VI Times Past
The attack on South Hill Pass hasn’t been commenced yet for some reason. At least it hasn’t by the time I become well enough to walk freely. Well, I did recover pretty quickly which, Murong Yu says, is all due to the good medicine that was originally prepared for him.
No matter what, he saved me and I owe him a big one.
I shake my head in an effort to get all these haphazard thoughts out and then put down the pile of books I had in my arms onto his desk. I turn around to leave.
“Han Xin,” he says without even looking up and points to the teapot. “There is no more tea. Make another pot, and remember—I want it hot, not warm!”
I start to curse him in my mind.
Who do you think I am, Murong Yu? Your personal retinue? It’s not like you didn’t have any before I came along!
But despite my discontent I pick up the pot obediently. He looks up with a smile, eyes narrowed, as if content with my behaviour. I flash a foolish grin and take my leave.
Sunlight comes pouring down in brilliant gold beams through the thin layers of clouds and hits the ground with spots of various sizes. There is no one on the training field other than some soldiers on watch duty.
I crouch in front of the stove and zone out while the water boils.
I’m being ordered around by him because of that big favour that I owe him. It hasn’t even been a day yet and I have become his favourite entourage to order around. I have to follow him around from the moment he leaves the training field; when he eats, I serve; when he reads reports, I grind ink; even when he sleeps, I have to make the bed. If I show the tiniest sign of unwillingness he would give me a discontent look and bark at me: ‘Do you want to go back to prison that badly?’
Staring at the flames burning carelessly in the stove, I unknowingly shake my head.
Of course I don’t. I still think it’s better to have some freedom than none at all—even if it means getting bullied by him like this. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. It’s not like it’s the first time shitty things are happening to me. Plus I must find a way to get the hell away from this place....
I let out a soft sigh, reminiscing the events of the past few days.
See, I found such a way a couple days ago. I had discovered that one guard would secretly go meet with his gal. I had observed him closely for several days but right when I got ready to execute my escape plan on a windy, moonless night Murong Yu stopped me in an odd way.
'I can’t sleep. Come sit with me.'
His face had been buried in the shadow of the moonlight. I couldn’t see his expression or decipher his tone so all I could do was plop down nervously next to him on the grass. He had on a white night robe. His face was lowered and the gaze that was usually icy and distant had lost its ice, leaving only cold loneliness in those globes.
He didn’t speak and I didn’t want to tempt him so we just sat there in chilling silence.
A breeze had blown across the field and swept dead grass up into the air, making the thin blades dance a desolate dance under the frosty silver moonlight.
I have no idea what could have made a mighty crown prince like him that lonely. He’s the first-born son of the Yan Emperor. The Emperor especially adores him even though his mother passed away early, bestowing him peerage at a very young age. Furthermore, he has many victorious campaigns under his belt. Chances are that he will be the one to ascend the throne in the near future and hold incredible power and immense wealth.
Therefore, I had thought: Shouldn’t he be in high spirits instead and get more fired up with each battle? Why would there be loneliness in his eyes like that?
‘What are you…looking at me for?’
His utterance had startled me and I saw he was already looking up so I hurriedly turned away and focused on the grass in front of me.
‘Why can’t you sleep again?’
I saw him shaking his head from the corner of my eyes. ‘I do not know. I just can’t. It’s weird. I fall asleep the moment my head hits the pillow on those nights when the sound of battle echoed all around the camp but I actually cannot fall asleep now that it’s nice and quiet.’
He chuckled; the shape of his brows was almost gentle as he pushed strands of loose hair out of the way. I gave a light smile and remained silent. We remained that way until the moon climbed to the top of the sky.
Only then did he mumble. ‘It is late. Let us all go to bed.’
The sound of water boiling brings me out of my daze. I shoot up and reach out to pour the boiling water into the pot, but something goes ‘thump’ behind me. I dodge to the side instinctively. Something brushes past my face with a sharp whistle.
A booby trap? How come it hasn’t gone off before?
