A shrewd person would naturally choose the latter. After all, even if He Lingchuan had managed to become a Mount Rong special envoy, he ultimately had no foundation within the Yuan Kingdom itself; He Chunhua, on the other hand, was now the most prominent man of the hour in the Yuan capital.
Which master offered better prospects was clear at a glance, wasn't it?
Human hearts were fickle, and He Lingchuan truly did not blame him for seeking his own advancement. However...
He Lingchuan fixed his gaze on him, his tone turning sharply stern. "What I want to ask you is, did you kill Sun Hongye?"
Shan Youjun gave a violent start, shaking his head like a rattle-drum. "No, no! I never did such a thing!"
He Lingchuan studied his expression closely. "Explain the whole story from start to finish, and I might spare your life."
He did not need to add an "or else," because Qiu Hu stood just behind Shan Youjun, his murderous aura radiating like a tiger's.
The hair on Shan Youjun's back stood on end. His right fist clenched as he fought down the desperate urge to draw his saber behind him.
It was an instinctual reaction spurred by sheer terror.
Where on earth had the eldest young master found such a murderous monster?
"I'll talk! I'll talk!" Shan Youjun swallowed hard. "Sun Hongye and I were on decent terms. I even borrowed money from him once, but I repaid it right away. About a month ago, Lord He suddenly ordered me to keep watch on Sun Hongye's movements, saying his behavior was abnormal and telling me to report back promptly."
"I couldn't disobey orders from above, so I had to comply. Over the days that followed, I noticed that Sun Hongye did indeed seem to be snooping around for something. I tried probing him obliquely, but he refused to say a word."
Shan Youjun paused.
"And then?" He Lingchuan could tell there was more.
"Later, I followed him to a tavern in the Yuan capital and saw him meet with Madam Zhu and hand her a book." Shan Youjun swallowed dryly. "I reported it to Lord He, and he ordered me to retrieve that book."
"The title?"
"Collected Annotations on Jade Blossoms."
Understanding dawned on He Lingchuan. "So the thief who snuck into Zhu Xiu'er's house was you?"
Shan Youjun looked sheepish.
"And then?"
"Lord He and I both flipped through the book, but we didn't find anything unusual. Lord He originally kept it in his study, but then you, Eldest Young Master, suddenly... suddenly returned, so Lord He handed the book to me and told me to hide it well."
The moment he finished speaking, He Lingchuan extended a hand toward him. "Where is the book? Hand it over!"
Two breaths later, that half-worn copy of Collected Annotations on Jade Blossoms landed in He Lingchuan's hands.
So Shan Youjun was the one who had taken the book. No wonder He Lingchuan hadn't been able to coax anything out when probing Housekeeper Wu's dreams.
"And after that?" He Lingchuan asked, flipping through the book. "What did you do to Sun Hongye?"
"I didn't do anything to him!" Shan Youjun practically swore to the heavens. "Sun Hongye resigned from Lord He's service and left, and Lord He told me to see him off."
He Lingchuan frowned. "See him off?"
"Just a simple send-off, no killing involved!" Shan Youjun coughed. "I saw him out of the Yuan capital's East Gate. I was uneasy, so I secretly followed him for another two days and found that he truly headed east without looking back. Along the way, he just lodged at inns, ate meals, and traveled, never gossiping with anyone."
"Then I came back... and as soon as I entered the estate, I ran into you, Eldest Young Master."
He Lingchuan gave a faint, half-mocking smile. "Uneasy? Was shadowing him your idea, or my old man's?"
"It... it was my own decision," Shan Youjun murmured. "People come and go from the household; Lord He didn't care at all."
He Lingchuan understood in his heart that his father had likely considered the option of silencing him forever.
Had it been a few months earlier, with Sun Hongye acting so suspiciously under him, He Chunhua probably wouldn't have hesitated to silence him. Back then, what he had feared most was someone discovering his secret deity blood sacrifices.
