Chapter 281.1: Need to Learn From the Living Enma
Ever since Li Hong Yuan returned to ten years old, restarting everything again, majority of things were all within his grasp. Even if because of Wan Wan’s matter, too many things changed, slightly losing control a little in the middle, making him, under circ.u.mstances where he wasn’t fully prepared, nearly launch a coup in advance, causing Qi Yuan to sink into internal disorder, but with Wan Wan’s G.o.dly move, under circ.u.mstances unbeknownst to her, she just throttled this upheaval. And the people and matters aside from this, even if changes occur, it was all within expectation.
Li Hong Yuan was confident, but not conceited. After changing many things, he also long realized, everything in the ‘past’, at most could only be a reference, absolutely can’t rely on it completely. Moreover, it was already too long ago, and many things already blurred his memories. However, someone like the Tong Prefecture’s Inspector General Su, if he’d met before, it was impossible to not have the slightest impression. For his memories to be a blur, it was just because it was unimportant, but some things, never mind several decades, even if several hundred, or several thousand years have pa.s.sed, it would all remain fresh in his memory.
Inspector General Su, this old dog, either it was suddenly falling ill or dying in an accident, or it was just his ident.i.ty having problems, to the extent that he had no fate of meeting him. Just like how Inspector General Su sensed that Li Hong Yuan wasn’t ordinary, Li Hong Yuan also sensed his unusualness. Although this kind of feeling was very weak, but because Jing Wan was at his side, towards their safety, he was exceptionally concerned. The tiniest and slightest bit out of place all will arouse his alert. If it was just himself, he nine times out of time would’ve overlook.
Even so, one definitely can’t say that Li Hong Yuan’s skill level wasn’t as high as Inspector General Su’s. It was just the case of him alone facing against a bunch of people. A bunch of people all just need to pay attention to him alone, but he needed to from a bunch of people, filter out the one that possessed the most ‘potential’. If he really were to filter one by one, finding that one was also certain, just based on this lazy att.i.tude of his, was it possible?
‘A graceful glance from a beauty’, and just caught you, Inspector General Su, but that can only be considered your own bad luck, or perhaps also because you raised a good daughter?
Soon after, in the study, the ones that still remained were Eunuch Mu, who’d been continuously serving at the side, and Yu Zhong Qing.
“You can, at suitable times, pa.s.s on a bit of information to that one on the throne. As for the specifics, presumably don’t need for me to teach you.”
“Yes.” Li Hong Yuan’s address towards Le Cheng Emperor, Yu Zhong Qing was actually a bit baffled by. Just listening to this address, one would know, there were problems between this pair of father and son. Perhaps it was one-sided, perhaps not. As the Commander of the Imperial Guards, he was by Le Cheng Emperor’s side practically every day. That’s why, towards him being out of sorts for a few days every year, he was also very aware of. As for the reason, the people that knew were very few, and all very secretive, not daring to state from their mouth. However, Yu Zhong Qing actually roughly guessed from Le Cheng Emperor’s mumblings that it should be related to w.a.n.gye’s birth mother. However, master’s matters, it’s best to not be curious about.
After having the person sent away, Li Hong Yuan felt it was a bit difficult to sleep. As expected, habit was a scary thing. In the past, even if sleeping very lightly at night, it still wasn’t as bad as not being able to sleep. But now………….
Speaking of which, did he still have time to go back and apologize? However, with Wan Wan being that angry, the possibility of being rejected at the door should be very high?
The things that were handled with high efficiency in the past, Li Hong Yuan now was instead exceptionally leisure towards, having those complicated letters treated as schoolwork that needed to be carefully examined word by word and recited. But after reading for a while, and extracting out that bit of useful information, the rest, no matter how one looked at it, it all made one disdain. He casually tossed it into the fire pan, rubbing between his brows………
Eunuch Mu switched for him a cup of light tea, “Master, just now, w.a.n.gfei’s mama came to report that w.a.n.gfei has been tossing and turning on the bed, unable to fall asleep.”
Li Hong Yuan’s expression shook, and without second thought, directly got up and returned to the bedroom.
Previously, when he needed to take care of some things, it was either together with Jing Wan, or waiting until after she falls asleep before getting up. The time he was out wasn’t long either, so he didn’t know that without him, she would also be unable to fall asleep. Li Hong Yuan lightly knocked on the door, and afterwards, it was just all kinds of ‘groveling’ and being ‘sappy’, shameless to an extreme degree.
Even the servant girls that feared him, at this time, all couldn’t help but cover their mouth and laugh. Actually, w.a.n.gye, when facing w.a.n.gfei, wasn’t scary at all.
Jing Wan opened the door with a darkened expression, having the person dragged inside, “What are you knocking for, it’s not like the door was bolted. And even if it was, if you want to come in, can it even stop you? You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? Also, as a dignified qinw.a.n.g, in front of a bunch of servants, you don’t feel you’re losing face?”
“As long as one is able to coax back one’s wife, what does face count as, can it be eaten? Can it let this husband hold one’s wife in bed?”
