Chapter 779: Feels Good

The Old Ancestress stared at Fan Zhengwen for a long while.

Then she said:

“How in the world did I give birth to a grandson like you?”

“You’re joking. I crawled out of my mother’s belly. The one you gave birth to was my father.”

“Same thing. Same thing. Just one extra step in between.”

“You’re right.”

The Old Ancestress shook her head and continued:

“We’ve got wolves in front and tigers behind now. This is hard to handle. What I find strange is this: Nian Yao came out of the Regent’s household as a slave, fine. But that Regent is obviously trying to strip the noble clans of their power. Why is the Dugu Clan still so determined to obey him?”

Fan Zhengwen nodded.

“That’s something you don’t understand.”

“You do?”

“Your grandson genuinely does.”

The Old Ancestress smiled, spread her hands, and sat down directly on the ground, perfectly embodying the phrase “sits without proper sitting, stands without proper standing.”

Back when she had first married into Fan Residence, plenty of people had tried to teach her rules.

Once she became the most senior person in the Fan Clan... rules stopped existing.

“Fine. You understand. Explain it to this old woman.”

“Ancestor, countless people in this world are like our Fan Clan. But there will always be some people who aren’t. The State of Yan produced a Tian Wujing years ago. Why can’t Chu produce an Old Dugu? It’s not like anyone is asking him to exterminate his entire household. At worst he gives up some clan authority and territory. The family’s wealth and honor can still continue. For the greater righteousness of the state, if something has to be surrendered, then surrender it.”

“That makes some sense. But why does it sound so damned unpleasant to me? What’s wrong with our Fan Clan?”

“In Yan eyes, our Fan Clan is a dog. In Chu eyes, our Fan Clan is a gang of traitors.”

“Who created this damnable mess?”

“Your grandson.”

Fan Zhengwen rose properly and stood with his hands folded before him, like a child waiting to be scolded.

“Heh. Disaster is already at the door, and you, the head of the household and Lord Prefect of Fan City, still have the leisure to joke around. Yes, you sent your son and daughter-in-law to Yanjing long ago. But this whole family foundation is about to be lost. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“It hurts,” Fan Zhengwen answered honestly.

“That’s more like it. Without the family supporting them from behind, that mother and son in Yanjing won’t live too comfortably either.”

“Ancestor, that’s where you’re wrong. If the Fan Clan is destroyed, the new sovereign may value and cultivate that cousin of his even more. How did the late Emperor of Yan destroy the Min Clan?”

“Grandson!”

“Your grandson is here.”

“Are you deliberately trying to anger me to death?”

“Your grandson would not dare.”

“I’m talking serious business!”

“Ancestor’s meaning is clear to Zhengwen. You can’t bear to leave Fan Residence. You can’t bear to leave this heated room. You can’t bear to leave the silks, delicacies, ease, wealth, and honor of the Fan household.”

“At least you understand. Even if I packed my bags tonight, slipped out of the city, avoided the armies outside, and actually reached Yanjing, I’d still be living under someone else’s roof. How could living in another person’s house ever be as comfortable as living in your own?”

“Ancestor speaks truly.”

“So I’m asking you now. You’re the one who led the Fan Clan onto this road. I warned you long ago: the Yan are a fierce tiger, but is Chu not a wolf as well? Our Fan Clan is walking a single suspended beam between them. One careless step and we fall into eternal damnation. If I’d already closed my eyes, then fine, you could do whatever you wanted. But I still have quite a few years left to live. I may even have to watch a white-haired elder send off a grandson like you. I want the years ahead to be comfortable!”

“So Ancestor intends to hand me over?” Fan Zhengwen asked.

The Old Ancestress narrowed her eyes.

“You already know?”

“In Fan Residence, it’s hard not to know what happens.”

“Heh. Over the past two years, you suppressed the clansmen. Last time, using the Princess as a pretext, you ruthlessly cleaned out another group. And now? Those chief shopkeepers and senior stewards you promoted, even those ridiculous Lieutenant Commanders appointed according to Yan rules, have all been running to me. They want some excuse to use my name, depose you, and throw you outside to calm Chu’s anger.”

“When disaster comes, everyone flies his own way. That has nothing to do with whether I suppressed the clan. Good thing I dealt with those old fossils and schemers early. If they were still in Fan City now, they wouldn’t need to contact you and raise you up as a banner. They’d probably just incite the troops, bind me, the Prefect, and hand me over themselves.”

