Though I Had No Wish to Contend for the Throne

Highest and brightest were the sun and moon; closest and most distant were husband and wife.

Both spouses were well acquainted with stabbing the person beside their pillow in the back. Did that not make them kindred spirits?

"If I refused to speak, husband, would you abandon my Chen clan?" Chen Yuyin asked.

"My wife is the love of my life. Even if the mountains lost their peaks and heaven and earth joined, I would never leave you." Meng Yuan had grown accustomed to sleeping with this woman and would never let go. "I simply want no barrier between us, nor any secrets hidden in your heart."

Meng Yuan delivered his threats in the calmest of tones, yet never openly broke with her. "I know your body intimately, my wife, but I cannot see through the thoughts in your heart."

He had only said he would not abandon Chen Yuyin, not that he would not abandon the Chen clan.

Chen Yuyin drew a deep breath. "The Pei and Bai clans also have things like the Black Serpent and Red Flame Fruit. I went to help them. My elder brother died because of it, too. Husband, you already have the Red Flame Fruit. Seeking anything else would be useless. Besides, those two clans have lived in seclusion for so long. There is no need..."

"My wife, I want the truth," Meng Yuan interrupted her.

It was like doing business: once you named a price, I could bargain.

For instance, Meng Yuan kept talking about his lowly birth in bed partly out of a perverse sense of amusement, to disgust Chen Yuyin; the other reason was to make an immortal's descendant like Chen Yuyin, who considered herself a cut above others, think that since her flesh was already sullied, what did a little more matter?

From refusing to share a room, to sharing a bed, to allowing him close, to grunting like a dead pig, to changing positions, to revealing secrets-it could not happen in a single leap. It required patient grinding.

Dragging someone into the sea of vice could hardly succeed in one attempt. It took some tugging back and forth.

Chen Yuyin stopped. She was no fool, after all. Now that she had seen the silent fangs of the man beside her pillow, how could she fail to guess his thoughts?

Their love was false, the promise of one couple for a lifetime was false; only the scheming was real.

Chen Yuyin had married him to borrow a hen to lay her eggs, to borrow a belly to bear her child. She had never expected the egg to get stuck at the opening of its backside, within sight and reach, yet impossible to extract.

Only now did she realize that before she had begun plotting against him, he had already been plotting against her!

Today was the day he laid his cards on the table!

Chen Yuyin looked at the husband who shared her quilt day and night. He smiled, as though saying, "My wife, we are two of a kind."

They were only a step away from an open rupture.

The spouses who slept together every night now gazed at each other without a word.

"Uncle! Aunt!"

Just then, Yang Dayong arrived with Chen Huaixian and Chen Huaiyuan, and they offered their greetings outside the door.

These two children were the sons of her late elder brother, Chen Yucheng. Chen Yuyin cared deeply for them and often kept them beside her to instruct them.

Meng Yuan liked the two children as well. He personally taught them all their lessons.

They let the three children in, and the five ate together.

"After morning practice tomorrow, you needn't practice your calligraphy." Meng Yuan assumed the manner of an elder. "Cui Lan has been bullying Dayong these past few days, leaving him melancholy. Take him out of the city for a stroll tomorrow."

"What's melancholy?" Yang Dayong never studied.

"Yes!" Chen Huaixian agreed at once.

"Dayong is my little brother. I'll take him rabbit-catching tomorrow!" Chen Huaiyuan said with a smile.

Chen Huaixian and Chen Huaiyuan were only thirteen or fourteen, just the age for rowdy play. The Chen clan's strict upbringing had kept them restrained, so naturally they were delighted at the chance to go out and play.

Chen Yuyin looked at her late brother's two children, then at Yang Dayong. His clothes were luxurious, but he had yet to shed the earthy air of a farmer's son, leaving him neither fish nor fowl.

Who knows how many generations it takes to rise from a tenant farmer's son to a great local clan? But if one happens upon a great upheaval under heaven, a single generation is enough.

Will Huaixian and Huaiyuan become farmers like Yang Dayong in the future?

There is nothing wrong with a farmer content in poverty and devoted to the Way. But an opportunity like the present chaos under heaven may never come again. Who knows when the next upheaval will be?

Chen Yuyin remained silent for a long while, unable to say a word.

"Off you go." Meng Yuan smiled and waved.

The three children withdrew, and the husband and wife still said nothing.

Every member of my Chen clan has been staked on this undertaking. If it fails one day, when the nest is overturned, how can any eggs remain whole?

Even if I flee with Huaixian and Huaiyuan, how could the Chen clan rise again? The Black Serpent and Red Flame Fruit are gone. What would we do afterward? Who knows when another age of chaos will come? This is the only chance to fulfill Father's and Elder Brother's dying wishes.

After thinking for a long time, Chen Yuyin finally rose, ladled out a bowl of chicken soup, and placed it before Meng Yuan.

"Husband, I simmered this chicken soup especially for you." Chen Yuyin was skilled at playing the virtuous wife and never showed her troubles on her face. She set down the soup, trimmed the lampwick, and only then sat beside Meng Yuan.

It was as though the couple had never had their disagreement.

"Thank you for your trouble, my wife." Meng Yuan held Chen Yuyin's hand. "I have been reading history lately and found quite a few errors. I intend to make time to compile a history. If I succeed someday, I might leave my name in the annals."

