Ye Yunting looked at Li Fengqi with surging emotions in his eyes. There was soreness and indignation, regret and helplessness, but the greatest among them was… heartache.
The Prince of Yong’an who guarded the border, the God of War of Beizhao who protected the peace of the country had been forced into such a situation by those people. When he finally joined forces with Han Chan, had he also been filled with contempt for himself?
Ye Yunting couldn’t tell.
But he did not overlook the unwillingness and look of humiliation in Li Fengqi’s eyes the moment he took the antidote.
It shouldn’t have been like that.
The events of his dream of the previous life aroused Ye Yunting’s emotions. He looked at Li Fengqi in a trance, as though there were thousands of hidden words in his eyes that were going unsaid.
——It wasn’t that he didn’t want to say them; it was that he couldn’t.
Li Fengqi’s eyes flickered when he looked at him like this. Ye Yunting hadd been looking at him as though something was wrong since he woke up. Although he didn’t know the reason behind it, he wouldn’t miss such a good opportunity.
As a general, one must be good at assessing the situation.
He raised his eyebrows and said, his tone ambiguous, “The way the Young Master is looking at me like now–I must be misunderstanding something. Could it be that the Young Master dreamt of me?”
Ye Yunting’s eyelashes trembled, but he did not lie. He nodded gently and let out a “Mn”.
“?”
Li Fengqi had just been joking casually. He didn’t really think that Ye Yunting actually dreamed of him.
But Ye Yunting’s nod stunned him for a moment. When he came back to his senses, his brows lit up with joy, and his voice even rose in a happy tone. “Me? What did you dream about?” Why did you cry?
Li Fengqi thought to himself, I can’t bear to make him cry.
But then he remembered the way his eyelashes looked, wet with tears when he first woke up, and felt that it was okay to cry at the right time.
Ye Yunting didn’t know what he was thinking, so he gave a vague answer and said he couldn’t remember clearly.
In truth, he was still thinking about what he saw in the dream.
There were two things he saw in his dream that made him very concerned.
The first was what Zhu Lie said: that Yang Buwei, who defected before the battle, joined Zhao Yan in besieging the Xuanjia Army. He had never heard of the name Yang Buwei, but Zhao Yan knew that it was Li Zong who sent false information to the Governor’s Mansion in Northern Xinjiang to instigate Zhu Wen and others to rebel. In this life, Li Fengqi’s secret letter reached Zhu Wen’s hands in time, and the supervisor Zhao Yan had been beheaded and sent to Li Zong.
Then there was only one Yang Buwei left. Judging from Zhu Lie’s tone, Yang Buwei should be one of Li Fengqi’s confidants. He turned against Li Fengqi, which caught Zhu Lie off guard.
The second one was the Shen family. There were too many clans named Shen, but there was only one Shen family that could mobilize the soldiers and horses of Jializhou and was related to the elder Wangfei.
——The mother clan of the elder princess Shen Wanyu.
The head of the Shen family, Shen Zhongyu, was the Grand Governor1 of the Nieyang Governor’s Office. Nieyang prefecture governed central Guizhou and Jializhuo. But over the years, due to the lack of successors in the Shen family and the exhaustion of raising and training troops, the military strength of Nieyang has greatly declined. In addition, Niyang was neither close to the capital nor adjacent to the border, so its position was very unfavorable. The Shen family had actually been on a downward spiral in recent years. The family head of this generation was also the nephew of the elder Wangfei. It was not so surprising that he betrayed the elder princess to gain Li Zong’s trust.
Fortunately, in this life, Li Fengqi sent someone to take the elder Wangfei back to the capital in advance. The elder Wangfei did not ask the Shen family for help, so she was able to avoid this disaster.
Thinking of the fragmented remains of the elder Wangfei in the coffin made Ye Yunting feel a burst of fear. He glanced at Li Fengqi again, pursed his lips, and thought of finding a suitable time to alert Li Fengqi.
Li Fengqi’s heart was shaken by his gaze. He thought that Ye Yunting’s eyes were filled with tenderness when he looked at him today.
He inwardly gave his heart a pat and thought to himself, could it be that Ye Yunting finally had an epiphany and fell in love with him but was too embarrassed to say it?
Thinking of this, and thinking as well of what he had to do today, Li Fengqi’s smile grew wider. He took the clothes prepared by Ji Lian and handed them to him. “We still have things to do today. Please change your clothes first, Young Master.”
