Chapter 29 The Twenty-Nine Flowers and Leaves Are Incompatible

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When Xu Heng entered the main room, the palace maids took their leave. Most of them left the courtyard, but Juanxue and Shuangtian were specially ordered by the emperor to serve Wang Yuying personally. Therefore, the two maids stayed in the courtyard and saw Wang Yuying scold the emperor from beginning to end, and even gave the emperor the cold shoulder.

The two maids were extremely nervous, kneeling and not daring to raise their heads, even wishing they could stare into the ground and disappear into it.

Wang Yuying closed the door and turned around, only to find the two maids still kneeling. She said softly, "Get up, the ground is rather cold at night."

Juanxue and Shuangtian stood up. Their legs were a little numb from kneeling for so long, but they dared not rub them. Juanxue, being slightly bolder, looked at Wang Yuying with a worried expression: "Immortal Master—"

“If you want to act as an advocate for His Majesty, there’s no need for that,” Wang Yuying interrupted before Juanxue could finish speaking.

Juanxue was embarrassed when she realized what had happened, but she was still worried about Wang Yuying. She exchanged a glance with Shuangtian, and this time Shuangtian spoke up: "Immortal Master, you should not provoke His Majesty again. If His Majesty is furious and asks you to move to the Taoist temple, what should we do?"

"I can't wait to leave," Wang Yuying immediately thought to herself.

Knowing she couldn't leave, she made a deal with the emperor. Juanxue and Shuangtian were unaware of this, and she didn't intend to tell them either: "Don't worry, I'm fine."

Wang Yuying turned her back to the two maids and pursed her lips.

She grew up on the frontier, surrounded by men except for her mother—her father's soldiers. Wang Yuying longed for playmates her own age, especially those of the same sex. She remembered that her father's deputy general had a daughter six years older than her, whom she called "elder sister."

Every year, her older sister would come to visit with her family, staying in Yangguan for seven or eight days. Wang Yuying looked forward to her sister's visit every year, even more so than during the Lunar New Year. She would count the days on her fingers, and often, two or three months before the visit, she would eagerly prepare a guest room and get things ready for her sister.

When she was nine years old, it was time for her elder sister to appear once a year. Wang Yuying climbed the city wall before dawn, eagerly waiting, but she never saw her elder sister again, even after dark.

For the next three days, my sister still didn't come; she broke her promise.

Wang Yuying angrily wrote a letter severing ties, vowing to hand it over to her older sister when she arrived and never be friends again. But that very night, her parents told her that her older sister was getting married and the deputy general was being transferred away, and that they would never come again.

Wang Yuying squatted down, hugged her knees, and cried for a long time. In the end, her mother comforted her.

So when she first entered Kunning Palace, she couldn't help but treat all the palace women as her best friends and sisters. Little did she know they would betray her like that.

Later, at Yuqing Temple...

Therefore, there are many things she dares not say now, nor will she reveal them to those around her.

While she was at Yuqing Temple, she did not perform morning and evening prayers, but she did practice metaphysics. According to the Eight Characters and Four Pillars of Destiny, the Ten Gods and Six Relatives are important. If wealth is strong, the seal is weak, indicating a weak bond with the mother. If the seal is strong, it will control the food and injury stars, resulting in few children. The six relatives cannot be perfect. In Ziwei Doushu, there are twelve palaces, and the inauspicious stars must fall on one of them, whether it is a spouse or a friend. It is impossible to be perfect.

This may be the regret of her life.

Therefore, Wang Yuying no longer has the obsession to make friends or find a confidant.

"Come with me and do something." Wang Yuying carefully inspected the bedroom. Everything else was fine, except for a hole in the back of the mandarin duck painting, which exposed a secret room. So, Wang Yuying and the two maids moved the floor-to-ceiling cabinet in the room to block it up. She also went to the secret room to check again; it was completely sealed, and no one could spy on it anymore. Then, they smashed the door to the secret room, so it would have to be wide open from now on. They moved the screen that Xu Heng had kicked down to the secret room. When she came out, she stopped in the courtyard.

Logically, it's easy to have trouble sleeping if you practice boxing at night, but she hadn't practiced for several days. Practice makes perfect, and idleness leads to ruin. If you neglect your skills, it's like a wild animal's teeth and nails getting old, making it even more vulnerable to being slaughtered.

So she ordered Juanxue and Shuangtian, "You two go back to your rooms first. I need to practice my boxing, and I'm afraid I might hurt you two."

