Chapter 64

Chapter 64: A Country Girl, Only a Plaything

Huo Zheng saw a heavy guard in Chun Zhi’s eyes for the first time, so he stopped where he was and did not step closer.

Chun Zhi stepped back, shut the courtyard gate, and slid the bar into place.

Outside, the Nanzhou officials were still kneeling. Faced with this scene, they glanced at each other, unsure if they should stand.

Huo Yu walked to Huo Zheng’s side and said with a smile: “You got shut out, Seventh Brother. The beauty you’ve been hiding has quite a temper.”

Huo Zheng wanted nothing more than to knock Huo Yu away with one palm.

Huo Yu asked him: “Want me to have the men smash the door?”

Huo Zheng answered in a low voice: “No need.”

Huo Yu laughed and said: “Then coax the beauty well, I’ll head back first.”

“There is nothing to coax,” Huo Zheng said as he raised a hand to signal the officials to rise.

The Nanzhou officials spoke together: “Thank you, Prince Chang’an.”

Huo Zheng swung onto his horse and said to several of them: “You, come with this prince.”

The officials answered as one: “Yes.”

Huo Yu climbed into his carriage, and before he went inside he asked Huo Zheng: “So you’re not going to coax her?”

Huo Zheng said nothing.

Huo Yu added: “You’re also not taking her back to Nanzhou City? How do you plan to arrange her?”

With a blank face, Huo Zheng said: “A country girl, just a plaything.”

He spurred his horse and left, and the officials either mounted up or boarded their carriages to follow.

Huo Yu said: “Interesting,” then entered his carriage and told the coachman to return to Nanzhou City.

At that moment, standing just behind the gate, Chun Zhi heard his words clearly: “A country girl, just a plaything.” [So in his eyes, I am only a plaything.]

She leaned against the door as tears fell in silence, one after another. She covered her mouth so she would not cry out loud.

That day, she learned that Huo Qi was the noble Prince Chang’an. She also learned that he did not like her at all.

More than two months of living together, the times when they leaned on and protected each other, all burst like fragile bubbles.

She had thought that even if they could not be husband and wife, they could still part on good terms.

Maybe life had been too calm these days, making her forget the pain from before, and little by little she had fallen for Huo Qi. [Good thing I never gave him my whole heart.]

Chun Zhi did not cry for long. She wiped her cheeks with her sleeve and told herself: “Good thing.”

“Good thing I don’t even like Huo Qi that much.”

“I only wanted a child.”

Now that Huo Qi had regained his place as Prince Chang’an and had left this place, maybe he would never come again.

She lifted a hand and touched her belly; it was all right. As long as she had this child, it was enough.

After Huo Qi left, she kept soaking soybeans and prepared to make tofu for the next day.

She took apart the robe she had almost finished sewing, but after a while she felt tired, so she put away the scissors and needle and thread.

The red gauze canopy over the bed and the double happiness cutouts on the doors and windows had become an eyesore. She tore down all the cutouts and changed the canopy back to the old green gauze.

She even changed the bedding. She did not want to use things that she had used together with Huo Qi.

By the time she finished, night had fallen.

Chun Zhi stir?fried two dishes and steamed rice, then sat by the Eight Immortals table to eat slowly.

She had little appetite, but for the child in her belly she had to eat well.

Huo Zheng was gone, but Lucky Fortune was still here.

She forced herself to finish a bowl of rice, then stood before the donkey shed and talked to Lucky Fortune for a long time.

She did not know if the donkey could understand. She was simply too lonely. When something happened, there was no one to tell. So she told Lucky Fortune.

Luckily, the donkey had a mild temper and never got tired of her voice.

The sky grew darker. The night wind rose. Black clouds hid the moon.

When she was about to return to her room, a knock sounded at the gate.

On any other day, it would have meant that Huo Qi had come back. She would have run to open the door with a smile and asked if he was hungry.

But today she had seen those high officials kneeling to him and calling him Prince Chang’an, and she had heard him say with such scorn that she was a country girl, only a plaything. From that moment, she had wanted to cut things clean.

No matter who was knocking now, she did not want to open the door. She turned, went back into her room, shut the door, snuffed the oil lamp, lay on the bed, and closed her eyes, but sleep would not come.

She had tangled with Huo Qi on this very bed. At this same time last night, they had even kissed and could not bear to part.

Chun Zhi tried hard not to think of what had happened before. She wanted to push Huo Qi out of her mind. But whenever she closed her eyes, he was all she could see.

The knocking went on for quite a while before it finally stopped.

Still, Chun Zhi could not sleep.

Someone climbed over the wall, then through the window, and in two or three steps reached the bedside.

The lamp had long been out. The room was pitch?dark. She could see nothing.

Chun Zhi grabbed the scissors and thrust toward the person coming near the bed.

The intruder caught her wrist and spoke in a low voice: “It’s me.”

It was Huo Qi’s voice.

Chun Zhi did not let go of the scissors, keeping the tip pointed at him as she said: “Prince Chang’an, why are you here?”

Hearing her call him Prince Chang’an left Huo Zheng with a feeling he could not name.

He took the scissors from her hand and set them on the table, picked up the fire striker, and lit the oil lamp.

The spark grew and the light spread, brightening the room.

The double happiness cutouts on the doors and windows and the red gauze canopy above the bed were gone.

The room was back to how it had been at the start, plain and quiet.

Huo Zheng had lived here for more than two months and knew every corner. Yet today, it felt unfamiliar.

Chun Zhi sat on the bed. Her hair was loose, and her eyes were red.

She had cried.

A dull ache pressed against Huo Zheng’s chest.

“I am indeed Prince Chang’an,” Huo Zheng said as he looked at her: “I never meant to mislead you. My family name is Huo, my given name is Zheng, and I am seventh in my family. When I told you I was Huo Qi, it was not a complete lie.”

Chun Zhi said: “Even if you lied, what can I do? You are the high and lofty Prince Chang’an, and I am only a country girl.”

She could not bring herself to say the words only a plaything. With a hoarse voice, she said: “We were a fake marriage from the start. I let you stay here to heal, and you helped me fool the Magistrate’s Office. We each took what we needed. Now you have your identity back. Go and be your Prince Chang’an. I will still sell my tofu on Peach Blossom Lane.”

Looking at him from a few steps away, she held back more tears and called to him once by his alias: “Huo Qi,” then said with firm seriousness: “Our fate ends here. Do not come to me again.”

“Chun Zhi,” Huo Zheng said, surprised to hear such a final judgment from her.

He told her: “Even if I am Prince Chang’an, I will not leave you to fend for yourself. I will take you with me. Whether to Nanzhou or to the Capital, I will…”

“No need,” Chun Zhi said in an icy voice as she cut him off: “Our ranks are worlds apart, like clouds and mud. We do not match. Two people fated to part should not waste time in useless entanglement. Go. I do not want to see you again.”