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Kapitel 15

Lin Zi was stunned by these words and remained silent for a long time. After sitting down opposite him, she asked uncertainly, "You know me?"

The man nodded firmly, then suddenly grabbed Lin Zi's right hand, which was resting on the table: "Transvestite, I missed you."

A familiar name immediately popped into Lin Zi's mind: "Xia Tian?" Only he said that.

The man nodded: "Transvestites, I think we've missed out on a lot of wonderful things."

Lin Zi looked at the man, whose eyes were filled with joy, unwavering devotion, and the undisguised gleam of love. She smiled and placed her left hand on top of the two hands that were entangled on the table: "Xia Tian, do you know what my wish for my 28th birthday is?"

What is it?

"Find someone to marry."

At some point, a birthday song started playing on repeat in the restaurant: "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..."

Turn the tables on them

The little girl ignored Prince Xin's ambiguous behavior, or rather, the affection he deliberately showed her. She walked up to Li Yuxuan, smiled mischievously, and revealed two small tiger teeth: "Kid, you're quite popular. Someone actually paid for you. But his money is his, and I still want the money you promised me."

...The three people in the room stared in disbelief. What kind of logic was this?

Li Yuxuan chuckled dryly, "Little sister, didn't you hear what this brother said? I'm poor, I have no money. Besides, I don't owe you any money."

They say June weather is like a child's face, changing at will. Actually, if you add the word "woman" to "child," it's more like a little girl's face, changing at will. Look, she was all smiles just a moment ago, but now, hearing Li Yuxuan's words, she immediately becomes fierce and bares her teeth, plopping down opposite him: "Hey, don't renege on your promise! You clearly promised to give me the money. Otherwise, I'll go to the yamen and sue you for refusing to help someone in distress and for murder for money. Otherwise, you'll have to compensate me for my broken bottom! You brat, you didn't even catch me when I fell! I haven't even settled that score with you yet!"

Xu Qingzhi spat out the entire mouthful of tea he had just drunk. His lack of excitement was truly beneath the dignity of a high-ranking official.

Li Yuxuan shook her head, her gaze shifting from Xu Qingzhi to the little girl. She had completely realized that this girl was no ordinary girl, not a disciple of some legendary immortal, but a wealthy young lady who had fallen into poverty and was unrestrained and uninhibited to the point of being idiotic, idiotic yet seemingly innocent, and innocent yet somewhat silly.

The eagle embroidered on the sachet at her waist—was it pure, naive, a little female eagle that flew out from some grassland or snow-capped mountain, or perhaps an even more shameless rogue than Li Yuxuan? Only time would tell. Li Yuxuan laughed heartily: "Little girl, you suddenly fell from above my head, scaring my heart out! I haven't even asked you for 'fright money' yet. And you messed up my intestines, kidneys, water, food, and feces—I haven't asked you for 'medical expenses' yet!" He then reached out to the little girl: "Give it to me!"

The little girl was bewildered by her talk of water and food, or perhaps shocked by her excrement. When she saw her reach out, she asked blankly, "What is this?" It is clear that the best way to deal with a rogue is to treat him in kind.

Taking advantage of her momentary daze, Li Yuxuan snatched the silver note from her hand: "Of course, I've brought the money. Consider this as medical expenses. You can leave now." She wondered why Prince Xin would prefer red to green in front of this young girl. It turned out this fox had already seen through the little girl's unusual nature. Since she wanted to test her, she'd let her do it. Three women make a drama, but two women can still put on a show. There was no need for Prince Xin to sacrifice his charms. Prince Xin was clever, and she wasn't stupid either.

She glanced at Prince Xin out of the corner of her eye and saw that his eyes were full of smiles.

The little girl suddenly stood up and lunged at the silver note in Li Yuxuan's hand: "You're lying, this is my silver note!"

Taking advantage of the situation, Li Yuxuan hugged her waist and smiled somewhat shamelessly: "If you call me good brother, I won't hold it against you and will return the silver note to you."

