Chapter 54

Chapter 54

Ji Yan’an could only hate his own useless body. How had he become this weak?

“You’re going to see her like that?”

At Ji Yan’an’s words, Jiang Yunsui sniffled, tears falling in fat drops as she put on her clothes and shoes.

In the end, Nanny Zhou came over and quickly combed her hair into a simple style. Then Jiang Yunsui ran as fast as she could toward Cook Chen’s little courtyard.

With Ji Yan’an’s permission, all the servants in the manor had pitched in, and Cook Chen’s mourning hall had already been set up.

They had even prepared a decent black coffin for her.

Cook Chen’s body had been dressed in proper clothes. Her hair had been tidied, and her face wiped clean. She lay inside the coffin, neat and dignified.

The maids who had been close to Cook Chen on ordinary days had all changed into plain mourning clothes. They were kneeling before the coffin and burning joss paper.

“Wuwuwu… Cook Chen was such a good person. How could she just be gone?”

“That’s right. But Cook Chen killed a barbarian. I heard he was even a prince. Taking someone like that with her on the road to the Yellow Springs isn’t a loss!”

“Cook Chen was so brave. If it had been me in that situation, my legs would have gone weak from fear, but she still dared to rush up and kill him.”

The people of Mobei hated the barbarians down to their very bones.

Though Cook Chen had died, she had killed a barbarian-and a prince at that. In everyone’s hearts, she had become a hero.

When Ji Yan’an brought Jiang Yunsui over, every servant in the little courtyard was stunned.

The Young Master had actually come in person!

Who would have thought Cook Chen had held such favor?

“Auntie…”

No amount of comfort could help now. The moment Jiang Yunsui saw the person lying in the coffin, and thought that she would never see her again, never eat the food she made, never wear the clothes she sewed, her heart hurt so badly.

Ji Yan’an did not try to comfort her again. He only went forward and offered three sticks of incense.

Jiang Yunsui lay over the coffin and cried for a long while, until both her eyes were swollen from weeping.

Nanny Zhou’s heart ached at the sight. She called for a maid to bring over two boiled eggs to roll around Jiang Yunsui’s eyes and reduce the swelling.

After that came the vigil for Cook Chen.

Little Mushroom did not understand these human customs, so she asked questions.

She asked Ji Yan’an, Nanny Zhou, and the others.

Ji Yan’an patiently explained everything to her, and Little Mushroom decided she would stay here with Aunt Chen the whole time, until Aunt Chen was buried.

Ji Yan’an could not remain here constantly. He still had other matters to deal with.

Only that night did he come to see Jiang Yunsui again.

Jiang Yunsui had dug up all the mushrooms in the Front Courtyard and brought them back. Now they were placed in front of the coffin.

“Auntie, I brought you lots and lots of mushrooms.”

As she spoke, her tears slipped down again, out of her control.

“Take them with you and eat them in the other world. These are really tasty.”

“Auntie, I miss you so much.”

Ji Yan’an walked to her side, visibly exhausted.

“Come sit over here for a while.”

He had brought a pot of milk tea.

Yes, milk tea.

He could not drink wine, and Jiang Yunsui was still too young to drink it either.

The two of them sat side by side on the steps in front of the main room. Behind them was Cook Chen’s mourning hall.

“Eat something. Otherwise, you won’t be able to hold up tomorrow.”

Jiang Yunsui gave a muffled “mm” and sat beside him, drinking milk tea.

She lifted her head to look at the moon. Tonight, the moon was huge and perfectly round.

Heiwa came over with the two puppies too, lying quietly beside them.

“Among the people we captured, one was from Great Liang. A scholar, no less.”

His tone was calm, without any trace of hatred.

Jiang Yunsui looked at him. Her voice was a little hoarse from crying so hard. “Then why would he help bad people?”

That was right. In Jiang Yunsui’s mind, the barbarians had already been defined as bad people.

At least, to her, they were now!

Before this, Jiang Yunsui had never had much of a feeling about people from Great Liang or barbarians. In her eyes, they had all simply been humans.

“Him? For revenge.”

