Chapter 601: - The Realm Is Like a Painting

When he was busy, he could work himself like a dog.

When he was idle, he could lie under the sun and be too lazy even to roll over and expose his belly.

That was Count Pingye’s true portrait.

Truthfully, if one learned to see things a little more clearly, a person only lived this one life.

Live too comfortably, and you feared failing your responsibilities and the people close to you.

Suffer too bitterly, and you wronged yourself.

Having lived two lives, Count Pingye understood this point very deeply indeed.

At Zhennan Pass, an enormous mess still waited to be handled.

His own soldiers remained there, along with forces from every route that had not yet broken camp and returned to their original stations.

Count Pingye, however, did not care.

The moment Prince of Jingnan’s royal procession departed for Fengxin City, he abandoned everything.

With only two hundred personal guards, the Sword Saint, and the Savage King, he rode through the night toward his own nest.

The residence had been informed in advance.

And the Blind Man understood his Master’s temperament extremely well.

So there was no “triumphal return ceremony.”

As a result, the soldiers and civilians of Snow Sea Pass still had no idea that the great Count they adored had returned to his loyal Snow Sea Pass the previous night.

Zheng Fan stripped off his clothes, threw himself into the hot-spring pool, then tossed Demon Pill outside and told him to go play with Tian Tian.

After soaking until he had enough, Zheng Fan got out, returned to bed, and slept comfortably.

By the time he woke, it was already afternoon.

He opened the door and saw Xiong Liqing and Liu Ruqing sitting in the small pavilion before his bedroom courtyard, eating snacks and drinking tea.

Both women had clearly dressed with special care today.

The Princess wore a padded green robe and a phoenix hairpin. She looked playful without losing dignity.

She was young.

She was beautiful.

She was noble.

Liu Ruqing wore a long red dress.

She merely had to sit there and the curves of her figure naturally flowed into view, tugging at the heart.

One had to admit, after sleeping one’s fill, opening one’s eyes and immediately seeing two beautiful women of entirely different types was a genuine pleasure.

And besides, both women, in name and in reality, belonged to you.

“Husband, you’ve worked hard on this distant campaign.”

“Count.”

Zheng Fan chuckled warmly and walked into the pavilion.

Liu Ruqing immediately gave up the stone stool she had been sitting on.

The sunlight was good today.

It was winter, but there was no wind.

So it was not cold.

The sunlight on the body felt warm and comfortable.

“Go tell them Husband will eat here,” Xiong Liqing said to Liu Ruqing.

“Yes.”

There were no maids nearby, so Liu Ruqing had to go personally.

Xiong Liqing sat down beside Zheng Fan and studied him carefully.

Count Pingye had returned the previous night.

After coming back, he had ordered that no guests be received and no affairs be brought before him.

He needed rest.

So even the women of his household were only now seeing their victorious husband.

“Husband, you’ve lost weight.”

Across both lives combined, Count Pingye was now in his early thirties.

At this age, to call him old would be absurd.

To call him young was no longer quite right either.

It was an age of maturity and steadiness.

The last time Fourth Lady trimmed his hair and beard in camp, Count Pingye hesitated and told her to leave some of the beard.

It was not long.

But whether a man wore facial hair or not truly changed his appearance a great deal.

It was not that having a beard automatically made someone more imposing or heroic.

Rather, when a man held power, a beard could make that power look more imposing and heroic.

“Oh? I’ve lost weight? I thought I’d actually put some on. You have no idea. Beneath Juyang City and beneath Mount Sigong, your imperial brother sent me imperial meals every single day. I thought I’d gotten fatter.”

Xiong Liqing smiled.

“That is simply the kind of man Imperial Brother is. No matter what the outside looks like, he has to preserve every bit of his own dignity.”

“Exactly. That really is him. Several times I almost got confused. Had I come to fight a war, or had I come to serve as guard escort for my elder brother-in-law?”

“Hehe.”

Xiong Liqing laughed.

She was not the sort of woman who enjoyed acting like Lin Daiyu, grieving every other day over the autumn moon and the fallen homeland.

If she had been, she never would have voluntarily followed Count Pingye to Yan.

She was an exceptionally clearheaded woman.

Count Pingye had once joked with the Blind Man that at Xiong Liqing’s age, it was doubtful whether Wu Zetian or Empress Dowager Cixi had possessed this level of scheming and breadth of vision.

The only difference was that Fourth Lady stood over Count Pingye’s inner household.

However clever the other women might be, they could not create any waves.

Besides, Count Pingye had never planned to fill an enormous harem.

With Fourth Lady, it was revolutionary comradeship.

With the Princess, a political marriage.

