Chapter 380 — Alliance

Song Yan sighed and gestured toward the round-backed chair below.

Jiang Yi hesitated a moment, then sat down respectfully.

Only then did Song Yan say mildly, "You were doing well in the Divine Machine Battalion, and you had just been promoted to platoon commander — why the sudden transfer to the Five Wards Command? And don't try to fob me off with talk of how hard life is in the Divine Machine Battalion. I have asked your superior at the Five Wards Command. He tells me you still rise at the hour of Yin every day and run two laps around the moat before you go to your office. That is not the conduct of a man who fears hardship."

Jiang Yi lowered his eyes and said nothing for a long while, but his hand slowly clenched into a fist.

Ma Youming was angered by his hemming and hawing. He counted Jiang Yi a friend who would die for him, and Jiang Yi treated him like a stranger on the road. In a fury he kicked the leg of Jiang Yi's chair. "Other people think that because you took third place at the Autumn Hunt you can sit as an equal with the Heir. That is only because the Heir is modest and does not hold such things against you. Do not take good intentions for a donkey's liver and lungs — do not be shameless when you are shown kindness!"

Jiang Yi smiled bitterly. "Brother Ma, if I meant to hide from the Heir, I would not have spent these days trailing after him, always hoping for a chance to meet him by accident. I simply do not know how to begin..."

Ma Youming thought of what Song Yan had said earlier, about Jiang Yi's hair being soaking wet, and the truth came to him in a flash.

So Song Yan had known all along that Jiang Yi was following him — that was why he had sent Ma Youming to fetch the man.

Song Yan smiled faintly.

Ma Youming said gravely, "There is no one else here. Neither the Heir nor I treat you as an outsider. What is it you cannot say?"

Jiang Yi's expression turned more bitter still.

Suddenly he seized the wine pot he had just used to pour for Song Yan, put it to his lips, and gulped the wine down.

Ma Youming could not help glancing at Song Yan.

He saw that Song Yan was watching Jiang Yi with a broad and genial smile.

Something stirred in Ma Youming's heart.

Song Yan's mind was truly unshakable.

With a hole that size gaping open, the man could still sit there unmoved as a mountain.

If that day truly came, he would surely go to his death with the same dignity.

At the thought, Ma Youming's blood ran hot.

What man does not die once? It is only a question of whether one's death weighs as heavy as Mount Tai or as light as a goose feather.

To walk a stretch of road alongside a man like Song Yan — that would be no disgrace to the name he bore.

It was as though the clouds had been swept from the whole sky. The fear and unease that had pressed upon his heart these past days scattered in the sunlight, and his heart grew bright with them.

Song Yan needed no mention. He himself was, after all, one of the youngest officers in the court, and with Jiang Yi beside him — a fellow who could seize third place at the Autumn Hunt — he refused to believe they could not carve out a road to survival.

If they truly met their Maicheng, then that was fate, was fortune.

Full of mettle, he found himself straightening in his seat without realizing it.

Meanwhile Jiang Yi, having downed more than half a pot of the Chen family's brew — soft on the way down, brutal in its afterkick — finally found the courage to speak. "On the sixth of the sixth month last year I went to air Lord Wang's books for him, and by chance came upon a military treatise of Prince Muwu. I could not put it down, and fearing that the Wang household's people would see me and think it ill-mannered, I hid up on the beam of the study to read. Halfway through, Lord Wang came in with a middle-aged scholar in blue robes, and I did not dare stir at all. But they dismissed the servants and posted men around the study, and began to talk in low voices.

"The study was tall and spacious. I was on the eastern beam, where the books are kept; they were in the western sitting room. The distance was considerable, and I could not make out just what Lord Wang and the scholar said. But Lord Wang seemed agitated. He paced the room several times with a dark face, then demanded in a loud voice, 'What proof is there?'

"The scholar produced a jade pendant and said, 'When the Prince was fifteen, he shot a tiger at the Autumn Hunt, and the Emperor bestowed this with his own hand. There is only this one piece in all the world; there is no duplicate.'

"Lord Wang hesitated a while before taking the jade.

"The scholar said further, 'Once the thing is done, a seat in the Grand Secretariat and the rank of Chancellor are nothing to speak of.'

"Lord Wang made no reply, and the scholar rose and took his leave.

"I was so frightened my body went stiff.

"The moment Lord Wang left the study, I slipped out the back door as fast as I could and came back in through the front, pretending I had just arrived from outside.

"Later I noticed that the gifts the Prince of Liao sent Lord Wang far exceeded those sent to the commanders of other garrisons. Not only that — I once overheard the Wang household's serving women mocking a new bedchamber woman Lord Wang had taken, a woman of breathtaking beauty: she would eat a piece of pork belly and call it wonderful, and she liked to eat her rice with pickled spicy cabbage...

"Lord Wang showed me the kindness of recognizing my worth; by rights I should advance and retreat at his side. But I have grandfather and grandmother, uncles and cousins — a whole clan. How could I drag them down with me?"

As he spoke he cast Ma Youming an apologetic glance. "I truly did not know what to do. After turning it over and over, I could only beg Brother Ma... I never imagined the Heir would look after me so — not only transferring me at once to the Yunzhong City command, but finding me a platoon commander's post in the Five Wards Command. I..." Guilt showed on his face. "I saw how close the Heir is with Gu Yu, and how often Gu Yu goes in and out of the forbidden palace and Liaodong. I wanted to give the Heir a warning, but I feared he would think me a meddler, and so I hesitated, and could only follow behind the Heir whenever I had the chance, hoping for an opening to say a few words to him..."

Goryeo — close to Liaodong.

She liked pork belly and pickled spicy cabbage. Which meant that the bedchamber woman Wang Xu had newly taken was a Goryeo woman.

Could the Prince of Liao have some tie to Goryeo?

Ma Youming's expression shifted slightly, and he looked toward Song Yan.

Song Yan was unhurriedly skimming the floating leaves in his cup with the lid.

His manner was easy, his face as usual, and he said warmly to Jiang Yi, "Thank you for your concern. I only learned of this myself just now. I had meant to have a private word with you, and sent for you several times, but you were never to be found — which was how I noticed something was off. Matters have gone this far; we should understand each other without speaking. Still, I must put to you the question Lord Ma put to me — what do you make of the Prince of Liao and the Crown Prince?"

Jiang Yi started up so abruptly he nearly overturned the chair behind him.

"Heir," he said, cupping his hands and bowing to Song Yan, "every soul in the Jiang family has been loyal and true. There has never been a traitor among us!"

Song Yan nodded with a smile, asked him to sit again, and with his own hand poured wine for him and Ma Youming. Then he rose with his cup and said solemnly, "Lord Ma, Jiang Yi — drink this cup, and from here on we share fortune and misfortune, and pledge our lives to one another!"

Ma Youming and Jiang Yi both rose in excitement, raised their cups, clinked them lightly against Song Yan's, and drained them without a moment's hesitation.

Song Yan smiled with quiet satisfaction.

The three of them sat down again.