No one knew who started it, but murmurs gradually rose.
"The Imperial Preceptor really is handsome. Would you believe it? When I first saw him, I thought an immortal had descended from heaven."
"People make him sound so miraculous. Does he really know everything under the sun?"
"How would I know? Why don't you ask him?"
"I wouldn't dare! You go, you go."
Suddenly, everyone in the crowd began trying to push the task onto someone else.
Martial artists had keen eyes and ears, and every word reached the two of them without a single omission.
One look at Pei Qing's expression told Lou Yun that the young man was at a loss again.
She took a few steps toward him, blocking the probing gazes directed at the Imperial Preceptor from behind her, then tilted her head and teased him beside his ear. "So, does the Imperial Preceptor really know everything under the sun?"
The young man shook his head slightly. A few strands of his swaying hair brushed Lou Yun's cheek, which had drawn rather close, making it itch.
Pei Qing answered earnestly, "I don't know everything. Right now, for instance, I don't know what I should prepare to get through tonight better."
Only then did Lou Yun understand where the loneliness that had suddenly gathered around him came from. The title of Great Yan's Imperial Preceptor was too resounding, too grand. It made everyone forget that Pei Qing was only in his early twenties. Everyone had
placed him far too high. Whether court officials, scholars throughout the realm, or ordinary people, they all held him high above them.
Precisely because of that, countless people repeatedly speculated over and scrutinized his every action and every word, even enshrining them as classics.
While he was respected and loved, it also invisibly distanced him from the crowd. Great Yan treated him as an all-powerful god, forgetting that people always had desires, both material and spiritual.
Pei Qing seemed to always want to repay the kindness others gave him a hundredfold, a thousandfold. He would not let her bear a single word of criticism, and when he discovered she liked something, he would endure his embarrassment and cast propriety and shame aside to give it to her.
That had been true when he said he was begging her last time, and when he kissed her, too.
How... could he be so good? So good that she wanted to knead him into her very bones and tell him, You're wonderful. You deserve these things. You don't have to keep thinking about giving something back, about repaying people.
"I'll teach you." Lou Yun took Pei Qing's hand and led him around the area to gather firewood and branches.
Then she taught him, step by step, how to stack the firewood and what it was all for.
The young man picked it up quickly. Before long, two stacks of firewood, one large and one small, stood on the grass.
"Pei Qing." Taking advantage of their distance from the crowd, Lou Yun called him by his name again.
"Hmm?" The Imperial Preceptor was still immersed in the pride of having completed his lesson perfectly when he suddenly heard her say beside him:
"From now on, if there's anything you don't know how to do, I'll teach you."
Pei Qing had not heard those words since Xuanjizi left. His thoughts froze for a moment, but the woman's expression was so earnest that he felt this was more than just a sentence.
Perhaps it also meant that, from now on, whenever he no longer wanted to hold everything up, whenever he wanted to rest and let himself relax, there would always be someone behind him, someone to catch him.
"All right." The young man's brow and eyes relaxed. Looking up at the woman willing to become his support, he did something that even Lou Yun considered bold.
Pulling Lou Yun behind a tree, Pei Qing buried his head against her neck and shoulder and nuzzled affectionately up and down. "Your Highness, be my teacher alone," he whispered.
Chapter 34
Su Ren, who had been quietly watching the two of them all along, keenly noticed them slipping away from the crowd. Worried, he followed them.
By then, Lou Yun and Pei Qing had already separated. Seeing Su Ren following them, Pei Qing seized the initiative. "Did you need something from me, young general?"
"Uh..." Su Ren, who had not intended to be so direct, was stumped by Pei Qing's question. He had little ink in his belly to begin with, and now he could think of nothing to cover it up.
He said outright, "I suspect the attendant beside you is my younger cousin."
As soon as he said it, Su Ren grew apprehensive. He had blurted it out in his urgency, forgetting that he was not actually very familiar with Lou Yun either.
Since she had been discovered, and he was family, Lou Yun had no need to hide it. She admitted it readily. "Cousin."
The situation had inexplicably turned into a grand family reunion, but that did nothing to warm the atmosphere. Instead, it became even more awkward.
Feeling that he should not remain, Pei Qing took his leave first. "You two talk. I'll go ahead."
Su Ren truly did not know what to say, while Lou Yun, assuming he had sought her out for something, kept waiting for him to speak. They remained at an impasse for half a minute.
Finally, exhausting every skill he had learned in his life and racking his brains, Su Ren managed to squeeze out, "Your Highness's swordplay is excellent!"
A question mark slowly rose above Lou Yun's head. "Thank you," she said politely.
Seeing how embarrassed Su Ren was, she spoke to help him out. "Cousin, was there something you wanted to tell me?"
Su Ren scratched his head and said guilelessly, "Nothing much. I just wanted to tell Your Highness not to worry or be afraid. The entire Su family stands behind you. If you need anything, don't hesitate. Tell your cousin. We'll brave mountains of blades and seas of fire without flinching!"
Warmth filled Lou Yun's heart. When she spoke again, her words held a measure of genuine sincerity. "Thank you, Cousin. I won't stand on ceremony."
