CH 62

Villainous Prince (4)

Since Song Xu Yi had requested it, General Wang changed course midway and took the water route.

The Magistrate was a student of Song Xu Yi’s grandfather, Wang Mian. At first, he was not enthusiastic when he heard that Song Xu Yi was a member of the royal family, but once he heard that she was Wang Mian’s granddaughter, the Magistrate immediately took action and visited Song Xu Yi, treating her with much more attentiveness and even sending his daughter to accompany her.

Unfortunately, his daughter’s eyes were almost glued to Nie Qian Yu, and she followed him around with her sisters all day long, calling him “Mr. Nie” but never caring about Song Xu Yi.

Song Xu Yi had long known that Nie Qian Yu used his face to dominate the world, so she was not surprised to see this, and even had a tacit intention to approve of it: if Nie Qian Yu was melted by the enthusiasm of the young girls and became the son-in-law of the Lishui Empire, he would not grow up to be as unscrupulous as he was in the plot summary.

While the Magistrate’s daughter is circling around Nie Qian Yu, Song Xu Yi has taken General Wang to the Magistrate’s hunting ground.

General Wang’s heart cries out in anguish.

Song Xu Yi’s body is domineering but also frail and sickly. The hunting grounds are vast and some clans deliberately tame fierce beasts in the hunting grounds for the thrill of the hunt and some even hunt stragglers for fun. Even the most docile beasts and stragglers will always resist when they are on the verge of death, and this resistance brings more uncertainty to these activities if Song Xu Yi is involved in these dangerous activities and if something happens to her, General Wang can only take the blame.

However, Song Xu Yi’s behaviour once again exceeded General Wang’s expectations: she did not take part in the regular bloody activities of the hunting grounds and even called off the hunting of stragglers to gather all the stragglers and soldiers to help her search for something in the mountains of the hunting grounds.

The princess drew a diagram of a tuberous plant and asked the men to look for it in the forest.

It was only a few days ago that Song Xu Yi discovered the existence of sweet potatoes in this world when she was helping the stragglers, but even if there were sweet potatoes outside the city, they would have been eaten by the starving stragglers. The only place in the city where vegetation is still intact is the hunting ground inside the city.

Song Xu Yi wanted to take her chances.

General Wang did not understand why Song Xu Yi wanted to find this plant, but it was much less dangerous than those dangerous activities, not to mention the fact that Song Xu Yi herself was leading the way, searching for the plant in the soil with her maidservants, and General Wang was too lazy to call on all his men to join in.

However, three days in a row passed without Song Xu Yi finding any sweet potatoes.

When she went back, she found Nie Qian Yu waiting at the entrance to her room.

The setting sun reflected on Nie Qian Yu’s stunningly beautiful face, which was suitable for both men and women. He had grown a little taller over the past few months, and stood in the courtyard like a jade tree, cut like a sage, and refined like a peach.

Song Xu Yi had never imagined that someone could interpret refinement and grandeur to such an extent! Nie Qian Yu’s skin was extremely fine, his skin was like gelatin, his eyes were as bright and deep as obsidian, his lips were not embellished but vermilion, his body was slimmer than the average man’s, and he looked both beautiful and youthful, just the right look for this era’s aesthetics.

“Is something wrong?” Song Xu Yi’s voice couldn’t help but lighten twice at the sight of this extremely beautiful face.

Nie Qian Yu lifted his delicate jaw, pursed his lips and glanced at Song Xu Yi, his eyes lingering for a moment on Song Xu Yi’s messy hair and dirty skirt, his voice still as distant and cold as ever: “Where has the princess been these past two days?”

Song Xu Yi blinked and didn’t hide it from Nie Qian Yu: “I was looking for something in the hunting ground, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find it after searching for a few days.”

“Is it something very important?” Nie Qian Yu stood outside the door and asked a question for the first time in his life.

Song Xu Yi’s footsteps gave a pause as she turned her head and gave Nie Qian Yu a surprised look: Nie Qian Yu had always been aloof and did not seem like the type of person who would ask questions to the end, had something happened?

Seemingly sensing the confusion in Song Xu Yi’s eyes, Nie Qian Yu dropped his head again, his red lips pursed up slightly, “I’m the one who overstepped my bounds.”

“What were you thinking,” Song Xu Yi laughed, beckoning Nie Qian Yu into the door, sighing as she poured him a cup of tea, “It’s mainly because the sun is too harsh now, and you’re so… beautiful, I can’t let you get sunburnt.”

