Why do I have so many masters?-Chapter 629 - 240: Past Events, Merely Accompaniments for Liquor (2/2)

This courtyard, once inhabited by Wang Tiance, had always been kept clean by Zhou Fengyue. Under the large camphor tree, on a stone table sat a pot and two jade cups. The moment Li Qidao arrived in Heaven Capital City and had been ailing for three days, he brazenly skipped the early court session to accompany him drinking here.

Perhaps Zhou Fengyue was too devoted to watching the tender leaves, which prompted Li Qidao to laugh and say, "It's almost summer, how can you call this the start of spring?"

"You old timer, you've reached that age where your mind is not so sharp anymore. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if you croaked one of these days."

The old man withdrew his gaze, ignoring Li Qidao's jest, and simply said:

"This place knows no summer, yet Heavenly Mountain is still covered in white snow, devoid of a hint of green, and the great city of the north may not even have a few blossoms."

"When I say it's the start of spring, I mean the spring of the world."

Li Qidao wasn't bothered as he looked up, drained the remaining wine from his cup and chuckling, he said:

"I won't argue with you, and besides, I can't win against you. If you say it's the spring of the world, then we'll take it as such. It's really inconsequential."

"But you just made a mistake. Although the Northern Lands are home to snow-capped mountains, the Snow Mountain itself lies beyond the grasslands. Now, if you stand on the tower of Northern Border City and look northward, you'll see vast expanses of green grass."

"When the winds rise, they're no less majestic than the waves of the Four Seas."

"If you travel further north for quite a distance, you'll come to the Great Snow Mountain, but even within the domain of the mountain, it doesn't all become a land of white snow at once, it's a gradual transformation."

"First, the grasslands grow sparse, resembling the scars on the face of an old debt dodger, and then even these blades of grass vanish, turning into snow. But during this time, when hunting roe deer, it's so easy to catch them. I've never seen such foolish creatures. The locals call them 'silly roe deer'."

"The taste, however, isn't bad."

Zhou Fengyue poured wine for him, this top civil official of the age daring to defy the world by refusing to attend the early court for three days, seemingly just to be here pouring wine. He gently placed the wine pot on the table, and calmly said:

"The sight of winter snow melting away, I have seen it."

Li Qidao willingly accepted the wine, one cup after another, he drank them down his throat, his smile sarcastic as he asked:

"You've seen it?"

"But have you ever witnessed even farther off vistas? The world turns white, snow up to a foot deep, throughout the four seasons, the snow atop the mountain peaks never melts away. When the horses dash by, their hooves kicking up snow, a thousand riders moving together, it is like a fierce wind leveling the hills."

"Further still, travel northward for thirty thousand more miles, and there lies a fine place. Forty years ago, when that old thing was still a prince, we had gone there—heh, to speak the truth, at that time I didn't even know he was a prince."

"When we went, it was supposed to be the time of long days and short nights, but there it was particularly exaggerated."

"I've never seen a place where the night lasts for less than two hours."

"At that time we were supposedly on leave, sneaking out, starved. As the sky darkened, he acted as lookout, I went and stole a family's mutton, then found an iron pot to cook it. But before it could even be fully cooked, dawn had already broken—ha, it really was... then it was another mad dash."

"The people there don't ride in horse-drawn carts, each household raises wolves. While we were making our escape, that fellow got a few nasty bites on the behind, thought he was going to die, yet still he was preoccupied with the mutton. Thumping my chest, I promised him I'd let him have a taste."

"By the time it was cooked, I don't mind being laughed at, I felt like crying. That guy was crying even worse, gnawing on a lamb shank, claiming 'in this life, it's either him or me' as he devoured it."

"But now, I still want to take a swipe at him."

Li Qidao's face carried a smile as he swallowed another cup of wine.

Zhou Fengyue, on the other hand, was silent. He raised his hand and poured another cup for him. He was much older than Li Qidao and had personally seen the scholar-dressed elder fluctuate through the tides at court and on the battlefield until he finally departed and never returned.

The affair from twenty years ago truly had no victor, and the agony experienced by Li Qidao surely matched that of Wang Tiance and the Former Emperor. One was a childhood friend who had become increasingly distant, and the other, a comrade-in-arms trusted in life and death.

The Crown Prince, who died under Wang Tiance's dagger, had called Li Qidao 'uncle' in his youth.

Although Li Qidao had said he owed him nothing anymore, nonetheless, the affection remained.

Drinking cup after cup, it seemed that Li Qidao was getting slightly overwhelmed by the alcohol. He looked at the nearby large camphor tree, smiled, and gently patted the trunk, casually asking:

"How did this tree come about? If I remember correctly, this thing doesn't grow in Heaven Capital City, and there was none such before..."

