CH 14

Lifting of the prohibition

Ever since he got the bird that Liang Yanbei delivered, Wen Chan’s life had become a lot more interesting. Apart from practicing martial arts, drinking tea, and playing chess all day, he was also training the bird to speak.

Even after doing it over and over again, he never got bored of it, but instead, was enjoying it.

In a blink of an eye, it was May, the month of blooming flowers arrived and Wen Chan’s three months confinement was finally over. The guards who were outside the palace hall were completely withdrawn.

Wen Chan changed into good clothes. He impatiently slipped out of the palace with Ah Fu, Qin Qi, and Shu Hua along with him.

His black hair was like silk. He wore a jade crown and was dressed in a brocade gown. If it weren’t for his slightly short stature and his young and tender face, he would have a distinguished and elegant appearance.

A passer-by was sitting in a chariot and was slowly traveling along the route to the East Lake Bridge. Wen Chan slightly pushed aside the curtain and saw the radiance of the spring and the tossing of billows which were full of water as light as goose feathers flying all over the sky.

He came down from the chariot. The gentle wind brushed off his cheek, bringing over a specific sweet scent in the air. There were many people coming and going by the bridge, and the sounds of the vendor’s hawking were rising and falling in succession. There were also many people rafting in the East Lake.

Wen Chan was trapped in the imperial palace for a full three months. Although he enjoyed being idle, it became too tedious for him in the end. At this time, his mood suddenly became happy when he saw the scenery of the capital.

Once he was happy, his spirits also rose up. He drew out the folding fan with a “swish”. The surface of the fan was white, and there was only the word, “Chan”, written in ink on it.

“Come. Let’s go boating in the lake. ” He swayed the folding fan carefreely.

When Ah Fu heard this, his expression suddenly turned bitter and he whispered, “Young master, this little one cannot go in the water. Can I watch your tour in the lake from the shore?”

Wen Chan raised his eyebrows, “We are gonna tour the lake by boat, not by ourselves. So what is it that you’re afraid of?”

Ah Fu mumbled, “Isn’t the Young Master worried? What if……”

“What if what? Woah Ah Fu, are you cursing me broad daylight?”

“No, no! How dare this servant do that! ” Ah Fu shook his head, again and again, not daring to say one word more.

Several men came to the shore of the lake and picked a larger boat with a pavilion. The boatman gave four servant boys the responsibility for rowing the boat.

As soon as he got on the boat, Ah Fu entered the pavilion. Wen Chan didn’t even force him to. He stood on the bow of the boat to enjoy the scenery. The waves below swayed the boat and the golden sunlight reflected on it. The buds of the weeping willow on the shore added a bit of greenery to the scenery. An elegant pair of young masters and young misses walked under the weeping willow in a leisurely mood. This spring, everyone was in high spirits.

There are many people touring the lake nearby. But for the sake of friction, the distance between the boats was quite long. Wen Chan didn’t know if there were any familiar faces. At this time in his previous life, he was fighting wits with his master in the palace. So how could he come for rafting so leisurely?

However, as soon as his confinement was lifted, he had to go back again. Wen Chan felt upset for no reason apart from the thought of studying those four books and the Five Classics of Confucianism. He fanned the folding fan at high speed, wanting to fan away from the irritability in his heart.

When Qin Qi and Shu Hua saw this, they thought that he was feeling hot under the sun. So they tried to persuade him to take a rest in the boat. As soon as Wen Chan thought of refusing, he saw Ah Fu suddenly rush out and kneel on the side of the boat. He vomited all over, with tears and mucus flowing profusely.

Wen Chan was startled, “Ah Fu! Why are you like this?”

Ah Fu, who had vomited till he had almost passed out, used his sleeve to wipe his tears. When he turned around, his face was pale, his eyebrows wrinkled, and his voice was weak, “Young master, it is Ah Fu who is useless…”

Qin Qi shook his head helplessly and handed him a handkerchief with embroidery work.

“Okay. Since you can’t sit in the boat, let’s take you to the shore. ” Wen Chan was both amused and disturbed. He was very disgusted after seeing the pool of yellow liquid at his feet and his mood to enjoy the scenery was gone in an instant. He sighed and went into the boat.

The boat was not very large, but there was a small long table inside. Even when the curtain was lowered, the boat would not be dark and there would be plenty of light as there were small openwork windows on both sides.

