Princess Agents: 特工皇妃楚喬傳
Chapter 103: Watching You
"Liu Xi?"
After closing the door Zhuge Yue turned to Chu Qiao and asked, "Do you know this person?"
Chu Qiao frowned slightly and said quietly, "We probably crossed paths."
"We should leave now," Zhuge Yue said decisively. He walked over to Chu Qiao, lifted her by the waist and turned around to head outside.
"Hold on a second!" Chu Qiao said hurriedly. "We've only ever seen each other from a distance and I couldn't even tell you what he looks like up close. I didn't even say anything. It was so many years ago."
Zhuge Yue frowned tightly and Chu Qiao was aware of his concern and said, "Those outside only see us as ordinary people traveling with a heavy illness. It seems absolutely unlikely that they would offer greetings to us. As long as I'm careful it shouldn't be a problem."
"He's the nephew of Liu MingJun?"
"Correct."
Zhuge Yue contemplated this for a while, and said slowly, "The Liu family is still a large house in Xian Yang. When I entered Xian Yang I don't know if any of them were part of the welcome party."
Chu Qiao was suddenly surprised upon hearing this, and Zhuge Yue said in a low voice, "We should still be cautious. Tomorrow morning I'll go to the main street market and buy horses, then we'll drive ourselves to Tian Jing."
Chu Qiao nodded, for her current situation was a bit awkward. Liu Xi was Liu MingJun's nephew, which meant he was also a member of the DaTong Association. Since they were on the same side, for them to recognize one another at this time would naturally lead to making convenient arrangements to return to Yan Bei together. However, since she was with Zhuge Yue, she could not reveal herself to Liu Xi. Moreover, Liu MingJun is the eldest among the elders of the Association, and his thinking was rigid. Now that Zhuge Yue was without his escort, if Liu Xi wanted to be malicious….
"You should rest first," he said, putting her back onto the bed. "I'll call the attendant for some food. What do you want to eat?"
Chu Qiao shook her head and responded, "Anything is fine."
Zhuge Yue turned around, and muttered as he walked, "We'll have to settle for anything, in a shabby place like this, there isn't much to expect."
She saw he was about to exit but he suddenly spun back round and pulled the quilt over Chu Qiao. Seeing that she was staring at him, his expression suddenly looked a little awkward, his brows locked together, and without warning he angrily said, "What are you looking at? Hurry up and get better. I have no desire to drag you around like a stray dog hiding from everything longer than I have to. Hmph!"
Watching the man leave Chu Qiao was a bit dazed, then the corners of her lips pulled upwards in a faint smile.
With the Zhuge family's power, the entire west, Mongolia and mainland likely had their connections, properties, and their subordinate and affiliated houses' manpower. As one of the houses that controls the lifeline of the empire, it most certainly was not only visible political power they possessed. In the entire realm between heaven and earth, how many hidden lines of influence stemmed from the hands of the Zhuge family? How many lay in the grip of the Wei clan? How many were affiliated with DaXia? How many with Bian Tang? And Huai Song? Who could clearly delineate it all?
Chu Qiao knew that behind every influential family and large clan, there was a hundred years of family power struggles. Even if Zhao Zhengde (the emperor) unleashed hell [TN: literally, the translation means to unleash wind, fire and lightning] to uproot the Mu clan, was it certain that he had also eradicated the Mu clan's hundred year old influence in DaXia?
The forces of the Zhuge family were by no means inferior to Yan Xun's on the Yan Bei Plateau, and moreover, as imperial family members, their political status influenced farther than Yan Bei could reach.
Hidden behind tens of thousands of family soldiers was this clan's age old imperceptible influence strategically planted in the empire, in the numerous officials both high and low all surnamed Zhuge in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From these roads their money flowed, to grant favors for those whose loyalty can be purchased, the profits tied up in that influence, the information that can be used against them -- all of it in the hands of one clan.
Because YanBei allegedly openly rebelled, all of YanBei stood against the empire. But if one day the Zhuge clan conceivably decided to rebel, if given enough time to plan, if they were willing to raise their banners in defiance like YanBei, what a catastrophe the imperial Zhao clan would face!
