“I couldn’t find you when I returned to the city the next year. I asked a lot of people and they all said that you disappeared after your foster mother died.
“I was really sad for a very long time. If it wasn’t for the General Pang affair, you would’ve been a noble daughter living in the lap of luxury at home. You wouldn’t have needed to have such a hard life at all.”
“You’re… you’re…” Lips trembling, Qin Yining clutched at Pang Xiao’s tunic and choked out, “You’re that Brother Beauty?”
Chapter 358: Lovey Dovey
When a little girl roughly eight years of age looked up at him with large, blinking eyes and called him ‘Brother Beauty’, his heart had just utterly melted. The girl was just too cute.
And now, an adult Pang Xiao had utterly melted as well.
This nickname of ‘Brother Beauty’ sank into his very bones. He was usually infused with inexhaustible strength, but now he didn’t even have the energy to raise his arm. A tingly, numbing feeling occupied all of his senses.
“The Pangs did you an enormous wrong that year.” Such was his statement after a lengthy pause.
Qin Yining’s mind was a jumbled mess, but her tears seemed to have their own will. They refused to listen to her and streamed down endlessly.
She was no weakling and rarely cried. But for some reason, an unexplainable sense of aggrieved suffering welled up when she heard that it’d been Pang Xiao’s father’s old troops who’d smuggled her out of the manor.
Perhaps she wouldn’t have minded if anyone else had done so, except for Pang Xiao. Did she have higher standards for him because she’d entrusted so much of her heart to him?
She didn’t hate him, just felt wronged.
After prolonged silence without a response, Pang Xiao reached out to her face when he heard faint sounds of sobbing. He panicked when his hand came back wet.
“Don’t cry, my darling, don’t cry. It’s all my fault, my fault.” Stricken, the prince came forward and gathered the girl in his arms. “I’m sorry, so sorry. If I’d known learned of everything earlier, if I’d made more time to go see you, then you wouldn’t have suffered so much.”
Qin Yining shook her head and spoke haltingly through her tears. “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t given me those ten taels of silver, I wouldn’t have been able to help my foster mother with her illness. I might’ve sold myself into slavery. You helped me a lot. I had enough money to take care of my foster mother and see to her final affairs.”
Blades scraped agonizingly across Pang Xiao’s heart when he heard that she’d almost had to sell herself for money. He tightened his grasp and swayed with her. “I would’ve deserved a thousand deaths if I’d made you fall into such circumstances.
“What you don’t know is that this has always weighed on my heart. Before I came into your life, it was my father’s people who put you through all that suffering! I felt very guilty.
“But my position in the army wasn’t stable in the early years. I didn’t have my own power or network. I had to look to others for everything I wanted to do. I’ve built up my strength only over the past two years and finally have been able to flex my muscles.”
“So you used the war against Great Yan to visit the Yan capital?” Qin Yining suddenly remembered how they’d met at the Celestial Nunnery. She sat upright. “Is Priestess Liu one of yours?”
“Not really. We’ve just long been in contact with each other. Priestess Liu is highly intelligent and crafty. I’m also good friends with Blockhead, so I would tell her a few things.”
Qin Yining wiped her eyes dry as her mind raced, connecting all the dots. Priestess Liu was uncle-master to Mu Jinghu, while Pang Xiao’s words just now could prove that the priestess was the Soothsayer.
She wasn’t surprised by the conclusion, just mildly embarrassed that she’d once paid a huge sum to the priestess to have the latter pretend to be the Soothsayer.
“I started receiving reports ever since the Qins found you. The war was at a crucial moment then and father-in-law drew a lot of attention because he occupied a lofty position. I snuck in to see you on the day you returned. They set you up in a house near the manor walls and purposefully gave you the cold shoulder by making you wait a long time. I was up on the roof watching you when you sat on the stone stool next to the bamboo forest.”
Qin Yining was really and truly shocked now. To think there were so many other details after their initial meeting in her childhood!
