Chapter 67: Lu Yanzhi... He’s Here Again
The day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, a young woman named Yu’er appeared in the Chen Prince Mansion. She was said to be a distant relative of Prince Chen’s Nan Guard, who had come to seek refuge with Nan Yin with nowhere else to turn.
Upon entering the mansion, Yu’er was assigned to serve as a high-ranking maid by Prince Chen’s side. However, whether in looks or figure, this Yu’er was a cut above Su Jin.
Everyone in the Prince Mansion was secretly comparing the two, wondering who would ultimately become Prince Chen’s woman.
But before a winner could be decided, Su Jin was killed by Princess Xuanyang. Now, although Yu’er had yet to become Prince Chen’s woman, everyone felt it was only a matter of time.
After all, no matter how differently Prince Chen had treated Su Jin in the past, he had never allowed her to serve him personally. Instead, he had sent her off to the Princess Consort. Considering Prince Chen had always looked down on his consort, the difference in how he treated the two maids was stark.
Xiao Li had only caught a blurry glimpse of Jiang Yu’er on the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, just enough to see her silhouette but not her face. When she ran into the woman in the Chen Prince Mansion, she had only seemed familiar. But combining that with the information she now had, Xiao Li was certain: that was Jiang Yu’er.
No wonder no one could find the suspicious palace maid who had approached the lion’s cage after the festival. So, she had slipped into the Chen Prince Mansion.
’So this is why Prince Chen and Liu Xueyin are the male and female leads,’ she thought. ’They both have a habit of hiding fugitives.’
Prince Chen had basically handed leverage to Xiao Li on a silver platter. Logically, she should press her advantage and get Prince Chen under her thumb, just as she had with Gu Ling.
But she had no intention of killing Jiang Yu’er. On the contrary, she quite admired her.
So, Xiao Li decided not to capture her for the time being. And on a whim, she even wrote her a letter.
Yang Jun, who received the order to deliver the letter: "..."
’That’s the Chen Prince Mansion, not some ordinary household,’ he thought. ’And the Princess just sent that "Great Nourishment" wine over. Now she’s trying to flirt with one of their maids? This is really crossing the line into bullying.’
Of course, he was a mature subordinate now. He had learned to delegate tasks to reliable people.
Rong Qing: "..."
Yang Jun swore he wasn’t picking on Rong Qing. "The Princess demanded that the recipient not discover her identity. I really can’t find anyone else as suitable for this. Just figure it out."
Rong Qing accepted the task. In less than an hour, the letter was delivered into Jiang Yu’er’s hands by a mason who was on his way to do some work at the Chen Prince Mansion.
"Miss Jiang, a young master asked me to pass a letter to you."
The moment he addressed her as "Miss Jiang," Jiang Yu’er, who had been treating the mason as if he were invisible, felt her heart skip a beat. She quickly snatched the letter from him.
"I have the letter. You can’t mention this to anyone, do you understand?"
The mason chuckled. "Don’t worry, I understand."
Jiang Yu’er felt his smile was a bit odd. ’What exactly does he understand?’ she wondered.
She glanced around warily, and after confirming no one had noticed, she hurried back to her room. She shut the door and windows, then lit a lamp to read the letter.
She was a little scared and a little curious. ’Who could possibly know my identity and write me a letter? Could it be my family?’
The sender was very cautious; there was nothing written on the envelope.
Breaking the wax seal, she found two sheets of paper inside. One was visibly a drawing.
Jiang Yu’er opened it curiously. With just one look, her heart nearly stopped.
The drawing... it showed a complete lack of artistic skill. A circle with five sticks attached was supposed to be a person. The art was cringeworthy, but the content was clear at a glance.
It depicted the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, when she had reached out to push Princess Chen. The sender had been standing to her side and had seen the whole thing.
She quickly unfolded the letter.
Dear Miss Jiang, I know I shouldn’t be disturbing you so brazenly, but please rest assured that I mean no harm. I was in a rush, so the drawing isn’t very good. I’ll be sure to make it up to you next time. QVQ
The reason for this letter is that I find your wicked, malicious side to be truly adorable. When I learned you had gone to the Prince Mansion, I found myself liking you more and more the more I thought about it, so I couldn’t resist writing to you.
I know you are trying to deal with Princess Chen. If you need it, I can provide whatever help I am able to.
-----------------Li
Jiang Yu’er read it in shock. ’How could someone think I’m wicked and malicious, yet also adorable?’
’And like me more and more the more they thought about it?’
’Is this person some kind of pervert?’
She was shocked and found it hard to believe. She clutched the letter tightly, then smoothed it out, reading it over and over again.
For some reason, it seemed to read differently each time.
She touched her face; it was surprisingly hot.
’This pervert... How could they write such a shameless letter?’
Besides, she looked it over repeatedly but couldn’t find any contact information. How was he supposed to provide help? And how would he know when she needed it?
"It must be a trick!"
She angrily folded the letter and tossed it aside. After staring at it for a moment for no particular reason, she inexplicably picked it back up.
"It’s definitely a trick!"
Xiao Li had only written the letter on a whim. Because she found Jiang Yu’er’s wickedness to be adorable, she had subconsciously written it in the tone of her original world.
To her, words like "dear," "adorable," and "like" were terms used between girls to express closeness and affection. She never imagined what a powerful impact such direct words would have on someone from a purely ancient society.
And so, she had unintentionally captured a young woman’s heart, completely unaware of what she had done.
The Lu family truly lived up to its name as the greatest aristocratic family. Even with numerous other families joining forces to denounce them, including a major clan like the Wang family, they ultimately failed to bring the Lu family down.
There was no direct evidence, and the Lu family defused every attempt to frame them.
In the end, as other miscellaneous matters arose in the court, the furor died down. The Emperor, seemingly lashing out in shame and anger, directed his wrath at Lu Ye, stripping him of his official post and leaving his position in suspension.
The Lu family seemed to want to let the matter rest, offering no further resistance to the Emperor’s willful decision.
This course of action, surprisingly, led many to sympathize with the Lu family. They praised Chief Minister Lu for his broad-mindedness, being so tolerant of the Emperor’s unreasonable tantrum.
As for Xiao Li, in their eyes, she was just a foolish princess who, unable to win her husband’s affection, was kicking the Lu family while they were down out of jealousy.
"I told you. You can’t win."
Lu Yanzhi... He was here again.
After being called ugly by Xiao Li last time, Lu Yanzhi had specially changed into a silver, ornately carved mask. Its filigree pattern perfectly concealed his wound. Cool and aloof without losing its splendor, it was far from ugly and instead gave him an ineffable, mysterious beauty.
He had personally drawn the pattern and had craftsmen work through the night to forge it.
However, while he thought he was presenting his best possible appearance, Xiao Li didn’t even spare him a glance. Her gaze was fixed on the opera singer on the stage.
On a whim, Xiao Li had spent a great deal of money to hire the most famous opera troupe to perform for the entire mansion’s staff.
At that moment, the male actor, dressed as a woman, was singing a heartbreaking aria about the tears of separated lovers.
"That male dan has been staring at the Princess the whole time. He looks so lovelorn, you’d think the Princess was the one who broke his heart."
"Don’t talk nonsense. That’s just how they perform in operas."
"Oh, I’m just saying what I see! You didn’t see it—the moment this male dan saw the Princess, he was so smitten he could barely walk. Before the performance, he kept trying to get close to her, and the Princess even lifted his chin to get a better look. He was so docile, like one of the Princess’s little pets..."