Chapter 28
Ji Qingzhou and Qin Zheng had been basking in the sun for quite some time when the messenger finally arrived.
Ji Qingzhou thought it over but didn’t ask the messenger to stay. He just gave a few brief instructions before sending him away.
“What, you’re not going to investigate further?” Qin Zheng asked after the messenger left.
“I think the answer is probably somewhere in this alley,” Ji Qingzhou replied. “We’ve been to all the places Xiao Shan could have gone. There isn’t a single spot where he could have met up frequently and secretly with another man—except here. Outside the palace walls, but still within the Imperial City, and hardly anyone passes through.”
Qin Zheng nodded. “So you plan to wait here and see if something happens?”
“Or maybe we make another bet?” Ji Qingzhou proposed.
“A bet on what?” Qin Zheng asked.
“A bet on whether that man really cared about Xiao Shan,” Ji Qingzhou said.
If Ji Qingzhou’s guess was right, and Xiao Shan really had met that person here in this alley, then now that Xiao Shan was in trouble, even if that man didn’t dare to come out and take responsibility, he should at least come to the place where they once pledged their feelings.
After all, Xiao Shan had intended to bury his keepsake here…
“You think he’ll come?” Qin Zheng asked.
“Maybe, unless he has no feelings for Xiao Shan at all and is a heartless, unfaithful man!” Ji Qingzhou replied. “Or maybe I’m just guessing the wrong place.”
“So, are you betting he’ll come or he won’t?” Qin Zheng asked again.
“I bet … he won’t come,” Ji Qingzhou said.
Qin Zheng sighed, “I’ve had terrible luck with bets these past few days, but this time, I actually hope you win.”
Ji Qingzhou looked down the long, empty alley. The image of the look in Xiao Shan’s eyes when he handed over the jade pendant came to mind. At the time, Ji Qingzhou hadn’t fully understood that expression—only sensed a trace of tenderness. Now, recalling it again, it just made his heart ache.
What was going through Xiao Shan’s mind when he decided to risk his life?
Was he sure the man was worth sacrificing everything for, or was there still some doubt?
That evening, Ji Qingzhou and Qin Zheng sat by the flowerbed in the alley until the sun set, but the person they were waiting for never showed.
Ji Qingzhou had technically won the bet, but thinking of the gentleness in Xiao Shan’s eyes left him feeling dissatisfied.
He had won, but he hoped Xiao Shan hadn’t lost.
So the next morning, Ji Qingzhou returned to that same alley and waited well past noon.
The person he was waiting for didn’t come—but unexpectedly, he saw Tang Yi leading the young emperor out through a side gate.
Several attendants followed the young emperor and Tang Yi, all of whom recognized Ji Qingzhou. When they saw him sitting on the flowerbed in a gray robe in the alley, they all froze briefly, then quickly came to pay their respects.
“What are you doing here?” The young emperor’s face lit up with joy the moment he saw Ji Qingzhou and he ran over to hug him.
Ji Qingzhou put an arm around him and asked, “Why did you come out of the palace?”
“Didn’t Imperial Uncle say we could go out as long as we stayed inside the Imperial City?” The young emperor replied.
That was something Li Zhan had said when Ji Qingzhou had taken the young emperor out to wander around. Now, it worked in the young emperor’s favor. After all, the Imperial City was still guarded by the Imperial Army, and the people moving about were palace servants, so there were no real security risks.
Ji Qingzhou looked at Tang Yi and asked, “Did you bring His Majesty out?”
“Yes, Ji Gonggong” Tang Yi answered. “His Majesty’s little rabbit went missing last night. The Emperor was upset, so I thought to come find him another.”
Ji Qingzhou frowned. “How does a perfectly fine rabbit just disappear like that?”
“The cage door wasn’t shut properly, so it slipped out,” Tang Yi explained. “It’s been hot lately, and His Majesty didn’t want the door closed because it felt stuffy, so the rabbit took advantage of the chance to escape. We’ve searched the emperor’s chambers and the nearby gardens but couldn’t find it. I worried His Majesty would be upset, so I came to get a new one.”
