Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Emperor Jianping
Gu Yan Qing had once thought that one day, he would find the owner of that diary.
He just hadn’t expected it to happen so fast.
So the girl he’d seen on the long street today… was the diary’s owner.
Jiang Jiang.
When he first obtained that mysterious diary, he’d been curious. Something so strange, so unreal—yet what it recorded was the daily life of an ordinary young woman.
What secret was Jiang Jiang hiding?
Gu Yan Qing knew he couldn’t startle the snake yet. One day, he would unravel every riddle.
After a brief surge of excitement, his emotions cooled back into razor clarity. He opened the diary again and read on.
Today’s entry was more shocking than the last.
His gaze sharpened.
So it was the Meng family.
What a joke. He’d searched high and low, and the answer had landed right in his hands.
The corner of his mouth lifted, faint as a shadow, and he lowered his eyes to the page.
The diary read:
Forget the Meng family for now. Making money comes first. I already scoped things out today, and I even ran into Chu Yun Yue in the back alley behind the Chu family. That silly Chu Yun Yue is pretty cute. If she hadn’t fallen into the water, if she’d never “woken up”… would she have stayed a silly girl like this forever?
No. Chu Yun Yue is supposed to become a strong woman. She’s supposed to do big things with Liu Cheng An. If she stays this silly, how can she stand beside Liu Cheng An?
So she still has to go through life and death. Better to break out of the cocoon and be reborn.
Sigh. Exciting lives always belong to other people. Me? I’m destined to run myself ragged just to survive…
And that was it. Nothing more.
Gu Yan Qing’s eyes lingered on the two names—Chu Yun Yue and Liu Cheng An—moving back and forth like a blade testing an edge.
The Liu family and the Chu family had a marriage contract. Everyone in the capital knew it.
Back then, the Liu family and the Chu family were close. After the Chu family’s eldest legitimate daughter was born, the two families arranged a childhood betrothal. But the world turned upside down a few years later, when rumors spread that the Chu family’s eldest legitimate daughter was a fool.
Even so, the Liu family never took the initiative to break off the engagement. And the Chu family never publicly confirmed or denied the rumor. In the blink of an eye, eighteen years had passed. Now Liu Cheng An had built his reputation, and he was about to come of age. Their marriage matter should have an outcome soon.
But…
Falling into the water?
“Waking up?”
Breaking out of a cocoon and being reborn?
Gu Yan Qing reread the final lines again and again, sinking into deep, quiet calculation.
The Cloudcoming Inn.
At the same time, Jiang Jiang lay in bed, tossing and turning. Something weighed on her mind, and no matter how she shifted, it wouldn’t lift.
She’d finished today’s diary, and once again, she’d received the reward: Health +1.
So… what exactly was that luck increase from the beginning?
Health was hard to quantify, but Jiang Jiang could feel it. The original owner’s body was steadily improving. At this point, if someone told her to climb a mountain at night, she could probably do it without collapsing halfway.
But luck?
How was that supposed to show itself?
Would she step outside and run into an honored patron?
Look down and pick up money?
Or… would it let her escape disaster?
“If that’s really how it works…” Jiang Jiang muttered, “then hurry up and let the Meng family have terrible luck. If they’re busy, they won’t have the time to crush small shrimp like us.”
Right now, the Meng family was the biggest danger in her path.
She pressed her palms together under the blanket, half serious, half desperate, praying the goddess of luck would notice her—just a little.
Before dawn the next morning, the room stirred.
Jiang Jiang squinted her eyes open and saw her brother on the opposite bed already dressed, neat and ready to leave.
“Brother,” she mumbled, voice thick with sleep. “It’s so early. Where are you going?”
“There’s a grand court session today,” Jiang Chao Sheng said, practically glowing. “I want to go near the imperial city and see if I can catch a glimpse of Chancellor Gu.”
Jiang Jiang stared at him in silence.
So he really was a star-chaser.
“All right, go, go,” she yawned. “Don’t forget to get an autograph.”
An autograph?
Jiang Chao Sheng froze.
Chancellor Gu’s calligraphy had to be worth a fortune, right?
Then he snapped back to reality.
What kind of chancellor carried a brush to court?
He shook off the ridiculous thought, adjusted his scholar’s cap, and strode out of the inn.
Early spring mornings were gray and cold, the world wrapped in a thin veil of mist. Jiang Chao Sheng didn’t care. He ran straight toward the imperial city, only slowing near the street corner not far away.
Officials attending the grand court session all passed through Fu’an Avenue. By now, carriages and sedan chairs were lined up in a long queue, stretching down the road.
Jiang Chao Sheng didn’t recognize most of them. He searched the line for Chancellor Gu’s official sedan, eyes darting from one canopy to the next, but after a long while…
Nothing.
What he didn’t know was that Gu Yan Qing had been the first person to enter the palace today. By now, he was already inside the imperial city. And today, he hadn’t waited in the Dai An Courtyard as usual—he’d taken an imperial token and gone straight into the inner palace.
Imperial City, inside His Majesty’s bedchamber.
Emperor Jianping had just changed into his dragon robe when he turned and saw Gu Yan Qing not far away, leisurely sipping tea and eating pastries like he owned the place.
“Chancellor Gu,” Emperor Jianping said, striding over, “you came this early just to mooch food and drink from me?”
He snatched the pastry right out of Gu Yan Qing’s hand. “I haven’t eaten yet. Leave some for me!”
Back then, Emperor Jianping had been a frustrated, down-and-out prince. No capable people at his side. No one he could truly speak with.
Until he met Gu Yan Qing.
Now everyone said Gu Yan Qing was his favored minister.
But in Emperor Jianping’s eyes, Gu Yan Qing was a friend, a brother, and the one person who shared the same ambition.
So when no outsiders were present, Emperor Jianping never bothered putting on airs in front of him.
“Your Majesty is stingy,” Gu Yan Qing said, lifting an eyebrow.
“I have to be.” Emperor Jianping sighed and popped the stolen pastry into his mouth like a man who’d fought for it on a battlefield. “These past few years, disasters keep hitting. Commoners are displaced everywhere. The borders won’t stop burning. The treasury is empty, and I don’t even know what this year’s taxes will look like.”
He stared at the remaining pastries as if they were enemy supplies. “People say a household matriarch can’t cook without rice. An emperor can’t govern without silver. And unfortunately for me, I’m a poor emperor.”
“Your Majesty,” Gu Yan Qing said, calm as ever, “I happen to have a money-making business. Are you interested?”
As he spoke, he reached into his robe and produced a memorial—the one that had traveled, by twists and turns, from Xi Liang Prefecture to the capital.