“I’m asking what we do now!”

“Your grandson thought you were planning to hand me over.”

“I’m not that stupid. At this point, handing you over would accomplish nothing except proving I’m even more of an idiot!”

“You want the truth?”

“Of course.”

“First, clean out the group trying to stir trouble. Then open the treasuries. Silver and valuables are meaningless now. Use heavy rewards to raise morale. Second, reinforce the city defenses. Tell everyone inside the city that the day the Chu army breaks in will be the day they massacre the city. No one gets to run. Third, hold the city and wait for relief.”

“Can the Yan make it here? I heard the Chu navy has already entered this region.”

“Probably not in time,” Fan Zhengwen said frankly. “If it were only the Chu forces to the south, we could drag things out and wait. But now Nian Yao has come from behind. This city is genuinely hard to hold. Even if the Yan want to save us, the waterways are blocked. If they come through Mount Meng, how long will that take?”

“So that’s what you’re telling me? We can’t hold?”

“Your grandson will do his best.”

The Old Ancestress glared at Fan Zhengwen and pointed at him.

“I understand now. You abandoned the Fan Clan long ago. You abandoned it ages ago! You’ve already decided to die on the city wall, martyr yourself for the State of Yan, and pave a road for your son, haven’t you? You’re waiting for news of your death to reach Yanjing so that the new Yan Emperor, seeing that you died in battle as the boy’s father, grants your son a noble title, aren’t you?”

“He’s your great-grandson too.”

“What I want is my own peace, wealth, and comfort. I don’t care about some great-grandson!”

“See? I inherited that from you.”

“...” The Old Ancestress.

Fan Zhengwen crouched before her.

“Hold the city? Of course we’ll hold it. This is, after all, the foundation belonging to the two of us. Your grandson hasn’t lived enough either. I still want to accomplish a few things. Unfortunately, your grandson isn’t some great military talent. Truthfully, given Fan City’s present situation, even if you swapped your grandson out for Marquis Pingxi himself, even the cleverest woman cannot cook without rice. How about this, Ancestor? Cast a divination and see whether our Fan Clan still has a chance to turn disaster into fortune this time.”

“Get the hell out!”

“Heh-heh.”

Fan Zhengwen gave her a solemn salute.

“Ancestor, as the saying goes, an elder in the household is a treasure. But there’s another saying too. Have you heard it?”

“If you have a fart, let it out!”

“If an old person lives too long, they may start sucking away the fortune of their descendants.”

The Old Ancestress raised one palm.

Wind suddenly rose through the courtyard.

Fan Zhengwen showed not the slightest fear.

“Exactly. Like that. When the day comes to defend the city, your grandson will carry Great Yan’s Black Dragon Banner up onto the walls, and you’ll beat the war drum behind me. Wind, rain, thunder, lightning, whatever commotion you can make, make all of it. We don’t need it to have any real effect. We just need to die magnificently. Die in a way storytellers can sink their teeth into. The more glorious our deaths here, the richer the compensation from Yanjing will be. Grandfather married you, and you enjoyed the wealth and honor of Fan Residence all these years. Every drink and every peck has its price. What was taken must be repaid.”

The Old Ancestress clenched both fists.

Her eyes blazed.

Fan Zhengwen smiled gently, every inch the refined scholar.

“You really are my grandson. Truly... my own blood grandson.”

“Ancestor, if you want to twist my head off, now is still in time. Otherwise your grandson has to go make preparations. Either way, every extra day we hold is an extra day, isn’t it? What if a miracle happens?”

“A miracle... Have you received some news?”

Fan Zhengwen shook his head.

“Your grandson was only trying to cheer you up and fulfill my filial duty.”

With that...

Fan Zhengwen flicked his sleeves, turned, and walked out of the courtyard.

Once outside, he deliberately reached up and touched his neck.

Good.

Still attached.

At that moment, a group of white-clad death-warriors rushed over and knelt before Fan Zhengwen.

Looking at them, Fan Zhengwen felt a faint melancholy.

Raising death-warriors was something every great wealthy clan had to do.

But only now did he truly understand.

These men were, after all, only a lesser path.

If the people kneeling in front of him were not a group of death-warriors but a group of powerful generals skilled in war... how wonderful would that be?

