Chapter 88: Arriving in the Capital (Part 2)

The Sixth Prince had established his household for many years and was often sent on official duties. With his reputation for both charm and gentlemanly conduct being outstanding, even young wastrels like Yuan Zijin had heard of his name and had even gone in groups to secretly catch a glimpse of his appearance.

Yuan Zijin's face cycled through shades of green and red, and within a few breaths, most of his drunkenness had dissipated.

He inwardly cursed his bad luck and said sheepishly, "Sixth Prince, we truly didn't recognize who we were messing with and blocked your path. We're leaving now, we're leaving!"

Upon hearing the words "Sixth Prince," Le Hang immediately lifted the curtain and stepped down from the carriage, bowing in accordance with proper ritual.

After completing the formalities, he discreetly looked around, hoping to find the young man who had spoken up so righteously on his behalf.

But that person was extremely well-mannered—after the Sixth Prince had stepped in for him, he had quietly retreated to behind the Sixth Prince's carriage.

The Sixth Prince's carriage hid the man's face from view.

All Le Hang could see, past the carriage's shafts, was a pair of official boots of the Seventh-Rank Official's standard design.

On the other side, Yuan Zijin was in complete disarray.

He decided to make a retreat. Having just offered the Sixth Prince an apologetic smile, he discreetly waved his hand, signaling the driver to get moving.

The driver looked miserable and whispered, "Master, the yoke's snapped. The horse won't obey."

Yuan Zijin kicked him hard. "You useless fool! If the horse won't work, then you pull it yourself! What good are you anyway?"

The Sixth Prince calmly watched Yuan Zijin's frantic scrambling and stopped him cold with one sentence: "Is this carriage yours, or does it belong to the Dragon Tiger General's household?"

Yuan Zijin, nervous, mumbled, "It's my father's..."

"Make a note of this," the Sixth Prince said, turning to Ru Feng. "General Yuan borrowed the Dragon Tiger General's carriage without permission for his second son, who, after drinking, collided with another's carriage and then caused a public disturbance, refusing to yield the way and blocking our way to the palace to report important matters to His Majesty."

He looked at Yuan Zijin with a gentle gaze. "If I report this to the Shuntian Prefect, would there be any problem?"

Just after the Mao hour began, the sun, like a ball of fire, had already peeked above the horizon, casting a pale light over everything.

Yuan Zijin knew things were about to go terribly wrong. Sweat beaded on his face without him noticing, streaming down his nose.

He dropped to his knees with a thud, no longer daring to beat around the bush, and immediately owned up to everything: "Sixth Prince, my father... General Yuan knows nothing about this! I was rushing to handle some business and borrowed his carriage temporarily. This was my improper conduct, and it has absolutely nothing to do with General Yuan!"

He thought that at this point, the Sixth Prince would turn a blind eye and let him off.

But the Sixth Prince, known for his gentle nature, was really pushing the issue this time: "Where were you coming from? And where were you going?"

He glanced at the sundial in the square: "It has just passed the Mao hour. The Yuan residence is in Xianyi Ward—why were you coming from the direction of Chengqing Ward?"

At this, Yuan Zijin was mortified, his face turning a deep, ugly red.

Chengqing Ward was exactly where the Bureau of Music and Dance was.

Rich young wastrels often gathered there for entertainment and pleasure-seeking.

Yuan Zijin held no official position, so coming here to party wasn't illegal.

However, driving the Dragon Tiger General's carriage halfway across the capital to visit prostitutes, and staying the entire night...

How could he say that out loud?

As Yuan Zijin's panic grew, a sense of injustice rose along with the alcohol churning in his stomach.

He blurted out: "Sixth Prince, I'm not the only one who borrowed a senior's carriage. Why are you singling me out?"

"Go ahead, tell me," the Sixth Prince said with a slight smile. "Name a few others, and I'll write them all down and hand them over to the Shuntian Prefecture."

Yuan Zijin was dumbfounded.

He was just upset, not looking to die.

If he named names, wouldn't that drag others into it?

Yuan Weiyan was a Principal First-Rank official, Fourth Grade—arguably the top military officer.

But the higher his father's rank, the more cautious he was, always telling his sons not to cause trouble.

