Eternal Night - Chapter 127
Yuepo tapped her and laughed, "This isn't my hometown. It seems we need to find a way to leave. Staying here will only lead to starvation."
The pig turned into two liters of rice, a piece of meat, and a jar of pickles.
After checking their supplies, Moon Soul and Eternal Night decided to leave the Holy Capital.
Yongye glanced at his own blue cloth robes, then at Yuepo's gray ones, and couldn't help but smile. He used to only wear purple clothes because that child only loved purple, and he'd unconsciously followed suit for so many years. But Yuepo always wore a moon-white robe—why was that?
"Good doctors are all ethereal and wise, dressed in white robes, and look like they are free from illness and disaster."
Yongye scoffed: "So that's how angels in white came to be."
What is an angel?
"They are people sent down by heaven to treat the sick and relieve the pain of the common people," Yongye explained. Seeing Yuepo's dismissive expression, he couldn't help but laugh.
The two slowly walked out of the city. She had been away from the post station for ten days. Judging from their decent disguises, they should be able to slip out of the city without any problem.
However, the two stopped in their tracks when they reached the south gate. Two houses had been erected at the gate, and anyone leaving the city was to be checked in separate lines, men and women, without exception.
Yongye felt a little apprehensive and asked Yuepo to go out of the city to test the waters. An hour later, Yuepo returned from the city and told Yongye that nothing was wrong; everyone had simply taken off their clothes and shoes for a check upon entering the house. Yongye was dumbfounded.
Moon Spirit looked at her with suspicion and said, "Do you have any obvious markings on your body?"
Yongye, her face flushed with anger, dragged Yuepo back to the clinic, slammed the door shut, and stomped her feet, cursing Prince Duan for selling his daughter for personal gain. Then she took off her shoes, revealing the flower on the sole of her foot, and asked Yuepo, "Can this cover it up?"
Yuepo examined it closely, her expression quite strange. After a long while, she said, "You can use a branding iron. However, not only will you be in excruciating pain, but it will also be more noticeable."
"Can a disguise drug cover it up?"
"The soles of the feet are difficult to treat."
Yongye immediately deflated: "What should we do? How am I supposed to know what my mother used to draw it on?"
Yuepo looked at her leisurely and said slowly, "Actually, it's not that it can't be eliminated..."
"Is there any way?"
"Xinghun, will you marry me?"
Yongye was stunned. Marry him? She and Yuepo lived comfortably in the same courtyard, but she hadn't considered marrying him yet. She looked at Yuepo with a puzzled expression: "Let's leave here first. Right now, how do we solve this flower problem?"
"That flower..." Yuepo hesitated, but seeing Yongye's anxiety, she stammered, "You'll lose it once you get married."
Huh? Yongye was both amused and embarrassed, and then furious. Standing barefoot on the ground, he scolded the princess again. Then, he stormed into the room, slammed the door shut, and yelled that he wasn't eating dinner.
She peeked at Yuepo through the crack in the door and saw him standing there, looking both amused and slightly disappointed. She sighed; the thought of marrying Yuepo now seemed a bit too much for her. It wasn't about the marriage itself, but rather that she wasn't mentally prepared for how to make love with a man.
Yongye sighed, somewhat dejected. For eighteen years, she had accepted the fact that she was a girl and didn't dislike men at all. But why did the thought of being intimate with Yuepo make her feel awkward? She could hug him, she could lie comfortably in his arms, but she felt no desire for him. Yongye wondered if she had a psychological block because she carried memories from her past life?
She lay there for a long time, feeling distressed. Her stomach began to rumble with hunger, so she got up, drank a jug of water, and lay back down. Yuepo was male and had a bigger appetite than her, so she'd spared him some food tonight in a fit of pique, letting him eat more. The rice and grain they'd gotten from the pig-catching incident wouldn't last more than a few days.
