“Why did you go to a brothel again?” Yan Mingting asked during dinner.

Zhao Yelan’s chopsticks paused. He said unhurriedly: “I was just passing by.”

“Then why did Li Yucheng call you to go to the brothel to listen to music?”

When Zhao Yelan heard this, he turned his head and glanced at Gao Tan, who immediately covered his face with his hands and turned away. “He said that there was a new lady who could sing well, and asked me to go and listen.”

“I didn’t know that your relationship was so good that he could invite you to a brothel to listen to music!” Yan Mingting said with emphasis on the word “brothel,” for fear that the other party would not be able to hear that he was angry.

Zhao Yelan gave him a piece of radish, and Yan Mingting’s expression softened slightly. He was just about to eat it when he heard him say: “Eat salty radishes and worry less.”[1]

Yan Mingting scoffed, put down his chopsticks heavily, and left the table.

A few days later, as soon as Zhao Yelan left the Imperial Academy, he was stopped by Li Yucheng.

“I’ve found you. I went to the General’s Mansion every day, but no one was there. Now I’ve caught you,” Li Yucheng said.

“What?”

“Let’s go eat. There is a new restaurant in the east of the city. I’ve reserved a private room for you, hurry up and get on the sedan chair.”

Zhao Yelan looked at the luxuriously soft sedan chair next to him. He turned around and got in.

The newly opened restaurant was very lively, and in the lobby, there were entertainers specially invited to play instruments. The surrounding area was full of applause.

There were also a lot of very colorful dishes, including carrots carved into the shape of phoenixes. After a table of delicacies was served, Zhao Yelan looked at Li Yucheng, who was hesitant to speak: “Tell me, what is the matter?”

Li Yucheng took a deep breath, then raised the wine glass in front of him and solemnly said: “I want to formally apologize to you. I was arrogant and conceited in the past, and inexplicably blamed you for all the anger my father received at court, so I targeted you everywhere and even tried to make trouble for you several times. I will drink this cup first in respect.”

This could be interesting. Zhao Yelan nodded slightly.

Li Yucheng poured a second cup of wine and said: “This cup is for gratitude. The cause of my sister’s death....if you hadn’t helped his Holy Majesty ascend the throne, the late dog....that person might have killed countless others.”

After gulping it down, he poured a third cup, but couldn’t open his mouth. After struggling for a while, he said in shame: “This cup is my apology to Yan Mingting. I shouldn’t have taken it upon myself to believe rumors and hold grudges against him. He has served the country and the people all his life, but I pressed unwarranted charges against him. It was truly hateful.”

“You should drink this cup of wine directly with him,” Zhao Yelan said.

“I dare not....anyway, aren’t you both family?”

Zhao Yelan couldn’t speak.

“Go back and convey it for me.” Perhaps because Yan Mingting was so upright, Li Yucheng was ashamed and always felt that he didn’t fit in with him. But Zhao Yelan, who was both righteous and evil, was easier to talk to. “If you accept my apology, drink this.”

“I don’t drink,” Zhao Yelan said.

“Then....have a meal?” Li Yucheng looked at him beseechingly. “Just forgive me, or my father won’t take it easy on me.”

“What does your father want me to do?” Zhao Yelan had already guessed that Li Jinyu had sent him here, otherwise it would be impossible for him to apologize so obediently.

“You misunderstand, my father didn’t mean to ask you for help, he just wanted me to apologize to Yan Mingting. I was too ashamed to face him directly, so I took a detour....and turned up here with you.”

“Did it need to be so roundabout?” Zhao Yelan was amused, but his face remained blank.

“Of course, the two of you have such a good relationship, the effect is just the same.” Li Yucheng took out three banknotes. “This is all my savings from over the years. My father has never embezzled, so I can’t afford ten thousand taels of gold, and I can only use this to make amends to you. If one day I become prosperous, I will definitely make up the rest.”

Dislike was dislike, but who couldn’t get along with silver? Zhao Yelan put away the banknotes without changing his expression, and then paused abruptly: “Who said I have a good relationship with him?”

“Does this still need to be said?” Li Yucheng’s lips curled. “I’ve cursed him to his face, calling him my natural enemy, a bearer of ill luck, an evil star, and he just pretended he didn’t hear it. But last time in front of you, when I cursed at him that he would kill you....he slapped me twice in an instant! It took a fortnight for the swelling to subside!”

“You deserved it.” Zhao Yelan thought to himself, if it wasn’t useful to keep you at that time, you would have died at my hands long ago.

“Yes, yes, yes, I deserved it. My father told me not to cause trouble for you, but I refused to listen,” Li Yucheng said, smiling ingratiatingly. “But not anymore. I’ve decided to make you a friend!”

