Nan Rongchen signaled the guards to open the door, stepped up two stone steps, and stopped beneath the eaves built with gray tiles. He pulled out a silk handkerchief to wipe away the dampness on his hands, and after Qi Yan put away the umbrella, he tossed the handkerchief away lightly and strode into the cramped main hall.
Qi Yan subconsciously reached out to catch it. When the smooth silk texture brushed against his hand, he belatedly cursed under his breath. Even a mere handkerchief was pushed to the absolute extreme of extravagance, yet he was ordered around like this as if he were a menial servant. He raised his hand, intending to throw the handkerchief away, but Nan Rongchen happened to glance at him at that exact moment.
Enduring humiliation for the greater good, he took a deep breath, put the handkerchief away, and the soul-intoxicating, dream-shattering borneol incense faded along into his sleeve.
Though called a main hall, it contained only a square wooden table propped up by decayed wood, with two chairs standing on either side, harmonizing quite well with the mottled walls.
The guards had already diligently wiped the wooden chair clean. Nan Rongchen bent down to wipe the armrest before reluctantly sitting down.
Qi Yan stood to one side holding his sword, coldly watching this extravagant and self-indulgent behavior. Rumor had it that this tyrant had won battle after battle when he was the crown prince, which was probably just him stealing the military achievements of others.
“Your Majesty, Helian Yi has arrived.” The guards respectfully saluted Nan Rongchen, then changed their attitude with the shifting winds as they looked at Helian Yi. “Audacious Helian Yi, why do you not quickly pay respects to His Majesty!”
Helian Yi wore coarse linen garments that barely sufficed to cover his body, and at a glance, he looked sallow and gaunt, yet it failed to mask his innate arrogance and unruliness, making the guard who kicked the back of his knee look shabby and comical by comparison.
In his past life, Nan Rongchen knew that Helian Yi possessed plenty of spine, capable of wielding a sword to stab the personal guards who betrayed him to death even while severely wounded on the battlefield.
Yet at that time, he was single-mindedly obsessed with the grand ambition of unifying the world. When Helian Yi was first escorted to Shangjing, he had people subject him to beatings with sticks, considering it venting the hatred of the soldiers of Linyue.
Under the ravages of war, each fought for their respective country. In the end, he spared Helian Yi’s life and tossed him into the temporary imperial residence to fend for himself.
Later on, Zhou Yanzhi offered advice, stating that expanding territory and making decisive, ruthless executions were the fortune of Linyue, but benevolence and might should be applied in tandem, proposing that he release Helian Yi back to Shule.
On one hand, Helian Yi had behaved in an orderly and law-abiding manner over the years, whereas the King of Shule harbored restless ambitions time and again. If they helped Helian Yi recapture the throne, it could ensure Shule’s loyalty. On the other hand, it would let the people of the world know that he did not drive surrendered generals to absolute extinction.
These words came straight from the heart, and every single word reeked of loyalty. Nan Rongchen did not think much of it. Zhou Yanzhi was dragging his sickly body to plan strategies for him; if even this had to be doubted, then he had no need to be a human being.
As for what happened afterward, this matter naturally became yet another crime laid against him.
When Helian Yi was pressed down by two guards and his knees were about to touch the floor, Nan Rongchen spoke lazily, “If he wishes to stand, let him stand.”
The two guards beamed smiles toward Nan Rongchen and retreated to the side, allowing Helian Yi to rise to his feet.
Nan Rongchen had to tilt his head slightly upward to catch the emotions in Helian Yi’s eyes. It was very simple: he also wanted to kill him.
He had seen such gazes plenty of times, but he disliked this feeling of being looked down upon from above. “Forget it, Qi Yan, help the heir kneel down.”
This time, Qi Yan obeyed the royal decree with genuine sincerity, cleanly dislodging his sword and striking the back of Helian Yi’s knees, causing the man to drop heavily onto the ground.
“We have come this time to ask for the heir’s assistance in a matter,” Nan Rongchen stared unconcernedly straight into those pair of hawk-like eyes brimming with towering hatred. “After the spring hunt, lead troops to attack Yuezhi.”
“Once the matter is accomplished, you are entirely free to return to Shule, whether you wish to seek revenge or seize the throne from your cousin, We will not interfere.”
Upon hearing these words, Helian Yi clenched his fists so tightly that the veins on his neck bulged visibly. “Nan Rongchen, you are delusional! One day, I will definitely skin you alive and pull your bones apart!”
In his past life, Helian Yi had not spoken thus. At that time, he summoned Helian Yi in accordance with Zhou Yanzhi’s memorial, and Helian Yi endured humiliation and submitted. Even so, he still threw the man into the military camp to be ground down for a month.
