Chapter 26 - 2#
Whether he’s caught or not, he should always have some money on him.
As long as Yanzhi is still alive, it’s fine.
The ministers exchanged glances and answered in unison: “Yes!”
“Go then.” Xiao Cuan waved his hand, dismissing them.
“We withdraw, Your Majesty.”
Xiao Cuan looked up and glanced at Yanzhi’s favorability panel again.
At some point, Yanzhi had likely fallen asleep; the panel had stopped moving and stayed there quietly.
His favorability for that Boss Wei hadn’t broken thirty after all, finally stopping at twenty-nine.
Looking at it, Xiao Cuan couldn’t help but give a light scoff.
He had thought some god had descended from the heavens to be so liked by Yanzhi, but it turns out he was only so-so.
Thinking back to when he and Yanzhi first met in the purification room, Yanzhi had only taken one look at him and his initial favorability had risen to eighty!
Later, unable to bear Yanzhi’s constant crying, he had casually exchanged a cream puff and tossed it to him, and Yanzhi’s favorability toward him rose directly to ninety-nine!
This Boss Wei had only reached twenty-nine.
Compared to him, he was still a far cry off!
He was simply not worth worrying about!
Yanzhi just liked making friends and had made a bunch of friends on the road.
Toward these people, Yanzhi only felt the favorability of a chance encounter between friends.
Yanzhi wouldn’t like anyone else.
The ministers withdrew, and the hall doors opened wide.
The north wind howled in, blowing out the only two candles in the hall.
In moments, the night poured in from outside, enveloping the Taiji Hall in pitch darkness.
Xiao Cuan sat on the high seat, his entire being almost submerged in the night.
He pressed hard on a corner of the imperial desk, fiercely restraining the thoughts churning in his heart.
With a soft crack, he directly snapped off a corner of the desk.
Yanzhi wouldn’t like anyone else.
*
Yanzhi warmed himself by the fire in the cabin for a while, listening to Boss Wei tell several stories.
Later, seeing it was truly late, he held Tanggao and returned to the cargo cabin.
No candles were lit in the cargo cabin; Yanzhi didn’t dare light any for fear of setting the boat on fire, so he just moved about in the dark.
He first locked the cabin door with the key, then used a clean cloth dampened with fresh water to briefly wipe his face and hands. Finally, he took off his outer garment and crawled into the bedding he had set up.
The bedding wasn’t very thick, so he laid his outer garment on top and held Tanggao; that made it about right.
Tanggao had thick fur and felt warm to the touch; Yanzhi loved holding it.
In the darkness, the boat rocked on the river like a cradle.
Through the boat’s walls, the sound of flowing water could be heard.
This was Yanzhi’s first time on a boat; he always felt excited in his heart, yet his head felt dizzy.
Truly unable to sleep, Yanzhi stroked Tanggao’s fur and spoke to it in a very soft voice.
“You’re not allowed to pee in the covers, okay? Tell me if you need to pee.”
“Ao-wu—”
“Good boy.” Yanzhi stroked its head as a reward. “But why do you always say ‘ao-wu ao-wu’? You’re a little dog; you should say ‘wang wang wang’.”
“Ao-wu—”
“Wang—follow me—”
“Ao…”
“Wang wang wang—”
Yanzhi taught it for a while, but he really couldn’t teach it, so he just let it be.
“It’s lucky I brought you along; if I were on the road alone, I’d surely be frozen. Even if you can’t learn to ‘wang wang,’ you’re still the best little dog.”
Tanggao gave a couple of “wu wu” sounds, its head nudging into his chest.
Yanzhi stroked its head and, holding it, rolled over to face his mother’s tablet.
He slept right next to her tablet, just like when he was little, nestling beside her.
Even if Tanggao didn’t understand and his mother couldn’t hear, he still wanted to talk to them.
Yanzhi opened his mouth and said softly: “Mother, tell me, when will we arrive? Can we spend the New Year in the south?”
“As soon as we get to the south, I’ll take you to find a house—buy a small house, the kind with a courtyard.”
“Then Tanggao and Peanut Cake will live in the yard to guard the house, and you and I will live in the house.”
“I have quite a bit of money on me, but we can’t just sit and eat away our fortune; we must find something to do.”
“What do you think of buying a stone mill? Grinding beans, making tofu, making soy milk? Peanut Cake can pull the mill, and when Tanggao grows up a bit, maybe he can too.”
“Or, I want to go to a pastry shop and be an apprentice, learn a craft. That way, whatever snack I want to eat, I can make it myself.”
“I just don’t know if the pastry shop will have cream puffs…”
At the mention of “cream puffs,” Yanzhi’s words suddenly paused.
Well, only that man had cream puffs.
Now that he’d left the palace, he could never eat them again.
But it didn’t matter; he didn’t regret it.
They were just cream puffs.
The crust was just a bit crispy; peanut cake was also crispy.
The cream was just a bit sweet; bean paste cakes were also very sweet.
As long as time passed, he would eventually forget the taste of cream puffs.
Mere cream puffs couldn’t stop his steps toward the south.
As for the person who gave him the cream puffs—
Yanzhi had been busy traveling and escaping these past few days and hadn’t had much free time.
Now, in the dead of night, he was alone in the cargo cabin.
