Chapter 6
The next day, when Xie Tinglan woke up, the person beside her was already gone. A sliver of pale sunlight filtered in through the window, spilling warmly over the arm she had left near it.
Last night, she had actually not felt the kind of pain that came with a flare-up of the poison—the sort that felt like a blade boring into bone. Could Ye Rui’s body heat have suppressed the cold poison?
Xie Tinglan frowned, a trace of confusion in her eyes. She was just about to get up when her hand brushed a small slip of paper beside her. Sitting up, she saw that Ye Rui had left her a note. It only said, “I’m going to buy,” and then, after that, there were drawings of clothes, a chicken, medicine, and so on.
The crease between Xie Tinglan’s brows smoothed out; a patch of sunlight landed on the curve of her lips.
This person really was quite interesting.
When Xie Tinglan got up, there was also a basin of water and a bundle of arborvitae twigs on the stool by the bed, clearly left there for her to wash up. In terms of consideration, Ye Rui really had nothing to criticize; she was meticulous in the way she handled daily life, and sometimes Xie Tinglan would see her outside hammering and tinkering at something... right, her shoulder...
**
Ah, it hurts like hell.
Ye Rui moved her shoulder and grimaced, her brows and eyes all scrunched up. She hadn’t slept at all last night. She didn’t know what was wrong with Xie Tinglan’s body, but every so often she would tremble, and a great deal of cold sweat would pour off her. It had been fine when Ye Rui held her tightly, but the moment she loosened her grip even a little, Xie Tinglan would start shaking again. With no other choice, Ye Rui had gritted her teeth through the pain in her shoulder and held her all night.
She also had to stay on guard in case a knife suddenly got pressed to her own throat.
Hu Tu: 【I was blocked for a whole night, huh? What were you two doing?】
Ye Rui: 【That gets blocked too?】
Hu Tu kept asking, but Ye Rui couldn’t be bothered with it anymore. She went straight into the pharmacy. After telling the shopkeeper she wanted medicines for improving circulation, relieving pain, and nourishing the body, she wandered around the shop and looked over the characters written on the hundred-drawer cabinet, picking out a few she recognized to study again and again.
The shopkeeper let out a cold laugh, as if thinking, what would a hunter like you know? Then he handed her the medicine and ignored her no further.
Ye Rui didn’t mind. She went to a clothing shop to buy herself some clothes. At first, the shop owner was barely willing to deal with her, but once he saw the silver in Ye Rui’s hand, he immediately beamed and had a female assistant measure her.
“Has your ladyship had a particularly good hunt lately?”
The owner was sharp, and he was also a chatterbox. The moment he saw the silver in Ye Rui’s hand, he grew curious. A hunter—especially a female hunter—where had she gotten so much silver?
Ye Rui shot the short, plump shop owner a glance and said with a fake smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “Are you selling clothes, or gathering information?”
The owner was taken aback, then chuckled and wandered off. When two noblewomen came in, he hurried over to serve them instead.
Ye Rui hadn’t originally paid much attention to what the two women were saying, but while they were picking out fabric, they chatted about gossip, and Xie Tinglan’s name came up. Curious, she listened in, only to discover that the Xie Wolf people spoke of in the mouths of women and men was apparently very different from what she had expected.
These two ladies did not call Xie Tinglan Xie Wolf. Instead, they addressed her as Prime Minister Xie, and it was clear they held her in considerable esteem. Only then did Ye Rui realize that ever since Xie Tinglan had become Prime Minister of Great Yan, women’s status had begun to rise. They were no longer limited to staying at home doing needlework, serving their husbands, and raising children; they could take part in salon discussions and speak about state affairs.
Precisely because of this, the conservative aristocratic families and most men regarded Xie Tinglan as a thorn in their side. But... Xie Tinglan really was a little crazy.
From what she had heard before, Xie Tinglan was a smiling tiger in the imperial court, acting entirely without regard for convention. One moment she could still be smiling at you, and the next she might confiscate your estate and wipe out your entire clan. She was truly terrifying. The most chilling of all was the old minister Gu, a veteran of two reigns, who was slaughtered with his whole household by Xie Tinglan’s troops on his birthday; only after that did she present the emperor with evidence of his collusion with the barbarians, striking first and reporting later.
