Li You’s living environment was extremely harsh, and this had been brought from his mother’s womb. If his mother hadn’t been as beautiful as a flower, the Yin Family would have been completely exterminated long ago.
The one who caused all this was Yin Hongzhi’s father, former Western Capital Vice-Commander Yin Shishi. He had once dispatched constables to ambush and kill Li Yuan’s fifth son, Prince Chu Li Zhiyun, and destroyed Li Yuan’s father and ancestors’ cemetery and ancestral temple, thereby triggering Li Yuan’s sensitive nerves. Therefore, when Li Yuan captured the Western Capital Daxing City, he executed Vice-Commander Yin Shishi and his brother Yin Guyi along with their three clans, wiping them out completely. He only spared Yin Shishi’s young son Yin Hongzhi and young daughter Yin Yue’e. After Li Yuan became emperor, he bestowed Yin Yue’e upon his second son Prince Qin Li Shimin, who had distinguished himself in battle, making her his concubine. The following year, she gave birth to Prince Qi Li You.
From childhood, Li You was not welcomed by his other brothers. Moreover, facing the extremely dominant Empress Zhangsun, Consort Yin could only bow her head in submission. After being instilled from a young age with the concept of carefully protecting himself, he discovered that his prospects were bleak. Being able to muddle through life waiting for death was already the best outcome for him.
Quan Wanji didn’t understand. He believed that since Li You was His Majesty’s son, he should bear his responsibilities. But he didn’t know that the better Li You performed, the sooner his death would come. Having deliberately studied the arts of power and strategy at the academy, Li You’s insights far exceeded what a pedantic scholar like Quan Wanji could match.
Li You ignored Quan Wanji’s roaring and cupped his hands to ask Yun Ye, “Teacher, Li You is destined to remain obscure in this life. Making Xiao Ya suffer such unjust treatment along with me troubles her. If Xiao Ya is unwilling to live an obscure life, this prince will definitely do his utmost to explain the reasoning to my imperial father and dissolve the engagement.”
“You should say such words to Xiao Ya yourself. What’s the logic in having me convey them? The Yun Family’s daughters seeing their fiancés before marriage is not among the prohibitions in our family rules. Whatever you want to say, go say it yourself. You know where the Yun Family’s main gate is. In earlier years you could go there to wheedle food and drink—what’s the logic in not daring to visit now?”
Li You smiled and said, “That’s true. When your younger brother visits as a son-in-law, I wonder if sister-in-law will arrange delicious food for my reception? The academy’s meals have become notoriously bad now. If I want to eat good food, I can only go to your residence.”
“You needn’t worry. My uncle is a person with many schemes and is unsuitable for the position of Chief Administrator of Prince Qi’s residence. I will also dismiss Yan Hongxin and the others. I also plan to send away the maids and servants in the residence. The matter of recruiting new ones should all be handled by Xiao Ya as the mistress. I’ll go ask her opinion tomorrow.”
Yun Ye was very satisfied. Since Li You already thought this way, there was no need to kill Yin Hongzhi and his group. As for who they would go harm, he couldn’t control that—as long as they didn’t harm Li You, it was fine.
Quan Wanji sat there like a dead man. Before Yun Ye came, although Li You would argue with him, at least there was communication between the two. After Yun Ye said a few words, Quan Wanji discovered he had become a clay Buddha. Li You was very respectful to him, but no matter what he said, Li You would listen—but only listen.
Quan Wanji was quite proud of his methods of teaching and educating. Now facing Li You, who was like a block of wood, a strong sense of defeat arose in his heart. He left the hall without saying a word.
Li You saw Yun Ye out the door. Only after Yun Ye’s carriage disappeared at the street corner did he return to the residence. He said to Consort Yin’s personal maid, “Aunt Mei, you’ve already left the palace. Why not serve as the steward in the residence? Although Xiao Ya has a fiery temperament, her heart is extremely kind. Would you be willing to retire in the residence?”
Aunt Mei embraced Li You once, nodded, and left. She must tell Consort Yin about Li You’s changes.
Yun Ye returned home and ate dinner with Na Rimu serving him. Calling it “serving” was actually just Yun Ye using chopsticks to eat the dishes while Na Rimu would occasionally pick up a slice of braised meat with her fingers to eat. She would never be able to change this habit in her lifetime. Huan Niang had said it countless times, but it still had no effect.
Xiao Ya was very angry. Her brother had gone to Li You’s place and didn’t even manage to get a meal, which made her feel very embarrassed. She walked up to her brother and was just about to speak when Yun Ye handed her a small package.
After Xiao Ya opened it, she saw a very old colorful rope. It looked familiar. She looked at her brother in puzzlement, not knowing why he would give her an old rope.
“Li You said this is his life. He’s entrusting his life to you for safekeeping. From now on, he plans to nest at home. Whatever matters arise in Prince Qi’s residence should all be handled by you. If you manage things well, he’ll follow you eating fine food and drinking spicy drinks. If you don’t manage well, he’ll follow you drinking gruel.”
After Yun Ye conveyed Li You’s thoughts to Xiao Ya, he didn’t bother anymore and continued eating. Only then did Xiao Ya remember that this rope had always hung around Li You’s neck. Back then when she wanted to see it, he wouldn’t let her. Even after she beat him up, that bastard wouldn’t even wipe the blood from his nose but had to first check his rope…
“Am I marrying him, or is he marrying me? With the temperament of a meatball, back when I beat him up like that, he wouldn’t let me see it. How is he now willing to give me his life?”
“This fellow is very pitiful. After discovering he was living an extremely miserable life, he was like a dead man. I had no choice but to say you were wholeheartedly waiting for him to come marry you, and then he came back to life.”
