Youthful Glory

"...The Consort said that if I didn't take her up, she would swim over herself. So, I had no choice but to bring her aboard the pleasure boat. Of course, I could have simply knocked her unconscious, but seeing how genuinely worried she was about you, Master, I couldn't bring myself to do it... It was my dereliction of duty, and I willingly accept punishment."

Upon returning to the prefect's yamen, Yun Yi recounted everything that had happened that night in full detail.

"Couldn't bring yourself to?" Jiang Xu glanced at her indifferently.

Yun Yi knelt on the ground, her back straight and rigid. "As a member of the Jinyun Guard, I should have had no qualms. But having accompanied the Consort for so long, this was the first time I've seen her so frantic and distraught. She didn't know what you were planning, Master—she was simply afraid something might happen to you and wanted to save you. I beg you not to blame her."

"Are you reprimanding me now?"

"I wouldn't dare." Yun Yi lowered her head.

Jiang Xu fell silent for a long while, lost in thought. Suddenly, he said, "Since you found the person I was looking for, I'll let it pass this time. But if you ever allow the Consort to put herself in danger again, don't bother showing your face before me. Dismissed."

"Yes."

After Yun Yi withdrew, Jiang Xu stood motionless in the main hall for quite some time. Outside, the night was heavy, punctuated only by the occasional chirp of birds or cicadas. Abruptly, he turned and walked toward the inner chamber.

The inner chamber was silent, filled with the gaudy opulence she usually scorned as vulgar. Fortunately, the bedding and calming incense were her own—perhaps that was why she now slept so soundly.

Jiang Xu sat by the bed, examining the slight burn on her hand before picking up the damp cloth draped over the washbasin to wipe away the remaining smudges of dirt on her face.

The reason he had accepted the prefect's invitation to visit Xianqu Pleasure Boat tonight was that there had been a breakthrough in the evidence left behind by Zhou Baoping.

Several days earlier, he had dispatched covert agents to Lingzhou to investigate Zhou Baoping's sudden death, and they had already uncovered the truth.

There was no doubt—Zhou Baoping had been silenced because he had obtained evidence of the Lingzhou Maritime Trade Bureau's manipulation of forced purchases and underreporting of taxes. To cover it up, his killers had framed his death as the disgraceful demise of a debauched man who had indulged excessively in pleasure.

However, Zhou Baoping, trusted and relied upon by the Emperor, was sharp and astute. Knowing his life was in danger, he had hidden the evidence beforehand.

During his tenure as supervising official at the Lingzhou Maritime Trade Bureau, he had kept to himself, rarely socializing with others. In the Su family's territory, few would dare befriend him anyway.

After days of investigation, the covert agents discovered that his only discernible pastime was visiting the pleasure boats of One Hundred Eighty Boats to listen to music. He had frequented many establishments, but his most visited was Muchun Pleasure Boat, rival to Xianqu in reputation.

The courtesans he often requested at Muchun Pleasure Boat became both the evidence and the backdrop for his absurd cause of death—a man who had supposedly perished from excessive indulgence in debauchery.

According to the agents' findings, the Maritime Trade Bureau must have detained Zhou Baoping as soon as they realized he had obtained the evidence. Whatever torture he endured, he never cracked. When the Bureau saw they couldn't extract anything from him, they simply eliminated him. Then, following his usual connections, they tracked down those courtesans at Muchun Pleasure Boat.

The women knew nothing about any evidence, insisting that Zhou Baoping had only ever summoned them to listen to music and relieve his boredom—never speaking of his own affairs.

But as individuals who had relatively more contact with Zhou Baoping, the Maritime Trade Bureau wouldn't let them off easily. After failing to extract information through torture, they killed the women outright, lumping their deaths together with Zhou Baoping's to fabricate the illusion of a pleasure-seeking official meeting a sordid end.At this point, there were no further leads on the evidence hidden by Zhou Baoping. After days of fruitless searching by the secret guards, the Su family had also made no progress.

It wasn’t until their party arrived in Lingzhou that someone secretly contacted the guards, claiming that Zhou Baoping had entrusted the evidence to them. However, acting on Zhou’s instructions, they could only hand it over personally to someone dispatched by the Emperor.

The person who secretly reached out was an inconspicuous maid from Muchunfang named Qiuyue.

During the famine years, Zhou Baoping had saved her life out of kindness, and she had remained loyal to him ever since.

Three months before Zhou was transferred to the Lingzhou Maritime Trade Office, she had traveled alone to Lingzhou and secured a job as a kitchen maid in Muchunfang.

Qiuyue had an utterly forgettable face and kept to herself, focusing solely on her work, making her practically invisible.

When Zhou Baoping visited Muchunfang to request songs, she had served tea in the room several times. Yet, because she was so unnoticeable, both the Su family and the secret guards had overlooked her during their investigations.

However, due to the incident involving Zhou Baoping—which had cost the lives of several top courtesans—and the frequent inspections by the Maritime Trade Office, business at Muchunfang had plummeted recently. As a result, Qiuyue and a group of other maids were dismissed.

Remembering her master’s instructions to wait for the Emperor’s envoy before handing over the evidence, Qiuyue avoided drawing suspicion and, like most of the dismissed maids, found work nearby at Xianquanfang.

Jiang Xu’s visit to Xianquanfang tonight was precisely to meet this very Qiuyue.

But perhaps her initiative in contacting the secret guards had exposed her. Before Jiang Xu could meet her, the Su family sensed something amiss and sent men to abduct her.

However, the boat was heavily guarded by secret agents. Though the assailants managed to seize Qiuyue, they couldn’t escape with her. In desperation, they threw her into the cabin, doused the area with oil, and set it ablaze.

