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Chapter Twenty-Five

Seeing Guan Yue from afar, I feel like he is looking a lot better and a lot rounder than before, looks like he’s been living quite the good life during this time. I glance at the leisurely righteous Yuwen Rui, feeling a little surprised as to why he didn’t help his pitiful younger cousin – I – get payback, but in a blink of an eye, I think again, Yuwen Rui is no virgin Mary, nor a bodhisattva of any sort, to absolutely get revenge for what must be avenged, this is something he implements more thoroughly than I do. I presume it is not that he isn’t punishing Guan Yue, but is thinking of what method of punishment would be most effective. This encounter today, has more or less contained quite a bit of dirty scheming.

The people in the waters were successively saved, and brought onto a little boat Mu Yi had gone out in, on Lord Yin’s side, a few people had come out to stop them at first, just that after a few moves from Mu Yi, all of them had fallen into the water, resulting in the rest of the people hesitating to approach. The cries for help gradually decreases, and from the originally retreating boat at the side, applause and cheering sounds, Mu Yi has surely become the big hero that saved everyone. En, I must go back and tell Xi Xi about this matter.

Yuwen Rui is still sat in his seat like a dignified master, his expression indifferent and careless. Whilst Meng Shao Jue’s lips are hooked up into a smile with aroused interest, saying something to Imperial Sister to make her smile from time to time. Don’t know if it’s my imagination, but I seem to occasionally catch his line of sight pretend to unintentionally sweep across me? I hold up the plate of skinned peaches and take a bite, deciding to ignore this finding.

“Ah-Lan,” Ying Lu softly calls out to me, “Gentleman Yuwen is an official ah?”

Only then did I realise Yuwen Rui had just self-addressed himself as ‘official I’, then say: “En, an official position specially appointed by Father Emperor, Royal Official of the Capital, first degree.” But Yuwen Rui very rarely uses his position as an official to appear before us.

“What about Lord Yin then?” She asks again.

I say: “First degree.”

Ying Lu is speechless, “They’re both first degree ah, tut tut. Then is this Lord Yin’s official position more influential, or Gentleman Yuwen’s?”

I casually say: “Of course Cousin’s.”

Ying Lu is puzzled, “Aren’t they both first degree?”

I think for a bit, then raise my thumb and little finger at her, very carelessly saying: “Aren’t they both fingers?”

“Eh.” Ying Lu pauses, then starts laughing, “I get it, pu-, your explanation really cannot be any more true. Ah-Lan, I can now confirm, you’re definitely not a fool.”

I once again take a bite of the bare peach and roll my eyes at her, “Ying Lu.”

“Ah?”

“Did I ever say I’m a fool?”

Ying Lu shakes her head, “No.”

I nod, “Very good.” I continue to bite the peach.

Ying Lu shows a face of realisation, “Ah-Lan you truly are too mischievous, you didn’t say it but your behaviour shows it ah.”

I suddenly halt all actions, then look at her blankly, dully asking: “You mean like this?”

Ying Lu chokes, her pretty face turning red, “Yes yes yes, just like that, just like that!”

I don’t know why I would suddenly think of Guu , and so I evilly look at her as I hook up one corner of my lip, coldly saying: “Business expression.” (a reference from the anime Haré+Guu)

And then, Ying Lu laughs whilst quietly choking even more severely, before she manages to adjust her breathing, Lord Yin and Guan Yue have boarded the boat and came up to us all. Lord Yin’s cold gaze slowly sweeps across all of us, finally stopping on Yuwen Rui, bowing, he says: “Lord Yuwen, truly a pleasure to meet you, pleasure to meet you, didn’t think you would also be interested in dragon boats.”

Yuwen Rui looks at him and indifferently says: “I have only come out today to spend some leisure time with friends. Lord Yin on the other hand, sure is in quite the spirited mood today, look at this pleasure boat, I’m afraid there is no more than three in Yun Mi.”

“Lord Yuwen has good eyes, this is precisely the pleasure boat bestowed from his majesty.” Lord Yin sounds rather prideful, looking at Meng Shao Jue, he says: “These few ‘sitting’ here seems to all be unfamiliar faces. Is Lord Yuwen not going to introduce us?”

I believe his meaning is to remind us he is still standing, just that, with Yuwen Rui as head here not saying a word, how could us little pawns give him a seat?

Yuwen Rui casually gestures towards us, “Meng Shao Jue, Gentleman Meng; this official’s younger cousin(s); Gentleman Meng’s younger sister, Young Lady Meng.”

Lord Yin looks at Meng Shao Jue with a shallow smile: “So it is the Meng Family Grain Trade’s Gentleman Meng.”

