When Lu Yi returned to the post, the moon was already shining high in the sky.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, he remained silent. There was a light burning in the side pavilion, people crowded together, and only a voice could be heard from inside the pavilion, “Meihua flower, axe, mace…”
“Pu…” Cen Fu, who was leaning outside the pavilion and was watching the excitement, was the first to notice Lu Yi but he gestured to Cen Shou to stay quiet, who swallowed back his greetings.
Lu Yi walked slowly into the pavilion, the rest of them were concentrating on playing mahjong, completely oblivious to his presence.
Of course, his first glance was at Jinxia, at the corner. She had a smile on her face, her hand quickly flipped the tiles, piling them up to create a complete line up. Next to Jinxia was Chun Yumin, her hands covering the tiles, carefully peeking at the other. This scene made Lu Yi a little surprised, not knowing how Jinxia could get his cousin to play this game. As for the other two women, their appearance and clothes gave out a flirtatious vibe…
After the tiles were dealt, Jinxia didn’t look at the ones in her hand and instead left all of them facing down. She used her finger to rub on the picture on the surface of her tiles, knowing exactly what she was holding.
“If you become rich, don’t forget my two silver debts.” Said someone lightly next to her ear, making her laugh.
“Alright?”
As soon as she turned, she faced Lu Yi, who’s eyes were smiling.
The rest of them finally noticed the young man. One of them was Chun Yumin, who gasped, as if she was caught doing something wrong, and immediately put down the tiles calling out for him, “Brother, you’re home.”
LianLian and SiSi, who noticed the situation and Lu Yi’s posture and demeanor, walked around the table in a hurry and saluted him, “Greetings, Lu Daren.”
“They are?” He looked at Jinxia.
“Lu Daren, these two ladies are from General Hu. He especially asked them to come and serve you.” Jinxia wholeheartedly introduced them, “This one is Sister LianLian, her name is filled with love; this one is SiSim, when heaven and earth are in trouble, there is only endless love longing to wait.*”
*[So, with Chinese names, they hold a special meaning or sometimes they can be made into a poem. The way Jinxia introduce them is adding both the meaning and the purpose of their name, TN]
“Oh.”
Cen Fu stepped forward and added to her words, “General Hu ordered his people to send some stuff over and because Young Master didn’t give any specific instruction I didn’t dare to accept them. The items are over there… Young Master, please take a look and give your orders.”
After leading Lu Yi a little away and being sure that people in the pavilion could no longer hear them, Cen Fu reported, “Earlier, A’Rui said that the Young Master should not accept these gifts; according to him, it could be a trap and there are people who want to harm you. When we asked about it in detail, he stopped talking. It seems like you are the only one who he is willing to talk to.”
Lu Yi thought for a moment, then said, “I understand. It’s dark now, you go ask the inn owner to give these ladies a room, the further away from the yard the better. Also, these items should be transferred to their room.”
“Beizhe understands.” Cen Fu was about to leave, but suddenly stopped his steps and said, “That… Miss Yuan and Ms. Chun are playing mahjong for a reason, because…”
“I see.” He said before the other could finish his words, “You just go.”
“Young Master, don’t blame them.”
After he said that, he just walked away, following the given orders.
***
LianLian and SiSi saw that Lu Yi did not drive them away. He even ordered Cen Fu to prepare rooms for them but because there were no more rooms available in the yard, both of them went ahead and followed Cen Fu.
“It’s quite late, you should go back and rest.” Lu Yi said slowly.
Chun Yumin looked at Jinxia restlessly but didn’t dare to go against Lu Yi’s orders, hence she lowered her head and walked back to her room in silence.
Jinxia and Lu Yi were now left alone. Jinxia innocently looked at him, seeing that he still had to open his mouth to talk. She could hear his heavy breathing though, therefore she stepped forward and poked him a few times.
“Sister LianLian and Sister SiSi, those are very intimate callings.” He grabbed her hands, preventing her from causing troubles.
Jinxia smiled and said, “Aren’t those two sisters pretty? When you look at them, do you feel tingling in your heart? They even asked me about your preferences, they seem to have fallen for you.”
“What was your answer?”
“I said, ‘our Lu Daren doesn’t care about beautiful women but he is very interested in money’.”
“I’m more interested in money?” Lu Yi frowned.