With Liu Ruqing...

Purely because, even if only for the sake of hearing that one cry of “Uncle,” if he did not bring her home, he felt Heaven itself might strike him with lightning.

“Mr. Bei said there will still be many things to handle next.”

“Let them handle it. I need to rest for a while. I’d guess the court’s rewards should come down in another month or so.”

“Husband is going to be made Marquis?”

“Eight or nine chances out of ten.”

With Tian Wujing alive, the merit that belonged to Zheng Fan could not possibly be erased.

Zheng Fan picked up the teacup and drank.

Then he separated the cup, lid, and saucer and placed them in a triangle on the table.

“This is Snow Sea Pass. This is Zhennan Pass. This is Fengxin City. One month from now, all three places will belong to me. Then we’ll have to move to Fengxin City. A new residence will need to be built. You and Ruqing will naturally each have your own courtyard. Whatever style you like, whatever furnishings you want, tell Xue San in advance.”

“Ah? We’re moving?” Xiong Liqing’s reluctance was genuine.

She truly liked living in the Count’s Residence at Snow Sea Pass.

It was nowhere near as magnificent as an imperial palace, but the longer one lived there, the more flavor it seemed to possess.

Magnificence could become tiresome after seeing it too long.

Simplicity, by contrast, endured.

“We have to move. I’m going to establish a headquarters and raise my own banners. If I keep the residence at Snow Sea Pass or Zhennan Pass, wouldn’t that be like complaining my territory is too large? Only Fengxin City makes sense. Never mind the two great passes north and south behind me already being under my control. With Fengxin City as the center, we can expand westward. Even if the court does not grant me the land there, even if it installs local officials there, even if it stations troops there, as long as those places lie close enough to our new residence, as long as they fall within Fengxin City’s sphere of influence, those local officials will have to obey the residence’s orders. Those local garrisons will have to obey the residence’s military commands. And the people living there will gradually believe they are subjects under the Zheng household. The great men at court are not fools. What they want is for me to maintain enough troops on the smallest possible territory, resist the Savages to the north, restrain the Chu to the south, and ideally struggle just hard enough that I still depend on their charity to survive. It’s the same as doing business. You can’t be polite. If you’re polite, you’re the one who loses. And don’t forget, I still carry the title General-in-Chief of the Cheng State. I only occupy a small half of the old Great Cheng territory. At this point, the title already fails to match the reality badly enough.”

“Husband is right. What belongs to us should be ours. What doesn’t belong to us, so long as our hands can reach it, is ours too.”

“Exactly. That’s the principle.”

Zheng Fan reached toward the pocket at his chest.

Found nothing.

Xiong Liqing, already familiar with the habit, took a simple iron case from her sleeve.

She drew out a rolled cigarette and placed it against her husband’s lips.

Then she took out a fire striker, cupped the flame with her hand, and lit it for him.

Count Pingye took a drag.

Slowly exhaled.

Then sighed:

“In the end, having a genuine princess light your cigarette really is different from those other princesses.”

Soon, Liu Ruqing had the prepared meal brought over.

There were not many dishes.

Two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and a soup.

Count Pingye’s lifestyle carried a touch of petty-bourgeois refinement.

He paid attention to eating carefully and delicately in ordinary times.

But truthfully, it had nothing to do with extravagance.

When great nobles and powerful gentry ate, what they consumed was not food.

It was display.

It was prestige.

Count Pingye had no interest in that kind of idiocy.

After the meal, the two women accompanied him to the rear courtyard to see Tian Tian.

During the meal, Xiong Liqing had already told Zheng Fan what had happened several days earlier.

The thought of his godson being taken out by Sha Tuo Queshi to slaughter his way through a bloody fight genuinely made Count Pingye’s heart tremble.

He had only just stabilized Old Tian’s situation.

If something happened to Tian Tian now, there would truly be no fixing it.

When Zheng Fan entered, he found Tian Tian hugging a small chest.

The boy was taking out snacks he had hidden inside and placing them before Demon Pill to eat.

Naturally, Demon Pill did not actually eat.

But each time Tian Tian went to fetch another snack, Demon Pill quietly “moved away” the previous one, making Tian Tian believe he had eaten it.

This was unquestionably wasting food.

But

Count Pingye’s household was wealthy enough.

And Tian Tian was Prince of Jingnan’s son.

Wasting a few snacks on him somehow felt difficult to criticize.

The moment Tian Tian saw Zheng Fan, he excitedly stood and ran toward him.

Zheng Fan bent down and lifted his godson.

Heavier.

Heavier again.

And fatter.

Count Pingye kissed Tian Tian’s face several times.

His beard tickled the boy until he laughed.