I stay in the corner for some time but there doesn’t seem to be any more activity so I stick my head out. After checking (several times), I come out of hiding. Only when I wander near the door do I find sunlight coming through a hole the size of a nail in the paper.
I study it for quite some time…but I’ve got nothing.
Slightly frustrated, I go to the other wall and indeed I find a corresponding hole but only after picking at it for a long time do I find a silver needle about an inch long. A small paper ball is pinned snuggly onto the wall by it.
You’re kidding me. Again?
My lips twitch.
Can’t the old geezer use a more normal method? He just has to be all mysterious….
I can’t help but howl, albeit secretly in my mind, after reading the note. If he has ways to get that note to me how could he not know that I’m being dragged around on a very short leash by Murong Yu practically everywhere he goes?
Depressed, I fling the note into the fire. The flames suddenly flash but dim again the next moment. I decide to accept my misfortunes and pick up the tea pot and walk out sighing.
I pass a couple of low-ranking military officers who are chit chatting amongst themselves.
“The prince is probably gonna get another big fat bonus from the Emperor right?”
“I think so. His Highness has rendered outstanding contributions. I mean, we’re right outside South Hill Pass! How much more outstanding than that can ya get?”
“I heard the emperor’s people’re almost here. He-he, I wonder what sorta reward His Highness’ll receive this time…perhaps a coupla fine beauties…”
Their voices fade away as I turn a corner to get to Murong Yu’s room and mull over what I just heard.
Hmm. It seems like the Yan Emperor dotes on him quite a bit, sending people over this urgently. He’s probably worried for this son of his who’s out at war. Perfectly normal to send a couple of women over-
But come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen him with a woman lately. Hmm. What a diligent worker.
My thoughts are ruthlessly interrupted by Murong Yu’s unfriendly voice.
“Hey, you didn’t go get water, did you?”
“Huh?” I stop in my tracks, run through some ideas and put on an honest face before replying. “Yeah, the fire was too slow so….”
He looks up from his military reports and glares at me, to which I respond with an innocent look and a hot steaming cup of tea. He shrugs and he takes a small sip before sticking his head into those reports again.
I sit down in the corner, bored out of my skull, so I pick up a random book. I get past a couple of lines before waves of exhaustion hit me but I don’t dare fall asleep on him. My eyes meander around the room and somehow end up back on him.
Normally he would bicker with me but when he gets down to business he is 120% focused. His eyes don’t stray and his brush keeps moving; his head is lowered and his eyes unblinking, as if he’s drowning in that pile of reports.
He’s sitting at his desk so I can only see one side of him. Sunlight falls softly through the windows and lines his figure with an extremely pale light, making the outlines of his face even more distinct. His tall nose bridge, tightly pursed lips and slightly furrowed brows—seems as though he’s in deep thought. There’s none of the usual overwhelming aura or any inhospitality. Even the playfulness he has when he bickers with me is gone.
I nod slowly. I must admit, he’s an outstanding man. I’ve gotten to know him better after being with him these days: he’s probably the prince who leads battles most often, he definitely has a very unfriendly personality (he’s fine when he squabbles with me but he’s basically a frozen hunk of ice in front of other people), but a cold personality, even a slightly twisted one, is understandable seeing that his mother died early….
I fall asleep from boredom with the book in hand in this warm stuffy room.
After who knows how long, I kind of feel light breaths on me and a warm hand on my cheek. I think it is part of my dream so I bat at it with my hand and it disappears. I shift into a more comfortable position and continue to chat with the Sandman.
But soon after the strange sensation comes back again and doesn’t stop.
“Shtawppit….” I grumble as I turn my face away.
The funny feeling follows and I get irritated. I rip my eyes open and see Murong Yu about a step away. It looks as if he had just put his hands behind his back and looked away. His lips are pursed and he turns his head away calmly.
I rub my eyes, touch my face, yawn and ask him, “Aren’t you supposed to be reading those reports of yours?”
I see his lips moving but nothing comes out. His eyes dart around and something about it seems unnatural but it disappears the next moment. He rolls his eyes at me but refuse to give me a reply.
