Chapter 105
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“Military achievements?” Prince Yan, with a sorrowful smile, sat back at the stone table and lifted his wine bowl. “All I’ve ever had is shame.”
Xie Duo sat down next to his Sixth Brother but remained silent.
He was never good at comforting people, so he reluctantly went into Prince Yan’s residence because he felt uneasy for no reason.
But now, seeing Sixth Brother didn’t alleviate his stress, the suffocating feeling in his chest grew.
Prince Yan leaned on the table, his face lifted, and he solemnly said in a drunken manner, “I’m not in the mood to entertain anyone right now. If you don’t want to be scolded, leave quickly. Don’t make me say it a second time.”
“Is two hours of scolding enough for you? Once you’re done scolding, we’ll call it even.”
Prince Yan raised his eyebrow in surprise. “Call it even? How can we call it even when over four thousand soldiers sacrificed their lives, and their bodies haven’t even been buried?”
Xie Duo was taken aback and furrowed his brow. “Big Brother, defending our homeland is a soldier’s duty. The rebels from Luozhou have been harassing the people in the Sichuan-Guizhou region for centuries. They initiated this war, and if we choose to fight, we must be prepared for sacrifices.”
“But what did their sacrifices achieve?” Prince Yan’s gaze suddenly turned cold, his breath grew heavy, and it felt like fire might spew from his nostrils. He stared intently at Xie Duo and said sternly, “We took those two fortresses and then handed them over… If, from the beginning, we had followed General Chen’s plan and held our position, by waiting, in less than half a month, we could have sent urgent requests for reinforcements from the capital, and those four thousand soldiers could have returned with me to the capital.”
Xie Duo was surprised. “Are you blaming me?”
Prince Yan shook his head. “How could I? I’m drunk. If you don’t want to hear crazy talk, please go back to the palace, War God.”
Xie Duo’s bewilderment turned into suppressed anger in his eyes as he stared at his intoxicated Sixth Brother. After a long silence, he said in a deep voice, “You blame me instead of holding accountable those responsible for weakening the northwest border defense? I hope that when you sober up, you’ll realize that the strategy for the Luozhou campaign was sound. The one truly responsible for the withdrawal is Senior Minister Xu.”
Prince Yan closed his eyes. “Don’t worry, I will bear the responsibility for the lives of the four thousand soldiers.”
“You can come with me now to meet Father Emperor, explain everything, and have the imperial court issue a public report. Let the people know that the strategy for the Luozhou battle was my plan, and let the world judge the merits and faults.”
Prince Yan responded coldly, “Understood. Ninth Brother’s strategic tactics are brilliant, and the fault lies with me and Senior Minister Xu. I’ve already said I will take responsibility. I don’t want to make it a public spectacle. Can you spare me that?”
Xie Duo stared at him in silence.
Sensing the tense atmosphere, a eunuch nearby hurriedly approached and comforted Prince Ling, “Your Highness, our Prince is feeling distressed and drunk at the moment. Please be generous and don’t take his drunken words seriously to avoid any grievances. It’s better to leave for today.”
“Alright, let’s pretend I didn’t visit today. I’ll forget the drunken words from earlier. Our enemies are still living in Luozhou. Now is not the time to seek blame and fault. Get up, defeat them, so the sacrifices of those four thousand heroes won’t be in vain.”
Prince Yan didn’t respond. He lay sprawled over the stone table, his eyes closed.
Xie Duo left Prince Yan’s residence.
The next morning, his hangover had faded, but Prince Yan hadn’t forgotten what he told his brother yesterday.
He lay on his bed with his eyes closed for a long time. Suddenly, his pale face twisted with pain, and he pounded his right fist on the bed frame. A deep, unbearable ache gripped his chest.
A eunuch, hearing the muffled fist-pounding, rushed to lift the bed curtain and asked, “Your Highness? What’s bothering you?”
Prince Yan felt discomfort everywhere. Since his return to the capital, he had been drowning in humiliation and guilt. Yesterday, in a fit of drunken anger, he had vented on his brother, adding more regret and self-blame. Every breath he took made him regret living in this world.
Prince Yan raised a hand to cover his eyes and muttered softly, “Why wasn’t it me who died in battle?”
“Your Highness!” The eunuch knelt by the bedside, crying out, “Please don’t blame yourself anymore. This battle didn’t disgrace the Emperor. We didn’t lose. We returned to protect His Majesty. No one is blaming you!”
Prince Yan spoke quietly, “Leave.”
The eunuch wiped his tears, stood up, took a few steps back, and, mustering courage, added, “Your Highness, yesterday evening, Master Han requested an audience.”
“I won’t see anyone!” Prince Yan snapped.
“I understand, but Master Han has been waiting outside for a whole hour and refuses to leave.”
Prince Yan, upon hearing this, swallowed slowly and muttered under his breath, “I can’t face him.”
“Master Han doesn’t want to go, and after some persuasion, he agreed to visit another day. However, he insisted that I deliver an item to you.”
There was a brief silence before Prince Yan asked softly, “What is it?”
“I don’t know. It’s inside a large wooden box, but it doesn’t seem very heavy.”
Prince Yan took a deep breath. “Bring it in.”
“Yes!” The eunuch, seeing Prince Yan’s interest, was suddenly thrilled and rushed out to have Master Han’s wooden box brought in.
