Chapter 909: Mandated by Heaven

Qu Peiluo himself found it difficult to analyze his own state of mind.

Was it pathological?

Perhaps.

But it was not limited to that.

If he had succeeded in cutting his own throat at Qingtan, Chu would probably have praised him for generations, and the Qu Clan would have gained the reputation of a household filled with loyal martyrs.

But he had failed to die.

A person’s life was often defined most cleanly by death.

Of course, the timing mattered.

He had not died.

That meant his life had to keep unfolding.

And once it continued, neither the process nor the ending would remain under his control.

He had already become twisted.

The man himself, and the version of him that future histories would record, had both twisted into shapes beyond recognition.

Yet strangely enough, he was calm.

So calm it was almost as though he had sealed himself away, cutting his past, present, and future into three separate pieces.

Once, he had thought that raging for a beauty might leave a blank space for him in the histories.

But now... looking at her... looking at Big Girl... he suddenly felt hope again.

He was a beast.

He might still wear a human face and human clothing, but inside, he had long since fallen beneath even livestock.

And yet... he was a beast with eyes, a mouth, and thoughts.

Compared with the animals in pens that ate when awake and slept when full, he possessed far too many unnecessary things.

He reached out and gently touched Big Girl’s pink cheek.

Big Girl smiled again.

She was stingy with smiles.

Yet she loved smiling.

As a spirit child, she possessed a sensitivity far beyond ordinary people.

And in infancy, that sensitivity often expressed itself in ways ordinary people could not understand.

Who would truly treat her well?

Who would protect her while she was weakest?

Who would shield her at any cost?

She could sense it.

It was no different from a hatchling still inside its shell instinctively seeking the protection of the strongest existence nearby.

And Qu Peiluo... who did he still have to protect?

His father was dead.

His Qingluan Army had been destroyed twice.

His wife had been taken from him.

His clan in Chu had been almost uprooted entirely.

Yet he himself still lived.

Not the sort of miserable life spent drowning sorrow in wine.

He wore fine clothes and ate fine food.

He held office.

He managed real affairs.

He was still a man above other men.

He had long since grown numb to endless darkness.

Yet when this ray of light entered his world... he still could not stop his heart from rejoicing.

Qu Peiluo wanted very badly to lower his head and kiss her.

At that moment... he felt grateful to her.

He had drifted through mire for far too long.

Both the world around him and his own body seemed long ago to have begun giving off the smell of rotting flesh.

But when she appeared... he... still felt reverence.

In the end, Qu Peiluo did not kiss her.

Not because she was the Prince’s daughter.

Because he did not want to profane her.

She should remain sacred forever.

Bright forever.

At least... while he still lived.

“She’s beautiful,” Qu Peiluo said.

“Heh.” Xiong Liqing smiled.

Their relationship was complicated.

Yet after all the mockery fate had played upon them, the two had somehow been dragged back to the same point again.

Neither felt awkward.

Neither felt guilt.

Neither felt hatred.

Human beings were perhaps the creatures in this world most capable of adapting to circumstances.

No matter how difficult the environment, they would always find somewhere to settle themselves.

Whether in body... or in spirit.

Qu Peiluo returned Big Girl to the wet nurse.

Then he lowered his head and looked at his own hands.

A faint emptiness settled over him.

Big Girl seemed to cry twice.

The wet nurse immediately soothed her.

Those two cries tugged at Qu Peiluo’s heart as though a soft little hand had pulled it twice.

But he did not chase after her.

Instead, he turned and walked a little closer to Xiong Liqing.

“I heard the gentlemen of the Residence are very fond of His Highness the Heir Prince.”

Qu Peiluo said it openly.

He did not care in the slightest that A’Ming was leaning against the wall nearby.

A’Ming did not mind either.

What Qu Peiluo said was true.

The Demon Kings treated Master’s two biological children very differently.

Even Demon Child, who normally liked children the most, had never come over to take a look at Big Girl.

The Fire Phoenix aura around Big Girl made Demon Child uncomfortable.

Of course, it was only slight discomfort.

Demon Child could easily endure it.

And a newborn infant could hardly do him any harm.

But if a child made you uncomfortable simply by being near you... would you still feel like getting close?

More importantly... when Big Girl had been born, Demon Child had already been staring at the child still inside Siniang’s belly.

There was someone whose bond with him ran far deeper.

