Chapter 89 Part 1

 

The noisy day gradually passed.

It was getting dark.

General Xuanwei Li Dalu rushed to the front gate of his residence and saw two teams of palace servants holding lanterns and escorting a beautiful woman standing outside the gate. He rushed forward, called out to the princess, and performed the etiquette of greeting: “It is this minister’s fault for keeping the princess waiting for so long!”

“I heard that Shizi had an accident while practicing this morning and injured his arm. I brought Imperial Physician to see him.”

Li Dalu hurriedly bowed again and said, “How dare troubling Princess to come here in person? Old Father Zhao has come here during the day, bestowed His Majesty’s rewards, brought good medicine from the palace, and conveyed His Majesty’s condolences. Shizi and this minister are already very grateful. He is much better now, and we dare not trouble the princess further.”

Xuyu looked inside and smiled, “It’s fine, just lead me there.”

In the morning, his nephew suddenly injured himself and then withdrew from the grand archery ceremony. He casually bandaged his arm wound and stayed inside his room. No matter how Li Dalu questioned him through the door, he remained silent. Even in the evening, when Zhao Zhongfang, who was the emperor’s close person, came with the imperial edict of reward, he did not come out. Li Dalu could only accept the reward on his behalf on the grounds that he was injured and had gone to sleep. Fortunately, Zhao Zhongfang seemed quite generous. Not only did he not blame him, but he asked Li Dalu to take good care of Shizi and then left.

Li Dalu had been working in Yizhou in recent years, and he was not aware of the fact that Ye Zhongli and his grandson were once staying in County Prince Mansion, and he did not know that the young painter named Ye was the current princess. But he heard from his subordinates that Shizi and the princess had been in contact while in Chang’an and seemed to be very familiar with each other.

Although he still didn’t understand why his nephew had injured himself without warning this morning and withdraw from the grand archery ceremony, he could sense that something was not right. Fearing that his nephew might have committed some reckless offense, and even more afraid that he would say something wrong, he didn’t want the princess to visit his nephew. But seeing her determined demeanor left him with no choice. Resigned, he led her inside to the residence. He saw that the doors and windows were all closed and it was pitch black. He questioned the maids waiting by the corridor, who informed him that there had been no movement inside for some time. They had knocked earlier, concerned he might be hungry, but there had been no response.

Li Dalu asked the princess to wait for a moment, and he went up the steps to knock on the door. He knocked several times, but there was no sound from inside the house. He then tried to push the door, but it was bolted. While hesitating, he suddenly heard the princess say behind him, “Go in and take a look!”

Li Dalu no longer hesitated, and complied, then forced the door open with his shoulder. The maid lit a lamp to illuminate the room while Li Dalu went inside. He saw the bedclothes were in disarray, and there were wound medicines and a few blood-stained bandages on the table, but his nephew was nowhere to be found.

“The back window is open!” Suddenly the maid’s voice came out.

Xuyu had also entered. Following the sound, she saw that, just as the maid had said, a window at the back of the bedroom was half open.

Obviously, Yuwen Zhi went out from here.

This place was built on the mountain, and it was one of the palaces attached to Cangshan Mountain. Behind the window was a forested area with lush vegetation, and there was no road in the middle. It was the middle of the night, and there was no light around. It was unknown where Yuwen Zhi had gone.

The deceased County Princess Consort was Li Dalu’s biological sister, and the siblings had a deep relationship. Now that County Princess Consort was gone, he naturally wanted to help his only remaining nephew. Thinking of his nephew’s strange behavior today and not knowing where he was now, he couldn’t help but get anxious. He apologized to Xuyu and hurriedly asked people to look for him. Soon they searched the area around his residence, and dozens of people entered the forest with fire sticks, but to no avail.

Li Dalu had initially been reluctant to escalate the matter, worried it might cause undesirable repercussions. However, since he couldn’t find the person, he could no longer afford such concerns. When he heard Xuyu suggest to send people to look for him immediately, he agreed.

Xuyu was giving instructions to the people she was traveling with when suddenly someone behind her shouted, “There’s someone on the roof of the palace!”

She turned and looked.

Under the deep blue sky, a huge half-moon with a faint golden glow had just climbed to the top of Cangshan. From afar, it seems to be quietly hanging behind the roof of the tallest palace in this annex.

A figure was leaning against the base of a gargoyle perched at the far end of the palace roof, towering above head height.

Perhaps startled awake by the commotion below, the man grasped the gargoyle and slowly stood up. As he emerged from the shadow cast by the mythical beast, his face became visible under the pale golden glow of the moonlight—ghastly pale, with unfocused and erratic eyes.

He began to walk, staggering along the edge of the palace roof. His steps were unsteady, as if intoxicated, treading on clouds, teetering dangerously close to losing his balance at any moment.

“Shizi!”

Li Dalu shouted in surprise, turned around and rushed over.

A silver-engraved wine flask rolled down the slope of the roof. The man’s boot slipped and kicked off a few glazed tiles. The tiles fell to the ground with a crash and broke into pieces. His body suddenly lost balance in the air, swaying like a scarecrow in a strong wind.

“Shizi, don’t move! Stop! Stop!”

Li Daluo rushed to the base of the building, shouting urgently while calling for a ladder to be fetched.

Xuyu was frightened and ran quickly to the front of the high palace.

“Shizi! Stop!” she shouted.

Yuwen Zhi seemed to recognize her voice amidst the noise. Slowly, he stopped, lowered his head, looked at her infatuatedly for a moment, and suddenly, he jumped.