Some awkwardness crept into Pang Xiao’s voice at this point and he admitted rather bashfully, “I placed the hairpin I stole from you under my pillow. I take it out and look at it every day.”
Eyes widened, Qin Yining recalled the pervert who’d descended from the skies that day. He’d stolen her hairpin and caressed her cheek. That matter had continuously bothered her—to think Pang Xiao would do something like that!
She blushed bright red upon hearing that he’d put it under his pillow and looked at it everyday. So that meant she’d already caught his eye before they’d met at the nunnery. He was even pining via her hairpin!
“So, you, you… already at that time…”
“Yes, I already liked you then. Even though I didn’t really understand what liking someone meant, everything I did instinctively was proof that my heart was already yours.”
Taking her hands into his own, Pang Xiao ran his rough fingers over her silky smooth skin. He reverently dropped a kiss into her palm.
"My darling, I’m so very happy that you like me too now, and that you care for me.”
Such straightforward conversation made Qin Yining both shy and happy. She didn’t know how to react and just grinned foolishly at the vague outline of his features in the dark.
Sensing her joyous mood, Pang Xiao rained down kisses on her fingertips and the backs of her hands.
Chapter 358.2: Lovey Dovey
Being able to speak of past affairs lightened the load of guilt on Pang Xiao’s heart. He asked apprehensively, “My darling, can you forgive me?”
Qin Yining burst into chuckles. “It wasn’t your fault, why would I blame you? I highly agree with what you said. A family shouldn’t be dragged into the sins of an individual. The crimes of the last generation shouldn’t be inherited by the next. You weren’t the one who arranged for me to be smuggled away from my family. You really don’t have to give yourself a hard time over this.”
“But I just can’t rest easy.” Pang Xiao folded her into his arms and gave a long sigh.
Qin Yining breathed in his refreshing, masculine scent and felt that life was truly marvelous.
“This is probably karma. It was because of Northern Ji and Great Yan's enmity that my father came up with his plot, which is why our families formed this feud, which then led to Sir Zheng’s actions. How would you have noticed me if they hadn’t smuggled me out of the Qins? Then we wouldn't have met at Liang and nothing afterwards would've happened.”
Come to think of it, her heart would be missing a piece if the two of them were actually strangers. The possibility bred an inexplicable sense of loneliness.
Pang Xiao felt the same too. If it hadn’t been for Zheng Pei’s extreme actions, if it hadn’t been for Pang Xiao growing up by his maternal grandparents’ side and forming an extremely different value system, he wouldn't have felt guilt toward the Qin daughter. Neither would he have paid any attention to her.
If Qin Yining had grown up in the lap of luxury by Qin Huaiyuan’s side, she would just be a typical noble daughter and truly the daughter of his enemy then.
Both of them sighed with emotion and hugged the other tighter.
“My dear.”
“Hmm?”
Pang Xiao dropped a kiss on her forehead. “The moon is so beautiful tonight.”
Baffled, the girl looked around. It was pitch-black inside and the windows were shut. What moon was there to see?
Her straightforward actions had her emotions writ all over her face. The prince almost burst out laughing. Instead,
the violent heaving of his chest imparted quite a sense of resignation to Qin Yining.
The two looked at each other and grinned foolishly.
After a while of silliness, Pang Xiao whispered, “I have something to ask you.”
“What is it?” chortled Qin Yining.
“What did the Commandery Princess of Yan visit you for?”
Resignation struck Qin Yining again.
“How do you know she came? If you have people by my side reporting to you, shouldn’t you know why she came? Why are you asking me?”
Her tone was calm and an amused smile hung on her face. However, the lamps weren’t lit inside the room and Pang Xiao couldn’t see her expression. He thought she’d been angered.
“My men are keeping an eye on the commandery prince’s manor and saw his princess consort leave. As for you, I would only arrange for people to protect you. How would I ever keep you under surveillance? You’re not a criminal, so why would I restrict your freedom?”
