Chapter 53: 51

The painted boat continued to move forward, stirring the water and Yan Mingting’s heartstrings. He had thought he had a heart like an old dog, accustomed to life and death, and would not easily encounter surprises.

However, the exhaustion and worry of the past few days had disturbed his sleep and appetite, and due to the delay in news, he had fallen into endless loss. But when he heard the other party say these words in person, he seemed to have won a battle he had never fought before, and his heart was so impassioned that it was as if tens of thousands of horses were galloping wildly through it with the drums of war shaking the sky, almost breaking through.

But after all, he was no teenage boy. He suppressed the intensity of his expression, hugged him into his arms, and took a deep breath. Inwardly going wild with unscrupulous laughter, he pretended to be calm and steady and said: “Good, my heart is like yours. Whoever breaks the promise will be the other’s grandson.”

The corners of Zhao Yelan’s mouth twitched slightly. He slowly lowered his eyelashes, looking at those broad shoulders, and a trace of hesitation flashed in his heart –

Would he really not regret this decision?

He had no experience with being close to people, and had never thought that he would spend the rest of his life with someone, let alone an exasperating man.

At this time, he should have gone to the Western Regions, the Southern Border, or Dongpu. The world was so big, and there would always be a place for him. He could escape from the treacherous waves of the court, get rid of the name Zhao Yelan, and simply change his surname. He could wander around, with plentiful money to spend on leisure and wine, wanton and unrestrained until the end of life.

But……on the third day after Yan Mingting left, the day he planned to fake his death, he got up early in the morning and coughed profusely, his face pale. This was just to pave the way for his death due to illness.

He took out the pill and placed it on the table, trying to recall anything he might have missed, as if this could slow down the passage of time. Then he remembered the account books that Yan Mingting gave him before leaving.

In any case, he was not in a hurry, so he took out those account books and handed them to Housekeeper Qin: “Leave these to the accountant, I can’t handle them.”

Housekeeper Qin did not doubt him, but asked him to wait for a moment, as the General had something for him. 

He waited doubtfully for a while, and Housekeeper Qin handed him a letter, saying: “Before the General left, he specifically said that if my lord didn’t want to take care of the accounts and returned the ledgers to me, I should give you this letter.”

Zhao Yelan took the letter in surprise. It was whole and like new, and he opened it curiously as he walked slowly back to the bedroom –

Mengting, in fact, I really don’t want you to read this letter. It means that you’ve made up your mind to leave, doesn’t it? After careful calculation, we have only been together for three or four months, but you have more than twenty years behind you. So if you really want to rid yourself of the past, and I have no grounds to force you to stay, then I wish you all the best for the rest of your life. 

It seems that I really can’t get rid of the name ‘evil star,’ and that all the people I want to cherish will leave me for various reasons. Is there really destiny in this world?

Originally, I wanted to play tricks so that you would covet some of my property and I could keep you, but it seems that this plan has failed. I know you despise what little property I have, but it represents my good intentions. I am not like you, who wants the best and most expensive of everything, and there won’t be any reason for me to spend it in the future, so you should just use it.

Of course, if you want to come back one day, the gate of the General’s Mansion will always be open for you, as well as the back door and the side door. Haha, just kidding.

Zhao Yelan walked to the door of the room, paused in his steps, and held the door frame with one hand, calming down his flustered breathing – it turned out that he had already guessed it.

“My lord, what’s wrong with you?” Gao Tan approached with the medicine bowl in hand, and saw him lean against the door and slide to the ground weakly, not caring if he dirtied his clothes. His hands were trembling, and his eyes were fixed on the letter in his hand.

Zhao Yelan read it again, and then found that there seemed to be some handwriting on the back. He turned it over and found only a short line of words –

I’ll also wait for you, this sentence is not a joke.

“My lord, get up quickly, the ground is dirty and cold.” Xiao Gao hurriedly tugged him up with the other hand, but the other party didn’t move, continuing to sit on the ground with his head drooping heavily.

Xiao Gao had never seen him like this. Even when his enemies attempted to assassinate him before, this person scolded them to their faces. The Emperor even asked him to marry a man, and he accepted these things calmly, always giving Xiao Gao a strong sense of security – even if the sky was falling, Zhao-daren would say it was fine without a change in expression, and then try to mend the hole.

But at this time, Xiao Gao looked at his lost expression and felt that he was very sad for some reason, and that it was not a simple kind of sadness. He couldn’t tell what emotional state he was in, so he went to help his lord again, but he didn’t notice the bowl tilting until the contents poured onto this lord’s clothes.

Xiao Gao’s expression was horrified, as if his life was about to be over. These clothes were precious, and his lord loved cleanliness so much that he would surely be severely punished!

