Chapter 90.2: Contrary to Expectation
Inside the room, Sun Yi Lin’s face darkened. He really wanted to grab Kang Qinw.a.n.g by the neck and shake him with all his might. Does he have a pig’s brain? Originally, not that many people knew, this was wanting to make a fuss and let everyone all know? This initially wasn’t anything serious, but now even nothing became something. Afraid, not long after, the capital will be flooded with all kinds of romantic[1] verses and oral folk stories[2] all relating to ‘split peaches[3]‘ and cut-sleeves. Although they won’t mention by name, but his and Jin Qinw.a.n.g’s ident.i.ty and status were placed there. Anyone who sees will all unconsciously make the connection.
And as for a certain few that had arrived outside the courtyard, they practically wanted to clap for joy. This old six although was infuriating, the things he did were definitely satisfying. Also, to a certain idiot, you keep bellowing, continue cursing, curse even more unpleasantly. It’s best to have old six thoroughly angered.
Li Hong Yuan lifted his head and looked to Li Hong Yi, not saying a word, and not doing anything either. That gloomy look in his eyes made Li Hong Yi somewhat afraid.
“What, did this prince say something wrong?” Li Hong Yi forcibly resisted the urge to back away.
“This has nothing to do with right or wrong. This prince just felt, with eldest imperial brother’s anger this big, it doesn’t appear as if you’re ‘simply just protecting your own younger cousin’, but rather more like because this prince stole your person.”
“Li Hong Yuan, don’t talk nonsense.” Kang Qinw.a.n.g’s two fists were tightly clenched, his entire face completely red with anger.
“Even if your thoughts were read by this prince, there’s still no need to be ashamed into anger. This prince just found it strange. You originally had long viewed Sun Yi Jia as a woman of your rear court, yet in the end you gave up just like that, not hesitating in the least. Turns out the person you actually admire was Sun Yi Lin. Why didn’t you say so earlier? If this prince had known, this prince definitely wouldn’t have gone after Sun Yi Lin. This kind of thing, even if you don’t trust others, you should still trust this prince. This prince has ‘experience’ after all, and not like those stubborn old-fas.h.i.+oned old men. Would this prince have the matter spread out and forcibly break up you two?” Li Hong Yuan said, and even let out an immeasurably melancholic sigh.
Sun Yi Lin had finished tidying up, once again returning to that gentle like jade appearance, but after hearing Li Hong Yuan’s words, his expression was somewhat forced.
And as for the people that entered from outside……Li Hong Yuan majority of the times have always had a dark aura around him, using his nostrils to look at others. When there wasn’t a need to, he would never open his mouth. But sometimes, this mouth could just have red said as white, and white said as black, angering people to death without losing any sleep. Despite knowing that he was just blindly talking nonsense, there were still people that couldn’t help sweeping their gazes back and forth between Li Hong Yi and Sun Yi Lin. Considering the various things in the past, seems Jin Qinw.a.n.g’s words weren’t completely made up either?
When Kang Qinw.a.n.g heard those not so vague ‘mutterings’, he just felt his head swelling. Then recalling the various humiliations and oppressions in the past, his eyes gradually filled with wisps of blood, faintly turning red. Forgetting the things that the Empress had just warned him about not long ago, and just like an angered beast, he raised his fist and threw himself at Li Hong Yuan.
Li Hong Yuan dangerously narrowed his eyes. This lifetime around, he no longer learned other things, because it was all things he remembered in his head. But martial arts was different. If one didn’t advance, one would regress; if one didn’t practice, one would waste away. That’s why, in regards just to martial arts, he was already the strongest one among the brothers. Furthermore, he also had plenty of experiences facing enemies. It can be said that if he wanted to kill Li Hong Yi, then that was all an effortless matter. Moving to the side, he avoided Li Hong Yi’s attack, and Li Hong Yi, because he charged at thin air, directly fell down. Li Hong Yuan then got up and unhesitantly stepped on Li Hong Yi’s back, ruthlessly grinding him to the ground. And as expected, he heard Li Hong Yi’s painful groans…….
