HLCOB C12

Chapter 12

With a sigh, Jaheon murmured softly.

“Calling someone a beauty does not suit a man, Young Master Cao.”

“One calls a beauty a beauty; what else should one say? And how did you know that I am Young Master Cao?”

Cao Cao asked with a puzzled look. Jaheon’s eyes narrowed as if weary, though the voice remained gentle.

“In Luoyang, who besides Young Master Cao would pull a stunt like this?”

His voice could have beguiled, but Cao Cao was not swayed; his attention lay elsewhere. What drew his eye, considering Jaheon had been in Luoyang less than a week, was how well‑kept Wang Yun’s residence already was.

“Looks like preparation has been underway for quite some time.”

Dressed in black, Cao Cao sat with unruffled ease before Jaheon, unseemly calm for an intruder, and held out a teacup—meaning he wanted it filled. As Jaheon’s brow twitched ever so slightly, Cao Cao smiled and asked,

“Judging by this, your disposition is not all that pleasant, is it?”

“Who would be kind to a man who came over the wall?”

Reluctantly filling the cup, Jaheon replied,

“Consider it generous that you’ve not been thrown in a dungeon.”

Inhaling the tea’s fragrance, Cao Cao answered,

“I merely answered the request of a beauty.”

One corner of Jaheon’s mouth trembled. However often one looked, Cao Cao seemed only a youth. Yet the words coming from his mouth belonged to a much older man. As Jaheon’s brow twitched, he spoke.

“…It is difficult to be kind to someone who drops honorifics upon first meeting.”

“You could drop them too.”

“You live life very easily, Young Master Cao.”

“It is no flattery. In earnest—speak comfortably.”

What was he thinking?

Jaheon regarded Cao Cao with skeptical eyes. He was usually quick to read others’ minds—anyone’s but Choseon’s. Somehow, Cao Cao was hard to read—not because he hid his expression or concealed his heart.

“……”

It was because Jaheon could not guess what Cao Cao wanted. In other words, Cao Cao seemed to want very little. He even seemed to truly wish to become friendly. So Jaheon eased.

“In that case, without ceremony.”

With tension released, his voice dropped a shade.

“Judging by your look, you know I’m a man—so why come here?”

“Curiosity.”

“Curiosity?”

“I wondered why, when the rumors spread, you shut yourself up instead of offering an explanation.”

“…You thought I would explain?”

“Indeed. A rumor that a man is a woman is hardly favorable and…”

Swirling his tea, Cao Cao added in a low voice,

“Handled poorly, it becomes deception of the sovereign.”

The crime of deceiving the sovereign was not to be taken lightly; to lie before the ruler alone could be treated as nigh treason.

“Thanks for the concern, but the talk of an adopted daughter is not entirely wrong.”

“……?”

“In Bing Province, my elder has my younger sister.”

“Your sister?”

“Yes. It seems, during the journey to Luoyang, my sister being with Lord Wang led to those rumors.”

“…A misunderstanding?”

“Yes, the rumor itself is a misunderstanding. I am merely a retainer temporarily under Lord Wang’s roof.”

At that, Cao Cao clicked his tongue.

“Then why not clarify?”

“Because it seemed useful.”

“For what?”

“…If it was used, you would be sitting before me.”

Cao Cao’s hand stopped mid‑swirl. He was the aim? Why was he the aim? After some thought, he realized it.

“Don’t tell me… you meant to lure me with the rumor of a peerless beauty?”

“Correct. Would Young Master Cao—caught by Attendant Zhang while dallying with his wife in the bedchamber—not burst into Lord Wang’s residence?”

“Look here. For the record—that was not me seducing the wife; she seduced me. The causality is entirely wrong.”

Cao Cao protested with an aggrieved face.

“What am I to do, born as I am, and popular? I swear I did not go first.”

In short, it was not his fault for being young and brimming; the blame lay with Zhang Rang, a castrate, old, wrinkled, foul‑tempered, yet with a wife to begin with.

“……”

Jaheon fell silent, unsure how to answer. Perhaps preemptively defensive, Cao Cao began to justify his stellar romantic record point by point.

“And as for the story that I tried to carry off a petty official’s wife—wronged again. She didn’t wish to marry her husband, so Boncho and I…”

It was, in a way, intriguing, so Jaheon listened silently, then asked,

“…Why are you explaining this to me?”

