Chapter 37

Luo Huai Yuan left the Zhenguo Duke Estate at the same time Yan Ting returned. He prepared to move into the newly constructed fourth prince’s estate.

Because of the conflicting schedules, Luo Huai Yuan didn’t inform Yan Yan. He merely had Shen Qi send Yan Yan a letter prior to his departure. He also told them that once he settled in, he would invite them over to play.

Luo Huai Yuan had left with extremely tragic emotions. He couldn’t bear to leave the Zhenguo Duke Estate. It wasn’t that he had grown attached to the place. It was just his most convenient option of encountering the little consort.

But as he said before, she had to go back and face things. He had to do the same.

Regardless, for the sake of not going down the same path as his past life, he had to do far too many things in this one. He didn’t have the spare time to mope around.

Yan Yan received his letter the moment she returned to the Ningxiang Chambers. The servants said it was sent over by young master Qi. It was a real letter, and not just a spoken message.

There was a stamped seal on the envelope, most likely to prevent others from seeing its contents. There were several large words on the envelope: To dear little sis Ah Yan. The words weren’t too good looking and looked like a trembling scrawl. It looked like the writer wasn’t incapable of writing neatly, but didn’t feel like doing so and purposefully did this.

Seeing these words, Yan Yan immediately thought of the winking little fatty and couldn’t help but smile.

Yan Mo was walking in the courtyard with the maids. Yan Yan gave him a glance and took the letter to the western room.

The letter was written on a thin piece of plain letter paper. Yan Yan unfolded it and read the words on the page.

This letter was written differently from others. Normally letters were written from right to left. This one was written from top to bottom. Yan Yan was a little startled when she first saw it, but she was able to clearly understand it.

There was this symbol at the very beginning: o(—^—+)o

It took a while for Yan Yan to figure out what this circle represented. It seemed to be a little person looking aggrieved and upset. Yan Yan felt she didn’t guess wrongly after slowly reading onwards.

o(—^—+)o Little sis Ah Yan. Well met by letter:

When you didn’t come send me off as I was leaving, my heart almost broke ~(‘^’)~, but thinking of how you had things going on, I could only restrain my mournful emotions….

I left silently, just like how I arrived quietly. I waved my sleeves and took with me a large seven-colored cloud. The cloud contains you, me and also little second Shen, that stinky brat…..

Really can’t bear to leave you guys!

Wait until I’ve settled down. I’ll send a letter over. You guys have to come over at that time.

(*——*)

……

Yan Yan’s brows first trembled, and then she started laughing silently. Finally, she couldn’t help but laugh out loud, and then laughed until she couldn’t stand straight.

Her slender fair fingers traced over those strange symbols. For some reason, she felt those round circles came together to form the chubby face in her memories. That chubby face was making all sorts of weird expressions, either upset or cheerful or aggrieved, looking extremely lifelike….

Really, this little fatty truly knew how to make others laugh!

Without even mentioning those little face, just the tone of the letter was enough to evoke the memories of a large aggrieved-looking chubby face in Yan Yan’s mind.

“What’s miss laughing about?”

Mei Xue had been observing the third miss for a while now. Her rapidly changing expressions were extremely weird. Afterwards, she had bent over from laughing, making Mei Xue a little frightened.

Yan Yan stopped her laughter and did her best to put on a solemn expression. Unfortunately, she wasn’t too successful, and instead looked even weirder.

She cleared her throat and said: “Errr, nothing much. Go find a box. I want to store something.”

Mei Xue looked at the piece of paper in the miss’s hands and pondered for a bit. She found a decorated gold plated camphor wood box. It wasn’t too big or too small, and was just right to store letter paper.

Yan Yan put the letter in her hands inside the box and ordered Mei Xue to put it away.

After this, Yan Yan suddenly felt her sullen heart become a lot more carefree.

She glanced at the sunlight outside and decided to go play with Ah Mo.

***

When Luo Huai Yuan was writing that letter, Xiao An Zi had been grinding ink on the side.

Therefore, he had seen the contents of the letter. Especially since his master had been giggling foolishly while he wrote it, his laughter making Xiao An Zi’s hair stand on end. Therefore, he had a deep impression of the letter’s contents.