Jinxia carefully took a step back, reminding him, “I didn’t speak nonsense. In Yangzhou, you knew I couldn’t pay for the boat yet you still make me pay the rent. Also, you kept deducting my salary.”
Lu Yi moved closer to her, saying softly, “You are definitely a ‘thief with a loud mouth’. That night, on the bridge, who kept whining and asking me to pay them two silvers, you’ve forgotten already?”
*[thief with a loud mouth = someone who does something bad or knows they did something bad but still loudly fight back and doesn’t accept it, TN]
Jinxia looked at him, lifted her chin and said, “Who’s whining? You people destroyed my stall, at that time, I could only argue with facts so that you would obediently pay me.”
“That night, I was very annoyed because of how noisy you were and I wanted to get rid of you quickly.” Recalling the incident at the bridge, Lu Yi couldn’t help but smile, his hand taking the mahjong tiles, then continued asking, “You’ve spent half a day serving them, what did you find?”
Lu Yi understood the way LiuShanmen worked, especially when investigating a case, because the three Courts had a lot of restrictions, the cases that LiuShanmen handled were much easier than the ones of JinYiWei, since the information obtained were definitely not life threatening. Jinxia had tried to become close with those two ladies by playing mahjong, answering their questions regarding his preferences; it was a way to get the opposing sides off their guards, therefore, she should’ve been able to obtain some information.
“This matter, no need to rush. We’ll talk about it later.” Jinxia thought of A’Rui, and pulled him to A’Rui’s room, quietly whispering, “This man broke the glass, a very valuable glass. If my mother was here, she would’ve definitely broken his legs.”
In order to not make people suspicious, A’Rui shared a room with Cen Shou.
The room had been cleaned up by Cen Shou and he was currently leaning back on the chair, with one leg up on the table and his eyes closed, resting. Hearing Lu Yi’s knock on the door, he woke up suddenly, almost fell down, and came over to greet him in haste. “Young Master.”
A’Rui, who was lying on the bed and was always awake, hearing Lu Yi had come, slowly turned his head, not waiting for Lu Yi to talk, but saying in a hoarse voice, “Tell everyone else to leave!”
“Don’t push it too much!” Cen Shou said in anger.
Lu Yi ordered, “You all go out.”
Cen Shou didn’t dare to go against Lu Yi’s orders. After glaring at A’Rui once, he stepped outside; Jinxia also retreated, not forgetting to close the door tightly first.
After making sure the footsteps outside were gone, A’Rui said, “The reason why he didn’t want to bother you in Yangzhou is because he wanted you to come to Hangzhou, so that you are buried dead with Hu Zongxian.*”
*[Reminder: Hu Zongxian was the Huizhou prefecture. His name occurred in the letter Lu Bing sent Lu Yi. Hu Zongxian was the person petitioning not to kill Wang Zhi (the pirate leader) but then he was accused of taking brides and working with the pirates. Lu Yi’s purpose in Hangzhou is to investigate this problem because there was a possibility of a riot if this matter went unsolved. Hu Zongxian was also the person who sent out letters, inviting Xie Xiao and Shangguan Xi to help fight the pirates. On top of that, he was the person who held the execution of Wang Zi, TN]
The word ‘he’ was referring of course to Yan ShiFan. Lu Yi understood the meaning very quickly.
“Hu Zongxian is just a political person, why would he want to harm him?”
“Hu Zongxian is Zhao Wenhua’s man. All this time, he’s always hated Zhao Wenhua.”
Zhao Wenhua, an honorary name of Yuanzhi, a southerner of Cong Maqiao, Cixi County, Haomei City. He’d been declared the 8th scholar of Jiajing and the director of the Ministry of Justice Department. At the beginning, when he was at state school, for the sake of an important position in Yan Song’s department, he’d taken Yan Song as his adoptive father, then had been appointed as a transmission officer.
Lu Yi didn’t understand why Yan ShiFan hated Zhao Wenhua, maybe because Zhao Wenhua dared to argue with Yan Song and secretly sent Baihua wine to the Emperor. Perhaps it could also be because Zhao Wenhua was trying very hard to please Yan ShiFan’s mother; or maybe there was no special reason and Yan ShiFan just simply hated Zhao Wenhua.
“Why does he think I’m on Hu Zongxian’s side?” Lu Yi asked.
