Chapter 286: In a Hurry

Ever since learning that Twelfth Madam Luo was a Supreme Master, Wang Zhou had truly believed that Ding Songyan and she were innocent. But the rumors outside were swirling, complete with convincing details, and he worried that Zheng Zhuxi would hear them, grow suspicious, and be left with a grudge. So he had been thinking of smoothing things over for Ding Songyan, only to find that this young man had taken Zheng Zhuxi straight to meet Twelfth Madam Luo.

As a Grand Elder of the Brightnight Sect, Wang Zhou had lived a long life and known his share of romance. He had never remarried after his wife died in a jianghu incident, but this was the first time he had seen anything like this.

As thoughts raced through his mind, he could reach only one conclusion.

A clear conscience has nothing to fear!

Both Ding Songyan and Twelfth Madam Luo were truly innocent and above board, with no secret affair between them.

"Good, you should pay a visit to Twelfth Madam Luo. It’s a pity this old man can’t go on his own. It would make others suspect her true identity." Wang Zhou breathed a sigh of relief and praised them with a smile.

Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi had dinner with their Master Granduncle in the separate courtyard, chatted for a while, and then headed back toward Ding Songyan’s quarters.

The weather had been good these past two days, and the night was lit by a bright moon that cast a clear glow. When Ding Songyan and Zheng Zhuxi stepped into the side courtyard, Li Baima, Wu Mo, and Fan Chunlin were sitting around the stone table, drinking and chatting.

Wu Mo and Fan Chunlin had already heard from Li Baima about what had happened in the afternoon, but when they saw Zheng Zhuxi, their eyes still froze in place.

Standing there, she looked as if the starlight of the Milky Way had fallen into the mortal world.

Looking at a beauty under the moon, they found she outshone the moon itself.

After the greetings, Wu Mo watched the two of them walk toward the room and muttered, "No wonder Brother Ding doesn’t like going to the Hengbo River..."

"No wonder Brother Ding is always saying ’my senior sister said’ and ’my senior sister taught me.’ He’s showing off!" Fan Chunlin suddenly understood too.

Brother Ding really did have someone in his heart, which was why he treated both Miss Zhang and Young Master Jiang with courtesy and never overstepped.

In the room, Zheng Zhuxi sat at the square table, reading the half-finished Journey to the West with great relish. Ding Songyan alternated between pondering the Scripture of Utmost Sincerity and glancing at his senior sister, content and relaxed.

He felt a bit restless now and then, but he suppressed it.

Zheng Zhuxi didn’t try to keep her distance either. By the light of the oil lamp, using her Candle-Star Pupils, she read until deep in the night and finished all ten or so Chapters of the storybook he had written so far.

"It’s wonderful, and it touches the heart in places," she praised sincerely.

"Aren’t you going to ask me anything?" Ding Songyan said with a smile.

Zheng Zhuxi’s eyes turned.

"I remember you once said you don’t really like discussing the characters and plot points of your storybooks with other people."

A kindred spirit... Ding Songyan nodded gravely.

"Some plot points might just be a flash of inspiration, some are throwaway details I haven’t figured out how to use, and some are pure nonsense, just to get a laugh out of readers. For some characters I haven’t decided how it ends, and for some developments I’m honestly still unsure about myself. It’s actually pretty awkward for me if you insist on asking about those."

Dimples appeared on Zheng Zhuxi’s cheeks, and she nodded easily.

"That’s why I’m not asking."

"But you’re different, Senior Sister," Ding Songyan said with a laugh. "I’d be glad to answer if you asked. At worst, you’d laugh at me. Besides, if you happen to ask about something I’m proud of, there’s no awkwardness, only endless chatter."

Zheng Zhuxi shot him a sidelong glance.

"You certainly have a smooth tongue.

"Never mind, I won’t ask. Whichever girl Cao E ends up with, I’ll accept it."

"Aw." Ding Songyan quickly said, "Whichever girl you like, Senior Sister, Cao E will choose her."

Zheng Zhuxi laughed.

"Don’t. I prefer for the story to develop naturally. I love a happy reunion ending, but I’ve also read plenty of storybooks with bittersweet endings that left things unresolved, and they earned me a lot of tears."