Meng Shao Jue lightly nods, with no intention to stand, only politely addressing him, “Lord Yin, nice to meet you.”

Meng Shao Jue’s cold attitude seems to have slightly angered Lord Yin, he lightly harrumphs and says: “Didn’t think Gentleman Meng is acquainted to Lord Yuwen, truly an honour ah.” He then looks at Imperial Sister, the look in his eyes slightly changes, the tone in his voice also sounds much friendlier, “Lord Yuwen’s younger cousin? Official I am guessing this lady here must be Lord Yuwen’s fourth cousin, is that right?”

Imperial Sister faintly smiles and greets with a nod, “Lord Yin.”

“Young Lady is indeed just as the rumours says, as beautiful as a deity .” Lord Yin praises, his eyes then falling onto me, just that the length of time it remains on me is very short, he directly passes me and says to Ying Lu: “Young Lady Meng, we meet again.”

Ying Lu shallowly smiles as she says to him: “Hoho, that’s right ah, we meet again.” Quietly adding after “such bad luck”.

Yuwen Rui speaks up in this moment, he looks at Guan Yue with slight interest, asking: “The gentleman behind Lord Yin is……?”

Only then does Lord Yin remember that behind him, there is also Guan Yue who followed along, simply introducing: “This is Pei Yu Court’s accountant, Guan Yue. Guan Yue, aren’t you going to hurriedly greet Lord Yuwen now?”

Hearing this, Guan Yue’s eyes brightens up like a lit lamp, you should know that this guy has been constantly looking the few of us up and down since the moment he set foot here, when he saw Imperial Sister, his eyes even more so, disgustingly looked like they were about to roll out, when he saw Yuwen Rui, he could not wish for anything more than to hug onto his leg……of course, when he saw me, there was arrogant pride and contempt. He comes up, respectfully bowing as he says: “Guan Yue greets Lord Yuwen!”

A smile floats to the surface of Yuwen Rui’s handsome face, cordially saying: “Gentleman Guan sure looks a little familiar, have we met before?”

“My lord has great memory!” Guan Yue immediately answers: “My lord had saved Lady Liu under the horse shoe that day, this little one just happened to be there at the scene. My lord is indeed incomparably valiant!”

Yuwen Rui says: “No wonder, then official I can be considered to be fated with you. Someone come, bring Lord Yin and Gentleman Guan seats.”

The chairs are very quickly brought in, Lord Yin sits down with slight dissatisfaction, whilst Guan Yue takes a seat after him, clearly in a good mood.

Yuwen Rui then says: “Official I have heard Lord Yin has recently been building a new estate, an extravagant one at that, congratulations.”

Lord Yin’s face appears a little contorted, he hatefully looks towards the red belted men that had just fallen into the water, forcefully putting on a smile as he replies: “It is just building a foothold, all is fine as long as I can live in it, where did the extravagant talk come from?”

“Oh? Looks like the expenditure shouldn’t be big then.” Yuwen Rui holds up the teacup and lightly raises his brows, “As officials, the salary we earn should just be enough to spend on gardening, officials should be there for the people and not for the wealth, occasionally encountering a few greedy money launderers, sure makes people feel great disgust from the heart. Lord Yin, don’t you think so?”

“Of course, of course.” Lord Yin’s tone sounds a little guilty, “As officials, of course the nation and the people are most important.”

“Lord Yin sure is able to see through it all.” Yuwen Rui nods in appreciation, “His majesty has ordered this official to rectify the underground gambling houses in the Capital, should any officials be found to have been colluding with them in the shadows, then regardless of official positions, investigations must be thoroughly carried out. Should Lord Yin know any inside information, you must tell this official, this way, official I will be able to save a lot of effort.”

A drop of sweat rolls down from Lord Yin’s forehead, “This lowly official will definitely try my best to help.”

“Then I shall trouble Lord Yin.” Yuwen Rui’s words of insinuation are spoken like light clouds and soft breeze, his long eyes turns to look at Guan Yue, smilingly saying: “Could Gentleman Guan be one who studies (a scholar)?”

Guan Yue hurriedly answers: “Responding to my lord, since young, this little one has been familiarised with the readings of the four books and five classics, studying at a cold window for over ten years, I’m precisely one who studies.” (The four books: The Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, The Confucian Analects, and The Works of Mencius |The five classics The Book of Songs, The Book of History, The Book of Changes, The Book of Rites and The Spring and Autumn Annals |Studying at a cold window or hán chuāng kǔ dú / 寒窗苦读 = a poor scholar that perseveres in studying despite the hardships)

“Oh? Then why do you not participate in the imperial examinations and instead be an accountant?” Yuwen Rui asks in surprise.

