Dandere General and his Lord

20. Truth of the Matter

Xiao Jin dragged the bound Xiao Xiu into the room and threw him in front of Cheng Qianye.

He waved everyone else out of the room and his face was grave as he said, “This person might have found out.”

Xiao Xiu heard these words and abruptly lifted up his head, looking up at Cheng Qianye. 

“You, you are not My Lord?”

“Who are you? You…. You’re Princess Qianye!”

Cheng Qianye leaned back in her chair and stared at him for a long while. Finally, she closed her eyes, agreeing tacitly with him.

She looked at that passionate pink colour which had surrounded Xiao Xiu’s body perpetually as it vanished within an instant, replaced by a colour of sorrow and despair.

“Then, what about Young Master Yu?” He lowered his head as he softly inquired. 

In fact, deep inside his heart, he was already aware of the answer.

Cheng Qianye couldn’t bear to keep looking at the aura of anguish surrounding him and looked away, evading his gaze. “Elder Brother, he’s been gone for a long time already.”

“That…. Is that so?”

“During the rebellion in Zhongmu, Elder Brother died after he was poisoned by Young Master Zhang. I was left with no choice but to replace him. I have already killed the enemy and avenged Elder Brother.” Cheng Qianye explained the actual truth of the matter.

Xiao Xiu wearily sank down onto the ground. 

He recalled the scene of turmoil in Zhongmu at that time.

At that time, when the Lord had gone to attend the banquet, he hadn’t taken him along with him.

When he had heard the rumour that the Lord had been poisoned to death, he had been burning with impatience to go there.

However, Minister Xiao had sealed the Lord’s bedroom, only allowing access to the Lord’s mother, Madame Yang, and the pregnant Concubine Xu.

Fortunately, in the end, the Lord had shown up safe and sound. Not only did he contain the situation, but he also defeated the rebels. Furthermore, to his pleasant surprise, the Lord had stopped spoiling others since then, only bringing him wherever he went, even treating him with exceptional tenderness.

Consequently, he had secretly felt happy in his heart for a while.

So it turns out that My Lord was already dead at that time.

Why am I so stupid? He berated himself.

Although Princess Qianye is very kind to me, there is a clear sense of estrangement. There were so many things about her that were dubious, but I’ve been going around acting as though there was a blindfold covering my eyes, pretending not to see anything.

Xiao Xiu thought back to the first time he had seen the Lord. The young master dressed in gorgeous clothes had jumped down from his horse and crouched down in front of him who had been beset by cold and hunger. “No one wants this child? How pitiful. Would you like to come home with me?”

I deluded myself and immersed myself in happiness everyday, but it had never occurred to me that that person had already died in such a way.

“Tell me, who instigated you to poison me? I was your original target, right?”

Cheng Qianye’s voice seemed to be coming from an ethereal place.

Xiao Xiu came back to his senses and moved his body, getting to his knees and kneeling properly.

“It was Marquis Weibei who incited me. He had that slave, A’Feng, bring me a box of gold and the bottle of poison. He asked me to poison My Lord and promised me that he would bring me to his side once the matter was accomplished.” Xiao Xiu sneered and continued his confession. “Apart from me, they also bribed A’You and Xu Jia from the main hall to support me.”

“Princess Qianye, I have actually been suspicious of you for a long time, but you were so kind to me, I couldn’t help trusting you. Until Mo Qiao Sheng appeared. He made me feel a sense of crisis and also made me more aware that things weren’t right.”

“But no matter how much I tried to cotton up to him, he wouldn’t breathe out a single word about your secrets. This time, when Marquis Weibei looked for me, I saw this as a great chance and decided to seize this opportunity to shift the blame to Qiao Sheng and blackmail him into telling me the truth. In fact, I had no intention of poisoning you, Princess.”

He knocked his forehead against the floor. “But it is irrefutable that Xiao Xiu is still guilty and cannot be pardoned. I request Princess to grant me death.”

Cheng Qianye frowned. He had confessed everything so straightforwardly, just wanting to die quickly. 

“You don’t want to live? You want to die for Elder Brother and be buried alongside the dead?”

Cheng Qianye couldn’t understand. In her memories, the elder brother of the original owner of this body was not only mediocre, doing nothing and letting everything take its course. His private life was also chaotic and he possessed a violent temperament, beating and scolding the servants at every turn.

He was only a bit better in comparison to those perverts like Marquis Weibei. She had never imagined that someone would actually like him truly and whole-heartedly to the point of wishing to follow him in death.

“Do you really like Elder Brother that much?”

Xiao Xiu laughed bitterly. “I know that everyone says that My Lord is not a good monarch in private. He did not inherit the talent or vision of the old Marquis, and he wasn’t even as intelligent as you, Princess Qianye. But I….”

He seemed to have sunken into his memories as he mumbled to himself.

“When I was younger, my family had been very poor. We never had enough to eat. I was thin and weak and fell ill easily. I was a child who was a great burden on my parents.”

