Translator – Xiao He Lian
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Chapter 64
Su Heng’s gaze moved from top to bottom, finally stopping on the sachet on Lu Yan’s waist.
“Lord Lu’s sachet looks very special. I wonder which shop you bought it from?” Su Heng asked in a deep voice.
“My sister gave it to me.” Lu Yan looked down and said calmly, “General Su, do you have anything else to ask?”
The atmosphere between the two became increasingly tense. The summer wind was still blowing, but it no longer felt warm. The whistling sound became louder and louder and when it fell into their ears, it sounded like a horn on a battlefield.
Su Heng looked at him coldly and said, “Nothing, I just think it’s a coincidence that the person I’m looking for uses the same incense as Lord Lu.”
“Really?” Lu Yan said.
At this moment, a eunuch came running over and said, “Lord Lu, please go in quickly. The Emperor is still waiting.”
So the two said goodbye and separated.
After Lu Yan came out of the palace, his face turned pale. He sneered twice before getting on the carriage. Thinking back on Su Heng’s actions today, he felt a pang of fear in his heart.
Recently, he and Shen Zhen have been sleeping on the same bed every day, so it is inevitable that he will have some of her special fragrance on his body. Because he went to court today, he deliberately hung a sandalwood scented sachet on his body to cover it up. But such a plain and unremarkable smell is really not worthy of Su Heng’s special words.
Seeing that his master looked unhappy, Yang Zong immediately said, “Master, it’s getting late, shall we go over there?” “Over there” refers to Chengyuan.
“No.”
Yang Zong asked again: “Are we going back to the Duke’s Mansion?”
Lu Yan rubbed his brows and said after a while: “Go to Xuanping Marquis Mansion.”
All the guards at the Marquis Xuanping’s Mansion knew the carriage of the Duke Zhenguo’s Mansion. When Steward Zhang saw that it was Lu Yan, he immediately asked someone to open the gates.
While leading Lu Yan inside, Steward Zhang turned around and told the maid to prepare tea and send it to the study room soon.
When they reached the study, Steward Zhang bowed and said, “Lord Lu, please go in.”
When he pushed open the door, what came into view was a rosewood desk. On the left were yellow scrolls, stacked high, and on the right are the four treasures1(The Four Treasures of the Study are traditional writing tools, namely pen , ink , paper , and inkstone ) of the study. The ink on the brush tip has not yet dried, and it was placed diagonally on the brush holder.
Sui Yu came around from behind the bookshelf with a pile of documents in his hand, looked at Lu Yan and said, “I heard that Jingzhao Prefecture has been very busy recently. How come you have time to come here today?”
Lu Yan said calmly, “When is there a day when Jingzhao Prefecture is idle? I just passed by your mansion and wanted to play a game of Go with you.”
Sui Yu looked helplessly at Lu Yan but Yu Lu Yan was too lazy to even find a decent excuse. Xuanping Marquis Mansion was only one street away from Zhenguogong Mansion. If he was passing by, he would probably pass by it every day.
Sui Yu put down the documents in his hand and said, “Okay, I’m almost done, let’s play a game.”
The two men sat down around the Go table. The maid outside came in with freshly brewed tea. After putting it down, she raised her arm, respectfully poured two cups of tea and then left.
Sui Yu picked it up, took a sip and dropped a white piece on the board.
The two of them played chess in silence for half an hour. Sui Yu saw Lu Yan frowning and asked casually, “Are you worried about something?”
Lu Yan rubbed the black piece on his hands with his thumbs and asked, “Have you finished drinking that jar of fine wine?”
Sui Yu was stunned at first, but then he understood what Lu Yan meant. It turned out that he came to ask for wine today.
Sui Yu stood up, threw the Go piece in his hand back into the basket and said, “The wine is outside in the usual place, let’s go.”
They walked around the rockery and came to the waterside pavilion of the main hall.
The water pavilion of the Xuanping Marquis Mansion was uniquely built, with windows on all four sides and corridors on the left and right and across the middle of the pond. You can go fishing by opening the windows and by looking around, you can see bushes growing in circles.
It was really a great place to have a drink.
After taking their seats, Sui Yu brought out a set of exquisite wine utensils and two jars of fine wine.
He poured a glass for Lu Yan and said with a smile, “This is my treasure and I don’t have any more. Please try them.”
Lu Yan took it and drank it all in one gulp.
He looked at the only remaining jar of wine and couldn’t help but recall the past, when Shen Yao had just been granted marriage by the Emperor, the wine in the Xuanping Marquis’s mansion must have been piled higher than the city wall of Chang’an.
“I didn’t expect that you would still be short of wine.” Lu Yan said.
“I haven’t drunk since I got married .” Sui Yu raised a glass with a smile, measured it and said, “Even if I’m with you, I can only drink this much.”
Sui Yu doesn’t drink anymore, not because his wife forbids him to drink, but because he doesn’t dare to. People speak the truth after drinking and if he says someone else’s name in front of his wife, it would be unfair to her.
Lu Yan nodded in understanding.
For some reason today, there was an inexplicable hint of mutual sympathy in his eyes when he looked at Sui Yu.
Lu Yan drank one cup after another, stopping occasionally to say a few insignificant words.
