Chapter 52 Friendzone

Chapter 52: The Good Guy Card

The sun hung high in a cloudless sky, a perfect day.

Yet Xiao Yan's right eyelid twitched inexplicably twice.

Then came two knocks at the door.

"Enter."

Ling Hai walked into the Cangwu Hall and presented with both hands the results of his investigation. His arm bore a wound bandaged with gauze, still seeping fresh blood.

Xiao Yan glanced at it and asked, "How did that happen?"

"This subordinate was suddenly pursued by assassins during the investigation and sustained a minor injury."

"Related to the bearded man?"

"Yes."

"Did they see your face?"

"No," Ling Hai replied. "I was disguised as a beggar, so they did not see my true appearance."

For days, he had roamed the streets and alleys of Zhaojing as a beggar, enduring exposure, hunger, and thirst. Finally, he discovered a clue from an inconspicuous small opera troupe.

According to the troupe leader, they had lost a set of costume beards half a month ago.

And this troupe had performed near the Zhang residence.

The leader recalled clearly packing everything into a trunk, but the beards vanished in the blink of an eye. They searched high and low to no avail, nearly delaying their next performance.

In the end, they gave up on the beards, and the matter was left unresolved.

It was after this that Ling Hai faced a frenzied attempt on his life.

In other words, the opera troupe was under strict surveillance without their knowledge, and Ling Hai's excessive contact as an outsider had aroused the monitors' suspicion.

To prevent a leak, they decided to eliminate him, cutting the weeds and digging up the roots.

But Ling Hai reacted swiftly. Shortly after leaving, he became acutely aware of someone following him.

Seeing Ling Hai meant to shake them off, the pursuers immediately attacked.

These individuals were agile, each wielding their preferred weapons and packing a serious punch.

Ling Hai's martial arts were not weak. Had he fought with all his might, it would have been anyone's fight.

But he couldn't afford to get entangled now; he needed to escape. His goal was to deliver the message, not to kill his pursuers.

The two groups were locked in a fierce battle in a remote alley.

Finally, Ling Hai spotted an opening.

As the leader turned to dodge, he flipped onto a rooftop. This small action exposed his back, leaving him open to a projectile fired from behind.

He noticed in time and dodged, but his arm was still injured.

After shaking off his pursuers, he found a place to hastily bandage the wound and headed straight for the palace.

Just as Ling Hai was reporting, Ling Shan arrived.

Ling Shan brought no news, only a small vial.

The vial was half the size of a palm, its exterior stained with dirt. The mouth was slightly damaged, and a faint crack ran down its body.

Ling Shan said nothing, simply handing over the vial.

Xiao Yan's gaze swept over the eagle pattern on the vial, and a chill fell over him.

This was the soul-dispersing powder hidden beneath the garden bricks of the Zhang residence—the very poison that had killed his elder brother.

The hand holding the vial began to tremble uncontrollably. He clenched his fist, using all his strength to suppress it.

The Ling Shan and Ling Hai brothers had quietly withdrawn, leaving the space entirely to Xiao Yan.

Alone, Xiao Yan seemed to shed the pretense of strength he had maintained, allowing himself to vent his emotions more freely.

His elder brother had been killed by such a small vial of poison.

In every meal, in every cup of tea, there could have been soul-dispersing powder.

Colorless, odorless, easily soluble in water—only the black jade unique to Beixiang could detect it.

Xiao Yan took the black jade from its cherished box and placed it on the table. With slow, solemn movements, he tapped out a bit of the white powder onto the jade.

At first, nothing. Then it suddenly emitted a wisp of white smoke before bursting into flames and turning to black ash.

Yes, this was soul-dispersing powder, exactly matching the clue from Master Abbot.

Even knowing what it was, he tortured himself by verifying it again, by recalling the past once more.

Xiao Yan suddenly laughed, mocking himself.

Why hadn't he noticed when his elder brother's health declined? If he had discovered it earlier, would the outcome differ?

He sank into deep self-reproach, overwhelmed by endless regret.

But he forgot: soul-dispersing powder was extremely rare even in Beixiang, let alone this being its first appearance in the Great Jing Dynasty.

Uncovering its existence so quickly was something no ordinary person could achieve.

He simply... placed too much pressure on himself.

Xiao Yan sat in the chair, his eyes empty and unfocused as he stared into the distance.

He felt lost now, unsure of what to do.

The mastermind behind his brother's murder remained unfound; within the court, Chang Wenji harbored ulterior motives; and Beixiang had been restless lately...

It seemed he couldn't do anything well.

Xiao Yan let out a long sigh, his face etched with utter exhaustion.

He had maintained his disguise, tightly wearing the mask of "incompetent and tyrannical." On the surface, a good-for-nothing emperor; in secret, using this pretense to conduct his investigations.

He had been under too much strain for too long, forgetting that he too needed rest.

This time, leaning his head back against the chair, Xiao Yan slowly closed his eyes.

In a groggy, half-asleep state, Xiao Yan drifted hazily, as if he were having many dreams.

He dreamed of his loving parents, and he dreamed of the elder brother who had doted on him all his life.

He dreamed of the lofty ambitions he held on the day of his ascension to the throne, and he also dreamed of the day he discovered the truth about his brother's death, breaking down in tears.

He dreamed of playing pitch-pot with his brother in the imperial garden as a child, riding horses at Zhaoshan, and he dreamed of repeatedly jolting awake at midnight, trying to hold onto something yet ending up empty-handed.

