“My lord,” Yan Xiaohan laughed, “don’t be naive. You’ve long known what kind of person I am, so why bother trying to cover for me? Although we’re both in the court, you govern the country, while I’m merely an official. Not for fame, only for profit; not for the world, only for myself.”
“Pursuing profit, choosing where to settle – this is the way of officialdom.”
“So,” he said, “I’m not on your side. I’m on the side most beneficial to me.”
He was a chess piece, and also the third person holding the chess board.
He could be used by one side, charging forward, or he could overturn the entire board at a moment’s notice.
Since Emperor Yuantai doesn’t like his weapons to have too many ideas, he might as well make him a defenseless loner.
Because the chess piece is unhappy.
“Fine, good,” Fu Shen laughed from anger, “then why did you bring me back? Why not just let me die at the palace gates?”
Yan Xiaohan said carelessly: “Of course because I covet your beauty, my lord.”
Fu Shen: “…”
He, a decisive military commander, most hated the circuitous atmosphere of the capital’s officialdom. Yan Xiaohan knew his temper, laughing lightly and pacifying him before he could explode: “Fu Shen, stop trying to find excuses for me.”
When he stopped calling him “my lord” and called him by name, the armor seemed to fall away, revealing a distant yet familiar profile – the Yan Xiaohan Fu Shen first knew.
“Choosing between military and imperial power is different from casually helping you. We’ve known each other for years. I can’t just watch you trapped there.”
Just as he said, Yan Xiaohan drew a clear line between friendship’s “righteousness” and court “righteousness”.
Fu Shen was finally speechless. He disliked convincing others with words, and today’s repeated questioning was already unusual. His patience was exhausted, and he was displeased with Yan Xiaohan’s “self-abandonment”, saying coldly: “Are you done?”
Yan Xiaohan knew he was about to get angry.
Fu Shen, who had been a young master and then a general, was used to having the final say. Sometimes when he got angry, he was truly… unreasonable.
Even so, Yan Xiaohan persisted under the dark clouds: “I’ll have someone send medicine later, remember…”
Fu Shen coldly said: “Get out.”
