Niao Ni

Chapter 427: The Emperor's Ailment

"Actually, there's no special meaning to going to Danzhou."

The Emperor pushed his wheelchair to the edge of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The railings in front of him reflected a faint white light in the night, and the slight drop in height compared to the square in front created a moment of shared sigh between the two most enduring and formidable figures in Qing Yu Nian. Although the palace walls were tall, they seemed less so compared to the vast square. Starlight from the southern night sky sprinkled down.

"I just want to have a look," the Emperor said casually. "It's been a long time since I've been there. I wonder if it's still like it was back then, with so many fish."

"If I remember correctly, when Your Majesty went to Danzhou back then, it wasn't fully considered part of our great Qing Yu Nian."

"Indeed, it seems closer to sail to Danzhou from Dongyi. If it weren't for that large, bone-gnawing forest north of Danzhou... Si Gu Jian wouldn't have given up such a good port."

"Fortunately, there's that forest," Chen Pingping said with a smile. "That's why she took a boat, and that's how we met her at sea."

The Emperor fell silent, clearly not wanting to continue the reminiscence. So Chen Pingping sighed and changed the subject. "Your Majesty stands higher than everyone in the world and sees further than everyone else. I dare not question your judgment and decisions, but... I can't figure out how, if the Eldest Princess truly has such intentions... how she would persuade those two."

Without hesitation, the Emperor said, "There's no need to persuade them. If they had the opportunity to stab me with their swords, such a great temptation, the greatest in the world, neither the ascetic Ku He nor the idiot Si Gu Jian could bear to miss it."

If Fan Xian were there listening, he would have been incredibly impressed by how closely the Emperor's analysis matched that of the old Prime Minister in Wuzhou. Qing Yu Nian has lost a Lin Ruofu, wonder if the Emperor feels it is a pity.

Chen Pingping's hands, which had been caressing his knees, slowly stopped, as if digesting the Emperor's words. After a moment, he said slowly, "If those two truly make a desperate gamble, what will our great Qing Yu Nian use to stop them?"

"Meet soldiers with generals, and water with an earth weir," the Emperor said coldly.

"Who is the general?" Chen Pingping said calmly. "Ye Liuyun split half a building in the south. Others might mistake him for that idiot Si Gu Jian, but I don't see it that way. It's impossible to expect him to act; I'm even afraid he'll go mad in his old age."

"An Zhi has also written to me," the Emperor said indifferently. "He is, after all, a member of our great Qing Yu Nian. He wouldn't collude with outsiders. As for those two, they are ultimately men, not gods. I hold the world in my hands; what do I have to fear from two commoners? As for the question of a general..." the Emperor said softly, "Fifth is the greatest killing general of our time."

...

...

Very bland words, very strong confidence. But a subtle, almost imperceptible smile appeared on Chen Pingping's lips, but because he was sitting in front of the Emperor, the Emperor couldn't see that odd smile.

"I will give Yun Rui a chance," the Emperor said coldly.

Chen Pingping was silent, but he thought to himself that perhaps... Your Majesty just wants to give himself a chance, a chance to persuade the Empress Dowager, and even to persuade himself.

But even now, Chen Pingping still didn't know where the Emperor's strong confidence came from. Although he had been striving towards the closest approximation of the truth, the play that Wuzhu was supposed to see at the Suspended Temple was never completed because of Fan Xian's intervention.

"Your Majesty."

"Speak."

"I want to know how you plan to arrange things for the future," Chen Pingping sighed and asked a question he would never ask again.

The Emperor seemed a bit surprised, then smiled slightly. The whiskers on his chin swayed gently in the night breeze, and the eyes of a middle-aged man who had seen through the ways of the world softened a bit. This was the first time in many years that Chen Pingping had proactively asked about this matter, and the Emperor was slightly moved.

"You've never liked to concern yourself with these matters, have you?" the Emperor said mockingly. "Even when I used to ask for your opinion, you were like an old rabbit, running as far away as you could."

