The First Jasmine - Chapter 156
Chapter 156 - Su Zhidie's Value
A heavy quiet hung over the room, filled only with the sound of Mo Xiurao leisurely returning the scattered chess pieces to the board, one by one. Just when Han Mingyue thought Mo Xiurao would not answer, he heard him say with cold indifference, "So what?"
Han Mingyue let out a helpless smile. Indeed, so what? Even if the martial world and imperial courts turned upside down in chaos, what did it have to do with Prince Ding's Manor? Furthermore, because the Bright Moon Pavilion's forces in Great Chu were currently broken and scattered, Great Chu would suffer the least impact. Prince Ding's Manor could even take advantage of the opportunity to plant their own people inside. Resting his forehead on his hand, Han Mingyue pondered for a long moment before raising his head to look at his former close friend. "What benefit do I get?"
Mo Xiurao's smile was cool and detached. "This Prince sparing your life—does that not count as a benefit?"
Han Mingyue was struck speechless. He was used to habitually thinking that Mo Xiurao would not kill him, yet he kept forgetting that the friendship between them had ceased to exist the moment he chose to betray him. Looking at the calm and indifferent Mo Xiurao before him, Han Mingyue suddenly understood... if he did not agree, Mo Xiurao truly would show him no mercy. Shrugging helplessly, Han Mingyue said, "It seems I have no room for choice." Mo Xiurao looked calmly at the chessboard before him. Han Mingyue knitted his brows and asked, "How do you intend to handle Zhidie?"
A subtle shift finally appeared in Mo Xiurao's originally serene expression. He knitted his brows slightly, clear disgust written across his handsome features where they were exposed outside the mask. "This is Ah Li's affair; this Prince has no interest in knowing." In his words, he completely entrusted Su Zhidie's life and death to Ye Li.
"Do you truly not care about Zhidie in the slightest?" Han Mingyue stared at him, asking in a heavy voice.
Mo Xiurao raised his head to look at him, a faint trace of mockery flashing in his eyes. "If this Prince truly cared about her, do you think the two of you would still be alive today?" Precisely because he did not love Su Zhidie, he had let them go when Su Zhidie left him alongside Han Mingyue, even helping them clean up their mess afterward. Yet he never expected that Su Zhidie leaving together with Han Mingyue was merely an excuse to stall his wrath. After leaving the Chu Capital, Su Zhidie discarded Han Mingyue without a second thought and went straight to Xiling, subsequently becoming a daughter of the Xiling Bai Family and Xiling's Imperial Noble Consort. From beginning to end, Han Mingyue was merely the one being used.
Han Mingyue looked at Mo Xiurao with envy, smiling faintly as he said, "Sometimes I truly envy you. We could be said to have known each other since childhood. Almost from the very first glance I laid on Zhidie, I liked her, yet her gaze was always chasing after you. As for you... to tell the truth, before this, I never found that you truly cared about any person or thing. Except for Prince Ding's Manor, your father, and your elder brother." Mo Xiurao raised an eyebrow. "Are you complaining that this Prince was not good enough to you all back then, which led to your betrayal?"
The light, offhand word "betrayal" still made Han Mingyue's face turn slightly pale. Betraying the person he had once deemed his best friend and brother in this life was an eternal, indescribable guilt and crime in his heart. Shaking his head slightly, he said, "No. The Second Young Master of Prince Ding's Manor... elegant, romantic, romantic, and unrestrained, treating his friends with even greater chivalrous courage, deep affection, and loyalty. But... Xiurao, do you know? From the very beginning, I knew you didn't love Zhidie." Speaking up to this point, Han Mingyue suddenly burst into laughter, as if remembering something. Meeting the gaze Mo Xiurao cast over, Han Mingyue laughed even more pleasantly. "You were very good to Zhidie. Whatever fine things there were, you would give to her; whatever she wanted, as long as it was reasonable, you would certainly fulfill it for her. Unlike other young masters from prominent families, you never lingered among the flowers, nor did you ever look at other women—such as that Imperial Consort Liu, who was equally famous throughout the capital. But... you never looked at Zhidie with genuine devotion either. Such a peerless beauty seemed no different in your eyes than all the ordinary women in the world. When I, when Third Brother Feng, when almost every single one of us at that age was struggling in love and passion, you were completely detached from it all, as if you weren't a person of this mortal realm at all. At that time, I was thinking... perhaps I wasn't without a chance."
