Chapter 9: extra 9
[Zhongli] «Different Paths» 01 - Peddling Orthopaedic Shares1
All my life, I have been working on sending him and I in completely opposite paths.
What is there to regret?
—
Twenty years ago, the world didn’t have Zong or Heng2, it also didn’t have the Zhongli Court.
The seven Schools and twelve Sects of the world all listened to the orders of the Wangsheng3 Palace, located at the side of the Wushui River.
The Wangsheng Palace had the Ten Halls of the Yama4 under it’s command, each with it’s own specialisation, skilled in voodoo and sorcery, who swept away everything before them and won every fight. Underneath the Master of the Wangsheng Palace, there were six black-armoured horsemen with no regard for the law, and no way to go against them.
The Wangsheng Palace was ruthless and extreme, offending the public’s anger for a long time. In order to solidify it’s foundation, each Sect was required to send out a person of importance to the sect into the Wangsheng Palace as a hostage.
Although Zhongli Court was located at a major road in the Central plains, it was, after all, a family of low status which had been overlooked in the past few years. When the order to send a hostage fell on the Master of Zhongli Court, Zhongli Qian, his second son Zhongli Zixi was crouching by the riverbank watching his older brother teach him how to catch fish. That year, the eldest son Zixu was nine years old, and the second son Zixi was seven.
Before he could catch a fish, older brother Zixu, with his pockets filled with small shrimp, was carried ashore by a guard and shoved all the way until he was facing the head of the house. Zixi trotted after him, and when he reached the doorway of the hall, he heard his father say to his brother: “Pack up, you’re going on a trip somewhere far tomorrow.”
Zixi poked his head inside, and saw his mother secretly wiping away her tears in a corner.
When Zixu came outside of the hall, he stuffed the small shrimp into his younger brother’s arms: “Xiaoxi, help me raise them, they should be grown by the time I come back, so we’ll eat them together then.”
Zixi put the shrimp in his pockets and turned around to face his father, asking: “Where is brother going?”
His father shook his head: “He’s going where he has to, this is his duty.”
Zixi asked: “Can I go with him?”
His mother tearfully spoke: “You don’t know what you’re talking about! How could your mother live if you both went?”
Their mother was a gentle and tenacious person, and he’d never seen her cry in public. Zixi saw his mother’s expression was bitter and knew something was being hidden, but his repeated inquiries were fruitless, so he had no choice but to angrily return.
“Xu’er is the oldest son, he will inevitably be the head of Zhongli Court, if he doesn’t go, then who will go?”
“I heard Changluo Hall’s sister Lu say that the Wangsheng Palace tortures its hostages in every possible way, and that all the thirty hostages sent last year were tortured to death, is that true?”
“Saying they all died is an exaggeration, but it’s true that at least half of them weren’t heard from again. The eldest son of Guan Jie from Jinguan Hall was sent in three years ago and there has been no response from him, and the people that went to ask about him also never came back….. This matter is unavoidable, we’ll just have to see what Xu’er’s luck is.”
“I also heard that the hostages are taken away for medicine experiments and gu refinement, Xu’er is only nine years old….. how will he bear it?….. wu…..”
Zixi didn’t understand most of it, but he clearly knew that his older brother would certainly die if he went.
He covered his mouth as he ran back to his room, rattled, and crouched beside his brother’s bed, who was still peacefully immersed in the land of dreams, watching him for a bit with tears falling from his eyes. After all, he was a seven-year-old child, so there was nothing he could do except cry when things went wrong.
Zixu was woken by his younger brother and jumped in fright when he saw him, hurriedly hugging him and drawing him inside the quilt as he consoled him: “Why are you crying? Did you have a nightmare? Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, your brother is here. Wow your feet are so cold, let me cover them for you…..” His eyes were hazy with sleep, and he hadn’t spoken a few sentences before he fell asleep again.
Zixi finished crying and calmed down, shaking his brother awake and explaining what was at stake. The nine-year-old Zhongli Zixu was baffled, not understanding the seriousness of the matter at all.