“Heh. Just think about our Prince charging alone into the Chu imperial palace. What magnificent bearing. Who could have imagined his child would be raised until he looks like a lucky New Year doll?”

Tian Tian now looked exactly like one of the children painted on New Year prints.

His entire visual style had absolutely nothing in common with Old Tian.

“All right, all right.”

Count Pingye turned around with Tian Tian in his arms.

“Come. Let’s go together.”

He descended the steps and carried Tian Tian into the secret chamber.

Inside, the coffin still lay where it always had.

Even after Zheng Fan entered carrying the child, there was no movement.

“What timing. I just got back, and you went to sleep again.”

Zheng Fan sighed.

Sha Tuo Queshi had fallen into slumber once more.

Xiong Liqing and Liu Ruqing stood well behind him.

They knew their man had something to say.

But there were certain things

Zheng Fan had never intended to hide from them anyway.

Put simply, Liu Ruqing was someone he himself had taken a liking to, and Fan Zhengwen had then voluntarily sent her over in order to curry favor.

The Princess was also a type he personally liked.

Her personality was straightforward.

Her figure had some pleasant fullness to it.

If his own inner household ever contained some porcelain vase that existed purely for display and still required constant vigilance, he would never place it within sight in the first place.

There was no other reason.

It lowered quality of life.

Since everyone present was one of his own people, he could speak freely.

“Keep sleeping. In a little while, once my new official robes arrive, I’ll come wearing them and chat with you again. You know? I’m about to be made Marquis. A Marquis. A Marquis of Yan. The same rank the old Marquis of Zhenbei Residence once held. We’ll be living in a Marquis Residence from now on. So? That saber strike you helped me deliver for the Sixth Prince back then... worth it, right? That one strike of yours, that one push, sent me all the way to the position of Marquis.”

Count Pingye spoke with a touch of pride.

Behind him, Liu Ruqing did not understand much.

Xiong Liqing, however, knew Zheng Fan’s past.

She also knew that her husband’s rise had begun when he saved the current Sixth Prince outside the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence.

Because of that life-saving favor, he had later received enormous financial support from the Sixth Prince, who was famous as a God of Wealth.

Who would have imagined that the whole thing had been a game arranged by her husband?

The Left Guli King of the Barbarians had actually been willing, before his death, to send her husband a gust of wind.

A wind that carried him straight upward.

These old secrets, since Zheng Fan dared speak them aloud, clearly did not worry him in the slightest that Xiong Liqing or Liu Ruqing might reveal them.

And even if the secret spread, so what?

What could anyone do?

Was there anyone left who dared convict him of colluding with the Barbarians?

Would Ji Chengjue really dare come settle accounts once he learned the truth?

Did anyone truly believe Ji Chengjue was that innocent?

Did anyone truly believe he had never suspected anything?

Heh.

Perhaps Zheng Fan saved him on the first day and Ji Chengjue had already begun investigating on the second.

At first, he might have found it absurd that the Left Guli King would help some miscellaneous Commandant stage a performance.

But as Zheng Fan climbed step by step, if Ji Chengjue never once looked back and wondered whether something had been suspicious about that old “life-saving favor,” that would be an insult to Ji Chengjue’s intelligence.

But again, so what?

They had worked this hard.

Fought war after war.

Managed territory.

In the early days, Zheng Fan had knelt plenty of times, acted like a grandson, and spoken plenty of auspicious nonsense.

What had all that been for?

What had he wanted?

Was it not so that one day he could straighten his back and live freely?

Now, even if Zheng Fan personally stood before Ji Chengjue and said:

Back then, Sha Tuo Queshi and I staged the whole thing together to save you, Ji Chengjue’s first reaction would definitely be:

Brother, you’re drunk. You’re talking nonsense. I, Ji Chengjue, will never forget the life-saving grace you showed me for as long as I live.

“I have quite a few Barbarian soldiers under me now. Later, I’ll find a way to recruit more. Once you wake up, I can hand every one of those Barbarian troops to you. I can even rename one entire garrison Sha Tuo Garrison. I’m telling you, I’m only just starting to establish a Marquis Residence. Compared with the century-old Marquis of Zhenbei Residence, there’s no comparison at all. The foundation is far too shallow. Wake up a little sooner and you can help me. Help me hold this whole enterprise up. Help me make it solid. I’m not that old Barbarian King of your Royal Court, always shrinking and hesitating. Here with me, what we pursue is satisfaction. What we pursue is doing as we please.”

Zheng Fan held Tian Tian in his left arm.

With his right hand, he slowly stroked the lid of the coffin.

“Sleep a little longer. Sleep a little longer.”

