CH 20

After Gu Yan got Pei Ge to put on a show, there were finally a few days of peace and quiet on Great Princess Rui’s side. 

Three days later, the Imperial decree arrived. In order to celebrate the Empress Dowager’s birthday, the Spring hunt would be held in advance. All the Princes, nobles, ministers, and officials above the third rank in the capital were required to bring their family members to participate.

On the day of the trip, there was a long line of exquisite carriages and horses on the streets of Chang’an, and the people of the city greeted them on both sides, making it very lively.

Ye Zi and Gu Yan rode together in the same carriage and he lowered the carriage curtains to block out the noisy sounds of the outside world.

Ye Zi poured a cup of tea for Gu Yan and handed it over: “Your Majesty, please have some tea.”

Gu Yan took the teacup from Ye Zi and said indifferently: “When will you stop being so polite with me?”

Ye Zi froze as Gu Yan sipped his tea: “A Zi[1], you are my Princess Consort. If you keep treating me like this, outsiders will say we are not in harmony.”

Ye Zi lowered his head: “I will be careful in the future.”

Gu Yan let out a light sigh: “I am not lecturing you.”

He extended his hand towards Ye Zi: “Come here.”

Ye Zi paused and obediently walked to his side, and before he could sit down, Gu Yan suddenly put his arms around his waist and pulled him to his side.

Ye Zi’s whole body turned stiff and he struggled subconsciously.

Gu Yan’s voice rang in his ears: “See? Even though it’s been so long, you’re still so nervous when I touch you.”

“This time, the people present at the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet and the Spring hunt are all Princes and nobles and there will be many pairs of eyes on us, both explicitly and implicitly.” Gu Yan stared at Ye Zi for a moment and laughed lightly, “If you are like this, how can you fool those old foxes?”

Ye Zi’s cheeks burned and he tilted his head to the side, not wanting to be noticed by the other party as he muttered: “I obviously fooled them quite well.”

Yesterday, he had followed Gu Yan into the palace to wish the Empress Dowager an early birthday. He also gave the little cockatoo to the Empress Dowager, coaxing her to be comfortable as she smiled from ear to ear.

Remembering Ye Zi’s eloquent appearance in front of the Empress Dowager, Gu Yan’s heart tickled and he gently pinched the other party’s reddened earlobe: “You can talk so well in front of outsiders, why do you act so honest when you’re in front of me?”

“I’m not acting.” Ye Zi shrunk a little and analyzed seriously, “In front of outsiders, I am Princess Consort Rui, naturally, I have to show the appearance that a Princess Consort should have. But in private, you are the Prince, I can’t lose track of the rules……”

Gu Yan sighed heavily in his heart.

It was really as Ye Zi said. In front of the outsiders, Gu Yan asked him to cooperate in everything; showing mutual respect and endless show of love and his acting skills were as good as the real thing. But in private, he would just follow the rules and never overstep.

Gu Yan didn’t have a chance to further the relationship between the two.

He could see but couldn’t eat, how uncomfortable that was.

The noise outside was getting louder and louder. The carriage shook for a bit before coming to a stop.

Ye Zi took the opportunity to escape from Gu Yan’s embrace. He got up and poked his head out, asking the carriage driver: “What’s wrong?”

“Replying to the Princess Consort, it looks like someone is blocking the road in front.”

Ye Zi asked someone to inquire, only to learn that halfway to their destination, a beggar had suddenly rushed out and stopped a carriage, cursing Emperor Jinghe for his sensuality and abandoning the people.

It was Crown Prince Gu Sheng’s carriage that was stopped. The Crown Prince didn’t even show his face and only ordered the guards to drag the man down through the beaded curtains. 

The carriage resumed forward and Ye Zi looked towards the roadside, just in time to see two guards slit the beggar’s throat with a knife.

The beggar’s wound was bleeding and the blood splashed all over the ground. Like a piece of rag, he was discarded on the corner of the street.

Ye Zi’s eyes flashed with a glimmer of gloom when suddenly, someone blocked his eyes with their hand. 

“Don’t look.” Gu Yan covered his eyes with one hand, pulled him into his arms with the other, and helped him back into the carriage.

Ye Zi said: “I’m not afraid.”

“I know.” Gu Yan put down his hand, but still maintained the position of holding Ye Zi.

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Ye Zi turned to look at him. The latter’s expression was indifferent, showing no signs of happiness or anger.

