Chapter Text
Daliang, in the eighth year of Yuanyou.
Langya Hall.
The lithe figure of a child scales the mountain as if on wings. He enters the Hall, puts his head to the ground and says, "Young Master, His Majesty the Emperor has come to submit a question again."
From where he sits sipping tea, Lin Chen's hand gives an involuntary twitch, nearly spilling his cup. Face twisted, eyes wide, he demands, "Again? It hasn't even been a year since his inauguration, and only two since Daliang fought off the four allied armies— but look at him, he's been here thrice in that time! What is that man doing? Does he want the whole world to know that His Majesty the Emperor of Daliang suspects Sir Mei of Jiangzuo isn't really dead?"
The child kowtows again and says, "Young Master, as before, His Majesty has come in plain clothes."
Glaring, Lin Chen snaps, "What do you know? Plain clothes? Do plain clothes make him invisible? If he came in plain clothes once, he might have pulled the wool over his ministers' eyes, but are you telling me he's gotten away with it all three times? Besides, the way he's going at it, he'll be here for a fourth and a fifth time, then an eighth and a ninth time, and still we won't have heard the end of it!"
This makes Li Gang and Zhen Ping, who are visiting, both frown. They ask, "What's to be done then? Have you thought of some clever way to answer His Majesty, Young Master?"
Lin Chen seems to mull it over. Then he says, "None at all."
This time, even Li Gang and Zhen Ping's teacups sploshed over. "None at all!?"
Lin Chen nods. "Not a clue. The first time he came to ask, 'Is Mei Changsu still alive?', Langya Hall set the price at one silver liang, meaning a question with such an obvious answer was hardly worth asking. Half a year later, when he came again with the same question, Langya Hall gave out the price of ten thousand gold liang, meaning that we didn't feel like answering the same question twice. Next we hear, because he wouldn't take money from the treasury, Xiao Jingyan had sold every capital he'd kept from his time as a prince, and then had to borrow quite a bit from Shen Zhui and Cai Quan, the bloody Ministers of of Revenue and Justice, before he got the gold together. It's almost like he wanted the whole world to know that the emperor had come to ask a question of Langya Hall! And then, because I couldn't very well actually pocket all that money, we had to get someone to donate it all back to the Ministry of Revenue for 'disaster relief', before we could put an end to the whole thing. So both of you can tell me now— what kind of a price am I supposed to name this time?"
Li Gang and Zhen Ping look at each other. Then Li Gang says, "The two of us have been back with the alliance in Langzhou all this time, and we've been out of touch with the goings-on here. May we know how you answered His Majesty the last two times?"
Zhen Ping adds, "Indeed, indeed. To answer 'yes, he is alive', would be neither Chief's desire nor your own. But to answer 'no, he's dead', would put Langya Hall's reputation at jeopardy, wouldn't it? After all, there are some in the jianghu who do know that the chief is still alive."
Lin Chen glares at them, the words 'haven't you learnt anything at all?' all but written on his face. He demands, "Did I have to answer at all? I just handed him a blank piece of paper!"
"A blank piece of paper?!" Li Gang and Zhen Ping are knocked back again. "A blank piece of paper? So Langya Hall really is a scam!"
With a sweep of his hand Lin Chen sends a pair of his writing brushes spearing through the air towards the two of them. Li Gang and Zhen Ping catch them both handily. Lin Chen explains, "My meaning was, since this is a matter of widespread public knowledge, surely Langya Hall need not be called upon to give an answer? In fact, once Langya Hall commits to an answer, we'd make the whole affair look like some top-secret jianghu mystery. There can be no good answer here. As for whether Xiao Jingyan believes what the public thinks they know, well, that's his problem, and not mine."
Li Gang and Zhen Ping stare at the proselytising young master of the aforementioned Langya Hall, not quite able to retrieve their hanging jaws. Langya Hall is such an unrepentant scam.
But then Lin Chen continues, "However, even that doesn't seem to have dispelled Xiao Jingyan's doubts. When he saw that nothing was written on the piece of paper, he didn't say a word, either with his mouth or with his face. He just turned around and went away — and here he is back again."
Li Gang and Zhen Ping exchange another look. This time, they are both stumped, at a loss for anything to say.
Lin Chen dismisses the child with a wave of his hand, and turns to look out at the clear, blue skies beyond the arch of Langya Hall's eaves. After a moment, he lets out a long sigh. "If Xiao Jingyan insists on being like this, I'm all out of ideas. This time, I'm afraid we'll have to let Changsu know after all."
Before the echoes can die on his words, the curtains to an inner room flick up, and a languid voice says, "And what is it you have to let me know?" Then he was there in person, a pale man, crowned in jade and clothed in white, graceful and refined, transcendent and wholly sovereign.
Li Gang and Zhen Ping rise solemnly and put hand to palm, greeting, "Chief. The two of us have not been out of Langzhou in some time. We've come to Mount Langya to pay our respects."