His nervous demeanor teased Qin Yining into giggling.
Finally understanding, the prince squeezed with amusement and mock anger. “Alright, stop giggling, tell me what she came for.”
“Well, she came to puff herself up and pretend to be something she’s not.” Qin Yining summarized Li Yanyan’s visit. “This is why I say it’s tiring being a woman. She doesn’t like the situation at all, but has to pretend to be generous for the sake of a virtuous and wifely reputation. She can’t say what’s on her mind nor can she vent her feelings. She has to put on that act in front of outsiders and go home to cry by herself.”
Hearing her wax eloquent, Pang Xiao hastily reassured, “I’m not that kind of man. I won’t make things difficult for you.”
The girl glared at him. “Don’t say that so early. You’ve got ten beauties at home.”
“It’s not like I went looking for them.”
“Uh huh. They were an imperial gift—your legitimate concubines. They can carry on the family name for you.” Qin Yining’s tone was a bit urgent now as she’d realized the inappropriateness of her words.
It was very normal for men to have a wife and multiple concubines. Even someone like her father had once taken several concubines so as to father more children.
When men with power and influence made it to a certain position, their peers and subordinates would come knocking with beauties, even if the man himself wasn’t actively on the hunt. It wasn't the thing to turn down such an offering, so the man in question would have to accept with thanks.
Setting aside the gifted women, the men could take the maids who served in their study and bedroom anytime they wanted. If a maid could become a bedwarmer, her status would be slightly higher than a regular servant. When she bore children, she too would become a concubine, albeit a lower-status one. But still, that would make her a mistress in the household.
Qin Yining understood the realities of life. It was also a rite of passage for every woman to hide her sorrow when seeing her husband sleep with his concubines and bedwarmers, or go drinking with his buddies accompanied by female escorts.
But upon thinking that one day Pang Xiao would also share this tenderness with someone else, she still felt despondent and lost.
“Miss!” The door creaked open and Xianyun quickly strode in.
Qin Yining came back to herself and pushed Pang Xiao aside.
“Milord is coming this way!” whispered Xianyun. “He’s going to be at the door soon!”
Chapter 359: Counterplot (I)
“Aiya, move, move! Why aren’t you going yet?” Qin Yining shot up like a startled bunny, pushing Pang Xiao with both hands. “If father sees you in my house, I won’t be able to explain myself no matter what I say!”
The prince almost fell off the heated platform from her almighty shove. Where did she get all that strength from? He put his boots on with resignation and caressed Qin Yining’s face before leaving.
The fourth miss hurriedly scrambled back onto the heated platform and flung the thin blanket over herself. She closed her eyes after seeing Pang Xiao’s figure vanish behind the door, then sat up like she’d just woken up when she heard her father’s footsteps.
Xianyun had already relit the lamp with an embroidered covering.
“Father, what brings you here?” smiled Qin Yining.
“Jiyun said that you’d gone to bed. Why are you sleeping so early? Are you sick?” Qin Huaiyuan took a seat on the round chair that Xianyun and Jiyun brought over and accepted a cup of tea from Bingtang.
“How would I get sick so easily?” chuckled his daughter. “But the climate in the Great Zhou capital is different from ours. It really is too cold. I don’t even want to move from this platform, so huddled in the blankets and fell asleep when reading.”
“It’s not good to read at night, it strains the eyes.” Qin Huaiyuan waved a hand after taking a sip of tea.
Xianyun, Jiyun, and Bingtang dismissed themselves with curtsies.
Qin Yining sat up. “Do you have something to discuss with me, father?”
“Mm,” answered her father. “Did the commandery princess visit to try to convince you to be the commandery prince’s concubine?”
“Nothing can be kept from father, alright! That’s exactly what happened. She employed both emotional and rational arguments and spoke with great sincerity. But I think father knows my heart very well. I would never agree to it.”
