Chapter 131
Chapter 131
Shen Lang spoke in a sorrowful voice.
“It's just Gold Mountain Island, isn't it? Why don't we have a discussion? How about the Tang Clan takes two-thirds of the iron produced on Gold Mountain Island each year, and our Jin Clan takes the remaining one-third?”
“Haha!”
Hearing this, Dang Yun let out a contemptuous laugh. Shen Lang continued miserably.
“You can take three-quarters, and we'll take one-quarter.”
“Haha…”
Dang Yun found Shen Lang’s words even more pathetic.
*This joint attack on the Count of Xuanwu's Estate is the combined will of many factions. The King, the new political party, the bureaucrats, the neighboring nobles, and even the Pirate King Qiu Tianwei are all eager to tear you apart. Countless vultures have long been circling the sky, waiting to feast on the corpse of the Jin Clan, and you, Shen Lang, think our Count of Jinhai’s Estate wants only Gold Mountain Island? Truly a naive and childish thought. We intend to see you dead and take a large piece of your corpse. The iron mines of Wang'ai Island will naturally become ours once you are annihilated.*
Dang Yun said.
“The New Year is approaching, and everyone wants to slaughter a pig to ensure a prosperous year.”
His eyes spoke directly to Shen Lang.
*Stop flailing about like a clown. Your Count of Xuanwu's Estate is about to fall. Whether you struggle or stay still, the blade will fall. The only outcome is death. Wouldn't it be a more peaceful passing if you didn't resist?*
The Count of Jinhai bowed and said.
“Then we shall take our leave.”
He led Dang Yun out. The miserable expression vanished from Shen Lang’s face, and he spat once. “Pah!” The Count of Xuanwu looked at his son-in-law, his own strained expression finally relaxing as he remarked.
“As expected of you, Shen Lang. You're quite the actor.”
***
After the Count of Jinhai left the study, he spoke as if it were obvious.
“Didn't they say Shen Lang possessed unparalleled wisdom? Why is he so pathetic?”
“His origins are lowly, so he only knows petty tricks, not true wisdom. He's nothing more than a flailing clown!”
Dang Yun was furious.
*Who do you think you are, Shen Lang? A mere live-in son-in-law from a humble, common background. I, Dang Yun, am the heir to a count's estate and a third-place graduate in the palace examinations. Between the two of us, I am above and you are below. Who are you to put on airs and try to negotiate with me? You are not even worthy of exchanging words with me. Do you really think you have the right to negotiate with me?*
But since Shen Lang was a dead man walking, Dang Yun decided he could afford to be a little more magnanimous. After all, the ignorant know no fear.
***
After the Count of Jinhai and Dang Yun left the study, Shen Lang and the Count of Xuanwu also emerged. Prefect Zhang Chong asked.
“Did the two parties have a good private discussion?”
The Count of Jinhai replied.
“We failed to reach a consensus!”
The Fourth Prince, Ning Zheng, glanced at Shen Lang, memorizing his face.
*Didn't you say you were ill? That you couldn't come out for fear of passing your sickness to me?*
Ning Zheng said with a smile.
“It seems my trip was for nothing. The mediation has failed.”
Governor Zhu Rong asked.
“Count Xuanwu, our proposal is very clear. Divide Gold Mountain Island in two, with the north belonging to the Count of Jinhai's Estate and the south to the Count of Xuanwu's Estate. Do you truly not agree?”
It was the same offer again. All the iron ore on Gold Mountain Island was in the north; the south had nothing but forests and sand. What use was that?
“I cannot agree,” Count Xuanwu, Jin Zhuo, replied.
The Fourth Prince, Ning Zheng, asked again.
“Then… shall we handle this according to past precedent?”
Both Count Xuanwu and Count Jinhai replied, “Very well!”
The Fourth Prince’s expression turned cold. He took out another scroll wrapped in yellow silk, unfurled it, and said.
“His Majesty the King has issued a verbal command. Count Xuanwu and Count Jinhai, kneel and receive the order.”
