“You shouldn’t have told me,” Wu Du says to Duan Ling, frowning.
“If I can’t even tell you, then there won’t ever be anyone in the world I can trust. When Helian went to school in Shangjing, we used to be schoolmates, and even he doesn’t know who I really am. I can’t go on like this anymore. Sometimes, I feel like I … I feel like I’m being driven mad.”
Duan Ling turns to Wu Du with his brows knitted together, feeling quite sad.
“I get it. You …” Wu Du sighs. “I’ll definitely … Oh never mind. There’s no use in saying anything right now. Just watch me.”
“What?” Duan Ling stares at Wu Du with a curious look on his face.
“No, I meant … We’ll take things one step at a time, and I’ll prove to you that I’ll never betray you.”
“I’m not worried.” Duan Ling smiles, then he steps forward again to wrap his arms around Wu Du, leaning into his arms.
Wu Du tries to move away stiffly, his face turning bright red, rather overwhelmed.
“Don’t move.” Duan Ling whispers, “Let me hold you for a little while, alright?”
And so Wu Du sits there just as before and lets Duan Ling wrap his arms around him. It feels odd for Duan Ling because it’s been a long, long time since he’s felt this way; he usually likes to sleep wrapped around Wu Du anyway, but it’s never felt like this before — he’s finally voiced everything that’s been lodged in his heart, having finally found someone who could share his burden with.
Wu Du sits there with a blank look on his face, subconsciously raising one arm to wrap around Duan Ling’s shoulders.
When he used to hold Wu Du, he always felt like his heart was hanging in midair before, but now, and perhaps from now on, his heart has landed, as if it’s found a place for it to stay.
Wordlessly, Wu Du looks down at Duan Ling. Duan Ling’s eyes are closed, sunset shimmering on his eyelashes.
Wu Du still feels as though he’s stuck in a dream. The setting sun is still shining down on them, maple leaves are still falling all around them, but everything seems different to him somehow.
“What … What is your real name?”
“Li Ruo.” Duan Ling raises his head and replies, “Far east Fusang, far west Ruomu. But from now on if there’s no one around, you can just call me Duan Ling. I don’t want to forget that name.”
Duan Ling studies Wu Du’s face with apprehension, but by now Wu Du is entirely stunned. At first, Duan Ling thought he’s already accepted this reality, and yet after saying a few more things, he realises that Wu Du’s mind is already a jumble — he made all his replies earlier by pure instinct alone.
“You … you swear you aren’t pulling my leg. Wang Shan, you …”
“Why would I pull your leg?” Duan Ling doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to say to him. “You think I’d joke around with my life? What benefit is there in impersonating the crown prince? Do I look like I want to die?”
Wu Du supposes that’s true, but one moment he’s thinking about how the person he’s always with has turned into someone else, then another moment he’s thinking about how the sins he committed against the Li family is finally repaid in full, then he’s thinking about how the one sitting in court assembly is actually an imposter! As though all the spice jars in the kitchen have been upturned, every feeling is climbing into his heart all at once and all words to describe it die on his tongue …
“But whether or not I’m the crown prince,” Duan Ling says solemnly, “I’m still me. Wu Du?”
Wu Du is still confused, and Duan Ling can’t help but find it all quite funny. He gives Wu Du a little shove. “Hey, Wu Du.”
Every time Wu Du spaces out he’s dragged back to reality by Duan Ling. He turns to look at Duan Ling, bewilderment plain in his gaze.
“Let’s go,” Duan Ling says. “The sun’s about to set.”
Duan Ling makes Wu Du put an arm around his shoulder so he can help him walk, but Wu Du is immediately saying, “I … I can walk on my own.”
“Cut it out.” Exasperated, Duan Ling forcefully pulls Wu Du’s arm over his shoulder and makes Wu Du lean on him, then they slowly walk back down the hill.
In the glow of the setting sun the maple forest shimmer like a sea of light; Duan Ling knows that Wu Du’s world’s been turned upside down and he’ll need time to adjust. He can’t press him about other things, otherwise Wu Du is just going to get more confused and then he’ll really be at a complete loss.
Before they board the carriage, Duan Ling gives Wanlibenxiao a pat, rubbing his head against its face affectionately. Benxiao whinnies and moves closer to stare at Duan Ling.
Amazed, Wu Du looks at Benxiao, and finally everything has an explanation.
“It knows me.” Duan Ling says quietly to Wu Du, “Look.”
