Chapter 46
Chapter 46
Seeing Shen Yuan prop up his aching head, Xie Chengze sidled toward him in tiny sideways steps like a little crab and asked with concern, “Lord Shen, are you still feeling unwell?”
Shen Yuan shot him a cool sidelong glance. His handsome face bore the bleak resignation of a man whose end had come. “Thanks to Your Highness, I have worked day and night for the past month. I am exhausted.”
Xie Chengze coughed lightly. “I had no choice. Look at this delicate skin of mine. I’m clearly not suited to hard labor.”
Shen Yuan turned to look at him. Xie Chengze had indeed been blessed with extraordinary beauty. Not only was his face lovely enough to bring kingdoms to ruin, but his skin was as fine and pale as white jade and pearls. Yet no matter how favored he was by Heaven, days beneath the vicious sun and meals of nothing but plain porridge and steamed buns had dimmed some of that splendor and replaced it with a desolate fragility born of mortal hardship.
It was as though the chaos of the human world were invisibly wearing him away. Even his brilliant eyes had lost some of their luster. His once-rounded chin had grown pointed with weight loss, as if Shen Yuan could close one palm around it and knead and manipulate him at will.
Only then did Shen Yuan suddenly realize that while he had been alone at the Transport Commission, matching wits with the Transport Commissioner and the merchants, Xie Chengze had also been alone in Jiangdu County, facing refugees who might riot at any moment, Liang Wanda who might turn against him at any moment, and wealthy gentry who watched him like hungry wolves.
He was the most favored Second Prince of the Jian’an Dynasty, the son whom Emperor Jian indulged enough to grant an imperial sword of authority despite knowing him to be arrogant and willful, allowing him to execute first and report afterward. With a single word, he could decide life or death, overturn all of Yizhou, and solve every problem through thunderous force.
Yet he could only hole up inside the prefectural yamen, carefully controlling every faction in Yizhou by means of slender threads that might snap at any moment, never daring to show his face before them.
Shen Yuan knew exactly why.
Corrupt officials were like ill-tempered hyenas. They held grudges above all else, and killing one would draw an entire pack. At present, all Xie Chengze possessed was Emperor Jian’s favor. The moment he harmed those officials’ interests while refusing to join their corruption, his end would be even worse than the Crown Prince’s had been in the previous life.
Yet corrupt officials were only the lesser threat. The person least willing to see Xie Chengze win the people’s hearts was Emperor Jian himself, despite his apparent indulgence and affection.
The position of Crown Prince could belong only to Xie Jinyu, and Xie Jinyu alone could become the next emperor. If Xie Chengze had no desire to fight for the throne, his life would naturally remain safe. But if he did harbor such ambitions, Emperor Jian would never allow his reputation to eclipse the Crown Prince’s.
But… who could know whether Xie Chengze truly desired the throne? Who could guarantee that no schemer would ever seduce him into coveting the imperial seat?
In the previous life, Xie Chengze’s ambition had been common knowledge.
In this life… not even Shen Yuan, who had fought him for ten years, could read him. How could an emperor who had no choice but to be suspicious do so?
No one knew whether the present Xie Chengze had realized the key reason for his past defeat and decided to conceal his ambition.
“Your Highness…” Shen Yuan stared gravely at the clear-eyed young man before him. “When the matter in Yizhou is concluded and you return to the capital, what do you intend to do?”
Xie Chengze had his head lowered and was searching for something inside his sleeve. Without hesitation, he answered, “Eat, sleep, and enjoy myself. Want to join me? No, no, forget it. You can’t. You have to climb – climb very, very high.”
Once Shen Yuan climbed high enough, the bond they had forged through hardship would ensure he could protect this poor, innocent little wretch!
Suddenly remembering something, Xie Chengze lifted his beautiful face and gave Shen Yuan a deliberately ingratiating smile. “Lord Shen, when you send secret reports to Father, could you leave out everything I’ve done here?”
He knew Emperor Jian admired Shen Yuan and had certainly issued secret orders for Shen Yuan to report the events in Yizhou directly to him.