The two counts knelt once more. In a very solemn tone, the Fourth Prince relayed the King's verbal command.
“You two families quarrel endlessly, year after year, over a single Gold Mountain Island. You may not mind, but I find it vexing.”
Being a verbal command, it lacked elegance.
“Since you will not accept mediation, then follow the old noble custom and settle the matter with three duels! I must attend to all matters of state and have no time to pay attention to your squabbles every day. This time, you must clearly determine the ownership of Gold Mountain Island. The winner shall have permanent ownership of Gold Mountain Island, and the loser shall relinquish their claim forever. Does either side have any objections?”
This was the advantage of a verbal command. The King did not have to write it down, so he could be much more direct. The Fourth Prince asked in a stern voice.
“My royal father is asking. Count Jinhai, do you have any objections?”
The Count of Jinhai bowed and replied.
“This subject has no objections.”
“Count Xuanwu, what about you?”
Count Xuanwu replied in a voice filled with indignation.
“No objections!”
The Fourth Prince, Ning Zheng, continued.
“Then it is settled. In accordance with a century of precedent, you will settle this with three duels. But this contest will decide everything for good. The loser will forever renounce their claim to Gold Mountain Island.”
The Fourth Prince then produced a contract. It had been drafted by the State of Yue’s Department of State Affairs. The Department of State Affairs was the nation's highest political body and the institution that proclaimed laws, equivalent to a later era's cabinet. The contract clearly stated that the dispute over Gold Mountain Island would be settled through a contest, following the century-old rules of Yue’s nobility.
The contest was divided into three duels: a literary duel, a martial duel, and a military duel. The literary duel would adopt the format of the imperial examinations, with the King himself setting the questions. The martial duel would be a one-on-one fight. The military duel would involve both sides dispatching their armies to fight. According to precedent, each family would select one hundred men to fight to the death, a bloody process that would continue until one side was completely defeated or surrendered.
Both the literary and martial duels had to be fought by the children of the two families themselves; no one could stand in for them. Even a son-in-law was not permitted to compete. This meant Jin Mulan would have to face Tang Yan in a martial duel, and Jin Mucong would have to face Dang Yun in a literary one. Shen Lang was not even qualified to participate in this contest.
Everyone believed the Count of Xuanwu's Estate was certain to lose. Tang Yan's Heavenly Meteor Sword Style was invincible, its secrets yet unbroken, and every master had been swiftly defeated by him. Even Su Jianting, the heir of Marquis Zhenyuan, had lost, so how could Jin Mulan possibly win? Her swordsmanship was inferior to Su Jianting's and at least two tiers below Tang Yan's.
And what would happen when Jin Mucong faced Dang Yun in a battle of wits? Who was Jin Mucong? A fatty who, to this day, still copied his homework. In contrast, Dang Yun was the third-place graduate in last year's palace examinations. This was tantamount to a middle school student who dragged down the class average fighting a Harvard Ph.D. The Count of Xuanwu's Estate had no chance of winning any of the three duels. In the dispute over Gold Mountain Island, the Count of Xuanwu's Estate was as good as dead. One hundred percent.
***
“If neither side has any objections, then sign this contract,” the Fourth Prince, Ning Zheng, said.
Count of Jinhai, Tang Lun, and Count of Xuanwu, Jin Zhuo, stepped forward to sign their names and affix their seals. Then, the witnesses, Zhang Chong and Governor-General Zhu Rong, likewise signed and sealed both copies of the contract. At that moment, the agreement gained binding power.
Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief. The difficult journey was at last over. All present looked upon the party from the Count of Xuanwu's Estate with pity. Their gazes made it seem as if the Count of Xuanwu's Estate were already a corpse. Everyone knew that losing Gold Mountain Island would trigger a domino effect, leading to the collapse of the Jin Clan. After Gold Mountain Island would come Wang'ai Island, then their army, then their fief, and finally, they would lose everything.
The Fourth Prince, Ning Zheng, said.
