Xiao Rong tried to remain calm but couldn’t.

Thanks to the Xianbei! Thanks to Murong’s admiration for Central Plains culture!

The registers were written in Central Plains characters, easily readable. He fetched the ledgers from the account office and checked each warehouse. He nearly fainted from excitement.

The Xianbei had seven treasure warehouses—six private royal, one national. The national treasury, depleted by years of war, still held 1.85 million silver, and 6.5 million bushels of grain.

Xianbei silver contained many impurities, with different units. Counting the silver ingots, there were about 1.4 million and that was only from the poorest treasury of the seven.

…

After finalizing the inventory and converting to familiar units: there was gold around 700,000, silver 9.2 million, as well as gold and silver jewelry in the tens of thousands. Looted treasures numbered in the thousands. The warehouses contained vast silks, numerous furs, and over two hundred rare tiger pelts.

Additionally, books, scrolls, secret formulas, excellent weapons, and jade artifacts—so abundant they seemed common as stones. Intricate embroidery and large bone artifacts, even a musical instrument set. Xiao Rong reached to touch it, but Jian Qiao stopped him. “Xiao Rong, it’s made of human skin!”

Xiao Rong: “…”

He quickly ordered the servants to remove those ritual items and burn them, returning them to the earth, then continued to check the next item.

Xiao Rong went from excitement to frenzy, and from frenzy to a feeling of floating in ecstasy. He finally knew what it felt like to see all the flowers of Changan in a single day. Although he hadn’t achieved top honors in the imperial examination, today’s experience was enough to rival a “one-day top scholar experience.”

This was still without counting a large amount of other items. Before Murong Yi secretly escaped, he had already packed many gold and silver treasures. Those who escaped with him also took much family wealth, but Murong Kui only brought back Murong Yi. The rest of the people and treasures—no one knew where they had ended up.

Though the world was vast, Xiao Rong sent people to search, even though he knew the chances of finding them were slim. Still, with so many unexpected treasures already in hand, Xiao Rong no longer cared about those missing items.

Holding the Xianbei ledgers and standing among jewels and treasures, Xiao Rong’s lips never stopped curling into a smile.

He even laughed out loud. “Ha ha, ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Jian Qiao: “…”

He looked at Xiao Rong with some concern. “Mr. Xiao, are you all right?”

Xiao Rong smiled and sighed. “General Jian, I am so happy.”

He turned his head and looked at Jian Qiao with great affection. “I’m so happy that I even want to spare Murong Yi’s life, as a way of thanking him for not being an utterly foolish ruler. Only because of that can we bring all these treasures back to Chenliu.”

Jian Qiao: “…”

Xiao Rong didn’t fully understand the process, so he asked Jian Qiao directly, “How were the past spoils of war distributed?”

Looking at Xiao Rong, Jian Qiao stoically said, “The king chooses first, then the generals, and finally Mr. Gao collects what is meant for the army. The remaining treasures are distributed among the general’s troops for them to manage.”

Xiao Rong nodded in realization. “Then we will follow the same procedure. The Xianbei national treasury will be stored separately. This is the relief fund for fallen and disabled soldiers. Move all the grain into the Northern Army’s granaries. Has the King said when he will attack Shuofang?”

Jian Qiao replied, “In two days.”

Xiao Rong: “…”

He muttered, “So soon. Never mind. Not all the men are here now. For these two days, tell the army cooks not to control the daily rations. Let everyone eat well. As for the victory feast, we will wait until the day of the triumph.”

They couldn’t drink at the victory feast, for they would march out again in two days, so the soldiers couldn’t have wine yet.

Xiao Rong continued discussing subsequent matters with Jian Qiao, when suddenly, Qu Yunmie appeared, still holding the fake divine herb that Xiao Rong had used to fool him.

He walked up to Xiao Rong and asked with great puzzlement, “A-Rong, why does this divine herb look a bit withered?”

Xiao Rong’s throat immediately clogged.

“…”

He turned his head and stared at the box for a while, then his expression slowly changed.

He said in annoyance, “Dammit! Could this divine herb actually have some miraculous property? It was born from the Xianbei Murong tribe, and now that Murong’s tribe is destroyed, it has to go with them?”

