“Very well,” Yun Qing nodded, her eyes also turning slightly red.
Seeing this, Zhao Si simply gathered the remaining shelled melon seeds from peeling Lord Hu’s seeds, pinched them into a neat little pile, and offered them to Yun Qing to eat.
Zhao Si could tell that the shift in the current situation’s dynamic was entirely because Yun Qing had mentioned the former Prime Minister, “Zhu Youming.” Yun Qing was grieving for the deceased Zhu Youming.
Her dear wife was simply too righteous and kind-hearted.
Feeling a pang of heartache, Zhao Si stuffed a handful of un-shelled melon seeds into Yun Qing’s hand and lowered her voice so that only she and Yun Qing could hear, coaxing her softly, “Wife, your husband also wants to eat melon seeds peeled by you.”
“Alright.” Yun Qing lowered her gaze, blinked, and gently accepted the seeds, beginning to shell them. With every single seed she peeled, she would feed the shelled kernel straight into Zhao Si’s mouth.
Yun Qing’s movements were exceedingly subtle—so subtle that even Zhao Si, sitting right across from her, could barely see her hands moving.
Yet Yun Qing’s movements were also immensely telling, because after Zhao Si had eaten a mere three melon seed kernels, she could feel a venomous, spiteful gaze gluing itself firmly onto her.
Was it Shi Qing?
Zhao Si turned her head to look and collided straight with Shi Qing’s sly, scheming gaze.
Once again, Shi Qing seized the initiative to strike first.
Swaying her waist with haughty pride, Shi Qing sat down right on Lord Hu’s lap and spoke in a sugary, affected whine: “My lord! Sister Yun Qing actually has a husband by her side. How are we supposed to compete this time? If you don’t let your humble concubine have the final say on the rules, I simply won’t agree!”
Zhao Si assumed Lord Hu would inevitably fall for the beauty trap, but to her surprise, Lord Hu proved to be quite fair.
“This official cares nothing for such trivialities. You can discuss the terms directly with Yun Qing.”
Shi Qing refused to give up: “Then what about the thousand liang of gold promised by Lord Hu?”
“The winner shall receive this official’s thousand gold. The loser shall partake in this official’s banquet of reconciliation, and we shall part ways amicably as friends.” Lord Hu hammered down his final verdict with a single sentence.
“Phew.” Hearing that it was merely a banquet of reconciliation, Zhao Si let out a long breath of relief. She had genuinely been terrified that Lord Hu might announce that the loser would have to become his concubine.
To her dismay, Lord Hu spoke up once more.
This time, holding Shi Qing’s hand, Lord Hu offered a parting piece of advice to Yun Qing: “Speaking of which, Yun Qing, now that you have taken a husband and settled down, you can be considered to have escaped this muddy whirlpool. In the future, you and Shi Qing should never cross paths again!”
Hmph! Zhao Si felt that Lord Hu wasn’t quite as fair as she had imagined after all. Lord Hu was clearly tipping the scales and favoring Shi Qing!
Unable to resist her itchy fingers, Zhao Si flicked yet another melon seed shell straight at Lord Hu.
As Zhao Si flicked it, she carefully aimed for a spot half an inch away from Lord Hu.
Unexpectedly, that very melon seed shell was intercepted mid-air by Shi Qing, who reached out, caught it, and placed it right on the table.
As if she had caught Yun Qing dead to rights, Shi Qing smiled smugly and declared: “We are right here in Sister Yun Qing’s courtyard today, so Shi Qing won’t bully you, Sister. How about you and I have a competition in shelling melon seeds?”
“How shall we compete?” Yun Qing stopped the hand that was shelling melon seeds for Zhao Si.
Looking around, Shi Qing spotted Zhao Si’s bowl of bird’s nest soup and made her proposal: “We won’t compare quantities. Instead, let’s see who can first use the discarded melon seed shells to boil a pot of tea water. And as for the water used to brew the tea, it had best be snow collected and stored from the winter of last year.”
“How interesting,” Lord Hu stroked his beard in praise, “Truly worthy of being Jinfeng Pavilion’s premier courtesan, Shi Qing. Boiling tea with snow water—how appropriately elegant.”
“But it lacks extravagance,” Yun Qing interjected, picking up right where Lord Hu left off. “Yun Qing thinks that since Jinfeng Pavilion and Yulu Pavilion usually use silver charcoal fired from golden-nanmu wood to brew our tea, wouldn’t it become the laughingstock of everyone if we suddenly switched to mere melon seed shells today?”
“Then what is Yun Qing’s proposal?” Lord Hu handed the choice back to Yun Qing.
Yun Qing replied, “In Yun Qing’s view, Shi Qing and I should simply compete to see who can first boil a silver pot of white congee. The Sixth Prince’s birthday is drawing near, and he is presently distributing gruel to disaster victims. For Shi Qing and me to compete in boiling congee can also be considered contributing a modest portion of our strength to the disaster victims, and Lord Hu can likewise build a fine reputation for himself here in Cengzhou City.”
“Isn’t this a bit too simple?” Zhao Si gasped in astonishment.
Shi Qing couldn’t wait another moment.
“Then let’s begin right now.”
“Hold on.” Yun Qing stood up, looking earnestly at every single person seated along the long table. “Since everyone agrees with Yun Qing’s method, there is one more matter I must state.”
“What is it?” Shi Qing frowned and slammed her hand on the table. “Yun Qing, you can’t possibly be a sore loser!”
