Chapter 11 Whose Teaching Who How to Play Chess?
Dozens of flower teas and milk teas of various colors covered the table. Zongzheng Wuyou picked the darker colored ones to taste first, taking only a small sip before placing them down. His sinister eyes held a flicker of light in them, but before Man Yao could take a closer look, his dark and full eyelashes hid them away. In the end, he waved his hands, “Take them away.”
The Ninth Prince hurriedly stopped them, “Seventh Brother, I haven’t tasted them yet. This rainbow of colors looks quite pretty…it smells quite nice too.” As he spoke, he lifted up one of the bi-colored fruit milk teas that Zongzheng Wuyou hadn’t drank from to taste a sweet and sour flavor. Licking the corner of his lips, he nodded, “Not bad. If Zhao Yun was here, she’d definitely like it.”
Hearing this, a soft voice rang out from the doorway, “Wuyou gege(1), Wuyou gege—” A sixteen or seventeen year-old fragile-looking girl ran over with her skirt raised, her eyes bright.
The Ninth Prince loudly laughed, “Speaking of the devil, Seventh Brother, do you want to hide?”
Man Yao didn’t hold back her laugh, “There’s actually someone in this world that can make Prince Li want to hide?”
Zongzheng Wuyou’s lips twitched, his face unreadable. The Ninth Prince slightly tilted his head towards, purposely acting mysterious, “You’ll know in a moment.”
When Zhao Yun arrived, she excitedly went to Zongzheng Wuyou’s side. Before she could get close, an arm appeared in front of her. Raising her head, it was that wooden person Leng Yan again! She spoke in a wronged voice, “Wuyou gege—why didn’t you bring Yun’er to such a pretty place?”
Zongzheng Wuyou didn’t even look at her, indifferently speaking, “Are you still a three year-old?”
Zhao Yun pouted, “Wuyou gege, you weren’t like this before…hm? What’s in this cup? I’ve never seen it before.”
The Ninth Prince laughed, “This is the tea that Seventh Brother ordered, it’s very delicious. Seventh Brother already tasted it.”
“Really, Wuyou gege? I want to try too.” Zhao Yun reached her hand out to grab the purple-colored milk tea, and coincidentally it was one that Zongzheng Wuyou had already tasted. But before that cup could touch her lips, she felt a strong force coming towards her, and the cup in her hand fell to the ground, shattering to pieces.
Man Yao was startled, the Ninth Prince really wasn’t afraid of chaos happening! For someone like Zongzheng Wuyou, how could he let a woman touch something he drank from, especially if it’s a woman that is clearly interested in him. She hurriedly threw a look towards the guard behind her, who immediately cleared away all the cups on the table and then cleaned up the pieces on the ground.
Zhao Yun’s hands tightly grabbed the edges of her clothes, her eyes teary as she stood frozen in front of the expressionless Zongzheng Wuyou, unable to speak.
Zongzheng Wuyou’s voice was cold, “You want to return to the duke’s residence now?”
Hearing this, Zhao Yun was so frightened her tears dried up, frantically waving her hands, “I don’t I don’t…Wuyou gege, I just came out, I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll just stay here for a little bit longer, it’s so pretty here…” Raising her head to look at the surrounded, she saw Man Yao standing not too far from her. Her eyes brightened and she yelled out in surprise, “Ah! Who are you? How come you’re just as pretty as Wuyou gege?”
Laughing, the Ninth Prince replied to her, “He is Li Yue, the owner of this tea garden. This garden was personally designed by him!”
Both of Zhao Yun’s eyes lit up, staring at her, as her crisp voice sounded, “Really? Li Yue gongzi, you’re so skilled! That’s right, what’s the tea that my Wuyou gege drank just now? I want to drink it too.”
This girl was quite smart. In order to stay within Zongzheng Wuyou’s sights, she understood how to change topics. Unfortunately, since the beginning, Zongzheng Wuyou had yet to take even a single glance at her. Man Yao ordered her people to prepare a variety of fruit milk teas. After Zhao Yun tasted them, she endlessly chattered, “It’s delicious. Let them prepare some more of them, I want to take bring them back for others to try too.”
Just like this, because of this person’s crush on Zongzheng Wuyou, the fruit milk teas that she thought wouldn’t be easily promoted happened to perk up the interest of this wealthy family in this strange era, becoming extremely popular. As for the name “Li Yue gongzi“, it spread throughout all of Jingcheng to where even the imperial family, the court officials, really anyone that had money and power, so long as they were planning on building a new courtyard or residence, they would beg for the honor of having “Li Yue gongzi” draw up a design for them.
Zongzheng Wuyou became a regular customer of Moonlight Tea Garden. In the following half a month, he often came alone, ordering a pot of premium Xihu Longjing tea, silently sitting until late at night.
Man Yao sat not too far away from him near a colored glass table. Seeing his figure bathed in the cold moonlight, he gave off a melancholic feeling. She unconsciously rose and walked towards him. Only when Zongzheng Wuyou raised his eyes did she come to her senses, and decided to openly sit across from him, giving a faint smile, “Your Highness won’t mind, right?”
Sweeping his gaze at the several empty seats around him, he gave a lazy laugh, “I don’t mind…haven’t you already sat down? Benwang is a little curious. As a woman, you’re not at home waiting to get married and have kids, but instead you’re out here alone creating this tea garden?”
Man Yao gave a start, he did indeed see through her disguise! Furrowing her eyebrows, “Who said that a woman has to get married and have kids? Women can also have their own businesses, they can also be independent. They don’t need to have a man in order to survive.”
She said women don’t need to rely on men to survive? Zongzheng Wuyou spaced out for a moment, blankly staring at her. These past few weeks, he often saw her brew up a cup of tea and quietly sit alone, dazing off into the distance as if her soul had left her body, not knowing where it went. She always looked so calm, even if the sky fell, her expression probably wouldn’t change. He suddenly wondered whether there was something or someone in this world that could make that brilliant pair of intelligent eyes show such a dismayed expression?
He leaned back, suddenly asking, “Do you know how to play go?”
She was startled, unable to follow his thoughts. Although she did not know how to play go, she was an expert at chess. It was such a shame that the people in this world did not seem to know what chess was. She shook her head, thinking that Zongzheng Wuyou would be disappointed, only to hear him say, “Benwang will teach you. Leng Yan, bring the pieces over.”
Man Yao sat in a daze. This man really does things out of one’s expectations. Could it be that he’s been lonely for too long?
After a quarter of an hour, Leng Yan mysteriously appeared, putting the board in front of the two. Lowering her eyes, her whole body froze, this was actually—chess!!!
Zongzheng Wuyou set up the pieces as he explained how each one moved. This scene was too similar to the time when she created a chessboard to teach Ling’er when she was lonely and bored in Qiyun…
(1) gege: A term for ‘older brother’