AEOGA CH66

Helian Xi disliked Qin Yulong?

Neither Lu Xuechao nor Xie Chongjin believed it.

They were people who had loved through many lifetimes and were far more experienced in matters of the heart than a young, green boy like Qin Yulong, whose passion was only just blooming. While Qin Yulong could not tell, the two of them saw it with absolute clarity—far from disliking him, Helian Xi’s usual bickering and squabbling with Qin Yulong never involved any real malice; it was merely a classic case of saying the exact opposite of what he felt in his heart.

At first, Qin Yulong had been unaware of Helian Xi’s other identity, and affection had gradually grown out of their daily thrust-and-parry back and forth. Helian Xi, on the other hand, had liked Qin Yulong from the very beginning; he had already fallen for him back when they clashed on the battlefield, so where would any hatred come from?

“Could it be that you took those words from your usual bickering as truth?” Lu Xuechao said. “You always say you hate him on ordinary days as well, yet do you not love him dearly in your heart?”

“Whether it was bickering or meant in earnest, this minister can tell the difference.” Qin Yulong let out a bitter smile. “It was after that night… Prince Helian said to this minister… that he hates this minister and needs no responsibility from me. His tone was exceptionally earnest, not looking like he was lying out of spite.”

Lu Xuechao pondered briefly. “If that is the case… then we truly cannot force it. Go back for now, and do not go kneeling outside his place in the future. You are a general of Changli, and doing so will inevitably give people cause for gossip. You may not fear criticism, but do you not fear him coming under fire? The words His Majesty and I spoke earlier about blaming Helian Xi were not our true intent—we do not think that way, but there will always be those who do.”

Qin Yulong was far too straightforward and could not figure out many of the intricate twists and turns. He only knew that if a mistake was made, one had to own up to it, and if there was guilt, there must be punishment; he had not considered that his actions would put pressure on Helian Xi instead. It took Lu Xuechao’s reminder for him to finally grasp the gravity of the matter.

Helian Xi had grown up in a place with such fierce struggles as the Xifeng imperial household; though he appeared uninhibited, passionate, and vibrant on the surface, he actually had more schemes and caution than a hundred Qin Yulongs combined. Qin Yulong kneeling like that solved absolutely nothing.

The moment Qin Yulong heard that his actions harmed Helian Xi’s reputation, he felt even more ashamed. “But… is this minister truly to pretend as though this matter never happened?”

“Who told you to pretend it never happened? The time simply has not arrived yet,” Lu Xuechao said.

“The time has not arrived yet? Then when will be the right time?” Only after Qin Yulong withdrew did Xie Chongjin ask.

When it came to feelings, Xie Chongjin had invested every last drop into Lu Xuechao. Having seen too many lifetimes where others formed pairs while he stood solitary and alone, his only wish was to send people away in pairs with a single imperial decree of marriage. As for other people’s romances, he was too lazy to waste his effort or rack his brains over them.

“Helian Xi is a prince of Xifeng, and his identity sets him apart. Issuing a simple and blunt marriage decree like you did for Liu Yansheng and Shen Hezhou naturally will not work,” Lu Xuechao said. “When the two of them were together in our past lives, did they ever make it public?”

Xie Chongjin shook his head. “Back then, I was under control and could only fulfill their wishes in secret, never making it public on the surface. Not just them, but everyone was the same.”

Lu Xuechao asked, “When did you discover their feelings for each other?”

Xie Chongjin thought for a moment. “The tenth year of Xichao. In truth, I had already noticed clues before then, but I simply pretended not to know. After the tenth year of Xichao, they stopped concealing it.”

Lu Xuechao asked again, “When did Helian Xi’s older sister ascend the throne?”

“Also the tenth year of Xichao.” Just as Xie Chongjin finished answering, he instantly understood. He let out a sigh. “Helian Xi is truly cautious; it really pities him.”

Qin Yulong lacked such delicate thoughts; once he obtained his true love, he would wish to proclaim it to the entire world. To be able to keep it hidden for so long must have been Helian Xi’s idea.

Xie Chongjin never touched the imperial consorts and did not mind them developing feelings for one another, yet Helian Xi still felt the need to hide it until the tenth year of Xichao, which showed just how cautious and meticulous he was.

“He hails from the Xifeng imperial clan, so he naturally has to endure and be cautious—otherwise, how could he have grown up safely?” Lu Xuechao said.

Lu Xuechao and Xie Chongjin were both only children who could receive all the love and care from their nearest and dearest, who spared no effort to meticulously nurture them. Helian Xi was different; he was merely one of his mother-empress’s insignificant forty-plus children, forced to strive with everything he had just to gain a sliver of attention. In that kind of environment, familial affection was the least worth mentioning.