Recalling the time when he was fifteen or sixteen and full of youthful arrogance, Mo Xiurao couldn't help but reveal a trace of nostalgia. "Perhaps it was because I hadn't met that specific person... If you had told me directly back then, and Su Zhidie also agreed, I would have fulfilled your wishes." Looking back at the past, Mo Xiurao had to admit that Han Mingyue was right. He felt no anger toward Han Mingyue's brazen statements about having coveted his fiancée back then. As long as it was not his Ah Li, and as long as the other party agreed, he didn't feel that fulfilling the wishes of a pair of lovers would cause him to lose face. Of course, Han Mingyue and Su Zhidie were impossible, because what Su Zhidie wanted from beginning to end was never Han Mingyue. He might truly be unfeeling, but that was only because he had not yet met the one he truly wanted.
"But... I forgot... even if it wasn't you, it wouldn't necessarily be me." A trace of pain and conflict showed in Han Mingyue's words. When he carried the conflicted feelings of guilt and joy in his heart to lead the woman he had admired for many years away from the capital, he only then discovered that betraying his best friend was not the most painful moment of his life. Rather, it was when he realized that the woman he admired was not at all the way he had imagined, yet he remained deeply trapped within, unable to pull himself out. "I truly envy you... Xiurao, spare Zhidie's life. I beg of you..."
"What does Master Han intend to trade for Su Zhidie's life?" Ye Li's clear and pleasant voice echoed leisurely outside the door.
Mo Xiurao put down the chess piece in his hand, stood up, and walked to the doorway to take Ye Li's hand as she entered. Lowering his head, he asked, "How do you have free time to come over?" Ye Li smiled faintly, glancing at Han Mingyue as she said with a laugh, "It seems that in the Prince of Zhennan's eyes, Master Han is worth far more than the Number One Beauty in the World." Han Mingyue smiled bitterly. "Your Grace must be joking. Does Your Grace not understand as well? I will not run away." Ye Li tilted her head, looking at Han Mingyue as she sighed, "What is love in this world that it binds people so... Were it not for the special circumstances today, this Princess truly couldn't bear to make things difficult for Master Bright Moon."
Han Mingyue lowered his eyes without speaking. Had he already fallen to the point where he needed pity from others?
"What does Your Grace want this humble one to trade with? Just now, I made a deal with the Prince, and now I am completely empty-handed with nothing left." Han Mingyue spread his hands, looking at Ye Li with a smile.
Ye Li pursed her lips and smiled. "Saying such words... does Master Han believe them himself? A cunning hare has three burrows; Master Han is a smart man, so how could you gamble everything on the Bright Moon Pavilion alone?" Han Mingyue's smile faded slightly. Giving a deep look to the gentle, smiling Ye Li before him, he sighed, "For Xiurao to marry Your Grace is truly a stroke of great fortune." Ye Li smiled faintly. "I take that as a compliment." Han Mingyue was speechless. Reaching into his robes, he pulled out a jade pendant and tossed it over, saying, "Since Your Grace is so confident, then this... I presume you also know how to use it?" Ye Li was clearly very satisfied with the jade pendant in her hand, smiling as she said, "Master Han is generous indeed. Since Master Han acts like this, this Princess is not a stingy person either. Once the siege of Xincheng is lifted, Master may naturally leave with Miss Su." Having obtained the desired reward, Ye Li no longer repeatedly called Su Zhidie "Imperial Noble Consort Bai" to disgust Han Mingyue.