“This is indeed something very important to me, I will show you when I find it.”

As she said this, Song Xu Yi remembered the three days of nothing and sighed again, “Unfortunately, looking at the current situation, I might not be able to find what I want.”

Seemingly because Song Xu Yi’s attitude was so frank, Nie Qian Yu also became frank.

“Then can I go with you tomorrow to look for it?” Nie Qian Yu sat down opposite Song Xu Yi and took a small sip of the tea she handed over: “Maybe I can help you.”

Song Xu Yi looked up at Nie Qian Yu, who had his head hung low, still his usual cautious appearance, but according to his usual nature, it was unusual for him to make such a request.

Song Xu Yi’s eyes flashed as she poured herself a cup of tea, “As long as you don’t mind being tired, of course you can.”

“Many thanks, Princess.”

Nie Qian Yu did not stay long before leaving.

Song Xu Yi then summoned the eunuch who was guarding Nie Qian Yu.

The young eunuch had an indignant look on his face, obviously sympathetic to Nie Qian Yu’s plight: “the Magistrate’s Miss and some other ladies hid in Prince Nie’s bath room today, trying to peek at his bath, but fortunately, the heavens had eyes to see that a big rat had entered the bath room at some point, scaring the ladies into coming out…”

Song Xu Yi was dumbfounded.

In Song Xu Yi’s eyes, Nie Qian Yu, who was not yet thirteen, had only just started middle school in modern times, and was still just a child.

She knew that the young ladies of this dynasty were fierce and married at an early age, and that some of them were very flamboyant, but she had never imagined that they would not even spare a child…

No wonder Nie Qian Yu, who was normally aloof and cold, offered to go out with her today.

Song Xu Yi pursed her lips.

As she was in the Magistrate’s territory, she could not afford to turn against these young ladies, so Song Xu Yi could only secretly instruct General Wang to speed up the preparation of the ferry and take Nie Qian Yu with her when she went to the hunting grounds the next day.

And a few of the young ladies, with their spirits still intact, also followed.

When these ladies heard that Song Xu Yi was looking for something these days, they thought that Song Xu Yi was just keeping an eye on the people under her command, but they never thought that Song Xu Yi would do it herself and go into the mountains to bask in the sun…

Even Song Xu Yi, the most noble of them all, chose to go into the mountains to look for it herself, so naturally the ladies couldn’t just stand by and watch, but they didn’t stay long and couldn’t continue, after all, in this era, white skin is beautiful, so the ladies didn’t want to burn their skin, so they found excuses to leave the hunting ground.

Nie Qian Yu followed behind Song Xu Yi for fear of being pestered by the ladies.

Once inside the forest, the area became almost like a personal show for Nie Qian Yu, with all sorts of small animals surrounding him.

The bright light softened the coldness and detachment in Nie Qian Yu’s eyes, and with the sparse sunlight pouring down from the branches, the young man in white looked like an elf in the forest.

With a beautiful person as her companion, Song Xu Yi felt more energised to work.

However, this day was the same as before, and Song Xu Yi searched for half a day without finding any clues about sweet potatoes.

As she was already deep in the forest, Song Xu Yi planned to go out of the forest and look in another direction, but at that very moment, a pigeon suddenly flew out of a nearby tree, grabbed the jade hairpin on Nie Qian Yu’s head and flew deeper into the forest——

In this era of beauty, it was extremely rude to have one’s hair unkempt. Song Xu Yi hastily summoned her guards to chase after it, and took a spare hairpin from a maid and handed it to Nie Qian Yu: “Do you want me to help you tie your hair?”

Song Xu Yi was stunned by his appearance.

Normally, Nie Qian Yu always had a neat and meticulous bun, but now that his hair was loose, Nie Qian Yu’s whole aura had suddenly changed, and his eyes were twinkling, and his clean youthfulness was tinged with a certain amount of softness, and at first glance, he really looked like an extremely beautiful girl…

Not only Song Xu Yi, but the system in her mind also let out a backwards gasp of shock.

Song Xu Yi didn’t know what was wrong with herself. Even though she had felt stunned when Nie Qian Yu was dressed up, it was a pure admiration, unlike this moment where she was stunned and thrilled at the same time, and her heart was even beating faster…

Perhaps Nie Qian Yu’s appearance was more in line with her own aesthetic with his hair down!

