Tigers Sniff the Rose - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The sound of the rain almost drowned out the voices of the servants outside.

However, fragments of their conversation still drifted into the carriage, leaving Yan Shang feeling as though a bucket of ice water had been poured over his heart.

He leaned quietly against the carriage wall, hearing the dialogue between the people outside and the princess sitting beside him clearly—

Princess Danyang was furious, questioning, "Wasn't the Third Flower Winner appointed by the Ministry of Personnel themselves? Why was he replaced at the last minute? Who did this?"

The servant replied, "It was Princess Luling who ordered the change. The Minister of Personnel dared not disobey the Grand Princess, so he submitted the revised list directly to the Secretariat. It was only because Your Highness had spoken to the Crown Prince beforehand that he realized something was wrong upon seeing the list and refused to sign it. But given that it is the Grand Princess, the Crown Prince said that as a younger generation, one must show respect to their elders."

Mu Wanyao dug her fingers into the carriage window frame, her tone icy: "Then who did Aunt replace the Third Flower Winner with?"

The servant: "A scholar in white named Feng Xianyu. He has been taking the imperial examinations for four years now. He has latched onto the Grand Princess; it would be best if Your Highness did not provoke him."

Having said all that was necessary and ensuring Princess Danyang had obtained the information she needed, the servant held up his umbrella and took his leave.

"Clatter!" A loud bang echoed.

Mu Wanyao slammed the carriage window shut in resentment. Her carriage remained parked at the palace gate, but the guards and maids riding alongside dared not disturb Her Highness to ask where she wanted to go.

Sitting together in the carriage, Yan Shang looked over and saw that Mu Wanyao’s brow was filled with such hostility that it made her beautiful face appear stern and menacing.

She was so angry that her chest heaved, and with a sweep of her arm, she knocked all the tea sets off the small table in the carriage. With a heavy "thud," the utensils landed on the carriage cushions; though they did not break, no one moved to pick them up.

Mu Wanyao raged, "Some 'Feng Xianyu,' I've never even heard of him..."

Yan Shang looked at her: "I have."

Mu Wanyao froze and looked toward him.

Yan Shang said, "When I first entered the Imperial Academy, I was looked down upon by the children of great aristocratic families, and Feng Xianyu defended me. As we spent more time together, we became friends, so I know quite a bit about him. I didn't expect him to be able to latch onto the Grand Princess and find such an opportunity."

Mu Wanyao: "..."

She couldn't believe it: "You say he is a friend? Would a friend steal what belongs to you? I know my aunt better than you do; she doesn't play politics, she just likes to keep beautiful young men. Do you think there is any other way for this 'friend' of yours to cling to my aunt besides selling himself?

"Do you think all princesses are as easy to talk to as I am?"

Yan Shang looked at her, remaining silent.

Mu Wanyao vented for a long time, boiling with anger. She cursed her aunt for a good while, but when she looked over, she saw Yan Shang sitting calmly opposite her. He didn't get angry, nor did he offer comfort; he simply listened to her rage.

Mu Wanyao glared at him: "Your hard-earned career has been snatched away, and you don't have any reaction? Nothing to say?"

Mu Wanyao’s cold eyes were like ice: "As far as I'm concerned, if you don't ask, I will never take the initiative to stand up for anyone."

Yan Shang remained silent.

After a long while, just as Mu Wanyao was about to direct her fury at him, he said slowly, "At this stage, Your Highness, what do you think I can say?"

Mu Wanyao was stunned: "..."

Yan Shang looked at her: "Should I incite you to stand up for me? Would you do it? To offend the Grand Princess and become her enemy for my sake? I am a mere commoner. Should I put on a sorrowful face, beg you, and ask you to go find the Grand Princess for me?"

Outside, the rain tapped against the window. As his calm eyes stared at her, Mu Wanyao’s heart shrank suddenly, and she felt a bit bewildered.

Her raging fire dampened slightly because of this.

Yes.

Who was Yan Shang, really?

Just a country bumpkin she had met while in Lingnan.

She had been moved by him for a short time, but both she and Yan Shang knew that it was merely the atmosphere at the time; it meant nothing at all.

After leaving Lingnan, she had turned her back on him, and he had never mentioned the past. They maintained a tacit understanding that neither wanted to break.

Mu Wanyao was already plagued by her own troubles; why would she stand up for a commoner she had known for only a few days? Perhaps she appreciated Yan Shang in some respects... yet in the face of power, that little bit of appreciation truly amounted to nothing.

Thinking of this, Mu Wanyao lowered her eyes, feeling suddenly ashamed.

She felt a bit embarrassed and stifled: "I thought you would at least show some sadness."

