Three Steps: From Assassin to Empress - Chapter 7
Chapter 7
This Hatred is Not Related to Love, Everyone Has It…
Silence. After a brief silence, Wang Shouzhen raised his cup and asked, “Which branch of the Xie clan is your excellency a retainer of?”
Xie Zhou’s tone was calm. “Xie Gui.”
Cough. Wang Shouzhen was suddenly choked by his tea. Ying Xiu quickly patted him on the back, concerned. “Are you okay?”
Wang Shouzhen caught his breath and whispered, “I’m fine.”
Xie Gui, who is he?
He was the current Grand Chancellor, the emperor’s uncle, renowned as a man who could “assist the state.” He held the highest office, wielded immense military power in Kuaiji, and served as both a general and a minister, reaching the pinnacle of human power. In short, he was a peer of his own father, Wang Daokui, and his status far exceeded his.
As a retainer of Xie Gui, it was only natural for him to be arrogant. If he had been approachable, it would have been suspicious.
Ying Xiu had heard the name Xie Gui before. Xie Gui had led the Central Plains gentry and commoners to migrate south with Emperor Yuanxi, and his entire clan had helped to support the Southern court. His reputation was immense.
Xie Zhou is actually Xie Gui’s retainer?
He had been thinking that when Jianxin became the master of the Wang clan of Langya and he became a general, he might be able to invite Xie Zhou to the Wang family and take him with him when they returned to Guangling from Jiangzhou. Now, it seemed it wouldn’t be as easy as he thought.
A hint of sadness appeared on Ying Xiu’s face, like a dispirited puppy.
Xie Zhou noticed it and asked him, “Are you unhappy?”
“Yes, because I can’t take you with me—” Ying Xiu realized what he had said, but it was too late. Xie Zhou’s gaze became suddenly profound and unfathomable, making it impossible to tell if he was happy or unhappy.
Fortunately, Xie Zhou didn’t ask the question: “Why do you want to take me with you?”
Ying Xiu didn’t dare to speak. He lowered his head guiltily, his ears perked up, listening to them talk.
Since Xie Zhou was Xie Gui’s retainer, it meant he was one of the more powerful ones among the retainers. But he was still a retainer, not a master. Maybe Xie Zhou would get tired of it, or maybe his master would be willing to let him go…
There was still hope!
Ying Xiu, lost in his own thoughts, became happy again.
Like a little puppy, Xie Zhou thought, watching everything unfold.
After they had settled the general matters, they agreed that after the canal was completed, the profits from the transportation would be split evenly between the Wang and Xie clans. The formal business was concluded.
Wang Shouzhen had wanted to leave with Ying Xiu, but he saw that Ying Xiu had already taken Xie Zhou’s sleeve and was staring at him, apparently intending to go back with Xie Zhou.
Wang Shouzhen was speechless. It was as if his own cabbage was eagerly running to be… He looked at Xie Zhou and swallowed the rest of his thoughts.
To be fair, Xie Zhou’s appearance was truly one of a kind. He was sharp, sublime, cold, and handsome. It would be impossible to find a second beauty like him in the entire capital on the Qinhuai River.
However, he felt that this Xie Zhou seemed to treat Ying Xiu as a small toy, finding him interesting and teasing him occasionally, but not taking him to heart.
Wang Shouzhen lightly tapped his fingers on the table and quietly ordered his confidant, “Go and investigate.” There was no need to say what to investigate. Although Xie Zhou had spoken gently, politely, and orderly during the negotiation, without a single flaw, and considering the immense power of the Xie clan of Jianzhang, he probably wouldn’t dare to impersonate one of their retainers. But Wang Shouzhen was still uneasy. When he was with Xie Zhou, the subtle pressure he felt was almost suffocating.
The autumn wind was desolate at night. Ying Xiu held Xie Zhou’s robe and walked back along the water corridor. Neither of them spoke.
Ying Xiu was still thinking about how to take Xie Zhou back to Guangling. As he thought, he secretly raised his eyes and saw Xie Zhou’s face in the hazy moonlight. He saw the boundless scenery behind him. The young assassin’s heart pounded, and he wondered if he was drunk.