“I do not know, for sure he wants to emphasize the accusation that Hu Zongxian is working with the pirates. As long as you involve yourself, you will definitely be dead.”
Lu Yi’s face was calm like water.
No matter how devoted you were, there were rigorous taboos that as the Emperor, he would not allow. One was having close relationships with members of the government. For example, Xia Yan, although he was serving as Head of the Secretariat, to kill was to kill, there could be no exception. Secondly, cooperating with external enemies: this was an untouchable taboo, and those who committed it would have faced the death penalty together with their whole family and their property would have been confiscated.
Yan ShiFan’s way this time was quite cruel; there had to be someone who helped him father the evidence of Hu Zongxian’s relationship with pirates. Lu Yi took a deep breath and then continued to ask, “Is there anyone nearby who is very familiar and close to Hu Zongxian? Or one that’s very close to pirates?”
“Actually, there is one person but I’m not very clear of his status or position.” A’Rui paused for a moment, “While in Yangzhou, this person was hiding among pirates, he spoke Japanese and he was caught by us but unfortunately managed to escape. When the pirates were wiped out, I saw this person on his boat.”
“That person, do you still remember him?”
“If I met him, I should be able to recognize him. That’s right, Constable Yuan also met him, she even got to interrogate him.”
***
Jinxia pulled Cen Fu, who had just returned to the yard to settle businesses, since the money she used to play was Cen Fu’s money. At first, they agreed that if she had lost, she would have given him the money, and if she had won, the money would have been split up.
“You actually won?” Cen Fu put the money in his bag. In addition to the principal amount, he also earned three more coins.
Jinxia carefully put the money in her belt, saying with satisfaction, “I was blessed by God.”
Cen Shou sneered at the side, “Three coins?!? I finally understand what it means to be happy but poor, rich but polite.”
Just as Jinxia was about to answer him, Lu Yi was heard walking out of the room. In a deep voice, he said, “Jinxia, come to my room.”
“Ha? Oh…”
Lu Yi continued to give out orders, “Cen Fu, prepare inkstone, ink, paper and a brush. Then, tell YangYue to make some hangover soup and bring it over.”
“Beizhe understands.”
Cen Shou on the side immediately straightened up, “Young Master, what about me?”
Lu Yi looked at him once, “You…. Nothing for you, just go to sleep.”
Cen Shou gloomily returned to his room.
“Regarding you and the two ladies playing mahjong together… How did you get Chun Yumin to play with you?” Lu Yi walked into the room, took off his outer robe and threw it at Jinxia.
“I asked her if she knew how to play mahjong. She said she often played with the old servant at home.” Jinxia’s head was coerced with clothes, she pulled it down and said unhappily, “Daren, can you control yourself a little? Don’t keep undressing in front of me.”
Lu Yi put on some light clothes and stretched his body. Afterward, he stretched out his arms to embrace Jinxia, put his head on her shoulder and let out a warm breath near her ear: “I’m just changing now yet I need to control myself? Are you unable to control yourself? How about you also change clothes in front of me, then we’ll be even.”
Jinxia’s cheeks blushed red, she pushed him away and, irritated, said, “I’m good!”
Lu Yi laughed, “Alright, alright. We’ll discuss it again another time. Now, let’s talk about the information you’ve got from the two ladies.”
He was still able to discuss that after saying those words? Jinxia felt her skin wasn’t as thick as his. She quickly straightened herself up and said in a serious tone, “Although I can’t say it clearly but those two ladies must be Hu Zongxian’s women. From my perspective, their clothing must’ve cost a fortune and they both knew a lot about the Hu family but sadly their knowledge revolved around other women’s fights and jealousy. Brother, Hu Zongxian sent his own women here, it means he really treasures you.” Jinxia quickly took a glance at his expression.
Lu Yi remained calm and said, “Go on.”
“He can have this many women in his house, on top of that he’s able to provide them with fancy clothes and other accessories, these expenses aren’t small. General Hu isn’t some devoted man nor is he innocent as he looks. Oh yes, the person your father cared about, Xu Wei Xu Wenchang, I also had time to ask about that… He really is Hu Zongxian’s favourite subordinate, even these two ladies are jealous of his position in Hu Zongxian’s eyes.”
“What does that mean?” Lu Yi poured tea and pushed it towards her.