“Not at all.” Yun Qing shook her head and said with absolute nonchalance, “Yun Qing simply wishes to say that in order to match the prestige and reputation of Jinfeng Pavilion and Yulu Pavilion, both you and I should use promissory banknotes with a face value of no less than ten thousand liang to fuel the fire and boil that pot of congee!”
“What?!”
Shi Qing turned deathly pale with shock.
Zhao Si was left struck dumb with astonishment.
Lord Hu looked at Yun Qing, then looked at Shi Qing, and burst out laughing: “This official truly has grown old.”
“My lord is still robust and vigorous in your later years!” Yun Qing offered half a compliment, then turned to smile warmly at Shi Qing, adding, “If Shi Qing is unwilling, Yun Qing is quite willing to concede defeat.”
Yun Qing’s words were meant with good intentions, but they acted just like pouring oil onto a blazing fire.
Scorched by Yun Qing’s oily goodwill like raging flames, Shi Qing immediately hitched up her outer robe and clamored, “There’s no need for that! I will compete with you! We’ll do it exactly as you said.”
Hearing Shi Qing’s shrill cry, Zhao Si knew instantly that Shi Qing was doomed to lose. Though she had lost all her past memories, she at least knew that there existed an ingenious stratagem in this world known as “goading someone into a trap” (the激将法).
Having fallen for this deliberate provocation, Shi Qing was likely about to be skinned alive and left bare.
Lost in her own thoughts, Zhao Si found herself growing more and more amazed by her wife’s quick wits. While she was thus distracted, she suddenly felt a heavy weight in her palm—Yun Qing had once more scooped out a fresh bowl of bird’s nest soup and placed it right into her hands.
“Husband, do eat a bit more. Once this match is over, you might never get to eat it again.”
“Wait…” What about Lord Hu’s thousand liang of gold?
Under Yun Qing’s tender gaze, Zhao Si chose to swallow the second half of her sentence back into her belly. Swallowing it down, she cradled the bowl of bird’s nest soup in her hands, feeling that it was indeed worth a thousand gold.
Would she really end up squandering a thousand pieces of gold?
Zhao Si shivered with a sudden chill. However, reflecting upon how she had been starving and completely destitute when she first met Yun Qing yesterday, she decided that winning or losing didn’t really matter all that much.
As long as Yun Qing was happy, that was all that mattered.
In fact, even if they lost, at worst—at absolute worst—she could simply go find a job as a body-guard escorting caravans and make an honest living to support Yun Qing, Ying’er, and Yan’er.
Having thought it all through to a neat and tidy conclusion, Zhao Si unconsciously voiced her internal musings aloud.
As she spoke, Zhao Si assumed she was merely offering words of reassurance to comfort Yun Qing.
To her surprise, upon hearing this, Yun Qing locked eyes with her in a prolonged, steady gaze. It wasn’t until Zhao Si rubbed her eyes in confusion that Yun Qing finally shifted her gaze, leaned softly against Zhao Si’s embrace, and murmured gently, “Husband is truly so good to Yun Qing.”
Zhao Si felt her eyes sting with warmth at that tender “so good” from Yun Qing. She wanted to offer a few more words of comfort to Yun Qing, but Ying’er had already arrived to invite Yun Qing up to the stage, announcing that Lord Hu had already set up a performance stage just outside the gates of Yulu Pavilion.
Supporting Yun Qing as they walked, Zhao Si arrived before the bustling, crowd-packed entrance of Yulu Pavilion half a cup of tea later and laid eyes upon the stage Lord Hu had constructed.
The performance stage was roughly two stories high, suspended openly on all four sides, with two flights of stairs erected on both its eastern and western flanks.
Zhao Si looked at the steps, wanting to escort Yun Qing up onto the stage.
Yun Qing shook her head gently, instructing Ying’er to lead Zhao Si to find a private viewing box on the second floor of Yulu Pavilion, while telling Zhao Si, “Yun Qing can manage on her own. Husband’s legs and feet are injured; you should stay down here and rest.”
“Alright. But your husband will watch you ascend the stage.”
“Very well!” Bidding farewell to Zhao Si, Yun Qing moved with dainty, graceful steps and slowly ascended the high platform.
Standing beneath the high platform, Zhao Si watched as Yun Qing stepped foot by foot out of her field of vision, a sudden pang of ache piercing straight through her heart.
That ache wasn’t an unbearable, agonizing pain; rather, it felt like the tiny, minute, densely packed gnawing of ants’ teeth.
The source of that ache was simply that, at this exact moment, Zhao Si finally noticed that Yun Qing was wearing a plain, unadorned long gown today. That gown was so stark and plain that even someone like Zhao Si—whose past memories were a complete blank—felt it looked far too drab. Let alone the onlookers who were long accustomed to the dazzling, peerless luxury of the two head courtesans of Jinfeng Pavilion and Yulu Pavilion.
She truly had been far too careless. She clearly had the opportunity to invite Yun Qing to change into something else first!
Ah!
Overwhelmed with self-reproach, Zhao Si struck the wooden door pillar of Yulu Pavilion with a clenched fist.
Crrack—
The thick door pillar, which required two people to wrap their arms around, instantly split open with a jagged crack.
What?
Zhao Si stared down at her own palm in absolute disbelief, thinking to herself: Could it be that I was born with supernatural divine strength?
At that exact moment, a cry of shock erupted from within Yulu Pavilion.
“The God of Wealth has arrived!”
Turning her head to look behind her, Zhao Si didn’t see any startled patrons; she only saw a bustling, surging tide of wealthy guests flooding like a rushing torrent directly into Yulu Pavilion.
Just where on earth had a God of Wealth suddenly sprung from?