Hearing this, Ji Qingzhou looked at the young emperor. “Why don’t you go pick one yourself?”
“Take me with you,” the young emperor said, pulling on Ji Qingzhou’s hand.
“Let Xiao Tang accompany His Majesty,” Ji Qingzhou coaxed.
Tang Yi quickly said, “Your Majesty, I will accompany you inside to pick a new one that you’ll like.”
But the young emperor didn’t even look at him and instead clung to Ji Qingzhou’s arms, refusing to let go. Seeing this, Ji Qingzhou said to Tang Yi, “You go inside to help His Majesty choose. I’ll stay here and enjoy the sun with him.” Tang Yi nodded and went into the courtyard.
Just as Tang Yi stepped inside, Qin Zheng approached from afar.
Today, Qin Zheng still wore his gray robe. He looked more used to it now, and surprisingly, it no longer seemed unpleasant to him.
“Eh, why is His Majesty here?” Qin Zheng smiled when he saw the young emperor snuggled in Ji Qingzhou’s arms. “His Majesty hasn’t seen you these past couple of days, barely eating or drinking tea. I didn’t expect he’d actually come looking for you today.”
Seeing Qin Zheng arrive, Ji Qingzhou sent the attendants who had accompanied the young emperor into the courtyard, then asked the young emperor, “Didn’t I tell you the rabbit was too small to be let out? How did you forget to close the cage door?”
“I remembered what you said,” the young emperor said, looking a bit disappointed. “But last night, I definitely didn’t open the cage.”
Ji Qingzhou looked off into the distance. A flicker of coldness flashed in his eyes before he composed himself and spoke gently to the young emperor, “It’s not your fault. It’s gone now, so let Xiao Tang help you pick another one.”
“But I don’t like the ones he picked. I want you to choose,” the young emperor whined, leaning on him.
“Then you pick, and you help him pick,” Qin Zheng said from the side.
Ji Qingzhou lowered his head to ask the young emperor, “Did you say today you wanted to get another one yourself?”
“I didn’t say that,” the young emperor shook his head. “Xiao Tang said there were many rabbits here and insisted on bringing me to see them.”
Ji Qingzhou nodded and said, “If you don’t want it, then don’t have it. Last time, I shouldn’t have given you that rabbit just to please you. That was my mistake. I won’t try to cheer you up like that anymore.”
At the time, Ji Qingzhou hadn’t thought too deeply about it. He just worried the young emperor was sad over the rabbit that Qin Zheng had ordered to be cooked, so he helped find a new one. But now, thinking back, he realized there was something off.
Not even a few days had passed before others began copying his method to appease the young emperor.
If the young emperor got used to such indulgences, sooner or later, he would become a feckless ruler…
“We won’t keep rabbits anymore,” Ji Qingzhou said.
The young emperor seemed to understand vaguely. Seeing that Ji Qingzhou no longer looked so conflicted, he smiled broadly. Ji Qingzhou lifted the young emperor and stepped into the small courtyard, where Xiao Tang was carrying two rabbits out, ready to let the young emperor see them for himself.
“I don’t like either of these,” the young emperor shook his head.
“Well… there are a few smaller ones inside. I—” Tang started but was cut off by Qin Zheng. Qin Zheng took the young emperor from Ji Qingzhou’s arms and said, “His Majesty suddenly said he doesn’t like rabbits anymore. I’ll take him for a walk nearby to see if there’s something else he wants to keep.”
The young emperor brightened immediately. Qin Zheng carried him outside, leaving Xiao Tang holding the two rabbits.
“Since Young Master Qin is here with His Majesty, you all can head back,” Ji Qingzhou told the others.
Tang Yi wanted to say something more, but Ji Qingzhou turned and walked off without another word.
In the alley, the young emperor rode on Qin Zheng’s shoulders, laughing heartily.
Qin Zheng waited not far off and waved when Ji Qingzhou came out. Ji Qingzhou immediately walked over.