Han Mingyue raised an eyebrow and asked, "Why not right now?"
Ye Li's smile was kind and innocent. "I am also doing this for Master Han's sake. Of course, if Master Han is in a hurry to leave, this Princess won't stop you either."
Han Mingyue was silent for a long while before cupping his hands and saying, "Then I shall impose upon Your Grace."
Leaving Han Mingyue's courtyard, the two walked hand in hand. Mo Xiurao looked down at Ye Li, who was playing with the jade pendant with one hand, and asked softly, "Ah Li, why let Han Mingyue and Su Zhidie go?" Ye Li froze slightly, raising an eyebrow as she said, "Did the Prince not intend to spare their lives?" Mo Xiurao let out a soft hmph and said, "What are their lives worth? Taking them or not is merely a matter of a single word." Ye Li sighed in her heart. Fine, she had misunderstood, thinking that Mo Xiurao couldn't bear to take Han Mingyue's and Su Zhidie's lives but found it awkward to speak up. Having spent so much time together, how could she think Mo Xiurao was such an indecisive person? Sure enough... she was still influenced by Su Zhidie, was she not?
"Out of consideration for Mingxi, it's better to keep Han Mingyue. Since we're keeping Han Mingyue, we cannot refrain from keeping Su Zhidie as well. Otherwise, I fear Han Mingyue truly would turn into an enemy, whereas Su Zhidie is the best magic tool to keep Han Mingyue in check." Thinking for a moment, Ye Li smiled softly and said, "Besides, we also obtained a sufficient price. These things are completely enough to purchase the two lives of Han Mingyue and Su Zhidie, are they not?"
Mo Xiurao raised an eyebrow, looking at the jade pendant in her hand with some curiosity as he asked, "What good thing made Ah Li so happy?"
Ye Li smiled and said, "Do you not want to know where the Bright Moon Pavilion's money went all these years? Han Mingyue is reputed to love money as much as his own life; would the money in his hands be little? Yet whether it was the current Han family or the various branches of the Bright Moon Pavilion that we raided in Great Chu, not much money was found in any of them, was there?" Mo Xiurao looked at the jade pendant with some surprise. "Han Mingyue's personal wealth?" Ye Li smiled and said, "Not just money, but also provisions, cloth, weapons, and medicinal materials... Han Mingyue truly lives up to his name; when it comes to making money, he is far more capable than Mingxi. What a pity... his mind has to suffer a stroke of madness every now and then." Speaking of this, Ye Li felt no lack of regret. In this world, among the people she had met—including Leng Haoyu and prominent families like the Feng family—not a single person possessed Han Mingyue's methods for making money. When she saw the results of Wei Lin's investigation, she couldn't help but feel it was a pity as well. If Han Mingyue hadn't been burdened by Su Zhidie, she wouldn't mind partnering with him. Now that a partnership was impossible, she would simply reap the rewards.
Mo Xiurao raised an eyebrow. "Han Mingyue wanted to take advantage of the widespread war to make money?" To be able to move Ah Li's heart, one could imagine just how massive a hoard of supplies Han Mingyue had accumulated.
"In times of chaos, anyone with vision doesn't worry about failing to make a fortune," Ye Li said with a smile.
Mo Xiurao nodded and said, "Since Ah Li puts it this way, keeping them doesn't matter. However, as for Su Zhidie, you had better have people keep an eye on her." Ye Li looked at Mo Xiurao in surprise. Mo Xiurao lowered his head and smiled, "I know Ah Li feels Su Zhidie has no real ability, right? In truth... if not for Su Zhidie, Han Mingyue wouldn't be any threat at all. Does Ah Li understand my meaning?"
Ye Li nodded. "I understand. I will have people keep an eye on Su Zhidie." She had indeed intentionally or unintentionally looked down on Su Zhidie somewhat, but what Mo Xiurao said was not wrong either—if Su Zhidie lacked even the slightest ability, how could she have manipulated Han Mingyue for so many years?