With the external enemy dealt with, Ye Zhao was left only with internal troubles.
He hefted the "hunk of meat" in his arms, his eyes scanning Pei Yunting from head to toe.
Pei Yunting frowned uncomfortably. "What are you looking at?"
Ye Zhao’s gaze swept over the sweat on the other man’s forehead. "I am pondering a serious question," he said tonelessly.
Just as Pei Yunting was about to ask what it was, Ye Zhao continued, "I’m wondering how much strength you have left to carry this hunk of meat in my arms down the cliff."
...
A sudden silence fell between them.
Ye Zhao looked at Pei Yunting and said at a leisurely pace, "In any case, I don't have the strength to take him down. Look up."
Confused, Pei Yunting looked up. Perhaps because their previous movements had been too violent, the point where the rope met the cliff edge had already frayed halfway through! Only half the thickness of the hemp rope remained, holding the two of them as they swayed in the air.
Startled, he quickly shifted his center of gravity, clinging to the cliff face with his arms to lighten the load. He ground out through gritted teeth, "Why didn't you say so earlier!"
As if he weren't the one facing a major crisis, Ye Zhao appeared perfectly composed. He blinked innocently. "I told you the moment I noticed. How much earlier could I have been?"
Pei Yunting was choked for words. Perhaps because Ye Zhao’s reaction was so calm, it gave him the impression that this wasn't a big deal—but that was a lie!
Seeing the instinctive difficulty and anxiety on Pei Yunting’s face, combined with his earlier hesitation, Ye Zhao had a clear idea of the situation. He said directly, "You aren't certain you can do it either, are you?"
Pei Yunting remained silent.
"If it were just you alone, could you make it down safely?"
"Yes."
If he were alone, Pei Yunting was fairly confident he could climb down, but...
What about Wei Yang?
He looked at the shivering little figure in Ye Zhao’s arms.
Ye Zhao turned his gaze toward a green pine tree growing out of the cliff to their left. He pursed his lips and said calmly, "There are only two paths before us now. One: either you or I take Wei Yang down. But given our distance from the cliff floor and our current stamina, it’s extremely dangerous. If things go wrong, both the carrier and the boy will be finished."
"Two: cut our losses and abandon him now."
Ye Zhao’s voice dropped, his meaning unmistakable.
Pei Yunting’s eyes widened for a moment.
In the next second, a child’s terrified scream erupted from Ye Zhao’s arms. "No!"
"If you dare ignore this Prince, I will have Imperial Father punish you!"
"I’ll have your whole family executed! Your entire clan!"
"I am the Fourth Prince of Wei! You cannot abandon me!"
Wei Yang’s small face was deathly pale as he spat out these threats, the terror in his voice impossible to hide. Shaking violently, he looked at Pei Yunting with hopeful eyes, trying to lean toward him.
But in the next instant, he felt the strength supporting his bottom vanish!
"Ah!" Wei Yang shrieked in terror. He retracted the hand he had stretched toward Pei Yunting and clung tightly to Ye Zhao’s waist.
"Ye Zhao!" Pei Yunting was equally startled. He had thought Ye Zhao was merely talking, not that he actually intended to do it.
He reached out to grab Wei Yang, but unexpectedly, a fair, slender hand caught his wrist first.
Their eyes met.
Pei Yunting warned, "Think carefully!"
Faced with this advice, while Wei Yang wailed for help from the people on the opposite cliff, Ye Zhao’s expression remained serene. He tilted his head slightly, a faint smirk escaping his lips. "Heh... The one who hasn't thought things through is you."
His gaze slowly drifted down to Wei Yang, who was clutching him like a final lifeline. He spoke slowly, "He is merely the Fourth Prince of Wei. If he is gone, another will naturally take his place."
"His Majesty can simply father another; that one would also be the Fourth Prince. You aren't irreplaceable, are you? My dear current Fourth Prince?"
His tone was casual, utterly indifferent.
The small body in his arms froze. Wei Yang instinctively looked up, meeting that half-smiling expression. Deep within those dark, unfathomable eyes was an abyss that seemed ready to suck a person in, devouring all life.
