Chapter 70

Wang Ji, listening nearby, couldn’t help the corner of her mouth twitching at Luo Qionghua’s words.

She said she was angry at who?

Had she met too many people of outrageous audacity today?

She pretended not to hear, first stepping forward with earnest concern to support Fu Ping’an, lowering her voice: “Were you bitten, Your Majesty? Not injured, were you?”

Fu Ping’an shook her head: “Didn’t bite me, only bit my clothes.”

Wang Ji examined carefully, and seeing it was indeed the case, let out a breath of relief, then couldn’t help wanting to scold Ah Hua. Just as she was about to speak, she suddenly held back, thinking: Her Majesty hasn’t spoken, what business is it of mine to say anything?

She turned her head, secretly watching Her Majesty, and saw there was no particular expression on Her Majesty’s face, but it seemed she wasn’t angry.

Fu Ping’an truly wasn’t angry. She even found it a bit amusing, thinking: She’s actually angry at Zhen.

Who was the last person who was angry at her? The Empress Dowager?

But she was actually, genuinely, a little nervous, and tried to recall what she had just said.

She had said—A noble title, a fief, an official post, do you not want them?

Was that bad? What was there to be angry about?

Fu Ping’an raised a hand, signaling Chen Yan to release Luo Qionghua, and asked: “Why are you angry?”

Luo Qionghua glanced at Wang Ji, then at Chen Yan. With others present, she felt embarrassed to say, so she snorted huffily: “Just angry anyway.”

Fu Ping’an thought for a moment, and guessed: “Do you feel insulted?” Like those recluses in books who disdained fame and fortune.

Luo Qionghua paused, frowned in thought: “Well, it’s not that serious either.”

Fu Ping’an then told Wang Ji and Chen Yan to withdraw to a slight distance, and added: “If you don’t say, I might make you angry again in the future.”

Luo Qionghua furrowed her brows in thought, but for the moment couldn’t articulate it: “It’s just a little bit angry, okay.”

【Sleepless Days: So dumb, all of you. What you said, clearly just means you don’t trust her, of course she’s angry.】

【Lone Star Wanderer: Yeah, I take back what I said earlier. I feel someone playing the long game to catch a big fish wouldn’t go so far as to bite the emperor.】

【Wubo: She didn’t even bite flesh!】

【Schrödinger Wants to Eat: Maybe Ping’an was wearing too many layers?】

【Chang’an Flower: hahahahaha】

Fu Ping’an suddenly understood: “You felt I don’t trust you.”

Luo Qionghua’s eyes lit up: “Ah, right, right, right.”

Her round eyes looked at Fu Ping’an, and her gaze turned worshipful again: “You can even explain my own feelings better than I can. Ping’an really is so amazing.”

Fu Ping’an couldn’t help showing a smile: “Are you still angry then?”

Luo Qionghua wasn’t actually angry anymore, but she still pretended to put on a stern face: “O-Of course.”

Fu Ping’an then said: “Mm, then… sorry.”

The words fell out, carrying a strange rhythm unfamiliar to her.

Luo Qionghua quickly said: “Alright, I forgive you.”

Fu Ping’an: “…” That forgiveness was pretty quick too.

The two sat down again. Luo Qionghua turned her head to look at Fu Ping’an’s shoulder: “I didn’t bite you, right?”

Fu Ping’an made an “Mm” sound and asked again: “Did you deliberately not bite?”

Luo Qionghua hemmed and hawed, not saying. Actually, just as she was about to bite down, she glimpsed Fu Ping’an’s snow-white skin, and suddenly felt a surge of reluctance, so she only bit the clothes.

Now coming back to her senses, she felt that her action just now was very impulsive and silly, so she was too embarrassed to continue discussing it, and changed the subject: “Actually, if you just don’t know who I am, then even if you want to reward me, there’s no way to do it, right?”

Fu Ping’an thought about it; that reasoning was indeed true. But in reality, with just a few more encounters, even without investigating, one could probably guess.

Just as she was about to say this, Luo Qionghua said: “Then let’s do this: I won’t know who you are, and you’re not allowed to investigate my identity. We’ll just be two solitary individuals!”

Fu Ping’an said: “Solitary individuals isn’t used that way.”

Luo Qionghua: “It’s not? Then how is it used?”

Chen Yan and Wang Ji were not far away. Looking up and seeing Fu Ping’an and Luo Qionghua huddled close together again, all affectionate and warm, Chen Yan smiled and said: “See, you don’t need to be so serious. Her Majesty is still a child too.”