Ye Zi asked: “Your Majesty, are you angry?”

Gu Yan smiled contemptuously: “Why would I be angry?”

Ye Zi pursed his lips but didn’t answer.

If it was the Gu Yan in the novel, he should be very angry right now.

The floods in the south have not yet been eliminated and the Barbarians in the north were eyeing it covetously. However, Emperor Jinghe still had the leisure to engage in these extravagant and wasteful arrangements, which aroused a lot of public resentment.

Because he couldn’t bear the suffering of the people, the Gu Yan in the novel presented a hand-drawn painting of the disaster-stricken homes of the people in Jiangnan at the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet.

This painting offended Emperor Jinghe and Gu Yan was grounded for three months.

From that moment on, Gu Yan finally made up his mind to overthrow the Emperor.

Ye Zi was worried that this Gu Yan would also be like that with tricks up his sleeve, which was why he pestered him to present the birthday gift first before leaving the capital. 

But now it seemed that he was indifferent to all this.

Ye Zi couldn’t figure out what went wrong, but he rejoiced a little in his heart.

If this Gu Yan really didn’t care about anything and didn’t get involved in any chaos, he shouldn’t be on the path to the old ending. 

He didn’t want Gu Yan to end up with that kind of ending. 

This episode didn’t cause too much disturbance. Under the watchful eyes of the people in the city, the carriages hustled out of the city gate and soon arrived at the hunting ground.

After sitting in the carriage for most of the day, Ye Zi’s waist was sore and his legs were weak. As soon as he entered the tent, he couldn’t wait to roll into the tent bed covered with soft mats. If he wasn’t worried about being seen, he even wanted to turn back into a small plant and have a nice sleep.

When Gu Yan stepped into the tent, he saw Ye Zi lying motionless on the bed.

Gu Yan helplessly said: “Emperor Jinghe will hold a big dinner banquet later. If you sleep now, can you get up later?”

Ye Zi buried his head in the soft pillow and muttered in a nasal voice: “I’ll just lie down for a while……”

Gu Yan sat down by the bed. Ye Zi seemed to be extremely sleepy and became silent after a while. Gu Yan pulled the thin quilt over him and Ye Zi rolled over and hugged Gu Yan’s arm.

His curled eyelashes gently fluttered like a fan a few times as he breathed calmly and slept peacefully.

The more he got along with Ye Zi, the more puzzled Gu Yan became.

If this person had never met him in his life, why did he always rely on him intentionally or unintentionally? The dependence was like engraved into his bones, it was so natural that even Ye Zi himself did not notice.

If this person didn’t know their past life experiences, why would he be familiar with him and Great Princess Rui’s preferences? And why would he take the initiative to congratulate the Empress Dowager on his behalf?

But if he knew everything, why did he not remember the agreement between them?

Why did he……forget only him?

Gu Yan leaned against the bed and changed to a position that allowed Ye Zi to cuddle more comfortably as he let out a shallow sigh: “Huai Yuan……”

Ye Zi slept for two or three hours and the eunuch in charge of the dinner came to remind him several times before Gu Yan reluctantly woke Ye Zi up. They made some preparations and when they arrived at the dinner banquet tent, it was almost all full. 

Fortunately, Gu Yan was usually lax, so no one felt anything wrong.

Emperor Jinghe was sitting on the main seat and when he saw that Gu Yan was late, he frowned a little. He wasn’t even fifty yet and there were still traces of his youth and handsomeness. However, maybe because he was plagued by illnesses all year round, he seemed to be in poor spirits, showing a somewhat old and haggard appearance.

Gu Yan apologized to Emperor Jinghe perfunctory and pulled Ye Zi over to their seat.

In front of outsiders, Ye Zi never minded any intimate actions with Gu Yan. He obediently allowed Gu Yan to hug him as he knelt by the table. As soon as he sat down, he noticed the scrutinizing eyes cast from his side.

Ye Zi turned his head and happened to meet a gaze.

She was a slender and soft woman with her face lightly powdered. However, it was still hard to hide the haggard look in her eyes. Her gaze met Ye Zi’s for a moment and she immediately dodged sheepishly.

Ye Zi tilted his head and the man beside the woman turned his head and gave him a fierce look.

Upon closer inspection, he noticed that the facial features of the two people were somewhat similar.

Before Ye Zi could think about it, Gu Yan suddenly called out to him.

