March was drawing to a close, and the weather was growing warmer.
Zhou Ye had been visiting the Jade Fragrance House more and more often.
And every time, he tricked Yun Shen out of something.
Sometimes it was pills to replenish qi and blood, sometimes poison, and sometimes an assortment of exquisite, compact hidden weapons. He would then give them to Wei Mingxiu for self-defense.
Yun Shen had a splitting headache from all his tricks.
He grabbed Zhou Ye and said, "Brother Zhou, if I remember correctly, your mother, Lady Wang, came from a well-known tea merchant family in Jiangnan. Your grandparents dote on you and have put vast amounts of farmland and property in your name. Add to that the rewards you've received over the years, and you're far wealthier than I am. Why do you keep coming here to trick me out of food, drink, and things?"
"Because your things are good, of course. But don't worry, I'll pay you for them. I won't let you take a loss." With that, Zhou Ye tossed Yun Shen a notebook. "Take a look. These are questions His Sixth Highness wrote down after reading the medical and poison classics recently. Help explain them to him."
"You... really don't hesitate to put me to work." Yun Shen pressed a hand to his forehead.
But he still sat down to read the questions Wei Mingxiu had written, then picked up his brush and annotated them one by one.
As he wrote, he said, "But I have to say, His Sixth Highness really is worthy of being the person you've taken a fancy to. At such a young age, he can actually understand two such obscure books, and the questions he asks show real insight of his own."
Zhou Ye tossed back a cup of wine and smiled at him. "I've never been wrong about anyone I've taken a fancy to."
"Aren't you one of them too?"
Yun Shen's heart stirred at the flirtation. He clicked his tongue. "If I could beat you, I'd definitely have you under me."
He and Zhou Ye had been bored these past few days and had sparred.
Naturally, he had lost.
Zhou Ye's martial skills had been honed through life-and-death battles on the battlefield, so he was naturally far more ferocious than Yun Shen.
Yun Shen did not feel ashamed of losing.
Zhou Ye paid no mind to his teasing. He merely sipped his wine and sat with Yun Shen for half a quarter of an hour before saying, "After leaving the palace today, I managed to speak with Feng Chenyi."
Yun Shen's brush paused for only a stroke before he continued writing.
"Has the Zhao Family begun to move?"
All this time, Feng Chenyi's informants had been keeping an eye on the Zhao Family. No matter how patient the family was, with the Qingming rites drawing near, it was about time they made a move.
"Mm. Zhao Junze went to see Kou Yuan."
"He even disguised himself and used the back entrance of the Kou residence," Zhou Ye said.
"Also, in the inner palace, Madam Kou went to visit Noble Lady Lian yesterday. She didn't look happy when she left."
"That fits perfectly with the news the empress received: Noble Consort Shu threatened Noble Lady Lian."
"They'll probably make their switch in the next few days."
After hearing him out, Yun Shen pondered for a moment, then asked, "Brother Zhou, after all you've said, could it be that you haven't found a pretext to stop the ceremonial procession and search it thoroughly before His Majesty leaves the city?"
"No one understands me better than you, Young Master Yun."
Zhou Ye was indeed having some difficulty with that.
Now that they knew Zhao Hai would be hidden among the procession, how could they naturally expose him in front of Wei Zhao and force Wei Zhao to deal with Noble Consort Shu and the Zhao Family?
That had become the greatest challenge.
After all, this act was crucial.
If they pulled it off, first and foremost, Noble Consort Shu would lose the phoenix seal.
After all, nothing like this had ever happened while the empress held the phoenix seal.
Noble Consort Shu's possession of the phoenix seal was already against the rules. If she now committed the enormous crime of exploiting the rites for personal gain and deceiving the emperor,
she would utterly disgrace Wei Zhao, who had entrusted the phoenix seal to her.
Secondly, Bai Qingyu's case had caused an uproar in the capital, and all the people were waiting for Zhao Hai to be brought to justice.
Yet the man who should have been brought to justice would have nearly escaped, only to be caught red-handed in full view of the people of the capital.
