The longest chapter up to date…. (24 pages in raw and 15 pages in translation). Time for….. girls power!
Chapter 47 – Laofu‘s Girly Heart 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 and translator!)
"Crown Prince."
"En???"
"Why do you keep staring at me these two days?"
Chu Xun immediately looked at the sky, "I didn"t."
Female warrior Mei had been stared by him until she got goose b.u.mp yet he dared to say he didn"t?
Female warrior Mei tried her best to think whether she had offended His Highness Crown Prince again unconsciously that this idiot had to use such perverted method as retaliation. One must know, female warrior Mei had always been an unperturbed one, capable of ignoring everything. How much strength this Chu Xun"s eyes must had to move her?
Say, Chu Xun had pondered to himself for a very long time. When he didn"t know Mei Qian Deng was a girl, he felt Mei Qian Deng was not like a girl one bit. But, when he found out the truth, although he was unwilling to accept it in his heart at first, the more he looked the more he felt Mei Qian Deng was like a young girl.
Chu Xun had even gave himself a multiple-choice question. What if, he could determine Mei Qian Deng"s gender, will he let Mei Qian Deng be a man or a woman?
The answer had long been in Chu Xun"s heart. And deep inside Chu Xun"s heart, he was hugging himself in delight.
He was elevated. Thankfully Mei Qian Deng is actually a girl. This Crown Prince doesn"t have an interest to same gender. This Crown Prince"s orientation is a normal one. Of course, this Crown Prince is entrusted with the whole nation, how can I like a man. He sighed in relief. Without the shackles of gender issue, the question of whether he liked had become much easier to accept and dismissed from his mind.
"Crown Prince, why are you staring at me again?"
"This Crown Prince had said earlier, I didn"t peep at you!"
When Zhao Mo Ran returned to the palace, the Young Master of Alliance Leader with dog-like sensitivity very quickly noticed Chu Xun"s unusual difference.
Although His Highness Crown Prince was quiet and well-behaved during the cla.s.s, he seemed to be having a wandering mind. His head always turned towards Mei Qian Deng, and sometimes he would suddenly grinned sheepishly. (Chu Xun has already starts the staring-at-wife maniac mode.)
Besides, every time when Zhao Mo Ran wanted to talk with Mei Qian Deng, Chu Xun would forcefully squeezed into between the two of them and seriously separated Zhao Mo Ran. Don"t even mention about if Zhao Mo Ran suggested to exchange moves with Mei Qian Deng, Chu Xun would have a fierce reaction——"Zhao Mo Ran, have you forgotten how you almost injured Mei Qian Deng last time? Both of you have too strong winning desire, when fight none of you will hold yourselves. You"re not allowed to fight!"
Zhao Mo Ran actually didn"t think Chu Xun had already know Mei Qian Deng"s female gender. It was because based on Mei Qian Deng this serious and reliable character, if Chu Xun could find out she was actually a woman disguising as a man, this was much harder than letting Chu Xun be a broken sleeve[1]. So, Zhao Mo Ran only thought of him being a tsundere and tyrant, regardless of how men and women all had their desire to explode. He guessed maybe when they were at Mei Zi River Islet, the two of them had another quarrelsome but loving couple alike story.
Hence, the three of them hiding their own little secret while having a seesaw warfare. Zhao Mo Ran and Chu Xun each thought that they were the only one in the palace who knew Mei Qian Deng"s secret. They meticulously concealed the fact they knew her secret in front of her while taking extra care in attempting to protect this little secret of Mei Qian Deng"s. Mei Qian Deng still thought she had hid it very well and no one noticed her secret so she continued to work hard to hide it.
"Today we will learn a poem——Ballad of Mulan[2]. Repeat reciting after laofu." Once, during Senior Official Song"s cla.s.s, he had no other intention, just purely doing his best to impart knowledge as the Grand Tutor"s responsibility. Coincidentally he came across this poem, "Again and again, the sound of thread. Mulan weaves by the door……"
Chu Xun fiercely raised his head and glared at Senior Official Song. Senior Official, why must you go and teach this poem? It can"t be Senior Official Song had already know Mei Qian Deng is actually a girl? Ah! I remembered now. When Senior Official Song met Mei Qian Deng, he said she"s a young miss. The old ginger is hotter than the new[3], the older one is the scarier the eyesight!
