The General Seized Her by Force - Chapter 6

Private rooms at the Xiankelai Restaurant were not easy to book today.

Everyone in the capital knew that between the Grand Ceremony of Announcing the Examination Results in the morning and the Qionglin Banquet, there would be a grand procession of the newly successful candidates through the city. Since the Xiankelai Restaurant was located right next to the main street, the rooms on the second floor offered a perfect vantage point to take in the entire spectacle.

As early as half a month ago, the rooms on the second floor of the Xiankelai Restaurant had already been completely booked.

Those in the capital who managed to book a private room in advance were naturally either wealthy or noble; offering a high price was of no use.

When Guan Lu came to report, it was exactly the time of the Chen hour (between 7:00 and 9:00 AM).

Li Yue, dressed in light pink training clothes, was holding a horse stance. The light that had almost faded from her eyes suddenly burst forth with brilliance, and she subconsciously looked at Li Chu, who was in front of her.

It’s better that there aren’t any. If there aren’t any, we won’t have to go.

Li Chu was full of energy. Although she might have been a bit tired after rushing on the road for several days, she was once again full of vigor after waking up from a night’s sleep.

She had gotten up half an hour earlier and, after a simple warm-up, had taken her long spear and danced with it in the sandy area for a while. Hearing Guan Lu say there were no rooms left, she stopped, still feeling unfulfilled.

This level of intensity was far too simple for Li Chu; there wasn’t even a thin layer of sweat on the tip of her nose.

She held the spear and turned around, the arrowhead gently lifting Li Yue’s lazy, drooping arm. “Did you manage to find out who booked the rooms?”

Guan Lu revealed a proud look; she knew the General would ask! She immediately took out a piece of paper from her bosom and slowly unfolded it. “I found out.”

She read them out one by one.

From court officials to wealthy merchants, they were all included.

Li Yue listened carefully, then raised her eyes in confusion at her older sister. “Are there any people here who are on good terms with our family?”

Li Chu looked down at her, puzzled by why she would ask such a silly question. “Naturally, there are none.”

She and her uncle had lived in the borderlands for a long time, and Li Yue had been raised in Pingjiang since she was a child. The Li family had no one to socialize or connect with in the capital, so how could there be any families with whom they were on good terms?

Li Yue was confused. “Then?”

Li Chu used the shaft of her spear to gently tap Li Yue’s trembling calves, her tone as casual and normal as if she were talking about what to have for breakfast. “If there weren’t any before, won’t we have them once we start socializing today? What is difficult about that?”

Li Yue, “?”

Before Li Yue could react to the meaning behind Li Chu’s words, Li Chu had already told Guan Lu to prepare a basket of the sweet melons she had eaten yesterday.

After the sisters washed up, had breakfast, and changed their clothes, the carriage in the backyard had already been hitched.

The Grand Ceremony of Announcing the Examination Results began after the morning court session, at approximately the beginning of the Chen hour. By the time the candidates received their imperial appointments and left the palace, it would be at the earliest the end of the Chen hour.

Li Chu had calculated the time perfectly. When the carriage stopped on the vacant lot next to the alleyway, the procession had not yet begun.

It was just that government soldiers had already arrived to clear and block the road ahead of time. The street was empty of people, yet both sides were completely filled with commoners.

Li Chu stood on the carriage shaft, resting one hand on her brow bone, and looked forward. In the distance, the crowd was surging and pushing against one another, all vying to get a look at the elegance of the successful candidates this year.

She was different; in a moment, she would be able to stand on the second floor and look down at them leisurely.

As Li Chu jumped lightly from the carriage, Li Yue also stepped on the footstool with the support of Chun Chen’s palm, bent down from the back of the carriage, and walked forward with refined steps.

Compared to Li Yue, whose dress was made of light, thin fabric but featured complicated and cumbersome patterns, Li Chu, wearing a dark red long dress with black leather wrapped several times around her sleeves and waist, looked particularly simple and sharp. Even for her long hair, which she had pinned up, she had only used a hair ribbon to wrap and tie it.

If one were to say she wasn’t particular about her attire, she still knew how to tie a beautiful butterfly knot with the long red hair ribbon tails behind her head, making them flutter elegantly. If one were to say she was particular, she didn’t wear powder or makeup and didn’t care for gold hairpins.

Even so, Li Yue still felt that Li Chu, standing in front of the carriage with her hands on her hips, fully displayed the martial spirit of the Li family. Even though she was dressed casually, she could not hide her heroic and spirited nature!

Li Yue stepped forward, a smile on her face, her eyes filled with undisguised admiration and longing for her elder sister. “Sister, where are we going now?”

