After a brief stay at the Second Princess’s residence, Xu Qi An took his leave in the afternoon, as he had street patrols to attend to.
Biaobiao was reluctant to see him go, furrowing her brows, “Liu Ningyan, I could speak to Father Emperor about giving you a position in the palace as my guard.”
What kind of future is there in being your guard? You want me to be your servant… Xu Qi An thought to himself, but replied diplomatically, “Your Highness, this humble official does have some ambitions of his own.”
Being at Princess Biaobiao’s beck and call offered fewer prospects than serving Wei Yuan. Emperor Yuanjing doted on Biaobiao not only because of her ability to throw tantrums and act coquettishly but also due to her innocent and adorable nature, devoid of scheming.
Princesses like Huaiqing, who wanted to support their confidants to power, had to find the right opportunities, such as the Sangbo case. The same applied to other princes.
When Biaobiao failed to persuade Emperor Yuanjing to spare Xu Qi An’s life, he saw through the Emperor’s character.
“Second Princess, why trouble yourself? This official is merely a lowly night watchman,” Xu Qi An thought to himself, “We’re not a good match.”
“Others aren’t as interesting as you. They tremble when speaking to me,” Lin’an pouted, swinging her feet. “I don’t like studying, and I’m poor at the four arts. It’s so boring in the palace. When I was little, Crown Prince Brother would play with me, but now when I go to find him, he just frowns and says he has important matters to attend to.”
What a pitiful princess, raised like a golden canary in a gilded cage… But isn’t Princess Huaiqing free to come and go as she pleases? Xu Qi An pondered for a moment before understanding.
Huaiqing was the type of woman who could lead an army of three thousand and carve out her empire. She was highly educated and exceptionally capable. Among Emperor Yuanjing’s children, few could match Huaiqing’s talents and acumen.
Lin’an was different. She was a spoiled and willful little princess, without guile, easily deceived by those with ulterior motives.
Xu Qi An automatically removed himself from the list of “those with ulterior motives.”
“This is simple. The Princess could move back to her mansion in the Imperial City. It’s bound to be more interesting than the palace,” Xu Qi An suggested.
Lin’an was a princess with her title and had a residence in the Imperial City.
“Then come see me at Lin’an Mansion tomorrow,” Biaobiao said.
Princess Lin’an arrived at Jingxiu Palace by palanquin before lunch. Concubine Chen had sent word to her pair of children, inviting them to dine at Jingxiu Palace.
During the meal, as the Crown Prince enjoyed the delicacies prepared by Concubine Chen, he suddenly said, “I heard from the palace servants that Wei Yuan sent a secret recipe to the Empress, curing her loss of appetite.”
Concubine Chen smiled, “Yes, that’s true. I believe it’s called… chicken essence. Adding a small amount while cooking makes the flavors unforgettable.”
The Crown Prince noticed Concubine Chen’s eagerness. “If Mother Concubine wants to try it, I could ask the Empress for some.”
Concubine Chen replied, “I heard even Princess Huaiqing was refused when she asked for it.”
Mother and son exchanged helpless glances.
Princess Lin’an, observing her mother and brother, asked for confirmation, “Is it called chicken essence?”
The Crown Prince looked at her, “You’ve heard about it too?”
The carefree Lin’an, who rarely paid attention to palace gossip, shook her head and said, “Liu Ningyan gave me something today called chicken essence.”
She summoned her maid, instructing, “Go back to the palace and fetch it for me.”
A quarter of an hour later, the maid returned breathlessly, bringing the porcelain bottle left at the mansion.
The Crown Prince eagerly took the bottle, removed the wooden stopper, and sniffed it. He detected a slightly pungent savory scent, but couldn’t discern its miraculous properties from smell alone.
“Shall we have the kitchen reheat these dishes and add this… chicken essence to taste?” the Crown Prince suggested.
His proposal was met with approval from his mother and sister.
Soon, a palace maid returned with the reheated dishes. The royal trio didn’t touch their chopsticks, instead looking expectantly at the maid.