Zhao Yelan looked at him in disbelief: “Who gave you the face?”

“Why, what threshold needs to be reached before someone will be considered your friend?”

“They must at least have a functioning brain.” Zhao Yelan looked at his empty head with distaste and shook his head.

“It’s because my dad didn’t let me go to school when I was a child!” Li Yucheng said with conviction. “He didn’t want me to practice martial arts, saying that the battlefield was too dangerous, and he never wanted me to be an official, so he didn’t care about my studies. Otherwise, there’s no telling who this year’s top scholar would be.”

“Oh? Who is talking about a new top scholar,?ah?” Someone laughed outside the door.

Li Yucheng opened the door curiously and saw two strangers. He was about to shoo them away when a smiling man walked in and said: “Zhao-xiong, it really is you. I saw your back just now and thought I was mistaken.”

“You guys know each other?” Li Yucheng asked in surprise.

“I’m Ruan Xian, of the Imperial Academy.” Ruan Xian smiled, then pointed to the person behind him and introduced, “This is the number one scholar, Wang Guisheng.”

Li Yucheng was dumbfounded, and wondered if he had run his mouth too much. He immediately muttered: “Tathagata Buddha, Guanyin Bodhisattva, appear quickly before me. If that doesn’t work, Xichi Diaochan[2]?will also do,?ah.”

Zhao Yelan looked at him speechlessly. It was a mystery how this person could think he was intelligent enough to be his friend.

“It is crowded out there, and there are no empty tables. I wonder if I can share a table with Zhao-xiong?” Ruan Xian asked.

“Take a seat.” Zhao Yelan simply didn’t want to share a table alone with this Li idiot, so he ordered two more sets of bowls and chopsticks.

Each of them sat on one side of the table. Ruan Xian and Zhao Yelan talked about the changes in the current situation. Li Yucheng found that he couldn’t get a word in edgewise and was a little bit down, so he nudged the top scholar next to him: “You and Zhao Yelan have a good relationship?”

Wang Guisheng didn’t know how to answer, and subconsciously looked at Zhao Yelan. He found him sitting on one side with a natural and casual posture, but without losing any elegance. Eating slowly, he occasionally nodded in agreement with Ruan Xian’s comments. He couldn’t help but stare at him in a daze, thinking that some people were born in such a way that people couldn’t take their eyes off them.

He didn’t answer this question, and then heard Zhao Yelan mention the Jiangnan matter.

“A few days ago, the water report from the Huaihe River was submitted to the Imperial Court. Didn’t it say that precipitation has increased significantly compared to the past, and floods are predicted?”

“Yes, Guisheng should be more aware of this matter, he was the one who drafted the decree for delegating disaster relief funds,” Ruan Xian replied.

When the late Emperor was alive, there was a flood one year that led to people having no way to make a living. Therefore, as soon as Zhao Xuan came to power, he set up newsmen at the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. At the end of spring, they began to regularly report the precipitation to the court, so as to prepare flood control in advance.

Zhao Yelan looked at Wang Guisheng: “Where did the disaster funds go?”

Wang Guisheng was surprised, and said, “It will be distributed to Huaizhou and Zhizhou as appropriate when the time comes. According to the distance, there should be more than ten days left.”

Zhao Yelan frowned. A few days ago, when talking with Sun Muyun about the customs of Jiangnan, the other party had warmly invited him to visit Jiangnan, saying that the weather had been good recently and that it had been sunny for more than ten days in a row, making it easy to travel.

“Is there an issue?” Ruan Xian asked.

As soon as he spoke, there was the sound of a table overturning in the lobby. Li Yucheng, an excitable fellow, immediately opened the door. Looking down, he saw his old nemesis, Fu Qian, who was known as the most beautiful man in the capital.

The other party firmly grasped a short young master, asking: “Who are you? Do you dare to strip off your clothing and reveal yourself?”

“You let go of me!”

Zhao Yelan paused. The voice was inexplicably familiar, and he calmly walked to the corridor overlooking the two arguing people. He suddenly remembered who this jade-faced young man was, and said: “Go and bring this man up.”

The three of them were taken aback, and went downstairs one after another. Li Yucheng was the first to act, grabbing Fu Qian by the collar and cursing: “Everyone, come and see! In broad daylight, Fu Qian actually wanted to strip off the man’s clothes. Could this be the goodness of Longyan?”[3]

In an instant, everyone burst into laughter. In consideration of saving face, Fu Qian quickly released his grip and turned around to argue with him, but he was dragged out before he could speak, and the two scuffled at the gate.

