Ever since the picture of peonies had been drawn on his back, Ling Zhang had been feeling that something was not quite right. Though fully dressed now, he was still as uneasy as if he were naked.
And Yuwen Tong refused to wash it off for him, saying that it would disappear spontaneously over time.
Ling Zhang was so annoyed he did not speak to Yuwen Tong for two days. At night, when in bed, he put an extra quilt between the two of them and forbade Yuwen Tong from crossing it.
Every day Yuwen Tong could only look at Ling Zhang whom he was not even allowed to hug, but he still would not be budged on the issue. Whenever he thought of the picture of peonies on Ling Zhang’s back which was dignified and of otherworldly beauty and could only be seen by him, a sensation of hotness swept over him. He wanted to make out with Ling Zhang every night, but the latter was angry with him and he should feel thankful that he had not been forced to sleep in the study. Making out every night was out of the question.
“Father, did you have a fight with Daddy?” Yuwen Yue asked Yuwen Tong after sneaking into the room.
Yuwen Tong impassively asked back, “What makes you think that?”
Yuwen Yue hesitated for a few moments before replying, “I made you some snacks and asked Daddy to deliver them to you, but he refused and forbade me to give them to you.”
When she had finished speaking, a somewhat guilty look appeared on Yuwen Yue’s face. She had come here empty-handed, carrying no snack.
Yuwen Tong gave a little cough and said, “I’ve been suffering from a toothache recently. I can’t eat sweet stuff, which was why Daddy told you not to bring me any.”
Yuwen Yue gave an “Oooh” of dawning comprehension. “Then I’ll wait a couple of days and make another batch, specially for you!”
Yuwen Tong was delighted. “I thought you were never into this kind of things. Why did you suddenly want to make snacks?”
Yuwen Yue liked kung fu and was uninterested in needlework or cooking. Yuwen Tong, who never compelled his daughter to do anything, was astonished to hear that she had made some snacks by herself.
“I learned the skill from the handmaids. That day, when I visited Grandfather, Uncle Mao told me Great-aunt liked snacks. She brings me clothes made by herself every time she comes here, and I like every one of them. I’ll make her some snacks the next time she visits us. I hope she’ll like them,” said Yuwen Yue.
Yuwen Tong was slightly surprised, but after giving it some thought, he patted Yuwen Yue’s head. “You’re doing the right thing. Great-aunt cares about you, and you, as a junior, should show her love in return.”
Yuwen Yue inclined her head and smiled, “But you’re the one I love the most, Father. Please teach me another couple of moves so that I can counter-attack fast. I need to defeat Qi!”
Yuwen Tong looked at her. “Why do you want to defeat your big brother so bad?”
Yuwen Yue said, “Because he never takes me with him when going out of the palace. Lin always follows him, and he refuses to bring me along as well.”
Yuwen Tong raised his eyebrows and affected an anger he did not feel. “Oh? That’s unacceptable. How dare they go out to play without bringing you along? Wait here. I’ll go and fix them.”
Yuwen Yue hurriedly explained, “No, no, please don’t. It’s not that they’re unwilling to play with me. Qi is just worried I might get in danger. Alas, just stay out of this, Father. I’ll teach him a lesson myself.”
Looking at her pretty, adorable face which seemed to be getting more and more like that of Ling Zhang when he had been younger, Yuwen Tong found himself unable to refuse. “Okay. I’ll teach you a couple of moves, and then you can fix them for me.”
Yuwen Tong brought Yuwen Yue to the drill ground, while Ling Zhang was still examining Yuwen Qi’s and Yuwen Lin’s schoolwork.
He never had to worry about Yuwen Lin, for even the teacher said that Yuwen Lin studied well, that he was very smart and good at drawing inferences about other cases from one instance.
Yuwen Qi was clever as well, but this guy used all his intelligence on learning kung fu. Most books in his study were about military strategy and tactics, and the remainder were about either folk tales or some non-academic subject. Not a single orthodox book could be found in there.