Okay then…. I have never actually seen him looking uneasy like this before.
My gaze seems to irritate him and he frowns. “Just what are you looking at?”
“Nothin’.” I shrug. “Just not fully awake yet.”
He rolls his eyes a little and sits back down. “I’m done with these. Put them back.” He points to the pile of reports.
I nod in acknowledgement and just as I finish stacking them all up and get them in my arms he gets up and stops me.
“Do you not want to know what the reports say, Han Xin?” He leans in and asks.
I waver but it hits me right away.
Murong Yu, this sort of second-rate trick won’t work on me. My cousins pulled the same thing the first time they bullied me all those years back. If I can’t fight I can still run, can’t I?
I smile politely. “Sorry, I’m not interested.”
He watches me suspiciously as if trying to dig two holes in me.
I yawn again lazily. “I shall take my leave if there is nothing else, Your Highness.”
Then I casually turn and leave with the reports not giving his reaction a care in the world.
The old geezer said that he’d meet me at some windy, moonless, completely deserted place where birds don’t even fly over. This leaves me anticipating.
Well, his name is obviously not ‘old geezer’ but that’s how I secretly call him in my mind. His name is Liao Tianyi. Uncle used to hire him as the household’s live-in teacher. Uncle had told me that he was a man of talent, knowledge and wisdom and a famous scholar but that he had a strange personality. He didn’t want to hold any titles or recognition and only wanted to be a teacher at the Minister’s Mansion.
If I have to think of something good I got from that place, it would have to be him. He had taught us to read and write and to debate and compose. He would also tell us many epic tales of heroes and adventurers and when he did every one of us, no matter how much of a troublemaker we were, listened attentively with wide, impressed eyes.
A lot of the times he wouldn’t even get mad if he found me hiding in the library reading,. Instead he would smile kindly, pat my head and tell me, one by one, about things such as how to run a country, strategies, tactics and other stuff I don’t think I would ever need in my life.
I had asked him, many times, why he told me those things, but he’d always give me an indecipherable reply.
‘You’ll have a need for them one day, Han Xin.’ He would say.
I enjoyed having a teacher like that very much though I still can’t understand a lot of what he has taught me. There was someone who applies medicine for me when my cousins bullied me, someone who read stories for me, someone who saw me as a proper human being, someone who cared….
Just when I start to worry about how I’m supposed to sneak out and meet with the old geezer with Murong Yu’s constant surveillance, Murong Yu actually tells me that he needs to see to some officials coming from the Yan court, sent by the Emperor, so I won’t be needed.
Hallelujah!
I don’t forget about his unnerving gaze and chilling expression, of course, while I’m secretly celebrating.
“No wandering around without my permission. If you dare even try running away…you will wish you were never born!” He warns.
I arrive at the rendezvous at the agreed time. After bearing close to one hour of the night wind’s cruel and unforgiving torture, I start to wonder: did the old geezer decide to blow me off?
The night is tranquil and nothing stirs.
I wrap my clothes tighter in hopes to regain some warmth. After who knows how long, the moon has already gone into hiding behind gloomy clouds and left the blazing orange camp fires off in the distance as the only light source.
I curl myself into the corner as I hear faint footsteps of patrols and the metallic clanking. I huff into my hands and only then I realise they’re almost frozen.
I curse under my breath. “You’d better not stand me up, old geezer-”
“Who are you talking ‘bout, you lil’ rascal.”
Something hits me hard on my head and I quickly glance up to see a person watching me leisurely with a whip in hand. I squint and stand up when I finally recognize him.
“Old geezer-”
He smirks as he whacks me again. “Is that what you call your teacher now, you lil’ punk?”
“Sorry. Sorry.” I immediately correct myself. “Master Liao.”
Everyone else knows him as a talented scholar but I know he also has a few more tricks up his sleeve that he just never shows publicly. So I don’t even need to wonder how he got in here; the silver needle the other day is also a regular of his.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login