Slap. Slap. Slap.

Fan Zhengwen lightly smacked his own cheeks several times.

Why the hell was he daydreaming in broad daylight?

He lowered his hands.

The head of the Fan Clan regained his composure.

“Go. Kill everyone who contacted the Old Ancestress over these past two days. I hate people who eat my food while trying to flip my table. Hang their corpses in the streets.”

“Understood!”

“Understood!”

At a moment like this, there was no longer room for soft-handed policies of appeasement and division.

But such brutal methods could only work for a short while.

Still...

Fan Zhengwen had never dreamed Fan City could hold for very long.

Ai.

Once the death-warriors withdrew to carry out their orders, Fan Zhengwen looked around with some emotion.

What a pity.

Such a beautiful residence.

No one in this world was a god.

Fan Zhengwen was not one either.

When the head of the Fan Clan spoke to his Old Ancestress, he had not concealed the truth.

This city.

This family.

They would hold for as long as they could.

What a pity about all the pretty young women inside the Residence.

The Golden Hairpins of former years had grown old enough to be married off.

“I’ll need someone to keep watch over them. If the city falls, none of them can slip away. The Twelve Golden Hairpins of Fan Residence have some reputation in Chu. Better for all twelve to remain neat and complete, hang white silk in the ancestral hall, and preserve their chastity in death. At least that’ll give the storytellers something to say. Better than being violated.”

Fan Zhengwen walked through the Residence, looking left and right.

The longer he looked... the redder his eyes became.

Soon... his tears could no longer hold their line.

He drew a deep breath.

Then scrubbed his face hard with his sleeve.

Fan Zhengwen forced his emotions back under control.

At that moment, a servant came to report.

“Master.”

“What is it?”

“Qu Peiluo has arrived beneath the city with his troops. He wants us to open the gates.”

Under the original plan, Qu Peiluo should have held the various military stockades south of Fan City. The Fan Clan would support him with supplies and coordination.

Instead, Qu Peiluo had simply ordered all his forces to abandon those positions and come directly to Fan City.

The Fan Clan had once served the Qu Clan as slaves.

Their positions had now reversed.

But precisely because that reversal had happened... the wariness between the two houses had been carved into their bones.

“Heh-heh-heh.”

Fan Zhengwen laughed.

“Open the gates. Let them in.”

“This... Master, you truly want to open the city? What if that man surnamed Qu comes inside and immediately sells us out?”

“Then let him sell us. You think we’re worth much right now? Ai. Your master considers himself very good at business and reading men’s hearts, but when it comes to leading soldiers and fighting wars, although I’ve read a few military texts, I truly don’t dare put my hand into that field. Forget it. Forget it. Open the gates. Open them. I’ll go personally.”

...

The gates of Fan City opened.

Outside the walls, Qu Peiluo watched the great doors slowly swing apart before him.

His face remained calm.

Inside... he was genuinely surprised.

He had come demanding that they open.

And they actually opened.

The troops behind him found it strange as well.

The former Young Master Qu raised one hand and waved forward.

“Enter the city.”

...

Qu Peiluo did not enter Fan Residence.

Fan Zhengwen came out with household generals and relatives to receive him instead, and the two sat down in a teahouse close to the city gate.

Naturally the teahouse had no business now.

With everyone panicking, who still had the mind to drink tea?

Conveniently, corpses were also being hung throughout the streets at that very moment, making ordinary people even less willing to leave their homes.

“Quite lively.”

Sitting beside the table, Qu Peiluo turned his head and watched the commotion outside.

“Cleaning house. I’ve embarrassed Brother Qu.”

Years ago, Qu Peiluo had been the master.

Fan Zhengwen had to kneel, kowtow, and call himself a slave whenever he saw him.

Now...

Fan Zhengwen calling him “Brother Qu” almost counted as treating him with special courtesy.

Qu Peiluo also studied his family’s former slave carefully.

Now... that man was one of the very few surviving maternal imperial relatives of Great Yan.

The new sovereign of Great Yan had taken the throne.

His maternal relatives were... remarkably simple.

On his mother’s side, only one “aunt” remained.

And the Fan Clan connected to that aunt was still far away, technically “inside Chu territory.”

The Emperor’s other relatives were reportedly ordinary commoners.

At least during this new sovereign’s reign, staging some grand drama of maternal relatives seizing power was practically impossible.

