After the others had left, Xiao Chizhan looked coldly at Ye Luan, who was drowsy on the bed. “To avoid attending the banquet, you’ve gone to great lengths.”
Ye Luan looked at him weakly. “Whatever Your Highness wishes to think.”
“You understand medicine?”
Hearing his probing words, Ye Luan’s eyes suddenly reddened, and she looked at him stubbornly.
“Has Your Highness forgotten the disgraceful things you did yesterday? If Your Highness hadn’t snatched my quilt, how could this humble maiden have caught a cold?”
Her accusatory demeanor made Xiao Chizhan pause for a moment. Seeing tears fall from her fox-like eyes, he felt an inexplicable irritation.
“Why are you crying? If you don’t want to go, then don’t. Take back your worthless tears.”
Seeing him kick a stool in the hall to vent his anger, Ye Luan wiped away a tear and turned her head away, ignoring him.
With a bang, the door opened, and the terrifyingly cold atmosphere in the hall dissipated.
Ye Luan let out a breath, her expression immediately returning to calm. She quietly got out of bed, took out medicine from her purse, and swallowed it.
Before long, a palace maid arrived with a bowl of lotus seed porridge and dark medicine.
“Ask the kitchen to make me some spicy dishes.”
The palace maid busied herself. “Miss Ye, your constitution is weak, you cannot eat spicy food. His Highness specifically instructed the small kitchen to prepare soup for you.”
Finally, that scoundrel was gone, and she could eat according to her own taste. Ye Luan was picky and was unwilling to drink soup. She listed several heavily seasoned dishes in one go.
Eating so much in the morning?
The little palace maid silently made a few guesses.
“Hurry and go.”
“Then, Miss, drink the medicine while it’s hot.”
Ye Luan nodded with a smile, but after the palace maid left, she poured all the medicine into a potted plant.
After eating, she sent everyone away and went to the desk, taking out a piece of yellow paper and beginning to draw.
Xiao Chizhan was too cautious and never played by the rules. He would search her from time to time. She could only dare to draw this thing when she had this opportunity.
She sketched and drew for a long time, completely losing track of time.
By the time she finished, it was already past noon.
Almost everyone had gone to the Deer Terrace hunting grounds to watch the hunt. There were very few people in Xiao Chizhan’s temporary palace. She avoided the palace maids and went to the large tree where she had previously hidden, digging out her bundle.
She shook off the dirt, took out a porcelain bottle from it, hid it in her embrace, and left with the bundle.
Lan Murou had not yet come to deliver the flute to her. Ye Luan feared that something might have happened and wanted to go to the pavilion behind the palace to look for a flute or something.
However, as soon as she stepped out of the palace courtyard, she saw Lan Murou rushing towards her, holding up her skirt.
“I was dragged to the hunting grounds. I pretended to go to the privy and then hurried back. I’m sorry, I’ve delayed you.”
Ye Luan smiled lightly as she took the flute. “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing, I have to go.”
After Lan Murou left, Ye Luan walked back.
There was a viewing platform in the temporary palace. Standing on it, one could see the entire scenery of the temporary palace.
With a creak, Ye Luan quietly pushed open the palace gate and walked in. She frowned at the tiered steps extending upwards in a circle in the courtyard.
Such long stairs, it was exhausting to go up and down.
She sighed and, holding up her skirt, climbed the steps.
After walking for a full quarter of an hour, she reached the top floor of the viewing platform, pushed open the door of the outer corridor, and walked in. Looking around, it was a scene of a lone tower standing high, as if one could pluck stars.
A cool, light breeze blew gently. Looking at the large and small palaces of the temporary palace, she took out the flute and began to play.
The long and lonely sound of the flute slowly dispersed around the palace, and with the gentle breeze, it brushed past the hunting grounds.
The Crown Prince’s autumn hunt was filled with the sounds of gongs, drums, horns, swords, and spears. The melodious sound of the flute was like a cool stream of water piercing through, unhurried.
A man in blue robes with embroidered patterns heard the faint sound of the flute and froze in place.
After listening for a while, he finally moved his feet and walked towards the source of the music.
The piece ended, but no one had arrived yet.
Ye Luan frowned slightly and walked to the railing, looking at the distant hunting grounds, her hands slightly tightening.
It felt like a long time.
“Aluan.”
A steady voice laced with surprise came from behind.
Ye Luan turned around and saw the person who had arrived.
Bai Muyan, the eldest legitimate son of the Duke’s mansion, Ye Luan’s cousin, was refined and gentle in appearance, serving as an official in the court.
“Cousin.”
She smiled gently, as if the estrangement of so many years had vanished.
Bai Muyan had never expected his cousin, who had been distant from them for years, to approach him first. Thinking of her foolishness over the years, his gaze was somewhat complex.
“Aluan still remembers this secret signal.”
Ye Luan knew that she had hurt her cousin and grandmother deeply, and they were utterly disappointed in her.
But she was Ye Luan now, and she had to bear everything.
“When we were young, Grandmother taught us this. Aluan can never forget it in this life.”
Ye Luan’s mother was the only daughter of the Duke’s mansion. After her death, her grandmother mourned for a long time. From a young age, Bai Muyan knew that this cousin was his grandmother’s most treasured treasure.
However, he had never liked Ye Luan. When she was young, she was not so foolish and malicious, but as she grew up, her actions made Bai Muyan extremely disgusted.
They hadn’t been in contact for many years.
Seeing her expression and actions today, it seemed like she had changed a lot.
He had long heard that she had offended the Dingbei King, and those useless members of the Ye family had sent her to the King’s mansion, but how could she be here?
Bai Muyan was puzzled for a moment, but he did not ask. He did not want to interfere.
The Emperor was seriously ill, and the Dingbei King held absolute power, controlling almost the entire court. Moreover, he was a good friend of the Zhenxi Great General, holding military power and acting as regent over the entire empire.
Their Duke’s mansion could not afford to offend him. His grandmother was old, and he did not want this foolish cousin’s affairs to trouble her.
“Aluan, do you need something from me?”
Ye Luan could vaguely sense her cousin’s disdain, but she didn’t mind.
After all, the original owner’s actions were truly disheartening.
“Cousin, I was foolish back then, trusting villains and making many jokes in the capital. Now that my father has abandoned me, it is the punishment I deserve. I regret it.”
Bai Muyan, remembering his aunt who died young, felt a pang of sadness when his usually proud, arrogant, and ill-mannered cousin spoke like this.
He couldn’t help but ask, “Did the Dingbei King bully you?”
If she hadn’t needed his help, would this cousin of his have yielded?
“No.”
Ye Luan did not want the Duke’s mansion to know her current predicament. The Duke’s mansion was not what it used to be. Offending Xiao Chizhan and incurring a deadly threat would be her own fault.
“I have another matter to ask of you, cousin.”
Bai Muyan said, “What is it?”
Ye Luan handed him the bundle she was holding, then took out a drawing and gave it to Bai Muyan, saying, “I hope cousin can deliver this bundle to Mama Fang.”
Mama Fang was a loyal servant of her late mother. She had trusted Ye Xue and demoted Mama Fang to a manor, but Ye Luan knew that this madam was loyal to her.
“Tell Mama Fang to hide the bundle well and to go live in the separate residence in the alley east of the city. I will find time to meet her.”