Cui Xingzhou felt it was time to end this trivial conversation. He closed his eyes and said, "I won't take a concubine… It's late, let's sleep. I need to go to the government office early tomorrow to sort things out."
He wasn't lying. He indeed had no intention of taking a concubine in the future. However, the woman beside him wouldn't be his wife either—merely a placeholder in this elaborate deception.
Hearing Cui Jiu's words, Miantang's heart lightened like a stone lifted from water. Her husband was a steady and refined man, not like the shallow, oily Mr. Zhang from the rice shop on North Street. She shouldn't have let her imagination run wild, conjuring problems where none existed.
With the moon hanging in the window like a lantern, Miantang closed her eyes contentedly next to her husband.
Once her breathing steadied into the rhythm of sleep, Cui Xingzhou slowly opened his eyes and turned to look at the sweetly sleeping woman. Her face was as fresh and delicate as newly made soy milk, smooth and tempting…
The next day, Cui Xingzhou woke up early, and Li Mama started preparing breakfast early as well, the kitchen already fragrant with cooking.
The Prince of Huaiyang came here merely to placate the amnesiac woman, but after so many visits, it began to feel like he was using North Street as a temporary residence—a life within a life.
Although not as grand as the prince's mansion, it was far more comfortable than the military camps he was used to, with their rigid hierarchies and constant vigilance. Moreover, Li Mama was his trusted old servant, and her cooking suited his taste perfectly. Cui Xingzhou was happy to eat breakfast here before leaving.
Because they had been cooking for Mr. Chen these past few days, Li Mama had been closely watching the braised pork. The North residents had bought a lot of pork. Yesterday, Li Mama had rendered a whole slab of pork fat, making a jar of fragrant lard. The leftover crispy pork rinds were salted and brought to the table—humble food transformed into delicacy.
Such items would never appear on the master's table in the prince's mansion, where refinement was paramount. It was Cui Jiu's first time trying them, and he enjoyed them greatly. The crispy, fragrant rinds were half gone in no time, his chopsticks moving with undignified speed.
After breakfast, seeing it was time to leave, he told Miantang he would go to the government office to inquire about things, then he wouldn't return but go straight to the mountain to continue honing his chess skills with his mentor.
As his carriage turned the corner after leaving the residence, a hidden sentry quickly emerged from a courtyard and approached the carriage, whispering urgently, "Your Highness, that flower-stealing thief has been taken to the military camp's prison… Do you want us to send him to the government office for trial?"
Remembering how this thief had caused Liu Xiaoniang to curse the Prince of Huaiyin as incompetent, Cui Xingzhou felt uncomfortable, irritation prickling beneath his skin. He coldly said, "No need. Give him a beating and exile him to Lingnan. Let the scoundrel die there."
As usual, he had left early and shouldn't have encountered any neighbors. However, as the carriage reached the street corner, they saw a drunken man standing at a tightly closed door, pounding on it with desperate fury and shouting:
"You cheap slave, how dare you lock your master out! I can sell you once, I can sell you again. I'll sell you to the brothel and make you serve men every day! Wife, how dare you listen to that cheap woman's instigation and not let your husband come home!"
His wife didn't respond, but a strong voice came from inside, defiant and clear: "I'm the maid that came with my mistress as part of her dowry. You have no right to sell me! Initially, my mistress didn't mind your poverty and married you against her parents' wishes, following a childhood engagement. But you've been living off her dowry and keeping a prostitute outside! My mistress won't tolerate such filth. She's divorcing you, and you can marry whoever you want! But one thing's for sure, that shop is my mistress's dowry. You have no claim to it. Quickly move your rice and oil and get out!"
Hearing this, Cui Xingzhou in the carriage understood immediately. This must be the Zhang family that had invited the "dog spirit" to ward off evil.
It seemed that the easily swayed Mrs. Zhang had indeed taken Liu Miantang's advice and brought back her loyal maid from her maiden home. He wondered what other advice Liu Miantang had given this woman—what other chaos she'd sown.
Now it appeared that if Liu Miantang hadn't been kidnapped by bandits, she would have been enough trouble for the real merchant Cui family. Such a love for meddling in others' affairs was truly unvirtuous… Most importantly, she didn't fear bringing trouble upon herself—reckless as a blade without a sheath.