And precisely because those relatives were so few... they became all the more valuable.

“I didn’t expect you to open the gates.” Qu Peiluo picked up a piece of dried tofu and put it in his mouth. “I originally thought that if you refused, I could at least explain things to the men under me. Those who wanted to scatter could scatter. Those willing to keep following me, I’d take to Qishan. We could become bandits, or wait for another opportunity. In any case, I never planned to stay out in front and throw my men’s lives away fighting the Dugu Clan’s army for the Fan Clan.”

Perhaps because he had already entered the city, Qu Peiluo spoke extremely directly.

Fan Zhengwen personally poured tea.

“I understand.”

Qu Peiluo had plenty of men under him.

But compared with the Dugu Clan’s private army... they were simply not in the same league.

“If there were actually a chance to fight to the death, I’d be willing to try. The problem is that even if I took all these brothers onto the battlefield, we wouldn’t last more than a few hours against the Dugu Clan’s battle formations.”

“And now?” Fan Zhengwen asked.

“With walls, it’s different. We can hold for a while. The condition is enough grain. I heard your ancestral county was taken?”

“Mm.” Fan Zhengwen nodded. “Who could have imagined Grand General Nian would somehow come smashing through Mount Meng?”

“When I ran into Marquis Pingxi beside Qingtan years ago, I had the exact same thought.”

He had clearly possessed the advantage.

Yet somehow... the man surnamed Zheng appeared right in front of his central army with troops and shattered everything in a single blow.

“What about grain?” Qu Peiluo asked.

That was what he cared about.

“Originally, counting the grain over there, enough for Fan City to last a year.”

“And now?”

“With what’s stored inside the city itself, maybe three months.”

“You can still last three months?” Qu Peiluo could hardly believe it. “How much did your Fan Clan hoard these past few years?”

Fan Zhengwen answered:

“More than half of it was moved here from your family.”

“Heh.”

Qu Peiluo did not get angry.

Instead, he asked:

“How did you dare open the gates for me? You truly think I can’t get off this pirate ship anymore?”

“You could never get off it in the first place.”

“But I can turn around and sell you out. My troops are already inside the city. I can hand Fan City directly to Grand General Nian.”

“Then you still won’t escape death. You may even end up wishing for it.”

“But I could buy peace of mind. Whether I live or die would no longer matter.”

“Fine. The gates are already open. Your troops are already inside. Look down there. Fan troops and your men are still glaring at each other with weapons drawn. If you want to do it, give the order.”

“And if I don’t?” Qu Peiluo asked.

Fan Zhengwen pointed out the window.

“Then the Fan Clan’s troops are yours to command. Fan City’s grain, fodder, weapons, and military supplies are yours to distribute.”

Qu Peiluo did not answer.

He took a sip of tea.

Fan Zhengwen rose and leaned slightly closer.

His voice dropped.

“Young Master, this slave knows what you’re capable of.”

“I’m not capable of anything. I’ve done nothing but lose.”

“That depends on who you’ve been losing to.”

“Heh.”

Qu Peiluo immediately followed with eight words:

“If the city stands, we stand. If the city falls, we die.”

Fan Zhengwen exhaled deeply.

He poured a little tea into his palm.

Then slapped it onto his own forehead.

“Truthfully, even I don’t know whether the Yan can arrive in time to save us.”

“There’s no point thinking about that now. Every extra day we hold is another day. If we hold long enough, at least we’ll have something to answer for.”

“Answer for?”

“In the last letter the Princess sent me, she told me she was pregnant.”

“You actually dared...”

Fan Zhengwen’s entire body stiffened.

“I never even touched the Princess’s hand.”

“Hoo...”

Fan Zhengwen wiped his face.

He could not tell whether it was cold sweat or the tea he had just slapped onto himself.

“She said her child carries half Chu blood. She hopes that once the child grows a little older, there can still be a home here in Chu where the child may come and stay. Since you opened the gates and let me enter, then I will help her and her child defend this home in Chu.”

“You truly are...”

“Pathetic? Is that what you want to say?”

“No. No, that’s not what I meant...”

Rather than let the people of the world and the history books drag him out and whip his corpse over every other accusation... perhaps it would be better to leave behind only one sentence:

He had thrown everything away in a rage for a beauty.

Pathetic was pathetic.

“But it feels good.”

[End of Chapter 779]