Chapter 10
Chapter 10
He had thought Xie Chengze had long since forgotten Shen Yuan. Yet after reuniting more than a decade later, the two of them had already managed to acquire a private secret behind his back.
Just moments ago, he had even harbored the faint and laughable hope that perhaps Second Brother truly had grown weary and no longer wished to fight him, that perhaps Second Brother had returned to the gentle, smiling person he once was. Now, however, he realized that Xie Chengze might never have changed at all. He was still someone who treated everyone well.
Everyone, that was, except him.
Xie Jinyu did not know what he had done wrong in the past.
But he must have gone wrong somewhere, or his once amiable, easygoing Second Brother would never have gradually changed beyond recognition.
He was responsible for that.
“It seems Second Brother is very fond of Vice Minister Shen. You already regarded him differently from others when you were children.” Beneath his golden sleeves, Xie Jinyu clenched both fists and forced himself to sound casual.
“Ha, did I?” Xie Chengze could find no such memory in his mind, so he laughed it off and spread the praise around evenly. “Young Master Shen is indeed outstanding. Of course, my little Crown Prince is outstanding too.”
Xie Jinyu froze, then abruptly lifted his head to stare at Xie Chengze.
After fifteen years together, he knew the slightest fluctuation in Xie Chengze’s mood by heart. There had unmistakably been a measure of sincerity in Xie Chengze’s words just now.
Second Brother was acknowledging him.
Second Brother had even said he was more outstanding than Shen Yuan.
His fists clenched tighter beneath his sleeves. The eighteen-year-old, praised by the elder brother he had admired since childhood, could not help straightening his back. A trace of awkward shyness crossed his eyes, and even the tips of his ears reddened unnaturally.
Shen Yuan keenly noticed the change.
This was the first time he had ever seen the Crown Prince so furious.
In his previous life, the Crown Prince had always met others with a smile. Only toward Xie Chengze had he shown any obvious exasperation, yet even then he had never flushed with anger the way he did now.
And still, Shen Yuan vaguely sensed that something was off. He simply could not grasp that fleeting oddity.
“Your Highness.” Shen Yuan spoke, breaking the peculiar atmosphere between the brothers. “We came today because we have a serious matter to ask of you.”
Xie Jinyu cleared his throat and sat up properly. “Yes. That’s right.”
“Oh~ Is that so~?” Xie Chengze noticed nothing unusual. He slung an arm around Xie Jinyu’s shoulders like they were the best of brothers and said with a smile, “Then let this prince guess why you’ve come to see me.”
The instant Xie Chengze embraced him, Xie Jinyu’s entire body went rigid.
Second Brother had made such sudden displays of closeness before, but they had always been empty courtesies, his ulterior motives obvious at a glance. For some reason, though, this time Xie Jinyu felt as if they had returned to childhood, when Second Brother would put an arm around his shoulders simply to show affection for his younger brother.
His heart filled with the dependence of regaining something lost, mingled with anxiety and unease until he could no longer name what he felt. Lowering his eyes slightly, he tentatively moved one hand beneath his sleeve toward Xie Chengze – only to stop short.
He was afraid of bursting this brotherly bond, fragile as a bubble.
Beside his ear, Xie Chengze’s soft, gentle voice drawled unhurriedly, “Yizhou has a peculiar climate: summer floods inevitably bring winter famine. Now that the Min River has flooded and destroyed the dikes, reconstruction cannot begin until the dry season. That means the farmers can grow only coarse grains that mature quickly in the meantime.”
“But such crops usually yield little and keep poorly. They could never supply enough food to carry the population of Yizhou’s sixteen counties through the winter. Grain prices will soar, leaving the people across the prefecture unable to afford food. A severe famine will follow, and people eating one another or selling one another will become commonplace.”
“To save money, the Prefect of Yizhou will inevitably put prisoners from every county to work rebuilding the dikes. If even the farmers cannot afford food, the prisoners certainly will not fare any better. The task of rebuilding the dikes is enormous, while the yamen runners supervising the work will be few. Starving prisoners driven mad could easily rebel and attack them…”
Xie Chengze gave a soft laugh. “Once those vicious criminals escape, they can seize the mountains as bandits and waylay the official roads. With the people starving and the authorities doing nothing, corpses will litter Yizhou. Should Heaven prove especially merciless, plague may even spread.”
