Chapter 63 Part 1

There was no doubt that Pei Xiaoyuan had a clear and sharp mind, which was enough for him to understand the meaning of her words.

However, in an instant, too many thoughts seemed to surge at him all at once, leaving his mind muddled and hazy. Only when the clear sound of her footsteps gradually faded away, disappearing completely from his hearing, did he snap back to his senses. His heart raced, and he leapt up from his seat, rushing out—only to find that her figure was already nowhere to be seen.

His figure paused, and his footsteps finally slowly stopped.

When he appeared in front of Han Kerang and told him that the person he was ordered to find last night was safe and sound and had entered the palace on her own, he looked no different from usual. The only thing was that he was probably running around too much last night and had not slept for a moment, so he was not in good spirits.

Han Kerang looked at him carefully, his eyes showing concern, and said, “You don’t look well. Are you too tired recently? Don’t take it lightly just because you’re young. I was just like you back in my younger years, going up the mountains to hunt tigers and going down to the sea to catch dragons. And now, look at me…”

He patted his increasingly bulging waist and shook his head, “I didn’t sleep all night last night to find people, and I couldn’t stand it anymore. It’s best if you’re fine. Fortunately, today is a day off. I’m going home to rest. If I don’t go back, my wife at home might make trouble again. You also don’t have to push too hard—”

He looked around, his eyes fell on his subordinate’s forehead, which had not yet healed. He leaned closer and whispered, “This wound on your head is because of His Majesty, right? I have worked for His Majesty for many years, and I know His Majesty’s temperament to some extent. If you don’t learn to ease up a bit and keep throwing yourself fully into everything, even an iron man couldn’t withstand the strain. There are some things you can handle on your own, so long as you strike the right balance. His Majesty is not a man-eating tiger, he won’t really give you a hard time.”

He cordially imparted his experience on dealing with superiors to his subordinate, patted him on the shoulder, and left.

Pei Xiaoyuan was reminded by Han Kerang that today was a day off. He and Prince Ning’s grandson Prince Xin’an, Li Hui, agreed to go out of the city to have some riding and archery lessons. However, in the chaos of looking for her last night, he actually forgot about it.

He glanced at the gradually rising sun and realized that Li Hui and others probably had already waiting at the agreed place. He immediately calmed down, ordered his attendants to go first, while he returned to his residence in the government office first.

Since he had planned to stay here for a long time in the future, he had all his daily necessities here, including the casual clothes he needed for going out, as well as bows, arrows and other weapons, so he immediately hurried over. But then he noticed a woman’s green painted carriage parked on the roadside outside the gate, as well as a mule cart carrying boxes and other items, while around eight servants from the Cui Mansion were carrying things in. He was surprised and stopped on his track.

When the servants of the Cui Mansion saw him, they hurried up to greet him and said that they were ordered to deliver some stuffs. At this time, a young woman came out while directing people to place those things. She was wearing a red silk jacket and a bright blue long skirt with scattered small clusters of flowers, and her face was painted with a dignified and bright makeup. It turned out to be the Wang family’s girl, Zhenfeng, whom he met in the Cui Mansion yesterday. Behind her was Qingtou who was called to help early in the morning.

Wang Zhenfeng saw Pei Xiaoyuan, stopped in the courtyard, and looked at him with a smile. Pei Xiaoyuan then walked in. After the two of them greeted each other, Wang Zhenfeng explained that all of this were the stuffs that were arranged by her aunt, Lady Wang of Cui Mansion, and she was ordered to come along to help with the arrangements.

“My aunt ordered me to come and see if there is anything missing from your place, and then go to buy more. I don’t know Master’s preferences, so I didn’t dare to act on my own. I was just asking Qingtou when you came.”

Pei Xiaoyuan glanced around. Many things that had not been taken in were still piled up in the courtyard. Most of them were gold, silver, and clay lacquered utensils. They looked magnificent and made the already small space even more cramped.

He stopped looking around and smiled, “I didn’t know anything about this. If I had known yesterday, I would have told my aunt right away that there’s no need to bother arranging these things. Thank you for your trouble, Miss Wang, but please that them back.”

Wang Zhenfeng was startled, followed his gaze, looked at the things around him, then said after some hesitation, “These are all specially prepared by Aunt for you, and no one has ever used them before. If Master doesn’t like any of them, I will take them back, and you can keep the rest. How about that?”

Pei Xiaoyuan didn’t want to be too involved with his aunt Wang, and yesterday he accepted the invitation to come because they were discussing the memorial service for his mother, so he couldn’t refuse.

As for the girl from the Wang family, because her father was one of the eight-hundred heroes who died in battle along with his father Pei Gu, he naturally had more respect for her.

“I really don’t need it. This house is not mine, it’s just a government quarter, not a place to live for a long time. It might change hands in a few days, and it would be troublesome to move it back and forth. If I really need anything, I can ask the servants to prepare it. Miss Wang, please move everything back and thank Aunt on my behalf.”

Fortunately, the girl from the Wang family was quite smart, and she was not the kind of person who would pester others. She must have understood the meaning of his refusal. Her eyes lingered on his face for a few breaths, and then she nodded: “Since Master Pei said so, I won’t force you. Then I will take all the things back. There is only one thing. Now that the weather is getting hotter, I think this house is a little damp, and I am afraid that there will be mosquitoes at night. There is a lack of a bed curtain in the house. I happened to bring one with me, and I have just hung it up. If you don’t mind, you may keep it.”

