Chapter 26: Shen Qingjue Has Come to Collect Your Debt!

Early the next morning, before the sky was fully light, Liu Yun had already rousted Shen Yuezhuang out of bed.

“Tomorrow is the Late Emperor’s death anniversary. The Precious Flower Temple has prepared a special prayer ceremony for it, from the seventeenth to the twenty-fourth, lasting seven days.”

“Today is the final day of preparation. I still need to return to the temple to familiarize myself with the proceedings…” Liu Yun spoke while pulling up Shen Yuezhuang, who could barely sit, her eyes half-closed, constantly collapsing back onto the bed. “You promised me before we left that we would go back as soon as the city gates opened today. Are you still sleeping?”

Shen Yuezhuang didn’t hear a word Liu Yun said. She mumbled a few vague replies, and when she couldn’t lie back down, she simply used the arm blocking her as a brace and leaned against Liu Yun’s shoulder.

She really hadn’t slept well last night. Maybe the bed was too hard. She was sore all over. Right now, she was pretending not to hear anything Liu Yun said. She absolutely refused to move!

Liu Yun had anticipated this.

On the basin stand by the bed was a half-basin of cold water that had been prepared last night for this exact situation! But looking at Shen Yuezhuang leaning on her shoulder, a smile involuntarily came to Liu Yun’s lips. Her mind was full of Shen Yuezhuang from last night, insisting on picking a bucketful of flower petals for her bath.

Liu Yun sat there for a long time, unmoving, in the pale light of dawn. She let Shen Yuezhuang, in that position, draw closer and closer to her, snuggling deeper into her arms.

A sleeping person is relaxed. The arm that was draped around Liu Yun’s shoulder lost its strength. Shen Yuezhuang’s body slid down a little, landing squarely in the crook of Liu Yun’s arm.

The movement almost perfectly mirrored the image in Liu Yun’s mind of the Seventeenth Princess holding Shen Yuezhuang.

The dawning light, like ink and smoke, cast a pale, bluish-white hue on Shen Yuezhuang’s face. But her body was soft and warm, radiating heat against Liu Yun’s arm.

Liu Yun sat silently, a smile on her lips, a look of resignation on her face. Her tone, however, was unusually gentle. “When you wake up, you can sleep on the carriage. Hmm?”

Shen Yuezhuang’s brow twitched—a sign of displeasure at being disturbed. She pouted and burrowed her face deeper into Liu Yun’s arm.

Liu Yun’s eyes only grew more crescent-shaped and soft.

Shen Yuezhuang had an overly exuberant spirit. Aside from when she was lethargic in class or quiet and soft while asleep, she mostly had the excitement and curiosity of a child seeing the world for the first time.

A child’s view is always fresh and naive. But when they get rowdy, it’s hard to handle.

Shen Yuezhuang embodied this love-hate duality, so Liu Yun’s moods often swung wildly with her. The sight of her quiet, sleeping form was all the more difficult to disturb.

Liu Yun looked down at her for a long time, her heart filled with a soft, abundant warmth. She sighed, expertly patting Shen Yuezhuang’s back. Her lashes trembled as she leaned in closer.

“Shen Qingjue has come to collect your debt!”