“What’s wrong? Is something wrong?” Qin Zheng asked.
“Hm,” Ji Qingzhou said. “We’ll deal with this later.”
He glanced at the young emperor, signaling not to discuss this in front of him.
Qin Zheng might be slow on other matters, but he was sharp when it came to the scheming palace servants. Before Ji Qingzhou spoke, he had already guessed the reason. In fact, he had noticed earlier that the young emperor seemed to like the rabbit only because it had been given by Ji Qingzhou.
These past two days, when Ji Qingzhou wasn’t around, the young emperor carried the rabbit everywhere. But when Ji Qingzhou was present, the young emperor preferred to be with him instead.
Given that, the young emperor’s first reaction after losing the rabbit was naturally to look for Ji Qingzhou, not a new rabbit.
Today’s incident didn’t even require guessing—Tang Yi must have lied…
Ji Qingzhou had been somewhat wary of Tang Yi before, because in the original story Tang Yi was his lackey, involved in countless misdeeds. Ji Qingzhou had long been torn about whether Tang Yi had been corrupted by the original Ji Qingzhou or was just inherently bad.
Now it seemed Ji Qingzhou’s suspicion wasn’t unfounded.
Ji Qingzhou sighed quietly, hoping his doubts were merely paranoia. Otherwise, keeping Tang Yi around could be a disaster waiting to happen.
“I hear horses!” The young emperor pointed ahead excitedly. “Let’s go that way.”
Qin Zheng carried the young emperor on his shoulder and jogged swiftly toward the source of the sound of horses neighing.
At the end of the alley was a garden that housed many palace horses. Behind the garden was a riding ground—though not very large, it was enough for some galloping.
“Wow, so many horses!” The young emperor, perched on Qin Zheng’s shoulder, leaned toward the stable, reaching out to touch the horses. Qin Zheng, unsure of their temperaments, didn’t dare let him get too close and only allowed him to observe from a few steps away.
The stable hands, upon seeing the young emperor visit in person, naturally became extremely attentive. One quickly fetched a gentle, short horse and presented it to the young emperor. Qin Zheng, seeing the young emperor liked it, called over a patrol squad to watch him carefully to prevent him from falling.
“No wonder His Majesty likes you,” Qin Zheng said to Ji Qingzhou. “I heard from Wang Ye that before you entered the palace, His Majesty was either confined to the palace school or stuck in the imperial study—hardly going anywhere. If you hadn’t suggested that before, His Majesty wouldn’t have had the chance to go out. I might not even be in the palace today.”
In fact, it was because Li Zhan had taken the young emperor to the estate that Qin Zheng was inspired to come into the palace.
Looking back, his current role assisting Li Zhan was half owed to Ji Qingzhou.
“His Majesty was young and pure-hearted. It was easy to win his favor,” Ji Qingzhou said.
“Though pure-hearted, His Majesty wasn’t so easily fooled,” Qin Zheng said. “Otherwise, why would Xiao Tang try so hard to curry favor with him, yet His Majesty remains closer to you?”
Ji Qingzhou raised an eyebrow. “Probably because I’m good-looking.”
Qin Zheng always thought of himself as rather vain, but he didn’t expect Young Master Ji to be just as unabashed.
As the two chatted, a stableman feeding the horses glanced at Ji Qingzhou’s back, then set down his bucket of feed and quickly walked toward him.
Ji Qingzhou, facing away, didn’t notice, but Qin Zheng had already been watching the man’s movements. When the man reached out to tap Ji Qingzhou on the shoulder, Qin Zheng instinctively caught his wrist.
The man was startled, his smile fading into awkwardness as he met Qin Zheng’s gaze.
Qin Zheng had come to see Ji Qingzhou dressed in his usual gray robe, so the man had probably mistaken him for one of the grey-robed junior eunuchs—only to be surprised by Qin Zheng’s martial skill.
