Chapter 82

Chapter 82

As for Li Sheng's snowy owl, it was usually raised with utmost delicacy—drinking mountain spring water and eating carefully prepared fresh goose liver and venison. It had never hunted live prey itself.

Perhaps it had grown tired of gourmet food, so one day it happened to catch a lively budgerigar as a treat, and consequently fell ill.

First it became listless, huddled on its perch without eating or drinking, and then it seemed to lack even the strength to preen its feathers.

This had Li Sheng worried sick. He paced back and forth in the hall, his face even paler than the snowy owl's feathers.

The imperial physicians were hastily summoned. Crowded around a bird, each with worried faces, drenched in sweat. Their skills of pulse diagnosis, observation, and questioning could work miracles on humans, but faced with this feathered beast, they were at a loss, unable even to determine the cause.

Li Sheng grew furious and scolded, "Useless! You can't even cure a bird!"

Then he immediately issued an edict, summoning into the palace all veterinarians with some reputation from the capital and surrounding prefectures.

For a time, the palace was in chaos, people coming and going. Veterinarians of all kinds knelt outside the hall, were called in one by one to examine the bird, and then came out shaking their heads in defeat. The prescriptions they wrote were varied, but none were effective.

The snowy owl's condition grew visibly worse, and Li Sheng's patience was exhausted.

Finally, an old veterinarian from the outskirts of the capital, with graying hair and beard, shakily examined the bird for a long while, then asked about its usual diet before cautiously speaking: "Your Majesty, this divine bird... has an extraordinary constitution. I fear... it may have eaten something unclean or that didn't agree with its system, thus triggering this illness."

These words were like a spark that instantly ignited Li Sheng's accumulated anxiety and anger.

"Investigate! Thoroughly investigate for me! Which damned caretaker was negligent and allowed it to eat something dirty?"

When an emperor gets angry, bodies fall in droves.

Even for a bird.

That night, the young eunuchs and guards who had accompanied the snowy owl out of the palace a few days earlier were all hauled up. Every one of them was already shaking like a leaf, kowtowing frantically.

After interrogation for a long time, one young eunuch finally recalled shakily: "Th-that day... the divine bird flew out of the imperial city, it seemed... near the Listening Terrace... it sn-snagged a... a parrot..."

"A parrot? Whose parrot?!" Li Sheng's anger flared upon hearing this.

"It, it seems... it was Lord Wen's... kept in his office..."

"Wen Buchi?" A cold glint flashed in Li Sheng's eyes. "Summon him to the palace immediately!"

It was already late at night. Wen Buchi had just finished handling the backlog of official documents, exhausted both physically and mentally, and was about to return home when he was "invited" into the palace by the palace eunuchs.

The palace roads were brightly lit and long. One by one, the corpses of eunuchs and guards were carried out by attendants, passing by Wen Buchi as he entered.

The heavy smell of blood in the air made Wen Buchi vaguely guess the reason. The grief and helplessness he had forcibly suppressed surged up again, mixed with a sense of ominous foreboding.

Stepping into the brilliantly lit side hall, before Wen Buchi could even make out Li Sheng's expression on the dragon throne, he already felt the imperial wrath pressing down like a mountain.

"Wen Buchi," Li Sheng's voice came from above, devoid of any warmth, "Do you know your crime?"

Wen Buchi lifted his robe and knelt, touching his forehead to the ground, his voice calm. "Your servant does not."

"Don't know?" Li Sheng directly hurled the paperweight from his desk. "The wretched creature you raised caused my beloved pet to eat something wrong, and now it's on the verge of death! You allowed your bird to fly out and disturb me first, and then inadequate care caused the divine bird to fall ill. And you still dare to say you don't know your crime?!"

Well, this was the emperor's logic. In his world, everything served him; his preferences were the law, and his dislikes were crimes.

If his bird ate someone else's bird, that was the other bird's blessing. If his bird fell ill as a result, then it was the other person who brought filth and ill omen, a capital offense.

Reason, right and wrong, even basic causality—all were extremely pale and laughable in the face of absolute imperial power.

Blood streamed from Wen Buchi's forehead as he lay prostrate, momentarily speechless.

At this moment, any word of defense was a challenge to imperial authority, a path to death. In this damned, twisted world, when the sovereign wanted a subject guilty, the subject must be guilty.