The mistress often practiced martial arts when she was in Kunning Palace, and the two maids were used to it. They went back to their room to clean and make the bed for the night. Wang Yuying practiced a set of the seventy-two forms of Wang Family Fist in the courtyard, and some of the moves could even be incorporated into sword techniques. After finishing, she was slightly sweaty and felt much more energetic.

Inside the room, the two maids were still watching over her, their eyes wide open and showing no signs of sleepiness. Juanxue handed a handkerchief to Wang Yuying, who took it immediately and used it to wipe her neck, where sweat tends to accumulate and cause itching.

"What do you two usually do for entertainment?" Wang Yuying continued wiping her philtrum and forehead. "Shuangtian, I remember you used to like reading storybooks, do you still read them now?"

Shuangtian nodded sheepishly, while Juanxue laughed and said, "She's looking even fiercer now!"

Wang Yuying smiled and asked, "Did you bring it?"

Juanxue and Shuangtian were to serve her and temporarily reside in a side room.

Shuangtian bit her lip: "I only brought one book."

The emperor's decree was issued in haste, and in the rush, he only managed to grab the book he hadn't finished reading.

"Let me see it." Wang Yuying planned to pass the time with a storybook.

Shuangtian quickly went back to the side room and gave it to Wang Yuying.

Wang Yuying took the storybook, weighed it in her hand, and examined it. It was a small-format book on Xuan paper with a green sandalwood bark, and the title, "The Apricot Guest's Fate," was written in delicate, small regular script.

She quickly flipped through the pages, reading ten lines at a glance. The first part described how, in a certain dynasty, three generations of the Li family had served in officialdom, with the father and son both rising to the rank of prime minister. The younger prime minister, Li, was only twenty years old and unmarried, the object of every noblewoman's dream. The text then mentioned that the eldest daughter of the Wei Hanlin family had a personal maid named Chunxing. One day, while buying apricot blossom cakes for her mistress at a shop in the east of the city, she accidentally bumped into someone—none other than the young prime minister, Li, whose carriage had broken down and who was walking home.

Wang Yuying flipped through the page haphazardly and asked Shuangtian, "Why are you looking at this kind of book?"

She feared the entire book would revolve around a noble young master falling in love with a maid. She remembered reading "Three Heroes Battle Lü Bu" and "Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors" from Shuangtian before, and couldn't help but exclaim, "The old ones were so much better!"

“This is fashionable,” Shuangtian replied, her face flushing again. Actually, she used to love this kind of thing too, but there were too many stories in Kunning Palace, and her master hadn’t noticed.

"This kind of trend is always going to happen," Juanxue remarked.

Wang Yuying smiled but didn't reply. To be honest, she got sleepy after reading a book she wasn't interested in for a while. She yawned and went to bed.

When she got up in the morning to wash and dress, palace servants came in droves to serve her breakfast. This must have been a special meal prepared for her by the imperial kitchen, consisting of seven meat dishes, one vegetable dish, a soup, and a small dish. The palace servants would also say, "Please enjoy, Immortal Master, this is perfect."

Not only are the meat dishes goat and wild duck, fat chicken and fat beef, smoked pork knuckle, lion's head meatballs, and stewed turtle, but even the soup is beef tallow soup.

Who eats so much meat so early in the morning?! Wang Yuying felt that Xu Heng was trying to choke her or make her sick of the food.

She couldn't stand the oiliness after less than ten bites and cried out, "Rolled Snow—"

Only then did he realize that the two maids were not behind him, but were talking in front of the pillar.

Wang Yuying closed her lips, and Juanxue met her gaze, quickly bending her knees.

After a moment, Wang Yuying spoke again: "Bring tea."

Snowflakes and frost swirled around the sparrow's tongue, and Wang Yuying stood back to her side.

Wang Yuying picked up her teacup and gulped down the tea, finally relieving some of the greasiness. She didn't pursue the matter of the two maids slacking off, and let it pass. But around 9 a.m., she saw the two maids standing in the courtyard again, muttering to themselves. Only half of the wet clothes in the basin were drying; the other half were still in the basin.

Wang Yuying, fearing the two maids might plot against her, hardened her expression and asked, "What are you saying?"

The two maids, unaware that Wang Yuying was behind them, trembled with fright and then knelt down, pleading, "Your Majesty, spare our lives!"

