HNYWEF -Chapter 24 An Unexpected Refusal

The light in the inner room was dim.

The windows were shut. Only a thin beam slipped through the gap in the curtain, falling across the floor like a white line.

Zhou Xiong stood in the corner with his back to the door.

Li Shimin stood at the entrance, looking at that silhouette.

The room was very quiet.

Quiet enough that they could hear Zhou Yi and Li Tai talking outside, their voices muffled and indistinct.

Li Shimin spoke first.

“The shop’s been fixed up nicely.”

Zhou Xiong said nothing.

After waiting a moment, Li Shimin spoke again.

“That iron sign outside—did you forge it yourself?”

Still no answer.

Li Shimin took a step forward.

Looking at that unmoving back, he suddenly didn’t know how to begin.

Before coming here, he had rehearsed countless words. He had thought about what to say, what reaction he might get.

But now, standing here and looking at the man who refused to turn around, all those words suddenly felt weightless.

Too light to say aloud.

But he still said them.

“Zhou Yi is eleven this year.”

Zhou Xiong’s back shifted slightly.

Just once.

Li Shimin saw it.

He continued,

“It’s time for him to study.”

Zhou Xiong remained silent.

Li Shimin waited a moment. When there was still no response, he went on,

“I’ve already asked around. There are several private academies in Chang’an with reputable teachers—men with official degrees. They’re not far from here. A quarter-hour walk at most. Zhou Yi can attend one of them.”

At last, Zhou Xiong turned around.

He looked at Li Shimin.

There was no expression on his face.

“No need.”

Just two words.

His voice was hoarse, cold, hard.

Li Shimin froze.

“What?”

Zhou Xiong looked at him and repeated,

“No need.”

Li Shimin frowned.

“Zhou Yi is already eleven. If he doesn’t start studying now, it’ll be too late. I know you don’t want to owe anyone favors, but this isn’t a favor, it’s—”

“I said there’s no need.”

Zhou Xiong cut him off.

His voice was still cold.

But now there was something else in it.

Li Shimin heard it.

Temper.

Zhou Xiong had a temper.

He had seen this temper more than ten years ago.

That was Zhou Xiong.

The Zhou Xiong he knew.

And this Zhou Xiong had a temper too.

Only this one was cold.

Like something seeping up from beneath a layer of ice.

Li Shimin suddenly didn’t know what to say.

He looked at Zhou Xiong, at that expressionless face.

And he remembered the eyes he had seen when he first entered.

That haze.

That evasiveness.

He knew Zhou Xiong did not want to see him.

He knew seeing him caused pain.

But he had come anyway.

Because this was something he had no choice but to do.

Li Shimin drew in a deep breath.

“Then what do you plan to do? Have him learn blacksmithing from you?”

Zhou Xiong said nothing.

Li Shimin stepped forward, his voice rising slightly.

“You’ll teach him to forge iron, teach him medicine, and then what? He’ll spend his entire life in this little shop, forging kitchen knives and sharpening scissors for people?”

Zhou Xiong looked at him.

Those eyes were still empty.

But something underneath them was moving.

Li Shimin didn’t notice.

He continued,

“Zhou Xiong, I know you don’t want to see me. I know you hate me. But Zhou Yi is that child. He is—”

“I can teach him.”

Zhou Xiong interrupted him again.

His voice was still cold.

But different now.

Li Shimin stared.

“What?”

Zhou Xiong looked at him and said, word by word,

“What I can teach him is far more than what you can.”

Li Shimin opened his mouth.

But no words came out.

He stared at Zhou Xiong.

At that face.

Still utterly expressionless.

And suddenly, Li Shimin realized he no longer recognized him.

The Zhou Xiong he knew used to talk a lot, laugh a lot. When drunk, he would sling an arm around someone’s shoulders, cursing their ancestors while stitching up wounds.

That Zhou Xiong, he understood.

He knew what that man would say, what he would do, how he thought.

But this Zhou Xiong—

He did not understand.

He did not know what this man could teach.

Did not know what this man even possessed that made him say “far more.”

Li Shimin stood there, stunned for a long time.

Then he asked a question.

Very softly.

“What can you teach him?”

Zhou Xiong did not answer immediately.

He simply looked at Li Shimin.

For a very long time.

So long that Li Shimin thought he would never answer.

Then Zhou Xiong spoke.

“What you can teach him is how to become an official, how to wage war, how to stand before others in the future.”

His voice was slow. Halting. As though something clogged his throat from long disuse.

“What I can teach him—”

He paused.

“Is how to survive.”

Li Shimin froze.

Zhou Xiong stopped looking at him.

He turned away again, walking back to the corner with his back toward the door.

That white line of light still lay across the floor.

Motionless.

Li Shimin stood there, looking at that back.

Nine years ago, this man had left holding a child in his arms.

Alone.

Carrying a son not yet a year old.

Nine years had passed.

In those nine years, no one knew where he had gone.

No one knew how he had lived.

Yet in those nine years, he had raised that child to this age.

Li Shimin did not know what those nine years had been like.

But suddenly, he understood one thing—

Nine years.

He truly did not understand Zhou Xiong.

He never had.

Nine years.

The man he thought he understood no longer existed.

The person before him now was like someone else entirely.

Someone he did not know at all.

Li Shimin stood there for a long time.

Then he shook his head, turned around, lifted the curtain, and walked out.

The light outside was bright.

So bright it hurt his eyes.

Zhou Yi stood at the doorway, looking up at him.

Li Shimin lowered his head and looked at the child.

That face.

So much like her.

Far too much like her.

Li Shimin didn’t know what to say.

He walked past Zhou Yi and toward the front of the shop.

Empress Changsun looked at him, questioning in her gaze.

Li Shimin said nothing.

He continued walking outward.

After two steps, he stopped.

Without turning around.

He looked at the newly hung iron sign.

Zhou Family Ironworks

Bright and gleaming.

He stood there for a moment.

Then he continued forward.

Li Chengqian and Li Tai followed after him.

Empress Changsun walked last.

When she reached the mouth of the alley, she turned back and glanced at the shop.

Inside, Zhou Yi stood at the doorway, watching this way.

She could not see the child’s expression clearly.

But she knew he was looking at her.

She withdrew her gaze.

And followed Li Shimin forward.