CH 29

Qi Changyi was in a daze when he woke up; he was lying in bed.

Yesterday he had been beaten by Pei Zheng with a ruler, and his two buttocks were swollen and red. They stung at the slightest touch. Pei Zheng had threatened and forced him to beg for mercy before finally letting him go.

After greeting1 the Empress, Qi Changyi arrived at the study early and waited for Pei Zheng to return from court.

It was unknown what methods Pei Zheng had used in order to become Qi Changyi’s personal tutor. One should know that the Crown Prince himself had once asked Pei Zheng to be his tutor, and Pei Zheng had refused him directly.

Qi Changyi waited for a while, but there was still no sign of Pei Zheng. Qi Changyi leaned on the window sill and stretched his neck outside.

The door suddenly creaked behind him, and Qi Changyi shrank his neck back like a startled rabbit.

It wasn’t Pei Zheng who had just entered, but the black-clad Cheng Feng.

“Your Highness, Master has some business to attend to, so he won’t be able to come this morning. Master has his own plans, so please don’t go to bed in the evening, and wait for him in the palace.”

Qi Changyi didn’t understand why Pei Zheng didn’t come, but he knew that Pei-gege always had his reasons for doing things.

The two left the study, and Cheng Feng escorted Qi Changyi back to his residence.

Qi Changyi saw the gauze wrapped around Cheng Feng’s hand and asked in a concerned voice, “Bodyguard Feng, Imperial Physician Jiang said that you hurt your hand when you entered the Office of Careful Punishment to save me. Is it a serious injury?”

Cheng Feng replied, “Don’t worry, Your Highness. It’s not serious.”

Qi Changyi stepped into the palace with a face full of guilt. When he looked back, Cheng Feng had already vanished into thin air.

Qi Changyi waited the whole day in anticipation and excitement. From morning until nightfall, he waited. While the rest of the palace was fast asleep, he continued to sit in a chair with his eyes peeled.

Just when he thought that Pei Zheng wouldn’t come, he heard two knocks at the door.

Qi Changyi’s eyes widened, and he stared alertly at the black silhouette reflected against the door.

The shadowy figure impatiently knocked again and spoke in a low voice, “Open up.”

Upon hearing Pei Zheng’s voice, Qi Changyi flew across the room and opened the palace door. He blinked his round eyes and called out joyfully, “Pei-gege!”

Pei Zheng was not dressed in his official uniform, he opted instead for a low-key black brocade robe, and he wore a slightly impatient expression on his face.

“Didn’t I tell you not to go to sleep yet? So slow.”

Qi Changyi glanced left and right, before covering his mouth and whispering in a hushed tone, “Shh, Pei-gege, be quiet. I’m afraid that the assassin from last time will come back.”

The corners of Pei Zheng’s eyes twitched. He was too lazy to explain the situation; he simply grabbed Qi Changyi’s small arm and marched him out the door.

There was a black sedan chair waiting outside. The two climbed into it one after another, and the sedan was lifted by several sedan carriers1, swaying as they walked in the direction of the palace gate.

As he sat in the sedan chair, Pei Zheng closed his eyes and massaged his temples with his fingertips.

He had been busy all day dealing with the barbarian envoy. The envoy had arrived in the Imperial Capital; he was heading to the palace tomorrow, and Pei Zheng had to ensure that everything ran smoothly.

He thought back to when the envoy had first arrived; he spoke about the marriage alliance in great detail, and Pei Zheng had felt an inexplicable and complicated feeling in his heart.

The Emperor had allowed him to personally tutor the prince, but the things that Pei Zheng actually wanted to teach him were too embarrassing to say out loud…

A pair of gentle hands rested on his temples and kneaded them twice. His mind was washed in a warm comforting feeling, and the violent sea of tangled thoughts gradually calmed. He wished that he could stay like this forever.

But as soon as he opened his eyes and saw the adorable face in front of him, he roughly pushed those little hands away.

