Chapter 69: The Great FengShan Feast – Part 3

Noticing Ming ChangYan’s ghostly expression, Liu Kuang decided to simply drop the questions and diverged the topic, “Why did you come to Egret Academy? Were you worried I couldn’t take care of Su He?”

Coming back to his senses and too lazy to retort Liu Kuang, Ming ChangYan pulled out a stool and sat in front of Zhao XiaoLan.

Zhao XiaoLan was so dizzy from copying textbooks that his vision grew dim and was on the verge of fainting on the spot. The moment he looked up and noticed Ming ChangYan, his eyes immediately began to fill with tears.

“Yan-jiejie….”

Ming ChangYan stretched out his hand, “Stop it. There’s no use in trying to kiss up to me. It’s your Huai Yu-gege who won’t let you leave and your Teacher Liu who’s making your copy textbooks, it has nothing to do with me anyway.”

He quickly swept away all the relationship they had beforehand, but seeing Zhao XiaoLan looking almost at the verge of tears, he mercifully said, “However, I’m very good to you. Remember to repay me in the future, got it?”

Zhao XiaoLan looked at him suspiciously.

Ming ChangYan rubbed his nose and grinned, “Since you’re so rich, you can just give me some sort of gold or jewelry! Here, don’t say I don’t treat you well.”

He fished out a few signatures from his bosom.

As soon as the paper with black ink was taken out, Zhao XiaoLan’s eyes grew wider and wider with each move of Ming ChangYan’s hand.

“This, this…..”

Ming ChangYan smiled, “Look, the Noble Gentleman’s signature! How about it?”

Zhao XiaoLan picked up the paper and inspected it back and forth several times, blushing with excitement.

Liu Kuang couldn’t look on any further, using his teacup to cover his face as he sighed: Shameful! 

Zhao XiaoLan clenched tightly to the signature and stammered out, “Yan, Yan, Yan-jiejie wuwuwuwuwu…..”

Ming ChangYan rushed up to wipe face, “Ey ey ey, don’t cry! Okay okay, I know you’re very excited!”

Zhao XiaoLan rubbed at his face, Ming ChangYan sighed, “I gave you this signature so that you can faithfully focus on your studies.”

Zhao XiaoLan stared at him for a moment when Ming ChangYan said, “Look, don’t you want to become number one in the world? If you want to be number one in the world, you must first read more books and practice more martial arts. You’re either hanging out with Zhu Rong or making your way to the Hundred Flower Abyss. What kind of number one in the world acts the way you do?”

Ming ChangYan landed a direct hit on Zhao XiaoLan’s sensitive spot, causing him to stammer out, “I, I’ll work hard…..”

His voice was as low as a mosquito’s hum.

Ming ChangYan was earnest and good at inducement, “So you should behave and stay at Egret Academy, don’t go anywhere you hear me? I already gave you something so precious so will you listen to me?”

Zhao XiaoLan furiously nodded his head.

Ming ChangYan, “Then great! Ming ChangYan has already been dead for three years, it’s extremely difficult to get a previous signature of his. Although I am Ming ChangYan’s distant relative, it still took a lot of effort to get my hands on these! I bet if you asked Xiu LingLong, even she wouldn’t be able to get her hands on this many!”

Liu Kuang couldn’t watch on any longer, cutting in, “You better let him quietly copy down his textbooks.”

Ming ChangYan made the long story short, handing Zhao XiaoLan a bamboo whistle and saying, “This is from your Huai Yu-gege. If you’re in danger, blow on it, if we’re nearby we’ll come and save you.”

After instructing Zhao XiaoLan, he promptly left Egret Academy.

When he left, he hot potato-ed the longyang* book to Liu Kuang.

(TN: 龙阳; used to describe a bl/gay novel)

Yongxian Palace’s Aunt LingZhi came forward to welcome, “Young Prime Minister, this way please, the empress has been waiting.”

Huai Yu nodded and approached the main gate of Yongxian Palace. The empress the palace maids in the main hall and hurried down.

“Young Prime Minister!”

Huai Yu, “Don’t rush, please sit first.”

The empress sat beside him and ordered Aunt LingZhi to bring out a few plates of dessert from the kitchen. Vibrant in color and moist, it was clear they were all elaborately made, “Have you eaten yet? Eat something to fill your stomach first.”

Huai Yu glanced at the table and slowly picked up a piece to eat.

Seeing this, the empress was relieved.

She immediately said, “I reckon Aunt LingZhi has already informed you?”

Huai Yu nodded.

The empress sighed, “It’s my fault, I was too negligent. For something so important, I…….”

HuaiYu bowed his head slightly and said, “Don’t worry. That immortal grass was a fake.”