Joy and happiness intertwined repeatedly with unease and fear, which brought him no comfort. Instead, it was like personally picking up a sharp knife, stabbing again and again at his fragile nerves.

Xiao Yan seemed to be in a dream, yet he felt incredibly clear-headed.

In the end, he even dreamed of Master Abbot Huikong from Longquan Temple.

The Abbot's lips were moving as if saying something, but Xiao Yan couldn't hear a thing.

He stepped forward, wanting to get closer, but a white mist gradually enveloped him, and no matter how he walked, he couldn't seem to find a way out.

When he returned to the starting point to ask the Master Abbot, the Master Abbot had vanished, and the white mist was slowly dissipating.

Then.

He saw Jiang Wang.

A different Jiang Wang.

That Jiang Wang had short hair and wore, instead of official robes, two pieces of clothing Xiao Yan didn't understand, exposing his forearms and calves.

Jiang Wang was smiling very happily, waving his arm high as if greeting him, yet also seeming to look past him at someone else.

Just as he wondered why, in the blink of an eye, the mist completely vanished, leaving not a trace behind, as if it had never been there.

His hazy consciousness gradually returned, and Xiao Yan emerged from the half-dream, half-awake world, opening his eyes.

He didn't feel rested at all; sleeping felt worse than not sleeping.

Based on past experience, he should have been even more exhausted, but today, he felt his mental state had improved quite a bit.

Xiao Yan looked through the gaps between his fingers at the sunlight streaming in through the window and blinked.

Then, he heard Jiang Wang's voice outside the door.

"Guard Ling, is His Majesty still asleep? I've already waited for an hour."

This was the second time he had asked Ling Shan. Jiang Wang swore to himself that twice was enough; he would absolutely not ask a third time. If Xiao Yan didn't wake up soon, he would leave.

This was one of his rare moments of assertiveness.

Of course, his assertiveness stemmed entirely from his own judgment that he had formed a different understanding of Xiao Yan.

His previous doubts had become reality; Xiao Yan wasn't as incompetent and tyrannical as he appeared on the surface.

He was a good person.

After finally escaping Hu Xing's bloody and eerie smiling face, a sense of lingering fear crept up his spine to the top of his head.

Fortunately, Fang Fengshi's thrust had been accurate enough, precisely hitting Hu Xing's vital spot.

And Jiang Wang, of course, also wanted to thank this little eunuch who had fearlessly shielded him.

But just moments ago, there were only imperial guards here, no eunuchs.

Where did this eunuch come from?

Suppressing the small doubt rising in his heart, Jiang Wang asked this little eunuch, who had been keeping his head tightly lowered, to look up.

Upon seeing this person's face, Jiang Wang froze on the spot.

"Eunuch Wu?!"

Jiang Wang's eyes widened, and he couldn't help but tremble as he reached out to touch the face before him.

It was warm.

Eunuch Wu wasn't dead?!

But that day, he had clearly seen the imperial guards surround Eunuch Wu and the blood that flowed when they beat him.

That scene had been seared into his memory, even causing nightmares for several days.

And now he was being told that Eunuch Wu was still alive, standing perfectly fine before him. Those nights he had spent in fear and worry were all for nothing!

Jiang Wang laughed.

Of course, he was happy for Eunuch Wu, but he was also angry.

"Eunuch Wu, if you weren't dead, why didn't you tell me? You made me grieve for so long!"

Although Jiang Wang's tone was reproachful, his happiness outweighed it.

Eunuch Wu also looked happy, though with a hint of difficulty.

The Emperor had forbidden him from speaking; he had no choice. The Emperor's orders were hard to defy.

Actually, he had been recuperating in the Imperial Medical Bureau all this time. After his wounds healed, he had been assigned to do other tasks in an inconspicuous small courtyard.

After learning that Jiang Wang had also come to the Imperial Medical Bureau, he had watched from the shadows a couple of times. Hearing unusual noises, he had also secretly observed from a corner.

Seeing Hu Xing pick up the dagger again, he instinctively rushed forward, even though the Emperor had warned him that it wasn't the right time for him to show himself.

But in such a critical moment, how could he control himself?

By the time he realized he shouldn't have appeared, it was too late to go back. He could only lower his head fiercely, trying to hide.

But such concealment was worse than none at all.

After analyzing the situation before him, Jiang Wang raised an eyebrow.

Since Eunuch Wu wasn't dead, it meant that Fang Fengshi, who had acted alongside Eunuch Wu back then, was also in the know.

And the fact that Fang Fengshi dared to carry out such a bold act right under the Emperor's nose meant that Xiao Yan wasn't completely unaware either.

So, Xiao Yan and Fang Fengshi had been acting from the very beginning!

Then everything made sense.

His previous feeling that "the Xiao Yan he genuinely encountered" and "the Xiao Yan everyone talked about" were two completely separate people now made sense.

Because the one everyone talked about was fake all along!

The one he'd been dealing with was the real Xiao Yan!

Jiang Wang turned his gaze toward Fang Fengshi, who'd been standing by, pretending all along that nothing was wrong.

"Commander Fang, your acting skills are truly impressive. Even when I tested you like that before, you didn't reveal the slightest flaw."

Fang Fengshi chuckled and continued playing dumb.

He already knew how this would end, but the rule stood: unless Xiao Yan confessed first, he couldn't admit to a thing.

"Lord Jiang, what are you talking about? I'm afraid I don't follow you."

Jiang Wang gave a cold sneer. To catch the bandits, first capture the leader.

Then he might as well go straight to Xiao Yan and demand a clear answer!

Author's Note:

The two are about to confront each other face-to-face, hehe.