As soon as Wen Chan sat down, he saw a goose-yellow handkerchief next to his seat, which was a very conspicuous dark-yellow wood color. He picked up the handkerchief bewilderedly, and there was a faint fragrance on it.

Could it be that Ah Fu was so uncomfortable just now that he didn’t pay attention to this handkerchief?

The colour of the handkerchief was clean, the fabric was of high quality, and the embroidery of the stitches on it was extremely exquisite. With just one glance you could understand that the handkerchief was that of a rich lady. Wen Chan tried to guess which lady could have just taken this boat to tour in the lake and accidentally left their handkerchief on the boat.

Usually when a lady loses their handkerchief, they would naturally change into a new one. But they would still send someone to retrieve it so as to not let it fall into the hands of others. So even if the handkerchief was lost on the boat, someone would come to search for it.

But Wen Chan somehow placed the handkerchief into his sleeve as he had a good idea. He thought of letting Ah Fu return it to the lady once they got to shore.

Who knew that his meddling in other people’s matters would turn into a mess.

When the boat reached the shore, Ah Fu had already vomited till his internal organs were outside of his body. His face was deathly pale and his eyes were blank. And he wasn’t even breathing properly. Qin Qi placed one of his arms on his back and carried him out of the boat. He kept joking, “Kid, you were really dying on the boat. If you vomit like this, won’t you fill up the entirety of the East Lake?”

If it was a normal situation, Ah Fu would have given him a reply eloquently and fluently. But he really didn’t have much energy now. He just moved his lips slightly and didn’t say anything.

But when Wen Chan, who was walking in front, heard Qin Qi’s words, he couldn’t help but imagine it in his mind. He suddenly felt extremely sick and grimaced in disgust. He turned his head and said, “Qin Qi, don’t talk about this kind of thing in front of me next time.”

Qin Qi hurriedly said, “It was this subordinate who was outspoken and made the Young Master dirty his ears.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. ” He waved the fan in his hand indifferently, thinking about where to go for having fun next.

While thinking about it, there was a disturbance, and someone shouted, “Someone has fallen into the water!”

Originally, the East Lake was densely populated. As soon as the turmoil broke out, many people gathered around to watch the excitement unfold. Wen Chan and his party were not far away. When they heard the sound, they looked into the lake and saw a girl in a bright dress who was constantly flopping around and struggling in the water.

As soon as the shout ceased, three people jumped into the lake. Wen Chan raised his eyes and saw a few luxuriously dressed girls on the bridge looking into the lake with panic, and a servant girl screamed, “Young miss! Young miss!”

Among the several girls, Wen Chen saw a familiar face.

After seeing this scene, he understood that the identity of the girl who fell into the lake wasn’t an ordinary one.

“How can you save people if you don’t even know how to swim? ” Qin Qi’s puzzled voice sounded, pulling Wen Chan’s gaze back into the lake. Among the three people who jumped into the lake just now, only one of them could swim in the water. The other two were flopping in the same way as the girl.

Wen Chan couldn’t understand such behavior at all. He tapped Qin Qi and Shu Hua on the shoulder with his folding fan, “Qinqi, Shu Hua, go and save those two idiots. ”

The two guards who were ordered to act immediately dragged Ah Fu away from Qin Qi and roughly threw him aside. They then pulled out a pair of brocade boots and jumped into the lake.

The two of them swam quickly. When they swam past, the only person who could swim dragged the girl who had fallen into the water to the shore. A large group of people on the bridge saw this and hurried there.

The girl was drenched all over and her hair was all around her face. She lay on the ground coughing up water, and her body was trembling uncontrollably. Even though The weather had warmed up again in May, the water in the river was still ice-cold. So it was inevitable that she would be seriously ill after returning from the water.

Wen Chan looked at the girl who was lying at his feet as if she was about to cough up her lungs. He couldn’t bear it after a while, so he took out the handkerchief from his sleeve, with good intentions, squatted down, and handed it to her, “Use this to dry yourself.”

But when he saw that he was holding a goose-yellow handkerchief in his hand, Wen Chan thought it was bad and immediately wanted to withdraw his hand. But as soon as he shrank a little, the handkerchief was rudely snatched by the girl and she wiped her face recklessly.

Wen Chan immediately stood up and stepped back several steps in a row. He subconsciously looked into the lake, only to see Qin Qi and Shu Hua swimming towards the shore.