Chapter 3
Volume 1 – Chapter 3 (Part 1)
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Li Wei felt helpless, and she could only follow the Fourth Prince out of the pavilion.
Rong Jing? Qingran? In her mind, she repeated the two names twice that she just heard. As a newcomer, the two names was what she heard most except for the two words “His Highness”. It seemed that these two people were the focus of the gathering. As long as she behaved cautiously and didn’t make big mistakes, perhaps no one would find that she was not the original person.
After making the decision, Li Yun calmed her originally nervous and stressed mind down a little.
After a few steps, the Four Prince turned his head and glanced at Li Yun. Seeing that Li Yun didn’t oppose him to hold her hand anymore, he quirked up the corners of his mouth. There was something flashing through his phoenix eyes, and then his smile seemed brighter than before.
With the vigilance that she’d developed in her previous life, Li Yun didn’t change her expression when she found the smile of the Fourth Prince. Was he a good or bad person? Actions speak louder. Today although it was dangerous to go to the viewing garden without any solid information and preparation, it was a good opportunity to understand her situation quickly.
“If the servant acts disobediently, just kill her. Why do you keep her around to make you annoyed?” The Fourth Prince walked to the maidservant and had a look at her bloody face and forehead, then looked away in disgust.
Hearing these words, the maid kneeled on the ground again, trembling with a pale face, but didn’t beg for mercy.
Li Yun also glanced at the girl, who seemed like the intimate maid of the original body. If not, why was there just the girl around when she woke up? Now that as her maid, the girl would surely know Yun Qianyue well. Even if Li Yun acted differently in one small aspect, the girl would surely find out. The consequence was unbearable…
If the girl was dead, there would be less dangerous…
Li Wei stared at the girl kneeling on the ground, whose thin and weak figure was shrouded with the fear of death. Where were the girl’s freshness and vigor when Li Yun just woke up? She was only twelve or three years old, the bloom of youth. Li Yun looked away and said casually, “She does a good job when serving me, keep her!”
The girl didn’t expect that Li Yun would spare her, and she suddenly looked up and stared at Li Yun incredulously, with her dim eyes exposing a glimmer of light.
“She’s just an inferior servant, why insist on her serving? I can choose eight or ten good servants from my household for you, who will definitely obey you. It’s better to have servants that can keep their mouth shut, or you could get into trouble.” The Fourth Prince also suggested with a casual tone.
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Li Yun heard his words and thought that he had already come early and been hiding behind the rockery. Otherwise, why would he say that the servant’s words would get her into trouble? Obviously, he had heard all that the servant girl said. A menial servant girl dared to gossip His Highness, it would definitely bring Li Yun trouble.
The girl was suddenly frightened to lower her head and kept kowtowing, daring not to look up.
“Enough, stop now. If your appearance is marred, how can I take you out to visit others? Get up! Find a place to bandage and go back to the viewing garden to find me.” Li Yun ignored the Fourth Prince’s words and waved her hand. She spared the girl’s life and hoped that the girl would be grateful to her, even if the maid found out that she was not the original Miss, the maid could help her or wouldn’t reveal her true identity at least.
“Thank you Miss for sparing me this time, I will never do that again.” Although the maid stopped kowtowing, she still didn’t dare to get up immediately, apparently, she was afraid of the Fourth Prince.
“When does sister Yue become so benevolent? The servants around you have been changed several times, why be partial to her?” The Fourth Prince stopped and turned to look at Li Yun with a look of inquiry.
“Why are you so verbose and keep annoying me? She’s just a servant of mine, I can dispose with her at my will, so to kill her or not is none of your business. Anyway, will you go to the viewing garden or not? If you don’t go, I will go back home, in case my servant becomes your eyesore.” Li Yun seized the opportunity and roared impatiently at the Fourth Prince.
Li Yun was a smart person. From the words of this maid and the Fourth Prince, she guessed that the body she was in seemed to be very arrogant who seldom looked up at others and was rarely bullied by others, otherwise the maid would not get so angry after she was pushed by someone. What’s more, the Fourth Prince, for whatever purpose, also kept saying no one dared to bully her. Therefore, she roared at the prince and tried to observe his reaction.
