Hmm, the dream really hit him hard there. Now he kept pus.h.i.+ng the reason behind his weird reactions to that dream. And since the Anxi Prefecture issue is over (or is it? I have no idea too), next is the Crown Prince imposter issue.
Chapter 24 – Second-rated Nunnery Translated by HaruOngy at Geniusly Plain (If you can see this line, you must have read this in the aggregator site which illegally steal various works. Be shameful of yourself for not appreciating the translator"s hard work. Don"t think only you want to have it the easy way. Support the fanbase!)
Chu Xun bearing a pair of panda eyes was the last to come downstairs. Senior Official Song and Mei Qian Deng were already downstairs settling the room charges.
He looked at Mei Qian Deng. Mei Qian Deng was currently counting money from her pouch to give to the manager. She didn"t pay a single attention to Chu Xun. Instead it was Senior Official Song who thoughtfully asked, "Little Long, did laofu make you painful last night?"
What an uncouth stinking old man!
Chu Xun"s face was very dark. Senior Official Song"s voice was loud and clear so the manager could hear it all clearly. The manager"s hands shook. The money slipped through between his fingers and hit the table with a "clang".
It was very awkward.
"Waiter, the patrons from the first-rate room number one and two are checking out. Quickly go and check the rooms." The manager said, "This Master and the two young men, please wait a moment." The inn"s rule was before the patrons checked out they would inspect if there was any damage to the items inside the room to make sure that they didn"t lose money.
Mei Qian Deng just happened to turn her head at this moment and indifferently looked at Chu Xun.
The last night"s dream appeared again in Chu Xun"s mind. He must be crazy to bring Mei Qian Deng this boor into his dream. But then he felt this matter also had an excusable part.
In the first place, he always faced Mei Qian Deng day and night. Mei Qian Deng too kept using various tricks to make him bristling and hence it made him thinking of her in daytime and dreaming of her in night time.
Secondly, Mei Qian Deng and he had just went into Mei Ren Manor. For the dignified Crown Prince, the genuine significance was it was his first time strolling in the brothel and seen all sorts of men and women. It was shocking for his pure soul. For a little while his mind would inevitably overstimulated.
The most important point was Mei Qian Deng had even pulled him to cross-dress into girls. This had turned into the most unpleasant shadow in Chu Xun"s heart. In this sort of intense, toppling and incapable of making up stimulation, Chu Xun had formed a distorted mentality towards Mei Qian Deng.
Which finally led into an unreasonable, drooling dream.
He actually slept Mei Qian Deng?! No, no, no. Inside the dream, Mei Qian Deng was still the dominant one. It was completely Chu Xun being slept by Mei Qian Deng.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
As the dignified Crown Prince, how could it be possible!
"This Master…… That is…… You need to pay an addition thirty copper coins for was.h.i.+ng cost." The waiter came down and told the manager in his ears. The manager was already fifty years old yet he suddenly blushed. When he said those words, he didn"t even dare to look at Senior Official Song.
Senior Official Song was bewildered. "What was.h.i.+ng cost? What things in your inn had we dirtied?"
"……bed sheet and bedding……"
"WHAT?!" Senior Official Song was slightly stunned. He was already old yet his body was still robust. In a flash, he moved close to the manager"s ear and used the softest voice to ask the manager, "Yellowish white or reddish brown?" He was very clear of his own body. It was impossible that was left by him. On the other hand, he brought two soon-to-mature teenagers and both were the quite moron type. He didn"t dare to determine it was left by which one.
"……yellowish white……"
After Senior Official Song heard it, he clapped the manager"s shoulders to placate the still stupefied manager.
Laofu have understand.
He obediently took out thirty copper coins and put them on the account book. "Little Deng, Little Long, let"s go." Before leaving, he pulled Chu Xun"s hand, his face was obscured.
Chu Xun: Ow, this Crown Prince doesn"t want to live anymore!
The manager and the waiter: The patron have a very heavy taste……
When they were leaving the city, Nan Bai Cheng was at the city gate tower conversing with several of his underlings. He was probably examining the restoring progress after the snow disaster. Under the city gate tower, stood numerous commoners who came to watch an excitement. One after another, they used revering look to gaze at the aloof and remote parental official[1].
Senior Official sighed, "Nan Bai Cheng, Nan Bai Cheng. A man with many works in his hand, why pretend to be a wealthy and respected person?"
Chu Xun understood the hidden meaning behind Senior Official Song"s words but for a short time he didn"t want to respond a single bit to this old yet non-venerate Crown Prince"s Grand Tutor. He huffed through his nose and turned his head around to look at the other side.
"Little Long, if you huff anymore, your nostrils will become larger." (Er Kang[2]: Come out, who want to compare nostrils with me?!)