“If all three hundred thousand taels of relief funds actually reached their destination, the people of Yizhou might still have a chance. But everyone here knows perfectly well that if even fifty thousand taels ultimately make it into the hands of the magistrates of Yizhou’s sixteen counties, that would already count as those people’s ‘mercy.’ Isn’t that so?”
Xie Chengze patted Xie Jinyu’s shoulder and said meaningfully, “Among the memorials Father sent you, quite a few of the court’s pillars must have raised this very matter, correct?”
Xie Jinyu turned sharply toward him. “How did Second Brother know?”
Could Father have shown him those memorials as well?
“Father has always valued you, and he has never neglected your education. He has even been willing to use me as your whetstone. Now that you have reached the age when you ought to put your learning into practice, the disaster in Yizhou makes an exceptionally classic – and cruel – example with which to temper you. Naturally, Father would send you the relevant memorials.”
A bitter smile crossed Xie Chengze’s face, though inwardly he muttered to himself. When he had asked Emperor Jian in the Imperial Study to send over the memorials, he had merely been going with the flow. Even if he had said nothing, Emperor Jian had already intended to do it.
The speaker had meant nothing by it, but the listener took every word to heart. At this explanation, Xie Jinyu shuddered all over. The question that had plagued him for years seemed to unravel in a single instant. He stared at Xie Chengze in astonishment. “Second Brother, could it be… could you…”
Seeing Xie Jinyu so shocked, inspiration struck Xie Chengze. He clasped both of Xie Jinyu’s hands tightly and said with solemn affection, “Jinyu, you need not say another word. You are the younger brother I cherish most. Serving as the whetstone for your growth is what an elder brother should do – and what I have always been willing to do.”
A tingling yet bitter sorrow spread through Xie Jinyu’s entire body. His lips trembled faintly as he gazed at Xie Chengze through reddening eyes, grievance and guilt surging through their depths like a sudden tide.
He had never considered it – never once imagined – that his gentle, brilliant Second Brother had changed beyond recognition and opposed him at every turn solely to cooperate with Father, tempering him and forging his path toward becoming a sovereign!
No wonder. No wonder he had never been able to discover why Second Brother’s nature had suddenly changed. No wonder Second Brother had treated him alone with such coldness –
So Second Brother had never changed. He had always cherished Xie Jinyu above all others!
He had even said Xie Jinyu was the younger brother he cherished most…
When Xie Chengze saw that guilt had reddened Xie Jinyu’s eyes, he knew he had this one in the bag.
Although the Xie Jinyu of the original novel was deeply calculating, his character setting made him care immensely about brotherly bonds. If he had not given the original host chance after chance to mend his ways, Shen Yuan would never have needed to fight the original host for ten long years.
So Xie Chengze simply embellished the story, transforming Emperor Jian’s deliberate but incidental use of him into help he had offered of his own accord. With that, he thoroughly whitewashed his identity as the villain.
Goodness, could he be a genius?
Xie Chengze completely failed to notice that Shen Yuan’s face beside him was nearly black as charcoal. He raised a hand and coughed several times. His cheeks, reddened by the sun, took on a sickly, pained cast thanks to his deliberate pretense of illness. “Cough, cough, cough. You are old enough to stand on your own now. This whetstone you call Second Brother has completed his task and ought to retire.”
And once he retired~ it would be for the rest of his life~
“Second Brother…” Xie Jinyu closed his hand tightly around Xie Chengze’s, as though he meant to press their finger bones together and fuse them within the spaces between his own. Never taking his eyes off Xie Chengze, he said, “This Crown Prince… I will treat you well.”
He would lay all the finest things in the world before Second Brother.
It was a promise he had made as a child.
Utterly unaware of the gravity of the situation, Xie Chengze nodded in satisfaction and continued his deception. “Second Brother also hopes Jinyu will treat him a little better. You are the younger brother Second Brother cherishes most, after all.”