Wen Buchi closed his eyes, sealing all his emotions deep within his heart. When he spoke again, his voice was still steady. "Your servant... failed to control my bird, disturbed Your Majesty, implicated the divine bird, and deserves death ten thousand times."

He paused. "Please punish me, Your Majesty."

Li Sheng stared at his prostrate back. After a long while, he said coldly, "I'll spare your dog's life for now. Get out and reflect on your faults behind closed doors! If the divine bird suffers any mishap, I'll take your head as a burial sacrifice!"

"Your servant thanks Your Majesty for your immense grace."

Wen Buchi kowtowed, then slowly stood up. His knees were weak, his steps unsteady. The night's exhaustion and the mental strain from earlier had almost drained all his strength.

He backed out of the hall step by step, and walked out of the palace gate. The night wind, carrying the warmth of early summer, blew against him, yet it made him shiver.

Outside the palace gate, the long street was empty, the night deep. He instinctively looked up.

But this time, the palace gate was empty.

There was no one leaning against the carriage shaft, waiting for him with a lazy smile, and no warm carriage lamp shining for him in the cold night.

Only endless darkness and the night wind.

Summer had come, but it was so cold.

Wen Buchi stood alone in the same spot, letting the wind blow over him. He stood for a long time, then slowly, step by step, walked in the direction of his residence.

***

Nan Wuxie had held that anger in his heart for a few days, but in the end, he couldn't hold it in any longer.

Actually, rather than being angry at Wen Buchi, it was more like he was struggling with himself. After thinking it over, he felt that the root of the problem might lie in the little budgerigar he had given him earlier.

That little budgerigar was too weak—so weak that a gust of wind could blow it away, so weak that even an owl could bully it at will. If he gave him something strong, fierce, something that could dominate the sky, wouldn't the troubles that followed have been avoided?

Once this thought arose, it could not be suppressed. That very night, he sent someone on an eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch to the northwest, summoning to the capital a golden eagle that he had personally trained there in his early years.

He had also considered the larger Steller's sea eagle he kept at Donghai Pass, but after much deliberation, the golden eagle from the northwest was more majestic and imposing in appearance.

The golden eagle was the absolute king among eagles. Although not the largest in size, it was the most formidable and had the wildest temperament. His eagle was even bigger than the ordinary golden eagle, with wingspan like a cloud and eyes like lightning. It was a companion he had tamed with immense effort and rarely showed to others. He thought, if he gave this big fellow to Wen Buchi, surely everything would be safe?

After all, it was big enough to hold two or three of Li Sheng's snowy owls.

However, behind this almost childish psychology lay a hint of backing down that he himself might not have fully understood.

Yes, he had bowed his head first, in his own Nan Wuxie way.

On the second day after the golden eagle arrived in the capital, Nan Wuxie took it straight to Wen Buchi's residence. The large eagle perched on his shoulder, its talons gripping tightly, its demeanor proud. It was almost half a man's height, its dark brown feathers glistening in the sunlight, its sharp eyes scanning the surroundings with innate wildness and authority.

When Wen Buchi opened the door and saw the man and eagle together, he was truly startled and instinctively stepped back half a step. He had seen hawks before, but never such a magnificent and huge golden eagle. The fierce raptor aura rushing toward him made his breath catch.

"Th-this... what is this?" Wen Buchi looked at the golden eagle, his tone filled with shock and doubt.

Nan Wuxie was about to speak in a deliberately cold and tough manner when his gaze swept over the gauze wrapped around Wen Buchi's forehead. He immediately frowned and said, "What happened to your forehead?"

Wen Buchi instinctively brushed the hair on his forehead to hide it, his mind frantically thinking of an excuse. "I accidentally bumped into something."

This time he didn't stutter.

"Bumped into something??" Nan Wuxie was not stupid—and Wen Buchi wasn't stupid either. How could you just bump into something while walking normally?

"Keep making stuff up."

As he spoke, he reached out to lift the gauze and examine the wound.

Wen Buchi immediately dodged back slightly. "I really did bump into it—bumped into that bamboo birdcage of yours. I'm still not used to having a cage hanging by the window..."

Nan Wuxie's hand, still in midair, froze for a moment. He then curled his fingers awkwardly before resuming the cold, hard expression he had worn before entering, trying to maintain the posture expected after a quarrel.

"This eagle is to make it up to you. The last one was too weak, couldn't handle anything. This one is good—hardly anything in the sky can match it."

