The two palace lanterns outside swayed in the wind. In the distance, fallen petals seemed to be swept by the breeze from the passage hall, and under the dim, hazy lamplight, one could easily imagine oneself in a dreamscape.
Zhou Weizhao knew clearly this was no dream. He and his brother actually had a day when they could sit together and chat, and it was even Zhou Weiqi who had taken the initiative to extend the olive branch. This was truly quite interesting.
He looked at Zhou Weiqi and curved his lips slightly. “Thank you.” After saying this, seeing Zhou Weiqi raise his head, he began asking straightforwardly, “Since you took the initiative to come find me, it surely can’t be baseless for you to give me this warning, right? Why not be a good person to the end, give Buddha a ride all the way west, and enlighten me. What happened with my master?”
Zhou Weiqi finally settled into the chair to the side, his back still ramrod straight. Since he had already taken that most difficult first step, the subsequent ladder was naturally built more smoothly. “I heard about Qing Bai’s matter.”
Zhou Weizhao’s half-smiling expression withdrew, and his playful gaze also restrained itself. His eyes, usually calm as a lake, became even more profound as he looked at him for a long while before asking, “Your information network is quite well-informed.”
Zhou Weiqi told the truth. “It’s not that my information network is well-informed, but that the Fan family’s information network is extremely well-informed.”
Zhou Weizhao’s gaze suddenly sharpened. That’s right—the Fan family. Recently everyone had been too preoccupied to pay attention to this Fan family, and thus the Fan family had actually been overlooked. He dispensed with the roundabout talk and looked at the fully carved huanghuali partition screen before him. “What about the Fan family again? I’m getting a bit confused.”
Zhou Weiqi took a deep breath, feeling much better in his heart. No longer dodging and weaving, he spoke frankly, “Someone from the Fan family came to find me again, saying it was what Han Zhengqing said—telling me to flee to Xibei. He still hasn’t given up, still thinks I’m his son.”
When he said the word “son,” he gritted his teeth with such hatred and determination. He didn’t know why Han Zhengqing was like a fly that refused to let him go. He had already fled to the capital, yet Han Zhengqing still had ways to make people from the Fan family follow.
What disgusted him most, besides Han Zhengqing, was the Fan family—they were Fan Liangdi’s natal family, his maternal relatives! But how could they say such shameless words, asking him to recognize a thief as his father?
Zhou Weiqi tugged at the corner of his mouth. Seeing Zhou Weizhao’s slightly surprised expression with his mouth agape, he laughed mockingly. “Don’t be surprised. The Fan family has always been this kind of character. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have gotten their hands dirty with things like smuggling in Xibei just to do work for Father. Now Han Zhengqing has promised them that as long as they trick me into his hands, after the deed is done he’ll grant them noble titles and official positions and whatnot. Naturally they couldn’t wait to agree—ever since my mother died, they’ve been far worse off than before.”
“This time when they came, in order to convince me, they told me quite a few things. Presumably Han Zhengqing doesn’t believe I would actually refuse to acknowledge him as my so-called ‘biological father,’ so he said many things. Among them were words saying the capital would soon undergo upheaval, urging me to leave quickly. I probed around the edges and learned they even have people at Longhu Mountain. Though this seems to have been arranged from very early on—Zhang Tianshi supports you, so my mother wanted to elevate another Celestial Master to support me and bring Zhang Tianshi down. You know Han Zhengqing has always obeyed my mother’s every word, so he started plotting this from very early on.”
Zhou Weizhao already knew this point. He knew Zhou Weiqi wasn’t lying, which was precisely why his expression became somewhat more grave.
“Qing Bai is nothing—he’s just a nail planted beside you.” Zhou Weiqi said as he stood up. “What’s important are the people around the Celestial Master, and the medicine the Celestial Master presented.”
Zhou Weizhao’s gaze was stern, finding it somewhat unimaginable. He truly hadn’t expected that Zhou Weiqi had actually come to bring him this message.
Zhou Weiqi didn’t look at him, speaking quickly and urgently. “Everyone under heaven knows about your relationship with Zhang Tianshi. If something happens to Zhang Tianshi, it will be your fault.”
His words were extremely correct. If Emperor Jianzhang had some mishap because of Zhang Tianshi’s medicine, then Zhou Weizhao would never be able to escape that connection for his entire life. Everyone under heaven would think he had Zhang Tianshi do this to ascend to the throne as quickly as possible.
Combined with what Song Chuyi had said about what Ma Wangkun had brought back regarding Prince Gong and the others’ plan to compile a declaration against the court listing over a dozen grave charges—one of which was that he sowed discord, estranging Prince Gong from Emperor Jianzhang until the Emperor grew to detest him—so this was their scheme all along. They wanted to first throw the court into chaos this way.
“Why warn me?” Zhou Weizhao quickly suppressed the myriad thoughts in his heart and looked at Zhou Weiqi. “You didn’t have to say anything.”
Zhou Weiqi spread his hands. “Because my surname is Zhou, not Han.” His expression was calm. The three-point smile that usually hung at the corners of his mouth had now vanished without a trace, his brow full of gloom, yet strangely appearing more upright than before. “Since my surname is Zhou, naturally there’s no reason for me to turn my elbow outward.”
The Crown Prince had, after all, raised him for so many years, doted on him for so many years.
“Moreover, you and I are brothers after all. Even if you detest Father and my mother to the extreme, given your character, you wouldn’t leave me without any path to survival, as long as I know my place. Since I can be a dignified dragon’s son and phoenix’s grandson, why would I want to crawl into a rat’s hole?”
Heavy snow had begun falling again outside the hall. The goose-feather-like snowflakes pelted one’s face, both cold and painful. Zhou Weiqi raised his hand to take the umbrella San Bao handed over and walked away without looking back.
Zhou Weizhao stood before the hall for a moment, then also turned to head toward the back.
Song Chuyi hadn’t yet retired for the night. Hearing him return, she quickly rose. Zhou Weizhao stopped far from her and called out to halt her movements. “I’m cold. I’ll come over in a bit—don’t move.”
Only after warming himself by the charcoal brazier for a while did he remove his outer garments and get into bed. Seeing Song Chuyi looking straight at him, he said softly, “Han Zhengqing hasn’t given up. Somehow, he had people from the Fan family come to the capital again to find Dongping, still trying to make him leave. Dongping detained them and also told me some things—Han Zhengqing not only has people beside me, but also has people beside Master.”
Just these few short sentences made Song Chuyi’s heart leap with alarm. When he said “beside Master,” did he mean just Qing Bai and Qing Bai’s father and their group, or were there others as well?
Zhang Tianshi had recently been frequently entering and exiting the palace to refine elixirs for Emperor Jianzhang. If something went wrong in the process, it would truly be a chamber pot of filth dumped on Zhou Weizhao’s head that he couldn’t shake off no matter how hard he tried.
“Don’t worry.” Zhou Weizhao held her close. “Exactly what the situation is, we’ll know once we dig into the mouth of that person who came from the Fan family.”