"So the Imperial Preceptor had been investigating all along, had he?"
Lou Yun drew out the last two words, long and soft, lowering her head toward the young man to question him beside his ear.
For some reason, light as those words were, Pei Qing heard anger in them and felt an immense pressure.
Warm breath brushed his ear, tickling him. The young man hunched his neck, yet dared not shift his feet an inch.
"Pei Qing, why didn't you tell me?"
Lou Yun straightened, only to find herself looking at a fluffy head.
Then she added, "Did you not trust that I could help you, or did you not trust where I stood?"
Those words were heavy, but remarkably effective. The young man who had just been hiding in his gourd immediately sprang out to protest, "No, neither."
"Oh? Since I took this case, even if I haven't been with you constantly, we've seen each other once a day, haven't we? Did you truly never have so much as a breath to speak, that you never mentioned it to me once?"
Lou Yun waited composedly for the answer of the person before her.
"The smuggling hasn't been fully investigated. I feared Your Highness would worry if you knew, so I wanted to tell you after I'd uncovered everything."
The young man's gaze burned bright, every word coming from his heart.
Lou Yun sighed soundlessly, pinched his chin, and exposed him. "The truth, Pei Qing."
"If it were my brother investigating with you, would you still use today's line?"
Seen through, the Imperial Preceptor pulled his chin free of the woman's hand and turned aside.
Lou Yun, left with a view of only half his face:
Quite the temper.
Holding the hair ribbon, she crooked her fingertip slightly, and the ribbon abruptly shortened.
Pei Qing had not expected Lou Yun to make such a move and was pulled straight into her.
His forehead brushed past the woman's cheek. They were too close. Pei Qing stumbled forward, trying to steady himself, but it was futile.
His thigh slipped between the folds of the woman's robes. His ribbon-bound hand was held before him, while his other hand grasped at empty air for a long moment, finding no support before finally landing on her shoulder.
It looked as though he were throwing himself into her arms. Lou Yun narrowed her eyes in pleasure at the thought, slipped an arm around Pei Qing's waist, and raised his ribbon-bound hand high.
She teased, "Have you run out of excuses, Imperial Preceptor, so you're throwing yourself into my arms to soothe my anger?"
"I haven't!" It was impossible to tell whether the flush on the young man's face came from anger or embarrassment.
Either way, Lou Yun felt thoroughly satisfied to see another side of Pei Qing.
The Imperial Preceptor struggled outward in her arms, but the person holding him did not budge. He pushed at her, yet she still did not move.
He tried to use his bound hand instead. "Lower my hand!"
"Why?"
Pei Qing was too vexed to speak and could only repeat himself. "Lower my hand."
Lou Yun bargained, "Tell me why, and I'll lower it."
In his twenty-odd years, Pei Qing had never been affronted or questioned like this. His eyes reddened as he explained, "I was afraid you couldn't bear to see such things."
With her answer obtained, Lou Yun felt as though a medicine pestle had struck her heart hard, and the hand she had been using to tease Pei Qing slowly lowered.
But that no longer seemed to be what the young man wanted. With tears in his eyes, he explained in a rapid barrage, "You grew up in the palace and have never seen anything. Human trafficking, selling people as trained courtesans-you surely couldn't bear it. You're a woman, too, and I was afraid you'd dwell on it. That's why I kept it from you."
Pei Qing did not know what had come over him either. Tears fell without warning, his chest aching and swelling unbearably. For the first time in his life, he tasted what it meant to feel wronged.
"Why did you have to tease me like this!"
The Imperial Preceptor's last words carried an unmistakably petulant air.
"I didn't know," said the woman who had been an empress in her previous life and had never bowed her head, her voice soft. "I didn't know, Pei Qing. No one has ever thought I should be the one protected."
Because she had never been protected, she had not known there was a kind of concealment in this world called protection. Because she had naturally shouldered a ruler's responsibilities, she had also unconsciously carried over her habits as an emperor.
No sovereign liked being deceived, but she had forgotten that in this life, she was not an emperor whose expression would remain unchanged even if Mount Tai bore down upon her. In Pei Qing's eyes, she was merely a sheltered princess ignorant of the world.
"But that is where you belong." Pei Qing did not understand and stubbornly voiced his view.
"My martial arts are better than my brother's."
Pei Qing choked. He had not figured that out either; Lou Ze'an had never told him.
"They probably aren't worse than yours, either."
The astonishment and doubt in Pei Qing's eyes were far too obvious. To lend her words more weight, Lou Yun added, "I've fought A Zi. He couldn't beat me."
Pei Qing's lips opened and closed before he finally managed dryly, "Being good at martial arts doesn't prove anything."
"I know A Zi is the Jade-Faced Fox, the Life-Taking Scholar."
The revelation struck Pei Qing dizzy. He was no longer even angry, left staring blankly and asking on instinct, "How did you find out? He shouldn't have told Lou Ze'an about this."
"I investigated."
