The courtyard outside was like a military parade ground, densely packed with soldiers.
Xie Yanlai swayed as he stepped over the threshold and swept his gaze across the scene. Near the gate, surrounding the government office, were the fifty border army soldiers he had brought. The rest were all Capital Guard soldiers—perhaps one or two hundred of them.
Neither side wore armor or carried weapons, but the tense atmosphere was no less than before a battle formation. Especially the soldiers standing in the front rows on both sides—their military robes were disheveled, and quite a few had bruised and swollen faces, clearly having engaged in no small amount of “shoving.”
Several officials stood in the middle, separating the two groups.
When Xie Yanlai stopped at the entrance, the lead official was still angrily berating them.
“At the feet of the Son of Heaven, you group of imperial soldiers are brawling—what kind of behavior is this!”
“Is this the discipline the border army teaches? Or have you gotten so used to fighting that you think you can fight wherever you go?”
Xie Yanlai made a couple of sounds: “Hey, hey—this lord, that’s about enough now.”
The official was interrupted. His face darkened as he turned his head to see the young officer standing at the entrance. Before he could speak, the young officer raised his eyebrows and looked him over. “Who are you?”
“I am Zhu Yun, Principal Official of the Ministry of War,” the official said in a grave voice.
Xie Yanlai made an acknowledging sound. “Oh, just a principal official.”
Just a principal official? Was a principal official not worthy of speaking to him? Principal Official Zhu gritted his teeth, suppressing his eyebrows from flying up in anger, and asked, “And who might you be?”
Xie Yanlai raised his hand in salute. “Captain of Luocheng, Xie Yanlai.”
Just a captain! Looking at his manner of speaking, one would think he was a general. Principal Official Zhu sneered coldly, about to say something, when a servant rushed out from the side.
“Ninth Young Master,” he said urgently, “Third Young Master sent someone to fetch you. Do you want to go home?”
The title “Ninth Young Master” was one thing, but “Third Young Master” caught Principal Official Zhu’s attention. Combined with that surname, he immediately knew who this young officer was.
The court had issued an edict summoning the border army to the capital but hadn’t specified who should come. Who came was the border army’s own decision, and their identities were only reported when they reached the capital and submitted their official documents.
So it was a son of the Xie family who came.
Well, of course it had to be a son of the Xie family. Not surprising at all.
Principal Official Zhu looked at this young officer, feeling he understood everything. At the same time, two clerks shouted “Make way!” and entered from outside the crowd.
Behind them, five soldiers were being escorted in with their heads lowered.
“Lord Zhu, we’ve gotten to the bottom of it,” one clerk said irritably. “Can you guess what started it?”
“It was over food and drink!” another clerk said. “These kitchen soldiers said some improper things, which provoked both sides into fighting.”
He then sternly rebuked the five soldiers in unison.
“Kneel!”
“Didn’t you say something about ‘whoever has the ability should compete, and whoever wins gets to eat?’ That’s what caused both sides to fight, isn’t it?”
The five soldiers dropped to their knees with thuds.
Principal Official Zhu looked at these five men but didn’t fly into a rage. He asked, “Is that how it was?”
The soldiers kneeling on the ground—some were uneasy, some pale-faced, and some red-faced with aggrieved expressions.
“Yes,” they admitted after a moment’s hesitation.
“Since that’s the case, then deal with it according to military law,” Principal Official Zhu said, glancing at the young officer standing at the entrance. “Apologize to Captain Xie and the border army.”
Military law?
The five men’s faces immediately turned ashen.
“My lord,” the red-faced soldier could no longer contain himself and shouted, “but we really had no choice! They were too picky. Three or five times they overturned the food we’d prepared, saying it wasn’t to their taste, saying we were disrespectful, that we were fobbing them off with pig slop. How were we disrespectful? We all eat this kind of food. What we eat, why can’t they eat? We just weren’t convinced—”
As his words fell, shouts also rose from the Capital Guard soldiers surrounding them.
“My lord, don’t blame them—we just couldn’t stand watching anymore!”
“Why should they be so picky?”
“If we eat pig slop, then we want to see how much better those eating ‘human food’ are than us!”
“What do they have to be arrogant about? They guard the border, but we haven’t been idle either—we guard the capital!”
