"My Lord is a Stone"《我家君王是石头》Chapter 30

When Zhao Jin Yu arrived in Hangzhou it was already night, Chen Rong rushed to get to a tavern to stay at.

The two people at in the room, Zhao Jin Yu intentionally ordered Xihu[1] vinegar fish, her heart was both excited and nervous, excited that they had at last reached their destination, she was able to deliver adoptive father’s letter, nervous…, where was she going to go after delivering the letter? It really was a kind of worldly question of where is my home, but once the dishes were carried in she very quickly forgot this, eating was more important!

“Auntie Chen, eat.” Zhao Jin Yu pointed to the fish saying, “This is my first time in Hangzhou, I heard the Xihu vinegar fish is very well-known, that’s why I ordered it.”

Chen Rong also had a feeling of responsibility to her job, this journey was indeed somewhat not peaceful, she took a bite of fish saying, “Talking about it Louwai restaurant is more authentic.”

“Is it? I really want to go and see.”

Chen Rong smiled, “How is that difficult? I can take you there tomorrow…” She only spoke half way through the sentence before she stopped, the two people will part ways tomorrow.

Zhao Jin Yu clearly also remembered, however very quickly she cheered up again, “Auntie Chen, I still haven’t thanked you, why don’t we drink a little today?”

Chen Rong was also a straightforward person, seeing Zhao Jin Yu acting naturally and unrestrained like this, she said, “Good, let us have some sweet osmanthus wine, it’s tasty, and won’t get people drunk.”

The two people ordered wine, a cup for you, a cup for me, they drank like this, Chen Rong appeared to be very content, she became talkative, saying, “Do you know when was the last time I came to Hangzhou?”

“When?” Zhao Jin Yu two cheeks were a brilliant red from drinking, setting her off like a peach, filled with the radiance of spring, provoking the emperor around Zhao Jin Yu’s neck to look at her quite a few times.

“You know of Hangzhou’s primary influential family the Zhao family right?”

“Is it that Zhao family that once produced the divine calligrapher?” Zhao Jin Yu had heard of the divine pair, one was Zhao De Ling who circulated the world as a famous calligrapher, another was

Xu Ceng who circulated the world as a famous poet.

“Right, that’s the family.” Chen Rong drank the cup of sweet osmanthus wine in one go, thinking about it she had even drank the most intense chilli, this weak and supple sweet osmanthus wine was simply not wine, primarily she had considered the fact Zhao Jin Yu was a young lady who had been kept at home, since she happily wanted to drink and chat merrily, she couldn’t bear to dampen her spirit, but she really couldn’t drink, therefore the sweet osmanthus wine was the most fitting.

“I’ve heard everyone in the family can write, even the women, have learnt from childhood.” Zhao Jin Yu had once seen older brother copy Zhao De Ling’s copybook, those words were extremely beautiful, graceful and unconstrained with an elegance, soft yet refined, it really imprints into one’s memory.

“It really is true, with strict family traditions, and a hundred years old influential family, all the ladies are gentle and virtuous, many people hold marrying their daughters an honour.” Chen Rong squeezed a peanut, gaze becoming somewhat profound, “Once we took a job as an armed escort to accompany a chest, it was actually extremely dangerous for the whole journey, in the end, we didn’t even dare to sleep at night, afraid someone would mount a sneak attack.”

Zhao Jin Yu was enchanted hearing this, and to curry favour she picked up a piece of stir-fried pork giving it to her, saying, “And then?”

“On the final night, I was on night duty…, I had thought nothing would happen, who would have imagined in the very early hours of zishi,[2] all of a sudden assassins dressed in black came rushing from the water, those people’s skills were out of the ordinary, even though I admit my martial art is not inferior, but one person against a number of people, momentarily I was unable to pull myself away, giving them an opportunity.” Chen Rong’s expression became vaguely obscure.

“Then did they succeed? What about the other armed escorts?”

“The senior armed escorts were at the hold of the ship, they couldn’t rush over for a while, amongst one of those people they stabbed the chest.” Chen Rong paused, “Even now I can’t forget that scene, blood flowed out from that chest.”

Zhao Jin Yu, “…”

“A young lady was contained inside, I did not allow that person to stab it twice, but that young lady became handicapped.” Chen Rong blamed herself quite a bit, “After that I remained at home training my skills not doing assignments.”

Hearing that no one died Zhao Jin Yu was relieved, only she was somewhat confused, saying, “Since it was escorting a person, why wasn’t it clearly said at the start? At that time Auntie Chen must have thought the chest ought to be able to survive a sword…, that’s why you overlooked it right?”

Chen Rong smiled, saying, “You really are a considerate young lady, at that time I truly was relying on luck slightly, that chest was made from eaglewood, ordinary people cannot cut it open, that person had struck a small crack…, at that time I really didn’t think there was a young lady inside it.”

“That young lady is from the Zhao family?”

“Come, we’ll sleep after one cup.” Chen Rong felt she had said too much today, mainly because these two experiences were too similar, she was escorting a young lady, the journey had also been very adventurous, however fortunately, in contrast she had safely escorted Zhao Jin Yu, and it could be considered to have dissolved a worry in her mind.

Zhao Jin Yu knew Chen Rong wasn’t willing to talk about it, and did not question it. The two people drank another cup then each parted ways, before she left Chen Rong patted Zhao Jin Yu on the shoulder saying, “Jin girl, if you run into difficulties in the future, you can go to the Xingtian bodyguards establishment to find me.” This was the first time Chen Rong called Zhao Jin Yu this, and to a certain degree acknowledged their relationship.

“Yes, many thanks Auntie Chen.” Zhao Jin Yu cheerfully replied.

Waiting until Chen Rong left, Zhao Jin Yu closed the door, taking the stone out, she asked, “Are you hungry?”

After the emperor woke up he had been well-behaved staying hidden around Zhao Jin Yu’s neck, now it was finally only the two of them, he frowned saying, “Why did you drink alcohol?”

Zhao Jin Yu laughed happily blowing out a breath at the stone, fragrant sweet osmanthus flower with the scent of wine surrounded the emperor, the emperor immediately felt a little light-headed.

“That’s right, I drank, what, you even have to control this?”

The emperor only felt his body shake a little, he thought to himself he couldn’t be drunk just from that right? Just like it was in reply to his question…, he saw the world rock and sway.

“Little thing, why aren’t you talking?” Zhao Jin Yu thought she had been too mischievous, with a somewhat guilty heart she cautiously and solemnly said, “I left a lot of dishes for you, there’s Xihu vinegar fish, fried stuff bean curd, stir-fried pork, beef broth…” For the purpose of leaving dishes for the emperor, she had even intentionally told Chen Rong, she was terribly afraid of being hungry at night, so ordered a bit more.

“We want to eat.” The emperor settled his dizzy head with great effort, thinking if he quickly filled out his stomach, perhaps the alcohol will dissipate.

After eating, having been washed, the stone laid on Zhao Jin Yu’s chest, he only felt similar to lying on an as light as a feather cloud, surrounded by a familiar fragrance, if he lowered his head he could bite the peak of the bosom…, he recalled the concubine sent to him during the day that he had extremely disappointed even before anything started, but he felt a certain blaze in his heart again ignited steamily.

[1] West Lake

[2] 11pm – 1am.