Zhou Fengyue took a sip of wine and matter-of-factly said:

"I planted it."

"Eighteen years ago, the day Wang Tiance got married."

"Following the traditions of Dongfang Ningxin's side, one plants a pair of camphor trees. After eighteen years, the wood is used to build a chest, into which silk is placed, to be used as a wedding gift for one's children, symbolizing the hope for a lifelong companionship."

Li Qidao looked slightly stunned, then chuckled and asked:

"What if it's for a daughter?"

Zhou Fengyue pointed to the tree trunk and succinctly said:

"There's wine under the tree."

"Eighteen-year-old vintage daughter's red wine."

Li Qidao murmured a few words, shook his head with a sigh and chuckled,

"Bring it out, the wine is of no use now. What, keep staring, it's not going to change anything. Could we possibly sell off Wang Tiance's son?"

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"We might as well share and eat it between the two of us."

Zhou Fengyue made no move, simply looking at Li Qidao and saying,

"Drinking is fine, but you need to tell me, how exactly did Wang Tiance die?"

"... What do you mean?"

Zhou Fengyue spoke calmly,

"The backlash of Dragon Qi lingers far and long. In ancient times, the Xue Family slew the Ancestral Dragon and suffered the backlash of Dragon Qi from the three dynasties' sacred artifact. For ten generations, none could reach maturity before passing. The final wisp of Dragon Qi persisted for a thousand years and did not dissipate. Though it did not lead to an early death, generation after generation, the most outstanding among them had remarkably indifferent emotions to ordinary people."

"Back then, Wang Tiance must have seen hope in breaking free from the Dragon Qi's curse, otherwise, knowing full well that he was suffering from its backlash, someone as arrogant as him would never have fathered a child. To leave a son alone to bear the torment of Dragon Qi and to pass away early..."

"That doesn't fit his character."

Li Qidao fell silent for a moment, then muttered,

"...indeed, he did see a glimmer of hope back then."

Zhou Fengyue said calmly,

"He was always adept at seizing opportunities."

Li Qidao gave a smile, drained the last of the wine in his cup, looked at Zhou Fengyue and whispered,

"Then do you know the weight of a single thread's difference?"

Zhou Fengyue remained silent.

Li Qidao looked at his cup and said,

"The child was already conceived before that incident."

"Nobody expected that incident to happen. He could have lived, but to continue living in such a way wouldn't have been Wang Tiance anymore. He was Wang Tiance, so he preferred to die."

"But regardless of who one is while alive, in death one is mere a corpse, yet he didn't even leave a body behind. The Dragon Qi backlash within him, coupled with the subsequent Flame Qi, forced the moisture of Heaven and Earth to surge."

"When his life ended, three thousand li away in Wangxian County, the rain poured incessantly for seven days straight, nearly causing a catastrophic flood."

Zhou Fengyue spoke softly,

"In the seventh year of the new Emperor Long Shuo, Mars moved out of place, with Betelgeuse falling behind the stars."

"It was June, and the heavens poured rain for seven days without end."

Li Qidao said, "Impressive that you remember."

Zhou Fengyue grew silent for a while, then said,

"I don't know why, but I just noted it down at the time."

Li Qidao did not pursue the inconsistencies in Zhou Fengyue's words but merely reminisced,

"Before his death, he still had the strength to tell Feng'er with a smile that he absolutely didn't want a burial after he died because he was afraid of the dark. He wanted to be cremated into ashes and scattered with the wind, and didn't need any memorial tablet. He found them bothersome; if anyone missed him, they should just light a few sticks of incense at their leisure."

"In another world, he surely can hear."

Li Qidao gave a smile, devoid of any emotion, and whispered softly,

"Then he pretended to faint. Feng'er was young at the time and thought he had died, crying until he passed out, which spared me the trouble of knocking him out. It was only then that Wang Tiance opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief."

"With one hand he touched Feng'er's head, torn between wanting to wake him and wanting to rub his head like he used to, it was an agonizing sight."

"After death, his body was incinerated into ashes by the Dragon Qi and Flame Qi within."

"Feng'er shouldn't have witnessed that scene; he was too young at the time, and he probably doesn't remember it very clearly. The Dragon Qi burning through the meridians was excruciating, and nobody could bear it. That guy Wang Tiance could still laugh through the pain; I admit I admire him for that."

The voice paused, then chuckled lightly,

"You know, back then he was so afraid of pain on his own..."

Zhou Fengyue was silent, looking at Li Qidao, not offering any words of comfort but simply lifting the wine jug and softly saying, "Let's drink."

PS: Here is the second update for today…

Two thousand five hundred words