Duan Ling takes several steps back and whistles in Benxiao’s direction the way his father used to, and it goes right over to him. He then backs away several steps at a run, and Benxiao follows him again — what part of it suggests it could ever be vicious at all? Duan Ling puts his hands over Benxiao’s saddle and throws his leg over to sit safe and securely astride its back.
“Let’s go.” Duan Ling says, “If we don’t hurry up we’ll end up sleeping on the road.”
After they board the carriage, Wu Du doesn’t dare sit on the same seat with Duan Ling, and so Duan Ling drags him back by force until they’re sitting in the carriage the same way as they did at the start of the journey. It’s almost like everything between them is still operating under the same rules of engagement, but it also seems like something isn’t quite the same anymore.
Wu Du has fallen into a long, long stretch of silence, and Duan Ling is beginning to get a bit nervous, unsure what reaction he’s going to have, or that he may never get any reaction at all. He’s filled with apprehension, but instead, he tells Wu Du, “I’m going to sleep for a bit. Wake me when we get there.”
“Certainly,” Wu Du replies at once, and as soon as their eyes meet, Wu Du looks away.
He’s feeling extremely uneasy; Duan Ling can feel that this change in his status has left Wu Du in a state of shock.
So while leaning back on Wu Du’s legs, Duan Ling stops to think for a moment. He decides that maybe if he gets a bit closer he could help dispel such uneasiness, and so he climbs up a bit to lie inclined in Wu Du’s lap. In an instant Wu Du basically freezes up entirely.
“Your Highness!” Wu Du says immediately.
“Shh.” Duan Ling knows their old coachman is both deaf and mute, but what if it’s all an act?
Just as the way he used to lie in Li Jianhong’s lap, he leans into Wu Du, wrapping one arm behind his waist as though he’s a giant pillow, pillowing his head over Wu Du’s sturdy chest.
Actually, Duan Ling isn’t really sleepy, but he knows Wu Du needs time. And so he closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep to give Wu Du some time to think.
It’s quiet all along the way; the only sound is the occasional swish of the whip as the coachman drives the carriage along, as well as their turning wheels bumping against any rough patches on the road.
Duan Ling can feel Wu Du shifting once, extremely carefully, as though he’s afraid of waking him.
He takes Duan Ling’s hand that’s resting on his shoulder and puts it down over his chest instead, then he carefully pulls an outer robe over to cover both of them, over Duan Ling’s hand.
A first quarter moon has risen to illuminate the mountain ridges, the earth, and the river; dream-like shards of silver glisten on top of the Yangtze river as moonlight skims over its surface like a million flickering dreamscapes.
Duan Ling was only pretending to sleep at first, but slowly he realises that Wu Du’s breathing has evened out. It seems he really has fallen asleep.
Wu Du dreams their carriage stops in the middle of a grand wooden bridge, and he’s not sure where their coachman has gone. Silvery moonlight dusts over everything, but Duan Ling is still lying in Wu Du’s lap, and Wu Du looks as stunned as before with his arms around Duan Ling.
Someone comes into the carriage, and to his surprise, it’s Li Jianhong. He asks Wu Du, “My son fell asleep, hasn’t he?”
“He’s fallen asleep,” Wu Du replies earnestly.
“I leave him in your hands. Take good care of him.”
“Wu Du?” Duan Ling shakes Wu Du awake. The carriage has stopped, and the Qinling Mountains are behind them. Their journey back to Xichuan is a far slower one than their trip to Tongguan, and for the first night they’ve stopped at a crossroads on the highway to the capital, taking shelter by the river.
There’s an inn at the riverbank. In the moments after he wakes up, it looks like Wu Du has forgotten that his world has gone under a transformation that’s already turned it on its head.
“Had a dream.” Wu Du yawns; his arm has gone numb from being used as a pillow by Duan Ling, and he pats Duan Ling to tell him to get up already.
When Duan Ling sees that Wu Du seems to have gone back to normal, he picks up their things to get ready to stay at the inn. “What did you dream about?” He asks.
“I dreamt of the late emperor —” In an instant, Wu Du goes dumb. He remembers now.
They’re both silent for a beat.
“You dreamt of my dad?”
“He asked me to take good care of you.”
Once more, Wu Du has become aware that the person before him is the real crown prince of Southern Chen — even though his identity isn’t recognised by the imperial court, to the point where someone else is impersonating him, he’s the only heir to the Lis.
