Chapter 237: Interesting

The fifteenth of the fifth month.

At the Hour of the Rooster, Ding Suian clocked out an hour early and headed to Chilao Alley.

This time, he finally managed to corner Old Ding at home.

“Dad, how about you come with me outside the city to meet someone?”

“Meet who?”

“An Old Man.”

“An Old Man? If you were asking me to meet a woman, I might be interested, but an Old Man? No.”

Old Ding’s tone sounded like he was joking, but Ding Suian got serious. “Dad, you’ve finally had a change of heart! What kind of woman do you want to meet? I can arrange it for you. Actually, Daoist Master Yunxu is not bad. If you don’t like rekindling old flames, I can help you inquire about widows who lost their husbands in middle age—the fair-skinned and beautiful kind. If you don’t like young ones, I can even help you find a wealthy old lady in her sixties or seventies, with one foot in the grave.”

Old Ding was taken aback and subconsciously asked, “Why look for one in her sixties or seventies?”

“Tsk! You serve her for a few years, wouldn’t you inherit a fortune? You’d save yourself decades of hard work! It’s good for you and good for me.”

While Ding Suian was busy planning his father’s happy golden years, the man didn’t appreciate it at all and grabbed his military saber, ready to head out.

“Hey! Dad, don’t leave. Even if the deal doesn’t go through, we can still be civil. You can tell me what kind you like.”

“I don’t have time to chit-chat with you. I have official business to attend to!”

That reason again. Ding Suian blocked the courtyard gate, looked Old Ding straight in the eyes, and smiled. “Alright, no more chatting. Come with me outside the city. Perhaps that Old Man is an old acquaintance of yours.”

Although he had no evidence, Ding Suian always felt that Old Ding and the Old Man had a deep connection. He even had more outrageous guesses.

If he could get the two to meet, perhaps the mysteries that had been tangling his mind for so long would be solved.

But Old Ding’s attitude was exceptionally firm. “I said it before, I have official business!”

With that, he pushed hard toward the gate.

Should he knock Old Ding down, tie him up, and take him to the Estate?

The thought flashed through his mind, but he immediately rejected it.

After all, he was his own father. Doing that would be a little inappropriate. Sigh, Ding Suian often worried because he was too filial.

“Dad!”

Ding Suian had a sudden inspiration. Standing at the gate, he called out to the back already walking down the alley, “You don’t have to hide it from me anymore. I already know everything!”

The figure paused slightly. Old Ding turned around, and the father and son stared at each other silently from a distance of ten or twelve meters. Old Ding then replied, “You know that rice smells good and shit stinks!”

What a load of nonsense!

Wait? Was Old Ding mocking him?

“Stop letting your imagination run wild all day. Getting married early is the Righteous Path!”

Old Ding turned and walked toward the alley entrance, waving his hand dashingly with his back to Ding Suian.

Melancholy.

Old Ding’s mouth was truly hard to pry open.

“Anzai, what do you know?”

Across the way, Auntie Hu, who had likely heard the father and son’s conversation in the alley, trotted to her own courtyard gate, craned her neck to look at the departing Old Ding, her eyes full of gossip.

“Heh, I found out my dad has a lover outside.”

“That’s a good thing, your dad…”

Auntie Hu hadn’t finished speaking when a sob was heard from the end of the alley.

The two turned their heads in unison to look. It was Auntie Yao, who had long coveted Old Ding’s body, running into her own small courtyard, covering her face and sobbing.

“…”

What a sin.

Well, Ding Suian just spouted nonsense, and now there was another heartbroken person in the world.

Exactly at the Hour of the Rooster.

Ding Suian returned to Suimian Street, planning to head out of the city to the Estate after dark. The Old Man’s identity was sensitive; it was better to be careful.

Outside his home, he saw Lin Dafu and Chen Yi standing side by side.

“Yo, Duke of Chu County, you’re finally back! The Prince specifically went to the Patrol Inspection Office to find you just now. Upon learning you had already left, he came here to wait for you.”

Lin Dafu didn’t know if he hadn’t heard about what happened outside Prince Yinyang’s residence, or if he was playing dumb, but either way, he looked very enthusiastic.

Chen Yi looked slightly unnatural, and his smile was a bit forced. “Ding Suian’s courtesy name, since there’s nothing to do tonight, how about we get together? Commander Li, Meimei, and Third Young Master Gao are all there; they’ve already gone to Zhangtai Willow to wait.”

He didn’t mention a word about last night.

And since he had rounded up everyone else, it would seem a bit antisocial if Ding Suian didn’t go.

In any case, they were still far from being enemies.

Ding Suian smiled. “Thank you for your trouble, Prince.”

At the same time. Chongli Ward, Law Academy.

