Chapter 820: Are You Worthy?

At their fingertips, the final trace of spring’s tail faded away.

That last faint fragrance, as though stained with grass sap and carrying a slight rawness, finally disappeared.

Summer arrived wearing an innocent, harmless disguise, its expression seemingly simple and honest.

And with it came the rainy season that had been storing itself for half a year.

One storm after another.

Rain stretching on without end.

Even the literati of Qian, battered day after day by this endless water, gradually lost their pleasure in toying with the poetry of spring rain.

For most ordinary people... the only real thing to do now was sit against the doorframe and watch the curtain of beads falling from the eaves, seemingly without end.

If that felt depressing... then simply look farther away.

Beneath the rain curtain, there were still people crawling and rolling through the mud.

...

Liang’s Chancellor Pu Ji had fallen ill at the beginning of last winter.

At the time, his condition had been severe.

Many believed he would not survive the season.

Old age.

Grave illness.

Either one alone could become a threshold in winter.

Of spring, summer, autumn, and winter... only winter was commonly spoken of as something one had to “get through.”

Fail to get through it... and there was no after.

But in the end... the old Chancellor survived.

After all, winter was hardest on ordinary commoners.

A man like the Chancellor could rely on endless tonics and medicines to hold on.

Still... his body never recovered any true strength.

Every so often, when Heaven granted a brief patch of sunlight, his family carried him outside to bask in it and drive away the “mildew” that could not be smelled with the nose but seemed plainly visible to the eye.

When a man leaves, the tea grows cold.

That principle had never changed.

Once the old Chancellor fell ill, the political faction that had once formed one of the two pillars of Liang’s court rapidly began collapsing like monkeys scattering when a tree fell.

Years ago... it had been the old Chancellor and the present ruler of Liang who launched the coup together.

They overthrew the former ruler.

Ordered him to hang himself.

Afterward, war broke out between Liang and Chu.

With Yan support, tiny Liang survived.

And because the great Yan-Chu war followed soon after, with Chu suffering a crushing defeat, Chu no longer had the strength to turn west and deal with this little neighbor beyond the Qishan Mountains.

Liang therefore fell completely into Yan’s orbit.

It became, in every meaningful sense, a vassal state of Yan.

The ruler of Liang had three sons.

His second son was the eldest legitimate son.

That legitimate heir had already been sent to Yanjing as a hostage.

They had overthrown the previous ruler, who carried Xiong clan blood.

They had survived Chu’s retaliation.

Whether Yan support had played the decisive role or not hardly mattered.

Ordinary commoners and even ordinary Liang officials did not analyze the deeper balance between great powers.

What mattered was this:

For several years, both the old Chancellor and the present ruler enjoyed enormous prestige inside Liang.

But as the old Chancellor’s illness worsened... his former ally, Liang’s present ruler, did not hesitate.

He began dismantling Pu Ji’s faction piece by piece.

During winter, it was only observation and testing.

A few rumors released into the wind.

By spring... movement began scratching through the soil like new shoots.

And now summer had arrived.

One method followed another like the unending rains.

So many.

So loud.

So continuous... that people had begun growing numb.

The old Chancellor accepted it all calmly.

He offered no resistance.

First, resistance was useless.

His faction was collapsing because the leader himself had fallen.

The root of the problem lay in Pu Ji’s own failing body.

And none of his sons possessed the ability to hold the structure together after him.

Under such circumstances, quiet acceptance could at least preserve some dignity for the Pu family itself.

Let the faction scatter.

His sons and grandsons might still receive protection and courteous treatment.

Second... two years earlier, the old Chancellor had wanted to ease Liang’s relationship with Chu.

For a small state, surviving between great powers by bending gracefully and serving the strong with care was the real art of statecraft.

But in Yan eyes... that had made the old Chancellor look somewhat ungrateful.

The present ruler of Liang had killed his own elder brother to seize the throne.

His hatred with Chu could never truly be resolved.

So he had committed himself to Yan early.

And as ruler... his interests and future were often different from those of his ministers.

Sometimes... even different from those of Liang itself.

On top of that, the newly appointed Garrison Commander at Yan’s South Gate Pass, Lord Ran, was eager to stretch his hand into the southern states.

Because he represented Yan’s will, he and Liang’s ruler quickly found themselves standing together.

With open Yan support... the new ruler pushing the old Chancellor aside and completing his own sole mastery over Liang’s court was almost inevitable.

