Yun Ye rubbed his cheeks as he inspected the recovered gold in the ship’s cabin. Bag after bag was full of gold sand. Opening one bag, he grabbed a handful. With a slight tilt of his hand, the gold sand slid from his palm, glittering brilliantly under the candlelight.
“My lord, that damned woman actually dared to slap your face and throw you down. It’s truly too excessive! Should this subordinate chase after them now and eliminate them all?”
“No need. However, that Japanese woman’s skin was quite soft and smooth. I merely wanted to wipe away that beauty mark at the corner of her brow, yet I suffered such abuse. Savages are just savages. Liu Renyuan, don’t you agree?”
“The Commander speaks absolutely correctly. You were only being kind, yet that Japanese woman didn’t know what was good for her. This subordinate will go eliminate them right now and capture that Japanese woman for the Commander to study thoroughly.”
Yun Ye rubbed his face and pressed his aching waist. He was quite tempted by Liu Renyuan’s suggestion, but after a moment’s thought, his interest waned. Not to mention that the Japanese woman was a member of the imperial family—her status as an envoy alone made him unable to act. Takayama Yoko actually hadn’t been wrong. From the moment he learned they were envoys, he had abandoned any thought of killing to silence them. This era had many moral principles that needed to be observed—for instance, the rule that when two nations are at war, envoys are not to be killed. This was a universal law that even the most savage tribes would follow. Such civilized and progressive principles needed careful protection, not brutal trampling.
“Forget it, Liu Renyuan. I know you’re uncomfortable inside. In this campaign, you always felt the navy’s role wasn’t prominent, that there was a sense of being inferior—is that it?”
“There’s no need to think that way. In this military operation, the navy played the role of legs, while Lai Chuanfeng and his men played the role of hands. Attack and defense naturally require more use of hands, but without legs cooperating, such a long journey—just walking alone would kill people, not to mention those mountain-high supplies. The primary merit went to Lai Chuanfeng and his men, the secondary merit went to you. Don’t be dissatisfied. Those who died—aside from status and silver, they have nothing left. I don’t even know how to face their families when I return home.”
Liu Renyuan looked at Yun Ye strangely and said, “Commander, we can truly say we’re returning in great victory. Within two months we marched a thousand li, broke fortified cities, were invincible wherever we went, fought powerful enemies and crushed them like dry weeds. This is a great honor rarely seen in a century. Why be sorrowful? The fallen soldiers—their entire families will enjoy supreme honor. Moreover, we only suffered one-tenth casualties yet achieved such results. This subordinate believes the fathers and elders of Guanzhong—no one will reproach the Commander.”
Yun Ye waved his hand irritably. There was no way to discuss such delicate feelings with these war maniacs. People who constantly spoke of dying in battle as casually as returning home—how would they ever think of their families’ grief after their deaths?
To calm his mind, he borrowed Wu She’s tea utensils and invited him and Liu Fang to drink tea. When leaving home, Xinyue had specially packed him a small bundle of tea, said to be supreme quality tea bitten off by unmarried girls, supposedly able to refresh and invigorate the spirit. Thinking of those unknown girls biting off tea leaves, then spitting them into cloth bundles, and finally keeping them warm in their bosoms to absorb their sweat odor, Yun Ye wanted to vomit. Who came up with such a perverted method? He’d ask thoroughly when he returned.
Yun Ye had no habit of consuming other people’s saliva, but after telling this story to Wu She and Liu Fang, the two men’s interest greatly increased, both saying they wanted to taste such a wonderful delicacy.
When the water boiled to dragon-eye state, Yun Ye lifted the kettle to rinse the tea utensils, steeped the tea, and finally poured two cups for them. He made his own tea anew. He couldn’t detect anything different about that tea—any fragrance would probably be covered by sweat odor anyway. He’d better drink his own flower tea.
Wu She liked the process of drinking tea. Liu Fang liked the mood of drinking tea. Neither had anything to do with the tea itself. Eyes closed, they praised the good tea thoroughly, finally lamenting regretfully that it couldn’t compare to the mellow taste of tea soup prepared by Wu She. The two old men finished the tea Yun Ye had brewed and moreover asked for that small bundle of tea leaves. Wu She conjured up a small grinding wheel like magic, poured the tea leaves into it and began slowly grinding, continuously explaining to Liu Fang that tea leaves needed to be ground as fine as possible. When they returned to the academy, they must have a recluse’s elegance and couldn’t let those inexperienced youngsters look down on them.
Yun Ye couldn’t stand the two old men’s mutual flattery. Holding his teapot, he left the cabin. He could still hear Wu She praising the small building where he lived, how elegant it was, the exquisite mood of lying in a reclining chair listening to pine waves while reading. Liu Fang was probably already entranced.
After intense warfare, everyone had relaxed. The sea was also calm and waveless. Occasionally whales spouted, water columns surging high. Yun Ye sighed—still couldn’t go on deck. The finger marks on his face hadn’t faded after a whole night. That damned Japanese woman had struck heavily; even his back molars were somewhat loose.
Inadvertently glancing outside the cabin, he discovered Gou Zi sitting alone on a crosswise mast, taking a drink of liquor and then muttering a few words, as if burdened with heavy concerns.
