Chapter 654: Going Home

Wotou and fish soup.

That was the entire meal.

Li Liangshen and Nanny sat facing each other.

Chen Xianba lay on his stomach on the bed, his eyes drifting toward Li Liangshen every so often.

The old Confucian scholar returned. He had gone out to buy some wine and two portions of cooked food. He handed them to Afei to plate, but did not join the table himself. He walked to the doorway, started to sit on the threshold, hesitated, then simply went outside and sat there instead.

Afei arranged the food on plates. He deliberately kept some of the cooked food aside, carried it to the bed, and offered it to Chen Xianba.

Chen Xianba did not stand on ceremony. He opened his mouth and ate.

Hot damn, that hit the spot!

Afei smiled, poured out a large cup of wine, and handed that over too.

Chen Xianba took a huge gulp. Pleasure spread through his whole body, and suddenly the injuries Li Liangshen had beaten into him did not seem like much at all.

Some people, one could only say, were born for the great stage waiting for them later in life.

Perhaps they were born in the countryside, and their greatest skill at present was catching fish.

Perhaps they were born in a temple with nothing but a broken bowl and a ragged kasaya, never able to fill their bellies.

Perhaps they were born at a relay station, spending each day in a muddle and merely drifting along.

People like that only needed an opportunity.

Once the winds and rains came, they would transform into dragons before your eyes.

Li Liangshen, however, was not especially interested in Chen Xianba. At the very least, he was nowhere near as excited as the old scholar.

Different positions, different surroundings, different heights. Naturally, the scenery one saw was different as well.

There were not many “fierce tigers” like this in the army, but they certainly existed.

Of the seven great Grand Commanders under the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence, all except Qingshuang officially bore the surname Li. Which one of those six men surnamed Li was not a fierce tiger in the army?

Even Luo Ling and the others in the Jingnan Army were hardly ordinary men.

The problem was that after all those foreign campaigns, only two men had been made marquises.

The one surnamed Ji did not count.

The only man of a different surname to receive a marquisate was the one surnamed Zheng.

From where Li Liangshen stood, he understood perfectly well that brains and breadth of vision could sometimes be weapons far more powerful than brute strength.

Even Tian Wujing himself.

Who truly thought of him as merely a First-Grade Martial Artist of the jianghu?

No matter how extraordinarily gifted this boy might be, Zheng had the Sword Saint of Jin sitting beside him. Could the boy really get past him?

The old scholar had never truly seen the wider world, so he treasured this child as though he had found a priceless gem.

“I don't believe the Marquis would do such a thing,” Li Liangshen said to Nanny.

The century-old Marquis of Zhenbei Residence had already been elevated to a princely house, but when its own people spoke among themselves, they still habitually used the old title.

Nanny smiled. “The Tian family never imagined that on the night Her Majesty the Empress returned to the residence to visit her family, Tian Wujing would do what he did either.”

That answer was entirely reasonable.

Nanny continued, “Madam told me long ago that the Emperor of Yan was a madman, and Tian Wujing was a madman too. So tell me, what does that make our Marquis, the man who can stand beside those two...? Heh.”

Li Liangshen fell silent.

Looking back with the benefit of hindsight, there was indeed a solid argument to be made. If the Residence had possessed a Young Marquis back then, the Great Yan Dynasty of today might have looked completely different.

Take one incident alone.

Back then, the Marquis had arrayed two hundred thousand iron cavalry eastward and staged a confrontation with the court's armies, putting on a show for the great aristocratic clans.

If there had been a Young Marquis at home, the Zhenbei Army might very well have turned that performance into the real thing.

Precisely because there had been no male heir, whenever those ambitions reached upward, there was always a sense of rootless duckweed about them.

But that was all in the past.

Back then, the Zhenbei Army had stood alone at the top. Its three hundred thousand iron cavalry looked down not only on every other army in Yan, but on every other army under heaven.

Now, even Li Liangshen, himself a Grand Commander of the Zhenbei Army, had to admit that in terms of the quality of its troops alone, even setting the Prince of Jingnan aside, the Jingnan Army had already grown into a powerful field army no weaker than the Zhenbei Army of old.

Add Tian Wujing himself...

Or, after that, add Zheng Fan, the man Li Liangshen once could have slapped to death with a single hand, the man who had sat there as calmly as if enjoying the scenery while watching Li Liangshen walk into the army's command tent.

