Lu Xiao stared at the dark “Night Rain”, his face slowly went from suspicious to blank.
Qiu Yutong naturally knew what he was thinking. The sword energy sealed in “Night Rain” was extremely ferocious and it had never missed before; it didn’t save Lu Xiao’s life only one time. With this kind of sword energy, how could it not deal with a small male pet?
Qiu Yutong coughed lightly. He felt that he had to explain himself a bit.
”Cough, Your Majesty’s sword energy is very ferocious.”
He thickened his skin and added gold on top of it. Even though it was shameful, Qiu Yutong, as a genius sword cultivator who was dead-set on saving face, suspected that he could do anything as long as Lu Xiao didn’t find out about the level of his swordsmanship mastery.
This was his bottom line, bottom light, understand?
Lu Xiao seemed like he completely didn’t hear Qiu Yutong’s words, absent-mindedly looking at “Night Rain” in his hand.
“… even your sword energy can’t bear to hear the small and weak?” He asked softly.
Lu Xiao’s voice got softer and softer, gradually becoming a whisper, as if he was speaking to a person who was no longer here, “Even to such a cheap person, you can’t bear to be ruthless, but why towards me…”
His voice was indistinguishable, Qiu Yutong could only catch a few words.
”Small and weak”
”Cheap person.”
“…” He didn’t know how to describe his mood, hehe.
Forget it, endure it, don’t lower himself to his level.
Lu Xiao was distracted for quite a while before he slowly regained his mind, carefully sheathing “Night Rain”.
After returning the sword to its sheath, he looked down, indifferently glancing at Qiu Yutong. He suddenly raised his voice, “Zhang Defu!”
”Creak”, the door sounded, Zhang Defu took small, quick steps, moving slavishly inside, his plump face full of smiles, “Your Majesty, are there any instructions for this old slave?”
Lu Xiao looked down at Qiu Yutong and said indifferently, “Zhang Defu, take this person and send him to… send to the Sixth Western Palace*, casually find a courtyard to settle down.”
[T/N: The Sixth Western Palace refers to one of the palaces to the east of the main palace. More information here: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%A5%BF%E5%85%AD%E5%AE%AB]
“Yes,” Zhang Defu looked at Qiu Yutong and sighed softly. There was some regret, but he didn’t feel surprised.
Lu Xiao lightly caressed “Night Rain”’s sword hilt, and no longer paid any mind to the two of them, turning towards the back of the palace.
Zhang Defu bent his waist, carefully and prudently lifting up Qiu Yutong’s broken cage. He sighed as he spoke unendingly, “Ai, Young Master Xue Rong, are you okay? Can you stand? Your hair’s a mess…”
Under the help of this old eunuch, Qiu Yutong finally managed to stand up with difficulty, but with a short stumble, he nearly fell again. This body had curled up in the cage for too long, his two legs had numbed until he couldn’t feel anything.
“Young Master Xue Rong, are you okay?” Zhang Defu was asked, deeply concerned.
“It’s not a big problem, it’s just that my legs are a bit numb.” Qiu Yutong embarrassedly pulled up the pathetic piece of cloth on his waist, trying to cover up his important places with difficulty. “Xiao De*… Zhang-gonggong, could you help me find some clothes?”
[T/N: As stated, eunuchs usually have a “xiao” (which means small) attached to their name.]
“Naturally,” Zhang Defu nodded before turning his head and instructing an eunuch under him. A crimson satin cloak was found and given to Qiu Yutong to wear.
Zhang Defu saw that Qiu Yutong couldn’t stand so he called over two eunuchs, lifting a small sedan chair over. He helped Qiu Yutong up onto it, and with himself by its side, a group of four walked out of Jingxin Palace unsteadily, heading towards the Sixth Western Palace.
It was deep into the night, as they walked, ocher-red palace walls were on either side; only a narrow strip of the pitch-black sky could be seen.