Xiao An Zi was a little simpleminded, but dumb people also had their good aspects. If he couldn’t figure something out, he would mull it over with all his efforts. Putting it nicely would be calling him persistent. Putting it not so nicely would be calling him a blockhead.

Even after Luo Huai Yuan had left the Zhenguo Duke Estate and they had gotten onto the carriage, Xiao An Zi still had the profound expression of someone deep in thought.

Luo Huai Yuan knocked him on the head, and asked while rolling his eyes: “What is a brat like you thinking about, putting on such a profound expression?”

Xiao An Zi was now used the fourth prince occasionally saying astonishing things. He thought it must be due to being free of the palace. After all, even he himself wasn’t able to feel at ease there, let alone his highness. He rubbed his head in grievance and said with a pout: “I was thinking about highness’s letter. What were those little faces on it? Never seen it before.”

Hearing this, Luo Huai Yuan smiled complacently. He leaned backwards and started feeling pleased all by himself.

Don’t understand emoticons? All the girls loved using them in the modern world. Those girls loved using all sorts of faces to express their meaning, especially these sorts of cute expressions. It made one inevitably smile at seeing them.

Actually, Luo Huai Yuan hadn’t thought about using emoticons at first. He was merely going to write a letter. A letter that would leave a deep impression on the little consort. A letter that would make the little consort firmly remember him after reading it.

Unfortunately, he didn’t write many letters in his past lives. In the modern world, it was far too convenient to contact someone using Wechat, QQ or just a phone call. In his past life, he was uneducated and uncultured, and never interacted with outsiders so he didn’t have any chances to write letters. Therefore, he was unsatisfied with his first attempt. After rewriting, he still felt it was missing something. He finally came up with this method after being truly vexed.

Who knows if the little consort felt it was very cute when seeing it?

Luo Huai Yuan had a smile on his chubby face. His eyes were glazed over as he let out a sigh of happiness.

The saying was accurate: if a man wasn’t good looking, he definitely had to let the woman understand his inner beauty.

Luo Huai Yuan felt he was very beautiful on the inside. But the little consort was still young. How could she see beyond his appearance to his inner self?

Luo Huai Yuan was confident that if he lost weight, he would definitely be a tall and upright, outstanding and elegant pretty boy. But since he was still young and also couldn’t change his physique at the moment, he had to find alternative methods.

Therefore, he definitely had to suit her tastes. Girls in the modern world shouldn’t be too different from girls in ancient times, right? They all liked these cute things. As long as he overwhelmed her with cuteness, wouldn’t he have succeeded?

One must remember, girls are defenseless against cute things. Once her guard was lowered, it would mean they became more intimate. Becoming more intimate meant being able to get closer, until….err….that….

Luo Huai Yuan was giddy with his own imagination. Xiao An Zi felt his hairs stand on end looking at his expression. He wanted to say a few things, but didn’t know how to cut in and could only sit on pins and needles.

The carriage suddenly stopped. A male voice called out, “Highness fourth prince. We’ve arrived.”

Luo Huai Yuan snapped out of it. He stood up and patted Xiao An Zi.

Let’s go and face our future challenges!

***

Yan Ting rested for three days in the estate before leaving the doors on the fourth day.

Despite burning with impatience these days, he still maintained a tranquil appearance. Since the biggest backbone of the estate was so tranquil, everyone else naturally no longer worried. They all assumed Yan Ting had his own thoughts.

Even if anything happened, they still had the Zhenguo Duke Estate. Therefore, the old madam became warmer again towards Shen Yi Yao these past couple of days. Of course, the Ningxiang Chambers didn’t get neglected either. Many good things were picked out and sent over.

All this won’t be mentioned for now.

Although Yan Ting had left for several years, he still had quite a few friends in the capital. Before he went out, the servants had already arranged everything. After going out, he swiftly made his way to the capital’s largest money drain, the Qianxiang1 Chambers.

