Chapter 50

Chapter 50

It was fine when Dian Xia wasn't around, but the moment he showed up, Shen Lian had a bellyful of complaints to air.

Two days prior, after finishing the evidence, Shen Lian had made a point of visiting Prince Xi's residence in the evening, only to find Prince Xi wasn't home.

Song Jin said Dian Xia had gone out hunting with Prince Xi, so Shen Lian had Song Jin pass a letter to Dian Xia.

In the letter, he told Dian Xia that he'd dug out all the evidence needed to convict Dehui from the evidence locker, hoping Dian Xia would find time to come to the courthouse and watch the show.

He then spelled out the court session time, even including the courthouse's full address, treating Dian Xia as just as bad with directions as he was.

He'd worried Dian Xia might be off with the prince for days, but surprisingly, a servant brought back a reply the very next day.

The letter had Dian Xia's usual messy scrawl: "Looking forward to it."

Shen Lian was overjoyed upon receiving it, tucking the young male concubine's one and only human-sounding reply into his bedside drawer.

He then rehearsed his court presentation over and over.

This meant a lot to him.

In their past chance run-ins or outings, Shen Lian had never gotten to show off his scholarly brilliance, and his carefully made kidney-tonic secret recipe had backfired and overloaded the young male concubine.

Meanwhile, the young male concubine's brains in the plan to take down Dehui were practically god-tier compared to normal people.

The more Shen Lian thought about it, the more mortified he got.

So in his ideal version of cracking this case, the two of them would team up—one handling the big-picture strategy, the other filling in the scholarly details.

Shen Lian had held up his end.

But the young male concubine never showed.

Furious and covered in vegetables, Shen Lian griped nonstop: "You have no idea how awesome I was just now!"

The young male concubine smiled with his lips pressed together, turned to take a cabbage from the worshipping crowd, placed it on Shen Lian's head, putting him back in his earlier pose, and urged: "Tell me about it in the carriage."

Shen Lian, his arms full of produce, couldn't get the cabbage off, so he shook his head hard, refusing to let the young male concubine mess with him.

The young male concubine caught the cabbage, said "Follow me," and pushed ahead of Shen Lian to clear a path.

When they got to the carriage, the crowd chasing them was held back by a bunch of plainclothes guards.

Shen Lian scrambled into the carriage, pulled back the curtain to wave goodbye to his "followers": "Go on home and rest easy; I'll pray for your health and wealth."

To a round of cheers, they left the street in front of the courthouse.

Shen Lian piled all the veggies and fruit onto the seat across from him.

Glaring at Dian Xia, who was lounging across from him, Shen Lian made a fierce threat: "You'd better have a damn good, unavoidable excuse for standing me up."

"And if not?" the young male concubine shot back flippantly: "What, punish me by banning cabbage for life?"

"Hmph!" Shen Lian turned to look out the window, secretly hoping the young male concubine would admit he was wrong.

The young male concubine uncrossed his legs and cocked his head to look at him: "Shen Lian, you're getting more and more brazen. Have you forgotten who I am?"

Shen Lian whipped around, ready to snap: "My apologies, Princess Consort of Xi!"

The young male concubine slowly sat up straight, watching him with interest. "You're always so polite and considerate to Song Jin. I've helped you out, and yet you dare throw a fit. You've got a special kind of realness—I've only ever heard of it in legends."

Shen Lian asked warily: "What realness?"

"Being a bully only at home." The young male concubine instructed him: "You should treat me like a dear brother, but also show me the respect due to the Princess Consort of Xi."

"In your dreams!" Shen Lian objected: "If we're really brothers, we should treat each other as equals. Now, tell me—why were you late today, huh? If you don't have a good excuse, then even if you stood me up like last time and I let you pick any tavern for a big meal, you still owe me one."

Xie Yuan raised an eyebrow curiously: "Lord Shen, how do you plan to punish me?"

Shen Lian shot Dian Xia a hopeful sideways glance: "I want you to come to my clan's willow-shooting banquet, help me win at least two top prizes, and we split the winnings—even 70-30 in your favor is fine, as long as you can beat my cousin and save my pride."

"Why do you keep harping on that?" Xie Yuan said impatiently: "I told you, I'm busy."

"You didn't even ask what day it's on before saying you're busy!" Shen Lian said, disappointed: "Is that how you treat a brother?"

Xie Yuan asked curiously: "Save what pride? What? Is your cousin way better at archery than you? How old is he, six?"

"Sixteen!" Shen Lian explained: "He's had horses and bows at home since he was born, so of course he's better than me."

Xie Yuan asked: "When's the banquet? I'll send someone to go beat up your sixteen-year-old cousin for you."

"No need." Shen Lian was genuinely down: "If you're busy, forget it. I'm not that keen on going anyway."

Xie Yuan was quiet for a beat, then narrowed his eyes: "You're getting out of control, Lord Shen? You throw a fit at every little thing. Do you think I'm your mother?"

Shen Lian hung his head: "If Dian Xia genuinely asked me to help develop medicinal herbs, I'd drop everything and go all in. But Dian Xia couldn't even show up on time for court. I rarely get to be that cool."

"I was there the whole time, got into the courtroom before you did." Xie Yuan explained calmly: "I sat in the east side room, watching from the moment you started waving your arms around at that box."

Shen Lian's eyes lit up right away: "Really! Why didn't you say so! I was dying waiting for you."

Xie Yuan asked: "So you kept turning to look outside the courthouse, looking for me? The dignified Princess Consort of Xi—what would you have done?"

Shen Lian answered cheerfully: "What, was I supposed to listen to the trial with a bunch of commoners outside the courthouse?!"

Xie Yuan nodded, satisfied.

