INE Chapter 87: Wei Er

After coughing up blood, the Second Young Master passed out.

He slept for a long, long time. When he stirred, he smelled a faint medicinal scent, bitter and astringent, yet tinged with a sweet aftertaste lingering in his mouth.

A pair of hands brushed gently across his forehead. The touch was soft and light, like cotton laid out in the sun at the dam, warm and soothing.

When the comforting warmth disappeared, the Second Young Master awoke.

He rubbed at his temples, feeling as though he’d just emerged from an endless dream. In that dream, a little maid in a red dress had been fanning the stove while decocting medicine for him.

Seeing him, the girl revealed a bright, neat smile and said, “Young Master, I’ve been waiting so, so long. You’re finally awake.”

But when he awoke, the Second Young Master draped a robe over his shoulders and stepped into the courtyard. Staring at the bare apricot tree, he finally understood, it had only been a dream.

Lady Xu, a concubine of the heir to the Prince of Chu, was a devout Buddhist who refused to kill even the smallest creature.

One day, as she walked past the long wall of the royal estate, she caught sight of a little boy holding a folding fan.

She noticed how cheap and dirty the fan looked, yet still reached out to gently touch the boy’s head. “Little Prince,” she asked, “where did you get this fan?”

The boy beamed. “Madam Xu, a big sister, gave it to me. Look, don’t you think it’s pretty?”

Lady Xu glanced at the blood-stained fan and asked, “What’s that sister’s name? Why did she give this to you?”

The boy replied happily, “Her name is Hongzhi, ‘Hong’ like red, and ‘Zhi’ like branches. She said her Young Master was going to die, so I traded my really expensive pearl with her for the fan.”

In Lady Xu’s chamber stood two statues of the Infinite Buddha. She rolled her prayer beads between her fingers and looked up slightly, her gaze fell on the maid collapsed on the floor.

The maid was young, and lovely in appearance, but had no sense of decorum. Clearly, that wild bastard Second Young Master Wei had never taught her proper manners.

After several brutal beatings, her fingernails were filled with blood, yet she stubbornly asked again, “Madam, what did I do wrong?”

Lady Xu replied coldly, “You tell me, what have you done wrong? Do you know the night-luminescent pearl the little prince carried is worth more than kingdoms? Selling a thousand of you, ten thousand, wouldn't even come close. The little prince is young and ignorant, but you? You dared deceive him into trading the pearl for a fan. Tell me, don’t you deserve to die?”

“But I didn’t steal it! I didn’t rob him, he said he wanted to trade with me…”

Lady Xu asked, “You didn’t steal it? Then what about that bastard Wei Er? He’s dying, isn’t he? Wouldn’t he want that pearl to cure himself?”

The maid coughed up blood and gave a weak smile. “Madam, even if he were dying, my Young Master would never steal from someone else.”

Lady Xu nodded. “Then beat her again.”

It was an ordinary day. The wind still drifted lightly, and the clouds hung distant and hazy as ever.

But Hongzhi died.

She was treated like the cheapest dish in a tavern, beaten to pulp, shattered, and buried carelessly in the dirt.

After a rain, her corpse grew damp. Then the Second Young Master dug her out, inch by inch, and cradled her small, icy body in his arms.

He moved like a shadow, soundless, as he stepped into the heir’s courtyard, a dagger in his hand. He stared silently at the Princess Consort, and the little boy clutched in her arms.

When she saw his blood-speckled smile and the dagger, the Princess Consort fainted from fright.

The boy looked at his fallen mother in confusion and nudged her. “Mother? Mother, it’s daytime. Why are you sleeping?”

The Second Young Master crouched down, gently shook the dagger, and asked, “Is it pretty?”

The child gazed at the blade’s gleaming edge and nodded. “Yes, it’s pretty.”

The Second Young Master smiled. “If I stabbed it into your chest, would you cry? I hate people who cry the most. If you dare cry later, I’ll slash your face and cut out your tongue.”

The boy turned pale with terror and immediately began sobbing. “Why do you want to stab me? Why would you cut my face and take my tongue?”

“Because you stole something from me,” the Second Young Master said. “You stole the most precious thing I had. No pearl, no matter how rare, could ever replace it. You can’t return it, so you must repay me with your life.”

The dagger hovered in midair, but never fell.

Because he saw it. Hanging from the boy’s waist, the blood-stained folding fan.

The Second Young Master had always despised crying. In his eyes, only weak and pathetic people shed tears.

But when he saw that fan, his face was soaked in them. He wiped his cheeks, but more drops kept falling to the floor.

Just like that rainy day, when he dug through the mud and found Hongzhi’s delicate, pale face. He’d held her tight, felt the cold stiffness of her body, and finally realized he’d lost his treasure. Forever.

High above, Ji Rong watched in silence.

To her surprise, her own tears began to fall too.

As she wiped them away, she noticed a soul standing beside her, clad in red robes and red boots, holding a bamboo-boned folding fan.

Xie Bai smiled and pointed the fan toward the dagger-wielding Wei Eri. “Senior Sister, isn’t it laughable? That I was once so foolish as to kill Wei Zongqiu. What did he ever do wrong? He was just a child, ignorant of everything.”

“He didn’t know he used Hongzhi’s life to trade for mine. He didn’t know that what he did brought pain to both of us. It wasn’t his wish, nor was it mine. But the truth is, Hongzhi is dead.”

Ji Rong stared at the faint smile on Xie Bai’s face and asked, “If you can see so clearly now, why are you still trapped in this dream? Why won’t you wake up?”