Chatting and laughing, Ding Songyan walked Zheng Zhuxi out of the side courtyard and toward the inner residence.

Prince Kang had already arranged a courtyard for his cousin, right next to the Consort Dowager’s.

After the Jianwu Emperor ascended the throne, he valued his brotherly bond with Prince Kang and allowed Zheng Zhuxi’s aunt, the late emperor’s Noble Consort Zheng, to leave the palace and be attended by her son and grandchildren. In her early years, Consort Dowager Zheng had been cold toward the Empress Dowager, but after the late emperor’s death they had grown somewhat close, and she often went into the palace to stay a few days and keep the Empress Dowager company.

The winter cold was bitter, and the deep of night was utterly silent. Ding Songyan turned his head toward the serene Zheng Zhuxi and asked, "Senior Sister, how many days can you stay in the Flame Capital?"

Zheng Zhuxi was silent for a moment, then said, "Father told me to deliver the manual, see Aunt and Cousin, and head back the next day."

What... Sir, isn’t that a bit too formal? Ding Songyan was momentarily stunned.

He had nothing on his plate lately and had been thinking about spending a few days sightseeing in the Flame Capital with his senior sister.

Seeing the change in his expression, Zheng Zhuxi found it both funny and a little tempting to tease him further.

Ding Songyan thought it over for a moment and said, "All right."

The Flame Capital was in turbulent times, with the risk of something unexpected happening at any moment or some hidden danger being set off. It was good for his senior sister to return to Changhua sooner.

Seeing that Ding Songyan didn’t urge her to find an excuse to stay a few more days, Zheng Zhuxi felt a faint trace of disappointment.

She changed the subject with a smile.

"I was actually wondering whether to ask my cousin to tell the Prince’s estate guards to keep quiet and stop spreading gossip about you and Twelfth Madam Luo, so you two wouldn’t be bothered. But that would only look like I was protesting too much, and make people suspect there was something to hide."

"You spent most of the day with me, Senior Sister, and we walked through quite a few places. It’s not hard for the guards to find out your relationship with Prince Kang. They’ll naturally feel a bit of sympathy for me and hold back, and won’t be so reckless about bad-mouthing me anymore," Ding Songyan said, with a hint of self-mockery.

All of this was foreseeable. Zheng Zhuxi was so strikingly beautiful that any guard who saw her walking beside Ding Songyan would surely ask who she was.

Zheng Zhuxi thought it over and said, "Most of them might rein it in, but I imagine quite a few will talk even more nastily in private."

Senior Sister, you’re becoming more mature in how you see things... Ding Songyan smiled.

"That’s fine. Even the current Emperor gets his share of bad-mouthing and gossip behind his back, let alone me."

"Have you heard anyone speak ill of His Majesty?" Zheng Zhuxi asked curiously.

After so many years of bumper harvests, she rarely heard anyone say anything bad about the Jianwu Emperor. Gossip, though, was endless.

"Me." Ding Songyan pointed at himself. "Consort selection, my ass!"

Zheng Zhuxi couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing.

"Senior Sister, come to my courtyard tomorrow morning after you have breakfast with your aunt, and I’ll see you out of the city," Ding Songyan said, changing the subject.

The next two days were his days off.

"All right." Zheng Zhuxi agreed.

After seeing his senior sister to the door of the inner residence, Ding Songyan first stepped out of the Prince’s estate for a moment, then returned to the side courtyard.

He lit the oil lamp again and dug a book out of his traveling trunk.

It was the Dharma Realm Chapter of the Lesser Limitless Art, which he had written back when he was at the Brightnight Sect.

Ding Songyan ground his ink, spread out the paper, and picked up his brush to write out the Dharma Realm content of the Candlelit Nocturne Sutra and the Celestial Stars Scripture.

He wrote until the fourth watch was nearly over before going to bed.

The next day, he woke early, finished his morning training, and filled his belly.

At 9 am, Zheng Zhuxi, still dressed in white clothes and skirt for mourning, came to the side courtyard with a bundle on her back.

