Chapter 657: Flattery

The meal had been prepared well in advance, because some of the dishes took quite a while to make.

Roast duck was indispensable. If you came to Yanjing and did not eat a roast duck, you might as well not have come at all.

There were another four or five substantial dishes as well: braised pork knuckle, sliced pig's head, a pot of red-braised mutton, fresh softshell-turtle soup, and secret-recipe beggar's chicken.

The dishes formed a ring around the table. In the center sat something hard to come by in winter: stir-fried phoenix-tail greens.

When an honored guest came, introducing him to the family was the most basic courtesy. Unfortunately, Ji Chengjue's wife and concubine were both pregnant and could not conveniently come out, so his son had to represent the household instead.

After the boy had greeted the guest, been picked up and hugged by the Li family's Heir, and received a small string of copper cash as a meeting gift, Ji Chengjue had the serving women take him away to sleep.

Ji Chengjue felt neither reluctance nor guilt about keeping his son up this late to receive a guest. His own father had made him do far more of this sort of forced social duty back in the day.

They were all Ji-family hatchlings.

All Ji eggs.

Boy, ending up with me is a lot more comfortable than ending up with your grandfather.

Still, when Ji Chengjue remembered that his son would soon be taken to Lady Fengxin's residence, he really did feel a little reluctant to let him go.

But if you could not bear to use the child as bait, you would never catch the wolf.

The struggle for the succession was said to depend on the great momentum of the realm, on the court, on military power, and on the wills of those two Princes. But in the end, what it really depended on was his imperial father's preference.

The old man was "old." Once this winter passed, there probably would not be another one for him.

For an emperor, that was the most sensitive moment and the most dangerous moment, but at the same time, also the weakest moment.

You really could not catch the wolf without risking the child.

If your father seized the throne, son, you would not be able to escape becoming Crown Prince either.

The two of us naturally had to work hard together!

Afei stood there looking somewhat constrained. This was not an act. If the furnishings in the princely residence had merely been lavish and magnificent, that would have been one thing. Instead, everything had been designed with extraordinary taste. For a boy who had barely ever left Chen Family Hamlet, that made him even more unsure where to put his hands and feet.

Ji Chengjue turned around, beckoned Afei to sit, and said with a smile, "Here at my place, there's no need to be polite or restrained. After all, we're real brothers, just born to different fathers and different mothers."

"..." Afei.

"Eat. I've eaten at Prince Zhenbei Residence before. Once you go home, it'll be clear soup and plain water for you."

Afei nodded and did not stand on ceremony. He picked up the braised pork knuckle and started gnawing on it.

Ji Chengjue took a thin pancake and wrapped roast duck for him, handing each one over as soon as it was ready.

Afei ate with tremendous satisfaction.

"You're about old enough that someone should start talking marriage for you," Ji Chengjue said with a smile.

"It's still early. Very early. I've never thought about that."

"What sort of woman do you like? Tell me."

"I really haven't thought about it."

"Then let me ask you. One: a daughter of a great household, beautiful within and without. Two: slender figure, captivating looks. Three: able to draw a bow and ride a horse, a true heroine among women. Four: strict and capable in managing the household, leaving you no worries behind. Five: compatible in temperament, treating each other with the respect due between husband and wife. What do you think?"

Afei swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "Sixth Brother, a woman like that must be very hard to find, right?"

"Not hard. Not hard at all. You're an Heir now, after all."

"But even if I'm an Heir, a woman like that must still be rare in this world. Something you can only encounter by fortune, not ask for."

"You only need to do one thing and there'll be no problem."

"What?"

"Don't let the five of them meet each other."

"Huh? Five? Pfft!"

"Hahahahaha!"

By the time they had eaten and drunk their fill and Afei truly could not fit another bite in, he gave an embarrassed smile and pointed at the large amount of meat still left on the table.

"Could I pack this up and take it with me?"