…I didn’t even drink any alcohol at the banquet. Why do I feel drunk?
My face is so hot, and my heart is beating so fast. Before the other person noticed, Ying Xiu quickly lowered his head and started talking to fill the silence. “Did Xie Gui send you to Jiangzhou to herd deer?”
How could Xie Gui bear to let such a handsome retainer herd deer? If he were Xie Gui, he would have Xie Zhou as his little shadow, following him all day. When he was in a bad mood, he would just look at Xie Zhou and say a few words to him.
Xie Zhou replied, “Yes.” He didn’t say yes or no, just “yes.”
Ying Xiu thought he was being a bit perfunctory. He wanted to say a few words to him, but when he looked up and saw Xie Zhou’s face again, he was instantly speechless. His sparkling eyes were wide open, as if he wanted to devour Xie Zhou whole.
“Then I’ll help you feed the deer,” Ying Xiu said, and quickly added, “Okay?”
This time, Xie Zhou answered quickly. “Okay.”
His gaze suddenly stopped and rested on Ying Xiu’s face. Looking at the young man’s smile, his cold and indifferent eyes gradually deepened.
Ying Xiu, Ying Xiu… Xie Zhou silently chewed on the name. A smile can also kill. An assassin’s smile could make him stay here and be Xie Zhou, willingly becoming an ordinary retainer, and playing house with him.
Ying Xiu didn’t know what Xie Zhou was thinking. He was still seriously planning for the future. After the matters in Jiangzhou were concluded, he would go back to Guangling, Yangzhou, with Jianxin, and then try to persuade Xie Zhou to come with them. The first part of the plan was already made. The second part now had Xie Zhou added to it.
After walking along the water corridor for a while, Ying Xiu and Xie Zhou returned to the banquet hall. Ying Xiu looked around and saw that Xie Zhou had no seat in the main hall, so he pulled him to an empty seat next to him.
Not long after they sat down, Ying Xiu heard a southern noble loudly complaining. “Aren’t there enough cangren in Jiangzhou? Now we have another vice-governor and some eldest son. They all think they’re from the Central Plains gentry, but they’re just people who lost their land and their army!”
The southern nobles of the Wu clan had always looked down on the northern gentry. They would usually only talk about it in private. After the recent deaths of the Wu clan’s warlord and scholar, the officials and literati of the Wu clan had an even greater hatred for the northern gentry. Coincidentally, the banquet was being held by the governor of Jiangzhou, who was from the southern Wu clan, so the southerners in the audience were even more uninhibited in their complaints.
Wang Shouzhen, who had already returned to his seat, didn’t respond and calmly drank his tea. The governor of Jiangzhou, who should have been at the left-hand seat, was nowhere to be found. As for the vice-governor of Jiangzhou, Wang Yu, who was at the right-hand seat, held his cup and subtly observed Wang Shouzhen’s expression.
For a moment, no one stopped the southern noble, and no one agreed with him. Everyone at the banquet continued to drink and laugh as if they hadn’t heard what the man said.
“If those people from the Central Plains were really so capable, they wouldn’t have been utterly defeated by the Qiang, ending up abandoning the capital of Chang’an and having the imperial army retreat south to Jiangzuo overnight! The mighty Yangtze River can’t hold all the gentry from the Central Plains!” The southern noble finished his wine and yelled, his voice getting louder and louder until a sudden silence fell over the room and countless eyes stared at him.
That was a humiliation the Southern Dynasty did not want to mention, like a cup of bitter wine poured out from the mouth of the drunken southerner.
A deadly silence fell over the room. A slight sound of a cup being put down. Wang Shouzhen’s expression darkened, and he slowly glanced at the southerner. If what happened tonight got out, the eldest son of the Wang clan of Langya would be shamed.
The candlelight flickered for a moment, and the fabric of the young scholar’s robe rustled. Ying Xiu didn’t have time to think. He stood up with a start and said in a strong voice: “In the first year of Jianyuan, the Prime Minister Xie Gui, overseeing the Northern River Army, stood across the Yangtze River from the Qiang people in Xiangyang, defended against the Qiang’s southward advance, forced 3,000 of their ships to retreat, and secured Jiangzuo.”
