"Cheng Yan~" Guan Yingying tugged at his face, saying forlornly, "In this world, I only have you left." "I know, don't worry."
The man took her hand, and the two walked out of the alley together.
The street brawl had already come to an end—they would never know what they had missed.
On the day of the Shangsi Festival, Gu Chengyan had caught a chill and requested leave from his superior. For the past two days, he had been staying in the courtyard in the southern part of the city, coaxing and comforting Guan Yingying.
The reason was simple: he was about to exchange Birth-date Marriage Proposals with the eldest Miss of the Xie family to formalize their engagement, and Guan Yingying was feeling unhappy about it.
These past few days, Guan Yingying had been clinging to him every moment, tormented by insecurity.
She would throw her arms around his neck, regardless of time or place, begging for hugs and kisses, sometimes laughing and sometimes crying, which broke Gu Chengyan's heart.
"Hmph, I heard that Xie Zhaozhao is the legitimate eldest daughter of a prestigious family, peerless in both beauty and intelligence—the number one noble lady of the capital?"
"So what? I don't love her."
"If you don't love her, then why marry her? Didn't we agree you would marry no one but me?"
"You little jealous jar. We agreed—just the two of us, for this life and the next, with nothing in between—" He raised an eyebrow, pointing at the space between their pressed chests. "Look here, not even a sliver of a gap."
"Pah, you're always deceiving me… mmm…"
The two of them, in broad daylight, would seize any opportunity to go at it and tumble between the sheets. Every time Aunt Wang, the servant, saw the situation taking a turn, she would immediately scoop up the child and go out for a "stroll."
Earlier, Gu Chengyan had been about to leave, but Guan Yingying had clung to him for another round of intimate nuzzling. As a result, they had another sweaty, fierce battle, and now the sun was about to set.
Gu Chengyan hastily changed his clothes, rubbing his waist and smiling. "I really must go now. Getting engaged to Miss Xie is also part of our grand plan. A moment of impatience could ruin everything. Once our great undertaking is accomplished, we'll ignore everyone else and it'll be just the two of us."
As they emerged from the mouth of the alley, they released their interlocked fingers.
"Don't be sad. I'll get you a new household registration under my mother's surname. Tu Qianyue—how does that sound? Pretty, isn't it?"
Guan Yingying said discontentedly, "Isn't your third uncle very powerful? One word from him and the people below would have taken care of it long ago. What's so hard about getting a household registration?"
In her hometown, everything was connected nationwide, and getting a fake ID was very difficult. But this was ancient times—didn't officials have power that covered the sky with one hand?
Gu Chengyan shook his head. "Your father's case was supervised by my third uncle himself. That man, he's rigid in his thinking. Last time, I tentatively brought it up—didn't even mention it was you—and he said in that cold, ambiguous way of his: 'Harboring a fugitive is a capital offense.' How would I dare bring it up with him?"
Guan Yingying pouted, displeased.
"Ancient people are so annoying. Your laws aren't scientific at all."
Gu Chengyan had grown accustomed to this—they ancients were backward, feudal, and narrow-minded.
Wang Fugui, seeing that Gu Chengyan had finally arrived, immediately jumped down from the carriage shaft and set out the mounting stool.
Gu Chengyan boarded the carriage, then turned his head to look at Guan Yingying standing forlornly in the afterglow of the setting sun. He very much wanted to muster the courage to tell her that household registration here wasn't as strict as in her "hometown."
But he didn't dare say it. He was afraid she would leave him.
She loved freedom.
Guan Yingying had been in this courtyard for five years now.
Nineteen years ago, the great monk Yuan Zhen of Huguo Temple had glimpsed the secrets of heaven. Before his passing at the Lantern Festival, he left behind a Buddhist Gatha as a prophecy.
The original text of the Gatha was known only to His Majesty the current Emperor.
The rumor was: "Born on the 16th day of the 5th month of the Great Qian calendar, at the hour of Si. Female. The Great Qian Lucky Star. Of nobility beyond measure."
Thus, the entire capital was fixated on those born on the 16th day of the 5th month.
Well in advance, the consorts of the palace, the imperial relatives, and the noble families of the capital all drew up lists of expectant wives throughout the city.