In his haste, he even used the old title, and quickly corrected himself: "Immortal Master, spare my life, forgive my sins."

The two maids dared not hide anything from Wang Yuying and confessed everything. They used to work in Kunning Palace, where the only man they saw was the emperor. But things were different when Wang Yuying came to the outer court. She discovered that some officials would pass by the gate after court.

For two consecutive days, every time Wang Yuying was served breakfast, four or five civil officials would happen to walk to the door, among whom Xiao Zheng was the most eye-catching, standing out from the crowd.

Because they were so beautiful, not only the two maids, Juanxue and Shuangtian, but many palace servants couldn't help but secretly admire them.

"Get up," Wang Yuying chuckled. "You haven't seen enough. How good-looking could it be?"

The two maids slowly rose, their necks still hunched, and were both taken aback. Their mistress must have seen Prime Minister Zheng before and knew what he looked like, right?

I wonder if the Immortal Master heard about Zheng Xiang's attempt to prevent the reinstatement by hitting the pillar after he went to Yuqing Temple. The two maids were afraid of the rift between Wang Yuying and Zheng Yang, and they were also afraid that if they didn't tell the truth, they would be punished even more severely by Wang Yuying.

They answered cautiously: "They all say that Prime Minister Zheng is one in a million. The immortal master does not know that not only the 'Xingke Yuan' you read last night, but also the young men in 'Lengxiang Zhuan' and 'Sanjie Yinyuan' are all noble young men who are also prime ministers."

The implication is that Xiao Zheng is the most popular prototype in the storybooks.

But these were all things they said, and had nothing to do with the two maids.

Wang Yuying curled her lips: "What use is a beautiful but empty shell?"

The two maids raised their eyebrows and widened their eyes; their mistress had uttered another shocking statement. But this time it didn't matter; only the two of them had heard it. As long as they kept their mouths shut, no one could harm their mistress.

But honestly, is Prime Minister Zheng really a mediocre man? His reputation doesn't seem to suggest it...

Still a rift...

While Juanxue and Shuangtian were still speculating, Wang Yuying had already turned around with a faint smile. She took a step forward and touched her chin. That year, she returned to Beijing with her father, also in autumn, but later than this time, in late August, when the osmanthus flowers had already fallen.

The group arrived at the outskirts of the capital; a few dozen more miles and they would be in the city. Suddenly, Wang Yuying spurred her horse forward, approached the archer, took his bow without asking, and pulled an arrow from his quiver. The General of the Western Expedition, seeing this, was furious: "We were walking perfectly fine, what are you doing now?"

Wang Yuying didn't even glance at her father, but drew her bow and aimed it at the sky: "If we don't save it now, this goose will be snatched up by an eagle."

A lone goose, separated from its flock, is gliding diagonally across the blue sky, followed closely by a menacing eagle.

Wang Yuying chased after a lone goose and an eagle, riding south. The old general roared from his ranks, "Where are you going? Come back! Come back right now! Yingniang, we're entering the city!"

Wang Yuying ignored him and sped south. She planned to rescue the wild geese, then reunite with the others, apologize to her father, and, since he was kind-hearted and would eventually forgive her.

Wang Yuying kept her eyes fixed on the sky, her bowstring taut, and released the arrow. The long arrow shot straight into the sky with a sharp whistling sound, followed by a cry of an eagle, and the eagle plummeted straight down.

"Watch out!"

Hearing the roar, Wang Yuying's heart skipped a beat. Turning her head, she realized that she had been so focused on staring at the sky that she hadn't noticed she was about to crash into a carriage returning to the capital.

"Whoa!" Wang Yuying pulled on the reins and stood up, forcing the horse to turn its head to the right to avoid the horse.

"Why aren't you watching where you're going? Whoa—" The coachman pulled on the reins, and the shiny black horse reared up, causing the carriage to tilt. In an instant, only one wheel was on the ground. Fearing that the carriage would really overturn, Wang Yuying jumped off the horse and used her bow to cushion the fall.

The carriage swayed back and forth twice before coming to a stop, the doors were even flung open, and the driver hurriedly asked into the carriage, "Young Master, are you alright?"

Before Wang Yuying could even see the person in the carriage clearly, she apologized, "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I accidentally bumped into you, sir, it was my fault—" Wang Yuying suddenly stopped.

Are you sure the person in this carriage is a young master?

This is so beautiful!

