Benjen left, and Aegon excitedly left the room, planning to find Tyrion.
From beginning to end, Tyrion Lannister was almost always actively offering help. But Aegon was a self-aware person; he used half-truths and half-lies to pique the other party's interest and leave an impression, which was intentional and counted as a successful and brilliant performance... But what followed, from the other party offering feasible solutions to leave The Wall, to suddenly running off to ask the Commander for someone after just a few sentences of chat and succeeding in one go—this wasn't because his eloquence was heaven-defying or because the other party was simple-minded enough to be played for a fool.
The truth was: Tyrion's intelligence and emotional quotient were high enough to discern from just a few casual sentences that Aegon didn't want to participate in this patrol, and he was simply willing to grant him this wish.
Aegon sometimes couldn't help but wonder whether the other party was truly intrigued by the lies he fabricated, wanting to extract more information and stories from him, or if he genuinely, purely... just wanted to help him, this unfortunate soul who had fallen into trouble?
The other party's motive wasn't important; what mattered was that Tyrion had indeed extended a helping hand to him. This act of timely assistance would likely save his life and completely change his future destiny, and such a tremendous favor could probably only be repaid with a lifetime of friendship and loyalty.
But a lifetime of friendship and loyalty couldn't entirely substitute for expressing thanks in person. Aegon walked out the gate and looked around, quickly finding his target—in Castle Black, full of adult men in black, finding a Dwarf was simply too easy.
...
"Tyrion, thank you so much, I knew you would succeed!"
"Of course, who do you think I am? If the Lannister's Little Imp wants to get something done, who dares to stop him?" Tyrion raised his head proudly. "However, although I've always known the Stark are poor, I only now realize just how poor they truly are."
"What do you mean?"
"It didn't take much effort to persuade the Commander and Maester Aemon, but Benjen Stark finally said he wanted to 'talk' about funding with me." The Dwarf couldn't help but laugh. "Originally, I was prepared to be fleeced. At worst, I'd borrow some money from my older brother after returning to King's Landing to settle this. But his asking price almost made me burst out laughing."
"Was it very little?"
"Not exactly very little, just a few months of my pocket money, slightly less than what I initially planned to give them, but his solemn expression, thinking he was making a huge demand, amused me." Tyrion shrugged. "I very cooperatively 'acted surprised by his price,' and after some haggling with the Chief Officer and Artisan he called over, I succeeded... Huh?"
A few months of pocket money? Two or three months are a few months, and eight or nine months are also a few months, how much exactly? Either Tyrion was putting on a show, or the Lannister were truly this wealthy... But either way, for him, whose personal net worth was less than one golden dragon, it was definitely a huge sum. Aegon was waiting for the continuation, but the Dwarf suddenly made a silencing gesture and motioned for him to follow.
In Castle Black, a place where everyone could hear if you shouted, what needed to be done secretively? Aegon was full of doubts but still followed.
They walked through the training grounds in the middle of Castle Black, came to the armory, and found Jon.
And a bunch of recruits.
It was easy to judge what had just happened here: a group of young men whom Jon had beaten down on the training grounds had teamed up to corner him inside, planning to teach the bastard a lesson, but they were happened upon by Tyrion, who walked out of the Commander's room. The latter "just so happened" to be most sympathetic to bastards and unfortunates, so he followed. Aegon remembered this plot point, he just wasn't sure when it happened.
Seeing the several recruits standing around Jon in a circle, he frowned, stepped diagonally to the side to clear the doorway, and motioned with his head: "Get out."
...
Whether it was his "veteran" authority that worked, or Tyrion's identity as the Queen's brother that scared the recruits, the young men muttered curses under their breath, abandoned the bastard, and carefully left the room past Aegon.
"What's wrong?" he asked. He had originally planned to thank Tyrion and discuss the schedule for leaving The Wall, but with Jon present, it was naturally inappropriate to rub salt in his wounds.
"Nothing." Jon turned away, continued tidying the practice equipment, sniffled, and tried hard not to let tears well up in his eyes. He took off his armor, leather jacket, and sweat-soaked wool shirt, put on his everyday coarse black tunic, and suddenly missed Winterfell terribly, missing his brothers and sisters... even Sansa, who wasn't close to him.
No one had told him that the Night's Watch was like this. Only the Lannister Dwarf and Aegon had briefly mentioned some truths to him. But at the time, his mind was full of wanting to kill the legendary human enemies like the Ranger before him, fight alongside other Night's Watch brothers to repel tens of thousands of Wildlings, and prove with military achievements that he was no worse than any legitimate son... But here, even survival was so difficult.
Did his Father know the true situation of the Night's Watch? He was the Warden of the North; he must have known. Yet when he proposed to his Father that he wanted to join the Night's Watch, Lord Stark agreed without any hesitation or dissuasion, which made Jon feel even more heartbroken.