Xiao Rong looked at Qu Yunmie in shock, as if he truly believed this.

Qu Yunmie: “…”

Qu Yunmie’s expression visibly turned angry. He’d realized that Xiao Rong was deceiving him.

Still, what could he do? Murong Kui was dead. Xiao Rong could do everything except magic, so he naturally couldn’t summon spirits.

Qu Yunmie was furious, but he could neither scold, strike, nor punish Xiao Rong. In the end, he could only tell Xiao Rong angrily, “Then drink it today!”

Xiao Rong looked at the so-called divine, cough, herb. He blinked rapidly and said, “Fine.”

He had anticipated this, so the herb picked wasn’t poisonous.

He didn’t expect that even this couldn’t intimidate Qu Yunmie. Qu Yunmie was extremely frustrated. Xiao Rong actually instructed Jian Qiao to have someone boil the herb into a decoction. Jian Qiao looked at them both in confusion, then finally carried the box away.

Xiao Rong’s attitude made Qu Yunmie even angrier. Originally, he hadn’t taken it seriously, but now he couldn’t back down. He insisted on watching Xiao Rong drink the entire bowl.

It was impossible to understand what the two of them could still insist on at this point. One had discovered something, and the other had also realized that the first had discovered it.

……

Soon, Jian Qiao brought back a bowl of herb soup with an extremely strange color. From a distance, Xiao Rong could smell the bitter, foul odor.

It wasn’t poisonous, but the fact that this herb had never been renamed a wild vegetable over the years showed how truly disgusting it was.

Xiao Rong picked up the bowl of greenish-gray soup and paused silently. He looked at Qu Yunmie.

The latter also looked nervously at the bowl, but when he saw Xiao Rong looking, he immediately put on a mocking expression.

Xiao Rong: “…”

Qu Yunmie thought that at this moment, Xiao Rong would admit defeat, but the next second, Xiao Rong tilted his neck back and poured the soup into his mouth.

Qu Yunmie froze and immediately stood up, overturning the bowl in his hand. He shouted angrily, “You’re actually drinking it!”

Xiao Rong’s face twisted from the bitterness. He didn’t know whether it was because the herb grew in cow dung, but when cooked, it gave off such a pungent stench.

His voice became weak. “Didn’t the King tell me to drink it?”

Qu Yunmie said, “You drink just because I tell you?! Since when did you become so obedient?!”

Xiao Rong wiped his mouth and picked up some tea. “When you have done something wrong, naturally, you are a bit more obedient.”

Qu Yunmie: “…”

He fumed. “I said I must get the divine herb!”

Xiao Rong said, “I already said the divine herb wouldn’t work for me.”

Qu Yunmie demanded, “Then tell me, what does work for you?!”

Xiao Rong opened his mouth, hesitated for a moment, then closed it again.

After a pause, he said, “Time.”

Qu Yunmie froze.

Xiao Rong pursed his lips and continued, “Given enough time, my body slowly recovers. This isn’t a lie. I only need time.”

Qu Yunmie looked at him but couldn’t be easily fooled anymore. “Then how much time do you have now?”

Xiao Rong smiled and made a gesture to Qu Yunmie. “Compared to before, much more.”

Sometimes Qu Yunmie thought Xiao Rong was easy to understand, but the longer he spent with him, the more he realized that Xiao Rong was truly unpredictable.

Like now, he couldn’t tell whether Xiao Rong was lying. Regarding Xiao Rong’s matters, even with great power, he could do nothing.

Qu Yunmie silently walked to Xiao Rong’s side and sat on the other chair.

He spoke, with a hint of fatigue, “The longer I have known you, the more I feel that I don’t know you at all.”

Xiao Rong was startled. He looked at Qu Yunmie, but the latter only stared ahead. “Some things… I force myself not to delve into. I fear that if I try to, I will only realize how powerless I am.”

Then Qu Yunmie turned his head, looked at Xiao Rong, and spoke directly. “You tire me.”

Xiao Rong slightly widened his eyes and his pupils shrank subtly. He parted his lips, looking somewhat helpless.