That dark, icy sensation made Wei Yang tremble uncontrollably.
"Rather than letting you drag another person into a death trap, it’s better to let you fall and turn into a pile of mush right now. It saves us the trouble of being weighed down. After all, you are useless, but he is different. He is the young talent of this generation in Wei; it would be difficult for the kingdom to produce another Pei Yunting. You, on the other hand, simply got lucky with your reincarnation."
"The choice is obvious, isn't it?"
Ye Zhao met Pei Yunting’s gaze, his face a picture of nonchalant breeze and light clouds.
Xiao Hongfei couldn't help but admire the man's audacity. To trade a Prince for the son of a Duke—and to make such a choice right under the Emperor of Wei’s nose—Ye Zhao was likely the first, and perhaps the last, to ever do so.
"No... No!"
"Imperial Father, save me! Save me quickly! Save Little Fourth!"
Wei Yang now believed that Ye Zhao truly dared to do as he said. This man didn't care about his status as a Prince at all!
But no matter how bitterly he cried, no response came from the opposite cliff.
"Your Majesty..."
Pei Shian opened his mouth to speak, but the Emperor of Wei, watching the scene on the far cliff, raised a hand to silence him.
After a long silence, the Emperor finally spoke. "Ye Zhao is right. Save him if possible, but if not, why sacrifice another life?"
With those words, the people around him understood the Emperor’s decision.
Pei Yunting felt as though the Ye Zhao before him had become a different person—cold, heartless, or perhaps calm to an extreme.
Steadying his racing heart, Pei Yunting took a deep breath. "No. We cannot abandon the Fourth Prince."
"Because he is a Prince?" Ye Zhao’s voice was flat.
Pei Yunting looked at Wei Yang, whose eyes were red from crying. He fell silent for a moment before saying, "No. Because he is a child."
"Pfft—"
Seeing the other man’s serious, solemn expression, Ye Zhao laughed. Pei Yunting felt that this laugh was somehow different from the previous ones.
Ye Zhao let out a breath, sighing with feigned helplessness. "Fine, fine. Since Master Pei is feeling so merciful, I’ll let this brat keep his life for now."
The tense atmosphere between them dissipated. Pei Yunting felt a wave of relief and reached out to take Wei Yang from Ye Zhao’s arms.
The boy also cautiously reached out to climb onto Pei Yunting’s back, but unexpectedly, Ye Zhao’s other hand gripped Wei Yang’s waist firmly, showing no intention of letting go.
?
Pei Yunting didn't understand. He gave Ye Zhao a questioning look.
"If you carry him down, you’ll only be taking him to his death. Since I said I’d let the brat live, I intend to keep my word."
"Then you mean...?" Pei Yunting frowned.
Ye Zhao turned his head toward the tree he had spotted earlier. "See that tree? I’m going to jump over there with him."
!
"No! That’s suicide!"
Pei Yunting estimated the distance to be several yards away and immediately objected. How could Ye Zhao possibly make that jump while carrying someone?
"I can use that vine to swing across," Ye Zhao said.
He knew it was dangerous, but after careful observation and estimating the weight the vine could bear, he found it was doable.
"Of course, provided he doesn't cause me trouble," Ye Zhao added.
Pei Yunting looked at the tree and the vine again, eventually frowning. "It’s too dangerous." He thought for a moment and added, "Or, I will be the one to jump with him."
Hearing this, Ye Zhao scanned him with a smiling gaze, his look part-skepticism and part-teasing. "You? Master Pei, on solid ground, you could probably beat two of me. But when it comes to being an aerialist, you don't have as much experience as I do."
Having said that, Ye Zhao turned sideways. "Come on, tie him to my back. We don't have much time left."
The two of them looked up at the rope, which was now more than half-severed.
Pei Yunting hesitated for a while before finally asking sternly, "Can you really do it?"
Ye Zhao replied, "If I can't, you jumping over would just be a different way to die."
...
In the end, Pei Yunting took action, using the spare rope from Wei Yang’s waist to tie the boy securely to Ye Zhao’s back.
Once everything was ready, Ye Zhao fixed his gaze forward. Suddenly, he asked, "Fatty Gold, are you scared?"