Ye Yunting had no choice but to put away his thoughts, and wash up and change clothes first.
After he was cleaned up and the two had breakfast, Li Fengqi asked someone to prepare a carriage and prepared to go out.
When they got to the carriage, Ye Yunting couldn’t help but ask, “What exactly is Wangye going to do?” Looking at his relaxed demeanor, it didn’t look like he was doing anything serious.
“You’ll see when we get there.”
Li Fengqi refused to say anything and just asked the driver to go to Zhaohe Main Street.
When the carriage reached the main street, Li Fengqi urged Ye Yunting to get off again. Full of confusion, Ye Yunting followed him to the street, only to see vendors gathering on both sides of the long road and pedestrians bustling, forming a lively market scene.
Ye Yunting seldom wandered outside. Back when he was in the Duke’s Mansion, he was largely confined and not allowed to go out. He mostly relied on Ji Lian to tell him about the what went out outside the mansion. Very occasionally, he could go out and then he could take a quick glance around. Later, when he arrived at the palace, he couldn’t leave, either. The only time he walked down Zhaohe Main Street was for show. It wasn’t until the situation turned around that he finally had freedom, but perhaps he had been detained for so long that he didn’t even think of taking a walk outside.
Now looking at the lively scene in front of me, he couldn’t help but feel stunned.
Then he was a little bewildered. “Why is it so lively today?”
“In three days, it will be Double Ninth Festival2.” Seeing his expression, Li Fengqi knew that he really hadn’t remembered.
“On the Double Ninth Festival, we offer sacrifices to worship our ancestors. I’m afraid we won’t have time to go out and participate that day, so I figured we could go out today.” Li Fengqi looked at him and said, “The eldest Young Master has probably not seen this lively scene in the capital during the Double Ninth Festival, right?”
Shangjing was the most prosperous place in Beizhao, so it is naturally very bustling during festivals.
On the day of the Double Ninth Festival, the palace and high-ranking nobles would pay homage to their ancestors and pray to heaven and earth, but the common people in the city weren’t such sticklers. Before the Double Ninth Festival came, they had already made Double Ninth cakes and chrysanthemum wine. The children were running and playing with various paper kites, already very cheery and joyful early on.
Ye Yunting had indeed never seen such a scene. His eyebrows arched and his eyes were full of joy. “I’ve eaten the Double Ninth Festival cake made by my nurse before. I heard it goes best with chrysanthemum wine…” but at that time, he was young, and naturally, his wet nurse wouldn’t give him chrysanthemum wine to drink.
Li Fengqi walked side by side with him, explaining to him the customs of the Double Ninth Festival: “In addition to the Double Ninth Festival cake and chrysanthemum wine, people also wear dogwood hairpins and chrysanthemums, fly paper kites, climb high to the top of the mountain to bid farewell3…”
Every time he said something, he would find a stall and point it out to Ye Yunting.
Because of these customs, many vendors would sell homemade Double Ninth Festival cakes and chrysanthemum wine. There were also craftsmen on the streets with all kinds of paper kites. Occasionally, there were young girls carrying flower baskets and selling dogwoods and chrysanthemums.
Ye Yunting was smiling profusely, dazzled by what he saw.
Li Fengqi looked up at him and also smiled, a very gentle expression on his face.
The people on the side who secretly looked at the two of them let out an “oooh”, thinking of how different things were after their marriage. In the past, Prince Yong’an rode his horse through the streets without ever looking at anyone, let alone smiling.
Now, on the street accompanied by the Wangfei, he didn’t look so intimidating and frightening anymore. Although they were two men, they looked no different from any ordinary couple.
There was a smart and bold vendor who tried to shout: “Wangye, do you want to buy some Double Ninth cakes for the Wangfei? My wife’s Double Ninth cake is a masterpiece.”
Now that someone had started the ball rolling, others followed suit.
“Our family-brewed chrysanthemum wine is delicious and fragrant. Would you like to try it, please?”
“This dogwood sachet can ward off calamities and evil spirits. Wangye, Wangfei, do you want to see it?”
“…”
There were constant shouts on both sides of the long street. Ye Yunting had never faced such a scene before. He looked from one side to another, now knowing which way to look.
