Chapter 4 part 2
Translator: マイ
Yong Lin accompanied his mother to eat at night, and after chatting for more than half an hour after dinner, he couldn’t sit still at all
. For a few times, he wanted to mention Yong Qi. Shu Fei knew what he was thinking in his heart. She stopped chatting, and ordered the maids to remove all kinds of snacks and preserves, and said to Yong Lin, “You must have been very tired on the road, go to rest early. Your brother may have been very busy with works assigned by your Father. I don’t know how late he can be, meet him tomorrow ba.”
Even though Yong Lin was unwilling and wanted to protest, after seeing a sullen expression on his mother’s face, he wondered if his mother was unhappy about him being close to Yong Qi more than Yong Shan.
In fact, in his heart, whether it was Yong Qi or Yong Shan, they both were excellent brothers.
Yong Qi was gentle. Ever since they were young, Yong Qi had taken very good care of him. His personality was superior to any of his brothers so he naturally liked him very much. Yong Shan was his twin brother, it was natural to be intimate between the twins.
Yong Lin had no choice but to lie down and sleep like a good child.
He was tossing and turning in the soft quilt, thinking that his mother was still staying outside the door preventing him from sneaking out. Yong Lin also did not dare to climb up and sneak out. After spending most of the hour, the sleepiness accumulated on the journey hit him, and he fell asleep.
After the watchman’s clapper sounded at the shigeng period, did Yong Shan slowly come in with his warm sedan chair.
(Note: around 1-3am)
Most of the candlelights in the main room in Shu Fei’s palace were extinguished, leaving only one to be placed in the corner, which shadowed the hanging curtain and furniture and other stuff sufficiently.
“Mother has not slept yet?” Yong Shan walked in silently and glanced at the hanging curtain.
Shu Fei was sitting on a Huang Hua Li, a rosewood of an ebony stool in a new Gongjin Palace. Behind her was a fascinated fox-skin mattress. After hearing Yong Shan’s words, she was a little surprised before she looked back at her son and gently said, “You’re back? Have you eaten?”
“I have eaten. Now it’s the Rooster period.”
“I know it’s the rooster period, I just heard the sound of the watchman. What I asked was the night meal. How come you’re so late, not to mention the day was so cold. Eat something before you go to sleep.” Shu Fei said, telling people to get a bowl of hot lotus soup. Because Yong Lin was already asleep inside, her voice was being suppressed.
The palace maids responded in low voices. They retreated and soon came back again bringing with the hot soup.
Yong Shan said, “Leave it on the table, I will eat it a bit later.” After that, he walked to the side of the curtain. He used his fingers to hook up the corner of the curtain and look inside.
Yong Lin was sleeping soundly, but the sleeping posture was not very good. Half of his face was on the bed sheets, and both of his hands held the big pillow. The quilt that Shu Fei had just helped him cover was kicked open to a corner, revealing a red embarrassing barefoot.
The other himself was lying sleeping under his nose.
Yong Shan shook his head helplessly: feeling a little ridiculous in his heart. He turned to the palace maid. “Get me a pillow.” He lowered his head and touched Yong Lin’s foot. Fortunately, there was a heating system and a stove built underneath. Yong Lin’s foot was still warm.
The palace maid quickly found a pillow and came out. Yong Shan took them and personally lifted Yong Lin’s heavy head, tucked the pillow in and helped him cover the quilt. Once everything was done, he straightened up and turned back, only to see Shu Fei was staring at his own eyes.
“Yong Lin is still the same.”
“The more I look, the more I’m worried. He’s not growing up at all.” Shu Fei sighed softly.
Yong Shan found himself a place to sit down. “What’s wrong, mother? When he was at the fief, you looked forward to him coming back every day. Now that he is back, and you sigh again.”
“How can I not sigh? As soon as he came back today, he didn’t even sit down properly yet, he asked to see Yong Qi.”
Yong Shan suddenly fell silent.
Shu Fei’s heart tightened violently; she quietly gazed at Yong Shan.