During the hard-fought battles against Shule back then, his left and right vanguards were killed and crippled respectively, all courtesy of Helian Yi. Calculated now, that person should have been one of the rare few who genuinely charged into battle for him.
He lacked the magnanimity required to tolerate such a person. If their positions were reversed, Helian Yi would not let him off easily either.
Yet today, Helian Yi hurled vicious words at him, even making a motion to spring forward and pounce. It took three guards stepping forward to finally pin the man down and bind him securely with ropes.
Nan Rongchen could not be bothered to exert himself more than necessary, using the tip of his shoe to hook the mad dog’s chin. “Since the heir is unwilling, then you shall first learn how to obey, and only then go fight Yuezhi.”
“We see that your innate talent is peerless, making you quite suited to be trained as a hound.”
Watching from the side, Qi Yan found it immensely satisfying. Who did not know that Helian Yi’s mother was a princess of Yuezhi, and the two clans had intermarried across generations, sharing intertwined bloodlines.
Nan Rongchen having Helian Yi lead Linyue’s troops to attack Yuezhi could be described as both vicious and venomous, but Helian Yi deserved to suffer this humiliation.
“There is one more matter,” Nan Rongchen dismissed the guards and leaned forward to speak. “Even if you harbor a thousand reluctances, you must at least consider Our brother Nanrong Chengyu. To be precise, Li Chengyu. After all, he is the one who pleaded for mercy on your behalf.”
This matter was a long story. He only learned after dying once that when Nanrong Chengyu was wandering among the commoners, he had crossed paths with Helian Yi, and their friendship was anything but ordinary, at least from Helian Yi’s unilateral perspective.
Helian Yi had yet to learn how to rein in his temper, presumably because he had yet to reunite with Nanrong Chengyu.
Although he was a villain, he could occasionally do a good deed and help the two of them continue their past fate.
To help someone, one should help them all the way. It would also serve to neatly round out the plot for Nanrong Chengyu, seeing as his brother was currently single-mindedly hiding his capabilities and would never risk suspicion by pleading for Helian Yi.
The success of a protagonist was inseparable from the divine assistance of all sorts of figures, and Helian Yi was merely one of the links.
“Nan Rongchen, what do you mean by this?” Helian Yi was bound so tightly he could not budge, and the malice born of violent rage filled his eyes entirely as he raised his head and rebuked him like a wolf king of the grasslands. “You dare!”
Nan Rongchen used the dagger on the table to lift the edge of Helian Yi’s sleeve, sincerely questioning the black-and-purple bruised areas underneath. “Any random person can subject the heir to fists and kicks without the heir being able to fight back, what is there that We would not dare?”
“We believe the heir would not wish for Nanrong Chengyu to bear the crime of collaborating with the enemy and betraying his country.”
His phrasing was tactful. According to the plot, the protagonist Nanrong Chengyu possessed a majestic and handsome appearance, a gentle and refined yet uninhibited disposition, and excelled in both literary and martial arts. In short, he was omnipotent.
Such a figure naturally won the adoration of everyone. Though Nanrong Chengyu harbored no cut-sleeve tendencies, he could not withstand Helian Yi’s deep, impassioned devotion toward him.
Taming wolves and eagles could not be rushed. If he exposed the little bit of hidden affection in Helian Yi’s heart right now, it would only yield the opposite of his intended effect.
Level-three rule-breaking comment: Cat, you… at least your formula is correct… sigh.
Leaving aside everything else, I can testify that those romance novels were truly not read in vain.
Speaking of which, isn’t Nanrong Chengyu a transmigrator? Pull out our dog-blood novels, wouldn’t this just be slaughtering everyone left and right?
What did reading romance novels matter? Nan Rongchen furrowed his brows slightly. The scholars of the other world possessed deplorable tastes and mediocre character. Unable to find a place to hurl insults at him, they pointed fingers at random, making it better to simply shut up.
“When you reach Yuezhi, you are entirely free to take the opportunity to rebel. By then, We will be powerless against you. No matter how you look at it, this transaction is not a loss for you.”
Helian Yi stared fixedly at the pair of eyes inches away, keenly aware that they concealed a bottomless conspiracy, yet unable to see through what sort of plot Nanrong Chen was actually hatching. “By the Great Azure God above, you will meet your retribution. Sooner or later, I will make you kneel before me and beg for mercy.”
“You had best pray to your Central Plains gods, and hope you do not die by Our hands first.”
Pray to gods, Xie Chen? Nan Rongchen found it amusing and made no effort to hold it back, letting out a light chuckle.
