Chapter 29: Harmony

“Li Rong, you can scold people, but you can’t be this scary.”

Pei Wenxuan’s gentleness at that moment stunned Li Rong. Seeing her dumbfounded, Pei Wenxuan couldn’t help but laugh: “What’s the matter with you?”

Li Rong stared intently at his face for a moment, then lifted her head and patted his shoulder, deeply moved as she said: “My foresight isn’t too bad after all.”

Pei Wenxuan was at quite a loss, but Li Rong had already taken up her fan and returned to her cell by herself.

Her room had been swept clean. Jing Lan and Jing Mei asked if she needed anything else, and with nothing else left to do, they promptly withdrew.

The two of them were in their respective cells, reading books and records of Go games that had been played, quarreling over a few things in their free time as the days idly passed by.

In the evening, Su Rongqing brought a food box, which he gave Li Rong alongside a few novels, then he gave an account of what happened in the recent days in the imperial court, going over everything at once.

Li Rong listened to his report as she bowed her head and looked through the novels that Su Rongqing had brought her. Once Su Rongqing had finished speaking, she didn’t bother to ask more about imperial court affairs and only said: “These novels you brought me seem very interesting. I should be able to finish reading them in a few days. You can find something similar for me next time.”

Su Rongqing stared blankly for a moment, but then he reacted and said somewhat hesitantly, “Is there anything else Your Highness wants me to bring?”

“No, nothing,” Li Rong said. After thinking about it, she also said, “You don’t need to come here so often in the future. It won’t be good for you if His Majesty finds out.

Su Rongqing fell silent when he heard this. A moment later, he forced a smile and softly said: “Your Highness is right.”

Li Rong nodded and said nothing more. Su Rongqing stood at the door of the cell for a moment before saying: “If there is nothing else, then this humble official will retire first.”

Li Rong responded in a rather plain manner with just a hum of acknowledgment. After Su Rongqing respectfully saluted, he withdrew.

Once he left, Pei Wenxuan, who had been leaning against the wall, opened his eyes. He tonelessly said: “Not keeping him here to say a few more words?”

“What more is there to say?” Li Rong turned through the pages of the novel without looking up, “He’s not someone that can be held back anyway.”

“Li Rong,” Pei Wenxuan leaned back on the wall as he sat on the praying mat, knees bent as he put one hand on his knee and the other on his leg. He slowly asked, “Do you really not want to resume your previous fate with Su Rongqing?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Why?” Pei Wenxuan was a bit curious, “Do you still mind the fact that he killed you?”

Li Rong’s movements froze. She didn’t know how to respond for a while. Her feelings towards Su Rongqing were far more complicated compared to those towards Pei Wenxuan.

There was too much love and hatred between them and too many disputes as well. There was only like or dislike to speak of between her and Pei Wenxuan. However, between her and Su Rongqing, it lies somewhere between love and hate. She and Su Rongqing guarded against each other yet accompanied one another, giving each other their sincerity yet brimming with suspicion for one another.

It wasn’t that her heart had never been moved. There was even a point in which she impulsively wanted to reconcile her marriage with Pei Wenxuan, but Su Rongqing made it clear to her that he did not want her to do this kind of thing.

In her previous life, she was like a kitten carefully exploring the world. Every time she reached out her hand, she was met with burning flames. Su Rongqing’s flame was gentle and beautiful, but to her, perhaps it was best to only look at the beautiful fireworks from afar than to touch them.

She didn’t say anything, and Pei Wenxuan was also silent. He didn’t know why, but from the moment he realized that Li Rong’s views were different from his own, he wanted to learn more about her. He truly wanted to know what kind of person Li Rong ultimately became in the past 25 years without him.

Talking about it made him uncomfortable, but he couldn’t help but ask.

After a while, Pei Wenxuan said: “If you can’t make sense of it, why not talk about it with me? I will help you thoroughly analyze it.”

Li Rong had to laugh when she heard this: “You are a muddled fool yourself on the subject of feelings, and you still want to help me analyze?”

“I may not know what Mount Lu truly looks like, but that is only because I am the person on the mountain.”[1] Pei Wenxuan felt that Li Rong was mistaken and objected at once, saying, “I may not understand myself, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that I don’t understand you.”

[1] The true face of Mount Lu is unknown, only when standing on the mountain itself (literal) — you cannot see the true Mount Lu and all of its peaks and ridges when you are on the mountain.

Beyond the Idiom

Li Rong laughed and felt that Pei Wenxuan was like a doctor who could not cure himself, and when others questioned him about his medicinal practice, he would stomp his feet in anger.

She also didn’t want to tell him much, but with nothing else to do in prison, she began to leisurely chat.

Pei Wenxuan asked, and she answered, going into detail about her life in the company of another person during the twenty five years of his absence.

Looking back, 25 years was a very long time. From nightfall to midnight, Pei Wenxuan listened as she spoke. Pei Wenxuan would also occasionally tell her about his own affairs, and Li Rong felt it was something new and odd as she listened.