“Of course I do.” Qin Huaiyuan smiled. “I’ve already said that I won’t disapprove of you and the Faithful Prince of the First Rank. I’ve only come to confirm things with you. I’ll know what to do at court if you’ve made up your mind not to have anything to do with the commandery prince.”
With her father being a principal second rank minister, he was already tapped to join the Grand Secretariat in the future. He was such an awfully important person, yet still cared about his daughter’s feelings in whatever he did. This really touched Qin Yining.
“Don’t tie your own hands and feet because of my selfishness, father. You should put yourself first.”
Qin Huaiyuan chuckled. “Silly girl, you still don’t understand. What is your father an official for? Not only for the sake of my career, but more for the sake of the family. If I have my loved ones make sacrifices for unimportant things, that would be putting the cart before the horse!”
Qin Yining’s respect for her father depended further. Her father was very sharp, yes, but there were plenty of intelligent people in the world—some even smarter than him. After all, who amongst those who’d flourished at court for so many years wasn’t a wily, crafty sort?
He was more renowned than all of them precisely because of his charisma. There existed a bottom line in his heart that he never crossed, and he was never unduly affected by various influences in a situation.
He hadn’t forgotten his own ideals when following the trash emperor of Great Yan, and he remained unruffled whether following Yuchi Yan or Li Qitian. Everything was under cool control.
Qin Yining truly admired her father from the depths of her heart. He seemed to have the ability to resolve all difficult problems in the world. Even the greatest of matters didn’t shake him. He always had a firm handle on everything and chose the correct path for the family to take.
“Father, I understand what you mean.” The girl smiled. “I hope I can be someone like you in the future.”
Qin Huaiyuan snorted with laughter. “And what’s so good about someone like me?”
“Of course there’s plenty good about father! Why else do so many respect and admire you?”
Qin Huaiyuan grinned broadly. “Oh, stop giving me highfalutin compliments like that. I hear your grandmother is angry again, this time because of the manor?”
“That’s right,” sighed his daughter. “Who would’ve thought that the Marchioness of Valiant Faith is so outrageously arrogant as to sprout that kind of threat? I wonder what she would think if she learned that I bought the residence a long time ago, and anything h
aving to do with father is just a formality?”
The man put down his teacup with a smile. “So tell me, how are you planning on resolving this issue?”
A response came after a moment’s thought. “The answer is actually very simple. Isn’t she saying that she’s going to buy our manor and make sure that others don’t sell or rent to us so that we’ll be homeless? I don’t know if other people will listen to her, but purely on the basis of us owning this residence means that there’s no way she’ll be able to buy it.
“I’ll let her do her thing and keep making a fuss for now. In fact, it’d be best if everyone and everything knew about it. The more of a racket she makes, means the more who will know about this, which means the harder she’ll fall and be jeered at when she isn’t able to buy the manor—no matter how much gold she offers.” The fourth miss smirked coldly.
Fury and humiliation rose whenever she recalled how blatantly hungry Madame Lu had looked at Pang Xiao, and how the madame had thought Qin Yining was one of her kind, the type to dally with strange males.
“Doing this will indeed slap the madame down a peg or two,” commented Qin Huaiyuan softly. “But daughter Yi, don’t forget that the Lus stand behind her. What does an aristocratic family more than hundreds of years old care about the most? They no longer want for fame or wealth. What they care most about is the family’s dignity.
“You’ll be able to make the madame a victim of her own evil deeds, and in a way that completely humiliates her in the capital. But that also means the Lus will lose an enormous amount of face. It’s not a wise choice for us to be at odds with the Lus so soon after arriving in Great Zhou.”
Her father’s words made Qin Yining sink into deep contemplation.
That was true. As ludicrously inept as Madame Lu was, she was just part of one of many family branches. Even a dog kept by such an illustrious family was more noble than any other family’s dog, much less the daughter of a side branch!
She hadn’t come in contact with anyone else from that clan yet. While the madame was a highly self-assured, conceited, self-absorbed, and wanton woman, that didn’t mean everyone from that clan was the same.
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