Chapter 44: Unrequited Love

  In the early morning, birds chirped and flowers bloomed. Min An woke up from his sleep to find that the iron door was open, and he was sleeping in a study with a soft rug underneath him and a thick quilt covering him outside. The treatment of the whole person had become unusual. He scratched his head for half a day, but only came up with one relatively reasonable explanation for why the young master did this.

  So, the young master really doesn't care about gender and has decided to take him in as a disciple?

  Min An broke out in a cold sweat. According to Hua Cui's hint, he was going to marry a clever man, give birth to a child, and then move next door to Xiao Bao'er, how could he get involved with his master in an unclear relationship? In the past when he was a gatekeeper, his master had kept a close eye on him, fearing that officials would follow the usual practice of taking him as a concubine, ruining his reputation for advancement. Now that he had moved to the Hanguan to live, his master was not by his side, and he had to rely on himself to deal with this situation.

  Min An felt that, under the current circumstances where he was so afraid of the young master, it would be no easy task to clearly express his heartfelt words to him. He stood in the study with some anxiety, while the maids who had been waiting for him to finish washing up exchanged glances and chose an older girl to come forward and ask what was wrong. "What's wrong, Young Master?"

  Min Anhong's face turned red as she asked: "If one wants to... decline the young master's kindness without offending him, is there a suitable way?"

  That girl, Lian Ye, had indeed served Li Pei Nan for many years and knew his temperament. However, Min An's questioning was too vague, leaving her puzzled. She looked at Min An with a confused expression, and he hesitated before speaking: "Anyway, the young master is not easy to get along with... even if I catered to his tastes, it's unlikely he'd be pleased... for example, because of that white crane, I was punished many times... so I wanted to ask sister, is there any way to make the young master agree to my request without being punished?"

  Lotus Leaf understood roughly, pursed her lips and smiled: "Young Master can do one thing, in exchange for a promise from the young master. Because the young master has always been true to his word, there was an example of Elder Xiao before."

  Lotus leaf told Min'an about the story of Xiao Zhiqing, the prefect of Changping Prefecture. The gist was that Xiao Zhiqing had handled the case handed over by Li Peinan well and received praise, and then further requested that as long as Li Peinan stayed in Changping Prefecture, he must allow her to accompany him and ask for his teachings on literature, martial arts, and other knowledge.

  Li Peinan subsequently fulfilled this promise.

  Here is the translation:

  Great examples were set before him, and Ming An's eyes lit up at the sound. He began a day of preparation with Lian Ye's proposal. First, he drew several small portrait sketches, placing them one by one in front of Yu Mi, instructing him earnestly: "This is Young Master Shi, your brother's master. When you see him, be well-behaved and don't ask for snacks." He held up the sketch of Fei Yi and compared it to Li Pei Nan's, saying: "Little rascal, do you still remember Fei Yi? That's right, when you see him, he always hides, just like this Fei Yi..." Seeing Yu Mi cover his eyes in fear, he laughed again, "Young Master Shi is Fei Yi's older brother and was born with a cold aura. When you see them, don't be rude, and try to coax them well."

  So repeatedly, repeatedly instructing, led to the corn a burst of squeaking, making a powerful protest. Min An's voice gradually grew louder and louder, spreading outside the doors and windows. "You must remember to coax well, understand?"

  Corn suddenly raised both hands on the chair, jumping left and right. Min An turned his head to look back, seeing Li Peinan standing at the door of the bamboo house, with a warm color in his eyebrows and eyes under the autumn sun. He obviously heard Min An's earnest reminder, and his usual cold face also became much more gentle.

  Min Anying stepped forward and saluted: "Young Master, is there any instruction?" Yu Mi also ran over and made a bow.

  Li Peinan said, "There are two things that need to be personally explained to you. First, do not go out or receive guests. Second, strengthen your horsemanship and physical training." He finished speaking and left, without intending to step into the bamboo house at all. Min An didn't know that it was a humble dwelling that couldn't keep people, and he hurriedly went out to persuade him: "Sir, may I have a word with you?"

  Li Peinan stopped in his tracks: "Speak."

  Min An bowed his head and said: "There are many prying eyes outside, please follow me into the house."

  Li Peinan turned around and entered the bamboo house at Min'an's invitation. Yu Mi received a hint from Min'an's eyes, and hurriedly carried a small wooden tray towards Li Peinan, on which a bowl of cool tea was steadily placed.

  Min An bowed his head and stood aside, Li Peinan picked up the teacup under his expectant gaze and took a sip. The faint scent of osmanthus wafted over, and his heart also felt more open, and he couldn't help but say a warm sentence: "No one is courteous without reason, there must be something you want, speak."

