ITVCFITB CHAPTER 34

 Chapter 34: Couldn’t Wait Another Second

When the Crown Princess sends a eunuch to summon you, you go. Luo Shuyu had no reason to refuse.

He went and the Old Madam hustled after him. Shen Mingyun was her bring-along; whether she liked it or not, she had to show her face. She’d brought three juniors today: one who loved to stir trouble, one who was so dim Luo Shuyu had already sent him home with a single sentence, and one who looked clever on ordinary days but lost all sense the moment things mattered, nearly making the Old Madam faint with anger.

At her age, being tormented by these useless creatures felt like cosmic punishment. Worst of all, the most promising child, Luo Shuyu was no longer close to her. She regretted, bitterly, listening to that wretch Liu-shi back then and letting the rift form.

As for whether Luo Shuyu was going to the side hall to “save” Shen Mingyun?

Of course not. He just wanted to see how Shen had offended the Crown Princess and how Her Highness intended to make him pay.

That walking calamity aura of Shen Mingyun’s? Not surprising in the least. The only question was: how would he wriggle out this time?

In the book, today’s chrysanthemum banquet had been Shen’s big win: a dazzling display of “erudition” with the Crown Prince left favorably impressed, and the Crown Princess despite being overshadowed, swallowing her temper and settling for a few barbed comments. Shen, for his part, looked down on “privileged” characters, and particularly loathed an imperious Crown Princess. Privately cursing her as someone who’d be nothing without a powerful father. Later, when the Crown Prince fell, he’d mocked the former Crown Princess to her face, nearly earning himself a set of claw marks.

But that was the book. Right now the Crown Princess was still in her season of splendor and already butting heads with Shen Mingyun.

So why the open clash this time? That wasn’t in the pages. In the story, Shen had floated in and out today, basking in glory.

Led by the eunuch, Luo Shuyu and the Old Madam entered the side hall.

One glance: a commoner Shen Mingyun, hair tangled, hairpin missing, forced to his knees by two palace matrons.

“Man’s knees hold gold” meant nothing here. No one helped him up.

Hearing the attendants salute Luo Shuyu, Shen whipped around and cried, “Cousin Shuyu, help me please!”

Luo Shuyu nearly laughed. Why would he? Since when did this man count as anything to him?

Before Luo Shuyu ever married into the Third Prince’s household, Shen had schemed to sabotage the match. But now that he was in trouble suddenly the “cousin” bond mattered?

Despise the throne in your heart, crave protection from its power with your mouth. What a convenient philosophy.

Ignoring Shen, Luo Shuyu bowed first to the Crown Princess. “Your Highness.”

The Crown Princess didn’t like him, but she did the polite thing. “No need. Sit. Let us talk.”

“Thank you.” Only then did Luo Shuyu look at Shen. His posture and tone placed the Crown Princess first; only afterward did he “notice” the sideshow. “What happened?”

The senior matron at Her Highness’s side spoke up. “Reporting to the Third Prince Consort: this man acted with ill intent. While we were admiring the flowers, he broke Her Highness’s favorite Ten-Foot Curtain, a rare cultivar she had cultivated at great trouble, unique in the capital. He snapped it like a wild weed. He claims you are his cousin; only then did Her Highness summon you to see.”

Yan Wandie, the Crown Princess, nodded. “That is correct.”

Even Shen knew today wouldn’t be smoothed over. He’d dressed flamboyantly in green; with the eyes turned on him, he tried for a pitiful air. If the Crown Prince were here, that might have softened the blow, but surrounded by ladies and gers, the act fell flat.

Before Luo Shuyu spoke, the Old Madam rose to salute, she had a patent of rank, and the Crown Princess gave her face and a seat.

The Old Madam hardly dared to take it, but her years compelled her. “This subject-wife failed in guidance. I beg Your Highness to punish as you see fit.”