Xie Bai only smiled and said nothing.

Wei Er was dragged away, beaten half to death, soaked in blood.

At that moment, he swore he would kill Wei Zhiyuan, the Princess Consort, Lady Xu, Wei Zongqiu, every last one of them. He would drag the entire royal household of Chu into hell.

Wei Zhiyuan looked down at the bloodied wreck of a boy, expressionless.

“Wei Er,” he said, “why did you try to kill my son? Why did you charge into Lady Xu’s chamber with a dagger? Was it because my mother killed yours? Your mother was born low, no match for mine. If you want revenge, come for me. Don’t go after my son.”

Wei Er lay on the ground, blood clogging his throat and blurring his words.

All he could do was laugh; wild, hysterical laughter.

Wei Zhiyuan shook his head, just like the guard had kicked Hongzhi in the chest. He too lifted his foot and kicked Wei Er out of the courtyard.

The Second Young Master was thrown into the desolate wilderness. He was cold and disheartened.

His consciousness began to blur. His body was torn and bleeding. The blood, thick and bright red, spread across someone’s shoes.

Ji Rong stared in astonishment at the figure walking toward the Second Young Master. The person wore red and stood on the edge of the mass grave, silently watching him.

Gong Yu looked at the Second Young Master, watching him near death, his eyes filled with unyielding light.

A faint smile appeared on her sickly pale face, as though she had found someone like herself.

She gathered a ball of spiritual energy in her palm and said to the Second Young Master, “Your clothes were originally white, but now they’re stained red with blood. I really like this color... and I like the look in your eyes.”

At this point, Xie Bai closed his folding fan with a shake and said, “What happened afterward, Senior Sister already knows.”

Ji Rong thought for a moment, then asked, “There’s one thing I still don’t understand. Senior Sister Jiang said that the night before you tried to assassinate Wei Zhiyuan, you went to visit him at the Prince of Chu’s residence. Since you planned to kill him, why did you seek him out?”

Xie Bai smiled and said, “Because he asked me a question that day... and I hadn’t answered him yet.”

Outside the Prince of Chu’s residence, lanterns cast shifting shadows.

Wei Zhiyuan heard a young maid crying outside, probably burning spirit money for Lady Xu. Honestly, he found it annoying, he’d always known Xu wasn’t exactly a saint herself.

He had lived a long life, from the heir of the Prince of Chu to the prince himself, and had seen too much.

But tonight was different, because Wei Zhiyuan saw a shadow cast on the wall.

That person stood before him, just as he had in the past. Only now, the gloom was gone. He wore red, his face full of smiles.

“Wei Er, have you come to kill me? Are you here for the sake of the late Lady Xie?”

Xie Bai replied, “Your Highness, I’m no longer Wei Er. And I didn’t come here for my mother. I only came to tell you one thing.”

“Oh? What is it?”

“I came to tell you, you were wrong. All these years, you thought I wanted to kill Xu, kill the princess, kill your son... for my mother. But that’s not true.”

“Then why?”

“Many years ago, I had a foolish little maid named Hongzhi.”

Xie Bai raised a hand and gestured, “She was this small, two heads shorter than me. I spent years drawing fans, dozens, hundreds of them, planning to sell them all one day. With the money, I would give her a dowry, and find her a good family to marry into.”

Wei Zhiyuan said coldly, “Hmm, a lowly maid. A dowry. And then?”

“And then she died.”

“Your Highness, I came to tell you this, Hongzhi may have seemed lowly to you, but she was my only family. You watched as Xu beat her to death. So I’ll make your family watch, as I kill you with my own hands.”

At those words, the scene dissolved into mist. Silence remained.

In the void, Ji Rong finally saw the obsession that had consumed Xie Bai.

From the chaos emerged a pool of water. At its edge stood a slender apricot blossom tree.

A girl in red stood beneath the tree, her hair and dress strewn with petals. She pointed at the water’s surface and exclaimed, “Young Master, Young Master! Someone fell in!”

The Second Young Master stood calmly, watching the boy struggle in the pool. He knew who it was, a child just a few months younger than him. The heir to the Prince of Chu. His elder brother.

He saw with his own eyes a servant push the boy into the water, sending up great splashes. He had no intention of saving the heir, for the heir’s mother had killed his own.

But the girl in red was frantic, nearly in tears, tugging at the Second Young Master’s clothes. “Young Master, help him! Please help him!”

The Second Young Master turned away and asked coldly, “Why should I?”

Hongzhi thought for a moment and said, “Because I can see it written all over your face, you want to save him.”

The road back to the courtyard was long. Sunset bathed the cobblestones in golden light.

Hongzhi carried the Second Young Master’s soaking clothes, smiling as she asked, “Young Master, why did you save the heir?”

“Because he’s my brother.”

Hongzhi beamed. “Young Master is so kind. You’re the best person in the whole world.”

The Second Young Master shook his head. “I’m not kind at all.”

“No, you are! You’re the only one who’s ever treated me well. You’re the best person in the world to me, and I’ll follow you for the rest of my life.”

As she spoke, a piece of wet clothing slipped from her arms.

She bent down to pick it up and called out, “Young Master, wait for me, don’t walk so fast!”

Ji Rong knew the Second Young Master would walk ahead. Because in Xie Bai’s memory, he had never stopped back then.

But when she turned around, she found Xie Bai had already vanished.

Under the setting sun, the boy’s face glowed with golden light.

He turned his head and smiled at Hongzhi.

“Alright. I won’t go.”