Бессмертие, Бессмертие

Глава 7

His ingratiating manner reminded Bi Qiuhan of that strange, fat rabbit, and he coughed, "You're not suited for traveling the world; this journey will be very dangerous..."

“I have a heart condition, I’ll die soon, while I can still walk, take me out to play… Life is short, like morning dew, like the fleeting days and nights, time flies like an arrow, years pass like water, time is like a white horse galloping past a crack, never to return…” Shengxiang was on the verge of tears, “If you don’t take me, I will be very sad, and if I’m very sad, my heart condition will flare up, and if my heart condition flares up, I will die. If I die, how can you bear it? In order to prevent you from carrying the shadow of your entire life, you must take me…”

Bi Qiuhan had lived to be twenty-nine years old and had never heard anyone say such things with tears in their eyes, especially not with such seriousness. He couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. "No," he said, trying to maintain a serious expression. "Your health isn't that bad, and besides, Shengxiang, you are Prime Minister Zhao's beloved son. If I take you out, I can't guarantee your safety."

“My dad agreed to let me go out,” Shengxiang looked up at Bi Qiuhan, who was slightly taller than him. “Before, when my dad wanted to scold me, I had already been through a lot of trouble in the underworld. You don’t need to protect me, I’ll protect you.” He said generously, patting Bi Qiuhan’s shoulder with feigned magnanimity. “I’ll be your bodyguard, okay?”

Bi Qiuhan tried hard to add some seriousness to their conversation, to make it sound less absurd and laughable, "Shengxiang, this matter is no small thing, it's not something to joke about..."

"I'm very serious, I'm not joking at all!" Shengxiang said with her big eyes. "Look, I didn't even laugh, I'm very serious."

He didn't actually laugh, but Bi Qiuhan almost did. "No means no. Shengxiang, you're very clever, but the martial world is different from the capital." He smiled slightly, pulling away Shengxiang's hand that was tugging at his sleeve. "Those who make a living in the martial world need more than just martial arts skills, wisdom, and luck; they also need ruthlessness. Shengxiang, your martial arts are not weak, and you're intelligent, but do you dare to kill?" He stared at Shengxiang. "With the blade falling and blood flowing, you don't know if the person in front of you is good or bad. Do you dare to take their life with one stroke?"

Shengxiang covered her ears with one hand to ignore it, then resorted to whining and stomping her foot, "Xiao Bi said he's going to kill someone... Help! Xiao Bi said he's going to kill someone..."

Bi Qiuhan covered his mouth to stop his out-of-context nonsense. "Where did I say I was going to kill someone?" He was almost driven crazy by Shengxiang. How could this guy jump from Zhang San to Zhang Fei?

"You're the one who said that making a living in the underworld means killing people..." Sheng Xiang mumbled, his mouth still covered. Bi Qiuhan wasn't used to speaking with someone's mouth covered, so he had to let go of him. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what do you mean?" Shengxiang looked at him with a smile.

"Wandering the martial world doesn't necessarily mean killing people." The more Bi Qiuhan talked, the more confused he became. He no longer knew why he never let Shengxiang accompany him on his journeys, and why it had come up with the question of whether or not to kill.

"So, I'm the kind of good guy who doesn't kill anyone even when I'm traveling the world, right?" Shengxiang snapped open his folding fan and fanned himself a few times with a smile. "That's what you mean, isn't it?"

Bi Qiuhan was speechless. His meaning was clearly not like that. But saying that Shengxiang wasn't a good person who roamed the martial world but didn't kill also seemed incorrect. Shengxiang asked two "right or wrong" questions; he couldn't say wrong, but it was clearly not right either. Looking at Shengxiang, both amused and exasperated, he was completely confused and didn't know what to say.

Seeing that he smiled bitterly and did not answer, Shengxiang dragged out her last trump card, "Bi Qiuhan comes from Bi..."

"Alright, alright, since the Prime Minister doesn't object, come on if you want to watch the show." Bi Qiuhan smiled wryly, truly helpless against this young master.

Sheng Xiang, having won a resounding victory in the verbal battle, triumphantly fanned himself with his fan. The gold-rimmed folding fan shone brilliantly in the sunlight, exuding an air of extravagance and luxury. Bi Qiuhan secretly shook his head; this young master, oblivious to the hardships of life, had truly experienced the ways of the world. Who knew what kind of scene he would create!

The big, fat gray rabbit tilted its head and looked at Shengxiang from the grass, perhaps seeing something that Bi Qiuhan couldn't. But whether it was through human eyes or rabbit eyes, apart from his bright smile, no one had ever truly understood what Shengxiang was thinking.

That night, several carriages met outside Bianliang city and headed straight for Luoyang.

Bi Qiuhan rode in one carriage with an old man in black who was delivering a message to Nan Ge, while Sheng Xiang rode in another carriage with Nan Ge, who had broken out of prison late at night. Sheng Xiang didn't know who was in the third carriage. The three carriages sped away from Bianliang under cover of night, disappearing into the unknown darkness.

Nan Ge had met Sheng Xiang once before and knew he was the son of the Prime Minister. He knew a little more than Bi Qiuhan—he knew Sheng Xiang was a close friend of Yu Xiu, the former Imperial Censor, now respectfully known in the martial arts world as "Heavenly Eye." Nan Ge's willingness to surrender and spend over half a year in the Kaifeng Prefecture prison was a result of his defeat and surrender to Yu Xiu. On the night of that battle at the Dali Temple, he was caught off guard when Sheng Xiang suddenly covered his mouth. The scent of the young master's Eight Treasure Osmanthus Balm from that night remained vivid in his memory; how could he forget it? Therefore, he slipped away and got into the carriage. Upon seeing Sheng Xiang, he was taken aback, "You?"

