Chapter 17 – He Can Also Smile

The weather is becoming colder with each passing day and winter has arrived.

The first snowfall since the beginning of winter occurred on the first day of the twelfth lunar month. After a day and night of heavy and continuous snow, the entire capital city was covered completely by snow and, no matter where one looked, everything was silver-white. The snow contrasted with the blue tiles and red walls of the houses, and the view was as beautiful as a scene in a poem.

You Shu heard from an elderly servant in the mansion that the snow before the beginning of spring is auspicious and means that next year’s crops will be very good. Thinking that the severe drought in the north will finally be resolved and people will no longer starve to death, he couldn’t help feeling relieved.

Sure enough, peace and prosperity should be cherished.

The New Year is still a month away but the atmosphere in the capital city is already filled with joy and liveliness. The ancient people attached great importance to the Spring Festival so it is celebrated with a lot more fanfare here than in modern times. As long as they can return home for a visit, then regardless of the distance, they will definitely go back to celebrate [the New Year] together.

It’s just that while some people are celebrating, others are mourning. Because of the previous scandal, Xia Huaizhang remained at home for more than a month, depressed and disheartened. However, perhaps because he had forgotten the humiliation after such a long time, he had recently begun to go out again and had returned to his old scourge-like ways. You Shu heard that, two days ago, he had kidnapped a young girl from a decent family and tried to force her but she jumped into the river and drowned to death. When her elder brother went to the Xia Mansion to seek restitution, he was given ten taels of silver and then rudely kicked out by Xia Huaizhang.

In ancient times, human life was truly worthless. In the eyes of the rich and powerful, the life of a young girl in her prime was worth only ten silver taels.

“Who allowed you to be distracted when sparring with this king?” Xiao Weixin could feel that this person’s mind was elsewhere and was very dissatisfied. He was really becoming more and more courageous, even daring to underestimate him like this?

You Shu returned to his senses and hurriedly lowered his head to plead guilty: “This subordinate knows his mistake.”

“I just discovered…you are always very quick to admit your mistakes.” Xiao Weixin looked at him coldly and said harshly: “Actually, you don’t think you made a mistake at all, is that it?”

These words were really unfair to You Shu. It was merely because his mouth often reacted faster than his brain and he thinks that it is better to confess before being scolded than to confess after being scolded, at least he will earn points for having a good attitude.

Xiao Weixin mood worsens the closer it gets to the New Year. Like now, for example. Although You Shu was a little distracted, it didn’t affect the spar in any way but he just used it as an excuse [to criticize him]. Then, he threw the sabre down and walked into the room, looking like he didn’t want to talk to him anymore.

Alas…This nasty temper.

You Shu sighed deeply, resigned to his fate, and went forward to pick up the sabre on the ground. Without the master’s permission, shadow guards were not allowed to enter the house by themselves so he could only stand quietly in the courtyard, holding the sabre.

The pear tree in the yard was covered with snow and, at first glance, it seemed to be in bloom. You Shu likes this tree very much. When it blooms in spring, it is white and beautiful1 but the most important thing is that its pears2 are very sweet. He had secretly eaten one during one of his night shifts and had never forgotten its sweet, delicious and juicy taste. Unfortunately, he never got the chance [to eat it] again because the yield of the fruit was too low and the only ones left were reserved for Xiao Weixin.

He stood beneath the pear tree for a while, and before he could finish sighing nostalgically, he heard an impatient voice from inside.

“Still not coming in!?”

You Shu withdrew his thoughts, shook his head helplessly and then walked in.

Ying Liu, who was hiding on the roof, observed all of this and after thinking for some moments, he said to Ying Wu beside him, “Don’t you think that our prince treats Lao San very differently?”

“Where’s the difference?” Ying Wu spends all his time in the casino and his emotional intelligence is nearly nil, completely different from Ying Liu who has a very intuitive and sensitive mind due to reading and writing a lot of novels. As a result, he doesn’t feel any difference, “Isn’t the prince like this to everyone? If anything, Lao San is probably getting scolded more than he used to.”

“What would you know?” Ying Liu rolled his eyes disdainfully, “It’s all because you don’t read novels enough. The prince obviously treats the Lao San very differently. Believe you me… Lao San is destined to achieve great success!”

Ying Wu didn’t understand where Ying Liu’s confidence came from so he rolled his eyes, “You are delusional.”

The two people’s personalities are very incompatible and they both looked down on each other, so they turned their heads to ignore each other.