Qingtou was upset when he heard this. Fortunately, his master treated everyone equally, neither liking the curtain he prepared with borrowed money nor the curtain that the Wang family girl brought. He just said, “Our family’s Qingtou has prepared it a few days ago, but I haven’t had time to hang it up yet. Thank you for taking the trouble, Miss Wang, and please take it back as well. I appreciate your kindness and am very grateful.”

Wang Zhenfeng paused, then agreed.

Qingtou was very excited. Without needing anyone’s help, he ran in and quickly took down the moon-white curtain that had just been hung. Wang Zhenfeng ordered her people to move all the stuff, including the curtain that Qingtou had handed over, back to the mule cart.

Pei Xiaoyuan escorted her out, and she bowed to express her thanks.

“I have great respect for Lady Cui. Don’t worry, Master Pei. I will help Aunt to prepare for the memorial service carefully. You can just focus on your work and no need to worry about anything.”

Pei Xiaoyuan thanked her sincerely. Wang Zhenfeng said goodbye to him with a smile and left in the carriage.

Pei Xiaoyuan watched the carriage leave, then turned inside, quickly changed his clothes, took his bow and arrow, then left again.

Qingtou suddenly chased out and said “Master, master” as if he wanted to say something.

Pei Xiaoyuan knew that his servant was a chatterbox, and usually only one or two of his ten sentences were useful. Seeing that he had been delayed for some time because of the matter just now, he was afraid that Li Hui and the others would be anxious, so how could he have time to listen to his chatter. He just left the servant and went out.

He rode to Guanghua Gate in the north of the city, and sure enough, Li Hui and a dozen of prince mansion’s guards and attendants had already arrived. He kept looking around, and suddenly, he saw Pei Xiaoyuan’s riding figure in the distance. His eyes lit up, and he hurriedly pushed aside the crowd and personally urged his horse to greet him. The two met under a wall outside the city gate. Li Hui dismounted and bowed, calling him master.

Pei Xiaoyuan also dismounted and helped him get up, explaining that he had been tied up early in the morning therefore missed the appointment, and had arrived just now, making him wait for a long time.

Li Hui hurriedly said, “Master, as long as you come, it doesn’t matter how long I wait. If the person sent by Master hadn’t come to tell me just now, I would have been worried that you were regretting accepting me as your disciple and would not want to come!”

Pei Xiaoyuan burst out laughing and looked at Li Hui. He saw that he was wearing a neat riding suit today, with a thirteen-buckle belt decorated with gold and jade tied tightly around his waist, with a sword and bow hanging on it, a lacquered and gold-painted quiver slung across his back, and leather boots on his feet. He looked different from his previous weak appearance and now had some youthful heroism. Pei Xiaoyuan was quite satisfied. He shook his arm, encouraged him a few words, then led his men on horseback and headed towards the Jinwu Guards’ martial arts field.

During the day, he taught Li Hui some basic riding and archery skills, and found that Li Hui was not only diligent in learning, but also smart and able to draw inferences from one example. The surprising thing was that he was not afraid of hardship and did not have the dandy habits of the rich and powerful children in the capital. Because he did not usually come into contact with swords and weapons, his fingers and palms were rubbed red and swollen by the hard bowstrings after pulling the bow many times. If Pei Xiaoyuan had not discovered it accidentally, he would have kept silent and practiced meticulously. This made Pei Xiaoyuan look at him with new eyes, and he liked this new disciple even more. The master and disciple stayed in the martial arts field for half a day, and then Pei Xiaoyuan took him out of the city to ride a horse. In the evening, they ended today’s teaching and Pei Xiaoyuan personally sent him back to the gate of Prince Ning Mansion.

Li Hui was still very excited after coming back, and he was still not satisfied, so he earnestly asked him to stay and have dinner together. However, Pei Xiaoyuan already knew Prince Ning’s intention, so how could he rashly step into the prince mansion again? Besides, he really had something else to do, so he declined, rode away, and came to Chen’s Tavern.

This tavern was not as famous as Chunfeng Tower. It was located in a winding alley with an elegant entrance, but it did not occupy a large area. It sold alcohol and food, and had only a few hostesses. Chang’an had a lot of this kind of small, unknown restaurants scattered throughout the streets and alleys, and most of their business was from regular customers.

Today Chengping invited him here to have a drink, saying that he was entrusted by someone.

When Pei Xiaoyuan arrived, Chengping had already sat in a secluded room. Unlike his usual unrestrained behavior, there was no Chen sisters around him, and he was drinking alone. When seeing Pei Xiaoyuan enter, he smiled, nodded, and then quietly stepped outside to personally stand guard.

Pei Xiaoyuan looked around and sat down at the seat that Chengping previously occupied. He took a clean cup, picked up the pot and poured a glass of wine. He took a sip and said calmly, “Come out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, a man came out from behind a curtain in the corner of the room. He was in his fifties, dressed in ordinary clothes, wearing a gray collared robe and an ordinary black belt. Because he had not ridden a horse or drawn a bow for a long time, his figure gradually became bloated, but from the steady footsteps he walked, it could be inferred that he must have been a military general in the past.

When the high-ranking official of the court, Minister of Writing Feng Zhenping, sat opposite Pei Xiaoyuan, he poured himself a glass of wine, toasted the young man opposite him, and drank it all in one gulp. He then said with a smile: “Master Pei Er is a very busy man now. I am really grateful that you are willing to come here to see an old man like me. I will drink first as a toast.”

Pei Xiaoyuan did not move, but smiled and said, “I heard that you gave the prince five thousand gold? He recently owed a gambling debt and asked me to borrow money. But where did I have the money to lend him, so he forced me to come. I also want to see what kind of wine can make Minister Feng pay five thousand gold to invite me here.”

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