the night on New Year's Eve?"

Of course, His Highness the Crown Prince would have his own source of information. After throwing a glance at Zhou Zishu, Jing Qi proceeded to briefly report about the incident of that day, skipping a considerable amount of minor details and just putting all the blame on himself regarding the entire assassination attempt, and also the fact that Wu Xi got injured. Finally, he admitted: "Unfortunately, I am just a useless, hopeless case, ruining things as I touch them and unable to do anything. Not only that I was a burden, I even got the Young Sorcerer involved and caused his injury."

Wu Xi was completely taken aback. As he was about to open his mouth to refute and say that was not how things had unfolded, he saw Jing Qi bring the teacup to his lips for a throat-clearing sip and furtively wink at him, thus swallowed back the words that almost escaped from his mouth.

Helian Yi furrowed his brows and pondered the acquired information in silence; on the other hand, the overeager, impetuous He Yunxing already jumped in: "This Second Prince is really becoming more and more hideous. He must have been obsessed with the thoughts of usurping the throne and at the same time achieving the look of eternal youth and ascending to immortality? From dawn to dusk he just clings to that wicked Daoist priest. Not sure what kind of absurd pellets that he has mistakenly swallowed, but this time he is even aiming for South Xinjiang's secret techniques. It is just because the Young Sorcerer is not willing to be on friendly terms with him, and that Your Royal Highness once made him lose face, he dares to join hands with those crooked, demonic people to commit such lowly deeds!"

He Yunxing, being rather bad-tempered, couldn't care less about what he said, thus only gave a cold snort: "If Da Qing fell into the hands of such a person in the future, would this nation still even have any fortune left?"

Helian Yi gave a few waves of his hand, gesturing for the other man to calm down. Then, he spoke to Jing Qi: "I heard after that you killed off the mole inside the mansion and even sent somebody to deliver his garments along with holiday gifts to the Second Prince' Palace?"

The moment these words came out, the entire group immediately became dumbfounded. He Yunxing said with a laughter: "I did not expect Your Royal Highness to have such strong personality and dare to be fair and square. Very delightful, very delightful!"

Lu Shen's brows knitted together, and he said: "Your Royal Highness, this move... was a little too hasty, and there hasn't been much thought put into it."

Jing Qi replied, unruffled: "Mhm, but I already handled the matter."

Helian Yi cut in, his words were of disapproval: "You...!! Alas, Beiyuan, I used to think that you had good judgment — how come you just decided to shed all pretense of cordiality and blatantly offend him without even talking over with me first? It's true that you got to unleash your anger, but how are you going to take care of the aftermath now?"

Jing Qi lowered his gaze, his lashes drooping lightly, and a quiet chuckle left his lips: "Since I have already had the nerve to go provoke the Second Prince, naturally I ought to have a way to deal with him. His Highness the Second Prince shouldn't have complained that the capital city at the moment had not been chaotic enough, thus decided to beckon those people with obscure, mysterious background to enter. If that is already the case, we may as well just stir things up a little bit more."

Helian Yi's frown furrowed deeper; before he could say anything, Jing Qi had already put the cup down the table, and with all fingers intertwined with each other and placed on his lap, he said calmly: "Last year, there was a plague of locusts in the Northern Plains, and the number of refugees was more than ten thousands."

There came a small pause the moment these words left Jing Qi's mouth. As far as Helian Yi could remember, he had never seen this person discuss about the state's affairs in such a genuinely serious way — in that little moment, he couldn't resist biting back his tongue and listening. Jing Qi then continued: "I remember clearly that day during the Great Cold this year, there was warm sunshine everywhere, and even the snow along the eaves also started melting. The elders said that was the sign of late spring chill. If that is really the case, I am afraid that the situation of this year won't be very promising. Setting the internal affairs aside, what should we do about the Spring Market this year?"

Wu Xi had long been familiar with Jing Qi's giggling face and frivolous manner, thus when he saw the latter's expression, it occurred to him immediately that the other wanted to say something very important. Although the topic had nothing related to South Xinjiang, he also couldn't help but put his food and drink down to pay attention to Jing Qi's words. Once hearing that, he could hardly remain silent, thus interrupted with a question: "What is the Spring Market?"

Sitting there for nearly half a day, He Yunxing finally got to hear a line from this noiseless Young Sorcerer who were so stingy with words as if they were gold, thus couldn't stop himself from poking his nose in: "Young Sorcerer came from the south, so I am afraid that you didn't know. In the north of Da Qing where the Manjing Northern Desert is, there is a nomadic tribe called Wa Ge La who roam from land to land. That year, Emperor Taizong (7) led the troops to the north twice, and the leader of Wa Ge La Clan acknowledged allegiance to Da Qing. In order to prevent them from causing trouble, the Spring Market mentioned earlier was established. When spring comes every year, Wa Ge La clan people will go to the capital to pay their tributes; they also bring items like fur and livestocks to exchange for silk, clothing, provisions, and such. It has been peaceful like that between two sides for hundreds of years."

Despite being a little too honest, Wu Xi was still an intelligent person — as soon as he heard the explanation, he immediately understood that the Spring Market was meant to supply that Wa Ge La Clan with materials and resources as they feared that that this tribe might stir up trouble at the frontier; thus, he simply replied with a few nods.

Lu Shen contemplated along Jing Qi's line of thinking then commented: "Your Royal Highness was right. In these recent years, natural disasters have been nonstop; the nation's treasury has long been emptied; the number of barbarians keeps increasing everyday, and even the livestock brought along were assorted in quality, impossible to tell the good crops from the bad crops. I am just afraid that even if we can get through this year, sooner or later we will be in straitened circumstances."

Helian Yi smiled bitterly: "There are many places to be in straitened circumstances — what's the point of worrying too much?"

Jing Qi nodded his head: "However, if we want to preserve the nation's security and stability, those few places with infected ulcers must be completely gouged out... Anyway, this Jing Beiyuan is really the kind of person with special talents to manage the state's affairs. Your Highness the Crown Prince is right — I am precisely an ooze of mud too thin that can't even be used to plaster the walls.

Helian Yi picked up the small piece of fruit within his reach and threw at the other man, laughing: "When did I say that?"

Jing Qi smiled sheepishly: "At the very least, I still have some self-awareness about what I can do. I may not be able to help much with other things, but when it comes to things that dirty your eyes and soil your ears, I do have a few tricks under my sleeves... The way the Second Prince handling matters truly makes people disappointed."

Helian Yi looked at him without a single word, the expression on his face utterly indecipherable. After a good while, he asked: "What are you going to do?"

Jing Qi turned around and looked at Wu Xi with a smile: "His Majesty's birthday is next month. I am afraid that I will have to ask Young Sorcerer to give me a hand."