The boy on his back was shaking like a leaf, his eyes filled with terror. The answer was obvious without asking, yet he bit his lip desperately, not daring to utter a word of protest because Ye Zhao might just throw him down.
Ye Zhao continued to himself, "You’re scared because you still have a way out; that’s why you have the right to feel fear. But remember one thing: the first thing a winner must discard is fear."
"I will definitely bring you back alive!"
These words were meant for the boy, but they were also meant for himself.
As the words fell, Ye Zhao began to swing the rope violently. As the arc of the swing grew wider and wider, Wei Yang could no longer restrain himself and screamed at the top of his lungs.
"AHHHH!!!"
When the rope reached its highest point, Ye Zhao let go cleanly, and the two of them were flung outward.
Ye Zhao grabbed the vine in mid-air, using the momentum to continue forward. At the peak of the vine's arc, he let go and lunged toward the tree trunk ahead.
Countless hearts leaped into throats.
*Thud!* His palms slammed into the trunk, the impact sending a jolt of pain through his hands.
But he knew he had caught it. No matter how much it hurt, he would not let go. As long as they climbed up, they would be temporarily safe.
He kept encouraging himself mentally: *Come on, Ye Zhao! You can do this. You’ve already made the jump; don't fail at the final step!*
Wei Yang’s pig-slaughtering screams echoed through the cliffs, sounding particularly tragic. The entire sequence of movements had been completed in just a few seconds.
Pei Yunting and the people on the opposite cliff held their breath as they watched Ye Zhao slowly struggle to climb onto the thick branch.
"Whew! Tired as a dog! Fatty Gold, you really need to lose weight."
Ye Zhao successfully sat upright, panting for breath. The joy of surviving a brush with death brought a brilliant smile to his face.
Wei Yang, having just experienced a stint as a human projectile, hadn't yet recovered from the shock. However, he at least understood he was safe for now. He shivered and hiccuped simultaneously.
"Hahaha... Wasn't that thrilling? Fatty Gold, you’ve got something to brag about when you’re old."
"In the future, when people ask you what the craziest thing you did as a kid was, you can proudly say you were an aerialist for a day, hahaha!"
*Is... is that something to be proud of?!*
His hearty laughter echoed through the night wind in the ravine, traveling far enough for the people on the opposite side to hear.
Fatty Gold wasn't nearly as excited as Ye Zhao. He sobbed and cursed, "You... you lunatic!"
Ye Zhao didn't mind the label at all. He even added, "How many times in life does one get to be crazy? Enjoy the ride while you can."
"Young man, when you're young, you have to dare to dream. For example, ascending to the heavens to slay a dragon, diving into the sea to catch a giant turtle, carrying explosive satchels to blow up the school, or riding on your father's head to take a piss and a crap, hahaha."
"One isn't truly young without a bit of youthful folly," Ye Zhao concluded, looking quite high-spirited. His eyes sparkled as if they had caught the light of a thousand stars.
However, whether it was the people nearby or the group further away who caught fragments of his words, their expressions were all ones of speechless disbelief.
"What... what kind of nonsense are you spouting?!" Wei Yang was stunned by his words and shot back immediately.
"This isn't nonsense; these are words of wisdom!" Ye Zhao praised himself, his expression devoid of any guilt.
"Liar! That’s... that’s twisted logic!"
"How is it twisted? If you don't even dare to think it, your courage is no bigger than a sparrow's." Ye Zhao pulled a fan from his robes and fanned himself leisurely.
Having said that, he waved with a smile to the two men looking over from the cliff. "You two go on down. We’ll sit here and enjoy the view for a bit; it’s quite nice. No need to rush to pick us up, haha."
As soon as he finished, a child’s curse came from behind him.
"Bullshit!"
Wei Yang looked toward the cliff with teary eyes. "Brother Pei, don't listen to him! You must come and save us quickly..."
Ye Zhao tilted his head back slightly and asked candidly, "You don't use the bathroom?"
"..." Seeing the two of them bickering again, Pei Yunting kept a stoic face and began to climb down without a word.
