Married Thrice to Salted Fish

Chapter 103

Just after Xu Junyuan put away Jiang Xing’s letter, there came an announcement from outside, “The Empress Dowager has arrived—”

Xu Junyuan said, “Jiang Gongzi… No, I should now respectfully address you as ‘Your Majesty’.”

‘Stop it with your garbage’ was writ all across Jiang Xing’s face.

“I know Your Majesty is in a hurry but to prevent the Empress Dowager from getting suspicious and causing unnecessary trouble, I ask that Your Majesty be patient.”

This was a reminder him for him not to act too out of character too soon. Jiang Xing nodded. He pointed to the door, signaling Xu Junyuan to leave the ink and go.

Xu Junyuan said again, “Do not worry, Your Majesty. I will definitely send Your Majesty’s ‘letter home’ to Master Lin as soon as possible.”

As soon as Xu Junyuan finished speaking, the Empress Dowager trotted in hurriedly with the support of Lai Fu. “Li’er—!”

While pretending to be a ‘god of war’ general had been a bit difficult, pretending to be a dullard was a piece of cake. Jiang Xing put away the expression on his face, lowered his head and said nothing. Just that was already half the game.

The Empress Dowager held Jiang Xing’s hand and found that he was frighteningly cold. “Go quickly and bring in a charcoal brazier — What’s going on? Why did the Emperor come running to Qinzheng Hall for no rhyme and reason?”

Xiu Jiao momo told the empress dowager exactly what had happened. Jiang Xing hated how he couldn’t speak for himself. Fortunately, after she finished speaking, Xiao Songzi added, “The Emperor seems to be looking for Master Lin.”

The empress dowager hurriedly said, “Then please summon Master Lin to the palace!”

Nice! He knew he could always count on XIao Songzi.

Xu Junyuan knew that the empress dowager wasn’t going to let him go anytime soon. So he glanced at Jiang Xing and said, “This humble servant shall arrange for someone to go and summon him.”

The empress dowager ordered the momos to take Jiang Xing to for a bath and a change of clothes. Afterwards, just as Xu Junyuan expected, she turned to him, “National Teacher, what is happening to his Majesty…?”

Xu Junyuan explained, “That the Emperor can respond to the outside world is a good thing. It’s better to be emotional than not at all.”

The empress dowager was immediately overjoyed. “Does the National Teacher mean that the emperor’s soul-loss disease will start to improve?”

Xu Junyuan smiled and said, “‘Nine stars in the heavens, the true son follows the right path; the soul returns to its body, unifying the country’. Your Highness, these words by this humble servant were truly from what this humble servant has seen of the stars.”

The empress dowager couldn’t contain her excitement. “Aijia has been looking forward to this for so many years. Finally, this day has come…”

After taking a bath, Jiang Xing put on a new dragon robe. He stood in front of the mirror, looking at the young man in the mirror. Xiao Li looked very much like him, though seemingly a little shorter and thinner than when he was seventeen, probably from all those times he played in the mud before.

The empress dowager wanted to spend more time with her son but Jiang Xing fell asleep after taking a bath. In the end, the empress dowager was getting on in years and after all the fuss, the fatigue on her face was quite apparent. Xu Junyuan urged, “I will watch over His Majesty in Xingqing Palace. The Empress Dowager’s phoenix body is of greatest import. Might I convince Her Highness to go back to Ci’an Palace to rest?”

“No,” said the empress dowager, “Aijia will rest in the side hall. If the emperor wakes up, come and inform Aijia immediately.”

As soon as the empress dowager left, Xu Junyuan dismissed the other palace maids and eunuchs with different excuses. With everyone else gone, Jiang Xing immediately lifted the quilt and sat up. He could finally think about how to coax Lin Qingyu later. He couldn’t speak for the time being, so he could only write down what he wanted to say.

He wrote haphazardly, writing whatever came to mind. Let alone writing them with any sort of logic, he even forgot there there was no such thing as punctuation in the Dayu. He was worried that the characters would be too small for Lin Qingyu to read clearly, so he wrote the characters quite large. Every sentence needed its own sheet of paper.

Xu Junyuan said that his loss of voice was only temporary. This body had never utilize its voice box so it couldn’t adapt so easily. If so, would he be able to vocalize with a bit of trial and practice?

The palace official tasked with the message rushed to the General’s Mansion. He explained to Yuan Yin his intention for coming. Yuan Yin said, “Gong gong, please wait a moment. I will report to the Madam now.”

Half an hour ago, Lin Qingyu had returned to the General’s Mansion. During the past year, Lin Qingyu to returning home late at night had become a normal occurrence and Yuan Yin didn’t find it strange. He welcomed Lin Qingyu into the mansion as usual and asked if he would like to have a midnight snack. Lin Qingyu nodded and said yes.

It was all business as usual.

When Huan Tong sent in the meal, he saw Lin Qingyu calmly rummaging through boxes and cabinets calmly. He asked, “Young Master, what are you looking for?”

“The box.” Lin Qingyu said in the usual tone, “Where is the box with the ring and the letters?”

