After Being Mistakenly Taken for a Fellow Traveler by Emperor Long Aotian - Chapter 126

After the parade, the Emperor hosted a grand banquet for the top scholars. During the banquet, it began to drizzle outside, the sound of bells ringing softly.

Inside the hall, the atmosphere was lively with the clinking of cups and the exchange of toasts. Yan Jia, being rather thin-skinned, was forced to drink quite a bit. Even Zhou Xun couldn’t refuse the goodwill of the attendees, drinking several cups in a row. His usually pale cheeks were now tinged with a blush like a floral mist. As for Li Miao… though he appeared to be a bit foolish, he was quite adept at social niceties, handling the situation better than Zhou Xun and Yan Jia.

After another cup of wine, Zhou Xun, not good at dealing with such occasions, claimed he couldn’t handle much alcohol and excused himself to sober up in the back garden. As he left, he glanced at the Emperor on the throne, who was being surrounded by several elder officials trying to toast him. The Grand Scholar, despite his balding head, looked kindly as he drunkenly held the Emperor’s hand, tears and snot flowing, praising the Emperor for finally being diligent. The look in the Grand Scholar’s eyes was so affectionate that it made people uneasy, even making them wonder if he saw the Emperor as his younger self with a full head of hair through his drunken haze. The Emperor kept patting his shoulder and talking to him, lovingly like an experienced father, constantly adjusting his position to avoid getting the old minister’s snot and tears on his royal bespoke clothes.

Zhou Xun felt like laughing again. He thought, the Emperor always made him want to laugh, no matter when.

The back garden was filled with beautiful exotic flowers and plants. Zhou Xun walked a few steps and leaned against a tree to rest. The moonlight was cool, and he heard footsteps behind him; it was the voices of Minister Yan and his colleague, who said, “… Congratulations on the double happiness for the Yan family.”

It turned out Zhou Cai had returned from the northwest with merits and had the power to stay in the capital for a year due to related matters. Whether this year would turn into two or three years depended on Zhou Cai’s own fate.

Zhou Xun wondered if Zhou Cai had been watching him during the parade today, just as he had listened to the lively commotion outside the clinic, hearing everyone praise the new top scholar.

As voices approached, Zhou Xun moved to the other side. Beyond the pond was a rockery. Just as he was about to sit down, he heard voices from behind the rockery: “…Really? I remember now, your sister is getting engaged this month. April 28th is a very auspicious day.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Yan Jia’s voice replied, “I remember when the Princess and my sister spent a few months together at the royal villa in their childhood. It was many years ago, I didn’t expect Your Highness to still remember my sister…”

“That was when I was ten,” the Princess said, “I was at the villa with Princess Qinghe to avoid the summer heat. My father was afraid I would be lonely and chose a few noble girls from the capital to accompany us. But my father didn’t know that Qinghe and I were always horseback riding and playing ball at the villa, and the girls he chose from scholarly families couldn’t keep up with us. We were so annoyed by those delicate girls who couldn’t stop talking about rules all day. Qinghe pointed at a horse and said, whoever dared to ride the horse down the slope could stay, and the others had to go home. None of the delicate girls dared to move, except for your sister. The slope was very steep, even Qinghe wasn’t sure she could ride down it safely. But your sister grabbed the reins and rode the horse straight down the slope. The other girls were terrified.”

Yan Jia paused before saying, “I was very young then, I hadn’t heard this story from my father. I didn’t expect my sister to…”

“In your mind, she’s probably a boring, stiff girl, right? But it’s normal that you didn’t know this. Even your father doesn’t know about this,” the Princess said. “She’s not as stiff as you think, nor as heroic. I rode down and caught up with her, pulling her off the horse. She cried the whole time while applying medicine. Qinghe was so scared and kept apologizing. But your sister just kept saying not to tell her father. If her father knew she rode a horse, he wouldn’t forgive her. I asked why she got on the horse knowing she couldn’t ride. Qinghe was just making it difficult for them on purpose. She said that since she was chosen by the Emperor to accompany the Princess, she had to do her best and couldn’t go back. She cried for a long time. But we had little interaction afterward, only meeting a few times, without any deep connection.”

The Princess’s tone was indifferent. After a while, Yan Jia said, “I wonder if Your Highness has any free time…”

“I won’t be staying in the capital for long and will leave soon. I probably won’t have time to attend your family’s celebration. I’ve heard many say there’s a beautiful story between her and Zhou Cai, but I’ve never been interested in such romantic tales of scholars and beauties, and I don’t care to know their story,” the Princess淡淡地说道, “Give her my congratulations. As her brother and the second-place scholar, your words will surely be more eloquent than mine.”

Yan Jia respectfully said, “Yes.”

For a moment, there was nothing more to say. Finally, Yan Jia took his leave. Just as he was about to turn and go, the Princess suddenly laughed.