She had phoenix eyes and long eyelashes, but she looked sickly, with a pale face and lips that were not only bloodless but also cracked.

Were you frightened by her collision?

But the lip lines weren't because of her, were they... Never mind, I'll apologize first! Wang Yuying thought to herself as she bowed and pointed to the sky: "I'm sorry, I was in such a hurry to save the wild geese that I didn't notice the ground—" She stopped abruptly, realizing something was wrong.

The androgynous man sat with his legs apart, casually lifting his phoenix eyes as she explained, glancing up at the sky—where were the wild geese? The sky was clear and there wasn't a single bird in sight.

Wang Yuying lowered her chin shyly, scratched her ear with the hand that wasn't holding the bow, and explained softly, "The geese have flown away."

After a long silence, she figured the man was probably annoyed, so she looked up and smiled apologetically: "In short, I offended you. Whether you want compensation or a doctor, I will take full responsibility."

Wang Yuying noticed that the man had already lowered his gaze from the sky and was staring at her intently.

Wang Yuying didn't try to dodge, so she openly met the man's gaze. After staring at him for a while, she gradually felt that his phoenix eyes were like vortexes that could suck people in...

Bang! The man suddenly slammed the car door shut.

The driver understood, whipped the horse, and drove past Wang Yuying.

Wang Yuying thought he was completely angry, so she chased after the car, shouting, "I'm sorry, I said I'd compensate you in full—"

The carriage drove further and further away. Wang Yuying chased after it for a while, then stopped.

When she got back, she told her father and uncles about encountering the strange man. She was scolded and everyone criticized her for being impulsive and reckless, but they were all worried that Wang Yuying would be offended.

The matter was only put to rest after it was confirmed that Wang Yuying was not injured, and no one mentioned it again. Wang Yuying herself did not take it to heart.

Wang Yuying never cared about things in the capital while she was on the frontier. It was only after she came to the capital that she gradually heard about some people, including Zheng Yangzhi, the eldest son of the Zheng family. However, she only heard about him and never met him.

Until she met Xu Heng, one day Xu Heng invited her to Hongxinglou for drinks. Before the dishes were served, he suddenly told her that a friend was coming that day.

"Who is it?" Wang Yuying immediately asked.

“He is Zheng Yangzhi, the son of the renowned Prime Minister Zheng.” Xu Heng smiled as he looked at Wang Yuying. “He is my close friend, and I would like to introduce you to all my good friends.”

Wang Yuying blushed, her heart pounding involuntarily. Then she heard a female voice calling "Brother Heng," followed by Xu Heng asking, "Why are you here too?" Wang Yuying looked towards the doorway and saw a young girl rushing into the room, while a young man stood a little further away at the top of the stairs.

Wang Yuying recognized the man at a glance as the passenger from the train carriage that day. It turned out that he was Zheng Yangzhi!

Xu Heng stood up and said with a smile, "Let me introduce you. These two are Zheng Yangzhi and his cousin Mei Niang." He then solemnly introduced Wang Yuying, "Yangzhi, Mei Niang, this is Miss Wang, the apple of the eye of the General of the Western Expedition. She has just returned to the capital from Yangguan."

As Wang Yuying listened to Xu Heng's introduction, she looked Zheng Yangzhi up and down and noticed that his lips were redder today and his complexion was much better. She thought that it was no coincidence that she and Zheng Yangzhi had such a connection, and she also wanted to treat Xu Heng's friend as her own. So she stood up, gave Zheng Yangzhi a graceful bow, and introduced herself.

As she straightened up, she noticed that Zheng Yangzhi was unsmiling and his eyes were full of coldness, as if he didn't remember her. Wang Yuying still had a smile on her face. Before she could react, she heard Zheng Yangzhi speak coldly: "This is the first time I've heard someone speak Mandarin with such a heavy accent. You must be from the countryside."

Wang Yuying immediately stopped laughing and retorted, "The capital city is indeed all-encompassing. This is the first time I've seen someone who is neither male nor female since I came to the capital."

"Alright, alright, what's wrong with you two?" Xu Heng looked bewildered and kept trying to mediate, acting as the peacemaker. Later, after Zheng Yangzhi and Jiang Mei left, Xu Heng privately advised Wang Yuying, "Yangzhi is usually very well-mannered. Perhaps he encountered something unpleasant before coming here today, and he took his anger out on you, which is unusual for him. I'll apologize to you on his behalf."