The jade-faced young man caught his breath and was just about to flee, but was instead politely invited upstairs by two gentlemen. When he caught sight of the person sitting in the private room, he said excitedly, as if meeting a relative: “Zhao-daren!”

“You are too bold,” Zhao Yelan said, displeased. “Where is your handmaiden?”

“Handmaiden?” Ruan Xian looked at this young man in surprise. Thin skin and tender flesh, slender fingers, a crisp voice, and upon closer look, no Adam’s apple....it was clearly a girl!

“She’s gone to look for someone.” Sun Muyun smiled after having a close brush with disaster. “Fortunately Zhao-daren helped me, otherwise I would be finished.”

She wouldn’t just be finished. As she was here to participate in the draft, if she consorted with other men in public and someone had the mind to accuse her of adultery, the gains would not make up for the losses.

“I was wrong, I thought my disguise was flawless.” Sun Muyun was quick to admit her mistake, and said aggrievedly, “I heard that the most beautiful man in Beijing was here, so I disguised myself and came to have a look, but who would have known that he was nothing but a useless person only fit for drinking. He saw that I was a girl and said that I was attracted to him, and had put on these clothes to have a private meeting with him. When he wanted to get closer to me, I refused, and we started arguing....hmph, I saw his oily face, how could he be worthy of the title of most beautiful man? He doesn’t hold a finger to Zhao-daren.”

“I agree with this!” Ruan Xian clapped his hands and laughed.

“Wow, you two....are pretty handsome too!” Only then did Sun Muyun notice the other two people in the room, looking at them with piercing eyes.

Zhao Yelan was speechless for a moment. He didn’t know if he should admire her simple-minded courage or her sweet-talking skills. A mere sentence made these two blush inwardly.

He thought for a moment and said: “If Sun-guniang wants to see a handsome man, after entering the palace, she can glimpse the face of the Emperor. That is true excellence and grace.”

“Is this true?” Sun Muyun lowered her voice and struggled to say, “But I saw the late Emperor once when I was young, he was really ugly....”

Ruan Xian and Wang Guisheng hid their smiles. Zhao Yelan did so as well. “The Holy Majesty is more like his mother concubine, with a face like a crown of jade. You won’t be disappointed.”

“Exactly,” Ruan Xian agreed, “I saw the Holy Majesty and felt inferior.”

Sun Muyun looked at Wang Guisheng doubtfully, and when he nodded, she was instantly moved. Let her see this famous handsome man in Beijing. The only two men with heavenly looks were husband and wife, so there was only one left that she hadn’t met.

In any case, her plan from the start was to see if there were any handsome men she liked in Beijing. If she found one, she would make herself look undesirable during the draft, and when the process was over, she would be inseparable from her ideal person. If she couldn’t find one, then she would submit to the will of heaven.

“Okay, I’ll go back and prepare for the draft!”

“Don’t go out and cause trouble for the next few days. The draft is not just about you alone. You have the Sun family behind you,” Zhao Yelan reminded.

“I know, thank you, Zhao-daren.” Sun Muyun nodded. Her maid arrived just then with someone in tow, so she left first.

The three of them left the restaurant one step later, and when they walked out the gate, they glanced at Li Yucheng and Fu Qian, who were still wrestling. Zhao Yelan walked around them without a sideways glance, but his footsteps halted suddenly, and he looked at the person standing in front of him with surprise.

Ruan Xian and Wang Guisheng also saw him. Facing the other’s gloomy eyes, they took the lead in politely saying: “General Yan.”

For some reason, Ruan Xian felt that General Yan seemed to hate him even more! What could have gone wrong, he hadn’t even seen him a few times in total!

This frustrated the sophisticated and tactful Ruan Xian. He had coaxed all the old and young of the Imperial Academy to view him favorably, so why did he fail with Yan Mingting?

Yan Mingting didn’t even glance at them, and went straight to Zhao Yelan. Pulling him by the arm, he stuffed him into the sedan chair next to him and then sat inside with a dark expression.

“What’s wrong with you?” Zhao Yelan rubbed the place where he had been dragged, feeling that it hurt a little, and was unavoidably somewhat aggravated. “Have you eaten firecrackers?”

Yan Mingting scoffed coldly: “You’ve had quite a carefree day,?ah.”

His purposeful coldness these few days had been in vain!

Ever since their last dinner, Yan Mingting had intentionally ignored him so as to let him reflect on himself and preferably to realize his mistakes. Then he came to show his affection for him, but who knew that the other party not only did not show the slightest regret, but also came out to eat and drink with these two little white faces from the Imperial Academy. How happy!

There were so many knowledgeable old men in the Imperial Academy, so why didn’t he see him sharing a meal with those people?

