Legend of Fu Yao

Meng Fuyao and Zhan Beiheng had been getting along well recently — That one sentence, ‘Your death is imminent’ Meng Fuyao had told Zhan Beiheng the other day terrified him, and she was almost thrown out of the door by Zhan Beiheng’s guards. Even then, all Meng Fuyao did was to sit there, unperturbed, slowly sipping her tea. “The kind-hearted me has taken the risk to enlighten you with the perfect wisdom, but yet you want to throw me out of the door? Very well, I shall leave, but I will never enter here again.”

She rearranged her clothes and even ordered the guards. “Lead the way properly. Next time, you won’t get to see such amazing general as me.”

The actions of this smart yet dumb, bold yet ignorant general rendered Zhan Beiheng at a loss whether to laugh or to cry. But even so, he stopped the guards and let Meng Fuyao continue to enjoy her tea and chat.

After their tea session, Zhan Beiheng finally could not help but ask, “That sentence, what do you mean?”

“No explanation,” replied Meng Fuyao. “You are perfectly aware of what I mean without any explanation.”

Zhan Beiheng leered at her. After a long pause, he continued, “What about you? Instead of being the fair-haired boy in front of his Majesty, why did you come here and provide me information?”

“Men. When sober, they want power over the world, and when drunk, they desire the lap of a beauty.” Meng Fuyao giggled. “What is the position of the General of Flying Leopard Army even worth, to be an official that aids the emperor of a whole new dynasty would be the real aspiration! ”

Zhan Beiheng was once again provoked by her as he jumped up and yelled, “How dare you! Guards-”

Meng Fuyao sat still with a smile on her face.

Zhan Beiheng’s sentence stopped short as he glared at her. The anger that flooded his veins robbed him of his ability to form a coherent sentence, with any attempt sounding like ‘You! You! You!”

With a look of pity, Meng Fuyao stood up and waved her hand. “Aiyo, not going to drag me onto the palace hall? Not going to behead me in the grandiose palace gates? I was still thinking that it would be such an honor to be able to have our heads rolling on the same ground. What a pity, what a pity.”

Zhan Beiheng had his hand pressed on the table. He really could not go against the infuriating lass—With a single sentence, he would be dragged to the palace hall? If the emperor were to ask ‘why was he telling this to you in your residence?’ and connect the dots a little, his punishment for a felony would definitely be heavier than General Meng!

‘This fellow, vicious!’

But Meng Fuyao added, “I know it might be hard for you to believe me now. That’s alright, one day I will let you see my sincerity.”

She strolled arrogantly out of the residence to meet her fellow soldiers in the imperial camp. In general, the commander of the imperial camp usually would be stern and serious. Not only that, they were usually rigid in handling affairs, and as a result, unpopular. However, this new vice commander was not only generous and straightforward but she also never meddled with the daily affairs, turning a blind eye to their illegal methods of earning a bit of cash. A good person!

After gambling on the dice for a period of time, Meng Fuyao lost again. She gave a half-hearted laugh and casually dug out a large silver and chucked it on the table. “I did not carry any spare change today, so just take this,” announced Meng Fuyao.

Stumped, the person replied, “I don’t have a scale, how do I find change for you?”

Meng Fuyao casually waved her hand. “What change, just remember it, and it’ll be easier when I lose next time,” she said as she walked out of the door, “I’m going to go pee.”

After a burst of laughter, someone commented, “He even keeps some silver in case of losing, General Meng, nice one!”

Meng Fuyao waved her hands. ‘What nice one? Aren’t they just laughing behind my back and cursing me to lose next time? Idiot!’

Meng Fuyao walked out of the room though she did not head to the toilet; After all, she never went to the toilet outside. After walking a few steps, she unsurprisingly welcomed a pale, beardless man. It was a familiar-looking face that turned out to be the eunuch in the palace.

That eunuch looked at her for a moment, cleared his throat and announced, “General Meng, the emperor has summoned you to the palace.”

With an ‘mhm’, Meng Fuyao obediently followed the eunuch with a stoical expression, ignoring the curious and odd gazes that the eunuchs gave her along the way. Zhan Nancheng waited for her in the imperial study. She greeted him, but he did not show the same warm welcome as he did previously. It was as though he had not heard her and did not pardon her from kneeling. And so, Meng Fuyao patiently kneeled there, counting the tiles on the floor.

It was after a very long time that Zhan Nancheng put down his book and turned to Meng Fuyao. With an insincere smile, he said, “General Meng has certainly been busy with the new position and doesn’t have the time to enter the palace.”

Meng Fuyao blinked and replied, “Your Majesty did not summon for me.”

This reply made Zhan Nancheng choke a little. “Couldn’t you request for a meeting? I see that you have been eagerly visiting Prince’s Heng residence?”

‘He couldn’t stop himself from asking, eh?’ Meng Fuyao thought with much disdain. ‘Old Zhan, you and Zhangsun Wuji are certainly on a different level, no wonder he couldn’t even be bothered to deal with you.’

Zhan Nancheng stared at Meng Fuayo and thought that this fellow would definitely beg for forgiveness in terror. But instead, she stated, in a matter of fact manner, “Your Majesty, I am tired from kneeling.”

