Two red carp—one sprinkled with scallion shreds for steaming, one for braising in soy sauce. After discussing the cooking method with Li Er, they returned to the traveling palace. Li Er lay on his reclining chair continuing to bask in the sun, speaking with Yun Ye intermittently through the kitchen window.
Li Er and Yun Ye’s appetites were quite similar—neither liked eating vegetables, so those fancy elaborate things were unnecessary. Just two fish. In no time at all, one went into the steamer, one went into the oil pan…
Smelling the fragrance of the stewing fish, Li Er smacked his lips and said: “I always used to think the most delicious thing under heaven was mutton. Who knew that in just a few short years, mutton would become common people’s ordinary food.”
“You know, when the Li family was down on its luck, we were poor as could be. My mother went to my uncle’s house and brought back three sheep. It was agreed that one would be for ancestral sacrifice, one would be kept for my father, and the remaining one would be food for all the family’s women and children.”
“Mother also cooked the sheep in a large pot—just plain water, mind you. After cooking, we dipped it in salt to eat. She divided one sheep leg among us four brothers. My eldest brother Jiancheng only ate a little. Yuanji and Xuanba were too young and couldn’t eat much. As a result, I alone ate almost an entire sheep leg. I still wanted more, but ended up being severely scolded by Mother.”
“At that time, Emperor Yang of Sui wasn’t good to my family at all. Rumors about the eighteenth son sitting on the empire spread everywhere! And some said my father had a wisp of red hair at the back of his head—an omen of imperial destiny. So the Ministry of Finance wouldn’t even give my father his salary. The whole family’s food and drink relied entirely on my uncle’s support. I really wanted to eat mutton then, but the sheep left for the women and children to eat had already been finished. Father had taken the other sheep to entertain friends and guests. Only one sheep remained at home, waiting for the Qingming ancestral sacrifice.”
“That year I was eight years old! I took a knife and killed that sheep. Didn’t know how to slaughter sheep—killed it until my whole body was covered in sheep’s blood. You know what? It took me a full half hour to kill that sheep!”
“When my mother came over, I was still smiling saying now we could eat mutton. As a result, I received the most memorable lesson of my life. That night my buttocks hurt so much I couldn’t sleep. My father and mother came in. I pretended to be asleep. But when my mother looked at the wounds on my buttocks, she cried saying it was all Yang Guang’s evil doing—otherwise, why would a descendant of a grand pillar of state suffer such punishment for one sheep!”
“I’d originally really hated my father for hitting me so hard. But after hearing my mother’s words, I understood one thing—the real culprit who caused me to get beaten was Yang Guang!”
“From that time I swore I would definitely kill Yang Guang. To achieve this goal, I desperately practiced martial arts and studied. This bastard prevented me from eating mutton. Gradually people said I had the bearing of heaven’s sun, the appearance of dragon and phoenix. Hehe, actually those people said that about any promising children of powerful families.”
“I’m petty-minded and proud. Since Yang Guang owed me mutton, and I had the bearing of heaven’s sun and appearance of dragon and phoenix, naturally I should become Emperor. As a result, later I really did become Emperor.”
Listening to Li Er’s rambling, Yun Ye laughed through the window: “If Yang Guang heard these words of yours, I wonder what he’d feel—losing his empire over one sheep would be too unjust.”
Li Er laughed with his mouth open: “An insignificant small matter often determines a person’s entire life! Success and failure are actually predetermined long ago. So many heroes killed and struggled on this land, but in the end all became a handful of yellow earth. After seeing much, the heart grows indifferent, ambition becomes less intense. Now I’m just muddling along waiting to die! Young man, I must thank you. If I were still on the throne, I definitely couldn’t be this detached.”
Yun Ye saw the fish was almost done, so he washed his hands, had the cook plate the fish, and pushed Li Er back to the front hall. The room wasn’t warm, but Li Er wouldn’t let them close the door. He said he always couldn’t catch his breath.
Yun Ye didn’t mention wine at all, helping the dim-sighted Li Er remove fish bones. After finishing one fish, only then did Li Er remember about drinking wine. He had a guard bring back a jar of good wine—not the Yun family’s strong liquor, but a jar of yellow wine.
It truly was good wine. The wine’s color was like amber. Li Er smiled: “Look—jade bowl holding amber light. This is the finest Lanling wine. Poor Lanling child of mine now keeps an empty chamber alone. Her husband was short-lived. But the Dou family has now vanished into smoke and clouds. Lanling remarrying wouldn’t be anything unusual.”
Yun Ye waved his hand: “You’d better not trouble Lanling. She’s living happily now—has her own business, her own people, her own mansion. All day she busies herself with her own business. I heard she’s now competing with He Shao over the sugar trade. The commercial warfare between both sides is raging fiercely, each producing strange tactics. The price of sugarcane in Lingnan has nearly become sky-high. She’s no longer that delicate little daughter in your heart—she can be called a commercial giant. These years, not only raising cattle and milking them to make milk candy, now she’s even making fruit into candy. Do you know who our Great Tang’s biggest candy merchant is? It’s Lanling.”
