Chapter 271: Old Matters (III)

After taking leave of Second Brother, Xiang Zhi walked alone, dragging his feet.

The main street was bustling with life.

The copper bells of traveling physicians jingled and tinkled, children's joyful laughter drifted over the rooftops, and the soft, sweet calls of wine-sellers floated on the wind from the taverns.

All the splendor and prosperity passed him by, as if moving through an empty vessel, leaving not a single trace behind.

He did not know how long he had walked when Xiang Zhi looked up and found himself standing before Le Wuya's residence.

The three gilded characters "Wen Ren Mansion" gleamed brilliantly, etching themselves into his vacant heart.

No time like the present—he was here anyway.

After all, in their father's eyes, he and Xiang Zhijie were fated to clash.

So showing up in broad daylight to win favor at the home of someone Xiang Zhijie cared about was, by all logic, perfectly reasonable.

Besides, Xiang Zheng loved nothing more than watching others fight.

After a low chuckle at his own lame joke, Xiang Zhi knocked on Le Wuya's door.

As it turned out, Le Wuya was home during the day.

When Hua Rong ushered him in, he was sitting on a swing, reading a book.

The sky was overcast, and the light was just right for reading.

Xiang Zhi smiled at the sight of him, as usual: "What are you reading? Let me see!"

Le Wuya flipped the book around to show him.

It was *Bing Tao*, a military treatise.

The day before, he had drawn up a design for a firearm and asked Pei Mingqi to help him look it over. Today, Xiaoliu had unearthed this five-year-old firearms design manual from the Ministry of Works' archives for him to consult.

Le Wuya was deeply engrossed in his research, and having finally caught someone to talk to, he naturally launched into an enthusiastic explanation: "The gun barrels are all made of cast iron now—much better than the old bronze ones. Those bronze tubes got scorching hot, not to mention they'd blow up in your face at the drop of a hat. The only problem now is that the ammunition still has to be loaded one round at a time. If only we had cartridge ammunition. Though that would need a standardized caliber, or else..."

Xiang Zhi had little interest in any of this and interrupted him outright: "What's got you thinking about this today? Not heading to the office?"

Seeing that he wasn't interested, Le Wuya didn't push it and simply shrugged: "Xu Yingrui had something come up at home yesterday, so I covered his shift. Today's my day off."

Xiang Zhi: "...You actually get days off?"

"I'm not a donkey." Le Wuya leaned back lazily against the swing ropes, smiling. "After all, it's my own life."

Xiang Zhi went quiet.

Yes, things really were different now.

In his previous life, Le Wuya had exhausted himself with relentless scheming and toil, burning through his own life until it ran dry. He never kept a single moment for himself.

Now, at last, he had learned to value his own life.

But for whom?

He couldn't think about it. It made him angry just to think about it.

Le Wuya tilted his head slightly, holding the book: "Why are you staring at me like that?"

"...I like you better when you're being bad." Xiang Zhi stepped closer, crouched down, and stared at him intently. "Show me your wicked side, won't you?"

Le Wuya obliged readily, swinging forward on the swing and using the momentum to kick him.

Xiang Zhi was speechless.

He brushed off his clothes in a huff: "This is a new outfit my mother just had made for me!"

Le Wuya laughed heartily: "You asked for it."

Xiang Zhi shot him a glare, his cheeks puffed up in indignation: "I went to the palace a few days back."

Le Wuya perked up: "Oh? What did you hear?"

Xiang Zhi reluctantly told him everything Consort Xi had said about the goings-on in the Fifth Prince's household.

Seeing Le Wuya deep in thought, Xiang Zhi lowered his gaze: "Speaking of which, I heard something else too."

"What?"

"I heard that Lord Yue was quite the swimmer as a child—saving someone in the imperial palace. Quite the feat, really."

Le Wuya looked puzzled.

He rummaged through his memories of a past life, then let out an "oh": "Right, that did happen. ...It was the young master of the Zhong Commandery Prince's household, wasn't it?"

Xiang Zhi was baffled.

...

For Le Wuya, that day had been quite a rollercoaster of events.