They stop at the inn as they normally would, with Duan Ling waiting on Wu Du; Wu Du is extremely disturbed by this treatment and tries to get up several times only to be pushed down again. Duan Ling takes Benxiao to the back courtyard before he does anything else, then he orders dinner to be brought to their room. Sitting across from each other, they have dinner at a low table.
With bandages wrapped around his left hand, Wu Du can’t hold a bowl. He has his chopsticks in his right hand.
Duan Ling asks, “Should I feed you?”
“Oh no no,” Wu Du says at once, “I can feed myself.”
Duan Ling picks up some food with his chopsticks and feeds it into Wu Du’s mouth. The look on Wu Du’s face clearly expresses how he’s completely lost his bearings.
“You and I,” Duan Ling pauses to think for a moment before he continues, “um … let’s just act the same way as we always have. Wu Du, you told me before that I was heartless, but I really didn’t have any other options.”
It only takes a quick reflection before Wu Du suddenly understands just how much responsibility Duan Ling must be carrying on his shoulders, and how much risk he must be taking by trusting him. Because as soon as anyone finds out, it could quite possibly lead to devastating disaster.
“I will make sure you’re safe. No danger will befall you ever again, and no one can ever hurt you again.”
Duan Ling is quite touched; he knows Wu Du won’t betray him, but he never imagined that he’d be so determined, and to leave no room at all for doubt.
After another brief period of silence, Wu Du finds he has no appetite and puts down his chopsticks. “Then … What are our plans from now on?”
“From now on?” Duan Ling pauses to consider this before he says, “It’s up to you. What I promised you today still stands. If you don’t get married then from now on we’ll …”
“What I meant was,” Wu Du replies seriously, “how are you going to return to the imperial court?”
“Have you met the crown prince? I don’t have anything to verify my identity with. I resemble my mother, not a lot like my dad. How did the crown prince’s appearance fool …”
“He is precisely the Cai family’s child.” The only mystery that has eluded Wu Du his entire life has been Wuluohou Mu’s reaction when he turned his sword on Cai Yan. And now, the question that has puzzled him for seven years has finally been answered by Duan Ling, at this very moment.
Thus everything that made no sense before, now has a definitive answer.
“Oh, so it’s Cai Yan? I knew it.”
Melancholy and grief well up inside Duan Ling, but he’s had a vague feeling it was him already, if for nothing else but that he never heard anything about Cai Yan since they escaped from Shangjing. That day, after they got away from the village in the Xiangbei Mountains, Cai Yan should have had a successful escape. After that, Lang Junxia may have gone looking for Duan Ling too, until he took the “crown prince” back to the Chen court with him. The only person who could have impersonated Duan Ling is the Cai Yan who’s met Li Jianhong before, and learned the Sword of the Realm from him.
Wu Du’s brows draw together. Duan Ling adds, “But he doesn’t look like my dad either.”
“You’ll know when you see him. Wuluohou Mu must have surgically changed his appearance with medicinal herbs and a knife. His brows, the corners of his eyes, and the shape of his mouth do share some resemblance to the late emperor.”
Wu Du studies Duan Ling’s features carefully. “You’re far better looking than he is.”
But Duan Ling is thinking about Cai Yan so his heart is tinged with irritation, and he just nods.
“But I wonder if the fourth prince … No, if His Majesty would recognise you?”
“It’s hard to say. Should we take a chance? Can you take me to him?”
Wu Du nods. “It’s not hard to get an audience if you really want one, but you must consider what you’re going to say and do to make him believe you once you meet with him. When that imposter arrived at the capital, the fourth prince had all of us meet him one by one. I only remember that I saw that knave at the Illustrious Hall, and due to a combination of those errors, agreed that it was him.”
As he says this, Wu Du is overcome with remorse; the furrow between his brows deepens and he bangs down on the table hard with his injured hand to vent his feelings.
Lest he should let this plague his conscience again, Duan Ling tells him, “That had nothing to do with you! How could you ever have imagined that someone would impersonate me?”
“Let’s take our time, and think up a plan,” Duan Ling says.
Wu Du nods, and he presses on the table in an attempt to get up so that he can help clean up. Duan Ling makes him get on the bed at once. “I’ll do it. You’re hurt.”