Song Xu Yi scratched her head and couldn’t help but exclaim, “Prince Nie really looks extremely good like this, just like the rumoured fairy from the nine heavens who fell into mortal earth!”

Song Xu Yi couldn’t help but blink at her own words, not knowing when she had developed the skill of sweet-talking.

Hearing Song Xu Yi’s words, Nie Qian Yu’s movement of tying up his hair came to a halt and he gave Song Xu Yi a glance, his red lips gently opening as if he wanted to say something, but at that moment, a clamour suddenly came from the forest, and several guards who had followed the pigeon into the forest came out with excited faces: “Princess, we’ve found it! There’s a big patch in the forest over there…”

Song Xu Yi’s eyes widened immediately, and she could no longer care to tease Nie Qian Yu as she darted into the forest.

It was an open forest, covered with weeds in the middle, with a large patch of sweet potato vines growing in the sunny part.

Song Xu Yi was overjoyed, and hastily called on everyone to work together, carefully digging up all the sweet potatoes, wiping the soil off them and wrapping them up in rags…

There were many sweet potatoes in the forest, and Song Xu Yi dug several baskets of them in one go.

Song Xu Yi was so happy that she told General Wang to keep the rest of the sweet potatoes and left the two largest ones for herself, putting them on her carriage and happily returning to the base camp.

It was only when she got off the carriage at the base camp and looked at Nie Qian Yu, whose hair had been restored to a meticulous bun, that Song Xu Yi remembered that she had been so preoccupied with digging sweet potatoes that she hadn’t remembered that Nie Qian Yu’s hairpin hadn’t been returned…

Without Nie Qian Yu’s hairpin, she might not have been able to find the sweet potatoes at all…

Song Xu Yi decided to compensate Nie Qian Yu with a hairpin.

She opened her dressing box. The Wang Clan was a centuries-old family, with endless wealth, and as the first daughter of the Wang Clan, Empress Wang would not treat her only daughter badly, so Song Xu Yi’s dressing box was filled with all kinds of rare jewellery.

However, Song Xu Yi was dissatisfied after choosing a piece for half a day. When she thought of Nie Qian Yu’s extremely beautiful face, it seemed that all jewellery would pale in comparison to him.

Song Xu Yi picked out a woollen jade hairpin after half a day of choosing.

It was rumoured to be a treasure handed down from the founding of the Empire, and had the symbol of the Wang Clan engraved on it in a hidden place.

When they saw Song Xu Yi pick up the black jade hairpin, the maidservants serving Song Xu Yi were horrified and exclaimed, “No!”

This hairpin was the most valuable of all Song Xu Yi’s jewellery, not only was it worth a fortune, it was also a symbol of the Wang Clan’s status and had only been passed down to the first daughter, as Wang Mian only had one daughter, Empress Wang, who had given it to Song Xu Yi when she was ten years old.

“It’s just a piece of dead weight!” Song Xu Yi, however, did not give up on her idea that in her mind, only this hairpin could barely match Nie Qian Yu’s looks. What’s more, Song Xu Yi cared more about the chance of millions of people to remain alive as a result of the discovery of new rations, brought about by Nie Qian Yu’s lost hairpin, than a single hairpin.

The people around her did not dare to persuade her, but they had a new perception of Nie Qian Yu’s position in Song Xu Yi’s heart.

When Nie Qian Yu saw the hairpin that Song Xu Yi had sent him, his calm and steady face lost its composure for the first time.

He looked at the hairpin with a deep gaze and then raised his head to look at Song Xu Yi, speaking softly as if in disbelief, “You… you… you really want to give me this hairpin?”

“Didn’t you lose a hairpin? I just wanted to find a hairpin to make up for you,” Song Xu Yi curled her lips and smiled, “I went through the dressing box and this hairpin was the only one that matched your looks!”

Nie Qian Yu’s lips twitched as he looked at Song Xu Yi with a more complex look, “That’s because you don’t know how precious this hairpin is…”

“I know this hairpin is precious,” Song Xu Yi curled her lips, thinking that the fact that Nie Qian Yu hadn’t returned the hairpin to her meant that he also liked it deep down, so she smiled, determined to get over it as soon as possible, “But I think my sweet potatoes are more precious… “

“Sweet potatoes?”

