Cry of the Midnight Jackdaw

Chapter Forty-eight,
Morning Dew

Xiao Zuo nervously and anxiously stared at He Xuan, and constantly shook his head at him, wanting He Xuan to help him once, and pull Qing Shuang out from the swamp. He hopefully met gazes with He Xuan, then personally saw He Xuan indifferently look away, change into a more comfortable pose and lean on the couch, and indifferently extend his hand to rub his temples, as though that gaze just now was out of his extra generosity.

With He Xuan’s tacit consent, that person’s courage got even bigger, and continuously urged Qing Shuang to hurry up and go on the stage. The bottom of Xiao Zuo’s heart turned cold, he silently placed the chopsticks, and just as he was going to open his mouth, he heard Fu Zhan Chuan’s lax voice, “I am the one who invited Qing Shuang here, they are a guest, Lord Sun, let’s not force people into hard spots, yes?”

“Oh? So it was Lord Fu’s friend, then this one has been disrespectful.”

Fu Zhan Chuan merrily clasped his hands up, “Well said, well said.”

Qing Shuang let out a breath of air, his palm long already got grasped so hard by him it seeped with slivers of blood, and the back got damp too. Xiao Zuo silently took these in, then sighed, and called for someone to come bring him a clean outer robe.

“Thank you.” Qing Shuang hung his eyes down, his voice was very light.

Xiao Zuo did not say anything, he only lifted his hand up and poured a cup of wine for him.

The human world was filled with tribulations, everywhere was bitter hardships, to suffer too clear-headedly was too hard. In the end, it would be better to have wine to save the humans struggling in the mortal realm.

It merely that a drunken town with stable roads was easy to frequently fall on, this place was not easy to walk.

After the song and dance finished, the banquet was dismissed.

He Xuan irately dealt with the bunch of people coming up to chat, and once he had them all go away, he yawned with some drowsiness, and asked the servant boy on the side, “Where is Xiao Zuo?”

“Your Highness, the duke is outside.”

Xiao Zuo was leaning on the railing, vacantly looking at the ink-coloured lake waters. The night winds blew up his black hair and the corners of his clothes, like he would go off along the winds at any time.

“It’s time to leave.” Xiao Zuo turned back, his face was tranquil, while the dim moonlight melted in his clear eyes, making He Xuan fall into a trance for a moment.

He Xuan sent the servant boy away, then the two slowly strolled back. The moonlight illuminated the two’s figures in a way that overlapped each other, secretively intermingling in the dark night.

“Your Highness.”

Xiao Zuo lightly opened up, that ending tone drifted in the wind, dispersing with a single blow. He Xuan slowed down his pace, then turned and made an en sound. Xiao Zuo hung his eyes down, he sucked in a breath of air, hesitated for a while, but still spoke, “What am I?”

He Xuan froze, he slightly knitted his eyebrows, and heard Xiao Zuo continue to say, “If the one Lord Sun asked for today was me, would your Highness also be unmoved by it?”

“What are you thinking about?” He Xuan’s tone was a bit annoyed, Xiao Zuo continued on like he didn’t hear it at all, like he wanted to say those words stuffed in heart all in this kind of night where the moon hung high to the end, “Your Highness, in your heart, am I, compared to those dancers……”

He Xuan seemed to predict what he was going to say, Xiao Zuo’s lashes slightly shook, “No different from them?”

He Xuan sneered, he stopped walking, his facial features crossed with a violent aura even denser than the night, “So in your eyes, I am this kind of harsh and ungenerous, emotionless and unjust thing?”

He extended his hand and grabbed Xiao Zuo’s shoulder, then pulled him to the front. He Xuan freed a hand and pinched Xiao Zuo’s chin, he bent over, and the tip of his nose barely stopped in front of Xiao Zuo’s slightly stunned eyes, “Then again, I, He Xuan, certainly am like this.”

The bottom of He Xuan’s eyes carried some ridicule, “How about you prove to me, what about you is different from them?”

Xiao Zuo vacantly stiffened up, he stared at He Xuan’s hung eyes without blinking, unsure why, then, in a stroke of luck, saw, hiding underneath his ridicule…… was a sliver of a frail crack.

He strangely enough reached out, and lightly stroked over He Xuan’s features iced in frost, with his heart in such a mess it was like a ball of thread one eternally could not find the head of, and muttered, “Alright.”

He Xuan seemed like he did not predict he would say this, he paused for an instant, and the eyelashes shook like a butterfly that broke out of its chrysalis clumsily flapping its wings. The inside of his eyes seemed to rise with a cold flame, repeatedly grilling Xiao Zuo on top of the fire, like it was going to cook him, cook him dry, and let trickle the drops of the blood in his heart.

“Xiao Zuo.” He Xuan lowered his voice, “You were the one to say it.”

Xiao Zuo seemed to then realize what he just said just now, at this time, faced with He Xuan’s direct gaze, he nodded his head like it was hard to come down from a tiger, “I understand.”

