The moment Sun Chu put a piece of glazed pastry into his mouth, Ye Chutang’s words startled him so badly that he choked and began coughing uncontrollably.
Everyone’s eyes turned toward him, filled with wariness and suspicion.
“Don’t look at me. I didn’t do anything!”
Ye Chutang suddenly moved closer to Sun Chu, staring intently into his eyes.
“If you didn’t do anything, why are you acting so guilty?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she took advantage of Sun Chu’s distraction and pulled a crumpled letter from his belt.
Sun Chu instinctively reached for it, but Ye Chutang struck the Quchi acupoint on his arm with her index finger.
A sharp, aching pain shot through him, and his arm immediately went limp.
“Let me see what it is.”
The instant Ye Chutang finished speaking, Sun Chu shouted anxiously, “Don’t look! At least don’t read it in front of everyone else!”
With that, he recited a poem by Li Bai.
The moment Ye Chutang heard it, she immediately guessed the general contents of the letter.
She gave Sun Chu a frosty look, then rose and returned to her room.
Old Madam Qi looked at Sun Chu, displeasure written all over her face.
“Mr. Sun, what was written on that piece of paper to make you care so much about it?”
She was not one to pry, but the reactions of Sun Chu and Ye Chutang had been far too strange.
Sun Chu improvised an answer. “It’s a poem I wrote. If it were published, it would certainly outshine Madam Qi’s work.”
Old Madam Qi’s literary talent was average, and she did not understand poetry very well.
She immediately looked toward her daughter.
Qi Qingyu had once been a renowned talented woman in the capital.
After hearing the poem Sun Chu had just recited, she knew that he was also exceptionally gifted.
However, she had no idea whether he could truly rival Ye Chutang.
“Mother, the poem Mr. Sun composed just now is indeed excellent. It surpasses the work of those so-called young talents by far.”
Even so, she felt that the crumpled paper did not contain an ordinary poem.
Rather…
It was a love poem!
Her sister-in-law had saved Sun Chu’s life, and it was only natural for him to fall in love with her.
She had to remind her younger brother to be on guard against Sun Chu!
Sun Chu had no idea that Qi Qingyu had misunderstood everything. Her icy stare made him feel deeply uneasy.
“Ahem. I’m a little tired. I’ll go back to my room and rest first.”
He stuffed the half-eaten glazed pastry into his mouth, then rose and went upstairs.
When he reached Ye Chutang’s door, it suddenly opened from within.
A fair, slender hand shot out and dragged him inside.
Qi Qingyu, who was still downstairs, saw this and turned pale.
She quickly stood up, preparing to leave, but Old Madam Qi grabbed her by the arm.
“Yuqing, why are you leaving too?”
Qi Qingyu had no idea how to explain.
She was worried that telling the truth would damage Ye Chutang’s reputation, so she had to come up with an excuse.
“Mother, I want to take some glazed pastries to Shaoping.”
Sun Shaoping’s legs were inconvenient, so the post-station attendants had arranged for him to stay in the rear courtyard.
After dinner, he had returned to his room.
Old Madam Qi did not think much of it and nodded. “Take them to him. You might as well bathe while you’re there. We’ll watch the children for now.”
“Very well. I’ll come back for the children after I’ve washed.”
Before leaving, Qi Qingyu lowered her voice and said, “Mother, isn’t it inappropriate for Mr. Sun to be alone in the same room as my sister-in-law?”
Old Madam Qi trusted Ye Chutang’s character completely. She glared at Qi Qingyu in displeasure.
“Don’t ever say such a thing again. I trust Chutang.”
Hearing this, Qi Qingyu also felt that she had been overly worried.
Even if Sun Chu had improper intentions, her sister-in-law was still someone worthy of trust.
“Mother, I understand.”
When Qi Qingyu carried the glazed pastries to the rear courtyard, Ye Chutang had joined the two sheets of paper together and pushed them toward Sun Chu.
“Quite clever of you, investigating me. Go on, talk.”
Sun Chu: “…”
Shouldn’t he have been the one saying “Go on, talk” to Ye Chutang?
He straightened his wrinkled collar and repeated the “code phrase” from earlier.
