WAR PRISONER

War Prisoner Chapter 74

Wanyan Xu was elated upon hearing that and he said: "As long as Mother Empress agrees, I'm glad. Since he has not been asked, how can we say for sure that he will refuse to come?" Then, he looked at Zi Nan and said: "Zi Nan and Zi Liu, go to Xia Er's residence and relay to him my verbal decree. Ask him to come here and treat Su Su, if he can successfully bring Su Su to safety from this peril, I will agree to any demands he wishes to make." Zi Nan and Zi Liu answered in the affirmative and left to summon Wanyan Xia.

At this, both Wanyan Shuo and Zi Nong turned from grief to happiness, and Wanyan Xu returned to Su Yi's bedside, saying to him joyfully: "Su Su, did you hear that? There is someone who can save you." In excitement, he set about straightening Su Yi's dishevelled hair as he said with deep love: "Su Su, don't worry, when you have recovered, I will never let you suffer again. Because I am seated on the Dragon Throne, my heart is full of assorted considerations, but I almost sacrificed your life. I do not wish to defy my own heart's desires anymore, just this once, I will do exactly as I wish. When posterity judges me, even if there are people who would say that I was an incapable ruler, I will accept it. As long as I can be with you, I will accept any criticism levelled at me."

At the side, Zi Nong smiled and said: "Your Majesty, as long as the track record of your accomplishments is presented, there is no way that the annals of history will claim that you are an incapable ruler just because you pardoned your Empress." She looked at Su Yi and said: "Young Master, what do you say to that? His Majesty is so good to you, does your heart feel happy to see that too?"

Su Yi gave a drawn-out sigh in his heart, thinking of those literati, thinking to himself that in the end, he was still unable to save them. Seeing that Wanyan Xu was so deeply devoted to him, if Su Yi really recovered from his bout with illness, how could he bring himself to harden his heart and hurt him once again? At this thought, he felt like there were two people who had grabbed hold of his heart and were pulling it in different directions. The pain was unbearable and he spit out another large mouthful of blood which immediately caused Wanyan Xu and the rest to return to a state of panic.

Zi Yan gave a sigh, approaching Su Yi's she personally wiped away the blood stains on him. As she did so, she said: "Young Master, the most important thing for you to do now is focus on recuperating. Don't think too much about other things. As the saying goes, the reformation of a prodigal son is worth more than gold. As long as you assist the Emperor loyally after you have recovered, who else in the world could be more blessed than you?"

Almost in disbelief, Su Yi raised his head to look at her. Obviously, this woman had used a play on words [3] in her speech, hinting to Su Yi that she had the notion of going back on her original intentions, but the condition was that Su Yi must be true to Wanyan Xu in future and support him in his rule. There was a burst of agitation in his heart; forcing himself to contain his ecstasy, he made like her and couching his true meaning behind innocuous words, he asked: "Miss's words are apt, don't tell me that Miss knows [4] of my troubles? This is indeed remarkable."

Zi Yan raised her head and said with a smile: "Young Master, you can rest easy and concentrate on your recovery. Zi Yan has given you much cause for offence in the past, I hope that Young Master will be able to forgive me." When Su Yi heard her say that he could rest easy, he knew that she had a way of saving those members of the intelligentsia. The bliss that her words brought to him was so immense that he found it impossible to describe. As for Wanyan Xu and the rest of the bystanders, they only took the exchange to mean that Zi Yan had finally relented on her hard stance on Su Yi and would no longer oppose him as Empress, but this knowledge also pleased them greatly.

As the Empress Dowager observed all of this from the side, she could only secretly sigh and thought to herself: Aii, General Su wins over hearts so easily, it is indeed a rare quality. He is worthy of my making an exception and letting that person come over here to treat him. Looking out the window at the night sky, she saw that fireworks were being released, and they were brightening up the sky with their brilliant colours. Distant "pi pa" sounds could be heard in the room and she said to herself: "Great King, it's not that I wish to go against the wishes of the deceased, but in these circumstances I cannot do otherwise. I have only have done this as a last resort."

As she was thinking over what had happened, suddenly the curtains over the door were stirred. Zi Nan and Zi Liu had returned, and both of them wore a look of dejection on their faces. Also, there was nobody following behind them. The Empress Dowager's expression changed, and she said in a grim voice: "How did it go? Did he refuse to come?"

End of Chapter 74

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[1]: The Empress Dowager refers to herself as "哀家 (āi jiā)", the "I/Me/my" used only by Empress Dowagers.

[2]: Wanyan Xu uses the royal "I/Me/my" throughout this chapter when he is speaking.

[3]: The word play is that for the people listening, they would take the words "prodigal son" to mean Su Yi, but Zi Yan was referring to herself.

[4]: Clumsy translation here, since there is no equivalent word in English that I can think of. The pun here rests in the word "解 (jiě)". It can be taken to mean "understand" or "solve". So although other people would think that Su Yi is saying that Zi Yan can understand him, what he's really doing is asking her if she has a solution to his problem.

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