Yuan Zijin had also sized up his opponent. Seeing that the other party was the eldest son of that poor, unlucky General Zhaoyi—a spineless civil official of the Fifth Rank—and that his own family's carriage had been damaged, he was afraid he couldn't explain it to his father at home, which was why he had been kicking up a fuss and refusing to let it go.

If he ran his mouth and dragged more people into this, getting his father into a mess, it wouldn't just be a simple punishment anymore.

He went cold as he knelt in the blazing sun. The more he thought about it, the more scared he got, and all his earlier arrogance was gone: "I... this..."

The Seventh Prince sat inside his carriage, spinning a green hood on his finger, twirling it idly for a while.

He hadn't planned to show up with Xiang Zhijie.

Whenever the two of them appeared together, he inevitably had to hide his face like a thief, as if he weren't supposed to be seen in public.

But what was happening outside was too entertaining: a Seventh-Rank county magistrate, new to the capital and clueless about the place, daring to talk back to the son of a First-Rank Official.

After thinking it over, he decided to go out and help. He put the hood on and climbed out of the carriage.

When he spoke, his voice was sweet and honeyed: "Everyone makes mistakes, and fixing them is the best thing, right? Sixth Brother, you're blocking the road and going back and forth—it's not a good look."

Just as Yuan Zijin let his guard down a bit, Xiang Zhi followed up by stabbing him in the back: "Just have him turn himself in at the Shuntian Prefecture."

Then he pressed a finger to his lips, as if just realizing something, and let out an "Ah": "Didn't you just say the carriage was broken and the horse was useless, so someone had to pull it?"

"The driver will lead the horse, and you'll pull the carriage to the Shuntian Prefecture to turn yourself in." He laid out the plan without missing a beat. "Kong Yangping, follow him. When he's turned himself in, come back and tell me."

Ignoring Yuan Zijin's pale face, he turned and smiled at the Sixth Prince in his carriage: "Sixth Brother, does that work for you?"

The Sixth Prince nodded. "Sounds good."

Yuan Zijin, who had dared to throw his weight around and yell at the Erudite of the Imperial Academy, a Fifth-Rank official, while drunk, now turned into a groveling coward in front of the princes.

He was, after all, a spoiled rich kid. When the horse-smelling strap was tied around his waist, he almost cried from the smell.

The driver nervously led the horse while he pulled the carriage, with Kong Yangping supervising his pathetic attempt at pulling.

And so the group headed toward the Shuntian Prefecture, and the street that had been blocked finally cleared up a lot.

Le Hang stepped forward to thank them.

The Seventh Prince waved his hand and said, "Erudite Yue, rank-wise, you're an official and he's a nobody; and logically, you were just walking down the main road, while he clearly just came from a night of drinking and partying. Why were you scared of him?"

Le Hang answered respectfully, "In answer to the Seventh Prince, I seek nothing but my family's safety now, Your Highness."

The Seventh Prince felt a bit sorry.

He'd heard Le Wuya brag about it before and knew that the old Le Hang had been a righteous, noble-minded man of unwavering integrity.

Now that time has worn him down, has it really come to this?

He sighed, "Aren't you just crippling yourself?"

Le Hang's expression stayed the same.

Over the years, he'd heard far harsher remarks than this and had long since stopped letting it get to him.

The Le family now held only the empty title of General Zhaoyi, their situation having taken a real nosedive.

Ever since Ali died, Le Qianzhang had been using his old war wounds as an excuse to stay in the capital, leaving the Deputy General to run all the military camp affairs.

Everyone knew that if a military officer wanted to smoothly inherit a noble title, the best move was to stay put.

Just like the Pei family. They'd been stationed at the border for generations, almost never coming back to the capital. That was the only way they held onto their military power.

The Le family had two sons—Le Hang on the civil track, Le Jue on the military one.

The brothers were thick as thieves, never keeping score between them. If Le Jue ever inherited the title of General Zhaoyi, Le Hang wouldn't have a problem with it.

But the Deputy General running things now had been hand-picked by the emperor himself. Even if Le Jue did take over the post someday, with no experience leading troops and no military honors to his name, he'd probably just get the paycheck that came with the title "General Zhaoyi."

If only Ali were still around...

At the thought of him, Le Hang could only sigh.