Mei Changsu smiles faintly, exquisite as a quiet, moonlit night. He gestures for both of them to be at ease and takes himself to the table, where he settles and asks of Lin Chen, "What were you talking about?"
Lin Chen chokes for a second, but before he can answer, Li Gang interrupts, "It's Alliance business. Mr Thirteen did ask us not to bring it up, but Young Master Lin says we should let you know."
"Oh?" Mei Changsu looks towards Li Gang, still smiling mildly, but says no more than that. He takes the cup Lin Chen hands him, then sips quietly at his tea, waiting for Li Gang's next words.
Li Gang, on the other hand, now finds himself a little tongue-tied before Mei Changsu's placid smile. There have in fact been a few pieces of Alliance business which are of arguable importance, but Mr. Thirteen had advised prior to their departure that those did not merit the chief's attention. Except if he doesn't bring up the more important issues now, then how is he supposed to keep the less important ones from Chief? How does he make this go away? In the space of a second dozens of issues cycle through his head, impossible to choose from, and just as he goes to open his mouth, Zhen Ping bumps casually against his elbow. Li Gang looks towards him, and Zhen Ping's eyes waver with a light negation. So Li Gang stops himself again, slightly miffed at Zhen Ping's objection. They're only keeping things from the chief because there's no better option— if Li Gang doesn't say something to distract him, them what are they going to tell the chief, the bald truth that His Majesty has come to Langya Hall?
As they dither, Lin Chen puts on a look that now says, 'the two of you are all show and no substance‘, and waves a hand forcefully in disgust. He cries, "Forget it, forget it, stop straining your little heads! Did you think he was asking a genuine question? What this man wants to know, he already does!"
Only at this does Mei Changsu lift his head from his languid, devoted tea-sampling to say, laughing, "Will you word that a little better? What do you mean 'did they think' it was a genuine question? All my questions are genuine."
This only increases Lin Chen's disgust, who huffs and sighs and exclaims, "Fine! Fine! I've got no say in what they do, and even less over you! You're only worming intel out of them so you can see if there's anything in the alliance you can worry your head over. Oh, Mei Changsu, Mei Changsu, I've judged you wrong— back then I only thought you'd sink your conniving claws into those black-hearted politicians. Now I see you'll even drop your wicked lures on your brothers in the Alliance. Tsk, tsk!"
The affected anguish in Lin Chen's voice makes them all laugh. Warming his hands against his teacup, Mei Changsu returns unhurriedly, "Listen to yourself. So you're all allowed to keep things from me and tell me fibs about how all is well in the world, but I'm not allowed to coax some information out of you? Don't forget now, there's never smoke without a fire. If you all hadn't been lying to me to begin with, would I be here, bending over backwards to try and get some news out of you?"
Tsk— this time, he's not only silenced Li Gang and Zhen Ping, but Lin Chen as well, his string of 'tsk's cut short when the last one sticks in his throat. With a sweep of his sleeve, he capitulates. "Alright! Alright! I'm no match for that tongue of yours! Since His Majesty seems to have come to Langya Hall with the same question for the third time, what dazzling insight may we expect from Sir Mei of Jiangzuo, top-ranking gentleman on Langya's list?"
Mei Changsu doesn't jump to answer him, but lightly sweeps his gaze over Li Gang and Zhen Ping instead. Though still smiling gently, there is not an inch of give in his voice as he asks, "Has anything happened in the capital lately?"
Li Gang immediately answers, "No major incidents, Chief," but only just gets the words out before Zhen Ping bumps his arm again. Now he's really about to get annoyed— I'm telling the truth here, why'd you keep jostling me?
Mei Changsu's gaze sweeps lightly between both their faces before he gently sighs, "Looks like I've asked the wrong question. Have circumstances taken a turn recently, either within or without the borders of Daliang?"
Li Gang and Zhen Ping look at each other for a beat— then both their heads drop. A moment passes before Zhen Ping says quietly, "They have indeed, Chief. Prince Xian has gathered a personal army about himself in Xianzhou, and has lately crowned himself king."
Mei Changsu stills for a moment. His fingers chafe absently against a corner of his robes, once, twice, and a flicker of contemplation darts behind his eyes. To those sitting close by, it is clear that the wheels have begun to turn in his mind again. Li Gang cannot help but break in, "Chief, your condition has been improving over the past two years, but you're not recovered. Since you've come a ways off from those troubled waters, leave them behind for good. Xianzhou isn't even Jiangzuo territory, and with His Majesty managing things in the capital, the world is in good hands."
