It was dusk, and there were hardly any pedestrians on the street. The Shuntian Prefecture government office was seven or eight miles away, and there were no patrolling constables to be seen.
Shen Qingchen nervously gripped her robe. Across the four seas and eight wastelands… it seemed she could only rely on herself.
Turning a corner, she finally made up her mind and stopped to say to the two men who were crossing the street: "Gentlemen, it is getting late, and it must be tiring for you to follow me like this. However, I did not inform you in advance, and my family has not prepared any wine or food, so I am afraid I cannot entertain you. As a Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination) of the Ming Dynasty and a Shujishi (junior compiler) of the Hanlin Academy, it is really impolite of me to do so."
Her heart pounded. Kidnapping officials was a serious crime, and they probably didn't even know who she was.
Upon hearing Shen Qingchen introduce herself, the two men stopped in their tracks. After listening to her words, they exchanged a glance, and one of them said, "We're looking for you."
"..." Qingchen's breath hitched, and he forced himself to calm down and said, "My teacher's residence is not far ahead. Since you two are looking for me, it is not convenient to talk here. Why don't you come with me to my teacher's house? My teacher is the Second Grand Secretary of the Cabinet, Lord Song Yue."
They were after her, and they seemed menacing. Shen Qingchen didn't know who she had offended, but since they weren't afraid of her status, she could only invoke the name of someone of high rank and power. Only one person was on her mind: her teacher, Song Yue.
The two people following behind exchanged a glance, seemingly deep in thought.
Qingchen then said, "You two probably don't know, but I... I am Lord Song's beloved disciple. He said I am his most prized student and that he would devote all his efforts to cultivating me. So if I suffer any injustice, he will certainly not let the person who wronged me off lightly." She spoke at a moderate pace, her tone calm and gentle, and her narration sounded quite plausible.
At that moment, behind a fluttering blue-gray cloth sign on the street corner, a flat-roofed black silk carriage had been stopped for a while, the tall horses pulling it gently tapping their forelegs on the stone pavement. The person inside the carriage was listening quietly to what she had to say, her brows furrowing slightly.
The two men whispered to each other. One of them hesitated and said, "Should we go back and ask for permission?" The other man, however, was not deterred and took a few steps forward. "Enough talk, hand over the stuff."
"...You must have made a mistake. I didn't take anything." She gripped her robe tightly and took a step back in her black boots.
"Stop pretending. The letter is with you. If you don't hand it over, you'll be in for a world of hurt."
"I have no letter..." Shen Qingchen was confused and flustered, so he could only say, "I really am Grand Secretary Song's beloved disciple. If my teacher finds out that you have treated me like this, he will be very angry... My teacher is over thirty years old. Do you know why he is still unmarried?"
The person in the carriage twitched slightly, and the hand beneath the wide sleeves with cloud patterns couldn't help but lift the curtain a little.
She forced herself to continue, "I have a younger sister, born to my mother in one pregnancy, and she's very beautiful. My teacher... is in love with my sister. If he marries her, he'll have to call me 'brother.' So, our relationship isn't just that of teacher and student; we'll soon be in-laws. Do you really want to go against Lord Song—"
Although her words contained a threatening tone, her tone was not at all harsh.
The two men following her, seeing that she wasn't the type to be fierce, suddenly laughed. "Trying to scare us? You've got some serious bragging going on. We're just following orders, we don't care whose brother you are. Don't delay the Embroidered Uniform Guard's investigation, hand over the letter now, or don't blame us for taking you to the Northern Garrison Prison."
Embroidered Uniform Guard?
Just then, the carriage turned the corner and stopped in front of them.
The person inside the carriage stepped out, their black boots landing smoothly on the ground. The face that appeared was pale and delicate, and the crimson official robes still gleamed faintly in the moonlight.
"He wasn't bragging. He truly is my beloved student." The familiar voice was calm and composed.
...Song Yue.
Upon seeing Grand Secretary Song, the two men bowed respectfully, saying, "The officers of the Embroidered Uniform Guard greet you, Grand Secretary."
Song Yue nodded, walked over to Shen Qingchen, and put one hand on her shoulder.
Shen Qingchen's heart trembled as he felt warmth in his palm and half of his body was enveloped by the wide sleeves of the cloud-patterned satin.
She looked up at his straight nose and heard him say, "My beloved student can't stand being hungry; his memory goes bad when he's hungry. How about this, my residence isn't far ahead. You can all come with me to my residence for a meal, and then you can ask me your questions after my student has eaten his fill, how about that?"
The two captains were not fools. "We dare not disturb Your Excellency. We did not know he was one of Your Excellency's men. We have been very impolite and hope Your Excellency will forgive us."
"Now, do the Embroidered Uniform Guards no longer need to show their official warrants from the Ministry of Justice when arresting people?" he said calmly, his cheeks slightly glowing in the moonlight, his eyes as cold as an icy spring as he looked at the two of them.