  Min An hesitated for a moment and said: "If the young master wants to have some fun, I can entertain you for a while. Just don't take that rumor outside seriously."

  Li Peinan asked with a smile: "Rabbit?"

  "Exactly, exactly."

  Li Peinan's voice turned cold: "Is your reputation tarnished?"

  "Right, right." Min An replied and immediately felt inappropriate, hurriedly waving his hand, "I didn't mean that, I originally wanted to say, young master is a hot-blooded man, in the future he will necessarily marry a wife and have children, if he gets too close to me, it's afraid that it will tarnish young master's reputation, and add trouble to the crown prince's consort's heart——"

  "My family affairs have nothing to do with you."

  Min An listened to the cold voice, silently standing by, thinking that under the current situation where he was subtly angering Young Master Shi, it wasn't easy to speak his mind clearly. At this time, Li Peinan glanced at Min An's tightly pursed lips and asked, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

  Min An thought for a moment, then decided to take a roundabout approach and said: "Young Master had promised me earlier that if I won the Lu Jiao Conference, you would grant me one thing. Is this promise still valid?"

  "Arithmetic."

  "Can I ask for anything?"

  "Within reason."

  Min An nodded and said, "That's natural." In her heart, she thought that proposing to the young master of the Zhu family was a reasonable thing to do. If she married with sincerity and served her husband well, the rumors about Tuzi would naturally dissipate.

  Min An lowered his head and stood to the left front of Li Peinan, with a respectful expression, but without a smile on his face. However, this somehow displeased Li Peinan. He got up and walked past Min An, coldly throwing out a sentence: "Since you're so eager to cut ties, I'll grant your wish."

  Li Peinan said this, naturally knowing Min An's intention. Besides that, he also had one thing on his mind. This morning, after finishing sword practice, he walked back to the study and found that Min An was nowhere to be seen. After calling over Lian Ye and asking him as usual, Lian Ye, in order to curry favor, recounted Min An's words to him.

  Li Peinan did not fully guess Min An's intention at that time, so he had to go to the bamboo house in person to convey the message. As a result, it was clear that he thoroughly understood Min An's meaning.

  He is a low-ranking subordinate, yet he has an eye on fame and wants to draw a clear line with his superior, saying that he can indulge him, but not allow the slightest overstepping of boundaries.

  Li Peinan couldn't help but laugh inwardly. Does he really think of him as a treasure? He immediately turned and left, avoiding further conversation with him.

  Min An had never quite grasped Li Peinan's ideas and would inevitably suffer some consequences later on.

  In the afternoon, Min An completed two hours of horse riding training under Lie Qun's guidance. His clothes were drenched in sweat and his face was covered with sand, but he couldn't help laughing at the corn jumping on the horse's back. After achieving some results, Min An dragged his tired body back to the bamboo house, washed up, changed into a clean short-sleeved shirt and shorts, and sat by the window to cool off. At this time, a servant in a narrow robe came to invite him to play polo.

  Min An declined, and the attendant explained that polo and cuju were compulsory subjects for the Crown Prince's household. To accommodate his schedule, the horse team even specially postponed the match to the evening.

  Min An was pushed into the school field, trembling with fear as he rode a horse to play polo. Li Peinan did not show up, and the guards went crazy, several times throwing Min An off his horse. Min An suffered countless hardships, and after one game of polo ended, a big lump appeared on the back of his head, and his hands and ears were all bleeding.

  Ligou walked over and patted his shoulder: "Practice a few more times, your body will be tougher."

  Min An stood still for half a day, his sweat dripping with blood, rolling down from his face. Li Qun couldn't bear to watch and sighed, saying: "Everyone has gone through this, once you've practiced your skills well, you'll be able to get through the tough times."

  Min An wiped away his blood and sweat with his sleeve and replied: "Thank you, Brother Lie, for reminding me. I remember now."

  Li Qun patted Meng An's shoulder, which was already unable to bear the heavy burden: "There's another thing you shouldn't forget. You told the young master that you would voluntarily accept punishment, and the young master agreed with your intention, no longer exempting you from that one night in the cage."

  Min An, with a disheveled head and covered in dirt, crawled back into the iron cage and slept for another night. In the evening, a bright moon hung from the elm tree, illuminating the soft grass. The leopard, having eaten meat soaked in medicinal liquid, was sleeping soundly, and even the leopard slave had some free time, sitting on the rooftop dozing off.

  When the myriads of sounds are hushed in stillness, Min An is worried that the leopard will rush out, propping up his sleepiness to hold the thin blanket and watch the moonlight, with a somewhat desolate air. As he looked, the moon hid behind the clouds, only revealing a curved corner, which made him think of Xuan Xu's eyebrow color, also warm and elegant.

