With wine, meat, and the vast misty expanse of Dongting Lake, Yun Ye felt he lacked nothing.
Eating chicken legs while admiring ten thousand qing of blue waves was truly a beautiful thing. The waxing moon had already transformed into a silver disk, appearing very beautiful in the rising mist of Dongting. He raised his wine flask and drank a cup with the moon, immediately feeling much more refined. Moonlight filtered through the gauze curtain, the wooden house half-bright and half-dark. There was no sound of strings and bamboo—only Yun Ye’s ravenous eating sounds echoing in the wooden house, his mouth smacking loudly. At this time, there was no Xinyue’s resentful gaze.
A series of heavy footsteps drew near from far away. This fellow seemed to be weighed down with worries. Without even looking at his surroundings, he knelt on the deck and prayed to his ancestors: “Father, Mother, your child can’t endure it anymore! There’s no way to stay in Chang’an. That woman is shameless and wanton, completely lacking imperial phoenix bearing. Her affair with a servant boy has brought me shame. I’ve now become Chang’an City’s greatest joke.”
“Your child has resolved to protect his reputation with death. When I reach the other side, you two elders must not look down on me!”
It was Xue Wanche’s voice. This fellow was planning to jump into the lake? Yun Ye was certain that if he jumped into the lake, he would definitely die. A person who had to walk around even small puddles jumping into Dongting Lake—absolutely no chance of survival. The blow Princess Danyang dealt him seemed extraordinarily severe.
If he wanted to jump into the lake, Yun Ye didn’t plan to stop him. If he felt his life had no meaning and this coward ended himself, then so be it. At least he could benefit the fish in Dongting Lake.
“Father, Mother, your child is unwilling to accept this! Must the title earned through a hundred battles be destroyed like this? Elder brother advises me to endure, but how can your child endure such a thing? Every day I have to see that lewd woman and still smile—I am a strapping seven-foot tall man, an invincible fierce general in a hundred battles. How can your child tolerate such an extraordinary humiliation?”
“I originally thought that with solid evidence, His Majesty would punish Danyang. But the one who suffered punishment was your child. Eighty military staff strokes! Not a single one was light. When Yun Ye took twenty strokes back then, he felt life was meaningless. Your child endured eighty military staff strokes. Your child’s buttocks don’t hurt, but my heart is bleeding! Wuwu…”
Listening in the wooden house, Yun Ye felt his teeth ache. A fellow like a bear actually crying “wuwu”—he really couldn’t imagine what kind of scene this was. Li Yuan had twenty-two sons and nineteen daughters. Not many were decent birds. The most outstanding were Li Shimin and Princess Pingyang. Next came Li Jiancheng and Li Yuanji. Among the daughters, licentiousness and keeping male concubines was already nothing new. Back then, you thought marrying an imperial daughter was a blessing—now you know it’s a disaster, but it’s too late.
“The illegal things Ma Zhou investigated were all done by Danyang’s people. My subordinates are all hiding on the estate swallowing their anger—they can’t even protect themselves, how could they commit crimes? But His Majesty doesn’t care! Duke was demoted to Marquis. On the ship, squeezed into a filthy small cabin room, can’t even stretch my legs.”
“Feeling vexed, I drank two mouthfuls of wine and was punished. Ordered that I, Xue Wanche, must not approach alcohol. Is a Xue Wanche who doesn’t drink wine still that invincible fierce general?”
“There’s no path left, Father, Mother, no path left! When I return to Chang’an, I’ll close the mansion gates and kill from the front door to the rear hall, sparing not a single one. Slaughter that cheap woman and then commit suicide…”
Xue Wanche seemed to have already sunk into fantasies of holding a blade and killing all the adulterers and lewd women. He leaned his heavy body against the wooden house, slapping the deck with passionate intensity. When he reached the satisfying parts, he even shouted “good” for himself. When speaking of suicide, he bent low and wept, his voice incoherent. Seeing him so satisfied, Yun Ye quietly placed his wine flask beside his hand. Poor fierce general of a generation, trapped by the locks on his heart, completely unaware.
His hand touched the wine flask. He didn’t wonder where it came from, twisted off the lid, sniffed it and shouted “good wine!” Tilting his neck back, he poured down half the flask. Exhaling a long breath of wine vapor, he wiped his mouth and laughed loudly: “Being able to pick up a flask of good wine—this is the best luck I, Xue Wanche, have had recently!”
Yun Ye sighed. To make this poor fierce general’s luck even better, he also placed a pig knuckle beside his hand. Sure enough, this fool actually thanked heaven once again. Drinking a mouthful of wine, eating a mouthful of pig knuckle, very comfortable. While eating, he said: “My mind is made up—I’ll do just this. After going to Yuezhou to see Huan Niang and the children, I’ll return to Chang’an. Can’t spare the bastards Danyang gave birth to either. Wanting the bastard to inherit my title—dream on! Since my children can’t inherit, I’ll destroy the title rather than let you benefit. A whole nest of pigs and dogs—only killing them all clean will be satisfying!”
Yun Ye sent over even the plate with the leftover beef. Only then did this fool realize something was wrong. He stood up abruptly, clenched both fists, and shouted hoarsely: “Who are you? Come out!”
“You bastard, you’ve been rambling on and on from over there about wanting to kill the Princess’s entire family, causing me to stand guard for you here, and even supply you with wine and meat to match your mood. Now you know to show your might.”
