Qiang Jin Jiu (Author : Tang Jiuqing 唐酒卿)

Chapter 96 : Collapse

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Note:
The titles for this and last chapter make up 大厦倾塌, or “the mansion collapses”, which is from the idiom 大厦将倾, or “the mansion on the verge of collapse”. The original idiom refers to a hopeless situation, like a mansion on the brink of collapse. The words in this and the last chapter suggest that this mansion has already collapsed, or i.e., the situation is a total goner. 

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The sky’s overcast foreshadowed the incoming rainstorm. 

Xiao Chiye took off Langli Blade by the palace entrance and stepped into the dark and long hallway. Eunuchs kneeling on either side all kept quiet with their heads lowered. Silence befell in and outside of Mingli Hall. With scuttling steps, Fuman led Xiao Chiye to the door and lifted the curtains. The bed curtains within the bedchamber were not drawn up. There was a suffocating heat inside, mixed with a hint of blood. 
Fuman whispered between sobs, “Your Majesty, look. His Lordship is here!”

Li Jianheng answered from within and said, “Tell the rest to take their leave. I want to speak with the marquis before the Secretariat Elder arrives. Do not disturb us.” 

Fuman quietly exited with the other servants. 

“Ce’an.” Li Jianheng seemed to have shifted his body. He said, “Pull the bed curtains open.” 

Xiao Chiye raised his hand and pulled the hanging curtains back. The bed was stained all over with blood. Li Jianheng looked as if he was soaking in a pool of filthy color. His chest heaved as he struggled to gasp for breath. 

“Brother.” Li Jianheng’s pale face was full of tears and sweat. He wiped off the sweat with his trembling hand, but smeared his entire face with blood instead, “Where the heck have you been? The anxiety is killing me.” 

Mu Ru was lying beside Li Jianheng. Dead. 

Xiao Chiye suddenly felt a little lonesome. Even though he knew this meeting was a trap, he still agreed to this invitation just to live up to this word of “brother” from Li Jianheng. The brotherhood of their reckless youth was already crushed and shattered to smithereens under the unforgiving wheel of power; yet in this moment, it seemed as though it was glued back together again. He felt as if he had returned to the past. He hung up the curtains and said in a raspy voice, “It was very windy on the way here, and there were too many people on Shenwu Street, which made it inconvenient to ride a horse.”
 
Li Jianheng raised the hand that was covering up his wound and looked at where he was stabbed. He said, “You have been a good brother to me. You clearly knew this trip was dangerous, yet you still came. It is not in vain that I, Li Jianheng, could be buddies with you.” 

Xiao Chiye pulled over a chair to sit down and looked at Li Jianheng as his Adam’s apple bobbed several times. He said, “I had already told you a long time back that she was not a good match for you.” 

“But I liked her so much,” Li Jianheng blankly rubbed the blood between his fingers. “I thought she liked me too. Fuck… so this is how much it hurts to be stabbed with a knife.” 

Xiao Chiye rubbed his face and propped his elbows on his knees. He said, “What did you want to tell me now that you have called me over?” 

Li Jianheng turned his eyes and chuckled at Xiao Chiye through his tears before his face fell again. Choking with sobs, he said with a broken voice, “I called for you, so you came. The fuck is wrong with you, Xiao Ce’an. Do you know that it’s full of people out there… waiting for you with swords in their hands?”