When the 16th of the 5th month arrived, only the eldest legitimate daughter of Guan Shanyue, a minor clerk of the Censorate, perfectly matched the prophecy—she was the Guan Yingying upon whom all eyes rested.
The moment Guan Yingying was born, the Empress, the Empress Dowager, and the princesses and princes all sent congratulatory gifts.
Guan Shanyue was promoted three ranks in one stroke, leaping from the seventh grade to the sixth grade.
The imperial family showered this auspicious child with endless favors, and the Empress even dispatched masters of the six arts specifically to educate Guan Yingying.
It could be said that Guan Yingying was a lock for the position of Crown Princess.
Unfortunately, when Guan Yingying turned twelve—by which time Guan Shanyue had risen to the third rank—he submitted a memorial to the throne, vehemently urging His Majesty to exterminate the entire maternal clan of the late Consort Yun, who had been deeply favored in life, backing his plea with a mountain of evidence.
Forced into a corner, the Emperor had no choice but to deal with Consort Yun's family.
Not long after, however, Guan Shanyue was executed for arrogance and insolence in offending the Son of Heaven, and his entire clan was implicated and exiled to a bitter, desolate land.
The edict read: The Guan clan shall receive no amnesty, even under general pardon, and shall never set foot in the capital again for all eternity.
Naturally, this included Guan Yingying.
Everyone in officialdom understood that Guan Shanyue had committed the gravest taboo against Emperor Hui.
The execution of Consort Yun was the deepest wound of Emperor Hui's life.
Originally, Guan Yingying had shone with an aura of brilliance, the prime candidate for wife pursued by the Crown Prince and all the princes. Gu Chengyan and Guan Yingying were like a toad and a white swan.
But with the fall of the Guan clan, which prince would dare raise the matter of an imperial betrothal? And so, Gu Chengyan's opportunity arrived.
Gu Chengyan spent a fortune to secretly retrieve Guan Yingying from the place of exile.
A red X was marked beside Guan Yingying's name—"died of severe illness, beyond cure"—and officially, "Guan Yingying" ceased to exist.
When he brought her back, she was genuinely at death's door from illness, but once she recovered, she had forgotten everything of her past.
She became utterly unlike her former self—lively and spirited. Not only was she completely ignorant of the qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, and courtly etiquette, she knew nothing of the Great Qian Kingdom either, and she often said the strangest things.
At every turn she would say: "You ancients are truly so rigid and narrow-minded. No wonder you're so backward."
Despite not even knowing how to hold a brush, she could produce poetry and verse at will—every line, every piece, shaking the world.
And she was remarkably generous with it; if he wanted the poems she wrote, he could simply take them.
"The land beneath our feet is round."
"To the east lies the sea. If our ships are large and sturdy enough, we can sail far away to other lands, where there are endless treasures of gold and silver and high-yield seeds."
"If we keep heading east, we'll eventually return to where we started."
"There's a kind of weapon—light the fuse, and the entire capital would be leveled in an instant."
"Never mind a first-rank official—if you wanted the whole world, it would be easy enough."
…
He was overjoyed. The heir of a marquis's household—truly, it was far too small!
The only pity was that when he looked up, there were grand ambitions; when he looked down, there was still only scattered silver.
The marquis's household had no deep roots. His grandfather had risen from common stock, and his father was spineless and useless.
His third uncle, though a first-rank official, was far too upright—aside from his salary, he had no other income.
Relying solely on official pay and the occasional imperial reward, the household remained impoverished.
It was nowhere near enough to support his grand ambitions!
If he married Xie Zhaozhao, that vast dowry, combined with Guan Yingying's fortune-bringing luck, would send his great plan racing forward by a thousand li a day.
Yingying doesn't like Xie Zhaozhao. Once she's married in, she can just be kept in the manor and treated with respect.
After all, when it comes to what happens behind closed doors, no one's going to personally witness him doing the deed, right?
As for those maidservants around her—those who marry far away, and those who don't want to marry, there are plenty of ways to handle them. The dead don't talk.
He needed to hurry back and urge Grandmother to send the betrothal gifts to the Xie estate as soon as possible. The sooner the wedding, the better.
The dowry—waiting online, and quite urgently!