The maid first tested for poison with a silver needle, then brought bowls and chopsticks to taste each dish. After sampling all the food, the Crown Prince noticed a lingering desire in her eyes, though she dared not eat more, gazing longingly at the dishes.
After waiting a moment and seeing the maid unharmed, the Crown Prince urged, “Serve me a bowl of soft-shelled turtle soup.”
As the maid ladled the soup, she smiled and said, “Your Highness has excellent taste. The flavor of this soup is unforgettable.”
The Crown Prince eagerly accepted the bowl and tasted it, exclaiming, “It has a unique flavor… Mother Concubine, Lin’an, you must try it!”
Concubine Chen was delighted to see the Crown Prince so cheerful after such a long time.
Lin’an had already helped herself. Instead of the turtle soup, she had taken a bite of a vegetable dish. As she chewed, she unconsciously took a second bite, then a third…
After lunch, Concubine Chen was overjoyed to see her children eat so heartily after such a long time.
“What a treasure, just this small bottle…” the Crown Prince marveled, discreetly slipping the bottle into his sleeve.
Biaobiao’s eyes widened as she lunged forward, firmly grasping the Crown Prince’s sleeve, her eyebrows furrowed, “That’s mine!”
“Isn’t Xu Qi An your man? You can just ask him for more,” the Crown Prince said righteously. “Let go.”
“I won’t! This is my thing,” she insisted.
As the siblings continued to argue, they sought Concubine Chen’s judgment. Amused and exasperated, she said, “Look at you two, acting like children. If you ask me, it should stay here with me. That’s only fair.”
The Crown Prince and Lin’an turned back to each other, resuming their dispute.
…
“So the gift Liu Ningyan gave me is this valuable,” Biaobiao mused, sitting in her palanquin and playing with the porcelain bottle, now only one-third full of chicken essence.
Her slight dissatisfaction with Xu Qi An gradually dissipated. She wasn’t truly naive; she had turned a blind eye when Xu Qi An took advantage of her. If she didn’t keep him close, this night watchman would quickly fall into Huaiqing’s embrace. Besides, he was fun to talk to and knew how to entertain. Lin’an was quite reluctant to let him go. A few useless paintings and some silver were a small price to pay.
This little night watchman is quite slippery and two-faced. I should go confirm something… Lin’an immediately ordered, “Let’s go to Huaiqing’s place.”
Arriving at Princess Huaiqing’s palace garden, Lin’an ignored the guards’ attempts to stop her. Holding her chin high, she met the disliked Huaiqing in the front hall.
The two stunningly beautiful princesses faced each other. Huaiqing’s delicate eyebrows furrowed on her fair face, “What are you doing here?”
“I heard Wei Yuan sent Mother Empress a secret recipe that cured her loss of appetite. It’s all over the palace,” Lin’an walked to a curio shelf, her red dress trailing behind her. She casually toyed with a blue and white porcelain vase while asking nonchalantly:
“Does Elder Sister Huaiqing have any?”
“No,” Huaiqing replied coolly.
“Really?” Lin’an suddenly turned her head, her eyes sparkling with mischief written all over her oval face.
Princess Huaiqing stared at her, speaking flatly, “Why would I lie to you?”
“Well, if you don’t have any, I can rest easy,” Lin’an, or rather Biaobiao, pulled out the porcelain bottle and shook it gleefully, laughing, “Because I do!”
“…”
Seeing Huaiqing’s expression change, she became even more delighted. But to avoid a beating, she knew when to quit. Swaying her slender waist, she gloated as she prepared to leave:
“I’ll be going now, no need to see me out. Oh, by the way, this was given to me by Liu Ningyan.”
Liu Ningyan… A vein throbbed on Princess Huaiqing’s smooth forehead.
…
The next day, after lunch at the brothel, the trio of night watchmen picked their teeth and strode back to the yamen with an air of nonchalance.
They had a half-hour break at noon and planned to return to the yamen for some cultivation. Today, Xu Qi An had treated them again, though this time it was purely for listening to music and dining, nothing more. A martial artist’s household doesn’t have that much surplus food.