As the eleven-year-old son of an official, he should have been waiting obediently for the emperor to call on him.

But the Grand Empress Dowager—still alive at the time—knew that although Le Wuya was not the legitimate heir, he was exceptionally handsome. Even more remarkably, he was quick-witted and talented. Even her picky emperor son was willing to praise him, which surely meant his future was bright.

So the Grand Empress Dowager took it upon herself to scope out a potential husband for her youngest daughter, the current emperor's sister, Princess Chongqing.

Having received the imperial decree, Le Wuya was allowed into the inner palace.

The princess was three or four years younger than him, far too young for any thoughts of romance, and simply treated Le Wuya as a playmate.

Le Wuya played a game of jacks with her for half a day, swindling her out of a gold hairpin, a jade bracelet, and a set of pearl necklaces with his silver tongue.

But Le Wuya was naturally sweet-tongued and handsome to boot, so the little girl wasn't upset at all—she ran back to her rooms gleefully: "Third Brother Le, don't go! I have even better treasures!"

The Grand Empress Dowager watched this unfold, completely speechless.

She had figured it out—Le Wuya was not one to be underestimated.

If her precious daughter were to marry him in the future, he'd probably strip the roof off Cining Palace, and the princess would help him do it!

Taking advantage of her daughter's absence, the Grand Empress Dowager quickly dismissed him.

Le Wuya took his leave with a smile, had the attendant eunuch carry his winnings, and strolled out of the palace with an easy, carefree gait.

His father seemed very reluctant to let him stand out or get too entangled with the palace.

Then Le Wuya, being young and "not knowing any better," could probably get away with it once or twice.

Passing by the imperial garden, Le Wuya suddenly stopped.

"Plop—"

An extremely faint sound of something falling into water drifted over on the wind.

Le Wuya turned to the young eunuch carrying his things: "Sir, did you hear something?"

That young eunuch clearly had sharp ears too, nodding while looking around.

Le Wuya looked up and saw, not far from the lake, an ornate pleasure boat slowly gliding along.

And at the stern of the boat, there were ripples forming that didn't seem like the wake of the vessel.

Without hesitation, Le Wuya tore off his jade belt hook, shed his outer robe, kicked off his boots, and leapt into the shimmering waves.

Fortunately, he was an excellent swimmer, and the boat wasn't in the center of the lake. Like a fish, Le Wuya surged up and down through the water a dozen times, and in no time, he reached the pleasure boat.

Le Wuya took a deep breath, dove underwater, opened his eyes, and scoured the murky water for a long while before finally zeroing in on his target.

"Splash—"

With water splashing everywhere, he hauled up a drenched little kid.

The child had already fainted.

But his clothes were top-notch—even though the colors were muted and low-key, one could tell it was first-rate material.

...How is he this small?

Le Wuya didn't have time to think. Holding the child with one arm and paddling with the other, he reached the side of the boat and shouted, "Drop the ladder! Haul me up!"

A rope ladder dropped down right away.

As he climbed, Le Wuya cursed to himself: Are they blind?! So caught up in the view that they couldn't even see a child fall into the water?

But when he came face to face with the Emperor on the boat, Le Wuya immediately dropped the idea of complaining out loud.

Xue Jie, right there, was quick to react and shrieked, "Oh my, isn't this the Zhong Prince's little young master? Where the heck are his attendants, off goofing around, letting the little master wander off and fall in the water?!"

The next moment, a palace maid dropped to her knees, sobbing and owning up to it, and that was that.

Le Wuya didn't care whether he was the son of the Zhong Prince or the Song Prince.

He begged pardon, flipped the little guy over, hoisted him onto his back, and crawled on hands and knees across the ground.

He was huffing and puffing, his eyes burning from the lake water, but he still had it in him to coax the little one on his back: "Open your eyes, young master, we're riding the big horsey! The big horse will carry you to the edge of the sky—open your eyes and take a look..."

Le Wuya jostled the kid while crawling, forcing the lake water out of his belly.

The kid hacked and coughed hard.

Seeing the kid might make it, Le Wuya's eyes lit up. He quickly pulled the kid off his back and cradled him, patting his back and murmuring to him.

