190 – Interlude, the Gong Clan’s Father and Son
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“Father, did you want to see me?”
After being notified by a subordinate, Gong Yue immediately put all work on hold and came to his father’s room.
In the dark room, the weak, flickering candlelight coming from the desk is the only source of light.
This flame, which seems like it’s going to go out at any time, bathes the old man sitting behind the desk, who is dealing with official documents, in light and shade, making it hard to discern the expression on his face.
“I sent someone to call Guan Qi back.”
As expected of father, he’s response is really quick! Gong Yue exclaimed in admiration in his heart. His face, however, didn’t register his inner sentiment. Instead, he put on an expression of “why are you saying this out of the blue?”.
“Guan Qi…?” Gong Yue hesitated before continuing, “If I remember correctly, he should be an officer of the Northern Guard Fort?”
“Mhm.”
Gong Yue asked in a deep voice.
“What about him?”
“A few days ago, he took his men and left for Luoyang’s Merak Temple. I’m curious about…”
Gong Jing finally raised his head, and his dull gray yet immortal bright eyes focused on his son.
“Who gave him that fake dispatch order.”
The corners of Gong Yue’s eyes twitched, and he wrinkled his eyebrows and asked, “Father, are you suspecting me?”
“It’s not a suspicion.”
Gong Jing’s answer was rather ambiguous.
His words can be interpreted as him having never suspected Gong Yue, or they could express the sentiment of “there’s no need for suspicion, I’m already certain that it was you”.
However, Gong Yue, who is well acquainted with his father’s temperament, knows better than anyone else that what Gong Jing wanted to convey was the latter.
In other words, he is sure that the one who gave the false order and mobilized the Northern Guard Fort without authorization was Gong Yue.
Sure enough, I can’t hide it from father… Gong Yue sighed, and then admitted calmly, “It was indeed me.”
“Was it your idea?”
Gong Yue paused for a moment, and then replied resolutely with “it was”.
At the same time–
Furthermore, it was “Tian”‘s idea as well — he secretly added in his heart.
“Why did you do it?”
Gong Jing put down the brush in his hand and interlocked his fingers in front of him, his face expressionless.
“Father, the Merak Temple’s Temple Master has always had a bad impression of our Gong Clan. I was worried that she wouldn’t let her go if we didn’t put pressure on her. Therefore…”
Although Gong Yue didn’t finish his thought, but he knows that his father must have understood what he meant.
“Therefore, you sent soldiers to threaten her?”
“Yes.”
After getting his answer, Gong Jing stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the bright moon high in the sky. He was silent for a long time.
“Temple Master Qi is kind. The reason why she won’t let Qing’er come back is because she’s worried about her, that’s all. After all, our Gong Clan has wronged Qing’er in many ways.”
Gong Yue was silent, not as a show of tacit agreement, but as a show of disapproval.
She is my daughter, what did I do to her? What’s more, she is the cause of ruin… Gong Yue mused in disgust. He hates his daughter very much, thinking that she was the cause that led to his wife’s death and his son’s illness. He even named her as “Lian’er” [1] at one point.
If it wasn’t for Gong Jing, who, feeling guilty for Gong Tianqing, chose a new name for her, Gong Tianqing might have ended up being called Gong Lian’er.
As if seeing through Gong Yue’s thoughts, Gong Jing reiterated once again “we wronged her”. Gong Yue lowered his head and didn’t respond.
After shaking his head and sighing gently, Gong Jing rebuked in a deep voice: “The relationship between the Imperial Court and the Martial World has only recently showed minute signs of thawing. Yet due to your selfishness, you mobilized the army and plucked the already tightly wound cord of tension that exists between the two sides… If my orders hadn’t arrived on time, an avoidable fight would have broken out and the relationship between the two would have been plunged into the depths of the abyss.”
Gong Jing turned back abruptly and stared at Gong Yue with a sharp, raptor-like gaze.
“If the tragedy from five years ago were to repeat itself, would you be able to shoulder the responsibility? Tell me!”
The more Gong Jing spoke, the more agitated he became. He practically screamed the latter half of the sentence.
The bellow mixed with true qi was as piercing as a tiger’s roar, and it even set of a shock wave that left Gong Yue stunned for a moment.
When he snapped out of it, Gong Yue immediately fell to his knees without saying a word.
Bang!
His knees hit the ground with a deep, loud sound.
“Father, I was wrong.”
At this time, the dignified, illustrious Ministry of War’s Vice Minister Gong Yue is kneeling on the ground like a child who did something wrong and is begging his father for forgiveness.
“Please punish me.”
Does Gong Yue really think that he was wrong? No, not at all.
–filial piety.
Just as he is trying everything he can to heal his son so that the latter can succeed the clan, he also must serve and respect his father with all his heart.
However, he drew the ire of his father. That is the reason why he knelt on the floor and admitted his mistake.
It’s rather contradictory. Although he clearly doesn’t like what his father likes and think what his father thinks, but he believes that everything he does is for the happiness of the clan and his father.
Well, people are inherently contradictory.
Probably because his heartstrings were tugged at, Gong Jing sighed ruefully.
“Just this once.”
Gong Yue didn’t get up immediately. Instead, he lowered his head. After a while, he said convincingly, “Thank you, father, for your understanding.”
“Get up.”
After Gong Yue complied and got up, Gong Jing looked out the window at the moon again.
“There is still some time before the Mid-Autumn Festival… I wonder if we can have a nice meal this year?”
Darkness can swallow everything.
The voice filled with sorrow lingered in the study for only a moment before it melted away into the darkness.
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“Name?”
“Xue Qilin.”
“So your name is Qilin. It looks like your parents have high hopes for you…”
A clerk in charge of the recording sighed, and then filled in the words “Xue Qilin” in a new column of the entry record book.
“Where are you from?”
“Luoyang.”
“Occupation?”
“Youxia [2].”
Xue Qilin paused, and then answered the way Xia Xue taught her. Martial practitioner is not a profession, but an appellation. Strictly speaking, martial practitioners of sects can only be regarded as rangers.
As for youxia, it refers to rangers who have no sect, or who have left their sect for various reasons.
“Youxia…?” The clerk looked up at Xue Qilin, “Isn’t that just vagrant?”
Vagrant, that’s so unpleasant to the ear! The dissatisfied Xue Qilin quickly corrected the other party, “It’s ‘youxia‘, not vagrant.”
“Then in what field you employed? Or do you engage in commerce?”
“Uh, it’s neither…”
A laugh escaped the clerk’s lips, and then he asked without raising his head.
“What do you call a person who isn’t employed, isn’t it vagrant?”
Xue Qilin was left speechless. After all, she really doesn’t do anything.
This was the first time she heard that youxia is equivalent to unemployed vagrant in the Hua Dynasty’s society.
As he babbled “bears the high hopes of her parents, yet idles her time away like a parasite”, the clerk filled in the word “vagrant” in the occupation column of the entry record book and rolled his eyes at Xue Qilin.
[1] – Lian’er (怜儿) means: pity + son
[2] – youxia
