Chapter 141: Heading North

He tried to entice him with smooth words: “Yuan’er, Imperial Father knows that I have not treated you well enough in the past, and that you harbor resentment in your heart. However, you are still the son I trust the most—the only son I trust. Everything that rightfully belongs to you will be returned to you in the future.”

Pei Yuan did not take the bait. He raised his eyes and asked indifferently, “How does Your Majesty intend to deal with the Third Highness?”

Emperor Zhou felt a momentary pang of guilt but forced himself to remain composed. “Naturally, he will be dealt with according to the laws of our dynasty. I shall absolutely show no favoritism or violate the law.”

Pei Yuan questioned, “The crimes of treason, forming factions for private gain, and framing loyal officials are enough to warrant execution. If the Third Highness is truly about to depart on his final journey, it is only right for me, as his younger brother, to see him off. I shouldn’t leave the capital at this time.”

Emperor Zhou forced a meager smile and tried to persuade him otherwise. “Your Third Brother did not commit such an egregious mistake. He did indeed do some foolish things, and I have already stripped him of his title as Crown Prince, but his crimes do not warrant death. It was all his mother’s doing. I will supervise the Palace Palace Administration and the Ministry of Justice to close the case as quickly as possible and restore justice to you. As for Xiao’er, he can no longer remain in the capital. I plan to dispatch him to the southern border as an army supervisor to show punishment and give everyone an explanation. He will no longer stand in your way.”

His explanation was pale and weak—he didn’t even believe it himself. He shifted his gaze, not daring to look at Pei Yuan.

“Since that is the case—since Third Brother has suffered a wrongful grievance and still must go to the front lines to resist the enemy—what immense sorrow that must be. As his brother, I naturally cannot sit in the capital and enjoy a life of ease,” Pei Yuan said with a smile. “Currently, the Xiongnu are raiding the northern border, and Qi Lian Mountain is plagued by bandits, leaving the common people in miserable suffering. Su Wei, the defending general of Dai County, has attacked Qi Lian Mountain several times but lost troops and generals, unable to take it by storm. The people are living in panic. In a few months, it will be the New Year. If the mountain bandits are not eliminated, the people will certainly lose faith in the defending army. The most important thing for a border stronghold is unity between the military and the civilians. Once the people’s hearts are thrown into chaos, the fall of the city will be just around the corner.”

Emperor Zhou said, “I will immediately send orders to Qiu Minshan and have him go fight them.”

Pei Yuan clasped his hands. “General Qiu might be able to find time in his busy schedule to wipe out the mountain bandits, but I am afraid he will have no spare energy to track the First Highness’s whereabouts. The First Highness has been missing for nearly a year, and still no trace has been found. Presumably, those pursuing him have been incompetent. I am willing to take up this responsibility!”

Emperor Zhou was left speechless. He could find no further reason to stop him. His lips twitched, and he asked with a sigh, “Must you absolutely go?”

Pei Yuan gave his tacit assent. Emperor Zhou asked again, “Then when do you plan to return?”

Pei Yuan replied, “I will return once the business is finished.”

Emperor Zhou fell into a long silence. He was truly getting old; his jowls were sagging, and over the past few days, he seemed to have aged a decade, with more than half the hair on the back of his head turning white.

Helplessly, he nodded. “Very well.”

“I have one more request,” Pei Yuan said. “The little imperial grandson is currently being raised in the Empress’s palace, but the Empress is frail and sickly; I fear she cannot spare the energy to care for him. Yuanzi has spent a long time with me, and we share a harmonious relationship. I cannot bear to see the little imperial grandson suffer such misery at such a young age. I request an imperial decree to bring the little imperial grandson to my side so that I may look after him constantly.”

Emperor Zhou did not hesitate much. He was anxious to please Pei Yuan, and Yuanzi was merely the illegitimate son of a son he disliked—he was not important.

He agreed immediately, saying, “You may come pick him up tomorrow morning.”

……

When Pei Yuan arrived home, it was not yet noon, and the kitchen was still preparing lunch. Beneath the eaves of the house, Bao Ning had arranged a row of small jars and was opening the lids one by one to inspect them.

Before he even drew near, Pei Yuan caught a foul stench carried by the wind.

He knitted his brows and walked over. “What on earth is all this?”

Bao Ning said with a miserable face, “It’s garlic sprouts. I soaked the garlic in water and dropped an egg yolk inside. People said that doing this would make the garlic sprout and grow into garlic sprouts. What went wrong? It’s only been seven days, and they’ve all gone rotten. How can we eat this?”

“This stuff of yours is something only a dung beetle could stomach.” Pei Yuan pinched his nose. Seeing that Bao Ning was about to uncover the next jar, he stopped her immediately. “Don’t open any more. You’ll cover yourself in a sour stench! Do you still want to eat lunch or not? Someone come quickly and clear all of this away!”

