Chen Baoxiang glanced at Xu Buran, said nothing.
Bikong and Zhao Huaizhu, following from behind, both fell in step alongside him without drawing attention, one on his left and one on his right, and stayed there until they had passed through the city gate and disappeared from sight.
“Let’s go — I’ll get changed first.” She continued to smile.
Instinct told Zhang Zhixu something had probably happened in the southern prefecture, but Chen Baoxiang reached out to take his hand, so he followed along with her for now.
All the way back to the Marquisate, through the entrance and into the main chamber, Zhang Zhixu said nothing further, as though deep in thought, his expression growing increasingly grave.
Chen Baoxiang stripped off her armor and changed into court robes. She appeared composed, but the sash at her waist had been looped around several times without a proper knot forming.
“Let me.” He reached out and took the dark sash from her. His long, fair fingers wound through the fabric, pulling back and forth — it was oddly pleasing to watch.
Chen Baoxiang stared at it for a while, then let out a long sigh and decided to speak plainly:
“Fengqing, Cheng Huaili is dead.”
The person in front of her paused and looked up at her.
Chen Baoxiang knew perfectly well that her actions, however justified by cause and effect, were simply very difficult for people to accept. Even Xu Buran had been frightened half to death and no longer dared to come near. To say nothing of Zhang Zhixu, who already knew Cheng Huaili was her biological father.
But he would find out sooner or later. It was better that she tell him herself than have him hear it from someone else’s lips.
Her gaze drifted to the discarded armor nearby. Chen Baoxiang said softly and candidly: “Over two thousand cuts. My hands did it. To prevent the coroner from examining the body, the remains were burned in the southern prefecture. I only brought back one urn of ashes.”
Zhang Zhixu watched her quietly, his breathing very light, seeming to be waiting.
But after waiting a while with nothing further, he was puzzled: “Is that all?”
Chen Baoxiang: ?
“What do you mean ‘is that all’ — what more did you want to hear?” She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
The person before her suddenly let out an enormous breath of relief, then reached out and pulled her into an embrace, patting her back as though still shaken: “I thought something truly serious had happened.”
“This isn’t serious enough?” Chen Baoxiang raised her hand in disbelief and waved it in front of his face. “I killed him with my own hands.”
“You went to the southern prefecture under imperial edict — were you supposed to not kill him, and instead actually invite him back to be the General Defending the North?” Zhang Zhixu looked at her with complete bewilderment. “Wouldn’t that mean His Majesty favored you for nothing?”
The logic was perfectly sound, and yet.
Chen Baoxiang still couldn’t believe it: “You don’t think I’m frightening? I went that far on someone who was my own biological father.”
He examined her fingers, wrinkling his nose with slight distaste, wrung out a cloth and reached over to wipe them clean: “You didn’t wash your hands the entire trip?”
“I did, but there was so much blood it didn’t come completely clean.”
“Tsk.”
He meticulously cleaned between her fingers, turned them over for a satisfied inspection, then said with easy composure: “Biological fathers come in good and bad alike. He didn’t carry you for ten months, didn’t raise you or teach you. On top of that, he killed indiscriminately and corrupted his office. If you didn’t kill him, could you face the souls who died on Tianning Mountain and outside the border garrison?”
“……”
“There are also the soldiers under your command — quite a few of them died at Cheng Huaili’s hands. If you think you shouldn’t have killed him, aren’t you afraid they’ll be crouching at your bedside in the middle of the night?”
“……”
“Not to mention Zhao Huaizhu, Wang Wu and the others. They’ve supported you every step of the way. If you had gone soft on Cheng Huaili, how would they have felt about their position?”
Chen Baoxiang was left thoroughly dumbfounded.
She tried to cut in with an explanation: “I’m not saying I shouldn’t have killed him — of course I should have. It’s just that with our relationship, and the way I went about it——”
“Just right.”
“What?”
“Your method — first, it laid the souls to rest. Second, it gave comfort to the living. It was the best possible choice under the circumstances.” He looked at her and said, “You did very well, Baoxiang.”
Chen Baoxiang was stunned.