“Pei-gege, do you have a headache? Let me rub your head for you. I’ve rubbed for Mother before…”

The little man stretched his arm out to continue relieving Pei Zheng’s headache, but Pei Zheng grabbed his wrist with one hand.

“No need. It would be be better if Your Highness spent your efforts on your own headaches in the future.”

Pei Zheng’s voice was cold and his eyes were icy, “I’m afraid it’s wasted on me.”

Qi Changyi’s lips pouted and he retracted his arms. He couldn’t hold back the aggrieved tears that fell from his eyes; he turned away and stared upward to prevent more tears from rolling down.

Pei Zheng saw his trembling back. His eyes squinted as he grabbed the little man’s chin with one hand and turned him around to face himself. His eyes were as red as a rabbit’s.

“Stop crying.”

Qi Changyi blinked his eyes and tried to suck back his tears, but they still rolled out of his eyes and landed directly on Pei Zheng’s fingers.

At this time, the sedan chair had come to a stop. The guards at the gate were questioning the sedan carriers on the occupant’s identity. Since Pei Zheng was using a different sedan than usual, the guards didn’t recognize it.

“Anyone who comes through the palace gates must be checked, I don’t care who it is, hurry up and lift the curtain!”

The sedan carriers all looked at each other, but no one stepped forward to lift the curtain.

When Qi Changyi heard this, he couldn’t hide his nervousness. The space inside the sedan was small; once the curtain was lifted he would surely be exposed. If someone found out that he had sneaked out of the palace, it would definitely spiral into a huge issue.

The guards were all accustomed to using intimidation. They placed their hands on their hips and spoke loudly, “Hurry up! Don’t make me come over and do it myself. If the higher-ups decide to blame us later, we’ll all be in big trouble!”

“Who’s going to be in big trouble?”

Pei Zheng’s icy voice rang out from inside the sedan, and the guards immediately dropped their hands back to their sides.

Pei Zheng held Qi Changyi’s chin in his hand and stared at him, but his words were directed at the guards outside.

“I’d really like to see who has the guts to lift the curtain.”

As soon as they heard these words, the guards were so frightened that they dropped to their knees on the spot. They didn’t expect that Pei Zheng would appear at the palace gate in the middle of the night.

“My lord, have mercy on us! We only dared to be so impudent because we didn’t recognize the lord3. This is our first offense, please spare us!”

The corners of Pei Zheng’s mouth hooked into a light smile as he gazed into Qi Changyi’s wet eyes. “Spare you? You’ve scared my little pet rabbit, what can you do about that?”

The guards all kowtowed one after another. “We…”

Pei Zheng finally let go of Qi Changyi’s chin. It had been pinched so hard for so long, red fingerprints remained on the smooth white skin. Qi Changyi found that Pei-gege really liked this little chin of his, he took every opportunity to pinch it to the point of redness.

Pei Zheng reached out and lifted a corner of the curtain, his tone lazy, “I’ll relieve you of your duties here. From now on, you are all soldiers of the army at the borderlands.”

With this last relaxed sentence, the sedan chair set off again towards the bustling streets of the Imperial Capital.

After a while, the sedan chair stopped in front of a building surrounded by red flowers and drooping willows. The people coming in and out all appeared to be immensely fat men with greasy smiles on their faces.

Pei Zheng opened the curtain and climbed off first, before walking toward the entrance of the building. When he noticed that Qi Changyi wasn’t following he called out in a stern voice, “What are you waiting for? Hurry up.”

Notes:

IT’S SO CLUNKY HNNNGHHHH

Last chapter of the day before I conk out

Also, please let me know if you don’t understand it, I’ll make sure to improve it!

Thanks for reading~~

1: 请按: uhhh I’m not really sure how to explain it, it’s just a formal greeting. If you’ve watched any harem dramas you’ll know it

2: 轿夫: sedan carrier. Before, in the raw text, they were described as ‘the people who carried the sedan’ and unfortunately that’s way too many words

3: The expression used here was ‘不识泰山’. Mount Tai (泰山) is one of China’s Five Sacred Mountains, and it’s used as a way to describe someone of great importance.