Chapter 133
The ice lantern worked better than Xie Chengze had expected, giving him more confidence.
Still, ice lanterns were only a minor part of his Capital of Ice and Snow plan. Ice and snow sculptures were the main attraction.
Sheng Yiren had already asked the merchants’ guild to help gather all the craftsmen in Liaozhou, Shenzhou, and Shangjing who could carve human figures. But Xie Chengze still felt uncertain. He knew nothing about carving, and these craftsmen came from all over. Putting him in charge of the ice sculptures would surely waste considerable time. Missing their opportunity would be bad.
Perhaps… he could coax Elder Gu into coming?
It was a little unfair to make the old fellow travel so far at his age, especially to this freezing place. But what else could he do when he didn’t know the trade?
Without a scrap of conscience, Xie Chengze quietly pulled out a sheet of paper, intending to write to Elder Gu. Just then, Hu Lai rushed in enthusiastically. “Your Highness, do you have paper and a brush? The capital is urging me to write my secret report!”
“Oh, here.” Xie Chengze handed him a sheet. Hu Lai waved it away. “How could that be enough?”
“Hm?” Before Xie Chengze could understand, Hu Lai unceremoniously took all the paper on the table.
“Get back here!” Seeing him about to leave, Xie Chengze tapped the table. “Write it right here!”
“Well… all right!” Thinking Xie Chengze didn’t trust him, Hu Lai sat beside him. Seeing His Highness pick up a brush as though he too were writing someone a letter, he asked, “Are you going to hoodwink someone as well, Your Highness?”
Xie Chengze: … He didn’t want to admit it, but… “Yes.”
“Then let’s hoodwink people together, master and servant!” Hu Lai said with boundless energy. His eyes lit up as he lifted his brush and began writing as though divinely inspired.
Xie Chengze had written two characters. Hu Lai had already finished two lines.
His eyes couldn’t help wandering over. On Hu Lai’s paper, he saw:
[First day after leaving the capital, noon. The Second Prince traveled on horseback. The horse was jet-black, strong and well built, its coat as sleek as though oiled. It was the blood-sweating steed named Black Dragon from Chenghuan Hall’s stables, greatly cherished by the hall’s grooms. Ordinarily, blah blah blah…]
Xie Chengze watched as Hu Lai padded his description of the horse to nearly five hundred characters.
Xie Chengze: …
Hu Lai, you were even more outrageous than that prefect who wrote memorials asking after His Majesty’s health!
Xie Chengze lowered his head and began his letter to Elder Gu. By the time he finished, Hu Lai was still writing furiously. He had reached the second day after leaving the capital: what dishes the Second Prince ate and what tea he drank in a county seat along the way. He described the food in eight hundred characters of extravagant language, filled with His Highness’s appreciation and satisfaction.
When Xie Chengze returned from dinner, Hu Lai was still bent over the desk, gnawing a cold mixed-grain flatbread as he wrote about the third day. The frail Second Prince had developed a high fever, his cheeks scorching and skin tenderly flushed, like a budding crabapple blossom drenched in strong wine, or a delicate young lady drugged in a story and awaiting someone’s touch. A full thousand characters of imagined erotic splendor spilled across the page. Xie Chengze’s vision went black, and he collapsed straight onto the bed.
In the middle of the night, he dreamed he was wearing wedding robes, tightly bound on a bed. The bridegroom climbing onto it revealed Shen Yuan’s handsome, spirited face. Xie Chengze bolted upright from his deathly sleep and discovered Hu Lai was working by lamplight through the night. He had reached the sixth day after leaving the capital, when bandits abducted the Second Prince to their mountain and made him the chief’s wife. The perilous events and the bandits’ ruthlessness filled eight whole pages!
Xie Chengze: Brother! Take a break!
Don’t your hands hurt?!
Hu Lai: No problem! This humble servant is ambidextrous!
The next day, Xie Chengze went out to inspect the ice on the Hun River north of Mount Qiantai. On returning, he found Hu Lai asleep over the table and sighed in relief. The fellow had finally learned to rest.
Then Hu Lai suddenly raised his head, bursting with energy. “Aha! That dream was excellent. I’ll write about it!”
Hm? A dream?
What did Hu Lai’s dream have to do with writing a letter?
