Ch.20 Meeting At The Teahouse

“No,” Luo Yue has always been weak to such sincere eyes. She covered half her face with her fan and briskly made her way past him, saying stiffly, “this time as well, I’m only here for the wine.”

“Don’t worry. Now that she’s here, nothing will happen to this place.” Shen Tian Ping assured.

The teen also understood Luo Yue’s actions. He grinned and shouted after the lady who was making her way upstairs. “I’ll serve you with the best wine we have!”

Luo Yue walked down the corridor until she reached the end. She reached out a hand, slender fingers gently sliding open the simply decorated paper door. The familiar room appeared in front of her, looking not much different than the way she remembered it. There was still the table at one side, the window that overlooked the city and the tall lamp. Almost nothing about this room has changed, but she could no longer feel the warmth that had used to envelope it. She stopped at the doorway, feeling a painful wedge in her heart. Still, she gritted her jaws, forcing herself to take a step in.

As she ran her hand along the worn-out table in the room, she could see a familiar man leaning back on the chair. He was rubbing his temples, looking a little haggard from the efforts it took to complete the drafting of the renovation of TianAn City. She could see him look up just then, his face lighting up and the weariness vanishing like the morning mist as he saw her. She could see his smile, see the way the corners of his eyes softened and see his mouth parting gently.

‘Yue-Er, should we go for a night walk?’

“...-Master.” Shen Tian Ping’s voice shattered the figment of a dream in front of her.

She dragged her eyes away from the empty chair and walked towards the window ledge. This was where she had sat as she watched the late Emperor burn the midnight oil. The tight hold around her heart was getting even harder to tolerate.

Shen Tian Ping took in her pale face, knew that she would be staying there for a long time and took the initiative to leave her some space. “I’ll take Xiao Liu to help out around the city. I’ve asked for your lunch and dinner to be prepared so please don’t forget to take them. And Master…”

Shen Tian Ping knew he would not be able to stop her tonight. “Alcohol cannot relieve your sorrows.”

The lady looking out of the window merely waved her fan. “It can at least relieve my craving.”

Shen Tian Ping said no more. He silently bowed and closed the door behind him.

On the floor below, Xiao Liu was busy chatting with the refugees. With his cheerful nature, the initial fear on their faces had all been washed away.

“Xiao Liu, grab your bow. We’re helping outside.”

“Yes, Ping-ge!”

~~

The main troop has started gaining control over the turmoil and Wu Zhe Yan’s soldiers outside have successfully brought down the city gates. The battle of TianAn was slowly reaching a conclusion.

While that was indeed great news, it did not spell the end of the war. A small victory like this could easily be overset if either kingdom refused to call a truce and insisted on carrying on with this war.

Thus, after getting the wound on his left shoulder seen to, Wu Zhe Yan rode around the city, trying to get a clearer hold of it before he started making further arrangements.

“Lord.” The sky was already starting to darken when Qi once again met up with him.

Wu Zhe Yan turned his horse around and when he saw that Qi has returned empty-handed, the temperature of the air around him dropped abruptly.

“She’s dead?” even Wu Zhe Yan did not realise the coldness he was eluding.

“No, when I arrived, everyone was already dead, but I did not find any one of them.” Qi quickly answered. It had been years since he last felt truly threatened by his own lord. For a second, even he could not tell what the emotion in his master’s eyes was. Was that really just anger at the thought of losing his prey? Or was it something else that even his master had not realised himself? “They were able to kill more than a hundred soldiers led by the commander with just the 3 of them.”

The overwhelming pressure in the air disappeared as quickly as it has come with Wu Zhe Yan’s laugh. “Indeed, that’s not something a mere strategist can do.”

He stopped when he caught a familiar figure from the corner of his eyes. He looked up and sure enough, the lady they were talking about was sitting at the edge of the window of a teahouse. She was leisurely sipping on a porcelain cup, absentmindedly watching the setting sun. The last ray of sunlight lingered on her face, as though even nature wanted to take in more of this picturesque sight.

