Chapter 65 They played all night
As Lin Yuan twirled gracefully in the center of the courtyard, the morning light leaped onto her pale yellow robe, then spread along the hem of her skirt, covering most of the courtyard.
She held a handful of millet, scattering it on the ground while luring the chickens towards Lin Yu's window.
Suddenly the wooden door creaked open, and she craned her neck to look.
Xiao Xun stood under the eaves, his body bathed in the sparse glow of the sunset.
When the graceful figure came into view, he paused for a moment before a smile gradually spread across his face.
Is my brother still sleeping?
Lin Yuan glanced into Lin Yu's window.
The room was backlit, with shadows shifting and obscuring everything.
"Um."
Xiao Xun replied casually, "He played chess with me all night, so he must be tired and is resting now."
play?
Did you play all night?
Lin Yuan was suspicious.
Judging from his complexion, his eyes were bluish and he looked tired, but his eyes were still bright and alert.
Without time to think it through, Madam Qin came out of the kitchen to greet them upon hearing the sound.
Her gaze was kind, her smile gentle, and her voice, reaching over Lin Yuan's head, addressed Xiao Xun: "Young Master, come and have your breakfast!"
Lin Yuan tugged at the corners of her lips.
As night fell last night, she brought Qin a bowl of hot soup, handed her a towel to wash her hands, patted her back for fifteen minutes, and massaged her legs for a while before leaning close to her ear and slowly asking, "Mother, today the young master said he talked to you about betrothal. What exactly did they talk about?"
Just as Qin was comfortably dozing off, she heard the question, turned to her side, yawned three long yawns, and after a long while, said, "Why are you asking this? What unmarried young lady would worry about this?"
A blush crept onto Lin Yuan's face. She lowered her head, her hands still clenched into fists, raining down haphazardly on Qin Shi's legs, the pressure increasing slightly. "I'm not concerned about that. I just want to ask, what do you and Father think? Have you... agreed?"
"Yes, I agree."
Lin Yuan punched down, and Qin Shi gasped.
“Why can’t we agree to it? What you and your father are discussing isn’t the betrothal ceremony from the Three Letters and Six Rites, it’s—yes, it’s the exchange of gifts!”
“Na, Na Cai? What is Na Cai?” Lin Yuan was stunned, and her hand stopped moving.
Qin made up a story: "After the Beginning of Spring, don't the villagers worship the Earth God?"
She licked her dry lips and mumbled, "It's the one where after the worship, every household gets beef and mutton! You loved it when you were little. On this day, they'd calculate the auspicious time for sowing grains and storing them in the granary. The fortune teller called this 'receiving wealth.'"
“The young master was concerned about his family’s harvest. Seeing that your father was a skilled farmer and knew a lot, he asked him a couple of questions.”
"That's all?"
“Not only that,” Madam Qin rolled over, “she also said some auspicious words about good weather and abundant harvests.”
After saying that, she turned her back and added, "That young master is so young, yet he's preoccupied with all sorts of important matters. Don't be so inconsiderate as to bother him, asking all sorts of questions and causing him trouble. Do you hear me?"
Xiao Xun's family was indeed very large and wealthy, with many fields and lands. And these were indeed the things that occupied his mind.
Lin Yuan stood up from the edge of the bed and said in a cool and aloof tone, "I understand."
Qin rolled over groggily, pointed to her calves, and said, "Come on, give your mother a massage here too."
"I won't cause any more trouble."
Lin Yuan walked out of her parents' bedroom and closed the door.
Xiao Xun met Qin Shi's gaze and was also delighted. He nodded in agreement and headed towards the kitchen.
His stomach was burning from drinking tea of unknown age all night. The aroma of the mutton pie made by Qin was so enticing that it whetted his appetite.
As he wiped the crumbs from his chin, he met Qin's smiling, inquiring gaze.
"It's delicious," Xiao Xun said.
He looked down at the crumbs, a mix of emotions welling up inside him, and then let out a long sigh, "It's really good."
