After the banquet, Lanqin asked Anjia to prepare a sedan chair and servants for her to leave.
This was Lanqin's main purpose in returning home—to escape the maids' surveillance and wander around freely for a day. Especially that old man Lingzhu, who made demands of her as soon as he returned; it was truly boring. Lanqin had already made up her mind whether or not to tell the Fourth Master.
"Where is Princess going?" asked a young maid named "Ru Lu". She had just been sold into the Ling family as a maid and had never seen this third young lady before. She only knew that she was the daughter of the principal wife and had married into the Fourth Prince's family. She never expected to see her today.
"Does the princess need to tell you where she's going? You have no manners!" Granny Tian scolded.
She was Lanqin's wet nurse, and she doted on Lanqin as if she were her own daughter, showing her no less affection than that of Anjia.
Listening to the voices outside the sedan chair, Lanqin looked annoyed: she had finally managed to get Nianxue and Xicha away for a while, and now there were two more people following her. She really had no freedom at all.
The sedan chair traveled through several streets before arriving at the busiest street in the capital. Lanqin ordered the sedan chair bearers to stop, and then stepped out. For convenience, Lanqin had Rulu change her into men's clothing; the one who emerged was no longer Lanqin, but Young Master Lan.
Lanqin was dressed in a light blue robe with a moon-white vest over it, a small gold-colored hat on his head, and a fan in his hand. He was a handsome young man, though a little thin.
"You all can relax here for a while. I'll go out for a stroll and we'll meet here later." Lanqin flicked her fan, gracefully fanning herself.
"Oh dear, this won't do! My princess..." Granny Tian was unwilling to let Lanqin wander outside alone. If something happened to her, how could she explain it to Madam Anjia? Besides, she had watched the princess grow up since she was a child, and she had never been out alone like this before. What if she encountered a bad person? That would be terrible.
Before Granny Tian could finish her thought, Lanqin coughed, interrupting her.
Granny Tian naturally knew what it was, and immediately stopped talking, advising, "My lad, why don't you let Ru Lu accompany you? That way, if you buy anything, someone will carry it for you, right?" Granny Tian knew that Lan Qin didn't want to take this old woman with her, so she had no choice but to throw Ru Lu out.
Lanqin knew that Granny Tian would definitely not allow her to go shopping alone, so she agreed to let Rulu go with her.
Granny Tian had no choice but to follow the sedan chair bearers to a teahouse, where she listened to storytelling and drank tea, waiting for Lanqin to come back and find them after she had finished her shopping.
Meanwhile, Lanqin, fan in hand, excitedly rushed into a bookstore. Inside, towering bookshelves filled the space, making it resemble Lin Mengyao's university library—numerous bookshelves and a vast collection, though certainly much smaller. This was the most famous bookstore in Beijing, similar to the modern Xinhua Bookstore headquarters, and quite large indeed.
Ru Lu was quite suspicious that Lan Qin was the first to enter the study. She thought to herself, "This Third Princess really likes to browse the study. I thought she would browse around cosmetics and the like."
"Sigh, being cooped up in the mansion every day is so boring. I should find some interesting books to read," Lanqin thought to herself.
Lanqin went to the bookshelf of popular books and picked up a few novels to browse. She took out banned early Qing dynasty editions like *Jin Ping Mei*, *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, and *The Peony Pavilion*, and also selected some detective novels like *Surprising Stories*. She had Rulu hold the books she chose. Then Lanqin went to the bookshelf of poetry collections. When she saw the collections of Xin Qiji and Su Shi, she immediately reached for them, but found they were glued to the shelf and wouldn't budge. Then she saw a pair of long, strong hands on the other side of the shelf, who also happened to pick up those two books.
Clearly, the other person also noticed that someone was taking these two books from the bookshelf, so they let go. The gap between the two books allowed Lanqin to see the face of the person opposite her.
"Eighth Master!" Lanqin called out almost instinctively.
Eighth Prince also saw Lanqin's face, and when he heard her soft exclamation, he immediately recognized that the "young master" at the other end of the bookshelf was actually the little princess from Fourth Prince's mansion.
A hint of doubt flashed across Eighth Master's face, but it disappeared immediately. His handsome face instantly softened into a gentle and refined expression as he softly asked, "What is the young 'master' doing here?" He had originally intended to call her "little sister-in-law," but seeing that Lanqin was dressed as a man, he changed his address accordingly.
Lanqin smiled and asked in return, "Isn't Eighth Prince here either? Please forgive me for not being able to perform the proper greeting."
Eighth Prince walked around the bookshelf and toward Lanqin. Rulu, who was beside him, saw a handsome man approaching her princess and was so nervous that she didn't know what to say.
"You read Jin Ping Mei?" Eighth Master looked at the book Ru Lu was holding with interest and asked in surprise.
Even though Lanqin was a tough woman, seeing her reading such a forbidden book, especially one with a reputation for being lewd and violent, in front of such a handsome man immediately made her blush.
"I was just browsing around when I had nothing else to do." Lanqin subconsciously opened the folding fan in her hand, intentionally or unintentionally using the fan to cover Rulu's hand, who was standing beside her.
Seeing her little gesture, Eighth Master naturally understood, and his smile deepened as he said, "There's a particularly good restaurant nearby. Would Young Master Lan do me the honor of joining us for a taste?"
Lanqin was eager to accept any offer of delicious food. Besides, since she had already met the Eighth Prince, she couldn't very well refuse. Although the Fourth Prince and the Eighth Prince were historically at odds and were even the two most fiercely competing for the throne, Lanqin had gotten along very well with him during the two days she spent at the estate, and even developed a rather favorable impression of the Eighth Prince.
"Since Eighth Prince is so hospitable, then I naturally cannot refuse." Lanqin smiled generously, leaving Rulu stunned. This princess, who had married the Fourth Prince, had gotten involved with a strange man as soon as she returned to her parents' home, and even wanted to go to a restaurant for a meal. What on earth was going on?
The two walked out of the study one after the other. Ru Lu could only follow behind Lan Qin. Although she was terrified, she dared not ask any questions.
Eighth Master slowed his pace and walked down the street with Lanqin and her maid. The three of them were all dressed in fine clothes and had an extraordinary air about them, which made passersby turn their heads.
Lanqin never expected that, in a place she thought was impossible, a pair of eyes were watching her and the Eighth Prince's laughter and conversation.
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