Li Chu signaled for her and Guan Lu to follow. “To socialize.”

Hai Qing, who was driving the carriage, refused to participate in this matter. He lowered his head, hugging the horse’s head, and muffled a polite refusal: “I will stay behind to watch the carriage.”

Hai Qing looked at the Second Miss with something left unsaid, but in the end, he frowned and turned his head away without saying anything.

Li Yue looked at her suspiciously, held her dress with one hand, and followed the striding Li Chu.

Compared to the outside, the interior of the Xiankelai Restaurant was no quieter. Not to mention the second floor, the first floor alone was packed with people, all discussing the three scholars of the top rank. It seemed that since the Grand Ceremony had not yet ended in the palace, nobody knew who the top scholar (Zhuangyuan) was yet.

After reaching the second floor, Li Chu did not let the waiter follow her. Instead, as if she had already made an appointment with someone, she walked up and knocked on a door naturally and confidently.

She wasn’t picky; whoever recognized her first in a moment, she would give them the sweet melons, exchange a few pleasantries, and then sit in their private room in a grand manner.

Socializing with the wealthy and powerful—what was difficult about that?

Li Chu’s luck was exceptionally good; she encountered a surprise the moment she knocked on the door.

For all these years in the borderlands, Li Chu had not returned to the capital without an imperial decree. If one were to calculate, it had been nearly three years since she last returned. At that time, she had just turned sixteen, and her appearance had changed somewhat compared to now. Furthermore, after returning to the capital yesterday, she had not gone anywhere, so there were not many court officials in the capital who could recognize her at a glance based on her looks.

However, just after she knocked on the door of the private room, the Sinan Earl, who was alone inside, cried out her name with surprise. “General Li?”

A flash of joy appeared in Li Chu’s eyes. She turned to look at the side; she had only knocked on the first door and someone had already recognized her—she was truly lucky!

However, the Sinan Earl, who had been chosen by her, might not have felt the same. His eyes moved past Li Chu, scanning the few people behind her, then returned to Li Chu, his heart thumping wildly.

Li Chu greeted him familiarly. “Uncle.”

She reached out and took the basket of sweet melons from Guan Lu’s hand, stuffed it directly into the hands of the Sinan Earl, and then gestured toward the inside, inviting the Sinan Earl—who was already standing in the room—to enter his own private room. “It’s been years since we last met; Uncle, you are as elegant as ever, not looking old at all!”

The Sinan Earl, who was just over forty and still very young, was forced to carry the basket of sweet melons himself. He managed to squeeze a smile from the corners of his eyes and mouth, barely holding on. “The General is also… still as straightforward and enthusiastic as you were in the past.”

Li Chu smiled humbly. “Not at all, not at all.”

Sinan Earl, “…”

Li Chu had already turned around to look at Li Yue, who was standing outside the door and refusing to enter, and beckoned to her. “Yue’er, come in quickly. This is the Sinan Earl. By seniority, both you and I should call him Uncle.”

Ever since Li Chu knocked on the door, Li Yue’s scalp had been tingling. Now, she lowered her head and eyes, not wanting to admit at all that the person inside was the cousin she had admired since childhood.

Urged by Li Chu, Li Yue gritted her teeth, steeled her heart, walked in, and offered a formal bow. “Uncle.”

At this moment, she finally understood why Hai Qing refused to come over.

The Sinan Earl looked at the two Li sisters with hesitation. “General, this is…?”

Li Chu looked at the slightly awkward Sinan Earl and explained it to him simply and directly, getting straight to the point. “Oh, it’s like this, Uncle. We weren’t able to book a private room today, but isn’t it a coincidence? We happened to bump into you as soon as we knocked on the door.”

Li Chu said with a smile, “You don’t need to be polite. We just want to borrow a place to watch the excitement. These sweet melons are a greeting gift from your juniors. They were grown at home; just have someone wash them and eat them as you please.”

The Sinan Earl looked down at the bamboo basket in his hand. “…”

Why did he have such an itchy hand, taking it just like that?

Since people were already inside, he couldn’t kick them out. He had no choice but to tighten his face, forcing a smile, and say hypocritically, “Heh, hehe, as long as you don’t mind that my room is small.”

Li Chu said, “It’s not small, not small. There aren’t many of us; we can definitely fit.”

The Sinan Earl was so stifled by one sentence after another that his lungs ached. Yet, because he cared about his reputation, he couldn’t chase out the Li family members who had arrived with their entourage.

In the room booked by the Sinan Earl, there was only himself at the time, while Li Chu’s group, including maids and attendants, totaled four people.

