Chapter 139: Promoted to Fourth-Rank Just Before the New Year
The Lantern Festival was very lively, but in Xiao Li’s eyes, it held no novelty and little appeal.
Feng Yin noticed her lack of enthusiasm and immediately led her to a teahouse.
It was the Feng Family’s teahouse, and while business was booming today, they had specially cleared out the entire top floor.
It was clear the space had been arranged with great care. The extra tables were gone, leaving only the one with the best view.
The surrounding area was swept clean, and the empty spaces were decorated with various carved porcelain pieces. A cashmere rug had even been laid on the floor.
The table was draped in fine silk. Water boiled for tea over a charcoal brazier, and an assortment of roasted dried fruits filled the air with a unique fragrance. Silver utensils and pastries were laid out one by one, along with fresh fruit rarely seen at this time of year.
Two beautiful lanterns hung nearby as decoration.
The level of thoughtful preparation was so mature it was truly impressive.
"Did you prepare all this?"
Feng Yin said, embarrassed, "This was all I could think of. If you don’t like it, Princess, please tell me directly. I’ll change it next time."
Xiao Li was speechless. ’I never would have guessed. Is he a natural talent when it comes to courting girls?’
The teahouse was in an excellent location. Below, people were selling lanterns, and across the way was a stage for acrobats. Sitting upstairs, one had a perfect view of the various performances and could even hear the people below guessing lantern riddles. However, it was still early, and not many people had come to buy lanterns yet.
Xiao Li glanced around before retracting her gaze, her interest still flagging. ’Watching this little dork in front of me is more interesting than watching all that outside.’
This was, in fact, the first time they had ever sat down face-to-face in a formal setting. Their previous encounters had all happened for one reason or another, and they had barely exchanged a few proper sentences.
Xiao Li’s stare was so intense that Feng Yin was starting to feel mortified. Only then did she finally speak, her tone unhurried. "What do you usually do?"
Feng Yin answered immediately, "I read and write, and occasionally go out to meet with friends."
Reading was normal for someone his age.
"Do you study at home, or at the Imperial College?"
Feng Yin said, "I occasionally go to the Imperial College to study, and while I’m there, I give a couple of lectures to the young prince and the other young students."
Xiao Li was genuinely surprised. "You give lectures?"
"Not too often. I go once every four days. Usually, I’m at the Du Lin Garden editing books."
The Du Lin Garden was a government office dedicated to compiling and editing all sorts of books. The central pavilion of the Du Lin Garden was the royal library, which was said to hold thirty thousand volumes and was considered a sacred place for all the scholars in the land.
Xiao Li fell silent for a moment. "To be involved in editing books, you’d have to be an official."
Feng Yin smiled shyly. "I entered the Du Lin Garden as a Sixth-Rank editor at fifteen. It’s been almost five years now, and I was promoted to a fourth-rank Chief before the new year. It’s not much to be proud of, Princess."
Xiao Li was speechless. "..."
It wasn’t that she didn’t understand the unwritten rules for a noble family’s son to succeed in the court. All officials of the third-rank and above came from aristocratic families. This wasn’t to say they were born into that rank, but rather that the sons of these aristocratic families were sent into the court from a young age to be tempered. When they were old enough, they would replace their fathers or even climb higher. Because resources were so heavily skewed in their favor, all officials above the third-rank were from these powerful families.
But Feng Yin... with that baby face and that innocent, shy personality, he was a fourth-rank official before he was even twenty.
Xiao Li took a sip of tea to compose herself.
"Impressive!"
His grandfather was impressive, his whole family was impressive, and he himself was impressive too.
Never mind that his official position was secured through his grandfather’s prestige and the Feng Family’s backing. Even if he had been pushed into the role, the ability to hold onto it was a skill in itself.
If before, Xiao Li had only seen him as a cute boy, a sweet and harmless little thing, that perception was now completely overturned.
It was her own fault for not taking him seriously before, for never even bothering to look into his background. That’s what led to her shock now.
’Judging a book by its cover... a fatal mistake!’
Xiao Li didn’t hide the admiration in her eyes. Feng Yin felt that only at this moment had she finally, truly seen him.
Her interest piqued, Xiao Li began to take the young man seriously. The two of them chatted as they drank their tea.
The boy named Feng Yin gradually became a more three-dimensional figure in her mind.
Feng Yin was born into a preeminent aristocratic family of civil servants. His Grand Tutor grandfather had been his first teacher. He loved to read and was blessed with a photographic memory.
Because he was raised as a girl in his childhood, he had hardly ever gone out, which gave him even more time to read.
He had been deceived a few times, but only because his social circle was small and the other party was his brother-in-law, whom he had trusted implicitly.
But at the Du Lin Garden, he was the one in charge of reviewing others’ work.
Because he could read ten lines at a glance and had a superior memory, not a single mistake could escape his notice.
He was responsible for reviewing compiled books, correcting typos, verifying tables of contents, and performing final proofreads.
No wonder he had an air of seriousness and old-fashioned rigidity about him.
It wasn’t until the streets outside were brightly lit with lanterns that Xiao Li realized it had gotten dark.
And she had actually been sitting here, talking with him, for nearly two hours.
"Would the Princess care to go for a walk below?"
Feng Yin’s eyes were filled with anticipation.
Xiao Li shifted, her brow furrowing from a stomachache. "You... let me go take care of a small problem first."
It was only after Xiao Li left that Feng Yin understood, and his face immediately flushed beet red.
After relieving herself, Xiao Li stepped out and was jolted awake by the night breeze.
She hadn’t come out alone. Hong Yue stuck close by her side, while Rong Qing and Yang Jun stood guard not far away. Surrounding the teahouse, there were no fewer than fifty guards disguised as commoners.
In addition to Xiao Li’s guards, Feng Yin had also arranged for his own men.
It might seem a bit exaggerated, but if they weren’t this cautious, those who wanted to kill Xiao Li would have likely made their move long ago.
Her mood was finally good for a change; she couldn’t let anyone ruin it.
On her way back, Xiao Li was passing through a corridor and happened to glance down casually. Suddenly, a figure in the crowd caught her eye.
The person had snow-white hair and a tall, slender, and upright build. She could only see their back, but for some reason, Xiao Li’s heart skipped a beat.
’This person is so strange. Do I know them?’
But she had never met anyone with white hair before, and this person seemed to be quite young.
"Yang Jun, follow him!"
Her intuition told Xiao Li that she had to find out who this person was.
Yang Jun hurried down, passing by Feng Yin, who was on his way up. "What’s happening?"
The figure had already disappeared into the crowd. Xiao Li retracted her gaze. "It’s nothing. I just saw a strange person."
Feng Yin glanced down but didn’t see anyone unusual. He didn’t press the matter; the only person he cared about today was her. "So, Princess, are you still going down?"
Xiao Li thought for a moment. "Let’s go."
The lantern fair was crowded, with people bustling about, shoulder to shoulder. However, Rong Qing was tall and burly and carried a large saber, so the commoners naturally gave them a wide berth when they saw him.
Feng Yin wanted to take a slow stroll with Xiao Li, but her feet unconsciously carried her in the direction the strange person had gone.
She was just too curious about who that person was. The feeling they gave her was simply too strange.
"Princess." Seeing that she was about to enter an alley, Feng Yin finally reached out and grabbed her arm. "Princess, the lantern fair isn’t that way. The river lanterns are on the other side."
"Oh."
Xiao Li was jolted back to her senses, as if waking from a dream. She turned to leave with him, but just then, she saw the white-haired figure standing at the other end of the alley. She couldn’t see them clearly, but she could feel their unblinking gaze fixed on her, sinister and chilling.