Chapter 19: The Hardware Doesn’t Permit Pledging Myself in Marriage
Xiao Li had given a strict order. The gates of the Princess Mansion did indeed block Liu Xueyin, but they couldn’t stop Lu Yanzhi’s heart, which had seemingly grown wings.
"Princess, these are honey cakes specially made by the Lu family’s cook. They’re excellent for the throat, and you can eat them after your medicine to mask the bitter taste."
Lu Yanzhi personally brought the honey cakes to Xiao Li. With his gentle and docile attitude, anyone who didn’t know better would think they were a harmonious husband and wife.
Xiao Li held the medicine bowl, swallowing the bitter liquid mouthful by mouthful. It was disgusting—medicine never tasted good—but she didn’t even furrow her brow, let alone consider eating anything Lu Yanzhi had brought her.
Lu Yanzhi, for his part, clearly knew Xiao Li wouldn’t eat what he offered. In any case, his approach was like boiling a frog in slowly warming water; the main point was to show his attitude.
He simply sat with Xiao Li for a while. Once she had finished her medicine and started drinking water, he finally spoke again.
"Your Majesty has ordered Gu Ling’s body to be hung outside the city walls and exposed to the sun. After these past few days, it has started to rot and stink. The commoners entering the city are quite frightened when they see it. Could the Princess perhaps persuade His Majesty to have the body taken down and disposed of?"
Xiao Li finally spared him a glance. ’One mad dog is dead, and now here comes another loyal one.’
Liu Xueyin had been stopped one hour ago; Lu Yanzhi was here to plead his case one hour later.
Gu Ling was dead, so there was no way Liu Xueyin would just let it be. ’How could she not be heartbroken, seeing the body of the young man she cared about displayed on the city wall?’
’When she came to find me just now, she probably intended to both accuse and beg me, saying she was willing to do anything if I would just spare Gu Ling’s body.’
’But she ended up having the door slammed in her face. Then Lu Yanzhi, unable to bear seeing his beloved suffer, came rushing over to help, didn’t he?’
Xiao Li popped a soothing throat lozenge into her mouth and agreed, "Alright."
Her throat had improved quite a bit in the last two days, and she could manage to speak, but her voice was still a little hoarse—so unpleasant that even she found it grating.
Lu Yanzhi stared at her, somewhat astonished. He truly hadn’t expected her to agree so readily.
He felt there had to be some sort of scheme.
Xiao Li: ’Think whatever you want. I can’t be bothered with you.’
Why wouldn’t she agree? She had wanted to kill Gu Ling, but she wasn’t some pervert who enjoyed desecrating corpses.
Once a person was dead, the debt was paid. She didn’t care what happened afterward.
’Of course, if someone managed to anger me enough to desecrate a corpse, that would be a real talent in itself.’
Lu Yanzhi was still observing Xiao Li when her eyes suddenly lit up. A sweet smile blossomed on her face, dazzling him for a moment.
"This servant greets the Princess."
No matter how many times Xiao Li saw Lou Yan, she was always struck by his beauty. ’How can the standard eunuch uniform look so good on him?’
’The purple base, the black patterns... it’s as if it were custom-tailored just for him.’
’Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, an aura of wicked charm, overflowing with sex appeal... but... he’s a eunuch!’
’How much sorrow can one man have? Just like a eunuch visiting a brothel. Haha...’
Xiao Li was reveling in her own wild thoughts, overjoyed, the tips of her propped-up feet jiggling up and down.
"You may rise. What brings you here?" Her mood had brightened, and even her throat didn’t hurt as much.
Lou Yan was holding a box, which he presented. "This is the Eight Treasures Lung Nourishing Paste from the Imperial Kitchen. His Majesty ordered this servant to deliver it."
Xiao Li raised an eyebrow. "Just to deliver some paste, they troubled Lord Lou Yan?"
Lou Yan kept his eyes lowered, his gaze fixed only on the gently jiggling tips of her feet.
"The Princess flatters me. This is merely part of this servant’s duties."
Xiao Li dropped the formal tone. "Even if you hadn’t come, I was planning to go to the palace to find you in a couple of days."
Lou Yan: "The Princess has only to command."
Xiao Li smiled. "You saved my life, so I should naturally thank you. That..."
Xiao Li was about to call someone to bring it over, but she paused mid-sentence, then stood up with a sly look. "Follow me."
With that, she got up and headed straight for the pavilion. Lou Yan paused for a moment but ultimately followed her, still holding the box.
Lu Yanzhi remained seated, completely and utterly ignored.