...Fine, for the sake of her country and the world, and to avoid seeing the story of her uncle and the little girl unfold before her eyes, she was willing to risk it all.

The little girl blushed, her eyes still fixed on her, but she remained obediently in her arms, motionless.

Li Yuxuan let go of her hand and rubbed her cheek: "That's a good girl! Girls need to act like ladies for people to like them." Although Li Yuxuan was also a girl, she was still half a head taller than this little girl who was not even that big.

The room suddenly fell silent.

The most surprised person was Xu Qingzhi, but thankfully he didn't drink any more tea. He just stared at Li Yuxuan as if he were a monster.

Then came the money, and she almost dropped her jaw.

Next was Prince Xin, who, despite his leisurely demeanor, opened his mouth wide, clearly having something to say but unable to utter it.

Ironically, the two people involved were in the best condition. The little girl looked shy, while Li Yuxuan had a big smile on his face. It was as if the seduction and counter-seduction had ended before it even began.

Looking at the little girl, Li Yuxuan was surprised that she didn't get angry at being taken advantage of like this. This was really unlike a little girl's personality. Could she have been seduced like this? Hmm, she felt guilty about seducing an innocent little girl.

She sat down, taking the little girl's hand as well, and said in a serious tone, "Little girl, how could you come out alone? And without telling your parents? Don't you know how worried they'll be? Don't you know there are many bad people in this world? What if those bad people see you're so pretty and a single woman, and they kidnap you to be their wife? Not only will your parents be heartbroken, but I'll be heartbroken too—good girl, tell me where your home is, what's your name, and I'll take you home."

"..." The little girl lowered her head and didn't say anything.

"Alright, you hit your brother, but I won't hold it against you. Who told you to be so cute? I like it when you call me brother like that." Li Yuxuan stuffed the silver notes back into her hand: "Listen to your brother, take the silver, rest here for the night, and go home tomorrow!"... Only then did Li Yuxuan realize that she also had the potential to be a fly.

The little girl shook off her hand, looked at her with her big eyes, and suddenly asked, "What's your name? What are you doing here with so many people? What are you doing with so many soldiers?"

"Well, about this..." Li Yuxuan looked at Prince Xin, who nodded. Li Yuxuan chuckled, "My brothers are here to deliver things to the border. Of course, we're definitely not here to fight. You can see me, right? Just a weak scholar. We're here to deliver things to the King of Western Xia."

"Send things to Xixia? With annual tribute?" The little girl asked Li Yuxuan with some surprise, but immediately became cheerful, jumping up and sitting on the table in front of her: "That's great! I won't go to the Central Plains anymore. It's no fun if I get captured by bad guys and become their wife. It's no fun like today, going hungry without any money. I'll go back with you!" Seeing this, Li Yuxuan smiled smugly: "Brother, I don't want your money anymore. I'll follow you from now on!"

Li Yuxuan, Prince Xin, and Xu Qingzhi exchanged glances: This little girl actually knows about the tax and wants to go back with them? Then who is she? A talisman, a death warrant, or a time bomb? Well, the time bomb is Li Yuxuan's idea. She's already being careful enough by disguised as a man. If she has this innocent idiot by her side, how can she have a good life?

I wanted to cry but couldn't.

Well, considering she might be their talisman, she'll tolerate it again and again. If she were a spy deliberately getting close to them, she'd have to be even more patient. Under the noses of the three of them, she probably couldn't cause any trouble.

She deliberately put on a stern face: "How can you follow me? I'm a man, and everyone here is a man! You're a girl, this won't do. I'll take you home tomorrow. By the way, where do you live? What's your name?"

"My home?" The little girl giggled. "I won't tell you. And I can't tell you my name either. By the way, what's your name? I can't keep calling you 'kid'!"

“My name is Li Yuxuan.” Pointing to Prince Xin, he said, “His name is Prince Xin.” Pointing to Xu Qingzhi, he said, “His name is Brother Xu.”

"Hahaha!" The little girl flipped over and landed on the floor, pointing at Li Yuxuan and laughing loudly: "Kid, so your surname is Li too!"