After pondering for a while, Yong Shan slowly lowered his eyes, picked up the lotus seed soup placed on the table next to his hand, scooped a spoon, then put it on his lips and inadvertently blew it. He said lightly: “If mother feels that it is better for Yong Lin to stay on the fief, it is easier to handle matters. However, it is just a word of effort. I will need to ask Father to make another decision.”
“I didn’t mean that.” Shu Fei felt as if her chest seemed to be blocked by something. She was depressed and sighed. “It has been more than a month since Yong Qi has gone to the Internal Punishment Court. You treat him like a living treasure. I heard that a few new people have been sent recently to serve him specifically, and Zhang Cheng and his men can’t even see him. What does this mean?”
“It doesn’t mean anything.” Yong Shan took a sip of lotus soup. Probably the taste wasn’t to his liking that it made his beautiful eyebrows twisted slightly. He quickly put it down, smiled and said, “The people inside the Internal Punishment Court are clumsy, having them there only to make Yong Qi sick again. So I asked for some clever ones to keep watch to avoid trouble.”
“Then about Yong Lin wanting to meet Yong Qi tomorrow…”
“Mother.” Yong Shan’s voice sank.
Shu Fei stopped and sighed lowly, consolingly saying: “Yong Shan, he is your twin brother, not an outsider. No matter what you do to Yong Qi… he and Yong Qi have been close since childhood. Although they’re not born from the same mother, they’re still brothers. You also know your brother’s temper, if he’s not allowed to see Yong Qi, he will suspect something, maybe… “
“I did not say he’s not allowed to meet him, but I can’t do it tomorrow.” Yong Shan said indifferently. “Later, I will let them meet.” He said then standing up straight.
His words were hard, and for a while, Shu Fei’s face flicked uncomfortably. However, Yong Lin had just returned today and now he was sleeping soundly. At this time, it was not appropriate to fight with Yong Shan, which was why she had to stop. When Yong Shan said goodbye to her, she just nodded slightly, and glanced at her son with regret.
The snow outside was still falling, and it seemed to be endless. In the dark night, even the snowflakes seemed to have changed its color.
Yong Shan walked out the door silently, and the guard eunuchs who were rubbing their hands in the cold outside quickly stood up from the steps. They always remembered the rules set by Yong Shan and did not dare to ask a word. Seeing that Yong Shan entered the warm sedan chair, and did not command anything, they knew he was going back to his palace to rest. The guards silently lifted the sedan chair and walked on this thick blizzard snow.
Arriving at the Prince’s Manor, Yong Shan got off his sedan chair, and before he could take a breath, Chang Defu, the palace eunuch who was in charge of the Prince’s Manor, trotted up and greeted him. He bent down and reported in a low voice, “Your Highness, His Royal Highness Yong Sheng has come.”
Yong Shan was a little taken aback. “What is he doing here? Did he say anything?”
“He did not say anything. But servant can guess that he must have something important to discuss, for him to come here before dark and have waited until now. Servant said to let someone report to the Crown Prince but he said no. Servant had made an unauthorized order to prepare dinner for His Royal Highness Yong Sheng, and just a moment ago, some warm snacks were also delivered as supper…”
(Note: it’s a crown prince’s manor, to obey others beside the crown prince in his house, is a crime, so he tried to explain himself.)
Yong Shan did not hear his verbose behind him as he walked into the manor by himself.
Yong Sheng was sitting in the hall, staring at the glowing firing charcoal, uncertain to what he was thinking about. However, he seemed to be in daze. Some noise was heard and it distracted him away from his daze, and when he looked up, he saw it was Yong Shan. He quickly stood up and bowed, “Crown Prince has returned?”
Yong Shan thought for a moment, then he dismissed the servants from inside the hall.
“Chang Defu said that you waited for me for a whole night. What’s so urgent?”
