Hearing Pei Wenxuan’s “Mm,” Li Rong knew Pei Wenxuan’s heart was pleased. She held Pei Wenxuan’s arm as they walked forward. The two boarded the carriage together, and only then did Pei Wenxuan remember: “Earlier I saw you seemed rather unhappy. Did you say something to His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“Chuan’er has decided to select a consort.” Li Rong sighed. “Actually, this is also a good thing. It’s best if he can think it through, but I don’t know why—my heart just feels somewhat pained.”
“What pains Your Highness?”
Pei Wenxuan poured tea for Li Rong. Li Rong remained silent. After a moment, she smiled: “It’s really nothing. With him being like this now, everyone can relax—it couldn’t be better. He is the Crown Prince after all,” Li Rong raised her eyes to look at him and smiled. “Isn’t that right?”
Pei Wenxuan said nothing. He seemed unwilling to touch on this topic. He pushed the poured tea toward Li Rong, only saying: “Your Highness should drink some tea to ease the effects of the wine.”
Li Rong raised her eyes to look at Pei Wenxuan’s somewhat distant expression in the candlelight. She hesitated for a moment but ultimately said nothing.
The New Year holiday passed quickly. After staying at home for just a few days, the entire court began operating again. On Li Rong’s first day back at the Constabulary Bureau, she heard that the exile and military conscription convoy was about to leave the city. Li Rong thought for a moment, suddenly remembering something, and turned to ask Shangguan Ya: “Wasn’t Lin Feibai sentenced to military service?”
“Yes.”
Shangguan Ya nodded, somewhat puzzled: “Why do you suddenly think of this?”
“Let’s go.” Li Rong stood up, smiling. “Let’s go see him.”
Shangguan Ya was somewhat surprised Li Rong would have this thought. She followed Li Rong out, hastily saying: “Why does Your Highness want to see him?”
“He’s talented,” Li Rong explained. “Not seeing him off would be a pity.”
The two left the gate and boarded a carriage. Before long, they arrived at the city gate.
At this time, a line of prisoners had already gathered at the city gate. They wore white prisoner garments, bore heavy leg irons, wore wooden cangues around their necks, and were saying farewell to their relatives.
There was weeping everywhere before the city gate. Only Lin Feibai stood among the crowd looking very calm, completely out of place with his surroundings.
Li Rong and Shangguan Ya walked before Lin Feibai. Li Rong greeted him with a smile: “Young Master Lin.”
Lin Feibai responded but said nothing more. Li Rong looked at the punishment instruments on his body, turned her head, and instructed Shangguan Ya: “Go make arrangements with the officials escorting them. He should still have the dignity he deserves—don’t put so many things on Young Master Lin.”
Shangguan Ya bowed and withdrew. Li Rong turned to look at Lin Feibai. Lin Feibai’s expression remained unchanged. Li Rong looked him up and down: “Judging by Young Master Lin’s appearance, the Seven Star Hall people have already prepared things for the journey?”
“What,” hearing Li Rong mention Seven Star Hall, Lin Feibai’s face finally showed some ripples, “does Your Highness feel that weeds must be pulled up by the roots, so you’ve come specially now to eliminate this root that is Lin?”
“Young Master Lin is mistaken. I’ve come to provide Young Master Lin with a path.” Li Rong raised her hand to look at her folding fan, saying gently: “Has Young Master Lin ever thought of becoming an official?”
Lin Feibai frowned. Li Rong analyzed for him: “If Seven Star Hall rescues you from this prisoner convoy, it will certainly alarm the court. With my Father Emperor’s temperament, facing an organization like your Seven Star Hall—assassination first and prisoner rescue after—I’m afraid he won’t let you off.”
“So what are you trying to say?” Lin Feibai stared at Li Rong. Li Rong smiled: “I just want to know—since both involve killing people and risking one’s life—would Young Master Lin be willing to risk it on the battlefield?”
“This time Young Master Lin is going for military service.”
Li Rong turned to look into the distance: “Military service differs from exile. Though both are to remote areas, exiled people have no future, but those in military service who establish military merit also have the opportunity to offset their crimes with achievements and assume important positions in the army. If Young Master Lin is willing, I can cooperate with Young Master Lin. As long as Young Master Lin establishes one small merit, I will petition His Majesty to have you entered into the Xie family genealogy. From a criminal you’ll become a commoner. This way, you can establish merit and build a career on the battlefield.”
“Is it to wander the world fleeing everywhere from now on, or to enter an aristocratic family genealogy, exchange your life for prospects, and gamble on rising high in officialdom?” Li Rong leaned forward. “Young Master Lin should think carefully.”
There really was no choice, nor any need to choose.