The Marquis of Pingxi.

And that was without mentioning that the Zhenbei Army itself had long since been divided up. It was nothing like the force it had once been.

So Li Liangshen said, “It wouldn't happen now.”

The best opportunity for rebellion had already passed.

The Young Marquis could go home now.

“If it wouldn't happen now, then why does he need to go back at all?”

“Nanny.” Li Liangshen pointed at Afei. “This child is the Marquis's legitimate son. You truly mean to let him waste his entire life away in this tiny village?”

“Heh. Of all the countless people in this world, ninety-nine out of a hundred spend their whole lives wasting away, don't they? What, does wasting away mean they stop living? Does it mean they have to die? If so, there'd be precious few living people left in this world.”

“They have no choice. If they had a choice, who would want to live this way forever?”

“You're getting more and more talkative, Li Liangshen. You ought to prefer speaking with your sword.”

“My sword is never used against my own people.”

“Then my answer is no.”

“Nanny, in the past you could say no. You cut off all contact with the outside world, and that was how you and the Young Marquis managed to live peacefully in this village for so many years. Over the years, there have been plenty of supposed Young Marquises in the jianghu and in officialdom. But now the Young Marquis's identity has been exposed. You can no longer protect him.”

“Exposed?”

“Yes. Otherwise, how would I have found this place?”

In truth, disappearing completely from the world was not especially difficult. One could burrow into some remote mountain wilderness and vanish.

Whether it was the Secret Intelligence Department, the Silver-Armored Guard, Phoenix Nest's inner guards, or anyone else, the world was simply too vast. They could hardly open some Heavenly Eye and locate every person they wanted to catch.

There was, of course, one condition.

You had to stay hidden and live quietly.

Countless fugitives throughout history had been caught while in hiding. A large portion of them had failed because although they had hidden their bodies, they could not suppress the restlessness in their hearts.

They were not ordinary mortals, yet they still could not restrain a mortal heart. Once they reached out to the outside world, cracks naturally appeared.

For more than ten years, Nanny had never contacted the Residence.

That had been the best possible concealment.

“Ah.”

Nanny shook her head helplessly.

At the sound of that sigh, the old scholar sitting outside the door instinctively drew his neck in.

“Perhaps I should have killed you back then,” Nanny said.

Li Liangshen had not told the old scholar about Yan Feizi.

But Nanny knew perfectly well that the only person who might reveal that there was something unusual about her identity was the old man in Confucian robes sitting outside.

The old scholar turned his head toward the room.

“The two children are practically grown now. We can't hold them back and ruin their futures.”

Nanny smiled. She extended a hand and pointed at Chen Xianba lying on the bed.

“In the end, you just can't bear to see this child buried here.”

The old scholar did not deny it. He lowered his voice a little.

“Afei is very bright too.”

“Li Liangshen, lend me your sword and kill that child.”

Li Liangshen stood and drew his sword.

The old scholar panicked. He sprang to his feet and shouted at Li Liangshen, “I'm the one who told Yan Feizi to send word! I deserve credit! I deserve credit!”

Nanny only smiled and said nothing.

Perhaps in Chen Family Village, or even throughout the area around the nearby county seat, the old scholar counted as a wise man.

But his horizons and his level were still not high enough.

Li Liangshen answered calmly, “No matter the time or circumstances, the Li family will never tolerate outsiders scheming against us.”

At a card table this high, not everyone was qualified to reach in and touch the cards.

Imperial princes fighting over the succession was perfectly natural. A man born an imperial prince who lacked even that ambition and refused to make the attempt might genuinely be looked down upon.

But if a man of a different surname dared entertain the thought, dared make preparations for it, then he was a traitor to the state, to be condemned by all under heaven.

Afei stepped in front of Chen Xianba.

Calmly, he said, “Put down the sword.”

Li Liangshen looked at Afei.

“Chen Afei of Chen Family Village has no standing to order me, a Grand Commander of Great Yan.”

Then he added, “The Heir of Prince Zhenbei Residence does.”

Two choices.

Choose for yourself.

It was a threat.

Yes.

Exactly.

A threat.

Whatever you cared about, that was what he would use to threaten you.

