After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Chapter 73
Huo Wujiu saw him not speaking, and added, “I heard you’re not happy these two days.”
Jiang Suizhou’s heart inexplicably grew a peculiar warmth.
Ever since knowing Ji You was going to be demoted, he was extremely irritated that he could feel the others didn’t dare to provoke him. Because he was those people’s “master”, they didn’t dare provoke him, much less to be so bold as to ask what they shouldn’t ask.
He naturally was in no position to bring it up to people, and pouring his heart out was out of the question.
Although he usually wasn’t a sensitive person, such sentiments were always kept in his heart. There was not a person whom he could talk with, so he felt suppressed.
But he didn’t expect Huo Wujiu would ask, nor did he think that he could speak about this matter with Huo Wujiu.
He paused, before slowly explaining, “Ministry of Rites’ Ji-daren has been demoted. In a few days’ time, he’ll be sent to Huizhou.”
Huo Wujiu frowned. He asked, “Doesn’t it have nothing to do with him?”
Jiang Suizhou said, “He was convicted of lax charges. After Chen Ti was arrested, this matter was entirely handed over to the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Personnel. This Prince is unable to intervene.”
Huo Wujiu was silent for a moment and said with assertiveness, “That’s an order by someone below Pang Shao.”
Jiang Suizhou smiled, and slowly breathed out, “It’s Pang Shao. He has suffered from this Prince’s loss, so he wants to give trouble to this Prince. Ji-daren is only a troubled fish in a pond*.”
*殃及的池鱼 - taken from a literature: there's a fish pond under a city gate. One day, the gate is on fire, so the people use the water from the pond to extinguish it. In the end, all of the fish in the pond die as their water is drained. This is to say, Ji You is only an innocent bystander.
Huo Wujiu said, “Since he joined the palace as an official, he has to be prepared for such risks. But it’s only a demotion, the place he’s going to is also not remote, and far away from the court. To him, it might be a good thing.”
But Jiang Suizhou shook his head.
“Others can think like this, but I can’t,” he said. “In any case, his disaster is all because of me, I can’t just stay idle.” After a pause, he softly sighed.
“That’s Pang Shao for you.”
Huo Wujiu didn’t speak for a while.
Jiang Suizhou also knew he was confined in the residence every day and couldn’t even walk. Naturally, he couldn’t do anything. He wasn’t hoping for Huo Wujiu to say anything. After he spilled it out, Jiang Suizhou’s heart felt a little more at ease. He picked up the book Meng Qianshan had placed next to him and said, “I didn’t come for two days, and quite forgot where I stopped reading.”
To change the subject, he proceeded to read the book for Huo Wujiu to listen to.
Huo Wujiu silently looked at him as he put forth a look as if nothing had happened, lowering his head as he flipped the book. His chest felt very stuffy.
…It wasn’t something he should bear, but because he was born in the emperor’s house, the pressure fell on his shoulders.
If he really was a cold-blooded, heartless bastard, then it would be fine. Only, he was an extremely tender-hearted person. Whether it was his business or not, he had to take all the responsibility on himself. In the end, even if he couldn’t stand it, he had to hold out.
He saw Jiang Suizhou flip to the page he stopped at last time and gently, quietly read aloud.
But before he could read two sentences, his voice abruptly ceased.
Jiang Suizhou raised his head in surprise, to see Huo Wujiu somehow came and snatched the book from his hands.
“Let me,” Huo Wujiu said.
Jiang Suizhou revealed an astonished face.
He watched Huo Wujiu moving the lamp a little closer. Although his expression was indifferent and alienated, there was an inexplicably little awkwardness.
He clearly didn’t lift his eyes, much less look at him, but it was as though he was clumsily comforting him.
Jiang Suizhou was rendered speechless for a while, and only felt that his chest was rather hot. It was like the dreary feeling that silted up inside him, was slowly being burned away.
He fixed his gaze on Huo Wujiu, and didn’t speak for a while.
He watched Huo Wujiu lower his eyes, flipping open the book in his hands.
His indifferent look suddenly went rigid on his face.
After that, his eyebrows gradually scrunched up, and lifted his eyes to look at Jiang Suizhou.
“...The book you read a few days ago, it was this one?” he asked.
Jiang Suizhou stared blankly for a moment. “Yes?”
Huo Wujiu’s gaze gingerly settled on the book.
It was different from the simple vernacular prose Jiang Suizhou read out these few days. This book’s content was difficult to understand, it was all rare words placed before Huo Wujiu, just like hieroglyphics. It only took two glances to make his brain ache.
Jiang Suizhou moved closer to take a look, and realized what happened at once.
This book was indeed written in extremely obscure classical Chinese. After all, the one who wrote the book was the previous dynasty’s renowned erudite scholar. All of the wordings and phrasings needed careful study. The spoken and written language of the ancients were, after all, completely different. These sentences couldn’t be read out, and naturally had to be translated first before it was able to be read.
Because Jiang Suizhou originally had this job, he could translate with high proficiency with absolutely no effort.
"It's the same book, but what's written in the book is not easy to read, so I adjusted it a little," he said.
Huo Wujiu was speechless.
Jiang Suizhou looked at Huo Wujiu in bewilderment.
Although he went to war, he was still a person from the ancients, so he should be able to understand it, right?
But...why did he have this expression on his face?
Before Jiang Suizhou could make sense of it, Huo Wujiu suddenly closed the book in his hands and lazily put it to one side. He lightly said, "Change to another book, I feel very bored of this one from two days ago, it's not interesting."
Jiang Suizhou was even more skeptical.
…No way, when I read it to you two days ago, you looked like you were listening enthusiastically though?