Yet no matter how negligible the affection from his mother and other siblings was, his biological father and elder sister by the same parents were inseparable from him. While half-siblings born of different fathers were slaughtering one another, the closer they were as full siblings sharing the same father and mother, the thicker their blood tied them together as they relied on each other for survival.

Though Lu Xuechao and Xie Chongjin had never experienced cruel clan struggles, one had witnessed his parents toil in exhaustion after he was sent to the Cold Palace, willing to abandon a century-old foundation to resign and retreat into seclusion; the other had lived through his father-empress committing suicide out of devotion after the late emperor died of severe illness, while suspecting that his father-empress had died because of himself. Both of them knew how precious genuine familial affection was, and what a heart-wrenching pain it was to watch loved ones suffer because of oneself. Helian Xi had people he cared for in his heart and dared not make a single wrong move that might implicate his father and sister thousands of miles away; it was only reasonable.

After all, the cautionary tale of Noble Consort Zheng’s family was fresh in his mind, and what Helian Xi feared most was dragging down his closest kin. When he lost that battle back then, he had already incurred the mother-empress’s great wrath, prompting her to order Consort Xian to discipline her son strictly and stripping Consort Xian of his authority to assist in managing the Six Palaces, while harshly reprimanding his sister at court and revoking her military command. Even though Consort Xian and the Seventh Princess bore no resentment toward Helian Xi, Helian Xi felt consumed by self-reproach, kneeling outside the Empress’s doors for a long time, not hesitating to “voluntarily” go as a marriage alliance emissary. He had already implicated them once and could absolutely not implicate them a second time.

Only in the tenth year of Xichao, when the Seventh Princess ascended the throne and honored Consort Xian as the Empress Dowager, did Helian Xi finally gain the backing to stop being so overly cautious.

“In that case, the knot in Helian Xi’s heart lies not with Yulong, nor with Changli, but with Xifeng and his closest kin,” Xie Chongjin said. “It is not enough for me to grant the marriage decree and give consent; the Empress of Xifeng must also agree to this union.”

“That is impossible,” Lu Xuechao said. “No matter how high the status of the Qin family is, it cannot exceed yours as the Emperor, not to mention that Yulong is the very general who defeated Xifeng. Xifeng sent a prince for a marriage alliance, yet he secretly carried on an affair with a palace consort—a consort who happens to be the enemy that defeated Xifeng. Once word of this spreads, the Empress of Xifeng will inevitably be enraged. She cannot reach Helian Xi, who is in Changli, so she will inevitably vent her anger on his father and sister. Even if you agree and issue a decree bestowing him upon Yulong, those who know the truth will naturally bless them as lovers who finally ended up together, but the Empress of Xifeng will only view this as Changli humiliating Xifeng, a disgrace far worse than the former. Having brought shame upon Xifeng time and again, Helian Xi’s father and sister would still find it hard to escape calamity.”

It was no wonder Helian Xi had such misgivings; thinking through it carefully, Lu Xuechao also felt that this matter was an unsolvable dead end. Whether it was a illicit affair or an imperial marriage decree, the Empress of Xifeng would only feel that her face had been dragged through the mud.

“The Empress of Xifeng is overly suspicious; otherwise, she would not have suspected that we were planning a surprise attack just because Changli was training troops at the border, prompting her to strike first and igniting that war in the first place,” Xie Chongjin said, his brows knitting. “Rather than attempting to persuade the Empress of Xifeng, it would be better to wait for the Seventh Princess to take the throne.”

“It is currently only the third year of Xichao, and the tenth year is still seven years away—that is far too long,” Lu Xuechao said.

“We might as well give things a push to let the Seventh Princess ascend the throne earlier,” Lu Xuechao continued, speaking of interfering in another nation’s internal affairs without even batting an eye. “Yelang is arrogant, yet it remains a formidable power. Changli has suffered severe damage to its vitality over these three years and needs to reach cooperation with Xifeng and Leyang in many aspects so as to better resist Yelang together in the future; time waits for no one. The current Empress’s suspicion is too heavy, so she clearly will not agree to cooperate, and since she actively provoked war before, Changli cannot lower its posture to seek cooperation with her either.”

“Since she will not do, then we replace her.”

Xie Chongjin thought for merely a moment before saying, “This plan is feasible.”

Speaking of Xifeng’s Seventh Princess, she was indeed quite a formidable figure.

Consort Xian, like Noble Consort Zheng, hailed from a family of generals, and the two children he bore were both adept at war. Helian Xi’s elder sister, Helian Yu, was three years older than Helian Xi and was nineteen this year.