So she didn’t always have a cold expression; when she smiled, she was very beautiful. She said, “Does your sister still cry a lot now? If she still cries so easily, prepare extra silk handkerchiefs for her on her wedding day. A woman should look her most beautiful when she’s a bride, right? Don’t let her ruin her makeup with tears; it wouldn’t be pretty.”

Yan Jia left, and only the sound of water dripping from the treetops remained under the rockery. The Princess closed her eyes, suddenly feeling a bit tired, and the icy mask she usually wore disappeared. At this moment, she wasn’t beautiful or cold, but rather ordinary and plain due to her exhaustion.

Just as a drop of water landed on her forehead, she heard a voice from behind the rockery: “If you truly didn’t care and weren’t familiar with her, how would you remember the date April 28th?”

The voice was light but carried an indescribable tone. The Princess instantly turned around in alertness but saw no one, only the shadows of the rockery and trees. She coldly said, “Who’s there?”

“It’s strange to remember such a minor event from ten years ago so clearly, yet claim there was no connection,” the voice continued. “Is the jade pendant at your waist the one bestowed by the late Emperor?”

“Jade pendant?” The Princess’s chill intensified as she sneered. “So what if it is?”

“Is the pattern on the jade pendant a peony?”

“…What does it matter to you?”

“It doesn’t matter to me, but it does to Miss Yan’s fiancé, Zhou Cai. Miss Yan’s fiancé also has a jade pendant, which, like several others, was carved from the same piece of jade by the same craftsman, making the patterns similar. His jade pendant, bestowed by the Emperor, has a lotus flower on it.”

“What do you mean?” The Princess demanded sharply.

She stood up, her skirt stained with mud. She looked around, trying to locate the speaker. But all she saw were the shadows of trees and the intricate maze of the rockery. For a moment, she felt like she was in a complex riddle, with the answers buried within. The thread to unravel the mystery was held by someone.

The person spoke slowly, unhurriedly, but her face of fatigue began to crumble. She followed the voice, finally identifying the direction it came from, and started walking quickly toward it.

She moved faster and faster, almost running, as the voice continued: “Two years ago, Zhou Cai heroically rescued Miss Yan. You have no interest in their story, but it happened like this. Miss Yan went to a temple to pray for marriage, perhaps because her father, Minister Yan, thought it was time for her to find a good match. She took a carriage to the temple, lit incense, but encountered bandits on her way down the mountain. The carriage overturned, and she fell into the water, being rescued by someone who then rushed off, leaving her at the temple. Half-conscious, she only saw the person was wearing men’s clothing and had a jade pendant with a floral pattern…”

The Princess ran faster, almost sprinting. She passed corner after corner, not knowing what she was chasing—was it the person’s words? Was it this suspicious person? Was it the story? Or was she chasing a long-ended, unreachable story? As if catching up with that voice, that person… she could catch up with a missed rain?

“…When she woke up, she came out of the guest room and saw Zhou Cai, who had come to offer incense with his mother. The Zhou family has a tradition of donating to the temple, and she saw the jade pendant with a lotus pattern, which looks similar to a peony, doesn’t it? Given the Yan family’s strictness and a girl’s reputation, seen wet by someone, she must marry him, right? Moreover, the truth came out, and her father knew the same day. So, a talented scholar and a beautiful woman, a perfect match,” the voice continued slowly. “The other person in this story, who saved Miss Yan, why didn’t he come forward? Maybe he had urgent business and had to leave the capital. Maybe he heard about it but didn’t think he was the man in the story. Or maybe… it was a woman in men’s clothing. She never thought the protagonists of the story could be a noblewoman and herself.”

The Princess finally stopped. She stepped over a rock and saw a young man standing behind it. Moonlight shone on his jade-white face; he looked cold, like a piece of jade. The absurd story had just concluded in his mouth, and his appearance resembled someone from the Princess’s memory, but with a completely different demeanor.

She remembered! She had seen this person upstairs. This person had noticed her watching Yan Jia, and their eyes had briefly met.

The Princess stared blankly at him, and he stopped speaking. She opened her mouth, and what came out was this sentence:

“My uncle fell ill at the frontier, and the Emperor didn’t allow me to visit him. That day, I sneaked out in men’s clothing to pray for him at the temple. The city gates were about to close. I had to leave before they did, so…”

“I left her and rushed off. To deceive the Emperor, I told the servants in the Princess’s residence to say I was recovering from illness and refused to see anyone. When the Emperor inquired and found I had left the capital, they said I had left that day,” she said blankly. “When I reached the frontier, there was no communication. I learned of her engagement four months later. From the capital to the frontier, a letter would usually take less than a month. But there was an epidemic and a drought on the way, and the messenger fell ill. The letter took a long time to reach me. It was sent in summer and arrived almost in winter. The envelope had mold spots, summer mold spots. My uncle had recovered, and when I opened the letter, I found out she had been engaged for four months, love at first sight…”

“…Do you think she came to the Princess’s residence looking for me while I was on my way to the frontier?” She asked Zhou Xun with an expression that was a mix of tears and laughter.