The face that had been a tearful mess suddenly blossomed into a radiant smile, the girl's eyes and brows filled with fond memories of the past.
Seeing that expression, Lou Yun began forming a few ideas: ...This damned romantic debt.
Realizing her expression was inappropriate, the girl cleared her throat. "I don't harbor romantic feelings for the Imperial Preceptor. He merely saved my life."
Saved her life? Cui Rou had never left the Li residence after entering the capital, and Pei Qing had never even left the capital. Could she have mistaken him for someone else?
Clearly, the man on the roof was curious about this too. A neat square of light suddenly appeared beside Cui Rou's hand.
She looked up blankly to find a pair of foxlike eyes smiling at her.
Cui Rou: ! Such beautiful eyes... No! What a strange man! Lying on the roof eavesdropping.
Noticing A Zi's movements, Lou Yun's eye twitched. She casually tossed the teacup she had just filled up toward him.
Amid a series of clinks and clatters, A Zi darted aside and caught the teacup securely.
"Thank you for bestowing tea upon me, Your Highness~" he teased.
Lou Yun: If he were one of my people, I would have had him dragged out for a hundred lashes long ago.
"How did the Imperial Preceptor come to save your life?"
"Two years ago, on Li An's birthday, I discovered an aphrodisiac in the kitchen. It was the drug they gave every newcomer brought in. At first, I paid it no mind, thinking another poor soul had been delivered to Li An. But then I heard the person drugging the food say it was meant for an important guest out front."
"I thought Li An had taken a fancy to some young lady. After all, she was a girl from a respectable family, and young ladies from those clans always valued their chastity more than their lives. Li An had already humiliated me so many times that once more wouldn't matter, so I deliberately made a noise to lure that person out and secretly switched it. Still worried, I quietly found out which room the young lady would be taken to and hid inside, intending to help her escape the moment she came in."
"Who knew the person who opened the door would be the Imperial Preceptor?"
In the wavering moonlight, the young man looked bewildered at having been abandoned by the attendant. Seeing someone else inside, he instinctively averted his gaze and hastily backed out, apologizing helplessly, "I didn't know someone was inside. Please forgive me for disturbing you, miss."
Pei Qing was so good-looking that she simply could not figure out why Li An, who had always liked only women, would target a man.
"I wanted to tell the Imperial Preceptor the truth and have him flee."
But the sudden heat in her body told her there was something unusual about the drug. Merely catching a little of its scent could produce an aphrodisiac effect.
Seeing that something was wrong with the woman before him, Pei Qing carefully sniffed the room, crouched down, and placed his fingers on Cui Rou's wrist to take her pulse.
To keep Cui Rou from getting the wrong idea, he even thoughtfully laid a handkerchief over it first.
"Pardon the intrusion." Within a breath, Pei Qing had his answer. "Hundred Flowers Dew?"
"Despair filled me when I heard those words. You may not know what Hundred Flowers Dew is. It's the world's most potent aphrodisiac-or rather, aphrodisiac incense. It's formed by combining two scents. Anyone who inhales it will not only crave carnal pleasure intensely, but will need to engage with more than two people at once just to obtain relief. It won't fade for thirty-six hours, either. Instead, it will only grow fiercer."
"In the end, those who inhale it die suddenly because their bodies can't endure it. But this incense is extremely expensive. In all my years of training under the mama, I only saw it once, when they tested its effects."
"I couldn't think at all then. I only felt that no matter what happened, death was inescapable. What Li An intended by using something so expensive on an occasion like that went without saying. Not only had I inhaled Hundred Flowers Dew, I'd also ruined Li An's scheme. No matter how I looked at it, I was going to die."
The two listeners could already predict the rest of the story.
"The young master is that old goat's disciple, after all. He could certainly save you. What happened next?" A Zi's voice came from overhead.
"Yes, the Imperial Preceptor saved me. He neutralized the drug for me." Cui Rou nodded. "But even then, Li An would still have discovered me and killed me. The Imperial Preceptor might have thought I was a young lady from some great family. When Li An and the others were about to arrive, he secretly helped me out through the window, letting me escape disaster."
"You're wrong."
"What?" Cui Rou looked at Lou Yun in confusion.
"He didn't mistake you for an official's daughter," Lou Yun said evenly.
"How could that be!" Cui Rou retorted incredulously. "If he knew I was only a kept plaything, why would he save me?"
"Didn't you say he took your pulse? He would have had to lift your sleeve to do that. I searched Li An's residence. The clothes in a few rooms were different from those in the others. You wouldn't even need to look at those fabrics. A touch would tell you."
Cui Rou sat dazedly on the floor, murmuring, "Impossible."
Lou Yun administered another harsh dose. "Besides, Pei Qing is a physician. What official's daughter wouldn't have an unblemished background? He only needed to take your pulse to know what you were."
"Then why did he save me... Why save a rotten person like me?"
If Pei Qing had met Cui Rou before, could his deliberate move to stop her that day also have been to check her pulse and confirm it?