Yan Shang was quiet for a long while before saying, "I had better not use those emotions to manipulate Your Highness."

Mu Wanyao lowered her gaze and saw him stand up abruptly. Their clothes brushed slightly in the cramped carriage. As he rose, Mu Wanyao smelled the elegant scent of agarwood on him once again... The carriage door opened, and a trickle of rain drifted into the window.

Mu Wanyao looked up, seeing that Yan Shang was about to get off.

She couldn't help but call out: "Yan Shang!"

Yan Shang turned his head and looked at her.

Mu Wanyao was silent for a moment. As their eyes met, tense and suppressed emotions flowed between them. Like a volcano dormant beneath an iceberg, they struggled desperately to control themselves, not letting the volcano erupt.

Mu Wanyao said slowly, "How do you know I wouldn't go to the Grand Princess for you and demand an explanation?"

Yan Shang: "Is that so?"

He said, "Even if Your Highness were to go, I would still try to stop you."

Mu Wanyao looked at him in surprise.

He smiled faintly, his voice gentle: "Have you thought about it, Your Highness? The Crown Prince having someone wait here to tell you about the posting of the list tomorrow and the change of quotas today is because he wants you to come forward and fight the Grand Princess. I don't know what kind of goals you have within the palace, but you are being pushed out by the Crown Prince to act as his tool.

"If you fight with the Grand Princess, given your strong personality—and your personality is indeed strong—you will definitely end up in a life-or-death battle with her. The imperial examinations have gone wrong this year, and the Ministry of Personnel cannot escape responsibility. When the matter finally reaches the Emperor, perhaps you and the Grand Princess will both be punished, or perhaps both Feng Xianyu and I will be admitted. What would the Crown Prince gain from that?"

Mu Wanyao followed his train of thought.

She knew much more inside information than he did. With Yan Shang’s hint, Mu Wanyao realized: "...Perhaps the Crown Prince’s goal is to seize the Ministry of Personnel from my Third Brother. Yes, the Crown Prince already holds great power, but the path for recruiting officials is firmly in the hands of the Prince of Qin, and the Crown Prince has never been content with that. Over the past few months, the Crown Prince has been probing my Third Brother."

The more she spoke, the more fluid and certain she became: "In the end, perhaps both the Grand Princess and I will be losers, and the only winner will be the Crown Prince."

Yan Shang nodded silently.

Mu Wanyao asked, "But what does this have to do with you? If I stand up for you and you can get back what originally belonged to you, why would you want to stop me?"

Yan Shang had already climbed out of the carriage.

Chunhua thoughtfully held up an umbrella for him, and he stood in the rain, bowing toward the princess’s carriage: "Because I cannot afford the great favor of Your Highness standing up for me."

He lifted his gaze through the curtain of rain, his robes quickly becoming soaked: "I can still repay the favor of Your Highness helping me submit my papers. But if Your Highness offends the Grand Princess to stand up for me, how could I ever repay that favor? Your Highness’s favor is too heavy. I would have no choice but to repay it with my life; there is no other way."

Mu Wanyao was silent.

Actually, there was another way to repay it.

Just like Feng Xianyu offering himself to Princess Luling, Yan Shang could offer himself.

However, by saying this, Yan Shang was implying he was not that kind of person. A favor too great made him retreat; he wouldn't even be willing to repay it with his life... let alone anything else.

Mu Wanyao retracted all her expressions.

She sat in the carriage, motionless, feeling disgusted just looking at him.

 

She closed her eyes and shouted angrily, "Get out of here!"

The carriage door closed—

Chunhua sympathetically handed the umbrella to Yan Shang, watching him walk unevenly through the rain, step by step, heading back to Yongshou Temple.

The young gentleman’s silhouette was lonely and refined, his robes damp; he looked truly pitiful.

Chunhua sighed, a wave of confusion rising in her heart.

It was like this with Young Master Liu, and it was like this with Young Master Yan, and Feng Xianyu had even fallen out with Young Master Yan over a career... Was the path upward truly this difficult?

Yan Shang didn't arrive back at Yongshou Temple until the afternoon. Midway, he tripped in the mud, and by the time he returned to his room, he was in a disheveled state.

Looking down at his soiled clothes, Yan Shang sighed.

Half an hour later, after he had changed into fresh clothes and sat at his desk, he sat in a daze for a long time before wiping his face, forcing himself to calm down.

He spread out the stationery and rice paper on the desk and began to practice calligraphy, treating it as self-cultivation. After arriving in Chang’an, he had learned this method while befriending Seventh Young Master Wei.