On this day, like always, he obviously had not put as much effort into schoolwork as Yuwen Lin had.
Ling Zhang, with a stern look on his face, dressed the boy down. ” … If you ever dare be so perfunctory about your homework again, you’ll be grounded and I’ll never allow you to leave this palace again!”
Yuwen Qi was startled. “I won’t dare, Daddy. Please don’t ground me. Uncle Mao and I are going to the hunting ground in West Mountain in a couple of days.”
Ling Zhang sneered, “You’re still thinking about going out to play?”
Yuwen Qi noticed the displeasure on his face and immediately lapsed into silence, standing there with an air of obedience, not daring utter another word.
“Read this discourse on politics carefully from first to last. I want you to state your opinions about it in my bedchamber the day after tomorrow in the morning. If you dare take it lightly again, I’ll have you copy out all these books ten times!” said Ling Zhang, pointing at the pile of books on the desk.
Yuwen Qi’s countenance changed with fear. Looking at that discourse on politics, he said through gritted teeth, “I promise I’ll work hard at it!”
Yuwen Lin was standing leisurely on the side, watching his brother being scolded. As the top student, he would never have to experience the misery Yuwen Qi was feeling at this moment. Yuwen Qi always badgered him into helping him write his essay whenever he, Yuwen Qi, did not feel like doing it. He had tried in vain to convince Yuwen Qi many times, and this time he decided to let Yuwen Qi put some serious efforts into schoolwork.
As a result, when Yuwen Qi surreptitiously winked at him asking for help, Yuwen Lin pretended not to notice.
The moment Ling Zhang left, Yuwen Qi jumped at Yuwen Lin. “You’re such a jerk, Yuwen Lin. Why did you ignore me when I winked at you just now? Are we still brothers?!”
Yuwen Lin, his clothes clutched by his brother, was being shaken so violently he was dizzy. “S–Stop it! Don’t be so rude, okay? I told you you needed to take the essay seriously, that Daddy’s a bit moody these days, that he sure as hell would be mad at you if you only made a perfunctory effort, but you wouldn’t listen, and now you’re blaming me for it?! Besides, how was I supposed to offer you any help when Daddy had his eye on you?”
Yuwen Qi released his grip, sat himself onto the chair and said dejectedly, “The very sight of the discourse on politics gives me headaches. I wanted to write a presentable essay as well, but the headaches wouldn’t disappear no matter how hard I willed them to. It was all our teacher’s fault. He shouldn’t have given me this homework. No, it was Father’s fault. He shouldn’t have pissed Daddy off. Why is he so insensi– (muffled grunt).”
Yuwen Lin, having clapped a hand to his brother’s mouth, hissed, “Shut up, you moron. If these words reach Father’s ears, you’ll be a dead man! Don’t get me in trouble, idiot!”
Yuwen Qi was almost suffocated. When Yuwen Lin slackened his grip, he gasped, “W–Were you trying to kill me?”
“I should have suffocated you, you fool.”
“Hey, who are you calling a fool? I’m your big brother, and you’re supposed to show me some respect.”
Yuwen Lin ignored his verbal threat. He was worried, because the secret bodyguards would no doubt report to his father what Yuwen Qi had just said. In the past few days Daddy had been mad at Father, despite the fact that Father had been trying to please Daddy all along. What if Father took it out on them? Yuwen Qi was a dope and deserved to be punished, but he did not want to be dragged into it.
Yuwen Qi, seeing the vexation written all over his face, leaned over and breathed, “Hey, why are you looking so fretful? Those secret bodyguards wouldn’t bother to report such a trivial matter to Father. You have nothing to worry about.”
Yuwen Lin rolled his eyes upwards. “Normally they wouldn’t, but just now Daddy was here! Daddy has been mad at Father and hasn’t spoken to him for days. You know what Father is like. He couldn’t even bear to be separated from Daddy for one day. I’m sure he’ll ask his secret bodyguards in detail what Daddy did today. If Father asks any questions about us when the bodyguards report to him, we’ll be dead men, you dummy.”