“She finally outlasted that Dou fellow—naturally she wants to live a few happy years. You needn’t worry.”
Li Er slowly sipped a mouthful of warm yellow wine and said with a smile: “Also good. As long as she lives happily, I’m relieved. It’s just Sizi—Sizi truly breaks my heart.”
Yun Ye drank the wine in his bowl in one gulp, picked up a piece of fish for Li Er and continued: “Sizi has already become an immortal. She’s now the big sister of that Jade Maiden Sect. When you were sleeping, Sizi came to see you several times, but wouldn’t let the Empress and the others speak of it, saying she had no face to see you. Coming to the capital, she robbed Chengqian, Qingque, Gao Yang, and me all in one go, then returned with a huge sum of money. You probably don’t know yet—Chengqian switched Sizi’s fief to Yuntai Mountain. From now on, that mountain is Sizi’s fief.”
Li Er set down his chopsticks in astonishment: “How could this child be like this? I said long ago I don’t blame her—just a bowl of rosemary, it won’t take my life. How can she still brood over it until now? Do I really sleep that soundly?”
Yun Ye said irritably: “She came to my bedside and I didn’t even know. Like a ghost, hugging her legs sitting on the windowsill. If Wu She hadn’t secretly tapped me with a pebble, I wouldn’t have known she’d come either.”
“Going to your place must have been with the Empress’s consent—just looking at you then leaving. She’s now an immortal person, not entering mundane society. What do you think she extorted all that money for? She’s also building palaces for herself, same temperament as Xiao Wu—wherever it’s remote, that’s where she builds. Qingque also gave Sizi the method to contact Wang Xuance. Now there should be many Japanese slaves helping her build palaces.”
Li Er sniffled and drank another mouthful of wine, drinking very moderately. After finishing one bowl of wine, he didn’t add more. Yun Ye himself quickly drank the entire jar of wine.
The wine was finished, the two fish were also eaten clean. Yun Ye wiped his greasy mouth planning to take his leave. Li Er said quietly to Yun Ye: “Tell the children that if they want to see me, just come. No need to wait until I’m asleep. Their father will never again make them do things they don’t want to do…”
Yun Ye was stunned, wanting to speak. But Li Er wheeled himself slowly, disappearing into the depths of the palace. Yun Ye felt Li Er seemed to be crying, but this person even now still wouldn’t reveal his emotions outwardly.
Wang Cai saw Yun Ye come out from the traveling palace, jumped happily twice, and took the lead walking two steps toward home. Seeing Yun Ye hadn’t followed, he stopped to wait.
Yun Ye looked back at the traveling palace. Today’s Li Er was vastly different from the usual Li Er. The emperor’s majesty seemed to have completely vanished. Now he was just a loving father hoping to see his children.
Now he understood why only Li Er remained in the traveling palace. He was making compensation—compensating his wife and children. Letting the Empress and all other consorts go ride the train and play all at once—this was the limit of what he could do.
The towering deep palace imprisoned not only three thousand palace beauties, but also this lonely emperor, Li Er.
Liu Fang didn’t plan to stay at the Yun residence anymore. He’d changed his mind, unwilling to have his corpse buried in the Academy’s cemetery. His children came to fetch him, hoping to personally care for the old man’s final years. Teacher Liu Fang’s seemingly strong will was instantly shattered by his own great-grandson. He couldn’t wait to follow his great-grandson to his old home in Ganzhou. Thus Wu She became even more lonely.
Fortunately, Yun Lei moved into Wu She’s courtyard. With an endlessly mischievous child, Wu She finally wasn’t too lonely. The Yun family’s material conditions were very generous. Wu She didn’t value these things. What the old man feared most was dying in bed with no one knowing. So Wu She had specifically instructed Xiao Miao that every morning, she must come pay respects to him to see if he was dead yet.
He wasn’t the least bit superstitious about saying this word “death.” He’d personally prepared his own coffin—very luxurious. Yun Ye had only seen one person use sandalwood to make a coffin—him. After Teacher Liu Fang left, he no longer slept in bed but spread bedding inside that very large coffin to sleep. At night, entering his room and watching a white-haired, chicken-skinned old man stand straight up from inside the coffin—the timid would be scared to death.
Old people care very much about coffins. When Liu Fang left the Yun residence, he refused any gold, silver, or treasures, only wanting a fine golden thread nanmu coffin. He personally escorted it back to Ganzhou. It looked like he also very much hoped to sleep inside it soon.
Yun Ye felt he himself seemed to have grown old too—not that his body felt aged, but his state of mind. At night when sleeping, he seemed able to smell that decayed odor emanating from his very bones.
He’d just planned to get himself a coffin to lie in and try it out, but was refused outright by the frantic Xinyue, who also said that if Yun Ye started preparing his own coffin, she would immediately kill herself first. Not only did Xinyue disagree, Na Rimu and Xiao Miao also disagreed. Even Lingdang, who was usually completely obedient to him, cried annoyingly.
Watching the whole family sink into an ocean of sorrow, Yun Ye sighed helplessly at length. Right now he really couldn’t die yet!