He'd never understood why Wuya, after one trip to the border, had slowly drifted away from them.

He'd not only set up his own household, he'd even stopped coming home for New Year's Eve dinner.

Le Hang and Le Jue weren't mad. If anything, they were confused.

They knew exactly what kind of person Ali was.

They'd speculated about all sorts of possibilities—maybe the emperor, seeing how young Ali was and how brilliant he was in battle, was afraid a concubine's son would outshine the legitimate heir and cause chaos. So he used Ali's bad injuries as an excuse to shunt him into a civil post.

It wasn't until Le Wuya's real identity came out on his deathbed that Le Hang finally put it all together.

...This had actually been a carefully planned power grab all along.

Years ago, the man who was then Crown Prince—now the emperor—had planted Yaya in their family, all because the Le family had refused to back him back then.

To be fair, Le Qianzhang had gotten a raw deal back then.

The late emperor was pretty into men, dabbling in both pursuits, so he didn't have many kids—counting the ones who died young, only seven in all.

The only one who really stood out was the Second Prince, Xiang Zheng.

There was barely any need for a choice; he just smoothly slid into being the Crown Prince.

Once the late emperor got hooked on alchemy, Xiang Zheng started running the country at just over twenty, basically holding all the reins.

Back then, Le Qianzhang had just inherited the title of General Zhaoyi. He figured he didn't have the head for politics, and with constant fighting against the Jing tribe in the southwest, he had no interest in cozying up to the Crown Prince. He just sent in the usual congratulations and filed his battle reports to the Ministry of War like normal, and otherwise threw himself into military matters.

General Dingyuan, Pei Ying, was more savvy than him and told him to put more effort into his memorials—talk up the Crown Prince's achievements, send more well-wishes his way.

Le Qianzhang didn't get it and found it kind of funny:

The emperor was still alive—why the hell would he rush to suck up to the Crown Prince?

If the emperor found out a military officer dared to overstep like that, wouldn't that be asking for death?

By the time he realized something was off, the Crown Prince had already slipped his foster brother Yu Cailiang into the army and dumped a kid who'd seemingly appeared out of nowhere on him.

And the emperor was genuinely obsessed with chasing immortality, not giving a damn about worldly matters.

From then on, Le Qianzhang had no choice but to climb aboard the Crown Prince's ship, right up until he took the throne.

Le Qianzhang had figured the Crown Prince's warnings would stop there.

He never expected the emperor to hold such a grudge.

The huge weapon of "Le Wuya being of foreign blood" finally dragged the Le family into the mud for good, with no way back up.

After Ali died, Le Qianzhang, a few drinks in, once joked with his two sons that he often looked back on his life, wondering what he'd done wrong to end up in such a mess at his age.

Le Hang and Le Jue, scared he might blame Ali, quickly piled food onto his plate from both sides, trying to shut him up.

Finally, he said, "The fault lies... in your father not having a sharp eye. If I'd just kissed up to him a bit more back then, would any of this have happened?"

Le Hang and Le Jue put down their chopsticks, said nothing, traded a long look, and silently clinked glasses with each other.

...

Le Hang stopped going down that road.

He wanted to give that low-ranking official a proper thanks.

Even though he was just a lowly seventh-rank official and knew full well the other guy was the son of a Dragon Tiger General and a First-Rank Official, he still dared to speak up and call out the problem—a real sign of his upright character.

The Seventh Prince caught the flicker in Le Hang's eyes and quickly figured out what he was planning.

Moved by some weird impulse, he also wanted to drag Le Wuya out and show him off in front of everyone.

But when he caught Le Wuya trying to sneak off out of the corner of his eye, he was startled: "...What are you running for?"

Le Wuya, his escape attempt failed, stood frozen with his back to the Seventh Prince.

Just then, a breeze picked up.

The clouds above him gathered and scattered, thinning and thickening, like a gorgeous ink-wash painting.

Seeing that the guy who'd been so sharp-tongued and bold just moments ago was now trying to leave, the Seventh Prince was stunned, and a wave of suspicion he couldn't control churned up in his chest.

The only difference between now and before was one thing: Le Hang had come out.

Grabbed by a sudden, inexplicable unease, the Seventh Prince's tone went cold: "I'm asking you—what are you running for?"