It was after hearing his brother’s words that Yuwen Qi realized the severity of the matter, but he still muttered, “It was indeed insensible of Father to piss Daddy off. Why should we take the blame for it?”
Yuwen Lin gave him a dirty look. “Drop it already!”
Yuwen Qi sighed, “What should we do? They’ve heard me already.”
Yuwen Lin, his chin rested on his hands, pondered for a while before he said, “How about we figure out a way to have Daddy forgive Father? If we do that, maybe Father will let us off the hook.”
Yuwen Qi, however, found the task difficult to fulfill. “How are we supposed to do that when we don’t even know the reason why Daddy’s mad at Father? Besides, no matter how angry Father is, we could always have Crescent talk to him and placate him – it works every time.”
Yuwen Lin sighed again, feeling that his big brother, who was merely his senior by a couple of months, was literally incurable.
“Crescent has snitched on you to Father, because you refused to take her out of the palace to play. She might’ve snitched on me for good measure. Right now she’s only too anxious to see Father punish us, and you’re expecting her to help us? She’d only kick us while we’re down.”
Yuwen Qi was astonished. “You’ve got to be kidding me. She really did that?”
Yuwen Lin said slowly, “A few moments ago, I had a eunuch deliver something to her, but she was not in. The eunuch said that she went to the imperial study.”
Yuwen Qi, ” … ”
This was unbelievable. How could she do that? He had just refused to take her out of the palace. Why had she tattled on him to their father?
Yuwen Qi was almost driven up the wall.
“Then what should we do? I don’t want to copy out the books and be punished by Father at the same time. I’ll be dead it that happens!”
Yuwen Lin also became fretful, but what he was vexed with was how to find out the reason why Ling Zhang was angry with Yuwen Tong, so that he could suit his methods to the situation.
…
Ling Zhang, having examined his sons’ homework, went to check on his daughter only to find that she was not in.
“Where’s my daughter?”
“Her Highness went to the imperial study, Your Highness.”
Ling Zhang furrowed his brows. She went to visit that jerk Yuwen Tong?
Ling Zhang, not at all inclined to see Yuwen Tong, did not go to the imperial study and planned to get some fresh air in the imperial garden. However, halfway through the trip, he heard from a eunuch that Yuwen Tong was teaching Yuwen Yue kung fu on the drill ground.
Ling Zhang was instantly speechless. Yuwen Tong was still in the mood for teaching their daughter kung fu?
Not bad. It would seem that Yuwen Tong had not realized his mistake at all.
His temper beginning to fray, Ling Zhang dropped the idea of going to the garden, spun around and stormed towards the front gates. “I’m going out of the palace!”
Wang Dashan and the others naturally followed in his wake without a second thought, but before setting off, Wang Dashan sneakily gesticulated in the direction of a spot a certain distance away behind him.
…
On the drill ground, Yuwen Tong, having taught his daughter a couple of new moves, prepared to go to the place where the princes studied to see Ling Zhang.
They were just about to set off when Yao Yi rushed over and said, “This is bad, Sire. His Highness went out of the palace, and he looked pretty mad when leaving!”
Yuwen Tong was confused. “Who was it that ruffled his feathers this time?”
Yao Yi did not have a clue either. “Just now His Highness was going to the imperial garden for some fresh air, but halfway there he was informed you were teaching Her Highness kung fu and suddenly got angry and then directly left the palace.”
Yuwen Yue gasped and looked at her father with unease. “Father, do you think Daddy’s mad because I’ve been practicing kung fu? D–Didn’t he consent to it that day?”
Yuwen Tong thought about it for a while before he replied, “You have nothing to do with it, Crescent. Go back. I’m going to find Daddy.”
“Oh,” said Yuwen Yue. This time she did not dare ask Yuwen Tong to take her out of the palace with him, because she could also sense that on this occasion Ling Zhang seemed to be really mad.
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