Nanny Liu hurried over and instructed the servants to carry the small jars away.

Pei Yuan took Bao Ning to wash her hands, scolding her as they went. “I see you are quite foolish. You used airtight porcelain jars and even put the lids on. How could the garlic not suffocate and rot? If you didn’t know how to do it, you should have asked others more, or at least made less. Fiddling around blindly on your own and making such a huge batch—isn’t that just wasting things?”

Bao Ning refused to back down. “The jars people use to pickle eggs are also porcelain, and they’re soaked in water too. How come the eggs don’t go rotten?”

Pei Yuan let out a sharp breath. “Are you the stupid one, or am I?”

Bao Ning muttered as she wiped her hands, “Whoever is stupid knows it in their own heart.”

Pei Yuan yanked her back. “Use more soapberry and wash them cleaner. The smell hasn’t been washed off yet; it’s still stinky. Who are you trying to fool?”

Bao Ning got angry too. She wiped the water from her hands onto the front of his robe, scolding him back: “What is wrong with you? You go out for a trip, come back, and your temper is this foul! It’s just a few cloves of garlic—so what if they’re rotten? What are you glaring for? Is it that I can’t afford to pay for them or what! Did someone rob your money on the street, or did someone step on your foot? You come back acting all cynical and sarcastic. What kind of ability is it to come home and scold me? Go outside and fight with people instead! If we’re going to be stinky, let’s be stinky together. Let the dung beetles roll you away so you don’t stay here and eyesore me anymore.”

Pei Yuan asked, “What is a qianglang ?”

“It’s a dung beetle!” Bao Ning gave him a disdainful look. “It’s also called a dung-ball bug or an armored general. You don’t know anything, yet you have the nerve to call me stupid. Have you forgotten who used to cook all your meals for you? What do you call this? You’re lifting the bowl to eat, and setting the bowl down to curse your mother…”

Bao Ning had been puffing out her chest to argue with him, and in her agitation, her tongue had loosened up, letting whatever words came to mind slip right out. Only after the words left her mouth did she realize she had been entirely too audacious, and she abruptly shut her mouth.

Seeing Pei Yuan’s face gradually darkening, Bao Ning’s heart sank with guilt. She turned around, wanting to run, but Pei Yuan grabbed her by the back of her waistband.

He asked in a cold voice, “Dare to say that again?”

“A-Yuan, I know I was wrong. I will definitely think thrice before speaking in the future…” Bao Ning gripped his wrist, begging for mercy in a small voice. “My hands aren’t washed clean yet. Can I go wash them now?”

“You’ve been thoroughly spoiled with this rotten temper!” Gnashing his teeth, Pei Yuan pressed her against his chest, brought his large palm down, and slapped her buttocks twice with a pah-pah . Bao Ning cried out, and he raised his hand again. “Cry out one more time?”

Bao Ning didn’t dare make another sound. She buried her face in Pei Yuan’s chest. After a moment of stifling silence, she said in a muffled, nasal voice, “I won’t grow garlic sprouts anymore.”

Exasperated, Pei Yuan pulled her out of his embrace. “What the hell does this have to do with garlic sprouts!”

Bao Ning stood there obediently. Knowing she had spoken out of turn, her arrogant flame could no longer burn. She didn’t dare meet Pei Yuan’s eyes either; her eyelashes trembled gently as she reached out to pull his hand. “A-Yuan, don’t be angry anymore…”

Her hand was cold and soft. The moment Pei Yuan was touched by her, all his anger dissolved into nothing. With a cold face, he gripped her hand back and walked toward the inner chamber.

“Who taught you all this?” Pei Yuan glanced down at her. “You know exactly how to make me happy, so you act without any fear?”

“How could I,” Bao Ning denied.

She followed Pei Yuan to sit on the soft daybed, hugged his arm, and changed the subject. “Did you enter the palace this morning? Who did you see—the Empress or His Majesty? Did you discuss anything important?”

Pei Yuan said, “I saw His Majesty. I requested an imperial decree from him to bring Yuanzi back. He agreed and said we can pick him up tomorrow morning.”

Bao Ning straightened her back in pleasant surprise. “Really?”

Pei Yuan continued, “I also said that the border is unsettled and that I am willing to go to the northern regions to contribute my meager efforts. He agreed to that as well.”

Bao Ning’s smile gradually faded, and unease welled up in her heart. “Why must you go there all of a sudden? The New Year is just around the corner. Wouldn’t it be better to go after the New Year, once spring arrives…?”

Pei Yuan did not intend to hide it from her, stating bluntly, “That letter you hid away—I saw it.”

Bao Ning’s breath hitched, and for a moment, her mind went blank.