The empress was taken back.

Huai Yu, “I came here today for the purpose of telling you this.”

The unease in the empress’ eyes finally died down and she asked, “……That’s good, and that friend of yours?”

After a pause, Huai Yu answered, “Tolertable. You don’t have to worry about him.”

The empress said, “I’ve been having troubling eating and sleeping recently, I’ve been afraid that I had just lost something important to you and brought you unnecessary trouble.”

“No worries.”

After a moment of silence the empress said, “These days…..he keeps thinking about things of the past. If you have nothing important to do, it’s best if you stop appearing in front of him. Since Chang Xu’s back now, you can stop worrying about other things just leave everything to Chang Xu. And try not to show up in the palace. Yun Qing, do you understand?”

Aunt LingZhi went, “I once heard that when someone begins to recall past events, it means that their time has come. Your majesty, this is good, you don’t have to keep looking after him.”

The empress kneaded the space between her eyebrows. She looked up and asked, “I want to know, what’s the relationship between you and that Yan-shaoshi from the Listening Lotus Building? Can you tell me about him?”

Huai Yu was slightly taken back and truthfully replied, “Qin Zhen’s son.”

The empress slightly loosened her grip, from outside the window came the voice of an eunuch, “Your majesty, his majesty the emperor is here!”

The empress, “LingZhi, go bring in the medicine, this empress will persuade him to drink it.”

LingZhi let out a sound of agreement and slowly withdrew.

The empress stated, “Young Prime Minister take care, this empress won’t be sending you off.”

At this time, the emperor pushed open the door and came in, “Yi Chan, my head hurts, have you prepared the medicine? Nothing else works, your’s is the only one effective.”

Huai Yu got up and bowed his head to the emperor in greeting. The emperor asked, “Why is Yun Qing here?

The empress restrained her smile and mildly said, “I had a headache.”

The emperor worried, “Why is this illness of yours still not cured? The trash from the royal infirmary don’t know what they’re doing, they can’t even resolve such a minor illness. If anything were to happen to you, I’d have all their heads in an instant!”

He indicated for Huai Yu to withdraw. Huai Yu glanced at the empress before departing.

Aunt LingZhi came in with the medicine, the empress took the medicine bowl and murmured, “Come sit. I’ll feed you the medicine.”

Within the Hundred Flower Abyss, a visitor arrived unsolicited.

Li Li who was watering flowers paused, turning around and beaming before getting greatly disappointed, “So it was you.”

The visitor said, “What, seeing that it was me, is the young lady disappointed?”

Li Li immediately lost interest in watering the flowers, she didn’t even bother with her posture and the smile on her face completely disappeared. She lazily laid back on the chaise lounge as if she was boneless.

“What does my disappointment have anything to do with you?”

The visitor exclaimed, “Of course it has nothing to do with me. It’s just that I noticed you were posing beside the window for half a day, and the ‘you’ that you wanted him to see was accidentally seen by me, I just felt a little guilty.”

Li Li chuckled and said, “I didn’t expect you would take the initiative to come to such a place.”

She straightened up and continued, “I’ve made all the preparations for you. Where’s the thing that you promised me?”

The visitor stated, “After things have settled, someone will drop it off.”

Li Li’s complexion went cold, “What you want to do has nothing to do with me, but remember this clearly. He sees you as nothing more than a dog and a dog only needs to listen to its master. If you do something superfluous, you’re already aware of the consequences.”

The visitor laughed, “If I’m his dog, then what are you? Hypocritical, you and I are one of the same.”

Li Li sneered, “Remember your position, it would take no effort at all for me to kill you.”

The visitor cupped their hands together and withdrew.

Xiao Yu humphed, “And here I thought it was Young Master Zhao.”

She took the watering can Li Li had set down earlier and complained indignantly, “Seriously, that Young Master Zhao himself was the one who promised to play with my lady, and after so many days he didn’t come see my lady even once!”

Li Li played with the flower in her hand and blew at it, “If he doesn’t come, then he doesn’t come. I’m used to being alone, it’s not like I’ll be latching onto some person’s simple favor towards me.”

Xiao Yu went, “My lady, I know that you treat Zhao XiaoLan differently from the others, so I’m angry on your behalf! If it had been someone else, I wouldn’t have even batted an eye.”

Li Li muttered to herself then chuckled, “How do I treat him differently? How come I didn’t know?”

Xiao Yu glanced at the bracelet on her pale wrist and said nothing.

After a quarter of an hour, Xiao Yu arranged all the flowers in order but couldn’t help whispering in a stern voice, “It was too close that night at Huating, how could they have coincidentally tore off the white muslin like that? Zhao Lan and Yun Qing were close by too. He hasn’t come by these past few days, do you think they found out about you?”

