CH 57.1

Chapter 57.1 – I Will Listen To Your Highness

The light in Lu Qipei’s room at the Court of Judicial Review stayed on all night.

Qi Yang didn’t return to the palace tonight, nor did she go to her courtyard. She stayed in Lu Qipei’s room and chatted with Lu Qipei all night under the candlelight. From the Lu family’s influence to preparations for the future, they had so many things to consider that it still couldn’t be finished overnight.

When dawn was about to break, the two who had stayed up all night also started feeling tired, despite how energetic they had been during their discussion earlier. In particular, although Lu Qipei didn’t need to go out with the investigators lately, she still had to go to work everyday. Actually, with even more people going out to investigate the case now, the ones who stayed behind in the office had even more to do on their plates.

Seeing faint light coming in from the window, the two finally stopped talking. Lu Qipei said, “Your Highness, it’s getting late, let me see you out. There are still some people on duty at this time, you wouldn’t want to be caught.”

The two of them didn’t do anything, but Qi Yang had stayed in Lu Qipei’s room overnight after all. If someone saw her, who knew what they would say.

Qi Yang didn’t have any objection. She took a sip of the strong tea on the table, then nodded in agreement. But she was still feeling a bit worried and said before leaving, “Remember not to tell anyone else about the things we talked about. You can’t tell anyone!”

Lu Qipei got up to see her off. She couldn’t help but smile when she heard what Qi Yang had said. It seemed that she had confessed to easily that Her Highness really took her for a fool. How could she have talked about something so dangerous to anyone other than her?

She felt helpless, but she still replied seriously, “I understand. I will listen to Your Highness.”

Qi Yang was satisfied with that answer. When she got up to leave, she saw the black under Lu Qipei’s eyes, and felt a little distressed. “I was too impatient. I should’ve waited until your rest day to ask you about it in detail. How has work in the Court of Judicial Review been? Have you gotten any chance to slack off a little and catch up on sleep?”

Lu Qipei almost laughed when she heard her saying this. Her Royal Highness The Princess was actually encouraging her subject to sleep on duty! Fortunately, she wasn’t stupid enough to actually laugh in front of Qi Yang. She just smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Your Highness. I know what to do.”

Of course, Qi Yang could see the grin in her eyes, so she didn’t say anything else. When she turned around to leave, her eyes did not look upset – instead, there was a smile. The night’s talk had not been easy on them, and it was only just now that she could see a genuine smile in Lu Qipei’s eyes. Let her laugh then – it was better than seeing her frown.

The Court of Judicial Review’s investigation kept on going regardless of the time, and there were officials entering and leaving the main gate at all hours. In order to avoid people and save some trouble, Lu Qipei sent Qi Yang all the way to the side gate, which was closer.

Lu Qipei thought that after sending her outside the gate, she would have to find Qi Yang’s coachman to pick her up. However, Qi Yang’s coachman was obviously very smart. Just as Lu Qipei opened the side gate, she saw that familiar carriage parked on the street outside.

This made her feel a lot more reassured. She opened the gate for Qi Yang to pass through, and told her at the same time, “Your Highness has not slept all night, you should rest early after returning to the palace. Some things cannot be rushed.”

Qi Yang walked past Lu Qipei and did not say anything towards those words.

In fact, although Lu Qipei didn’t tell her that many things last night, it was still a big matter that was troublesome to deal with. There was the matter with them helping the Rong State envoys escape from right beneath their eyes, and how they managed to cover all their traces. There was also the force behind the Lu family that was making her afraid… Obviously, Her Royal Highness couldn’t help but be restless.

Lu Qipei could tell Qi Yang’s attitude from her reaction, and she was a little bit annoyed that she had ended up causing her trouble again.

Just as she was thinking about it, Qi Yang who had already walked out suddenly turned around and shouted, “Prince Consort.”

Lu Qipei didn’t react right away. She subconsciously raised her head and blinked in response, “Hmm?”

Qi Yang’s eyes flashed for a moment, but she didn’t say anything. She just calmly said, “It’s nothing. I’m leaving now, you can go back too.”

Lu Qipei nodded and watched as Qi Yang get on the carriage, then kept watching as the carriage disappeared at the end of the street. She closed the side gate and walked back to her room, planning to wash her face and change her clothes before going to the office to start her shift.

Halfway through her daze, her drowsy brain finally realized that Qi Yang had called her “Prince Consort” instead of “Ah Pei”. She also subconsciously responded… Her Royal Highness wouldn’t think that she was being narcissistic and had started considering herself the Prince Consort now, right!?

Lu Qipei suddenly raised her hand to cover her face, her face grimacing as if she had a toothache.

Qi Yang came and left just like a gust of wind. Apart from the conversation under the candlelight that night, Lu Qipei’s life in the Court of Judicial Review was still peaceful as if nothing had happened. It was as if she had never told her secrets to someone else.

But still, words that were said and things that were done would still leave traces in the end.

On the third day after Qi Yang left, under the joint investigation of the Court of Judicial Review and several other government offices, they finally found the Rong State envoys that had disappeared from the Four-Sided Pavilion.

But knowing that they had left the capital and was moving north, the Emperor didn’t send anyone to pursue them. After all, there was no use chasing them back after the news had come out. He only ordered the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue to prepare for war at the court meeting, and sent another royal decree to warn the border.

Translator notes:

A little change on the title format (no more (1) or (2) at the end of the title) since it seems to be messing with novelupdates bot’s ability to fetch the update. Some of you might have noticed that some of the updates didn’t appear on novelupdates until quite a while after it was originally posted – hopefully this would fix the problem.