That tightly closed gate in his heart suddenly opened, and many things flooded into his heart along with the cream puffs.
The grand wedding ceremony should be over by now, right?
His Majesty should have married his favorite Empress by now, right?
He didn’t know if His Majesty really had appointed five Empresses.
Yanzhi understood His Majesty; he liked no one and cared for no one.
His Majesty only valued a person’s talent and martial arts, and their use to the court and harem.
Although His Majesty had sent people to find him now, His Majesty always called him stupid, so he wouldn’t keep searching for him forever.
He’d search for two or three days at most and then give up.
His Majesty wouldn’t waste imperial guards on such a matter.
Yanzhi withdrew his hand from the sleeping Tanggao and clutched his chest.
It seemed… his little heart was beating a bit slower.
Thinking of His Majesty again, he was no longer nervous or anxious, and his heart didn’t race.
He no longer wondered if His Majesty liked him—that was a question already answered.
Nor did he feel sad and have a strong reaction because His Majesty didn’t like him.
He seemed to be able to view His Majesty from an incredibly cool perspective.
He seemed to be… slowly kicking His Majesty out of his heart.
It felt good.
Yanzhi set Tanggao down, crawled out of the covers, and put on his clothes.
The river water was shallow in winter, and the boat’s draft wasn’t deep.
Through the cracks in the boat’s wall, the scene outside could be seen.
Remaining snow covered the riverbanks, and the river flowed silently.
The bright moonlight illuminated the earth without missing a spot; all living beings were equal.
Yanzhi knelt by the boat’s wall, palms together and eyes closed, sincerely making a wish—
“I hope I can bring Mother, Tanggao, and Peanut Cake safely to the south.”
“I hope the days ahead are peaceful and smooth, full of joy and free of worries.”
“I hope His Majesty…”
Yanzhi opened his eyes, thought for a moment, then finally made up his mind and said seriously—
“I hope His Majesty catches a cold and falls seriously ill!”
“I hope His Majesty gets sores on his palms and bumps on his soles that he can’t even scratch!”
“I hope His Majesty is… is bitten by a dog! Twice! Several times! Wang wang wang—”
He was no good person! He was a bad Yanzhi!
He didn’t want to hypocritically wish His Majesty to be peaceful and smooth like him.
His Majesty had been smooth for over ten years; he wanted His Majesty to be uncomfortable, to be sick, to experience the same pain he had!
“Hmph!”
Yanzhi finally gave a light snort, slid back into the covers, and embraced Tanggao, preparing to sleep.
This time, he didn’t stay awake.
Lying in the gently rocking cradle far from danger, he slept very soundly.
*
Three days passed just like that.
During the day, Yanzhi would take Peanut Cake and Tanggao for a stroll on the deck, chat with Boss Wei, and joke with the crew members.
Sometimes when Boss Wei cursed on the boat, Yanzhi would follow suit.
The youngest crew member was only sixteen; he was afraid of the dark at night and, hearing strange sounds outside, didn’t dare stand watch alone.
Boss Wei would roar: “Didn’t you say just a few days ago there were no water ghosts? What are you afraid of now? Where the hell are there water ghosts? Get lost!”
Yanzhi would follow behind, observing seriously and mimicking obediently, shouting toward a corner: “Get lost… get—”
He wasn’t old yet, so…
Yanzhi changed his words: “Get lost… get out of here…”
Boss Wei turned around and saw the clean-looking young master following him in using foul language; his soul almost flew away as he hurriedly stopped him.
After dinner in the evening, everyone would warm themselves by the fire for a bit before returning to their cabins to sleep.
Yanzhi had originally only liked listening to them talk, but as he listened, he began to speak more himself.
Once, he inadvertently talked about a storybook he had read.
Several crew members found it interesting and crowded around to hear him tell stories.
Yanzhi realized and only said he didn’t tell them well and didn’t want to say more.
The crew members wouldn’t let him, pulling him back and even saying he told stories better than Boss Wei.
Boss Wei didn’t object, just watched them play with his arms crossed.
Finally, Yanzhi had no choice but to pick a few stories he had read before and tell them.
Looking at the entranced faces of the crew members, Yanzhi thought he should have read more storybooks.
After several days together, Yanzhi’s relationship with them grew better and better, and he liked them more and more.
So—
Yanzhi’s favorability for all of them had gone over sixty!
In the Taiji Hall.
Xiao Cuan sat on the high platform like a stone statue, arms folded.
On what basis? How much time had passed?
How could it be like this?
Xiao Cuan wished he could reach his hand into the panel and push down all of Yanzhi’s favorability bars for them.
Just then, several ministers arrived in a hurry to report.
“Replying to Your Majesty, we have searched every estate around the capital and destroyed three mountain bandit strongholds, but have failed to find any trace of Young Master Yanzhi…”
How could that be?
Xiao Cuan had been staring at Yanzhi’s favorability panel these past few days.
No new people had appeared on the panel, meaning Yanzhi had been hiding in one place without moving.
The favorability for these few people on the panel had been rising, meaning Yanzhi had been spending time with them.
If Yanzhi wasn’t moving, how could he not be found?
Suddenly, as if remembering something, Xiao Cuan snapped his head up—
“The boat! On a boat!”