Yun Ye had once again been selected for a lavish gambling game. Since Li Yuan’s death, he had thought this tradition had disappeared, but who knew Li Er would fully inherit this custom. He still wanted to gamble this year, with everyone wagering two chests of gold coins—this was the fixed stake. Yun Ye believed Li Er was planning to rob him, but he just didn’t know who the other two unfortunate souls were.
Ever since he saw that lone wolf at Zhaoyang Palace last time, he hadn’t liked going near Zhaoyang Palace. A massive palace suddenly appearing on the wilderness looked uncomfortable no matter how you looked at it. Moreover, Zhaoyang Palace’s roof was round—from a distance, you’d think it was a large tent belonging to a foreign tribe.
“Husband, you must lose! The more you lose, the better! Our family doesn’t lack this bit of gold. If you feel you’re not losing enough, why not take two more chests?”
The gambling hadn’t even started yet, and Xinyue, this spendthrift woman, kept nagging away, hoping her family would lose as much as possible. While talking, she kept stuffing gold coins into the chest until there wasn’t a single gap left. Then she and Na Rimu pressed down on the chest lid together with their bottoms to lock it. Lingdang struggled greatly to fasten the lock clasp, and all three women worked up a sweat from the effort.
Participating in the gambling game, participating in the gambling game—these three women only knew about participating in gambling games. The other day, the commissioning ceremony almost made Yun Ye die of anger. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t witnessed the ceremonial rites when Li Jing, Li Ji, and Li Daozong were commissioned for their campaigns. Li Er had burned the memorial tablet, given earnest and heartfelt admonitions, and all the civil and military officials had stood solemnly below the platform with cupped hands—the scene was impressively solemn. After the commissioning, there was even a ceremony for imperially bestowing armor. So why was everything simplified when it came to him?
They just set up a shed in front of the Ministry of War. The observers were just a few stragglers, all colleagues from his own ministry. Not a single one of those big shots showed up. Li Chengqian ran over and casually read a few lines from the imperial edict, then stuffed it into Yun Ye’s hands to read himself, saying he’d eaten something bad last night and his stomach couldn’t endure standing long. After walking quite a distance, he turned back, pulled the military tally and seal from his sleeve, shoved them into Yun Ye’s arms, and ran off faster than a rabbit.
Wasn’t this too much of a farce? Yun Ye carefully compared the imperial edict with the seal, afraid these things were fake. Fortunately, both the military tally and seal were fine—he couldn’t see anything wrong with them.
The commissioning ceremony might have been crude, but the scene of paying respects back to the Emperor was anything but crude. During the grand court assembly, Yun Ye knelt on the ground listening to Li Er’s instructions. He didn’t know what was said—he only remembered his knees hurt terribly. This nagging speech went on for a full half hour before ending. Just as he was about to stand up, that old codger Fang Xuanling pressed down on Yun Ye’s shoulder with earnest concern and spoke at great length. Yun Ye felt the links of his chain mail armor had already embedded themselves into the bones of his knees.
But it was understandable. Li Er felt personally commissioning him was somewhat embarrassing. Li Chengqian’s stomach discomfort that day was reportedly caused by drinking a new tea called Yellow Bud.
Li Jing greatly envied how simple Yun Ye’s expedition commissioning had been. Such a low-key departure had its advantages—when things went badly, you wouldn’t become the target of universal condemnation. He himself had suffered deeply from this. Even a strategic retreat would have people pointing at his nose and cursing him for fearing the enemy like a tiger.
Knowing Li Jing had come to inquire about Qiu Ranke’s whereabouts, Yun Ye had prepared early. He took out the original copy of that official document from the box and handed it to him. After reading it, Li Jing let out a long sigh and once again went into seclusion.
The Protector of the Beiting Protectorate—this was the only position at the rank of Great General that the military had appointed in recent years. So many people came to the Yun household. Children of military families could only serve as soldiers—there weren’t many channels for becoming officials. Now that there was a lone Great General, naturally everyone wanted to stuff their own children in.
Many were old subordinates with familiar faces. Originally simple and straightforward men came with ingratiating smiles, pushing their own children forward relentlessly, hoping the commander would spare them an extra glance and take their children to Beiting to endure hardship and accumulate qualifications.
“Enough! I’ve accepted them. Looking at all your faces makes me want to vomit. Good men acting like slaves! Old Zhang, Old Gou, He Peng, Chu Da—when you were in the Left Militant Guard, you were my subordinates. What can’t be said properly? Why do you have to imitate others in giving gifts? Are your families very wealthy? Have the children report to the military camp tomorrow to find Old Lai. Now take your gifts and scram! I get angry just looking at you. In the future, when you want to drink, come in empty-handed. Bring a nicely prepared pig’s head and you can still come in, but if you bring anything else, I’ll have you thrown out. Old Qian, remember this!”
“Only in front of you, Great General, can this subordinate pull down his face to play the slave. If it were anyone else, I, Old Gou, would rather let my child eat plain rice at home than humble myself to beg others.”
“Enough, stop flattering. Haven’t seen you in years—your skills haven’t improved, but your tongue has gotten slicker. I need to enter the palace on business. You all stay at home and drink. Old Qian, convert all their gifts into cash and distribute it back to them. Not one of them is allowed to refuse. Whoever doesn’t take it, their child doesn’t need to report tomorrow either.”
Yun Ye knew these men actually lived in dire straits. A commandant’s salary not only had to support the whole family but sometimes had to help other brothers who had it even worse. In Chang’an, this money pit, no amount of money was ever enough.