Daning Palace is extremely grand and was one of the previous dynasty’s 3 great palaces, it was also the six palaces* of the previous empire. All ocher-red walls and ceramic glazed tiles, it was hundreds of hectares large. At this very moment, even if it was very late at night, this palace still seemed imposing, strict and solemn.
[T/N: These six palaces are the palaces in which concubines would live in. More information here (actual raws state Eastern and Western Palaces): https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%9C%E8%A5%BF%E5%85%AD%E5%AE%AB]
The small sedan chair moved swayingly for a long time without any intention of stopping.
There was practically nobody along the route, only seeing the occasional palace lady or eunuch carrying lanterns, seeing the accompanying Zhang Defu, they all quickly stooped down and got out of the way.
Qiu Yutong lowered his head and looked at Zhang Defu, “Zhang-gonggong, where are we headed to?”
Zhang Defu glanced at him, his eyes filled with sympathy, “The Sixth Western Palace’s Feicui courtyard.”
Qiu Yutong blankly repeated, “Sixth Western Palace’s… Feicui courtyard?”
Daning’s harem chambers were split into the Eastern Palace and Western Palace. That year when the previous emperor hung himself, Lu Xiao sent the Imperial Consort Dowager* Jiang into house arrest in the Eastern Palace while the Western Palace remained empty.
[T/N: She was not the empress before, but the Imperial Concubine, so after the previous emperor’s death, she will not become the Empress Dowager, but the Imperial Concubine Dowager I think. If anyone has a better title let me know so I can change it]
Qiu Yutong was not familiar with the harem chambers, so he naturally wouldn’t have heard of this Feicui courtyard.
Zhang Defu thought that he was unhappy so he cautioned softly, “Ai, Young Master Xue Rong, since you’ve entered the palace, you should have made preparations, right? The peerless beauty of Jiangnan’s Liu family, Young Master Liu Bitao, wasn’t he sent to the Western Palace’s Yinyu residence? He made such a big fuss, but in the end he was dragged out by the punishment bureau and flogged 30 times. Then, he became obedient. Actually, thinking a bit more openly is nothing…”
Qiu Yutong listened, muddleheaded, for a while, and could count as having understood.
Even though Zhang Defu didn’t say it explicitly, the meaning was very obvious. The Western Palace today was Lu Xiao’s Cold Palace. Lu Xiao put all the “tributes” that were hard to reject there, like the Young Master of the Liu family, and himself, this “beauty”, were all sent to the Western Palace to be carelessly raised.
It turned out to be the Cold Palace.
This was simply… too wonderful!
He didn’t have to wrack his brains to deal with Lu Xiao and could focus completely on how to return to North Snow City!
“En, I understand.” Qiu Yutong worked to restrain his happiness, faking an extremely disappointed look, reluctantly nodding.
“Actually, this Feicui courtyard, despite being a little remote, was still not bad after some cleaning up. Young Master Xue Rong, don’t be discouraged, the future is long.” Zhang Defu was a chatterbox, once he opened his mouth, he would talk endlessly. “This slave will also find a chance to mention Young Master frequently in front of His Majesty, maybe when His Majesty is in a good mood one day, he would call for Young Master to serve…”
“Zhang-gonggong, you don’t have to, really,” Qiu Yutong quickly rejected, paling in shock.
“Young Master need not be courteous to this slave, this slave is also… ai.”
Just as the two of them were conversing like chicken to ducks*, the sedan chair slowly stopped.
[T/N: This means that the two people do not understand each other.]
Zhang Defu helped Qiu Yutong alight the sedan chair. “Young Master Xue Rong, we’ve reached, this way please.”
Qiu Yutong looked up, in front of him was a tiny courtyard with red paint peeling off the main doors, slippery moist moss covered the steps; it looked extremely dilapidated.
“This is Feicui courtyard? It doesn’t look bad.”