Zixi thought for a moment, then dragged his brother out and stuffed him underneath the bed, hiding him: “I won’t come find you tomorrow, don’t come out if anyone calls either.”
Zixu was puzzled: “Huh? What’s this for?”
Zixi warned him repeatedly: “Brother, no matter what, don’t come out. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He left out the door and went to the servant’s bunks next door, picking out a familiar young boy and calling out to him. This young servant and his brother were of similar ages, and their figures were also similar. He gave him a set of his older brother’s clothes and got him inside the carriage, covering him with the bedding, then lied to the young servant by saying they were playing hide-and-seek and he would reward him with a large sum of money if he played with him to the end.
The young boy scratched his head in embarrassment: “I like playing with the two young masters, I don’t need any rewards.”
Zixi felt guilty, and carefully nodded: “Thank you, I will always remember.”
Zixi anxiously returned to the room, pushing the door open and finding that his brother Zixu had already crawled back onto the bed and was sound asleep, and he was immediately terrified. When he stuffed him underneath the bed once more, Zixu shouted: “I don’t want to the floor is cold I want to go back to bed and sleep!”
Zixi had no alternative, he could only grab a hemp rope and tie his hands and feet, stuff a cotton cloth into his mouth, and firmly fasten him to the bed frame underneath the bed.
Zhongli Zixi didn’t sleep that night, sitting on the edge of the bed and enduring until the first light of day, when he was the first to rush to the carriage.
The people sending him off continuously bustled about, but were all sent away by him with a few words. When he saw his parents, he also told them: “Brother said he was tired, and fell asleep when he got on the carriage, don’t wake him up.”
His mother opened the carriage curtain and looked inside, holding back her tears and nodding: “Good night then, your mother won’t wake you.” She couldn’t bear to watch anymore, and rushed back to the courtyard.
The crowd followed the carriage as it departed, then scattered.
After worriedly watching this play unfold, Zixi returned to his room and took his brother out from underneath the bed, then untied him and hugged him, crying silently.
Zixu was inevitably angry from being tied up all night, but watching his brother cry broke his heart, and his attitude softened.
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Zixi sobbed: “I’m scared, brother, our parents want to give you away, we need to escape.”Zixi knew he didn’t understand, so he could only desperately beg him: “I would never hurt you, you need to believe me, brother.”
The bruises on Zixu’s wrists and ankles were still aching dully from being bound by rope, but he still nodded and said: “Okay, I’ll always believe you.”
Zixi urged him for a full day, but his brother still didn’t understand and he had no way to convince him, so he could only plan to talk him into it and drag him away during the night. Once the sun set, Zixi dragged his brother to the wall and slipped out of the courtyard, when he reached the main gate, his breath hitched.
Zhongli Court had a guest.
Ten Halls of white bones, six armoured horsemen.
The pitch-black warhorses stood motionlessly in the night, their crimson pupils looked strange and dangerous. A young man with blood-red clothes sat cross-legged atop a horse, coldly looking down on the crowd out of the corner of his eyes. Father Zhongli Qian and the other family servants trembled as they knelt on the ground, the space between heaven and earth was absolutely silent and lifeless, with only the beating of their hearts like the pounding of a drum.
“Such a remote and desolate place was easy to find. I was pleasantly surprised you dared try to play a dirty trick.” The young man with the blood-red clothes weighted something wrapped in a black cloth on his hand, turning it around to a few different angles with a cold expression, his words didn’t carry a single bit of joy, but rather oozed cold, “This is a gift for meeting you, take it.”
He casually threw it towards Zhongli Qian. Zhongli Qian didn’t dare catch it, letting it slide past the side of his ear and tumble towards the threshold, not far from where the two brothers were.
Zixu, who didn’t understand the situation, bent down to pick up the package. It was round and not hard, it could even be said it was soft, and there was something sticky and a little damp on it.
Zhongli Zixu unwrapped it.
——Inside was his mother’s still-warm head.
Zixu let out a blood-curdling scream and instinctively let go. Seeing their mother was about to fall to the ground, Zixi swiftly caught the package, quickly covering the pair of beautiful, still-open eyes and wrapping it back up. He grasped the blood-drenched package in horror, stunned in place and at a loss on what to do.