Cui Xingzhou decided that before the North Street sentries were withdrawn, he should properly instruct Liu Miantang on how to behave like a virtuous wife. This would prevent her future path from being too rough, not only failing to shed her bandit nature but also picking up vulgar habits…
His prediction proved correct.
The next day, when the North Street sentry reported on daily events, he mentioned the aftermath of the Zhang family dispute with barely concealed amusement. The couple had quarreled irreconcilably, and Mrs. Zhang had resolutely called her brothers from her maiden family to take back her shop.
Mr. Zhang left without a livelihood, was abandoned by his mistress from the brothel due to his empty pockets. Later, Mr. Zhang somehow heard that it was the newly arrived Mrs. Cui who had advised his weak-willed wife. Enraged, he went to pound on the Cui family's North residence door early the next morning, cursing incessantly.
Hearing this, Cui Xingzhou put down his brush and raised his head to ask the sentry standing by the table, "Did Liu Miantang argue back with him?"
The sentry shook his head and said, struggling to maintain composure, "No, she didn't. Business at the shop hasn't been good these past few days. Li Mama said that Miss Liu was so anxious she developed a fever and lost her voice. Even if she wanted to argue, she couldn't. She had the mute old woman climb a ladder and pour a bucket of 'night soil' directly on Mr. Zhang's head…"
The sentry, fearing to offend the prince with vulgar details, only told half the story. At the time, that man's cries and curses had become hoarse. Unable to return home, with most of his savings swindled away by the brothel girl, and with no change of clothes, he stood there wet and stinking, wailing loudly like an abandoned dog.
In the end, it was Mrs. Zhang who softened, seeing his pitiful state, and finally opened the door to let him in to change clothes.
Cui Xingzhou wasn't surprised to hear this. He had come to realize that this young lady was naturally fearless, willing to stir up any hornet's nest depending on whether she liked what she saw or not—consequence a foreign concept.
On a normal day, Cui Xingzhou would have frowned upon hearing this, disapproval sharp in his chest.
But these past few days, Cui Xingzhou had been in a very unpleasant mood. Several elderly statesmen at court had been setting traps for him, saying that since the bandit problem in Zhen Prefecture had been largely cleared, Cui Xingzhou's refusal to disband the local army showed suspicious intentions. They insisted that His Majesty should summon him to the capital for a face-to-face reprimand.
Next, these elder statesmen greatly praised the Commander-in-Chief of Qing Prefecture, Shi Yikuan, which neighbored Zhen Prefecture. They claimed he was winning people over with virtue and seemed to be on the verge of persuading the rebel Lu Wen to surrender. Once the two sides agreed on terms, Lu Wen would lead his officers to serve under Shi Yikuan.
Without lifting a finger, Shi Yikuan would claim all the credit for pacifying the bandits—theft dressed as diplomacy.
If possible, Cui Xingzhou also wanted to act like Miss Liu, disregarding all consequences and pouring several buckets of night soil on the heads of those muddle-headed court officials and the shameless Shi Yikuan, venting his inner frustration in the most visceral way.
Unfortunately, as a court official, he couldn't live as freely as a small lady from North Street…
Thinking of this, he waved his hand, dismissing the secret guard.
Who would have thought that he, the mighty Prince of Huaiyang commanding heavy troops, would not live as comfortably and freely as a small merchant lady from North Street? The irony wasn't lost on him.
Just then, someone came to report that Miss Lian, accompanied by her elder brother Lian Xuan, had come to the military camp to visit the prince.
It turned out that since the last Empress Dowager's birthday banquet, Cui Xingzhou had not returned home. As for the several letters from his future father-in-law recommending nephews for positions, there had been no response—silence as pointed as a sword.
Aunt Lian Chu'shi couldn't help but complain that her nephew, now a noble, had forgotten his family affairs and didn't care about his people.
However, Lian Silan sensed something was amiss. She felt it was more like her cousin deliberately "forgetting," intending to teach the Lian family a lesson—punishment through absence. So she stopped her mother from urging her father to inquire. Instead, she carefully prepared several delicacies and had her elder brother take her on a pretense of a spring outing to "coincidentally" visit the Prince of Huaiyang.