Lou Yun abruptly rose. In other words, Pei Qing might have begun investigating Li An long ago, only for Cui Rou's assassination attempt to disrupt his plans?
She intended to find the young man and ask him for answers, but out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of Cui Rou still wallowing in despair on the floor.
In a flash of insight, she understood why the young man had helped her two years ago and had not exposed her now.
"By denying it like this, you're only sullying Pei Qing's kindness. Why don't you guess why he neither revealed that you had met before nor forced you to tell the truth?"
Without waiting for the girl's response, Lou Yun rushed out the door.
Watching Lou Yun's retreating back, A Zi folded his hands behind his head and lazily lay back down.
Beneath the eaves, the girl's remorseful sobbing continued.
Jianghu bulletin:
A Zi, known in the jianghu as the Jade-Faced Fox and the Life-Taking Scholar. It is said there is no deal under heaven he cannot negotiate. His fighting skills are first-rate, and he excels most at illusion arts. Remember: do not look directly into his eyes in battle.
Since Pei Qing's class had not ended yet, Lou Yun returned to her own residence first and stared distractedly at the information delivered to her.
She had sent people to investigate as early as her first meeting with A Zi. Someone like him ought to have some rumors circulating in the jianghu.
But why hadn't he used his illusion arts on her today?
Lou Yun gazed through the window into the vast sky.
The sky was reflected in intricate, elaborate patterns. A Zi blinked his foxlike eyes, and the patterns within them instantly vanished.
"Young master, let this person be your graduation test."
A Zi's voice was as light as the wind, vanishing into the air in an instant.
The pavilion had sent twelve people in all to teach Pei Qing. Astronomy, geography, medicine, literature, martial arts-the young master had studied everything. Only the human heart remained.
As Pei Qing's last teacher, and the one who had taught him the longest, A Zi had to admit that he was probably the most incompetent of them all.
Six years, and never mind teaching Pei Qing to see through people's hearts-he had not even managed to draw Pei Qing out of his own world, nor had he seen through Pei Qing's world.
Yes, he could not tell what the young man was thinking.
It was not because the young man's thoughts were too complicated. On the contrary, Pei Qing's thoughts were too simple. That heart brimming with ardor was too pure, and too fervent.
His own mind was filthy, and he dared not look too closely. He feared that if he looked too long, he would develop just a little more elusive hope for this world. How foolish.
Even so, he had taught him everything he could.
Young master, let this unqualified teacher arrange a graduation test for you too.
I hope she disappoints neither you nor me.
Chapter 13
The Imperial Preceptor, who had always been attentive in class, lost focus for the first time, watching a flock of birds cross the slanting sunlight beyond the window.
His anticipation for the end of class grew stronger and stronger, and he grumbled inwardly about why time would not move faster, then faster still.
There seemed to have been another occasion in his earlier years when he had wished this much for class to end.
"Little teacher? Little Imperial Preceptor? Dear Pei Qing~ Please, bring Tuantuan over." The young Lou Ze'an, his cheeks still round with baby fat, leaned across the desk and pleaded with the teenage Pei Qing, who sat perfectly upright.
"No. Tuantuan will run around." The boy's youthful face was entirely earnest, his brush never stopping as he marked the work of students who were not much younger than him, and some who were even older.
Watching the boy circle and mark the paper, Lou Ze'an decided to deploy his great art of wheedling. He would make him bring Tuantuan no matter what.
First, crying:
"Please~ Good teacher, bad teacher, you're my little teacher. Just bring Tuantuan over."
"No." The teenage Pei Qing wore a stern face.
Second, making a scene:
"Pei Qing! How dare you! I'm the crown prince, the heir apparent! As a subject, how can you disobey the heir apparent?"
"I am also the Imperial Preceptor, Your Highness's teacher. I have a duty to urge my sovereign to accept remonstrance." The young Imperial Preceptor argued his case-with a stern face.
Third, threatening suicide:
In a fit of anger, Lou Ze'an raised the teenage Pei Qing's sword.
On his first attempt, he failed to lift it.
"What is this thing? It's so heavy."
The thirteen-year-old Pei Qing glanced over in exasperation. The nine-year-old child stretched out arms thinner than lotus roots, huffing and puffing as he tried to lift a sword taller than himself.
"Does Your Highness fancy drawing the King of Qin's sword at that height?"
The little crown prince was furious. "You! How dare you! You speak recklessly! You disparage me! I'm going to slit my throat with your sword!"
After much effort, the little crown prince drew the sword less than a hand's length and held it across his neck-or rather, propped it beside his neck with his shoulder-his legs trembling.
"No matter what, I must see Tuantuan tomorrow!"
Pei Qing had been thoroughly worn down by the child. "Then come early tomorrow, Your Highness. I'll bring Tuantuan. Keep a close eye on it, and don't let it run around during class."
The little crown prince agreed readily enough, but the next day, the two stared at each other, then could only watch as the little white cat brazenly slipped out of the Imperial Academy.
And neither of them could leave. They waited anxiously for class to end.