Jinxia smiled and said, “There is a story about it: one day Hu Zongxian gathered all the subordinates of the top military officers in the study room to discuss military strategy, other people were prohibited from entering. Who would have thought that Xu Wenchang didn’t even need to knock? Instead he just barged in, going in for a moment then leaving without saying anything. If someone else had done this, they would’ve dragged out and killed but Hu Zongxian didn’t care what he did at all, so of course, these women are envious of him. Finally, there was a woman that was very favoured by Hu Zongxian, she tried entering the room at that time but was immediately blocked by the guards”.
Lu Yi displayed a disapproving look, “It’s just a way of winning people’s hearts, nothing special.”
Jinxia shrugged, “As for the outside affairs, Xu Hai or Wang Zhi whatever his name was, they didn’t know anything about it but there is one thing that I found out… They mentioned the autumn festival of last year, Hu Zongxian’s mood was very good. During the family dinner, he said he wanted to take them out at the end of year to Mount Putuo to pray.”
“Last fall?” Lu Yi tried to remember, “Wang Zi was arrested nine months ago.”
“For several years, due to the pirate attacks, Mount Putuo was an island that no one dared to go to, especially to pray. If he said that, specifically saying it will be the end of the year, it could be said that at that time, he believed that pirates were being suppressed.” Jinxia said suspiciously, “But, Wang Zhi wasn’t arrested yet… Why was he so sure?”
At this time, Cen Fu knocked on the door, he came in with a pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
“We’ll talk about it later…” Lu Yi got up, laid out the paper and asked Jinxia, “Since you’ve been in LiuShanmen, Superior Yang should’ve taught you how to recognize people’s faces and redraw them right?”
“Of course.” Jinxia paused and continued, “It’s just that… I remember it well in my heart but my drawings are not good. I rarely draw on a daily basis.”
“It’s alright, being able to draw is good enough. A’Rui said you guys caught a Mandarin pirate that can speak Japanese but he was able to escape. Do you still remember his appearance?”
Jinxia fell silent for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows, “It’s been a while, I’m afraid I don’t remember it anymore.”
“It’s alright, try to remember and then draw it.”
Lu Yi signaled Cen Fu to start grinding the ink.
When Lu Yi returned to the post, the moon was already shining high in the sky.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, he remained silent. There was a light burning in the side pavilion, people crowded together, and only a voice could be heard from inside the pavilion, “Meihua flower, axe, mace…”
“Pu…” Cen Fu, who was leaning outside the pavilion and was watching the excitement, was the first to notice Lu Yi but he gestured to Cen Shou to stay quiet, who swallowed back his greetings.
Lu Yi walked slowly into the pavilion, the rest of them were concentrating on playing mahjong, completely oblivious to his presence.
Of course, his first glance was at Jinxia, at the corner. She had a smile on her face, her hand quickly flipped the tiles, piling them up to create a complete line up. Next to Jinxia was Chun Yumin, her hands covering the tiles, carefully peeking at the other. This scene made Lu Yi a little surprised, not knowing how Jinxia could get his cousin to play this game. As for the other two women, their appearance and clothes gave out a flirtatious vibe…
After the tiles were dealt, Jinxia didn’t look at the ones in her hand and instead left all of them facing down. She used her finger to rub on the picture on the surface of her tiles, knowing exactly what she was holding.
“If you become rich, don’t forget my two silver debts.” Said someone lightly next to her ear, making her laugh.
“Alright?”
As soon as she turned, she faced Lu Yi, who’s eyes were smiling.
The rest of them finally noticed the young man. One of them was Chun Yumin, who gasped, as if she was caught doing something wrong, and immediately put down the tiles calling out for him, “Brother, you’re home.”
LianLian and SiSi, who noticed the situation and Lu Yi’s posture and demeanor, walked around the table in a hurry and saluted him, “Greetings, Lu Daren.”
“They are?” He looked at Jinxia.
“Lu Daren, these two ladies are from General Hu. He especially asked them to come and serve you.” Jinxia wholeheartedly introduced them, “This one is Sister LianLian, her name is filled with love; this one is SiSim, when heaven and earth are in trouble, there is only endless love longing to wait.*”
*[So, with Chinese names, they hold a special meaning or sometimes they can be made into a poem. The way Jinxia introduce them is adding both the meaning and the purpose of their name, TN]
“Oh.”