It was said that on the birthday invitation that read, “May you live as long as the Southern Mountain,” what had been placed atop it was Old Master Gu’s head, blood staining the entire household.
After the fitting was done, the female assistant brought several sets of clothes for Ye Rui. Throughout the whole process, Ye Rui had listened to everything the two ladies said; when she summed it up, there were only a few pieces of information.
First, Xie Wolf had been assassinated again; however, the assassination failed, and she was now recovering in her residence. The emperor had sent people to search for the culprit, but found nothing.
Second, it was said that Duke of Wei and Helian Chi had taken advantage of Xie Wolf’s recovery to impeach her in the imperial court, but the emperor had still cleverly smoothed things over.
Third, Qingzhou City at the border had once again come under enemy attack. Because military authority had already been handed over to the prefect of Qingzhou City in the early years, the court had never sent troops to reinforce it, and the common people in the city had quite a few complaints.
Ye Rui memorized all of it. In the future, when she left Yushan and traveled through the big cities and small towns, these bits of information would at least be useful.
In the shop, Ye Rui changed directly into her new clothes. The top was a dark navy straight-cut long robe woven from fine cotton; the bottom was a pair of dark navy leather lace-up trousers, paired with a set of black calfskin boots. Clothes made the woman; when Ye Rui emerged in that outfit, even the female assistant, who had just a moment ago worn a blank expression, stared straight at her and kept praising how pretty she looked, which made Ye Rui rather happy.
Afterward, Ye Rui bought a bunch of things, added more paper and ink, and only then headed back into the mountains.
When she returned, Xie Tinglan was writing. As the wooden door opened, she lifted her eyes; the instant she saw Ye Rui, her long lashes fluttered like wings.
In that instant, a flicker of light moved in Xie Tinglan’s eyes. That dark navy color, like a flag whipping freely in the wind, fell into her vision and seemed to announce this person’s uniqueness.
“I bought a lot of things back. I’ll make you some chicken soup in a bit.”
Ye Rui didn’t notice anything strange about Xie Tinglan. As soon as she entered, she set down the things and neatly placed the clothes she had just bought into the first compartment of the cabinet.
“After you finish eating, I’ll help you change the medicine too.”
Ye Rui was still talking to herself when Xie Tinglan’s gaze remained fixed on the dark navy of her clothes. That long, slender figure seemed to have received heaven and earth’s exclusive favor; gentle, yet with an heroic air, like iron bones wrapped in tenderness. Ye Rui’s spiritedness was impossible to ignore, as if the moment she swung herself into the saddle, she became a general charging through battle on horseback.
A general? Xie Tinglan was suddenly startled by the strange thought. A hunter turned general?
Only then did Xie Tinglan look away and discover that the ink at her brush tip had gathered into a blot, spreading across the xuan paper. The entire sheet had lost its value because of that wash of ink. She folded the paper and set it aside, then slowly lifted her brush again. “A gilded Buddha only receives the incense of prosperity; a person dressed in brocade is what earns the world’s admiration.”
After she finished, Ye Rui was stunned for a moment. Only after she shut the cabinet did she react. “Then I’ll take that as you praising me.”
Ye Rui seized the chance to sit beside Xie Tinglan and asked, “Does Miss Lingchao like me too?”
She even spread out her hands to show off her new clothes, but Xie Tinglan did not spare them a glance, focusing only on writing as if she were some scholar with a clear and undistracted heart.
“What is there to admire about a coward who only has words in her mouth?”
Ye Rui’s smile froze at the corners of her lips. Inwardly, she thought that this person’s insults were really filthy; moreover, she had even learned how to use the word “coward” from exposure, which was such a bad trade.
“Why don’t you look at all the things I’ve done for you, and yet you still say I only have words in my mouth?”
Ye Rui put on a show of being angry, planting her hands on her hips. “I’ve got things in my mouth, and I’ve got things in my hands too!”
“Oh?”
Xie Tinglan turned her head to look at Ye Rui; her gaze landed on the hands on Ye Rui’s hips. Beneath the loosened sleeves, those fingers were slender, the joints clear and distinct...