As the rain drizzled during the night, Pei Wenxuan was saying that because he never had an heir at all, he received endless speculation of all sorts from members of the clan, and they wanted him to adopt a child at all costs. Li Rong listened attentively but started to feel sleepy. Pei Wenxuan suddenly asked, “Have you put on a blanket yet?”

Li Rong absentmindedly reacted and addressed it, lazily getting up and picking up a blanket off to the side. She covered herself with the blanket, then said: “It’s covered. You can keep talking.”

“Do your legs hurt?” Pei Wenxuan suddenly asked again. Li Rong realized that he remembered how her legs would hurt on rainy days and smiled, “I’m still young. This bit of rain here won’t make it hurt.”

“You were also young back then,” Pei Wenxuan said softly, “But it was still prone to hurting in autumn.”

Li Rong fell silent. She remembered that her legs would hurt on autumn nights. She didn’t tell Pei Wenxuan at first. When Pei Wenxuan saw that she still couldn’t fall asleep late into the night, his expression didn’t look too good. He went around asking and learned that she was punished to kneel for an extended period of time when she was young but never fully recovered because the root cause went untreated.

As a result, he learned massage therapy. On a certain night when it rained, when she tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep, Pei Wenxuan got up and covered her with a blanket. Then, he pressed on the acupuncture points on her legs, one by one, and gently asked her: “Rongrong, are you still hurting?”

That was indeed the first time she slept peacefully on a rainy autumn night. At that time, she thought to herself that this marriage was actually much better than she had expected.

She recalled how she and Pei Wenxuan were in those days and didn’t know if it was too long ago in the distant past that even with the unhappy ending later on, she still felt a little warm inside thinking about it.

After Pei Wenxuan brought this up, he proceeded to ask: “Did your legs still hurt later on too?”

“It still hurt.” Li Rong softly sighed.

Pei Wenxuan looked straight ahead and listened to the sound of drizzling rain: “Did Su Rongqing look after you?”

“He did,” Li Rong said in a mild manner, “It’s just that when people get old, their bodies will always get a bit worse.”

“He was good to you nevertheless.”

“He was very good, but there were too many rifts in between.”

The two fell silent. They momentarily forgot the original intentions for initiating this conversation. Li Rong was a bit sleepy, so she grabbed the blanket, got up and said, “Go to sleep.”

Then she went over to the bed and wrapped herself in the blanket. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

The two of them didn’t have anything to do after Li Chuan left, other than just waiting for the most part.

Every day, Jing Lan would come to clean Li Rong’s cell and conveniently report any news on the outside to Li Rong. Li Rong asked Jing Lan to send word to the Empress, asking the Empress to cooperate and make trouble with the Emperor, demanding the Emperor recall Li Chuan from the expedition, regardless of the fact that she was still in prison.

Only when the Empress demonstrated her unwillingness to let Li Chuan go to the border station would the Emperor believe that Li Chuan’s trip to the frontier was in his interests and not Li Chuan’s.

Moreover, to Li Ming, the Empress’s lack of concern for her was also a sign that the Empress and Li Rong, both mother and daughter, were not getting along.

Even if it wasn’t truly the case, it could also become an excuse for Li Ming to sow discord between Li Rong and the Empress one day.

The two of them stayed in their cells day after day waiting for news. If they weren’t quarreling or chatting, perhaps they would find a game to pass time.

Pei Wenxuan had read many books, skimming through just about each and every kind of book and even knew quite a bit about how to maintain one’s youthful appearance among other miscellaneous things. Moreover, in addition to the usual political struggles, he had gathered quite a bit of gossip in the previous life. The two of them had nothing to do in prison, so when this came up in a casual conversation, they discovered that this was actually a fairly good topic of discussion.

Apart from idly chatting, the two of them also placed a table with a game of Go outside the cell and stretched out their hands to play since they were separated by a wall. They sometimes played rock-paper-scissors or tried guessing riddles. When they were bored to extremes, they would switch between playing a game of who could quickly reach out and slap the other person’s hand before they took it back.

Li Rong didn’t like how Pei Wenxuan obviously had more strength, so Pei Wenxuan took on the role of withdrawing his hand while she had an offensive role. However, Pei Wenxuan was clever, and she couldn’t get a single hit after dozens of tries. Time after time, Li Rong’s hand landed on the ground, and it hurt indeed.

Su Rongqing occasionally came to see Li Rong. Every time he came, he would bring novels for her and give an account on the state of affairs on the outside in such a polite and respectful manner that one could not find fault in him at all.

Pei Wenxuan initially felt a dull pain in the pit of stomach when he saw Su Rongqing, but he thought that he should learn to face Su Rongqing, learn to accept the unpleasant fact of reality, and be a bit more open-minded. With constant self-hypnosis, to say the least, he could somewhat control his emotions and refrain from opening his mouth to ridicule the other party when they met.

It had been a month and a half. It was nearing the end of the flowering season in spring when they first arrived in prison. In the blink of an eye, summer had arrived, and the lotus was in full bloom.

At this time, there was good news from the front line. Li Chuan not only managed to hold the front line but also recaptured three cities. Li Chuan had detained the Yang family for colluding with foreign enemies, and shortly after, those individuals had been escorted all the Huajing along with the evidence.

