Chapter 49 [VIP]
Lu Xuejin: "Miss He, there's no need for such formalities. I came here merely to inquire about the General's character. Miss He, your background is quite different from his, and I was always worried that officials would be disrespectful to people. Now it seems I was overthinking it. Since he treats Miss He with such care, I can rest assured. This trip was worthwhile."
He helped He Rulan up, and his words brought tears to her eyes. He Rulan's face had not been eroded by the years, and only now did she show signs of aging. She held Lu Xuejin's fingers tightly for a long time, and let out a few low murmurs.
"Among the women in this brothel, only Lord Lu would come specifically to see us, whether we are doing well or not. I don't know how to thank Lord Lu... If there is anything that you, Lord Lu, can do for me, please just ask."
Seeing that the person was about to kneel down again, Lu Xuejin stopped her and sighed, "No need. Miss He, just take good care of yourself. Childbirth is hard work, so it's best to have fewer worries."
Their area was surrounded by a fence, with red railings separating them, and beaded curtains hanging down, making their figures appear and disappear within. Lu Xuejin's lowered gaze was evident, and the zither player continued to play. From the second floor, Lu Xuejin's every word and action from the moment she entered could be clearly seen.
The woman playing the zither wore a hooded robe, obscuring her features; only a red earring with a Chinese inscription could be seen dangling from her ear. Beside her, a man also dressed in a hooded robe sat at a chessboard, quietly observing their conversation through a beaded curtain. The man's sleeves were adorned with black and gold patterns, and he wore a fox mask with crimson earrings dangling from his ears.
The earring, like a blooming flame, reflected the man's distinct jawline and his fox-like, beastly eyes. His gaze was like that of a wild beast lurking in the bushes, ready to pounce.
A table of delicious food was served. Lu Xuejin had finally seen He Rulan off, and it seemed Xiao Qi might not come today. Knowing Xiao Qi's comings and goings would certainly be advantageous for them. Thinking this, he then remembered that even a guard could do this, so why had he come personally?
The tea is made from the finest pre-Qingming snow buds. The girls in this establishment use milk and cow's milk to blend the snow buds together, resulting in a whole pot of milk tea in the teapot. This is a specialty of the establishment and is also known as "Bo Ya's Broken String".
He looked down at the girls below, chatting and laughing while holding candied hawthorns, looking like a painting. Suddenly, an ugly pig-faced mask appeared at the door, and a young man disguised as a guard appeared on Fengming Terrace. He immediately recognized him, and Murong Yue asked him where he was, then rushed up to the second floor.
However, as he shifted his thoughts, he heard the sound of the zither strings suddenly pause for a moment, as if startled by something, before resuming as before. Murong Yue had already entered his room and breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that he was alone.
"As soon as I woke up, I heard that my brother had gone to a brothel. On the way, I was thinking that Tengluo must be lying to me. What is my brother doing here?"
The boy looked quite energetic now. He sat down next to him, sniffed his neck, and smelled a lot of perfume. He couldn't help but roll his eyes and question him.
Looking at the boy's current appearance, he recalled the boy's palpitations during his nightmare the day before, and a slight ripple of emotion stirred within him, his eyes softening considerably.
“I came here and found myself wanting to come and see for myself. Didn’t I leave a note for His Highness? I certainly didn’t come here for amusement,” he said gently.
He touched Murong Yue's mask and, worried that the boy might feel suffocated, removed the mask for him and asked, "How is Your Highness feeling? Is there anything that is bothering you?"
Murong Yue: "I'm fine. Except that I feel uneasy when I wake up and don't see my brother."
“Even if you didn’t come here for fun, it’s still worrying. What’s so great about this place… It’s full of frivolous women; only lazybones would like to come here.”
As he listened to the music playing in the building, Murong Yue said to him, "This music is quite good. Brother, you stink. Let's go back and take a shower after we finish eating."
Lu Xuejin hadn't touched his food yet. He saw the boy wrinkling his nose and sniffing him again. He glanced down but didn't see anything amiss. Instead, the boy's face got closer and closer, the tip of his nose touching the skin of his neck.
“I brought candied hawthorns to the girls earlier, so maybe they got on my skin,” Lu Xuejin explained, then touched Murong Yue’s forehead. “Your Highness, are you really not feeling unwell? Let’s go see the doctor again.”
“I won’t look,” Murong Yue felt somewhat confused, but seeing Lu Xuejin’s concern for him, and liking Lu Xuejin’s care at this moment, his cheeks unconsciously turned red, and he rubbed against the young man’s palm, unwilling to move away.
"I often feel a sharp pain in my chest, brother, feel it." Murong Yue pointed to the spot where he had been injured a few days ago.
As soon as he spoke, Lu Xuejin believed him, and a barely perceptible hint of sadness appeared on her face. When the young man touched her chest, he seized the opportunity to grab her, kiss her mouth, and a fleeting smile crossed his eyes.
