Chapter 126
Before Xie Chengze could tell Wuji to show his face, Wuji had already met the Chief.
The previous evening, after “sparring” with the bandits, Wuji had used his “decent” martial arts to infiltrate Qianjin Stronghold as one of its members. At dusk, he was dragged into the drinking to celebrate the Second Chief’s impending marriage, and came face-to-face with the Chief.
The Chief rubbed his eyes, at first thinking he was seeing things. Only when Wuji covered his face and tried to leave did he confirm that this was his junior martial brother.
Only his two junior martial brothers would be so shy about seeing him!
He excitedly stepped forward to block Wuji’s way. “Fourth Junior Brother?! What are you doing here? Have things gone badly for you, so you’ve come to join me?”
At those words, every bandit in Qianjin Stronghold turned to look at Wuji. Even the wine jar in the Second Chief’s hand fell to the ground and shattered.
Fourth Junior Brother?!
The legendary Fourth Junior Brother, a fiend who could kill in an instant, whose narrow-eyed smile heralded bloodshed for a thousand li, whose powerful legs alone could strangle a tiger?!
They’d always assumed he must be like their Chief: tall and mighty, with a rugged, formidable face, inspiring submission merely by standing there…
So what was this delicate-featured pretty boy with skinny arms and legs doing here?
He wasn’t even as thickset as any of them!
They all felt something shatter inside them.
“E-Elder Brother!” The Second Chief staggered back a step. “He’s really your Fourth Junior Brother?”
“Of course! The genuine article!” The Chief happily stretched out his thick arms and lifted Wuji like a child, inspecting him closely. “Fourth Junior Brother, it’s been so long! Where’s Third Junior Brother? Has he come too? Get him out here so his senior brother can give him a hug!”
Wuji rubbed between his brows helplessly, thankful that His Highness wasn’t here to witness his embarrassment. He pried the Chief’s hands off and landed on the ground before replying, “I came in secret. But what about you, Senior Brother? How did you end up a bandit?”
“Ahem, it’s a long story…”
The Chief recounted his past. He was delighted to see his Fourth Junior Brother, and his delight spread to the entire stronghold. Everyone drank merrily together, peppering Wuji with questions.
Was Third Junior Brother as mighty and imposing as the Chief? Was Eldest Senior Sister as beautiful as a fairy, as the Chief boasted? And was the Second Prince really as frail as the Chief said, someone he could squash to death just by sitting on him?
Only the Second Chief was shattered.
He wasn’t clever, but he wasn’t stupid either. He’d long heard that his elder brother’s senior sister was a peerless beauty, the present dynasty’s only Noble Consort. Her son was a man of exalted status and extraordinary beauty, closely guarded by the two junior martial brothers.
He understood at once. That sickly little beauty wasn’t a merchant’s wife at all, but the reigning emperor’s son – the Second Prince!
Waaah, his new wife…
His whole, lovely wife was gone!
Thus, when Xie Chengze woke the next day, he found himself looking into the Second Chief’s resentful, reddened eyes. The wine fumes pouring off him made it easy to imagine how much he’d drunk.
Xie Chengze silently tugged up the quilt and shrank beneath it.
Why was he looking at him like that? Like a respectable young wife who’d been forced into something against her will?
Seeing him move, the Second Chief clutched the edge of the bed and demanded, “Doesn’t your conscience hurt?”
His gaze and tone were so full of reproach that Xie Chengze couldn’t help feeling a little guilty. Had his secret rendezvous with Shen Yuan last night been discovered?
But the Second Chief didn’t seem angry… Was he so generous that he didn’t mind? Or was Xie Chengze too beautiful for him to bear getting angry?
No, no, no. Definitely not.
Xie Chengze shook his head, rejecting that theory, and began guessing again. Was the Second Chief hinting that he’d monopolized the heated brick bed and left him nowhere to sleep?
As he pondered, the Second Chief saw him shake his head in “righteous” denial and grew even more resentful.
What a heartless, faithless person!
He’d broken the heart of a strapping man experiencing his first love, and his conscience didn’t even hurt!
Officials really were all rotten! Emperors and princes most of all!
The Second Chief couldn’t help wailing toward the door, tattling, “Elder Brother! Look at him!”
“My martial nephew is awake?”
A tiger’s roar of a voice reached the room first. The Chief stooped through the doorway. His eyes lit up at the sight of the waking Xie Chengze. “I kept thinking you looked familiar, but your veil made it hard to see clearly, and my eyesight isn’t very good.”
He sat beside the bed and leaned close to Xie Chengze, narrowing his eyes for a careful inspection. He nodded repeatedly. “Yes! You do look like her. Senior Sister’s son, all right.”
He’d had to get this close to recognize him… Xie Chengze couldn’t help asking, “Could you be nearsighted?”
“What’s nearsighted?” the Chief asked, puzzled.
“It means things look blurry at a distance. Oh, you probably call it short sight here.”
The Chief immediately nodded. “Master did say it was short sight. Nothing could be done about it.”
Then his huge hand couldn’t help squeezing Xie Chengze’s slender arm. “Ah, you’ve grown taller, Martial Nephew, but you’re still so frail. One look, and I can tell I could…”
“Squash me to death just by sitting on me? Is that what you were going to say, Martial Uncle?” Xie Chengze held his head and shook it, a slightly bitter smile on his face. “There’s nothing I can do about it. I haven’t long to live now. To see you before I die already brings me great joy and contentment…”
“What?!” The Chief was startled. “You’re really ill?! Don’t tell me it’s the same illness as your dead father’s? Damn it, Senior Sister was wonderful in every way except her taste in men! She picked either a sick weakling or a coward!”
“Ahem, yes…” Xie Chengze coughed a few times, deeply shocked by, and entirely in agreement with, the Chief calling Emperor Jian a coward. He glanced at Shen Yuan leaning by the door. They exchanged a look, then he covered his lips as he coughed and said forlornly, “It’s just a pity that I still have one last wish unfulfilled…”
“Martial Nephew! Heaven is blind! Senior Sister is already gone. Why won’t it spare even her only child?!” The Chief promptly burst into tears and crushed Xie Chengze in his arms. “Tell me! I’ll help fulfill your last wish even if it costs me my life!”
“M-Martial Uncle, you’re strangling me…” With considerable effort, Xie Chengze struggled free and caught his breath. Then he said quietly, “I’d like an ice sculpture three zhang high, carved in my likeness…”
“Ice sculpture?” The Chief scratched his head, looking to the Second Chief and Shen Yuan for help. “What’s an ice sculpture?”
The Second Chief shook his head blankly. Shen Yuan considered for a moment, then said, “A wooden sculpture is carved from wood, and a stone sculpture from stone. Could an ice sculpture be something carved from a block of ice?”
Xie Chengze nodded. As expected of the man he’d chosen – he’d understood at once!