Wang Ji forced a smile, but didn’t speak.

Anyway, she regretted coming along on this outing.

…

Huo Pingsheng walked for a stretch. Only when the burning sensation on her face subsided did she come back to her senses and realize she had run away.

Not only had she run, her face was also covered in tears. She just hadn’t noticed earlier, overwhelmed by grief and indignation.

She hurriedly found a small stream and wiped her face. Seeing a group of people nearby reciting poetry and composing verses with each other, she watched for a while, found it boring, and the others didn’t give her a single direct glance either. So she left. After walking another stretch, she came upon another group hunting. This time finding it a bit more interesting, she went over to strike up a conversation: “What have you all hunted?”

This group consisted of about a dozen people, five or six of aristocratic bearing, the rest attendants in short fighting tunics. Not a single person paid her any attention.

Annoyed, she held in a surge of anger. Seeing them carefully and cautiously pursuing a pheasant, she picked up a stone from the ground, and at the right moment, threw it.

Their arrow only grazed the pheasant’s wing, but her stone struck the pheasant squarely on the head.

Huo Pingsheng looked smug, walking over: “Seems like I still have better aim.”

As soon as she finished speaking, an attendant beside her aggressively stepped forward, saying: “Where did this wild person come from, daring to steal our master’s prey.”

“W-Wild person?” Huo Pingsheng was so angry she momentarily forgot how to retort. She had specifically worn new clothes today; there was no way she could be mistaken for a wild person.

Recalling her earlier encounters, she was furious. Just as she was determined to have a good quarrel with them, Huo Zhengmao’s voice came from behind: “Hold on, hold on. May I ask whose noble sons you gentlemen are? I am Huo Zhengmao, General of the Right in the Northern Camp of the Rebellion Suppression Army. This is my younger sister.”

At this, the young lords, who earlier seemed blind and hadn’t given Huo Pingsheng a direct glance, suddenly became lively, stepping forward to bow: “So it’s a hero from the Rebellion Suppression Army. I have long heard that all officers and soldiers in the Suppression Army are heroic and extraordinary. Seeing you today, it’s indeed true, living up to the Duke of Ying’s renown.”

“This humble one is an Imperial Guard under the Jingzhao Governor’s Office. Ah, I am no match for the General’s youthful prowess.”

Huo Pingsheng stood to the side, watching the two exchange pleasantries back and forth, until her head spun a little. It was only when that group left, and Huo Zhengmao grabbed Huo Pingsheng’s hand, saying: “Pingsheng, in the past, it was your brother who wronged you, squandering the family fortune, causing you to never experience a single day of good fortune. But I also don’t want you to live the kind of life at West Market for a lifetime.”

Huo Pingsheng muttered: “I never thought there was anything bad about it.”

Huo Zhengmao smiled wryly: “Really? The commoners in West Market might not even be equal to the attendants beside them. You don’t think there’s anything bad?”

Huo Pingsheng lowered her eyes and was silent.

She wasn’t stupid. Life now, at least materially, was better than before. She could still feel that.

It was just that she truly wasn’t used to it.

Before, she was the most formidable among all the children, the cleverest in the mouths of neighbors on the street. But overnight, the world seemed to change its face. Now, she couldn’t compare to anyone.

Huo Zhengmao seemed to understand too, reaching out to pull Huo Pingsheng into an embrace: “Pingsheng, when I was young, I didn’t understand either—even when I was just over twenty, I still didn’t get it. But now I understand. If a person doesn’t move up, they slide down. And if they’re sliding down, then that freedom is just false freedom.”

Huo Pingsheng muttered: “I know, Granny Zhang said, learning is like rowing against the current; not advancing means retreating.”

Huo Zhengmao laughed: “Something like that.”

Huo Pingsheng glared at Huo Zhengmao: “Then you still shouldn’t have hit me. That… so many people were there.”

Huo Zhengmao’s expression turned solemn: “That’s the other thing I need to talk to you about. You thought Her Majesty was amiable and approachable, so you acted lawlessly. But you must know, that was Her Majesty. As long as you wish to enter officialdom, you must never forget this at any moment.”

Huo Pingsheng half-understood, turning away: “Alright, alright, I get it.”

She turned around and headed back. This time, staring straight ahead, she decided not to interact with anyone else she might encounter on this mountain.

By the time she returned to the original spot, it was past noon. The sun slanted, slowly shifting to the other direction, and the tree shadows correspondingly changed direction.