Or rather... any ruler with a functioning brain would instinctively tighten his grip over power that was nominally his to begin with.

“Father.”

Today was another day for basking in the sun.

The old Chancellor’s youngest son had servants carry him into the courtyard.

“General Pu has been ordered home after being accused of embezzling military pay.”

The old Chancellor showed no reaction.

Even though General Pu was the last commander with actual troops who still belonged to his old faction.

Liang had never possessed many soldiers.

Before relations with Chu broke apart, the entire state fielded fewer than twenty thousand regular troops.

After surviving Chu’s attack with Yan support, Liang expanded its standing forces to roughly forty thousand on paper.

The ruler apparently intended to continue training new troops.

Garrison Commander Ran at South Gate Pass wanted to bind together Liang, Zhao, Qi, Wei, and the other small states south of the pass, creating a league of minor states.

Nominally... the ruler of Liang would serve as alliance leader.

In reality... the true leader would naturally be Yan.

Seeing no response from his father, the youngest son continued:

“Father, your son fears His Majesty intends to move against our Pu family next.”

At that... the old Chancellor’s lips curved slightly.

He was not unable to speak.

His illness was severe.

But his mind remained mostly clear.

His speech too.

He simply could not be bothered wasting words on this son.

There was... very little point.

A person should not be too intelligent.

When you were too intelligent and then looked at your own sons... you often found them so catastrophically stupid that you began wondering whether they were truly yours.

“My father often feels the same way. Only in his case, it is the reverse of yours.”

A clear young voice sounded.

As though the speaker had seen straight through the old man’s thoughts.

The old Chancellor followed the voice.

Only then did he discover that at some unknown moment, a breathtakingly handsome young man had appeared behind him.

A maid stood beside the youth.

The old Chancellor was no expert.

His body was failing.

Someone arriving silently behind him was therefore nothing surprising.

Xie Yu’an stepped forward and sat in a chair beside the old Chancellor.

He took out an orange.

Then began peeling it slowly.

The youngest son, Pu Cheng, immediately introduced him.

“Father, this is the Young Master of Great Chu’s Xie Clan.”

“Courting death...”

The old Chancellor forced those two words out.

Pu Cheng’s face turned awkward.

Xie Yu’an only laughed.

“Perhaps in Elder Pu’s view, the safest thing now is for the Pu family to do absolutely nothing. At the very least, your family’s wealth and status can be preserved. After all, Liang’s ruler only sits in his present position because of you. If not for the monk, one must still look at the Buddha behind him. But Elder Pu seems to have forgotten one thing. You are not merely one man. You are not even merely one ordinary Pu family. You can let go because you believe your face still carries some weight. Mm. I agree your choice is wise. After all... I’ve met your several sons. They truly are stupid. So stupid it reminds me of looking at my own father sometimes. I often wonder whether my mother secretly put a green hat on him back then. Otherwise, how could someone like him possibly have produced a son as clever as me?”

“...” Pu Cheng.

A smile appeared on the old Chancellor’s face.

“Actually, I wasn’t invited here by your sons. Without your word, approaching them would only waste time. Yes. Yan is powerful now. Great Chu has only just suffered another defeat at the hands of that Marquis Pingxi... oh, no. He has now been properly enfeoffed as Prince. But this is like rain from Heaven. If no rain falls, there is drought. If too much rain falls, there is flooding. The problem is... there are always people in this world who do not rely on Heaven for their rice bowl. And naturally, they do not care whether Heaven rains or how much it rains. You can call them short-sighted. But among the countless ordinary beings in this world... who does not live one day at a time?”

At that moment... a general in armor walked in.

He was broad and powerfully built.

Standing there, he resembled an iron tower.

Third Master knew this man.

Years ago, when Xue San had fought in Liang as part of the Yan auxiliary force, Liang had even granted Third Master the title of general.

Naturally, Third Master had looked down on the title of a tiny state.

Once the fighting ended, he immediately left with Hu Bamei and returned to Jin to find Master.

This General Pu had been Xue San’s partner in resisting the Chu army.

The man was immensely strong and deeply versed in military affairs.

When he and Xue San worked together, one orthodox and one unorthodox, the effect had been excellent.

And General Pu had originally been promoted by the old Chancellor himself.

From the son of a respectable household... he had grown into the commander he was today.