All of this happened too fast. By the time Li Hong Yi’s guards came to realization and charged into the pavilion, Li Hong Yuan had already retracted his foot and stood there with his arms behind his back looking back at the guards that wanted to draw their swords, coldly sneering, “If you have the courage, then draw your sword, what are your hands trembling for? Today, this prince will properly teach you all.” With lightening fast speed, he seized the sword, drew it, stepped back, and thrusted forward. The guard that had his sword stolen was stabbed through by him own sword just like that, fresh blood directly flowing out. His eyes widened, and his pupils abruptly shrunk. Li Hong Yuan relaxed his grip, and the guard immediately collapsed to the ground, just happening to partly fall on top of Li Hong Yi, drenching him in blood……..
The other few guards backed away at once. Even if they were extremely terrified inside, they still forced themselves to resist the urge to draw their sword in self-defense. If they dared to do that, never mind if they were able to beat Jin Qinw.a.n.g or not, even if they don’t die on the spot, they would still undoubtedly die after the fact. Not just that, they would most likely even involve their family.
Never mind Li Hong Yi getting startled, even the people watching were shocked at Li Hong Yuan’s ruthlessness. Just taking a life without any warning?
Which one of them didn’t have blood on their hands, or tainted human life. But, for the most part, it was all through someone else’s hand. Generally speaking, no one would personally do it.
“Eldest imperial brother, look at this bunch of useless trash you’ve raised. This prince has helped you take care of one, remember to have the thank you gift sent to Jin Qinw.a.n.g Manor. After all, not everyone has the honor of letting this prince personally take care of things. Never mind that killing is very exhausting, it even dirtied this prince’s hands.” Li Hong Yuan looked to the bloodstains on his hands with a look of disdain. And the words that came out his mouth really weren’t an ordinary kind of shameless.
And Eunuch Mu, who no one was paying attention to originally, promptly stepped out to promote his existence, running into the pavilion and placing a snow white silk handkerchief into Li Hong Yuan’s hand. Afterwards, he stood to the side with his head and eyes lowered. Originally, he had led the qinw.a.n.g procession back to Jin Qinw.a.n.g Manor, and after learning that Li Hong Yuan came to the Ding Duke Manor, he quickly rushed over with the horse carriage again. Then, when he heard that his master had made Sun Yi Lin accompany him for a drink, he just inwardly sighed with an ‘as expected’ look. If a little something didn’t happen, then it wouldn’t be their wise and valiant Jin Qinw.a.n.g. Afterwards, he saw Kang Qinw.a.n.g hastily enter the Ding Duke Manor, then after that also came Rui Qinw.a.n.g and Gong Qinw.a.n.g, who were here to watch a play. Thus, he just followed in after them.
Li Hong Yuan wiped very meticulously, but it was merely just wiping after all, so naturally it won’t be too clean. Afterwards, Sun Yi Lin also entered the pavilion with a servant girl carrying water. Seeing the servant girl trembling, and the waves of ripple emerging in the water in the basin, Sun Yi Lin personally took the basin, “For w.a.n.gye to wash one’s hands.”
Li Hong Yuan saw that his complexion was somewhat pale, but still had the water basin held firmly. The current Sun Yi Lin still haven’t seen this kind of situation before.
Li Hong Yuan skeptically looked to him with a like smile but not a smile and unhurriedly soaked his hands into the water, was.h.i.+ng them clean, “Compared to eldest imperial brother, Yi Lin, as expected, still admires this prince more, right?”
“w.a.n.gye is joking.” He placed down the water basin and picked up the hand towel, “Need this lower official to serve w.a.n.gye in wiping dry one’s hands?”
Tsk, already striking back this quickly. This was having discovered his resistance in coming in contact with his body, and deliberately wanted to disgust him? He didn’t reply to his words, nor accepted the towel. Instead, he extended his hand out to the side, and another silk handkerchief was placed into his hand, “This prince isn’t used to using other people’s things.”
Sun Yi Lin calmly had the towel put down and looked towards Li Hong Yi’s guards, “Still not helping your master into the room.” He’d previously instructed someone to invite the residence doctor over already. Additionally, he also sent someone to go invite an imperial physician as well. A qinw.a.n.g getting injured, regardless whether it was light or severe, there cannot be the slightest negligence.
