Why say “again”? Because Ye Yuqing clearly remembered that in the same scene last time, Yin Gezhi had kicked open the door in the same way.
In the March weather, the wind blowing in from outside felt strangely bone-chilling. Feng Yue shivered, smacked her lips, and closed her eyes to sleep.
Ye Yuqing stood up, closed her robe, and looked at the doorway with an ambiguous smile: “Today doesn’t seem to be Your Highness’s day.”
Entering with an expressionless face, Yin Gezhi didn’t even look at the bed, walking straight to the flower stand, saying coldly: “I happened to discover some unspeakable matters concerning Miss Feng Yue, so I came to verify. I didn’t expect Your Highness to be in such a mood in broad daylight.”
The room was heavy with the smell of wine—who knows how much they’d drunk. The person on the bed hadn’t made a sound since he entered. She must have passed out drunk. To seduce someone in broad daylight—how impressive.
He hadn’t come to do anything particular, just to check which shop’s green bean cakes were on her shelf. He hadn’t come to spoil anyone’s fun, nor did he have any interest in doing so. After all, she was just a frivolous courtesan doing what courtesans do. Nothing wrong with that.
Though he told himself this, he stared at the boxes on the flower stand for quite a while without actually checking whose mark was printed on them.
“Master,” Guanzhi called softly, reaching for the green bean cake box and saying quietly, “This is from the shop on Xiangyu Street.”
Expression sharpening, Yin Gezhi turned his head, his gaze striking like lightning toward the person on the bed.
Feng Yue clenched her fist, trying hard to play dead.
How was she to know Yin Gezhi would come? She was in the middle of important business, just about to reach the crucial moment, and he came to make trouble!
Green bean cakes? What about them? She didn’t believe they could find anything suspicious in that shop! Her intelligence network had been carefully laid for two full years, with any potentially suspicious elements well concealed. Now they thought they could intimidate her with a green bean cake box? Impossible!
While cursing inwardly, she felt the Crown Prince beside her leave the bed and walk to Yin Gezhi’s front, glancing at the box before saying with a smile: “What’s all this about? Is it just green bean cakes? I had someone buy these for Miss Feng Yue earlier. Is there something wrong with them?”
Yin Gezhi frowned: “Your Highness bought them?”
“Yes, I brought them along when I came to see her earlier,” Ye Yuqing nodded elegantly. “In all of Menghui House, Miss Feng Yue must be the easiest to please. She’s delighted by any simple snacks—quite the little glutton.”
Guanzhi nodded slightly, saying softly: “Indeed, the lady usually does enjoy buying such preserved fruits and pastries, and her maid is quite fond of sweets too.”
“In that case, I was overthinking things.” Placing the green bean cake box back expressionlessly, Yin Gezhi turned to leave but was blocked by Ye Yuqing.
“Did Your Highness come suddenly for something else?” Phoenix’s eyes narrowed slightly with a trace of mockery, Ye Yuqing opened his fan to cover half his face, saying with an ambiguous smile: “Hasn’t Miss Feng Yue always been in Your Highness’s favor? Now that she’s to serve me, Your Highness does not react?”
Glancing at him sideways, Yin Gezhi said flatly: “A mere courtesan, hardly worth mentioning.”
What a ‘hardly worth mentioning’! Ye Yuqing couldn’t help but laugh, stepping aside: “Then Your Highness may take your leave.”
Lifting his foot to continue out, when he reached the doorway, Yin Gezhi suddenly stopped, turned his head, and said very gently: “Your Highness is Wu Country’s future, you must take good care of yourself.”
Ye Yuqing enjoyed seeing Yin Gezhi’s livid face. It made him feel particularly satisfied, but correspondingly, what he least wanted to see was Yin Gezhi’s composed expression and gentle manner.
It wasn’t that he was perverse, but rather that when this person became gentle, it made people very uncomfortable.
Yin Gezhi stepped out and closed the door. The room returned to silence, and Feng Yue, pretending to be sound asleep, turned over slightly.
It was still early, the sky hadn’t darkened, and Ye Yuqing had many things to arrange. Although he never appeared busy, he wasn’t someone who could idle away an entire day.
But Feng Yue had said she wanted Yi Guoru’s life.
This statement was enough to make him sit quietly by her bedside waiting for her to wake up, absolutely not leaving the room for even half a step.
Having one’s fake drunkenness interrupted was quite awkward, and continuing to pretend would certainly feel unnatural. Feng Yue simply decided to take a real nap—though her alcohol tolerance was good, drinking did help with sleep.
Thus, two hours later, as dusk approached, Feng Yue stretched lazily, smacked her lips, and woke up.
Ye Yuqing still sat beside her, looking at her with an inscrutable expression.
“Young lord, what’s wrong?” Her eyes full of innocence, Feng Yue supported herself to sit up, holding her head: “Why is my head so fuzzy…”
“The lady’s capacity for alcohol is impressive, taking two jin of white wine to get drunk.” Reaching out to pass her a cup of tea, Ye Yuqing curled his lips: “You’re extremely adorable when drunk, talking nonsense, almost frightening me.”
