Chapter 107
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Xue Yao insisted on not accepting the wolf fang. Ignoring the stubborn and disappointed gaze of the Khitan Prince, he pulled up Lu Qian’s arm, and turned away.
No one owed anyone any favors.
As a citizen of Great Qi, Xue Yao had a reason to sever any ties with the Khitans who covet the territory of Great Qi and plunder the border herdsmen.
He wanted to quickly take the chubby cub and chatterbox cub back to the camp, check if the warm baby was scared, and safely bring the three cubs back to the capital, just as they came.
In another month and a half, it would be the chubby cub’s fifteenth birthday. Xue Yao’s wish was to let the chubby cub spend his sixteenth birthday without worries, then gradually engage in some political affairs, relieving the Crown Prince of his concerns.
The distance to this goal was only one year and a half months away.
Xue Yao didn’t know that his wings did not completely shield the three cubs from this catastrophic landslide and tsunami.
He did everything he could—preserving Consort Xi’s reputation, warming the chubby cub’s childhood, preventing the schemers from plotting against the Crown Prince, saving the lives of tens of thousands of people in three counties, preserving the Crown Prince’s life, injecting the Emperor with an antidote for his injuries, and leaving various detoxifying powders for military physicians to experiment with.
Unfortunately, the Emperor eventually passed away, only living eight days longer than the in the novel.
When the Crown Prince said, “Father Emperor has already ascended to heaven,” he looked so withered, his voice so hoarse that Xue Yao harbored a glimmer of hope, wishing the chubby cub hadn’t heard these words clearly.
There was a long silence. Xue Yao thought Lu Qian probably hadn’t heard because he showed no reaction.
In the chaotic and noisy tent, Lu Qian was isolated from his own world.
The Fifth Prince frantically shook his eldest brother, questioning how a minor arrow wound could take away Father Emperor.
Despite timely treatment and the Fifth Prince being exchanged as a hostage, Father Emperor was taken away. How could this be?
Lu Qian remained unresponsive, staring blankly at his fifth brother.
Xue Yao, nervous with icy hands and feet, was ready to face the chubby cub’s crying, prepared to offer his embrace to comfort him at any moment.
However, Lu Qian just looked at his eldest brother expressionlessly.
When the Fifth Prince roared until he lost strength, Lu Qian approached the Crown Prince and asked, “Isn’t Father Emperor returning to the palace with your son?”
The Crown Prince embraced his brother’s shoulders, softly telling him that Father Emperor had already returned to the palace. Now that the funeral arrangements were underway, they, as brothers, needed to depart early tomorrow to catch up with the procession escorting Father Emperor’s remains and prepare for the burial in the capital.
There were many tasks awaiting the Crown Prince. The Emperor’s sudden death left many things unfinished, including incomplete auspicious rituals.
Of course, the most challenging matter was the new emperor’s enthronement.
The Crown Prince knew that the news of his return to the capital during the war wouldn’t stay hidden for long. He also understood that the Third Prince’s faction would grasp onto this leverage, blaming his departure from duty for Father Emperor’s accident. Even though the temporarily appointed Fifth Prince acted decisively, promptly retrieving Father Emperor, it couldn’t absolve the Crown Prince of responsibility.
If the Emperor was alive, he would surely reprimand the Crown Prince for being emotionally impulsive. However, publicly, he would falsely claim that the outcome of the war was settled, so he had ordered the Crown Prince to return to the capital.
The Crown Prince himself wasn’t sure whether the impulsiveness that night was due to the fact that the Emperor had been harsh on the surface for so many years, but had always protected him in private.
This hidden thought remained deeply buried in the Crown Prince’s heart.
The more the Crown Prince thought about the Emperor’s protection, the more he felt pain and guilt. He felt so remorseful that he wanted to die to atone for his sins.
Unfortunately, the situation had become too tense, leaving him no room to catch his breath. The mistakes he made couldn’t be undone, and he couldn’t allow the ancestral legacy to crumble in the hands of the Third Prince.
So, he directed his trusting gaze at the Seventh Prince, whose face displayed no excessive sadness. “Old Seventh, we both need to be prepared.”
Lu Qian continued to look at his eldest brother with confusion, not understanding what preparations his brother wanted him to make. But feeling the absence of Father Emperor, he sensed the gravity of the situation. Anxious, his still youthful face revealed a feigned composure and sophistication as he pointed to the unhealed wound on his arm. “Once the injuries heal, your grandpa will get ready.”
He was finding excuses for his lack of preparedness.
The youngest brother’s behavior puzzled the Crown Prince. In these past few days, he had repeatedly pondered Father Emperor’s words before his death, analyzing whether these were confused ramblings or the true desires of Father Emperor.
If appointing the Old Seventh as the Crown Prince and advising him to assist were genuine, the Crown Prince wondered what advantage Father Emperor saw in Seventh Brother.
The Crown Prince, still young, couldn’t see some things through Father Emperor’s eyes no matter how hard he tried. So, he believed Father Emperor must have been confused due to illness.
However, he still needed the cooperation of the Seventh Prince. If he couldn’t establish himself in the court due to his sins, he planned to use his influence to support the Old Seventh’s ascension and cut down the Tong family’s wings.
The events that followed would be a matter between the brothers.
The genuine, pure brotherly relationship between the Crown Prince and Old Seventh made him not rush to think about what would happen next.
At this moment, Xue Yao was the only one deeply concerned about the Seventh Prince.
Just when the Crown Prince mentioned escorting the Emperor’s remains back to the capital, he heard the system’s alarm blaring — the chubby cub’s sense of security suddenly reset to zero.
This was highly unusual. The pain from the departure of a close relative often didn’t erupt instantly. It gradually ate away at the heart in prolonged absences, like a knife cutting through one’s longing on occasions when the other was absent.
