The prison cell holding Xie Zhu welcomed an uninvited guest.
Although it was a prison cell, it was fairly considerate—there was a charcoal brazier inside so that people wouldn’t freeze in the dead of winter, and they hadn’t made Xie Zhu wear prison clothes, only changing him into ordinary cotton clothing.
Xie Zhu sat cross-legged with his eyes closed. His hair was unbound and slightly disheveled, and upon closer inspection, his temples had gained quite a bit of white hair. After being worn down by endless interrogation all night, Xie Zhu’s face showed some signs of fatigue, but his bearing remained undiminished.
“I’ve said it—I don’t know anyone from the Bingzhu Bureau, and I don’t know where Prince Ling’an is.”
Xie Zhu didn’t even open his eyes as he stated his position once again.
“Third Uncle, I didn’t come for that matter.”
Xie Zhu opened his eyes and saw Xie Queshan entering the prison cell carrying a tea tray.
Xie Queshan placed the tea tray on the table and sat down on the ground.
On the tea tray were two cups of freshly prepared tea, with delicate foam floating on the tea like clouds, rising in wisps of steam.
“The cups and bowls here are simple, I could only prepare these two cups of tea. Third Uncle, please try it.”
Xie Zhu was silent for a moment, then reached out to pick up the tea cup and taste it carefully. After a long while, he set down the cup, seeming to want to speak but stopping himself. When he looked at Xie Queshan again, his gaze was filled with mixed emotions.
Xie Queshan calmly met his gaze.
He knew that in this cup of long-absent tea, they had both returned to the autumn of the twentieth year of Yongkang, when the ginkgo leaves were yellow and osmanthus flowers filled the air. At that time, Xie Zhu, who was still an official in the capital, had invited Xie Queshan to his residence and tirelessly taught him tea preparation.
Tea preparation was the most fashionable refined activity in Bianjing at that time. To prepare a good cup of tea required devotion to the tea ceremony and several years of effort. Unfortunately, Xie Queshan had wandered outside in his youth and later joined the military—let alone preparing tea, he didn’t even know how to properly savor a cup of tea.
Even though he was accomplished in both civil and military arts, not knowing how to prepare tea gave the young masters in the capital a handle for mockery.
Xie Queshan was proud and stubborn. He practiced tea preparation in silence but never got the hang of it, and being unwilling to ask for help, he intentionally or unintentionally stopped attending those refined gatherings in Bianjing.
Later, Xie Zhu saw through his nephew’s thoughts and called him to his residence, teaching him tea preparation under the pretext of having him come to taste tea, also preserving that bit of a young man’s self-respect.
Speaking of it, what Xie Zhu taught Xie Queshan far exceeded what his own father had taught him. Their relationship was like that of teacher and father.
It was just that in the year before the Jingchun Rebellion, Xie Zhu was demoted to Li Du Mansion. When they parted by breaking willow branches outside Bianjing, it unexpectedly became their last meeting in the past few years.
Later, Xie Zhu had also tried writing to Xie Queshan, advising him to turn back from his wrong path, but all letters sank without a trace.
Now this cup of tea—things had changed and people had gone.
Xie Zhu sighed deeply and said: “You came not just to invite me to drink this cup of tea, right?”
“I followed the Qi army south all the way and saw the Qi people massacre many cities. Brutality is their nature, but Third Uncle, do you know why they didn’t massacre Li Du Mansion?”
After sitting in silence for a long time until the tea grew cold, Xie Zhu said calmly: “The shipbuilding blueprints in the Shipbuilding Bureau have already been consigned to flames by me.”
When smart people engage with each other, there’s no need to explain too much.
Li Du Mansion was a major shipbuilding center with a specially established Shipbuilding Bureau.
The ancestors of the Qi people made their fortune in the Changbai Mountain range area. They were large in stature and skilled in archery and horsemanship, but they were not good at water warfare and couldn’t build ships. The remaining forces of the Yu Dynasty had all crossed south to Jinling. Once the Qi people attacked the south, with its crisscrossing waterways, they would definitely be at a disadvantage in battle.
Therefore, the Qi people had to quickly build their own dragonbone ships and train their own sailors, which made Li Du Mansion the most valuable place.
In Li Du Mansion, the Qi people had to use pacifying policies to win people’s hearts. Unless the citizens resisted to the death, the Qi people wouldn’t choose to massacre the city.
Capturing Xie Zhu wasn’t just due to betrayal by a spy, but also to control the Shipbuilding Bureau and build dragonbone ships. Xie Zhu had long understood the stakes involved, so on the day the Qi people entered Li Du Mansion, he burned all the shipbuilding blueprints.
He had already made his position clear, but Xie Queshan still wanted to play the role of persuader.
“Blueprints are dead, but people are alive. If the Qi people want to build ships, they still need to rely on the united efforts of everyone in the Shipbuilding Bureau. But those craftsmen and clerks in the Shipbuilding Bureau are truly difficult to manage. If Third Uncle is willing to help with this matter, the affair of colluding with the Bingzhu Bureau can be wiped clean.”
“Bang!” With a sweep of his sleeve, the cup shattered on the ground, tea foam splashing everywhere, creating a layer of white frost.
“Xie Queshan, a scholar can be killed but cannot be humiliated!” Xie Zhu’s face was full of anger.
Xie Queshan had already anticipated his reaction and didn’t move a muscle.
“Third Uncle, after all these years, I thought all the sharp edges in you had been worn smooth. I didn’t expect you to still be so impulsive.”
When Xie Zhu was an official in Bianjing, he advocated implementing new policies and strongly opposed the court’s policy of ceding territory for peace. Together with a group of reformers, he was squeezed out of court and demoted to serve as supervisor at the Shipbuilding Bureau in Li Du Mansion.
These years, Xie Zhu had stayed away from politics, seeming like a carefree crane in the clouds, without any ambition.
“Even the softest mud has days when it’s cast into walls and stands upright.” Xie Zhu’s expression was cold.
“Third Uncle, both the dragonbone ships and Prince Ling’an—the Qi people are determined to have them both.” Xie Queshan calmly stood up and bowed respectfully. “The Qi people’s patience is limited. No matter how hard one’s backbone, it will still be shattered.”
Xie Queshan left the prison cell, and the pouring daylight outside pierced his eyes, somewhat dazzling.
He squinted and saw He Ping running over in a panic.
“Master, the Grand Madam… I’m afraid she won’t make it.”
At this time, Wangxue Manor was already in complete chaos.
Xie Zhu and Xie Jun were brothers from the same mother, and he was originally the Grand Madam’s most cherished younger son. The Xie clan members were scattered across the world, and the only one who could attend to the Grand Madam daily was Xie Zhu. His importance to the Grand Madam went without saying.
Now that he had been imprisoned by the Qi people, and Xie Jun was under house arrest in the back mountain, the Grand Madam, who was already suffering from chronic illnesses, couldn’t catch her breath and was critically ill.
Outside Songhe Hall, all the women of the household were already gathered.
The mansion’s doctors came and went with their medical boxes, various medicinal materials flowed into Songhe Hall like water, but no good news was heard coming out.
Nanyi stood among the women, looking left and right, wondering why Xie Sui’an was so late in coming.
She had been dragged up by the maids early in the morning and brought outside Songhe Hall. She had thought she could meet Xie Sui’an here and take the opportunity to warn her to be careful of the Qi people’s trap. But she hadn’t appeared, could she have gone directly to take action?