WAR PRISONER

War Prisoner Chapter 68

Author: 梨花烟雨(Li Hua Yan Yu) /Lê Hoa Yên Vũ

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War Prisoner Chapter 68

At this moment, all sorts of different feelings welled up in Wanyan Xu's heart, and he sighed faintly. Wanyan Shuo had sharp ears, on picking up his Imperial Father's faint sigh, he quickly came over to investigate and immediately fell silent as well. When the Empress Dowager, Concubine Yin and the rest noticed the pair of them acting so peculiarly, they were inevitable curious. The hall was set with windows all along its walls, so glancing in the same direction, the crowd could see what it was that had arrested the attention of Wanyan Xu and his son. When they saw the lonely figure in the snow, they were similarly stumped.　

At the moment, the weather was bitterly cold; a thick mantle of snow had covered the grounds as far as the eye could see, seemingly forming a layer of solid ice. Su Yi was hauling two large buckets of water; his body was laden down, his legs were already unsound, therefore he could only slowly and deliberately take each step as he made his way along the stone path. His clothes were thin and worn, unable to provide much protection against the cold. Fortunately, due to his former position as a military man, he had been obliged to practice martial arts religiously and he could deploy his inner force to help in resisting the chill. If it wasn't so, he would have been frozen to death.

But the stone steps were narrow; covered with a layer of snow and ice, they were quite hazardous. After a moment of inattention, they say Su Yi's foot slip on the slippery ground, and he tumbled to the ground. Zi Nong gave an alarmed cry, and hurriedly covered her mouth to muffle the sound but it was too late. Everyone looked towards Su Yi again, and saw that after being jostled, half of the water had spilled out from both of the buckets. In the cold weather, the water formed into ice in mere moments. Quite a large quantity of water had also spilled onto Su Yi's clothes, and now, they were similarly frosted over. Su Yi quickly extended his hand to grab hold of the buckets, and managed to steady himself with much difficulty. However, because of his damaged leg, he could not manage to crawl up again and in a blink of an eye, he had taken a few more tumbles. As for the water, it had been thoroughly spilled.

Wanyan Xu couldn't bear to see anymore; turning his head and averting his eyes. Because he was fighting back hot tears, his eyes soon turned red and slightly swollen. The Empress Dowager was by nature compassionate and merciful, when she saw this scene, her heart couldn't help but be distressed. Although the Empress Dowager hated Su Yi for what he had done, she could not help but to take pity on him when she saw this scene.

She glanced towards her son and sighed: "I wonder he still feels that this is worth his trouble? He could have been an honoured Empress, but instead he has to suffer a hard life now." So saying, she called over her personal maid, Xiao Chu, and instructed her: "Find someone to go and help him up. This is a cold day, we should not make someone suffer like this. By right, he should have been executed. In any case, he was a general with great strength of character, he should have preferred death over suffering this kind of humiliation and becoming an object of pity. It makes one's heart uncomfortable to look at him now."

Wanyan Xu had nothing to say. Intellectually speaking, he had to admit that his Mother Empress was correct. But emotionally, he still could not countenance the thought of Su Yi dying. Seeing that Xiao Chu was about to depart from the hall, he hurriedly stopped her. Facing the Empress Dowager, he said with a smile: "Mother Empress, what did you think of the two tunes you have just heard?"

The Empress Dowager nodded and said: "Naturally, they were considered good. Although they can't be said to have the power to transport one to Heaven, such a degree of skill is rare." Contrary to her expectations, Wanyan Xu smiled and said: "Naturally, these two tunes we just heard can be considered rare. However, your child knows of a person who can be said to have achieved perfection when it comes to playing the flute. Truly, a person with such superlative skill comes by only a few times in history."