Early the next morning, Guo Rong came to find Han Qian to discuss how they should specifically determine the many details of the wedding ceremony with the Shu Court of State Ceremonial and Court of Imperial Clan Affairs. Han Qian smiled and said, “I’m an unlearned person with a crude temperament. My reputation has long since spread throughout Jinling—I know nothing about these various protocols. These matters can all be discussed between Lord Guo and Wei Qun.”

Han Qian had no intention of spending his limited time in Shu on elaborate ceremonies and tedious rituals. Since Guo Rong could serve as vice envoy, it was because he was more skilled in these areas. Han Qian simply pushed all these affairs onto him.

Seeing Han Qian speak thus, Guo Rong also diligently accepted all the responsibilities. Just as he was about to return to his quarters to carefully consider these matters and turned to leave, he heard Han Qian ask from behind:

“Many people say that after the Third Prince marries Princess Qing Yang, His Majesty will depose the Crown Prince and establish another. What does Lord Guo think of this matter?”

Guo Rong knew Han Qian would inevitably ask this question, but actually hearing it still made him freeze involuntarily. His body stiffened as he turned around to see Han Qian’s burning gaze piercing straight into his heart. He opened his mouth, not knowing how to answer this question.

No matter what, he bore the label of Anning Palace. It could be said he should be the type of person who least wanted to see the Third Prince established as heir and ascend the throne. Once the Third Prince took the throne, even if he could preserve his miserable life, he would be swept into some corner of a waste heap, barely surviving.

If he didn’t want His Majesty to depose the First Prince and establish the Third Prince, Guo Rong could easily imagine what kind of upheaval and turmoil would occur in Great Chu.

How should he answer Han Qian’s question?

“Everything is decided by His Majesty’s sacred will alone. Guo Rong is merely His Majesty’s servant—how could I be qualified to speak on such matters?” Guo Rong said with his head slightly bowed. After a long while, he finally said this sentence, then bowed again and turned to leave.

“Have someone watch this traitorous eunuch carefully. Just don’t let him have the opportunity to cause trouble,” Feng Yi said, puzzled.

In Feng Yi’s view, the current Guo Rong was like a tiger with its teeth pulled out, and he had fallen into their hands. They only needed to assign someone to watch Guo Rong and prevent him from causing trouble—why was there a need to so seriously test his attitude?

“Then you watch Guo Rong,” Han Qian said to Feng Yi with a smile.

The human heart was the hardest to fathom. Throughout history, when distinguishing between enemies, blood lineage and clan as well as closeness and distance were probably the most direct and simple methods of factional division. But if it were truly this simple, how could there be fathers and sons or siblings killing each other in this world?

Guo Rong had endured a miserable upbringing. Although born in Guangling, the land of fish and rice, his parents and siblings had all starved to death by the roadside. After becoming an orphan, he wandered the countryside and was taken into the Guangling Military Commissioner’s residence as a slave and eunuch. Later, he followed as the Guangling Military Commissioner’s residence was incorporated into Huainan and came under Emperor Tianyou’s command.

By this measure, Guo Rong was absolutely a direct subordinate of Anning Palace.

As long as one was human, they had their particularity, and Guo Rong was no exception.

In his early years serving in the palace, Guo Rong had a good reputation and had also had dealings with his father, Han Daoxun.

Although Guo Rong’s placement at the Third Prince’s side was largely due to Anning Palace’s factor of monitoring the Third Prince, Han Qian believed that Emperor Tianyou must have also weighed this decision before this position ultimately fell to Guo Rong.

In fact, over these past few years, Guo Rong had been monitoring their side for Anning Palace, but his methods were moderate and he showed no intention of forcing the Third Prince. This was also one factor that had allowed them to accomplish many things over the years.

Guo Rong had also been left in this awkward position due to his ineffective performance, making it difficult for him to gain Anning Palace’s trust again.

Besides testing his true inner thoughts with that question just now, Han Qian was also further confirming that Guo Rong truly knew very little about Anning Palace’s schemes.

Yang Qin and Zhou Chu had remained outside the city yesterday and only entered Jinhua Tower before noon to see Han Qian and report on the situation of the main forces entering the military camp designated by the Court of State Ceremonial yesterday.

Whether it was the guards who entered the city with Han Qian or the main forces stationed in the designated camp, all were under close surveillance by Shu troops. This was to be expected.

Besides the Chu state’s wedding betrothal gifts and the goods Han Qian privately carried, this time the four warships had also transported several thousand bolts of Qianyang cloth, as well as batches of tea, medicine, iron wares, Yandang Spring strong liquor, and other goods that were specialties of Xuzhou. They all needed to find corresponding merchants in the Shu capital to sell them.