  "If he were here, he would definitely do something interesting." Min An thought with her knees hugged, "Only he can understand me and know that I'm actually fed up with the training in the martial arts hall. If he were my master's son, he shouldn't force me, right?"

  The more desolate it was, the more Min An remembered the kindness of Xuan Xu in the past and compared it with his current situation. It really made him feel like heaven and earth were different. He looked at the moonlight seeping through the elm leaves and sighed: "Raising my head to gaze at the bright moon, lowering my head to think of Xuan Xu... What's wrong with me? Why am I thinking about other things? Am I sick?"

  Min An was lost in thought for a while, and eventually fell asleep in the iron cage. For the next three days, he didn't have time to think about anything else, constantly training horse riding and physical strength, exhausting himself to the point of not being able to straighten his waist. Even when Li Peinan walked into the school field to inspect his performance, he stood under the scorching sun with his mouth open, panting, unable to say a word of pleading. Li Peinan smiled at him and left the school field without saying a word, after which the guards rushed up again, lifting him onto the horse for another round of combat.

  Min An was counting the days on his fingers, eager to escape the suffering as soon as possible. His pale face had turned into a wheat color, causing Hua Cui, who came to visit him, to exclaim in surprise.

  Previously, Li Peinan had ordered that Min'an was not allowed to go out or see guests, and no idle people were allowed to enter the mansion. Hua Cui was naturally classified as an idle person, she pulled a bundle and stood in front of the vermilion column at the gate of the mansion, looking at Min'an with a bitter face.

  Min Anqiu begged: "Brother-in-law, can you make an exception and let my sister come in to say a few words?"

  The attendant guarding the gate looked worried: "Young master said that the little marquis is surrounded by some unruly people, and it's likely to ruin the rules of the mansion."

  She raised an eyebrow, threw her bundle into the door, and said to Min An: "Anzi wait for me, I don't believe that under the bright sky, the young master can still do something against the law." She rolled up her sleeves, Min An thought she was going to rush in, hastily waved his hand to signal her, but she turned around and left the gate, set up a ladder that had been prepared long ago, and climbed onto the wall of the mansion with a huff.

  Min An stood in the courtyard and asked: "Why did Cuihua bring a ladder?"

  Hua Cui clapped her hands and pouted, saying: "Father had said long ago that the inn's threshold is high and wouldn't let us in. So I prepared a ladder beforehand and carried it all the way here, and it really came in handy."

  Min An walked away and looked around, feeling that he was not under Li Peinan's surveillance. He set up a ladder and approached Huai Cui. The two of them talked in hushed tones with a wall between them. From afar, it seemed like a couple secretly meeting on the wall in broad daylight.

  Hua Cui told Min An that Xuan Xu had been visiting Wu Ren's old father for the past few days, talking about some novel things, which had sparked the old man's great interest. The old man didn't even gamble, and he followed Xuan Xu outside to run around, going to the wilderness to fly kites and collect wind power, waiting for rainy days to fly paper kites and calculate the path of lightning. He was so busy that he couldn't even take care of his three meals. Xuan Xu naturally treated the old man with good food and drink, as long as the old man brought up the topic, Xuan Xu would arrange everything properly. For example, when the old man suddenly had a strange idea, wanting to try out the famous "wax corpse" trick of the Western Frontier Miao Wax Clan, Xuan Xu also followed the old man's meaning and accompanied him to the tomb path to dig graves and play with corpses.

  Hua Cui said a lot in a soft voice, and finally sighed: "In short, Xuan Xu is now Dad's favorite, and I slightly persuaded him not to follow Xuan Xu around, but Dad scolded me for half a day. To be honest, I don't dislike Xuan Xu either, because he always sends me gifts to apologize, making it hard for me to say anything about him. After all, it was I who introduced him to Dad."

  Min An lowered his head and rummaged through the package, unexpectedly pulling out a tin-sealed frozen yogurt drink. He was overjoyed. Hua Cui took the opportunity to say: "Xuan Xu bought it for you overnight and asked when you would have time to meet him again."

  Min An shook his head, handed over some words to Hua Cui, climbed down from the wall, and walked back to the bamboo house with a full load on his back. He sat on the couch, touched the small toys given by Xuan Xu, and forgot about the fatigue of training for a while, laughing happily for a long time.

  The corn was chirping beside, Min An pulled out a bag of sugar-roasted corn kernels from his backpack and threw it to the corn, laughing and saying: "He hasn't forgotten you either, look how happy you are."

  Corn was eating and watching Min An, Min An poked the gap on its nose and said: "When you eat someone's mouth is soft and take someone's hand short, you miss him like this, do you like him?"

  The corn crackled in response, Min An put away the package and sat by the window, playing with the white fan given to him by Xuan Xu, thinking that if he had the chance, he would also like to see him.