Chapter 29: The Young Lady’s Method
Mo Zheng led the horse through twists and turns to a bustling street, then followed Yang Luo’s directions to “find Four Lanes,” arriving in front of Four Lanes. Yang Luo got out of the carriage and walked straight inside, seemingly very clear on where to go.
But Mo Zheng, following behind, felt that Yang Luo seemed unsure of where to go, because she looked left and right in the alley, and even sniffed occasionally, as if smelling something.
“You…” Mo Zheng couldn’t help but speak up to ask.
Yang Luo stopped in front of a doorway, as if discovering something, waved her hand to signal her, then took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
“Aunt Yang, Aunt Yang.” She shouted loudly.
Mo Zheng raised her eyebrows slightly upon hearing this; Yang Luo was using a Capital City accent.
She pursed her lips slightly, thinking to herself, no mistake, this young lady was indeed formidable.
Footsteps sounded from inside the door, and the next moment someone peered through the door crack. Yang Luo crouched down a bit to let the person inside see more clearly.
“Aunt Yang, my mother sent me to pick up the flower pattern. Have you finished it?” Yang Luo continued.
Perhaps because of the Capital City accent and being a young girl, the person behind the door opened it.
This was a maidservant of sixteen or seventeen, looking puzzled: “Young lady, have you got the wrong place? There is no Aunt Yang here.”
Yang Luo widened her eyes: “Isn’t this the home of Madam Yang who sells flowers?” As she spoke, she peered past the maidservant inside, and Mo Zheng also looked over, seeing that the courtyard was not large, and with the door open there was a strong medicinal fragrance….
A woman’s cough came from inside, accompanied by a weak inquiring voice: “Bi Yun, who is it?”
Maidservant Bi Yun turned back: “Young lady, someone looking for some Madam Yang who sells flowers, wrong door.” Then she looked at Yang Luo again, “We are not Madam Yang’s home.”
Yang Luo looked surprised and confused: “Wrong place? Then whose home is this?”
Maidservant Bi Yun instinctively replied: “We are surnamed Liu…” She stopped abruptly after speaking, looking at Yang Luo warily.
Yang Luo didn’t look at her, but at the door head: “Liu? Not Yang? They said it was Three Lanes on ChangLe Street…”
The maidservant suddenly realized, and quickly said: “Young lady, this is Four Lanes.”
Yang Luo paled in shock and hurriedly apologized, quickly stepping back, then scolded the guard behind her: “How did you lead the way?”
Mo Zheng kept her head low and argued softly: “Young lady, you said Four Lanes at first.”
Yang Luo got even angrier, stamping her foot: “I never said that, you led us wrong.” With that, she strode away.
The guard hurriedly followed with his head down.
The maidservant at the doorway smiled somewhat helplessly, and behind her a young lady accompanied by coughing came out of the room: “Bi Yun, what happened…”
The maidservant quickly turned back: “Young lady, go inside and lie down quickly. Someone got the wrong door, they’ve left. You can’t be exposed to the wind with your illness.”
The door closed, and the voices of the master and servant gradually faded.
Yang Luo stopped at the alley mouth and looked back.
“A Sheng.” She said softly, “Remembered this home, right?”
Mo Zheng nodded.
Yang Luo looked at her, took a piece of paper from her sleeve and handed it over: “Find a way to get this from her home, then bring it to me.”
Mo Zheng didn’t take it, raising her eyebrow: “Young lady, you’re putting it too elegantly. Is that called taking?”
That’s called stealing!
Yang Luo forced a smile and whispered: “Listen to my explanation. If we don’t take it, this thing will be gone too.”
What thing? Mo Zheng was curious, took the paper and opened it, seeing a depicted invitation on it, written with words praising the Fuzhou Liu family for founding Zhi Yong Academy with a reputation far and wide, and finally her gaze fell on a pattern.
Yang Luo hadn’t said what it was, but Mo Zheng recognized it.
This was the Son of Heaven’s seal.
This was the Son of Heaven’s invitation, equivalent to an imperial edict.
Mo Zheng lifted her head to look at Yang Luo.
She understood: they were to steal someone’s invitation, impersonate another to take the princess companion reader exam.
Good grief, was the young lady aspiring? This was going mad!
……
…….
Yang Luo looked at the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table.
Her ears seemed to ring with her cousin Yang Hui’s voice.
“Look, look, this is the invitation the Emperor gave when I took the companion reader exam that year.”
Back then she greatly admired and envied Yang Hui for being the princess’s companion reader, able to study at the National Academy, and enter and exit the Imperial Palace.
Yang Hui was also happy to bask in her envy, detailing how she had taken the exam and been selected, what she had been tested on, what essay she had written, and besides that, some amusing incidents at the time.
“Lots of people came to take the exam.”
“But besides talent, it also depends on luck.”
“A young lady from Fuzhou had bad luck, fell ill from not acclimating to the Capital City’s water and soil upon arrival, missing the exam. Even more unfortunate, her invitation was chewed up by rats.”
“She was terrified, and after recovering didn’t dare go home, hiding in the Capital City and nearly starving to death.”
“Her family came searching, unaware of the situation, thinking their daughter had been stolen, robbed, or killed, made a fuss at the National Academy, alarming His Majesty, which finally led to finding her and learning what happened.”
“His Majesty even personally tested this young lady’s knowledge, which was truly excellent. His Majesty intended to let her also be the princess’s companion reader and study at the National Academy, but….”
Yang Hui giggled, with a bit of schadenfreude.
“The Empress would not allow it, saying her birth chart was bad, bringing bad luck.”
Compared to Miss Liu, her luck was good; she had grabbed the Son of Heaven’s invitation before the rats.
The candle flame flickered, and Mo Zheng knocked on the table, interrupting Yang Luo’s reverie.
Yang Luo looked at Mo Zheng’s hand, under her fingers pressing an invitation.
She reached out to pick it up and open it. Compared to the crude sketch she had drawn from fuzzy memory, the real Son of Heaven’s invitation was majestic and grand.
The invitation had a translucent dragon pattern.
“As you said, I scattered some paper scraps by the rat hole.” Mo Zheng said, “But those pieces of paper are worlds apart from this invitation. If they notice it’s not real, there’s nothing I can do.”
Yang Luo smiled.
Though upon hearing he was to steal something, the hunter youth’s expression was very odd, as if she had gone mad, he still went out as dusk fell, returned before curfew, and successfully “took” the invitation back.
“You guessed what this is, right?” Yang Luo asked.
The hunter youth knew characters, probably taught by the old hunter. She had already told the youth that she wanted to take the National Academy princess companion reader exam.
Mo Zheng raised her eyebrow: “The qualification for the exam, right? Given by the Emperor.” He pointed at the invitation, “I saw the bright yellow dragon pattern.”
This time it was Yang Luo’s gaze that turned odd: “Then you really have some nerve.”
Knowing what it was, yet daring to actually steal it.
No wonder, he could be Yun Ling’s bandit chief, opposing the government, robbing cities, occupying government offices…
Was this innate rebelliousness and audacious courage?
Mo Zheng chuckled: “Young lady, I’m eating your food now, so naturally I listen to you. But if it comes out, you handle it yourself; I’m making my own escape.”
Yang Luo burst out laughing, picked up the invitation and looked at the dragon pattern on it, her smile becoming complex: “No need to worry, just an invitation. Even if it comes out, it’s no big deal.”
Mo Zheng raised her eyebrow again. Impersonating identity for the exam, and stealing this invitation which was even an imperial gift from the Son of Heaven—this was no big deal? This young lady was even more formidable than she had imagined.
What kind of secret was she hiding exactly?