Helian Yu was skilled in battle, skilled in strategy, and even better at endurance. Helian Xi’s temperament closely resembled his sister’s. During the years Xie Chongjin was controlled, he had his hands full with his own troubles and paid little attention to the internal affairs of other nations, yet he had still heard of Helian Yu’s name. At twenty-two, this woman calculated the First and Fourth Princesses into slaughtering each other, causing both to lose their qualifications to fight for the succession; at twenty-four, she overthrew the Empress, brought down the Second Princess, and secured the position of Crown Princess; at twenty-six, she ascended the throne and confined the Retired Empress to the inner palace.

She simply went on an absolute killing spree.

If Xie Chongjin had not been controlled back then, Helian Yu would have undoubtedly been his most powerful and formidable rival among his peers.

Helian Yu carved out a path of blood through the palace, possessing a cold, detached, and ruthless disposition, with her father and younger brother as her only two weaknesses. She hungered for power because only by taking control of power could she protect her nearest and dearest. After Helian Xi was sent away for the marriage alliance, Helian Yu lusted for imperial power even more fiercely—if the person sitting on the dragon throne had been her, how could it ever have come to sending her younger brother off to marry far away? How could her father-consort have been stripped of his authority to assist in managing the Six Palaces by a single word from the Mother-Empress?

Thus, she completely embarked on a blackened, god-of-war path of slaughter, showing no mercy in fratricide or confining her mother.

Up until Helian Yu ascended the throne, the game split into two branch paths:

1. Helian Xi dies. The two nations form an indelible feud, and when Yelang launches its final invasion, Xifeng and Leyang sit on the sidelines to watch the fire from across the river, kicking Changli while it is down, resulting in the fall of Changli.
2. Helian Xi survives. Helian Yu delivers an official state document requesting to receive Helian Xi back to his home country on the grounds of missing her younger brother. Because of his affection for Qin Yulong, Helian Xi sends a family letter tactfully declining. Helian Yu respects her brother’s wishes and can only send another state document, strictly ordering the Emperor of Changli not to mistreat Helian Xi while requiring that Helian Xi be allowed to return to Xifeng twice a year for short stays to reunite with his family. Due to this relationship, the bond between the two nations remains decent, allowing them to peacefully weather Yelang’s invasion in the end.

Regardless of whether the player was foolish or wise, or whether the diligence stat was high or low, the Yelang invasion plot line was bound to trigger; the only difference lay in whether the war ended in victory or defeat. Being too foolish and offending both Xifeng and Leyang simultaneously meant certain defeat in this war. However, if Helian Xi was saved and the various stat values had not dropped all the way to zero, Xifeng and Leyang would dispatch troops to reinforce them during the Yelang War, helping Changli navigate this crisis safely—though Changli would still suffer heavy casualties.

This was also the reason why Lu Xuechao had resolved to build a good relationship with Helian Xi right from the start: to win over Xifeng as an ally.

Those in high positions were given to scheming, and Lu Xuechao, being a strategist, was filled with even more calculations. Aside from Xie Chongjin, it was impossible for him to treat anyone well without reason; there had to be a profit to be gained.

Yet having lived through so many lifetimes, during those lonely times in the palace when the controlled Xie Chongjin could not be relied upon, it had always been these uniquely talented consorts who accompanied him to pass the time. Chatting leisurely about poetry and books with Fu Xinian; tasting tea and listening to plays alongside Liu Yansheng and Shen Hezhou; having Hua Yan add fragrance to his sleeves; listening to Qin Yulong and Helian Xi bantering and cracking jokes to make him happy…

When they first met at Chongxue Palace in this life, to him, it was old friends from past lives returning.

Humans were not plants or stones; how could they be devoid of feelings? Lu Xuechao genuinely regarded them as friends and sincerely wished for them to find happiness.

“Helian Yu possesses remarkable capabilities, and given time, she could achieve this on her own,” Xie Chongjin said. “It is just that what we lack most right now is time. How shall we contact her? Have Helian Xi write a family letter? Colluding with a foreign nation is a capital offense; he likely would not dare drag his sister into it.”

“Having lost the war, Xifeng agreed to send a prince for a marriage alliance and pay tribute for three years,” Lu Xuechao said. “Helian Yu, missing her brother dearly, will come in the capacity of an envoy. This happened in our past life as well—have you forgotten?”

Xie Chongjin sighed. “How could I remember such trivial matters? My mind was entirely filled with only you.”

“As the Emperor of a nation, do not be so love-addled.” Lu Xuechao lightly tapped Xie Chongjin’s forehead, speaking with double meaning. “It just so happens that Hua Yan’s rouge and incense are not selling well in Changli; why not head to Xifeng to open up a path to wealth?”

Xie Chongjin smiled. “Qingshu truly makes full use of everything.”