"No problem. I don't like wasting food either. Tomorrow we'll put the leftovers back in the pot, work them into some other dish, or cook noodles and use them as toppings. You won't be able to leave tomorrow anyway."

"I won't?"

"Mm. Imperial Father will see you."

"I'm going to see... His Majesty?"

"Don't worry. Imperial Father has always been very good to the younger generation."

Except his own sons.

The next morning, Ji Chengjue did something rare and skipped the yamen. Instead of going to the Ministry of Revenue, he boarded a carriage with Afei and headed for the Rear Garden.

After they arrived, the two of them got out together.

Afei was nervous, and this was not an act either. Although he had known about his origins from a very young age, there was no chance a boy raised in a village could suddenly be told he was about to meet the Emperor and remain perfectly calm.

Ji Chengjue was actually a little nervous too, because he suddenly realized that he had not visited the Rear Garden in quite a long time.

The Crown Prince did better than he did in this regard. Even when he could not see their father, he would still come every few days to pay his respects.

Ji Chengjue did not want to do that.

At a time like this, crawling over just to put on a false show would only sully the old man and disgust Ji Chengjue himself.

The Imperial Palace guards checked their identities and put them through the usual procedures. Then two red-robed eunuchs came out from inside and led Ji Chengjue and Afei in.

The Rear Garden had been the handiwork of the people of Qian. Qian designers, together with a whole group of excellent Qian craftsmen, had built a traveling palace here in the Jiangnan style of the State of Qian.

The people of Qian might be no good at fighting wars, but when it came to enjoying themselves, you truly had to hand it to them.

The scenery inside the Rear Garden changed with the seasons. Even in winter, there was not the slightest sense of bleak desolation. Instead, everything carried a finer, more delicate tranquility.

Afei looked around as he walked behind Ji Chengjue.

At the covered corridor ahead, Wei Zhonghe was already waiting. He came forward and said to Ji Chengjue, "Your Highness has not been here in quite some time."

It was a complaint, but in truth it was also a reminder.

Ji Chengjue had always maintained excellent relations with the palace eunuchs. Strictly speaking, that was a major taboo. Whether an outside minister or an imperial prince, privately cultivating ties with the inner palace was a grave offense.

Ji Chengjue had done it anyway. More importantly, he had never left anyone anything they could seize as evidence.

He did not give the eunuchs gold or silver. On the contrary, he mooched meals off them and even mooched their money.

Back when his imperial father had been tormenting him the hardest, when those cornmeal wotou were simply too difficult to choke down, he had gone from one grand eunuch to another every day, freeloading in rotation.

The Min Clan had once been the foremost merchant family in all Great Yan. When its children came of age, they did not begin by learning business behind a counter. They were first sent to work for a year as waiters in restaurants owned by the Min Clan. Only after passing their assessment could they begin working in the family business. Those who failed could keep waiting tables.

That was why the Min Clan had always enjoyed smooth sailing. Even as its wealth and influence grew enormous, it remained cautious and circumspect.

Its one true lapse had probably come when the old patriarch married his daughter into a princely residence. He had been too happy, and he genuinely doted too much on the jewel in his palm, so the dowry he gave her had been far too lavish.

Of course, one could not really blame the old patriarch of the Min Clan.

Even if he had done nothing, even if he had bowed and scraped, eaten bran and chaff, worn only hemp and never touched silk, once he encountered an emperor like this one, there was still no escaping.

Back when the great aristocratic clans had stood everywhere, how could every last one of them truly have been guilty of monstrous crimes?

They had nowhere to go to argue their innocence either.

Faced with Eunuch Wei's well-intentioned reminder, Ji Chengjue shook his head.

"The Ministry of Revenue has been busy."

With a little extrapolation, the words carried a measure of resentment.

You fought your wars to your heart's content, built glorious achievements, made yourself an emperor for the ages, then patted your backside and came to recuperate in the Rear Garden.

And left this rotten mess for me to clean up.