This Qianxiang Chambers was not a sort of brothel, although of course they also provided this kind of service. The reason it was well known within the capital, and became the place everyone spent their money, was because they had the best dishes, the highest-quality alcohol, the biggest gambling den and the most beautiful women.

Being able to eat, drink and play in one place made many of the noble household’s younger generation frequent this place. Yan Ting didn’t really like this sort of place, but he also didn’t avoid coming here. This was because there were many things he needed from this place.

Yan Ting reserved the largest private room today, and also covered the food, drinks, fun and women as well. Based on the prices at the Qianxiang Chambers, this session wouldn’t be less than two thousand silver.

He invited ten of his friends from the past. This could be counted as an indication to everyone that he had returned.

Yan Ting’s friends were a mixed lot. There were some hedonistic young masters who only knew to eat, drink and play. There were also some with pretty good backgrounds and ability from noble households. Of course, there were also some scholars from poor backgrounds, though these were extremely few. After all, he himself was of noble birth, and would have his own social circles.

The food was delicious, the drinks were exquisite and there were also pretty birds singing and dancing as accompaniment on the side.

After a round of drinks and gambling, everyone there was in various stages of tipsiness. Their actions became bolder as well.

“What a good Yan Ting. Having gone to the border for so many years, there’s bound to be some major accomplishment now that you’ve returned.” This was someone who was rather good with words.

“Must be nice to have a good father-in-law. You have help wherever you go.” These words contained some sourness, and unconcealed envy.

Someone who would say such things naturally wasn’t someone who was truly close with him. Of course this also signified that their status wasn’t high enough, and wasn’t able to get what he wanted. Yan Ting didn’t need to pay them too much mind.

These types of people weren’t his goal this time around. They had just tagged along.

Quite a few people knew about Yan Ting’s weird relocation orders, as well as the unusual circumstances behind it. Yan Ting’s target were these types of people. But since he had been gone for a while, he wasn’t able to tell who was who, and could only cast a large net.

A couple of them had weird expressions at hearing this, and it naturally fell into Yan Ting’s eyes.

In the following rounds of drinking and gambling, Yan Ting made sure to entertain these two people well. He took the initiative to chat with them about the past, and only on topics they were interested in. After a few rounds, the distance between them due to separation had vanished, and a feeling of intimacy had sprung up.

After another round of drinks, some people sat together chatting idly. Others embraced the female singers and started fooling around. Yan Ting sat with the two people, drinking and talking.

One of them suddenly said: “Did you offend someone this time around?”

Yan Ting’s eyes flashed, and he put on a confused appearance.

The other person interrupted: “How could that be possible. Who would dare give the Zhenguo Duke’s son-in-law a hard time?”

Yan Ting’s hand clenched into a fist. He laughed and asked: “What do you mean?”

The first person let out a careless laugh and downed his cup.

“I was just speaking randomly. I just feel your relocation orders were a little strange.”

Yan Ting smiled brightly. “I also don’t understand it. There must be some reason behind it.”

That person patted his shoulder. “Perhaps it’s a promotion?” This person was already a little drunk. He leaned tipsily on Yan Ting’s shoulder.

A hint of disgust flashed across Yan Ting’s eyes, which didn’t match the smile on his face.

No matter how Yan Ting tried to steer the conversation, these two people didn’t offer any useful information. Yan Ting considered their status and concluded that they didn’t know too much about the matter. He could only drop the subject.

Despite this, it still added a layer of confusion in his mind that he couldn’t get rid of.

Author’s words:

The scummy dad is already getting bullied. I feel that bullying doesn’t have to be a direct challenge. Wouldn’t the Zhenguo Duke be lowering himself if he faced off against him? This could be counted as the beginning. Allow our imposing Zhenguo Duke to remain calm within the storm for now while the scum runs about like a headless fly. For someone who is conceited yet insecure, this is a sort of invisible torture. Yan Ting can be described as someone who wants both the reality and the appearance, and is both conceited and insecure. He could clearly get an answer easily, but insists upon doing things in a roundabout method. He is clearly impatient to find out why he was relocated, but is also afraid being too impatient would make others laugh at him. The saying “wanting many things only leads to a quick death” isn’t without reason.

  1. Black Fragrance
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