Having freeloaded off Liu Ningyan for several days, Song Tingfeng felt a bit embarrassed. Seeing a street vendor selling tangerines, he said:
“You two wait here, I’ll go buy some tangerines.”
“Get lost, I’ll go buy them. You wait here,” Xu Qi An held him back.
“Ningyan, you’re being too polite, too polite,” Song Tingfeng insisted on buying.
“Anything else is fine, but I must buy the tangerines. If you want to buy something, you can treat us at the courtesan house next time,” Xu Qi An said angrily.
Song Tingfeng finally relented.
Back at the yamen, Xu Qi An received another summons from Wei Yuan.
Papa Wei is loving me more and more… He happily ran towards Haoqi Tower. After being announced by the guards, he met Wei Yuan, dressed in a cyan robe, in the tea room.
This handsome and elegant grand eunuch with slightly graying temples was holding a teacup. He pointed to the seat opposite him, “Pour yourself some tea.”
Xu Qi An, with a belly full of wine, didn’t want tea, but still poured himself a cup to keep Wei Yuan company.
“You shouldn’t drink while on duty,” Wei Yuan admonished. “You… apart from having some sense of justice, all your other traits are terrible. You’re glib, disregard discipline and frequent brothels. If I were your political enemy, you’d have been reincarnated by now.”
“…This official knows his mistake,” Xu Qi An decided to think of himself as a younger brother, no, a son. That made his mindset much better.
“Never mind, it’s hard to change one’s nature. If people could change so easily, there wouldn’t be countless individuals in this world,” Wei Yuan had always been a leader with a high tolerance for subordinates’ mistakes and didn’t intend to pursue the matter further.
After taking a big gulp of tea, he pushed a dossier across the table, “You need to make a trip to Yunzhou.”
Yunzhou? Xu Qi An straightened up and opened the dossier to read.
“A few days ago, one of our night watchman informants sent back a secret message. It stated that Yang Chuannan, the Commander-in-Chief of Yunzhou, was secretly colluding with mountain bandits, supplying them with military resources to profit and nurture the bandits for his benefit,” Wei Yuan took another sip of tea and continued:
“The day after receiving the secret message, the Qi faction quickly made their move, fabricating a ‘corruption case’ and using a group of gold and silver-grade night watchmen as bargaining chips to force me to compromise.”
The Commander-in-Chief of Yunzhou is one of the Qi faction’s people. No wonder the Qi faction suddenly decided to target the night watchmen. So there was such an inside story behind it.
If it weren’t for my dumb luck, was Wei Yuan planning to exchange a group of gold and silver-grade night watchmen for the Commander-in-Chief of Yunzhou? Wei Yuan can be quite ruthless… Oh right, Number Two mentioned before that the reason the bandit problem in Yunzhou was difficult to solve was because the bandits occupied strategic positions, and they all had military supplies. They weren’t ordinary mountain bandits, so someone must have been supporting them from behind.
The Qi faction in the capital certainly couldn’t operate remotely, so they needed a high-ranking local official to cooperate… Xu Qi An suddenly understood.
Wei Yuan continued, “After the secret message reached the capital, that informant mysteriously died, passing away without a sound. His true identity was a clerk in the Military Command’s Administrative Office.
“The man is dead, and the evidence has vanished. I’ve already reported this matter to His Majesty, who will send an inspector from the Censorate to Yunzhou to investigate.
“Your task is to protect the inspector and find evidence.”
Xu Qi An hesitated, “Why do I have to go to Yunzhou?”
Still reluctant… Wei Yuan said, “This matter will be handled by Jiang Luzhong. You’ll accompany him to gain experience.”
Xu Qi An immediately felt reassured and said, “There’s one more thing… Lord Wei, the chicken essence shouldn’t be consumed in large quantities. It can cause thirst. Tell the cooks to use less when cooking.”
Wei Yuan had just reprimanded him, but not only did Xu Qi An not hold a grudge, he even offered kind advice. Xu Qi An felt he was truly too kind-hearted.
Wei Yuan said nothing, just pointed at the door.
“This official takes his leave,” Xu Qi An promptly slipped away.