“I just thought you’ve changed your nature! You are still so capricious. Well, I don’t care. It’s just a servant. Do you think I’d like to focus on these trifles? I’m just afraid that you would be implicated because of this maid.” The Fourth Prince didn’t care about Li Yun’s roar, and the smile on his face was brighter. He seemed to be accustomed to her attitude, thinking that it was abnormal for her to be quiet and depressed.
“Why was he so happy even though I scolded him? Strange!” thought Li Yun. At the same time when hearing the man’s words, she was relieved and it seemed that what she thought was right. She glanced at the maid, the latter stood up immediately and respectfully let the two passed.
The Fourth Prince didn’t speak anymore. He pulled Li Yun and bypassed the rockery slowly. There were several crisscrossing jade pavements in front of him. He took Li Yun to the rightmost path.
Li Yun didn’t want to expose her identity, so she didn’t speak. She squinted her face and pretended to be irritated. Since the man thought her capricious behavior was normal, she just kept it.
The two walked for a while, and an old woman dressed in a maid costume hurried from the opposite side. Seeing Li Yun, the old woman became happy. But when she noticed that the man who walked together with Li Yun was the Fourth Prince, she was somewhat stunned. But soon she controlled her mood swings and came over to salute the two people, “The Fourth Prince and Miss Qianyue, Her Majesty noticed that Miss Qianyue has not yet arrived at the viewing garden, so she ordered me to come over to pick Miss Qianyue up.”
Li Yun was a smart person. From the words of this maid and the Fourth Prince, she guessed that the body she was in seemed to be very arrogant who seldom looked up at others and was rarely bullied by others, otherwise the maid would not get so angry after she was pushed by someone. What’s more, the Fourth Prince, for whatever purpose, also kept saying no one dared to bully her. Therefore, she roared at the prince and tried to observe his reaction.
“I just thought you’ve changed your nature! You are still so capricious. Well, I don’t care. It’s just a servant. Do you think I’d like to focus on these trifles? I’m just afraid that you would be implicated because of this maid.” The Fourth Prince didn’t care about Li Yun’s roar, and the smile on his face was brighter. He seemed to be accustomed to her attitude, thinking that it was abnormal for her to be quiet and depressed.
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“Why was he so happy even though I scolded him? Strange!” thought Li Yun. At the same time when hearing the man’s words, she was relieved and it seemed that what she thought was right. She glanced at the maid, the latter stood up immediately and respectfully let the two passed.
The Fourth Prince didn’t speak anymore. He pulled Li Yun and bypassed the rockery slowly. There were several crisscrossing jade pavements in front of him. He took Li Yun to the rightmost path.
Li Yun didn’t want to expose her identity, so she didn’t speak. She squinted her face and pretended to be irritated. Since the man thought her capricious behavior was normal, she just kept it.
The two walked for a while, and an old woman dressed in a maid costume hurried from the opposite side. Seeing Li Yun, the old woman became happy. But when she noticed that the man who walked together with Li Yun was the Fourth Prince, she was somewhat stunned. But soon she controlled her mood swings and came over to salute the two people, “The Fourth Prince and Miss Qianyue, Her Majesty noticed that Miss Qianyue has not yet arrived at the viewing garden, so she ordered me to come over to pick Miss Qianyue up.”
Sweet Bun – wangmamaread
Li Yun didn’t know how to respond, so she kept silent.
The Fourth Prince wore a kindly smile and said, “It seems that muhou* likes her niece Qianyue more than her son, as muhou should order granny Sun to look for sister Yue. Does she notice I am not there, too? Why didn’t she send someone to come for me?”
“What the Fourth Prince Highness say isn’t right. Her Majesty had sent someone to look for you earlier, but no one found you. Her Majesty heard that Miss Qianyue had already entered the palace but didn’t appear in the viewing garden, so Her Majesty sent me to find her in case she would get into trouble.” Neither humble nor pushy, granny Sun stood up and said.
“So this is, it is my fault to misunderstand muhou. I just came across sister Yue and we’ll go to the viewing garden together. You can return first and inform muhou.” The Fourth Prince told granny Sun.
“Yes!” Granny Sun had another look at Li Yun, then she turned back and walked quickly along the same way she came.
While the Fourth Prince didn’t seem to worry about being late, he still grabbed Li Yun and walked leisurely.
