Trying to trick my wife again? (Part One)
Translation Checker: jellypeaches
Editor: jellypeaches, Miiya, and Avalie
Unlike the last time when Meng Huan ran to join the herd like a stray sheep at the first sight of the original host’s friends in order to get a sense of security, this time, Lin Bozhou had already fulfilled his need for stability. Meng Huan calmly picked up his tea cup, looked away and said, “Pardon me, I haven’t seen many operas, so I can’t recall a piece with a similar plot.”
He’d learned how to stay smart against people with uncertain intentions.
Thus, he decided to keep his guard up for the time being.
In the pavilion, the atmosphere was quiet and harmonious.
Meng Huan deliberately played ignorant, which in Cui Han’s eyes, was done with good reason. After all, Cui Han’s grandfather was a representative of the Zhuoliu Faction, while Meng Huan’s father was a member of the Qingliu Faction. It was understandable not to trust him.
Cui Han coughed and decided to be even more obvious.
He picked up the clear water beside the teacup, lost his grip, and suddenly dropped it. “Oh no—”
Meng Huan hurriedly stood up.
As water spilled into the teacup, the splash upset the lid and tore apart a tea leaf that was floating vertically, and the orange-yellow tea became further diluted by the water.
Cui Han let out a mysterious laugh. “Royal Consort, please forgive this junior’s rudeness, hahaha…”
His insinuation was very obvious—the clear mixed with the turbid, breaking down obstacles.
It was just that this compound was filled with Lin Bozhou’s men. If the master of the compound knew of their motives, the consequences would be unimaginable, so he had no choice but to signal his messages with these actions.
Meng Huan looked at the mess, lost in thought.
Cui Han looked at him with anticipation.
Finally, Meng Huan looked away, puzzled. “How am I going to drink this tea now?”
Cui Han: “…”
Meng Huan frowned with a troubled expression. “It’s fine, I won’t drink it.”
Cui Han began, “Royal Consort—”
“I’m heading back to write, so I’ll see you another day.”
After Meng Huan said that, he yawned and walked out of the pavilion without waiting for Cui Han’s response.
Cui Han remained where he sat with a strange expression. He really didn’t understand why Meng Huan was playing dumb to this extent.
After a moment, his furrowed brow became smooth again.
Most likely, it was because he had not gained the other’s trust yet.
It appeared that more action needed to be taken.
–
The weather was so hot that even when wearing thin clothes, the heat could still emit from the light fabric.
A few days later, the servants set out paper, brushes, and paint in the pavilion by the lotus pond where the round leaves would tremble from the slightest ripple. Meng Huan sat and drew the landscape. He picked up the brush to measure the distance, then bowed his head and laid down a stroke of color on the realist piece.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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As Meng Huan sat there drawing, the sound of soft footsteps came up behind him.
Thinking it was a servant who came to fan him, he didn’t look back.
About a quarter of an hour later, Meng Huan took a drink from his teacup and finally noticed a young people standing behind him.
They were dressed in the clothing of court musicians. The youth looked quite handsome, while the girl looked very gentle. Meng Huan was startled and asked, “You two are?”
“This servant is the court musician that the Royal Consort saved that day.”
“Oh.” Meng Huan remembered. “The one who was getting a whipping in the yard, right?”
Both of them looked ashamed.
“Are you two feeling better now? Are your wounds healed?”
“Thanking the Royal Consort for the concern, the injuries have all healed. Today, the troupe is idle, so we thought to come and give our thanks to the Royal Consort.”
They seemed to want to kneel and kowtow.
Meng Huan quickly bent down and stopped them. “Actually, there is no need to thank me. If anything, you two should thank His Royal Highness, since while it appears that people are giving me face, they are actually giving face to His Royal Highness.”
They were bravely pursuing love, and being very similar in age with him, Meng Huan’s impression of them was quite good and he naturally felt close to them.
“When did you two get together?” Now that they were close, Meng Huan began to gossip.
Xue Hong, the young man, couldn’t resist letting out a laugh.
The girl, Xue Yan, shyly lowered her head instantly.
When they smiled, Meng Huan felt even closer to them and could not resist chatting some more.
Xue Hong took out a wooden flute from his sleeve and said, “Royal Consort, this is a flute that this servant whittled with a knife. Currently, I am an apprentice in the Pear Garden. Since I don’t have any money, I could only make something myself. I hope the Royal Consort won’t dislike it.”
The wooden flute had been smoothly polished and beautifully crafted. Meng Huan accepted it and sincerely replied, “Thank you.”
Xue Hong and Xue Yan exchanged a look with each other and smiled.
