Jun You Ji Fou

A man whose body was bound in shackles was brought to a small courtyard, and the black cloth over his head was only removed once he was forced by others to kneel in the house. He struggled and lifted his head, taking in the sight of the person in front of him at once. “Su Shiyu?”

The youth in the glow of the lanternlight smiled blandly, “You recognise me?”

Ji Heng measured his surroundings, there was not a single window open in this place, and even though it was clearly daytime there wasn’t even half a ray of daylight that could infiltrate this place. The interior decor was plain to the extreme, apart from the desk and chair in front of him, it would surprisingly be completely empty. At this moment two people who had the semblance of guards stood silently by the two sides of the room, and cast off a chilling sense for some unknown reason. He stared at Su Shiyu, “This place isn’t the Censorate, what are you trying to do?”

“Sorry to disturb, I have a few things I need to ask you.” Su Shiyu said, “But you can rest at ease, I have but need of a bit of your time, and afterwards I will send you to the Censorate.”

“I’ve already testified all I know.” Ji Heng said, “It doesn’t matter even if you don’t believe (me), there’s nothing I really have to say.”

Su Shiyu laughed lightly: “I didn’t say I wanted to interrogate you about details on the case, you need not be this way.”

“Then what do you want to ask?”
Su Shiyu sighed lightly, “Was Mulahe killed by you personally?”

“Yes.”

“In the confession statement you said you were being directed by someone, so in the beginning that incident of civil unrest when you met her was also meticulously set up?”

Ji Heng didn’t understand his intention, and said frankly: “Yes. My household has already long since had a wife and children, if I wasn’t threatened and forced to do it, who would run to that sort of hellish place like Loulan to do business.”

The light in Su Shiyu’s eyes moved slightly, letting out a deep exhale before asking: “When you executed it, did you ever feel like you couldn’t bear to?”

The doubt in Ji Heng’s eyes faded away, and he stared straight at Su Shiyu, suddenly letting out a laugh, as if the question was ridiculous in the extreme, “It turns out even the esteemed Grand Secretary can also be this naïve,” He said amusedly, “Since (I) approached (her) with motives from the start, who would actually fall in love with a pawn?”

Only one who would fall into enemy hands, foolish in utmost.

Su Shiyu met Ji Heng’s gaze with eyes dark and deep, and then he nodded, laughing lightly: “You’ve said it right.”

As soon as the words left him Su Shiyu took out a porcelain bottle from his sleeve, a guard on one side bowing over to receive it, and immediately people came from the sides to squeeze Ji Heng’s jaws, forcing him to open his mouth. Ji Heng clenched his teeth in a panic, struggling with all his might, yet his back was struck hard with an instrument. Something sank straight into his flesh, he could not hold back a pained cry, and that opening was used to shove a pill into his mouth, which passed down into his throat. Ji Heng violently coughed twice, and shaken with terror1 he yelled: “What did you do?!”

“You needn’t worry, it was a Heart-Protection Pill2 that was fed to you.” Su Shiyu took back the bottle, “You will ultimately need to be handed over to Loulan, so as of now I definitely won’t take your life.”

Ji Heng immediately understood, “Su Shiyu, as the Grand Secretary, you would actually torture and mistreat prisoners?!”

“Of course the Grand Secretary wouldn’t.” Su Shiyu looked at him, smiling faintly: “But these people are my privately-hired guards, this is my private villa, you and I also have personal enmity, it has nothing to do with public duty.”

“Personal enmity?” Ji Heng said disbelievingly, “What personal enmity do I have with you?”

Su Shiyu’s smile deepened, and said with his eyelids lowered: “Meimei’s judgement of people is not good, as her brother……I have to take care of these things for her.” With that, not even waiting for Ji Heng who was completely stupefied to react, he lifted his teacup to take a sip of Springtime tea3,

“Do it.”

Chu Mingyun put down his pen casually, and raised his eyes to look at Qin Zhao, “You are ‘unable to investigate’, what is that supposed to mean?”

“Yan Ye said news within the Censorate is also tightly guarded, he only heard that Ji Heng was a few breaths away from death when he was escorted over. But apart from a few intermediate officials in the Censorate and Su Shiyu scarcely few people were able to see him, who knows if this is true or false, and the signed confession is all in Su Shiyu’s hands, even the escort doesn’t know what is written in it.”

“That is indeed uncanny, seems like it wasn’t a crime of passion.” Chu Mingyun lightly knit his brow, “Thinking back in detail, it’s been one trouble after another these days.”

After a bit of consideration, he opened his mouth to instruct: “Go and investigate a person.”

“Which person?”

The corner of Chu Mingyun’s lips hooked upward, “That Zhaoyi-niangniang in the palace, Jiang Yuan.”

Qin Zhao nodded his head in response. He (CMY) suddenly let out another sigh, “But this matter can’t be left ignored, don’t tell me I need to personally seek out Su Shiyu and ask him about it?”

“Su Shiyu might not necessarily tell the truth.” Qin Zhao said.

Chu Mingyun tapped his fingers on his jaw propped in his hand, “That’s true, then do you think it’s better if I go in the day or in the night?”

