The gray-robed elder lay on the cold, damp ground and closed his numb eyes, allowing the merciless rain to splash across his face. He did not even need to open his eyes to know who was inside the carriage.
Another blockhead who had ruined his plans. There were simply too many blockheads in Great An. Enough to drive a man to despair.
“Your fabric! You forgot your fabric—” Yun Qiya hurried out of the shop. When she saw the old man sprawled on the ground and a luxurious carriage stopped in the middle of the road, she stopped immediately. Then she casually looked away, turned around, and started walking back inside. She wasn’t acquainted with the man lying on the ground.
“Wait.” Prince Luo lifted the carriage curtain. When he saw Yun Qiya, the first thing he remembered was not her beauty, but the pain from the bamboo paddle when the Empress had beaten him. Touching the bruises on the back of his hand, he quietly withdrew his gaze. “You know this person?”
Yun Qiya shook her head.
“This old man had no intention of offending Your Highness.” The gray-robed elder struggled to his feet and made one final attempt. “I beg Your Highness to forgive this humble old man.”
The last time, one of his people had disguised himself as a beggar and caused enough confusion among Prince Luo’s attendants for him to escape. He could not use that trick again. He had to find another way to stop Prince Luo from pursuing the matter.
“What are you waiting for?” Prince Luo said impatiently. “Tie him up and send him to the authorities.”
Prince Luo had his own standards. Someone like Yun Qiya was worth lowering himself enough to exchange a few words with. Someone like this gray-robed elder wasn’t even qualified to speak to him.
Learning from past mistakes, Prince Luo’s attendants tied the old man up so thoroughly that even an immortal would have needed time to undo the knots.
“I’ve been wronged—” Before he could continue, one attendant stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth.
“Whether you’ve been wronged or not is for the prefectural office to decide.”
The gray-robed elder could only make muffled sounds.
A crowd had gathered to watch the excitement. Two of his trusted subordinates hid among them. But they could not reveal themselves.
His gaze swept across the crowd before stopping on Yun Qiya. Of everyone present, she was the only person who could save him. He was one of the silk shop’s biggest customers. Even if only for the sake of money, she should have spoken up for him.
Seeing him look toward her, Yun Qiya deliberately turned her head away and pretended not to notice his pleading gaze. What a gloomy day. And none of this has anything to do with me.
That woman! Shameless. Cold-hearted as iron.
The gray-robed elder finally understood. Yun Qiya had absolutely no intention of getting involved in his affairs. What a short-sighted fool! Had she never considered that saving him now might lead to far greater benefits later?
“What are you looking at?” An attendant seized his head and turned it forward before dragging him away. His feet scraped long tracks through the mud.
Yun Qiya hugged the bolt of cloth and stepped back quietly. Standing in the misty rain with fabric in her arms, she looked remarkably lovely.
Prince Luo called out to her. “Yun Qiya.”
She looked up. Raindrops clung to her eyelashes. Prince Luo, lofty and superior as ever, looked at her the way one might look at a kitten or puppy.
“Would you like to become this prince’s—” A gust of wind lifted the carriage curtain and slapped it against the bruise on the back of his hand.
The pain made him wince. Forget it. He was still quite attached to life. He didn’t want the Empress beating him to death.
“Never mind.” He let the curtain fall and departed.
His brain really is damaged. Yun Qiya touched the cloth in her arms, then turned around and carried it back into the shop.
“Miss, what should we do with this fabric?” the shopkeeper asked. “The owner has been arrested.”
“Did he finish paying for it?”
“He paid in full.” The shopkeeper grinned. “A major customer. They say he’s a merchant from the north. He spent over a thousand taels on fine fabrics here.”
Over a thousand taels? On silk from her family’s shop? Their prices weren’t cheap, and merchants usually had their own supply channels. Any merchant who came all the way to the capital to buy inventory from a silk shop was a blockhead. Oh well.
The man had already been taken to the yamen, and the money was already sitting in their coffers. Whether he was a blockhead or not was no longer her concern.
“Young Master, Master Tao has been arrested again.”
“What?”
Everyone in the courtyard immediately became nervous.
“Why didn’t our people help him escape?”
“This time Prince Luo’s attendants were prepared. We couldn’t find an opening.”
“Why is it Prince Luo’s residence again?”
“Master Tao had just left the Yun family’s silk shop when he collided with Prince Luo’s carriage.”
The servant quickly explained what had happened.