However, Zhao Yelan thought he disliked him going to the restaurant and spending extravagantly, so he said: “It was Li Yucheng who arranged the table, and he also paid for everything.”

Hurray, there was also Li Yucheng!

Yan Mingting was so angry that his hair stood on end.

There was silence all the way back. Zhao Yelan looked at his face, thinking that every time he went to a restaurant outside, he would chide him about wasting money, and couldn’t help getting angry, saying: “It’s my money, so why does it bother you? In the end, did I cost you a penny?”

As soon as the sedan chair stopped, he forcefully opened the curtain and furiously walked into the General’s Mansion.

“....” Yan Mingtiing looked at the curtain that was still swaying. What did he have to be angry about?

The atmosphere at the table during dinner was so abnormal that even the servants noticed it. Xiao Gao secretly asked Housekeeper Qin: “Is the General forcing my lord to do horse stance again? Otherwise, why is my lord so unhappy?”

“How can a couple not quarrel?” Housekeeper Qin sighed. He could see that something was wrong a few days ago, but he didn’t expect that instead of the two people reconciling, it had intensified instead. He would have to figure out a solution.

After Zhao Yelan took a bath in the evening, he locked the door tightly, but tonight this scoundrel didn’t come to knock on the door or open the window.

He tossed and turned for a long time, a little curious about what this fellow was doing. Would he really go to sleep in the study obediently?

But at this moment, the voice of Housekeeper Qin passing by came through the door: “The General is injured, you should be careful when serving him and not touch his wound.”

Zhao Yelan frowned, recalling Yan Mingting’s lively appearance. He really didn’t feel that he was injured, so he turned over and went to sleep.

A quarter of an hour later, a candle was suddenly lit in the house. He put on his outer layers, searched around, and saw a light on in the study. When he walked inside, he happened to see Yan Mingting nimbly stuffing the thing in his hand into his bosom and asked: “What are you doing here?”

“Um....reading a book. Why are you still awake?” Yan Mingting asked nervously.

Zhao Yelan walked up to him with the candle, looked him up and down, and asked with a frown: “Where are you injured?”

“Injured?” Yan Mingting was taken aback. From the corner of his eye, he saw Housekeeper Qin poking his head into the study and desperately winking at him. Hearing Zhao Yelan’s slightly concerned tone, he immediately covered his chest with his left hand: “An old injury has relapsed, and my heart aches.”

“The heart is on the left.” Zhao Yelan remained expressionless.

“I misspoke, it’s the middle of my chest.” Yan Mingting looked at him with an expression of suffering. “It hurts so bad.”

Zhao Yelan narrowed his eyes slightly: “Take off your shirt.”

“This isn’t good,?ba....” Yan Mingting said shyly, but quickly peeled off his shirt, revealing his muscular chest covered in several knife scars.

But none of them passed over the heart or the middle of the chest.

Zhao Yelan pulled out the short, gaudy knife and slid it against his chest: “It seems that your injury is somewhat light. You might as well properly feel what it means to have heartache,?ba.”

“Don’t, don’t, don’t,” Yan Mingting hurriedly begged for mercy and stepped back. He was putting on his clothes again when a booklet suddenly fell in front of Zhao Yelan.

Zhao Yelan swiftly picked up the book, which was as big as his palm. It had a few large characters written on it – Thirty-Six Strategies of the Qin and Jin Dynasties.

Yan Mingting’s expression changed slightly, and just when he was about to grab it, the knife pressed against his neck.

Zhao Yelan quickly turned to the title page, which read:?Marriage is like a battlefield. If you want to live in harmony with your husband or wife and have an unbreakable bond forever, you must use some small tricks to make it long and enduring.

Turning to the first page, the first plan was: Bitter meat plan.[4]

Zhao Yelan looked up at him with eyes like knives.

“....” Yan Mingting gulped and said: “You may not believe it, but this is a family heirloom left to me by my father, and it was given to me by Uncle Qin just now. You can....you can tear me up, but can you not tear up the old man’s posthumous work?”

“You sleep in the study!” Zhao Yelan angrily threw the posthumous work back to him, then pinched the other’s mouth with both hands and started to tear.

“Hiss?–?wuwuwu.”

[1] Eat salty radishes and worry less (咸吃萝卜淡操心) is an idiom, meaning that someone is nosy and worries about something without knowing the truth of the facts.??

[2] Diaochan is one of the four legendary beauties of ancient China and a character in “The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.”??

[3] The goodness of Longyan (龙阳之好) is an allusion to homosexuality, referring to a historical record of Lord Longyan and King Wei, who were two men in a dedicated romantic?relationship.??

[4] The bitter meat plan is the plan of last resort.??