Notes on Longevity

Chapter 89 I Observed the Taoist Priest's Youthful Form, Holding a Horsespin Like an Immortal

“Your Majesty, the Second Prince is indeed dead. It appears he was beaten to death.” A middle-aged man in silver armor bowed to Emperor Wenshang.

"Step back." Emperor Wenshang, trembling and panting, waved his hand at the middle-aged man, barely suppressing his anger.

"Yes." The middle-aged man glanced at Emperor Wenshang, then slowly withdrew.

Emperor Wenshang looked at Wu Zixu, the Vice Minister of Rites, who was kneeling there, and asked, "Did Li Chengru really tell you this himself?"

"Yes." Wu Zixu was drenched in sweat and looked extremely nervous. He had been sleeping in his residence when Li Chengru woke him up and told him that he had killed the Second Prince.

Upon hearing this, Emperor Wenshang flew into a rage. The veins on his forehead and neck bulged as he paced angrily in front of his imperial bed. "How dare he!"

"He actually dared to kill my prince! Does that mean he'll try to kill me in a few days?" he roared, pointing at Wu Zixu.

“Your Majesty! The Second Prince should never have provoked Li Chengru,” Wu Zixu said, his words filled with helplessness.

"Just because of Yang You'an?" The emperor glared at Wu Zixu and retorted, "Just because he's Li Chengru's friend, he wants to kill my prince? Should I kill Zhang Ze'an too?"

"Your Majesty, please reconsider!" Wu Zixu was terrified when he heard the emperor say he wanted to kill Zhang Ze'an. "Zhang Ze'an cannot be killed! The Zhang family has accumulated wealth over hundreds of years, and they control the most important trade routes between the four kingdoms of Wu, Nan, Shangqi, and Xifeng and our Dayan. Zhang Ze'an is the only son of the Zhang family. If we kill him, Zhang Erhe will definitely not let it go. In that case, we will be destroying our own country and bringing about our own demise, Your Majesty. Please reconsider."

"He's courting his own destruction? Li Chengru has even come here to kill my prince. What am I supposed to do? Just wait for him to kill me? He saved my life, and I owe him one, but he should never have killed my prince." Emperor Wenshang said to Wu Zixu.

"But the lives of the common people are also lives, Your Majesty!"

Emperor Wen Shang's anger continued to rise, but Wu Zixu's words were like a bucket of cold water poured on him.

The lives of ordinary people matter too. This sentence had always hung on the beam in front of his dragon bed in his palace. When he heard Wu Zixu's words, he looked up and the striking characters stung his eyes.

"The Second Prince killed twenty or thirty people from the Pear Garden and also humiliated Yang You'an's betrothed wife, who was not yet married. And Yang You'an, he's only twenty years old! In our Great Yan Dynasty, the throne changes every sixty years. How many twenty-year-old top scholars can emerge in these sixty years!"

Wu Zixu spoke with tears streaming down his face, his voice filled with anguish. "For over a thousand years, this is the first time in my Great Yan that a prince has slaughtered dozens of people! And what happened more than a decade ago—why did it happen here, not in any other dynasty? Your Majesty, have you considered this? My Great Yan has stood for a thousand years, its national fortune flourishing. Looking back, which dynasty has lasted a thousand years? These events involve people who can influence the fate of a dynasty. This...this Heaven may be diminishing the national fortune of my Great Yan, it is trying to destroy my Great Yan!"

"If it affects the fate of the nation, then I ask you, does that mean my prince deserves to die?" Emperor Wenshang understood from Wu Zixu's words. Recalling the past twenty-odd years of his reign, he realized that many things had indeed happened, all related to the fate of the nation. But the second prince was, after all, his child. Even if he couldn't inherit the throne, he was still part of the nation's destiny. Should he just die like that?
"Your Majesty, this..." Wu Zixu's expression clearly faltered upon hearing this. He looked at the Emperor Wenshang, whose tone had gradually calmed down, with a trembling sense of astonishment. Although he dared to speak frankly about some things, he dared not discuss the princes.

"It's alright, speak freely." Emperor Wenshang also had some things on his mind. He frowned and let Wu Zixu speak.

"The Second Prince deserves to die!" Wu Zixu gritted his teeth. "The Second Prince bullies men and women, oppresses the people. Now, the common people avoid him like the plague. As a Vice Minister, I should be loyal to His Majesty and the Ministry of Rites. I have tried to persuade him, but the Second Prince has turned around and threatened me. What am I supposed to do?"

"Your Majesty, Li Chengru, Young Master Li requests an audience." A soft, effeminate male voice rang out from the doorway.

"Announce him to come in."

"Yes!" "I see." Ping An nodded as she sat down and looked at Zhang Ze'an pacing back and forth in front of her.

Zhang Ze'an sighed, "The reason His Majesty wanted to keep Brother Li in office was to keep an eye on him and prevent him from doing anything wrong."

"Did Young Master Li ever contact you again?" Ping An asked with some curiosity.

“No. He just sent me a message saying, ‘The world is vast, we’ll meet again if fate allows.’ But I think I’ll never have the chance to see him again.” Zhang Ze’an looked dejected, tears welling up in his eyes.

Ping An asked, "Why?"

“Because I went to look for Li Chengru and sent people to look for him, but I couldn’t find him. It was as if he had vanished into thin air.” Zhang Ze’an looked at the flowers, trees and plants outside the hall and gazed at the distant horizon. “Later, he sent me a letter. In the letter, he said that he knew I was looking for him and that I didn’t need to look for him anymore. He had retired to the mountains and would never come out again.”

Ping An lowered his head, a few thoughts swirling in his mind. He sighed inwardly, lamenting the elusive nature of worldly affairs. Although he didn't understand the complexities of the martial world, he knew that this separation meant they would never see each other again.

"Young Master, someone from the Imperial Palace has arrived." Just as Ping An and Zhang Ze'an were lost in their own thoughts, the servant from before bowed and walked over.

"The palace?" Zhang Ze'an was puzzled. Since the Second Prince's death, there had been no news from the palace. Hmm? Master Ping'an?

He subconsciously turned around and glanced at Ping An, who was also looking at him, then turned back and asked, "Are you here to see Master Ping An?"

"It's the Crown Prince's men. They said they'd like to invite Daoist Ping An to dine at the palace," the servant said.

Zhang Ze'an looked at Ping An with some doubt and asked, "What does the Crown Prince want with you? Do you know the Crown Prince?"

“I don’t know the Crown Prince, but I do know the Crown Princess’s younger brother, Zhou Zhou.” Ping An stood up and explained to Zhang Ze’an, “The person who brought me back from the snow was one of Zhou Zhou’s former companions.”

"Is that so?" Zhang Ze'an thought for a moment, then said, "Seeing that it's getting late, I was thinking of letting the Daoist stay for the night, but since the Crown Prince has invited me, I won't stay any longer."

Ping An bowed to Zhang Ze'an and said with a smile, "Thank you for your kindness, Young Master Zhang. Thank you for clearing up my doubts. After this trip to the palace, I will probably head straight to Penglai. I don't know when we will have the chance to meet again."

Zhang Ze'an smiled and said, "If you return to Zoumaguan, we will definitely meet again."

"Farewell."

"Farewell."

The two bowed to each other again.

Zhang Ze'an watched Ping An walk out with the servant carrying his chest, and paused for a moment, gazing at his straight back and light steps. He seemed to see something in Ping An's departing figure, and finally took a deep breath and slowly exhaled: "I see the Daoist priest as a young man, holding a whisk like an immortal."

(End of this chapter)