The young master’s handsome features twisted together. “This is troublesome. The current yamen is both capable and fond of flattering powerful people. Since Prince Luo personally sent Master Tao there, the Prefect won’t release him easily.”
“What should we do now?”
The young master looked toward a handsome young man anxiously pacing in the corner. He was extremely good-looking, with peach-blossom eyes so affectionate they could make even a rock seem beloved. Unfortunately, his brains were lacking.
If he possessed even half of Master Tao’s intelligence, their plan to get close to Lu Mingzhu wouldn’t still be making no progress.
“Tao Ji.” The young master finally spoke. “Right now, you’re the only one who can save Master Tao.”
“Young Master,” Tao Ji hurriedly asked, “what should I do?”
“Win Lu Mingzhu’s heart.” The young master spoke slowly, his tone carrying a hint of disdain toward women.
“When a woman falls in love, she loses all reason. A woman trapped by affection becomes nothing more than a pawn without thoughts of her own. Even if you demanded her life, she would gladly give it.”
Tao Ji opened his mouth as if to object, but in the end dared not challenge the young master’s words. Personally, he felt the women of the capital were not nearly as easy to deceive as people claimed. He had spent three or four months in the city. It wasn’t as though no women had been captivated by his appearance. The problem was that they only wanted to keep him as a retainer or a pretty companion. None of them were willing to give him a proper status.
The women willing to offer him a respectable position were never members of powerful or noble families. The wealthy and influential women were all cunning in their own ways.
“If you can’t do it, then your methods simply aren’t good enough.” The young master rose to his feet. “First, send people to the yamen and use silver to loosen the guards’ tongues. If they refuse to release him, then we’ll have no choice but to go through Lu Mingzhu.”
Unable to seduce Lu Mingzhu, unable to manipulate Prince Luo, getting himself thrown into the yamen’s jail and costing him several thousand taels of silver in the process.
That uncle-and-nephew pair surnamed Tao truly were disappointing.
The rain fell for an entire day.
By the following day, there was still no sign of clearing skies.
After lunch, the old marchioness invited a storyteller to the residence and summoned her daughters-in-law and granddaughter to enjoy tea, pastries, and stories together.
The storyteller was a woman in her forties or fifties who knew exactly how to amuse noble ladies. Before long, all of them were laughing heartily.
Outside, the rain pattered steadily against the windows. Without anyone noticing, it gradually grew heavier.
Yun Qiya laughed so hard that she collapsed into the old marchioness’s arms. The sound of rain drifted through the half-open window into her ears.
With rain this heavy, my little partner probably won’t go out today.
“Cough. Cough.” Ling Yanhuai sat in his carriage while rain drummed against the roof.
Water slid down the stone lion outside in endless streams, like strings of tears.
“Your Highness, the rain is getting heavier. We should return.” An attendant stood outside holding an umbrella, wiping rainwater from his face.
“You’re still running a fever. You mustn’t catch a chill.”
Before, they worried because he refused to leave the house even on the nicest days. Now they worried because he insisted on going out even while sick and in terrible weather. Serving the imperial family truly was difficult.
Ling Yanhuai covered his lips with a handkerchief, suppressing the urge to cough. They had only agreed not to meet yesterday. They had never agreed not to meet today. What if she came looking for him and couldn’t find him? Wouldn’t that make the trip pointless?
The rain intensified. Soon it had become a dense curtain of water. Then a new worry surfaced. What if she really did come? Even the Marquis Residence’s carriage could hardly keep out all the rain in weather like this.
Wiping droplets of water from the back of his hand, Ling Yanhuai’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter.
As time slowly passed, the rain showed no sign of letting up. A faint, unhealthy flush spread across Ling Yanhuai’s cheeks, but the furrow between his brows gradually eased. She hadn’t come out in the rain.
Good. Very good.
Inside the gates of the Imperial Clan Court, the old prince stared worriedly at the carriage parked outside.
Prince Ruining refused to leave.
The old prince didn’t dare send him away.
When invited inside, Prince Ruining only said he was waiting for someone.
The old prince was genuinely afraid Prince Ruining would suddenly collapse unconscious at the entrance. If that happened, there might be one more inmate in the Court prison tomorrow: Him.
If he was only waiting for someone, couldn’t he simply leave an attendant there? Why insist on sitting in the carriage and waiting in person? It was impossible to understand. Among the Ling family, normal people like him were becoming increasingly rare.
“Ling Shou’an!” Yun Qiya’s carriage arrived at the gates of the Imperial Clan Court.