That would be the greatest possible insult and blow to the image Wei Zhao had cultivated of himself as a good emperor.
In that case, no matter how much Wei Zhao favored the Zhao Family, he certainly would not overlook the matter.
Understanding his concerns, Yun Shen frowned for a moment and said, "I do have an idea that could help you carry out this plan, Brother Zhou."
"What is it?"
Yun Shen put down his brush. "I'll go assassinate Wei Zhao."
"No." Zhou Ye rejected the plan without thinking.
"Since the ceremonial procession is leaving the city, it's bound to have plenty of experts with it. Never mind the imperial guards under Zhao Junze's command who will accompany it, Wei Zhao himself also has a well-trained force of royal guards, every one of them an expert. Even I would struggle to get away unscathed. How can you guarantee your safety?"
"My aim isn't to assassinate him, only to cause a disturbance," Yun Shen insisted. "Besides, I'm skilled at disguises. As long as I blend into the crowd and remove my disguise, no one will recognize me."
"When the time comes, Brother Zhou, you just need to order Feng Chenyi to take his men and shout that the assassin has slipped into the procession. Then you'll have every reason to search the entire procession."
As Yun Shen spoke, he suddenly leaned forward, his eyes curving as he said to Zhou Ye, "Besides, Brother Zhou, didn't you say you've never been wrong about anyone you've taken a fancy to? What reason do you have now to doubt my abilities?"
Zhou Ye met his gaze and saw the resolve in his eyes.
He let out a soft breath and said gravely, "Then please be very careful, Young Master Yun."
"That day, I'll also be in the procession with the officials. I'll cover you."
Yun Shen understood his intentions and did not decline. He simply gathered up Wei Mingxiu's notebook of questions and tossed it to Zhou Ye.
"Being friends with you and His Highness is no loss to me," he said.
Zhou Ye took the notebook and turned to the last annotated page. There, he found that Wei Mingxiu had written a sentence after all his questions.
-Young Master Yunshen, I have benefited greatly from your books and medicines. To me, you have shown the kindness of a teacher. If we meet someday, I hope you will allow me to call you teacher.
Yun Shen's reply beside those words was only a single sentence.
-I dare not call myself your teacher. If we meet someday, Your Highness, it will be enough to call me Yun Shen.
Zhou Ye tucked the notebook into his robes and left the Jade Fragrance House, a smile still on his lips.
He did not know whether Wei Mingxiu had written those words deliberately or not.
But he could tell that those words had moved Yun Shen for the first time.
After all, Zhou Ye had not yet told Wei Mingxiu about Yun Shen's identity, so in Wei Mingxiu's eyes, Yun Shen was the Jade Fragrance House's top courtesan.
Even if he excelled in medicine and poisons and controlled much of the capital's intelligence, that could not conceal the fact that he held a lowly status.
Yet Wei Mingxiu had secretly written those words in the notebook, disregarding differences in status and showing his respect for Yun Shen.
How could Yun Shen not be moved?
Zhou Ye could not help feeling proud of Wei Mingxiu for knowing just what to say and do.
But what he did not know was that, before writing those words, Wei Mingxiu had actually drafted a whole pile of other things.
That night, by candlelight, the youth had frowned and picked up his brush, writing one sentence after another.
"Young Master Yunshen, are you and Junior Preceptor Zhou really in love?"
"Young Master Yunshen, are you sincerely helping Junior Preceptor Zhou?"
"Young Master Yunshen, if you approached Junior Preceptor Zhou for some other purpose, please don't hurt him, because he's an exceptionally good person."
"Young Master Yunshen, if you don't like Junior Preceptor Zhou, could you please stop leading him on and stop being with him?"
But Wei Mingxiu had torn up all those words in the end.
The youth had done his utmost to suppress the childish, unruly thoughts in his head and tried to think like a person in power, as Zhou Ye had taught him.
He had tried to act magnanimous and easygoing, trusting the other person as an adult would.
Only then had he finally written the words Yun Shen saw.
Of course, Yun Shen never learned the truth, not even by the day he was laid to rest.