Chapter 140: The Prince of Qinghe

Xue Zuo, having hastily abandoned Wu Ren—who was still desperately trying to finish his meal—rushed over from the outer courtyard. Upon arriving, he found his beloved wife counting on her fingers with a charming expression, but the person standing opposite her was not him!

With his heart bleeding, Xue Zuo adjusted his attire once more before charging forward like a gust of wind.

"Brother-in-law," Xue Zuo bowed elegantly, silently repeating a mantra to himself: *Do not be a coward. Do not be a coward. For Man-niang’s sake, do not be a coward! He is just a Prince, that’s all. Do not fear him. He is just a man who has killed many—so what? I am not afraid!*

He glanced at the young man in dark robes standing nearby. "This must be Youyun, right? He has grown so much." He wanted to reach out and pat the boy’s head in a friendly gesture, but one look at the sword in the youth’s hand made his courage evaporate instantly.

*We are both wanderers in the world of men,* Xue Zuo consoled himself. *I am a scholar; I shall not stoop to his level. I shall not take offense.*

Wu Zhe glanced at Xue Zuo, stepped closer, sniffed the air, and covered his nose. "What is that smell? Have you been drinking?"

Xue Zuo wore an embarrassed expression. Seeing his delicate wife’s displeased face, he quickly explained, "That old fellow Wu Ren felt slighted at Lady Wu’s place and insisted on dragging me along to vent. As brothers, it was difficult to refuse, so I drank a few cups with him. Truly, only a few."

Xue Zuo stepped forward to tug at Lady Gu’s sleeve, acting coy. "Man-niang, don't be angry. I shall send a servant to toss that old man out of the estate immediately."

Gu Man glanced at Xue Zuo and stopped him.

"Forget it. Since Magistrate Wu is in low spirits, let him stay in the estate for a while. If you have time, go keep him company, but do not exhaust yourself."

Xue Zuo was overjoyed, thinking, *In Man-niang’s eyes, she still cares for me.*

He continued to pull at Gu Man’s sleeve, acting spoiled. "Why should I keep that old man company? I want to stay with my wife. Besides, my brother-in-law is here. We haven't seen each other in years; we should have a good chat and catch up." He cast a provocative look at Wu Zhe.

Wu Zhe rolled his eyes at this childish display and said to Gu Man, "I prepared a few things during the Cold Food Festival that Mother loved dearly. Would you like to take a look, sister?"

Hearing this, Lady Gu walked toward Wu Zhe. "That sounds lovely."

As she walked away, her sleeve naturally slipped from Xue Zuo’s grasp.

Looking at his empty hands, Xue Zuo felt a profound sense of misery. He looked up at the sky and shouted in his heart, *Brother-in-law, come and take your grand-nephew away!*

Suddenly, a swift breeze swept past, and he felt a light object land in his hand, carrying the faint scent of damp earth. He looked down and saw, to his astonishment, a patch of green grass.

***

Xue Zuo glared at the youth in dark robes, ready to unleash his vast reserves of classical knowledge to subject the boy to a "civilizing baptism" of history and literature.

To his surprise, before he could even get close, the youth cast a glance at him, spread his arms, and leaped onto the eaves.

Xue Zuo looked at the brat, who was now looking down at him with arms crossed. Having no other choice, he straightened his clothes. "Brother-in-law, I shall come and see as well!"

Back in the main hall, when the topic of the Old Madam came up, Lady Xue finally learned that Princess Zhaoyang had another son. The man in the courtyard was Wu Zhe, the son born to Princess Zhaoyang—Lady Gu’s stepmother—when she was staying with the former Crown Prince’s maternal family.

"Is he not a blood relative of the Crown Prince’s faction? How is he still alive, and how did he become a Prince?" Lady Xue asked.