Instead, Li Fengqi took his hand and led him to the stall selling sachets. He picked two sachets and paid for them. “These are sachets made from dogwood ground into powder. They are worn during the Double Ninth Festival to ward off evil spirits and avoid disasters.” As he spoke, he personally put the dark green sachet on his waist.
Ye Yunting’s outfit today was a white quilted brocade robe with dark patterns, the hem embroidered with a cluster of green bamboo. The dark green sachet matched the green bamboo at the hem, complementing each other.
Ye Yunting lowered his eyes and plucked the sachet with his fingers. The corners of his smile could not help but raise higher.
Seeing that Li Fengqi was holding another in his hand, he knelt down and tied it around his waist in order to return the favor.
Li Fengqi watched as his fingers flexibly moved, quickly tying the sachet tie into a beautiful knot, and then looked up at him with bright eyes. “All done.”
“Thank you.” Li Fengqi twisted his fingers, resisting the sudden urge to touch his eyes.
“You’re welcome, Wangye.” Ye Yunting stood up and pushed him towards the next stall.
On that day, the two of them visited all the stalls along Zhaohe Main Street.
It was evening by the time they turned back. Li Fengqi already had three jars of chrysanthemum wine and two large boxes of Double Ninth Festival cakes in his arms. Ye Yunting didn’t take anything and pushed him towards the direction of the carriage.
The two of them strolled around like ordinary people, wandering and looking when they saw interesting stalls. When they arrived at the carriage, Li Fengqi had another pot of chrysanthemums in full bloom in his arms.
The driver’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw this scene. Although he hadn’t been serving in the palace for long, whenever the servants who serve him these days mentioned Prince Yong’an, they would so frightened, as though they had seen a demon4.
He was quite frightened when he got called to serve today.
But now, seeing the scene in front of him, he felt that Prince Yong’an was no different from any other ordinary person.
He saw the two people approaching and, with great foresight, he laid the planks for them to get on carriage. He took the items from Li Fengqi’s arms and put them away properly, and invited the two people to get on the carriage.
After the two of them got into the carriage and sat down, the driver drove the car slowly back to the palace.
Ye Yunting had a smile on his face all day long, and there was a youthful spirit in his eyebrows and eyes that he had never seen before. At this moment, as he returned home, he reluctantly lifted the curtain and looked outside.
Li Fengqi looked at his appearance and felt that he had some youthful energy that matched his age.
Although he was still young, he always gave off a calm and steady aura, which often made people easily forget his actual age. But in fact, he was only nineteen years old, which made him one year younger than Li Zong.
“If eldest Young Master likes it, you can go out for a walk more often in the future.” Li Fengqi said. “Shangjing is prosperous and lively, and there are many things worth seeing in the market.”
Ye Yunting smiled and nodded, saying what was in his heart without conscious thought: “To be honest with Wangye, I originally planned to take Ji Lian to travel around when I had the opportunity, to see the local customs of various place, and then find a beautiful place to live in seclusion as a scholar…” His expression was full of yearning, and his tone was brimming with hopes for the future.
But there was no place for Li Fengqi in that hoped-for future.
Li Fengqi remained calm and nodded with a smile. “Then the eldest Young Master must go and visit Weizhou. Weizhou’s lands are vast, its people are bold and unrestrained, there are horses on the grassland and fine liquor. Young Master will not be disappointed.”
Of course, the most important thing was that there was a Prince Yong’an in Weizhou.
===Author’s Notes===
The author has something to say:
Tingting: The world is so big, I want to go to Kangkang.
77: I’ll bring the money, you bring me (planning√
——————————
I was dragged out by my best friend again, a little late, so I could draw 100 red envelopes!
—
===Translator’s Notes===
What a nice date for our main couple!
- 大都督 (da dudu) – this is the translation given by Google Translate. The Chinese English Dictionary of Ming Government Officials, meanwhile, translates this as “Grand Chief Commissioner” ↩︎
- Chongyang Festival, celebrated on the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. See here for more info. ↩︎
- See more info about the festival here: “In Chinese literature, the day is an autumnal coda to the year, a time for reflection and the appreciation of the temporary nature of beauty. Poets would write of leaves falling, flowers fading, and friends saying goodbye.” ↩︎
- Specifically 罗刹 (luo sha), raksasha; see here. ↩︎
Thanks for the chapter!
ReplyDelete