She lay in bed, lost in thought, constantly fiddling with the Tianhuang stone seal in her hand. Should she secretly go out and steal some silver from a wealthy family? She knew that if she did, Yuepo would be upset; after all, he was a man. It wasn't that he lacked the ability to earn money; it was that he couldn't. If a famous doctor emerged in the capital, he would attract too much attention.
Yongye felt that she was the one who had dragged Yuepo down, not the other way around.
As she pondered, her eyes lit up, and she kissed the Tianhuang seal stone in her hand. The seal was golden in color and as smooth and lustrous as jade. It would be worth a hundred or eighty taels of silver without any problem.
Yongye smiled sweetly. She wanted to pawn the Tianhuang seal stone and buy a new set of clothes. Looking at Yuepo, she thought of what he had said that day, and changed into women's clothes to show him first. She didn't want to force herself to sleep with Yuepo; she would let things take their course. Perhaps one day, everything would fall into place naturally.
Volume 4
Broken stones and rotten materials
As sunlight streamed into the courtyard, Yongye stood there and took a breath of the fresh morning air. She drew water from the well to wash her face; the water droplets splashed on her skin, bringing a refreshing sensation.
Yuepo came in from the outer room and happily flicked her forehead, saying, "I'm taking the herbs from the yard to the pharmacy in the west city to sell. You stay home and wait for me obediently. They're all good medicinal herbs; I almost forgot about them since I see them every day. I'll buy you something delicious when I get back. The porridge is in the kitchen; you didn't eat it last night, remember to drink it."
Yongye was about to bring up the matter of using Tianhuang seal stone, but thinking of giving Yuepo a surprise, he chuckled and nodded in agreement.
Yuepo carefully dug the medicinal herbs out of the soil, put them in a bamboo basket, patted Yongye's head, lowered his head and kissed her cheek. Seeing her staring blankly at him, he smiled and went out.
Yongye stood in the courtyard, touching her face in a daze. Yuepo lowered his head to kiss her, and her breath seemed still fresh. After a long while, she jumped up happily. Yuepo had kissed her, but she felt no repulsion whatsoever. She wasn't a man! She was definitely not someone with psychological issues!
Yongye happily found a gray cloth robe made of moonlight and shortened the sleeves and hem. The robe hung loosely on his body, and Yongye chuckled. Being a little slovenly saved him the trouble of disguise. He made himself look like a dark-skinned boy, and feeling quite satisfied, he excitedly took the seal stone and went out into the street.
She walked easily through the streets of the capital, seeing that the city was laid out in a square pattern, with wide streets and the ground paved with large bluestones.
Having explored the Three Kingdoms, Kyoto was noble, Zeya was elegant, and as for Shengjing, Yongye directly praised its grandeur.
Da Chang Hao was the largest pawnshop in Shengjing, a grand courtyard house with a three-story gatehouse that resembled a fortress. Two large stone lions stood guard outside the shop, their claws bared. The large gate, atop three sets of blue stone steps, was wide open, like a gaping maw ready to swallow a person. Yong Ye gazed up at it for a long time before entering.
The pawnshop counter was also high up; even though she was tall for a woman, the counter still towered over her. Yongye took a step back and said with a smile to the clerk behind the iron bars, "I would like to pawn a family heirloom, a top-grade Tianhuang stone seal." She took out the Tianhuang seal, placed it on the counter, and then took another step back to examine it.
The clerk picked up the stone, examined it, and asked, "Young master, do you intend to pawn it dead or alive?"
"How much is sacrificed for death, and how much for life?"
"If I die, I'll be worth twenty taels of silver; if I live, I'll be worth ten taels!"
So little? Yongye sighed, "I'm quitting."
Chao Feng didn't say much, returned the Tianhuang seal to Yong Ye, and shook his head as he saw him leave.
Sure enough, Yongye circled around and came back: "I'll take it, I'll take it to the death!"
"A broken stone seal, worth twenty taels!" the clerk announced in a long, drawn-out voice.
"Wait a minute, this is top-grade Tianhuang stone, but you wrote 'broken stone and worthless material' on the pawn ticket?"