Xie Yu had been sent back to the Luo Estate by the crown princes’ servants. He had a high fever and had fallen into unconsciousness.
When Luo Wei walked into Xie Yu’s room, the imperial physician was checking the wound on Xie Yu’s abdomen.
“How is it?” Luo Wei asked the physician.
The imperial physician bit his tongue, “The cut is very deep.”
Luo Wei looked towards the crown prince guards who had brought Xie Yu into the estate.
The guards quickly told Luo Wei what happened. When Xie Yu’s abdomen had been stabbed, the wound was so bad that his intestines had breached the wound.
Luo Wei asked the imperial physician, “Is it life threatening?”
The imperial physician answered, “Young Master Xie’s wounds are already on the way to healing, there’s no real concern for him losing his life.”
Luo Wei let out a breath of relief, “Doctor Ren, I have a lot of medicines in my part of the estate, please go and take a look later, as long as they’re of use to Young Master Xie, take as much as you need.”
The imperial physician quickly nodded yes.
Luo Wei then asked the crown prince’s guards, “How is the crown prince’s wounds?”
The guard answered, “His Imperial Highness has already returned to the Eastern Palace, the imperial physicians there are helping to treat him.”
Luo Wei asked, “Is my father there too?”
The guard answered, “When I left to come here, the chancellor was still in the Eastern Palace.”
Luo Wei didn’t go to the Eastern Palace, instead heading straight for the Hall of Eternal Light. It wasn’t until now that he he realized that no matter if it was in the past life or in this life, he had never held truly fond feelings for Crown Prince Long Yu. If Long Yu was a little more useful in the past life when he was still in cahoots with Long Xuan, if Long Yu had managed to protect his own status, then the Luo Family wouldn’t have ended up in such dire straits. This life? A cold smile hung on Luo Wei’s lips. When he’d been reborn, he’d only managed to see the crown prince just once. The floods in the south definitely needed his attention, but did that mean that what happened in the capital could be just ignored?
When the carriage stopped, Luo Wei hid the sneer he had on his face and stepped into the Hall of Eternal Light, the place that he hadn’t set foot in for about half a year at this point. Long Yu’s life or death didn’t concern him one bit. Empress Luo had three sons, even if Long Yu died, there are two more princes directly in line for the crown. No matter which one they protected, the Luo family’s status will stay as it is.
Emperor Xing Wu was not at the Hall of Eternal Light, instead he went to the Empress’ hall in order to comfort her.
So Luo Wei stood in the gallery outside of the Hall of Eternal Light to wait for his return.
Snow started drifting from the skies again, dressing the entire Hall of Eternal Light with a beautiful layer of silver and white. The few plum blossoms were also blooming in the snow at the end of the gallery. A comforting and welcoming scent wafted through the chill air, there and gone again. Luo Wei reached out, letting a single blossom fall on his palm.
Long Xuan was rushing into the hall to see the emperor as well, but saw Luo Wei, who he’d not seen in a long time. The sight shocked him into startled silence, and he stood there stunned in silence. Not far from him, Luo Wei lifted the blossom in his hand to his nose, sniffing lightly, then let it fall from his hand while he watched the white plum blossom drifting onto the snow. Long Xuan watched Luo Wei for a long time. He’d grown thin, and not fully recovered from his illness yet, his face was still white as paper, but beautiful as ever.
Luo Wei turned around, seeing Long Xuan, and startled as well. In a moment of daze, he seemed to see Long Xuan’s giant coffin in the snowstorm again. His heart lurched, and Luo Wei’s body wavered, as if he couldn’t hold his own weight.
The Liu family has been exterminated. Consort Liu had been demoted to a lower concubine, and had been sent into the Cold Palace by Emperor Xing Wu, and the Empress Dowager has lost her freedom totally. The last half year has been extremely difficult for Long Xuan, as if he’d fallen from the skies into a muddy swamp. People’s fickleness and favor, their various behaviors, have all been laid bare to him in this half year. And thus, the prince without peer has had to learn how to hide himself, learned how to lower his head.
“Your Second Imperial Highness,” Luo Wei made a sign of obeisance to Long Xuan, humble and polite.
“How is your health?” Long Xuan approached Luo Wei slowly, asking.
“This humble servant has already recovered, his body is no longer a bother,” Luo Wei answered, “Apologies for causing Your Imperial Highness to worry, it is my fault.”
Long Xuan nodded once.
The two of them didn’t have any words for each other anymore, standing together to watch the snow fall. Luo Wei was surprised internally to see the placid peace inside Long Xuan’s eyes, but Long Xuan was surprised too, to see the desolation within Luo Wei’s eyes.