A certain person"s inner heart was extremely perturbed.
"……a male rabbit"s legs kick frantically, a female rabbit closes her eyes. When the two rabbits run side by side, how can you tell one from the other? Your Highness Crown Prince, why are you staring at laofu instead of studying properly?"
Chu Xun immediately lifted the book to block his face. "I didn"t! Senior Official recite remarkably in voice and expression until Hua Mulan seems to have appear before us. This Crown Prince just heard it until got entranced."
Senior Official Song grinned, revealing a meaningful look. He glanced at Mei Qian Deng. Mei Qian Deng was completely absorbed in studying, she was not one bit abnormal. Senior Official Song couldn"t help himself from giving a "like" to Mei Qian Deng in his heart. This girl had already reached the highest selfless state. If this goes on, this girl probably will really forget she is a young girl.
This can"t do. He had to think of a plan to awaken Mei Qian Deng"s girly heart.
He heard girls usually liked pink colour.
A few days later, when Senior Official Song entered the Sheng Ren Hall for cla.s.s, his clothes brightly blinded the three youngsters.
Chu Xun, "Senior Official, today……are you……unwell……a bit?"
Senior Official Song stroked the new pale pink colour with hazy peach blossom design clothes with a calm face. "No, it just last night laofu read a very sentimental opera script and suddenly it awaken laofu"s girly heart. Although laofu is old, laofu"s heart is not old!"
Chu Xun actually had no word to refute.
"Little Deng, does this clothes of laofu look nice or not?"
Mei Qian Deng without even blinking her eyes, "Look nice."
"Laofu searched for the master with best workmans.h.i.+p in the capital"s number one tailor shop and had it made-by-order. If you think it looks nice, why don"t we have one made for you too?"
"Senior Official, I don"t like this colour."
Sure enough!
Chu Xun narrowed his eyes. His eye signal flew like a knife at Senior Official Song. He changed the topic, "Senior Official Song, this Crown Prince had been wearing glittering clothes all year long and got bored of them already. This Crown Prince see that this pale pink colour is quite suited for youngsters, especially like this Crown Prince beautiful young man. Why don"t you make one for this Crown Prince?"
Senior Official Song rubbed his chin, "Why don"t we do this? For the sake of a relaxed and happy atmosphere to impart knowledge and educate others, a pleasing learning environment is very important. So, today we will not have cla.s.s and go make beautiful clothes together instead!"
[Below is an interruption for fas.h.i.+on show]
Inside the VIP changing room of the capital"s number one tailor shop, a brilliant, peerless fas.h.i.+on show was on the way. First to push open the curtain door is our very learned, the honourable Lord Senior Official Song. The clothes he who is above sixty years old had is a pale pink with snow white edges made of the best silk, embroidered on it are numerous peach blossom flowers. Covering it is a cotton shawl, his lower half is adorned with the currently popular ta.s.sels, complementing well with the two little hair ta.s.sels on his hair bun.
Zhao Mo Ran, "Senior Official you have instantly turn twenty years younger!"
Senior Official Song, "Nonsense, xiaosheng[4] is only eighteen this year!"
Next is the entrance of Zhao Mo Ran. The one he picks is a pale green changpao[5], with dark pattern of tall bamboo nodes. This changpao"s most special part is when the embroidery lady embroidered that dark pattern, she used particular techniques and materials, creating the effect of the bamboos swaying when the clothes flutter. The wind blow from each step will make it seems as if a refres.h.i.+ng breeze blows the bamboo on the clothes, swaying nonstop. It is very mystical.
Mei Qian Deng, "Brother Zhao wearing this clothes is very good looking."
Zhao Mo Ran burst with joy at once, he grasped the lower hem of the clothes and moved back and forth c.o.c.kily at that place.