This way, it wouldn't seem deliberate, yet would appropriately express her care and longing for her cousin, while also allowing her to gauge the prince's attitude towards the Lian family—threading a needle through turbulent politics.
Lian Silan's elder brother, Lian Xuan, was a classmate of Cui Xingzhou. They had studied together at the capital's academy and were quite familiar with each other.
However, Lian Xuan was born with a weak constitution. Although he had been appointed as a county deputy magistrate, his illness had prevented him from taking up the post. He could only hold the title while staying at home, becoming a different kind of recluse—all ambition with no vessel to contain it.
But unlike Zhao Quan, who had transferred his emotions to landscape paintings and practiced medicine to help people, this young master of the Lian family harbored ambitions of a great eagle spreading its wings, yet was hampered by his weak body. This led to a sense of unfulfilled ambition, like "When will I have a golden bridle, to gallop swiftly through the clear autumn?"
Besides drinking his medicinal soups, his greatest pleasure was engaging in intellectual discussions with like-minded friends, commenting on past and present affairs, and expressing his views with the confidence of someone who would never have to implement them.
So when he entered the military camp and saw his former classmate Cui Xingzhou in a dark gold-embroidered military uniform, with stacks of official documents on his desk and subordinates coming and going constantly, he felt a complex mix of inferiority and resentment churning in his gut.
When the Prince of Huaiyang greeted him as both a future brother-in-law and former classmate, Young Master Lian couldn't wait to share his various insights on governing Zhen Prefecture, seemingly intent on advising the prince. This left Lian Silan unable to get a word in edgewise, frustration mounting with each passing moment.
Seeing the polite smile on the Prince of Huaiyang's face growing deeper—that dangerous smile that meant patience wearing thin—Lian Silan wished she could disregard the etiquette expected of a young lady and directly gag her brother with her handkerchief.
If it weren't for the impropriety of a woman entering a military camp alone, and the fact that her other brothers were not in Zhen Prefecture, she would never have dragged her brother Lian Xuan along.
She had wasted her breath on the way, urging her brother to drink more tea and speak less once they entered the camp. But as soon as Lian Xuan saw someone with a better official career than his own, he completely forgot his sister's words—competitiveness overriding common sense.
However, Lianxiang, the maid following Lian Silan, was quick-witted. Seeing her young mistress twisting her handkerchief tighter and tighter—a sign of mounting distress—she immediately understood.
Under the pretense of serving tea to the young master, she "accidentally" spilled half a bowl of tea on Young Master Lian's robe, causing him to frown and rebuke her. This finally halted his grand discourse on governing the world.
Lian Silan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, tension releasing from her shoulders. Taking advantage of her brother's pause, she smiled gently at her cousin and said:
"The Empress Dowager has been thinking of you these days, cousin. She's worried that the food in the military camp is monotonous and keeps mentioning that I should find time to bring you some food to vary your diet. Additionally, the tenant farmers of the prince's mansion have just sent a basket of 'June Yellow' crabs. Although not as large as autumn crabs, they are fresh and delicious in a way that autumn crabs can't match. I specially prepared some crab meat and crab roe buns for you to taste."
As she spoke, she instructed Lianxiang to take out a plate of exquisite-looking crab roe buns from the food box. The translucent skin revealed the abundance of crab roe inside—perfect, delicate, expensive.
Cui Xingzhou smiled slightly, saying "Thank you for your thoughtfulness, cousin," before picking up the jade chopsticks and putting one in his mouth.
His cousin was always meticulous and proper in everything she did—perfection as performance. Although she had only brought five buns, the plate was beautifully decorated with egg-white fried "egg crabs" around the edges, along with vegetables carved into fish and water plants. It was a feast for the eyes.
However, for a hungry martial artist, it didn't feel quite satisfying enough to eat.
He thought of the pork rinds at breakfast, the simple abundance of Li Mama's cooking, the way Miantang ate with unselfconscious pleasure. Five perfect buns on a decorated plate versus half a bowl of crispy rinds disappearing in comfortable silence.
Refinement versus satisfaction.
Propriety versus freedom.
He swallowed the elegant morsel and wondered, not for the first time, which life was real—and which was the carefully constructed lie.
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