Just as he was about to send someone to call Gou Zi down, he saw Dan Ying climb up the tall mast like a monkey, curse at Gou Zi a few times, and finally kick him down with one foot. He himself also jumped down. Yun Ye was greatly alarmed. He rushed out of the cabin and quickly leaned over the ship’s rail to look down. He saw white surging waves churning in the sea. After a long time with no one appearing, he loudly called for Dongyu to jump in the water to rescue them. Dongyu had just jumped into the water when Gou Zi climbed back onto the ship from the rail’s edge with a dejected expression, not even dropping the liquor gourd in his hand. Dan Ying also surfaced, grabbed a cable, and with heaven-splitting water spray jumped from the sea onto the deck.
Yun Ye immediately gave each of them a slap. The mast’s height was a full ten zhang—jumping down so casually like that? Seeing Yun Ye angry, Gou Zi became even more dejected and did a backflip to jump back into the seawater, refusing to surface for a long time.
“If you’ve got the guts, don’t come up! When we get home, I’ll find a female donkey to be your wife! What’s wrong with Hong Cheng’s daughter? She’s also a wealthy young lady—how is she unworthy of you? You two little bastards peeked at someone bathing—one of you needs to take responsibility, right? Xiao Ying is already betrothed, so if you don’t step up, who will?”
Unable to bear it any longer, Dan Ying jumped up and down saying, “Who would go peek at an ugly woman bathing? That pond is the bathing place Gou Zi and I use after practicing our skills. Everyone at the academy knows this. We’ve already beaten up several people who tried to steal the pond. Only that woman shamelessly stripped naked and dove into the pond. We hadn’t even seen anything yet when the maidservants started yelling about indecent assault. Who can we complain to?”
Yun Ye was so angry his eyes nearly rolled back. Hong Cheng’s daughter had already tried to hang herself eight times. When asked, she just said her chastity was lost. Before the campaign, Yun Ye had no mind to deal with such nonsense, but now that the battle was over, he couldn’t avoid dealing with it. This was the academy’s first scandal case in history—everyone was craning their necks waiting for the verdict.
“If you didn’t see anything, how do you know she stripped naked? That means you saw! A wife is something you just marry one to satisfy your parents. As for someone you actually like, you can marry her into the family later—it’s not a big deal.”
“I won’t do it! Hong Cheng’s daughter looks not much different from her old man. I’d rather die than marry her!” Just as Gou Zi surfaced, he heard Yun Ye arranging his marriage. With a wretched cry, he dove back into the water.
Everyone laughed heartily watching Gou Zi thrashing in the sea. A handsome young man paired with an ugly woman—this was a delightful affair, at least from the male perspective everyone thought so.
Victors should naturally have laughter. It was just that Yun Ye had drilled into his own small circle and couldn’t get out, making everyone unhappy. Today the commander seemed in a good mood, beginning to handle trivial matters. The soldiers also instantly transformed from gloom to continuous laughter.
Listening to the joyful voices spreading to other ships, Yun Ye took a sip of tea and cast aside those melancholy thoughts. He turned to Liu Renyuan, who stood at his side in full armor, and instructed, “Except for liquor, whatever we have on the ship today, bring it all out. Have the kitchen exert some effort—we’ll have a proper feast. Three days from now we’ll dock at Dengzhou. We’ll celebrate grandly for three days.”
“Yes!” Liu Renyuan answered loudly and stepped lightly onto the deck. Immediately his booming voice rang out across the sea: “The commander orders—extra rations today! Whatever we have on the ship, eat to your heart’s content! After landing, three days of rewards!” The uproarious voices grew even louder. Songs from various regions began rippling throughout the ship—all those tunes about brothers and sisters with lewd and excessive lyrics. The language was so bold, the style so obscene, that Yun Ye couldn’t bear to listen.
Passing by the Goguryeo woman’s cabin door, he discovered it was open. The Goguryeo woman was quite politely kneeling on the floor, as if she had been waiting for him for quite some time. Seeing her so courteous, Yun Ye suspected whether Takayama Yoko and she had mixed up their identities—one would stop at nothing to achieve her goals, the other would rather be shattered to pieces for love. Both were quite distinctive women, only unfortunately they had nothing to do with him.
“I won’t go in. Once I go in, you’ll suspect I want to rape you. Whatever you have to say, just say it here. I’ll be more comfortable, and you won’t need to be so nervous.”
The Goguryeo woman didn’t bow or speak. Yun Ye’s teasing seemed unheard. After completing her bow, she folded her hands on her knees and said very solemnly, “Marquis Yun, I am with child.”
Yun Ye was nearly frightened into falling over. Steadying his mind, he said angrily, “If you’re pregnant, you should look for Gai Suwen—what are you looking for me for? It’s not like I handled it.”
“You won’t allow me to see Suwen. I even suspect this child may be Suwen’s only bloodline. In the last few days we spent together, I am a woman—I could feel Suwen’s vital essence decreasing. This is the consequence of the needles you applied to him, isn’t it?”
“Gai Suwen—I’ve never underestimated this man. He will absolutely become a hero of Goguryeo in the future. You may find it strange why I would do something so vicious to him—it doesn’t fit my character. The reason is precisely because he possesses all the conditions to become a hero. If he becomes a hero, then the unlucky one will be the Great Tang. So I did this without hesitation. It has nothing to do with personal preference.”