“No need to abase yourself, Madam Luo,” Yan Wandie said. She hadn’t planned on the Old Madam showing up. Truthfully, she’d wanted to use Shen Mingyun to blunt Luo Shuyu’s shine a little. At the Mid-Autumn banquet, among three princess consorts, only he had drawn the Emperor’s praise. It had stuck in her craw.

Finally, a chance to assert the Crown Princess’s authority.

But with the Old Madam begging mercy, she had to give some face to the Minister’s household and its titled matriarch.

“The Ten-Foot Curtain took us ages to obtain,” she said, turning a jade bracelet around her wrist. “Now it’s ruined. I am… heartsick. The question is what do we do?”

Luo Shuyu understood. Someone would be punished today. Good. He lost nothing by it.

The Old Madam, though, was at a loss. She looked to Luo Shuyu for a lead. At home she could bark and everyone jumped; out here, she had no spine. If they were true old nobility, the Crown Princess would turn a blind eye. But the Luo clan didn’t have that kind of foundation.

At this point, asking not to punish would be absurd. Shen was in the wrong, not the Crown Princess.

“Your Highness,” Luo Shuyu said evenly, “since Shen Mingyun broke the rules, he must give you an account.” He turned to Shen. “Cousin, did you break that flower?”

Shen was still on his knees. The system’s advice was buzzing in his head: Swallow it, live to fight another day.

He’d only wanted to take a blossom to press in a book. How was he to know he’d be seen by the owner of the manor, no less? Blame bad luck.

“…Yes. I did,” he said, manly and frank.

“Then punishment follows,” Luo Shuyu said. “Your Highness, since he snapped your flower, why not have him work here in the manor tending the gardens for half a month? After that, he won’t make the same mistake.”

Yan Wandie had been about to say “three days.” She hadn’t expected Luo Shuyu to jump straight to “half a month.” Is he bowing to me… or just decisive? “Very well. I’ll assign people to watch him. Half a month. Not a day of idleness.”

Luo Shuyu turned back. “Her Highness is merciful. Use the time among these chrysanthemums to reflect.”

“…Yes. Thank you, Your Highness. Thank you, Third Prince Consort,” Shen ground out. Merciful, my ass. In his head he snarled at the system: This is outrageous!

You plucked a rare flower, the system droned. In any era, that earns a fine at best.

He had no idea what kind of hell those “half a month” would be. Luo Shuyu already had people in mind to “look after” this “cousin” thoroughly.

Originally, Luo Shuyu had considered asking the Crown Princess to lay a few strokes across Shen’s backside. But he remembered how a single slap in his last life had earned him long, poisonous hatred. Better to choose an approach that wouldn’t inflame Shen’s pride and one executed by the Crown Princess, not him. Shen had invoked his name; Luo Shuyu had even “helped.”

Now, instead of befriending the Crown Princess as the system demanded, Shen had earned her displeasure. With that comparison, Luo Shuyu came out looking like the reasonable one.

Shen was, of course, removed from the festivities. The Crown Princess ordered a room for him; work would start tomorrow. Today he would be spared for now.

The banquet continued.

After Luo Shuyu and the Old Madam left, Yan Wandie toyed with her bangle. “Why did Luo Shuyu yield so quickly? Does he not wish to be my enemy—or is he simply timid?”

The matron murmured, “In this slave’s view, the Third Prince Consort prefers to smooth waters. I hear the Luo clan never valued that legitimate son. As for Shen Mingyun, there’s no deep brotherly affection there. Naturally, he’ll side with Your Highness.”

“True. When the world belongs to the Crown Prince, he’ll live by our favor.”

“Your Highness is blessed.”

Yan Wandie smiled, chin high, and returned to the party.

With no Shen Mingyun strutting about, pointing and declaiming, Luo Shuyu enjoyed himself just fine.

The Crown Princess’s attention turned toward the unmarried ladies. The Luo clan? Off the table. With the Third Prince Consort sitting there, the Crown Princess wouldn’t be picking any Luo offspring today.

When the banquet ended, guests received chrysanthemum pastries to take home. Luo Shuyu accepted a box of chrysanthemum crisps, something for Li Mingjin to try; he thought they were quite good.