In the house—

You Shu walked into the inner room where Xiao Weixin was seated at the table drinking tea. The room was filled with the scent of incense, the floor was covered with a thick carpet and braziers were placed around the room to provide warmth. It felt so comfortable that even You Shu couldn’t help but let out a light sigh of relief.

“This king heard that Xia Huaizhang has recently been coming out to cause trouble again?” Xiao Weixin asked suddenly.

Since the intelligence network of the Shadow Guard Camp is very advanced and there is basically nothing they can’t find out about, You Shu also knew about this and replied in a low voice: “Yes.”

“Heh.” Xiao Weixin smiled coldly, “Indeed, a leopard never changes its spots3.”

You Shu lowered his head and did not answer.

Wang Shunzhi, the current Assistant Minister of Revenue, used to be a low-ranked regional officer. Later, he bribed Prime Minister Xia and finally got the opportunity to be promoted and was transferred to the capital city. A few years after that, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Minister, for the sole purpose of lining Prime Minister Xia’s pockets. Since his appointment, he has done several corrupt and unlawful deeds.

Xiao Weishen has been emperor for a long time and is almost certainly aware of this but he cannot do anything because he does not have any capable subordinates and can only listen to Prime Minister Xia. Xiao Weixin focused on this loophole and decided to remove Wang Shunzhi first.

Three days after the snow stopped, You Shu and Ying Er went out.

Although Wang Shunzhi wasn’t very talented, he was tactful, sophisticated, and cautious, and hadn’t made any major mistakes during his tenure. Therefore, Xiao Weishen had no excuses to deal with him and it was really difficult to get rid of him.

But Wang Shunzhi does have a shortcoming, that is, he is greedy for money. Very, very greedy for money. As long as someone gives him something, he will accept it and then hide it in his secret treasury along with several other valuable and precious items.

You Shu and Ying Er avoided the guards in Wang Shunzhi’s mansion and arrived at the treasury and then acted separately, one of them remained outside to keep watch while the other went inside to search.

The sheer quantity and value of the things in the treasury dazzled You Shu’s eyes. Fortunately, he is not the kind of person who is greedy for money otherwise it would have been difficult to resist the temptation after going inside. To be honest, the things inside were luxurious enough to make even the emperor, Xiao Weishen, astounded.

After searching carefully for a while, You Shu finally discovered a hidden compartment under a cabinet and took out a small wooden box from it. After prying the lock open with a wire, he opened it and saw a small pearl.

At first glance, this pearl looks no different from ordinary pearls but if one looks carefully at its surface, it can be seen that it is glowing slightly. Even though the room is dark and there is no sunlight, this pearl can glow on its own. Although its glow is not dazzlingly bright, it is bright enough to be noticeable and it feels warm to the touch.

You Shu knew that this kind of pearl was found in the East China Sea and was called as ‘Mermaid’s Tear’. It was extremely rare. Who knew how Wang Shunzhi had managed to get his hands on such a precious item? But the most important thing was that after getting this, he kept it for himself instead of handing it over to Prime Minister Xia. Xiao Weixin found out about this matter several days ago but waited until today to act.

You Shu took the pearl, put the empty box back carefully and exited the room without triggering any traps. Then, he rejoined Ying Er who was hiding in the dark and the two quickly rushed to another place [within the mansion].

Every New Year’s Eve, when sending tributes to the imperial court, the officials would also especially send some items to the emperor as New Year’s gifts. The gifts from Wang Shunzhi were meant to be sent to the palace that afternoon. You Shu slipped into the room where the gifts were kept and replaced the jade pendant in one of the boxes with the pearl which was worth tens of thousands of gold. Since such a precious thing needs to be mentioned on the gift list, Xiao Weixin specially imitated Wang Shunzhi’s handwriting and wrote a new copy of the gift list which You Shu used to replace the original.

After finishing all this, they left Wang Shunzhi’s house. Everything was done with great care and attention and not a single person was alerted. Even the watchdog didn’t notice anything unusual.

The two of them quickly returned to the palace to report to Xiao Weixin, who was very satisfied, “Now we only need to wait for this first step to be completed.”

You Shu also waited for tomorrow, looking forward to the show.

The next day, Xiao Weishen happily praised Wang Shunzhi in the court, saying that it was truly thoughtful of him to gift the rare and expensive ‘Mermaid’s Tear’ which is rumored to be able to prolong one’s life.

Wang Shunzhi was completely dumbstruck, not knowing how he had somehow given away the precious pearl he had been hoarding since a long time ago.

However, there was a person who was even more outraged than him. That person was Prime Minister Xia.