Someone who fit him almost perfectly.

Once that child existed... the other options were not removed.

They were simply ignored.

As someone inside the household, there was no possibility Xiong Liqing had failed to notice how differently the gentlemen of the Residence treated the two children.

And she understood perfectly well how important those gentlemen were inside Prince Pingxi Residence.

But she did not mind.

First, the Prince adored daughters.

Second... a daughter was simply a daughter.

After becoming a mother, Xiong Liqing had already lost much of the fierceness and proud ambition she had possessed as a young woman.

Peaceful years and quiet days... were not so bad.

Were they?

Seeing that she did not answer, Qu Peiluo continued:

“The Prince spoke to me today. In another year or two, he intends to let me command troops again.”

“Congratulations,” the Princess said with a smile.

Qu Peiluo nodded.

He badly wanted to say:

In the future, Big Girl can rely on me.

Children of great clans needed backers.

Children of the imperial house needed them too.

The most direct backers were usually one’s maternal relatives.

But right now...

Qu Peiluo did not have the face to say those words.

He could only wait.

Wait until he truly possessed that qualification.

Wait until Prince Pingxi Residence genuinely decided to send troops against Chu.

That would be Qu Peiluo’s true opportunity.

He would seize it.

He would prove himself to her.

And to her.

He did not think the waiting would be painful.

Because while he waited... she would slowly grow.

She would learn to speak.

She would learn to walk.

Qu Peiluo had already begun imagining it.

Her grown graceful and slender... carrying that faintly naive, pampered air unique to her mother... standing before him... and calling:

“Uncle Peiluo.”

Merely imagining it was already beautiful enough to intoxicate him.

He would be spirited again.

He would.

“In the future, I’d like to come see her often. May I?”

“You’ll have to ask the Prince,” Xiong Liqing said. “But since Big Girl likes you, I don’t think he’ll refuse.”

“Good.”

Qu Peiluo rose and bowed farewell to the Princess.

A’Ming stretched lazily and accompanied him out of the courtyard.

A steward then led Qu Peiluo out of the Residence.

A’Ming, meanwhile, entered the principal courtyard.

Siniang was not there.

Her postpartum confinement had been very short.

Eastern Jin was in the middle of rapid development.

Allocations of money and grain, investment, and reproduction all still required Siniang, the great steward of the household, to oversee them personally.

When A’Ming pushed open the door and entered, Demon Child was the only one inside with the baby.

At the moment... the child was dressed in a tiny bellyband and propped against a pillow.

A red stone rolled one way before him.

Then rolled back.

The moment A’Ming entered... the stone stopped.

The child saw A’Ming.

He smacked his lips.

A’Ming took out his wine flask.

A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Demon Child flew straight at him.

A’Ming shifted aside.

The stone missed.

Demon Child curved around and charged again.

A’Ming shifted once more.

Again, he dodged.

A vampire’s movement techniques were beyond question.

If Demon Child merely relied on controlling the stone, hitting A’Ming was practically impossible.

Unless Demon Child wanted to escalate things and turn the room into a battlefield... they could have played this dodging game for a very long time.

At last, Demon Child stopped.

His figure manifested.

He glared furiously at A’Ming.

Trying to secretly feed the child wine again!

Do you have any idea that after you feed him wine, he refuses even milk because he thinks it has no flavor?!

A’Ming seemed to understand his meaning.

He said indifferently:

“What’s so good about human milk? All the nutrition is in the blood anyway. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to drink human blood directly?”

The instant Demon Child heard that... he nearly flew into a rage.

When it came to Siniang’s child, every Demon King had private preferences.

Each hoped the child would grow a little more in his own direction.

That was why Third Master occasionally stared at the child’s little elephant trunk.

Fan Li watched the baby’s biceps.

And A’Ming, naturally... wanted another connoisseur of fine drink in the household.

Someone who could drink with him.

Clearly...

Demon Child rejected this sort of “guidance” with extreme hostility.

Helpless, A’Ming placed his wine flask aside and spread both hands.

Only then did Demon Child move away.

A’Ming approached the crib and lifted the child.

Truthfully, this baby was not as round and lucky-looking as Tian Tian had been as an infant.

He did not possess the plump, blessed appearance of Prince Fu either.

His looks were ordinary enough.

But everyone understood that if the small red mark between the child’s brows were removed... his appearance would become anything but ordinary.

