CH 59

The Imperial court had been very busy these days. First, the governor of Jiangnan was escorted back to Beijing. After a few days, even the magistrate of Huaizhou and several other important officials were also detained.

The Emperor was furious, and ordered the three judicial divisions to interrogate them. It was necessary to uncover those officials in Jiangnan who were in collusion with each other. This was also to set an example for others. After he ascended the throne, he wanted to root out those people left behind by the late emperor, but his focus had always been on Beijing. The Jiangnan area had always been docile and peaceful. Unexpectedly, relying on the distance between them, even the governor dared to ignore the laws and discipline of the Imperial court. There was no telling what sort of decay lay below.

If it wasn’t for Kuang Sheng’s report that caught his attention, he would have been deceived by these people for a long time. However, although Kuang Sheng was successful in this endeavor, he could not escape the crime of falsely reporting the disaster situation, which had caused the Imperial court to allocate 100,000 taels in vain. It was difficult to transport it back in a short amount of time, resulting in a shortage in the national treasury. After discussions among all parties, the final decision was to remove Kuang Sheng from his position as water reporter, and he would not be allowed to hold an official position for life.

Kuang Sheng was already very satisfied with the results. He knew that Zhao-daren had rewritten his grievances for him in the report, so he was able to safely avoid the calamity of going to prison.

The same went for Yin Pinglu. Because she exposed the Yin family and helped Zhao Yelan greatly in his investigation, this separated her from the Yin family without implicating innocent people. Yin Pinglu sent her younger siblings to her grandmother’s house.

However, there were suddenly many vacancies in Jiangnan, and there were endless disputes in court over who should fill them.

Zhao Xuan had been busy for several days, and from time to time, he summoned officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Officials to discuss the matter. After finally settling things, he breathed a sigh of relief at last. Realizing that he had forgotten to eat lunch, he went to Sun Muyun’s residence.

Since the events in Jiangnan, he hadn’t seen Sun Muyun again. He was both busy and worried that the Sun family was also one of those rotten seeds.

But these days, Sun Muyun didn’t take the initiative to find him. He occasionally ran into her in the Imperial garden, where the other party would play carelessly with the court ladies and eunuchs, not appearing to be worried about her father. Then he received a letter from Zhao Yelan. According to the investigation, the prefectural magistrate was not involved in the affair. On the contrary, there was a county magistrate and the Wu magistrate who had been friends for many years and colluded with each other.

“What are you doing?” As soon as Zhao Xuan entered, he saw Sun Muyun spinning in circles.

“Answering the Emperor, I am trying on new clothes.” Sun Muyun smiled and said, “Jinxuan’s clothes are really good, but they are not as good as Jiangnan’s.”

“Jinxuan? Such a familiar name.”

“Of course it sounds familiar. Zhao-daren basically buys all his fabrics and ready-made clothes there. Wearing them out is a living advertisement, but it’s a pity that the common people cannot afford them at all.”

Earlier, Sun Muyun had specifically inquired about which clothes were the best in the capital.

Zhao Xuan smiled. Counting the days, Zhao Yelan had been away for more than a month. He said in a daze: “I wonder how he is doing in Jiangnan now.”

“Don’t worry, your Majesty, Zhao-daren will be very happy, and might not even want to leave. Who let us have so much stunning scenery, delicious food, and beauties in Jiangnan……oh, didn’t the General go too? Those beauties are not worth mentioning in front of the General. After all, the General is quite handsome!”

Zhao Xuan paused: “Today, instead of praising me, you are praising others?”

“His Majesty is already praised enough, the most beautiful thing in this palace is His Majesty,” Sun Muyun said.

“What about outside the palace?”

“This concubine says that His Majesty is not allowed to be angry.”

“I won’t be angry.”

“It’s Zhao-daren and General Yan! They look so good together! Your Majesty is so discerning to bestow marriage upon them! They are so well-matched, ah! Seeing two beautiful men standing together at the same time is so comfortable!”

Zhao Yelan scoffed coldly and left in a fit of pique.

“It was agreed that you wouldn’t be angry, cheapskate.” Sun Muyun sighed and shook her head, then looked out the window. “I wonder if Dad has read my letter.”

At that time, Zhao Yelan and Yan Mingting were guests in the Sun residence.

Yan Mingting had originally wanted to have someone deliver Sun Muyun’s token, but Zhao Yelan wanted to go to Zhizhou to deal with the matter of the colluding county magistrate, so Yan Mingting followed along.

Magistrate Sun had just dealt with those people according to the law. When he heard that the Imperial Envoy had come to Zhizhou in person, he explained everything that had happened in detail.

After listening, Zhao Yelan nodded without any objections: “Bothering Sun-daren to bring up the new county magistrate as soon as possible.”

“Yes.”