With this foundation in place, once Chu and Shu formally concluded their alliance, the bulk goods produced in Xuzhou could be continuously transported via the Yangtze waterway into Sichuan for sale at the fastest speed.

For Han Qian, this also balanced public and private interests.

These matters—Guo Que, Xi Fa’er, and even Yang Qin could all handle with ease. However, Han Qian placed the main forces outside the city under Yang Qin’s command, kept Xi Fa’er and Kong Xirong as guards at his side, had Guo Que lead Jinyun Tower’s personnel who had infiltrated Shu to gather intelligence, and assigned the disposal of bulk goods and contact with Shu merchants to Zhou Chu to lead people in handling.

Zhou Chu had risen from local militia origins, gaining merit through capturing bandits and defending villages, and was appointed a minor official. He had then been promoted step by step to county captain. Besides relying on his exceptional martial prowess, he had a set of methods for training local troops and even defending cities. However, now having the nearly forty-year-old man deal with merchants was indeed somewhat difficult for him.

However, as a surrendered official whose entire family had not been sent to Jinling for trial and had escaped death, Zhou Chu’s situation at Han Qian’s side—no matter how awkward—still counted as being able to handle matters independently. Could he really continue clinging to his former county captain’s official prestige and refuse to lower himself?

Yesterday they had rented a warehouse outside the southern city and moved the goods into it overnight. Zhou Chu came with Yang Qin to see Han Qian at this time, his eyes red and swollen. Presumably he had spent the night taking inventory of goods and hadn’t slept much.

Of course, Han Qian assigning Zhou Chu to be responsible for these matters was not deliberately making things difficult for him, but rather to further hone him in areas where he was not skilled.

Otherwise, Zhou Chu—relying only on the experience he had accumulated in his position as Wuling county captain—would still be insufficient to integrate into the group that had come from Xuzhou.

While they were discussing matters here, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong sent someone to invite Han Qian to his residence for a midday banquet.

Very few Shu generals supported allying with Chu to resist Liang, and Princess Qing Yang’s marriage into the Chu state involved the delicate relationship between the Heir Apparent and the Long Xiang Marquis. Therefore, besides the officials from the Court of State Ceremonial and Court of Imperial Clan Affairs who were ordered to discuss marriage and reception matters, no one would actively come to the Southern Garden of Jinhua Tower to befriend Han Qian and his party.

Han Qian immediately invited Guo Rong as well as several officials from the Court of State Ceremonial and Court of Imperial Clan Affairs who had come to discuss matters, and brought Xi Ren, Yang Qin, Zhou Chu, Xi Fa’er, Guo Que, Feng Yi, Kong Xirong, and others to attend the banquet at the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence.

The Long Xiang Marquis’s residence was just across an alley from Jinhua Tower. It also occupied a vast area, with numerous pavilions, terraces, and towers inside. Many cold-resistant flowers that the Long Xiang Marquis had collected from various places were planted, so that even in the cold winter season, the marquis’s residence was full of clustered flowers competing in exotic fragrance.

If Han Qian hadn’t already confirmed that the Long Xiang Marquis was not simple, just looking at the situation inside the marquis’s residence, he would likely have mistaken him for a noble son immersed in the land of wealth and honor.

Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong ordinarily did not associate with court generals and officials. Those invited to accompany at the banquet were all scholars and Confucian students with literary reputations in Shu. Princess Qing Yang’s figure was not seen. Han Qian thought that after returning to the Shu capital, Princess Qing Yang—not wanting others to gossip—probably found it inconvenient to continue dressing as a man and associating with these Shu envoys.

They all seemed to have received reminders from Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong. Besides the Superintendent of the Court Entertainment Bureau arranging for zither players and singing girls to perform and enliven the atmosphere, no one at the banquet stood up to compete in poetry and verse.

Honestly, not looking at the clustered flowers in the garden but only at those attending the banquet, the cold atmosphere at the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence was even more dismal than when Third Prince Yang Yuanpu had first left the palace to establish his own household—at that time, the Third Prince at least had Xinchang Marquis’s residence as well as Shen Yang and Han Qian, these few tutors and study companions designated by Emperor Tianyou.

After the banquet, those few accompanying scholars and Confucian students took their leave. Guo Rong returned to the Southern Garden of Jinhua Tower with the officials from the Court of State Ceremonial and Court of Imperial Clan Affairs to discuss matters. Han Qian and the others continued to remain at the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence to admire the garden, which had the delicate beauty of Jiangnan.