Every time Zheng Fan gained promotion, every time he won a battle, he would come here and tell Sha Tuo Queshi about it.

Share his progress.

After all, Sha Tuo Queshi had been the first person in this world to sincerely treat him well without any entanglement or additional condition.

The first.

The very first.

“Haaah... let’s go back. We won’t disturb his rest.”

Zheng Fan led everyone out of the secret chamber.

The Blind Man and Gou Moli were already waiting outside.

When he saw them, Zheng Fan could not help laughing.

“Didn’t I already say I wanted peace and quiet for a few days? You handle the postwar matters yourselves. Make whatever decisions are needed. Don’t ask me.”

“It isn’t about the postwar settlement,” the Blind Man said. “Fushun’er of the Lotus Gang from the State of Yun, Master Kongyuan and his disciple, and the members of the Hun Sect we captured at Mount Tianhu last time have all returned. We need a new set of rules for what comes next.”

The “Hun Sect people” were the fools who had successfully fooled themselves into claiming, right in front of the Sword Saint, that they were disciples of the Sword Saint.

They had been trying to rescue their master.

After Zheng Fan captured them, he bundled them together with their master and Fushun’er, shipped the lot back to Snow Sea Pass, gathered a whole group of other religious frauds and charlatans, and scattered them across the snowfield to preach.

These men either excelled at deception or at talking people into believing things.

They were perfectly suited for dealing with the “simple” tame and wild Savages.

“Rules?”

Zheng Fan pointed at Gou Moli.

“He doesn’t know what comes next?”

Gou Moli immediately bowed respectfully.

“This requires the Count to provide guiding instructions.”

“Guiding instructions? Fine. You see Snow Sea Pass, right? You also see those forts outside the pass? The Jin built a great fortress here. In the end, did it stop the Savages from entering the pass?”

Zheng Fan did not care that the Savage King himself stood right there.

If Gou Moli had lacked this degree of awareness, he would never have survived to the point where he could command an army independently.

So Zheng Fan stated it plainly:

“Build fewer walls. Build more temples.”

The Blind Man smiled faintly.

Gou Moli bowed in genuine admiration.

“The Count is attacking the problem from the root. This subordinate admires you.”

“There’s no need for me to avoid saying this in front of you. If the day truly comes, the Savages won’t actually disappear. They’ll become one of the Xia peoples too. Historians will find reliable records to prove it. If they can’t find any, they’ll invent some. That is what they eat for, after all.”

“Yes. This subordinate understands.”

Then

Count Pingye pointed at the Blind Man.

“Perfect timing. I want to play with the child for a while. Paint a picture for me and my godson. Leave us an image. If I ask some other painter, I’ll have to bury him afterward. What a waste.”

There were painters inside the city.

There were painters in the army too.

Plenty of portraits of Count Pingye had already been pasted on doors throughout Snow Sea Pass and treated as guardian gods by soldiers and civilians.

One could easily imagine the custom spreading through all of eastern Jin before long.

“Of course, Master.”

The Blind Man was extremely busy.

But he would never refuse something like this.

Being busy was for the sake of living better.

One could not reverse the proper order of things.

Count Pingye carried Tian Tian back into his bedroom.

When he returned the previous night, he had already noticed that the carpet in the room had been replaced.

In its place lay a map.

The map centered on the lands of the Three Jin, while also including part of Chu, part of Yan, and several small states outside South Gate Pass.

Zhennan Pass.

Snow Sea Pass.

Fengxin City.

All three were marked prominently.

No need to ask.

This was obviously the Blind Man’s work.

At that moment, Gou Moli, the Blind Man, Xiong Liqing, and Liu Ruqing all stood inside the room.

Count Pingye placed Tian Tian on the floor and pointed east.

Tian Tian did not understand what the map beneath him represented.

But following Zheng Fan’s guidance, he crawled into the eastern Jin region.

Count Pingye stood beside him.

A smile rested at the corner of his mouth.

The Blind Man took out paper and brush and began sketching the composition.

After a while, Count Pingye raised one hand.

“Blind Man.”

“Master?”

“Shouldn’t we add a line? We won’t show this painting outside anyway. Keep it safe. When Fourth Lady comes back, give it to her for safekeeping.”

“Of course, Master. Tell me what you want written and I’ll add it.”

“Mm.”

Zheng Fan cleared his throat.

Lowered his head.

Looked again at Tian Tian lying on the ground.

The boy was sprawled over the region representing eastern Jin.

He lifted his head and looked innocently at his godfather.

Great Yan’s Count Zheng spoke:

“Look. This is the realm We conquered for you.”

[End of Chapter 601]