Shen Yuan arched a brow.
So Xie Chengze understood that he could not reveal his desire to fight for the throne in front of Emperor Jian?
It was not that Shen Yuan could not hide it for him. As long as Xie Chengze behaved, Shen Yuan was willing to set aside the events of the previous life for now and preserve his worthless little life.
But then he remembered how Xie Chengze always loved demanding favors from him. Shen Yuan could not resist giving him a taste of his own medicine. “I could do that, but what benefit would I receive?”
Seeing him agree, Xie Chengze relaxed slightly, then said happily, “Oh, the benefits will be enormous!”
He took Shen Yuan’s right hand and pried open his broad palm. Xie Chengze’s long, slender fingers rested lightly across the man’s five fingers. Their inadvertent caress raised a faint tickle, making Shen Yuan’s fingertips tremble uncontrollably as his dark eyes lowered with them.
The young man bowed his head and solemnly placed the object he had retrieved from his sleeve into Shen Yuan’s palm.
“Thanks, brother.” Xie Chengze looked up at him with profound gratitude. “I hear this is the supreme grade reserved for nobles. It’s smooth and refreshing and won’t damage your skin. Make sure you use it properly!”
Shen Yuan: “…”
The cool touch of the Snow Jade Balm’s porcelain jar instantly dispelled every trace of tingling ambiguity. The moment Shen Yuan saw what lay in his palm, veins bulged in his forehead once again. He nearly hurled the jar several miles away.
He had lost his senses again. How could he have thought Xie Chengze would offer any respectable sort of “benefit”?
“Your. Highness.” Shen Yuan practically ground the words between his teeth as he roared, “I do not need it!”
Xie Chengze felt his ears might go deaf. “Then don’t use it! Why are you shouting so loudly? If you won’t use it, save it for your future wife!”
Shen Yuan: “…”
Shen Yuan had never considered taking a wife. Too weary to argue further, he turned and headed down from the wall. “Your Highness should concern yourself less with my affairs and more with your own!”
Even if Shen Yuan wrote no secret report, the details of Yizhou would reach the capital sooner or later. Once the pack of keen-nosed hyenas detected something amiss, Xie Chengze would return to the capital beset from both front and rear, trapped no matter which way he moved.
When that happened, the Crown Prince might be the only person capable of preserving his life.
But with Xie Chengze’s pride, would he… ever ask for that protection?
–
Once the survival of the thirty thousand refugees had been secured, Shen Yuan’s subsequent work became much easier.
Acting through Liang Wanda, he dismissed and arrested every County Magistrate involved in the mass exodus. He also secretly submitted evidence of the Transport Commissioner’s corruption and dereliction of duty to Emperor Jian in the capital.
Emperor Jian flew into a rage upon receiving the secret report. He ordered the Censorate to investigate the matter thoroughly. Once the evidence was verified, everyone implicated at the Chengdu Circuit Transport Commission was to be escorted to the Ministry of Justice in the capital and executed on a selected date.
He then lavishly praised Shen Yuan at court as a gifted young man and a true pillar of the realm. He ordered every official to take Shen Yuan as an example and examine himself three times a day: Had he fulfilled his responsibility to the people under Heaven? Had he fulfilled his responsibility to his office? Had he fulfilled his responsibility to the Second Prince suffering far from home?
The assembled officials: “?”
They could understand the first two, but why did the last one require them to answer for the Second Prince’s suffering far from home?
Could the pampered Second Prince ever allow himself to suffer? What a joke! They had not heard of him doing a single useful thing in Yizhou worth praising!
Unfortunately, Emperor Jian, who doted blindly on the Second Prince, did not care. He even ordered the Imperial Kitchens stripped of their rare delicacies and had them sent to Yizhou so his precious son could put some flesh back on his bones and satisfy his cravings.
Even the Crown Prince chimed in, “Father is wise.”
All the officials could do was grumble privately: Both father and son were insane. The Jian’an Dynasty was doomed sooner or later.