Huo Pingsheng saw that Zhang Qixing and Shen Zhuojun had already repositioned everything as well. The two sat side by side in the shade of a tree, one old, one young, resting with closed eyes.

As soon as Huo Pingsheng arrived, Shen Zhuojun opened her eyes, her face showing a smile, beckoning to her.

Huo Pingsheng walked over slowly, feeling thoroughly exhausted in body and mind. She sat down on the ground leaning against the tree, her mind repeatedly replaying what her elder brother had just said. After a long while, remembering that Shen Zhuojun seemed to have spent quite a long time with Her Majesty, she turned her head and asked: “Zhuojun, what kind of person do you think Her Majesty is?”

Shen Zhuojun paused, her face showing thoughtfulness.

After a very long time, when Huo Pingsheng had almost forgotten what she asked, she heard Shen Zhuojun say softly: “…I’m a little afraid of Her Majesty.”

She actually couldn’t quite remember anymore when exactly it started, this realization that she had begun to fear Her Majesty.

Perhaps it was the day she discovered that the Empress Dowager could suddenly never again leave Qianqiu Palace. Or perhaps it was the moment her mother tightly gripped her hand, telling her she must, by any means, find a way to stay in the palace.

She still remembered her mother that day, eyes red, jaw clenched tight, saying: “You go beg Her Majesty. You go beg Her Majesty. Her Majesty is still young, her heart will surely soften. She is still young, after all.”

Thinking back, perhaps her father’s choice had already shown its clues at that time. It was just that Shen Zhuojun understood nothing then.

In truth, for a very long time, she understood nothing. After leaving the palace, Zhang Qixing taught her to read. When she saw that Duke Xian of Wei, in order to return to Wei, said to the Ning clan, “Governance shall be by the Ning clan, the sacrifices by the Widowed One,” Shen Zhuojun suddenly had a breakthrough. Everything in the palace from the past took on a different meaning in her eyes. It was through this that she realized the easy, carefree times she thought of as youth were, in the eyes of Her Majesty and Commandery Princess Yunping, surely a completely different picture.

And what she thought was the dark beginning of everything—the Empress Dowager being confined to Qianqiu Palace—was actually the moment Her Majesty finally grasped power.

She started to think, and gradually realized the difference between herself and Her Majesty. Her fate had never been in her own hands. When she was young, the Empress Dowager wished her to enter the palace; later, her mother wished her to remain. But Her Majesty slowly took control of her own fate.

What about her then, could she control her own fate?

At this point, she became a little lost again. She only knew that in her eyes, Her Majesty could no longer possibly be that Sister Majesty from before who fanned her. Her Majesty was Her Majesty. The things Her Majesty thought about were surely vastly different from her own.

She smiled wryly, touching the jasmine flower on her head.

Earlier, when Zhang Qixing took the flowers Ah Hua had given to Her Majesty, she had even laughed and said, “So you were the one who plucked Her Majesty’s flowers.” At that time, Shen Zhuojun’s heart trembled, thinking: I really wish I could plant them back.

Huo Pingsheng clearly wouldn’t understand Shen Zhuojun’s feeling. She said in surprise: “I thought Her Majesty was very easy to talk to.”

Shen Zhuojun unconsciously weighed her words, keeping some reservation: “Naturally, Her Majesty is quite easy to talk to.”

Zhang Qixing suddenly coughed and said: “The sky is getting dark. I think they’ll all be back soon.”

Indeed, not long after, Fu Ping’an and Luo Qionghua’s group returned. By this time, those not planning to spend the night on the mountain were also starting to pack up and leave. Chen Yan advised Fu Ping’an to leave as early as possible. Fu Ping’an accepted this suggestion. Picking up the bouquet Luo Qionghua had given her, she descended the mountain ahead of the others.

After returning to the palace that day, everyone was exhausted and went to sleep early. The next day, still in a drowsy sleep, Fu Ping’an was shaken awake by Qin He. She thought she had overslept, but glancing outside, saw it was still pitch black.

“What time is it? Is it time to prepare for morning court?” Fu Ping’an mumbled groggily.

Qin He said quietly: “No, it’s Censor Tian who came early, saying he has a matter to seek an audience about.”

Fu Ping’an woke up instantly.

If it were nothing, Tian Fen wouldn’t have come so early.

She quickly ordered someone to help her dress, then received Tian Fen in a side chamber. Entering the room, Tian Fen rose to bow. But then, without waiting for Fu Ping’an to tell him to rise, he immediately spoke: “Your Majesty, you left the palace, didn’t you? With a light carriage and simple entourage, taking only a few people?”