This was Sun Yi Lin wanting to minimize such a big incident!
Li Hong Yuan had the silk handkerchief thrown to Eunuch Mu, and without saying another word, lightly dusted his wide sleeves and walked out of the pavilion. The crowd of spectators all subconsciously made a path for him, not just because of the blood on him, but also because of that dense killing intent.
The two brothers had gone all out. Although it was Kang Qinw.a.n.g that striked first, it was also him that got injured. Thus, this matter wasn’t over with that easily. Furthermore, they ultimately needed to see just exactly how serious Kang Qinw.a.n.g’s injuries were. Also, whenever Li Hong Yuan was on a roll, his deeds would all get formally placed on the surface, and land on Le Cheng Emperor’s imperial desk.
Li Hong Yuan didn’t care about what consequences there would be either, and just directly returned to his manor. After cleaning himself and changing, “Has Wan Wan returned to the Luo Manor yet?” For such an incident to occur at Ding Duke Manor, even if it was covered up, based on Sun Yi Jia’s close attention towards the matters on her old brother’s side, afraid it won’t be able to be kept from her. And based on Jing Wan’s keenness, even if she doesn’t know what happened, she would still be aware that something has happened, so she naturally won’t stay for long.
“Replying to master, not yet.”
“Prepare the carriage, this prince wants to go see her.”
“Yes.”
Afterwards, Jing Wan got intercepted halfway back. After learning who the other party was, and then seeing that small blue-green clothed horse carriage, knowing that the other party has taken her reputation into consideration, and in addition to the other party’s status, she seemingly didn’t have any leeway to refuse. She gave Gong mama, as well as the servant girls, a comforting look, and calmly got on Li Hong Yuan’s horse carriage.
There was the so called ‘good fortune is not disaster, and if it’s disaster, then it can’t be avoided’. Rather, there wasn’t anything to be scared of anyways.
Just, in that moment, when Jing Wan met with Li Hong Yuan’s two eyes, she blanked and couldn’t help but recall certain things………
[1] So the original term [香艳] can also be translated either as alluring or erotic, so it could be fluff, or it could be p.o.r.n, you’re free to have your own interpretation. Tbh even erotic lines back then sounded h.e.l.la poetic.
[2] This is specifically referring to a specific style of oral story telling that popped up during the Song dynasty. The stories are told in a speaking-singing manner.
[3] ‘Split Peaches – This is another euphemism for gay, just not as widely used as ‘cut-sleeved’; it also comes from a story from ancient times, or what I’d like to call ancient BL stories. The term originated in Han Fei Zi’s Book of Legalist Philosophy during the warring states period.
In the book, it mentions, during the Spring Autumn Period, the state of Wei’s senior official, Mi Zi Xia, was the ruler, Wei Ling Gong’s male lover (basically male concubine). In the state of Wei’s law, stealing the ruler’s horse carriage is punishable by amputating one or both feet. Mi Zi Xia’s mother fell ill one day, and someone rushed to inform him in the night. Mi Zi Xia immediately stole the ruler’s horse carriage to go visit his mother. When Ling Gong heard, he praised Mi Zi Xia for being filial, disregarding the punishment for his mother’s sake. One day, while he was with Ling Gong in the orchard eating peaches together, he had his half eaten peach given to Wei Ling Gong. Wei Ling Gong elatedly said: “You love me to the extent that you’ve forgotten the beautiful taste in your mouth, sharing(splitting) the peach with this lonely one!”
T/N: Not sure how I should write a footnote for my footnotes, but rulers in this period were before the first established Emperor’s time so they addressed themselves as ‘gua ren’ which translates to ‘lonely person’. Also I’m too lazy to translate the rest of the story, but it doesn’t exactly end on a happy note. Basically, Mi Zi Xia got old and ugly, and so Wei Ling Gong no longer pampered him as before and said he was disrespectful, stole his horse carriage and should have gotten punished, and even dared to give him his half eaten peach, using all this as an excuse to dismiss Mi Zi Xia.