Chen Pingping pouted and said, "It's just a matter for a bunch of children, but they are, after all, your children, Your Majesty."

The Emperor understood the meaning of those words. After thinking for a long time, he said in a calm but firm tone, "I haven't decided yet."

Now it was Chen Pingping's turn to be surprised. He couldn't help shaking his head, sighing like an old scholar in the countryside.

The Emperor said slowly, "Chengqian is too weak, the eldest is too kind, the second..." He frowned. "The third is too young."

Chen Pingping sighed again.

The Emperor suddenly laughed, releasing his hands from the back of the wheelchair and placing them behind his back. He walked to Chen Pingping's side, gazing across the white jade railings at the vast square within the deep palace, as if watching thousands of troops and horses, watching everything in the world.

"I know many people think I'm pushing these children too hard," the Emperor's back looked a bit desolate. "Shu Wu once drank too much and even said it directly to my face."

As he said this, a hint of hidden anger finally crept into the Emperor's tone.

"But can just anyone be an Emperor?" The Emperor turned back, looking at Chen Pingping's aged face, as if asking him, as if asking himself, or as if asking those restless sons of his inside and outside the palace.

The palace maids and eunuchs in the distance were watching from afar. They couldn't hear what His Majesty and Director Chen were discussing at all, much less know that the conversation between His Majesty and Director Chen involved the ownership of the Dragon Throne many years later.

...

...

"As an Emperor, one must not be heartless, nor overly sentimental." The Emperor turned his face away. "He who is heartless to those around him is heartless to the world, and the world will be in chaos. He who is overly sentimental to those around him will be harmed by it, and the world will lose its master, also causing chaos."

"I am not a foolish ruler. I want to build a lasting legacy, and I need someone to inherit it. I can't just choose an Emperor based on my own liking," the Emperor said with a cold smile. "I've watched the Crown Prince for ten years. He is sentimental within his heartlessness. He can maintain the status quo, but when I depart, this world will likely have just begun to unify, and the causes of chaos will still exist. He has neither a heart of stone nor formidable means. How will he protect this unified world for me?"

"The second?" The cold smile on the Emperor's face remained. "I initially valued him. In these years of struggle with Chengqian, he has not fallen behind. But later, he disappointed me somewhat. He has gone down the path of heartlessness masked by excessive sentimentality. If he ascends the throne, he will certainly be a benevolent ruler, but none of my sons... I fear none of them will survive."

Chen Pingping was silent, thinking to himself that the world was truly inexplicable. The Second Prince was once a handsome young man who only knew how to read. If you hadn't forced him to this point, without such great pressure and temptation, how would his character have become what it is today? Your Majesty, Your Majesty... this method of raising lions is really not suitable for cultivating a successor to the throne.

The underlying intention of the Qing Yu Nian Emperor allowing his sons to contend for the throne in recent years was simple: it is difficult to rule the world. Whoever can survive it, the world will belong to that person. But he hadn't considered that not all young people are like him, accustomed to standing in an ink-like river and admiring the scenery on the riverbank. He had changed his sons a lot, but in the end, the result of this change might not be what he wanted.

"What about the First Prince?" The words Chen Pingping spoke tonight had far exceeded the principles he usually adhered to.

So when the Emperor heard these words, he was once again taken aback. His smile grew even wider, seemingly very pleased that Chen Pingping had returned to his original state of speaking his mind: "I'm not surprised you would mention his name."

The Emperor said with a smile, "You and Xiao Yezi saved the lives of both mother and son. Naturally, you have more affection for him. I also like him... but he is too sentimental. In this dangerous struggle, whoever is soft-hearted is likely to fall into eternal damnation."

The Emperor sighed, "Besides, he has half Dongyi blood after all, and it would be difficult for him to win over the masses. More importantly, if we were to massacre Dongyi City in the future, do you think he would have the resolve to do so?"

Chen Pingping sighed. In the palace tonight, the sighs of this Director seemed to be more than at any other time.