Similar to the Fifth Prince and the Sixth Prince, after the initial sorrow faded, the two brothers quickly began encouraging and consoling each other. Only the Seventh Prince remained silent.
Having both lost their father, the two older brothers were too preoccupied to understand the turmoil their youngest brother was experiencing. Only Xue Yao had a faint unease in his heart.
Even though he spent every moment with the chubby cub, Xue Yao still felt as if the chubby cub was constantly drifting away.
Xue Yao attempted to embrace the chubby cub’s arms, then his neck, and later his waist, but the little one remained unresponsive.
From his bag, Xue Yao took out the newly exchanged milk and snacks. “This is the last bag of milk. Is it for Your Highness or for the Fifth and Sixth Princes?”
Lu Qian turned to look at him. In his tea-colored eyes flickered an uncertain light, contrasting with Xue Yao’s clumsy “entertaining a child performance.”
The serene gaze made Xue Yao feel awkward. Silly as it may be, he obediently lowered his head and opened the water bag, extending his hand to feed the chubby cub.
It was at this moment that Xue Yao quietly met Lu Qian’s peculiar gaze. Unlike the carefree and scattered looks of the past, it was a kind of intense focus, making Xue Yao feel that, at this moment, Lu Qian’s eyes and heart held only him.
Xue Yao felt embarrassed saying: In that moment, he was actually quite excited.
Anyone who had spent over a decade with a child with emotional barriers would probably feel secretly delighted for the first time receiving such warm attention. This stolen joy made him overlook the unconventional emotional outburst of the chubby cub and its implications.
Early the next morning, he realized the chubby cub was nowhere to be found.
By Xue Yao’s pillow were half-eaten pastries and half-drunk milk.
Because he lied that there was only one portion of food left, the chubby cub hadn’t eaten his fill before this farewell, leaving half the food for this inept little reader-in-waiting.
Xue Yao, with an unwashed face and unbrushed teeth, frantically searched the entire camp. He then sought help from the Crown Prince, the Sword Saint, and Master Xu, informing them that the Seventh Prince was missing.
At this point, the Crown Prince, the Fifth Prince, and the Sixth Prince began to regret their lack of comfort for their mentally unstable brother, feeling both frustrated and annoyed by the Seventh Prince’s stubbornness.
No one could comprehend why, at such a critical moment, the Seventh Prince chose to “run away from home” and throw such a tantrum.
Ultimately, it took Xue Yao’s desperate efforts to calm down and enter the chubby cub’s mindset, thinking about the problem in his own way and guessing where he might have gone.
Xue Yao had an unsettling speculation—
The chubby cub’s Father Emperor had passed away. The Khitan Prince had been exchanged back with the Fifth Prince. In this fair exchange, only the Khitan King remained.
The chubby cub intended to go and kill the Khitan King, Xue Yao thought.
In the novel, after Prince Ning ascended the throne, his first act was to secretly instigate a Khitan general. He managed to capture the Khitan King and, in a manner resembling Father Emperor and Eldest Brother’s deaths, executed the Khitan King.
The present Lu Qian differed notably from the book Prince Ning. He hadn’t faced significant setbacks and lacked enough restraint and patience.
Little Prince Ning’s revenge plan had been accelerated.
The Sword Saint and Master Xu managed to calm down the frantic Xue Yao, assuring him that they would safely bring their diciple back.
Crossing the river required passing through a checkpoint. With the light skills of the two experts, reaching the checkpoint ahead of time to intercept the disciple was as easy as turning one’s hand – nothing to worry about.
However, Xue Yao couldn’t help but worry. Although he wanted to go search with the two elders, he was well aware of his own speed. He could only obediently wait for news at the camp.
The Crown Prince also arranged for soldiers on swift horses to notify various checkpoints: strict defense and prompt return of the Seventh Prince to the capital.
Due to the urgency of Father Emperor’s funeral, the Crown Prince couldn’t wait any longer for his troublesome seventh brother to be escorted back. He led the other brothers back to the capital swiftly.
Xue Yao originally intended to stay on the border and wait for the chubby cub to return together. However, the Crown Prince asked him to return to the capital first as a witness: the Third Prince had once sent troops to pursue him and the Seventh Prince.
To avoid turmoil in the court, preventing the Third Prince from taking advantage, Xue Yao had no choice but to return to the capital with the Crown Prince.
Tong Ningzhao’s spies had already found officials from the relay stations along the way, confirming that the Crown Prince had briefly returned to the palace before the outcome of the war was decided.
The imperial edict clearly stated that the Crown Prince’s whereabouts were unknown due to rescuing the Emperor. This could be used to assert that the Crown Prince hadn’t informed the Emperor before returning to the palace.
There was much to be done with this information.
The news of the Emperor’s death had already shattered half of the Empress’ life. In a daze, she hadn’t grasped the meaning of the edict that declared Prince Ning as the heir.
She even momentarily couldn’t recall who Prince Ning was and what relation he had to her or her late husband.
The news of her husband’s death turned decades of grievances into unsettled debts. Standing beside the imperial coffin, the Empress only saw her husband inside and her son burdened by excessive responsibilities.
The Empress held her son’s hand and spoke many words to her husband beside the coffin.
After nearly twenty years, her second son finally had the time to quietly listen to her.
The Crown Prince never expected Mother Empress not to erupt in fury over his unauthorized return to the palace.
Women who lose the protection of their husbands often seek security through power. He thought Mother Empress had long lost the gentle and tender nature of her youth.
Strangely, the parting in death allowed Mother Empress, dressed in armor with a sword in hand, to reconcile with the man she had resented for twenty years inside the coffin.
Life was truly unfair. Women were often too tender-hearted.
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