As expected, there were many times when he simply could not understand Ye Zhao’s words or actions.
Xiao Hongfei felt the same. He began to suspect the rumors were false again—aside from his appearance, how did this Ye Zhao possess even a shred of the qualities attributed to Young Master Tianshu?
Watching the two bickering on the other side, the Emperor’s group finally felt somewhat at ease.
"Heh... We were worried to death over here, yet they’re having a grand old time chatting." The Emperor chuckled, his face full of helplessness.
But in truth, anyone with eyes and ears could see that while Ye Zhao was indeed happy, the Fourth Prince certainly wasn't. Couldn't they hear that the boy sounded so exasperated he was about to cry?
Ye Zhao held Wei Yang in his arms, moving him from his back to his front. The two of them, one big and one small, continued to trade barbs.
Wei Yang had been terrified of Ye Zhao at first, but as the latter’s words made him angrier and angrier, he gradually forgot his fear, his heart filled only with indignation.
Seeing that he shouldn't push the boy too far, Ye Zhao timely changed the subject. "Fatty Gold, are you sleepy?"
"If you're sleepy, go to sleep. It’ll probably be another hour or two before we can get down from here."
It sounded nice, but with nothing but empty air on all four sides and a void beneath them, Wei Yang felt the cold wind blowing up from the bottom of the cliff was whistling straight from his backside to the top of his head. How could he possibly sleep?
He snapped, "Ye Zhao, can you say something sensible for once?!"
Ye Zhao acted innocent. "It’s been a long night. Aren't you tired? Even I’m tired."
Wei Yang was shocked by his words and shouted, "You can't sleep! If you fall asleep and we fall, we’ll be smashed into meat paste!"
Ye Zhao: "Oh..."
He hadn't actually intended to sleep; if he did, they really would be in danger. Ye Zhao wasn't an idiot. He rolled his eyes ungracefully. "That’s why I told *you* to sleep. I didn't say I was going to."
"It’s so high up! How could I possibly sleep?!"
Wei Yang really wanted to pry open Ye Zhao’s head to see what was inside. In this situation, who could sleep?
"Just pretend there’s a very thick mattress underneath you, like the Princess and the Pea. She wasn't afraid, so what are you afraid of?"
"Huh?" Wei Yang was dazed. What... what princess?
Before he could react, Ye Zhao continued, "Speaking of which, a child of your age really does need someone to coax them to sleep. How about I tell you a bedtime story?"
Though he was asking for the boy's opinion, he didn't wait for an answer.
Ye Zhao naturally picked up from his previous thought and began to speak slowly, "Once upon a time, there was a chicken. It wanted to learn how to be a phoenix and undergo rebirth by fire. Guess what happened?"
"It roasted itself into a roast chicken and ended up being eaten until only a pile of bones was left, hahaha..."
Wei Yang: "..."
His sluggish brain finally began to function again. He looked up and yelled, "What kind of nonsensical crap is that?!"
Ye Zhao slapped him on the forehead. "Stop talking and go to sleep!"
"I’m not sleeping!"
Ye Zhao said he was sleepy, so he had to sleep. "Children who stay up late won't grow tall."
"I can't sleep!!" Wei Yang struggled and shouted. He felt this man was toxic—impossible to understand and impossible to communicate with.
Ye Zhao spoke as if it were a matter of course, "That’s why I’m coaxing you to sleep. Stop making a fuss. If you throw another tantrum, I’ll throw you down."
Sure enough, this threat was more effective than anything else. The little fatty shivered and huddled aggrievedly in Ye Zhao’s arms, falling silent. At the same time, he didn't forget to wrap his arms tightly around Ye Zhao’s waist.
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
金大胖 | Fatty Gold | Ye Zhao’s mocking nickname for the Fourth Prince, Wei Yang.
天枢公子 | Young Master Tianshu | A legendary figure Ye Zhao is increasingly compared to.
中二 | Zhong’er / Youthful Delusions | Refers to "Middle School Syndrome" (Chuunibyou), used by Ye Zhao to describe reckless teenage behavior.
豌豆公主 | The Princess and the Pea | A reference to the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale.