"Ah, good." Su Ren broke into a silly smile, his mind filled with joy at having successfully shown concern for his family.
He left in high spirits. Meanwhile, the soldiers egging one another on actually pushed someone forward to speak with Pei Qing.
When the man stepped out, he wiped his hands with great care and straightened his robes. After his brothers checked him over several times, he approached Pei Qing looking his best.
The soldiers behind him all fell silent, holding their breath as they watched the pair's every move.
"G-greetings, Lord Imperial Preceptor. My name is Wu Lao'er." Wu Lao'er was rather nervous and kept licking his lips. The big, burly man rubbed his hands together incessantly, his manner cautious and fearful of causing offense.
A gentle smile rose on Pei Qing's face. He nodded to the man before him and asked, "What is it?"
"Ahem..." Wu Lao'er suddenly flushed scarlet, stammering without managing to get a single word out.
His brothers watching from behind could not bear it and urged him on. "Wu Lao'er, say it!"
"You were fighting to go just now! How come you can't get a single word out now?"
Embarrassed and annoyed, Wu Lao'er turned and roared at them, "I know!"
When he turned back to Pei Qing, he grew nervous again.
The young man did not hurry him, patiently waiting for the man before him to speak.
Perhaps it ran in the same vein: as the general, so the soldiers he led.
Seeing that he could not get the words out, Wu Lao'er pulled a bag of malt candy, carefully wrapped in cloth, from his chest.
Holding it out to the young man, he closed his eyes and poured out everything he wanted to say in one breath. "M-my lord, my wife specifically told me that if I met you, I had to give this to you personally. You might not remember who my wife was. She had consumption and was close to giving birth. The doctors all said she couldn't be saved. We had nowhere left to turn, so we went to the gates of the Imperial Preceptor's residence to beg you. You were the one who let my wife live another two years after she gave birth to our little one. I..."
Wu Lao'er wiped his face hard and choked out, "Everyone in our family, old and young, is grateful to you. Before she passed, my wife always said that if we met the Imperial Preceptor again, we had to let you taste the malt candy made from our family recipe."
As he spoke, Wu Lao'er held out the malt candy again. Although he had protected it carefully the whole way, when he opened it, quite a few pieces inside had still broken into small fragments.
Flustered, he tried to take it back. "I'll bring you more when I go back, Lord Imperial Preceptor. These are all broken. Never mind these, never mind."
Pei Qing took the malt candy at once and, right in front of him, put a piece into his mouth. "It's delicious. Thank you for your kindness, Brother Wu," he praised.
"As long as you like it, Imperial Preceptor. As long as you like it." Wu Lao'er smiled shyly.
"It was Auntie Sun, wasn't it?" Pei Qing suddenly asked after swallowing the candy.
Wu Lao'er looked up in delighted surprise and answered repeatedly, "Yes, yes, that was my wife. To think you still remember, Lord Imperial Preceptor."
"She was able to hold on because she was an openhearted, resilient woman. I'm sure her spirit in heaven would also wish for you to live your life freely, Brother Wu."
"Yes, that must be what my wife would want. Thank you, my lord." Auntie Sun's passing had always been a scar in Wu Lao'er's heart. Hearing Pei Qing say that brought him a little comfort.
When only Lou Yun and Pei Qing remained nearby, they sat with their backs to the crowd. Pei Qing took out the malt candy Wu Lao'er had given him and offered it to Lou Yun.
"Would you like some?"
"Someone gave you that as a gift, and you're just sharing it with me?"
"Happy." The young man suddenly blurted out the word without context.
"What?" This time, even Lou Yun failed to understand what Pei Qing meant.
"Because I'm happy, I want to share what makes me happy with Your Highness. May I?" His gaze shone brightly, and Lou Yun was truly pleased.
Instead of taking it with her hand, she bent down and took the malt candy from his fingers with her mouth.
"Very sweet."
Lou Yun stared straight at Pei Qing. It was unclear whether she meant the candy or him.
Chapter 35
After the party returned to the capital, Lou Yun slipped back to her residence first, while Pei Qing took the evidence straight into the palace without even dismounting.
Inside the Crown Prince's residence, Lou Yun dried her wet hair while leafing through the information submitted by the shadow guards.
Kneeling on the floor, Ying Yi flattered her. "Everything went exactly as you predicted, Master."
Lou Yun closed the booklet and glanced sidelong at Ying Yi. Ignoring the flattery, she continued asking, "Has there been any movement from the second prince lately?"
"No. Everything remained as usual while you were away, Master."
Lou Yun tapped the booklet against her palm intermittently, thinking, This makes things difficult. Lin Bian is already dead, and Lin Shuo knows nothing. I don't believe Li An alone was behind an operation this extensive.
The image of an old man with a lame leg surfaced in her mind, and the booklet in her hand stopped moving. How about starting with Zhang Dequan?
The man was clearly a hard bone to crack. Lou Yun pressed her brow with a headache, then suddenly caught sight of the flickering candle shadows on the table.