Amid the continuous exclamations from the surroundings, his body floated high in the air like a kite, and flew towards an old locust tree with a huge umbrella-shaped canopy growing next to the palace. Then, like a stone dropped into the water, he disappeared without a trace.

Xuyu ran to the locust tree, and looked up with Li Dalu and the others. The locust tree was hundreds of years old, with twisted branches crisscrossing and dense like a giant net. In addition, it was dark, so no trace of the person could be seen. Li Dalu called his men to climb the tree to look for him.

At this moment, Xuyu heard a slight rustling sound above her head, and a black shadow suddenly hung down from the branches above, with a face hanging upside down and falling in front of Xuyu.

Xuyu looked at the pair of eyes hanging upside down in the air for a moment and said, “Come down!”

Yuwen Zhi somersaulted, fell from the tree and stopped in front of her.

“What are you doing here?”

He brushed off the few locust leaves that were stuck to his body and said coldly.

“I just felt too stuffy in the room, so I went out to the roof to take a nap. Do you think I would do something so desperate as taking my own life?”

As he said this, he twisted his lips and showed a sarcastic look on his face.

Li Dalu was so frightened when he heard this. He was about to go up to smooth things over when he suddenly heard the princess say, “All of you, retreat.”

Li Dalu hesitated for a moment. Although he was unwilling, he did not dare to disobey the order and could only lead his men to retreat.

“How is your injury?” Xuyu asked.

“I won’t die!” he replied, then showed impatience.

“I did what you told me to do. Why are you still coming to me? I’m fine! Very good! You don’t need to care—”

He burped, looked disgusted, and then took a step back.

“I’m going back to my room to sleep. Princess, please do as you please.”

He turned around and left.

“Shizi!”

Xuyu called him and walked in front of him.

“Is there something happened on your side?” she asked.

Yuwen Zhi paused, then quickly turned his head and looked at the old locust tree behind him: “What can happen to me here?”

“Today you helped me as I asked. I also heard the reason why you withdrew from the competition…”

Her eyes flickered over his injured arm.

“I am very grateful and also quite sorry. Whether you are willing to listen or not, thanking you is what I should do. However,” she paused, “this is not the main reason why I came to see you.

“Shizi, if you really agree to my request and are willing to withdraw, there are many other ways you can do this. Why do you such thing to yourself?”

Yuwen Zhi stared at the trunk of the locust tree for a moment, then slowly turned his face towards her and said in a stiff voice: “Princess, you are probably overthinking it. I am willing to get stab, and I am the one who was stabbing myself! I have withdrawn, and you have got what you wanted. Isn’t that great?”

Xuyu was silent for a moment, then spoke again: “I never expected you to get hurt like this, so you should blame me. In addition to coming to see you tonight, I have something else I want to tell you.

“In the future, whether you are in Chang’an or going back to Jiannan Road, I still say the same thing, we become friend through conflict, you are now very different from the boy I first met.”

She turned around and looked around at the Cangshan Mountains under the night sky and the bright lights shining from the palaces dotted among them.

“Shizi, look, it’s so beautiful.”

Yuwen Zhi followed her gaze.

“I will remember your kindness to me, and I hope you will not forget the peace and happiness that the trip to Chang’an has brought you.”

She withdrew her gaze and looked at Yuwen Zhi’s face again.

“I am a little older than you. If you encounter something that you cannot solve in the future and you trust me and are willing to let me know, feel free to come and find me.

“I’m leaving.”

She smiled and nodded gently at Yuwen Zhi who was still staring at her in astonishment, then turned and left. When she reached a nearby corner gate, her steps slowed down.

Li Dalu, who was hiding behind, couldn’t help but become nervous. He immediately held his breath and didn’t dare to move.

Xuyu’s eyes briefly swept past the corner gate, and then she continued walking, gradually fading into the distance.

On that night in Cangshan, some people were left disheartened, naturally, there were also those who became the most triumphant person in the world.

The most triumphant person was none other than Pei Xiaoyuan. At such a young age, he had entered court as an official, earned the favor of the emperor, and today had risen to become an honored son-in-law of the imperial family, betrothed to a noble princess. From the Crown Prince to Prince Kang, those coming to congratulate him nearly wore out the threshold of his residence. Fortunately, Cui Daosi and Han Kerang stepped in to help with the hosting duties, and it was only by nightfall that his place finally began to quiet down.

Qingtou was so happy that he almost lost his mind, and felt that he was the biggest contributor to this good thing. If he hadn’t run back and forth desperately, delivered the message in time, and kept urging, who knows what the final result would be?

The only regret was that he couldn’t publicize his great contribution to everyone, and he certainly couldn’t even mention it to the princess.

He was not stupid, so how could he dare to let others know that originally his master had no intention of going to compete. It was a pity that he could not take credit.

However, as long as the result was gratifying, it was completely worth it for him to be an unknown person.

Finally, when there was no one around, he circled around Pei Xiaoyuan, asking when the wedding would take place, and after the wedding, whether prince consort would live with the princess in the princess mansion, or the princess would go back to Yongning Mansion with his master. Then he said that after the news was sent to the Eastern Capital, He shi should also come to Chang’an.

He chattered on incessantly, spilling out all the words he had bottled up throughout the day, not pausing for even a moment. Yet, he noticed that his master, seated by the lamp, was staring at the flame with distant eyes. It was unclear what he was thinking, as his face showed no signs of excitement, nor did he respond to the rambling.

However, Qingtou had long been accustomed to this. His master was simply unlike anyone else. If he rolled over with excitement like others, he would not be his family’s master.

What’s more, during the day, the man was full of smiles and treated everyone who came to congratulate him with courtesy, no one could find fault at all.

Maybe he was just tired.

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