Lin Feibai looked at Li Rong, frowning, his gaze involuntarily carrying some doubt: “You dare trust me?”
After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d broken his word. Last time he’d promised to cooperate with her from the inside to deal with Xie Lanqing, but then turned around and dealt with her alongside Xie Lanqing.
Li Rong smiled: “Whether I can trust you, I’m still clear about. Previously you had your mother’s dying command binding you. Now I think you’ll make the choice most suitable for yourself.”
“My choice?” Lin Feibai laughed coldly. “You sentenced me to military service and you’re letting me choose? This is called a choice? What kind of good person are you pretending to be by coming here now?”
“Young Master Lin is being narrow-minded,” Li Rong rubbed the fan in her hands. “You tried to kill me and also framed me. That I’m letting you serve in the military is already my magnanimity toward you. Now I’m even providing you with a path to take—shouldn’t you be grateful to me?”
“Young Master Lin has quite a few lives on his hands. Regarding matters of grievances and enmities, you surely can see clearly. You and I aren’t enemies. You tried to kill me not because you hated me, and I sentenced you not because I dislike you. Since that’s the case, now that I can provide you with benefits, why wouldn’t you become friends with me?”
After Li Rong finished speaking, Lin Feibai didn’t say much. He wasn’t a fool. After thinking for a moment, he agreed, only saying: “I await Your Highness’s instructions.”
As the two were speaking, Shangguan Ya walked over and said to Li Rong: “Everything’s arranged. They’re still at the gate now so it’s not convenient to act, but after they walk some distance and leave Hua Jing’s territory, they’ll remove the punishment instruments from his body.”
With that, Shangguan Ya turned to look at Lin Feibai: “Lin the bandit, aren’t you going to thank the Princess?”
“I’m thanking her, not you,” Lin Feibai answered directly, lightly glancing at Shangguan Ya. “What’s it to you?”
“You’re truly a person who bites the hand that feeds you,” Shangguan Ya became angry hearing Lin Feibai’s words and raised her hand. “Return my leaf cards to me.”
“The Southwest is poor and boring,” Lin Feibai said slowly. “I’m not returning them.”
After these words, the escorting officials arrived before Li Rong, apologetically saying: “Your Highness, this young master must depart. Why don’t the two of you catch up another day?”
The words were spoken politely. Li Rong nodded, had Shangguan Ya reward them with silver, and raised her hand to give Lin Feibai a jade pendant engraved with the character “Ping,” only saying: “Write often in the future.”
After Li Rong finished saying this, she led Shangguan Ya back.
Just as they entered the city, a servant walked over and said to Li Rong: “Your Highness, the Prince Consort says he cannot return today and asks that you dine by yourself.”
“What does he have to do?”
Li Rong was somewhat puzzled. Pei Wenxuan rarely didn’t come home for meals. Now he actually wasn’t coming home to eat?
“The Prince Consort said he’s hosting a banquet for some officials.”
Hearing this, Li Rong frowned, but it wasn’t appropriate to show her displeasure in front of others. She suppressed it, planning to ask Pei Wenxuan when she returned.
Shangguan Ya observed Li Rong’s expression from the side. As soon as the servant left, Shangguan Ya bumped Li Rong with her shoulder: “The Prince Consort isn’t dining with you—are you unhappy?”
“How could that be?” Li Rong withdrew her gaze from the departing servant and turned her head. “I’m just wondering why he’s hosting others.”
“In the second month, the Ministry of Personnel will determine examination results, and in the third month they’ll announce the personnel transfer list. Though that list is actually determined in the second month,” Shangguan Ya was very familiar with these matters and spoke readily. “Officials wanting transfers are all making their rounds now. Since the Prince Consort is hosting guests now, he must want a transfer.”
With that, Shangguan Ya suddenly remembered: “He’s been in the position of Supervising Censor for quite a while, hasn’t he? He’s your Prince Consort—by rights, when he married you his rank should have been raised and his position elevated. He’s also worked on several cases with you. Both emotionally and logically he should have been promoted, so how is he still not moving?”
“Censor is a position of real power,” Li Rong explained to Shangguan Ya. “Though the rank isn’t high, it’s much more important than those positions with empty titles. If he’s to be transferred, it will certainly be to somewhere with real power. Those places aren’t easy to get into. Father Emperor must also be suppressing him, suppressing until it’s enough,” Li Rong made a gesture of compression, “then when it springs back, it will spring high.”
“Then,” Shangguan Ya thought about it, “the Prince Consort’s promotion is pretty much certain. What is he still busy with now?”
Li Rong crossed her arms, hugging herself, pondering Shangguan Ya’s words: “I’m afraid someone is making things difficult for him.”