The normally aloof vampire now teased the child with a completely softened expression.

The baby, however, looked somewhat wooden.

He had already begun developing resistance to the enthusiasm of these Demon King uncles.

He was different from his elder sister Big Girl.

Big Girl smiled at the people she felt she should smile at.

He did not.

He always carried a kind of... indifference.

Except when something truly stimulating appeared... most of the time he seemed numb toward the people and things around him.

The uncle in evening clothes before him... if he refused to provide wine... did not seem particularly special either.

Perhaps this was simply a difference in temperament.

Strictly speaking, the baby did not possess a real “temperament” yet.

But he also lacked the instinctive urge for self-protection that normally accompanied a newborn’s weakness.

To put it unpleasantly... if someone tossed him into the wilderness, then without the seal and relying merely on the constitution of someone born already in the grades, he could probably survive by drinking blood and eating raw flesh in the forest.

That was the power of bloodline.

Innate from birth.

Third Master’s joke—that even a newborn phoenix was stronger than a full-grown pig—had actually captured the essence perfectly.

But that also proved how necessary the seal had been.

This child had already lost far too much of what ordinary children normally possessed at his age.

When Tian Tian had been small, one could call him mature, obedient, and adorable.

This baby... seemed to have skipped that stage entirely.

It had nothing to do with upbringing.

Nothing to do with companionship.

Nothing to do with warmth or family affection.

It was pure arrogance written into his bloodline before he had ever been tempered by the mortal world.

Without the seal, he might not necessarily grow into some deranged demon.

But he would almost certainly drift toward some extreme.

The Demon Kings, however... loved precisely this air.

Lonely.

Arrogant.

Tsk.

Now this... this was their true nature.

“Oh? A’Cheng is back, isn’t he?”

A’Ming looked toward the door.

Among the Demon Kings, A’Ming and Liang Cheng were the two cold ones.

A’Ming had always been exceptionally sensitive to Liang Cheng’s presence.

The door opened.

Zheng Fan and Liang Cheng walked inside together.

Liang Cheng had not even removed his armor.

The moment the military handover was complete, he had rushed straight back.

That alone showed how much this great zombie valued the child.

The baby turned his head.

His eyes barely lingered on his biological father.

Instead, they were drawn immediately toward Liang Cheng.

More precisely... toward Liang Cheng’s armor.

No matter how thoroughly armor was scrubbed, it could never completely erase the countless dents left across its surface, nor the baleful aura soaked into it by blood and human lives.

Liang Cheng stepped forward and accepted the child from A’Ming.

A zombie was not particularly skilled at holding babies.

Fortunately, the baby did not care whether he was comfortable.

Both little hands immediately began rubbing Liang Cheng’s armor.

Naturally...

Zheng Fan noticed.

Then... perhaps because Liang Cheng genuinely had no idea how to express his feelings... or perhaps because first meeting the child made him unable to restrain himself... his skin gradually took on a bluish hue.

Ghostly green light began flowing through his eyes.

The nails on the hands holding the baby lengthened.

Two fangs emerged at the corners of his mouth.

His zombie form revealed itself.

The baleful aura around him thickened.

The child was not frightened.

Instead... a pure smile appeared on his face.

He became visibly excited.

“Heh.”

Liang Cheng laughed.

Then he said:

“Master, this child is close to me.”

Only someone who genuinely cared about the child would bother arguing over who the baby liked most.

A’Ming said disdainfully:

“If I turn into a vampire, he gets just as excited. Demon Child turns into a ghost, and he gets excited then too.”

Liang Cheng was not discouraged.

Instead, he let the baby’s soft hand grip one of his long fingernails.

But when he noticed the child seemed eager to put the fingernail in his mouth and chew on it...

Liang Cheng immediately pulled it away.

His fingernails carried corpse poison.

The child might be unusual.

That did not mean there was any reason to use him to test poison.

The biological father, now thoroughly reduced to a supporting role, found a chair and sat down.

He poured himself tea.

He had mentally prepared for this scene while the child was still inside his mother’s belly.

Once, the Demon Kings had mocked Demon Child for hovering around Tian Tian like a wet nurse.

Now... they had collectively become Demon King nannies.

“Like armor?” Liang Cheng asked the child. “When you’re a little older, Uncle will steal a suit for you.”

The child giggled.

After holding him for quite a while, Liang Cheng returned to human form.