She thought Zhang Zhixu had gone mad — how could someone who had read so many books say something like that?
——But you had to admit, the more she listened, the more sense every single word made.
Her mood lifted. The smile on her face slowly spread wide: “As long as you don’t find it frightening, that’s all I need.”
“Of course not.” He said, then thought it over and gave a light, dismissive sound. “Xu Buran is just too delicate.”
Getting scared by a matter as small as this.
What was the point of being a military officer? Wouldn’t going to listen to music performances with Xie Lanting be perfectly pleasant?
“On another note.” Chen Baoxiang was somewhat puzzled. “If you didn’t even think this was a big matter, then what were you thinking about earlier, that put such a grave look on your face?”
Zhang Zhixu gave a slight pause.
His gaze wandered evasively away, and he said vaguely: “Nothing.”
“Tell me.”
“Nothing worth saying.”
“Zhang Zhixu.”
“……” He stiffly turned his head away. The tips of his ears flushed red, and for a long moment he couldn’t find words.
How was he supposed to say this? That the moment he had seen her deliberate attempt at concealment his heart had sunk, and he’d been unable to stop a cascade of dramatic scenarios from flooding his mind — all that shared life and death, all that effortless understanding, all that perfect accord?
The theater troupe in Shangjing performed this kind of thing all the time: “The triumphant general returns and casts aside his wife to take a new one,” “Mutual antagonists battle it out and then become bosom companions,” “The devoted woman waits faithfully in her cold cave while the man she loves transfers his affections to another.”
——He never had the leisure to watch such things. He only knew about them because Yinyue had mentioned them a few times.
But just hearing about them was aggravating enough, and mapping them onto Chen Baoxiang — no wonder his expression had been grim.
“Don’t you still need to go to the palace to report to His Majesty?” He steered her straight toward the door and nudged her out. “Go quickly, don’t be late.”
Chen Baoxiang stared at him, quite displeased: “I’ve been so candid with you, and you won’t tell me the truth.”
“I’ll give you a box of gold. Don’t ask.”
“This isn’t about the gold — your attitude is all wrong!”
“Two boxes.” He amended. “One hundred taels each.”
“——But now that I think about it, your attitude is right sometimes too.” The corners of her mouth pulled open against her will. She magnanimously patted his hand. “Then I’ll let it go this time.”
Zhang Zhixu: “……”
He pressed his palm to his forehead, feeling as though he had narrowly escaped calamity, and also marveling that even now that Chen Baoxiang was a Marquis, she could still be appeased with gold.
·
Li Bingsheng sat high upon the imperial throne. After hearing Chen Baoxiang’s report, she smoothly cycled through shock, indignation, reluctance, and magnanimity in one flowing sequence of expressions.
“Things being as they are, there is nothing I can do.” She sighed. “Let an edict be issued: though Cheng Huaili committed the crime of rebellion and insubordination, in recognition of his numerous past contributions, I graciously pardon his family members. Only the confiscation of his household assets is required.”
“Your Majesty is benevolent——”
Chen Baoxiang knelt below with the assembled officials, thinking inwardly that this had nothing to do with benevolence whatsoever. His Majesty was plainly using the edict to send a warning to the remaining officials in the capital who had ties to Cheng Huaili — now that Cheng Huaili was gone, those who still wouldn’t fall in line were next.
Besides, Cheng Huaili didn’t have much in the way of surviving family — most of those who deserved to die were already nearly all dead.
She was muttering to herself about this, just about to offer another word of flattery, when someone suddenly stepped out of the ranks ahead: “Your Majesty, your servant has something to say.”
“Speak.”
“The reason officials of Cheng Huaili’s kind are able to repeatedly commit transgressions still lies in the overly strict restrictions on filing complaints in our great Dasheng.”
The man clasped his hands and said, “Subordinates cannot lodge complaints against superiors, and commoners cannot bring charges against officials. Consequently, those who use their rank to abuse those beneath them are numerous, the petitions of the humble never reach the heavens, public grievances simmer and boil — your servant privately believes reforms are in order, to demonstrate the capacity of an enlightened sovereign.”