Yan Mingting handed Sun Muyun’s token to him, and only then did Magistrate Sun know that his daughter had a close relationship with these two big figures. While he was pleased with her, he couldn’t help being a little worried that his daughter would be bullied if she didn’t have any family or backers in Beijing. Thus, he was even more polite to them, and entertained them with good wine and good food.

After dinner, Magistrate Sun prepared a room for them, but Zhao Yelan proposed that they go out for a walk.

Although Zhizhou and Huaizhou were adjacent counties, the atmosphere here seemed to be more unconstrained. More than a hundred years ago, there once appeared a beautiful woman here who vigorously pursued a man and became a laughingstock. But shockingly, within a few years of getting married, that man conquered a whole country and named it Xuan. It was precisely because of the founding Empress Mingzhu that most of the women here were enthusiastic and unconstrained. When they spied a man they liked, they would take the initiative to express their hearts.

The two of them had only walked tens of meters when they were accosted by many young women one after another, and even Xiao Gao behind them couldn’t escape.

“My lord, this sachet smells so good, you take it,” Xiao Gao said.

“This was given to you by others. If you accept it, you have to marry them,” Zhao Yelan teased.

“Ah! I don’t want a wife! I’m going to pay her back now!” Xiao Gao turned and ran back to find the woman.

Not long after, the street ahead became full of people, and the road was completely blocked. Everyone was very excited, eagerly looking at the people upstairs and shouting non-stop.

Zhao Yelan looked up to see a graceful beauty standing in the restaurant, about to throw a ball of hydrangeas to choose a husband.

“I haven’t seen a hydrangea thrower yet,” Yan Mingting laughed.

They simply stopped to watch the excitement.

The girl standing upstairs looked down below and suddenly smiled. She was attracted by a man in brocade clothes standing in the southeast direction, and could tell the difference from the people around him at a glance.

Zhao Yelan never thought that being so far away from the restaurant and only looking from a distance, the hydrangea ball would be accurately thrown into his hands.

“……”

Zhao Yelan instinctively tossed the ball to Yan Mingting: “Throw it back.”

Yan Mingting immediately threw it back as if it was burning his hand.

There was laughter and jeering all around.

The girl didn’t expect the hydrangeas to be returned to her hands. Seeing that the person who knew martial arts was also very handsome, she threw it to that person this time.

Yan Mingting quickly hugged Zhao Yelan’s waist and turned his body to the side to avoid the hydrangea ball. It hit Xiao Gao’s chest, and he caught the ball without thinking. Looking at everyone suspiciously, he handed the ball to Zhao Yelan: “My lord, this ball looks good, you can have it.”

Zhao Yelan’s complexion changed, and he swiftly handed it over to Yan Mingting: “Quick!”

Yan Mingting slapped the hydrangeas back into the girl’s hands.

Everyone: “……” Are you just playing around?!

The girl suddenly became playful and felt that she must hit them. She did her best to throw it over, but saw that they were nowhere to be found.

Yan Mingting embraced Zhao Yelan and jumped up onto a nearby roof, Xiao Gao following close behind. Finally, they stopped on a tall building and sat on the roof to watch the moon.

Zhao Yelan waved his fan, then lowered his head to straighten out the corners of his clothes. When he looked up again, he found that Yan Mingting was staring at the sachet dangling at his waist.

“There is something that I’ve always been curious about, and I wonder if I can get an answer from you.” Yan Mingting pinched his sachet.

“What is it?”

“You know I sneeze every time I smell that sweetgrass sachet. Then do you know what other things are in it?” Yan Mingting asked tentatively.

He had left the capital with haste and hadn’t received an answer from Yao Muze yet, but looking at the person before him now, he was really curious about what was going on.

“Did someone try to harm you by secretly adding something to your sachet without you knowing?” Yan Mingting asked.

Zhao Yelan remained silent.

“When we return, we will know what was added to it, and we can follow the clues to find out who is trying to murder you,” Yan Mingting said coldly.

“No need to find out.” Zhao Yelan raised his chin slightly, his face as white as tonight’s waning moon, lonely and desolate. He looked sideways at the other party. “I added it myself.”

Yan Mingting was taken aback.

Zhao Yelan said slowly: “It’s a powder from the Western Regions. It smells similar to sweetgrass. If worn for a long time, it will cause……”

“Coughing, headaches, weakness in the limbs?”

“You’re no fool.” The corners of Zhao Yelan’s mouth twitched. “Only you have such a dog’s nose. No one else has ever suspected this.”

Yan Mingting didn’t know what expression to make, and said in distress: “You did it to yourself? Why did you want to do such a thing?”

