The next day, Jiang Wu opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling with sleepy eyes for a while.
At the usual time, a familiar hand pulled back the bed curtains.
Sunlight drove away the gloom.
Jiang Wu looked at the boy pulling the bed curtains. No, he was about to turn twenty this year and had already become a young man.
Today’s sunlight must have been very good, outlining a glaring golden edge behind him, making his face appear shadowed. Jiang Wu blinked and said, “Today, I don’t want Beloved Minister Yin to dress me.”
Yin Wuzhi let go of the curtain and turned to leave.
Though the sunlight was bright, it was still cold. The snow in his courtyard was still white and fluffy, which he found very satisfying.
Once Jiang Wu was dressed, he squinted, feeling a bit strained, ready to be fed.
Yin Wuzhi dismissed the others, brought several dishes, and a bowl of meat congee. He cared for his health, feeding him using only his right hand.
The spoon reached Jiang Wu’s mouth, and he opened up to take a bite, watching Yin Wuzhi pick up a thin slice of meat.
Maybe to make it easier to chew, all the meat was sliced thin, with no tendons or bones.
But Jiang Wu resisted a little: “I don’t want to eat.”
“From now on, no one will indulge you,” Yin Wuzhi pried open his mouth and fed it to him, gripping his jaw to force his teeth to bite down, making him chew: “If you don’t eat, I’ll make you eat.”
He was fierce, the force of his teeth clashing was great, causing his entire mouth to tremble. But it worked. The meat quickly broke apart, and Yin Wuzhi let go of his chin, saying, “Swallow it.”
Next, Yin Wuzhi picked half a meatball. Using the same method to feed him, Jiang Wu suddenly let out a muffled sound, painfully swallowing the food: “It hurts.”
His tongue had been pinched.
Yin Wuzhi laughed, “I’d like to see if you can chew your own tongue to pieces.”
He carefully picked out the next piece of food from the plate, but Jiang Wu didn’t want to go through it again. Being forced to chew felt like an earthquake in his mouth, every tooth aching.
“Yin Wuzhi,” he said, “I have insomnia.”
Yin Wuzhi was indifferent: “Good, then don’t sleep at all today.”
Jiang Wu didn’t expect him to be so cruel: “I couldn’t sleep because of you.”
“Is that so?” Yin Wuzhi grabbed his chin again. Jiang Wu immediately resisted: “I order you, stop…”
He twisted his face away, saying, “No, Yin Wuzhi, I don’t like it.”
Yin Wuzhi stood up, forcing him to face him. Jiang Wu’s cheeks were already red from being pinched, but his eyes remained clear like glass. He repeated, “I don’t like it. No…. Sixteen!”
His voice was sharp and decisive, and another figure appeared equally sharp and clean.
Yin Wuzhi didn’t dodge, taking the full brunt of a palm strike and was sent flying into the courtyard, landing in the fluffy snow.
Sixteen stood back beside Jiang Wu, wiping his lips with a cloth.
Yin Wuzhi propped himself up in the snow, blood staining his left shoulder once more.
Jiang Wu ordered Sixteen to lift him into his wheelchair and roll him in front of Yin Wuzhi. Looking down at him, he said, “Yin Wuzhi, stand up.”
Yin Wuzhi lowered his head and stood up. A bead of thick red blood dripped from his left fingertips.
Jiang Wu raised his face, eyes landing on the corner of Yin Wuzhi’s left eye. That splash of red reappeared, perfectly complementing the red drop of blood in the snow.
“Yin Wuzhi,” Jiang Wu said, “I truly don’t like you.”
As if expecting this, Yin Wuzhi’s body didn’t give even the slightest reaction.
“But last night, I really did lose sleep because of you.” Jiang Wu glanced at his fingertips, adding, “Your wound has opened again. Go get it treated, then we can talk.”
Yin Wuzhi’s tone was just as calm: “Say what you need to say.”
Jiang Wu didn’t know what to say.
From the beginning, he wanted Yin Wuzhi to hate him. But now, this hate had grown complicated. Even though Yin Wuzhi had started bullying him, Jiang Wu realized that he didn’t enjoy being bullied.
While he was thinking, another drop of blood fell.
Jiang Wu said, “Go stop the bleeding first.”
“I won’t die.”
“I don’t want to see you bleed.”
Yin Wuzhi let out a soft scoff.
Jiang Wu said, “Sixteen, go.”
Sixteen quickly returned with bandages. For some reason, Yin Wuzhi stubbornly fought him for several dozen moves. Jiang Wu watched without moving, the snow soon dotted with red.