Xiao Ya wrinkled her nose and said, “I had no choice but to marry him. Everyone in the world knows the Emperor’s decree cannot be violated. Otherwise, who would wholeheartedly marry him? But saying it this way is also fine. If it can save his life, it doesn’t matter if my reputation suffers damage. After all, I’m already his fiancée.”
Yun Ye looked up at Xiao Ya and gave her a large helping of beef to stuff in her mouth. He knew this would be the result. Xiao Ya was actually the woman in the Yun Family who most strictly observed wifely duties. Outsiders only knew that Xiao Ya was unreasonable and overbearing, but Yun Ye knew very clearly that Xiao Ya was a woman who would rather wrong herself than make things difficult for others. As long as Li You treated Xiao Ya with sincerity, this fellow would definitely live extremely comfortably for the rest of his life.
The next day at dawn, Li You came to the Yun Family. He didn’t wear ceremonial robes, nor did he ride a horse. Wearing a blue scholar’s robe, tucking a scroll of books under his arm, and bringing only his head guard, he came in a carriage.
He paid his respects to Grandmother, then visited Yun Ye, who was strolling in the garden. Leaving his head guard behind, he passed through the moon gate by himself and came to Xiao Ya’s embroidery tower. He got a fright because Xiao Ya had her hands gripping the second-floor railing and was doing a handstand, swaying precariously as if she might fall at any moment. This was a requirement from the Heavenly Demoness. If a girl wanted to dance well, her arms and legs must have strength. But for a girl to develop thick legs wasn’t attractive, so the Heavenly Demoness required that Xiao Ya’s wrists must have strength and her flexibility must be good. Doing handstands was to train her arms and balance.
Li You rushed up to the second floor in a few steps and anxiously lifted Xiao Ya down. Just as he was about to say a few words of advice, he heard Xiao Ya roll her eyes and say, “I endured that suffering for nothing. I have to start over from the beginning.”
“You were just practicing martial arts?” Only then did Li You understand. He sat down with Xiao Ya leaning against the railing. He wanted to apologize, but then saw that on Xiao Ya’s fair neck was actually tied his rope. With his emotions surging, he pointed at the rope, not knowing what to say. So Marquis Yun hadn’t deceived him—Xiao Ya truly liked him after all.
“You should keep this rope safe yourself. Why did you give it to me?” Xiao Ya also felt it necessary to ask clearly. She couldn’t let this fellow deceive her with some random excuse.
“I don’t have the ability to protect my own life, so I can only entrust it to you for safekeeping. Xiao Ya, from now on you are the master of Prince Qi’s residence. Whatever you do, I’ll agree. Even if it’s rebellion, I’ll follow you.”
“And in the end, your father will have us both tied up and beheaded at the West Market?” Xiao Ya thumped Li You on the head.
Li You laughed and said, “That wouldn’t be bad either. At least on the road to the Yellow Springs I won’t be lonely. My maternal grandfather killed my uncle and dug up my family’s ancestral grave. This is my original sin. For me, doing more means more mistakes, doing less means fewer mistakes. Haha, not doing anything means no mistakes. But Prince Qi’s residence still has many mouths to feed, so I’ll have to trouble you.”
Xiao Ya said helplessly, “I originally thought I could be a glorious and magnificent princess consort. Who knew it would be like this? At least I still have my brother who loves me. Your mother consort is in the deep palace and can’t help you. How pitiful. We two people whom both gods and ghosts detest are joining forces to make a living. We must live with style. You can’t do things, and I’m a woman, so it doesn’t matter. You also know I’m not too clever, so you need to give me ideas from behind the scenes and I’ll do them. As long as it’s not rebellion, I don’t believe anyone dares to do anything to us.”
Li You laughed and said, “That’s for certain. I studied at the academy for more than five years, longer than anyone else. Although I can’t compare with those prodigies, I, Li You, am no vegetarian either. We won’t concern ourselves with court politics. We’ll just bury our heads and rake in money for the family. I don’t believe we won’t have good days.”
If someone else called Li You pitiful, it would definitely provoke this fellow’s backlash. But with Xiao Ya calling him pitiful at every turn, it actually stirred up Li You’s ambition.
This was the inevitable result. Men were just this useless. It was like how only one tiger could exist on a mountain top. If you wanted two, it had to be one male and one female.
The weapon rack at the Yun Family’s martial arts training ground was already a bit rusty. This was the family head’s place. In a year, Yun Ye rarely touched weapons once. Even when he did, it was just to take them down and wipe them. For a military general’s family, having weapons rust was very embarrassing. According to custom, no one else could touch the family head’s weapons, so Yun Ye, wearing coarse linen clothes, was working hard using sandstone to polish the rust marks on the weapons. He had just finished polishing a large saber and wanted to drink some tea. Looking up, he discovered Yan Song staring at him blankly, with Old Qian behind him looking anxious.
Yun Ye cupped his hands and said, “Brother Yan has come to my humble abode—what matter brings you here?”
Yan Song returned the courtesy and asked Yun Ye, “I wonder if Marquis Yun could lift a five-hundred-pound stone lion, carry it up to a rooftop, and finally calculate exactly when someone would pass by, then push the stone lion down to smash that person into pulp?”
Yun Ye thought for a moment and said, “This can still be accomplished. As long as I use some tools, it can be easily completed. But to happen to use a stone lion to kill a person passing by—this would be relatively difficult. When I kill people, I generally prefer to use powerful crossbows.”
Yan Song nodded and said, “That’s what I thought too. Today, seeing the rusty weapons at your residence, I became even more certain in my heart. But your Yun Family’s stone lion ran by itself from Xinghua Ward to Yong’an Ward and in broad daylight crushed someone to death. His Majesty wants me to come ask you—how did you manage it?”