Li Li indifferently replied, “Found out what about me?”

Xiao Yu didn’t mention by name, but said, “‘Master’ has never mentioned when Ming ChangYan got involved with Yun Qing, now that Zhao XiaoLan is in relation with him, how do we maintain our personal integrity?”

Li Li said, “When have I cared about my own integrity? There are tens upon thousands of mishaps in this world, don’t tell me he’s omnipotent and can foresee them all? But, I reckon, Young Master ChangYan must be very angry.”

She let out a puff of laughter, “It’s been a while since I’ve seen him angry.”

Xiao Yu grumbled, “My lady, don’t be so simple-minded. If you can’t deal with Yun Qing, I’m reporting this to ‘Master.’”

Li Li’s face shrank, “What’s there to be said about such trivial matters? I can settle it myself. The Great FengShan Feast is near at hand, they probably don’t even have the time to worry about me.”

Xiao Yu went, “My lady there’s no need to put on a show.”

Li Li said, “I’m not interested in that Young Prime Minister, if he doesn’t pay attention to me, then there’s no need for me to direct my attention to him. But that Zhuang Xiao, truly is irritating, I’m annoyed just from looking at him.”

Xiao Yu laughed, “He hasn’t even done anything, how could my lady be vexed by him. I noticed that his looks were pretty handsome, not the appearance of someone annoying.”

Li Li turned over and was about to say something, but he was distracted by Zhao XiaoLan’s bracelet and said, “Do you need a reason to hate someone?”

Xiao Yu, “You always act so rashly.”

Li Li paid no mind to Xiao Yu’s words. While fiddling around with the bracelet on her wrist, she said to herself, “Zhao XiaoLan truly is unfortunate, how come he was the one who got stuck with Zhuang Xiao…….meeting that lunatic, will become your lifetime’s regret…..” She leaned over the window and gazed at the withered beside the waterside pavilion. With each blow of the wind, leaves would swirl before falling into the water.

Xiao Yu advised, “I’ve always wished you would leave this pool of muddy water behind, but you never take yourself to heart.”

Li Li vacantly stared off into the distance, before murmuring to herself, “The person I take to heart hasn’t put me above their heart yet.* I owe them this pool of muddy water, ‘searching thoroughly up in the blue beyond, as well as down in the Yellow Springs below the earth*,’ I’ll pay it back before this life is over.”

(TN: This whole conversation is wacky to translate, if anyone wants a go at it please be my guest. So Xiao Yu claims Li Li doesn’t 把自己放在心上, which is “to not put yourself on your heart; to not think of yourself first.” Then Li Li uses that to say the person who she does care about/put above her heart, hasn’t even put her on their heart yet so why should she. There, I tried explaining it good god)

(TN: 上穷碧落下黄泉; is a line from the poem “Song of Everlasting Regret” AKA 長恨歌 one of the of most famous literary works in China – depicts the love between the Emperor XuanZong and Yang guifei. Here’s a link to more info on the poem itself: https://www.ancient.eu/article/888/song-of-everlasting-sorrow/ )

Xiao Yu asked, “Aren’t you tired after all these years?”

Li Li turned around and went to bed, lifting up the quilt, she closed her eyes, “I’m very tired, I’m going to sleep, you are dismissed.”

She opened her eyes then added, “If Zhao XiaoLan comes to find me, just let him come in, no need to stop him.”

This was translated by https://poppyscanlations.video.blog/, if you repost my work I’m pushing you into a molded, muddy pool.

Happy (very, very, VERY) late new year guys!! hope you guys have been doing well, I’m still stressed with classes hahahahah

Some serious talk though, it’d be appreciated if readers stopped comparing this novel to mdzs,,,I’ve seen some of these comments going around about how this author is plagiarizing and I’m so sorry if I sound harsh about this but not every xianxia/wuxia novel is going to be about mdzs guys please. It’s a xianxia/wuxia setting, there’s bound to be reoccurring tropes that you see all the time in xianxia/wuxia novels, that’s why they’re considered a genre by itself. Not every stoic ML can be compared to lwj and not every spirited MC can be compared to wwx. I love mxtx and her works, it’s what got me into danmei in the first place, but please cease the comparisons between the two. And if it wasn’t clear enough, the author probably didn’t plagiarize mxtx, don’t make blind accusations without reading the whole novel in cn first and finding concreate, tangible evidence to back up those claims. Okay, rant over.

Sorry for ruining the mood, but I had to get that off my chest.

If you see any grammatical/translation errors please tell me! It’s 4 am this time and I didn’t bother to edit, I’ll come back later to look this post over for spelling mistakes.

Chapter 68 : Table of Contents : Chapter 70