Her expression tightened, and Feng Yue immediately became flustered, her eyes darting about as she grabbed his sleeve: “This humble one always talks nonsense when drunk, much of it isn’t true, please don’t take it to heart!”
“I know you must have been talking nonsense.” Looking at her gently, Ye Yuqing lightly held her hand: “However, there’s one thing I still can’t figure out, perhaps the lady can enlighten me?”
“Wh-what thing?” Feng Yue asked trembling.
“Don’t be nervous, it’s nothing major.” Looking into her eyes, Ye Yuqing smiled: “I just want to ask, how does the lady know Great General Yi’s given name?”
By rights, commoners would show respect by avoiding speaking the names of their betters. Great General Yi was second only to one person in Wu Country—naturally, common people wouldn’t spread his name around, at most calling him “General Yi,” and even Wei Country’s commoners shouldn’t know it.
Yet this woman before him, when drunk, had directly spoken Yi Guoru’s full name.
At times like these, acting skills were truly tested. The Crown Prince of Wu himself was a master of acting behind a gentle facade. Before him, Feng Yue naturally remained extremely alert, controlling every detail of her expression perfectly.
“This…” Her body shrank back fearfully, trying to withdraw her hand as Feng Yue’s tears welled up, mumbling: “This humble one learned it by chance, I… I deserve death for offending Great General Yi, please forgive me, Your Highness!”
Calling him “Your Highness” now, not “young lord” anymore.
Ye Yuqing’s expression turned serious as he held onto her hand without letting go, his gaze suddenly sharp: “You did more than offend General Yi! Those words alone showed murderous intent—enough to be charged with attempted assassination.”
Who was he trying to scare? If he wanted to charge her with a crime, why would the Crown Prince of Wu waste time waiting so long in a brothel?
Internally rolling her eyes, but showing increasing panic on her face, Feng Yue bit her lip as tears streamed down: “Your Highness, please spare me! It was just drunken talk, not to be taken seriously!”
“There’s a saying that drunk words are sober thoughts.” Ye Yuqing looked at her sideways, his gaze suddenly cold: “Everything happens for a reason. Either tell me what connection you have with General Yi or come with me to the magistrate’s office.”
Feng Yue trembled like a withering flower in the wind, shaking so much she couldn’t speak.
Softening his expression, Ye Yuqing patted her back gently: “No need to be so nervous. As long as you tell the truth, no one will harm you.”
After choking back sobs for a long while, Feng Yue finally let out a long sigh, the trailing sound full of melancholy. This sigh alone seemed to tell a story.
Ye Yuqing watched her intently.
“This humble one is from Wei Country. Originally, life was peaceful, the family harmonious—we lived simply but were incredibly happy.” She spoke, nostalgia in her eyes and a smile on her lips.
Scenes from the Guan mansion floated before her eyes—several maids running in the courtyard, Guan Qingyue blindfolded but catching them unerringly, full of laughter and joy.
“But during the Wu-Wei war, because my family lived near the battlefield, we were captured by General Yi along with other civilians to be used as hostages, threatening General Guan to retreat ten li.”
The Battle of Dongkuang was also the battle that made Guan Qingyue’s name. The mighty General Yi had taken civilians hostage to force them to retreat. Guan Canghai did retreat, but she led a battalion at night to try to rescue the hostages.
Who knew that when they broke into the enemy camp, they would discover that three hundred innocent civilians had all been buried alive, simply because Wei Country was short on supplies and wouldn’t feed prisoners?
Eyes reddening, Feng Yue clenched her hands, trying to speak calmly: “My family were simple civilians who worked from sunrise to sunset, and never did anything wrong. They had nothing to do with that battle, but General Yi captured them and buried them all alive. That huge pit contained the bodies of over three hundred civilians. Even if I wanted to find my family’s remains for a proper burial, it wasn’t possible.”
Ye Yuqing was shocked.
Such a thing had happened? The battle reports hadn’t mentioned it at all… of course, they wouldn’t.
Frowning slightly, he relaxed his guard and looked at the young woman before him who was trying hard to suppress her anger, asking softly: “How did you escape?”
“When they were capturing people, I happened to be gathering herbs in the mountains,” Feng Yue said. “When I returned, there wasn’t a single person left at home. Things were smashed everywhere—I thought bandits had come.”
“But five days later, news came that the battlefield had moved and people could collect their dead. Only then did I learn that my family had been captured by General Yi, and none had survived.”
“Later, I came to Wu Country with other Wei refugees, since most of the fighting was on Wei territory—it was a kind of sanctuary.”
Coming back from her memories, Feng Yue looked at the person before her and smiled. Choking up, she pointed at herself: “Shouldn’t this humble one hate him? Yi Guoru’s name—I went to great lengths to find it out. Even if this humble one can never avenge this mortal hatred in this life, won’t you allow me to mention it when drunk?”
“It’s just words—this humble one could never actually kill him!”
Tears streamed down her face. Feng Yue herself didn’t know if she was crying for real or pretending, only feeling a painful blockage in her heart and a severe burning in her eyes.