Chapter 596: - The Tiger Carries the Mountain

The soft, lilting sound of an erhu drifted slowly out from the Count’s Residence at Snow Sea Pass.

Every day, the Blind Man played a piece here.

Today, he played for rather longer than usual.

Tian Tian sat there with both plump little hands resting on his knees, his head dipping and rising as he desperately fought off sleep.

Asking a child this young to appreciate the subtleties of the erhu was already asking far too much.

And today’s piece was especially long.

Tian Tian had tried very hard to endure it, but the waves of drowsiness rolling over him with the music were simply too strong.

At last, the Blind Man put the erhu away.

Tian Tian raised his head in a daze.

He reached up, rubbed his face, smiled, then clapped.

At such a young age, he had already learned how to perform on command.

At that moment, Liu Ruqing came over carrying a cup of tea.

The Blind Man rose, left his seat, and stepped back three paces.

Liu Ruqing came forward, placed the tea on the small table, then retreated three paces.

Only then did the Blind Man return to his seat and pick up the cup.

It was flower tea.

In truth, the Blind Man did not much like this kind of tea. Honey was often added to it. People said it brought out the sweetness of the flowers, but to him it was simply cloying.

“Mr. Bei, has news come from the front?”

When a man was away at war, the woman left behind could only wait.

At times like this, the saying that a letter from home was worth ten thousand pieces of gold was no exaggeration.

Liu Ruqing’s younger brother Liu Zhong was now helping in the Count’s Residence accounting office. It was a decent post.

Liu Ruqing was very satisfied with that.

The atmosphere here was nothing like the suffocating Fan Clan. Her days were quiet and easy, and her younger brother now had a livelihood.

She truly had little else to ask for.

In truth, if the Count had not suddenly restrained himself that night, she would already have become his woman.

She was only damaged flowers and faded willow, after all.

If she could please him, receive his generosity, receive his charge and passion, receive the pounding clangor of him, that would already have been enough.

That way of thinking was, of course, not correct.

But one could only sigh.

In this age, life was already difficult for women.

For beautiful women, it was often even more difficult.

Still, the Blind Man knew Liu Ruqing’s temperament.

She was not the sort who would come ask this question merely because he had played the erhu a little longer than usual.

She might have noticed.

But she would not deliberately come over to inquire.

The Master’s inner household was actually very simple.

Setting aside the old matrons and serving girls, there were only three women who could truly be called women of his chambers.

Fourth Lady.

The Princess.

And Liu Ruqing before him.

Fourth Lady had followed the Master to war.

That left only two at home.

Which of them was senior and which junior was obvious at a glance.

“If Her Highness has something she wants to ask, she can simply come out and ask me directly. Our Count’s Residence has never had many rules.”

The Blind Man had barely finished speaking when the Princess stepped out from around the corner.

The Blind Man rose and offered his seat.

The Princess remained standing where she was and said:

“I would not dare make Mr. Bei surrender his seat to me.”

“Just going through the motions. Makes me look a little more proper.”

“Hehe.”

The Princess laughed.

Not a cold laugh.

She had long since become accustomed to how these several “gentlemen” interacted with people.

They looked like men who understood rules very well.

In truth, they were the people least bound by rules.

And although they were nominally master and servants with her husband, in reality, to a certain extent, they stood as equals.

Some women were natural masters of palace intrigue.

How much more so Xiong Liqing, who had grown up inside an imperial harem.

She understood perfectly well which people could not be offended.

Liu Ruqing hurriedly rose, went inside, carried out another chair, and set it down.

The Princess sat without ceremony.

Then

Liu Ruqing walked over and tried to pick up Tian Tian.

The women of the inner household all knew the true identity of this Count’s godson.

To put it unpleasantly, even if they gave birth to children of their own in the future, those children might still be unable to compete with this boy for favor.

Tian Tian spread his arms and hugged Liu Ruqing once, but did not let her pick him up.

After going through the motions, he wriggled free of her arms.

From the flower garden, an enormous green python’s head emerged.

Tian Tian trotted over and threw both arms around the giant snake head.

The green python flicked out its tongue and licked Tian Tian’s face.

Tian Tian patted it with his chubby little hands.

From infancy until now, this child had spent more time playing with ghosts and demons than with ordinary people.

Besides, he naturally carried a spiritual aura that made such creatures feel close to him.

The last time the Sword Saint briefly returned from leave, he had specifically come to look at the child.

The Sword Saint had never planned to accept another disciple after Sword Maid.

Yet on seeing Tian Wujing’s son, even he had felt the urge to bring the boy into his own lineage.

Unfortunately, although the Sword Saint had lowered himself enough, the child only wanted to learn the saber from his godfather.

Over there, the boy and the python played happily.

Here, the Princess finally spoke.

“There was nothing inconvenient about asking. I personally do not care. I was merely afraid Mr. Bei might overthink it.”

“I will not overthink it. There are already far too many things I think about every day.”

“Mr. Bei truly does not speak politely at all.”

“We are family. Why bother being polite? It is tiring.”

“That is true.”

Then the Princess asked:

“Did the Count win?”

“Ying Capital has fallen.”

The Princess’s breath caught.

Ying Capital.

That was where she had grown up.

And now, it had been breached by her husband’s side.

Strictly speaking, the fall of Ying Capital had not been directly caused by Count Zheng himself.

But one thing could not be denied.

