The Innocent Heart - Chapter 59

“Oh? What’s going on here? The moment I walk in, I see these four half-grown boys standing here like pillars. Is the Prefect of the Capital trying to find some handsome lads to serve as door gods?”

A crisp, bright, and spirited female voice suddenly rang out from outside the hall. Fan Xi stopped his lecture and went out to greet the newcomer. Because of his movement, the gloomy and oppressive atmosphere in the hall momentarily dispersed. The sorrow on the boys’ faces receded slightly as they caught a breath of relief.

“He’s too much of a nagger. He can lecture people even better than the Dean at my old school. Ugh… if I made a mistake, just beat me up, but this is mental torture…”

Before Huo Qubing could see who had arrived, he heard his friend beside him grumbling in a low whisper.

He turned to look and saw Guan Yueyao with a pained expression, rubbing her ears as if trying to flush everything Fan Xi had just said out of her brain. He felt like laughing, but as the footsteps drew closer, he and Guan Yueyao instinctively turned their heads toward the entrance of the main hall.

“Grand Princess Pingyang, why have you come?” Fan Xi was puzzled. Princess Pingyang was the Emperor’s elder sister. Unlike Grand Princess Guantao, she rarely participated in court politics and was not keen on forming cliques with officials.

At this moment, the four boys simultaneously turned to look at Princess Pingyang. Huo Qubing and Chen Zhi recognized her immediately, while Guan Yueyao and Li Gan blinked, watching her with curiosity.

To be fair, Grand Princess Pingyang was very beautiful, but in a way that differed from the gentle, submissive beauty Guan Yueyao was used to seeing in this era. She felt that the Princess’s beauty actually possessed qualities she had only seen in modern women.

While she was dazed, she suddenly felt someone tugging at her sleeve. She turned to see it was Huo Qubing.

“Greetings, Grand Princess.” As if to give her a hint, Huo Qubing’s voice was somewhat loud and hurried when he bowed, which served to alert the curious Li Gan and Guan Yueyao as well.

The two followed suit and bowed to the Grand Princess.

“No need for such formality, rise quickly.” She smiled as she told the four to stand up, then looked at the Prefect of the Capital, Fan Xi, who remained standing behind her.

“Today, I was in the palace chatting with the Emperor and the Empress Dowager when Aunt Guantao suddenly burst in. She claimed her grandson met a group of hooligans on the street and got into a fight. She said the Prefect of the Capital was detaining everyone regardless of right or wrong. The Empress Dowager saw that the Grand Princess was quite agitated and, fearing an accident given her age, wanted to send someone to check on the situation.” Speaking to this point, her beautiful eyes swept over the four boys, and she suddenly covered her mouth and laughed softly.

“Who knew that before the messenger could even step out of the hall, Lady Wei (Wei Meiren) rushed in as well. Her words were identical to the Grand Princess’s, only the protagonist was changed to her nephew. Because of this, even His Majesty grew curious, so I simply volunteered to come and see the spectacle myself.”

Grand Princess Pingyang spoke briskly and with a touch of wit, making the listeners unable to help but smile. The atmosphere in the hall relaxed completely.

Huo Qubing and Chen Zhi were almost certain that the Emperor had sent Princess Pingyang to bail them out.

Finally, we don’t have to listen to this old scholar’s nagging… the same thought occurred to all four boys.

However, to their surprise, Fan Xi was in no hurry to release them. Instead, with a solemn expression, he avoided the boys and invited Grand Princess Pingyang to the side.

“Grand Princess, please, a word in private.”

He spoke so gravely that the Princess, though usually approachable, was no fool. She quickly caught the hidden meaning in his tone, withdrew her smile, and walked with him into a side room.

“Tell me, what is it?” Grand Princess Pingyang asked the elderly man with a serious face.

“To answer the Grand Princess, I suspect… I suspect that the one involved in the street brawl with the young lords is a certain Peer Prince (Zhuge Wang), or one of their sons or nephews.” Fan Xi lowered his head slightly, finally voicing the suspicion in his heart.

“What did you say?!” Princess Pingyang was greatly shocked. For a Peer Prince to enter the capital without a decree was a capital offense.

After a brief loss of composure, she quickly calmed her mind and asked coldly, “Fan Xi, do you realize what you are saying?”

“I know. However, that youth’s attitude is overbearing, yet he remains extremely secretive about his identity. My men questioned him for a long time before he casually gave a name. But when I sent people to verify, the wealthy merchant family he mentioned does not have a nephew of his age.”

Speaking to this point, Fan Xi thought more carefully: “Furthermore, based on my observations, the youth’s accent sounds like it’s from the Jiangdu region. Also, among his personal belongings, we found an imperial artifact. I have already verified it; it is a pendant sword bestowed by His Majesty to the Prince of Jiangdu (Liu Fei) two years ago.”