Eunuch Wei did not say anything more. Instead, he turned to Afei and bowed.

"This slave Wei Zhonghe greets Your Young Highness, the Heir."

Afei hurriedly stepped aside, but he did not react with the same exaggerated alarm as the night before, nor did he try anything like bowing back to Wei Zhonghe.

Once he entered this place, everything around him seemed to carry a strange power capable of extinguishing every petty thought in his head.

Because the Emperor of Yan was here.

The supreme ruler beneath Heaven.

If he were nothing more than a clay idol, with powerful ministers pointing at a deer and calling it a horse right in front of him, there would be nothing particularly frightening about him.

But if that supreme ruler possessed eyes like torches, terrifying political skill, and truly formidable wisdom and martial authority, then the pressure he exerted was genuinely frightening.

Afei did not dare play clever here. He knew he was not qualified.

Even the father he had never met would have to lag half a step behind that man here and play the younger brother.

"His Majesty has just awakened. This slave will lead Your Highnesses over."

The Emperor of Yan was not inside a room. He sat in a pavilion, reclining in a chair with two blankets over him.

There was no brazier.

Continually taking that sort of "elixir" was rather like the people of Qian taking Five-Mineral Powder. From time to time, the body would burn with heat.

Even the blankets covering him now were uncomfortable. He badly wanted to go somewhere cooler.

But the Emperor of Yan understood that even if he himself did not feel cold, his bones could not withstand another bout of wind-chill.

The feverish restlessness in his mind had long ago been trained to the point where he could separate it from himself or simply ignore it.

"This son pays respects to Imperial Father. May Imperial Father live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand ten thousand years!"

"This commoner pays respects to Your Majesty. May my Emperor live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand ten thousand years!"

His son could wait.

The Emperor of Yan's gaze fell first on Afei.

Then he said to Eunuch Wei, who stood beside him, "He really does look a little like Liangting did when he was young."

Afei remained kneeling, trembling.

Hearing this, Ji Chengjue felt a faint wave of disgust.

When words like "takes after his father" came from his own old man's mouth, they had a way of turning into a curse.

"You've suffered," said the Emperor of Yan.

Afei immediately replied, "Your Majesty, this commoner..."

"Call yourself 'your subject.'"

"Yes. This subject has not suffered. My years in Chen Family Hamlet were poor, but they had their own flavor, and no one ever bullied me. Especially these last few years, after the village redistributed the fields, life became better than before and everyone had more to look forward to. To be an ordinary commoner of Great Yan under Your Majesty's rule is actually a blessing."

"Heh."

The Emperor of Yan gave a short laugh, then finally looked at his own son.

"What do you think of what he said?"

Ji Chengjue replied, "To answer Imperial Father, once spring comes, we'll probably be about ready to trade our children with each other so we can eat."

"..." Afei.

The Emperor of Yan looked at Ji Chengjue.

"And whose responsibility is that?"

"To answer Imperial Father, this son failed to manage the Ministry of Revenue properly and failed to manage Great Yan's finances. It is this son's fault."

"Resentful?"

Ji Chengjue shook his head.

"A father's debts are repaid by his son. Even common folk understand and accept that principle. This son has studied since childhood and learned right from wrong. Naturally, I understand it too."

Wei Zhonghe, standing to the side, grew anxious.

The Sixth Prince was normally the best of them all at reading the room. What had happened today? It was as if he had taken some strange medicine before coming. He actually dared speak to His Majesty in this barbed, needling fashion.

"No matter how difficult your affairs are, they still cannot compare with what I faced back then," said the Emperor of Yan. "In those days, all under Great Yan knew only the great clans and did not know there was an emperor named me. At that time, the problem was not whether your affairs were difficult to handle. The problem was that you had no affairs you were even allowed to handle. If you did not first come to terms with the local aristocratic clans, an imperial edict could barely make it out of Tiancheng Commandery. If something is difficult to handle, that proves there is still something there for you to handle."