Children of noble families all possessed a beautiful hand at calligraphy, and Wei Qilang had told him that there was no other way to achieve it but to practice every day. Commoners envied the noble children, yet the noble families indeed traveled much further on the path of talent.

Since then, Yan Shang had persisted in practicing daily. Even when he was in a bad mood, he would open the paper to practice.

Now, dipping his brush in thick ink, after writing several large characters repeatedly, Yan Shang’s mood finally calmed down, allowing him to think about a few things.

He spread out a new sheet of rice paper, remained silent for a long time, and wrote the three characters "Feng Xianyu" on the paper.

Then, he began to write what kind of person he knew Feng Xianyu to be: where his ancestral home was, what his ancestors did, how long he had been in Chang’an, his usual temperament, and who he associated with... If Feng Xianyu were here, he would be terrified.

Because Yan Shang seemed to be analyzing him, and doing so with terrifying precision.

After writing about Feng Xianyu’s life on a full sheet of rice paper, Yan Shang spread out another sheet and began to write about the friends he had made since arriving in Chang’an. Those he met through himself, those he met through his teachers, those he met through his fellow students... Listing the entire network was actually quite frightening.

Because, hidden within the twists and turns, it seemed there were truly connections that could reach the Grand Princess, or even people of high status and power.

If someone else were to see it, they would never believe that Yan Shang had been in Chang’an for little more than a month, given how many friends he had made.

He excelled at making friends, and that was by no means just talk. When Mu Wanyao had mocked him as a "busy man" half a month ago, it was because he didn't just fixate on Princess Danyang’s mansion.

He had too many friends, and he needed to attend to each of them.

Now, looking at this relationship network laid out before him, Yan Shang threw down his brush and stared at the paper filled with names, feeling somewhat dejected.

Ultimately, his starting point was too low and his time here too short. Even though he had made so many friends, at this critical moment, there was no one who could help.

Yan Shang crumpled all the papers into a ball and threw them aside for the moment.

Leaning against the antique shelf, he tiredly covered his face with his sleeves and closed his eyes to feign sleep.

He couldn't help but fantasize: if all the friends he knew were at the level of Princess Danyang, then it would be much easier to simplify this matter...—

Mu Wanyao returned to the princess’s mansion in a rage, continuing to fume for the rest of the afternoon.

Perhaps because she was in a bad mood, or perhaps because she was utterly dejected, she went to bed as soon as it turned dark.

Filled with indignation and feeling as though she had been slapped in the face by the Grand Princess, Mu Wanyao had held in her anger all day, thinking that sleeping would make her feel better. But she dreamt of an event that happened during her two years of marriage—

"Husband! Husband!" Amidst the tents of the Wuman tribe’s royal court, the young Princess of Great Wei stumbled as she chased after a tall, impatient man.

She fell to the ground, and the surrounding Wuman people only watched her with mocking eyes, while a few felt a sliver of pity.

Sixteen-year-old Mu Wanyao sat on the ground, looking up to see the Wuman King pause hesitantly. Seizing the opportunity, she grabbed the man’s sleeve and pleaded, "Nonghua is the maid who has been with me since I was a child! Husband, please give her back to me, I, I can help you find other beauties..."

The Wuman King, in his thirties or forties, was a towering man, covered in tattoos and as fierce as a lion. He looked back at his naive wife and laughed, "This King only wants one of your maids, and you want to trade? Trade back and forth, isn't it still the same person?"

He perfunctorily said, "This King will send your maid back tomorrow."

Mu Wanyao was stunned.

In the distance, two burly Wuman men were dragging the young and beautiful maid along. The maid was struggling and screaming, "Your Highness, Your Highness, save me—"

Mu Wanyao mustered her courage and pleaded again, "No. Husband, you must give her back. Tomorrow won't do, half an hour, just half an hour..."

She begged bitterly, her robes dragging through the dirt, leaving streaks of black filth.

Before her marriage, she had been nothing but a fragile little princess. After the marriage, she was merely a puppet to be manipulated at will.

She was too weak; she could never win against the hard-hearted Wuman King... but her maid could not suffer!

It truly couldn't be!

The surrounding crowd was just watching the spectacle, making it all the more shameful. The young princess kneeling on the ground suddenly pulled a dagger from her sleeve and swung it at the slightly surprised Wuman King...

"Your Highness! Your Highness!"

She had had enough! She wanted to kill this husband! However, she was too weak, and even with all her strength, she only managed to wound the man’s arm. After that, she was locked away. Other than food, the Wuman people said the Wuman King was furious and would never forgive her.

"Let me out! Let me out!" Mu Wanyao cried, beating on the door.