Cen Fu stepped forward and added to her words, “General Hu ordered his people to send some stuff over and because Young Master didn’t give any specific instruction I didn’t dare to accept them. The items are over there… Young Master, please take a look and give your orders.”
After leading Lu Yi a little away and being sure that people in the pavilion could no longer hear them, Cen Fu reported, “Earlier, A’Rui said that the Young Master should not accept these gifts; according to him, it could be a trap and there are people who want to harm you. When we asked about it in detail, he stopped talking. It seems like you are the only one who he is willing to talk to.”
Lu Yi thought for a moment, then said, “I understand. It’s dark now, you go ask the inn owner to give these ladies a room, the further away from the yard the better. Also, these items should be transferred to their room.”
“Beizhe understands.” Cen Fu was about to leave, but suddenly stopped his steps and said, “That… Miss Yuan and Ms. Chun are playing mahjong for a reason, because…”
“I see.” He said before the other could finish his words, “You just go.”
“Young Master, don’t blame them.”
After he said that, he just walked away, following the given orders.
***
LianLian and SiSi saw that Lu Yi did not drive them away. He even ordered Cen Fu to prepare rooms for them but because there were no more rooms available in the yard, both of them went ahead and followed Cen Fu.
“It’s quite late, you should go back and rest.” Lu Yi said slowly.
Chun Yumin looked at Jinxia restlessly but didn’t dare to go against Lu Yi’s orders, hence she lowered her head and walked back to her room in silence.
Jinxia and Lu Yi were now left alone. Jinxia innocently looked at him, seeing that he still had to open his mouth to talk. She could hear his heavy breathing though, therefore she stepped forward and poked him a few times.
“Sister LianLian and Sister SiSi, those are very intimate callings.” He grabbed her hands, preventing her from causing troubles.
Jinxia smiled and said, “Aren’t those two sisters pretty? When you look at them, do you feel tingling in your heart? They even asked me about your preferences, they seem to have fallen for you.”
“What was your answer?”
“I said, ‘our Lu Daren doesn’t care about beautiful women but he is very interested in money’.”
“I’m more interested in money?” Lu Yi frowned.
Jinxia carefully took a step back, reminding him, “I didn’t speak nonsense. In Yangzhou, you knew I couldn’t pay for the boat yet you still make me pay the rent. Also, you kept deducting my salary.”
Lu Yi moved closer to her, saying softly, “You are definitely a ‘thief with a loud mouth’. That night, on the bridge, who kept whining and asking me to pay them two silvers, you’ve forgotten already?”
*[thief with a loud mouth = someone who does something bad or knows they did something bad but still loudly fight back and doesn’t accept it, TN]
Jinxia looked at him, lifted her chin and said, “Who’s whining? You people destroyed my stall, at that time, I could only argue with facts so that you would obediently pay me.”
“That night, I was very annoyed because of how noisy you were and I wanted to get rid of you quickly.” Recalling the incident at the bridge, Lu Yi couldn’t help but smile, his hand taking the mahjong tiles, then continued asking, “You’ve spent half a day serving them, what did you find?”
Lu Yi understood the way LiuShanmen worked, especially when investigating a case, because the three Courts had a lot of restrictions, the cases that LiuShanmen handled were much easier than the ones of JinYiWei, since the information obtained were definitely not life threatening. Jinxia had tried to become close with those two ladies by playing mahjong, answering their questions regarding his preferences; it was a way to get the opposing sides off their guards, therefore, she should’ve been able to obtain some information.
“This matter, no need to rush. We’ll talk about it later.” Jinxia thought of A’Rui, and pulled him to A’Rui’s room, quietly whispering, “This man broke the glass, a very valuable glass. If my mother was here, she would’ve definitely broken his legs.”
In order to not make people suspicious, A’Rui shared a room with Cen Shou.
The room had been cleaned up by Cen Shou and he was currently leaning back on the chair, with one leg up on the table and his eyes closed, resting. Hearing Lu Yi’s knock on the door, he woke up suddenly, almost fell down, and came over to greet him in haste. “Young Master.”
A’Rui, who was lying on the bed and was always awake, hearing Lu Yi had come, slowly turned his head, not waiting for Lu Yi to talk, but saying in a hoarse voice, “Tell everyone else to leave!”
“Don’t push it too much!” Cen Shou said in anger.
