WAR PRISONER

War Prisoner Chapter 44

"When those people heard his words, they did become somewhat pleased, but they were reluctant to deceive you. But His Majesty then said that he would have you as his Empress no matter what. If they refused to act in the play he had scripted, he would still proceed with his plan; the only difference would be that what was originally supposed to be an act would become reality. He would rather not do that because it would be disastrous if anyone really did get hurt at that point. Just as they were dithering, one of the pregnant women --- the very one who had been your playmate all throughout your youth --- proved herself to be of decisive character. Without consulting anyone else, she stood up and promised to go along with His Majesty's plan."

"The Great King was also exceedingly delighted, and promised them that as long as you agree to become the Empress, every one of them will be rewarded with ten taels of silver. Even if you managed to turn your heart into stone and turn a blind eye to their fate, he guaranteed that he will harm not a single one of them. As a result, those people stopped hesitating; they even said that ten taels of silver was no small sum. Under the reign of the previous Emperor, that amount of money was what they could expect to earn in two or three years of labour, thus all of them were happy with the offer. After that... After that, well, Young Master already knows what transpired later. That is, the act put on by those people and His Majesty was very convincing, and you were taken in by them."

Zi Liu added: "That's not necessarily the case. By that time, Young Master had been starving for a few days, with the inevitable result that your judgement and willpower had been impaired. With the additional stress of the situation, your heart would have been panicked and your thoughts scattered. Even if their acting had been lacking, you would not have been able to pick up on it. But those people also did not do that with the intention of betraying Young Master, they really did not have a choice. With or without their consent, they were fated to participate in the play that His Majesty had planned but if they did not choose to cooperate there was a possibility that they could end up losing their lives. Young Master should not blame them, or condemn them for being despicable, or complain that they disregarded your close relationship when they deceived you. If it had been me, I would also have seen it to be the only reasonable decision."

When the two maidens had finished speaking, they sneaked a look at Su Yi's face and tried to gauge his feelings, only to discover that he was wearing the same placid expression that he usually wore. With no inkling as to what Su Yi's thoughts might be, they could only wait anxiously. Suddenly, Su Yi heaved a sigh, as if thinking aloud, he said: "So that's how it is. As I thought, he is indeed not capable of such depravity."

The two maidens looked mutely at each other with an attitude of amazement --- now that Young Master knows the truth, not only did he not harbour any rancour towards His Majesty and his own friends for deceiving him but his expression seems to be one of relief. And then they heard Su Yi say: "From the looks of it, Wanyan Xu actually had good intentions, why then did he not tell me the truth after it was all over? When I said that I would go to ask him about this personally, the both of you immediately became so frightened. Previously, I only hated him for being devoid of conscience because of this incident. But why didn't he reason that if he told me the truth, I would still retain a measure of good feelings towards him?"

Zi Nong answered: "His Majesty did think that way, but he said that you would never believe him. He felt that if he tried to tell you the truth, you would not only hate him but you would also start to suspect him. He said that he would rather that you think of him as having a cold and heartless nature before he lets you think of him as being duplicitous and untrustworthy, someone who specialized in lying and cheating. Because of these reasons, he also forbade us from revealing to Young Master the truth behind the deception, in case you suspect that he was using us to rehabilitate your opinion of him. Moreover, although you could say that your close friends were forced into it, but in the end they still accepted the silver and put on a show to mislead you. His Majesty was afraid that you would take their betrayal hard, that you would not recognise that they had been placed in an untenable position, and be heartbroken by their deceit."

"With these two factors in mind, he commanded us to keep this knowledge strictly confidential but it seems that the saying is right, there really isn't a wall in the word that does not bear even a single crack, in the end Young Master still found out about this secret. Now we can only implore Young Master to take pity on us, we cannot stress enough how important it is that Young Master pretends to have no knowledge of the truth. If His Majesty should find out that we were the ones who had given the game away, we would meet a tragic end and even after death, we would not be allowed proper burials." With that, they knelt down together and cried, their faces filled with genuine terror.

End of Chapter 44

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