When the jar of wine was empty, Sui Yu pointed to the top of his head and said casually, “Lu Shiyan, if you don’t say anything, it will get dark soon…”
Lu Yan frowned slightly. It was not that he didn’t want to talk about it, but he really didn’t know where to start talking about him and Shen Zhen.
“Tsk.” Sui Yu smiled and spoke first: “If you ask me, Third Sister’s title of the most beautiful woman in Chang’an is indeed not false.”
Lu Yan paused and curled his lips, “Chu Xun told you?”
Sui Yu nodded and said nonchalantly, “The wine you just drank was sent by him from Yangzhou at the beginning of this month, along with a letter. I didn’t expect you would send Shen Hong to Yangzhou.”
Lu Yan sneered, “Master Chu’s mouth is even more talkative than that of a brothel owner.”
Sui Yu raised his eyebrows, opened another jar of wine for him and said mischievously, “Third sister has a good temper. Lu Shiyan, don’t blame me for not reminding you that you are not the only one who sat here with me and drank for her, So don’t bully her.”
Lu Yan replied without even thinking: “Who are you calling Third Sister?”
Sui Yu said calmly, “Two years ago, Su Heng, the now Marquis of Changping who had just arrived in the Capital, also asked me for a jar of wine. Coincidentally, he sat in the same seat as you.”
Lu Yan’s eyes flashed.
Sui Yu pretended not to see it and continued, “Three years ago, my third sister had just come of age, and there were countless people in the capital who wanted to go to Yunyang Marquis’s mansion to propose marriage. But it happened that the surrounding areas of the country were not peaceful at that time. Not long after, Changping Marquis received an imperial decree to lead troops to garrison the border. Su Heng had been hesitant about whether to go to the Shen family to propose marriage in advance. He thought about it for a long time, but finally gave up. The reasons were nothing more than two reasons. First, he couldn’t bear to let third sister follow him to the border to suffer. Second, third sister was still young that year, so it was okay to wait two years to discuss about marriage.”
Third sister, third sister…
Lu Yan’s face darkened instantly.
“Hey, why are you looking at me like that? Shen Zhen used to climb trees with me when we were kids. She was the first one to call me Brother Yan.”
Lu Yan drank another glass.
“With your temper, you must have bullied her a lot…” Sui Yu frowned as he looked at him.
To be honest, at the beginning of this month, when Sui Yu received Chu Xun’s letter, his eyes went dark and he threw the cup in his hand to the ground in shock…
He really couldn’t believe that Lu Yan and Shen Zhen would end up in that kind of relationship.
When the Shen family got into trouble, Sui Yu had thought about paying back the money for the Shen family. However, in order to ensure that he would no longer have any involvement with the Shen family, the wife of Marquis Xuanping not only burned his famous paintings and smashed his porcelain, but also took away all the land deeds and silver in his name. She even threatened to suicide.
For a long time, there was no communication between the East Courtyard and the West Courtyard of the Xuanping Marquis’ Mansion.
In desperation, he could only inform Shen Shu and forge a household registration for Shen Zhen and Shen Hong at the Ministry of Household Registration. It was so realistic that it could be mistaken for the real thing.
Who knew that Shen Zhen and Shen Hong would disappear after that.
He had guessed countless people, including the Crown Prince, Lord Sun from the Ministry of War…
He never imagined that Shen Zhen had been in the capital all along and was hidden by Lu Yan.
When he heard the news, he was relieved but also nervous.
Lu Yan grew up with him, and he knew very well what kind of temper that he had. The Shen family and the Lu family had little affection for each other. No matter what the reason was that Shen Zhen fell into his hands, she must have shed a lot of tears at first.
That night, Sui Yu sat in the waterside pavilion, looking in the direction of the Uighurs, thinking for a long time.
Only then did he understand why Lu Yan always seemed to be helping the Crown Prince secretly.
Thinking back, Sui Yu looked at the man in front of him who was drinking alone and smiled again: “To be honest, Lu Shiyan, as the saying goes, new clothes are not as good as old ones, her childhood sweetheart is back, aren’t you panicking?”
“Sui Yu, you’re doing it on purpose!”
Lu Yan slammed the cup on the table with a clang, and said with a smile: “It’s true that a gentleman’s revenge is never too late. I only said a few words to you back then and you remember it till now?”
“Lu Yan, check your conscience before you speak. Just two sentences? Was it just two sentences?!”
Sui Yu was in love with the second daughter of the Shen family, and everyone in the capital knew about it. After Shen Yao left the capital, Sui Yu’s soul seemed to have been sucked out of him. His friends tried to persuade him with kind words and those who couldn’t persuade him expressed their grief and understanding…
Only Lu Yan, with a pair of eyes that saw through the world, cold and unkind, looked down at him and said, “Sui Yu, is it that serious?”
“Did Shen Yao cast a spell on you, or did she use a drug to confuse you?”
Lu Yan remained silent and raised his hand to press his eye.
He had never paid any attention to the Shen family’s affairs before.
Childhood sweethearts, marriage proposal…
After a while, Lu Yan looked at the empty cup in his hand and suddenly understood the bad side of drinking.
T/N – Sui Yu really knows how to hold a grudge 😂😂😂
