Chapter 44: Wisdom in Hold, Elegance in Mold

“Three years,” the older medical practitioner said respectfully.

Chu Yu raised her brow as he walked out after putting down the records.

The timing matched perfectly.

Whatever that was covered up then might have been intentional or not. However, it was something that was worth exploring, but she could not be too obvious or panicked over it because she was now Princess Shanyin.

Chu Yu had asked the people to pass the errands to Huan Yuan temporarily. Naturally, she did not announce that she would get him to replace Rong Zhi right away. Whether it came to human relationships, trustworthiness, or even experience, Huan Yuan should not be as familiar as Rong Zhi was.

If she passed the power to Huan Yuan directly, Rong Zhi aside, an uproar or even a backlash might break out among the people.

Getting Huan Yuan to replace Rong Zhi was just an excuse which could only be a temporary plan in reality.

She had gotten Huan Yuan to meet Rong Zhi to bring back the stamp. She also wanted him to learn about accounting and approving documents from Rong Zhi. Since Rong Zhi was a senior and had rich experience and guidance, it would double the productivity. If she were to let Huan Yuan figure it out himself, he might take many unnecessary turns to get there.

Huan Yuan might return most of the power to Rong Zhi as soon as he got better. While he could share some of the power, he could not share that many errands with Rong Zhi.

Chu Yu wanted to do it step by step. There was no rush in this and she had the patience to do that.

After returning to her residence, Chu Yu got people to bring the personnel records to her. She wanted all of the records from four years ago till the present day. The reason why she did that was to confuse the objective so that people would not be able to see what she was up to directly. However, after closing the door, Chu Yu skimmed the records between three to four years ago.

Although she was surprised, she somewhat expected this. Chu Yu noticed that there was a major change in personnel in the Princess’s Imperial Residence three years ago. To put it another way, the people in the inner court now were completely different from those three years ago. Therefore, the replacements did not have much explanation about the records.

Something must had happened during that period of time to cause such a major change.

However, Chu Yu’s current concern was whether she should really explore this. If the result that she put so much effort into finding out was different from what she expected and the distraction caused her to have false judgment, would that not do more harm than good?

On the other hand, Chu Yu would not be able to suppress her curiosity to just let it go. This might be related to what she was thinking about.

After telling someone to bring the records away, she took a slow stroll around the Princess’s Imperial Residence. She hoped the flowing breeze could blow away the mystery that she was thinking about in her head. However, a person came to her as soon as she walked out of the East Court. Chu Yu could not help but smile while feeling helpless.

It was Liu Se.

Chu Yu was only left with six Princess Shanyin’s male companions: the unfathomable Rong Zhi, Huan Yuan who had a unique identity, the sickly Hua Cuo, the young Liu Sang, and Liu Se and Mo Xiang who were there just for presentation purposes. The Princess’s Imperial Residence could afford to keep them around.

Among the six, apart from the naive Liu Sang, the duo was the more assuring ones to Chu Yu. However, their reason of staying was ridiculous to her. Although Mo Xiang usually would not do much, he had scared her by lying on her bed naked the other day. Compared to Mo Xiang’s shocking behavior, Liu Se’s tricks were persistent.

Although he was prohibited from entering the East Court without permission, Liu Se would appear before Chu Yu whenever she walked out of the East Court as if it was a coincidence. The encounter was ridiculously accidental whereby he would come up with a myriad of odd reasoning and excuses.

For example, four days ago, he was looking around in confusion when Chu Yu saw him. He ran to her delightedly when he noticed her and claimed that he had lost his way. They were less than 20 meters away from the main path of the Princess’s Imperial Residence when they met. It was ridiculous for him to come up with such an excuse.

Three days ago, when Liu Se was walking past her, he twisted his foot and fell to the ground. He then looked at Chu Yu with tears in his eyes. She was tempted to tell him that he had a different level of acting compared to the Prince Consort. It was like comparing a small-time star and an Oscar winner. However, she did not say anything in the end and got the guard who was nearby to send Liu Se back.

He did something even funnier two days ago. Chu Yu saw him doing something as he squatted on the ground. Out of curiosity, she walked over to him and saw tears in his eyes while his face was ashen. He held a little shovel in his hand as he was…burying a flower.

He was over 1,000 years more advanced than Lin Meimei [1] was.

Liu Se’s tricks were always feeble whereby one would be able to see through him directly. Despite feeling helpless, Chu Yu thought it was fun to watch as he had different tricks that were never repetitive every day. Sometimes, she was even excited to see what he had coming.

However, he seemed to be a little peculiar today. Liu Se walked to her directly. He did not twist his foot on purpose, or look around and bury a flower. He looked morose as soon as he arrived before Chu Yu. “Princess, you’re always either with Rong Zhi or Huan Yuan lately. Is there anything that I’m not doing enough of, so you’re sick of me?”

Chu Yu gazed at the young man before her. Liu Se was only 18 or 19 years old. He was born in a poor family and had limited education. Besides that, he was not exactly strong while his only outstanding characteristic was the beauty that he was born with. Relying on his future as a male companion was a helpless choice. It was his only hope of succeeding in life without having to suffer in poverty.

Compared to Rong Zhi, Liu Se’s mind was as clear as a piece of transparent glass.

After making up her mind, Chu Yu looked at Liu Se with a smile as she spoke, “Do you know why I’ve been ignoring you lately?

No matter what tricks Liu Se played these days, Chu Yu had been cold to him and ignored him. Now that she showed concern which was beyond his expectations, he could not help but be stunned. “I don’t know.”

With a light smile, Chu Yu read out the script that she had made up and proofread in her mind, “You’ve got extraordinary beauty, but compared to Huan Yuan and Rong Zhi, you lag far behind. You must know that beauty’s just your outer layer and it will fade away one day. The talent you contain is the most important thing. One who is filled with knowledge always behaves in elegance. Huan Yuan is like that.”

Liu Se thought about it while looking troubled. Then, he left without saying anything.

Yue Jiefei asked curiously, “Did he leave just like that?” To be honest, he did not get what Chu Yu said earlier.

She said while smiling, “Perhaps he left to cultivate his elegance.” She would not have to worry about him disturbing her for some time.

Just as she was just done handling Liu Se, the silhouette that was walking on another path made Chu Yu’s heart that had slightly lightened sink at that moment. The person was clearly coming for her, so there was no need for her to hide. She welcomed him after prepared herself mentally. “Ninja…Prince Consort.”

That was close.

He Ji said politely as he got closer, “Princess, His Majesty told me at the meeting today that it’s been a long time since he saw you. He’s hoping that you’ll see him.”

His Majesty was the current emperor, who was Princess Shanyin’s brother, Liu Ziye.

Translator’s Note:

[1] Lin Meimei – Lin Meimei is the alias of Lin Daiyu, the main character of China’s classic novel “Dream of the Red Chamber”. Her name is mentioned here because she buried flowers in that story.