Nanrong Xian would go stir up the imperial court, and Helian Yi would go throw the borderlands into chaos. Once these two tasks succeeded, it would be more than enough to prove that he lacked both talent and competence, making him entirely unfit to serve as a stepping stone for the protagonist.
Added to his wanton humiliation of these people, it stood to reason that before long, he would be able to utilize the system to fake his death and make a clean getaway.
As for Linyue, he smoothed away his smile. The people of Linyue revered the Wu God, and successive sovereigns personally visited the Wu God Temple every year, joining the common folk in celebration after making sacrifices to the gods.
He had once stood atop walls stretching tens of feet high, watching the myriad households live in peace and prosperity amid blazing festive lights, harboring an aspiration to bring peace to the people. Yet he had also been reviled by the masses, who claimed he was born close to a demon and that only his death could purge his karmic obstacles.
Facts had proven that Linyue ought to be guarded by Nanrong Chengyu. As for the protagonist, he was omnipotent.
As a tyrant, he had no need to busy himself with such worries.
“Someone come. The heir has suffered accidental injuries, change him into a fresh set of clothes and bring him back to the palace to recuperate.”
As Qi Yan was pondering what plot Nanrong Chen was hatching by dismissing his attendants, he heard this command. “What are you trying to do again?”
The spring rain had just cleared, and Nan Rongchen stood under the eaves, looking up at the indigo-colored sky. “Too much talk.”
It seemed negotiations had broken down. Nan Rongchen, who always fancied himself in total control of everything, had his moments of eating humble pie too. Taking malicious pleasure in his misfortune, Qi Yan sneered, “Since you stumbled in Helian Yi’s hands, at least your life is still intact. Next time you fall into mine, things might not turn out the same.”
His ill intentions were impossible to conceal, so he simply decided to make things as unpleasant as possible for Nan Rongchen before sending him on his way to the afterlife.
A ruler was inherently suspicious and overly protective of his life. While Nan Rongchen appeared to lower his defenses against him on the surface, who knew how many secret sentinels were watching him in the shadows. Yet he deliberately reminded Nan Rongchen at every turn that he harbored the intent to execute the tyrant with his own hands, never letting up for a single moment.
However, Nan Rongchen merely uttered a single “Mhm,” leaving him with nothing but a retreating figure amid the courtyard full of voices shouting, “Respectfully send off His Majesty.”
Clad in dark robes blending into the clouds, the figure inexplicably carried a trace of desolation.
Qi Yan stepped forward to follow, but before he had taken two steps, he heard a squeaking sound behind him. Helian Yi walked out unscathed, bypassing him to chase after Nan Rongchen.
He gripped his sword to block the man’s path. “Helian Yi, you too have today?”
A guard hurriedly stepped forward to smooth things over. “This lord, His Majesty has decreed to bring the heir back to the palace.”
Qi Yan disdained to argue with a fence-sitter. Returning to the palace was fine; he would find a time to kill them both together. Before this thought could even dissipate, his wrist bone was gripped in a death vise by Helian Yi, accompanied by a curse thrown in his face, “Shameless thing.”
Whose mother was he calling shameless? Qi Yan immediately reached for his sword, but the silk handkerchief tucked in his sleeve was pulled halfway out by the friction. Helian Yi brushed past him, taking advantage of the moment he was dealing with the handkerchief.
“Damn it, I’ll kill you first once we are back in the palace!”
The Jiuan Imperial Residence had its blueprints personally drafted and its materials selected and supervised by the Pavilion Master of the Bureau of Mechanisms. With its overlapping pavilions and winding corridors, it could truly be called a work of exquisite ingenuity.
Ever since the completion of the imperial residence, the late emperor had designated the third-month spring hunt to take place here. Nan Rongchen walked alone to the poolside, where greenery was already sprouting, and spoke to a little palace maid holding fish feed, “Share some with Us.”
The palace maid’s cheeks flushed red as she handed over the fish feed. This was her first time laying eyes on the sacred countenance of the sovereign; who would have expected His Majesty to possess such a striking appearance, and his temperament was so amiable, even smiling at a lowly palace maid like her.
Coaxing fish and teasing birds was inherently one of the great joys of the mortal world. Nan Rongchen leaned against the railing, scattering the fish feed meticulously as he watched the cluster of red and white carp gather and scatter, feeling exceptionally at ease.
As one round of feeding frenzy ended, a red-and-white carp crashed against the pond wall yet failed to learn its lesson, swimming in a circle before crashing into it once more, as if refusing to believe that the boundaries of its world held any restrictions.
“Reporting to His Majesty, the Empress Dowager has sent someone to invite you back to the palace.”