Chu Xun glared angrily, his eyesight flew like a knife at Zhao Mo Ran. He wished he could cut that clothes on Zhao Mo Ran into pieces just by staring.
Zhao Mo Ran shoved Mei Qian Deng inside, "Go and change one too!" His face was br.i.m.m.i.n.g with antic.i.p.ation.
After Mei Qian Deng entered, the area outside the changing room turned silent. Senior Official Song looked at the left side, Zhao Mo Ran was staring at that curtain without moving his eyes. He then looked at the right side, he got found out by Chu Xun. Chu Xun smoothly pretended and opened his small fan and fanned himself.
Female warrior Mei original choose a blue as dark as black starry clothes, it was inlaid with silver and gold beads just like a resplendent starry sky. It was good looking too, it just that she got rejected by the other three people. No way! Too plain, today we are here to be gorgeously dressed, it has to be soft, pretty and bright!
Hence, Zhao Mo Ran picked for her a beautiful clothes made of s.h.i.+ny glossy fabric (→_→ it"s exactly the type like that Korean s.p.a.cesuit version[6]) but it was rejected by Mei Qian Deng; Senior Official Song picked for her a weird pale yellow clothes with b.u.t.terfly knot, again it was rejected by Mei Qian Deng; Chu Xun was a scheming youngster, he secretly pa.s.sed Mei Qian Deng a pure white clothes, on the outside it seemed to have nothing special so Mei Qian Deng accepted it.
Later, the curtain door was pushed aside. Mei Qian Deng walked out. The first thing entering their eyes was an ethereal, handsome youngster. There was no need to use any decoration yet it still have the coming from Heavenly Palace beauty feeling. Even the page serving them at the side praised her, "This Young Master is simply the clothes stand, will look good no matter what clothes!"
Mei Qian Deng lowered her head. She had a dismal face. What the heck is this part on the chest?!
Everyone carefully looked. Actually, this clothes was designed to be very s.e.xy. On the chest part of the white clothes, it used rare natural silk and brilliant skill to embroider a perspective painting of human body. Two pieces of big pectoral muscles, below them were six packs of abs. It was body tight when Mei Qian Deng wore it, making it as if the muscles really grew on her body. It just that the clothes was too thin and revealing.
"Young Master, only some of our customers that had come to our shop and challenged this clothes have succeed, what more that none had ever wear it successfully like Young Master." The serving page had a face of wors.h.i.+p, obviously he had been fascinated by Mei Qian Deng this beautiful, refined youngster who was plainly thin when had clothes on but actually had muscles when clothes removed.
Chu Xun was secretly pleased of himself. With this way, there was no way to see Mei Qian Deng was actually a girl.
Zhao Mo Ran looked two more times at that two big pieces of pectoral muscles in front of Mei Qian Deng"s chests, his expression unreadable. He didn"t say anything.
Senior Official Song flattened his lips, "Your Highness, it"s your turn to change now."
Chu Xun raised his head as he entered and changed his clothes. This Crown Prince had long picked one. Didn"t Mei Qian Deng praise Zhao Mo Ran looked nice? He wanted to be far much better than Zhao Mo Ran! Since ancient times, red matched with green were all mostly used in challenge tactic in dressing. Not only must plan to look good, it still had to look at face and body figure. Chu Xun was completely confident of everywhere of his body.
Crash——
The curtain was pushed open, the Crown Prince who had a makeover walked out.
One can only see he wears a green base with safflowers as decorative pattern robe[7] made of best-quality silk. Due to the flowery pattern, the style is made extremely plain. The lapel doesn"t even have a b.u.t.ton, the collar is opened much lower and there is a girdle belt. Complementing with this clothes, Chu Xun let down his hair too, a head of black hair let fall to the ground, using a matching flowery hair string loosely tied. Adding with Chu Xun"s beautiful face in its golden age, this set"s exaggeratingly contrasting colours clothes is bursting with bizarre radiance.
