Tie Ci stood beside Rong Wei, looking down at the slope below.
She didn’t speak for a long time.
Seeing this scene of fratricide, she thought somewhat dazedly that cold cruelty wasn’t limited to imperial families alone.
What kind of family was he from? It seemed his father wasn’t loving, his mother wasn’t protective, and his brothers treated him like an enemy. Growing up in such a family, what kind of heart would he develop?
That wantonness, casualness, happiness, and ease—was it mental strength after experiencing suffering, or a beautiful mask to cover a mottled life?
She had many questions she wanted to ask, yet felt she couldn’t ask them. With shallow acquaintance but deep words, what right did she have to rashly pry into someone else’s pain?
In the end she only said: “You killed your brother—will there be consequences? Do you need my help?”
A few days ago she had received a letter saying the Crown Princess’s Nine Guards had left the capital and were coming to serve her.
Tie Ci was somewhat surprised, not expecting the Empress Dowager to actually release the Nine Guards.
Along with the letter came a secret message from Xiahou Chun, commander of the Nine Guards. After reading it, Tie Ci burned it and remained silent for a long time.
While she ran through wind, rain, blood, and fire, in distant Shengdu, someone was also making arduous efforts for her.
She wasn’t fighting alone—someone was willing to forever be her support.
Even if that person was originally weak, originally foolish.
That was enough.
The Nine Guards’ elite forces were stationed thirty li nearby, ready to be mobilized at any time.
However, Tie Ci didn’t plan to deploy them easily, since deployment would expose her identity.
Asking this now was her greatest sincerity.
For some reason, Rong Wei didn’t immediately answer. The dense forest was so quiet they could hear each other’s breathing.
After a long while, Rong Wei finally smiled and said softly: “I killed my brother… aren’t you afraid?”
Tie Ci said: “What should I be afraid of? You didn’t kill me.”
Rong Wei turned to look at her, his gaze deep, as if trying to see into the depths of her eyes. “Fratricide, especially a younger brother killing an older brother—it violates human ethics and morals. Ordinary people find it hard to accept, don’t they?”
Tie Ci thought: You’re asking the right person about this. I accept it quite well, since our family tradition is challenging human ethics. No matter who you are, if you’re not convinced, we fight. Never mind younger brothers killing older brothers—fathers killing sons, sons killing fathers—in our family, no one would give it a second glance.
But she couldn’t say this, only saying: “That depends on whether that older brother acts like an older brother first. During the archery competition at the martial field, if you had been a bit slower, the news now would probably be about a brother killing his younger brother.”
She turned and smiled: “Don’t worry about what those pedantic scholars might say. In their nonsensical logic, maybe if your brother came rushing from thousands of miles to kill you, you should smile and wash your neck clean to offer it up—and they’d still complain you weren’t enthusiastic enough about it.”
Rong Wei looked at her for a while again.
He looked so long that Tie Ci’s heart began to beat faster, vaguely fearing something, yet also vaguely expecting something.
But in the end he only laughed heartily, reaching out to pat her shoulder: “Act freely as I wish, why fear what others say! Good brother, good student—I really like you too much!”
Tie Ci turned to look at his clear, open eyes, and suddenly a Feiyu galloped through her mind.
For no reason she felt somewhat irritated, wanting to brush away his hand. However, her upbringing wouldn’t allow her to do so. She only smiled and said: “Actually, though you ask this, I know you don’t care at all.”
Rong Wei stared at her with a rather strange expression—seemingly somewhat struggling, somewhat helpless, yet suddenly showing a sudden clarity and openness.
He suddenly reached out to grasp her shoulder: “Right, I don’t care. But I just wanted to ask your thoughts. Tell me, why?”
Because you care about my opinion?
This thought flashed through Tie Ci’s mind like lightning, then she swallowed it down.
They had barely met a few times. In his eyes, she was still a man. Rong Wei didn’t look like someone with cut sleeves either—what was she thinking!
It was all because the atmosphere was too intimate at this moment, his voice too low, his gaze too strange, causing her mind to short-circuit.
“Because…”
Just as Tie Ci was about to make up some excuse, Rong Wei suddenly collapsed forward, falling onto her shoulder.
Tie Ci was suddenly embraced by him and nearly couldn’t stand steady. She staggered backward before catching him, saying in shock: “Rong Wei! Sir! Brother Rong!”
It took Rong Wei quite a while to answer, his voice so light it seemed it would be blown away by wind: “Please… take me… back.”
Tie Ci felt the spot where his forehead touched her arm—even through clothes she could feel the heat.
“You have a fever?”