Lu Yi ordered, “You all go out.”
Cen Shou didn’t dare to go against Lu Yi’s orders. After glaring at A’Rui once, he stepped outside; Jinxia also retreated, not forgetting to close the door tightly first.
After making sure the footsteps outside were gone, A’Rui said, “The reason why he didn’t want to bother you in Yangzhou is because he wanted you to come to Hangzhou, so that you are buried dead with Hu Zongxian.*”
*[Reminder: Hu Zongxian was the Huizhou prefecture. His name occurred in the letter Lu Bing sent Lu Yi. Hu Zongxian was the person petitioning not to kill Wang Zhi (the pirate leader) but then he was accused of taking brides and working with the pirates. Lu Yi’s purpose in Hangzhou is to investigate this problem because there was a possibility of a riot if this matter went unsolved. Hu Zongxian was also the person who sent out letters, inviting Xie Xiao and Shangguan Xi to help fight the pirates. On top of that, he was the person who held the execution of Wang Zi, TN]
The word ‘he’ was referring of course to Yan ShiFan. Lu Yi understood the meaning very quickly.
“Hu Zongxian is just a political person, why would he want to harm him?”
“Hu Zongxian is Zhao Wenhua’s man. All this time, he’s always hated Zhao Wenhua.”
Zhao Wenhua, an honorary name of Yuanzhi, a southerner of Cong Maqiao, Cixi County, Haomei City. He’d been declared the 8th scholar of Jiajing and the director of the Ministry of Justice Department. At the beginning, when he was at state school, for the sake of an important position in Yan Song’s department, he’d taken Yan Song as his adoptive father, then had been appointed as a transmission officer.
Lu Yi didn’t understand why Yan ShiFan hated Zhao Wenhua, maybe because Zhao Wenhua dared to argue with Yan Song and secretly sent Baihua wine to the Emperor. Perhaps it could also be because Zhao Wenhua was trying very hard to please Yan ShiFan’s mother; or maybe there was no special reason and Yan ShiFan just simply hated Zhao Wenhua.
“Why does he think I’m on Hu Zongxian’s side?” Lu Yi asked.
“I do not know, for sure he wants to emphasize the accusation that Hu Zongxian is working with the pirates. As long as you involve yourself, you will definitely be dead.”
Lu Yi’s face was calm like water.
No matter how devoted you were, there were rigorous taboos that as the Emperor, he would not allow. One was having close relationships with members of the government. For example, Xia Yan, although he was serving as Head of the Secretariat, to kill was to kill, there could be no exception. Secondly, cooperating with external enemies: this was an untouchable taboo, and those who committed it would have faced the death penalty together with their whole family and their property would have been confiscated.
Yan ShiFan’s way this time was quite cruel; there had to be someone who helped him father the evidence of Hu Zongxian’s relationship with pirates. Lu Yi took a deep breath and then continued to ask, “Is there anyone nearby who is very familiar and close to Hu Zongxian? Or one that’s very close to pirates?”
“Actually, there is one person but I’m not very clear of his status or position.” A’Rui paused for a moment, “While in Yangzhou, this person was hiding among pirates, he spoke Japanese and he was caught by us but unfortunately managed to escape. When the pirates were wiped out, I saw this person on his boat.”
“That person, do you still remember him?”
“If I met him, I should be able to recognize him. That’s right, Constable Yuan also met him, she even got to interrogate him.”
***
Jinxia pulled Cen Fu, who had just returned to the yard to settle businesses, since the money she used to play was Cen Fu’s money. At first, they agreed that if she had lost, she would have given him the money, and if she had won, the money would have been split up.
“You actually won?” Cen Fu put the money in his bag. In addition to the principal amount, he also earned three more coins.
Jinxia carefully put the money in her belt, saying with satisfaction, “I was blessed by God.”
Cen Shou sneered at the side, “Three coins?!? I finally understand what it means to be happy but poor, rich but polite.”
Just as Jinxia was about to answer him, Lu Yi was heard walking out of the room. In a deep voice, he said, “Jinxia, come to my room.”
“Ha? Oh…”
Lu Yi continued to give out orders, “Cen Fu, prepare inkstone, ink, paper and a brush. Then, tell YangYue to make some hangover soup and bring it over.”
“Beizhe understands.”
Cen Shou on the side immediately straightened up, “Young Master, what about me?”