“Shige4,” Qin Zhao suddenly called him, then said in a low voice: “Kill him.”

The light in Chu Mingyun’s eyes slightly hardened, and his eyes flicked to the side to look at him: “What did you just say?”

“Kill him,” Qin Zhao repeated, “It’s been so long already, yet we’ve been unable to investigate Su Shiyu completely, since he can’t be shaken, why don’t we just kill him. No matter how skilled he is he’s no match for a strategy in numbers5. If a hundred people can’t kill him then use two hundred, as long as he’s dead there’ll be no more obstacles in our way.”

“If Su Shiyu dies there’ll be no more obstacles in our way, you’ve said it right,” Chu Mingyun stared at Qin Zhao, suddenly curving his brows in a smile, “Yet I just won’t.”

“Why?” Qin Zhao blurted out.

Chu Mingyun retrieved his gaze, speaking leisurely: “I think Su Shiyu is quite good, if (he) dies that’d be so dull.”

“What’s good about him?” Qin Zhao persisted.

“That New Year’s Eve night he peeled an orange for me to eat ah.” Chu Mingyun said casually.

For a moment he almost thought Qin Zhao would overcome his face paralysis and make an anguished expression for him to see, but unfortunately in the end all Qin Zhao did was woodenly twitch the corner of his mouth, “Shige……”

“Why do you hold such strong hostility towards Su Shiyu?” Chu Mingyun interrupted him.

Qin Zhao shut his mouth and did not speak, the seam of his lips cinched tightly.

Chu Mingyun unhurriedly measured him over, suddenly letting out a laugh, “Let me guess, don’t tell me it’s because that brat Du Yue is always going ‘Cousin, cousin’ all day long –that you’ve taken Su Shiyu as a love rival?”

Qin Zhao lowered his eyes and didn’t speak, as if in silent admission.
He was but a common mortal, with a narrow heart, his regard could only accommodate one or two people. Since Su Shiyu’s existence affected both Chu Mingyun and Du Yue, then why wouldn’t he kill him?
Chu Mingyun smiled to himself for a long while, yet in the span of a blink it changed; the humour in his smiled had completely faded, “Qin Zhao,” his voice was slightly cold, “You can completely forget about this notion.”

“Why?” Qi Zhao abruptly raised his gaze to look him straight in the eye, “Shige, don’t tell me you’ve really fallen for him?”

Chu Mingyun froze, “Why would you ask this?”

“Then why are you unwilling to kill him?”

Chu Mingyun tightly furrowed his brow, and it was a good long while before he opened his mouth to say: “How could I possibly fall for him?” He paused, as if the words from his mouth had convinced him a bit more, his brows relaxing as he laughed lowly: “Su Shiyu, this person has a cold heart even with a warm face, his joy or rage doesn’t change his expression, hidden extremely deeply. Everyone says he’s heartless, if someone really does fall for him, then they’re truly finished.”

Qin Zhao fell silent, no longer questioning him.

A servant girl dressed in blue passed by the window, hearing the voice she turned her head to glance towards the room’s interior, yet her steps did not cease, stepping over the melancholic grass.6

“He said that?” Su Shiyu’s gaze moved away from the memorial7, and after a moment of pondering he slowly smiled, and nodded saying, “He’s actually not wrong in his evaluation.”

That blue-robed servant girl who was kneeling in front of the desk, said in stupefaction: “Young master?”

“But you forgot that this time your mission is not the same as usual, you’re don’t need to listen out for news anymore,” Su Shiyu smiled faintly and said, “You need but take good care of A’Yue, you needn’t report these sort of words to me any longer.”

The blue-robed servant girl bowed her head low, and responded in a low voice.

Su Shiyu lowered his head, “Hurry on back, lest you attract suspicion.” He watched as the other person retreated respectfully, and his gaze landed on the jade pendant8, going into a daze for a while, and at the end of it he smiled blandly.

——Only one who would fall into enemy hands, foolish in utmost.

T/L: No, I’m not dead nor dropping this. In about a month you can look forward to near-daily updates, but for now I’m quite busy.

1. 惊疑不定

2.护心丹 – translated literally here. ‘Eating a heart protection pill’ is often used as a phrase for something that puts someone at ease, but here it seems to be an actual Thing. Did the phrase originate from actual medicine in Chinese history? Idk

3.春茶 – refers to tea prepared with leaves harvested in spring. Supposedly the best time to harvest.

4. Senior student brother – people who were trained under the same teacher, but CMY has seniority.

5.人海战术 – meaning that if they just overwhelm him with numbers in a fight they can kill him. Qin Zhao’s not saying Su Shiyu’s bad at math.

6. Likely adapted from 满院落花春寂寂，断肠芳草碧。from《谒金门·空相忆》, a Tang dynasty poem.

7. 秦表 – an official report to the emperor.

8. 玉佩 – This is a important item in this story, so I was very divided on what to translate this as for a long time. This could either be worn as a literal pendant, around the neck, or at the waist as a charm like most young masters of the nobility would back then.