The Old Madam, seeing her daughter’s confusion, replied, "Although the Wu family committed treason, Wu Zhe was the biological son of the Grand Princess. Because he resembled her so closely, the late Emperor doted on him exceptionally. He bestowed upon him everything he felt he owed the Princess, granting him a princely title before he had even come of age. He even gifted him a sword of state, fearing that others might harass him for his Wu family bloodline after his own passing."

"According to Mother, this Prince must have been very famous back then. Why have I never heard of him?"

The Old Madam stirred her tea, watching the color of the liquid. "You were young then, and the household affairs were overwhelming. I rarely attended banquets, so naturally, you never saw or heard of his reputation. He was a man who ran rampant in Jiankang. With the Emperor’s backing and the Princess as his mother, he was at the height of his power."

"Then why did the rumors die down?" Lady Xue handed the tea set to the Old Madam. "Did he fall out of favor?"

The Old Madam laughed. "Fall out of favor?" Lady Wang shook her head. "Not at all. After the Princess passed away, the late Emperor was even kinder to him."

"Then why?" Lady Xue asked, puzzled.

"Because of a woman."

"A woman? What kind of woman could exist such that even the late Emperor could not protect someone?"

The Old Madam stared into her tea. "A woman of noble status—the eldest legitimate Princess of Northern Qi."

"Wasn't she the one who married into Northern Zhou?"

"That happened much later."

Seeing the Old Madam rise, Lady Xue hurried to support her. "And before that? What exactly happened before?"

"No need." The Old Madam leaned on her staff and began to walk slowly, with Lady Xue following by her side.

***

"Ever since the Princess married Minister Gu, she had no children. The Minister had no heirs, but he loved the Princess dearly and never sought other women. Anxious that the Gu lineage would end, the Princess sought out ancient prescriptions and spent vast sums of money on offerings, but she never conceived."

Thinking of the current eldest young master of the Gu family, Lady Xue asked, "Since there is an eldest young master now, surely the Princess found a prescription."

The Old Madam nodded. "She did find a prescription, but it also brought disaster upon her."

"Is it not because her health was damaged by years of seeking prescriptions and testing medicines?" Lady Xue asked.

"No, those are just rumors from the outside. How could the common people ever know the true cause? I only learned of this secret because I was the mother-in-law of your sister-in-law."

Lady Xue widened her eyes, listening intently to the history she had missed.

"That Princess of Qi back then went by the alias 'Cloud Obscuring the Moon.' She traveled through many countries—Northern Qi, Northern Zhou, Northern Liang, Southern Liang—before arriving here in our Southern Chen.

"This Princess, using the name Cloud Obscuring the Moon, was a beauty of peerless grace. She stirred up much chaos along her journey, causing noble youths across the land to fall for her, and it was no different here in Southern Chen. Many noble sons spent thousands of gold pieces just to catch a glimpse of her, though sadly, she did not look kindly upon any of them."

"Did Wu Zhe like her?" Lady Xue asked curiously.

The Old Madam shook her head and said with pride, "No, it was the Princess—no, Cloud Obscuring the Moon—who chased after the Prince of Qinghe."

The Old Madam sat on the couch, and a maid took her staff. Lady Xue stood to the side, kneading the Old Madam’s shoulders. "A legitimate Princess of Qi—could she not have married anyone she wanted? Why would she need to chase after him?"

The Old Madam patted Lady Xue’s hand. "What do you know? You never saw the Prince of Qinghe in his prime. To say his carriage was filled with fruit thrown by admirers would be an understatement."

Lady Xue thought of the man’s appearance in the courtyard; although he was older now, he was still exceptionally handsome and refined. At the time, she had felt a twinge of jealousy, wondering why Gu Man’s paramour was so attractive. If he was still like this now, one could only imagine how he looked back then.

However, she asked, "Compared to Jiang Yu of the Duke of Wei’s mansion, who was more beautiful back then?"

The Old Madam smiled. "There was a significant age gap between them. When the Prince of Qinghe was at the peak of his elegance, Jiang Yu was just a fledgling, merely a handsome youth."