“One day, my father suddenly stopped beating and scolding me and took me out of the city to see a sideshow and play all day. He even bought me a sugar figurine, something he had never done before. At the end, he stroked my head and told me to wait for him at the street corner.”

“I waited for a very long time, not daring to move an inch. But Father never came back. It was the Young Master who found me when I was on the verge of starving to death and picked me up from the roadside.”

Xiao Xiu raised his head, his eyes shining as he looked fixedly at Cheng Qianye’s face as if wishing he could catch a glimpse of the face of the person he longed for through hers.

“Young Master, he was actually a very gentle man. He never forced others and rarely beat me. If he got angry, he would forgive me as long as I begged him.”

“He frequently told me that he was like me, a child who wasn’t liked by his parents. He wished to become a good lord and govern the country well. But no matter how hard he tried, everyone looked down on him, thinking he had a bad character and that he wasn’t intelligent enough, so he kept becoming more and more anxious and irritable.”

“But in my heart, he was the best lord. I really wish I could serve him as long as I live.”

After he said these words, the spark in his eyes died out.

He lowered his head, his expression gloomy as he waited for Cheng Qianye to sentence him to death.

Cheng Qianye was originally determined to kill him, however, in the end, she found that she was unable to do it.

Xiao Jin cupped his hands in obeisance. “My Lord, you must not be soft-hearted. This person really cannot stay.”

“Brother Xiao.” Cheng Qianye looked at him. “Slaughter is not the only means of solving the problem. Today I can kill him to keep a secret. Aren’t you afraid that one day, I will also kill you to keep a secret?”

She raised up her hand, stopping Xiao Jin from responding. “I have already made up my mind. You cannot interfere.”

“Xiao Xiu.” She walked over to Xiao Xiu and crouched down in front of him. “Even though Elder Brother is gone, we are still alive. I inherited his position, and I also inherited his aspiration.”

Xiao Xiu blankly raised his head, looking up at that familiar face.

“I want to make our Jin Nation a better place. At least so that no more parents will be forced to abandon or sell their children because of starvation. Surely, if Elder Brother could see Jin Nation become more powerful and see Marquis Jin Yue become a monarch that is praised by everyone, he would be happier as well.”

That familiar yet strange face moved towards him. “This aspiration will not be easy to achieve, how about you come and join me?”

“I….” Xiao Xiu opened his mouth subconsciously.

“I can give you two options. First, I can absolve you of your crime and grant you travelling expenses and let you return to your hometown. Second, you accept the punishment you deserve and henceforth, you must remain by my side and help me.”

Xiao Xiu lowered his head and closed his eyes for a moment before lifting his head and saying, “I am willing to receive my punishment.”

Cheng Qianye summoned Mo Qiao Sheng inside.

“Qiao Sheng.” She pointed a finger at Xiao Xiu. “Xiao Xiu made a mistake. I punish him to receive a hundred…. No, fifty strikes from the cane. You carry out the punishment yourself.”

Mo Qiao Sheng was about to accept his orders and leave but he saw the Lord lift his palm to the side of his face before he quietly whispered in his ear, “If you aren’t very angry, be a little lighter on him.”

Mo Qiao Sheng’s eyes revealed a bit of joy as he bowed his head and led the man out.

After the two men went out of the room, Cheng Qianye put down her face and slapped the table. “Sure enough, it was the good deed of Hua Yuzhi, that old bastard! I’ll settle accounts with him later!”

Xiao Jin frowned and said, “Marquis Weibei and his troops already set off last night. At this moment, I’m afraid that they must already be more than 5 miles out of the city.”

“That old fox, he must have felt afraid that he might be discovered after seeing that I didn’t get poisoned to death yesterday and quickly sneaked away. Does he wish to become enemies with our Great Jin now?” Cheng Qianye was indignant.

Zhang Fu walked inside and reported, “My Lord, before Marquis Weibei left, he sent us a man who seems to be involved in the poisoning incident last night. It seems that the man did it out of hate and jealousy. Fearing that My Lord might have a misunderstanding with him, he punished the man with a beating before sending him here for My Lord to deal with. He also sent a letter for My Lord.”

Cheng Qianye took the envelope and saw the first row of letters, “To: Younger Brother Yu.” She felt a little nauseous and flipped it over before throwing it aside impatiently. “Who is it? Bring him over and let’s have a look.”

~

TL Note: Sooo, I’ve made a big decision to go back and make some changes to the previous chapters and the future translation. I mistook the word “gonzi” which means noble son or young master as “gong(surname)” and “ziyu” and “zizhang” to be their names because really it was never made clear until Xiao Xiu referred to him that way (which he would never do if it were actually his name cuz status and respect and all that.) sooo gotta change that. Plus, I wanna go back and change some honorifics and appellations such as “this old man” and “this humble slave” etc… to the Chinese pinyin and add footnotes because I feel like a literal English translation of these doesn’t really carry over well and affects the readability a little bit. I hope this won’t affect your reading experience in a negative way and apologize for the inconvenience.
PS: Thank you guys for all the well wishes and comments and for just being so darned sweet and understanding <3