Chapter 64: Wielding the Big Hammer Part 1

As dusk gradually deepened, Wei Tingxia sat in the carriage and returned to the marquis manor. Before entering the gate, he specifically had his personal guard go in to check first and confirm that Prince Chen had left. Only then did he hold up that skewer of candied hawthorns and saunter back to the study.

“Here, for you.”

As soon as he entered the room, he handed the candied hawthorns to Yan Xinfeng. “Old Uncle’s skill at boiling sugar is excellent, better than in the Northern Border.”

Yan Xinfeng took the candied hawthorns and twirled them between his fingers a few times. “The hawthorns in the Northern Border are subpar; they truly aren’t as good as here.”

He had little interest in sweets, far less than Wei Tingxia. After looking at them for a bit, he tried to hand them back.

Wei Tingxia refused. “I bought these for you.”

He leaned half his body against the edge of the desk, reached into his sleeve to rummage for a moment, then pulled out an oil paper package. He unfolded it to reveal the soft and fluffy cloud cakes inside. “This one too.”

Before his words even finished, another oil paper package landed on the table, containing pork tenderloin fried to a crispy golden brown. Wei Tingxia grinned and pushed all these snacks toward Yan Xinfeng in one go. “All yours.”

Yan Xinfeng sat stunned in his chair, his gaze shifting back and forth between the food and Wei Tingxia’s face. He cautiously bit off one candied hawthorn, chewed and swallowed it carefully, then slowly said, “I heard you made a little money at Jade Peak Temple?”

“A few taels of loose silver—does that even count as money?” Wei Tingxia asked with a smile.

Yan Xinfeng shook his head. “It might not count for you, but scraping some sincere money out of Prince Chen’s wife isn’t easy.”

He took another bite of the candied hawthorns and waited for Wei Tingxia to speak.

Wei Tingxia wasn’t at all surprised that Yan Xinfeng knew what had happened at Jade Peak Temple. Those three personal guards were his men, after all, and they would surely report every detail.

It would’ve been a problem if they hadn’t.

He let out a light hum, got up, and moved to the chair by the window to sit down. He crossed his legs and nodded his chin toward the table. “Here, all of it’s spent, not a single copper left.”

“Oh, wait.”

Wei Tingxia seemed to remember something. He rummaged in his sleeve again and pinched out the last copper coin. He dangled it in front of Yan Xinfeng like a show-off, then with a “pat” flicked it precisely into the jujube flower pot by the window.

His expression was smug, just like a cat returning home laden with spoils, eager to show off its prey and even generously sharing some.

As the recipient of this sharing, Yan Xinfeng couldn’t help but smile faintly. The military book that had been set aside since morning finally got turned to the next page.

“As long as you had fun, it’s fine. When I heard you went to Jade Peak Temple, I was worried something might go wrong. But now it seems you’re the one with the greater magic.”

Wei Tingxia caught the note of admiration in his tone and felt extremely pleased. He watched Yan Xinfeng eat the candied hawthorns one by one and couldn’t help leaning forward to snatch one and pop it in his mouth.

Seeing this, Yan Xinfeng tried to give him the whole skewer, but Wei Tingxia waved it off.

“No need,” he said mumbledly. “I’ll just have one.”

After eating it, he didn’t leave. He leaned against the table again and chatted with Yan Xinfeng about the day’s events.

“What did you gain from meeting Prince Chen today?”

“Nothing much,” Yan Xinfeng shook his head. “He used the excuse of celebrating the Empress Dowager’s birthday to chat with me, talked a lot about Northern Border matters, but nothing important. Only at the end, as he was leaving, did he casually ask about the main camp.”

After all, it was their first meeting; asking too much would expose his real intentions. Even if Prince Chen was burning with anxiety, he had to hold back.

Wei Tingxia nodded, not finding it unexpected.

Yan Xinfeng finished the candied hawthorns and then slowly picked up a piece of cloud cake to eat. Though he ate slowly, he didn’t stop. Wei Tingxia watched and felt tempted, so he picked up two pieces and put them in his mouth.

After that, every few bites Yan Xinfeng took, he’d snatch a piece. They finished the cloud cakes and moved on to the crispy pork. By the time they finished talking business and the steward came in to say dinner was ready, neither of them was hungry.

Wei Tingxia was shocked in his heart. He looked back at the empty oil paper packages, then at Yan Xinfeng. “All gone?”

“Mm,” Yan Xinfeng nodded, his brows and eyes carrying a smile. “All eaten.”

The way he looked at Wei Tingxia was as if Wei Tingxia were something terribly cute that he adored to no end and was utterly helpless against.

Wei Tingxia belatedly realized he’d been teased.

“…”

Since they couldn’t eat dinner, it was all given to the servants. They only kept two bowls of sweet soup. Wei Tingxia slowly stirred his bowl with a spoon and, facing the candlelight on the table, told Yan Xinfeng, “He Chenshu said she’s been dreaming of her deceased daughter.”

Yan Xinfeng raised a brow upon hearing this.

It wasn’t that the news was particularly fresh, but Wei Tingxia’s casual tone in mentioning the names of imperial relatives struck him as amusing.

He had no reverence for imperial authority. Back in the borderlands, he’d dared to shout that the Emperor had an early death in his fortunes. Now back in the capital, calling out a couple of imperial relatives’ names was nothing.

Yan Xinfeng didn’t mind and said indifferently, “It’s common knowledge that a girl died in Prince Chen’s manor. When did she start having these nightmares?”