Clearly... when Liang’s ruler decided to purge this final remnant of the Chancellor’s faction, General Pu had chosen resistance.

Xie Yu’an broke off a segment of orange and held it to the old Chancellor’s mouth.

The old man opened his mouth and ate it.

“You’re old. You’re sick. So enjoy your remaining years in peace. And since we’re here, I’ll tell you one more thing. This time... I intend to play big. Qian and Chu have both been bullied badly by Yan these past years. A lot of anger has been building.”

The old Chancellor swallowed the orange segment.

“Yan people are wolves.”

“Exactly,” Xie Yu’an agreed.

“Chu people are dogs.”

Xie Yu’an shrugged.

No comment.

“Qian people are pigs.”

Xie Yu’an burst into laughter.

“Hahahahaha...”

When he finished...

Xie Yu’an looked at the old Chancellor.

“And Liang people?”

Two lines of clear tears slid from the old Chancellor’s eyes.

He murmured:

“Nothing at all...”

...

The old Chancellor was placed under house arrest.

By his own son.

The absurd part was... before confining his father, Pu Cheng made a special trip to the palace and declared his loyalty to the ruler.

The ruler was delighted.

He gave Pu Cheng promises regarding his future political career.

At the same time... he hinted that Pu Cheng should temporarily confine his father.

Naturally, the ruler did not use the words “house arrest.”

He merely said the recent rains had been heavy.

The outside air carried too much dampness.

For the old Chancellor’s health... he should avoid the wet air.

What Liang’s ruler did not know... was that Xie Yu’an, Young Master of Chu’s Xie Clan, was openly living inside the old Chancellor’s own residence at that very moment.

The old Chancellor he had always guarded against... was also the man the Chu side had guarded against.

Xie Yu’an was brewing tea.

Before him sat Pu Cheng and his two elder brothers.

The saying claimed a tiger father had no dog sons.

It was only a saying.

In reality... tiger fathers producing dog sons happened far more often.

When the father was too capable, even sons who were already far better than ordinary men could still look useless by comparison.

This was the Pu Residence.

Yet the three Pu brothers could only occupy the accompanying seats.

The man sitting opposite Xie Yu’an... the man worthy of Xie Yu’an personally brewing tea for him... was from Qian.

“I hear General Meng once crossed hands with Yan’s Prince Pingxi?”

The visitor was none other than Meng Gong.

Meng Gong was now a Grand Commanding General of Qian, roughly equivalent to a Garrison Commander in Yan.

Meng Gong smiled.

“Shamefully.”

Years ago, at Mianzhou City, he had indeed fought the man who was then still merely the Garrison Commander of Cuiliu Fort.

Mianzhou City had held.

But that local troop force had suffered terrible losses.

And Prince Fu’s head had been removed.

If Qian had not already lost enormous face after Mianzhou City fell the first time... and if Old Chancellor Zhong had not appreciated and protected him...

Meng Gong might have ended up chained and imprisoned awaiting punishment back then.

There would have been no later battle... when Grand General Nian swept across Qian’s southeast during the Qian-Chu war and Meng Gong stopped him with an interlocking chain of fortified camps.

Still... the Qian-Chu war itself had been more thunder than blood.

The noise was loud.

But the two sides never truly smashed each other’s brains out.

And as Yan remained overwhelmingly powerful... the two states quickly concluded an alliance.

“This is what you call fate.” Xie Yu’an laughed. “Who would have guessed that after Yan lost two Princes, another Prince Pingxi would rise immediately? I do know one thing. That Prince Pingxi once entered your Qian imperial palace and met your sovereign alone.”

Meng Gong smiled too.

“I also remember that Prince Pingxi once rode in the same carriage as your Great Chu Emperor and even wrote him a poem.”

Both men burst out laughing.

Sometimes... one truly had to marvel at how wildly fate changed.

A small fry that once slipped from between the fingers of great men... had somehow grown into this.

“This time, we cannot afford another loss,” Meng Gong said as he lifted his tea.

“Of course. Lose one more and there won’t even be any need to wait for Yan to rest and recover before moving again. Our own courage will have scattered seven or eight parts already.”

“Yes. Though this time, we still have to see whether Yan’s Garrison Commander at South Gate Pass is willing to cooperate with us.”