"This, this, this clothes, ever since our master made it, none have manage to wear it……" That page"s eyes were already bulging. These three Young Masters today were exactly like immortals coming down to the mortal world, they looked nice no matter what they wear. Where would anyone get to see these many of them at the same time?!
Mei Qian Deng suddenly laughed, "Hahaha, when I was small I had this coat with similar flowery pattern. Wearing it during winter, it"s especially warm!"
After Senior Official Song"s plan to use pink colour and pretty clothes to awaken the feminine part deep inside Mei Qian Deng"s soul failed, Senior Official Song didn"t give up. He thought of another plan.
Today during the cla.s.s, Senior Official Song told them, "Laofu know, all of you other than studying is completely homework every day, days pa.s.sed much boring. Because laofu too feels every day facing all of you to teach the same thing once so many times that laofu had long learnt before. Laofu feels it"s very dull and boring. Hence, laofu comes up with some stimulus, what do you all think?"
Recently Chu Xun was like a yellow weasel guarding against Senior Official Song. He kept feeling this teacher"s sudden impulse was excessively strange, it seemed like he had some bad ideas towards Mei Qian Deng. When he heard Senior Official Song"s words, he instantly declined, "Mencius once said, so it is that whenever Heaven invests a person with great responsibilities, it first tries his resolve, exhausts his muscles and bones, starves his body, leaves him dest.i.tute and confound his every endeavour. In this way his patience and endurance are developed and his weaknesses are overcome. Senior Official, we better study properly in here instead."
Zhao Mo Ran was the only one dreaded the world was not peace, "His Highness Crown Prince puts importance in study, we can"t hold up His Highness. Teacher, why don"t we meet up after cla.s.s? Little Seven, what do you think?"
When Mei Qian Deng was asked what she thought, if the question was not of roasting, killing, scolding or plundering nature, usually she would lowered her head to think a short moment before saying, "Alright."
Zhao Mo Ran knew well Mei Qian Deng"s temper and took appropriate steps.
"Mei Qian Deng, recently the weather is pleasantly cool already. After cla.s.s you have to teach this Crown Prince swordsmans.h.i.+p. Don"t think of lazing to play!"
Due to His Highness Crown Prince"s meticulous obstructions, for a period of time Senior Official Song didn"t prevail.
However, as a group of people who knew martial arts, they could always manage to do some covert activities with great secrecy.
It was night. Taking advantage of Chu Xun sleeping, Zhao Mo Ran pulled Mei Qian Deng to the deep part of the imperial palace—— the Cold Palace.
"Why we have to come to this place?" Mei Qian Deng was surprised.
Zhao Mo Ran was pulling Mei Qian Deng"s hand, pulling very tightly. He turned around and shrewdly smiled, "Only by coming this type of place that it has the feel."
The Cold Palace was gloomy and the wind blowing beside the ears carried weird whistling sound. Adding the pale white yarn curtains swaying from the wind and interlocking with the tree shadows, it was quite a bit like ghost shadows moving around, making others shuddered with fear.
"Today I came across an old momo in the palace. Her eyes were already blinded. She begged me to come to this palace to burn some h.e.l.l money for an Imperial Concubine Dowager." Zhao Mo Ran intentionally lowered his tone and approached Mei Qian Deng"s ear to whisper.
Mei Qian Deng blinked her eyes, she didn"t have any response.
"I heard that Imperial Concubine Dowager hanged herself to death at that roof beam. Because this is the Cold Palace, a long time pa.s.sed before they found out. Her body had already rot, especially the two eyes, only left with two dark cavities……"
Mei Qian Deng blinked her eyes again and asked, "When corpse is suspended for a long time in such gloomy and cold place, shouldn"t it got air-dried instead?"
Zhao Mo Ran nearly bite his own tongue as he lowly roared, "That time is rainy season!"
"Oh……"
"Do you know why that Imperial Concubine Dowager wanted to hang herself?"