He paused, then added stiffly, "I trained it myself. It minds well."

Wen Buchi looked at the majestic golden eagle, and his heart was in his throat.

Raise an eagle? And such a flashy golden eagle? At such a sensitive time? Was he crazy?

Li Sheng's snowy owl had just fallen ill from eating his parrot, and now he turns around and brings an even fiercer bird of prey. What would that look like in the emperor's eyes?

It would be a provocation.

It would be a blatant challenge.

He could almost picture the storm it would stir up.

"No." Wen Buchi refused almost immediately, his voice soft but firm. "This eagle... I can't keep it."

Nan Wuxie's brow instantly furrowed. He didn't know that Li Sheng's snowy owl had nearly died from eating the little parrot, nor did he know that Wen Buchi had been summoned to the palace that night and given a warning. So he couldn't understand why Wen Buchi refused so decisively.

He swallowed his irritation and said patiently, "Why can't you keep it? I can teach you about feeding and care. It's very smart—"

"That's not the problem." Wen Buchi interrupted him, looking away, afraid to meet Nan Wuxie's eyes. "It's too flashy. It's a bad idea."

Seeing he was still refusing with such a distant tone, Nan Wuxie's temper flared up again. For this matter, he had even given up his most precious golden eagle and come to visit personally—this was an unprecedented show of humility. How could this guy still be so ungrateful and stubborn?

He took a deep breath, making one last attempt. His voice softened as he tried to coax, "I was wrong before. I shouldn't have lost my temper at you. Giving you that bird was also thoughtless of me. But this time... trust me this time. With it by your side, no one will be able to lay a finger on you."

This was almost the closest he could come to an apology and a guarantee.

However, his act of sending the eagle this time was actually even more ill-considered. It made Wen Buchi's blood run cold.

But he couldn't tell Nan Wuxie about the humiliation he suffered in the palace that night—that would only make things worse.

He could only repeat, "Really, I can't. Nan Wuxie, I cannot keep this eagle."

Wen Buchi's stubborn refusal ignited Nan Wuxie's suppressed fury. He had already stooped so low, and yet all he received was this cold rejection.

A feeling of being slighted and betrayed gripped him fiercely.

"Wen Buchi!" Nan Wuxie's voice was filled with uncontrollable anger and hurt. "Is a gift from me, Nan Yongci, really so beneath you? Do you think even the eagle I trained myself is not good enough for you, Lord Wen?"

"That's not what I meant!" Wen Buchi grew flustered too. "Can you be reasonable? This is not about whether it's good enough or not! This is—"

"Then what is it? Say it!" Nan Wuxie stepped closer. "What is it?!"

The golden eagle on his shoulder seemed to pick up on its master's anger and let out a sharp shriek, adding to the already explosive atmosphere.

"In your eyes, is tiptoeing and backing down the only way to survive? I give you a powerful shield, but you only see trouble and risk?" Nan Wuxie took another step forward. "Wen Buchi, are you really afraid to keep the eagle, or are you only afraid to keep the eagle I, Nan Yongci, gave you?"

These words stabbed Wen Buchi right in his most conflicted, fragile place. All his grievances, worries, and fears clogged his throat—he could neither voice them nor push them down.

After a moment of stalemate, Wen Buchi took a few shaky breaths, then turned his face away, still saying nothing.

This silent defiance completely enraged Nan Wuxie. An even sharper, crueler thought involuntarily blurted out.

"Speak! Look at me and answer! If the one giving you the golden eagle today were Li Sheng—the one sitting on the dragon throne—would you then accept it with gratitude, without a second thought? Isn't that right?!"

Wen Buchi trembled upon hearing this, because he could not refute those words. He couldn't deny it: he couldn't keep Nan Wuxie's eagle, but he'd have to keep an imperial gift. Was there even any question?

Thus, Wen Buchi still did not answer.

But this deathly silence, at this moment, was more devastating than any words. It became a silent, deafening confession.

For Nan Wuxie, this silent admission was the deadliest blow, because it coldly laid bare a reality he'd always refused but couldn't escape:

In Wen Buchi's calculations, and in everyone's mind, the emperor's authority far outweighed any affection you, Nan Wuxie, offered, because that man's power is greater than yours, his position is higher than yours—

You, Nan Wuxie, can't compete with him, Li Sheng.