Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Come Help Me Get Dressed

Huo Zheng said: “It is very likely.”

Chun Zhi could not understand and asked: “But I already left the Lu Clan and will never have anything to do with Lu Jing Yun. Why would Ji Ru Zhen do this?”

Huo Zheng said: “I guess Ji Ru Zhen wants to force you to leave Linshui Town.”

Chun Zhi looked at him, serious from head to toe, and asked: “Why do you think that?”

While rolling beans in his palm, Huo Zheng answered casually: “Because as long as you are here, everyone in Linshui Town will see you and remember how the top scholar threw away his plain child-bride and married a high official’s daughter. Ji Ru Zhen, as that high official’s daughter, doesn’t want to be the talk of the town. She wants you gone. That’s not strange.”

Some people stay high above for so long that they think one sentence from them can decide another person’s fate. Ji Ru Zhen was clearly that kind of person.

As a chancellor’s daughter, she was born to have whatever she wanted. If she wanted the eyesore named Chun Zhi out of Linshui Town, she would send people to make it impossible for Chun Zhi to stay.

Chun Zhi said: “But I will not leave Linshui Town.” She muttered to herself: “If I leave Linshui Town, where could I even go?”

Huo Zheng raised his eyes to her and said: “The world is huge, and every region looks different. Don’t you want to see other places?”

Chun Zhi said: “Seeing other places should be because I want to go, not because someone forces me to leave.”

Huo Zheng nodded and said: “That does make some sense.”

“Right?” Chun Zhi felt quite proud of her reasoning and said: “Ji Ru Zhen doesn’t want me to have anything to do with Lu Jing Yun, yet she keeps doing things that push me to look for him. She’s making trouble for me and for herself. What’s that saying again? Harm the enemy by how much, and hurt yourself by what?”

Huo Zheng said: “Harm the enemy by eight hundred, hurt yourself by a thousand.”

“Yes, that’s the one,” Chun Zhi said: “Ji Ru Zhen is harming the enemy by eight hundred and hurting herself by a thousand.”

“Back to the point,” Huo Zheng said as he pushed the beans into a little pile and returned to the main topic, “what will you do if Lu Jing Yun doesn’t show up on the day the case is heard?”

“If Lu Jing Yun doesn’t come…” Chun Zhi began.

Huo Zheng watched her quietly, waiting for the rest.

Chun Zhi truly did not know what to do, so she snapped at him: “Can you not jinx it?”

Huo Zheng went silent: “…”

[How dare she call this prince a jinx!]

“If Lu Jing Yun doesn’t come, it will get very troublesome,” Chun Zhi said: “Property sales are recorded at the County Yamen. If Ji Ru Zhen really told Wu Xin to fight me over the tofu workshop, the proof kept at the county might get burned or thrown away. So he had better keep his word and show up on time.”

“There is another way that doesn’t need Lu Jing Yun,” Huo Zheng said.

“What way?” Chun Zhi’s eyes lit up at once.

“If there’s a way without asking Lu Jing Yun, that’s even better,” she added.

Huo Zheng said: “Under the Great Xing Code, any case where the plaintiff does not appear when the court opens is void on the spot.”

Chun Zhi thought it over and said: “You mean if Wu Xin doesn’t show up on the day of the hearing, the case is void?”

Huo Zheng nodded and gave her a look that said a pupil could be taught.

“But how can we make it so that Wu Xin can’t reach the court that day?” Chun Zhi asked.

Huo Zheng smiled a little and said: “What do you think?”

Chun Zhi racked her brains for a long time before she said: “Is it still in time if I go burn incense and pray right now?”

She pressed her palms together and prayed: “Gods above, please grant this believer her wish: let Wu Xin get hit by a carriage at the door, choke on water when he drinks, get robbed if he walks at night. Best of all, let him fall sick and be stuck in bed for months!”

Huo Zheng: “…”

She could think of praying to the gods but not of the one who could really help her, who was right in front of her.

Eyes shut, Chun Zhi kept praying for heaven to make something happen to Wu Xin so he could not come to court in three days.

Huo Zheng snapped up a soybean and flicked it against her forehead, saying: “Better to ask me than to ask the gods.”

Chun Zhi opened her eyes, clear as water, and looked at him: “What good is asking you? Can you beat Wu Xin so hard he can’t come to court?”

“Maybe,” Huo Zheng said slowly.

He planned to bring this young woman back to the Prince’s Manor as a cook. That would make her one of his people. And if she was one of his people, he would not allow anyone else to bully her.

“You should rest here and heal properly,” Chun Zhi said, not taking his words seriously. She rubbed the sore spot on her forehead and added: “Tomorrow I’ll go to the City God Temple and burn the best incense. I hope the gods will bless me.”

Saying that, she went back to her room.

Left alone by the window, Huo Zheng watched her go inside to do her sewing. Then he rose quietly, walked to the back of the yard, and blew a whistle.

Before long, Jiang He followed the sound, dropped to one knee, and greeted him: “Prince.”

“Find the Wu Xin who came to make trouble today and break his leg,” Huo Zheng ordered.

“Ah?” Jiang He thought he had misheard.

Prince Chang’an was always decisive and ruthless, doing only big things. He had never given an order like this.

“What are you ah-ing about?” Huo Zheng said: “Remember, do not let Wu Xin know who did it.”

“Yes,” Jiang He answered at once.

“And the Lu Clan,” Huo Zheng added, his dislike for the Lu Clan plain: “The air is dry. It’s easy for fires to start.”

He had heard Ji Ru Zhen liked to burn things. She had burned Chun Zhi’s house deed and land deed. In that case, he was ready to let the whole Lu Clan go up in flames.

Jiang He understood at once and said: “Your subordinate will take care of it right away.”

Huo Zheng grunted in reply and said no more.

After a moment of hesitation, Jiang He asked in a low voice: “When will the prince rejoin Official Gu? Official Gu has asked about your whereabouts every day.”

Gu Huai Yu, Official Gu, had been patrolling Nanzhou with Huo Zheng. Since Huo Zheng’s injury and disappearance, Gu Huai Yu had been dealing with the Nanzhou officials alongside the Impostor Prince Chang’an, living every day with his head hanging by a thread.

“Soon,” Huo Zheng said.

Jiang He did not dare ask how soon.

While they were speaking, Chun Zhi came to the next room with the clothes she had just finished and did not see Huo Qi. She called as she searched the yard: “Huo Qi?”

She found her way to the back.

Seeing her, Huo Zheng shot Jiang He a look.

Jiang He sprang onto the roof and flattened himself in the shadows.

“There you are,” Chun Zhi said when she spotted Huo Qi behind the yard, “I called you. Why didn’t you answer?”

“I just heard you,” Huo Zheng said.

Chun Zhi held out the new robe and said: “The clothes are ready. Take them and try them on.”

“All right,” Huo Zheng said as he took the clothes. Holding them in one hand and his crutch in the other, he headed into the room.

A moment earlier, Chun Zhi thought she had heard someone talking, yet only Huo Zheng was here. She felt it was odd and looked around carefully a few more times.

From inside, Huo Zheng called: “Chun Zhi, come help me get dressed.”