Chapter Six
On the 60th birthday of the Emperor, the banquet was thrown in the Xian Palace.
Needless to say, the banquet was grand and teemed with envoys from various nations, ministers, officials, n.o.bilities, imperial concubines and ladies coming in and out. Hence, the imperial guards also played an important role. All the guards at the entrance of the imperial palace were carefully selected among the Imperial Guards. At this moment, they were poised to face any potential dangers, checked and inquired meticulously, not daring to overlook any detail.
A sedan chair appeared calmly at the entrance.
“Stop! Who is this?” The chief guard immediately held out his spear and asked solemnly. The four bulky men in black carrying the sedan chair stopped their steps. The ghost-like white sedan chair on their shoulders demonstrated a mixed feeling of steady mountain and floating smoke. The faces of the four men were all hidden under the black gauzes, looking more cryptic, and their manner made others believe that they were masters of martial arts with strong internal energy. Naturally, this kind of perilous people instantly alerted the guards!
A cute adorable little boy and a dull-faced silent big man walked respectively in front of and behind the sedan chair. The boy blinked and stepped forward, taking out the pa.s.s token, “This is the pa.s.s token of our childe. Please let us pa.s.s.”
The sharply-contrasted black-and-white eyes moved swiftly, pretty and witty, making people love them at the first sight.
The chief guard examined the pa.s.s token and didn"t find anything wrong.
The man in the sedan chair didn"t show up or talk from the beginning to the end.
The chief guard suspiciously stared at the figure behind the white curtain and said in a stern voice, “The rule is everyone shall get off the horse of sedan chair and walk in upon entering the imperial palace!”
The boy maintained a smile, “It’s inconvenient for our childe to walk. He couldn"t get off the sedan chair.”
The chief guard laughed out of anger, “What a glib tongue! Why inconvenient? He isn’t a useless cripple!”
As these words were said, the bulky man behind the sedan chair flashed over in a second. The chief guard only felt a sudden looming of darkness before his eyes— pit-pit, he was slapped twice in the face.
Uncle Lao’s cast iron-like robust palm pinched the chief guard’s throat, “Disrespect childe. Die.”
“Uncle Lao.” A young voice rang from behind the curtain, chilling and n.o.ble, carrying irresistible power in quietness, “Don"t kill in the imperial palace.” Uncle Lao instantly took back his hand and bowed, “Yes, childe.”
“What’s the matter?” Here came a luxurious horse carriage surrounded by a crowd of servants. The authoritative voice rang in the horse carriage. It stopped at the entrance, and a slim scholarly elder walked out. He wore a red official robe embroidered with pixiu (a son of dragon meaning wealth) and a jade belt, looking both n.o.ble and scholarly.
“Prime minister Lin.” The guards seemed to catch their savor and quickly greeted him. This elder was exactly Lin Yiyi’s father, Prime minister Lin Wenzheng!
“Prime Minister Lin.” The voice rang again in the sedan chair. The curtain moved slightly and a jade-like hand lifted the curtain—
A pale hand.
With slim fingers.
The hand was small and delicate, with five touches of half-moon faintly appearing on the nails.
This hand was more like a girl than a man.
Yet, it gave people a feeling of stubbornness, ruthlessness, domineering, arrogance, and unruliness.
It was tender, yet with neat bones, shockingly beautiful in every gesture!
The hand lifted up slowly, as if to grab the whole world in it!
The guards astonished. They suddenly became eager to know the host of such a hand.
The corner of the curtain was lifted up by this tender yet powerful hand.
The chairs were paved with white blanket, and a person, in a luxurious official robe was sitting there…
That was a young man, sitting lonely as usual, as if a cloud floating peacefully in the river of time, but at the same time, in the depth of extreme peace, murderousness was looming.
Prime minister Lin laughed, “I knew it’s you.” He waved at the guards, “Let him pa.s.s!” Since the prime minister ordered, the guards didn"t dare to prevent him anymore.
The youth in the sedan chair slightly bowed, “Thank you, prime minister Lin.” The pale fingers, like a tender willow branch swinging in the wind, held back into behind the curtain. The sedan chair was carried up again and went in.
Every eye was fixed on it and never moved away. In the long gaze of the chief guard, it went through the bridge until it got out of sight.
When he came back to the earth, he found himself unable to describe the face of the young man, because he had tried to hard to see clear, but no image but only a feeling remained in his mind, forever.
“Prime minister, that childe is…?” The chief guard unconsciously used this addressing term. Prime minister Lin stroked his long whiskers and smiled, “Is there another man that I call ‘childe’ in this world?”
The chief guard opened his eyes wide!
There was no other man in this world that even prime minister Lin called him ‘childe’—except for Childe Wushuang, Xiao Qingyu!
When Xiao Qingyu met Fang Junqian again, he was talking with a few n.o.bilities, languidly leaning against a pillar outside the palace, with a carefree smile, thin lips flapping from time to time, a wicked charm pleasant to the eye. All the others stood around him like stars surrounding the moon and agreed to whatever he said. This was indeed this kind of people who could attract all others to them. No doubt, Duke Fang was especially excelled at this! The sedan chair was replaced by a wheelchair. At this moment, Xiao Qingyu was getting out of the imperial garden sitting in the wheelchair pulled by uncle Lao. Fang Junqian discovered Xiao Qingyu, nodded at him at a distance and gave him a heartfelt smile.
He didn"t seem to be surprised at all at the appearance of Xiao Qingyu but only a little shocked at his wearing the n.o.ble and luxurious official suit.
Xiao Qingiyu tied up his hair with a hair accessory with two-dragon-teasing-pearl. The long stain ribbon draped over his ears to the chest. He wore a pure-white silk official suit, his left hand unhurriedly stroking the gold thread in his right hand, in a demeanor graceful and unrestrained. If he was an unsullied young childe who drank wine, played swords, and talked politics in his daily life, at this moment, he was a n.o.ble, elegant and awe-inspiring official!
Fang Junqian could tell that Xiao Qingyu’s official suit was exactly the same with that of Prime Minister Lin Wenzheng except for color and the embroidered animal!
In the world, there were only two suits like these, one belonging to the left prime minister Lin Zheng wen, and the other granted by the Emperor to the mysterious right prime minister, the so-called ‘Prime Minister in Mountain’!
The right prime minister didn"t care for political affairs at court but only took pleasure in natural scenery. Therefore, few in the court had met him. However, when there was a huge complicated issue that couldn"t be solved, or a major decision difficult to make, this prime minister would be visited and asked for advice. Since he always lived in seclusion, he was called “the Prime Minister in Mountain”.
Seeing Fang Junqian nodding at him, Xiao Qingyu nodded back understandingly and asked uncle Lao to take him away, without attracting the attention of those n.o.bilities and high officials.
The two men had reached a secret agreement. They knew that unnecessary troubles would be stirred up if other know that they were acquaintances.
Hence, Fang Junqian didn"t talk, and Xiao Qingyu left.
Fang Junqian thoughtfully watched Xiao Qingyu’s back with interest.
He had never thought that Xiao Qingyu, Childe Wushuang, should be the right prime minister of the country!