Volume 1, Chapter 15 – Visitors

Sitting behind a guqin, Wan’er rested both hands lightly on the strings. When she glanced at Shi Lan, who was leaning by the window looking desolate, something shifted in her heart.

As the Shi family’s legitimate eldest son yet born with a crippled body, the pressure Shi Lan bore each day must be something ordinary people could hardly imagine…

Thinking of this, Wan’er couldn’t help feeling a touch of sympathy.

Shi Lan’s unfocused gaze swept across the distant view. Suddenly, two beams of light in different colors shot into her field of vision and vanished in a flash.

She rubbed her eyes, but the beams were nowhere to be seen. She could only assume her eyes were playing tricks on her.

……

Two streaks of light flew swiftly over Tenglong City and dropped into a small grove ten li outside the city.

A moment later, three figures walked out of the trees.

At their head was a man in his seventies, white-haired yet rosy-cheeked, dressed in white robes and full of vigor. Behind him followed a young man and woman of about the same age.

The woman wore a fitted outfit of green, her figure tall and slender. Bright eyes, neat white teeth, and irises like clear, clipped water—she was strikingly beautiful.

Yet for all her beauty, there was none of a delicate maiden’s coyness in her bearing. She was crisp and unrestrained, radiating a keen, aggressive drive.

The young man at her side was a little younger, handsome and straight-backed, with a trace of impatience in his expression.

“Big Sis Yueqing, isn’t tomorrow the middle of the month? Why come so early?”

The woman shook her head. “Just follow along and don’t talk so much.”

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The old man chuckled softly. “This concerns Yueqing’s lifelong happiness. When it comes to her future husband, we should at least get to know him a bit first. We can’t just take one family’s word as truth.”

The three entered Tenglong City and made their way to a restaurant. They ordered a private room and a table of dishes, then sat down.

“Honored guests, all your dishes are here. Please enjoy slowly.” After setting the food out, the server was about to turn away when someone called him back.

“Waiter, stay a moment. It’s our first time in Tenglong City, and we’d like to ask you about a few things.” As Lu Yueqing spoke, she tossed him an ingot of silver.

The server caught the silver, his face splitting into a grin. “Ask whatever you like, honored guests.”

“Do you know the Shi family in Tenglong City?”

“You flatter me, miss. The Shi family’s name—never mind just Tenglong City, within several hundred li of here, who wouldn’t know it?”

“Good. Then their legitimate eldest son…”

The moment he heard “Shi family’s legitimate eldest son,” the server’s expression turned flustered. Before Lu Yueqing could finish, he pushed the silver back toward her.

“Sorry, honored guests… We really don’t dare talk recklessly about that lord.”

“Oh?”

Lu Yueqing frowned and glanced at the old man beside her.

“No need to be nervous, waiter. There’s no one else here. We’re just asking casually; you can just speak casually,” the old man said with a squinting smile, drawing something from his sleeve and sliding it in front of the server.

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Staring at the bright, yellow-gold ingot in front of him, the server swallowed hard, hurriedly snatched it up, checked that it was genuine, then tucked it into his robe. The grin returned to his face.

“Please, ask away.”

“Tell us—what kind of person is this Shi family’s legitimate eldest son?”

“The Shi family head has three sons, and among them, the Eldest Young Master, Shi Lan, is the most unambitious and the least presentable,” the server said in a low voice.

The old man’s smile faded slightly. He shot a glance at Lu Yueqing. Her expression didn’t change in the slightest; she merely nodded at the server. “Go on.”

“Though he was born into a martial clan, he’s a natural cripple. His temper is rather defiant and arrogant, with no one in his eyes. There are only a handful of people in Tenglong City he thinks worthy of notice. Whenever he goes out, he’s always followed by a whole crowd of guards and servants. If anything displeases him while he’s out playing, he’ll have people beaten or shops smashed at the slightest provocation.”

Lu Yueqing’s expression remained calm. She asked evenly, “Did you see all this with your own eyes?”

“Not all of it, no—most are just rumors from around town. But yesterday, Shi Lan was right here and ordered his guards to beat Xu Yuanbai, the famous young scholar of Tenglong City, half to death. That, this humble one saw with my own eyes.”

Lu Yueqing fell silent, narrowing her eyes slightly to hide the emotion in them.

The server was getting into the story now. With a conspiratorial look, he lowered his voice even more. “They say Shi Lan is fond of men, with a taste for the cut sleeve. That Young Master Xu has some shady, unclear relationship with him!”

“You may go,” the old man said, face expressionless as he waved his hand.

“Right away, honored guests. But please, don’t say you heard any of this from me.” With that, the server took back the ingot of silver in front of Lu Yueqing, then backed out of the room with a fawning smile.

“Yueqing, what do you think…” The old man hadn’t even finished when the young man, who’d been sitting with his head down listening, couldn’t hold back any longer. He sprang to his feet and shouted:

“How could such a filthy scoundrel ever be worthy of becoming Big Sis Yueqing’s husband—or my Lu family’s son-in-law?!”

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“Lu Yuan, be quiet!” the old man snapped.

Lu Yueqing slowly shook her head, rose, and walked toward the door of the private room.

“Big Sis Yueqing, where are you going? You haven’t eaten yet,” Lu Yuan called when he saw her leave.

“I’ve lost my appetite. I’ll just walk around.”

The old man shot Lu Yuan a glare. “Eat.”

Knowing he’d just said something he shouldn’t have, Lu Yuan lowered his head, not daring to make a sound, and began eating quietly.

……

Walking along the bluestone-paved street, Lu Yueqing looked at the stream of people coming and going, feeling slightly at a loss.

Right then, she could almost still hear her father pounding his chest in assurance: “Like father, like son. With Brother Tianlu’s talent, his child can’t possibly be lacking. Yueqing, just go and see for yourself.”

When it came to this betrothed fiancé, arranged before they were even born, she had indeed harbored a bit of hope. If he was the son of her father’s most admired friend, he surely wouldn’t be too bad.

But reality was worlds apart from what she’d imagined.

As she walked, Lu Yueqing found herself in front of a small building.

Seeing the three characters “Hundred Flowers Pavilion” on the plaque, and hearing the faint sounds of flirtatious banter between men and women from inside, she quickly understood what kind of place this was. Her face flushed a little, and she felt somewhat embarrassed.

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She quickened her pace, wanting to leave as soon as possible, when a large group of people suddenly poured out, filling the already narrow street and blocking her path.

“Young Master Shi, walk slowly.”

“Come again next time.”

A flock of girls with sweet voices lined the way to see him off.

Shi Lan snapped open the folding fan in her hand, fanned herself twice, then smiled at the guards behind her. “Had a good time today?”

“Sure did!”

“Thank you, Young Master!”

The guards responded in unison, faces flushed.

“But I didn’t. Back to the residence!” Shi Lan’s face turned cold in an instant. She gave a low command and turned to leave, Shi Feng shadowing her without a step of distance.

The guards were baffled. The top courtesan herself had attended him—how could he still not be satisfied?

Seeing Shi Lan and Shi Feng had already gone far, they didn’t dare dawdle and hurried after them.

Watching the group walk away, Lu Yueqing fell into thought.