After a long time, Zhao Yelan smelled the scent of medicine on his body and came back to his senses. Raising his head to look at the immobilized Xiao Gao, he said: “What are you doing, why haven’t you poured another bowl?”

“I’ll go right away!” Seeing that he didn’t intend to beat or scold him, Xiao Gao immediately ran to the kitchen to pour another bowl. Carefully returning to the room, he saw that the lord had finally moved his seat from the ground to sit slouched at the threshold, and thought for a moment that he had been possessed by the spirit of the General.

His family’s lord wouldn’t sit like this!

Xiao Gao waited for him to drink the medicine in one gulp, and said with a smile: “My lord drank the medicine obediently today! Great!”

For the past two days, his lord had been refusing to take the medicine, which caused him and Housekeeper Qin a lot of headaches, but he was doing very well today!

On that day, Zhao Yelan threw away all of his plans and couldn’t help but linger on this question at night – would he regret it?

Perhaps he would a long time later, but that was far in the future.

He just felt that if he left now, he would regret it immediately.

The two arms around his back hugged him firmly, wrapped up tight, until he was almost out of breath. Zhao Yelan said: “Let go.”

“I won’t.” Since Yan Mingting understood his intentions, he became a little arrogant and not only did not let go, but even continued to hug him and shook him twice. “Mengting, I missed you so much. Did you miss me too, that’s why you came to see me?”

At this time, the boat stopped abruptly and Li Yucheng’s voice sounded outside: “Brother, are you done yet?”

“Why is he here?” Yan Mingting asked in surprise.

“He found this boat.”

Zhao Yelan pushed him away and ordered the boatman to pull over. There was the sound of footsteps, and Li Yucheng walked in, unsurprised to see Yan Mingting’s figure. He said: “My cousin invited us to drink, will you go?”

“No……why are you two getting involved? Who are you going to drink with again?” Yan Mingting continued to ask.

“Didn’t you tell him about it?” Li Yucheng’s eyes tracked across the two of them, and he said in a hushed voice, “Did you quarrel?”

“You stop talking nonsense,” Yan Mingting said.

Zhao Yelan cleared his throat to interrupt them, and answered Yan Mingting’s question: “I was directed to secretly investigate the false report of the disaster situation by the water reporter.”

“Someone lied about the disaster?”

“En.” Zhao Yelan sat down and said, “I had been skeptical before. I heard Sun Muyun talk about the scene in her Jiangnan hometown, and it was different from the reporter’s account. But the distance between the two places is great, so the rain situation could not be known immediately. It wasn’t until Concubine Xian mentioned the matter to the Emperor that he realized something was wrong.”

Sun Muyun’s appeal to the Emperor about homesickness was normal, after all, she had passionately followed them and introduced herself a few days after she first came to the capital, so Yan Mingting had no doubts. It had never occurred to him that Zhao Yelan secretly notified Sun Muyun about this matter and asked her to bring it up in front of the Emperor.

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Because Yan Mingting promised to help bring the token to her father, Sun Muyun had given Zhao Yelan some pastries as a thank you. It was not something valuable that would cause others to talk, so Zhao Yelan asked the maid to bring her a message.

In the palace, Zhao Xuan heard her inadvertently mention that there had been no rain in the south of the Yangtze River recently, and his face darkened. He didn’t expect that someone would overly interfere with the disaster relief plan, and called Kan Chuan and several other officials into the palace overnight to ask who would be sent to investigate the matter.

This business was a lucrative job. Firstly, the water reporter was a new official position that had just been established, so it was easy to handle. Second, Jiangnan was rich in resources and people, and the allowance to be harvested would fill their purses to bursting, so several courtiers secretly recommended their own people.

Only Kan Chuan remained silent.

Zhao Xuan asked the opinion of the Minister of the Ministry of Officials, and he said: “There are still vacancies in official court positions at this time. Sending people to the south of the Yangtze River would take more than a month at the least, and it is very likely that the affairs of the court would be delayed. If we send important officials to Jiangnan, we will have to find someone to fill the vacancies of those people, but it will be difficult to quickly find the right people to take over. Although if you send someone with a low position and weak ability, they may not be able to handle the officials south of the Yangtze River.”

Zhao Xuan thoroughly took this at face value. He was very strict with the conferring of these official positions now, and leaving any one of them open would affect the whole body. After much deliberation, he actually felt that only Zhao Yelan was the most suitable.

He had no important position in the court and was capable, and the officials in Jiangnan had hardly seen him in person.

In this way, on the fifth day after Yan Mingting left, Zhao Yelan set off for Jiangnan.

Yan Mingting had no objection, but was only curious: “Why did you bring Li Yucheng along?”

With a swish, Li Yucheng opened his fan smartly, waving it pretentiously: “Don’t look down on me, ba, who am I? I am the number one dandy in Beijing, ah!”

“You’re quite proud.” Yan Mingting snorted.