“He was a scholar, a poor one from a humble family. His family was poor, but he was clever, and he had a gift for studying. The first time he took the imperial examination, he passed-seventh place. From then on, his entire clan supported his studies.”
“And he lived up to everyone’s expectations, passing exam after exam until he reached Shangjing.”

“But during that final examination, the chief examiner switched out his paper and changed the name on it to his son’s.”

Jiang Yunsui still did not understand just how important the imperial examinations were to a scholar, but she did know how awful it felt for an entire clan to pour all its strength into nurturing someone, only for the fruit they had finally grown to be plucked away at the last moment.

“Then… did your emperor not do anything?”

Ji Yan’an took a sip of his milk tea without expression.

Somehow, he drank that milk tea with the air of a man downing wine.

“Him?”

There was a trace of mockery in the young man’s voice.

“He would never bother with things like that. All he knew how to do was indulge himself. A complete waste of space.”

Ji Yan’an did not hold back at all when cursing that muddleheaded Late Emperor in front of Jiang Yunsui.

“That chief examiner was afraid the matter would be exposed, so he simply hired people to hunt Song Jin down. A friend of Song Jin’s overheard a bit of news and warned him. Song Jin fled Shangjing, and after great difficulty, he finally made it back home, only to discover that all his loved ones were dead-murdered. His clan members had also been oppressed by the local authorities because of him.”

The result was easy to imagine. When Song Jin returned to his hometown, what awaited him was not honor and welcome, but his clan’s disgust and resentment.

All of that was human nature.

“Why would it turn out like that?”

It was the first time Little Mushroom had encountered human nature in such a complicated form. Though it was only a story told by Ji Yan’an, it was still a life someone had truly lived through.

Little Mushroom did not understand.

Ji Yan’an lifted his eyes to the moon, his voice cold and clear. “Human instinct is to seek benefit and avoid harm-and to bully the weak while fearing the strong.”

“They were suppressed because of Song Jin. Their lives became even harder, and some even lost loved ones because of it. Even if they knew it wasn’t Song Jin’s fault, they had no ability to take revenge on the county magistrate, so Song Jin became the outlet for all their hatred. Because he was weak. Because he was easy to bully.”

“The Imperial Court was corrupt, the emperor was incompetent, responsible officials were never put to good use, and treacherous, greedy people held power. Those beneath them naturally followed their example. Officials protected one another, and in the face of power, Song Jin’s strength was as insignificant as a grain of rice. He wanted revenge, but he no longer trusted the authorities of Great Liang, so he chose the barbarians.”

Ji Yan’an’s feelings at that moment were complicated.

After Song Jin was captured, Ji Yan’an had personally interrogated him.

Because he had heard of this man before.

He had still been young then. When he was seven, he had heard Crown Prince Cousin praise this person.

When Song Jin failed the exams, Crown Prince Cousin had not believed it and had even sent people to investigate.

But before he could find out the truth, his health gradually collapsed from poisoning. After that, he naturally no longer had the energy to concern himself with Song Jin’s affairs.

Ji Yan’an had never imagined that when they met again, it would be under circumstances like these.

Even now, he could still clearly remember Song Jin’s calm, mocking expression when he asked why he had betrayed the country.

Song Jin had asked him in return, “Young Master Ji, if not for the existence of the Ji Family Army, if your entire family had been killed, if you were left alone with no one to depend on, nowhere to seek justice, and were still being hunted down, what would you choose?”

Ji Yan’an thought that perhaps he would have made the same choice as Song Jin.

He would have done everything in his power to take revenge.

Loyalty to the ruler and love for the country-when his own loved ones had been plotted against one after another, dying in battle or from poison, such things simply did not exist.

But what the Ji Family was loyal to was not imperial power, but this land beneath their feet.

And what they protected was not those useless wine sacks and rice bags, but the common people living on this land.

So Ji Yan’an could never betray the country. This was the mission passed down through generations of the Ji Family, the mission his grandfather and father had carved into his bones through the stories they told him since he was small.

However, while he could not betray the country, Ji Yan’an, born with a rebellious streak, did want to start a rebellion-and he was already preparing for it.