Two days later, the Wuman King’s eldest son, Meng Zashi, opened a crack in the window and said to her with some sympathy, "That maid of yours is already dead. Stop crying, it’s useless."

Meng Zashi sighed, "Princess, you are too weak. If you cannot become strong, everyone around you will disappear just like this."

Locked in the room, the young girl sat huddled by the wall, looking up with empty eyes at the young Wuman prince who spoke to her through the window crack. With her long hair disheveled and covered in mud, her mind only repeated the young man’s sympathetic voice—

"That maid of yours is already dead."

In truth, people had died before, and people would die after. But only the death of Nonghua caused Mu Wanyao to collapse instantly, making her wonder what she had done wrong, why she couldn't even protect those around her...

The Princess of Great Wei was supposed to be high and mighty; it didn't matter if she was a little fragile, as someone would protect her. But in Wuman, these savages didn't take her seriously at all... their humiliation, their torture, day after day, year after year...

Meng Zashi’s voice rang out again: "You must become strong."

Through the window, he whistled and reached out to her, with a half-smile: "How about it? Shall we work together, Princess?"—

Mu Wanyao woke up from the dream with a start. Opening her eyes, she discovered her heart was still pounding violently, and her entire face felt burning hot.

Clutching her chest, her brow furrowed, and she made a decision.

Mu Wanyao got out of bed barefoot and called out to the maid outside: "Accompany me to the Grand Princess’s mansion! I absolutely cannot let this go!"

"She can fight for something else for her Mr. Feng, but she cannot touch my people!"

The lights in the princess’s mansion gradually brightened. The maid Chunhua, the attendant Fang Tong, and others all rose. Chunhua served the princess, knowing the princess intended to confront the Grand Princess, and she couldn't help but feel terrified. The princess called her into the room, and Chunhua took the opportunity to whisper a few words to Fang Tong, urging him to ensure the princess did not do anything foolish—

In Yongshou Temple, the rain pushed the window open a crack. The curtain of rain drifting into the room woke Yan Shang, who had been dozing at his desk.

Yan Shang rubbed his forehead and got up to close the window. As his hand rested on the window frame, he suddenly froze, seeing Fang Tong walking toward him through the heavy rain of the cold night.

The two stared at each other through the window.

Fang Tong cupped his hands, anxious: "Young Master Yan, this matter started because of you, you cannot just stand idly by! Our princess is going to settle the score with the Grand Princess for your sake... There are still a few hours before dawn; she intends to have the list changed back!"

Yan Shang’s eyes were filled with bewilderment.

Fang Tong called out: "Yan Second, Young Master Yan? You wouldn't just let our princess offend someone she shouldn't offend for your sake, would you?"

Yan Shang snapped back to his senses and said hurriedly: "Naturally not!"

Fang Tong breathed a sigh of relief. Yan Shang had already opened the door: "Attendant Fang, did you come by horse? Lend me your horse!"—

The night rain rustled.

The lantern hanging in front of the carriage swayed in the rain curtain, and the flickering light was silent and still in the dark night, with only the rumble of the wheels to be heard.

When the carriage reached the palace gate of Princess Luling, Chunhua held an umbrella. Mu Wanyao, dressed in magnificent attire, stepped out of the carriage and stood outside, looking up at the residence she rarely visited. The guards at the gate also looked with confusion at the arrival of Princess Danyang, wondering why she would visit so late at night.

Her expression was cold. She took a deep breath, lifted her foot to step onto the stairs, but behind her, amidst the heavy fog and rain, came the thunderous sound of horses’ hooves. Someone’s voice, clear and urgent, sounded as they lay prone on their horse—

"Your Highness!"

Mu Wanyao was focused, never paying attention to irrelevant people. Even though Chunhua looked back, Mu Wanyao only lifted her skirt and stepped onto the stairs.

Just as she was about to have the guards go in and announce her arrival, a hand reached out from behind and gripped Mu Wanyao’s wrist. Because the strength of the person arriving was too great, and Mu Wanyao was standing on the stairs, she stumbled and was pulled around by the person behind her.

Her nose bumped into the damp chest of the young gentleman.

His heart was pounding violently. As she swayed and was about to fall, he caught her by the shoulders.

On the steps, it was as if the two were embracing in front of the Grand Princess’s mansion.

Mu Wanyao stood on the stairs, meeting Yan Shang’s quiet and relieved eyes. The expression in his eyes was complex, bewildered, and filled with a look of inspection, as if he didn't recognize her.

There were also some drifting sparks gradually igniting in his eyes.

In the night rain, he held her shoulders and slowly leaned down.

He pressed against her ear, whispering gently, "I know what you are about to do. I have a better way. Come with me.”