Qiu Yutong didn’t care much about the environment. To him, a bed and a sword were enough. If there were a few books about romance* and dogblood romance taking place in the palace, that would be even better. Even though the courtyard in front of him was a little run-down, it looked extremely peaceful, so he was quite satisfied.
[T/N: This actually says books about a pair of ideal lovers.]
Zhang Defu saw that he was “sensible” and nodded appreciatively, then let a eunuch knock on the door.
Not long after, following the sound of footsteps, a eunuch frantically ran outside.
He saw Zhang Defu and knelt down, trembling, “Xiao, Xiao Xizi gives Zhang-gonggong, a… a greeting.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Zhang Defy was unable to endure and waved his hand. “Next time, this Young Master Xue Rong is your master, serve carefully.”
Xiao Xiza quickly turned towards Qiu Yutong and gave him a series of kowtows. He stammered, “Young, Young Master…”
Zhang Defu attentively told Qiu Yutong a few more words before leaving.
Qiu Yutong, with the support of Xiao Xizi, slowly walked north of the courtyard, into the main room.
The main room had a few lighted lamps. Besides a few tables and chairs, there wasn’t a lot of furniture. It looked a little poverty-stricken. In the western side, there was a yellow screen, behind it was the bedroom.
Qiu Yutong sat on a chair*, surveying the house as he sighed inwardly; the majestic and gorgeous Daning Palace actually had such a desolate place.
[T/N: The actual term is aita, which is an ancient style of chair used.
This is a picture of it.]
Xiao Xizi, with his hands hanging down by his sides, cautiously asked, “Does, does Young Master have any orders?”
Qiu Yutong reclined against the chair and casually waved his hand, “You, sit as well.”
Xiao Xizi was slightly stunned, hesitating for a moment, before shakingly sitting on a round stool. He also didn’t dare to sit fully, only sitting on half of his butt.
Qiu Yutong thought it was funny and didn’t force him, casually asking, “How old are you?”
“Four, fourteen,” Xiao Xizi stammered.
“How did you enter the palace? Why are you the only person in this courtyard?”
“Yuan, Yuande’s second year, there was a flood in my hometown. My parents couldn’t afford to raise me, so, so they sold this one to child traffickers… Later, I entered the palace.” Xiao Xizi’s voice was soft, “Every, everyone dislikes this one’s mouth, un, unhappy when working with this lowly one, so the management sent this one over to take care of this courtyard.”
“Yuande’s second year…” Qiu Yutong muttered, “Right, is this the fifth year of Yuande?”
Xiao Xizi honestly said, “Today is the tenth day of the ninth month in the fifth year of Yuande, just, just past Bailu.”
Qiu Yutong was dazed for a moment before he lightly let out a breath, “So it wasn’t a nightmare, it really has been 5 years already.”
“Young, Young Master, what did you say?” Xiao Xizi blinked, uncomprehendingly.
Qiu Yutong also didn’t understand, looking at the faint yellow lamp on the table, his mind wandered for just a moment. When he came back, he suddenly found that Xiao Xizi was staring foolishly at himself.
Qiu Yutong smiled, “What are you looking at me for?”
Xiao Xizi suddenly came back to himself, his face couldn’t help but redden. He stuttered, “Young, Young Master, you’re really good-looking… a lot, a lot better than the masters in the other courtyards, His, His Majesty will definitely like Young Master.”
What was this related to…
Qiu Yutong didn’t know whether he wanted to laugh or cry when he suddenly remembered something and quickly asked, “Right, is there a mirror in this house?”
“There, there is, this one will go get it.”
Xiao Xizi very quickly took out a tiny brass mirror, deferentially passing it over to Qiu Yutong with two hands.
Qiu Yutong grabbed the mirror and for a moment, he didn’t dare look.
He took a deep breath, calm down, calm down, even if he saw a made-up effeminate face, it wasn’t such a big deal.
Having prepared his heart, he braced himself and slowly brought the mirror to his face.