Chu Xun was scared silly by Senior Official Song as he quickly touched his nose.
Pa.s.sing through the city gate tower, there was a notice board. On it an imperial proclamation was pasted——
"What an audacious wanted criminal to dare to disguise as the Crown Prince and swindling around. Local authorities and commoners please pay attention. If any of you see the person in the picture, please seize him immediately. There will be a handsome reward."
Wasn"t this the half body painting that Chu Xun was forced to paint by his servants who collectively sold out their master back when they were at the vegetarian restaurant in the capital? He didn"t think that the commoners" reaction was this good. Now, many commoners were praising the Crown Prince abhorred evil as his enemy. Now when Chu Xun looked again at his own masterpiece, he felt very satisfied.
This Crown Prince"s painting is very excellent!
En, Lady Su"s words reverberated in his ears, "The eyes are slender a bit than this Young Master. The nose is much flat a bit than this Young Master. The mouth is much bigger a bit than this Young Master……" Chu Xun frowned. In his mind a vivid illusion appeared. This illusion matched up with a particular scene he saw not long ago. Chu Xun"s intelligence kicked in. He smacked on the wall of the horse carriage.
Mei Qian Deng stopped the horses with a pull. She didn"t know what happened inside the carriage. She turned around, wanting to push the curtain away to take a look but she didn"t expect someone was pus.h.i.+ng the curtain from inside. Half of Chu Xun"s body seemed to be creeping as he rushed forward. He was too agitated but the moment he pushed aside the curtain he instantly saw Mei Qian Deng"s extremely close face.
The Crown Prince turned stupefied again.
"What"s wrong?"
Mei Qian Deng couldn"t see Chu Xun"s splendid and rich psychological drama. She could only see Chu Xun foolish face imbecilely changed. His face would turn pale a moment then blush a moment. In the end, he raised his face. With his nose pointing at Mei Qian Deng, he coldly huffed and then returned inside the horse carriage.
Mei Qian Deng, "……"
She could hear Chu Xun agitatedly told Senior Official Song, "I remembered now, a few days ago I had met this fake Crown Prince!"
A few days ago, when they were staying at the small inn nearby Anxi Prefecture, Chu Xun and Mei Qian Deng tailed that big man into a nunnery that night. However, they never thought that the nunnery was not a clean place. Chu Xun was torn by the grief! It was these people who caused him to have that weird dream and to go to that weird place.
(That"s a tricky question, Crown Prince.)
"Let"s go to that filthy nunnery again."
That night, Mei Qian Deng let Chu Xun hid himself at the corner while she went to the room to peep something he didn"t know. It was at that time that Chu Xun saw a suspicious figure. The moonlight that night was good and his night vision was not bad, when he saw that person"s face, internally he felt it was familiar only that he couldn"t remember where he had seen it.
It turned out to be him!
"We absolutely need to capture this daring, impudent person. He actually dare to disguise as the Crown Prince."
Chu Xun clenched both of his hands, he was filled with indignation.
"You alone can never capture him." Senior Official Song threw a cold water at Chu Xun.
Chu Xun, "……" He was stupefied for a moment. Although he didn"t want to admit this, the truth was as such.
Chu Xun sat in the horse carriage at loss for a long time. Right now, the only person who could help him was Mei Qian Deng. If he asked for Mei Qian Deng"s help, Mei Qian Deng would surely help. This guy although does have a huge guts defying the Crown Prince with an innocent face but when it comes to real business he is completely obedient. Sadly, Chu Xun kept feeling unable to lower his face. Because he was over self-confident. Because he lost his temper at Mei Qian Deng and most importantly because he dreamt of Mei Qian Deng last night.
Say it, or don"t say it?
"Wei, boor." Chu Xun"s head came out of the horse carriage.
Mei Qian Deng didn"t even turn her head around as she just softly made a sound, "En" as a reply.
"Go again to the nunnery at the hill slope." Chu Xun lowered his head to look at the wheels of the horse carriage. His throat was lowered and his voice too turned weak, "You need to go with me." When he spoke to the end, he was anxious and fast until he lisped. Saying so, he didn"t care whether Mei Qian Deng agreed as he immediately slipped into the horse carriage like a little mouse.
For the return trip"s route, Mei Qian Deng didn"t choose the public route.
The horse carriage travelled back and forth through the forests. Other than the route was jolting a little, they didn"t encounter any other incident. By the later night of the second day, they reached the bottom of the hillslope. Mei Qian Deng brought along Chu Xun to go to the nunnery again. No, wrong. It was the Crown Prince who brought along Mei Qian Deng. Chu Xun must walk at the front.