Li Yun analyzed the information she received just now – the original body’s identity was the niece of Her Majesty. Considering granny Sun’s expression, Li Yun tried to pull her hand out of the Fourth Prince with great force. But the Fourth Prince grabbed her hand more tightly and didn’t let her go. Li Yun glared at him but the latter ignored her anger. She had to give up, anyway, others had seen their intimacy, so it was late to remedy.
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After they passed through two corridors, gradually, there were more eunuchs and maid-servants who were walking around with fruits and water. When these servants saw their hands held together, all of them paid respects with astonished expressions.
Li Yun didn’t have time to care about their strange eyes, she put mind on the environment around. Not far away from her, there was a green lake, which was twice bigger than that she had seen when she woke up. Compared with this one, that was just a pond.
In the long distance, Li Yun saw many pavilions located in the center of the lake, which was surrounded by red flowers and green leaves. Inside these pavilions, there were dozens of men and women in colorful clothes, standing or sitting. She couldn’t see their appearances clearly, but all of them were well-dressed. That was the gathering of appreciating poems in the viewing garden they referred to, she thought.
When she was looking around, the Fourth Prince suddenly reached an arm around her waist. Before Li Yun could realize, she, together with the Fourth Prince, had flown up. He didn’t step on that jade bridge, instead, he skimmed over the lake like a dragonfly and flew toward the viewing platform, causing countless ripples on the surface of the lake.
Li Yun was suddenly shocked and there was no time for her to react before landing on the ground. The glamorous scene was close to her eyes. She was dazzled and couldn’t help but close her eyes then opened in an instant. No need to look back at the lake that they had just crossed, she could clearly know it was the legendary qinggong* – crossing the water without leaving any trails. It turned out that there was indeed such kung fu in the world…
She calmed down and glared at the Fourth Prince, “Why not remind me first?! Do you want to scare me to death?”
The Fourth Prince smiled mischievously, and his look was full of pride, “How can I scare sister Yue? Your qinggong is not worse than mine! It’s just the first movement of crossing the water that I’ve learned recently, I want to share it with you.”
Li Yun heard that she would actually master qinggong, she couldn’t help but feel happy in her mind, but she remained unchanged in her expression and snorted, “Who knows how you will make fun of me.”
“You really get me wrong, how dare I make fun of sister Yue.” The Fourth Prince immediately begged for her mercy, without loosening the hand around Li Yun’s waist. It was such an intimate action, but he did it naturally.
Li Yun frowned slightly. She had already felt that dozens of eyes fell on her and the Fourth Prince, so she tried to remain calm and didn’t have more actions while showing her anger more and more obvious. Yun Qianyue was an unmarried virgin, according to the manners in ancient times, it was not appropriate for her to interact intimately with a man, especially in the presence of so many people. The Fourth Prince naturally knew this, but he still didn’t let her go, then he must get some intentions, what would they be?
Sure enough, after the Fourth Prince finished, a slight cough came from the seat of honor, followed by a gentle female voice blaming the Fourth Prince, “Yu’er, why you get so naughty now? Let go your sister Yue, you’ve scared her.”
“Muhou, you know that sister Yue’s courage could enshroud the sky, who can scare her? You are simply partial to her, but blame your son.” The Fourth Prince joked and slowly released Li Yun’s hand and waist. Then he took a meaningful look at the bright yellow figure sitting on the left side of the empress, continued, “But today, sister Yue is really frightened! I have never seen she being bullied and becoming so sad that dared not to come to the viewing garden but hid in the small pavilion above the mandarin duck pond…”
Li Yun’s mood swang and she followed the gaze of the Fourth Prince.
Then she saw a young man in his twenties sitting in the left of the empress; except for the queen’s red dress, that bright yellow costume was the most eye-catching one. After only a glance, she looked away, thinking he must be “His Highness” that she had listened numerous times today.
Translator’s notes:
1. muhou* (母后): a. The term of address for the empress dowager used by the emperor or his siblings: mother; b. the term of address for the empress used by children of the emperor: mother. See also: fuwang (父王)
muhou in red
2. qingong*: A technique in Chinese martial arts, The practitioner runs up a plank supported against a wall. The gradient of the plank is increased gradually over time as the training progresses.
The use of qinggong has been exaggerated in wuxia fiction, in which martial artists have the ability to move swiftly and lightly at superhuman speed, and perform gravity-defying moves such as gliding on water surfaces, scaling high walls and mounting trees.
Shaolin disciple
Exaggerated qinggong in wuxia fiction