The He family had met disaster precisely because of that.
Yet times had changed. Today, He Chunhua was a man of real power in the Yuan capital, a rising star of distinguished merit. Would the King of Yuan dare punish him over a deity blood sacrifice now?
Even if the king knew, he would likely pretend not to.
A charge that had once seemed heavy as a mountain—what did it amount to now if exposed? It was like a paper hat on one's head; a single hard puff of breath could blow it away.
With such backing and confidence, He Chunhua couldn't be bothered to care about what Sun Hongye was up to. If he wanted to leave, he let him leave.
"You may go," He Lingchuan waved a hand dismissively at Shan Youjun. "Serve my old man well from now on."
Shan Youjun swallowed a mouthful of bitterness, knowing that with these words, all ties of master and servant between them were severed.
He had forsaken He Lingchuan first; that he wasn't being punished was already immense magnanimity.
Dropping to his knees, he said to He Lingchuan, "This lowly one has failed the young master. May the young master have boundless prospects and soar to great heights!"
He Lingchuan did not even look at him, opening the Collected Annotations on Jade Blossoms.
Shan Youjun turned to leave. As he passed Qiu Hu, he glanced at him once more and saw the man staring at him with unvarnished contempt.
Reaching outside the garden archway, Shan Youjun looked back and suddenly felt a twinge of regret.
By all reasoning, aligning with He Chunhua was the most rational, intelligent choice. Yet for some reason, at this moment, regret stirred within him, as though he had brushed past some momentous fortune and let it slip away.
After Shan Youjun dejectedly withdrew, He Lingchuan pulled a slip of paper from his robes. This was what Sun Hongye had asked He Yue to pass on to his elder brother before leaving.
What followed was simple. He Lingchuan had already done this once during the elixir of immortality case: matching the numbers on the slip to the pages and lines in Collected Annotations on Jade Blossoms. In no time at all, Sun Hongye's riddle was solved:
Young Master He's birth mother is buried on the mountain behind White Pagoda Temple.
Those twelve words stunned He Lingchuan so thoroughly that his mind went blank for quite some time.
"Huh? What?" the soul-snatching mirror exclaimed in astonishment. "So Madam Ying isn't your biological mother? Well, well, this is truly... truly..."
It had meant to say "amusing," but thought better of it, knowing that would invite a beating. "Following you really is never boring."
Every few days brought something new, either heart-stopping or utterly bizarre.
Life under its previous masters had never been so colorful.
He Lingchuan could not be bothered to acknowledge it.
He had assumed the secret Sun Hongye uncovered was He Chunhua's illicit deity blood sacrifices.
Instead, it was this...
Resting his chin on his hand, he sank into deep thought.
When he first arrived in this world, he had sensed that the atmosphere in the He family was odd. He Chunhua's attitude toward his eldest son was twisted and conflicted, while Madam Ying treated He Lingchuan with distinct coldness.
His original self had been only sixteen when he fell off the cliff, assuming his mother merely disliked his dissolute ways.
Yet as an outsider, He Lingchuan had seen right away that something was amiss.
The affection in Madam Ying's eyes when looking at her second son, He Yue, was the natural maternal love of a mother; when looking at He Lingchuan, however, it was sheer revulsion.
It was not frustration that he failed to meet expectations, but pure antipathy no matter what he did.
Only later, as He Lingchuan gradually proved his worth and risked his life to hold the rear by Xianling Lake, did his relationship with Madam Ying improve substantially. The gaze this mother directed at him finally carried warmth.
Back then, he had occasionally wondered to himself: Could the original self not have been her flesh and blood?
It turned out to be a prophecy fulfilled.
He had an impression of the name "White Pagoda Temple."
It was a temple situated west of Blackwater City, dedicated to the mountain spirit of the west, with quite a flourishing stream of worshippers.
Since he was heading to Blackwater City anyway, why not pay it a visit along the way?
Chapter 800