Chapter 123: Business Deal Struck
Yun Chu was also pondering why she had chosen Prince Pingxi.
In her previous life, this hot spring manor had been seized by Consort Hui, with all the silver earned going to the Second Prince, fully preparing him for rebellion.
Currently, the only ones capable of rivaling Consort Hui and the Second Prince were the Crown Prince and Prince Pingxi. Although the Sixth and Seventh Princes would gradually gain strength in a few years, given the current situation, she could only choose between the Crown Prince and Prince Pingxi.
It seemed she didn't need to hesitate—she leaned more toward cooperating with Prince Pingxi.
Was it because Prince Pingxi was the father of Yu Ge'er and Changsheng?
She lifted her gaze and replied, "Your Highness counts as a friend of my father. I believe you wouldn't maliciously seize this manor."
A flicker of disappointment passed through Chu Yi's eyes.
So that was the simple reason.
"This is your manor—of course I wouldn't take it," he said. "I accept this business proposal."
Yun Chu was astonished.
She hadn't expected it to go so smoothly.
She hadn't even discussed profit sharing yet, and he had already agreed.
"I'll give Your Highness fifty percent of the profits," she said, noticing the man seemed about to refuse, and quickly added, "but the hot spring manor must operate under your name."
Chu Yi frowned.
Even if it were run under his name, fifty percent was too high—after all, he wasn't contributing anything.
"Twenty-eight split," he stated. "Twenty for me, eighty for you."
Before Yun Chu could respond, he continued, "If Madam Xie refuses, there's no need to discuss this further."
Yun Chu had no choice but to swallow her remaining words.
Silence suddenly fell between them. The summer breeze carried warmth as the ice blocks in the pavilion slowly melted.
Cicadas chirped tirelessly—though noisy, the atmosphere remained quiet.
Feeling the awkwardness, Yun Chu stood up. "Your Highness, we should return to the banquet."
Chu Yi rose as well, and the two stepped out of the pavilion.
Just then, a group of children came running past, chasing each other. While the adults were drinking and chatting, the children had started causing trouble.
"Stop! All of you, stop!"
Several boys trailing behind held slingshots, aiming at those running ahead.
Whoosh—a small stone shot from a slingshot flew straight toward Yun Chu's face.
Yun Chu swiftly sidestepped to avoid it.
But another hand was quicker, reaching out in front of her and catching the stone.
Chu Yi clenched the stone in his palm—a thumb-sized, sharp-edged pebble that would have left a bruise or drawn blood if it had hit her face.
"Who?"
He uttered the single word coldly.
It was as if an invisible net had descended, and the chasing children immediately froze in place.
All the children turned to look at one person—the Young Son of Marquis Xuanwu.
The Young Son of Marquis Xuanwu stepped forward, his expression unapologetic. "It was me."
Even though the person before him was a prince, since no one had been hurt, he didn't think the prince could do anything to him.
"Do you know what would happen if this stone hit someone?"
Chu Yi asked, his tone betraying no emotion.
But Yun Chu could sense that the man before her was likely already angry.
However, the Young Son of Marquis Xuanwu, being young, couldn't discern the other's mood and replied carelessly, "But it didn't hit anyone, did it?"
"In that case—" Chu Yi took the slingshot from the Young Son's hand. "Shall we test it?"
He placed the stone in the slingshot and aimed it at the Young Son's face.
The Young Son of Marquis Xuanwu instantly paled with fear.This stone was something he had painstakingly found—angular and sharp, certain to hurt when hitting someone, and definitely leaving a swollen mark if striking the face.
He had specifically sought it out to target the heir of the Marquis of Xingguo, all because that brat had deliberately mocked his short stature during the banquet earlier.
Chu Yi sneered.
He pulled back the slingshot.
Slowly, he drew it to its absolute limit.
"Your Highness, stop!" Marquis Xuanwu, Qin Mingheng, hurried over and stepped in front of the child. "It's normal for children to squabble. As adults, we should just observe. Don’t you agree, Your Highness?"
Chu Yi smiled.
If he had truly intended to strike, the stone in his hand would have already left a bloody gash on the Marquis of Xuanwu’s heir’s face.
He was merely giving him a scare, to teach the heir a lesson.
If it weren’t for the fact that the stone had nearly hit the face of the woman beside him, in the past, he wouldn’t have bothered with such matters at all.
"Marquis Xuanwu, I agree with your statement. Matters between children should not involve adults." Chu Yi tossed the slingshot aside. "Since you understand this principle, why did you intervene during the Xie family banquet last time, stepping in to break the leg of the Xie family’s second young master when your son quarreled with him?"
Qin Mingheng looked up in shock.
That incident had happened so long ago, he had almost forgotten it himself.
As Prince Pingxi, with his busy official duties every day, how could he possibly know about such trivial matters between two children from another family?
His gaze fell upon Yun Chu’s face.
How did these two end up together?
"Officials may set fires, but commoners are forbidden to light lamps. You, Marquis Xuanwu, are no official, and I am no commoner." Chu Yi’s voice was icy cold. "If you do not discipline your son properly for his constant troublemaking, someday, someone will use your own methods against him."
After speaking, he gave Yun Chu a look, turned, and walked away.
Yun Chu’s expression remained unchanged as she followed at a distance, the two of them walking one after the other out of the backyard.
Watching their figures disappear down the path, Qin Mingheng’s eyes turned dark and sinister.
By the time they reached the front courtyard, the banquet was nearly over. Many court officials, burdened with duties, had left early to attend to their work. With the high-ranking officials gone, the lower-ranked ones saw little point in staying, and the gathering gradually dispersed.
Sitting in the carriage on the way back to the Xie residence, Yun Chu kept pondering what major events would occur next and how she could make her father believe her words as soon as possible... If they truly waited until the imperial decree was issued, going to Nanyue would take at least another two years...
But in her previous life, she had been a woman confined to the inner quarters, secluded in the rear courtyard. Unless it was a major court affair, news rarely reached her ears... Then there were natural disasters and man-made calamities, like the intense heatwave this summer, the floods in the south next year, and the unrest in the northern regions... But all these were events of the future, and proving them now would require time.
Though she knew nothing of court affairs, if every minor event in the Yun family unfolded exactly as she had described, her grandfather and father should eventually believe in her dream.
"Madam."
Xie Jingyu’s voice suddenly broke Yun Chu’s reverie.
She opened her eyes. "What is it?"
"Why didn’t you bring An Ge’er to meet your father?" Xie Jingyu pressed his lips together. "During the banquet, you said there was no hurry, so I assumed you would take the child to pay respects to your father in his courtyard afterward. But you... Is it because you found out the child was born of Concubine He that you refuse to let them meet their maternal grandfather?""It doesn't matter whose children An Ge'er and Ping Jie'er are. What matters is that you, Xie Jingyu, have deceived me for five years!" A cold sneer escaped Yun Chu's lips. "You deceiving me alone would have been one thing, but you deceived the entire Yun family. My father just returned to the capital from the Western Frontier, and he's in high spirits. Taking those two to pay their respects to him—isn't that deliberately meant to make him feel uncomfortable?"
Xie Jingyu's eyes were filled with disbelief: "Uncomfortable? You actually call it uncomfortable? An Ge'er and Ping Jie'er regard you as their mother and have been filial to you for four whole years. They've treated you with genuine sincerity—how can you say they make people uncomfortable!"
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