Did you willingly accept it? Did it violate your true wishes? Did it make you uncomfortable, unhappy, or displeased?

Who cared?

Was the current Crown Prince happy with his life?

When the Commandery Princess had been sent to Yanjing to await her grand wedding, had she been happy?

The Heir could not expect everything in his life to make him happy either.

Li Liangshen had started out as a common grunt. He had risen this far through his own ability, his sword, and his skill at commanding armies, not through fawning, flattering, or licking anyone's boots.

So he did not care in the slightest whether the Heir might hate him for today's events after returning to the Residence.

Because once the Heir returned, the Heir would be the Heir.

And Li Liangshen would still be a Grand Commander.

They were family, perhaps, but more importantly, theirs was a relationship between superior and subordinate.

Would the man above him truly bear to kill a man like him?

Nanny sighed.

“Why go this far?”

“Nanny should understand better than anyone. Things have reached this point. The Young Marquis is going back to the Residence whether he wants to or not. Tian Wujing's son is being raised in the Marquis of Pingxi Residence. Over these last two years, it's not as though no one has ever set their sights on that child. You are only one person. Your qi sea has already withered to this extent. How could you possibly continue protecting the Young Marquis?”

“Heh. My original thought was that once my qi sea sealed completely and my cultivation was gone, then if it was time for me to die, I'd die. I raised this child, so at the very least he owes me a tombstone and a grave. After that, his life would be his own. If he wanted to live peacefully as an ordinary man, fine. If one day he suddenly wanted to return to the Residence, that would be fine too. It would all be up to him.”

“Unfortunately, that is no longer possible.” Li Liangshen turned his head and looked at Nanny. “He no longer has that choice.”

Nanny fell silent.

“Grand Commander Li, as the Heir, I order you to put down your sword.”

Li Liangshen looked at Afei and nodded.

“Aye!”

The sword was lowered.

In truth, there was very little of the usual surprise one might expect from someone learning his identity.

No shock, no disbelief, no pinching his own face over and over to see whether he was dreaming. None of those steps.

Why deliberately hide a child's birth from him?

For his own good? So he could live safely and peacefully?

Were you supposed to keep his identity secret until you were on your deathbed with only one breath left? Or, just like in Mr. Zhou's stories, wait until an assassin came to the door and ran you through with a sword, until the child threw himself over you crying and screaming, and only then reveal his origins with your dying breath?

Bullshit.

What damn need was there?

In Nanny's eyes, only the idiots in the stories Mr. Zhou told liked to play things that way every single time.

A member of the Li family could live however he pleased.

But he could not live in ignorance.

Afei looked at Nanny.

“Nanny, I've actually thought this through for a long time.”

“You've truly made up your own mind?” Nanny asked.

Afei nodded. “I originally wanted to stay with Nanny and see you through to the end.”

“You still have to,” Nanny reminded him. “I didn't raise you all these years for nothing. If you return to the Residence, naturally I'll go with you. I miss Madam too.”

“Of course. The grace of raising me outweighs the grace of giving birth. I won't forget.”

Then Afei looked at Li Liangshen.

“Originally, I thought that after seeing Nanny through to the end, I'd be about grown. Then I could leave Chen Family Village and go see the outside world. I've known since I was very young whose son I am. I knew I wasn't surnamed Chen. I'm surnamed Li. So I wanted to go to Beifeng Commandery and see the desert. Unfortunately, my leg is crippled, so I couldn't even serve as an auxiliary soldier. Then I thought I'd walk around Beifeng Commandery for a while and afterward go to Yanjing and walk around there too. No matter what, since I know my surname is Li, I ought to see a little more of this world than other people do. If I spent my whole life with my head down, doing nothing but getting through one day after another, it always felt as if something would be missing.”

Li Liangshen crouched down and pulled up Afei's trouser leg.

Nanny said, “He was injured as an infant, and poisoned too. I scraped away the poison and saved his life, but the meridians in that part of his leg were destroyed from the beginning. No medicine can help it now. Even practicing martial arts may be difficult.”

“The Marquis isn't an expert either, and he still commands great armies,” Li Liangshen said.

“The Marquis was injured before. His natural aptitude for martial arts should have been extremely strong.”

“This child was injured too. It doesn't matter.” Li Liangshen stood. “Has he studied?”

