Chapter 7 Part 2

Guan Yunji snorted with laughter. “Your tongue is truly venomous! Chancellor Su dotes on his son like life itself. Stop slandering Su Mingya. If your words of his short life spread, Chancellor Su will hear of it and embarrass your father in court.”

Zhang Dengqing didn’t want to hear any more. He withdrew his inner power. Exhausted, cold sweat broke out all over him, and his body instantly felt drained and weak.

Powerless, he waited in his place as a servant, sweating coldly. Staying alive is paramount. Peace is most important. Xiaodeng is still young. I need to protect him until he grows up, until our enemies in the martial world are old or dead. When the time comes, if Xiaodeng agrees, we’ll leave this place together.

Truly, wealth and rank were not his wish. The imperial domain was beyond hope.

That night, Gu Xiaodeng was so exhausted he lay limp on his bed, dozing. He normally had a great appetite, but tonight he was too tired even to eat. And that was just the first day.

Zhu Mi had also left him homework. He had to memorize the Book of Rites rules he’d learned that morning. He had no choice but to lie on his stomach and silently recite them. At least he knew a few characters, he thought. If he were completely illiterate, that would be true despair.

As he was silently reciting, Zhang Dengqing entered alone, carrying a medicine box. Gu Xiaodeng instantly revived, scrambled up, and rushed over for a hug. Clinging to him and swaying, he acted cutely and whispered the interesting things he thought he’d seen. One was Blossom Ashes, the gyrfalcon. Two was meeting his sister and brother. Three was meeting the “kind person,” Ge Dongchen.

“Brother, let me tell you, this afternoon I met a cheerful, straightforward good guy! His name is Ge Dongchen. He’s only one year older than me, but he looks even taller than you. Oh my god, I used to think you were a giant. Now I see you’re just a medium-short guy. And I’m just the little shorty…”

Zhang Dengqing’s heart ached. He tousled the back of Gu Xiaodeng’s head. “Those young masters from big families like that, they’re masters of sweet talk and backstabbing. You think he’s nice, but who knows how he’ll put you down behind your back? Don’t treat them as friends. If you’re lonely, just look back at me. Wherever you are, I’m there. Your brother is always your little buddy.”

“Yeah, you’re right. But Brother Dongchen was really nice. He taught me the best way to ride…” Gu Xiaodeng’s voice was soft, but he suddenly sensed Zhang Dengqing’s low mood and quickly changed tack. “But I still rode too long. My back is so sore. Can you massage it?”

Zhang Dengqing immediately told him to lie down on the bed. Seizing the only time they had alone together, he applied medicine and shared information.

“Xiaodeng, you met your real sister and brothers today. How did it feel?”

“They don’t really like me.” Gu Xiaodeng rubbed the calluses on his palms, grinning. “But, brother, I kind of like them. If I get the chance, I want to sit and chat with them. I want to hear them share their troubles. I want to see them truly relax. We only met briefly today, but I felt that Second Sister has shadows around her. And Third Brother? He looked like a zither strung so tight, if you plucked his strings, the whole instrument would just snap. Bang.“

“They’re dressed in silk and satin, their heads full of grand schemes and bossing people around. Why do you care if they’re happy or not, little fool?” Zhang Dengqing’s face was sour, his lip curled. Gu Ruhui was a girl who’d just had her marriage with the royal family called off. He didn’t feel right judging her. But Gu Pinghan? That kid needed a punch.

Gu Xiaodeng remained optimistic. “Alright, I’ll just worry about us. Now I only have that seven-year-old fifth brother I haven’t met yet. He’s young. Maybe we can play together?”

“Don’t just look at his age. The kids in these families are born with eight hundred schemes. They’re little kids doing big business, all hustling in the fame-and-profit game.” Zhang Dengqing pushed at the bruises on Gu Xiaodeng’s lower back and filled him in—Gu Ruhui’s marriage to the Second Prince, the Crown Princess and Gu Jinyu’s master-servant relationship.

Gu Xiaodeng listened, stunned. But his focus was always on people, not events. “That Second Prince doesn’t sound like a good guy! Second Sister was clearly set up!”

Zhang Dengqing sweepingly opened fire. “Good people are extinct.”

The two chatted a bit longer. Gu Xiaodeng recited his morning lessons to Zhang Dengqing. Even the most tedious formalities became interesting through his laughter.

After Zhang Dengqing finished applying the medicine, it was nearly time for Gu Xiaodeng to sleep. He could only tousle his head again, tell him to rest well, then retreat, his heart aching like a worried old mother’s.

He could only keep watch from a nearby side room. Fortunately, the Gu family looked down on them, so they hadn’t restricted his movements too much. When he returned to his room, he checked the small bundle they’d brought in. Other than the jade ring and the stack of letters the Prince and Princess had taken, everything else was untouched.