Qu Yunmie’s gaze shifted slightly downward. He observed Xiao Rong’s reaction, then said, “But I cannot let you go, nor dare I. Just being able to see you every day is already this much. If you went somewhere I couldn’t see, I cannot imagine the torment then.”

Xiao Rong pursed his lips and lowered his eyes.

Qu Yunmie suddenly asked, “Do you think this makes me strange?”

His head felt dizzy. Xiao Rong heard a voice and, after a long moment, realized it was himself speaking.

Very calmly and naturally, “Strange? Where?”

Qu Yunmie still looked at him. For some reason, he felt disappointed by Xiao Rong’s unchanged expression.

Turning his body back, Qu Yunmie’s voice lowered. “Sometimes I feel I shouldn’t be so obedient to you, nor care so much about every word you say. If you hadn’t said you couldn’t use magic, I might’ve thought you had cast an illusion on me, turning me into this. Something even my elder brother couldn’t have imagined.”

Xiao Rong said, “You’re not the only one.”

Qu Yunmie had been immersed in his own despair and confusion. Hearing this, he quickly looked over, his gaze nearly turning into a knife.

“Who else?!”

Xiao Rong replied, “Chancellor Gao, Yu Shaoxie, and my grandmother. Regarding their care for me, you should be comparable.”

Qu Yunmie: “…”

He felt it was absurd. “Nonsense. They are far behind me!”

Xiao Rong smiled. “They’re just not good with words, and they have far less time with me. I am your aide, so most of my life is devoted to you. That doesn’t mean our relationship has weakened. They love me as a parent or sibling. If I gave them some of my time, we would grow closer.”

Qu Yunmie stared at him, eyes slightly intimidating. “I don’t love you as a parent or sibling.”

Xiao Rong nodded. “Then you aren’t as good as them.”

Qu Yunmie: “…”

Qu Yunmie again felt frustrated. He felt Xiao Rong was bullying him, though he could not articulate how. In the end, he said unhappily, “Time. Yes, all I need is time. Xiao Rong, you taught me how to reflect. I have learned. You cannot fool me as before.”

After speaking, he stormed out. Xiao Rong watched him leave, gripping the chair cushion tightly, then slowly relaxed.

Time.

A sweet yet terrifying word that always heals wounds, yet always brings new ones.

Xiao Rong lowered his head. He felt as if he were on a battlefield, a battle he was bound to lose. Staying on the field was only for his pitiful pride and the last bit of luck, just like drinking that bowl of soup today—meaningless, yet forcing him to suffer the consequences.

……

Xiao Rong lowered his head quietly for a long time. When he finally looked up, a head appeared in front of him, startling him so much he almost fell back.

Xiao Rong patted his frightened heart, his voice shrill, “Dongfang Jin! When did you come in?!”

Dongfang Jin replied, “I just came in. I spoke, but you didn’t look up.”

Xiao Rong’s expression stiffened. He hadn’t heard Dongfang Jin at all. Changing his expression slightly, he said irritably, “What is it? Did something happen again?”

Dongfang Jin smiled foolishly and shook his head. “Nothing happened. Look at this.”

Xiao Rong looked and saw a wooden box. Dongfang Jin opened it, revealing gray-green herbs inside.

Xiao Rong: “…”

He looked at Dongfang Jin in shock. “How did you find it?”

This explained Dongfang Jin’s foolish smile. If not for Xiao Rong’s high status, Dongfang Jin would have slapped his thigh, but instead he said, “I followed the excuse you used yesterday to deal with the King. I thought it made sense, so I searched accordingly. Unexpectedly, I really found it, in the well at Murong Kui’s sister’s house!”

Xiao Rong: “…”

Dongfang Jin handed the divine herb to Xiao Rong and scratched his head. “The King already has a fake one so I didn’t dare to give him the real one. The King only wants this herb for your health, so keep it. I hope it helps you.”

Looking at the exquisite wooden box, Xiao Rong felt more annoyed. He waved Dongfang Jin away. He initially wanted to leave immediately, but after a few steps, he hesitated, returned, picked up the box, and then left.

 

 

Edited by: Antiope

 

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