Pei Qing was not angry that Lou Yun had investigated someone close to him without permission. Instead, he recalled the divination he had performed as a child.
Back then
He had thought Lou Yun had no desire to seize power, but now, he suddenly felt a little uncertain.
An intelligence network like this certainly could not have been built overnight, yet the Noble Consort did not know, nor did Lou Ze'an.
Just how much had she hidden?
Unaware that she was already under suspicion, Lou Yun continued, "So I'm not a delicate flower raised in the palace. You needn't protect me so carefully at every turn."
Pei Qing's thoughts were in turmoil. He did not dare think further. He could not imagine when Lou Yun had begun building her own power, or why she had begun.
If Lou Yun had long intended to contend for power, then developing her influence to this extent within the palace showed the depth of her scheming.
Whether Lou Yun had anything to do with Lou Ze'an's disappearance or not, with such means and strategy, she was the best candidate to become emperor.
Great Yan's ruler was frail, its princes fought among themselves, and internal strife was unceasing. The small foreign states surrounding it all watched like tigers, eager to tear off a piece of the rich meat that was Great Yan.
But the second prince, Lou Xun, was sinister and brutal, while Crown Prince Lou Ze'an was too kindhearted. Neither was the best choice for Great Yan.
Perhaps Lou Yun was the one favored by heaven's mandate.
If that were so, then as a sovereign, it was entirely reasonable for Lou Yun to conceal her abilities and resent his concealment.
Lou Yun watched the young man's expression shift over and over, like a street performer putting on a show.
What has he thought of now?
Lou Yun's identity quietly changed in Pei Qing's heart, and the young man's attitude underwent an enormous transformation as well.
Before, he had treated Lou Yun as a princess, a student, a younger sister.
He had respected her, cherished her, and indulged her.
Although Lou Yun often gave him the impression that she was older than he was, he had merely assumed that, born in the palace, she had witnessed so much intrigue that her mind had matured.
In their earlier interactions, he had often been the one teased, but he had simply taken it as a younger sister's mischief.
Now he could no longer do that. As a subject, he ought to be deferential and respect his superior.
Just as Lou Yun was hoping to hear something pleasing from the young man's lips, he lowered his head and said with perfect propriety, "This subject knows his fault. Sorry for the trouble, Your Highness, but please release this subject first."
Huh?
What had gone through Pei Qing's head? Why was every other word "this subject" now? She had only wanted him to believe she truly had the ability to work alongside him, so he would no longer need to hide things like this from her.
How had things come to this?
And somehow, seeing Pei Qing like this filled her with pent-up anger, just like those court officials in her previous life who had knelt below her, stiff and formal, knowing only how to weigh her down with the teachings of sages.
Dull, insipid, lifeless.
Lou Yun's gaze cooled, and she released Pei Qing as requested. If Pei Qing truly became that rigid and dull, she might indeed lose interest in him.
Chapter 17
Anger smoldered in Lou Yun's heart, but Pei Qing seemed to think the fire was not burning fiercely enough and desperately piled on more wood. "This subject will no longer withhold any news from Your Highness, but I also ask that Your Highness refrain from teasing this subject in such a manner again."
"Heh." Lou Yun laughed in her fury. Refrain from teasing this subject in such a manner again?
What manner?
Staring at Pei Qing, who had stepped back and was bowing deferentially as he remonstrated with her, Lou Yun finally failed to contain her anger.
She untied the hair ribbon around her wrist and, in one flowing sequence, bound the young man's hands, tied a dead knot, and pulled him close by the remaining length.
As she moved, she asked, "In what manner am I teasing you?"
She raised the young man's bound hands, displaying them before his eyes.
"Like this?"
She led him to the corner and pressed him against the wall.
"Like this?"
She wound a strand of hair hanging over the young man's forehead around her fingertip.
"Or like this?"
Lou Yun vented her temper without restraint, forcing Pei Qing to meet her gaze.
"Do you truly not know, Imperial Preceptor, or are you pretending not to know how I feel about you?"
With his figure reflected in her pupils, Lou Yun suddenly deflated.
She let go. Forget it.
Seeing Pei Qing's eyes filled with terror, she suddenly no longer wanted to continue.
Whether questioning him or declaring her feelings, neither was necessary anymore.
Pei Qing was afraid of her. She had clearly promised that, on this first occasion of liking someone, she would treat him well. Yet how little time had passed before she could no longer hold back her temper?
Her vision turned scarlet. Lou Yun suddenly struck the wall and strode away.
Damn it, here it comes again.
Unable to suppress the violence within her, Lou Yun covered half her face, pressing her thumb and ring finger hard against her temples.
She bit down viciously on the tip of her tongue, barely maintaining her senses.
The madness from her previous life had indeed followed her here.
Sometimes she felt Pei Qing was the trigger for her episodes. Otherwise, why was she particularly prone to falling ill in front of him?
She had managed to suppress it the previous few times, but now it had erupted outright.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!"