That lady, currently sitting there looking as serene as a still lake.

Her? Get killed?

It suddenly seemed all too ridiculous to him.

Luo Yue had been sitting in the same position for quite some time. The last drop of light left her face but the lady who seemed to be lost in thought did not realise. As abstracted as she was, however, her hand had not stopped occasionally bringing the small cup to her lips.

That was why she was honestly taken by surprise when she heard the door open without a knock. She turned her head, too quickly that it left her feeling a little dizzy, and for a split moment, she thought she saw a spitting image of ‘that person’. Her hand unconsciously reached out as though to catch the fleeting figment of her imagination.

The usually ruthless male who had just barged in felt a sudden pang of guilt as his feet abruptly stopped. Wu Zhe Yan has never imagined that she could also make an expression like that. An expression like a person at her wit’s end, like a child who has been wronged.

When the focus returned to her eyes, that almost vulnerable expression also disappeared from her face, as quickly as if it had never been there in the first place. And this time, an even unbearable coldness seemed to wrap around her.

The speed of her change was so fast that if it had been anyone else but Wu Zhe Yan, they might not have caught it. He knew that he had gotten lucky, chanced upon a crack in that indestructible armour of hers and taken a quick glimpse at the real lady inside. The sorrow in those eyes made him feel an emotion he didn’t understand himself. He should have realised that once he uncovered the real her, there would be no exit for him. He should have drawn a line there and then. But he didn’t stop.

Instead, curiosity took over all his other senses. He... wanted to see more.

He continued forward as though he had not stopped at the doorway nor seen the split moment of vulnerability in her eyes.

He leaned nearer to her, pretending he couldn’t feel the iciness pricking him. “What? You drunk?”

Luo Yue could not tell if he had seen anything or not from his attitude. So, she gave up and sat back down. She was just about to take another sip from the cup on the table when a muscular hand appeared in front of her, and the cup was snatched from her hands. Before she could stop him, he has already poured the wine down his throat.

He licked his lips, “Oh? This isn’t as bad as I thought. But it’s still nowhere near as good as the ones in my city.”

She was about to throw him a glare, and maybe cut off that hand that had touched her wine but was intrigued by his words.

The North has a military system where those who had made great achievements in war could be promoted up a rank. Only a handful had ever been promoted to the highest-ranking position -the General, and only generals who have further proved themselves to be capable could be bestowed permission to keep their personal army and to govern a city. For Wu Zhe Yan to have reached this stage in the short 5 years that Luo Yue was gone, he truly was admirable. Even Luo Yue had taken quite a long time before she was allowed to lead a troop. Mainly because it had been impossible for her to trust anyone else.

She recalled Xiao Liu’s words about the Imperial Hounds. ‘The world outside really has changed.’

“Where is your city?” She reminded herself to check the liquor stalls there.

“Do you really work for the Imperial Court?” Wu Zhe Yan has already taken off his armour and made himself comfortable in the seat opposite to her. “How can you not even know about that?”

Luo Yue didn’t say anything. After all, it was true that she really didn’t work for anyone.

Wu Zhe Yan took her silence as acquiescence. He propped his hands on the table and leaned forward. Lowering his voice, there was a mischievous look in his eyes as he asked, “Hey, why don’t you just tell me honestly. You’re from the Jianghu as well, aren’t you? What? Were you scouted by one of those old fogies in the Imperial Court and threatened to come here?”

“You’re from the Jianghu?” Now, that explained his vulgar behaviour. And if Xu Shi Jing also counted as one of those ‘old fogies’, then she was starting to marvel at his dog-like instinct. Although technically it was a transaction, not a threat.

Wu Zhe Yan threw her a sceptical look. “Hey. Have you been living under a rock? The talk that I’m a ruffian from the Jianghu has been all over the Capital. Even I, the person at the centre of those rumours have heard about them.”

A ruffian… at least he had some self-awareness.

But now that Wu Zhe Yan had mentioned it, Luo Yue actually started to remember something.

Before the late Emperor passed away, he had always been interested in the Jianghu.