Mei Qian Deng shook her head as she seriously looked at Zhao Mo Ran. Zhao Mo Ran felt the current her was especially cute. He couldn"t hold himself from rubbing her hair and much diligently narrated the ghost story, "I heard this Cold Palace has a mirror. All year long after getting nourished by such gloomy, cold aura, it had gained spirituality and turned into a demonic mirror. It can reveal a person"s deepest desire. However, any imperial concubines that once lived in this Cold Palace, all of them had unnatural death. Because they didn"t stop looking at the mirror. Inside the mirror, they saw the Emperor"s favour and eternal beauty. Indulging themselves day by day, in the end their souls got absorbed. Some hanged to death and their tongue stuck out unnaturally long, some ran into the wall to death and their brains burst, there were also some who cut open their own stomach and pulled out their own intestines……"
While narrating, Zhao Mo Ran pointed at different places, as if those crazy deaths happened exactly at those places.
The cold wind blew repeatedly.
Zhao Mo Ran narrated until even he got some chills in his heart. He looked at Mei Qian Deng again who had her face br.i.m.m.i.n.g with curiosity, "Where"s that mirror?"
He pulled Mei Qian Deng further inside. There was no lantern nor moonlight. The Cold Palace"s inner part was extremely dark. Zhao Mo Ran pulled out a fire starter from his chest, using its dim light to walk inside. "Naturally, the mirror is inside the Cold Palace"s bedroom."
The corridor was very long, around it was deathly still. Mei Qian Deng and Zhao Mo Ran were martial arts pract.i.tioners, their steps were extremely light. Mei Qian Deng moved her ears, she heard a third footsteps sound. Similarly, Zhao Mo Ran too noticed that third footsteps sound. It was as if coming from the underworld, crossing through the Naihe Qiao[8], trickling with Yellow Springs" water, it was coming here instead.
And there was a swis.h.i.+ng sound came from the back. Mei Qian Deng moved her hands as fast as lightning. In a flash, she caught that stealthy hand in the darkness.
Then, she heard Chu Xun"s terrible rackets, "Aiyo, you boor! Immediately let go of this Crown Prince"s hand!"
"Crown Prince, why are you here? Didn"t you want to study and hence don"t want to join us to play?" About Chu Xun"s appearance, Zhao Mo Ran was a little unhappy. It was hard enough to be alone with Mei Qian Deng and they were playing such stimulating game. If Mei Qian Deng was frightened, screamed and drilled into his embrace, how nice would it be?
"This Crown Prince saw you all being sneaky, naturally have to follow and see. Zhao Mo Ran, what you"re doing right now is trespa.s.sing the imperial palace at night. Speaking seriously, you will have to be dragged away and beheaded, do you know?!"
d.a.m.n you[9] Crown Prince!
Chu Xun forcefully joined the ranks. The three of them went to the end of the Cold Palace.
This Cold Palace had been abandoned long time ago. At the end, inside that room was covered with dust and spider webs. When Zhao Mo Ran pushed open the door, the flying dust made him unable to stop himself from sneezing.
"Are you alright?"
Zhao Mo Ran covered his mouth and nose, "I have rhinitis."
The atmosphere got half scattered by his sneezing.
"Little Seven, have you see it? The mirror is just there." Zhao Mo Ran pointed at the corner of the room. At there was a dressing table. Various makeup cases scattered around on it. Stuck on the wall was a copper face mirror but the mirror was covered up with a white cloth so they couldn"t see it.
Mei Qian Deng was curious, she bypa.s.sed the obstacles to reach that wall. She stretched out her hand, wanting to remove the white cloth.
Her hand got grabbed by Chu Xun, "Wei, what should we do if it reflects some bad things?!"
"Crown Prince, you"re scared of ghost?"
"Nonsense!" Chu Xun stomped his feet and pushed Mei Qian Deng away, "Step aside, let me do it."
Chu Xun stretched out his hand, without any hesitation he pulled down that white cloth. It was at the same time, something unknown flew out from the copper mirror under the white cloth and hit Chu Xun"s face. How could Chu Xun expect such unforeseen incident? He screamed and ran backwards, drilling himself into Mei Qian Deng"s bosoms.