Suddenly, Yin Wuzhi’s pressure point was struck by something, causing his body to freeze and drop to the ground.
Sixteen lowered his hand and looked at the emperor.
The latter, with his long hair draping down and his face as cold as jade, spoke with lazy indifference: “Strip his clothes and stop the bleeding.”
Sixteen’s eyes flickered slightly, but silently peeled off the clothes from Yin Wuzhi’s left shoulder.
Yin Wuzhi stared unblinkingly at Jiang Wu, eyes filled with disbelief.
Once the wound was treated, he said, “Release the pressure point.”
Sixteen looked to Jiang Wu for confirmation. The latter gave a soft hum of approval.
Yin Wuzhi, half-dressed with a small patch of skin and bandage exposed, wasted no time and rushed to Jiang Wu. He grabbed Jiang Wu’s hand and peeled it open.
The pale fingertips still held splinters, and the armrest of the wheelchair was missing a chunk the size of a finger. He turned and looked at the small wooden block that had struck him earlier.
It felt like he had been struck by lightning.
Just now, it really was Jiang Wu who had sealed his acupoints.
Jiang Wu looked down at him and said, “Straighten your clothes.”
Yin Wuzhi instinctively pulled his clothes back into place, still staring blankly at him. Jiang Wu continued, “I want to tell you, from now on, I don’t want to see you get hurt again, nor do I want you to deliberately do things I dislike, even if it means getting hurt.”
Yin Wuzhi pressed his lips together and after a long pause said, “Tell him to stay away.”
Jiang Wu commanded Sixteen to leave, then continued to look at the person kneeling in front of him.
“You don’t like me,” Yin Wuzhi said with restraint, “so why do you care whether I get hurt?”
“Because you like me without reason,” Jiang Wu’s voice was soft. “I like things that have no reason.”
“You like that I love you without reason, but you don’t like the me who loves you without reason.”
Jiang Wu didn’t know how to respond.
Yin Wuzhi had already lowered his head again, resting his forehead on Jiang Wu’s knee. After a long silence, he said, “I understand.”
In the imperial study, Yin Wuzhi rested his chin on the desk just like Jiang Wu, quietly staring at the stacked memorials.
Chen Ziyan glanced at him several times but never saw him change his posture.
“Still thinking about how His Majesty’s martial arts are so strong?”
“I used to think he was just useless.” That’s why he hated himself for falling in love with such a person, and he didn’t believe the praise others gave Jiang Wu, because everything he experienced proved Jiang Wu was a rotten person.
“If he was useless, how could he win over so many hearts?” Chen Ziyan shook his head. “What really happened? Two years ago when you returned, you even sparred with His Majesty, and I remember you told me you’d never enjoyed a fight so much before. You even praised him, saying if he fought seriously, His Majesty might not be beneath you.”
“Did I?”
“Ah Zhi, have you noticed that when you talk about His Majesty now, it’s like you’ve lost your memory?” Chen Ziyan said irritably, “Aren’t you supposed to have a perfect memory?”
Yin Wuzhi straightened up.
Yes, why is it that whenever he talks about Jiang Wu, it feels like he has amnesia? Thinking carefully, before he was summoned into the palace, every memory of Jiang Wu in his mind was just something he had heard from others.
He clearly must have met Jiang Wu before, but the first time he truly remembered his face was when he was summoned into the palace. It was as if Jiang Wu had entered his life for the first time at that moment.
But that clearly couldn’t be the case.
Although he spent years in the military and didn’t need to attend court, when he returned victorious, he must have interacted with Jiang Wu. If nothing else, as a lieutenant of the Eagle Army, he must have been present at last year’s coronation, even if just to guard the ceremony.
He tried hard to recall the scene of the coronation.
He remembered the heavily guarded troops, remembered Ah Gui in his armor, remembered the neatly dressed officials in perfect rows, and could even recall the fluttering banners on the city walls and his father’s solemn advice…
But he couldn’t recall the main character of that day.
It was as if someone had wiped Jiang Wu out of his memory.
That afternoon, King Xiang came to the Taiji Hall. At that time, Jiang Wu was asleep, having overexerted himself using martial arts in this body again.
When he woke, Jiang Rui was kneeling in the hall. Qi Hanmiao told him that the other party had been kneeling for nearly two hours.
Leaning against the headboard, Jiang Wu lazily looked at him, “What’s the matter?”