Shen Yuezhuang: “!!!!!”

~~~

Just after the fourth watch, roosters crowed one after another.

Water sellers were already traveling through the long alleys, provoking a series of distant and near dog barks.

The carriage to take them back to the temple was already hitched. But Liu Yun was still giving instructions to her Secret Guard. No one went near the carriage. Even the old butler was only holding on to Shen Yuezhuang.

He was earnestly making use of the remaining time, teaching her how to be indispensable and second to none in her mistress’s eyes.

People of this old age had a lot of life wisdom. Shen Yuezhuang couldn’t help nodding along. When Liu Yun finished her instructions and came to take her away, the old butler clasped her hands, his eyes filled with unshed tears, and escorted them to the mouth of the alley in speechless silence.

Inside the carriage, Shen Yuezhuang hugged her two colleagues, leaning against the carriage wall with a sigh.

Liu Yun glanced at her sideways, scoffing. “Trouble for Lord Shen to personally escort the convicts to the Precious Flower Temple?”

“No!” Shen Yuezhuang poked one of them hard. “First, we send them to the Precious Flower Temple. Then, later, I’ll have A Sang send them to the pawnshop!”

Pawnshop!

Liu Yun let out another scoff, but a thought stuck in her mind. “You had A Sang buy you all that junk the other day… the peanuts, sunflower seeds, spring water, the fruits, pastries, story scripts, and those sachets.”

Watching Shen Yuezhuang bristle, Liu Yun smoothly changed her wording. “Where did you get the money for that?”

She couldn’t believe someone who had to buy wish plaques on credit had any spare cash lying around!

Now, hearing Shen Yuezhuang speak so familiarly about a pawnshop, Liu Yun’s brows twitched. She became serious. “You didn’t secretly pawn a Buddha statue from the temple, did you?!”

Shen Yuezhuang just looked enlightened. Oh, she could have done that!

Seeing the dawning comprehension on Shen Yuezhuang’s face, Liu Yun breathed a sigh of relief, but also gritted her teeth in frustration.

Why did she have to put the idea in her head?!

She quickly warned her. “I’m telling you, the Precious Flower Temple is a state temple. Everything inside is inventoried and registered!”

“Oh, I know!” Shen Yuezhuang gave a light “hmph.” “I only pawned a piece of clothing!”

“Clothing?”

Liu Yun’s expression changed, seeming even more surprised than if Shen Yuezhuang had pawned a Buddha statue. “The one you wore on the first day? The goose-yellow one?”

“Yeah.” Shen Yuezhuang saw her expression didn’t look right. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing.” It was hard to tell if Liu Yun was laughing or not.

The carriage was slowing down.

They were approaching the city gate. At the gate, people were pushing carts laden with fresh fruits and vegetables into the city. The carts were packed tightly, and the carriages waiting to leave the city were also lining up in a long queue.

Amidst the not-too-harsh clamor, Liu Yun leaned back against the carriage and closed her eyes. Her tone wasn’t particularly warm. Out of the blue, she said, “Just make sure you haven’t lost anything important.”

Shen Yuezhuang couldn’t read her fluctuating moods. Seeing that Liu Yun was ignoring her, she sat to one side, hugging her two colleagues and calculating how much money they could fetch at the pawnshop.

It took a while to get out of the city. Shen Yuezhuang felt an indefinable discomfort. She fidgeted and nudged her knee against Liu Yun’s.

“Hey, I think people the butler’s age have a lot of wisdom to share!”

Liu Yun only opened one eye a crack.

Are you having another of your episodes?

“I know I’m not a palace maid!” Shen Yuezhuang leaned in. “But I’m going to be a female official in the future, right? If I want to stand firm in the court, I need to be unique and indispensable in my superior’s eyes. I can’t be replaced!”

“No need.” Liu Yun coolly pushed her away. “You might not even pass the preliminary exam.”

“…”

Ah. There was that, wasn’t there. As she was about to think it through, Liu Yun continued.

“The butler is not yet seventy. He’s over a dozen years younger than your maternal grandfather. When Grand Preceptor Huo was seventy, you gave him a lecture. The next day, you cut off his beard to use as a goat hair brush, forcing Grand Preceptor Huo to stay home for nearly half a month.”

“…”

Shen Yuezhuang reached up and covered Liu Yun’s mouth. But her lips still moved, the sound coming out muffled. “I suppose people of that age don’t just have wisdom in their minds, their beards must be full of it too, right?”