Inside Qingjiao Pavilion, Xu Jiuxi sat upright in a grand armchair, dressed in a neat, grey-green scholar’s robe, her expression calm and solemn.

Only the vermilion nail polish on her slender fingers, holding a scroll, betrayed a hint of her true nature hidden beneath her stern teacher persona.

“So you mean you can’t practice the zither for these two days?”

Her beautiful peach-blossom eyes shifted slightly from the scroll, landing on the person below.

Jiang Yuan, standing respectfully, said softly, “Replying to Teacher, once the swelling goes down after resting for two more days, it will be fine.”

“How could you be so careless?”

Xu Jiuxi frowned, seemingly dissatisfied because her student didn’t cherish her hands enough. Jiang Yuan lowered her head and replied, “It was an accident. It got caught in a door.”

“With your breakthrough imminent, you should take care of yourself. You may go.”

“Yes.”

Jiang Yuan bowed respectfully again, stepped back with her head lowered, and only turned to leave once she reached the door.

Xu Jiuxi rose slowly and walked out the door unhurriedly.

Qingjiao Pavilion was built on a platform over a zhang high, overlooking the Law Academy.

She saw Jiang Yuan’s somewhat slight figure moving among the students leaving class. She kept her head down the whole time; though quiet and elegant, she seemed out of place among her lively classmates.

It was as if there was a sense of lonely detachment, or perhaps she was isolating herself.

As the Head of the Law Academy, Xu Jiuxi not only knew her family background but also knew a thing or two about why her hands were injured.

But these matters were none of her business, and naturally, she wouldn’t get involved in the petty squabbles between young girls.

Just then, she saw a classmate trot up to Jiang Yuan and hand her a pink piece of stationery folded into a heart shape.

The classmate then said something with a grin, and Jiang Yuan’s face instantly flushed red.

Xu Jiuxi felt curious for a moment, focused her hearing, and turned slightly toward Jiang Yuan.

“Waner, I just passed by the gatehouse. The nun at the gatehouse said that half an hour ago, someone delivered this letter to her and asked her to pass it to Jiang Yuan. She was too lazy to find you, but she knew we were close, so she asked me to bring it to you!”

“…”

“Hurry and open it! Is it a love poem written to you by the Duke of Chu County? Hahaha~”

“Don’t, don’t talk nonsense.”

In front of Qingjiao Pavilion, Xu Jiuxi’s fair earlobe twitched slightly.

Below. Jiang Yuan finally managed to dismiss her classmate and walked alone to a secluded spot before carefully opening the stationery.

It read: ‘To Waner: The flowers in the Qiyan Forest north of the city are in full bloom; I wish to admire the sunset with you. I hope you will come alone. See you there~’

Just two short lines, unsigned. But Jiang Xuan had some of Ding Suian’s manuscripts, and Jiang Yuan naturally recognized this highly recognizable handwriting.

Jiang Yuan’s fingertips trembled slightly, and she subconsciously pressed the thin piece of paper against her chest, as if only then could she suppress her heart, which was about to jump out of her throat.

A crimson flush spread across her cheeks. Should she go, or not?

She naturally wanted to go, but she was worried that as a young lady of a good family, going to a private rendezvous after reading a single note would seem frivolous.

If she didn’t go. Jiang Yuan brought the stationery back in front of her face, her eyes resting on the words’See you there’.

If she didn’t go, would she really cause him to wait in vain all night!

“Hey! Waner!”

While she was struggling, her classmate Xue Yunwan, who lived in the same Xingning Ward, shouted from afar, “Why are you hiding here? You made me look everywhere for you. Come on, let’s go home together.”

“I… you go back first. The Headmaster kept me to check my schoolwork just now.”

Jiang Yuan said this on impulse, feeling her heart pounding. Then she simply added, “Please, Waner, help me pass a message to my mother. Tell her I, I will be back a little later, and she doesn’t need to worry.”

“Oh, okay.”

Xue Yunwan didn’t suspect anything and readily agreed.

About a quarter of an hour later, the Law Academy, where classes had ended, gradually grew quiet.

Jiang Yuan calmed her emotions, quietly went to the small pond in the Law Academy, used the sunset and the calm pond water to tidy up her already neat hair, then took a deep breath and turned to walk out of the Law Academy.

Suddenly, a gust of evening wind blew, rippling the pool of green water.

“Heh, slut.”

Yu Ruiyan and her maid, Lv Rong, turned out from behind the Zhengyu Building.

Lv Rong looked around carefully, then gazed at Yu Ruiyan with admiration and whispered, “Young Mistress, you are truly the best!”

In the distance, at Qingjiao Pavilion, someone chuckled and muttered to themselves, “Interesting~”