“Don’t worry, I will handle these matters. Do not trouble your mind over it. Just treat it as going out to play, to experience a different kind of winter.” Pei Yuan ruffled Bao Ning’s hair and smiled. “The snow over there is much thicker than what we have here. We are going to Feng County. There is a high mountain forest nearby where snow wolves, bears, and roe deer might appear. You haven’t seen a roe deer yet. They look very much like deer, but they are incredibly foolish. When a hunter shoots an arrow at it, instead of running away, it will actually edge closer to the hunter to see what the person who shot it looks like. You will like them.”

Bao Ning was not distracted by his words. She gripped his hand tightly and asked anxiously, “Is Yuanzi leaving with us too? What about Pei Xiao’er’s side? Will he be executed? If he doesn’t die, he will certainly not let matters rest. Do you still remember what Yuanzi’s mother said? She said Pei Xiao kept Yuanzi around to find Yuanzi’s father, because only Yuanzi’s father can cure the poison inside his body…”

Pei Yuan patted her back reassuringly. “As long as he cannot catch up to us on the road, once we arrive in Feng County, no matter how long his reach is, he won’t be able to stretch it that far. We will pass through Yangma Post.”

A flash of insight struck Bao Ning’s mind. “I remember now! Before General Qiu left, he left us a token—it’s a military tally to mobilize the guards at Yangma Post.”

Pei Yuan nodded. “Using three thousand elite cavalry to intercept a dying man is no different from using a cleaver to kill a chicken. It is more than enough.”

……

Upon learning that Pei Xiao would be released in three days, Pei Yuan departed two days ahead of him.

Yangma Post was the mountain pass closest to the Nine Prefectures of the Northern Border. If one rode a fast horse, departing from the capital, it would take about three days to arrive. Because Bao Ning and Yuanzi were both in the carriage, the carriage could not travel quickly, making their pace slower by two days. Just as they arrived at Yangma Post to rest and reorganize, the scouts left in the rear reported back: as expected, Pei Xiao had followed them, bringing about a hundred elite guards.

This was likely the entirety of his remaining private forces.

Pei Yuan left Bao Ning and Yuanzi in the city. Bearing a heavy saber and riding his horse, he casually paced out to the path Pei Xiao was bound to take, waiting for him.

In the shadows, three thousand elite troops lay in ambush, waiting only for a single command.

……

After Pei Xiao was released from prison, he received three pieces of news.

First, his maternal grandfather, Grand Tutor Gao, had already been imprisoned and was awaiting execution on a selected date; the Gao clan and their numerous retainers had either been killed, imprisoned, or had fled. Second, his mother, Noble Consort Gao, had already been executed, having hanged herself in a cramped dungeon of the Palace Administration, her bones hastily buried.

The third piece of news was that his son had been handed over to Pei Yuan and was currently on the way to Yanbei.

When he heard the first two pieces of news, though there was grief on his face, it was mostly a numbness born of anticipation. It wasn’t until his confidant told him that Yuanzi had been taken away that an uncontrollable panic surfaced in Pei Xiao’s eyes. He could not lose Yuanzi! If even Yuanzi was no longer in his hands, it would be equivalent to cutting off his path to survival!

Back then, in order to use the “Rouge Tears” poison to frame Pei Yuan for regicide and dispel Emperor Zhou’s suspicions, he had taken the antidote beforehand and then personally drank that cup of poisoned wine. However, he had not expected that in order to keep him under control, Gongsun Zhu had only given him half of the antidote, leaving the residual poison uncleared from his body to this day. Now that Gongsun Zhu was dead, the only person who might possess the antidote was Gongsun Zhu’s son, Gongsun Xu. His original plan was to ascend the throne as quickly as possible, and then use Yuanzi with great fanfare to lure out Gongsun Xu and obtain the antidote. Now that his path to the throne had been repeatedly obstructed, Pei Xiao felt disheartened, but he was not afraid. He could live for at least another ten years. Within these ten years, there would be infinite possibilities. With his methods, as long as he did not die, he had the confidence to win everything back.

But if he lost Yuanzi, he would be unable to cure the residual poison. Even if he ascended the throne, what would be the point?

“How many men do we have left by our side?” Pei Xiao asked Wu Min, the confidant beside him.

Wu Min replied, “There are still ninety-some men whom we previously kept in the shadows. The private troops have all been confiscated. This is the final force we have to protect ourselves. Unless it is absolutely necessary, they must not be exposed.”

Pe Xiao said in a cold voice, “Bring them along. Head north with me.”

Wu Min hesitated. “Your Highness, but His Majesty’s order was for you to head south as quickly as possible…”

Pei Xiao’s eyes nearly split with rage as he roared, “I said, head north with me!”

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