“Alright, I am waiting.” Once He Xuan finished speaking, he turned and walked ahead. The moonlight filtered over the thicket of sparse bushes in front, and brought down a silver river on the ground, making the two of them be separated by the two piers.

Xiao Zuo secretly sighed, and slowly followed along.

❀

“After the courts, I need to stay in the palace, so I won’t be coming back to eat lunch.” He Xuan grabbed a steamed cake and placed it inside Xiao Zuo’s bowl, occasionally using a spoon to stir the small grains porridge in his bowl.

That steamed cake was steamed tender and sweet, the sensation was soft too, Xiao Zuo would not be tired of it each morning. He swallowed the sauced gourd in his mouth down, then lifted his eyes up, “I especially had the kitchen simmer your favourite silver fungus and lotus seed soup for noontime, if that is so, I will have them make it again in the evening.”

“En.” He Xuan looked to be disinterested, he placed the spoon down, then stood up, “Take your time to eat, I will leave first.”

It was brighter earlier in the days of summer, so at this time, the horizon bloomed with the golden light of the morning sun, warmly illuminating over the officials getting up early to go to the court in Shang An’jing, and also illuminating over the busy commoners.

Xiao Zuo also placed down his bowl too, then walked over to He Xuan’s side and lightly stuck to his cheek and gave him a kiss, He Xuan intimately kneaded his fingers, and reached out and parted the loose hairs on his forehead, “I’m leaving.”

Yesterday, Li Fu Hai told [He Xuan] that He Heng wanted him to stay to eat after today’s courts, as there was something to discuss with him. He Xuan sat in the sedan chair, and curled his lips with a cold sneer, it was probably to discuss the ancestral rite- in the past years, he was the one who planned it, since it got changed with He Yang this time, He Heng, in the end, was still quite worried.

Once that sedan chair came down at the entrance of the palace, He Xuan came out from the inside. There just so happened to be a group entering the courts, so he nonchalantly mixed in with them and walked forward, counting the tiles he walked over.

“Xuan’er, rumours say the Nan Hun Duke has been residing at your place, is there such a thing?” He Heng briefly asked He Xuan the things that happened these days, he grabbed some leaf greens, as though randomly asking this.

He Xuan swallowed the soup in his mouth, he slowly took a cloth by his hand and wiped his mouth, then said, “Nothing goes by Father. There was a fire at the Nan Hun ducal residence in the winter, it was not easy to fix for the time being, so he borrowed a place to stay at this son’s residence. This son thought it would be more convenient to control him like this, if he were to do something, wouldn’t it all be underneath this son’s eyes? So this son accepted it, and with this, it has already been summer.”

He Heng nodded his head, “En, now that he is in your residence, he probably will not bring about any tides. Are your tasks these days in the courts busy?”

“Father, it’s all just the miscellaneous things done normally that [I] am accustomed with, [I] am not considered busy.”

“Then that’s good.” He Heng sighed, then lifted his head to look at He Yang, and said, “It’s the first time Yang’er is planning the ancestral rite, he doesn’t have much experience, [I] am thinking to have you help with some, and see if there is something he hasn’t taken notice of, and you can also help suggest things to him.”

Once He Yang heard these words, he instead turned panicked, and scooped a bowl of soup for He Heng diligently, and merrily placed it in front of him, saying, “Father, Brother is planning for the autumn examination these days, so he is quite busy. This son is also grown up now, and can deal with it by myself, and also, though this son has no experience, isn’t there still Mother?”

As he said this, he gave a wink to Empress Liu. As one able to sit on the throne of Empress, Empress Liu naturally could understand, and also added from the side, “Yang’er is right, this one will watch over him, there won’t be any mistakes.”

He Heng originally came up with the idea in the last minute, so when he was continuously persuaded by Empress Liu and He Yang, he no longer kept it up, and only had He Yang look for He Xuan to ask if there was something he didn’t understand, then let this matter go.

He Xuan coldly watched from the side, and felt that he did not want to stay in front of this fake mother and son. He merely did not want the contributions of the ancestral rite to be split with him, he really did not have the intent of fighting for this with them either, so he certainly did not need to be so grave with him. He Xuan put his head down and sipped a mouthful of wine, and squinted at Empress Liu smiling beside He Heng, isn’t it tired living like this?

Not a moment later, Sun De Lu came in, saying that Jin Yang Palace’s Noble Fang’s body was unwell, and asked that He Heng go look. This Noble Fang was a newly taken consort of He Heng’s, also a dancer previously, of the same symptoms with Consort Jiang. He Xuan leaned on the back of the chair, and silently watched He Heng knit his eyebrows, as though quite concerned with that dancer. These days, he did not hear much about Consort Jiang, probably in the deeps of the palace- a generation of new people changing out the old was a normal matter, even Empress Liu who once held sole favours without decline, doesn’t she also have to allow these bunches of women to surround He Heng now? The feelings of a king, like morning dew, dries with the glimpse of the sun.