Hearing Yun Ye’s voice, Xue Wanche collapsed all at once. Holding his head, he squatted down and sobbed: “You know all about elder brother’s shameful matters? That’s fine too—you’d find out when you returned to Chang’an anyway. Can’t go on living, elder brother can’t go on living.”
Yun Ye pushed Xue Wanche into the wooden house, stuffed his wine flask into his hands, took the cook’s grape wine for himself, clinked it and said: “Other matters can be glossed over, but how do you know the child the Princess bore isn’t yours? This matter must be clarified.”
“Clarify what? When the Princess first became pregnant, do you know how happy elder brother was? But after the child was born, I couldn’t be happy anymore. Being pregnant seven months and giving birth to an eight-jin fat baby boy—do you believe such a thing?”
Yun Ye shook his head with difficulty and said: “My concubine also gave birth to a premature child, only a little over four jin. Doctor Sun said the child had insufficient innate foundation. With great difficulty, the child has grown to three years old, but still has yellow hair and a thin, weak body.”
Xue Wanche smiled bitterly and said: “That’s right—premature children have insufficient innate foundation. But the child Danyang bore was over eight jin—that aside, I, Xue Wanche, have Hu ancestry. My hair is naturally curly, my eyeballs light yellow. The two children Huan Niang bore me are also like this—curly hair, and though their eyes are darker than mine, you can still distinguish some Hu characteristics. The child Danyang bore has jet-black eyeballs and straight hair. You must know that her Li family also has Hu ancestry. The child born showed not half a bit of Hu appearance. Do you know? The several children my elder brother bore closely resemble the two children Huan Niang bore. So the two children Huan Niang bore are truly my, Xue Wanche’s, seed. Saying seven months is actually saying too much—seven months ago, I was still guarding His Majesty hunting at Wei River. For a full three months I wasn’t in Chang’an. Tell me, could this child have anything to do with me, Xue?”
Yun Ye was struck speechless by this rough man’s questioning. This fellow had perfectly explained the facts of Princess Danyang’s affair from genetics and medicine. Adding the later matter of catching Danyang having an affair with a servant boy, it was practically ironclad evidence.
There was no other way. For the sake of a humiliated brother’s face, Yun Ye magnanimously took out a porcelain bottle from his bosom and placed it in front of Xue Wanche, saying: “This is poison arrow tree sap. As long as you smear it on a blade, even if it only breaks a bit of skin, it will seal the throat upon seeing blood. As long as you’re quick, Princess Mansion will absolutely have no survivors.”
“If you feel cutting people with a blade is too troublesome, your brother also has golden centipede venom here. Just pour it into your household’s well, and I guarantee not a single living thing will remain.” As Yun Ye spoke, he took out another small porcelain bottle from his bosom.
“Also, if you feel that everyone in Chang’an City is extremely detestable and needs to be eliminated at once, your brother also has smallpox virus here—the stuff from that cave you’re guarding with troops. One small bottle is enough to overturn all of Chang’an!”
“Tell me, which kind do you want? Your brother can only help you this much.”
Sweat from Xue Wanche’s head dripped onto the deck. His hands spasmed like chicken claws. He wanted to take the porcelain bottles, but several times he pulled his hands back. He looked at Yun Ye pleadingly, hoping he could give him a suggestion.
Yun Ye smeared a bit of the golden centipede venom on a chicken leg, took a bite of the chicken leg and said to Xue Wanche: “Stop looking. This is sauce. Those three things I made up. Such things exist, but they’re all locked up tightly—no one can get them.”
“Just now you hesitated, which shows that in your heart you still have a thread of reluctance. I understand—what you can’t bear to part with is Huan Niang and the two children. Your eldest is already fifteen years old. I heard he’s enrolled in Yuezhou Academy, studying quite well. Your family’s second son is thirteen this year. I heard he loves practicing martial arts, but just can’t find a good master in Yuezhou. Your Xue family’s mounted combat skills are famous throughout the world. You two brothers relied entirely on the iron lances in your hands to fight for this wealth and honor. Can’t you personally go teach him?”
“Chumo, Chong Zi, Huairen, and I count as your brothers, right? Which of us considers your wife to be Danyang? Chong Zi is right here in Yuezhou. Your son being able to enter official school was his help. Do you think we’d care about just anyone’s illegitimate son? Your wife Huan Niang alone manages such a large business operation, doing business prosperously. No one in all of Yuezhou troubles her. Do you think this is the capability a woman should have?”
“Danyang having an affair isn’t strange—the Grand Emperor’s daughter, right? It would be strange if she didn’t have affairs. Let me tell you, Danyang having affairs doesn’t shame you—what’s shamed is the imperial family’s face. Why is His Majesty angry at you? It’s because you didn’t use your brain and turned a small shameful matter into a citywide storm. If you don’t take the military staff strokes, who will? That His Majesty didn’t cut off your head in angry humiliation—I feel His Majesty’s temper has improved a lot these years.”
“Imperial marriages are just that way. If you encounter a good princess, naturally you should treat her sincerely and treasure her well. If you don’t encounter a good one, just withdraw your heart from her. Let her do whatever she wants—it’s already become a ruler-minister relationship, what more do you expect?”
“If Huan Niang has an affair, that would shame you. We’d fully support you taking a blade to cut people. But what’s the point of you going to cut down Danyang? If you die, never mind you—will your elder brother’s entire family still live?”
Xue Wanche raised his head and stared blankly at Yun Ye for a long time before saying: “You all mean that Huan Niang is my wife? Danyang is just an official duty?”
“Right! Official duty—when you have the energy, work on it. When you don’t have the energy, set it aside. Anyway, this official duty has no time requirements.”