Also surnamed Li—Li Yuanhao, emperor of the Western Xia Dynasty, was surnamed Li. Yelü Hongji, emperor of the Liao Dynasty, had Empress Dowager Xiao. The answer is clear.

“Yes, my surname is also Li.” Li Yuxuan smiled slightly. “Miss Li, I agree to let you stay with us, but you have to listen to me and be good, okay?”

"No way!" the girl rejected without hesitation. "It's always others who listen to me, never me who listens to others. I'll stay and see how it goes. If I'm happy, I'll stay; if I'm not, I'll run away. So you have to find a way to make me happy, understand?"

"I know, I know!" Li Yuxuan nodded quickly and said to Yinzi, "Go and prepare a superior room for this Miss Li."

He then said softly to the little girl, "Why don't you go get something to eat with this gentleman? You probably haven't had dinner yet, have you?"

The young girl hadn't eaten dinner and was starving. She had wanted to ask them for something to eat for a while, but seeing them everywhere in the inn, she didn't know their origins and hadn't dared to ask for food. Now that she knew they were just delivering New Year's money to Xixia, she was happy and patted Yinzi on the shoulder: "Young brother, let's go. Get me something good to eat first. I lost my purse and haven't eaten all day."

Watching the little girl walk out of the room, Li Yuxuan slumped onto a stool, saying, "I'm exhausted."

Xu Qingzhi walked to her side and asked with concern, "Is your stomach really alright?"

Li Yuxuan gave a wry smile: "I have trouble everywhere I go, I'm just an unlucky guy."

Upon seeing this, Prince Xin laughed and said, "Brother Li is fine everywhere, just a little worry."

Li Yuxuan rolled her eyes at him: "Just keep showing off. Now that we know this little girl is likely from the Western Xia royal family, what are we going to do?"

Round lotus dew 1

Prince Xin sat there leisurely as ever: "What do I say we should do? Whatever Brother Li says, we should do. Didn't Brother Li already win over this little girl? Look how gentle she was when she looked at you just now..." His smile widened: "If Brother Li can be chosen by this little girl and go to Western Xia for the sake of the Great Song Dynasty to make peace, then Lord Li will surely be remembered for all time and will be remembered for generations to come, making an unparalleled contribution to the peace between our Great Song Dynasty and Western Xia."

Li Yuxuan looked up at the roof. "See?" she thought. "This is the consequence of standing up for what's right. That cunning fox, getting the better of me and still acting innocent, making sarcastic remarks. If she hadn't seen through Prince Xin's intentions and stepped forward, given his seductive skills with women, he, Prince Xin, would have been the one sent to Xixia for the marriage alliance. And when they found out he was actually a 'chrysanthemum wretched' (a derogatory term for a woman with a chrysanthemum-like appearance), they might have been enraged and the Song Dynasty would have been reduced to the Southern Song, starting with Emperor Renzong, and the dynasty would have been confined to Jiangnan."

Actually, it's quite fun.

Seeing that she didn't speak, Prince Xin stood up from the stool, walked to her side and looked down at her. He met her eyes, which were filled with sorrow as she looked at the ceiling. He smiled, turned her shoulder to face him, and said in a deep voice, "I was just joking. I'm very touched that you would do this for me."

Li Yuxuan was actually lost in his own fantasy about the Southern Song Dynasty. He was startled by the way Prince Xin appeared. He pushed Prince Xin's hand away and stood up: "Your Highness!"

The distance was too close. Li Yuxuan felt that the tip of his nose would touch Prince Xin's shoulder if he was just one centimeter away, so he quickly moved his body to the right.

Seeing her like this, Prince Xin consciously took a step back.

She glanced at the fleeting hint of hurt in Prince Xin's eyes, and a poem, strangely poignant, came to mind: "When autumn comes on the ninth day of the ninth month, my flowers bloom, and all others wither. Their fragrance fills the borderlands, and the whole city is adorned with faded chrysanthemums." The timing was perfect…

Alas! Prince Xin was actually quite handsome, probably around 1.8 meters tall, about the same height as Su Shi. His features were distinct and deep-set… paired with dark, deep eyes, he appeared wild and unrestrained, charmingly sexy yet magnanimous and forthright. Why would such a stunning man be a licentious woman?