The two said in unison, “Royal Consort, we can’t be absent from the Pear Garden for too long, so we will be leaving.”
Then the two walked out of the pavilion with one in front of the other, escaping the notice of others.
Looking at their backs and then at the wooden flute in his hand, Meng Huan slowly laid his head on the stone table and held the instrument up to the sun.
This was him…making friends?
He put the short flute into his clothes, patted it, turned to pick up his brush, and continued to paint the landscape painting he was still working on.
As the sun gradually progressed across the sky, Feng Zhi eventually spoke up, “Madam, this servant estimates that His Royal Highness will be back soon.”
Every day when Lin Bozhou returned to the compound, Meng Huan would wait for him at the gate. Hearing this, Meng Huan put away his paintbrush and washed his hands in the pond. “Alright, I will head over now.”
Lin Bozhou usually arrived at the compound around four-thirty. Meng Huan calculated the time and realized that he had waited for about a half an hour. It was five o’clock, and Lin Bozhou’s carriage was still nowhere to be seen.
“Why is His Royal Highness not back yet?”
As Meng Huan was confused by this, a horse quickly approached and stopped at the entrance. It was the attendant who usually accompanied Lin Bozhou.
The attendant got off of the horse and knelt on the ground. “Royal Consort, His Royal Highness was stopped by His Majesty as soon as court ended, saying it is Imperial Consort Xi’s birthday and asking His Royal Highness to dine together.”
Meng Huan was stunned for a moment. “No wonder he hasn’t come back yet.”
“His Royal Highness worried that the Royal Consort would keep on waiting, and told this one to hurry back on horse to inform the Royal Consort that there is no need to wait since His Royal Highness will be coming back very late tonight, and might not even return at all.”
Because there was a curfew in the inner city, no one could travel the streets at night, and royalty would be looked after in the palace, so the chances of Lin Bozhou staying in the palace for the night was quite high.
Meng Huan nodded, thinking that it was very considerate of Lin Bozhou to send someone to inform him so that he didn’t have to continue waiting.
Since Lin Bozhou would not be returning, Meng Huan went to the dining room alone to eat his thirty-course meal.
At the dining hall, Meng Huan saw a group of uniformed disciples lined up in order, also there to eat.
In the crowd, he saw Xue Hong, the young boy who had given him the flute in the afternoon. Xue Hong looked up and met his eyes.
Not expecting such a coincidence, Meng Huan was surprised. “You—”
Xue Hong immediately nudged Xue Yan standing next to him, then the couple looked at him and smiled in unison.
This got Meng Huan to smile as well, making him feel at ease.
After their exchange of smiles, Meng Huan went to the nearby pavilion and sat down. Sure enough, not long after, the two ran over. “Royal Consort.”
“Have you two eaten yet?”
“Yes.”
Meng Huan inquired, “You didn’t buy back your freedom?”
“Not yet, the master said that since we have studied performance under him for more than a decade, it would be a shame for us to just leave like that with our skills. So he is allowing us to stay, and we will leave once we are older.”
Meng Huan nodded. “That is good.”
Xue Yan was curious. “Was the Royal Consort waiting for us here?”
Meng Huan nodded. “His Royal Highness will be returning late tonight, so I got bored and went for a walk.”
Being at a young age, playing was like second nature. Xue Yan pondered and suggested, “If the Royal Consort is bored, at night there are fireflies in the grove beside the lotus pond. You can go and catch them. This servant and Xue Hong used to go there often. When it’s dark, it is a gorgeous sight with fireflies as far as the eye can see.”
Meng Huan saw right through it. “You two often go there for dates, right?”
Xue Yan’s face instantly turned red.
It seemed they really had many trysts in the woods.
Meng Huan laughed, got up, and said, “Let’s go and have a look.”
In the grove, the sky was dim and the shadows of the trees covered the earth. Sure enough, the glow of fireflies hovered over the grass.
Meng Huan gazed around. “This one is so bright—”
The voice that answered him was very soft.
The young couple drew closer to each other as they walked, until they slowly held hands.
“……”
Fortunately, Meng Huan’s attention was elsewhere. As he gazed up at the drifting fireflies, You Jin handed him a thin silk bag. Meng Huan then ran and chased after them, catching them in the cup of his palms and gently maneuvering them into the thin silk bag. The silk bag was semi-transparent, making it so that the fluorescent light could be seen through the bag, which was very beautiful.
You Jin also caught one. His aged face flushed with excitement as he showed it to Meng Huan. “Royal Consort, this old servant caught one. Quick, put it in the bag!”
Meng Huan pursed his lips. “I don’t want yours, I want to catch them myself.”
