The carriage left the Shen Residence, heading towards the outskirts of the city, and quickly exited the city.
Su Rong shared with Ye Guixue some interesting stories from her childhood, then asked him, "What about you?"
Ye Guixue answered, "Before I was thirteen, I was kept by my father to study and practice martial arts every day. I don’t seem to have any peculiar memories. Occasionally during leisure time, I would go to Zhuangzi and stay for a few days, gathering fruits by myself, or sometimes going hunting with my older brother. After I turned thirteen, the emperor summoned my father, and they had a discussion. I was then called over by them and asked if I was willing to marry the princess."
He looked at Su Rong with a smile, "At that time, I was very confused. The emperor did not have any sons or daughters, how could I marry his princess? It was not clear until the emperor mentioned that he had a daughter who was currently living in Jiangning County of Daliang. Perhaps afraid that I would decline their proposal, he reassured me that receiving education from Xie Yuan would not embarrass me. He then revealed the letters, collected from his people’s investigation over the past few months. From those letters, I got an understanding of an interesting young girl, who lived a completely different life from mine. After pondering it over, I agreed. Since then, the emperor personally requested an eminent scholar who had retired from the world to be my teacher. My father’s supervision and instruction became stricter towards me. Two years ago, I finished my studies and joined the court. Five years have passed in the blink of an eye."
He finished and asked Su Rong, "Is it boring?"
Su Rong shook her head, "No, it seems to be quite hard."
Ye Guixue looked at her warmly, "Indeed, it was a bit tough, but this is the path I chose for myself, so... I don’t find it too hard." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
Everyone must take responsibility for their own choices.
Su Rong understood what he meant and nodded, "We’re almost out of the city. Where are we going to play?"
"How about going to the ancient Buddha Temple to offer incense? It’s said that there is a divine Sophora tree there. We haven’t seen it yet, we can go take a look. It’s just a bit far, about a hundred miles away, but this carriage horse is very fast, we can definitely get there in two hours." Ye Guixue asked, "What do you think?"
Without waiting for Su Rong’s answer, he added: "If you think it’s too far, we can also go boating on East Lake, which is only thirty miles away and much closer."
Su Rong didn’t answer immediately, but asked, "Boating on East Lake, isn’t it a little cold this season? I heard the food at the temple is quite good, is that true?"
Ye Guixue smiled, "It seems so."
"Then let’s go to the Buddha Temple, even if it’s a bit far away." Su Rong immediately nodded and poked her head out the curtain to yell at the outside of the carriage, "Fen Ling, you go ahead to the Buddha Temple and order a table of vegetarian meals, we’ll have lunch there."
Fen Ling appeared and followed in the front of the carriage, "Miss, do you want the dinner to be ordered too? I heard the vegetarian dishes at the Buddha Temple are delicious. They are eager to attract the ladies and young ladies from different residences in the capital to frequently visit and donate oil money. The quality of their cooks is second to none compared to the imperial kitchen, and they are all proficient in cooking. In particular, they are known for making tofu taste like egg custards and turning vegetarian dishes into meat dishes. They have a wide variety of dishes. If we only order lunch, I’m afraid we will not have enough time to try all the dishes. Should we order dinner too? It would be a pity if we traveled this far and didn’t try everything."
Upon hearing this, Su Rong agreed, "Then we’ll return after dinner is over."
Fen Ling suggested further: "We can also stay overnight and return. At this time of the year, it is not the first or fifteenth day after the lunar new year, there are not many people burning incense at the temple, and there are vacant guesthouses, which are for guests who come to worship Buddha. Having traveled this far, shouldn’t we enjoy breakfast as well before returning? I believe breakfast must be different from lunch and dinner."
Considering this, Su Rong found it acceptable. She turned her head to look at Ye Guixue.
Ye Guixue laughed, "You can decide."
It seemed that he had forgotten that he had promised the emperor that he would visit the palace early tomorrow morning, and he did not mention this matter at all.
Su Rong nodded at Fen Ling, "Then you go and arrange it, we will stay overnight and come back."
"Okay." Fen Ling was very happy and immediately went ahead to make the arrangements.
After the wet nurse sent by Princess Sheng’an arrived at the Shen Residence, Lady Shen received her and asked about her visit. The wet nurse said she was following Princess Sheng’an’s orders, inviting Lady Su Qi to talk, emphasizing that the princess had an important matter.
Upon hearing this, Lady Shen immediately said, "Your timing is unfortunate. Little Seven has been taken away by Second Young Master Ye, supposedly to go out of the city to play. They left half an hour ago, and they must be out of the city by now. Even if we chased after them, it would be too late."
She asked the wet nurse, "Did the princess say that this matter is urgent?"
The wet nurse shook her head at her words, "She didn’t mention that it was urgent, she only mentioned that she wanted to see Lady Su Qi today."
Lady Shen nodded, "She should be back tonight. No matter how late, I will tell her to immediately go to see the princess once she gets back."
The wet nurse thought there was no other choice but to accept this, so she stood up to take her leave.
Lady Shen personally escorted the wet nurse to the door.
When the wet nurse returned to the Duke Residence, Princess Sheng’an saw that she had come back alone and realized that Su Rong had already been taken away by Ye Guixue. She asked, "Was it too late?"
The wet nurse nodded, replying, "Replying to the princess, I was indeed late. When I arrived at the Shen Residence, Lady Su Qi had already been taken away by Second Young Master Ye about half an hour ago, saying they were going to play outside the city. I’m afraid they won’t be back until tonight."
She repeated what Lady Shen had said word for word.
Princess Sheng’an nodded, "Then let’s wait until tonight!"
Lady Duke had been waiting the whole time in Princess Sheng’an’s scriptorium. Now that the person had not arrived, she stood up, "Will I come back later?"
"Okay, you can go first!" Princess Sheng’an nodded.
When He Zheng and Zhou Gu met, He Zheng noticed that Zhou Gu seemed distracted and had a bad complexion. He couldn’t help asking, "Young Master Zhou, are you feeling unwell because you didn’t sleep last night? Maybe you should go back and rest first, it’s not like we can find any leads right now."
Zhou Gu shook his head, "It’s not because of that."
He Zheng looked at him, "Then you are..."
Zhou Gu gave him a glance, rubbed his temples, and naturally would not say that it was because Su Rong and Ye Guixue had gone out of the city which made him constantly imagine what they would say and do to each other. Just thinking about it made him unbearable. Though he tried hard to suppress it, he still could not control his emotions. His brain seemed to be running in a loop around this matter, making it impossible for him to extricate himself the cycle, deeply entangled within the repeated imagery of the two of them.
He let out a helpless sigh, "I’m fine, you continue."
Seeing that he did not elaborate, He Zheng did not feel it was appropriate to press further, and could only say, "I just received a report that someone found the whereabouts of Ding Man. He’s dead, and died in the wilderness about a hundred miles outside of the city. It seems that after he murdered Feng Si, he tried to escape the city, but failed and was murdered. My men found this out by tracing his trail all the way out of the city, discovering in shock that he had died in a deserted place. There were signs that he had fought back before dying. I’ve sent for a coroner as well, and was going to ask you, do you want us to go out of the city together?"
Zhou Gu nodded, "Yes, let’s go."
He Zheng nodded.
So the two of them left the city together.
Since they were riding horses, their journey was faster. Not long after they left the city, they caught up with a carriage traveling on the official road, which was Ye Guixue’s carriage.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