This season was dry and prone to fires, and the wind over the river quickly spread the flames, forcing Jiang Xu and his party to temporarily abandon the boat.

The attackers likely reasoned that if Qiuyue hadn’t suffocated or burned to death by the time the fire was extinguished, they could still seize her. If she died, Jiang Xu’s group would have a harder time recovering the evidence.

The plan worked. With Xianquanfang inexplicably ablaze, Jiang Xu and Shu Jingran had no choice but to retreat for the time being.

The secret guards intercepted the assailants as they tried to flee the chaos, but they were all dead-set agents who bit into poison before any interrogation could take place. The only certainty was that they hadn’t managed to take Qiuyue with them.

By the time the fire was extinguished, Qiuyue was nowhere to be found. Jiang Xu had already decided to leave when an unexpected complication arose—his little Consort, Ming Tan, had foolishly rushed onto the burning boat to save him.

In truth, when the fire broke out, a fleeting thought crossed his mind: Lingzhou’s river performances were famous, and the Prefect’s Wife might have invited his Consort to watch tonight. If so, she might witness the boat burning.

But the thought lasted only a moment. What if she saw it? What if she knew? She was clever enough—surely she wouldn’t think he was in any real danger.

So when the secret guards reported that his Consort had boarded the boat to rescue him, he was momentarily stunned. Once the shock passed, half of him found it absurd, while the other half felt an indescribable stirring in his heart.

…Ming Tan felt utterly exhausted, as if she had slept for a very long time. When she slowly opened her eyes, she saw darkness outside the window, and the room was already lit with lamps.

Jiang Xu was sitting on a couch not far away, reading a book.

Hearing movement from the bed, he looked up, set down the scroll in his hand, and walked over to the bedside.

"You're awake."

Ming Tan nodded and tried to sit up.

Jiang Xu supported her, then adjusted the embroidered pillow for her to lean against. He lifted the hem of his robe and sat down beside the bed.

"How do you feel?" he asked gently.

"I'm fine. What about you, Husband? Were you injured?"

"This prince is unharmed. But you—you've slept for a full day and night. Should we call the physician to examine you again?"

Ming Tan paused. "A full day and night?"

She had thought she'd only slept for a few hours.

So the fire on the pleasure boat had happened yesterday?

She hurriedly asked a few questions about the events of the previous night. Remembering that Jiang Xu had boarded the boat to rescue her, she cautiously added, "By the way, Husband, did I cause you any trouble by going onto that boat last night? Also, Yun Yi and I rescued a girl from the lower deck. She was tied up—I don’t know what happened to her. Is she still alive?"

"She is alive. As it happens, she is someone this prince has been searching for. You didn’t cause any trouble, Consort. On the contrary, you helped me."

Ming Tan was slightly surprised. "R-really? Why were you looking for her?"

She had only asked casually and immediately regretted her words, quickly trying to steer the conversation elsewhere.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Xu brought the topic back himself, patiently explaining everything—including the true purpose of his and Shu Jingran’s mission to Lingzhou—in detail. He even touched upon many matters related to court politics.

The sheer volume of information left Ming Tan stunned, struggling to process it all.

Once she had calmed her shock and slowly digested everything, she couldn’t help but hesitantly whisper, "Husband, women in our dynasty are forbidden to interfere in politics… Why are you telling me all this?"

"This prince is the one speaking to you, not you prying for information," Jiang Xu interrupted. "Moreover, the prohibition against women in politics has always been meant to restrain the weak-willed and foolish. From now on, you need not deliberately avoid such topics. You are the Princess Consort—speaking a few words is no transgression. If your words are useful, this prince will listen. If they are slander, and this prince is swayed by them, then it is due to my own lack of discernment. What does that have to do with you?"

Ming Tan stared at him in astonishment.

His words today went against everything she had been taught before, yet they also made a strange kind of sense.

"What are you thinking?" he asked.

Ming Tan shook her head. "Husband, you’re talking so much today."

"..."

She hurriedly clarified, "I’m not complaining! It’s just that you usually speak so little. The words you’ve said today might add up to more than an entire month’s worth."

The more she tried to explain, the worse it sounded.

Just as Ming Tan was at a loss for how to salvage the situation, Jiang Xu suddenly spoke again. "There’s something this prince wishes to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Why did you board that pleasure boat?"

He had been pondering this since last night, barely able to comprehend why she thought he couldn’t escape unscathed. No doubt she believed the Su family ruled Lingzhou like kings, with eyes and ears everywhere, and that this trap had been deliberately set by them.

But in his understanding, even if something had truly happened to him, his consort shouldn’t have acted so recklessly.

If the Su family could have taken his life on that boat, her going aboard would have been nothing but a futile sacrifice. She had always been intelligent—surely she would have realized this. And she valued her life dearly. Why would she do such a thing?In truth, he already had an inkling of the answer in his heart, but for some reason, he still wanted to hear it from her directly. After asking, he simply kept looking at her, his gaze steady and unwavering.

Ming Tan met his eyes for a long moment before suddenly turning her gaze away, somewhat unnaturally.

She clutched at the corner of the quilt, her ears inexplicably growing hot.

Now that she was fully awake, she too felt that her actions last night had been foolishly out of control. Yet in that moment, she had done exactly that—she had truly believed that if something happened to her Husband, she wouldn’t want to live on alone. She didn’t know what had come over her; perhaps she had been bewitched. Why did he keep asking her about it!

"I... I think I feel a bit dizzy. I want to sleep a little longer..."

As she spoke, she yanked the embroidered quilt over herself, burrowing completely beneath it—even her little head was thoroughly hidden. She then rolled over to the far side, inching closer and closer to the corner of the bed.