Night.
The lamps in Taiji Hall had been lit. Candlelight reflected against the paper windows, casting a dim yellow glow.
The discussion was basically over.
Everything that needed to be said had been said. Everything that needed to be decided had been decided.
Only a few idle remarks remained before everyone dispersed.
Li Shimin leaned back in his chair, looking at the people below him.
Fang Xuanling stood there quietly. Du Ruhui stood beside him, head lowered as he stared at the floor.
Cheng Yaojin, meanwhile, lounged against a pillar like he had no bones in his body.
Yuchi Gong stood ramrod straight, like a stake driven into the ground.
And then there was Wei Zheng.
Wei Zheng stood there with an odd expression on his face.
Not the kind of expression that said, “I have something to say.”
A different kind.
Like he had swallowed something he couldn’t digest, yet couldn’t spit back out either.
Li Shimin looked at him twice.
Wei Zheng didn’t notice.
He stared at the floor, lost in thought.
Li Shimin waited for a while.
Then he spoke.
“Xuancheng.”
Wei Zheng looked up.
Li Shimin looked at him.
“What’s wrong with you today?”
Wei Zheng froze for a moment.
“Your servant is fine…”
Li Shimin said nothing.
He just kept looking at him.
That gaze made Wei Zheng increasingly uncomfortable.
He opened his mouth.
Then closed it again.
Cheng Yaojin, watching from the side, suddenly perked up.
“Old Wei, if you’ve got something to say, then say it. Why’re you bottling it up?”
Wei Zheng glanced at him.
But said nothing.
Yuchi Gong spoke too.
“Minister Wei, that expression of yours looks like you just ate bitter melon.”
Wei Zheng’s face reddened slightly.
Li Shimin still watched him.
“Speak.”
Wei Zheng stood there silently for a while.
Then he finally said:
“Today… I went to the Zhou family blacksmith shop.”
The room fell silent for an instant.
Cheng Yaojin’s eyes lit up.
“You went to see Bear Blind?”
Wei Zheng nodded.
Cheng Yaojin leaned forward a step.
“And then?”
Wei Zheng stayed silent.
After waiting a breath, Cheng Yaojin urged:
“Well? Talk!”
Wei Zheng took a deep breath.
“I… got into an argument with him.”
The room went quiet again.
Then Cheng Yaojin burst out laughing.
Not the polite kind of laugh—real laughter, shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
Yuchi Gong laughed too. More restrained than Cheng Yaojin, but the grin tugging at his mouth was impossible to suppress.
Li Shimin sat above them, the corner of his lips lifting slightly.
Just slightly.
Wei Zheng’s face reddened even more.
“What are you laughing at?”
Cheng Yaojin waved a hand, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
“Old Wei… you… you argued with him?”
Wei Zheng replied, “Yes.”
Cheng Yaojin laughed even harder.
“Did you win?”
Wei Zheng said nothing.
Looking at his expression, Cheng Yaojin bent over laughing.
Yuchi Gong stabbed in another blow from the side.
“Minister Wei, judging by that expression, it doesn’t look like you won.”
Wei Zheng’s face turned from red to nearly purple.
He finally said stiffly:
“He curses too foully.”
Cheng Yaojin froze for a moment.
Then he laughed even harder.
“What did he say that even you think it was foul?”
Wei Zheng said nothing.
Cheng Yaojin leaned closer.
“Come on, tell us.”
Wei Zheng glared at him.
Cheng Yaojin wasn’t afraid in the slightest.
He just kept grinning at him.
From above, Li Shimin spoke again.
“Wei Zheng. Tell us.”
Wei Zheng looked up at Li Shimin.
There was a smile on Li Shimin’s face.
That kind of smile—
Wei Zheng had seen it before.
It was the smile of someone waiting to hear a joke.
He took a deep breath.
“He said my brain had been kicked by a donkey.”
A pfft escaped Cheng Yaojin instantly.
Yuchi Gong’s shoulders started shaking.
Wei Zheng continued:
“He said I treated him like some prophetic charlatan…”
“He said I’d read a few books and now thought everything in the world had to have some deeper explanation…”
Wei Zheng paused.
“He also said… I wasn’t looking for him. I was looking for myself.”
The room fell silent for a moment.
Cheng Yaojin’s laughter paused.
He looked at Wei Zheng.
Wei Zheng stood there, his face alternating between red and pale.
Li Shimin looked at him too.
For a long while.
Then Li Shimin spoke.
“Wei Zheng.”
Wei Zheng looked up.
Li Shimin said:
“Your courage is commendable.”
Wei Zheng froze.
Cheng Yaojin burst out laughing again.
This time even harder than before.
Yuchi Gong joined in too.
Wei Zheng stood there, not knowing what to say.
He suddenly felt that maybe he really had been a little foolish today.
But he didn’t regret it.
Qin Qiong stood off to the side the whole time without speaking.
Not because he was silent—
Because he was trying very hard not to laugh.
He looked at Wei Zheng and listened to those words.
And as he listened, he suddenly paused.
Bear Blind had cursed people before. But every time he cursed—
It was because the situation had become too absurd.
So absurd he simply couldn’t not curse.
When Cheng Yaojin brought him chickens and ducks, he cursed.
When Li Shimin wanted to marry a princess to him, he cursed.
When Wei Zheng treated him as a kindred spirit, he cursed.
Qin Qiong stood there, staring at the candlelight.
The flame flickered once.
He stood there silently for a long time.
Cheng Yaojin’s laughter still echoed in his ears.
But he barely heard it.
Because he was thinking—
That Bear Blind from the past…
It seemed he had truly come back.
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