He turned his head to see the crowd gasping in shock, and Zhongli Qian glared as he rushed to grab his eldest son’s hand, incredulously asking: “Xu’er?! Didn’t we send you to Wangsheng Palace? What are you still doing here?!”
The young man in blood-red clothes slightly lifted his eyes, letting out a sneer as he heard what was said.
The eldest son Zixu was speechless at the sudden turn of events, and the second son Zixi hurriedly said: “I was the one who hid older brother, he had nothing to do with it!”
Zhongli Qian flew into a rage and ruthlessly struck him on the face with the palm of his hand: “Bastard! You’re going to kill us all!!”
Zixu asked blankly: “Mother is dead? Why is she dead? Brother, you….. what on earth did you do?”
Zixi hurriedly shook his head: “It wasn’t me! I didn’t do it on purpose…..”
“You still say it wasn’t you! You think you’re so clever, playing tricks?! Evil creature!” Zhongli Qian slapped him again.
Zixi was stunned by the slap, and it was a long time until he asked: “The ones sending brother to his death were other people, the ones who killed mother were also other people, why are you putting all this blame on me? Was I wrong? Brother….. did I really make a mistake?”
“We will send the eldest son to Wangsheng Palace, we’re completely loyal, please have mercy…..” When Zixi heard these words, he immediately sobered up again.
“No! Don’t!” Zixi got in front of his brother and yelled: “I can go be the hostage!”
The young man in the blood-red clothes looked at him coldly and mocked: “The hostages my Wangsheng Palace wants are candidates who will become the heads of their households. What are you?”
Zixi was silent for a while. He was the second son, so as a rule he didn’t have the qualifications to inherit the family, and he had no way of changing this.
He turned his head to look at his older brother and was dazed for a while, then suddenly clenched his teeth and pushed Zixu to the ground, picked the biggest, heaviest rock he could lift from his side, and ruthlessly smashed it against his brother’s foot.
Zixi got up amid his brother’s screams and threw the rock away, resolutely saying: “His leg is already crippled, Zhongli Court can’t let a handicapped, lame person become the head, so it can only be me——The future head of the household, and today’s hostage, can only be me.”
The young man in blood-red clothes laughed loudly, overjoyed: “I’ll allow it, I’ll allow it! Boy, it’s truly a shame you were born from the wrong womb, if you had been born in the Wangsheng Palace, I would be willing to confer you a Yama to play with.”
Zixi shook his head and forced a laugh: “Let’s be on our way.”
He only thought: If I had been born in another family, how would I meet my older brother?
Zixi turned back, wanting to say goodbye to his older brother and give him one last hug. Zixu saw him turn around and come back, and recoiled in terror, dragging his broken leg behind him in his desire to avoid him.
“I will never hurt you, brother, you have to believe me.” Zixi grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him back, lightly kissing his cheek, “Wait for me to come back.”
His answer was silence.
(The Eldest Young Master, who is extroverted and flirtatious outside, just turns into a cowardly dog when he returns home)
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1 Oh boy here we go lmao. ‘Peddling __ shares’ refers to promoting a ship (wanting the reader to ‘invest’ in the couple by ‘buying shares’ of the ship). ‘Orthopaedic’ comes from ‘German orthopaedics’ which is a tongue-in-cheek reference to a story of a brother and sister being incestuously involved and getting caught in the act, the brother’s leg is broken and he is sent away to Germany to recuperate, so ‘orthopaedic stories’ are basically incest stories. The term ‘orthopaedic’ can also be used to mock a sibling’s controlling/overprotective behaviour towards another sibling. Just to clarify, the author is joking (the next chap continues the story and ‘peddles’ a different ship). Top.
2 Same words from Zonglian and Henglian, the main story’s major power alliances. Top.
3 枉生 lit. crooked/wasted life, an ironic play on words on its homophone 往生 which means life after death/life in paradise. Top.
4 閻羅 a Yama is a King of Hell in Buddhist mythology. Top.
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