Wu Du watches Duan Ling, his gaze following him from one end of the room to the other. Duan Ling knows it’d be hard for Wu Du to accept this reality within a short period of time, and how Wu Du somehow accepted it so easily has made him feel a bit astonished. But Wu Du doesn’t really doubt him — on the contrary, his intuition is the most reliable thing.
Wu Du has only worked under his dad for a scant few days. He’s taking great care now to observe Duan Ling, but by now his heart doesn’t really doubt that it’s the truth.
Duan Ling finishes cleaning up and lies down on the bed like he usually does, next to Wu Du. He seems really excited as he pulls the blanket up over the two of them.
Wu Du is so alarmed that he’s already jumping at every little thing; he suddenly looks at Duan Ling as though he’s considering whether he should roll off to sleep on the floor next to the bed instead, but Duan Ling is picking up his hand, and using his arm for a pillow as always. He’s so relaxed now that he’s thrown all his baggage at Wu Du, he thinks he may fall right asleep.
“You know …” Duan Ling says to Wu Du.
Wu Du is quiet for a long beat. If he says “certainly” it sounds too formal, while “yeah?” seems too perfunctory. He hasn’t really figured out what his own status is yet — is he the crown prince’s personal bodyguard, or is he a minister that the late emperor had entrusted his orphaned son to?
“In this past year since dad passed away,” Duan Ling says to Wu Du with a smile on his face, “I was never as happy as I’ve been today. I feel like I’m alive again.”
When Duan Ling starts to smile, it reminds Wu Du of the first day he came down from his sect on the mountains and arrived in Jiangzhou all those years ago, one early spring. All the peach blossoms in Jiangzhou were fluttering in the breeze, and that breeze felt like it was waiting for him to come — a magnificent landscape that seemed like a curtain that parted for his sake.
As that smile spreads, all Wu Du can think of is to give him the best of everything in the world, but he has nothing to his name.
“My … My hand is injured,” after much thinking, he says nervously at last, “otherwise I’d play a song for you.”
“Yeah,” Duan Ling replies. He closes his eyes, and with his head resting drowsily on Wu Du’s shoulder he falls asleep. Just before he fades away he says, “Later. We’ll have plenty of time. I’m going to sleep. So sleepy …”
With a smile on his face, Duan Ling drifts off into dreams.
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“You shouldn’t have told me,” Wu Du says to Duan Ling, frowning.
“If I can’t even tell you, then there won’t ever be anyone in the world I can trust. When Helian went to school in Shangjing, we used to be schoolmates, and even he doesn’t know who I really am. I can’t go on like this anymore. Sometimes, I feel like I … I feel like I’m being driven mad.”
Duan Ling turns to Wu Du with his brows knitted together, feeling quite sad.
“I get it. You …” Wu Du sighs. “I’ll definitely … Oh never mind. There’s no use in saying anything right now. Just watch me.”
“What?” Duan Ling stares at Wu Du with a curious look on his face.
“No, I meant … We’ll take things one step at a time, and I’ll prove to you that I’ll never betray you.”
“I’m not worried.” Duan Ling smiles, then he steps forward again to wrap his arms around Wu Du, leaning into his arms.
Wu Du tries to move away stiffly, his face turning bright red, rather overwhelmed.
“Don’t move.” Duan Ling whispers, “Let me hold you for a little while, alright?”
And so Wu Du sits there just as before and lets Duan Ling wrap his arms around him. It feels odd for Duan Ling because it’s been a long, long time since he’s felt this way; he usually likes to sleep wrapped around Wu Du anyway, but it’s never felt like this before — he’s finally voiced everything that’s been lodged in his heart, having finally found someone who could share his burden with.
Wu Du sits there with a blank look on his face, subconsciously raising one arm to wrap around Duan Ling’s shoulders.
When he used to hold Wu Du, he always felt like his heart was hanging in midair before, but now, and perhaps from now on, his heart has landed, as if it’s found a place for it to stay.
Wordlessly, Wu Du looks down at Duan Ling. Duan Ling’s eyes are closed, sunset shimmering on his eyelashes.
Wu Du still feels as though he’s stuck in a dream. The setting sun is still shining down on them, maple leaves are still falling all around them, but everything seems different to him somehow.
“What … What is your real name?”
“Li Ruo.” Duan Ling raises his head and replies, “Far east Fusang, far west Ruomu. But from now on if there’s no one around, you can just call me Duan Ling. I don’t want to forget that name.”