Prince Xin, of course, never expected Li Yuxuan to have such despicable thoughts. Seeing her avoid him, he knew that she had always been wary of him, and he smiled bitterly: "Lord Li, I am confident that I am still a true villain, right? You don't need to avoid me like this, do you? It hurts me very much."

Li Yuxuan didn't want to get entangled with him on such a question; it was a question that had no answer, or rather, it was impossible for him to get an answer at this stage. She also gave a wry smile: "Your Highness, Brother Xu, haven't you been tormented enough today? If you think that's enough, then please leave. I've been in the bandits' den all day and haven't rested yet."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qingzhi immediately stood up: "Yes, Brother Li, you should rest well. We won't disturb you any longer." For some reason, seeing Prince Xin's conscious or unconscious closeness to Li Yuxuan, he felt a strange mix of emotions, like eating an unripe plum, a sour taste that lingered all the way down to his gut.

Of course, he hadn't figured out what this "flavor" meant yet; he simply didn't want to see the somewhat ambiguous actions between Prince Xin and Li Yuxuan in front of him. Li Yuxuan was his third brother, so gentle and frail, so pitiful to behold, and protecting her was his responsibility.

Prince Xin knew Li Yuxuan was right. His gaze swept over her slightly sallow face. She had truly suffered these past few days. He wanted to reach out and touch that smiling face, but ultimately clenched his fist and lowered his hand. "You should rest well. If you need anything, just tell me to come find you. Also, when the army doctor brings your medicine later, be sure to take it!"

Li Yuxuan smiled and nodded. Watching them leave, she wasn't a fool. She had long since seen through Prince Xin's feelings, but she couldn't accept them, nor could she bear them. Even if he realized she was a woman, even if his feelings for her were those of a normal man for a woman, she couldn't accept it. Moreover, his feelings for her might be like one flower's feelings for another…

To be with one person for life, that is her minimum requirement for love. Her dream life is to fulfill her wish, then retire to Jiangnan in a couple of years, build a villa by the Su Causeway, find a sincere and devoted man, and live a simple and peaceful life together.

She lay down on the bed fully clothed, her thoughts drifting to her hometown of Suzhou from a past life. She recalled Dai Wangshu's poem "Rainy Alley," the image of a Jiangnan woman, her beauty and fragrance like lilacs, her melancholy like lilacs. Shouldn't she possess the allure and melancholy of a Jiangnan woman? Yet now, dressed as a man, she walked this silent and desolate plateau. Further ahead, she would enter the Qilian Mountains, and on the northern slopes of the Qilian Mountains lay Liangzhou. In her memory, that place was only desert and Gobi. These were the things she had longed for most: the lone smoke rising straight from the desert, the setting sun round over the long river… Why did she now feel such intense sorrow at parting? Even without longing, sorrow at parting was like the lilacs in the rainy alley, lonely and lost.

She thought of the movie Dragon Inn, and the character Jin Xiangyu, played by Maggie Cheung, a lonely and bewildered desert woman.

Yinzi came in and saw her lying stiffly on the bed, lost in thought. She knew her daughter was daydreaming again. She went over and took off her shoes: "Girl, you've been up and about for so long, aren't you tired? Go to sleep now! I'll wake you up when the doctor brings the medicine."

Li Yuxuan was picturing the Dragon Gate Inn in her mind when Yinzi's grumbling completely shattered that feeling. Wasn't it right for her to reminisce about her past life? Why was she always being interrupted? A body could be replaced, but memories could still fly freely. She gave Yinzi a resentful look and took off her coat herself. Underneath, she wore a thin, cotton, silk Tang-style bodysuit. Although it was only September, the temperature in the mountains was already quite low, especially at night; Li Yuxuan felt it was colder than winter in Jiangnan.