"Yes. This son will remember Imperial Father's teaching."

"You are the same."

This time, the Emperor of Yan was speaking to Afei.

"Beifeng Commandery is not a gentle place to raise a man. I do not care what sort of life you lived in your earlier years, but I have only one requirement for the road you walk from now on. Think about Chen Family Hamlet, where you once lived. Think about it often. Great Yan has many, many more Chen Family Hamlets, and all of them stand behind Prince Zhenbei Residence. In the future, no matter what happens, put your hand on your heart and ask yourself whether you can bear to see tens upon tens of thousands of Chen Family Hamlets reduced to scorched earth beneath Barbarian cavalry."

"This subject will remember!"

"Wherever a man sits, he must shoulder the responsibilities of that position. An imperial prince must have the bearing of an imperial prince. An official must have the bearing of an official. An Heir naturally must have the bearing of an Heir. You have not yet met your father, so I will teach you first. Now stand up."

Afei slowly rose and looked at the emperor reclining before him.

His knees began to tremble.

"A man is allowed to kneel, but he must kneel comfortably. If kneeling now is uncomfortable, then later, think of a way to make yourself comfortable. Those are words your father once said to my face. Your father has only one son: you. In the future, you will be Great Yan's Prince Zhenbei. You need a few steel nails driven into those knees of yours. From now on, even if the sky itself comes crashing down, they must not bend in the slightest. I noticed when you walked over earlier. Something wrong with your leg?"

"To answer Your Majesty, this subject has had a crippled leg since childhood."

The Emperor of Yan nodded.

"That is no great matter. I hope that ten years from now, twenty years from now, the Barbarians will hate you so much their teeth itch. If you can make the Barbarian shamans curse day and night, asking why that damned cripple still hasn't died, then you will have done a respectable job as Prince Zhenbei."

"This subject understands. I will never disappoint Your Majesty's expectations!"

"Mm. Today, I will issue an edict. From this day onward, apart from your parents, no matter whom you meet, even if you stand before me again, you need not kneel."

"This subject thanks Your Majesty."

Afei dropped to his knees and saluted.

"I just said you don't need to kneel."

"To answer Your Majesty, Afei has never seen his father or mother since childhood. Your Majesty is the first person to speak these words to Afei as an elder. In Afei's eyes, Your Majesty is Afei's elder, one of my own senior kin."

"Hehehe."

The Emperor of Yan laughed and said to Wei Zhonghe, "How does he compare with the Marquis of Pingxi?"

"To answer Your Majesty, naturally Marquis Pingxi is more... well, that is, more..."

"When it comes to saying pleasant things, I have yet to meet anyone better than him. Heh heh."

"Exactly, Your Majesty. Back then, if Prince Jingnan hadn't taken a liking to him, this slave truly wanted to..."

Eunuch Wei froze.

Damn it all.

What in the hell was he babbling about?

That man was a Marquis now, and he had nearly said that back then he had wanted to castrate him and send him into the palace?

Never mind what the Marquis of Pingxi might think if he ever heard of it.

His Majesty was sitting right here.

You wanted to cut the man I personally enfeoffed as Marquis?

Fortunately, the Emperor of Yan did not pursue the matter, because the Crown Prince arrived at that moment.

"Crown Prince."

"This son pays respects to Imperial Father."

"Take your Li-family brother and have lunch."

"Yes, Imperial Father."

The Crown Prince had only just arrived and had barely exchanged a few words with his father before being ordered to entertain his own relative over lunch.

Lunch was served in another pavilion.

Afei first offered the Crown Prince a careful formal salute, though he did not kneel. The Crown Prince returned half a salute.

The impression the Crown Prince gave Afei was completely different from the Sixth Prince.

The Sixth Prince spoke and acted with an easy, casual freedom. The Crown Prince, by contrast, was courteous and refined. Every movement followed proper ritual. He looked every inch the heir apparent.

The three of them sat together.