Guan Yue says: “It’s shameful to say, this little one has participated in the imperial examinations but had unfortunately failed, for the sake of making a living, I could only……ai~, shameful, shameful.”

“So that’s the case.” Yuwen Rui looks up, “Official I instead believes Gentleman Guan is a man of great potential, I shall be sending people to Min Yang soon, currently short on a Min Yang officer, don’t know if Gentleman Guan is willing to do work unworthy of your talents……?”

Guan Yue ecstatically gets up and kneels down, “Of course this little one is willing! Many thanks for my lord’s appreciation! My lord’s great kindness will definitely be engraved into this little one’s heart!”

Yuwen Rui half lowers his fox eyes and hooks up a smile, “That will be very good.”

Ying Lu glares at Yuwen Rui in dissatisfaction, presumably thinking that he’s not only not punishing Guan Yue, but even giving him a job. I look at Yuwen Rui’s smile and find it a little strange, then very curiously start to think about the most important question: Min Yang officer, what exactly does the position entail?

Seems like Guan Yue is also very curious as to what this position Yuwen Rui has given him entails, he smilingly asks: “My lord, forgive this little one’s ignorance. This Min Yang officer is……?”

Yuwen Rui raises his brows, very leisurely saying to Lord Yin: “Does Lord Yin perhaps know of the urgent report from Min Yang several days ago?”

“Have a rough idea.” Lord Yin has now toned down his way of speaking a lot, “Seems to have said Min Yang is having a shortage problem, failing to harvest the crops.”

“Precisely so.” Yuwen Rui nods, “In accordance to the people, the fields of crops have been contaminated with some sort of strange disease, unable to produce any food for the next three years, even with weeding, the agriculture is showing no improvement at all. His majesty is holding this matter with great importance, deliberately finding a few officials that are knowledgeable in this area to send to Min Yang, accompanied by twenty Min Yang officers.”

At this point, Guan Yue’s face has already stiffened to the point of turning green, “My, my lord, your meaning is……”

Yuwen Rui places the teacup down, shallowly smiling as he says: “Official I hopes that Gentleman Guan is able to assist them greatly, allowing Min Yang’s crops to make an early recovery.”

I slightly look away, unable to bear seeing Guan Yue’s pale face that has turned as white as snow. Yuwen Rui ah, Yuwen Rui, after everything you said, the great bestowment you gave Guan Yue is basically sending him to Min Yang to…..farm?

Pu-, I unkindly laugh.

“Alright now, it is no longer early, official I shall have to make my return.” Yuwen Rui elegantly stands, after taking a few steps, he suddenly turns around and says to Lord Yin and also Guan Yue: “Oh, the both of you seem to have forgotten someone just now.” He raises his hand to gesture at me, saying: “This lady here, is this offiicial’s younger cousin, my fifth cousin. Next time you see her, don’t you ever forget to pay your respects.”

Look at how he says this, how gentle, how courteous.

Having said that, Yuwen Rui holds my hand and walks out, not at all caring about what kind of explosive effect this had brought to the two people behind. I make a rare show of kind-heartedness in not looking back at them, forget it, these two have already been so miserably toyed with by Yuwen Rui today, I shall just play the bodhisattva this time.

I raise my head to look at Yuwen Rui’s elegantly refined face, warmth surging up from the bottom of my heart, as I find his bad doings incomparably adorable.

We didn’t head straight back to the palace, but leisurely walked the streets. Not long after, some soldier-like person hurriedly comes finding Yuwen Rui, Yuwen Rui furrows his brows after hearing the person’s message, upon seeing the situation, Meng Shao Jue immediately says: “Should Gentleman Yuwen have matters to attend to, then go ahead first. I will definitely send the two young ladies back safely.”

Yuwen Rui thinks about it for a bit then nods: “I’ll have to trouble Gentleman Meng then, I shall take my leave first.”

Yuwen Rui and the soldier very quickly leaves.

Imperial Sister and Ying Lu were increasingly enjoying their time outside, whilst I just casually looked around, but rather abruptly spot two familiar figures. I stop walking as I look towards the distance in surprise, those two people are actually Yuwen Xiu and……Liu Ru Xu?

Why would Yuwen Xiu be with Liu Ru Xu?

I raise my foot, preparing to walk up to get a better look, but had crashed right into someone’s chest, what followed is Meng Shao Jue’s voice of seeming laughter sounding next to my ear, “Ah-Lan, this isn’t the first time you threw yourself into my arms.”

He lowers his body, looking at me up close, phoenix eyes steadily meeting my eyes, his words carrying the means of enticement as he says: “Should you continue to be like this, don’t blame me for not holding back on you.”