Lu Yi looked at him once, “You…. Nothing for you, just go to sleep.”
Cen Shou gloomily returned to his room.
“Regarding you and the two ladies playing mahjong together… How did you get Chun Yumin to play with you?” Lu Yi walked into the room, took off his outer robe and threw it at Jinxia.
“I asked her if she knew how to play mahjong. She said she often played with the old servant at home.” Jinxia’s head was coerced with clothes, she pulled it down and said unhappily, “Daren, can you control yourself a little? Don’t keep undressing in front of me.”
Lu Yi put on some light clothes and stretched his body. Afterward, he stretched out his arms to embrace Jinxia, put his head on her shoulder and let out a warm breath near her ear: “I’m just changing now yet I need to control myself? Are you unable to control yourself? How about you also change clothes in front of me, then we’ll be even.”
Jinxia’s cheeks blushed red, she pushed him away and, irritated, said, “I’m good!”
Lu Yi laughed, “Alright, alright. We’ll discuss it again another time. Now, let’s talk about the information you’ve got from the two ladies.”
He was still able to discuss that after saying those words? Jinxia felt her skin wasn’t as thick as his. She quickly straightened herself up and said in a serious tone, “Although I can’t say it clearly but those two ladies must be Hu Zongxian’s women. From my perspective, their clothing must’ve cost a fortune and they both knew a lot about the Hu family but sadly their knowledge revolved around other women’s fights and jealousy. Brother, Hu Zongxian sent his own women here, it means he really treasures you.” Jinxia quickly took a glance at his expression.
Lu Yi remained calm and said, “Go on.”
“He can have this many women in his house, on top of that he’s able to provide them with fancy clothes and other accessories, these expenses aren’t small. General Hu isn’t some devoted man nor is he innocent as he looks. Oh yes, the person your father cared about, Xu Wei Xu Wenchang, I also had time to ask about that… He really is Hu Zongxian’s favourite subordinate, even these two ladies are jealous of his position in Hu Zongxian’s eyes.”
“What does that mean?” Lu Yi poured tea and pushed it towards her.
Jinxia smiled and said, “There is a story about it: one day Hu Zongxian gathered all the subordinates of the top military officers in the study room to discuss military strategy, other people were prohibited from entering. Who would have thought that Xu Wenchang didn’t even need to knock? Instead he just barged in, going in for a moment then leaving without saying anything. If someone else had done this, they would’ve dragged out and killed but Hu Zongxian didn’t care what he did at all, so of course, these women are envious of him. Finally, there was a woman that was very favoured by Hu Zongxian, she tried entering the room at that time but was immediately blocked by the guards”.
Lu Yi displayed a disapproving look, “It’s just a way of winning people’s hearts, nothing special.”
Jinxia shrugged, “As for the outside affairs, Xu Hai or Wang Zhi whatever his name was, they didn’t know anything about it but there is one thing that I found out… They mentioned the autumn festival of last year, Hu Zongxian’s mood was very good. During the family dinner, he said he wanted to take them out at the end of year to Mount Putuo to pray.”
“Last fall?” Lu Yi tried to remember, “Wang Zi was arrested nine months ago.”
“For several years, due to the pirate attacks, Mount Putuo was an island that no one dared to go to, especially to pray. If he said that, specifically saying it will be the end of the year, it could be said that at that time, he believed that pirates were being suppressed.” Jinxia said suspiciously, “But, Wang Zhi wasn’t arrested yet… Why was he so sure?”
At this time, Cen Fu knocked on the door, he came in with a pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
“We’ll talk about it later…” Lu Yi got up, laid out the paper and asked Jinxia, “Since you’ve been in LiuShanmen, Superior Yang should’ve taught you how to recognize people’s faces and redraw them right?”
“Of course.” Jinxia paused and continued, “It’s just that… I remember it well in my heart but my drawings are not good. I rarely draw on a daily basis.”
“It’s alright, being able to draw is good enough. A’Rui said you guys caught a Mandarin pirate that can speak Japanese but he was able to escape. Do you still remember his appearance?”
Jinxia fell silent for a moment, furrowing her eyebrows, “It’s been a while, I’m afraid I don’t remember it anymore.”
“It’s alright, try to remember and then draw it.”
Lu Yi signaled Cen Fu to start grinding the ink.
