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War Prisoner - Chapter 44




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Although Su Yi tended to be blindly loyal, he was also an extremely bright and perceptive man. Listening to Zi Liu and Zi Nong, he could probably guess about seventy or eighty percent of what had happened. However, he simply found it incredibly difficult to believe that people who were close to him would conspire with Wanyan Xu to put on a show to deceive him, all for the sake of forcing him to promise to become Wanyan Xu's Empress.

Zi Liu and Zi Nong were scared of out their wits. Bewildered, they could only stand rooted to their spots and had not a clue about how to rectify the situation. Not daring to meet Su Yi's eyes, they could only stutter plaintively: “Young Master...” But besides those two words, they could not utter anything else.

Su Yi stared at them coldly before abruptly turning to leave. With a chilling smile, he said: “Alright, since neither of you are willing to tell me, I'll just go and ask Wanyan Xu. He, at least, should be able to give me a complete explanation.” So saying he started to walk away but suddenly, two shadows flashed past him. When he blinked and looked carefully, he realised that Zi Nong and Zi Liu were now kneeling in front of him, clutching at the hem of his robes desperately. In tearful voices, they pleaded with him: “Young Master, please have mercy on us. If the Great King finds out that we were the ones who had revealed this matter, we would surely lose our lives. On account of the friendship we have with Young Master, we beg you to spare us.”

When Su Yi saw that they were weeping, his heart immediately softened, halting his steps he said: “If you wish for me to spare you, you have to tell me everything about what happened on that day in detail. But rest assured, I shall not make any further inquiries to Wanyan Xu. If you refuse, don’t blame me for not taking into consideration our friendship.” After saying that, he helped the two of them up and saw them exchange a meaningful look. After that, Zi Nong said: “Since Young Master has put it that way, your humble servant does not dare to hoodwink Young Master any longer. But Young Master, we should go to the pavilion for you to take a seat before we begin to explain everything to you thoroughly.” So saying, they flanked Su Yi and proceeded to have a seat in the pavilion.

Zi Nong shot Zi Liu another glance, looking for confirmation, before she proceeded to say: “Since matters have come to this, we can only tell you the truth, but we beseech you to never let His Majesty know. That night when you sought to join your country in death by slitting your own throat, your actions truly made His Majesty livid. When he returned to the Royal Study, he immediately sent for the Minister He, who is the high official in charge of the Ministry of Justice and ordered him to find out all the old friends and close neighbours you have that are living in this city and round them up so that he could use them to threaten you.”

“But who could have predicted that three days later, when without a single exception, Minister He had covertly apprehended all the people you have close ties to, His Majesty's rage had already abated somewhat. When he saw that among the captives, there were many such people like infirm elders, little children and pregnant women, he knew that they were indeed ideal for the purpose of forcing your agreement. However, he could not bring himself to actually harm them. His Majesty knew that you would certainly not wait for any one of them to actually come to harm before you capitulate, but from the looks of those people, he also knew that none of them could withstand a fright. If any of them collapsed or died of fright, not only would he be unable to account to you but it would also be a heinous deed that would offend Heaven and defy all reason. So he released them from prison, and had them ushered to a small building on the palace grounds instead where he proceeded to tell them about his scheme. He also used flawed logic to persuade them, saying that after you have become the Empress, Jin Liao and Great Qi will become one family, and in future the Jin Liao people will have no grounds to throw their weight around and oppress the people of Qi.”

“When those people heard his words, they did become somewhat pleased, but they were reluctant to deceive you. But His Majesty then said that he would have you as his Empress no matter what. If they refused to act in the play he had scripted, he would still proceed with his plan; the only difference would be that what was originally supposed to be an act would become reality. He would rather not do that because it would be disastrous if anyone really did get hurt at that point. Just as they were dithering, one of the pregnant women --- the very one who had been your playmate all throughout your youth --- proved herself to be of decisive character. Without consulting anyone else, she stood up and promised to go along with His Majesty's plan.” 

“The Great King was also exceedingly delighted, and promised them that as long as you agree to become the Empress, every one of them will be rewarded with ten taels of silver. Even if you managed to turn your heart into stone and turn a blind eye to their fate, he guaranteed that he will harm not a single one of them. As a result, those people stopped hesitating; they even said that ten taels of silver was no small sum. Under the reign of the previous Emperor, that amount of money was what they could expect to earn in two or three years of labour, thus all of them were happy with the offer. After that... After that, well, Young Master already knows what transpired later. That is, the act put on by those people and His Majesty was very convincing, and you were taken in by them.”

Zi Liu added: “That's not necessarily the case. By that time, Young Master had been starving for a few days, with the inevitable result that your judgement and willpower had been impaired. With the additional stress of the situation, your heart would have been panicked and your thoughts scattered. Even if their acting had been lacking, you would not have been able to pick up on it. But those people also did not do that with the intention of betraying Young Master, they really did not have a choice. With or without their consent, they were fated to participate in the play that His Majesty had planned but if they did not choose to cooperate there was a possibility that they could end up losing their lives. Young Master should not blame them, or condemn them for being despicable, or complain that they disregarded your close relationship when they deceived you. If it had been me, I would also have seen it to be the only reasonable decision.” 

When the two maidens had finished speaking, they sneaked a look at Su Yi's face and tried to gauge his feelings, only to discover that he was wearing the same placid expression that he usually wore. With no inkling as to what Su Yi's thoughts might be, they could only wait anxiously. Suddenly, Su Yi heaved a sigh, as if thinking aloud, he said: “So that’s how it is. As I thought, he is indeed not capable of such depravity.”

The two maidens looked mutely at each other with an attitude of amazement --- now that Young Master knows the truth, not only did he not harbour any rancour towards His Majesty and his own friends for deceiving him but his expression seems to be one of relief. And then they heard Su Yi say: “From the looks of it, Wanyan Xu actually had good intentions, why then did he not tell me the truth after it was all over? When I said that I would go to ask him about this personally, the both of you immediately became so frightened. Previously, I only hated him for being devoid of conscience because of this incident. But why didn’t he reason that if he told me the truth, I would still retain a measure of good feelings towards him?”

Zi Nong answered: “His Majesty did think that way, but he said that you would never believe him. He felt that if he tried to tell you the truth, you would not only hate him but you would also start to suspect him. He said that he would rather that you think of him as having a cold and heartless nature before he lets you think of him as being duplicitous and untrustworthy, someone who specialized in lying and cheating. Because of these reasons, he also forbade us from revealing to Young Master the truth behind the deception, in case you suspect that he was using us to rehabilitate your opinion of him. Moreover, although you could say that your close friends were forced into it, but in the end they still accepted the silver and put on a show to mislead you. His Majesty was afraid that you would take their betrayal hard, that you would not recognise that they had been placed in an untenable position, and be heartbroken by their deceit.”

“With these two factors in mind, he commanded us to keep this knowledge strictly confidential but it seems that the saying is right, there really isn't a wall in the word that does not bear even a single crack, in the end Young Master still found out about this secret. Now we can only implore Young Master to take pity on us, we cannot stress enough how important it is that Young Master pretends to have no knowledge of the truth. If His Majesty should find out that we were the ones who had given the game away, we would meet a tragic end and even after death, we would not be allowed proper burials.” With that, they knelt down together and cried, their faces filled with genuine terror.
 



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