“I don’t know much about the situation in Jiangnan, and my investigation is secret, so I temporarily cannot reveal my identity. And his mother’s Cheng family are merchants in Jiangnan. He would come here for a period of time every year to have fun, so it is perfect to have him as a guide and middleman,” Zhao Yelan said.

Li Yucheng proudly nodded his head.

“Since you are secretly investigating, why are you acting so high-profile?” Yan Mingting pointed to the exterior of the boat and the many people standing on the bridge and by the waterside, whispering over this richly and luxuriously painted boat.

“It is easy to spot those who have been sent, and most of the relevant personnel are already prepared to deal with people from the Imperial court, so they will scrutinize people who enter the city in a low-key manner. Now I’m just a dandy who came to play with Li Yucheng. Fu Qian, the most beautiful man in the capital, and the Cheng family vouched for me, so no one came to investigate me. When they find something suspicious, they will send someone to the capital to look into it, and the round-trip time is enough for me to complete my investigation.”

Yan Mingting, hearing “Fu Qian, the most beautiful man in the capital,” twitched the corners of his lips.

This Fu Qian was really shameless, who gave him such a title!

“Exactly!” When Li Yucheng thought that he was here to accompany Zhao Yelan on business, he raised his chin higher than the others with an inexplicable sense of responsibility and pride. He was determined to do well so that his father could feel relieved.

He proudly said: “Don’t worry, Zhao-xiong and I went to the biggest restaurant to drink as soon as we entered the city today. He is used to eating well and is very stylish, and he invited several female pipa players to play. We went to the best brothel, and now many people believe that Zhao-xiong and I are the same.”

“What? You went to a brothel again?!” Yan Mingting gave Zhao Yelan a fierce look, and immediately transferred his anger to Li Yucheng.”

“No, no, nothing happened, he was in charge of eating and drinking and I was in charge of whoring and gambling!” Li Yucheng quickly explained. “Actually, we did nothing! This young master is just playing around!”

“Stop talking nonsense. Throw Li Yucheng to the shore,” Zhao Yelan said.

“ ? ” Li Yucheng didn’t expect him to cross the river and destroy the bridge[1] so quickly!

When Yan Mingting heard this, he really didn’t hesitate at all. He carried him out of the boat and threw him to the shore.

“Aiyo, I’m going! Yan Mingting, are you still human?! This young master’s ass is about to fall apart” Li Yucheng cursed, and the people watching the excitement all around burst into laughter.

As soon as Yan Mingting entered the cabin, he heard Zhao Yelan say reluctantly: “Now, throw me out too.”

Yan Mingting was taken aback for a moment, and immediately guessed his intention.

There were many people standing by the lake, and his identity as a general was directly revealed. If those officials knew that he had chatted with the people on this boat for so long, they would definitely be suspicious.

They would create a scene where he was entangled by two dandies and righteously taught them a lesson.

“Then you get ready, ah,” When Yan Mingting grabbed his belt and led him out, he asked in a whisper, “Where are you staying? With the Cheng family?”

“The biggest inn in the city,” Zhao Yelan said.

“Good fellow, I said I wouldn’t drink, so you had to force it!” Yan Mingting walked out of the cabin, reprimanded and glared at him, and then, under the eyes of all those watching the show, held his waist with both hands and lifted the person safely onto the shore.

“ ? ” Li Yucheng rubbed his bottom and cursed in his heart: you treated him differently!

“Old bastard, let go of my brother! Just wait, us brothers will settle accounts with you sooner or later!” Li Yucheng led Zhao Yelan towards the inn while cursing and waving his sleeves. “Go, go, go, what are you looking at, scram!”

Yan Mingting returned to the inn and studied map routes until late at night, when he heard the voices of two drunks. After closing the map and listening intently to their movements, he heard the two walk to the two most expensive rooms upstairs, one of which was directly above his own.

The inn was already closed at this time, and the waiter yawned as he locked the door, not noticing the dark shadow that flashed by on the second floor.

Yan Mingting knocked softly on the door.

“Who is it?” Zhao Yelan didn’t lift his head when he heard the sound, still sorting out the list of Jiangnan officials.

“I’m looking for Mengting.”

“There is no such Mengting here, just Fu Qian, the most beautiful man in the capital.”

“……” Yan Mingting choked for a long time before enduring the discomfort and saying, “Then I’m looking for Fu Qian.”

“Come in, ba.”

Yan Mingting quickly pushed open the door and entered, thinking to himself, what is this, ah? It’s nothing more than sneaking around like having an affair, an affair with “Fu Qian!”

When he returned to Beijing, he would definitely beat up Fu Qian!

[1] To cross the river and destroy the bridge (过河拆桥得) is to abandon one’s benefactor upon achieving one’s goal. ⮐

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