Therefore, with this type of influence from the Zhuge family, and considering Zhuge Yue's position in that clan, no matter where he was all he needed to do was say the word and a large contingency of his family would appear at once. As they say the cunning rabbit has at least three burrows, considering the size of the Zhuge clan, that logic would follow exponentially. However Zhuge Yue apparently had no such intention, going so far as to conceal his identity during the journey, personally taking care of her daily needs, never notifying his family and instead, waited for his personal subordinates to act.
Perhaps he was afraid a family member not of the direct bloodline would leak Chu Qiao's identity and have his family's opponents make a big fuss about it.
Chu Qiao smirked and poked fun at her own push to fool herself. She understood there was but one reason for everything that had happened thus far, but she was neither willing to admit nor face it, and thus ran away from it by closing her eyes, silently waiting for time to flow past.
Perhaps he just wanted to keep each other company in a relatively calm environment, where he wasn't the son of the Zhuge House and he didn't have anything to do with Yan Xun; where he was just an ordinary person without enemies, without existing enmities and irreconcilable differences needing to be addressed and no unavoidable responsibilities.
This type of opportunity likely only appeared once in a lifetime.
Chu Qiao slowly closed her eyes and hoped that sleep would come quickly. Some things were too dangerous to ponder. She understood it all, but had no means of responding.
They lived in this world, each with their own paths. From the very beginning they had two very different starting points and eight years later their paths diverged even further as they continued. To be human also means to be somewhat calm and rational.
Chu Qiao's body was weak and in a short while she started to slowly fall asleep, her eyelids seemingly a thousand weights heavy. Before she slept she laughed wryly at herself at having thought it out and done so much, yet at the very least, she was still unable to draw that boundary with him.
When Zhuge Yue returned Chu Qiao was already deeply sleeping. Her shallow breath in room gave off a faint feminine scent. Zhuge Yue carried a tray with an array of dishes and a large pot of wine. He set the table, sat down, and poured himself a cup. The establishment was small but the dishes seemed tasty, even if the lids were still covering them, their rich aromas still floated towards his nose. The wine was mellow, clear and translucent with a strong fragrance; with one sip his entire body was warmed.
The sunset was flaming red, and the light projecting in on him cast a long silhouette.
He simply continued to sit and sip his wine slowly until the sun set behind the mountain and the street lanterns were lit. The bustle of people coming and going eventually faded when the market finally closed up. The whole city became quiet under the night sky, the whole population dreaming, except for him, without light, without speaking, quietly sitting in the darkness. Still like a sculpture but for his arm moving back and forth between the wine jug and his cup and only then could one tell there was a person there.
Chu Qiao woke up in the deep night, her head throbbing as if pounded by a thousand hammers all at once. Amidst her half-sleeping state she wanted a drink of water but immediately noticed the figure in the darkness. Her immediate reaction was to reach for the small dagger at her calf; even in her weakened state she was ready to pounce like an agile leopard.
But then she regained her consciousness and slowly lowered her dagger, stared puzzled at the figure in the darkness and asked, "Zhuge Yue?"
"Mm."
He answered her with a faint nasally sound, the man seemed to have ingested a lot of alcohol and the air in the room was thick with it.
"A drink of water?"
Chu Qiao nodded, but at that moment realized he probably couldn't see anything, but just as she was about to speak, a cup of water reached her lips.
"Drink then, it's not poisoned."
As she took it the cup handle was warm and even a bit hot. The cup was rather small, but with two hands Chu Qiao lifted it and after taking a sip. After licking her dry lips and with her throat still hoarse with sleep she asked softly, "Why don't you make a light?"
The room was so quiet she could even hear the wine gurgling down his throat, and after a while a faint voice slowly responded, "The darkness is fine."
Then she asked in earnest, "Zhuge Yue, when will you call me Chu Qiao?"
The man answered cooly, "Keep dreaming."
"You really are stubborn," she said in a lowered voice, and Chu Qiao suddenly laughed at herself and said, "Actually, like you, I'm also really stubborn, so the things I firmly believe do not change."