“No idea,” Wei Tingxia shook his head. “Probably just these past few months.”

Yan Xinfeng guessed, “The girl came back for revenge?”

Wei Tingxia couldn’t believe what he’d heard.

“You’re a general! How do you still believe in that superstitious nonsense?”

Wei Tingxia set down his spoon and scolded righteously. “If this world had not just people but ghosts too, it’d be overcrowded to death! As the supreme commander of the Profound North Army, you should be rational and objective, recognizing that there are no gods or ghosts in this world at all!”

“…”

Yan Xinfeng silently looked at the best representative of superstitious nonsense right in front of him. After a moment of silence, he pointed out, “Ever since you arrived, the plants in the courtyard have grown wildly. The steward is already considering a full renovation.”

Wei Tingxia: “…”

“Cough, the point is she’s having dreams because she’s panicking, not because the child came back,” he changed the subject. “She asked if they should change the child’s burial site, but really she just wants to know if she’ll stay in the capital in the end or follow her husband into exile.”

Even if she stayed in the capital, there were two possibilities: either the rebellion succeeded for real, or it failed and they all died, bones mixed together and buried anywhere.

The princess consort was from a noble family. While Prince Chen was off fighting, she stayed in the capital waiting. Though she wanted to support her husband’s soaring ambitions, rebellion meant losing her head. She had to think it through; after all, if it failed—imprisonment, exile, family execution—none of it was something she could endure.

Wei Tingxia gave some vague answers, and she started panicking.

“Great General, let me teach you something,” Wei Tingxia picked up his spoon again, his gaze especially serious in the candlelight. “Since ancient times, no one has ever settled life and death by divination alone. A Daoist says a couple words; if they don’t acknowledge it, they won’t, but if they do, it’s because they already thought that way and are just going with the flow.”

After speaking, Wei Tingxia, feeling he had a real knack for teaching, lowered his head to sip some sweet soup and waited for his student’s praise.

But after a long wait with no sound, when he looked up, he found Yan Xinfeng still frozen in the same position, staring deeply at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing,” Yan Xinfeng’s tone was even. “I just remembered some things from before.”

Back in the Northern Border, Wei Tingxia had been the same—scheming boldly, commanding the army like extensions of his own arms, as if there was nothing on the battlefield he couldn’t see through.

Perhaps the first time Yan Xinfeng’s heart raced for love was seeing such a Wei Tingxia.

Seeing he wouldn’t explain clearly, Wei Tingxia rolled his eyes. “I thought only old people did that.”

Yan Xinfeng calmly replied, “Looks like you don’t understand people very well.”

That was saying he wasn’t human.

Wei Tingxia kicked Yan Xinfeng under the table. Yan Xinfeng didn’t move, letting him kick; aside from his mouth, he was utterly compliant everywhere else.

The two finally drank their sweet soup quietly.

…

…

Meanwhile, in Prince Jin’s manor.

Li Yan listened to his spy’s report, his brows furrowing tighter with every word.

“Wait.”

He turned around. “What did you just say?”

“Wei Tingxia bought a lot of things from the market—snacks and toys. His personal guards stuck too close, so we didn’t dare get near, but we vaguely heard him say while chatting with someone that he was buying some for Marquis Yan.”

“What did he buy?”

“Some food,” the spy said. “Candied hawthorns, cloud cakes…”

A teacup flew past his scalp and smashed viciously against the pillar behind him, shattering with a piercing sound.

“Useless trash!”

Li Yan was so angry his vision went black; his voice squeezed out through gritted teeth. “This prince told you to keep watch, and this is what you bring back? A mere doctor—putting it bluntly, a pretty face earning his keep—what snacks he buys, you see clearly! What did Old Three and Yan Xinfeng plot behind closed doors? That’s the life-or-death matter! Did you spies get anything?!”

The spy kowtowed in panic, his voice trembling incoherently. “Your Highness! Mainly, the marquis manor is too tightly guarded! He doesn’t have many servants to begin with, and they’re all old hands of over ten years—impossible to infiltrate. Plus, Yan Xinfeng’s body is much better now, his martial prowess exceptional; anyone getting close, he notices. Let alone anything else!”

Li Yan’s chest heaved violently; the spy’s pleas were like cold water on red-hot iron, sizzling.

He forced himself to calm down and paced a few steps in the study, each one heavy.

What the spy said was true.

This sick tiger Yan Xinfeng had truly recovered, claws and fangs sharp again, his might even greater than before. Li Yan had no way to deal with him.

Moreover, the marquis manor had been run for years, impregnable as a fortress. Breaking through from inside was next to impossible.

But now the arrow was on the string, ready to fly.

At the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet, with Marquis Yan back in the capital—on the surface to celebrate, but in secret surely plotting to drive him and Old Three out of the capital. If he didn’t act soon, once Yan Xinfeng allied with the Emperor to force them out, it’d be too late!

No! Absolutely not!

A ruthless fury surged to the top of Li Yan’s head, overwhelming all hesitation and scruples.

What royal dignity, what gentlemanly airs—compared to family fortunes and towering power, they were nothing!

Since things had come to this, face and decorum could wait; achieving the goal was what mattered!

“You, go find some people for this prince.”

Li Yan’s voice was extremely low, but each word clear, carrying an unquestionable command. “Men… and women too. Looks must be top-notch, but… build and physique, best if they can wield a big hammer—pick those who look sturdy and robust!”