Chapter 56: Coward
Gu Yan, along with his guards and servants, left Pingjiang City early in the morning. He spurred his horse towards Fushan Town, dismounted, tossed the reins to a servant, and strode into Fushan Town.
Fushan Town, connected to Fushan Port, was the last major port before the great river entered the sea. The town was lined with inns and restaurants, extremely prosperous and lively.
Gu Yan walked, turning his head to look left and right.
The attendant ran ahead and quickly returned, walking alongside Gu Yan and smiling as he reported, “Reporting to the Young Lord, we have received him. He is at Hongxing Tower ahead.”
Gu Yan grunted and strode forward, passing through the festive gate of Hongxing Tower. He stood at the entrance of the main hall, unfurled his folding fan with a swish, and surveyed the restaurant’s furnishings and layout while fanning himself.
The tea and wine scholar was about to step forward but was stopped by a guard.
After looking around, Gu Yan, fanning himself, followed the attendant who was leading the way upstairs. He went straight to the He Character Room at the end of the corridor.
The door to the He Character Room opened, and the shopkeeper-dressed steward of the Prince’s Estate poked his head out. Upon seeing Gu Yan, he quickly stepped out and stood by the door with his hands clasped.
Several guards entered first and stood on either side of the door. Gu Yan stood outside, tilting his head slightly, and looked at Niu Cheqian, who was standing in the middle of the private room.
Niu Cheqian’s shoes revealed his toes, his worn long gown was dirty and wrinkled, his face was also dirty, and his hair was disheveled. A jade hairpin in his hair had a broken tip. He looked at Gu Yan with a face full of terror.
“Where did you find him?” Gu Yan stepped into the private room and asked.
“In the Fengsheng Gambling House in Yangzhou. He was there keeping accounts and calculating chips,” the shopkeeper-dressed steward replied with his hands clasped.
Gu Yan grunted.
As expected, he was in a gambling house.
“Sit down.” Gu Yan tapped Niu Cheqian’s shoulder with his folding fan.
Niu Cheqian sat rigidly in the seat Gu Yan indicated, his hands on his knees, one leg trembling involuntarily.
“Rules! No leg shaking!”
Gu Yan struck Niu Cheqian’s trembling leg with his folding fan.
Niu Cheqian flinched and his whole body tensed up.
“My surname is Gu, my given name is Yan. I am the Heir of Prince Rui. You must have heard of me, right?” Gu Yan took the tea handed to him by Shi Gun and took a sip.
Niu Cheqian’s eyes widened. He suddenly slid off the chair, knelt before Gu Yan, and kowtowed repeatedly.
“Pull him up,” Gu Yan said after Niu Cheqian had kowtowed seven or eight times.
Two servants forcefully pulled Niu Cheqian up and pushed him back into the chair.
Gu Yan leaned forward slightly, carefully observing Niu Cheqian’s pale face and the fine beads of cold sweat on it.
After Gu Yan had examined him thoroughly, he unfurled his folding fan with a swish, fanned himself a few times, and said with a smile, “I’m not from the Xian Si Yamen, you don’t need to be afraid.”
Niu Cheqian’s lips trembled, but he could not speak.
“Your courage is so small, how did you dare to do such a big thing back then?” Gu Yan closed his fan and asked with a half-smile.
“Back then, I didn’t know I was timid,” Niu Cheqian said, his voice hoarse and trembling.
“Then when did you realize you were timid?” Gu Yan watched a large bead of cold sweat form on Niu Cheqian’s forehead, slide down his face, and carve a path. He couldn’t help but lean back against the chair back.
He’s really dirty!
“When I was… beaten.”
The cold sweat crossed Niu Cheqian’s eyebrows. He raised his hand to wipe his sweat, rubbing it on his long gown.
Gu Yan leaned back further, looking at the newly wiped white patch on Niu Cheqian’s forehead, and felt a wave of nausea.
“I heard you are very good at calculations?” Gu Yan moved his chair back.
“Yes, I never made a mistake calculating chips,” Niu Cheqian wiped his cold sweat again.
“Take him to wash up properly, wash him clean!” Gu Yan couldn’t stand it anymore, and stood up with a whoosh. “And change his clothes!”
“Yes! Quickly!” Shi Gun hurriedly waved his hand.
Two servants grabbed Niu Cheqian, one on each side, and with three or four attendants following, they went downstairs to find a perfumed bathhouse to clean Niu Cheqian.
Several servants scrubbed the private room inside and out two or three times. Gu Yan stood by the window, gazing out at the bustling Fushan Port wharf.
The last time he met Niu Cheqian was twelve or thirteen years later, also in this place. Niu Cheqian was calculating accounts for someone in a warehouse. As soon as the customer finished speaking, he would state the amount of money, the number of warehouses and storage units needed. At that time, Gu Yan was in dire need of someone skilled in calculation, so he took him under his wing.
He had always thought Niu Cheqian was merely a genius at counting, until he was ambushed, thrown into a dungeon, and was to be exiled the next morning. Niu Cheqian brought two bottles of wine into the dungeon.
Both bottles of wine were for himself. As he drank, he spoke with his eyes closed: on which day, on which occasion, he should have said something but didn’t dare, on which day, which person, he should have said something but didn’t dare…
He sat on a pile of dry grass, looking through the thick iron bars at Niu Cheqian drinking glass after glass, listening as he recounted one by one the things and people he should have spoken about but didn’t.
After finishing the two bottles of wine, Niu Cheqian opened his eyes, looked at him, and said, “Wine emboldens the timid, but I am the most timid of the timid. Even with wine, I wouldn’t dare say those things to the Prince.
“My Lord, if there is a next life, Niu Cheqian wishes to follow you in achieving great deeds. In this life, Niu Cheqian will depart first.”
He watched as blood flowed from all seven orifices, and Niu Cheqian died on the other side of the iron bars.
Gu Yan stared blankly at the distant prosperity. In a daze, he seemed to have returned to the past, his steps becoming more difficult, more mired in mud with each one…
Gu Yan took a deep breath, unfurled his folding fan, slowly raised his head, and squinted at the distance.
This time, he would crush those difficulties and wade through that mud, just like the great-grandmother of his Prince Rui’s Mansion, forging ahead bravely and resolutely!
The servants brought Niu Cheqian back to Hongxing Tower after washing him thoroughly.
Gu Yan looked at Niu Cheqian again. After his face was washed clean, he was quite handsome, but he looked very old. He was only thirty-three or thirty-four years old, but he looked like he was nearly fifty.
At this moment, Niu Cheqian was wearing a sky-blue silk padded robe, his hair neatly combed, looking quite presentable.
“Show him,” Gu Yan gestured to Shi Gun.
Shi Gun took off a bundle and took out two thick booklets, handing them to Niu Cheqian.
Niu Cheqian carefully opened them, flipped through a few pages, then looked up, cautiously glancing at Gu Yan.
“This is the arrival volume for Beixing Wharf over the past few years. Take a good look and tell me about it tomorrow,” Gu Yan pointed at Niu Cheqian with his folding fan.
“Me?” Niu Cheqian looked bewildered and lost.
“I need someone who is good at counting. You will follow me from now on. If you do well, I will take care of your past troubles,” Gu Yan stood up. “You can go back now.”