Zhuge Yue said nothing, Chu Qiao seemed much better tonight, her voice was light, and though she was still weak from the poison, she continued to speak. "In fact, you are not really a bad person. Although you are a bit unsociable, and you can be cruel, and at times you seem to lack sympathy, and um, your dark expressions can be really annoying, but aside from that there's really nothing. In this world who hasn't been cruel; whose hands haven't spilled blood? That's how this world works. If you don't eat others, others will eat you. By now I can't even remember how many lives I've taken.
"Zhuge Yue, do you recall?"
As soon as her voice fell, she answered her own question, "You really should recall, as a general, even on the battlefield as a strategist within the command tent, those you've killed personally; or those who are nothing more than people who've offended you. But I can't even remember. In the half year that's passed those who've died by my hand are greater in number than the people I've spoken to in this world. Every time I raise my weapon to cut someone down it was a head, and the blood from the severed body was always hot, always spraying on my face, as hot as burning embers.
In the northwest they even gave me a nickname, the 'Blood Gathering Butcher' or something like that. The consulate general of Yao Sheng called…called Qi Something-rather, even ordered them to erect a stone statue of me, built right in front of the city gates, mandating everyone who entered the city to spit on it or otherwise be barred from entering. In this period of time I was fleeing my own demise, aside from government soldiers, I was also careful to avoid commoners. From when I escaped Zhen Huang, there was one time I was injured and saved by an elderly couple. They were both probably older than eighty, a very kind and amiable couple. They bound my wounds and even killed their only hen to make soup for me. They never asked where I was from but they probably thought I had been robbed and kept encouraging me to report it to the authorities. On the second day the old man went to town to buy me medicine, but when he returned his expression had greatly changed and at the time I had no idea what happened. That night they secretly took a sickle and rushed into my room, and like two crazy people they wildly hacked at the bed. I knew that their son had been recruited by the empire long ago, he took part in the campaign against Yan Bei and later died on the northern plateau."
Chu Qiao's expression went cold and she sneered, "And then I killed them. They were really too rash and there was no other way I could get rid of them, so I had to kill them."
"Pretended benevolence and false righteousness," a cold voice suddenly sounded, Zhuge still sitting there. He said sarcastically, "With your level of skill, tying up an elderly couple would be as easy as falling off a log. It was nothing but the fear of them going to the authorities, and you just insisted on making up this nauseating excuse for yourself."
"I wasn't looking for an excuse," refuted Chu Qiao quietly, though she was not angry. "I was actually seriously injured at the time. An arrow had shot through my thigh, I wasn't mobile at all. I had only two choices: to kill them or let them kill me."
Zhuge Yue smiled slightly in disapproval, "Xing'er, in doing that how are you different from me?"
"Yes, I had thought that in the beginning," Chu Qiao said quietly, "But then later I didn't think that way. When General Meng went to Yan Bei to fight it was just aggression and massacre, all of it unjustified oppression. Their son had joined the army to invade someone else's homeland, would it be wrong to fight back? During the first year of the war, Yan Bei suffered countless deaths and injuries, commoners and soldiers alike. All of their forces were wiped clean away and Yan Bei's losses far exceeded those of DaXia. And I, who hadn't done anything to them and was just recovering from my injury. I took revenge for Yan Bei, but they just wanted to hurt me, simply because of a hatred that had nothing to do with me. Was I supposed to just sit there and await death? I kill people, but I don't do it indiscriminately. I sympathize with commoners, but I'm no saint."
Chu Qiao's voice gradually strengthened as she said, "The war between Yan Bei and DaXia is necessary and it will be drawn out. But everyone who dies in this war will not die in vain. They fight for justice and their own freedom. This country will have freedom and equality, a legal system and prosperity, it will be different. Casual killing is unspeakably inhumane. For that day, everything I do will be worth it."
"Ha, ha!" Zhuge Yue suddenly burst into laughter. He said with indifference, "Xing'er, to my detriment I have always overestimated you, but I would never have thought you would utter such ridiculous words. Freedom and equality? A legal system and tranquility? What, have you become a believer of the 'DaTong' philosophy as well? [TN: "Da Tong" or "Great Community" is the idea of a perfect society, a teaching of Neo-Confucianism] Have you started to dream of that illusory fool's paradise as well?"