Gu Yan grabbed a piece of stir-fried seasonal vegetable and brought it to Ye Zi’s mouth, saying in a warm voice: “Come try this.”

Ye Zi obediently opened his mouth and ate it.

Gu Yan’s expression was focused and gentle, and he waited patiently for him to swallow before asking: “How is it?”

The seasonal vegetables were crisp and fresh and it was one of the few dishes that Ye Zi could eat from this table of barbecued wild game.

Ye Zi nodded: “Delicious.”

“That’s good.” Gu Yan took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the vegetable juice from Ye Zi’s mouth.

The man who had glared at Ye Zi just now rose abruptly.

The noisy banquet suddenly quieted down.

Emperor Jinghe frowned and asked: “Wen Yi, what are you doing?”

Only then did Ye Zi realize that this man was the eldest son of the Duke of Protection, Wen Yi, the Little General Wen.

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He was also the elder brother of Commandery Princess Changning, Wen Zhi.

In that case, that woman was Commandery Princess Changning, who Gu Yan annulled his marriage with by using him as an excuse. 

Wen Yi raised his glass: “Your Holiness, I just remembered that I have not yet congratulated Prince Rui on his wedding so I would like to take this opportunity to toast Prince Rui.”

Emperor Jinghe’s expression eased a bit: “You have reminded Us. Our good nephew is now newlywed, how can he not have a drink? Come, bring wine for Prince Rui and the Princess Consort. Let’s all raise our glass in celebration of this beautiful couple, wishing them a marriage that lasts for a hundred years.” 

The little eunuch came forward and poured a cup of wine for Gu Yan and Ye Zi respectively.

Gu Yan gently patted Ye Zi’s hand under the table and the two stood up together.

Gu Yan lifted the cup of wine and downed it without hesitation: “Thank you, Your Holiness, for the wine.”

Wen Yi laughed: “Your Majesty sure is straightforward. Huh, Your Highness, why aren’t you drinking?”

Ye Zi’s hand holding the wine cup tightened slightly.

If he were to drink just this much wine, not to mention an outburst and a loss of attitude, what if he said something he shouldn’t have said in his drunken state?…….

Ye Zi paused and truthfully said: “I don’t know how to drink.”

Before Emperor Jinghe said anything, Wen Yi cut in: “But this is the wine bestowed by the Emperor, which is extraordinary. If the Princess Consort doesn’t drink it, then you’re not giving any face to His Holiness.” 

“Of course, the Princess Consort is a commoner after all.” The corners of his mouth were slightly hooked, but there was no smile in his eyes, “With such a lowly origin, of course you wouldn’t know the rules. How come the Prince didn’t educate you properly before bringing you out? It’s not good to forget your place at His Holiness’s banquet, is it?”

His words were full of undisguised hostility.

Ye Zi originally thought that since Gu Yan didn’t reject the marriage in public this time, he shouldn’t have enmity with the Wen family like in the novel.

But the fact that Emperor Jinghe wanted to give Commandery Princess Changning to Gu Yan was known to quite a few people. And since Gu Yan withdrew from the marriage and took a male consort, this clearly meant that Commandery Princess Changning lost to a man.

Even if Changning and the Duke of Protection could bear this anger, Wen Yi couldn’t bear it. 

He had been holding back for several days, waiting for today to make a fool of this Princess Consort Rui. 

Ye Zi made a decision and just as he was about to raise his cup of wine, Gu Yan stretched out his hand and snatched it away.

“Whether he knows the rules or not, he is still someone from the Prince Rui Manor. It’s not Little General Wen’s turn to lecture someone from my Prince Rui Manor.” Gu Yan said in a cold voice, “Moreover since Little General Wen said something so filthy and offended someone more superior than him, I would like to ask the Duke of Protection how he teaches his son at home.”

He paused and said to Emperor Jinghe: “Your Holiness, my consort does not know how to drink. This cup of wine, I will drink it on his behalf.”

Saying this, he raised his glass, tilted his head, and drank it in one go.

t/n: What a prick Wen Yi is! ┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

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The author has something to say:

Gu Yan’s Daily Doubts: Why does he seem to know everything but just doesn’t know that I like him?

Ye Zi: That’s because you don’t understand that there is something called “transmigration.”

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Seeing so many people ask whether Ye Zi is the little guard, here is a collective answer: Ye Zi = Huai Yuan, from the soul to the body. I’ll only spoil this much and won’t say anything else. It’ll all be slowly revealed in the future.