Their noses touched, their breaths mingling. Lu Xuejin, feeling affection for the boy, unconsciously indulged him. He became a silent, withered tree, with trumpet creeper entwining around him, stealing his essence as if to plunder all his nutrients, making him unable to see the sun, and only able to see the branches of the trumpet creeper when he looked up.
For a fleeting moment, Murong Yue noticed the sorrow in Lu Xuejin's eyes. The young man rarely showed such emotion, which made Murong Yue ponder. He wondered if Lu Xuejin had done something wrong, or if the young man was worried about his future. Whatever the reason, he couldn't bear to cause Lu Xuejin distress.
“Brother, don’t worry. If you’re feeling down, just tell me. I’ll take care of it for you.” Murong Yue said, his innocent eyes revealing a hint of inquiry, reflecting Lu Xuejin’s expression. He pressed his forehead against Lu Xuejin’s, obscuring his eyes. “Every time I see Brother Changyou like this, I feel restless and uneasy. I’m not worried about my own fate, but I always feel helpless and unable to make you worry about me.”
Before he could finish speaking, Lu Xuejin's fingertip touched the edge of his lips, blocking his words.
“Your Highness, how can you say I’m incompetent?” Lu Xuejin couldn’t help but say. “I don’t think so. It’s just that I saw Your Highness having a nightmare the day before, and I feel that this place… is wrinkled along with Your Highness’s worries.”
Murong Yue's pupils reflected the young man's image, noticing his dejected expression, which touched his own heart. Only now did he understand why the young man was so heartbroken. It was simply because he had a nightmare the day before. He was heartbroken because of that nightmare.
Every time...ever when his broken heart felt weary, the person before him would transform into a lit lamp, gently soothing his heart. The miserable, indescribable, and obscure dreams of the previous day, the emptiness of not seeing anyone upon waking, were all filled by a single sentence from that person.
He sensed a extinguished flame within him. The flame gnawed at his heart, leaving burn marks, yet occasionally a small flame would still flicker out. Each time a small flame appeared, he felt a sharp pain in his heart. So Lu Xuejin would take a lamp and walk down the path to his heart, mending the walls of his heart along the way.
“…Brother Changyou.” Emotions surged in his eyes, the melancholy and deep meaning almost impossible to conceal. The gloomy look was intertwined with desire, wanting to drag the young man before him into his own lair. But the moment he touched the young man, those emotions dissipated. The person before him was the cleanest, most dazzling gem. He leaned closer, his cheeks and head turning red, taking over the entire gem.
"Brother, it's normal for me to have nightmares. It's not like I need to see a doctor. Just stay with me, and it'll get better on its own in a while." He buried his face in Lu Xuejin's arms and said in a muffled voice, sniffing the air and trying to smell Lu Xuejin's original fragrance through the powder.
"I want to eat candied hawthorns later, brother, buy me twenty skewers."
"Your Highness wants twenty skewers?" Lu Xuejin tossed him the milk tea. "Too much sugar will stick to your teeth."
He took a sip of milk tea and noticed the young man watching him eat. There happened to be a plate of fried dried fish in front of him, so he casually picked one up. Then he saw the young man's gaze pause slightly and suddenly become intense.
"?" He uncertainly picked up another piece of dried fish, tossed it into his mouth in a few bites, and his canine teeth touched the oil. The young man's brown eyes seemed to have been washed with clear water, and they flickered like stars.
Okay. This is one of Changyou's quirks that he discovered. Changyou likes to watch him eat dried fish.
And, I don't know if it's just my imagination, but the music playing in this building sounds familiar, like the kind his mother used to play for him. A chill ran down my spine.
After they finished eating, they left. Murong Yue had a bag of dried fish and a pot of milk tea in his arms. He had already eaten quite a bit in the room, and the rest was for Tengluo.
As Lu Xuejin led the boy out, he suddenly sensed something was amiss. The crowd was bustling, and Fengming Terrace was as lively as before. He glanced around the corner not far away and vaguely saw a black sleeve flutter by.
"Your Highness, is the milk tea delicious?" he asked.
Murong Yue suddenly had twenty more strings of candied hawthorns in his arms. The bright red candied hawthorns were shiny and he looked over when he heard this.
Lu Xuejin: "I suddenly remembered that this milk tea needs to be reheated fresh. Your Highness, why don't you stay here and ask the proprietress for two more pots, and then go back after you've brewed the milk tea?"
In an instant, Murong Yue understood his meaning. The two exchanged a glance, Murong Yue responded, and then turned and went back to the restaurant. Lu Xuejin went back alone.
Upstairs on the second floor, the man wearing the fox mask remained by the chessboard, but he hadn't moved for a long time, spending ages trying to place that one chess piece. Beside him, the zither player lowered her eyes, and the music returned to normal.