Song Xu Yi knew that Nie Qian Yu didn’t understand right now, so she winked at Nie Qian Yu and took Nie Qian Yu’s hand and went to the small kitchen together.

Nie Qian Yu seemed to have been shocked by Song Xu Yi’s gift of the hairpin, and spent the whole way examining the black jade hairpin in his hand, even forgetting to avoid the hand Song Xu Yi was holding…

As soon as Song Xu Yi returned, she had her maid throw the sweet potatoes into the hearth. At this point, she figured that the sweet potatoes were almost ready to be baked, so she pulled them out of the hearth.

Song Xu Yi wrapped the sweet potatoes in the leaves she had prepared and eagerly peeled off the outer skin…

In an instant, the sweet aroma of roasted sweet potatoes filled the entire space, causing Nie Qian Yu, who was in a trance, to regain his concentration and look up at Song Xu Yi.

“Be careful, it’s a bit hot.” Song Xu Yi handed the peeled sweet potato to Nie Qian Yu and peeled another one for herself, taking a small bite of the golden brown sweet potato and smiling with her eyes arched in satisfaction, sighing out, “So sweet!”

Song Xu Yi took another bite and when she saw that Nie Qian Yu hadn’t moved, she thought that Nie Qian Yu was still thinking about the black jade hairpin, so she couldn’t help but explain to Nie Qian Yu, “As you can see, sweet potatoes can be eaten, baked or boiled. Moreover, sweet potatoes are extremely easy to grow, and you can send many sweet potato seedlings on top of one sweet potato.”

When Song Xu Yi said this, she remembered the role sweet potatoes could play in this world and smiled again, “Nowadays, countries have low food production and a single type of food, that’s why there are so many starving people, and if we promote the cultivation of sweet potatoes, we can also save more people’s lives.”

“Perhaps you think this hairpin is expensive, but in my mind, this hairpin is less valuable than a human life…”

“What’s wrong?”

Only after Song Xu Yi finished speaking did she notice that the way Nie Qian Yu looked at her seemed to have changed a little, and Song Xu Yi couldn’t tell what kind of emotion it was, because the next moment, Nie Qian Yu dropped his head and gently took a bite of the peeled sweet potato that Song Xu Yi handed him, “So you’ve been leaving early and coming home late all these days to find this?”

“You don’t know how happy I was when I found the sweet potatoes!” Song Xu Yi smiled, sort of acquiescing to Nie Qian Yu’s words, “What did you think of the taste, was it very sweet and delicious?”

“Very sweet!” After a long silence, Nie Qian Yu raised his head and looked at Song Xu Yi who was smiling happily because of his affirmation, his eyes darkened, his hand holding the black jade hairpin squeezed tightly without a sound, biting his lower lip and speaking softly again, “Especially sweet.”

The next day, General Wang found a ferry.

Song Xu Yi and her entourage bade farewell to the Magistrate and the Magistrate’s daughter, who was still trying to hold on to Nie Qian Yu, and boarded the large ferry on the river.

Song Xu Yi originally thought that she would never get seasick, but when she was on board, she realised that she had overestimated herself: the ships of this era were far less stable than those of later times, and for the first few days, Song Xu Yi felt dizzy and bloated every day, as if she was living in purgatory. Her stomach was full of acid and she had no appetite for food, especially as the cooking techniques in this era were not good and it was difficult to swallow meat and fish.

But even so, Song Xu Yi still had to check on the sweet potatoes every day, fearing that the wet conditions on the river would make them sprout prematurely.

“Is it worth it?”

Perhaps because he had finally understood Song Xu Yi’s goodness after experiencing other girls like the Magistrate’s daughter, Nie Qian Yu no longer treated Song Xu Yi with the same indifference and detachment as before. When he found Song Xu Yi, who was being helped by a servant girl to look at sweet potatoes in the storage room, Nie Qian Yu, who was standing at the edge of the ferry watching the scenery, could not help but make a sound.

“It’s worth it.” Song Xu Yi squeezed out a smile, because of the slimness, a pair of originally watery and bright eyes on her palm-sized face then looked extra large.

Song Xu Yi looked down at the heaving waters of the river: “Do you remember the last time the ship ran aground?”