Hearing the tender voice, Madam Qin felt a pang of sadness. She thought of the background of the betrothed prince and the past of her own son, Lin Yu, and couldn't help but feel a little melancholy.
Indeed, having a father and mother, and brothers who are friendly and respectful—what in the world could be more important than this? Land and money are important, but ultimately they cannot compare to this. My younger sister, A-Yuan, can be quite mischievous at times and not exactly obedient, but she is generally well-behaved.
With tears welling up in her eyes, she snatched a pancake from Lin Yuan's outstretched hand and handed it to Xiao Xun.
Xiao Xun thanked her, then looked up and saw Lin Yuan looking angry and reproachful.
Her eyes swept upwards, then the corners of her lips curved upwards, and her eyebrows arched.
"Brother!"
Lin Yu smiled and walked over slowly.
His eyes were dark and bloodshot, clearly showing signs of exhaustion from a sleepless night.
Xiao Xun looked up at him, but Lin Yu's gaze had just turned away.
He took a pancake from the stove without sitting down: "Mother, I'm going to see Master Cheng again today. His illness has improved. If everything is alright, I'll prepare to return to Huaiyang in a couple of days."
After he finished speaking, he took the sesame cakes and pastries that Qin had already packed to take to Master Cheng and Master Xie, as well as He Ji, and gave a perfunctory reply: "The number of students in the school is increasing and things are busy," and "It will take another two or three days to get there," before stepping out the door.
The hem of her dress billowed in the wind, brushing past the corner of Xiao Xun's eye.
Lin Yuan looked at the two of them, her voice cool: "Did you play games all night, or did you fight all night?"
...
"Xiao Yu".
Xiao Xun's white piece landed in the opening of the black piece.
"Your Majesty is indeed a master strategist, with extraordinary abilities." Lin Yu chuckled, clapping his hands in admiration, "He can even use a dead person for his own purposes."
Xiao Xun had anticipated that Lin Yu wouldn't admit it. He stared at him and laughed out loud, his tone playful: "Xiao Yu, is he dead?"
"Tian Shou—" Lin Yu hissed, "Didn't he die in three or four years?"
He got up and went to check the teapot on the stove.
The tea mist rose in thin wisps, drifting and swirling erratically in the morning light.
The person behind the tea mist turned their back, their face suddenly turning deathly pale.
Lin Yu paused, closed the lid of the teapot, and picked it up.
Inside the red clay stove, the glowing coals hissed and crackled, a sound clearly audible.
“That fire—” He refilled their cups with tea, the water gurgling as he clicked his tongue softly.
Xiao Xun glanced at him through the clouds and asked calmly, "After a great fire, only ashes remain. Who can distinguish whose remains? Who can know if Xiao Yu is among them?"
"Your Majesty's words remind me of a strange and interesting story." Lin Yu slowly put down the teapot.
“More than three months ago, Qu Qingchuan plotted a rebellion and installed the last son of the former crown prince as the emperor. At that time, rumors spread throughout the country, and they became more and more terrifying. Some people said that Xiao Yu did not die in the fire at Siqi Garden. Some people said that Xiao Yu died and came back to life. Some people even said that he was not a human, but a ghost, a spirit.”
He swirled the teacup, waiting for the tea to cool, his gaze following the rising steam from the tea. He took a breath and said jokingly, "However, the court soon issued a proclamation that the traitorous minister, Xiao Yu, had been beheaded on horseback. His head was brought back by the Prince of Yan. This relieved everyone—it seems it was indeed a human."
He paused, then scoffed, "But now he's a ghost too."
Xiao Xun picked up his teacup and slowly blew away the tea smoke: "The rumors are true. He was a ghost after all."
He took a sip of tea, looked up, and gave a mocking smile, “—an imposter.”
Lin Yu scoffed lightly: "Your Majesty is so convinced that Xiao Yu is not dead?"
“Not only is he not dead,” Xiao Xun said with a faint smile, “but he is right in front of me.”