Startled, Cao Cao coughed and hurriedly changed the subject.

“Ahem. Yes—your point stands, this is not the issue.”

“I did not go that far, but very well.”

“…So, why exactly did you try to lure me?”

Eyeing him with suspicion, Jaheon spoke.

“You broke into Attendant Zhang’s residence, were caught by him, and nearly killed, yes?”

“Yes. That old eunuch’s temper—vile. He drew a blade and screamed he would kill me, who was with his lady.”

“And how were you released?”

“His Majesty issued a decree and I was—”

Cao Cao broke off mid‑speech.

“……”

At his silence, the pale beauty opposite him lifted a corner of his mouth.

“Just so—the imperial decree.”

All at once, guards sprang up around Cao Cao.

“……?”

He had no time to draw his sword; his attention had been wholly stolen by Jaheon before him.

“So—will you cooperate?”

Jaheon’s golden eyes curved sweetly toward him. Cao Cao let out a dry laugh.

“Heh. So speaking to me—was merely to buy time to seize me?”

“You have learned martial arts, Young Master; a fight to subdue you was best avoided.”

“How did you see that I trained?”

“With a face that brings no end of trouble, one learns to pick out those used to fighting—it is nothing.”

“You knew that day?”

“I merely did not exclude the possibility it was you.”

Cao Cao looked around. There were quite a few guards—too many to flee from unharmed. Even if he fled home, he would hardly be safe; having told Xiahou Dun he was going to see the peerless beauty, the news would already have leaked to his father’s ear, and Cao Song’s thunder was assured.

“…If I go home now, my calves will be done for.”

Given the state of things, perhaps hunkering down beside this beautiful person and letting time do its work was the only way to escape his father’s punishment. Unlike home, there was at least a beauty here. Clicking his tongue, Cao Cao asked,

“…You want me to cooperate until the imperial decree arrives?”

“Yes. A place for you to stay is already prepared.”

At last, dropping the sword at his waist, Cao Cao struck a bargain with Jaheon.

“Very well—I will cooperate.”

“My thanks.”

With a short polite word, Jaheon called a servant to take away Cao Cao’s discarded sword. In the garden grown quiet again, as if nothing had happened, Jaheon resumed reading his bamboo slip with Cao Cao before him. Astonished, Cao Cao asked,

“You prepared quite a bit to net me, I see?”

“You can bring the imperial rescript; courtesy is due.”

He was none other than a member of the Cao household—

Cao Teng’s family, to whom even Zhang Rang bowed and whom the Qingliu literati welcomed. As the patriarch’s eldest grandson, Cao Cao was the sort of man whom the Emperor might pardon personally.

“How flattering.”

Popping snacks from the tray into his mouth, Cao Cao asked,

“Why do you need the rescript?”

“You can surely surmise.”

“If I knew, would I have come here? Curiosity is a crime— I only came to see my beauty and earned a thousand rumors…”

In any case, Cao Cao himself was a rogue who had broken into Wang Yun’s residence—a criminal.

“……”

With the imperial rescript, he would no longer be a criminal. But for the Emperor to issue the rescript, the Emperor had to know Cao Cao had broken in. What would he think was the reason? Given the rumors in Luoyang, it was obvious—a new tale that Cao Cao had chased yet another beauty.

But if the beauty was a man?

“Given His Majesty’s temperament, he would wish to confirm the looks…”

Cao Cao realized Jaheon’s aim.

“Heh.”

The Son of Heaven. The current Son of Heaven enjoyed amusement as much as Cao Cao. The rumors alone would be enough to pique his curiosity. But if he learned the “beauty” was in fact a man? The Emperor would contrive to see Jaheon one way or another.

The countless rumors born of calling a beautiful young master to the palace? If the Emperor cared for such things, he would never have carried out the blood purge called the Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions in the first place. Laughter rose unbidden.

“Hahaha.”

After laughing a while, Cao Cao raised his head to look at Jaheon. With this face and this disposition, even should the Emperor have no taste for men, he would not be able to let go of his interest. Still smiling, Cao Cao asked,

“What is your name?”

Calmly turning a page on the bamboo, Jaheon replied with a question,

“What will you do, knowing my name?”

“To forge a bond with you.” Cao Cao spoke with a smile in his voice.

“Your aim is the Son of Heaven’s favor, is it not?”