“He will. The Phoenix Nest Internal Guard investigated him long ago. He was born in Nan’an County near Yanjing. Worked as a merchant. Later, he killed a loan-sharking thug while standing up for a brother. After that, he was sentenced as a convict and sent into Jin. He climbed upward step by step through military merit. Then he gained the appreciation of two successive Prefects of Yingdu. That is how he rose. A man who has once drowned... when someone throws him a rope later... he will cling to it with everything he has. He will climb upward at any cost. Otherwise... he would never have done something like killing his concubine in pursuit of advancement. After becoming Garrison Commander at South Gate Pass, he put all his energy into bringing these small states under Yan ahead of schedule so he could claim the achievement. This time... we will give him exactly that opportunity. I am gambling that with his personality, even if it means pulling chestnuts from the fire, he will still step forward and try. Especially when... the opportunity looks once-in-a-thousand-years perfect. Heh-heh.”

“Yan truly does produce many men of this sort,” Meng Gong said.

“Heh.”

Xie Yu’an nodded.

Then shook his head.

“Yan people all take their Prince Pingxi as a model. But they fail to understand... that Prince Pingxi lives with genuine freedom. That is the part they cannot imitate.”

“Freedom without suffering losses,” Meng Gong added.

“When your ability is great enough, of course. No matter the profession, once your skill becomes great enough, you can live more according to your own wishes and stop watching everyone else’s face. Why have we started talking about Prince Pingxi again? Heh-heh. We came here this time specifically to avoid him. Years ago, Yan had Prince Jingnan. Impossible to defeat. Then Yan gained Prince Pingxi. Still troublesome. Now... we’ve learned our lesson. Why insist on fighting Yan’s strongest man every single time? Look around. Pick carefully. There is always a softer persimmon somewhere. Pinch the soft one first. Recover some spirit before anything else.”

“What you intend to pinch is more than one soft persimmon,” Meng Gong said.

“Whether we pinch one or an entire basket depends on fate. Take the last great Yan-Chu war. Floods caused disaster. They devastated Jin. They made Yan logistics far more difficult. And yet they also gave Yan the chance to redirect the waterways straight into Chu. What was that? Fate. Yan has had smooth winds for many years. It cannot remain smooth forever. Planning belongs to man. Success belongs to Heaven. We’ll see.”

Xie Yu’an rose.

He dusted his trouser legs.

Then sighed:

“Fortune turns. It should be our turn now.”

...

That night... someone knocked outside after Xie Yu’an had already fallen asleep.

The maidservant on night duty rose to open the door.

The moment she did... she was knocked unconscious.

Xie Yu’an sat up in bed.

“Don’t hit them so hard next time.”

“Young Master feels sorry for her?” the old man asked.

“No one will carry my chamber pot at night.”

Xie Yu’an flicked his wrist.

He sat beside the tea table, poured himself a cup of water, and drank half.

Then... by habit, he picked up an orange from the table.

The old man had brought another man inside with him.

Shopkeeper Xiao.

“This servant greets Young Master.”

Shopkeeper Xiao saluted Xie Yu’an.

“Heh. How did you end up here?”

Shopkeeper Xiao immediately recounted everything that had happened.

“Eat fewer oranges and protect my eyes?”

Xie Yu’an looked at the half-peeled orange in his hand.

Then smiled and shook his head.

“He certainly doesn’t know I don’t like eating oranges. I only like peeling them.”

Shopkeeper Xiao suddenly remembered... that the blind Mister also seemed to enjoy peeling oranges and feeding the fruit into other people’s mouths.

Last time, after peeling one, he had given it to Boss Dai.

But Shopkeeper Xiao did not dare say this aloud.

The old man spoke:

“Young Master, the Yan have already seen through our plans in advance. Should we perhaps...”

“No. Not the Yan. Only Prince Pingxi Residence. When did Prince Pingxi Residence become Yan itself?”

The old man fell silent.

Xie Yu’an tossed the orange flesh to Shopkeeper Xiao.

At the same time, he asked:

“Where is the letter?”

A bitter smile appeared on Shopkeeper Xiao’s face.

“After he gave this servant the letter, the next day, just before this servant was preparing to leave Fengxin City, Dai Li took it back by force.”

“Took it back?”

Xie Yu’an found the whole thing absurd.

“Yes. After taking it, Boss Dai said their Mister had told him Young Master did not need the letter after all. He said first... first they needed to see...”

“See what?”

“To see whether... Young Master is worthy.”

[End of Chapter 820]