Among their brothers, Yong Sheng was not very clever. He was usually not very clever in his speech and deeds. When discussing Huagui in literature, he was not as good as Yong Qi, and he was not as open-minded and carefree as Yong Lin. At this moment he seemed to have something he could not speak freely. He stood by the fire and stated silent for a while before frowning: “It was my mother who asked me to come here.”
“Jin Fei?” Yong Shan was not surprised. He randomly picked a chair that was leaning on beside the stove and sat down. He told Yong Sheng: “Don’t stand, sit and talk.”
Only then did Yong Sheng sit down.
“What’s the matter? Say it.”
Yong Sheng stared at bright blazing fire without speaking.
There was no expression on Yong Shan’s face, but his eyes were brighter than the fire. The flickering flame made his eyes shone. He slowly turned his gaze and looked at Yong Sheng for a while. “Everything else can be discussed, but your uncle’s matter, it was Father’s intention. It doesn’t matter if he was drunk, but his words involved the Crown Prince and Crown Prince’s mother. To dare guess what is in the emperor’s heart at will, this crime is too heavy. Go back and tell Jin Fei, this matter is beyond my capacity.”
He was quick-minded, and he guessed right.
Yong Sheng did come for his uncle Fang Zuoming.
With things that had come to this point was all his mother, Jin Fei’s decision. For the first time, he was sent by his mother to seek Yong Shan alone. As a prince, he was young and arrogant. Originally he was embarrassed to even open his mouth to ask for help, but now that he heard Yong Shan mentioned the matter and blocked himself even before he could open his mouth to speak, suddenly he felt ashamed and a sense of hatred in his heart.
After a while, Yong Sheng said sullenly, “This is what my mother’s intention, and I just came here by my mother’s orders. Anyway, since I have been waiting all night, at least I did my best. If the Crown Prince wants to watch us die, then there is no other way.”
“I don’t want anyone to die. A country has the country law, the Crown Prince must also handle things in a fair way.”
“Who doesn’t know you are fair-minded?”
Yong Shan listened to his unruly words and was not happy in his heart. However, the bottom line of his heart was so deep that he could just ignore this rude word from Yong Sheng. On his face, he showed only a faint smile, and said nothing else.
Yong Sheng stood up and looked at Yong Shan from a condescending position. His eyes moved, not knowing what to think. After a while, there was a sneer on his face, and he suddenly said, “There is something that my mother wants me to give to the Crown Prince.” He looked around and made sure that no one was present, then pulled something out from his arms and handed it to Yong Shan.
Yong Shan glanced at the weird look of Yong Sheng, and took over the thing in his hand.
The outer layer was wrapped in silk cloth. He unwrapped the cloth, and when he opened it and looked inside, Yong Shan’s face suddenly became dark.
He was always indifferent to emotions, mostly he was cold and calm. At this time, his sinking face emitted a cold feeling, so cold that it was almost like a layer of frost. His eyes were cold, and the two black pupils seemed to be carved out of ice and snow, they were terrifying.
Seeing him like this, Yong Sheng lowered his voice and asked, “Can the Crown Prince be fair in this case as well?”
Yong Shan didn’t say a word. His five fingers clenched, almost crumpled the silk cloth in his hand, and stood up slowly.
Yong Sheng was frightened by his momentum and couldn’t help taking a step back. His face was no longer smiling. He stared at Yong Shan and said: “I’m not going to threaten the Crown Prince. The thing have already been handed over to you, you want to burn or destroy it, it’s up to you. Uncle’s matter, whether you care or not is also your decision.” He said, and stepped back.
After he finished speaking, his heel had already stepped on the edge of the door.
Yong Sheng felt at ease. He had always had the illusion that Yong Shan would lose it and pounce on him at any time without his notice. When he got to the door, he bowed and gave a salute, saying: “The night is late, Your Highness Crown Prince. Brother is taking his leave.”
Without waiting for Yong Shan to speak, he immediately walked out of the gate and got into his warm chair.
His forehead was cold, and it was the cold that was soaked in sweat.
Taizi ch 5: update on 14 June.
CrazedPlanet 