“Hundreds of people braved the heavy rain and jumped into the dangerous shoal to tow the boat, working for half a day. The money they earned with their lives was only enough for them to live for three days, and even then, they thanked us profusely and bowed…”

“To be honest, I still find it difficult when I think of those faces,” Song Xu Yi squeezed out a smile, “We have the most simple and unpretentious people, their wish is simple, they just want to live well. But just because they are simple and honest, we shouldn’t mount on their heads and make things worse, turning a blind eye to their suffering…”

“I must do something for them.”

The young girl was tiny, not yet the right height, and had a delightful face, looking like a glutinous rice ball, yet her spine was straight, and when she said this, there was still that bright light in her eyes that made Nie Qian Yu’s heart tremble, a light so pure that Nie Qian Yu felt ludicrous and inexplicably intimidated, yet wanted to get closer to that light regardless, like a moth to a flame.

Nie Qian Yu pursed his lips and hung his head. He thought that the wind was too strong and that he had been blown out of his mind, that this little princess, who had never suffered before, was different from the rest of the filthy people in this world…

Nie Qian Yu stood in silence at the bow of the boat for a long time.

Yet somehow, Song Xu Yi’s tiny face, which had become as big as the size of a palm, kept popping up in front of his eyes.

The whole ship’s information came to Nie Qian Yu’s ears through the animals:

For example, some servant girls in the hamper were chatting that the princess had become extremely good-tempered in the past few months, and agreed that this was a change made by Song Xu Yi to gain Nie Qian Yu’s favour…

If Song Xu Yi had been attracted to him, she would not have allowed him to spend time with that foolish daughter of the Magistrate a few days ago. Nie Qian Yu knew beyond doubt that Song Xu Yi did not look at him with the same covetousness as the others did; she looked at him with clear eyes and saw him as a mere companion.

Nie Qian Yu found himself feeling less than happy when he should have been grateful for this.

Immediately afterwards, Nie Qian Yu received the information that Song Xu Yi was rolling around on the ship with her stomach covered, as if she was having her menstrual period.

Nie Qian Yu pursed his lips.

These days, the cook was sighing again. All the food he cooked had been vomited up by the princess, and even though the princess did not blame him, General Wang intimidated him on a daily basis, and the poor cook was so scared that he almost collapsed…

……

Nie Qian Yu pursed his lips and stood for a while longer, hearing the report from the animals that “the little princess was biting the corner of the blanket and was on the verge of crying out of pain”, hesitated for a moment and finally went down to the cabin.

Song Xu Yi finally ate a bowl of soup that night.

She did not know what ingredients the cook used, but even though it was fish soup, there was no fishy smell in the soup, only the fresh fragrance of the fish, and the thorns of the fish were also picked out extremely clean, after drinking half of the bowl, Song Xu Yi even felt that her whole body was warmed up, and her stomach felt much better.

“Is the cook a different person today?” Song Xu Yi looked up at the servant girl serving the soup at the side. According to the previous cook’s level, he couldn’t make such a good soup.

The servant girl laughed and looked at Song Xu Yi with envy in her eyes, “Princess, this soup was specially made for you by Prince Nie, he is so kind to you.”

Hearing the servant girl’s words, Song Xu Yi almost choked on a mouthful of soup in her throat.

Nie Qian Yu made soup for her? Song Xu Yi thought she was hallucinating: the sun was coming out of the west, maybe there was poison in the soup…

But Song Xu Yi had already drunk half of the bowl, and the soup was so good that even though she was afraid of Nie Qian Yu’s motives, Song Xu Yi drank it all up.

That night, Song Xu Yi’s body felt warm, full of food and drink, and she had a rare good night’s sleep.

A few cabins away, Nie Qian Yu heard the report that Song Xu Yi had fallen asleep and a smile appeared on the corner of his lips that he didn’t even notice, but Nie Qian Yu quickly curbed his smile and took out the black jade hairpin that Song Xu Yi had given him and drew it closer to the candle flame.

Reflecting the orange candlelight, a huge shadow of a landscape picture suddenly appeared on the wall.

Only a few people knew this: the black jade hairpin was linked to a huge treasure buried by the first Emperor, and the location of the treasure was hidden inside the black jade hairpin.

“Consider this your payment for giving me the black jade hairpin!” Nie Qian Yu put the black jade hairpin away again and looked once more at the location of Song Xu Yi’s cabin, narrowing his eyes slightly as he murmured in a low voice as if to remind himself, “This is just payback.”

“I’m not going to feel sorry for a stupid princess who’s worthless and is only capable of dreaming…”