"AH!!! THERE"S A GHOST!!!"
Mei Qian Deng and Zhao Mo Ran: "……"
The unknown thing inside the mirror behind Chu Xun, after the movement slowed down, they found out it was a mischievous prank by someone. Inside that face mirror was double-layers and mechanisms. As long as someone pull down the white cloth which was carrying a weight, it would start the mechanism and pop out——a strange painted puppet head.
When someone received a shock, they would unconsciously close their eyes.
Chu Xun too was like that.
He closed his eyes as he ran into Mei Qian Deng"s bosoms. Howling twice, he opened his eyes again. He wanted to turn his head around to see exactly what sort of ghost it was. Plus, currently only Chu Xun alone was facing away from the mirror. His eyesight first landed on the main door of the room. Hence, he saw a "female ghost" in white clothes standing outside the main door of the room. Quietly, with her hair hanging loosely covered up a large part of her face she only had a very long tongue stretched outside.
"AH!!! A GHOST!!!"
Chu Xun"s inner heart received another ten thousand damage. Both his legs shook crazily while both his hands tightly hugged Mei Qian Deng"s small, slender waist. Mei Qian Deng did her best to pry open this guy"s evil paws, this was really trying to hug someone to death.
That white clothes "female ghost" flew inside. Chu Xun violently shook Mei Qian Deng, the whole Cold Palace was full of His Highness Crown Prince"s screams.
Mei Qian Deng only turn around and shoot a glance. Instantly she had saw through that "female ghost" as she calmly said, "Senior Official, don"t play anymore. There"s only one crown prince in the country. If you play him until broken, you can"t compensate."
That "female ghost" only flew halfway when "she" heard Mei Qian Deng"s words. In an instant, "she" turned around and flew out of the door.
This was Senior Official Song"s meaning of not admitting even if beaten to death that he disguised himself as the "female ghost" to frighten His Highness Crown Prince. Naturally, he initially planned to frighten Mei Qian Deng. Didn"t most people say little young girls were all scaredy-cat, that when they heard ghost stories, they would be so frightened that they cried? Yet, why he couldn"t frighten Mei Qian Deng and instead made His Highness Crown Prince frightened until nearly wet his pants?
Palace maid A: "Hey, I heard His Highness Crown Prince had threw away his favourite mirror inside the dressing room. Why though?"
Palace maid B: "I even heard Senior Official Song got half a year salary deducted by His Highness Crown Prince. What thing that made Crown Prince unhappy did Senior Official Song do?"
Xiao Jing Zi: "Two days ago, when I was tidying up dirty clothes for His Highness Crown Prince, I found out his underpants was a bit wet. Such a big man already so it can"t be because he wet his pants. I heard adult men have big uncle[10]. It is different yet similar to the girls" menstruation, mood will become much irritable too. Maybe, when His Highness Crown Prince had his big uncle Senior Official Song offended His Highness."
Xiao Jing Zi, you as a little eunuch, do you really understand what is big uncle?
[1] Or gay
[2] Mulan is literally lily magnolia). But this is actually a poem about the famous Hua Mulan, the girl who went to the war in her father"s stead disguising as a boy. Translation of the poem is copied from an attempt by Abby Lu (thank you, I really appreciate it) at since I"m bad at poem and my version is not as nice as this one).
[3] The older, the wiser
[4] 小生Used by a young scholar/student to refer to himself.
[5]
Literally, long robe. A traditional Chinese dress (or robe, long jacket, tunic) worn by men. Widely adopted during Qing Dynasty by the Manchu rulers.
[6]
This one. I don"t know how to call this clothes
[7]
Just for better imagination
[8] Bridge of Helplessness, a bridge every soul has to cross before reincarnate. Familiar with Mengpo Soup? Those souls drank that soup on this bridge.
[9] 你大爷的, a variation of common curse used by people of lower cla.s.s to curse higher cla.s.s people since 大爷=big master/big grandfather.
[10] A Chinese slang. Big aunty = period, big uncle= men version period (only as a joke)
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 and translator!)