“Manor Master, I — I feel that with so many servants around Miss Feng, the remark about having the manor master cook in the future was nothing more than a jest. Ha ha.”
On the way back, Lan Yue had actually asked Long Yan to find him a few books on cuisine and bring them for him to look over — a single mention of this was enough to frighten Long Yan so badly he could barely manage to stay on his horse.
“Manor Master, Miss Feng knows how busy you are on ordinary days. She would never truly mean for the manor master to cook. Miss Feng is not someone who would be so ungrateful — she…”
“You think she is truly grateful?”
That one lukewarm remark from Lan Yue stripped Long Yan entirely of the ability to speak.
Was she? Was she not? Was she truly not?
The answer, it turned out, was yes — Feng Jiu was indeed this utterly ungrateful, shameless, and brazen. A pity.
The aloofness and elegance of that first meeting — where had all of that gone? Not only did she cling shamelessly to the manor master, she even expected the manor master to wait upon her.
In all the world beneath the sky, most likely only Feng Jiu alone would dare do such a thing.
“Manor Master, in truth,” Long Yan gave a soft cough, no matter what, he had to first dispel the manor master’s notion of learning to cook. “I feel that Miss Feng was in low spirits today, and that is why… that is why she made such an inappropriate demand of the manor master.”
“To her, it does not count as inappropriate in the slightest.” What was strange was that he himself could actually allow her to carry on so willfully — just as one would indulge one’s own child.
A feeling like that — so strange that even he himself could not understand it.
If Lan Yue himself could not make sense of it, then Long Yan had even less chance of comprehending it. Why was the manor master, who normally kept Feng Jiu at such a distance, now so preoccupied with her?
That day, the moment he heard Feng Jiu’s martial arts had been completely stripped away, the manor master had come at once. The speed had been even swifter than when heading into battle.
Then again, in ordinary times when Feng Jiu came seeking the manor master, the manor master had never shown this kind of enthusiasm in return.
Now, the instant he heard she had been hurt, he came rushing over in a flurry of urgency. Could it be that all the cold indifference of ordinary days had been an act?
“Manor Master…” Long Yan still wanted to say something to talk the manor master out of learning to cook, but all of a sudden he sensed something — a faint and strange stirring of energy ahead of them.
Before long, a figure dropped down from a rooftop along the street and landed steadily in front of Lan Yue’s horse.
“Manor Master!” The scout bowed forward in salute, respectfully. “Manor Master, last night, after Feng Jiu left the manor, she entered the palace.”
“She entered the palace?” Could it be that the person who hurt her had some connection to someone inside the palace?
Lan Yue’s brow furrowed slightly. He could not help but recall an incident from over a month ago — when he had led men to assassinate Emperor Qiwen and had been struck by Feng Jiu.
At the time, Feng Jiu had been walking just behind Emperor Qiwen. Initially, all his main attention had been on Emperor Qiwen, and he had not noticed that behind him, there was also her.
It seemed from around that time onward that Feng Jiu had frequently been seen walking at Emperor Qiwen’s side. So then — who was the one who had hurt her?
A highly skilled fighter at Emperor Qiwen’s side?
But why would such a person harm Feng Jiu? To harm her yet not take her life, only to leave her abandoned outside the rear courtyard gate of the Hall of Celestial Mysteries — that truly did not seem like something an emperor would do.
“Manor Master, according to a palace eunuch, Feng Jiu occasionally enters the palace, always going to the same place — a desolate courtyard called the Li Courtyard.”
…The intelligence network of the Foundation of All Under Heaven was beyond the reckoning of ordinary people.
As long as he wished to investigate, that he would uncover the Li Courtyard was not particularly surprising.
Long Yan was simply a little worried. He looked at the manor master, who was standing outside the high walls of the rear palace, and said urgently, “Manor Master, how about letting me—”
“You stay here. If I have not emerged within one hour, return immediately to the manor and take my father away.”
“Manor Master, since you know there is danger, why not consider the matter carefully first and make a plan?” If Feng Jiu knew he had come here searching for the one who hurt her, she would not agree to it either.
The manor master himself ought to know — Feng Jiu’s own cultivation was no small matter. The person capable of injuring her in such a manner was someone with inner energy of absolutely unfathomable depth.
Him going in was a risk of unknown magnitude, and beyond that, the manor master’s hand had not fully healed.
“I am only going to meet this person.” The words had barely fallen before a flash of white robes — and Lan Yue’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
Long Yan’s anxiety went through the roof. Sweat was already beading at his temple, but the manor master had already gone in. What else could he do?
This imperial palace — from the rear palace gates to the various walls surrounding every hall, every possible entry point leading toward the Imperial Xiao Pavilion — they had mapped it all in their minds. The path through the rear palace, however, was not something they had as clearly charted. He only hoped the manor master would be able to find that courtyard called the Li Courtyard.
The manor master was usually such a composed person. This time, he had truly acted on impulse — rashly and recklessly. There was every possibility he might expose his identity in the process.
Fortunately, the manor master’s face had not yet healed, and he was still wearing his mask. No one would be able to recognize him.
But if he fell into the other person’s hands… Yet the manor master’s martial arts were so formidable. Even if he were hurt, it would not come to the point of being at another’s mercy.
He simply was genuinely very worried. Such an impulsive manor master — this was not something he had seen in over ten years.
Feng Jiu’s hold over the manor master was proving so powerful that even he found it incomprehensible.
…
Finding the Li Courtyard was, for Lan Yue, an entirely effortless matter. Among the longer-serving palace maids and eunuchs of the rear palace, everyone knew where the Li Courtyard was.
In particular, word had recently spread throughout the rear palace that a mistress resided in the Li Courtyard — a consort most favored by His Majesty.
No one knew whether the rumor was true or false, nor did anyone know who had started it. But on account of this rumor, a few more eyes had turned toward the Li Courtyard.
Only, the Li Courtyard itself was so eerily foreboding and gloomy that no one dared draw near.
And so, when Lan Yue now asked where the Li Courtyard was, half of the palace maids and eunuchs could tell him.
He reached this place with ease, and breached the rear courtyard with equal ease.
Lan Yue in his mask, set against the backdrop of the night, appeared even colder and more remote. His white robes swayed in the wind — graceful yet icy as a frigid stream.
The guards stationed in the rear courtyard were no match for him at all. In the blink of an eye, dozens of rear courtyard guards had been knocked down in a sweep.
He had no fear whatsoever of alarming those within the Li Courtyard.
Qing Ye moved to go out. Long Feiyan, however, said lightly, “You are not his match. Going out would only be handing over your head.”
“Master…” Even knowing she was no match, with a great enemy at their gates, one still ought not cower behind the master.
Long Feiyan set down the military text in her hand. Suddenly, with a sweep of her sleeve, her slender silhouette had already landed steadily on the rooftop in an instant.
Qing Ye and Qing Zhi kept watch below. The night was dim and murky, and from their vantage point they could not make out the features of the one who had come — but with their master above, neither of them dared presumptuously follow up.
The chill was like still water. The two figures on that rooftop — one wearing a mask, one veiled behind light gauze — neither face discernible to the other.
Only — in the midst of this vast and boundless night, why was it that the moment he caught sight of her silhouette, the burning fury in his chest strangely dissipated by more than half?
Lan Yue stared at the blurred, indistinct face behind the other’s veil, and in that breath of a moment, his fingertips began to tremble violently.
Why did this feel so achingly familiar?