Marquis of Ning Yu, Qiu Che walked in on the scene. Watching Long Xuan and Luo Wei standing shoulder to shoulder seemed to him a little difficult to watch. But he was impressed by the two of them. Clearly they’d been battling to each other’s end, enemies to the last, but they could somehow still stand together and watch the snow and appreciate the plum blossoms. One might say that the two of them have open hearts to accept each other thus, or perhaps it was a matter of not having hearts at all.
Emperor Xing Wu arrived from the Empress’ hall, and saw Luo Wei standing in the snow. His heart ached and worried for him, but he couldn’t let Long Xuan or the Marquis of Ning Yu see his preference, so he kept it to himself and endured it.
Long Xuan had been a.s.signed recently by the emperor to study history. His trip today was to inform his imperial father of his progress. When he’d finished making his report, Long Xuan suggested to the emperor that he wanted to go and see his elder brother, the Crown Prince.
“Go,” Emperor Xing Wu nodded.
Long Xuan lowered his head and backed out. He knew that Long Yu was a soft-hearted person. With the situation that he and Long Xiang were in now, maybe the only route for some sort of protection temporarily lay within the good graces of the crown prince. There was only one throne. If he, Long Xuan, were not contesting the crown prince for it, it didn’t mean that none of the other princes won’t contest for it. A better choice for him at the moment was to stand behind Long Yu with Long Xiang, and watch to see how others are planning to go after this throne. A mantis will s.n.a.t.c.h up a cicada easily, but the sparrow soon follows. A heron and a clam may do battle, but the one that wins in the end is the fisherman. Long Xuan was very aware that right now, the only thing he could do was crouch and lie in wait for his chance.
Qiu Che was the acting Junior Chancellor at the moment for Greater Zhou. When Long Xuan excused himself, he began making grandiose gestures and statements to the emperor about how they ought to catch the a.s.sa.s.sin who’d made an attempt on the crown prince’s life.
Luo Wei listened aside, appreciating Qiu Che’s acting abilities. This man was doing his best to pave the road for the ninth prince, Ning Yi. He couldn’t wait for the crown prince to die, but he had to speak up for him as well. It must have been tiring for this junior chancellor. Watching the act being put on by Qiu Che, Luo Wei suddenly thought, perhaps those a.s.sa.s.sins who made an attempt on Long Yu’s life were under direction of this chancellor.
“Wei Er,” Emperor Xing Wu addressed Luo Wei, “What do you think?”
Luo Wei answered, “The weight of this matter is too great, I shall humbly listen to Your Imperial Majesty’s directives, and keep my words to myself.”
Qiu Che followed him, “This humble minister dares to ask Your Imperial Majesty for an edict, to investigate this matter to the fullest, and shall return with the a.s.sa.s.sin in hand.”
Emperor Xing Wu did not say yes or not, and simply spared a look at Qiu Che, then said to Luo Wei, “Wei Er, let’s go to see the crown prince.”
Qiu Che didn’t receive an approval from the emperor, and his expression numbered for a moment. When he lifted his head again, his eyes met directly with Luo Wei’s eyes, which held zero patience for him, and that startled him too. When Liu Shuang Shi’s head met the ground for his execution, the last person he mentioned was Luo Wei! If that wasn’t Liu Shuang Shi’s last ditch attempt at throwing crazed words around before death, then he has to watch out for this Luo Wei.
Emperor Xing Wu got on his litter, and looked down to Luo Wei who stood beside him. He couldn’t bare to have a sick man stomp around in the snow like this, so he instructed Zhao Fu, “Bring us another soft litter.”
Zhao Fu looked towards Luo Wei, and quickly understood his meaning. He lead the two little eunuchs standing aside to fetch the litter.
“Wei Er, you’re not completely well yet,” Emperor Xing Wu held Luo Wei’s hands in his own. Their temperature worried him some more, because there was absolutely no warmth from them, “You shouldn’t walk in the snow.”
Luo Wei quickly answered, “Your Imperial Majesty’s command for Mister Zhao was for me? Please, sir, take it back.”
“There are no rules against you being on a litter in the palace,” Emperor Xing Wu saw Zhao Fu arrive with the soft litter, and shoved a hand warmer into Luo Wei’s hands, “All you need to do right now is to keep yourself healthy, that’s more important than anything else. I’m allowing you to be in a litter today, there’s no need to say anything more.”
Luo Wei saw the look on Emperor Xing Wu’s face, and could only nod and listen, letting the two little eunuchs carry him above the litter, following Emperor Xing Wu to the Eastern Palace.