Duan Ling studies Wu Du’s face with apprehension, but by now Wu Du is entirely stunned. At first, Duan Ling thought he’s already accepted this reality, and yet after saying a few more things, he realises that Wu Du’s mind is already a jumble — he made all his replies earlier by pure instinct alone.
“You … you swear you aren’t pulling my leg. Wang Shan, you …”
“Why would I pull your leg?” Duan Ling doesn’t even know what he’s supposed to say to him. “You think I’d joke around with my life? What benefit is there in impersonating the crown prince? Do I look like I want to die?”
Wu Du supposes that’s true, but one moment he’s thinking about how the person he’s always with has turned into someone else, then another moment he’s thinking about how the sins he committed against the Li family is finally repaid in full, then he’s thinking about how the one sitting in court assembly is actually an imposter! As though all the spice jars in the kitchen have been upturned, every feeling is climbing into his heart all at once and all words to describe it die on his tongue …
“But whether or not I’m the crown prince,” Duan Ling says solemnly, “I’m still me. Wu Du?”
Wu Du is still confused, and Duan Ling can’t help but find it all quite funny. He gives Wu Du a little shove. “Hey, Wu Du.”
Every time Wu Du spaces out he’s dragged back to reality by Duan Ling. He turns to look at Duan Ling, bewilderment plain in his gaze.
“Let’s go,” Duan Ling says. “The sun’s about to set.”
Duan Ling makes Wu Du put an arm around his shoulder so he can help him walk, but Wu Du is immediately saying, “I … I can walk on my own.”
“Cut it out.” Exasperated, Duan Ling forcefully pulls Wu Du’s arm over his shoulder and makes Wu Du lean on him, then they slowly walk back down the hill.
In the glow of the setting sun the maple forest shimmer like a sea of light; Duan Ling knows that Wu Du’s world’s been turned upside down and he’ll need time to adjust. He can’t press him about other things, otherwise Wu Du is just going to get more confused and then he’ll really be at a complete loss.
Before they board the carriage, Duan Ling gives Wanlibenxiao a pat, rubbing his head against its face affectionately. Benxiao whinnies and moves closer to stare at Duan Ling.
Amazed, Wu Du looks at Benxiao, and finally everything has an explanation.
“It knows me.” Duan Ling says quietly to Wu Du, “Look.”
Duan Ling takes several steps back and whistles in Benxiao’s direction the way his father used to, and it goes right over to him. He then backs away several steps at a run, and Benxiao follows him again — what part of it suggests it could ever be vicious at all? Duan Ling puts his hands over Benxiao’s saddle and throws his leg over to sit safe and securely astride its back.
“Let’s go.” Duan Ling says, “If we don’t hurry up we’ll end up sleeping on the road.”
After they board the carriage, Wu Du doesn’t dare sit on the same seat with Duan Ling, and so Duan Ling drags him back by force until they’re sitting in the carriage the same way as they did at the start of the journey. It’s almost like everything between them is still operating under the same rules of engagement, but it also seems like something isn’t quite the same anymore.
Wu Du has fallen into a long, long stretch of silence, and Duan Ling is beginning to get a bit nervous, unsure what reaction he’s going to have, or that he may never get any reaction at all. He’s filled with apprehension, but instead, he tells Wu Du, “I’m going to sleep for a bit. Wake me when we get there.”
“Certainly,” Wu Du replies at once, and as soon as their eyes meet, Wu Du looks away.
He’s feeling extremely uneasy; Duan Ling can feel that this change in his status has left Wu Du in a state of shock.
So while leaning back on Wu Du’s legs, Duan Ling stops to think for a moment. He decides that maybe if he gets a bit closer he could help dispel such uneasiness, and so he climbs up a bit to lie inclined in Wu Du’s lap. In an instant Wu Du basically freezes up entirely.
“Your Highness!” Wu Du says immediately.
“Shh.” Duan Ling knows their old coachman is both deaf and mute, but what if it’s all an act?
Just as the way he used to lie in Li Jianhong’s lap, he leans into Wu Du, wrapping one arm behind his waist as though he’s a giant pillow, pillowing his head over Wu Du’s sturdy chest.
Actually, Duan Ling isn’t really sleepy, but he knows Wu Du needs time. And so he closes his eyes and pretends to be asleep to give Wu Du some time to think.
It’s quiet all along the way; the only sound is the occasional swish of the whip as the coachman drives the carriage along, as well as their turning wheels bumping against any rough patches on the road.