It was noon when Li Rong received the news. Su Rongqing received the news in the morning court and rushed over at once to inform Li Rong of the matter. Li Rong did not reveal much of an expression. She tapped her folding fan against the palm of her hand and calmly said: “Su daren is rather considerate, but Bengong was already aware of this. There is no need to mention Bengong still bears the sin of a crime, so as far as the affairs of the outside world go, Bengong cannot do anything about them in the meantime.”

Su Rongqing’s expression slightly changed when he heard this, but after a moment, he bowed his head and respectfully said: “It is good that Your Highness is aware of this. This humble official only came to report this.”

Li Rong gave a monosyllabic response. Su Rongqing saw that Li Rong was still indifferent as usual, so he withdrew.

Once he left, Pei Wenxuan laughed: “Su daren is greeted by this hard as a nail attitude of yours all day. I feel a bit sorry for Su daren just looking at him.”

“You should still leave some pity for yourself too.” Li Rong provocatively prodded as she thought about what was to come next.

Pei Wenxuan shrugged, not taking it to heart. In any case, he was used to these provocative statements, so one more was hardly anything worth mentioning.

After some time, Li Rong stood up. Now that Li Chuan had sent the members of the Yang family this way, it was time for her to act.

She went over to the desk at last and began to think about how to write this memorial to the throne.

The time had come for the Yang family’s case. She needed to petition to be released from prison in order to continue with the trial of Yang Quan’s case. However, if she wrote the memorial at this time, she was afraid that Li Ming would suspect her intentions and think that she and Li Chuan had colluded with one another.

She thought about it and finally realized that she might still have to ask Pei Wenxuan for this matter.

She hesitated for a moment, then ran over to the corner and called out to Pei Wenxuan: “Pei Wenxuan, hurry up and do me a favor.”

Pei Wenxuan had been leaning against the wall for a while waiting for her. Hearing that she finally came, he tapped the folding fan against his shoulder and leisurely said: “Your Highness must be joking. This humble official is a pitiful person, how can this one help Your Highness?”

“Don’t be so long-winded,” Li Rong hastily said when she saw him take advantage of the situation to take his revenge, “This is official business, don’t mess around with me.”

“Didn’t Your Highness just say that this humble official was pitiful? But to want to use this humble official again at this moment? This humble official cannot understand Your Highness’s intentions at all.”

Li Rong understood that if she refused to bow her head, Pei Wenxuan would put on pretenses with her all night.

She glanced over to the side and saw Pei Wenxuan’s clothes sticking out from the wooden bars. She knew that he was leaning against the wall and waiting for her. After thinking about it, she reached out her hand and caught the hem of Pei Wenxuan’s clothes.

Pei Wenxuan suspiciously looked down and soon heard a sweet, charming voice call out from the next door over: “Pei gege～～”[2]

[2] Gege (Big Brother) — a more informal address for an older brother or older brother figure. There tends to be an affectionate connotation if the speakers are of the opposite sex, and they are not related, ie. childhood sweethearts.

Pei Wenxuan trembled all over, frightened to the point where he dropped his fan on the ground.

Li Rong laughed the moment she heard the fan fall to the ground. Pei Wenxuan was rather helpless.

“Li Rong, you can scold people, but you can’t be this scary.”

“Stop with the nonsense, are you writing or not?”

Pei Wenxuan heard Li Rong’s temper rising and brought his hand up to hold his forehead as he sighed: “Forget it, forget it. This gongzi is magnanimous and will not argue with women. Since you have called me “gege,” I will help you at once.”

As he spoke, Pei Wenxuan raised his voice and deliberately stressed every syllable: “My dear Rongrong meimei.”[3]

[3] Meimei — form of address for a younger sister. Though contextually speaking, there is an affectionate connotation, hence the play on words comes full circle.

Scene Take 2 – Strictly English Version

The author has something to say:

【Mini Theater】

Question: “Li Rong, how do you think Pei Wenxuan broke into your heart and became your best friend?”

Li Rong: “Using his unique talents in introducing products.”

(Chat Scene)

Pei Wenxuan: “I’ve read that applying pearl powder to the face will make your skin more fair.”

Li Rong: “Really? I’ll try it.”

Pei Wenxuan: “But I think you’re already quite fair. You don’t need pearl powder.”

Li Rong: “Then what do I need?”

Pei Wenxuan: “Why don’t you come over and let me get a better look?”

(Stroking her face, pinching her face, staring intently at her face)

Pei Wenxuan: “Your skin is a little dry, let’s make some cucumber slices for you to use sometime. Oh, I’ll write up a recipe for you, and this bath will rejuvenate your skin and make your skin fragrant…”

……

Question: “Then how did both of you deepen your friendship?”

Li Rong: “Ah, just…chasing after love together.”

Question: “???? Chasing after love?”

Li Rong: “Indeed, he understands me very well, often helping me analyze any confusing emotions I have and helping me strategize on how to chase men.”

Question: “…then what? Did you catch any?”

Li Rong: “Then we ended up together.”