Perhaps it was because the smile on Xiao Li’s face just now had been so brilliant and dazzling that a sour feeling suddenly stirred in his heart.
’So she can still smile like that. Like she’s looking at a man she truly adores.’ He couldn’t remember if she had ever looked at him that way, but that smile kept replaying in his mind.
But the object of that smile was Lou Yan, a eunuch. Wasn’t that just a bit too absurd?
* * *
Xiao Li had indeed prepared a gift for Lou Yan beforehand, but she herself wasn’t very satisfied with it. After all, he had saved her life; she had to repay him properly.
Lou Yan was a eunuch, so ’repaying him with her body’ was a hardware-level impossibility. That left material compensation.
CLANK!
The chains on the storeroom door fell to the ground. Xiao Li pushed the door open and declared magnanimously, "Take your pick. Anything you see that you like, you can have."
As a princess, Xiao Li had no shortage of fine things. Not to mention, she had recently scrounged a great deal from the Emperor and received many gifts, leaving her two storerooms piled to the brim.
Lou Yan remained unmoved. "What is the meaning of this, Princess?"
Xiao Li tilted her chin up, full of pride. "You saved me. This is your reward."
Opening up the storeroom for him to choose from was a gesture full of sincerity.
A flicker of movement in Lou Yan’s brow. "Saving the Princess is this servant’s duty. I dare not claim credit."
Xiao Li cut him off, deliberately emphasizing, "This is a one-time offer. It expires, you know~~~"
Lou Yan was unperturbed. "Thank you for your generosity, Princess."
’He’s not giving me any face at all.’
Since Lou Yan wouldn’t choose, Xiao Li had no choice but to give him the reward she had originally prepared. This, Lou Yan did not refuse.
Xiao Li sighed. ’This man is hard to deal with.’
’High-level martial arts, a close attendant to the Emperor... that’s enough to make it worth the effort of winning him over.’
’Not to mention he’s handsome. Easy on the eyes.’
’Of course, the most important point is that he’s a eunuch. After winning him over, there’s no need to worry about romantic entanglements. He’s practically a born... uh... a holy grail of partners?’
’It’s a little hard to describe.’
In short, Xiao Li felt Lou Yan was worth trying to win over. If he was really too cold and aloof to be won over, then she absolutely had to at least build a good relationship with him. At the very least, she couldn’t let him become someone who would hold a knife to her throat.
Lou Yan’s words and actions were measured—respectful, but never fawning. It seemed he had truly come just to deliver something.
However, perhaps on account of receiving a decent reward, he offered Xiao Li a piece of advice. "The Chen Family County Princess will enter the palace tomorrow."
Xiao Li was a little baffled. ’The Chen Family County Princess? Who’s that?’
After thinking and thinking, she finally placed this supporting character.
The current Empress Dowager came from the great Chen Family. The Chen Family County Princess was the Empress Dowager’s niece, sixteen years of age this year. Coming at this time, she was presumably preparing to enter the palace.
In the original story, this girl was made a concubine as soon as she entered the palace, just waiting to be named Noble Consort upon becoming pregnant. The Chen Family wanted to use this daughter to challenge the Empress, hoping to produce another emperor with Chen family blood.
Of course, the Emperor later died and Prince Chen usurped the throne, so the Chen Family’s plans naturally went up in smoke.
It was worth mentioning that the Chen Family County Princess didn’t like the Emperor, but Lu Yanzhi.
In the later part of the plot, Xuanyang went mad after becoming pregnant and never met this County Princess who became a concubine. However, this County Princess became the closest of friends with Liu Xueyin, because Liu Xueyin supported her in searching for her one true love.
This County Princess even played a part in the Emperor’s eventual death, and she did it all for her true love, Lu Yanzhi.
And by relying on her relationship with Liu Xueyin and the things she had done, she successfully avoided being implicated in the Chen Family’s downfall, changed her identity, and entered the Princess Mansion to become Lu Yanzhi’s only maid.
She claimed that as long as she could stay by his side, it would be her greatest happiness.
????
’Such a... touching love story.’
Of course, these were all things that would happen in the future.
Lou Yan couldn’t possibly know any of this, so that obviously wasn’t why he had warned her. She had to think back further.
’Right. When Miss Chen was young, she often came to the palace to accompany the Empress Dowager. She hated the original owner of this body. Not only did she frequently mock the original owner behind her back, but she also constantly did bad things and framed the original owner for them, causing her to be punished by the Empress Dowager.’
’You could say that half of the suffering the original owner endured at the hands of the Empress Dowager in her youth was thanks to her.’
’In that case, I can’t let this person have an easy time.’