Lin Yu met his gaze without flinching, glanced behind her, and feigned surprise: "There's no one here. Your Majesty's joking is rather unsettling to me."
Xiao Xun chuckled.
After the smile faded, he slowly said, "The former Crown Prince, for the past three years since the Tian Shou incident, has been widely referred to as the deposed Crown Prince."
Lin Yu unconsciously tightened his grip on the cup, his face still playful: "Thank you for your guidance, Your Majesty. It's just a form of address."
"Just a title? This is etiquette. The etiquette between ruler and subject," Xiao Xun said, emphasizing each word, "the etiquette of human relations."
Lin Yu scoffed, "What a ridiculous sense of propriety! I've overstepped my bounds. I didn't realize that such a title could make me change my father. If my father heard this, he'd beat me."
Xiao Xun added, "There are very few people in this world who know about Siqi Garden."
He pressed further, "When Siqi Garden burned down, Master Lin was only seven or eight years old, wasn't he? How would he know the name of the Crown Prince's villa?"
The voice was like a cold blade, cutting into Lin Yu's heart again and again.
"This was the late emperor's gift to the deposed crown prince upon his coming-of-age ceremony, and it was also the place where he plotted to rebel against the emperor and murder his father. The late emperor hated it to the core and decreed that from then on, no one was allowed to mention these three words again, and not a single word was allowed to be mentioned in any book. What, did the crown prince tell you this too?"
The teacup tilted slightly, spilling some tea onto Lin Yu's hand, dripping wet.
He suddenly chuckled and casually wiped the water droplets off the back of his hand with the fingertips of his other hand.
"At three years old, I listened to the Confucian scholars in the school reading and memorized three hundred poems. At five years old, I could recite the entire Analects. At seven years old, I could recite the Zuo Commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals. I not only remember Siqi Garden, but I also remember that the fire in Siqi Garden burned all the way through Lanzhu Garden, Hongjian Mansion, Yunguang Residence, and all the way to Nanshi Lane and Changde Township, which was right in front of my house."
His gaze was cold: "It seems that having a good memory is also a fault."
"Good memory?"
Xiao Xun sneered, "But you can't recall whether that fire that burned half of Chang'an, reaching your doorstep, was in the third or fourth year of the Tian Shou era? Or perhaps, Master Lin's statement was meant to—"
He stared at Lin Yu's right hand.
Lin Yu felt the gaze that almost tore through her clothes. She moved her arm slightly and clenched the cuff of her inner garment. Underneath the cuff was the birthmark that had turned into a burn.
Xiao Xun's voice was low, but cold and clear: "Trying to cover it up?"
“Ordinary people need to think for a while to remember a year, and sometimes they even need to count backwards on their fingers. Even those with exceptional talent may not be able to immediately recall what happened in which year,” Lin Yu replied lightly. “What does that prove?”
Xiao Xun said in a cold voice, "You can recite the Spring and Autumn Annals and remember what happened in the first year of Duke Yin's reign, but you want to think about the third year of the Tian Shou?"
He chuckled. "'Spring and Autumn'—the two characters are indeed vigorous and powerful, quite spirited. If I'm not mistaken, they're the courtesy name of Cheng Xuanzhi, the Grand Tutor Cheng?"
His smile deepened: "However, the annotation in the first line of small characters in the first year of Duke Yin's reign revealed at the beginning of the bamboo scroll, was it written by Master Lin himself? Why is the character 'Hui' in 'Duke Hui' missing a stroke? When Master Lin was seven years old and reciting the Spring and Autumn Annals, he was too young to understand and forgot the character, so he wrote it wrong? Over the years, he has read the book hundreds of times, and the pages of the book have even broken, yet he has never noticed or corrected the mistake? It seems that his understanding of the Way is not deep enough."
Xiao Xun watched with amusement as Lin Yu's calm and aloof expression gradually dissipated, like wisps of tea mist.
"Or is it that Master Lin wants to avoid using the name of the late Crown Princess?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com