The palm of Shen Yuezhuang’s hand was tickled by Liu Yun’s breath and moving lips. She looked a little fierce as she half-knelt beside Liu Yun, looking down at her.

“I was young then! And you’re the one who told me goat hair could also be used to make brushes!”

Liu Yun nodded. “I didn’t say a goat’s beard counted as goat hair.”

Shen Yuezhuang couldn’t find a retort. She kicked one of her colleagues off the bed in fury. Liu Yun grabbed her wrist, pulled her hand away, and offered a completely insincere consolation.

“Don’t feel too bad. Grand Preceptor Huo only lost his beard. But you lost a full ten days of freedom!”

Shen Yuezhuang’s angry expression faltered. “I don’t remember that?”

“Ah!” Liu Yun feigned surprise. “You didn’t lose anything?”

Her gaze dropped slightly, resting on Shen Yuezhuang’s waist for a moment. “Then I must have remembered wrong.”

Shen Yuezhuang: “…”

She was annoyed by Liu Yun’s sarcasm. Seeing that Liu Yun disagreed with the butler’s advice, she was determined to prove the butler was right!

She suddenly remembered what Liu Yun had said the day before, about “understanding when she gets married.” She raised an eyebrow and declared confidently, “Even if I can’t be a female official, when I get married, I will definitely be the unique and irreplaceable one in my husband’s eyes!”

Hearing this, Liu Yun’s pupils contracted sharply for a moment. She instantly tightened her fingers. The missed heartbeat thudded heavily half a beat later, causing a dull pain in her chest.

She licked her lips, her mind a complete blank. She didn’t retort.

Her slightly turned-away profile was a little pale. Her sharply defined jawline made her look even more fragile and lonely.

Shen Yuezhuang assumed she had won the argument. With a smug sense of satisfaction, she said, “My father said our family should find a son-in-law who enters the bride’s family. And if I just have a child with him, I won’t have to worry about anything from then on. My father will take care of everything!”

“But I don’t want to have any children. My mother died giving birth to me. I’m scared.” Shen Yuezhuang paused thoughtfully. “I think, when I get married, I’ll first arrange for him to have seventeen or eighteen concubines, then pick my favorite child and raise them myself!”

A look of helpless, pained resignation crossed Liu Yun’s face.

She was stung by these words, caught off guard. Finally, she let out an almost inaudible sigh and scoffed. “You know nothing!”

Shen Yuezhuang, repeatedly accused of knowing nothing, grew more defiant. “What do I not know?”

Liu Yun looked back at her. “What do you know about being a husband and wife, or a mother and child?”

She paused for a long time. Her clenched knuckles were white. Finally, she asked, “Do you know what you do after you get married?”

Those things that a girl was secretly taught by her mother on the night before her wedding. The so-called Great Principle of Yin and Yang. The thought of it made Liu Yun’s heart ache with jealousy and pain.

She would rather Shen Yuezhuang never know. But Shen Yuezhuang’s words, “My mother died giving birth to me,” reminded Liu Yun that Shen Yuezhuang had no mother to teach her.

And Liu Yun had always felt a sense of responsibility towards Shen Yuezhuang, a position she had earned for herself in the Shen Mansion: half a mentor, half a friend, with a duty to teach.

In that moment, Liu Yun forgot about Old Madam Huo. She forgot about Shen Yuezhuang’s stepmother. She forgot about Shen Yuezhuang’s aunt by marriage.

As if she, more than all of Shen Yuezhuang’s blood relatives, was the one who should do this.

As if if she didn’t do this, Shen Yuezhuang’s wedding night, which hadn’t even a shadow of a chance of happening, would be ruined.

Shen Yuezhuang didn’t know what Liu Yun was thinking. But she had a general idea of what Liu Yun meant by “what you do after you get married.”

What was there not to know? She hadn’t read all those story scripts for nothing! She hadn’t visited the Ten Thousand Flowers Pavilion for nothing!

Shen Yuezhuang raised her hand and pressed it against Liu Yun’s chest. Then she lowered her head, quickly kissed Liu Yun on the lips, and licked them.

She pulled back, and looked up.

Shen Yuezhuang met Liu Yun’s gaze with a look of defiance.

It was just a small thing, wasn’t it!

But Shen Yuezhuang’s heart felt inexplicably fast. Seeing the shocked, blank look on Liu Yun’s face, she quickly dismissed the feeling.

It was probably just from the sudden movement!

Pushing aside her doubts, Shen Yuezhuang licked her lips under Liu Yun’s gaze, a hint of reminiscence and curiosity in her voice. “It’s a little sweet!”

She squeezed the spot on Liu Yun where her hand still rested. “Which brand of lip balm is this?”