The sound of a zither came from within the garden.

“This zither music sounds familiar?” Feng Yi said hesitantly, leaning close to Han Qian’s ear.

“What, you think there’s an old acquaintance hidden in the Long Xiang Marquis’s residence? Can you tell who it is?” Han Qian fell back half a step and asked Feng Yi in a low voice.

“Not necessarily the same person. Sometimes when students learn from the same school, their playing techniques will have similarities,” Feng Yi said doubtfully. “At first hearing, I thought it was Su Hongyu, but listening carefully, it’s not the same person.”

Xi Ren followed closely behind Han Qian. Hearing Feng Yi’s words, she was also secretly shocked. This actually confirmed all of Han Qian’s speculations about the Long Xiang Marquis and Princess Qing Yang during this period.

Su Hongyu, Yao Xishui, the person playing the zither in the garden, as well as Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and Princess Qing Yang—they all came from the same school.

“You have the ears of a thief!” Han Qian laughingly scolded Feng Yi.

“What’s wrong?” Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong didn’t know what medicine Han Qian and his party were selling in their gourd. He stopped by a small pond ahead and asked.

“This zither sounds extremely wonderful. Even I think it’s much better than the zither player at the banquet earlier,” Han Qian praised calmly.

“Then please, Lord Han, come with me to meet this zither player,” the Long Xiang Marquis said with a mysterious smile, never imagining that Feng Yi’s ears were so keen.

Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong led the way ahead, and Han Qian and the others followed the zither music toward the depths of the garden. After circling around an artificial mountain, the courtyard suddenly opened up. They saw a wooden pavilion built among flower ponds, and a pair of jade-like beauties sitting in the pavilion playing the zither.

Seeing Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and Han Qian approach, the two rose gracefully and walked over to greet them.

Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong held the zither-playing beautiful woman’s soft hand, white as fine jade, and introduced her to Han Qian: “Wan’er is this marquis’s beloved consort…”

“Lady Liang greets Lord Han.” The beautiful woman was about the same age as Xi Ren, exceptionally gorgeous, with beautiful eyes like painted lacquer, deep and captivating. She curtsied gracefully to Han Qian.

“The marquis consort is too courteous,” Han Qian returned the salute with clasped hands. Liang Wan was a rare beauty in the world, but compared to the young woman behind her, she was still slightly inferior.

This was also Han Qian’s first time seeing Princess Qing Yang in women’s clothing. He had never imagined that revealing her true appearance—with snow-white skin like jade, clear and beautiful features, and an otherworldly temperament—she truly made other women pale in comparison. No wonder her name had spread beyond Shu at such a young age.

Han Qian’s gaze only lingered on Qing Yang’s face for an instant before he withdrew it, suppressing the slight ripples in his heart, and ascended the wooden pavilion with the Long Xiang Marquis.

The wooden pavilion was small. Everyone else waited outside the garden. Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong only had Liang Wan and Qing Yang serve tea at the side.

Han Qian looked at the fish pond in front of the wooden pavilion. With a slightly drunken air, he pretended confusion and asked Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong:

“There’s something I truly cannot understand. I must ask the Marquis for guidance.”

“What puzzles Lord Han? Please speak,” Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong said.

Han Qian said, “I heard that one day when the Qingjiang Marquis was hosting guests, he had a concubine dance to enliven the atmosphere. One of his generals drank too much wine and praised this concubine’s beauty a few extra times. Not only did the Qingjiang Marquis take no offense, but after the banquet he even sent the concubine to the general’s residence as a reward. This shows the Qingjiang Marquis is truly a person with an open mind whom one would like to befriend. As for the Marquis, you don’t covet power and position. Every day you practice Buddhism and compose poetry. The guests who come and go at your residence are all useless, empty-talking Confucian scholars. If the Marquis is merely secretly plotting to marry Princess Qing Yang to my lord, hoping these leisurely days can continue in the future, the Qingjiang Marquis really has no need to make a mountain out of a molehill and repeatedly arrange difficulties for me. Or perhaps the Marquis has done other things behind the scenes that have fallen into the Qingjiang Marquis’s sight?”

Hearing Han Qian speak thus, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong was also slightly startled for a moment. He couldn’t figure out whether Han Qian had confirmed after experiencing yesterday’s two incidents that Qing Yang’s marriage to Chu was his doing, or whether he had determined this long ago and was only now revealing it.

Of course, the meaning of Han Qian’s words was also perfectly clear—he was directly telling Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong: Kid, don’t put on an act in front of me. You’ve definitely exposed some flaw that the Qingjiang Marquis has seen.