The child, with nothing else to cling to, had been clutching Le Wuya's drenched shirt with his right hand the whole time.

His almond eyes opened just once, caught a glimpse of Le Wuya, then fluttered shut.

Seeing the kid was okay, Le Wuya breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Snapping back to reality, he sensed the weird vibe on the boat. He quickly handed the child to the imperial physician who had rushed over, and casually wiped the remaining water from his face: "Your Majesty, forgive me for being out of line in front of Your Majesty!"

A weird smile crept onto Xiang Zheng's stiff face: "...You did well. Seems you and I are destined, and I was right to keep you around."

Le Wuya was totally lost and grumbled to himself: Yeah, right—who'd want to be "destined" with you, Your Majesty?

Honestly, he had more of a bond with this kid.

If he hadn't just happened to walk by, the kid would've drowned.

His violet eyes darted around as something clicked as wrong:

Hold on—where's the Zhong Prince?

Le Wuya remembered that the Zhong Prince usually lived it up on his estate outside the capital, and had only come to town for the Emperor's birthday.

This kid who fell in was way too young to be without an adult.

If the Zhong Prince himself had brought his son to tour with the Emperor, leaving the kid with the maids while he went to drink and chat with the Emperor in the cabin, that wouldn't be strange.

What was weird was, now that the kid was in trouble, why hadn't his dad shown up?

Before Le Wuya could finish his thoughts, Xiang Zheng said, "Xue Jie, prepare a boat and take You Que down to change clothes. Then bring him to my private treasury and let him pick three things as a reward."

Le Wuya's worries and suspicions were instantly swept away by this huge show of favor.

He also got that this was the Emperor's way of saying, "Don't pry further."

He dropped to his knees and kowtowed: "Thank you for Your Majesty's great kindness!"

To this day, Le Wuya still has no idea why the Zhong Prince never showed his face even after his kid fell in the water.

He even wondered if the Emperor was secretly hooking up with the Zhong Prince himself, which would explain all the secrecy.

Otherwise, it just didn't add up.

After returning home, he told his two older brothers the whole story, plus his wild guesses.

His eldest brother pinched his cheek and, with no mercy, had the second brother help ransack his bookshelves, to see what kind of trashy novels this kid had been sneaking reads of.

His second brother said he never thought the water monkey would ever save someone—nice, nice, lots of good karma.

...

After listening to Le Wuya's story, Xiang Zhi just stared at him quietly.

It finally clicked for him.

Why his mother always had a soft spot for Le Wuya.

No matter which way the political winds blew, no matter how much he trash-talked Le Wuya to Consort Xi, she never held it against him, even cracking jokes like calling him her "daughter-in-law."

He'd figured his mom was just shallow, going by looks.

Turns out it was love the house, love the crow—she loved him because of who he was connected to.

It just wasn't him she loved through.

Xiang Zhi gazed at Le Wuya for a long while, so long that Le Wuya waved his hand in front of his eyes several times: "What's wrong? Lost your words?"

Xiang Zhi heard himself speak, very soft, very gentle.

"I always thought that you and I, he and you, at least met on the same day."

"To meet again, also on the same day."

"Now it seems, you and he... truly share a deeper bond than you and I."

The moment the words left his mouth, he suddenly felt a lightness in his heart, as if shedding years of shackles.

Words he'd imagined would be a thousand times harder to say turned out, once spoken, to be no big deal.

Le Wuya was stunned for a moment, a buzz ringing in his head.

He shot to his feet: "It's him?"

Xiang Zhi answered honestly: "It's him."

This time, Xiang Zhi's tone was eerily calm.

He felt no envy, no resentment anymore.

His elder brother, Xiang Zhijie, had borne his calamities and warded off misfortune, letting him grow up safely amid jealousy and resentment.

—If not for him, it would've been his turn.

Le Wuya's face went completely cold.

In a flash, he'd figured it all out.

He got straight to the point: "It's the Emperor?"

Xiang Zhi repeated again: "It's the Emperor."

Not "Imperial Father" anymore.

One who could personally throw his own flesh and blood into the water was merely the Emperor—how could he deserve to be called "Father"?