Chapter 32#

Lanterns and candles blazed, floating light tangled and dazzled; from the high terrace, one could see only a crowd below surrounding Li Fengbing and several eunuchs, but could not tell what they were doing. Li Fengbing’s expression was clearly very bad, and his figure swayed as if about to collapse.#

Pei Dan watched without a word, his lips pressed into a thin line. His five fingers clenched the wine cup so tightly they nearly crushed it, and the Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince still came to toast him.

The nearly eighty-year-old old minister was hale and vigorous, his gaze full of mockery and ridicule. Seeing that he did not move, he himself came forward and clinked cups with him, while laughing softly: “In youth, when the blood and qi are not yet settled, one must guard against lust, haha!”

Old bastard. Pei Dan gritted his teeth, drank it all in one gulp with his head down, then stood up with a clatter, immediately leaving his seat to go down from the high terrace. But at this movement of his, countless gazes from above and below the terrace all swept over.

His body froze.

For a moment, he did not know whether he should step forward or not; he did not know how to keep Fengbing from being humiliated.

It seemed that his very existence was enough to bring endless humiliation to Fengbing.

Chen Qiu watched Fengbing with leisurely composure.

He had not expected that once he resolved to tear off all pretense, it would be so satisfying. He even shook his collar and blew out a breath. Didn’t Li Fengbing look down on him? Then he would have to make Li Fengbing regret it.

He wanted to remind Li Fengbing that no matter how Pei Dan helped him cover it up, that shameful scar would always be there, always remembered by people.

In his daze, Fengbing straightened his back. He still did not understand why Chen Qiu hated him. He rarely spent effort pondering other people’s thoughts, yet in many people’s eyes this seemed evidence of coldness. Fengbing thought, perhaps he really was cold. In five years at Laozhou, amid the mountain winds and smoke, he could no longer understand why there had to be so many bonds between people in this world; didn’t all harm come from bonds?

There were many retorts. But how to say them without losing so much face—he had not yet figured that out. In the end, as long as the words came from his mouth, he would lose face; he should never have struggled in a place like this to begin with. The tide in the hall was still rising—cold, sticky, salty and fishy—gradually lodging in his throat, drowning his breath…

“—My lord!”

Suddenly there was a sharp shout; it was Chunshi rushing up from below the hall. He forcefully pushed aside the onlookers and snatched the pomegranate skirt from the tip of Chen Qiu’s fan. The leftover gold and silver threads along the skirt’s edge suddenly dazzled everyone’s eyes. His hand was trembling. He only glanced at Fengbing, then turned to Chen Qiu and the people behind him, and said loudly: “My lord was humiliated today only because this lowly one was once bewitched and stole property from Chancellor Pei’s residence. Envoy Chen’s slander has nothing whatsoever to do with my lord!” His face was flushed red, but his eyes grew colder and brighter. “I, Chunshi, take responsibility for my own deeds—”

Before the words fell, he actually dashed his head against the bright red hall pillar!

The instant blood splattered, Chen Qiu immediately retreated two steps. Chunshi used his life to accuse him, making him the guilty one who had disrupted the New Year festivities at the grand banquet. The high officials on the terrace finally paled with shock and all put down their wine cups. Pei Dan was the youngest among them; this mess should be handled by him. Without further hesitation, he hurried down the steps, ordered the guards to step forward and arrest Chen Qiu, and ordered the Inner Attendant to find an imperial physician to examine and treat Chunshi.

His expression was calm, as if he had waited a long time for this moment; all regret and hatred were properly concealed beneath his sharp, cold gaze. Swept by such a gaze, everyone in the hall who had been unable to stop laughing and joking could not help shrinking, hoping only not to be noticed. The New Year’s reunion banquet had come to this point with little joy left; a place of trouble was no place to linger. Palace eunuchs came to lead the guests away. Some wanted to watch the excitement and deliberately tried to stay to the end, but in the end they too were driven off.

Officials shouted urgently; servants and maids came and went in confusion. In the end, a large patch of ground beneath the hall pillar alone fell silent. Chunshi lay bleeding and unconscious, while Fengbing knelt beside him, using his sleeve to ceaselessly wipe away the blood flowing from his forehead. His new New Year clothes were dirtied again, and even his hair bun had come loose. He lowered his head; though the hall’s underfloor heating was warm, his thin, frail body was trembling.

Yuan Jiulin brought a great cloak and handed it to Pei Dan. Pei Dan silently stepped forward two steps and draped it over Fengbing’s shoulders.

Fengbing did not move at all.

Imperial Physician Sun arrived hurriedly with several medical officials, quickly cleaning Chunshi’s wound, bandaging it, and stopping the bleeding. Chunshi still had breath. Fengbing was closest to him and could hear that lingering, intermittent breathing. The injured should not be moved. Physician Sun went to ask Chancellor Pei whether Chunshi could be temporarily placed in the hall.

Pei Dan stared at Fengbing. The great cloak was like a stiff shell that did not fit him at all; then Pei Dan’s gaze shifted away. “Move him to the side hall. When he is a little better, send him back to the residence.”

The Inner Attendant felt somewhat aggrieved and said in a thin voice: “His blood has defiled Hanyuan Hall, and you still want to keep him? This will have to be reported to His Majesty for imperial decision…”

Pei Dan glanced at him. Just that one glance made the Inner Attendant feel he had already been marked with hatred by Chancellor Pei; his heart dropped into an ice pit, and he dared not speak again.

The medical officials and guards busied themselves carrying Chunshi into the side hall. Fengbing also stood up, and the great cloak slid to the ground. He seemed not to notice it at all, walking straight on the shadows of shattered lamplight across the ground, following Chunshi and disappearing behind layer upon layer of painted curtains.

Few people remained in the hall. Pei Dan slowly bent down, picked up the great cloak, and handed it back to Yuan Jiulin. Yuan Jiulin did not dare speak; trembling with fear, he clenched his hands, almost tearing the fur off the cloak.

Yuan Jiulin guessed that since a bloody major incident had occurred at the New Year, someone must have already flown to report it to His Majesty. Chen Qiu was of course unpardonably guilty, but Chancellor Pei probably would not fare well either. After all, Li Fengbing was his former husband; behind that ruqun, was it not all his shadow?

But that young servant risked his life and ultimately preserved his master’s last shred of dignity. Li Fengbing had not said even a single word from beginning to end; he was simply pushed out of the situation by Chunshi in one shove, a survivor after disaster, utterly pale.

Let’s seek common ground while reserving differences; harmony brings wealth, ha. If you can’t be harmonious, bear with it a little. If you can’t bear it, click the X.

Anyway, my outline is not going to change (lying flat.jpg).