By rights, this should have been a small gathering between the Ji brothers and their Li-family brother.

The dishes were brought in.

His Majesty could no longer eat rich fish and meat, this was the Rear Garden, and the Crown Prince himself preferred light food. So although the dishes were exquisite, to Afei they were somewhat too delicate and vegetarian.

"We still have official duties this afternoon. Let us use tea in place of wine."

The Crown Prince raised his teacup.

Ji Chengjue and Afei raised theirs as well.

The Crown Prince disliked talking while he ate, so the table remained very quiet. The three of them simply ate in silence.

After the meal, the Crown Prince washed his hands in a basin brought by an attendant. As he dried them with a towel, he said to Afei, "Come to the Eastern Palace tonight. We can talk."

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

Afei agreed at once.

The Crown Prince seemed to want to say something more, but still felt the atmosphere was not relaxed enough.

Had they been in the Eastern Palace, it certainly would not have been like this. But this was, after all, where their imperial father presently lived.

More importantly, his Sixth Brother had made no effort whatsoever this time to liven the mood.

News that Little Sixth had brought the Heir of Prince Zhenbei Residence into the capital was already known to every major faction and powerful figure in Yanjing.

The Crown Prince's advisers told him that Little Sixth wanted to play the Prince Zhenbei Residence card.

The Crown Prince did not think much of that explanation.

The card table had already been marked out. Whatever alliances one tried to make outside it now, whatever one tried to do, it was already too late.

But perhaps...

Perhaps his Sixth Brother had some other purpose?

Everyone said the Marquis of Pingxi was the signboard of the Sixth Lord Faction.

In truth, however, the Crown Prince knew why, despite the fact that he himself still held the orthodox title of Crown Prince, his Sixth Brother continued to attract talented men in an endless stream.

Because in the eyes of outsiders, the Sixth Prince of Great Yan was the true judge of talent.

This was no longer merely "spending a thousand gold to buy the bones of a fine horse."

He had actually produced a Horse God.

By comparison, the Crown Prince also had plenty of capable and talented people under him, but not one of them could truly shine like the Marquis of Pingxi.

They did not even qualify to compete.

The Crown Prince said to Afei again, "Tonight, call your elder sister over as well."

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

"Sixth Brother, you can put the Ministry of Revenue's affairs aside for today. Entertain our Li-family brother properly."

"Don't worry, Second Brother."

The Crown Prince nodded and left.

After he was gone, Afei watched the Sixth Prince somehow produce a food box. Ji Chengjue set it on the table and opened it.

Inside was a whole plate of braised chicken legs.

Ji Chengjue smiled, took one out, and handed it to Afei.

"I guessed the food here would definitely be too light. Come on. We're family. Let's open our own little private kitchen."

Afei took the chicken leg and bit into it.

Fragrant. Delicious.

Ji Chengjue ate one too.

His gaze drifted, seemingly by accident, toward another direction.

Why had he been so stiff in front of Imperial Father earlier? Why had he taken the risk of speaking in all those barbed, needling phrases?

Wasn't it all just to lower the pitch first so he could raise it afterward?

Flattery required brains.

Crown Prince, you come here every few days, rain or shine, to pay your respects.

Can all of that beat one chicken leg from yours truly?

...

Inside the pavilion, Eunuch Wei bent at the waist and reported to the Emperor of Yan, who lay there with his eyes half closed.

"Your Majesty, after the Crown Prince left, the Sixth Prince took out the chicken legs he'd secretly brought in and is happily gnawing on them with the Heir."

"Oh?"

The Emperor of Yan slowly opened his eyes.

His own son and Li Liangting's son were hiding from that man who always liked to fuss over health, rules, and proper eating, secretly gnawing on chicken legs together.

Wei Zhonghe saw the corner of His Majesty's mouth lift into a smile.

"Wei Zhonghe."

"This slave is here."

"I was just remembering the old days."

[End of Chapter 657]