That was their traveling money. It might be nothing in the Gu household, but outside those gates, it was a considerable sum.

Zhang Dengqing calculated two sums. One portion would be used to grease palms for his brother inside the Gu household. The other was for their future. The abacus in his heart was clicking away furiously when a knock came at the door.

The night was deep. Zhang Dengqing jumped in fright and quickly stowed away their valuables. Frowning, he opened the door. He’d thought it would be Zhu Mi annoying him at this hour. Instead, a young maid with an extraordinary bearing stood at the door.

Zhang Dengqing had more patience with young girls. His brow smoothed. “It’s so late. Who are you looking for? You’re not one of this courtyard’s maids, are you? I’ve never seen you.”

The little maid curtsied. “Brother Zhang, my master has a question for you. Will you follow me there?”

Zhang Dengqing smiled amiably. “No, little sister, look up at the hour. Who summons someone for questions in the dead of night? Is this just a trick to take me somewhere, throw a sack over my head, and beat me up?”

“The master’s questions concern the Cousin Young Master.”

Zhang Dengqing froze. His brow furrowed again and again. He glanced toward Gu Xiaodeng’s room in the distance, but in the end, he followed the maid.

On the way, his heart was in turmoil—seven horizontal strokes and eight vertical ones. When he arrived at the place, which wasn’t entirely unfamiliar, he practically rolled his eyes into the darkness.

This was the back room where he’d been dragged two days ago to learn the rules. That afternoon, Gu Pinghan had suddenly opened the door and walked in. He passed several kneeling, head-bowed stewards and sat calmly in the main seat to interrogate him.

Now, as he entered, the room was dimly lit. Gu Pinghan sat in the main seat just as he had that day, holding a decorative book, his long lashes lowered, cold as frost.

Zhang Dengqing cursed him in his heart.

The maid silently retreated. The room, which wasn’t particularly spacious, now held only two young men of vastly different status.

Zhang Dengqing, remembering how this punk had joined the others in mocking Gu Xiaodeng, felt his anger flare. “Oh, isn’t this the Heir who’s so busy preparing for the Autumn Exam, he barely touches the ground? Late at night, instead of holding your sacred texts, you call people in for questions. You can’t ask them in broad daylight? Only in the dead of night? The Prince’s Mansion has so many rules. Which new rule did the Heir invent now?”

Zhang Dengqing’s tone dripped with sarcasm. Gu Pinghan lifted his eyelids. He maintained that same icy expression, sitting on the main seat, looking down at him with cold indifference.

Zhang Dengqing talked for a long time without getting a reaction. Every punch landed on cotton. At a loss, he shut his mouth and sat down.

An eerie silence stretched for a long while before Gu Pinghan slowly spoke.

“I want to hear you talk about life among the common folk again.”

Zhang Dengqing twisted his head toward him in confusion.

In the dim candlelight, Gu Pinghan lowered his eyes again, flipping through the book in his hand, saying nothing more.

Zhang Dengqing’s heart churned. His eyebrows twitched—one up, one down. Finally, he squeezed out a sentence: “Then stop wearing that dead man’s face. Smile for me. If I’m cheered up, I’ll tell you.”

Gu Pinghan flipped through the book, unmoved. Zhang Dengqing waited like a lord for his reaction. But after waiting, all he got was the Heir standing up and heading for the door. It looked like he was about to leave in displeasure.

But when Gu Pinghan reached the door, he opened it and glanced at the night sky outside. Then he turned back.

He walked up to Zhang Dengqing and stood over him, looking down. Cold, aloof, noble.

Yet in the end, like a marionette starting to move, he slowly, slowly did as Zhang Dengqing had asked.

Late at night, under fading stars, Zhu Mi wrote a letter in a pitch-black room. He didn’t need to light a lamp; the faint moonlight was enough for him to see.

He summarized the daily happenings in the Gu household, sending them by dove or eagle to the Imperial Palace. Even though something had happened today that deeply shocked him, his narrative remained calm and detached. Further judgment was left to his master.

The letter was soon sent off. Zhu Mi stayed in the dark room, unable to lie down for a long time. He sat alone, sinking into dusty memories, lost and depressed.

Blossom Ashes, the gyrfalcon, carried the letter swiftly and silently to the Imperial Palace. Expertly, it plucked the message from its leg and dropped it into its master’s hand.

Zhu Liu stood by the window. Gu Jinyu sat before the desk, calmly unfolding the letter.

He read it from beginning to end three times. He had never read a letter so intently for so long. So long that Zhu Liu sensed something was wrong. “Master, did my brother write something important? Why are you reading it for so long?”

Gu Jinyu didn’t answer. In the end, he just let out a cold, mirthless laugh.