No moment of kindly feeling goes uninterrupted by Lin Chen, who can never seem to find that elegant and imperturbable Young Master of Langya Hall in himself when it comes to Mei Changsu's affairs. Face full of contempt, he huffs at Li Gang and Zhen Ping, "Do you really think he's worrying his head over matters of state? Huh? Huh? He's got neither Lin Shu's duties now, nor Mei Changsu's responsibilities, he's been dead, then alive, and dead again, and right now, all he cares about is that noble and exalted Xiao Jingyan!"
That was a little harsh. Even Lin Chen himself, at the end, feels that he has spoken the emperor's courtesy name too forcefully, marked the emphasis too deliberately. Faced with Mei Changsu's mildly reproachful glance, he gives up and changes the subject. "So how do you think we should answer him this time?"
Mei Changsu dips his head a little, sinking into quiet thought. Only when the tea in his hand has cooled to room temperature does he hand the cup back to Lin Chen and say, "Go ahead and put up a price. It'll cost him a pearl as large as a pigeon's egg."
A pearl? All three men look towards Mei Changsu. Though unfamiliar with the details, everyone had seen the sizeable pearl Mei Changsu had brought back from that meeting with Xiao Jingyan, when they became reacquainted. Afterwards, when Mei Changsu rode off to battle with Meng Zhi, he had left the pearl before Lin Shu's memorial tablet in the Chiyan memorial hall. If Langya Hall was to ask for this pearl now, it will indeed compel His Majesty to think thrice about whether he wants to part with it for another piece of blank paper. But if, once again, their price fails to stump Xiao Jingyan, there was the risk of it backfiring and fuelling his suspicions instead.
But it only takes an instant for Lin Chen to grasp Mei Changsu's intention. "Changsu. If Xiao Jingyan cannot bring himself to give up the most important token of your past, then we know he's unsure of your status. But if Xiao Jingyan really puts that pearl into those drawers by Mount Langya's gates, that means he's certain that you're still alive. If it comes to that, are you really going to go out and meet him?"
At this, Li Gang and Zhen Ping both catch on to the purpose behind the price their chief has named. They exclaim, "Chief! You mustn't! The two of us have worked with Alliance brothers to lock down on information within the sect, and we're confident that we've given absolutely nothing away. His Majesty cannot possibly know that you're still alive. There's really no need to take such a risk to find out what His Majesty is thinking, Chief."
Mei Changsu watches as a flight of birds whirl past the open walkway outside. Quietly, he says, "No, he doesn't know that I'm still alive. He's only uncertain. And you haven't given anything away. Only, Jiangzuo Alliance has gone two years without electing a new chief, but all Alliance affairs remain in impeccable order, and the Jiangzuo region continues to run more smoothly than other areas. It'd be difficult not to get suspicious about that. And regardless of how little His Majesty involves himself with these jianghu matters, he only has to ask Great Grand Princess Liyang— with the grand princess's connection to the Heavenly Spring sect, this isn't a secret that the two of you can hope to contain."
Lin Chen cries, "Look at that, look at that~ I'd told you two ages ago you should put your heads together with Mr. Thirteen and pick out a new chief, but you wouldn't listen! Now you've done it, haven't you! Forget Xiao Jingyan not believing that Changsu's dead— judging by the state of your Alliance, I wouldn't believe it either."
Zhen Ping, who has added little to the conversation thus far, now begs his pardon with a gesture and speaks up. "That'll never do, Young Master. We of the Jiangzuo Alliance pledged our allegiance to Sir Mei of Jiangzuo, and our brothers have not had the slightest change of heart on the matter. Never mind that the chief isn't dead— even if he vows never to leave Mount Langya again, and convalesces here for the rest of his life— so long as the chief is with us, the Alliance will never pledge itself to anyone else. That's not something that I, Li Gang, or Mr. Thirteen can decide by ourselves. Even if the two of us were to force a new election, we'd risk first rejection of the new chief, and second, unrest within the Alliance, endangering the stability of the Jiangzuo region. This is not something we would ever wish to see, much less the chief!"
In the silence following that speech, Li Gang finds himself nodding privately along, and decides to forgive Zhen Ping for the elbow-jostling.
Looking between the two of them, Lin Chen has to concede that, really, the issue was never really up for discussion.
Mei Changsu takes in the picture of the three men before him, Lin Chen dithering, Zhen Ping vehement, Li Gang casting about for words. He finds he has no choice but to smile gently at them and say, "Look at you all having kittens, and over a single pearl. Think about it— unless we set the price this way, are you all really going to watch His Majesty make trip after trip to Langya Hall? Eventually, when the people find out, they're going to tell each other that Langya Hall isn't so much a house of prestige in the jianghu as a den of vices to lead the emperor astray. When that happens, which of you is going to explain yourselves to the old master?"
All three go silent.
Mei Changsu smiles. "Confucius says, 'Gentlemen are at peace with themselves, while the petty man cringes.' Whether in life or in death, there is never any bitterness between Jingyan and I. And if he has taken this first step forward, why should I shy from a meeting?"