The old scholar, still curled up by the doorway, immediately raised a hand.

“He has, he has! Reading, writing, poetry, lyrics, songs, and rhapsodies. I've taught him all of it. I won't claim he's some master of every art, but his foundations are solid. Just look at him. Is there even the slightest muddled dullness of an ordinary village child in those eyes?”

Hearing this, Li Liangshen nodded.

Good. If the boy had studied, things would be easier later.

Martial arts truly were not important. The Residence had no shortage of expert bodyguards and would never lack fierce generals.

Of course, even if the child had never studied, it would not have mattered much. The slash he had aimed at Li Liangshen earlier had already shown that his temperament was sufficient.

Put another way, temperament was what mattered most.

To sit in that position, you could be stupid. You could be dull. You could even be naive or romantic.

You could have any number of such qualities.

But there was one thing you absolutely could not lack:

Ruthlessness.

The Barbarians were wolves, the wolves of the desert. If you were not ruthless enough, the wolves would never fear you.

“Nanny, I want to go see for myself. I want to ask my father some things. There are questions I've kept bottled up inside for a very long time.”

If one said he simply no longer wanted to live a poor life in the village and wanted wealth and luxury, there was nothing wrong with that. It was only human nature.

If one said he wanted to clear his mind and ask his father some questions, that was equally natural.

If you never wanted to raise me, why did you give birth to me?

He had always been thinking about his future, about the road ahead, about where his life would go.

So he wanted an answer.

Afei turned and looked at Chen Xianba lying on the bed.

“Come with me.”

This was his childhood friend.

An ironclad childhood friend.

Chen Xianba had treated him well purely because their tempers matched, without the slightest thought of personal gain.

The old scholar immediately craned his neck. Wasn't this exactly what he had been hoping for all along, that the child he valued would find a better road forward?

Now it was about to happen!

Chen Xianba smiled and shook his head.

“No. I'm not going with you!”

“...” The old scholar.

At that moment, the old scholar wanted nothing more than to shout at Li Liangshen:

Sword, come!

Hurry up and stab this little bastard to death!

Afei was not surprised.

“You still want to go find the Marquis of Pingxi?”

“Of course. Listen, Afei. Here in Chen Family Village, I was the one looking out for you. If I follow you to the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence, won't that turn into you looking out for me? Maybe I'd even have to kneel and salute you, call you Young Marquis, and then once everyone knew about our relationship, they'd start acting warm and attentive toward me too. But that's not right. Since when has Chen Xianba needed to live by leaning on something like that? Heh heh. Just you wait. Someday, after I've made something of myself under the Marquis of Pingxi, I'll come find you again. That'll be interesting.”

Everyone had a road in their heart that belonged to them alone.

Chen Xianba was willing to be Afei's friend because Afei was different from the other children.

Afei was willing to be Chen Xianba's friend for the same reason. It was not merely because of those pots of fish soup.

Chen Xianba was an indomitable... young man.

And so, in his mind, the Marquis of Pingxi, who had likewise been born among the common people, better matched Chen Xianba's vision of the future and of what a man ought to be.

Afei turned to Li Liangshen.

“Can you send my friend to the Marquis of Pingxi Residence in eastern Jin?”

Li Liangshen nodded.

Afei turned back to Chen Xianba.

“If you're going there to enlist, I won't have anyone put in a word for you with the Marquis of Pingxi. As for your parents, I can leave them a sum of money. You won't have to worry about how they'll live in their old age.”

“Fine. I'll count the silver as money I owe you. Later, I'll pay you back with the rewards I earn from military merit!”

Afei patted his own chest.

“Actually, there's something I've wanted to tell you for years. My family is really rich. I can eat fish and meat every single day.”

This was a boast Afei had kept buried in his heart for several years, always wanting a chance to show it off.

At that moment, Nanny spoke.

“The men of the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence eat plain tea and coarse fare at every meal. Even the Marquis is no exception.”

“...” Afei.

Why else, when the Marquis of Zhenbei entered Yanjing, would he order several roast ducks in one go?

No one had ever told Afei about that before.

Because people truly could not believe that the century-old Marquis of Zhenbei Residence lived so frugally.

Afei scratched his head, sighed, and sat down beside the bed.

“Suddenly, I don't want to go home anymore.”

[End of Chapter 654]