“Then let the two families make their preparations. The battles will begin in five days!”
Three duels, where the winner takes all and the loser is finished. The clarion call for the decisive battle against the Count of Xuanwu's Estate from all sides had officially sounded! There was no time to prepare; in five days, the three battles that would determine the fate of the Count of Xuanwu's Estate would formally commence.
***
Xu Qianqian ran frantically toward the Count of Xuanwu's Estate, hidden by the shadows of the night. How was she still alive after the great fire at the Xu residence? There was no secret passage in her boudoir, nor did anyone rescue her. However, there was an underground chamber connecting her boudoir to her father's courtyard.
This chamber was used to store various secret documents and ledgers. She had not told Zhang Jin of its existence and had placed the formulas for the purple and rainbow dyes Shen Lang had given her inside.
Xu Qianqian's resentment for Shen Lang had grown so deep that she didn't want to remember or see anything related to him. She had memorized the contents of all the formulas and transcribed them herself.
But soon after, the silks she produced caused the Western merchants to exhibit strange symptoms, as if they had been poisoned. Of course, they weren't actually poisoned, but Xu Qianqian had never heard of allergies and couldn't have known, so she naturally assumed it was poison.
When the incident occurred, the immense shock caused Xu Qianqian to faint. When she came to, her first thought was that there must be some problem or scheme hidden in the formulas Shen Lang had given her.
She went to the underground chamber, opened the box, and took out the original formulas written by Shen Lang to examine them again. This time, Xu Qianqian discovered faint, almost invisible words written on the back.
*Zhang Jin will kill you!*
Seeing those words sent a chill down her spine. She hadn't been able to find them when she looked before, but now they were visible. She was a very intelligent woman, but she had a great limitation: a thirst for power. Her worship of power led her to admire those who possessed it. This was a common trait among merchants. It was why she had wanted to marry Zhang Jin, willing to give up everything. Her feelings for him were less a woman's love and more a reverence for power itself.
Even after seeing those words, Xu Qianqian did not believe Zhang Jin would kill her. When the Western merchants had rushed at her, what had Zhang Jin done? Had he not come to her and protected her? She also had a woman's capacity for blind faith and thought Shen Lang was once again trying to drive a wedge between her and Zhang Jin. What was a despicable person like Shen Lang not capable of? But as a cautious merchant, she kept the warning in mind and prepared for any eventuality. For instance, she stopped eating or drinking anything carelessly and prepared several jugs of water and a large amount of food in the underground chamber.
That day, after Zhang Jin returned from visiting his father, he came to speak with her, showing a tenderness she had never seen from him before. Moreover, he repeated one phrase several times.
“When you wake, all the pain will be gone.”
At that moment, Xu Qianqian felt as if a knife had pierced her heart. She vaguely realized that what Shen Lang had warned her about was true. She had never expected Zhang Jin to act so swiftly, so viciously, so decisively. Not even a quarter of an hour had passed since she had sensed his killing intent, and he had already made his move. Xu Qianqian had no time to devise a countermeasure or save her father, Xu Guangyun.
When the great fire engulfed her boudoir, Xu Qianqian’s wretched screams, her struggles, her pounding on the main door—it was all real. But she knew that if she ran outside then, she would truly be a dead woman. To avoid being burned alive, she entered the underground chamber beneath her boudoir.
The entrance to the chamber was under her bed. It was covered by layers of brick, stone slab, and an iron plate, but there were still gaps through which thick smoke seeped into the room. In a great fire, smoke inhalation is the most lethal danger. She had originally prepared a large amount of food and water to eat and drink in the chamber, but she used that water to soak her clothes and stuff them into the gaps around the entrance. The few jugs of water she had prepared in advance had saved her life.
The fire raged for four long hours. Four hours steeped in terror and despair. Every so often, she would re-soak her clothes with water and block the cracks in the door. Furthermore, the air in the chamber was limited. As time passed, the air grew thinner and thinner, and she lost count of how many times she thought, *I'm going to die.*