"Husband." Chen Yuyin shook her head firmly. "Heaven and earth are in upheaval, and the sacred vessel of sovereignty is changing hands. You hold the southwest, and your dominion is nearing fruition. How can you bury yourself in compiling history? Such work need only be left to scholars in the future. It is not for you to do."

Meng Yuan paid her no heed.

Sure enough, after a long time, Chen Yuyin finally spoke. "You want me to hide nothing, husband, and I am willing to tell you. But this concerns Lineage secrets. Please do not divulge them."

"I will never divulge them!" Meng Yuan had finally stirred her thoughts.

"My elder brother's death back then was no accident." As Chen Yuyin trimmed the lampwick, she said, "The ancestors of our three clans-the Pei, Bai, and Chen-stood foremost among the Eighty-One Kingdoms. They were called the Three Ancient Clans. Each had a branch that stayed apart from the world and bore responsibility for guarding the mausoleum: the Pei Clan of Mount Xiyi, the Bai Clan of Snow Mountain, and my clan."

"Your Pear Blossom Chen clan?" Meng Yuan grew interested.

"The Mysterious Valley Chen clan. Pear Blossom Chen is what outsiders call us." Candlelight reflected in Chen Yuyin's eyes, and her voice was low. "Our three clans lived around the mausoleum and took our names from the places where we resided."

"An immortal's mausoleum?" Meng Yuan pressed.

"Yes," Chen Yuyin said.

Here it was! There really were immortals! He was getting closer and closer to the truth!

"And then? What Divine Abilities did the immortal possess? And how did the immortal die?" Meng Yuan listened with his full attention.

"The immortal could fly through the heavens and burrow through the earth. The ancestors of our Three Surnames called the immortal their master. As for the cause of the immortal's fall, that is beyond our knowledge. Our three clans merely followed our ancestral instructions and guarded it for generations," Chen Yuyin said.

"Then why did your elder brother die?" Meng Yuan pressed.

"Though our three clans guarded the Immortal Mausoleum and called ourselves descendants of an immortal, we knew little about the immortal's affairs." The reflected candlelight flickered in Chen Yuyin's eyes. "But three hundred years ago, an earthquake caused part of the mausoleum to collapse, opening a breach."

Here it was! Meng Yuan pricked up his ears. "You went inside? Were the Black Serpent and Red Flame Fruit obtained from the mausoleum?"

"Indeed. Our three clans went in to explore. Many people died over time, and we obtained some things as well." Sorrow showed on Chen Yuyin's face. "Most of our ancestors over the generations died inside. Later, internal strife broke out over dividing those things, but it was soon quelled."

"The internal strife was quelled?" Meng Yuan smiled. "Was there a problem inside the Immortal Mausoleum that even your three clans together could not solve?"

"Yes." Chen Yuyin gave Meng Yuan a long look, then continued, "My late father entered several times as well. He discussed it with the Pei and Bai clans for many years, but they still found no solution, so he resolved never to enter the Immortal Mausoleum again."

"He gave up guarding the mausoleum?" Meng Yuan pressed.

"No. My father saw that too many of the Three Surnames had died. He said mortals must not pry into the affairs of immortals and forbade me from entering again. Then he forced me to marry Lü Yinglong, hoping I would settle down. But I was unwilling, so I secretly went again. My elder brother went looking for me and lost his life inside through a mishap," Chen Yuyin said.

"Where is the immortal's mausoleum?" Meng Yuan asked.

"That is a secret of our three clans. I cannot say." Chen Yuyin trimmed the lampwick and looked at Meng Yuan.

She was going to bargain, too.

"My wife." Meng Yuan took Chen Yuyin's hand and pulled her onto his lap. "Though I have no wish to hunt the deer of sovereignty, I know the sufferings of the common people."

Chen Yuyin said nothing.

"You cannot bear children, and I have no interest in other women," Meng Yuan said with great seriousness. "I intend to adopt Huaixian and Huaiyuan as my sons. If our great undertaking succeeds one day, I will have Huaixian take my place. We husband and wife can roam freely through the world, a pair of immortal lovers!"

"..." Chen Yuyin frowned. Her father and elder brother had spent their lives plotting their great undertaking. At last, chaos had come to the world, but they had died. Yet this country harvest hand before her, who wove mats and sold shoes, truly cared nothing for it?

Could such an extraordinary man really exist? But do you truly care nothing for kingship and dominion, or are you simply bent on learning the immortal's secrets?

Chen Yuyin realized that if this man was not pretending, then the plan she had spent these past few years devising, borrowing a hen to lay her eggs, could actually succeed-and would be even simpler.

In a daze, Chen Yuyin discovered that the man beside her pillow had, in fact, seen into her thoughts long ago!

Just where had this man come from? Chen Yuyin studied the man beside her pillow and found him ever harder to fathom, ever harder to see through.

"My wife, if my words are false, may I die in this lifetime with ten thousand arrows piercing my heart!" Meng Yuan swore.

"Of course I trust you, husband." Chen Yuyin stopped playing the virtuous wife as well. "If that day truly comes, I wish to explore the immortal realm with you!"

"My wife!"

"Husband!"

Neither had openly broken with the other, and they had reached something of an agreement.

Meng Yuan carried her onto the bed and employed the Prolonged Battle Method.

Perhaps Chen Yuyin had laid down the worries of many years. She no longer clenched her teeth and played dead like a pig; her soft, lingering sounds were exceptionally pleasing to the ear.