It was precisely because Count Zheng had rampaged around in the earlier stages of the campaign, destroying Zhennan Pass’s supply line and throwing the Chu capital region into chaos, that Prince of Jingnan had ultimately been able to drive his army straight toward Ying Capital.

“Your elder brother left behind a fire. He intended to burn Prince of Jingnan to death. Who would have thought the Prince would survive, while Ying Capital itself caught fire?”

The Princess looked at the Blind Man.

“Ying Capital burned?”

“To be precise, it was burned down.”

“How tragic.”

“Yes.”

“What about my imperial brother?”

“He had left long before. Your brother borrowed the Yan army’s hand to remove certain people and things he had wanted gone for a long time but had never found convenient to eliminate himself.”

“According to Mr. Bei, my imperial brother actually profited from it?”

“Overall, he certainly lost. But the house has indeed been cleaned.”

“Then will the war continue?”

“No. From the look of things, it is about to end. The Master should be coming home soon too. Also, barring an accident, Your Highness should soon be promoted from a Count’s wife to a Marquis’s wife.”

“He is already going to be made Marquis?”

“Eight or nine chances out of ten. Because Prince of Jingnan did not die.”

The Blind Man understood perfectly how enormous the difference was between Prince of Jingnan being alive and dead.

If Prince of Jingnan were gone, their side would indeed become freer and more relaxed.

But while Prince of Jingnan remained alive, he effectively guaranteed the connection between their Master and the Great Yan court.

Sometimes even the Blind Man found the whole thing rather dull.

Eat from Great Yan’s bowl.

Put the bowl down when full.

Then rebel against Great Yan.

There was hardly enough challenge in it.

But as long as Prince of Jingnan remained alive, everyone could only continue developing along this path.

After this war, being made Marquis was inevitable.

Tian Wujing had been arranging toward that outcome long ago.

And the Blind Man had seen through those arrangements equally long ago.

Xiong Liqing smiled faintly.

“In Great Yan, being made Marquis is an extraordinary thing.”

“Yes. Before the Princes of Zhenbei and Jingnan were elevated to princes, Marquis was the highest noble rank available to men outside the imperial clan. Being made Marquis also means being entrusted with a frontier domain.”

The Blind Man pointed toward the ground beneath his feet.

“My guess is this eastern Jin territory right here. It may not be long before Your Highness can return home to visit the Empress Dowager and your imperial brother. After your family visit, they will even send you back properly and ceremonially.”

Her position would be different.

Her standing would be different.

Naturally, the treatment would be different as well.

“It is much earlier than I imagined.”

The Blind Man smiled without answering.

The Princess asked again:

“What if my mother cannot bear to let me leave after I return home?”

“Then that gives the Master the perfect excuse to invade Chu again and steal you a second time.”

“When will the Count return?”

“Hard to say. But it should be soon. From what I know of the Master, once the war is over, he will become even more attached to the comforts of a warm bed and soft company.”

“Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Bei.”

“Your Highness is too polite.”

The Princess rose.

But she did not leave.

Instead, she asked:

“May I ask Mr. Bei one more thing? Which is more important: the state or the individual?”

“The state is like one’s parents.”

“Mr. Bei’s answer is truly...”

“When the child is happy, the parents are happy too.”

The Princess froze for a moment.

Then laughed.

“Talking with you truly is interesting.”

“You flatter me.”

At that moment, outside Snow Sea Pass, a green cyclone was bearing down upon the city.

It stopped before the southern wall of Snow Sea Pass.

A figure in green robes appeared within it.

The figure wore a mask, making it impossible to tell whether the person was male or female.

Archers on the wall had already drawn their bows and aimed at the newcomer.

At the gate below, a unit of cavalry was preparing to charge out.

...

Inside the Count’s Residence.

In the courtyard.

The Princess had not left.

The Blind Man had not risen.

Yet in the center of the flower garden, the ground above a cellar suddenly caved inward, revealing steps leading down toward the secret chamber below.

Sha Tuo Queshi, dressed in black, walked up one step at a time with his eyes closed.

The Blind Man stood and bowed slightly.

“You are awake.”

The Princess immediately dipped into a curtsy.

“Greetings, Godfather.”

Liu Ruqing stared in shock.

She had never seen Sha Tuo Queshi before.

At first she only felt that something extraordinary had happened, and that a terrifying existence had suddenly appeared in front of her.

But after seeing the Princess salute him, she hurriedly followed suit.

Whoosh!

A signal arrow shot into the sky from the southwest.

Something had happened over there.

Sha Tuo Queshi turned toward the southwest.

The Blind Man immediately said:

“This may be a diversion to lure the tiger away from the mountain.”

At that moment, Tian Tian saw Sha Tuo Queshi and immediately abandoned his python companion, stumbling over on his short legs.

Other people feared Sha Tuo Queshi, who looked like a walking corpse.

Tian Tian did not.

He had slept on top of the man’s coffin from infancy until he grew older.

Sha Tuo Queshi reached out.

A black wind wrapped around Tian Tian and lifted him into the air.

The boy came to rest on his shoulder.

Sha Tuo Queshi held Tian Tian’s leg with one hand.

With the other, he reached forward.

Hum!

From the weapons rack Zheng Fan normally used for saber practice in the courtyard, a saber flew into Sha Tuo Queshi’s hand.

He turned the blade downward and rested its point against the ground.

Then Sha Tuo Queshi slowly turned his head.

His eyes remained closed.

But his voice traveled through vibrations in the air:

“The tiger... carries the mountain.”

[End of Chapter 596]