Li Baima and the other two hadn’t waited around to see the stunning beauty. They had already arranged to go to another guards’ courtyard. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to have a gander, but she was Brother Ding’s sweetheart, and they needed to know their boundaries and not be disrespectful.

Ding Songyan picked up Frostshade and left the Prince’s estate with his senior sister, heading north along the streets and alleys.

"Aren’t you seeing me out of the city?" Zheng Zhuxi asked, puzzled.

To go to Changhua, you could leave by the south gate or the east gate, but there was no reason to head north.

Ding Songyan smiled.

"Your father only said you should head back the next day. He never said exactly when.

"I’d like to ask you to spend half a day sightseeing with me."

"Ah..." Zheng Zhuxi was a little dumbstruck.

Ding Songyan chuckled.

"You surely promised your father, Senior Sister, so how could I make you go back on your word? That also wouldn’t be the style of the Candle Heart Sword, so a compromise is the best I can do."

Zheng Zhuxi pressed her lips together, but the dimples on her cheeks appeared on their own.

After a few breaths, her eyes shining, she huffed.

"You’re always finding loopholes like this."

Caught by his senior sister’s sidelong glance, Ding Songyan forgot for a moment what he was going to say.

Zheng Zhuxi suddenly gasped.

"But I already agreed to meet the Hongxin Trading Company caravan outside the east city gate at 10 am, so we could look out for each other on the way to Changhua..."

"I went to the Hongxin Trading Company last night and moved your meeting time to 2 pm. That way, even without rushing, you’ll reach Juque County before dark and won’t have to stay at a post station on the road," Ding Songyan asked with an innocent look. "You won’t blame me, will you, Senior Sister?"

If they set out at 10 am, they could make it to the next city.

Zheng Zhuxi was stunned for a moment, then mumbled with the corners of her mouth curling slightly, "You’ve learned to act first and report later. What can I say?"

Ding Songyan took the bundle, and he and Zheng Zhuxi walked north side by side, though with no intimate gestures.

For one thing, he felt that his senior sister was still in mourning and new to romance, so he shouldn’t be impatient. He needed to hold back and take one step at a time. For another, he was afraid of being seen by the moth-men lurking in the dark.

Although Ji Hanyi surely cared about and prioritized Twelfth Madam Luo more now, and shouldn’t deliberately target Zheng Zhuxi again, she was probably still angry, and Ding Songyan worried that any intimate gesture would draw her wrath.

Along the way, Ding Songyan kept telling her when he had been on this street and what he had done there, and Zheng Zhuxi shared her own past experiences in the Flame Capital. Even trivial matters had them talking with great interest, and now and then they looked at little things in shops along the road and at roadside stalls.

After heading east for a while, Ding Songyan pointed ahead.

"That’s Hidden River Lane."

He felt like he was taking his senior sister around to check off sights, and every one of them was a place where he had wreaked havoc.

"Aren’t you going to see your Brother Liu?" Zheng Zhuxi teased with a smile.

"There are a lot of eyes on him lately. I can’t go see him," Ding Songyan said softly.

Hu Chaohui turning into a Two-Faced and then being assassinated was enough to keep the Martial Prohibition Bureau watching Liu Cheng for a while. By now, the Bureau should have figured out that Hu Chaohui had been gazed upon by the Celestial Thearch, and that Liu Cheng cultivated the Essentials of Heaven’s Decrees as well.

A while later, at the Liu residence in Hidden River Lane.

Liu Cheng, still in mourning clothes, saw a trusted subordinate hurrying over and asked, puzzled, "What’s the urgent matter?"

"Gang Leader, Young Hero Ding from Prince Kang’s estate was wandering around nearby for a while before leaving." The subordinate knew the Gang Leader had some connection with Young Hero Ding.

Liu Cheng frowned slightly, wondering whether Brother Ding was trying to warn him of something with this.

As a Dharma Realm Grandmaster of no small strength, he did sense that quite a few people were spying on him, openly and in secret.

The subordinate thought for a moment and added, "Young Hero Ding was with a young woman. She was as beautiful as a fairy, and I don’t know who she is."

As beautiful as a fairy... Not Twelfth Madam Luo? Liu Cheng hissed softly to himself.

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