Duan Ling can feel Wu Du shifting once, extremely carefully, as though he’s afraid of waking him.
He takes Duan Ling’s hand that’s resting on his shoulder and puts it down over his chest instead, then he carefully pulls an outer robe over to cover both of them, over Duan Ling’s hand.
A first quarter moon has risen to illuminate the mountain ridges, the earth, and the river; dream-like shards of silver glisten on top of the Yangtze river as moonlight skims over its surface like a million flickering dreamscapes.
Duan Ling was only pretending to sleep at first, but slowly he realises that Wu Du’s breathing has evened out. It seems he really has fallen asleep.
Wu Du dreams their carriage stops in the middle of a grand wooden bridge, and he’s not sure where their coachman has gone. Silvery moonlight dusts over everything, but Duan Ling is still lying in Wu Du’s lap, and Wu Du looks as stunned as before with his arms around Duan Ling.
Someone comes into the carriage, and to his surprise, it’s Li Jianhong. He asks Wu Du, “My son fell asleep, hasn’t he?”
“He’s fallen asleep,” Wu Du replies earnestly.
“I leave him in your hands. Take good care of him.”
“Wu Du?” Duan Ling shakes Wu Du awake. The carriage has stopped, and the Qinling Mountains are behind them. Their journey back to Xichuan is a far slower one than their trip to Tongguan, and for the first night they’ve stopped at a crossroads on the highway to the capital, taking shelter by the river.
There’s an inn at the riverbank. In the moments after he wakes up, it looks like Wu Du has forgotten that his world has gone under a transformation that’s already turned it on its head.
“Had a dream.” Wu Du yawns; his arm has gone numb from being used as a pillow by Duan Ling, and he pats Duan Ling to tell him to get up already.
When Duan Ling sees that Wu Du seems to have gone back to normal, he picks up their things to get ready to stay at the inn. “What did you dream about?” He asks.
“I dreamt of the late emperor —” In an instant, Wu Du goes dumb. He remembers now.
They’re both silent for a beat.
“You dreamt of my dad?”
“He asked me to take good care of you.”
Once more, Wu Du has become aware that the person before him is the real crown prince of Southern Chen — even though his identity isn’t recognised by the imperial court, to the point where someone else is impersonating him, he’s the only heir to the Lis.
They stop at the inn as they normally would, with Duan Ling waiting on Wu Du; Wu Du is extremely disturbed by this treatment and tries to get up several times only to be pushed down again. Duan Ling takes Benxiao to the back courtyard before he does anything else, then he orders dinner to be brought to their room. Sitting across from each other, they have dinner at a low table.
With bandages wrapped around his left hand, Wu Du can’t hold a bowl. He has his chopsticks in his right hand.
Duan Ling asks, “Should I feed you?”
“Oh no no,” Wu Du says at once, “I can feed myself.”
Duan Ling picks up some food with his chopsticks and feeds it into Wu Du’s mouth. The look on Wu Du’s face clearly expresses how he’s completely lost his bearings.
“You and I,” Duan Ling pauses to think for a moment before he continues, “um … let’s just act the same way as we always have. Wu Du, you told me before that I was heartless, but I really didn’t have any other options.”
It only takes a quick reflection before Wu Du suddenly understands just how much responsibility Duan Ling must be carrying on his shoulders, and how much risk he must be taking by trusting him. Because as soon as anyone finds out, it could quite possibly lead to devastating disaster.
“I will make sure you’re safe. No danger will befall you ever again, and no one can ever hurt you again.”
Duan Ling is quite touched; he knows Wu Du won’t betray him, but he never imagined that he’d be so determined, and to leave no room at all for doubt.
After another brief period of silence, Wu Du finds he has no appetite and puts down his chopsticks. “Then … What are our plans from now on?”
“From now on?” Duan Ling pauses to consider this before he says, “It’s up to you. What I promised you today still stands. If you don’t get married then from now on we’ll …”
“What I meant was,” Wu Du replies seriously, “how are you going to return to the imperial court?”
“Have you met the crown prince? I don’t have anything to verify my identity with. I resemble my mother, not a lot like my dad. How did the crown prince’s appearance fool …”
“He is precisely the Cai family’s child.” The only mystery that has eluded Wu Du his entire life has been Wuluohou Mu’s reaction when he turned his sword on Cai Yan. And now, the question that has puzzled him for seven years has finally been answered by Duan Ling, at this very moment.