Prime Minister Xia is a calculating and devious person but he also has a fatal flaw, that is, he fears death and yearns for longevity. As he grew older, he slowly lost the vigor of youth so he asked people everywhere to search for prescriptions for immortality and methods to prolong life and tried everything without any success. Hearing that there was such a thing as ‘Mermaid’s Tear’ in the East China Sea, he specially asked Wang Shunzhi to investigate but, in the end, he also found nothing.

Unexpectedly, Wang Shunzhi had found it a long time ago and lied about not having it. It turned out that he had hidden it secretly in order to gift it to the emperor and earn his favor. This naturally made Prime Minister Xia extremely furious. It was only because of him that Wang Shunzhi had been able to climb to his current position but now he dares to step over him just to please the emperor!

Prime Minister Xia really wondered whether he wanted to betray him. Although he and Xiao Weishen had a very close relationship as monarch and minister and their alliance seemed unbreakable, in reality, it was not completely harmonious. Xiao Weishen had long wanted to take back the imperial power but, despite knowing this, he4 pretended to be unaware and never let go. In this manner, the two maintained this delicate relationship of mutual trust and mutual protection.

Xia Huaizhang has never had any inhibitions and he also hates bastards like Wang Shunzhi5. He said directly: “Father, as I see it, that dog probably thought that you are now old and useless so he took this opportunity to seek refuge with the emperor so that he would have a way out. And you have been refusing to give him a promotion for a long time. He definitely thinks that he would easily get promoted by next year now that he has managed to earn the emperor’s favor.”

“You paid that traveler so much money in order to find out about that pearl but, in the end, he used your money to win someone else’s favor6. This dog is really ungrateful!”

“Back then we were really blind to not recognize his true nature!”

Prime Minister Xia’s had a dark expression on his face, not showing whether he had taken his words seriously at all. Although Wang Shunzhi rushed to him and knelt down, hurriedly explaining that the pearl had truly not been given by him, Prime Minister Xia told a eunuch to get the gift slip and threw it at his face. It was clearly written with black ink on the red paper. Could it be that it was fake too?

Wang Shunzhi couldn’t tell the difference because not only was the handwriting exactly the same as his own but even his unique writing habits were displayed in exactly the same manner. Prime Minister Xia saw that he couldn’t justify why the pearl had appeared in his house and felt that he was taking him for a fool.

Back then, he had used his power to bring Wang Shunzhi out of that impoverished Li County and he could also use that power to throw him back. A disobedient dog can easily be replaced with an obedient one but a traitorous dog… can’t be kept.

Xia Huaizhang also voted in favor of killing him. Wang Shunzhi has been involved in many dirty dealings in the past years and has a lot of evidence of their corruption and embezzlement. If he chose to betray them completely and handed that evidence over to Xiao Weishen, it would make their relationship strained even though Xiao Weishen wouldn’t publicly accuse them.

As a result, Wang Shunzhi’s old disease relapsed all of a sudden and, within a few days, he “passed away due to sickness”.

Xiao Weixin quietly listened to Xie Feiyuan’s report on the incident while practicing calligraphy and asked: “Who is most likely to succeed him?”

“Zhang Bing.” Xie Feiyuan replied.

“Another idiot.” Xiao Weixin said sarcastically, “Make sure that it is impossible for him to come.”

Xie Feiyuan received the order and went out and just happened to run into You Shu who was crouching outside the study, looking at the snow. He walked over and kicked his butt, scolding: “What are you doing when you are supposed to be on duty?”

You Shu turned around to look at him, stood up from the ground and answered in a low voice, “Master, aren’t I guarding the door?”

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking.” Xie Feiyuan rolled his eyes, “Don’t even dream about those pears. It’s pointless to look at them.”

You Shu smiled: “Does Master Yingshou really think of me as a gluttonous and greedy child? I was just admiring the beautiful snow-covered scenery.”

Hearing the voices at the door, Xiao Weixin walked out with a frown, intending to scold, but as soon as he opened the door, he saw You Shu turn his head to smile at Xie Feiyuan and was stunned into silence.

This is the first time he is seeing You Shu smile.

Turns out…… he can also smile?

123

English version of the Chinese phrase 死性不改.

4

Xiao Weishen didn’t want to be controlled anymore and wanted to get complete authority as emperor but PM Xia refused.

5

Pot calls the kettle black. Have you ever looked at yourself, oh epitome of bastardness?

6

借花献佛 (jiè huā xiàn fó) is a Chinese idiom which literally means ‘to present the Buddha with borrowed flowers’. Its actual meaning is to win favor or influence using somebody else’s property.