For a moment, the Sinan Earl felt like this was Li Chu’s room, and he was the one standing in someone else’s room, feeling reserved and uncomfortable.

Especially…

“I heard the General returned to the capital early yesterday. You must be tired from the travel; why aren’t you resting properly at your mansion today?” The Sinan Earl raised his hand to summon the waiter, asking him to take the sweet melons away to be washed, sliced, and brought back. Before turning to face Li Chu, he first wiped the fine sweat from his temples with his luxurious sleeves.

Li Chu rested both hands on the window sill, leaned forward to look down, her gaze flickering slightly at these words, but her tone remained completely unchanged. “It’s lively today; now that I’ve rarely returned to the capital, how could I miss this?”

Yesterday, all those who had sent invitation cards to the Li mansion only came in the afternoon. If one hadn’t paid close attention to her movements, few would have noticed that she had returned early in the morning.

The Sinan Earl was a civil official, not a military general, and there hadn’t been much interaction between the two families before, so how could he have been tracking when she returned to the capital?

Li Chu’s expression was normal and she looked curious. She turned around to chat casually. “Why are you here by yourself? Where is my aunt?”

The Sinan Earl raised his hand to adjust his sleeves and sat by the table. “She was originally going to come later.”

The Sinan Earl looked around the room and said with difficulty, “Now, it seems she isn’t coming after all.”

It wouldn’t fit everyone, and he didn’t want any more complications from having too many people.

While they were speaking, the waiter knocked on the door, bringing not only the delicately sliced sweet melons but also the latest news from the palace.

The rankings for the top rank were out.

The Sinan Earl stood up instantly. “Who are they respectively?”

The waiter said, “They are, the top scholar (Zhuangyuan), Tan Hongyi, from Lingnan, forty-five years old this year.”

“The second-place (Bangyan), Wan Kaile, from Gusu, thirty years old.”

“The third-place (Tanhua), Wen Shu, from the capital, just seventeen.”

Li Chu asked, “Who?”

She asked, “Who is the third-place?”

Li Chu, who had originally stood lazily with her back to the window and facing the door, as if it had nothing to do with her, straightened up immediately, her eyes staring straight at the waiter.

The waiter hesitated and repeated, “Wen Shu, the only son of the Wen family. His father, Wen Buping, is a ninth-rank scribe in the Ministry of Rites.”

Because this year’s third-place candidate was too good-looking, the streets were so blocked with people. Especially after hearing that the Third-Place Wen was not yet married, those among the onlookers couldn’t help but harbor their own intentions.

Li Chu froze in place, subconsciously turning around to look down.

The parading candidates hadn’t passed by yet; there was only the sound of noisy voices below.

The Sinan Earl listened in a daze, his complexion even stranger than Li Chu’s. He asked the waiter softly, “Have you heard of Feng Zhang’s ranking?”

Si Nan was a noble title, and his original surname was Feng.

The waiter smiled and said, “Naturally, I have. The leader of the second rank (Chuanlu), is the son of the Sinan Earl, Feng Zhang.”

The Chuanlu was the first of the second rank, second only to the top rank. However, the Sinan Earl couldn’t smile, because those in the second rank had to pass an assessment to be eligible to enter the Hanlin Academy, whereas those in the first rank could directly enter the Hanlin Academy to serve.

The Sinan Earl’s face turned ugly. He sat back down on the stool. Remembering something, he stood up, turned, and said to Li Chu, “General Li, I suddenly remember I have urgent matters at the mansion. I will take my leave first. I have already paid the bill for this room; please feel free to stay as you wish.”

Li Chu looked troubled. “That would be very embarrassing.”

She actually knew the meaning of “embarrassing”?!

The Sinan Earl smiled awkwardly. “It would just be empty anyway.”

After saying this, he didn’t even taste a piece of the sweet melon. He stood up, took his attendant who was waiting outside the door, and left.

Once only the Li family remained in the room, Li Yue breathed a sigh of relief. She thought to herself that her sister’s actions today were too straightforward. When they returned, she would prepare a gift and have someone send it to the Sinan Earl’s mansion to express their gratitude; only with mutual exchange could this be considered real socializing.

Li Chu didn’t know what Li Yue was thinking, only looking down intently.

Li Yue was not interested in the candidates. She simply sat by the table, rested her arms on the surface, propped her chin with one hand, and looked at her sister, asking slowly, “Who is Wen Shu? Why did it make you so excited, Sister?”

The drums and music from ahead drew near, and the procession carrying the ceremonial equipment and beating gongs to clear the way could be seen in the distance.

Li Chu suppressed the nervousness in her heart and admitted it generously, “Naturally, they are my person.”