After saying this, Yun Ye went straight into the back hall to change clothes, planning to go to Zhaoyang Palace to gamble. Old Qian smiled as he invited these low-ranking officers to the dining hall for a meal.
When he arrived at Zhaoyang Palace by carriage, Yun Ye discovered he had come early. The palace servants showed him into the great hall, served a pot of tea, and then paid him no more attention. He had been to this palace several times and was familiar with many faces, but looking for a long time, Yun Ye didn’t discover a single palace servant he recognized—neither male nor female.
It wasn’t appropriate to inquire. If those people weren’t sleeping in Xianling Mausoleum, then they were dwelling in huts outside Xianling—there were only these two possibilities. However, Yun Ye believed that Li Er shouldn’t be capable of doing something like human sacrifice now, whether openly or secretly.
In keeping to the mahjong schedule, Li Er differed from Li Yuan by more than just a bit. In previous years at this time, Li Yuan would already be waiting in the great hall, impatiently shuffling tiles alone.
Yun Ye took out a tile from the box, closed his eyes to sense it, pulled it out, placed it aside, and continued drawing tiles from the box.
“The one in your hand is an eight bamboo.” An unfamiliar voice came over. Yun Ye opened his eyes and looked at the person before him. He didn’t recognize him—very old, a very old old fellow leaning on a cane, tilting his head to look at the tiles in front of Yun Ye.
“Don’t try to make excuses. You don’t recognize this old man, but this old man has long heard of your reputation. The young lady from the Dugu family mentioned you to me, saying you’re quite a fine young fellow. She planned to marry both her granddaughters to you but you refused? You politely declined using Yuchi Gong’s old wisdom about not abandoning one’s wife of humble origins?”
“Tsk tsk, young man, you’ve lost out big time. Those two young ladies from the Dugu family are stunningly beautiful, and reportedly possess inner charm. Tsk tsk, keeping them in the bedchamber would bring endless pleasure, young man!”
Yun Ye’s eyes bulged wide. He really wanted to know who exactly this old lecher was. He turned his neck around with difficulty, looking everywhere—he didn’t see the old fellow carrying any money chests. That was good. As long as this salty, lecherous old codger wasn’t a gambling partner, it was fine.
“What are you looking at? This old man came to win money, not to lose it. Why would I bring gold? The Grand Emperor used just a single gold coin to crush you all into scattered defeat. This old man specially brought five gold coins—won’t that be enough to return with a great victory?”
Yun Ye couldn’t discern the old fellow’s identity. He wore hemp clothing and cloth shoes on his feet. If there was anything outstanding about him, it was the white jade hairpin in his hair. This hairpin was crystal clear and translucent, with what seemed like clouds and mist swirling inside—clearly a priceless treasure at first glance.
“Young man, what are you looking at?”
“This young man is looking to see if you have anything valuable on you, so it can settle accounts when you lose everything later.”
Yun Ye had plenty of experience dealing with old people. Not to mention Scholar Yan Zhitui, just the several masters at the Academy were enough to train him.
Sure enough, the old fellow laughed until he swayed back and forth, slapping the table and shouting: “Good lad! Stronger than those people on Longhu Mountain. No wonder that old ghost Yan Zhitui earnestly recommended you to this old man. Truly extraordinary!”
When the old fellow mentioned Yan Zhitui, Yun Ye couldn’t sit still. He quickly stood up and bowed, saying: “This young man is uncouth. May I ask the venerable sir’s esteemed surname and great name? Once I know clearly, I can pay proper respects.”
The old man seemed even more pleased, clapping his hands and saying: “Truly someone who won’t accept a loss! By rights, when meeting an old person, you should pay grand respects immediately. But you first want to ask clearly before making your move. That’s fine too. Don’t you know whom Yan Zhitui was competing with to see who could live longer? Let me tell you—it’s this old man, Yuan Shoucheng! In the end, he lost. The grass on his grave has withered and flourished several times, yet this old man hasn’t died. It’s just that I can’t go to the pleasure quarters anymore. Young man, go ask Sun Simiao if there’s any cure!”
Who was Yuan Shoucheng? Yun Ye had no impression of this name whatsoever. By rights, remembering all the big shots’ names was a required course for a young aristocrat, but Yun Ye truly didn’t know who exactly this old fellow was.
Zhangsun Wuji walked in from outside the hall. Upon seeing this Yuan Shoucheng, he immediately bent his waist nearly to his feet, very obsequiously helping the old fellow sit in a chair. He even poured a cup of tea for the old man, who seemed to consider this perfectly natural without the slightest discomfort.
“Little Zhangsun, where’s your younger sister? Over these years, she’s the only well-behaved child I’ve seen. Originally thought this child couldn’t live long, but who knew she’d drag on until now. Saw her yesterday—her constitution has actually become robust. Hahaha! This old man miscalculated back then!”
Who was Zhangsun Wuji’s younger sister? Wasn’t she Empress Zhangsun? He casually divined the Empress’s fate and got it wrong, yet just laughed it off with a “haha”?
“Old sir, when you were drunk that year and divined this young woman’s fate, naturally there would be errors. It frightened this young woman into worrying she wouldn’t see her children grow to adulthood. You really caused great harm!”
Yun Ye’s mouth gaped wide open. His only thought now was to figure out who exactly this old fellow was. Even Zhangsun called himself “young woman” in his presence—he definitely wasn’t an ordinary person, and absolutely wasn’t an old codger coasting by on his age.
“Why are you gaping? Go sit down properly. The old man can’t wait to begin!” Li Er slapped Yun Ye on the back of his head and brazenly sat down in the host’s seat.