“Odd changes, even constants.”
Ye Chutang asked with a smile, “What if I were a liberal arts student and had forgotten that line?”
“…Imperial Palace Jade Liquor.”
“Congratulations. You ran into a science student who knows the next line: symbols determine the quadrant.”
The moment Sun Chu saw Ye Chutang admit it, he sprang to his feet.
“You… You really are from my hometown?”
Compared with his excitement, Ye Chutang appeared unusually calm.
“Mm. I’m from the modern world.”
Since Sun Chu had already guessed her identity, there was no need to hide it anymore.
Besides, once they reached Tianshan Commandery, he would confirm her identity sooner or later because of the business she planned to start.
Ye Chutang’s calmness quickly infected Sun Chu, and he sat down again.
“When did you arrive? Where are you from? Do you have a system or some kind of cheat? Are we inside a book, or did we travel through time? Can we still return to the real world?”
He had countless questions. He only asked the few that mattered most.
Ye Chutang, however, answered none of them.
“Once we reach Tianshan Commandery, you’ll slowly find the answers.”
Sun Chu looked at Ye Chutang pitifully. “Just answer one. Any one will do.”
His current mood could be summed up as: meeting a fellow countryman in a foreign land, both of them reduced to tears.
If he did not talk about something familiar from the past, he would not be able to eat or sleep in peace.
Ye Chutang shook her head firmly. “I need to determine whether you’re worthy of my trust, so I refuse to answer.”
Sun Chu immediately mimed zipping his lips shut.
“No matter what you tell me, I’ll keep it absolutely confidential!”
He was not stupid. Of course he would never expose the fact that they had come from another world.
Though ancient times did not have laboratories for vivisection, caution was the key to living a long life.
Ye Chutang raised her index finger and shook it.
“Tianshan Commandery.”
Seeing that she still would not relent, Sun Chu sighed in disappointment.
“All right. I’ll wait!”
With that, he suddenly hugged Ye Chutang.
“I’m genuinely happy to have met someone from my hometown here.”
He released her at once, before Ye Chutang could strike him, and grinned roguishly.
“Before, I obeyed you because I had no choice. From now on, I’ll obey you sincerely.”
In this life, he was going to cling to this cold-blooded yet compassionate woman!
Ye Chutang was not moved by Sun Chu’s sincerity in the slightest.
Her trust in a person was built through prolonged understanding and shared experiences.
“Get out. Pretend you didn’t discover anything.”
“All right. Good night!”
Sun Chu had never imagined that the two words “good night” could one day feel so unfamiliar yet so warm.
When he left Ye Chutang’s room, Qi Yanzhou had already arrived at the Taoist temple Zhu Hong often visited.
***
Taiqing Temple.
It was around the Hour of the Dog.
The temple had lost the bustle of the daytime, but it was not yet immersed in the silence of deep night.
The pilgrims staying overnight were still listening to the Taoist priest lecture and expound on the Way.
Some of the Taoists were meditating, while others were practicing tai chi.
Following Ma Kun’s description of the temple, Qi Yanzhou went to Hanguang Courtyard, where the orphans lived.
Hanguang Courtyard was at the very back of the temple, adjoining the rear mountain.
Two lanterns hung at the entrance, where two young Taoists stood guard.
The courtyard was pitch-black, with the occasional murmur of children drifting out from within.
The Taoists paid them no attention and dozed off where they stood.
Qi Yanzhou climbed over the wall without alerting either of them.
Apart from the main entrance, Hanguang Courtyard was surrounded on all four sides by rooms furnished with rows of communal beds.
There was a well in the rear courtyard, along with a small vegetable garden.
A kitchen and storeroom had also been built there.
Qi Yanzhou did not go to inspect the children. Instead, he set the kitchen on fire.
By the time the Taoists discovered the blaze, the kitchen was already engulfed in flames, and the fire had spread to the rooms where the children slept.
“Fire! Come quickly, put it out!”
Qi Yanzhou concealed himself in the darkness, waiting to see which child the Taoists would rescue first.
If Zhu Hong had a child born outside his marriage, that child had to be the one!