She reached into her clothes and untied her bodice, then burrowed under the covers. Her stomach still ached a little, but it was bearable. She asked Yinzi to move the lamp over, and when she lifted the covers, she saw a bruise the size of a fist on her lower abdomen. She couldn't help but grit her teeth and say, "That little girl is too ruthless. If I were a man, I would stay a hundred miles away from her."

Yinzi asked worriedly, "Should I go to the army doctor and get some topical medicine to apply?"

“No need!” Li Yuxuan immediately stopped her. “If Prince Xin and Brother Xu find out, I don’t know how much they’ll nag me. I’ll bear with it and ask for some peace and quiet.”

Yinzi helplessly straightened her clothes: "Girl, why aren't you a real man? If you were a real man, I would really marry you."

Li Yuxuan chuckled and was about to lie down when there was a knock on the door. She quickly covered herself with the blanket, closed her eyes, and pretended to be asleep.

Seeing that Li Yuxuan was asleep, Yinzi went to open the door and said, "Here he is." She thought it must be the army doctor bringing medicine.

Standing at the door was Xu Qingzhi, holding a bowl of medicine that emitted a strong medicinal smell. Yinzi reached out to take the bowl, but Xu Qingzhi stepped aside, saying, "I'll take it to my third brother myself."

Yinzi had no choice but to step aside and let him in: "Lord Xu, my young master is already asleep. You can leave the medicine and go."

Xu Qingzhi chuckled: "I know my third brother's temper. She definitely won't take this bitter medicine without supervision. You wake her up, I'll watch her drink it and then I'll leave."

"But, Lord Xu—" Yinzi knew that her young lady was exactly as Xu Qingzhi described, but she didn't expect that Lord Xu knew her so well. How should she answer? She looked pleadingly at the bed, but Li Yuxuan seemed to be really asleep, without making a sound.

Xu Qingzhi also looked towards the bed and saw Li Yuxuan sleeping on her side. He walked towards the bedside to wake her up, but Yinzi panicked when she saw Xu Qingzhi walking towards the bed and stepped in front of the bed to block her way: "Lord Xu, no!"

"Why not? Did she really tell you she wouldn't get up to take her medicine? That's absolutely unacceptable. The land ahead is bitterly cold; how can she travel with all her injuries? She absolutely must take the medicine." Xu Qingzhi smiled gently at Yinzi: "I know you're afraid of being punished by your young master. Don't worry, with me here, this is none of your business. Move aside!"

Li Yuxuan listened to their conversation from the bed and knew that relying on money to protect him was hopeless. This girl, after following him for so many years, is still so honest. Sigh.

She turned over and asked lazily, feigning displeasure, "Yinzi, what are you arguing about? Don't you know I'm sleeping?"

When Yinzi saw that Li Yuxuan had spoken, she was so happy that she quickly stepped aside: "Young Master, it is Lord Xu who insists on seeing you."

“Didn’t I say I wouldn’t see anyone? Tell Brother Xu that I’m asleep and that he should come back tomorrow.”

"Third brother, wake up? If you're awake, get up and take your medicine!" Seeing Yinzi move aside, Xu Qingzhi obediently plopped down on the edge of the bed. "Stop whining, get up!"

"I..." Li Yuxuan burst into tears. He actually accused her of being unreasonable! She didn't want to take her medicine, but there was another reason she couldn't get out of bed. How could this stubborn person be so fixated on her medicine? And she even sat on the bed!

Seeing that Li Yuxuan was still lying in bed, even putting his head in there, Xu Qingzhi was speechless and couldn't help but shake his head and smile: "Third brother, you are not a child, and I am not a parent. Don't act like a child with me. We will enter the high mountain area if we go any further. You are injured, and it will be very difficult for you then."

Sometimes, the one riding a white horse isn't Prince Charming, but Tang Sanzang—that's a really good saying. Even Sun Wukong couldn't escape Tang Sanzang's golden headband.

This stubborn scholar will definitely not give up until he achieves his goal. But she really can't face anyone like this. Where's the money? Where did it all go?