This face of his, Jing Wan has long witness before. Although to this day, she still hasn’t reached his bottom line, Jing Wan was still too lazy to bother with him. So sleepy. Since this long pillow has returned on his own, it’s better to just nicely go to sleep. All things can wait until she wakes up.
Li Hong Yuan, seeing her eyes almost unable to stay open, also heartached, no longer wasting time on nonsense, just carrying her onto the bed to go to sleep.
Sure enough, having the familiar scent present, the two of them both very quickly sunk into slumber.
Gong mama came in to put out the lamp. Seeing the two of them like this, she felt, perhaps that heart can be placed back in its original place. One was someone she watched grow up, and one was someone she meticulously served for several years. w.a.n.gfei naturally couldn’t be better, and w.a.n.gye, even if possessing many shortcomings, one can’t deny his capability, and his care towards w.a.n.gfei also didn’t allow for comment. This way was enough. In the future, regardless of what, it’s all ‘under the wind and rain, in the same boat[1]‘, mutually holding hands for a life.
After a night of good rest, Jing Wan planned on going out for a stroll today. Having finally been able to come out this time, to not seize the opportunity to nicely play around, she would all feel sorry for herself. After all, when she can come out next time, it was all unknown. Perhaps, she will no longer have this kind of opportunity again.
Having a bunch of people considerately serving, she didn’t need to prepare anything at all, just needing to be in high spirits and bring herself along.
Jing Wan’s objective today was still the few places inside the city, following along the path, visiting one by one.
First was the nearest ancient building. At present, perhaps there wasn’t the awareness to protect old historical relics, but these few old buildings that Kaiming Fu left behind, because they were kept in good condition, possessing special meaning, and also residing in a relatively special place, repairing generation after generation, nowadays majority were all places where scholars gathered.
And the one that has existed the longest was already more than a thousand years old. Of course, because the main structure was built from stone, it thus was able to preserve for this long. The rest, at most were just four hundred some years old.
The closest ancient building was known as the ‘Immortal Gazing Lookout’, precisely that ancient building that has existed the longest.
In reality, because that Immortal Gazing Lookout’s position was enough high, looking over from the villa was all very conspicuous.
The party arrived at the Immortal Gazing Lookout, yet turns out, this place wasn’t just the Immortal Gazing Lookout either. The Immortal Gazing Lookout merely resided in the later built place called the Immortal Gazing Garden.
Don’t know if it was due to the influence of the gardens ‘donated’ by that Governor-General Wei, similar places more or less all possess a certain yuanlin[2] style.
Perhaps it was for the sake of complementing the Immortal Gazing Lookout, the fake mountains were far taller than elsewhere. The pavilions and kiosks, the bending waters and winding corridors, nestled within the uneven rockery possessed an indescribable aesthetic.
They didn’t directly head for the Immortal Gazing Lookout, instead just walking along, taking a path when encountering a path, crossing a bridge when encountering water.
Students were gathered in groups of three or four in a certain place discussing their scholarly learnings. Occasionally, there were also men and women strolling together. Compared with Jing Wan’s purely having fun mentality and cheerful mood, those girls were much more reserved, especially those that were still wearing the hairstyle of an unmarried girl, moving far away whenever seeing people.
Jing Wan felt quite amused. It was just like in her past life, getting caught having early love by the teachers in school, pure and immature, but Jing Wan thought back to her current age. This wasn’t the problem of early love, clearly it was early marriage, early marriage, early marriage, getting gnawed until there wasn’t even bone shards left. Turning back, she just carried a bit of ridicule as she stared at Li Hong Yuan.
(T/N: I don’t know if it’s still a thing now, but a lot of schools in china have rules against dating. In chinese, falling in love during the teenage years is called ‘early love’, it somewhat translates to puppy love, but in this context it more so just means falling in love too early.)
Just a moment ago, she was still propped up against the rails looking down, but don’t know as to what she saw, she just turned her head to look towards him. Li Hong Yuan was confused, going forward two steps, and glancing downward. There was nothing at all. “What is Wan Wan staring at this husband for?” He couldn’t help but reach out to touch her face.
Jing Wan avoided his hand, laughing as she softly teased, “My husband is good looking after all. Having such good looks, naturally need to look at from time to time, how pleasing to the eyes.”
Although every time when not needed, Sir s.h.i.+ and Yu Zhong Qing would both perceptively stay a little farther away, Jing Wan was also used to their existence. However, she can’t be too brash either, no?
What kind of person was Jin Qinw.a.n.g? Even if getting teased by his own wife, he was still composed as usual, “Then, should we find a place to let Wan Wan privately have a good look?”
“No need, continuously looking will also get tiring, also known as beauty fatigue. Appropriately keeping some distance, maintaining the fresh feeling, is better.”
[1] Idiom meaning ‘to stick together in hard times’
[2] Yuanlin – Translates to landscape garden, but it’s referring to the traditional chinese garden style, which possess certain elements, such as pond, pavilions, etc. I add pictures of some famous ones that still exist today as well as an overhead layout map of one. A lot of these were the private gardens of wealthy officials.