With matters like promotion, if you’re forcibly sent to a place, others have plenty of methods to make trouble for you. If Pei Wenxuan planned to be an official with real power, he needed his own faction.
“I’m afraid someone is making things difficult for him.”
Li Rong murmured aloud. Shangguan Ya glanced at her and couldn’t help laughing out loud.
Li Rong looked up puzzled: “What are you laughing at?”
“Your Highness,” Shangguan Ya winked at her, “are you and the Prince Consort’s feelings quite good now?”
Hearing Shangguan Ya ask this, as they walked down the street watching people coming and going around them, Li Rong said slowly: “Thanks to you, I suppose there’s been some transformation.”
“When are you planning to have children?”
Shangguan Ya walked down the street with Li Rong. Li Rong looked at the rattle drums swaying by the roadside. Hearing Shangguan Ya ask this, she felt somewhat dazed for a moment.
She had never had children in her entire life. When young she didn’t want them, later she didn’t dare have them, and finally she couldn’t have them.
Children to her were like an expensive luxury—far away in the distance. She heard others discuss them, but aside from the first year of marriage, she never thought of having any again.
And now Shangguan Ya brought it up again. She suddenly realized that everything she’d found difficult to obtain in her previous life, including children, at this moment seemed to be things she could possess if she just stood on tiptoe and reached a bit.
Li Rong seriously considered this question. Seeing her silence, Shangguan Ya continued: “What, you haven’t thought about it?”
“I’ll tell you something truthful.” Li Rong looked around, leaned close to Shangguan Ya, and lowered her voice. “We haven’t consummated the marriage yet.”
Shangguan Ya’s eyes widened, momentarily shocked, but after thinking for a moment, she steadied herself and said gravely: “Your Highness, if there are any problems, you can talk to me more about them.”
“There aren’t really any problems,” Li Rong frowned, seriously analyzing. “Actually I don’t really mind, it’s just that Pei Wenxuan he…”
“He can’t perform?” Shangguan Ya exclaimed in shock. Li Rong quickly explained: “He can—there’s nothing wrong with his body.”
“Then?” Shangguan Ya showed a puzzled expression.
Married for over half a year, body fine, the woman willing, feelings harmonious, yet he could still sit in perfect composure—was this some reincarnation of Liu Xiahui?
“This is what he told me,” Li Rong spoke honestly. “He feels that feelings should develop slowly, and he wants to take things step by step with me.”
“I understand.” Shangguan Ya nodded, showing a look of comprehension. “Your Highness, I’m very clear about this matter.”
“You’re clear?” Li Rong was somewhat surprised. She turned to look at Shangguan Ya. This thing that she herself—an old woman who’d lived most of a lifetime—didn’t understand, Shangguan Ya understood?
“Clear,” Shangguan Ya said exceptionally seriously. “Your married couple’s steps haven’t reached the right point yet.”
“Tell me more.” Li Rong became interested in Shangguan Ya’s thoughts. Shangguan Ya walked shoulder to shoulder with Li Rong, speaking as if fortune-telling: “Your Highness, in this relationship of yours, normally it’s always the Prince Consort courting your favor, right?”
“Yes.” Li Rong frankly admitted. “Generally he’s the one who accommodates me.”
“Then have you given him anything, deliberately made him happy?”
“No…”
As Li Rong spoke, she didn’t know why, but she felt somewhat guilty. Shangguan Ya began analyzing for Li Rong: “So you see, the Prince Consort’s hints are so obvious. He feels feelings should come step by step—why haven’t you two gone to bed yet? Because you haven’t reached that step. Your Highness, you’re willing now, which shows the Prince Consort’s steps have reached completion on your side. But if you stay in place without moving, the Prince Consort will never feel it’s appropriate.”
Li Rong tapped her palm with her fan, listening as Shangguan Ya continued: “So, if you want to sleep with him, don’t be too reserved. You need to take initiative, attack, invade his heart, and then you can toy with him in the palm of your hand.”
As Shangguan Ya spoke, she made a gesture of fingers gradually clenching into a fist.
Li Rong frowned. Though she didn’t quite accept Shangguan Ya’s theory—for instance, she felt that Pei Wenxuan’s “unwillingness” more likely came from him feeling their feelings deep down were mismatched.
But there was one thing she did care about.
She cared that that day Pei Wenxuan said she had never coaxed him.
So when she coaxed him just a little, he could forgive everything.
Actually she didn’t want it to be like this. She didn’t know why, but she just hoped Pei Wenxuan could be more unrestrained in front of her.
She’d told him to wait for her a bit—she couldn’t just coax him into staying in place and then do nothing.
Thinking this way, Li Rong made up her mind: “You’re right. I need to treat him better.”
With that, Li Rong resolved: “This transfer matter—I need to take care of it for him completely!”