“Please dismiss everyone, your little brother has something to tell you.”
Once everyone had left, Jiang Rui, pale-faced, kneeled closer to him, heavily knocking his head on the floor again and said, “Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”
“Speak.”
“I am guilty beyond redemption. I should never have conspired with Qiu Wuchen to plot against Your Majesty.” King Xiang bit his trembling teeth and knocked his head again, “Your Majesty, please retract the decree to make her Empress. I know I was wrong.”
Jiang Wu was confused. “Plot against me?”
“Yes.” Now that things had come to this, Jiang Rui no longer hid the truth, “The reason I returned to the capital this time was because I received a secret report. It said that during the struggle between eldest brother and third brother, someone was manipulating things behind the scenes. After much thought, I began to suspect… that it was you.”
It made sense for him to think that. Out of all the brothers, only he, a good-for-nothing, had survived unscathed. One was dead, one crippled, and one gravely ill.
Only Jiang Wu, seemingly by luck, had done nothing and ascended to the throne.
At first, Jiang Rui couldn’t believe it, but recalling the details and Jiang Wu’s almost perfect reputation, he had to wonder: If it was true, then what?
So he returned under the pretext of visiting family, and the first thing he did was meet with Qiu Wuchen.
They conspired that when Jiang Wu visited Qiu Wuchen again, they would find a way to have Qiu Wuchen enter the palace as empress, making it easier to investigate the matter.
“Both I and Sister Qiu know how good His Majesty’s reputation is,” said King Xiang. “We also know that as long as His Majesty visits Sister Qiu and she pretends to be mad, insisting that she must enter the palace as empress, whether His Majesty is truly a sage or merely pretending to be one, he would not refuse.”
If he refuses, it would indicate that Jiang Wu is a false sage, and it could be concluded that Jiang Wu had a hand in what happened all those years ago.
If he doesn’t refuse, then Qiu Wuchen would infiltrate the palace and secretly investigate whether Jiang Wu was truly innocent.
Jiang Rui once again slammed his head to the ground and said, “I swear I absolutely trust His Majesty. I have no rebellious intent. I only want to find out if His Majesty had any role in the tragic fratricide between my eldest and third brothers.”
But he didn’t expect that Jiang Wu had become so indifferent. He hadn’t visited Qiu Wuchen even once, which caused their plan to be repeatedly delayed.
Beyond that, Jiang Rui realized that, in truth, he was somewhat afraid of the truth.
If Jiang Wu were truly innocent, wouldn’t his scheme be an injustice to him?
He never urged Jiang Wu, thinking that if Jiang Wu really went to see Qiu Wuchen, they would act accordingly. But if Jiang Wu didn’t go, then they would pretend this plan had never existed.
Let’s just say that fate didn’t allow them to carry out their plan.
However, Jiang Wu suddenly announced that he would marry Qiu Wuchen.
Feeling guilty, King Xiang suspected that Jiang Wu had already discovered their plot. After a few days of torment, he finally decided to come to the palace and confess, begging for forgiveness.
He was gasping for breath, his entire body quickly soaked in cold sweat.
The truth was, coming here meant he leaned more towards trusting Jiang Wu. But if Jiang Wu blamed him, it would almost confirm that Jiang Wu was indeed involved in the events of the past.
If Jiang Wu remained silent, it would mean his actions had only saddened his brother.
King Xiang had already prepared himself for punishment and to beg for mercy.
It took Jiang Wu a long time to finally understand what King Xiang was trying to say.
He thought it was probably something his previous self had done. This would explain everything neatly.
No wonder he always felt something strange. Despite everyone claiming his previous self was a good person, it now seemed clear that the original Jiang Wu must have been a hypocrite. The historical claim that he had forcibly taken Qiu Wuchen as his wife was probably just a part of a larger scheme. But how exactly had King Xiang been killed?
King Xiang spoke again, “Your Majesty, today it’s just the two of us brothers here. As long as you tell me the truth, I will believe you. Were you involved in the struggle between the Crown Prince and King Qi back then?”
His heart was racing, and he kept praying, Please, don’t let it be you.
Jiang Wu spoke calmly, “That’s right. I was the villain behind it all.”
King Xiang collapsed to the ground.
Then, he heard Jiang Wu coldly say, “Sixteen, silence him.”
Who cares how King Xiang died? In any case, it’s definitely related to this matter. Since there’s a reason, just kill him first and deal with it later.
A shadow descended from above, and a pitch-black soft sword shot straight toward King Xiang’s neck.