Zhan Nancheng’s face turned black then white. He suddenly remembered that, indeed, she was as uncivilized as the reports had stated and that her guts were without a limit. That being said, she was not scheming and to exchange ‘blows’ with this person was a waste of energy.

He could only ask her to stand up, and he even granted her a seat. Happily, Meng Fuyao took the seat and started chatting with Zhan Nancheng about random affairs in the imperial camp. Looking at her straightforwardness, he knew that beating around the bush with her would be useless and could only directly remind her to watch her behavior.

“You are an official, and it wouldn’t reflect very well on you to be on close terms with princes. I suppose there isn’t much to report to Prince Heng’s residence?”

“Yep, there isn’t much.” Meng Fuyao honestly nodded her head. “But Prince Heng is my superior, if he asks me to go over, I cannot not obey.”

This reply once again stumped Zhan Nancheng. Everything about this fellow was good, just a little too pea-brain. Troubled, yet at the same time, Zhan Nancheng felt assured—as an emperor, for a general to be too smart was in no way good.

Meng Fuyao continued to excitedly gossip about Prince Heng’s residence with Zhan Nancheng. “Prince Heng has 18 concubines, called 18 celestial beings. They say that the prince is like a Buddha that subdued the celestial beings till they are all obedient and docile. I don’t even know how he has that stamina, mhm, I bet it is the herbal recipes and the medicine that the imperial physician gave him. I asked him for the medicine he was using. At first, Prince did not admit. Hehe, I said I wanted to marry three concubines and have fun and f*ck them every day. But I was afraid to hurt my body and pestered Prince to make a copy for me. He ordered me to not spread it around, but I found the words a bit blurry, so I snuck in and secretly copied myself. Your Majesty, do you want?”

Zhan Nancheng did not know whether to laugh or to cry. ‘What is this, a discussion about the Prince’s promiscuous lifestyle and share viagra recipes?’ If this were to spread, people would think that he was a licentious ruler, so he very quickly refused. But Meng Fuyao dug out a dirty piece of paper and shoved it in his hands. Zhan Nancheng took a glance and suddenly paused.

On the paper were listed a few types of herbs, which were tributes from Mo Lo that he had seen on lists from previous years. He had been under the impression that Mo Lo had not sent any this year and did not question about them either. The other time, when Lady Cheng had wanted to use the medicine, there had been none left in the storage. Beiheng had been present when it was announced, but he had not said anything, who could have thought that they were actually in his residence?

He took over the remedy, thoroughly looked through and could not help but frown a little. He knew medicine and could tell this remedy was more than just a viagra. In fact, it could help greatly with boosting the recovery time of a weak body that had received external injuries—a precious remedy. When he was held hostage, he had been injured and never fully recovered. He had hinted Beiheng to find some good remedies for him. Beiheng had agreed and indeed had brought remedies though they were useless. To think that he had such a miraculous remedy on hand! So why did he not give this remedy?

He then thought of his children — he had only two sons and one daughter, his third son was slow in learning while the crown prince as weak… at that thought, cold sweat dripped down his back.

Despite the cold sweat on his back, Zhan Nancheng did not reveal his feelings on his face. He casually threw the remedy on the table and said, “I will not carelessly use a remedy provided by an official. But seeing your sincerity, I will keep it and ask the imperial physician to look through before returning it to you. Naturally, I will not be using some random remedy, but it would be safer to check the remedy before you use it.”

“Thank you, your Majesty, for your care and concern!” Meng Fuyao giggled. “I have not consumed it yet as the herbs were hard to find no matter how much money I was willing to spend. What a waste of time for me to sneak into Prince Heng’s residence to copy this remedy.”

Zhan Nancheng revealed a cold smile. ‘Of course, you can’t buy it, even I don’t have the ingredients!’

Suddenly, he caught Meng Fuyao’s last sentence. He raised his eyebrows and asked, “This remedy, you snuck in Prince Heng’s residence to copy it?”

“Yep!” replied Meng Fuyao innocently. “The copy that Prince Heng gave me was very messy and did not have as many medicines as this list. This remedy was locked up in a hidden drawer and imperial physician Su did not let me go near it. I had to dupe him to go elsewhere, and I even had to pick the lock. As a gangster, I might not know other things, but I definitely know how to pick a lock, hehe.”

Zhan Nancheng laughed insincerely and waved his hand. “You may leave.”

Meng Fuyao left the palace. Then, she got on the horse and rode it under the beautiful rays of light reflecting on the roads.

It was at this moment where she relaxed and revealed a small smile.

Within a few days, there was a decree that promoted Meng Fuyao to be the vice commander of Flying Fox and the commander of Flying Leopard. In the three imperial camps, Flying Fox, Flying Leopard, Flying Tiger, had a commander position left empty and the many vice-commanders fought hard for it. At last, the position was taken by the overall head of the imperial camps Xie Yu Jian. Now, Xie Yu Jian’s position as overall head of the imperial camps remained untouched, but he was relieved of his duties as the commander of Flying Fox, General Meng, claimed the position out of nowhere. It was certainly a strange move by the imperial court, and what was weirder was that Prince Heng, who was directly in charge of the imperial camps, had no objections to the decree nor did the various vice commanders. Prince Heng thought that General Meng was under him while the various commanders had the mindset that ‘if I can’t have it, you can’t have it’. And on Zhan Nancheng’s side, he believed that Meng Fuyao was his too.