“In the tenth year of Jianyuan, the refugee general Yu Ming gathered a force in Shouchun. He melted plows into swords and recruited more than 2,000 men. He led his force of 2,000 refugees to eliminate bandits and once recaptured the three states of Xuzhou, Ganzhou, and Yangzhou.”
“In the third year of Yongning, the fifteen-year-old Emperor Zhaosu led a northern expedition of 25,000 officers. He attacked Guanzhong, defeated 50,000 Qiang soldiers, and returned only after running out of supplies.”
“The hatred of losing officials and land, of longing for the old country, is the hatred of the Central Plains,” Ying Xiu said, each word clear and loud. “The desire to reclaim the divine land and restore the Central Plains is a desire that every person in the Southern Dynasty has.”
This hatred was not about love or romance; everyone had it.
The southerner stared blankly at the young scholar who was standing up for the northern gentry. His face changed from green to white. He hesitated, then slowly raised his cup and toasted him.
Wang Shouzhen’s expression softened, and he secretly let out a sigh of relief. He remembered Ying Xiu saying he had been reading and couldn’t help but smile. Wang Yu, on the other hand, stared at Ying Xiu thoughtfully for a few moments, then looked at Wang Shouzhen before lowering his head and taking a sip of wine.
Eyes. There were many eyes on him, like many glass lanterns shining on him at once, making him feel dizzy. There was no malice, but the assassin, who was used to lurking in the darkness, had never experienced this feeling before.
Ying Xiu sat down with a thud. He was dazed for a while, then suddenly turned his head and grabbed Xie Zhou’s snowy white robe. “Xie Zhou, Xie Zhou,” the young man’s face was flushed with nervousness. He held his sleeve and asked cautiously, “Did I say anything ridiculous just now?”
Just now, to save Jianxin from embarrassment, Ying Xiu’s mind went blank. Without thinking, he stood up and organized the things he had read in books, saying them without hesitation. As he spoke, the hatred and passion seemed to seep into the young assassin’s heart, making his whole body feel hot and full.
Ying Xiu had grown up in the mountains since he was a child, following his nine-foot-tall father. He had learned a little martial arts from him through trial and error. Before he was thirteen, he had never left the mountain, had never read books, and had never been to a school. Even if he was given a map, he wouldn’t know exactly where the Central Plains, Xiangyang, Shouchun, and the three states of Xuzhou, Ganzhou, and Yangzhou were. Even after saying those words, he was still a little fuzzy about them. Those places seemed to be covered by a veil that he couldn’t see through. The hatred and passion for the old country that he had read about in books slowly cooled down.
Xie Zhou’s voice reached his ears, his tone as warm and calm as ever. “You didn’t say anything ridiculous. Every word you said was incisive and powerful.”
The young man no longer held his sleeve. He lowered his head and let go. The wrinkled, snow-colored robe hung on the floor. His muffled voice said: “…What does ‘incisive’ mean?”
Xie Zhou couldn’t help but laugh.
Meanwhile, the governor of Jiangzhou, who had left the banquet to look for Emperor Zhaosu, rushed back. He glanced over and saw Emperor Zhaosu in a formal, simple robe, sitting in a seat meant for a scholar.
The governor of Jiangzhou was shocked. He angrily glared at the retainers and servants. You don’t want to live! He quickly took a few steps, lifted his robe, and was about to kneel to apologize when he saw Emperor Zhaosu turn his head and glance at him. It was a cold look with a hint of warning and a strong murderous intent.
The governor of Jiangzhou was speechless. Without a word, he turned and went back to his own left-hand seat. He naturally put on a smile and started chatting with Wang Shouzhen, who was a guest.
After the vice-governor’s welcoming banquet, the Jiangzhou prefectural office began the grand construction of the canal. The workers and commoners at the Yuan River weir worked tirelessly day and night. The shouts of the trackers could be heard constantly, sharp and hoarse, a never-ending chant.
Ying Xiu had no assignments during this time, so he was quite idle. He stayed by Wang Shouzhen’s side, following him to the embankment near the weir to supervise the work. He listened to the earth-shattering shouts. He watched the massive weir rise from the ground. Until someone suddenly collapsed, with a light thud.