The two men looked at each other for a moment, then knelt down. One of them said, "We have acted improperly, and we hope that Your Excellency will not hold our mistakes against us. The Commander was injured and only gave his instructions before falling into a coma. We did not dare to disturb him further, so... we did not obtain the imperial warrant."
"Then why aren't you leaving?"
The two men were taken aback, then quickly bowed and took their leave, saying, "We will take our leave now."
The two had just turned around when Song Yue called them back, "Wait a minute."
"Does the Grand Secretary have any further instructions?"
“Go back and tell your Commander Lu that if you want anything, come to the Hanlin Academy with your official credentials. My student and I will be waiting for you. Also, each of you should receive twenty strokes of the cane.”
The two men hadn't expected that following a mere junior official would lead them to a Grand Secretary, who immediately punished them with twenty strokes of the cane. Their expressions turned rather grim. "We will certainly relay what the Grand Secretary said. We will take our leave now."
It was now completely dark, and the stars on the horizon twinkled in succession.
Song Yue raised the hand that was resting on Shen Qingchen's shoulder and shook his sleeve. The moonlight enveloped his body, forming a faint white halo, and his shadow was stretched long.
Shen Qingchen felt a chill run down his spine. He wanted to take back what he had said. After bowing, he muttered, "Teacher."
“My beloved disciple.” Song Yue narrowed his eyes as he glanced at her. “No, elder brother?”
She lowered her head awkwardly, "...I wouldn't dare. Thank you for your help, teacher. I hope you will forgive my slip of the tongue."
"If I heard you correctly, you just said that your younger sister is incredibly beautiful. What do you mean...?"
She slowly lowered her head, looking at the tips of her shoes. "The student... didn't mean anything by it, please don't misunderstand, teacher."
He didn't blame her, but casually asked, "What did you do?"
She shook her head. "I didn't do anything. I just helped a wounded man remove half an arrow from his leg at a friend's clinic yesterday. The man had a knife that looked like a brocade spring knife... Just now, those two men asked me for a letter, but I haven't seen any letter before."
He glanced at her from head to toe. "You also know medicine?"
"No. Yesterday was a moment of desperation, and the student was forced into it."
"You don't know medicine, yet you cut open his flesh with a knife?"
Shen Qingchen nodded seriously, the moonlight making her delicate and smooth cheeks glow. "I saved him."
He raised an eyebrow, turned, and walked toward the carriage. "Very brave."
Shen Qingchen stood there, stunned, unsure whether it was praise or sarcasm.
He stopped in front of the carriage, turned around and said, "The person you stabbed is the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard."
...
No wonder that person had a ruthless aura. Shen Qingchen thought, Cheng Yi's blunt knife did not fail in its mission, no, it performed exceptionally well.
"Come on, let's go home." With that, he lifted the curtain and got into the car.
"Teacher...the student's home is over there."
A voice drifted from inside the car, "Get in, I'll take you home. Curfew is approaching."
She hesitated for a moment, then walked to the carriage. "It's getting late, and I dare not disturb you any longer. I'd better see you off now."
To everyone's surprise, the person in the car said again, "Get in."
Shen Qingchen had no choice but to lower her head and get into the car. The wind blew her robe at her feet.
The carriage was the same one from when we first met Song Yue in the rain. It was luxurious and comfortable; it was spacious enough for one person, but a bit cramped for two.
After asking for Shen Qingchen's address, Song Yue stopped talking and sat quietly. Shen Qingchen carefully tried to keep her body close to the window so as not to make the teacher feel crowded. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of his profile.
Handsome features, a broad chest, a calm and composed demeanor, and the hand resting on her shoulder just moments before... It's hard to imagine that he's now the Second Grand Secretary. He was once just a vague figure in her history books, but now he's her teacher, a real person with flesh and blood, sitting right beside her.
Song Yue seemed to sense something and turned around. Their eyes met instantly. His gaze was open and calm, while Shen Qingchen, hidden in the shadows, panicked and quickly lowered his head.
What are you thinking about?
"No... I was just thinking about my hometown," she blurted out.
Where is your hometown?
"Xuzhou, Jiangsu. Have you ever been there, teacher? There's a beautiful lake there, surrounded by trees and flowers. The water is green in the summer and turns blue in the winter."
Song Yue’s voice was soft. “I have been there. When I was the governor of Zhejiang, there was a great flood in Zhejiang one year, which flooded a lot of fields. I went to Jiangsu to borrow grain.”
Shen Qingchen hesitated for a moment, "Teacher, as the governor, isn't your salary enough to cope with years of famine?"
He glanced at her. "It's not for me to eat." He paused, then added, "It's for the people of Zhejiang. But in the end, it was too late. Many people died that year. Some drowned, some starved to death, and the fields were all water, neither green nor blue."
He turned to look at her and asked, "What will you do if you become an official and can't even afford to eat with your salary?"
Qingchen was surprised that her teacher would ask her that question. After a moment of surprise, she said, "Then I'll eat at your house, teacher."
Even Song Yue was stunned. He raised an eyebrow and said, "You really aren't going to be polite."
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