“To survive in this world,” Zhao Yelan said calmly, pointing to the right side of his chest. “I once blocked an arrow for Zhao Xuan. In the ice and snow, the cold entered my body, and it took a long time to salvage my life. I feel uncomfortable when the weather is cold, but I can, in fact, survive it. In the next few years, I will gradually get better. But I don’t want him to think I’m really healed. I want to make him feel guilty, so that when he sees my incurable body, he will think of my life-saving grace to him……Isn’t it ridiculous?”

Yan Mingting moved his lips without sound, took a deep breath, and then hugged him tightly: “You shouldn’t torture your body either, ah.”

“What else could I do? At that time, I had neither a prominent family background nor a lot of money. I was alone, and my only bet was his conscience.”

“I should have known, I should have taken you away when we first met,” Yan Mingting said in a muffled voice.

Zhao Yelan smiled silently: “But in that case, I couldn’t avenge my parents. You wanted to fight for the people, but I only had my own private hatred in my heart, so I definitely would have run away.”

Yan Mingting: “Then is your parents’ revenge finished?”

“The man you saw last time in the brothel was the last enemy,” Zhao Yelan said. “Therefore, now is the best time for us to meet. You have finished the war and I have finished my revenge. There is no other burden.”

Yan Mingting nodded, then spoke again after a moment: “But I am still a little unhappy.”

“Why?”

“Why are you hurting for him? You grew up with him, do you like him, ah……”

Zhao Yelan pushed him away, looking into his eyes with a smile as he said: “He was the prince, I had to rely on him in order to complete my revenge plan. When one falls in disgrace, the whole family is doomed. If he was gone, I would naturally not be spared by those people. Rather than being captured alive and tortured, I would rather go out straightforwardly. Moreover, the Gold Collar Guard had already appeared at that time, and I was certain that I would be saved, so I went to block that arrow for him.”

“You are not allowed to do this in the future!” Yan Mingting still felt a little angry after thinking about it. “You now have a prominent family background, a lot of wealth, and even more power……Ah, husband, no one will dare to bully you, not even Zhao Xuan. You are not allowed to get hurt for him in the future.”

Zhao Yelan raised his eyebrows. There was a smile at the tips of his eyes. “Are you drinking vinegar?”

“Yes, I’m drinking vinegar,” Yan Mingting said bluntly.

Zhao Yelan was stunned for a moment, then gave a light laugh and poked him on the head: “Did you grow up drinking vinegar?”

Yan Mingting scoffed, turned his head, and said: “Xiao Gao, go buy some wine.”

Xiao Gao immediately flipped off the roof, and Zhao Yelan cast him a sideways glance: “Could it be that you are a wine maniac? Or do you want to drink away your worries?”

“Of course not, I just wanted to drive Xiao Gao away.”

“For what?”

“For us to whisper sweet nothings to each other, how embarrassing would it be for him to see?”

“When will we be whispering……” Before Zhao Yelan could finish speaking, the other party leaned over and kissed him on the lips.

“What about a kiss?” Yan Mingting blushed first.

Zhao Yelan blinked. Their eyes met and they gazed at each other. Just when he was about to reach out to the other party, he heard Xiao Gao call: “I’m back, I brought lotus wine!”

The two were startled, and simultaneously turned to look.

“I’ve troubled you.” Yan Mingting took it in an awkward manner. “Why don’t you go and buy a bag of peanuts to go with the wine.”

“Okay.” Xiao Gao disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Yan Mingting cleared his throat, tugged at his sleeve, and said: “Shall we continue……?”

Zhao Yelan turned back as if nothing had happened. The two looked at each other’s lips and moved forward slowly —

“General, I’m back from buying peanuts!” Xiao Gao suddenly appeared. Crouching between them, he looked left and right. “You are so close, what are you playing?”

Yan Mingting was annoyed, ah!

“Why did you come back so soon?” Yan Mingting asked, grinding his teeth.

“There’s an inn downstairs, so the purchase was quick,” Xiao Gao said.

“……” He’d made a mistake. He should have told him to buy tanghulu in the capital.

Yan Mingting was thinking of a method to keep him far away when suddenly, someone grasped his jaw. He turned his head, and a pair of warm lips covered his own. It was as if a fire had been ignited, and his whole body burned. His cheeks were even hotter.

Xiao Gao’s eyes widened. He fell backwards and rolled off the roof with the alcohol. The wine was spilled, and the aroma of lotus flower mixed with alcohol wafted out.

“Good, this time he won’t come up.” Zhao Yelan grabbed Yan Mingting’s collar, and his upper body leaned toward him unconsciously. Yan Mingting braced against the ridge of the roof with one hand and tightly encircled Zhao Yelan’s waist with the other arm. He entwined the tip of his tongue, traced the contours of his lips, the scent of the other in every breath.

No matter how good the scenery and food of Jiangnan was, it was far inferior to the taste of this moment, which surpassed everything else in the world.

The moon shone brightly over a vast sea of people. They had met again at the best time, and in this life, they would be inseparable.