Thus everything that made no sense before, now has a definitive answer.
“Oh, so it’s Cai Yan? I knew it.”
Melancholy and grief well up inside Duan Ling, but he’s had a vague feeling it was him already, if for nothing else but that he never heard anything about Cai Yan since they escaped from Shangjing. That day, after they got away from the village in the Xiangbei Mountains, Cai Yan should have had a successful escape. After that, Lang Junxia may have gone looking for Duan Ling too, until he took the “crown prince” back to the Chen court with him. The only person who could have impersonated Duan Ling is the Cai Yan who’s met Li Jianhong before, and learned the Sword of the Realm from him.
Wu Du’s brows draw together. Duan Ling adds, “But he doesn’t look like my dad either.”
“You’ll know when you see him. Wuluohou Mu must have surgically changed his appearance with medicinal herbs and a knife. His brows, the corners of his eyes, and the shape of his mouth do share some resemblance to the late emperor.”
Wu Du studies Duan Ling’s features carefully. “You’re far better looking than he is.”
But Duan Ling is thinking about Cai Yan so his heart is tinged with irritation, and he just nods.
“But I wonder if the fourth prince … No, if His Majesty would recognise you?”
“It’s hard to say. Should we take a chance? Can you take me to him?”
Wu Du nods. “It’s not hard to get an audience if you really want one, but you must consider what you’re going to say and do to make him believe you once you meet with him. When that imposter arrived at the capital, the fourth prince had all of us meet him one by one. I only remember that I saw that knave at the Illustrious Hall, and due to a combination of those errors, agreed that it was him.”
As he says this, Wu Du is overcome with remorse; the furrow between his brows deepens and he bangs down on the table hard with his injured hand to vent his feelings.
Lest he should let this plague his conscience again, Duan Ling tells him, “That had nothing to do with you! How could you ever have imagined that someone would impersonate me?”
“Let’s take our time, and think up a plan,” Duan Ling says.
Wu Du nods, and he presses on the table in an attempt to get up so that he can help clean up. Duan Ling makes him get on the bed at once. “I’ll do it. You’re hurt.”
Wu Du watches Duan Ling, his gaze following him from one end of the room to the other. Duan Ling knows it’d be hard for Wu Du to accept this reality within a short period of time, and how Wu Du somehow accepted it so easily has made him feel a bit astonished. But Wu Du doesn’t really doubt him — on the contrary, his intuition is the most reliable thing.
Wu Du has only worked under his dad for a scant few days. He’s taking great care now to observe Duan Ling, but by now his heart doesn’t really doubt that it’s the truth.
Duan Ling finishes cleaning up and lies down on the bed like he usually does, next to Wu Du. He seems really excited as he pulls the blanket up over the two of them.
Wu Du is so alarmed that he’s already jumping at every little thing; he suddenly looks at Duan Ling as though he’s considering whether he should roll off to sleep on the floor next to the bed instead, but Duan Ling is picking up his hand, and using his arm for a pillow as always. He’s so relaxed now that he’s thrown all his baggage at Wu Du, he thinks he may fall right asleep.
“You know …” Duan Ling says to Wu Du.
Wu Du is quiet for a long beat. If he says “certainly” it sounds too formal, while “yeah?” seems too perfunctory. He hasn’t really figured out what his own status is yet — is he the crown prince’s personal bodyguard, or is he a minister that the late emperor had entrusted his orphaned son to?
“In this past year since dad passed away,” Duan Ling says to Wu Du with a smile on his face, “I was never as happy as I’ve been today. I feel like I’m alive again.”
When Duan Ling starts to smile, it reminds Wu Du of the first day he came down from his sect on the mountains and arrived in Jiangzhou all those years ago, one early spring. All the peach blossoms in Jiangzhou were fluttering in the breeze, and that breeze felt like it was waiting for him to come — a magnificent landscape that seemed like a curtain that parted for his sake.
As that smile spreads, all Wu Du can think of is to give him the best of everything in the world, but he has nothing to his name.
“My … My hand is injured,” after much thinking, he says nervously at last, “otherwise I’d play a song for you.”
“Yeah,” Duan Ling replies. He closes his eyes, and with his head resting drowsily on Wu Du’s shoulder he falls asleep. Just before he fades away he says, “Later. We’ll have plenty of time. I’m going to sleep. So sleepy …”
With a smile on his face, Duan Ling drifts off into dreams.
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