In front of Prince Yan, several eunuchs cautiously opened the wooden box.
As soon as they lifted the lid, the young eunuchs who were unboxing it were so scared that they involuntarily withdrew their hands, looking at each other.
The Chief Eunuch whispered, “What’s going on? Hurry, open it!”
The young eunuchs looked at the Chief Eunuch with fearful eyes.
The Chief Eunuch took a puzzled step forward, bowed his head to look into the wooden box, and was also taken aback. However, his face showed no fear. Instead, he seemed to be recalling something.
“What exactly is it?” Prince Yan, seeing the strange expressions of the eunuchs, grew curious. He immediately got out of bed and approached to examine the object inside the wooden box himself.
After seeing it clearly, Prince Yan was also startled. He turned to the Chief Eunuch with an inquiring look.
The Chief Eunuch stuttered, “This… how could…?”
Prince Yan furrowed his brow. “I had you burn all of these things years ago. How did they end up in Master Han’s hands?”
The Chief Eunuch quickly defended himself, “Your Highness, I assure you, I had all of them burned long ago! The older servants in the residence can vouch for it. I’ll call them to testify!”
“Hold on.” Prince Yan now realized that the contents of the wooden box were not exactly the same as the one from his residence years ago.
He carefully bent down to retrieve the lifelike mechanical hand from the wooden box and examined every part with an astonished expression.
It was clear that the wooden materials and joints of the mechanical hand were all brand new, not the one he had burned seven years ago.
Prince Yan looked both surprised and bewildered.
Why would Master Xiaobai send him a mechanical hand for playing the piano?
It was identical to the one his Seventh Brother had made for him when they were kids.
Ever since the falling out with Xie Xiu, Prince Yan had ordered the destruction of all “Prince Duan’s creations” in his residence. This mechanical hand couldn’t have been replicated by Han Jiao. It had to be reconstructed by Xie Xiu.
“What on earth…” Prince Yan stared at the strange and intimidating automatic piano-playing device, utterly baffled as to Han Jiao’s purpose for sending it to his residence.
Initially, Seventh Brother had put a lot of effort into creating this zither-playing machine because he knew that Prince Yan enjoyed falling asleep to music. However, it wasn’t convenient to have the musicians from the dance and music troupe play in his room at night. So, Xie Xiu had tirelessly crafted these lifelike hands for him.
“Your Highness, there’s a note in the box!” An observant young eunuch pointed out.
Prince Yan came to his senses and nodded, allowing them to pass the note to him.
The note contained only one sentence: “At the final hour of the day, at our old meeting spot, don’t be late.”
Prince Yan furrowed his brow, crumpled the note, and had the wooden box taken away.
He didn’t want to keep the appointment. He didn’t want to see anyone.
As he contemplated with a head full of questions, he realized he couldn’t escape Master Han’s clutches in the end.
Although he knew that Han Jiao’s cryptic actions were meant to force a detailed conversation, the identical mechanical hand from his childhood intrigued him to no end. He couldn’t help but comply with the appointment.
Arriving at the old secret meeting place, the waiter led Prince Yan to a private room on the second floor of the restaurant and made a welcoming gesture.
Prince Yan adjusted his front, wearing an irritated expression as he pushed the door open and walked in.
This young Han Jiao always had countless ways to catch him off guard.
As he opened the door, for a brief moment, Prince Yan thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. But upon closer examination, he realized that the person sitting by the Eight Immortals table wasn’t Han Jiao. It was Old Seventh.
Xie Xiu sat upright on a small round stool, and as the door opened, their gazes met.
So, the two attendants outside the door stood there, watching in disbelief as Prince Yan pushed the door open, stood still for a while, and gently closed the door again, as if afraid of disturbing those inside.
The guards outside wore baffled expressions but dared not ask anything.
Prince Yan didn’t turn to leave.
He stood there with a bewildered look on his face, paused for a moment, and then, with an expression of disbelief, cautiously pushed the door open again.
Astonishingly, Xie Xiu had stood up!
And he was still looking at him with the same hopeful expression.
Prince Yan quickly closed the door again!
After a while, he attempted to push the door open just a crack to steal a glance inside.
Coincidentally, Xie Xiu was standing on the other side of the door at that moment, incredibly close, locking eyes with Prince Yan.
“……” Startled, Prince Yan took two steps back.
“Your Highness?” The two attendants immediately gripped the hilts of their swords. They had protected Prince Yan for many years and had never seen him exhibit such a fearful and cautious expression. They thought there might be an extremely dangerous individual inside.
Prince Yan raised his hand to prevent them from using force. “You stay here.”
Having said that, he took a deep breath and calmly pushed the door open and walked inside.
Xie Xiu moved aside from the doorframe and watched Prince Yan enter with a face full of anticipation, showing no trace of fear.
That expression oddly reminded Prince Yan of how Old Seventh used to look when he was a child.
Prince Yan, with a bewildered expression on his face, silently locked eyes with Old Seventh. After a while, he softly asked, “Why aren’t you…?” Prince Yan held his head, mimicking Xie Xiu’s frantic gestures, and made two “ah ah” sounds.
He spoke in such a soft tone, but it was torture for Han Jiao and the young princes next door.
Their ears were glued to the wall, but they couldn’t make out what Old Sixth and Old Seventh were saying.
At least it was certain that Xie Xiu wasn’t having an episode.
A promising beginning.
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