"No, I have not. I am quite sober. I know that as long as this world is based in profits there will never be true equality. But we can improve everything slowly, one step at a time."
Chu Qiao looked at Zhuge Yue and said in a low voice, "At the very least, there will never be all those things that happened when I first came to the Zhuge House, random cold-blooded murder, sadism and treating people like dogs!"
"Do you really think Yan Xun can accomplish this?" asked Zhuge Yue, lightly raising his brow and smiling disdainfully as he added, "or do you think the old bastards in the Da ong Alliance will really be a selfless as their slogans? Those who have tasted power will not easily relinquish the things they possess. Even if Yan Xun one day overthrew DaXia and became emperor, it will be nothing more than a change of dynasties and by no means an end to an era. Xing'er, if you can't accept that Yan Xun's ambition for hegemony is greater, then just say that he's out for revenge. At least that sounds a bit better. Don't wear such a pretentiously high hat on your head; speaking like a saint or a Buddha really makes one want to vomit."
Chu Qiao's expression changed slightly, and it took a while for her to firmly say, "I believe in him."
Zhuge Yue furrowed his brow and stared steadfastly at her.
"I believe he won't let me down," Chu Qiao faintly laughed. "I will be beside him, helping him and watching him complete his great cause by his own hand. Zhuge Yue, you'll see."
At that moment it seemed a small lamp lit up in the dark, dazzling amid the current gloom. Zhuge Yue suddenly thought this woman was both fragile and silly, yet he did not want to laugh at her stubbornness again. He only wanted to ask, "If there comes a day when he really does disappoint you, what will you do?"
But he could not find it in him to say the words for he thought that would be too cruel…indeed, too cruel.
This girl, still not quite seventeen, what were her younger sisters doing at this time? Inside Zhen Huang's city what were the noble ladies doing? Applying make-up, enjoying flowers and poetry, discussing the young talents of other noble families, or perhaps being carried off by someone somewhere onto a large, extravagant bed only to be tricked by some unsavory men….
And her, through years of foul wind and blood rain, for the sake of nothing more than a belief, without right or power, without friends or family, this was probably her hope for living.
"Very well, Xing'er. I will watch. I will watch whether that man in the end can accomplish all you say he can. If that day really comes, I will spend my family's fortune and set off a million fireworks blossoms to celebrate the fulfillment of your heart's desire!
"To Yan Bei," he tilted his head and emptied a cup of wine, the spicy flavor rolling down his throat, cutting him like a knife. His eyes looked westward, and he said softly, "I will be watching you."
Translator's Notes: So this is the first chapter I've read where Chu Qiao and Zhuge/Yuwen Yue actually have a heart-to-heart. It was cute how Zhuge/Yuwen Yue pulled up her blanket and got a whole platter of food for her. At first I was disappointed that he waited for her to wake up and no one ate the food TT__TT. It's certainly a complicated relationship at this point and I expected her to dredge up old grievances (i.e. it was because of him or his family that half of her siblings died).
Zhuge/Yuwen Yue is much more sarcastic and pessimistic in the novel than Lin GenXin's portrayal of him in the series, but I enjoy his literary source material equally, if not more so. I suppose this would be the start of something new for his character as he lives unfettered by his family responsibilities for the first time while talking with his former house servant now turned assassin/radical philosopher. They really do seem like polar opposites and it's difficult to believe at this point that they would ever be on the same side. Regardless, his "watching her" can also mean that he doesn't disagree with her ideal, unrealistic as it is, and that he would also be "watching over her/taking care of her" from a distance as she tries to fulfill her dream. Here, behind his sarcasm and pessimism, we catch a glimpse of how deeply he feels (or will feel) for her.
I found her deep belief in Yan Xun a little too idealistic. Having lived as an adult in the modern era I was surprised she was still so idealistic and naive, putting all her hope in one man. But perhaps 8 years of life and death situations with Yan Xun colored her perception of him as some great person. But we all know she'll eat her words eventually which makes her idealism also a character flaw. She is not perfect, which makes her character more meaningful.
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