Sheng Xiang sat inside the carriage, on one of two large, gold-painted and green-decorated trunks. Upon seeing Nan Ge, he smiled and looked up, "It's me."

When Shengxiang looked up, Nange saw that he was holding a large, fat gray rabbit in his arms. Ordinary rabbits are at most the size of a cat, and wild rabbits are even leaner and more wiry, but Shengxiang's rabbit was a size larger than usual, resembling a half-sized pillow when held. Nange was momentarily taken aback. He was far more carefree and easygoing than Bi Qiuhan, but after that brief surprise, he relaxed, laughed, and sat down. "Why are you keeping a rabbit in Master Bi's carriage?"

Shengxiang, beaming with pride, opened the lid of a large wooden chest. Nange looked inside with admiration—it was a rabbit hutch, and inside the chest was a basin containing a pork rib. As soon as the rabbit entered the chest, it began to gnaw on the rib with relish, oblivious to everything around it, its ears twitching.

"A rabbit that eats meat? This is the first time I've ever seen one in my life." Nan Ge looked thoughtfully at the box where Sheng Xiang was sitting. "Could that be a doghouse? Or is it a dog that eats grass?"

Shengxiang rolled her eyes at him. "When I go out, of course I need to bring some changes of clothes." He rested his chin on his hand and looked at the rabbit in the box with a smile. "And some food supplies."

“I’ve heard that Master Bi is known for his prudence and propriety,” Nan Ge smiled. “You’re raising rabbits in his carriage, doesn’t he get angry?” He looked around. The carriage was spacious with a couch, and even with two large boxes of incense piled up, it didn’t feel crowded. The walls were also embroidered with flowers and plants. “This is not a carriage that you can hire on the street.”

"Is this his specially made carriage?" Shengxiang asked in surprise. "I had no idea. All I know is that he agreed to let me come along. Since the carriage was parked in front of my house, I naturally picked the one that looked best to me." He rested his chin on his hand and said innocently, "He peeked in himself and then decided not to ride in this carriage. Xiao Bi didn't say that rabbits weren't allowed, nor did he say that it was his carriage and no one else could ride in it."

Nan Ge chuckled. He knew that Sheng Xiang had clearly seen through the fact that it was a woman's carriage, yet she had still gotten in, obviously to deliberately annoy Bi Qiuhan. Bi Qiuhan was clean, polite, cautious, and not easily impulsive, while Sheng Xiang was keeping rabbits in his beloved's carriage. Nan Ge was naturally open-minded and didn't find Sheng Xiang hateful; instead, he found it amusing. "Young Master Sheng Xiang, you came all the way from the capital with Master Bi, what are you plotting?" He smiled at Sheng Xiang, his insight deeper than Bi Qiuhan's, perhaps because he was a more profound person. "I don't believe you're just here for the spectacle."

Shengxiang answered seriously, "Of course it's not just for watching the show." He chuckled and said, "There's a lot more, let me think..." He counted on his fingers, "Hmm, for example, being an inside agent, monitoring you, tipping you off, calling the soldiers to arrest you when you're plotting something, or selling you all to Li Lingyan when I'm unhappy... Of course, most importantly, I want to see what Li Lingyan looks like." He tilted his head and thought for a moment, then added, "And what his sister looks like."

Nan Ge smiled and said, "I believe you are not a bad person."

"Of course I'm a good person." Shengxiang glared at him. "By the way, did Xiao Bi tell you where we're going?"

Nan Ge shook his head. "Master Bi is known for his caution. He would never tell anyone something he felt he shouldn't say." He lay back on the couch, looking quite carefree. "Anyway, you'll find out when we get there."

Shengxiang smiled and rested her chin on her hand as she looked at Nange, who was about to close her eyes to rest. "Hey, if Li Lingyan tries to win you over, will you go with him to take revenge?"

Nan Ge smiled slightly, without opening her eyes. "Many people in the martial world are confused. Seeking revenge for one's father and Li Lingyan's ambition are two completely different things, unrelated as night and day."

"I said—if you found your enemy, would you take revenge?"

"meeting."

"Then why haven't you gone after all these years to find your enemy?"

“Because I don’t want to live for the dead.” Nan Ge opened her eyes and smiled. “Of course, if my enemy comes to me, I will still take revenge.”

Saint Fragrance tilted her head to look at him, as if she had seen some strange monster.

Nan Ge was surprised. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Saint Fragrance glanced at him and smiled. He remained seated on his opulent, gilded chest, his chin resting on his hand, but his gaze slowly drifted towards the carriage window. "I was just thinking... what kind of person would be someone who doesn't live for the dead..."

Nan Ge frowned, but then heard him slowly reply, "Even if one can avoid living for the dead, one cannot escape... living for the living..."

When Shengxiang said this, her eyes were as clear as glass.

When he gave that look, a glint of light flashed in Nan Ge's eyes. It wasn't that he didn't have these feelings, but he had never expressed them so clearly... never so clearly as if he had thought about them a thousand or ten thousand times, as if he had struggled after experiencing endless suffering—and then become indifferent, as if he had seen through it all—without sorrow or joy, without hatred or laughter.

Is this sacred incense?

"It's late, I'm going to sleep." Suddenly, Shengxiang turned around and yawned widely. "Hey, get off the bed, let me sleep in it."

Nan Ge was truly stunned. He had never seen anyone's expression change so quickly and so seamlessly—it was as if the fleeting incense he had just seen was an illusion, as if he were dreaming.

"Hey! Get down!" Shengxiang's folding fan was already pointed at him. "This young master is in poor health. Such a long journey might kill me halfway there. Why don't you get down quickly? What if I fall ill from overwork? How will you compensate me? If I die, it'll be your fault..."