When Ye Rui saw Xie Tinglan looking at her so intently, strange little thoughts stirred in her heart. Just as she was about to curl up her fingers, Xie Tinglan leisurely looked away and resumed writing. That little “oh” from before took on a deeper meaning in the silence, making Ye Rui even more uneasy.
What did that mean? It shouldn’t mean anything else, right?
Ye Rui pinched the fabric at her waist, wiping away the sweat that had gathered in her palm in those few breaths.
“I’m going to cook.”
For some reason, her face felt a little hot. She used cooking as an excuse to go outside and catch some wind, to calm down. How could she be shaken by just a few words from that woman?
Impossible; absolutely impossible.
After the meal was ready, Ye Rui and Xie Tinglan ate together. Ye Rui had made chicken soup for Xie Tinglan, along with a simple stir-fry of vegetables and meat, and fried two eggs. For someone like Ye Rui, a hunter, this was the kind of feast she might not even get to eat on New Year’s.
And it was all thanks to Xie Tinglan’s money.
The two of them were used to eating in silence, but today Ye Rui was in a rather lively mood, so she asked, “Do you know Xie Tinglan?”
The chopsticks in Xie Tinglan’s hand paused. Her lowered beautiful eyes turned cold at once, and with a slight curl of her lips, she said, “I do. Why are you asking about her?”
“Today I heard people mention her at the market; it seems like everyone keeps talking about her, so I got curious.”
Ye Rui looked up at Xie Tinglan, only to meet her calm, unruffled gaze by chance. She asked, “People say good things about her and bad things about her. What about you? Do you think she’s good or bad?”
Xie Tinglan tugged at the corner of her mouth and, under Ye Rui’s clear gaze, said, “She’s terrifying.”
“Huh?”
“One stroke of a wolf-hair brush can take a hundred lives; one sentence from the court can chill the heart. How could she not be terrifying? People should fear her.”
After saying that, Xie Tinglan continued eating. With just a few short words, she described the turbulence and danger of the imperial court in a light, almost casual way.
“Anyway, I’m not doing bad things, and I won’t run into her, so why should I be afraid?”
Ye Rui shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with what Xie Tinglan had said, and lowered her head to keep eating. She had originally wanted to keep chatting with Xie Tinglan, but it seemed Xie Tinglan didn’t want to say more, so she stopped as well.
After lunch, Ye Rui went out to gather herbs. She was still thinking about those ten points of agility; although she didn’t know what use they would have in the future, it was still good to save them up.
“Won’t run into her?”
Xie Tinglan muttered to herself. After returning to bed, she casually picked up the book by the bedside. What met her eyes were still those obscene and suggestive lines, yet what she seemed to be seeing was not the words on the page.
After spacing out for a long while, Xie Tinglan finally said flatly, “Interesting.”
**
When Ye Rui came back, it was already evening. She had probably fallen at some point; her clothes weren’t torn, but she had scraped her neck and palms raw, and she wore a disgruntled expression that made it look as though she had suffered some kind of grievance.
Ye Rui: 【I told you that path couldn’t be taken. Look at the route your navigation gave me; what the hell was that!】
Hu Tu: 【I’m sorry, okay? You know navigation can be wrong sometimes too.】
Ye Rui: 【I almost stepped in wild boar shit. Good thing I dodged fast; these are new clothes, new clothes!】
Hu Tu: 【I’m sorry, but at least we did find one Fire Sparrow Herb!】
Ye Rui: 【I picked it. I picked it myself!】
Her shoulder already hurt, and after that fall it hurt even more. She was seriously done with her System; it even led her down the wrong road!
“Did you forget to put on medicine?”
Seeing Ye Rui come back clutching her shoulder, her face all scrunched up, Xie Tinglan’s brows also furrowed slightly. Ye Rui was pouring tea when she was suddenly met with concern out of nowhere, and for a few beats she didn’t know what to do. Only after a moment did she sit down. “I forgot.”
“I’ll help you apply it.”
Author’s Note:
----------------------
Here we go~ There’ll be more tomorrow too~ [dog head]
From now on, Prime Minister Xie: “Only has things in her mouth, or has things in her hands too?”
Little Ye: ...You... you should stop reaching for my belt first!
[gold heart] [dog head]