Ji Qingzhou turned around, looking puzzled, and saw the man’s smile immediately disappear, replaced by a hint of disappointment. But the man quickly regained composure and awkwardly smiled. In that brief moment, Ji Qingzhou caught the man’s eyes lingering on his neck for a moment.
Ji Qingzhou had been carrying that jade pendant all day. When Tang Yi and the others appeared earlier, he had slipped the pendant into his collar, though the red string binding the jade still showed slightly outside.
“Were you looking at this?” Ji Qingzhou said, fixing the man with a gaze as he pulled the jade out from his collar.
The man looked stunned. He looked at the jade, then back at Ji Qingzhou, clearly confused.
He scratched his head and pointed at the jade, making a questioning gesture with his hands.
Only then did Ji Qingzhou realize the man couldn’t speak—he was mute.
“This was something I found,” Ji Qingzhou said, untying the pendant and casually tossing it to the man while keeping his eyes fixed on him. The man reached out quickly but carefully caught the pendant, as if it were an invaluable treasure.
The man took the jade and carefully wiped it with his sleeve. Then, taking a stick, he wrote in the dirt: “Sell it to me, okay?”
“Why?” Ji Qingzhou asked, watching him.
The man’s face flushed red. He instinctively pressed a hand to his neck, where Ji Qingzhou noticed a red string also exposed.
“I’m buying it to give to a friend. He lost it, and you found it,” the man wrote again.
Ji Qingzhou smiled and said, “Since I found it, I can’t just give it to you because you say so. I don’t even know if you’re telling the truth!”
The man quickly waved his hand and wrote: “I’ll pay you silver, any amount.”
Ji Qingzhou was taken aback, somewhat surprised.
The man continued writing: “I don’t have much silver now. If it’s not enough, I can get more.”
He finished writing and handed his coin pouch to Ji Qingzhou. Ji Qingzhou casually weighed it in his hand—it was probably enough to buy two more pendants like this.
“Did you mistake me for someone else just now?” Ji Qingzhou asked.
The man nodded and wrote: “He’s as thin as you.”
After writing that sentence, a flicker of smile appeared in the man’s eyes—a smile that made Ji Qingzhou momentarily distracted… When Xiao Shan told him he had buried the jade pendant in the garden at the end of the alley, his eyes held the same gentle, satisfied smile.
Ji Qingzhou had never paid much attention before, but now he realized that Xiao Shan’s build, while not exactly the same, was quite similar to his own—both somewhat slender. Especially since today he was also wearing a gray robe and had that red thread tied around his neck. It was likely that attendants rarely came to the horse ranch, so this man must have mistaken him in his haste.
“He… where did he go?” Ji Qingzhou asked, “Your friend, the one who lost this jade pendant.”
At Ji Qingzhou’s question, a trace of confusion flickered across the man’s face before he finally wrote down, “Don’t know.”
Ji Qingzhou wanted to ask more, but at that moment a stablehand hurried over, speaking sharply to the man: “He Man, what are you doing here? It’s rare the Emperor visits the horse ranch today, don’t let him see you—he might think you’re bad luck.”
Upon hearing this, He Man quickly stood and nodded to the stablehand, his attitude very respectful but without any hint of sycophancy or fear. Ji Qingzhou took the chance to focus and carefully observe this young man named He Man. Though he wore a worn-out guard’s robe, his posture was upright, and his features quite pleasant—he even carried a hint of heroic spirit.
Especially since he couldn’t speak and clearly held a low status here, yet his way of dealing with others gave off a very proper impression. Despite Ji Qingzhou having pre-judged him as a heartless scoundrel, he found it hard to dislike this person now.
Moreover, Ji Qingzhou sensed that whenever this man thought of Xiao Shan, he became visibly tense. But this tension was not born of negativity—it came from caring deeply, so much so that just thinking of Xiao Shan changed his expression.
He Man was driven away by the stablehand and had to leave. Before going, he pointed at the money pouch in Ji Qingzhou’s hand, then at the jade pendant in his own, indicating that he had bought the pendant. Seeing that Ji Qingzhou didn’t refuse, his face lit up happily. He saluted Ji Qingzhou respectfully before departing.