“Oh, here it is.” Huan Tong kept feeling that something was a little strange. Before he had time to think about it too much, he brought the brocade box and handed it to Lin Qingyu. When Lin Qingyu took it, a chill crept up Huan Tong’s back.

He now realized the reason for this sense of wrongness—His young master had a photographic memory, how could he not even remember where such an important thing was put away?

Lin Qingyu’s movement as he opened the brocade box remained unhurried, calm and composed. Finally, he found what he was looking for. He smiled and said, “Look, he promised me.”

Huan Tong said in alarm. “Young Master?”

“He wrote me a letter of guarantee.” Lin Qingyu said firmly, “He wouldn’t lie to me.”

Huan Tong became more and more flustered, “Young Master, what are you talking about?”

Lin Qingyu seemed unable to hear his words. Or rather, he was deliberately avoiding everything in this world and immersing himself in another illusory world. “It’s just a dream…it’s just a dream. “His expression suddenly became cruel and distorted but his face remained beautiful and delicate, “How dare he lie to me!”

In the brocade box, apart from the letter of guarantee, there was also the engagement ring Jiang Xing gave him and every letter he wrote him this past year.

Lin Qingyu picked up the top one. In the letter, Jiang Xing said aggrievedly that he was very hungry and couldn’t get enough to eat; that he wanted to eat his mother-in-law’s plum cake. At the end of the letter, Jiang Xing told him to eat well and sleep well.

Eat… Jiang Xing wants him to eat well.

Lin Qingyu walked to the table, picked up the pastry off the plate and stuffed it into his mouth. Before he could even swallow one, he had already stuffed another in. Huan Tong hurriedly stopped him. “Young Master!”

Lin Qingyu’s eyes were red but he couldn’t get any tears to fall. His tears had already dried up in his dream.

As soon as Yuan Yin entered the room and saw the scene in front of him, even he who had seen a great many things, was startled, “Madam?”

Lin Qingyu forcibly swallowed what was in his mouth. He lightly brushed the crumbs from his lips with his fingertips and said nonchalantly, “What is it?”

Yuan Yin didn’t dare to look directly at Lin Qingyu. He bowed his head and said, “There are people from the palace asking you to go see the Emperor. The palace officer also brought a letter.”

Hearing the word “letter”, Lin Qingyu swayed a little, unsteady on his feet. Huan Tong supported him to stand firm.

What were the people from the palace going to tell him… was it about the Northwest?

Lin Qingyu heard himself say, “Bring it here.”

When the letter was handed over to him, he suddenly felt sick, so sick that he wanted to vomit. He even had the urge to tear up the letter. But what if, what if it was Jiang Xing’s letter home?

Lin Qingyu’s lashes trembled. His hands shook as he opened the letter.

A line of familiar characters came into view: a sentence he had silently recited countless times and the name engraved in his heart.

From the depths of his chaotic memory, a voice sounded in his mind, “We can agree on a secret signal. If I don’t die and transmigrate to someone else’s body, we’ll use this signal to recognize each other, okay?”

Lin Qingyu’s face showed a rarely seen expression of blank shock. His frighteningly calm breathing sped up as though he were burning up, burning so hot he could nearly lose consciousness.

Yuan Yin said worriedly, “Madam?”

“Prepare…prepare the carriage.” Lin Qingyu said in a daze, his eyes unfocused. He said sounding distracted, “I’m heading to the palace.”

……Is it you?

If it’s you…it must be you… Please, it must be.

The carriage could only go as far as the gates of the palace. Lin Qingyu went down too fast and for the first time in his life, he stepped on the hem of his robes. Unless there were special circumstances, running through the palace like this wasn’t allowed. But he didn’t care.

Just like that year during the Lantern Festival when he fought his way through the crowd and threw himself into Jiang Xing’s arms.

——”Doctor Lin, what are you running for?”

——”I was coming to you, of course I had to run.”

The magificent palace was growing bigger and bigger as he drew nearer and nearer.

He heard “Master Lin is here” and he entered the emperor’s bed chamber.

The young man in the black dragon robe looked towards him. The young man’s originally still and gloomy face now shone with brilliance. His eyes were as bright as stars. It was as though they could speak, concealing boundless unbearable love.

The young man’s eyes gradually merged with Jiang Xing’s eyes from his dream. At this moment, Lin Qingyu felt he had been fished out from the bottom of a cold deep lake.

When the two looked at each other, one word slipped out of the boy’s mouth with difficulty, “Qing-yu.”

This was the only word he could say.

Lin Qingyu looked at him blankly.

Jiang Xing wanted to speak again, but couldn’t make any more sound. He could only take out the words he had written in advance, holding them up one after another for Lin Qingyu to read:

【Qingyu! Qingyu! ! ! 】

【I’m Jiang Xing! ! ! 】

【I’m back again! ! ! 】

【I’m not a slag man! ! ! 】

【I didn’t bed you and run! ! ! 】

【I missed you……】

【I like you so much…】

【I love you. 】