26. 1.7m Debt

Meanwhile, having spent half the day shaking off her entourage, Li sat primarily in the inner palace. With difficulty, she let Hana bind her swelling chest with silk. The tender skin wrapped in smooth fabric felt stifling this time, though the method was the same as before.

"Princess... y-you... it seems, um, bigger than last time," Hana, her close accomplice in dressing as a boy, stammered timidly.

"Ahem... loosen it a bit!"

Li coughed, her chest tight and aching from the binding. "Bigger? What's so great about that! Like Consort Yu Fei's size, all big ones are bad women!"

"But... I heard men like them big," Hana ventured again, still timid.

"Hmph!"

Li couldn't help but think of Feng, then Qing... It did seem Qing was much larger than her. Could it be... Could Feng really prefer bigger ones?

"Loosen it more, it hurts," Li grumbled haughtily, secretly worried that, as Hana suggested, binding too tightly might stunt her growth.

The pair slipped out of the palace gates again, disguised as a scholar and his pageboy. But Li's stunning face and barely concealed curves made her "scholar" look absurdly exaggerated, her chest too prominent for a man's frame.

Yet both felt confident in their ruse, oblivious to the stares and whispers of passersby, wondering which bold girl was playing such a wild game, unafraid of shaming her family.

Of course, with Li's status, those muttering might find themselves kneeling for mercy if they knew.

"Prin... Young Master, where to next?" Hana asked nervously. "Can we not go to Golden Lotus Hall again?"

Last time, that trip had drained the little maid's hard-earned savings for half a year.

"Golden Lotus Hall?" Li's face twitched at the mention of the gambling den, though Hana , lost in her financial woes, didn't notice.

Hana's words reminded Li of the 980,000 taels she owed Wally Wang, unreturned... and that wretched fatty had dared suggest her silk sock as collateral!

Worse, in her haste, she'd actually tossed him one of her white socks.

Back in the palace, the memory gnawed at her, tempting her to bite her quilt in shame. Too mortifying to speak of!

It kept her from leaving the palace for a month. First, her studies piled up, with year-end exams looming even for a playful princess like her, forcing her to hit the books. Second, she dreaded running into Wally Wang outside, which would be... far too awkward.

But her restless, playful nature couldn't be caged in the deep palace for long. With her studies done and the festive season of the twelfth month approaching, the capital buzzed with New Year cheer. Lanterns glowed, boats drifted like leaves on the river, a dazzling, joyous spectacle she couldn't resist.

So, go or not?

"Hmph! Not going!"

Though she loved fun, Li knew gambling dens were a pitfall. One slip, and she'd lose everything, bones and all. Last time, her greed had led to a massive bet, leaving her in debt to that fatty for nearly a million taels. Another round, and if she got stuck there, would she have to shout she was the "Bright Hua Princess"?

That'd be far too humiliating, wouldn't it?

Hana sighed in relief, her modest savings finally safe.

By year's end, the capital teemed with envoys from western regions, northern barbarian tributes, and merchants from afar. The streets brimmed with people in strange garb, their skin ranging from pale white to coal-black, unlike Bright Hua's folk.

They brought unheard-of treasures: western unicorns, southern fragrant blooms, a dazzling array of goods that drove noblewomen and girls into a buying frenzy.

Li was no exception. A woman's shopping instinct was universal, buying whatever caught her eye. After an afternoon of wandering, Hana, her "pageboy," was laden with bags, hands clutching a box taller than herself.

"Young Master... I... I'm so tired!"

Finally stopping at a stall, Hana dumped her load, panting and drenched in sweat.

"One more, you can do it, Hana!" Li, dazzled by the wares, heartlessly encouraged her maid before reaching for her purse.

"Huh?!"

She rummaged in her money pouch, only to find it empty.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

A familiar voice rang out. Li whipped around to see a grossly fat figure step from a familiar carriage, a sleazy grin on his face, his belly jiggling with each step, his wide robe straining at the seams.

Wally Wang.

He sauntered to the stall, pulling out a stack of ten-thousand-tael notes. "I'll take it all. Enough?"

The foreign merchant wet his fingers, counted the notes, verified them, and beamed. "Enough, enough!"

"No need for change!" Wally Wang declared pompously, then squinted at Li with a greasy smile. "Young Master, care to join me?"

But Wally Wang was so obese his features blurred into a doughy mess, radiating a merchant's sly cunning he couldn't hide.

"Hana, let's go!!"

Li grabbed her maid's hand to flee without a second thought.

"Nine hundred eighty thousand!"

At those words, Li's steps froze.

"Oh, my nine hundred eighty thousand, down the drain, down the drain..."

"Hmph!"

Li said nothing, her face flushing. She pivoted, stormed to Wally Wang's carriage, yanked the door open, and stepped inside, leaving Hana bewildered amid the packages.

Hana tried to follow, but Wally Wang blocked her, feigning kindness. "Miss Hana, look at all these bags. My carriage can't fit them. I've got a merchant cart behind; I'll have someone haul this over. Could you kindly check the goods?"

"Oh... oh, oh, oh!" The dazed maid couldn't see through his verbal trap. Wally Wang's trickery was leagues beyond a naive girl's grasp.

A glint of triumph flashed in Wally Wang's mung-bean eyes. He clambered into the carriage after her.

Li sat stiffly inside, upright and proper. Seeing Wally Wang instead of Hana , she asked, "Where's Hana?"

"Miss Hana said there's too much stuff; she's worried and wants to count it herself," Wally Wang replied.

Li nodded absently, but closer inspection revealed her body was tense, as if she were at a state banquet, not a carriage.

Wally Wang smirked inwardly, plopping down opposite her. His lecherous eyes greedily roamed over her.

They say a girl transforms at eighteen, and Li, in her prime at sixteen, was shedding childishness for maturity. Not a day-by-day change, but after a month apart, the difference was stark.

Even with her chest bound, the softness beneath her clothes hinted at youthful growth. Her slim waist, cinched by the binding, looked even daintier, exuding an unripe smoothness.

Unlike those plump matrons with jiggling flesh, their bodies rippling like waves in bed, breasts bouncing like water sacks... Li's taut, flat frame and slender waist seemed fragile enough to snap in the wind. Her still-developing hips, pressed tight as she sat, retained their round, jade-like shape, skin so firm it might break at a touch. Her long legs curved gracefully, knees visible through her trousers, not bony but sculpted like jade pillars. Her thighs were filling out, while her calves formed a perfect, seamless arc, smooth as the finest silk or endless clouds in the heavens.

Her boyish makeup couldn't hide her girlish purity and innocence, though her thickly drawn brows tempered the youth with a touch of maturity and spirit. Her petite nose and cherry-red lips framed a face so naturally perfect it seemed heaven-sent, leaving one in awe of such beauty.

A day apart feels like three autumns, they say. After a month, Wally Wang's lust had festered, his thoughts consumed by the little princess. He'd lost a pound or two from pining.

Feeling his sleazy stare, Li took a deep breath. "This nine hundred eighty thousand, I'll repay you after the New Year."

"Heh heh heh... no need to fuss." Wally Wang scratched his chubby chin. "One million seventy thousand taels, it's no big deal. Don't worry about it, Princess."

"What one million seventy thousand?" Li blinked, confused.

"Why, the one million seventy thousand you owe me, of course!"

"What?!"