Chapter 1155 - 837: Rift Between Brothers, Quarrel Within the Family
Just then, a loud, piercing sound suddenly rang out along the Thousand-step Corridor—
"Waaah!"
The two people in the pavilion immediately fell silent and looked warily in this direction. Eunuch Yu and the other little eunuchs standing outside the pavilion all turned their heads as well. Shang Ruyi, slightly startled, also lowered her head to look at the bundle in her arms. The little brat wrapped in swaddling clothes was squinting his eyes, clenching his tiny fists, grinning.
The sound just now had come from him.
Shang Ruyi wasn’t actually very afraid. After all, everyone came and went along this Thousand-step Corridor, and she was still a bit of a distance away; no matter how you counted it, it couldn’t be considered eavesdropping. She only felt this child was too tactless, and lightly patted him through the swaddling.
The baby was jostled, stunned for a moment, then started to mumble and whimper.
On the other side, Yu Wenquan had already seen her. Though he had been discussing vexing matters just now, a smile immediately appeared on his cold, hard face. He said, "Ruyi is here. Come over."
Eunuch Yu hurried forward to welcome Princess Qin into the Liubu Pavilion. Shang Ruyi didn’t dare say much, stepped forward and bowed. Yu Wenquan hastily raised his hand to indicate she was exempt from the ceremony, then said, "Your body hasn’t recovered yet. When you see me, you don’t need to be overly formal."
"Thank you for your grace, Father Emperor."
"By the way, why have you come out? I heard from the Imperial Physician that these days you mustn’t tire yourself or catch a chill."
"Yes, but your daughter-in-law saw that the weather today was quite good, and there was hardly any wind, so I thought I’d take the child out for a little walk."
As she spoke, she lifted her head and glanced at Yu Wenquan. Seeing he seemed about to speak, she immediately said, "Although the child isn’t yet a full month old, your daughter-in-law thought that since he is, after all, Father Emperor’s eldest grandson, he mustn’t be overindulged and raised too delicately; besides, within this palace, he is also under Father Emperor’s heavenly might and protection."
Hearing this, Yu Wenquan instantly broke into a smile.
He held out his hands and said, "Come, let me hold my grandson."
Shang Ruyi hurriedly stepped forward and handed him the swaddled baby, then added, "Also, this child is strange. These past two days he hasn’t made a sound, neither smiling nor fussing. Yet just now when your daughter-in-law carried him here, perhaps he knew his Grandpa was here, and he suddenly started making a racket."
"Oh?"
Hearing this, Yu Wenquan quickly took the swaddling and lowered his head to look. His fair, delicate Imperial Grandson first opened his big, dark eyes wide, looking around outside. After a while, his gaze seemed to finally settle on Yu Wenquan’s face. He stared blankly for a moment—or perhaps he hadn’t really seen him clearly at all, and only sensed something—and then let out a series of loud "waaah" sounds that were clearly laughter directed at him.
Yu Wenquan’s brows immediately opened and his eyes crinkled with delight. He said to the little milk baby, "This little fellow, what a loud voice!"
Shang Ruyi quickly said, "Perhaps all the sounds of these few days have been saved up for this moment. He was so quiet before that your daughter-in-law was worried about his health."
As she spoke, she lowered her head and smiled. "Turns out he was saving it to be affectionate with Grandpa."
These words made Yu Wenquan’s heart swell with pleasure. Even the trace of displeasure pressing on his heart just now was completely swept away. Coupled with the milky scent from the baby in his arms and that almost animal-like, direct affection and joy, it made him—who had hardly slept soundly since ascending the throne, and could not relax his mind for even a moment—feel an unspeakable delight.
He seemed to sigh lightly and said, "This child, he’s good."
"..."
"He already puts my three sons to shame in how little he worries me."
At these words, Shang Ruyi’s heart gave a jolt. She instinctively wanted to turn her head and look at Yu Wencheng, who had taken a step back the moment she entered and was now exuding a dense, gloomy aura. But before she could lift her head, she heard him give a cold laugh and say, "Father Emperor, your son knows it is your unfilial son who has troubled you."
Yu Wenquan raised his head and looked at him, his expression complicated.
At this moment Shang Ruyi finally turned her head and said to him, "Third Brother, you—"
Before she could finish, her throat tightened and the words stuck!
Standing opposite her, Yu Wencheng still held the thin strip of gauze he had just removed. His face bore a lazy smile, but his gaze was icy cold, making an inexplicable chill surge up in her chest. Especially when she clearly saw the wound on his forehead, Shang Ruyi’s eyes flew wide open!
Yu Wencheng’s face was still as young and handsome as ever, yet it carried that same deeply unsettling gloom and slyness. All of this, Shang Ruyi was far too familiar with.
Only one thing was entirely unfamiliar to her—and it shocked her to the core.
The end of Yu Wencheng’s eyebrow was actually missing a section!
A not-too-big, not-too-small scar, almost half an inch long, slanted across the tail of his left eyebrow, forcibly severing his brow!
Although Yu Wenquan had never doted on his sons, and aside from Yu Wenqian, who had left home early to travel and cultivate, Yu Wenye and Yu Wencheng who stayed by his side had never lived lives of luxury. Yu Wenye had been tempered in the army since childhood, and though Yu Wencheng was younger, he already bore the heavy responsibility of guarding the Dragon Raising Land. So he had long accepted that, on the battlefield, they might be injured, even lose limbs. He had imagined it, and he could accept it.
Even Shang Ruyi had long grown accustomed to the men of the Yuwen Family living such blade-and-shadow, peril-laden lives.
Yet this seemingly small scar shook her heart and mind.
One must know, the eyebrows rule the Brothers Palace!
If the eyebrows are damaged, in their eyes it signifies estranged limbs, brothers at odds, siblings at war!
When Yu Wencheng had first returned to Chang An and appeared at Dong Bizheng’s mourning hall, they had already found his wound odd. His forehead had been wrapped in layer upon layer of bandages, as if the injury were on his brow, yet strangely pressing down on the tail of one eyebrow. Now she realized the real wound was here!
No wonder, when they had previously said that if the Crown Prince wanted revenge on them, he would do two things—harm people and seize power—Yu Wenye had replied that not necessarily, because Yu Wencheng had already returned. And he had deliberately asked her whether she could tell where Yu Wencheng was injured.
At that time, he had already foreseen it.
Yu Wencheng’s eyebrow had been struck!
This was no grave injury to muscle or bone, yet to Yu Wenquan, as father and Emperor, it was the most heartbreaking kind of wound. No matter how much he pinned his hopes on his eldest, doted on his youngest, or relied heavily on yet harbored dissatisfaction toward his middle son, the last thing he ever wished to see was a situation among brothers spiraling out of control.
But this wound seemed to pierce his softest spot, and proclaimed everything he absolutely did not wish to see!
Within the Liubu Pavilion, an oppressive, suffocating silence instantly descended.
After a long moment, it was Yu Wencheng who spoke first. Still smiling, he said, "Is this wound very frightening?"
"..."
"Father Emperor, rest assured. This wound doesn’t hurt, and it doesn’t itch. It won’t affect me in leading troops to war."
As he spoke, he turned his head lightly toward Shang Ruyi, his tone offhand, his smile cold. "Second Sister-in-law, don’t you agree?"