"You saw everything? How was I? Was I awesome in court!" Shen Lian couldn't wait to show off.

Xie Yuan squinted and smiled: "Every time you do your medical thing, it's pretty theatrical. Seriously, like a shaman getting possessed by a god. Ever seen that?"

He made a shaman's cross-eyed, twisted-mouth face: "Just missing the twitching and drooling—straight into possession. Cabbage Bodhisattva, take your place! Like that."

"Hahahahaha!" Shen Lian laughed even while mad: "How are you like this!"

Xie Yuan looked down and adjusted his wrist guard: "That's how it looks to me. Too impressive to be you."

Shen Lian was pleased, shaking his head smugly: "I'm usually pretty impressive, you know—I just rarely get the chance to show it around you."

Xie Yuan: "So impressive, and yet you need to get back at a sixteen-year-old cousin?"

Shen Lian: "If you won't help, fine, but don't be a smartass!"

Xie Yuan: "I said I'd send someone to help you out."

Shen Lian: "I don't trust anyone else. If you're not coming, I'm not competing."

Xie Yuan took a long breath.

"Besides your brother and father, are there any other officials in your clan?" Prince Qi, seeing no way around it, finally started ruling out potential risks.

Shen Lian thought for a moment: "Yes, my third uncle is also in the Court of State Ceremonial. He's a sixth-rank big shot."

"What's his name?"

"Shen Zaishan."

Xie Yuan continued: "How long has your brother been serving as a clerk?"

Shen Lian: "About three months? A few days ago, he got demoted back to odd jobs. It might be my third uncle stirring the pot, which is why I really want to beat his son and get even for my brother."

Xie Yuan nodded: "Anyone else? Just the three in the Court of State Ceremonial? Any censors? Even low-ranking ones count."

Shen Lian: "No, originally the whole clan only had my third uncle as a high official. My grandmother asked him to get my father a spot in the Court of State Ceremonial too, and my father brought my brother along."

Xie Yuan lowered his gaze and stroked his chin: "We'll talk later. I'll have someone send you word in a couple of days."

Shen Lian blinked: "Huh? How do you know my father and brother serve in the Court of State Ceremonial?"

"You ask too many questions," Xie Yuan said. "Anyone close to the Princess Consort of Xi gets checked out. Prince Xi can't be too careful."

Shen Lian suddenly understood: "Oh, so that's why you don't want to attend our clan's willow-shooting banquet—you're worried too many people will eye your good looks?"

Xie Yuan, caught off guard, burst out laughing, pointing at the young imperial physician: "Lord Shen's got the nerve to tease me back?"

"Ah?" Shen Lian wasn't trying to be sarcastic; he genuinely thought so. Someone as good-looking as Dian Xia would definitely turn heads anywhere crowded. "Then what are you worried about?"

The carriage stopped.

"We're here," Xie Yuan reminded. "Go on in and have some tea. You're still running your mouth after court—your lips are all dry."

Shen Lian licked his lips: "Ah, are we at my place? I've got to head to the Su place. Their old lady's sick and just got out of prison. She's probably really weak. I should do some acupuncture to get her energy flowing."

"Not so fast," Xie Yuan said. "It's got to go through a bunch of approvals before the Grand Court signs off. Even if you head over tomorrow morning, you'll still be waiting."

Shen Lian grabbed the veggies and fruit off the seat, then turned to Dian Xia: "Then come on in with me for some tea and check out my water mill—it's almost finished."

The water mill.

The young imperial physician actually seemed kind of dependable today.

To his surprise, he actually felt a little curious.

Xie Yuan got out of the carriage after him.

The two of them crouched in the dim side room, looking at the soccer-ball-sized water mill model set up next to a big wooden tub, with three rows of nine gears hooked up on the other side to mimic the drive system.

Since he'd never seen a real water mill from Chu, Shen Lian had to go purely on imagination, taking it apart and putting it back together over and over. The outer ring was full of nail holes.

To make it easy to take apart without damage, he'd switched the core parts to mortise-and-tenon joints.

The young male concubine was rarely this curious or amazed, even crouching by the tub like a kid, closely checking out the water mill he'd built himself.

Clearly, he hadn't expected it to look this legit, and he looked up eagerly, silently begging Shen Lian to show him how it worked.

Shen Lian was glowing with pride inside, but kept a cool "no big deal" look on his face.

He'd rebuilt this water wheel drive model a bunch of times; this was version seven. The power setup was solid, but it had never been tested in water.

Shen Lian quickly drew a bucket of water from the well and dumped it into the tub.

He reached out, grabbed the worm gear in the middle of the water wheel, and gave it three gentle turns.

Looking up at Dian Xia crouched across from him, Shen Lian smirked slyly: "Watch closely."

The moment of miracle.

Shen Lian's fingertip released the knob.

The Ferris-wheel-like water wheel spun into motion in an instant.

The water in the tub surged into a towering wave!

Shen Lian instinctively leaned back.

It was too late.

The mortise-and-tenon joints hadn't been secured properly, and the internal gears were too powerful.

The parts burst apart like fireworks.

Several wooden strips flew straight at his face, two heading for his eyes, but Dian Xia, crouching across from him, swiftly knocked them away.

"Ouch!" Shen Lian lamented, groping through the wooden pieces on the ground: "Damn, the wood is too soft. The mortise-and-tenon joints are loose—can't use such strong power. But don't worry, Dian Xia, the structure is definitely solid. When it's actually built, it'll be driven by water flow, so it won't spin this fast."

Silence.

"Why aren't you saying anything, Dian Xia?" Shen Lian held up his precious water wheel core and looked up.

Dian Xia across from him was soaked like a drowned rat, water dripping off his brow, lashes, nose, and chin.

He just stared blankly at the eighth-rank imperial physician.