Curious, Xie Chengze walked over and saw him writing: [Thirteenth day after leaving the capital, evening. The Second Prince bolted upright from his deathly sleep and summoned this servant to relate his dream. He dreamed that he broke with the Crown Prince and stormed the palace in rebellion. Suddenly finding the Crown Prince’s features handsome, he was overcome by animal lust and wished to imprison him in the Eastern Palace, blah blah blah…]
Xie Chengze: …
Unable to bear any more, he smacked Hu Lai on the back of the head. “Utter nonsense! Hu Lai, if you’re so good at making things up, why not just call yourself Hu Che!”
Hu Lai hastily stood and bowed with his hands clasped, delighted. “Thank you for bestowing a name, Your Highness! I like it very much!”
Xie Chengze: …
Xie Chengze: @#Fuck%you#%*
It felt like slapping a sycophant in the face, only for him to lick the hand.
Dizzy and lightheaded, Xie Chengze decided not to argue with Hu Lai anymore. Holding his aching head, he went to the woodshed. Qianjin Stronghold‘s cook was making mixed-grain flatbreads and hastily bowed at the sight of him. “Your Highness.”
“Anything to eat? I’m starving.” He’d been using his brain too much lately and kept getting hungry.
“The steamed buns are ready.” The cook lifted the lid of a steamer beside him, hesitating. Bandits weren’t fussy eaters, and their buns weren’t attractive either. It really was hard on someone as delicate as His Highness to suffer here in Qianjin Stronghold.
Xie Chengze didn’t mind. He took a hot bun and stuffed it into his mouth.
As he chewed, this supposedly tough guy suddenly began crying and sniffling.
“Your Highness!” Terrified, the cook hurried over, at a loss for what to do. “What’s wrong? Does it taste that bad?”
“No.” Xie Chengze wiped away a bitter tear. Holding the bun in both hands against his lips, he said thickly, “I just miss Qinghe’s pastries.”
He hadn’t eaten anything sweet since arriving in Liaozhou.
Outside the woodshed, the man carrying a rabbit ice lantern stopped in his tracks.
Qinghe…
After so long in Liaozhou, he hadn’t imagined Xie Chengze missed that person in the capital so deeply. That day, seeing the beautiful, distinguished young man cry before him, Shen Yuan had felt not only panic but a secret trace of joy. So it mattered that much to the other man whether he trusted him.
But now, seeing the young man shed tears so readily for someone else in private, tears intertwined with an emotion called longing, Shen Yuan tightened his grip on the lantern’s carrying rod. Complex feelings churned within him, refusing to settle.
The torrent of time flowing backward had separated his future self from these people of the past. Looking at friends who had once fought beside him, he was glad to regain what he’d lost, yet still felt an invisible gulf between them. It kept him from finding solid footing as he tried to fulfill his wishes.
He felt as though he walked on a lone rope suspended over a cliff. The slightest misstep would send him plunging into an abyss, never to wake again.
He grew ever lonelier and colder. With every step, he could foresee bloodshed and strife.
But Xie Chengze’s appearance had undoubtedly added another “outsider” to this world.
He knew the events of the previous life, and his wishes coincided with Shen Yuan’s. It was as though a craftsman who could build a wooden bridge had run to the other end of that lonely rope, shouting excitedly, “Wait for me! I can save you!”
After breaking through the ice of their distrust, Shen Yuan had thought they would support each other, each the other’s one and only.
Only now did he realize that he alone walked this world in solitude. In Xie Chengze’s eyes, he wasn’t the only person with vivid color.
He had Wuhen and Wuji to protect him, Zhu Xiaobiao and Jing Ze to follow him, and Su Qinghe to miss. His heart wasn’t lonely. In the future, more and more people of every kind would appear at his side.
In his world, Shen Yuan…
Was merely one among many.
Not worth mentioning.
Watching the young man on a little bench chew his dry bun, his tear-reddened eyes like those of the lifelike ice rabbit in Shen Yuan’s hand, Shen Yuan pressed his lips tight and silently turned away from the woodshed.
Xie Chengze forced down three buns before he finally felt full.
His head still felt heavy and muddled, but he had to discuss cutting ice from the Hun River with the craftsmen shortly. Time was tight, so he wouldn’t waste any more of it on eating.
Rising and leaving the woodshed, he suddenly felt his foot bump against something. Looking down, he found an exquisitely carved, adorable rabbit ice lantern.
He bent to lift it. The little ice rabbit’s long ears swept upward at an angle. Its four short legs seemed to flutter as though bounding through clouds, and behind its rump sat a small, round ball of a tail. It was utterly delightful.
Most striking of all were two little round beads set into its eyes. Bright red, they closely resembled someone’s bloodshot, tear-reddened eyes at that very moment.