“He… doesn’t know that Xiao Shan got into trouble?” Ji Qingzhou murmured, watching He Man’s retreating figure.
“When I saw him listening to you speak, his eyes kept staring at your mouth. I guess he can’t hear and has to read your lips,” Qin Zheng said. “Judging by that stablehand’s attitude toward him, I suppose he has few friends around here…”
Every day He Man waited here eagerly to secretly meet his lover, completely unaware that the other person was already imprisoned and would soon be flogged to death.
In that moment, Ji Qingzhou couldn’t help but wonder: If by some twist of fate they hadn’t wandered into this horse ranch today, would He Man have just kept waiting foolishly forever?
He couldn’t express the feelings between himself and Xiao Shan—because it was forbidden. Saying it aloud would only bring Xiao Shan great trouble. And He Man had no friends; others might gossip privately about the young eunuch who was soon to be executed, but no one would bring it up to him.
So He Man could only wait silently, occasionally wandering down the alley where they once met, watching every passerby, trying to see if the person he longed for might appear.
Maybe he guessed Xiao Shan had left the palace, or that Xiao Shan no longer liked him.
But he probably would never know the truth—that they once had a child together, and that child was the cause of Xiao Shan’s death…
“Should we take him to the Office of Judicial Review?” Qin Zheng asked.
“I… I want to sit a while,” Ji Qingzhou replied off-topic. Then he crossed nearly half the horse ranch and found a stone to sit on, facing the wall.
Qin Zheng didn’t disturb him and went off to walk the young emperor and the horses.
Ji Qingzhou sat there for quite some time until footsteps approached from behind. He sniffed and came back to his senses.
“Although I didn’t ask him, I knew he would be willing to die in Xiao Shan’s place,” Ji Qingzhou said. “You won the bet. You were right… I really don’t understand love.”
“That’s completely different from what I thought,” Ji Qingzhou continued.
As he spoke, someone handed him a small square handkerchief from behind.
“I’m not crying, not that much!” Ji Qingzhou didn’t turn around but took the handkerchief and held it. “I thought he was a coward, someone who feared death. Someone unworthy of Xiao Shan dying for. Xiao Shan was such a good person…”
The person behind said nothing, just quietly watched the youth’s back.
Facing the wall, the youth’s shoulders were slightly hunched, and his thin frame looked fragile from behind—so much so that anyone seeing him might instinctively want to give him a comforting hug.
“I never believed in loyalty unto death. I always thought living was the most important thing. But now I can’t help but think—if I had taken him away… Xiao Shan would surely have hated me,” Ji Qingzhou added.
When Ji Qingzhou said this, his tone was full of loneliness and confusion, completely unlike his usual self. It was as if he were drunk and reason had briefly left him, allowing a small crack in the carefully guarded heart. Those who cared could glimpse the softest part of the youth’s soul through that crack.
“Am I too self-righteous? Thinking I was upholding justice, only to realize I’ve grown cold and unfeeling, assuming everyone else just fears death and clings to life like me,” Ji Qingzhou sighed deeply. “Young Master Qin, didn’t you say you understood these things well? Then tell me: of all the people in the world, are there more like me—selfish, afraid of dying, only wanting to survive? Or more like them—willing to risk their lives for someone else? I think I’ll never have the chance in my life to die for someone else…”
“Who do you want to die for?” The voice behind was calm and gentle.
Ji Qingzhou was startled and turned quickly—only to find that it wasn’t Qin Zheng standing there, but Li Zhan.
Ji Qingzhou: …
Right now, I just want to die—crash headfirst into death!
Love the drama and palace machinations? Buy Ciacia a coffee on Kofi to keep the intrigue brewing.
Tired of cliffhangers? The Zhouzhou Tier unlocks up to 5 chapters early, letting you peek behind the golden screens before the rest of the court.
Obrigada pela tradução!!💞❣️