Out of courtesy, he did not place the child directly back into the crib.

He handed him to his biological father.

Zheng Fan held his son.

His son stopped smiling.

Stopped laughing.

The father sighed.

At first, it had not been so obvious.

But over the days since birth... the child’s differential treatment had become more and more blatant.

So after becoming a father, Zheng Fan had realized that the phrase “treat every child exactly the same” was one of the least realistic pieces of bullshit in existence.

Big Girl smiled the instant he held her.

This brat acted as though he were doing his father a favor merely by permitting himself to be held.

Naturally...

Zheng Fan liked Big Girl a little more.

Tian Tian had been adorable when he was small too.

He would stick out his bottom and let Zheng Fan spank him.

If one slap knocked him over, he would roll back and stick out his bottom again.

This brat... although he still lacked any real ability to think... somehow seemed to have entered a rebellious phase in advance.

In short... not lovable.

And here Zheng Fan had announced to the entire world the moment he was born that he was the Heir Prince of Prince Pingxi Residence.

The baby yawned.

He seemed sleepy.

Zheng Fan held him a little longer before returning him to the crib.

“Master, regarding the army expansion planned for next year, this subordinate still needs to discuss several matters with you.”

This year had been unusually peaceful.

At least for eastern Jin.

Its existing foundation had already been solid.

After another full year of accumulation, expansion of the new army could properly begin next year.

Naturally... it could not be accomplished overnight.

The main approach would still rely upon the Standard Household system rather than keeping every soldier entirely detached from production.

The goal was to establish the framework while keeping costs as low as possible.

And not every force needed to be elite.

Since Zheng Fan first began commanding troops, the two greatest cavalry clashes he had personally experienced were the joint campaign of Prince Jingnan and Prince Zhenbei during the opening of Jin... and Prince Jingnan’s decisive battle at Wang River against the Savage King.

Great Yan had won spectacular victories in both.

Because of that...

Qian and Chu would almost certainly never again face Yan through enormous field-army clashes of that sort.

In the future, there would probably be more grinding wars.

More stupid wars.

More ugly wars.

So while preserving the existing elite framework... they could raise more second-line forces whose combat strength was simply “good enough.”

“Fine,” Zheng Fan said.

He and Liang Cheng left the room.

A’Ming rose and followed them.

Liang Cheng did not return often.

A’Ming intended to go into the wine cellar and retrieve a cup of fresh blood he had been storing.

Zombies could drink blood too.

Liang Cheng simply did not obsess over it.

Before long... only the sleeping child and a red stone remained inside.

Then... the door opened without a sound.

The Blind Man, who should have been extremely busy, appeared.

The red stone stood upright.

All this time, Demon Child had nearly exhausted himself trying to prevent these weird uncles from leading the baby astray.

The Blind Man walked to the crib.

The child woke again.

“Heh-heh.”

The Blind Man smiled.

He raised both hands.

The child slowly floated into the air.

He loved the sensation of hovering.

His arms and legs began waving happily.

While entertaining him... the Blind Man pulled something out from inside his sleeve.

At the same time, he explained to Demon Child:

“He’s our own child, isn’t he? Of course we should give him the best. And look at him. He clearly isn’t going to be like Master, obsessing over romance and idle pleasures, right? He’s still young now, yes. But some things should be prepared ahead of time. Then once he grows up, whichever road he chooses, it will truly be his own choice, won’t it? We are old men who have already weathered wind and rain. He hasn’t. So naturally we should create the best situation and opportunities for him, let him display himself however he pleases. Right?”

Demon Child did not respond.

He merely continued staring at the Blind Man.

The Blind Man finally took the object out of his sleeve.

“The Grasping of Fortune ceremony will be held late this month. A lot of generals will be coming to watch. For the next few days, let’s give him this as a toy and cultivate some familiarity with it first. And keep an eye out. If Siniang or Master comes in, hide it first. This thing was not easy to make. I carved the characters myself.”

Demon Child remained unmoved.

But when the Blind Man placed the object beside the child and the baby hugged it happily...

Demon Child did not object.

The object the Blind Man had produced was four cun square.

Five intertwined dragons formed the knob on top.

One corner was missing and had been repaired with gold lacquer.

Eight characters were carved across its face:

“Mandated by Heaven; May Longevity and Prosperity Endure.”

[End of Chapter 909]