By now, the youth’s identity was practically obvious. Grand Princess Pingyang took a deep breath and said with a dark expression, “Take me to see him.”

Fan Xi knew this matter was of grave importance and dared not act on his own authority. He did not hesitate and immediately led the Princess to the room where the youth suspected of being tied to the Prince of Jiangdu was being held.

The two did not enter the room. Through the window, the Princess peered inside. A youth was with his back to her, kicking and punching the servant by his side, cursing incessantly with foul language.

Princess Pingyang turned her head away in disgust, not wishing to listen further. But just then, the youth suddenly turned his head, as if sensing someone was watching him from outside.

He turned around, and their eyes collided. Princess Pingyang finally saw his face clearly.

A feeling that was both strange and familiar hit her. This boy’s features truly resembled her half-brother who had already left for his fief, the Prince of Jiangdu, Liu Fei. Combined with his almost identical violent temperament, she was nearly certain this boy was one of her nephews.

However, the look the boy gave her at that moment made her heart skip a beat. She was no longer an innocent girl; she knew what that kind of gaze meant, and it made her feel even more nauseated.

“Let’s go, no need to look further,” the Princess said coldly. Without waiting for Fan Xi’s reaction, she turned and walked away.

By the time she returned to the main hall, a trace of a smile had returned to Princess Pingyang’s face. She beckoned the four boys and said to Fan Xi, “I’ll take these boys with me first. His Majesty is waiting to see them in the palace.”

As she spoke, she quietly observed the boys’ reactions. Huo Qubing and the boy named Guan Yueyao beside him looked calm, as if seeing the Emperor was something they were already used to.

Chen Zhi, on the other hand, shrank his neck, showing a trace of fear.

Finally, she looked at Li Gan. The boy’s eyes lit up with a look of pure excitement.

She quickly made a judgment in her heart but didn’t show it on her face. She signaled the four boys to follow her out of the Prefect’s office.

Once they left the office, all four boys let out a heavy sigh of relief.

“Alright, the four of you squeeze into this carriage. I left the palace in a hurry and didn’t expect there to be four of you. You’ll just have to make do.”

Grand Princess Pingyang gave them a mischievous look and then, assisted by her maids, boarded her own carriage.

The four boys looked at each other and finally climbed up one by one.

The space inside the carriage wasn’t actually cramped, but the four of them weren’t used to riding in carriages together. Even when they did ride, it was usually alone or with one other person. Therefore, the psychological effect made the perfectly adequate carriage feel quite claustrophobic.

However, that wasn’t the most uncomfortable part. The positions they took in the carriage seemed to illustrate the closeness of their relationships.

Guan Yueyao was carefree and simple-minded, so she was the first to board and found a random spot to sit down. Immediately after, Huo Qubing lifted the curtain and sat down right next to her without a second thought.

The third to enter was Li Gan. He looked at the two sitting close together and, after a slight hesitation, chose a spot closer to Guan Yueyao to sit.

As for Chen Zhi, he dawdled outside for a long time until the driver asked him to move, and finally, he climbed in reluctantly. The moment he entered, he saw three pairs of eyes looking at him in unison, with only Li Gan offering a small smile.

For a moment, the atmosphere was awkward. Chen Zhi sat down as far away from Guan Yueyao and Huo Qubing as possible. He felt extremely conflicted; after all, the fact that Huo Qubing and the others had stepped in to help him was completely unexpected, and he still couldn’t figure out their motives.

But ultimately, they had done him a huge favor. Though Chen Zhi was a profligate, he had his own pride. He was not the type of person who received help and ignored it. But to open his mouth and thank Huo Qubing and Guan Yueyao—whom he had always viewed as rivals—was something he found truly difficult to do.

Along the way, he hesitated, peeking at the trio in the corner countless times. He opened his mouth repeatedly, but the words of thanks stayed stuck in his throat.

“Hey, Chen Zhi, are you trying to thank us?” Suddenly, a voice rang out in the quiet carriage. The volume wasn’t high, and the tone was light and teasing.

To Chen Zhi’s ears, that voice was like a thunderclap.

“I… I am not! Don’t talk nonsense!” His face flushed red, and he stood up to argue.

“Ouch!” Immediately followed by a cry of pain, the top of Chen Zhi’s head slammed hard into the roof of the carriage. His exquisite gold-crafted hair crown was knocked crooked, and his hair fell loose.

Chen Zhi crouched back down, clutching his head in a pathetic state, his entire face scrunched up in pain.

“Pfft.” Someone in the carriage couldn’t hold it back and was the first to laugh. Then, infected by the sound, the other three boys—excluding Chen Zhi—burst into a fit of laughter.

The atmosphere finally loosened up, and a world where only Chen Zhi was hurt was achieved.