Sure enough, she spotted the familiar vermilion-wheeled carriage. “Are you an idiot? It’s pouring rain and you’re still outside!” She threw open the curtain.
The two carriages were parked close together, but the rain was so loud on the roofs that she had to shout in order to be heard.
“Why did you come when the rain’s this heavy?”
The moment he saw Yun Qiya, Ling Yanhuai smiled. But almost immediately, concern replaced the happiness on his face.
“Go home quickly.”
“If I hadn’t come, how would I know you were still here?” Yun Qiya noticed the abnormal redness on his face. “Why is your face so red?”
“The charcoal brazier in the carriage is burning a little too strongly.”
Seeing that just a brief conversation had left the sleeves of her clothes damp with rain, Ling Yanhuai urged, “I was just about to head home. You should go back too.”
He had thought that if she didn’t appear today, he would be pleased. But now that she had appeared, he found himself secretly happy as well. He knew he shouldn’t feel this way. Yet the joy was like an invisible wind. It slipped through the cracks of the carriage window. It drifted in from behind the curtains, floating in with the rain. He could neither avoid nor conceal it.
“I brought this for you.” Yun Qiya tossed a large pouch into his lap. “My aunt specially made these dried tangerine-peel candies for me. I’m giving you half.”
Ling Yanhuai passed a delicately carved food box through the carriage window. “Our chef made some new pastries. I want you to try them.”
The exchange completed, Yun Qiya wiped rainwater off the food box with her sleeve. Compared to the carefully prepared box he’d brought, her cloth pouch suddenly felt embarrassingly crude. Still, seeing his carriage parked outside the Imperial Clan Court made her breathe a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, she’d ultimately decided to come out and take a look. Otherwise, she never would have known that someone would sit in the wind and rain holding a box of carefully prepared pastries, waiting for her.
“Next time, if I’m not here, just come directly to the Marquis’s residence to find me.”
Opening the box, she picked up a peony-shaped pastry and took a bite.
“So good!” Her eyes immediately lit up.
“Ling Shou’an, your family’s chef is incredible!”
Sob… He remembered to share delicious pastries with her. What kind of heavenly little partner was this? She was going to stay friends with him for the rest of her life.
“You like them? That’s good.” The tickle in his throat almost made Ling Yanhuai lose control and start coughing. He clenched his fist tightly, forcing down every trace of discomfort. “I have some matters to deal with over the next couple of days. If you need anything, you can send a message to Prince Xun’s residence.”
The old prince, secretly watching from behind the gates of the Imperial Clan Court, looked utterly baffled. The Prince Xun’s residence? Isn’t that my house?
“Oh!” Yun Qiya suddenly understood. No wonder her little partner could bring her into the Imperial Clan Court. So he was from Prince Xun’s household.
Prince Xun was the Minister of the Imperial Clan Court. Pulling a few strings for his own descendants was perfectly normal.
“Then let’s meet again in a couple of days.” Ling Yanhuai looked at the sleeves she had gotten wet in the rain. “Go home and change your clothes. Don’t get sick.”
“Mhm, mhm.” Yun Qiya stuffed a second pastry into her mouth and waved.
“Then I’m going home.”
After her carriage disappeared into the rain, Ling Yanhuai finally released his tightly clenched fist and doubled over with a violent fit of coughing.
“Your Highness!”
“It’s nothing.” He covered his mouth and tried to steady his breathing. “Ask Physician Wang to come administer another round of acupuncture.”
He needed to recover as quickly as possible. In his hand, the tangerine-peel candy carried a sweet-and-tart fragrance. He unwrapped one and placed it in his mouth. The faint sweetness spread across his tongue. Even the irritating itch in his throat seemed to ease with it.
When news spread that Prince Ruining’s fever had worsened again, the Emperor’s heart ached. Upon learning that his son had gone to the Imperial Clan Court while still ill, he immediately summoned the old prince to the palace.
The imperial hall was brightly lit with countless candles. Both the Emperor and Empress were present.
“Summoning Great-Uncle so late at night leaves me deeply uneasy.”
“Your Majesty is too kind.”
If you’re so uneasy, why did you summon me anyway? The old prince smiled pleasantly. “This old servant is advanced in years and requires very little sleep.”
I’m an old man. Dragging me out in the middle of the night like this, doesn’t your conscience hurt at all?
“Then I am relieved.”
The old prince: “…” Bah. Your heart sure found relief quickly.
Author’s Note:
Old Prince: The Emperor’s family doesn’t treat me like an outsider. On the other hand, they don’t seem to treat me entirely like a person either.