"Your Majesty, shall we go after them?" the musician asked.
“…No need,” Jaeger said. “We’ll wait for him to write. He should tell me these things himself.”
After the game of chess ended, Yege and the Qin Girl left the restaurant. As they went downstairs, they encountered a lively scene: on the streets of Dawei, many women wearing bamboo hats were gathered together. Some of them were unmarried young ladies, while others were already married women. They had all come to Fengming Terrace because of a letter from Wei Ning.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Wei Ning said, "we've come here today to hold a poetry gathering. Writing poetry is far more interesting than embroidery, playing musical instruments, or painting. We won't compete in virtue, but rather in who can read the most obscure books and who is the most learned. If we win first place, we'll petition the Emperor together to have the King of Hu come to the capital and let him see the talent of Lady Wei. We truly are a land of civilization and prosperity."
Among the young ladies of the capital, Wei Ning was the most outstanding. She excelled in family background, beauty, and talent, and many women looked up to her as a role model, imitating her style of dress and behavior. She was adept at understanding people's hearts; after achieving first place and gaining fame, she set an example, and all the women of the capital followed her lead. Her network of informants was vast, reaching from the palace to the outskirts of the capital; wherever women were, her eyes and ears were there.
Yege heard his own name called. He was fluent in the Central Plains script, and the woman's voice was melodious and pleasant, reminiscent of a lark singing on a branch in the northern spring. He was so engrossed in listening that he accidentally bumped into someone—it was Wei Ning, who was laughing.
These women were all wearing bamboo hats, obscuring their faces. He bumped into someone, and Wei Ning turned to look at him. The face hidden by the bamboo hat was revealed, and a pair of proud and aloof eyes turned to look at him. The scars on his face did not detract from his beauty, but rather stood out like thorns on a flower branch.
Women from the Central Plains, however, are like snow kites and eagles on the grasslands, their bamboo hats and veils giving them a mysterious air.
"Hey. You bumped into me and didn't even apologize. Whose servant are you?" Wei Ning asked rudely.
Her gentle and virtuous nature was reserved only for the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, and pregnant women. When Yege met her, she noticed his strange attire and looked him up and down, which made her slightly embarrassed.
"It's terrible! Miss Wei, Lord Song is here!" a woman in the crowd exclaimed.
"Song Zhao?" Wei Ning's attention was immediately drawn, and he asked, "Where is he now?"
Yue Lanxin, who was in the front row, finally saw Wei Ning. She was reluctant to leave her side and stared at Wei Ning intently. She immediately said, "Sister Wei Ning, don't worry, Lord Song Zhao is not here. He is here to see General Xiao."
...
Lu Xuejin returned to his courtyard. A carriage was parked in front of his gate, where Xiao Qi had been waiting for him for a long time.
As for the difficulty of investigating his residence, it wasn't particularly difficult, but it wasn't easy either. Xiao Qi found out about it in just two hours. Considering the time, he needed to get rid of the person before His Highness returned.
Lu Xuejin asked quietly, "General Xiao's arrival was just announced by the guards. My secluded location was not even known to His Majesty. General, you are truly resourceful. May I ask what brings you here?"
Xiao Qi had been standing guard here, chatting with the soldiers who accompanied him for quite some time. He had just glanced at the courtyard and saw that there were only two maids left inside. If he went in directly, it would seem like he was bullying someone.
“It’s not difficult. I didn’t originally intend to come and disturb you, but His Majesty gave me this task. The arrival of the Hu King in the capital is no small matter. As a subject, I must put His Majesty’s mind at ease.” Xiao Qi smiled, revealing her teeth, and looked at the guards following behind him.
The courtyard was surrounded by his personal guards, who had followed him when he entered the alley. The guard beside him wore a pig-face mask that looked exactly like the one worn by Murong Yue.
Xiao Qi: "Lord Lu was originally in the palace, and according to the rules, he was not allowed to leave the palace. His Majesty favors Lord Lu, so he allowed you to leave the palace. I came here today to take a look, because I am worried that there may be treacherous officials in the palace who have infiltrated Lord Lu's side and left the palace with him."
The mere mention of the word "pampering" sent a sudden, unsettling feeling through Xiao Qi. The young man opposite her remained calmly observing her, his cold, distant eyes making one uneasy. It was as if what he was saying wasn't the truth, but some kind of vulgarity, giving one that very impression.
He couldn't help but sigh, his right eye twitching inexplicably. He still felt the other party possessed an extraordinary aura, and this task should have been given to Song Zhao. He should be content with a warm home with his wife and children.
“…In that case,” Lu Xuejin said thoughtfully, “I do not know what a traitor is. These two words should be used with caution. General Xiao, why don’t you explain to me today what a traitor is?”
"How could I not know? When did a traitorous minister appear in the palace without anyone knowing? Or is General Xiao implying something... Could this traitor be referring to me?"
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