"So he doesn't need to be considered," the Emperor said slowly. "The third... is still young. I can watch him for a few more years."

Chen Pingping suddenly smiled strangely and made a suggestion that might make the entire world tremble.

"What about Fan Xian...?"

...

...

The Emperor slowly turned around, looking at Chen Pingping with a smile that was not a smile. He didn't know how long he looked, but he never answered the question. After a long time, the Emperor suddenly laughed loudly. The laughter echoed in the empty corridor in front of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, making the palace maids and eunuchs at the end of the corridor tremble with fear.

As the laughter gradually subsided, the Emperor slowly composed himself, saying calmly but with undeniable certainty, "Without a doubt, he is the most suitable one."

The passionate are always troubled by the heartless. The temperament that Fan Xian displayed in this world happened to coincide with the Qing Yu Nian Emperor's requirements for a successor: seemingly gentle and passionate, but in reality cold and heartless, yet with a trace of compassion for humanity in the deepest part of his bones.

The Emperor had always been thinking that the trace of aura in Fan Xian's bones must have been inherited from his mother, right?

If the Emperor's words were to spread, the entire Qing Yu Nian court would be shaken, and even the entire world would undergo some kind of intense change.

"He has no formal status," Chen Pingping said with a strange smile.

The Emperor's smile was also a bit strange: "Formal status is just a word from me... someday all the people from back then will be dead."

Chen Pingping knew that His Majesty was referring to the Empress Dowager in the palace. He coughed lightly twice and said, "I think we should forget about it."

The Emperor looked at him with a smile that was not a smile: "Why? I always thought you didn't like Fan Xian, but it seems in the past two years that you really dote on him."

"Dotting is one thing," Chen Pingping said with a forced smile. "My relationship with Fan Jian is another... but in my opinion, given Fan Xian's personality, he wouldn't want both the Fan and Liu clans to become skeletons underground because of him."

The Emperor smiled slightly and said nothing more.

Chen Pingping understood the Emperor in front of him too well. He sighed in his heart. If the Emperor really wanted to support Fan Xian's ascension to the throne, he would definitely slaughter both the Fan and Liu families clean before he died. At any cost, he would slaughter them clean, and this was definitely something Fan Xian could not accept. What made Chen Pingping even more exhausted was that he had finally clearly confirmed that the Emperor had not placed Fan Xian on the list of successors at all.

Chen Pingping stood in the middle, knowing that that road was impassable. He had to take another path—His Majesty has an illness, a heart ailment.

...

...

"I like the eldest and An Zhi because I like their hearts," the Emperor said in the night breeze of the palace, making a decisive choice regarding the ownership of the Dragon Throne. "What I want to see is the hearts of these sons... If this matter doesn't happen, then so be it. But if it does, I want to see if the Crown Prince and the Second Prince are truly concerned about me, their father."

Chen Pingping didn't say anything, but thought coldly that a father who doesn't cherish his own sons has no right to demand that his sons cherish their fatherly feelings.

———————————————————————

"The Emperor's vision should see farther than any of us."

Fan Xian thought to himself. At this time, he was like a monkey, climbing up the tall mast, watching the rising sun on his right, welcoming the slightly wet and salty sea breeze, and shouting with joy.

Traveling at sea is such a pleasant life. You don't have to worry about the dirty water in Kyoto, you don't have to worry about the troubles in the officialdom, and you don't have to look at the dead heads in Jiaozhou anymore. Fan Xian seemed to have returned to the restless teenage image he had in Danzhou, climbing around the ship all day long, finally climbing to the highest mast of the entire ship.

He built a sunshade, looked at the red and warm color block in the distance, and thought to himself that he had seen far enough, but he still didn't know exactly how far the Emperor had seen.

The ship came from Jiaozhou and sailed slowly north along the winding coastline east of Qing Yu Nian, sailing towards Fan Xian's hometown.

(Sorry for not reading the book reviews these past two days. I really enjoyed watching Rome last night... a rare seedling, a rare seedling.)