—

On the way back, Luo Shuyu’s mood was excellent. He hadn’t struck a fatal blow, but he’d made Shen Mingyun choke.

Barely half a quarter-hour out, the carriage stopped. Luo Shuyu signaled Qingwang to ask the driver.

“What’s—” he began, peeking out.

But Qingwang hopped to the ground without finishing. A man’s hand lifted the curtain, and a familiar handsome face filled Luo Shuyu’s view.

A familiar handsome face.

“Your Highness?!” Luo Shuyu blurted.

Li Mingjin, bracing with both hands as he climbed in: “I had nothing pressing. So I came.”

For a moment, Luo Shuyu couldn’t speak. He truly hadn’t imagined that on his first solo outing, Li Mingjin would come in person to fetch him. To say he wasn’t moved would be a lie. The more he saw, the more he wanted to cherish this man and the more he regretted being blind in his last life, missing years with such a husband.

He really had been a fool.

Once seated, Li Mingjin asked, “Did everything go smoothly?”

Luo Shuyu recounted Shen’s flower-snapping and the Crown Princess’s punishment.

“Bold of him… and deserved.”

“Isn’t it? Even three-year-olds know you don’t pick flowers at a banquet.”

People in Great Xia loved flowers. Even Luo Renshou kept a garden otherwise Luo Shuyu wouldn’t have caught Liu Yong and his lover there the other day.

With Li Mingjin here, Luo Shuyu didn’t worry about night falling. He even had the leisure to admire a rare blaze of sunset pouring across the sky.

Red as fire like their wedding day.

He leaned against the window to watch until the light deepened, then he drifted closer to Li Mingjin and murmured, “Your Highness.”

Beauty in his arms, Li Mingjin was no saint. His hand slid to Luo Shuyu’s waist. “Mm?”

Luo Shuyu looped his arms around his neck and kissed him first.

Li Mingjin: “…”

Too forward! He almost lost the rhythm.

He kissed back anyway.

—

The next day.

Yesterday’s banquet had been a grand production, witnessed by many ladies and gers.

And the talk of the town? The Third Prince personally picked up the Third Prince Consort barely half an hour after he’d arrived.

So much for tales of the Third Prince being cold and cruel to his new spouse. Injured leg and all, he’d gone a long way to bring him home, clearly, this was no ordinary affection.

Those waiting for a spectacle would be disappointed.

Before long, rumors bloomed: the Third Prince Consort possessed some secret husband-taming art. The Third Prince must be under his spell.

Luo Shuyu, a bit fatigued from the carriage ride, slept in. By the time he woke, the person beside him had already gone to morning court.

Usually, he’d be back around now. But noon came and no Li Mingjin. He hadn’t mentioned going anywhere, left no note, no word with the servants.

In his past life, he could go a month without knowing where Li Mingjin was and feel nothing. Now, used to sharing every day and always knowing the other’s whereabouts, the sudden absence left him… uneasy.

When he got back, they were going to talk. Leave a note at least!

So where was Li Mingjin?

—

As soon as court ended, Li Mingjin spurred his horse to the suburban military camp.

There was a particular doctor there, a specialist in sprains and bruises. Rumor had it his hands were miraculous: in a single day, he could make a “pig’s trotter” foot deflate to normal.

A single day. Back to normal.

The camp was under the watch of a young general fresh from the front: Lin Haiming.

Few knew he and Li Mingjin had clicked years ago; they were friends in private.

Lin Haiming looked at him like he’d seen a ghost. “Third Prince, what are you doing in my camp?”

Li Mingjin pointed at his bandaged foot. “Your miracle doctor. I need him.”

Lin Haiming’s face said constipation. “…You rode all the way out here for that? Are you kidding me?”

“Take me to him,” Li Mingjin snapped. “It’s urgent.”

He couldn’t wait another second.

Author’s note:
Third Prince: “So urgent, so urgent, so urgent!”
Luo Shuyu: “… ”

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