Xie Jinyu lowered his eyes to their intertwined hands, the corners of his lips curving faintly upward. “Of course. This Crown Prince… loves Second Brother most of all.”
He had since childhood, and he still did now.
“Back to the matter at hand. Father intends to send someone to Yizhou to oversee the disaster relief, but the court officials protect one another, and their influence has long since become deeply entangled. None of them are suitable. Only the newly appointed Vice Minister of Rites has yet to join a faction. As Grand Tutor Shen’s pupil, he also possesses an earnest and loyal heart, making him the ideal choice.”
“But Vice Minister Shen is a newcomer, after all. Having only just entered the court, he has no authority to speak of. Even a mighty dragon cannot crush a snake in its own territory, and the local officials may not obey his commands. Another prince must therefore be sent to assist him – or rather, to lend Vice Minister Shen the weight of his influence…”
Xie Chengze raised his head and gave Shen Yuan a half-smile. “The Crown Prince is naturally out of the question, while Fourth Brother possesses little prestige. That leaves only this prince, the Second Prince renowned throughout the realm as Father’s favorite. Who could be more suitable?”
Mindful of the role he was playing, he coughed softly twice before continuing, “So you came to invite me out of retirement and ask me to travel south to Yizhou. Yet you feared I would be reluctant to give up the splendor and comfort of the capital and refuse to suffer hardship there. Am I right?”
In the original novel, the original host had indeed refused to go south to Yizhou. Left with no other choice, the Crown Prince volunteered to go. By backing Shen Yuan, he offended a great many officials, prompting them to take the path of supporting the Second Prince. A faction centered on the Second Prince gradually took shape.
The false dragon’s struggle for the throne began with the disaster in Yizhou.
Xie Jinyu stared at Xie Chengze with a flickering gaze. He had known it: Second Brother’s foolish conduct in the past had all been an act. Now, merely sitting within Chenghuan Hall, he could see the situations at court and in Yizhou with perfect clarity. Was that not proof enough that Second Brother had truly concealed his talents only to temper him?
Sweetness and heartache flowed endlessly through him, but the thought of the dangers in Yizhou added another layer of worry. “The situation in Yizhou is unclear. Traveling there from the capital will take more than a month, and rebuilding the dikes will take over three. If famine or riots break out during that time…”
If Xie Chengze might be injured, Xie Jinyu would rather go to Yizhou himself.
Seeing Xie Jinyu begin to waver, Shen Yuan immediately stepped forward and cut off that line of thought. “His Highness the Second Prince possesses extraordinary wisdom. He is more than capable of bearing this responsibility. Indeed, he alone can accomplish it.”
Shen Yuan knew very well that Xie Chengze was least able to resist praise. In his previous life, Shen Yuan had often exploited that weakness, letting the conceited Xie Chengze strut proudly into traps he had prepared.
No sooner had Shen Yuan spoken than Xie Chengze turned a smiling gaze on him. “Jinyu is this prince’s younger brother. If he asks, this prince is naturally willing to spare no effort. But this will also count as helping Vice Minister Shen. I wonder what benefit Vice Minister Shen intends to offer this prince in return?”
So he had come asking for compensation. Shen Yuan gave an inward scoff and pressed his point. “If Your Highness travels south to Yizhou, it is the common people who will benefit. Their praise will be the finest gift of thanks Your Highness could receive.”
Xie Chengze smiled. “Indeed. If the people benefit, their praise will be the finest gift of thanks for this prince. But when Vice Minister Shen benefits, what will his gift of thanks be?”
Shen Yuan: “…”
“That’s right. Once the matter in Yizhou is properly resolved, Vice Minister Shen’s official career will soar as well,” Xie Jinyu reminded him, somewhat displeased by Shen Yuan’s lack of tact.
Shen Yuan: “…”
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth. “Then what benefit does Your Highness want?”
Xie Chengze released Xie Jinyu’s hand and walked barefoot toward Shen Yuan. His alluring phoenix eyes remained fixed intently on the other man. “You are the benefit this prince wants.”