Looking again at his outer robe, the white inner garment underneath had been stained red with blood. Clearly after being injured, instead of properly recovering, he had come out to kill and been exposed to wind, causing his wound to rupture and bringing on high fever.
Tie Ci panicked and called to the others while supporting him: “You all come help quickly… huh, where are they?”
In just that brief moment, that group of Rong Wei’s people had already finished cleaning up and disappeared like ghosts.
“Hey, don’t you all care about your master? Just dumping him on me like this?”
Tie Ci looked bewildered—truly what kind of servants follow what kind of master.
She had been completely absorbed by Rong Wei’s words earlier and hadn’t paid attention to those people’s height, weight, or appearance. Now she had no way to find them and could only resign herself to carrying Rong Wei on her back.
“Oh my goodness, you’re really heavy. Time to diet, dear.”
Rong Wei mumbled something incoherently on her back, seeming to say her back was too bony.
“If I’m too bony, get down if you dare!”
This only made Rong Wei hug her neck more tightly, nearly strangling her.
Tie Ci had to hoist him higher up her back and pull down his arms.
When she held that slightly deformed pinky finger, she paused, gently stroking it and sighing.
Moonlight penetrated through gaps in the dense forest, outlining moving mottled shadows in the woods. The rustling sound of boots stepping on fallen leaves gradually faded into the distance. On old trees and withered vines, tiny but fragrant flowers bloomed in abundance.
…
The footsteps gradually faded away, and the forest returned to silence.
After a while, two figures, one tall and one short, sneakily stood up.
The short one peeked in the direction the two had gone, pulling down his mask as moonlight illuminated his worried face: “Sigh, I wonder how badly the master is injured. Just leaving like this—can that person take good care of him? Will they call a physician? Will they discover his identity…”
The tall one beside him: “Shut up!”
The short one immediately fell silent. After a moment of quiet, he couldn’t help saying again: “The master truly has a good plan. Forcing the Second Prince to write home, luring the Fourth Prince out of Liaodong. The Fourth Prince never got along with him since childhood. Hearing that he was going to become He Zi’s disciple, wouldn’t he be anxious? Without telling anyone, he came with just his guards… Now look, he’s died in this lonely forest. But our master is too reckless, using himself as bait like this. What if…”
The tall one said coldly: “There are no ‘what ifs.’ When has the master ever had a ‘what if’?”
“The Second Prince is still being a live-in son-in-law in Lingquan Village on Qingyang Mountain, and the Fourth Prince has already died at Yueli Academy. The two who bullied the master most cruelly and were most favored by the Great King have been dealt with. The master should withdraw now, right? My heart is uneasy. There are too many enemies, and we still have to hide things from the Great King. He’s dancing on a tightrope—if there’s any misstep…”
“Withdraw? Withdraw what? Back then it was the second and fourth who led, but which of the others were any good? Do you think no one was instigating behind the scenes, fanning the flames, watching from the sidelines, or kicking someone when they’re down… Probably only that cripple was more peaceful, since he had no inheritance rights anyway… When the master was born, Consort Baoxiang reported auspicious signs. As he grew up, he became extraordinarily intelligent and beautiful, like a divine child—which of these didn’t attract the jealous eyes of those wretches and their little bastards? Originally dressing him as a woman, though Consort Baoxiang was deceived into doing something foolish, didn’t the Great Lord also say later that in that situation, it was better to be a girl first—at least he could live peacefully to adulthood…”
Mu Si took out a water pouch and angrily gulped it down like drinking alcohol. “Besides, don’t you know what kind of person the Great King is? He says he favored the second and fourth, but with the second and fourth gone, he’ll just go favor the first and third! To him, no matter how many sons he has, they’re just heirs standing in line and venomous insects fighting each other! Withdraw, withdraw what? If he withdraws, those good brothers won’t withdraw either. Everyone’s walking the tightrope—it’s just a matter of who can walk to the end!”
The forest fell silent, wind passing through all things with a rustling sound.
After a long while, the short one sighed.
“Yes, can’t withdraw, and mustn’t withdraw. But this path is truly too difficult…”
“Difficult what? I see he’s quite enjoying himself!” Mu Si sneered. “Don’t worry about it. He’s calculated everything perfectly. Look, desperately pushing himself in front of that young man—what’s his plan? Could it be he’s taken a fancy to him? You see, after pretending to be a woman for so many years, he’s turned himself into someone with cut sleeves! He doesn’t even think about his marriage engagement. Could it be that besides seventeen brothers and one father, he’ll have to deal with a Crown Princess too… It’s truly exhausting just thinking about it for him!”
…