You Jin: “…”
Meng Huan was sweaty all over from running. At first, he’d been feeling down because Lin Bozhou would not be returning to the compound, but now he had forgotten all about it and was beside himself with joy.
The fireflies in the silk bag were bright. He cheerfully went back home with them, and fell asleep happily under the blankets.
–
Late at night, at the entrance of the Prince Regent’s compound.
Now that it was after curfew, the place was silent.
When the carriage came to a halt, the guards recognized that it was His Royal Highness’s carriage and knelt. “Your Royal Highness.”
As his figure descended from the carriage, Lin Bozhou said, “Quiet.”
He stank of alcohol and the scent of the inner palace. The smell was dark and heavy due to the incense used in Imperial Consort Xi’s palace. The Xuanhe Emperor had really wanted him to stay in the palace, however, Lin Bozhou asked for the decree to be out after curfew without blinking an eye and exited the Meridian Gate in the middle of night.
The servants in the compound were all asleep, so the attendant asked the gatehouse for a lantern and led the way to the bedchamber.
You Jin was dozing off by the door, but hearing some movements, his eyes widened and he exclaimed, “Your Royal Highness!!”
Lin Bozhou’s first words were, “Huan Huan went to sleep?”
“Yes, the Royal Consort is asleep.”
“Then let’s not wake him up. This Regent will bathe first.”
You Jin thought about it and asked, “Did Your Royal Highness rush back in the night for the Royal Consort?”
Lin Bozhou looked at You Jin with intoxicated eyes and the latter immediately tee-hee’d.
His Royal Highness loved his wife very much.
A light was quietly lit in the room, and as Lin Bozhou bathed and changed his clothes, his over-controlling nature made it a habit for him to ask You Jin, “What did Huan Huan do today?”
“Studied characters in the morning, painted in the afternoon…” You Jin replied as he thought it over, “and went out to play in the evening.”
Lin Bozhou paused as he walked into the hall and asked, “This Regent heard that Huan Huan didn’t get angry that this Regent couldn’t come back tonight?”
You Jin thought for a moment. “…Probably not.”
“…”
Lin Bozhou lowered his eyes and ground his teeth slightly. At Imperial Consort Xi’s birthday banquet, he’d wasted his attention being restless and distracted by the thought of Meng Huan standing at the gate waiting for him, to the point that he couldn’t even enjoy the wine and only wished he could leave immediately.
In the end, Lin Bozhou didn’t say anything else. He walked to the sleeping chamber where the light was kept dim. There was a small figure lying on the bed. Meng Huan’s hair was spread out and scattered on the bed. His eyes were closed and he slept very soundly.
There was a faint glow under the quilt.
Lin Bozhou’s eyelids twitched as he gently lifted up the corner of the quilt. Beside Meng Huan’s pillow was a silk bag, which was glowing brightly. The fireflies were bumping into each other in the bag, the small cluster looking as if there were a small handful of moonbeams trapped inside.
The youth looked as if he had found a treasure, sleeping with the silk bag of fireflies by his side and refusing to let go of it.
Lin Bozhou lowered his eyes and saw a wooden flute beside the silk bag.
His originally relaxed eyebrows rose into peaks. He picked up the flute and inspected it, a faint shadow covering his eyes.
After a moment, he put the flute back and found You Jin, who was dozing off outside the hall. “Who has Huan Huan been keeping company with lately?”
You Jin stumbled. Realizing that Lin Bozhou’s expression was displeased, it felt like a knot was in his throat as he hurriedly answered.
Is this like in the og plot where the og Meng Huan ran away with his friends in the opera troupe?
Thanks for the update ❤
Wonder what that flute means..
Uh oh, this doesn’t look to be going in a good direction…
Thanks for the chapter!
Having fun without him…jelly… Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣
Thanks for the update!
I hope this doesn’t turn bad … thanks for the update 🩵
Thank You for the new chapter ʚ♡⃛ɞ(ू•ᴗ•ू❁)
I have actually been in the same situation as Lin Bozhou many times, where you fret so much about your sticky lover being unhappy that you don’t have fun, and then you find out they were having fun with someone else. Maybe even cheating. It looks so controlling or egocentric here, but I kind of expected Meng Huan to feel neglected too. Hopefully Lin Bozhou will recover when he finds that Huan Huan is happy he’s back, and the friends are not politically motivated.
I’m really glad to read that Huan Huan only pretend to be silly, but not really be little silly naive kitten as before. It makes him more pleasant in my eyes as a character (If he would be a silly naive kitten I would probably still like him). Sorry my English is a little bit chaotic today
Thank you for your translation 💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚
Thanks for the chapter