The nunnery at later night had a tranquil atmosphere. Inside the nunnery there was a swis.h.i.+ng sound of whisk broom sweeping the floor. There were also the wooden fish sound, the bell sound, the water splas.h.i.+ng sound, cooking sound…… Chu Xun went around the outer wall. These sounds naturally changed volume. Walking to the end, they reached the back door.
Chu Xun pointed at the door and looked at Mei Qian Deng.
Mei Qian Deng acted, she lightly pushed the door but she failed. It was locked from the inside.
Mei Qian Deng pointed with one finger at the loess ground. Her meaning was for Chu Xun to wait at this place. She personally placed one leg at the back. The tip of her leg lightly tapped the ground and then she used qinggong. In a blink, she was flying in the air and disappeared.
Chu Xun silently praised: This boor"s martial arts are very good.
In the next moment, there was a "kacha" sound and the door was opened from the inside. Chu Xun smoothly went inside. He found out inside there was a kitchen close by. Looking inside from outside the kitchen window, there was a girl in grey clothes cooking at the cooking stove. After she cooked for a moment, she needed to add the fire. After adding the water, she also needed to check if the rice beside the stove was done. She busied herself alone under pressure that she didn"t have the time to notice some "thieves" had entered the backyard.
Chu Xun inspected the whole place again. He noticed there was no one else.
Very good, this is exactly the good time to act.
Chu Xun pointed at the girl inside the kitchen for Mei Qian Deng. His meaning: Catch her to ask!
Mei Qian Deng nodded. She first disappeared inside while Chu Xun closely followed behind. However, he couldn"t catch up to Mei Qian Deng"s speed. Ai, forget it. This Crown Prince is the master so doesn"t need to rush forward to do physical work and cannot lose the demeanour. When he entered the kitchen with both his hands at his back, Mei Qian Deng had already caught that female cook. The female cook"s hands were crossed at her back. The spatula was still in her hand. Two of Mei Qian Deng"s slender, long fingers were stuck at that female cook"s throat.
"Don"t be afraid. We will not hurt you." Chu Xun first comforted that female cook. That female cook was pale and her eyes trembled slightly. At first she thought it was close friends of the nuns in here who came because those close friends came inside from the back door too.
Chu Xun took out an imperial proclamation from his chest and let the female cook to look at it. "Do you know this person?"
The female cook first looked carefully at Chu Xun. He was as pretty as the fairies. Suddenly, she felt it was not scary anymore. If she had close friend with such good looking, she was willing if that person wanted her to do anything. She looked at the portrait and was taken aback. "Brother Chen is a wanted criminal?!" Evidently, she recognised this wanted criminal who disguised as the Crown Prince.
"This person disguised as the Crown Prince and swindle women. He had already been wanted by the local authorities. If you know, immediately tell the truth to avoid this criminal from escaping the punishment."
"Isn"t he Prince Chen?"
Chu Xun"s forehead pulsated. This person is really something. After disguising as this Crown Prince, he actually dare to disguise as Prince Chen. Chu Xun asked, "Do you know where he is?"
"He practically come here every night to eat food, talk with me and do some gentle things with me……" This girl was still in the shock as she muttered to herself. She didn"t dare to believe her ideal husband was a wanted criminal of the government. She thought while crying. The more she cried, the more she felt she was unjustly treated. To think that she had took care of an ingrate who deceived her.
"Tonight we will stand on guard at here and help you to capture him."
The female cook was silent for a moment. "You can"t! He is my lover! I can"t let you all catch him!" She suddenly resisted with force. Although she had been deceived, she still persist in her own ignorant decision.
Mei Qian Deng chopped the female cook unconscious without the least hesitation.
"Wei! Now that you had chopped her unconscious, what should we do with these dishes?!" Now was it was almost time to eat. Later when those nuns in the nunnery noticed the female cook disappeared and the food was not prepared, they would surely get suspicious. When they made such a huge scene, how would that imposter reveal himself?
Mei Qian Deng blinked her eyes with an innocent face. If she didn"t make her faint, with how agitated this stupid girl was she wouldn"t be able to prepare the food properly anyway.
"You go make the fire. I will cook."
What…… I dare you to say again at this Crown Prince?!
"Quick."
You win! How to add the firewoods?!
[1] A popular term for a prefecture/county magistrate
[2] One of the main characters in The Return of the Pearl Princess.
Can you see how huge his nose is? (The words in the gif are: How disgusting)
Translated by HaruOngy at Geniusly Plain (If you can see this line, you must have read this in the aggregator site which illegally steal various works. Be shameful of yourself for not appreciating the translator"s hard work. Don"t think only you want to have it the easy way. Support the fanbase!)