Was the kindness of the past just a facade? Beneath this mask, did his Father actually detest him?
...
"No wonder," Jon said muffledly, trying his best to hide his grievances. "No wonder you want to find every way to leave this place, this damned place... this damned place is so cold."
"Yes, it's very cold." Just cold? It was also bitter and treacherous. Aegon felt amused. No matter how precocious or tall and strong the boy before him was, he was just a child after all: "You have to look at it from another perspective—I only got the chance to leave here by chance, meeting a kind Lord, and I have to come back immediately if summoned; whereas you, as long as you withdraw before taking the oath, can return to Winterfell anytime and never have to come back for the rest of your life."
Jon didn't respond. He could return anytime; theoretically, that was true, and it was impossible not to be tempted. But now his Father, who could protect him, had left the North for King's Landing to serve as Hand of the King, and Lady Stark was in charge of Winterfell. And Catelyn Tully's attitude towards him, this bastard, could almost be described as hatred... Going back, besides better food and warmer lodging, might not even be as comfortable as staying on The Wall.
Now that he had come to The Wall, it was absolutely impossible for him to return to Winterfell. To put it nicely, this was valuing honor over pleasure; to put it bluntly, it was suffering for the sake of pride. Like Tyrion, who had just been heavily fleeced in the Commander's office, Jon would also choose pride.
"If you choose to persevere, then you need to think carefully about how to integrate here." Suffering for the sake of pride, everyone, especially men, would experience similar choices. Aegon empathized with Jon's predicament. Seeing that he wasn't speaking, he continued: "Becoming a Night's Watch means staying here for a lifetime, and this lifetime, whether long or short, is entirely in your own hands. If you still think you can bully the children of farmers, Blacksmith, miners, or even orphans with the martial arts you learned from Ser Rodrik, thinking of venting your disappointment with the Night's Watch onto your fellow recruits, sooner or later, a brother will stab you in the gut when you're not looking."
"I watched you spar with that group of recruits this morning." Tyrion also walked closer. "That wasn't practice at all. If you had a real sword, they would have died several times over. You completely humiliated them without mercy. I remember—you decided to join the Night's Watch after hearing Aegon tell stories about the White Walkers and the Wildlings army. Do you think it's something to be proud of to defeat people who haven't even touched real weapons?"
Jon's face turned red. He did feel quite proud when he won.
"He's a smart person; he understands what he should. It's just that he suddenly encountered setbacks, and his emotions are temporarily unbalanced." Aegon didn't intend to be sharp-tongued and mock everyone like Tyrion. The Dwarf wasn't afraid of offending people, but he couldn't afford to be. Facing a potential protagonist, he was willing to put in some effort to show friendliness: "Jon, let's be frank. We both know you chose this path because you want to achieve something great, but have you ever thought, if The Wall was a place where you could achieve great things and also be comfortable, how could it be short of people?"
"I—" Jon was speechless. What Aegon said made sense, he always made sense, but what he needed now was comfort!
"In my homeland, there's an old saying. Before Heaven is about to bestow a great mission upon a person, it will first torment his heart, exhaust his body with labor, make things go against his wishes, thereby making him strong and more capable."
Aegon brought out a famous ancient Chinese soul-soothing saying—When Heaven is about to bestow a great office upon a man, it first exercises his mind with suffering, and his sinews and bones with toil. It was quite difficult to translate this saying into the language of Westeros, and while the life of the Night's Watch was hard, they weren't exactly starving, so he omitted the latter half of the sentence: "Achieving great things is never smooth sailing, but as long as you endure hardships and difficulties, you will inevitably gain something..."
The young man interrupted him defiantly: "Easy for you to say, then why don't you stay and suffer with me?"
"I'm not a bastard." Aegon shrugged, adopting the persona of that China noble: "I'm an only son; I don't need to achieve great things to prove anything. As long as I can safely return home, I can naturally inherit the family business... But you can't. I don't discriminate against bastards, Jon. Your birth was your Father's mistake, but this world is just that cruel—you have to pay for your Father's mistake." But because his real father was already dead, Aegon's tone softened; after all, he wasn't there to lecture the boy: "If you're truly feeling lost, how about this, I'll point you in a direction."
Jon looked up and stared at Aegon, waiting for what came next.
...
"What do you think is the greatest glory the Night's Watch can achieve?"
"Serving faithfully and protecting the peace of the North and the Seven Kingdoms."
"No, what you said is just the basic mission a qualified Night's Watch should complete." Aegon shook his head, unceremoniously rejecting the bastard's answer: "The greatest achievement of the Night's Watch is to eliminate the Night's Watch, and tear down The Wall."
—