Accompanied by these shouts, the Capital Guard soldiers who had quieted down became clamorous again, surging forward one after another, while the border army showed no sign of weakness.
“Nonsense! Who was being picky!”
“It was you who smashed pots and bowls because you found us displeasing to the eye!”
“Come on then, let’s see!”
“Who’s afraid of whom!”
The scene once again became like boiling water.
The officials standing in the middle also once again had faces as dark as the bottom of a pot.
“Silence!” they commanded.
Although there were many soldiers, they didn’t dare offend civil officials too much. They quieted down, though the atmosphere remained tense.
“Lord Zhu, you see—” the clerks breathed a slight sigh of relief and requested instructions from Principal Official Zhu. “It seems this is what happened—a quarrel over food and drink. So let’s just deal with it according to military law.”
Principal Official Zhu’s expression was bland. “I heard. Those who should be punished naturally must be punished, but the Grand Tutor’s questioning is very strict. I cannot have any oversights, so I must ask more questions.”
What more was there to ask? Turn a big matter into a small one, and a small matter into nothing. Punish those who should be punished, let these border army soldiers hurry into the capital for an imperial audience, and the matter would be over. The clerks thought this, but since Principal Official Zhu had already invoked the Grand Tutor’s authority, they didn’t dare object.
Principal Official Zhu looked at the five kneeling kitchen soldiers and asked, “What exactly did you make? Why would someone call it pig slop?”
One kitchen soldier raised his head and said, “My lord, it was just the meat and vegetables we commonly eat in military camps.” He bore his grievance. “I know our cooking skills are inadequate and cannot compare with the great chefs of restaurants and taverns.”
Principal Official Zhu frowned and said, “What kind of talk is that? The border army’s kitchen soldiers aren’t restaurant chefs either.”
“But those noble young masters eat nothing but delicacies!” another kitchen soldier shouted, raising his head to look at one person.
All eyes at the scene instantly followed his gaze.
Principal Official Zhu slowly and unhurriedly, without rush or panic, slowly turned his head to look at the young officer standing at the entrance, who seemed utterly indifferent to the disputes and clamor before him and was listlessly examining his own fingers.
“Although Captain Xie is a noble young master,” he asked, “fighting the enemy in the hardship of the border army, surely he couldn’t eat delicacies either?”
Xie Yanlai lifted his eyelids to glance at him. Before he could speak, the servant standing beside him dropped to his knees with a thud.
“My lord, this has nothing to do with my young master—it’s my fault,” he said. “Precisely because our young master endured hardship fighting the enemy in the border army, now that we’ve returned to the capital, I wanted him to eat better and have food more to his taste, so I got into a dispute with the kitchen.”
He raised his hand and slapped himself twice.
“My young master was completely unaware. Please punish me, my lord.”
Principal Official Zhu smiled slightly. Without even looking at the servant, he still gazed at Xie Yanlai and asked, “Captain Xie, is that really how it was?”
Xie Yanlai, who had just lifted his eyelids, lowered them again. He didn’t look at his servant, nor did he look at Principal Official Zhu. He neither affirmed nor denied, only said lazily, “Whatever you say it is, that’s what it is.”
Principal Official Zhu sneered coldly. “How would I dare speak carelessly about Young Master Xie’s affairs?”
He no longer addressed him as Captain Xie, but as Young Master Xie. Who knew whether he meant the Young Master Xie before his eyes or that Young Master Xie in the court?
The clerks beside him understood perfectly well that Principal Official Zhu, being one of the Grand Tutor’s men, had nothing good to say about Young Master Xie.
“Since we know what happened,” an official said in a low voice, “let’s go back and mention it to the Grand Tutor as a reminder.”
At this point, there was indeed nothing more to be done here—just some quarrelsome nonsense. Principal Official Zhu glanced at Xie Yanlai. Boy, we’ll talk more at court.
“Fine,” he withdrew his gaze. “Let this matter end here. Take these men away—”
He hadn’t finished speaking when Xie Yanlai, who had been too lazy to speak, spoke up from behind.
“Wait a moment.” He interrupted Principal Official Zhu. “This matter cannot end here.”
Cannot?
Principal Official Zhu and the clerks looked at Xie Yanlai.
The young officer straightened his body. His roguish, lazy air dissipated. He clenched his hands before him and said coldly, “This matter isn’t finished yet.”