After a dozen steps, Chen Rong couldn’t help herself from turning around to look at Chen Wei.

  Chen Wei had gotten up. She lowered her head and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.

  The burly man was pacing in place thoughtfully.

  Chen Rong withdrew her gaze and quickly went her way.

  The night passed by peacefully.

  The temple was filled with clamor early next morning. It sounded like the nobility was following one another inside.

  Fortunately everything was taken care of by the Wang servants.

  Feeling a little sluggish due of yesterday’s commotion, Chen Rong leaned against the divan after her grooming and caught some shut eye.

  Some moments later, she heard a series of light and careful footsteps.

  They kept busy for a while before Nurse Ping’s voice sounded: “Miss, another princess is here.” She cheerfully added, “She is as beautiful and noble as one can be. She treated a servant like me with so much courtesy. I never thought I’d one day meet princesses and noblemen, let alone being treated with such respect.”


  “It’s all thanks to Qilang,” she then muttered.

  Seeing Chen Rong ignoring her, Nurse Ping hesitated for a while before moving closer to Chen Rong and asked, “Miss?” No sooner did she speak than noises rose outside. Nurse Ping hurried to the door for a look.

  A quarter of an hour later, she ran back to Chen Rong to relay: “It’s a young eunuch, tsk tsk, I bet you have not seen a young lad as beautiful as he. Few girls in Jiankang can rival his beauty. He walks with the princess, and the princess is kind and polite to him.”


  Listening to Nurse Ping chattering, Chen Rong suddenly looked up and asked her, “You’re in a good mood today. Did something nice happen?”


  Nurse Ping quickly shook her head: “No, no.”


  Chen Rong smiled and did not look at her anymore.

  Seeing that Chen Rong was absently looking out the window, Nurse Ping occupied herself for a while, then came to sit behind her. “Miss?”


  Her voice was hesitant.

  “Speak.”


  Nurse Ping hemmed and hawed for a while before stammering: “I heard the noblemen outside say that…… that Qilang broke into Prince Ying’s home for you. And the ninth princess stopped Qilang’s carriage yesterday to question him in front of everyone who you are to him.”


  Chen Rong slowly turned around to listen.

  Nurse Ping smiled and gleefully said, “The aristocrats said Qilang smiled and singly replied that you are the most beautiful person to him. The ninth princess was so angry that she was driven to tears.”


  Nurse Ping laughed. But unable to read Chen Rong’s mood from her serene exterior, she quizzically asked, “Miss, why aren’t you happy that Qilang admires you so?”


  Chen Rong smiled and quietly whispered, “Nay, I’m very happy.”


  She said she was happy, but only a faint smile was on her face.

  Nurse Ping was a little surprised and disappointed that Chen Rong didn’t look too affected. “You are blessed to have Qilang’s admiration…… I’m hoping His Majesty will let you leave the monastic order one day. Then you can come into Qilang’s home when you resume your secular life.”


  Chen Rong smiled again to hear this, still faint and indifferent.

  Nurse Ping sighed.

  There were now footsteps approaching from outside that went unnoticed by both.

  This translation belongs to hamster428.

  Nurse Ping was still somberly looking at Chen Rong. “If Qilang hadn’t come to your rescue at Prince Ying’s estate, the consequences would have been unthinkable. I thought you had accepted Qilang when you allowed the Wang estate people to manage the temple.”


  “The aristocrats were also saying that you are a mistress Wang Qi is keeping at the temple…… That made me think: though a mistress is not an honored concubine, you’ll get to have more freedom. Furthermore, as long as Qilang lets you bear a child belonging to the Wang House of Lang’ya, you would not have lived in vain.”


  As she said this, she looked at Chen Rong with hope and waited for her to answer.

  Chen Rong gave her a smile, turned and lightly shook her head.

  “Miss?”


  Chen Rong dropped her gaze. “Nurse, this is all I want…… staying here on the mountain and quietly spending the rest of my life.”


  She spoke in no uncertain terms.

  “But miss!” Nurse Ping hurriedly exclaimed. Chen Rong’s and Nurse Ping’s voices made the person outside come to a stop.

  Chen Rong looked at her nurse with a consoling smile. “Nurse, don’t worry about my affairs anymore. I know what to do.”


  She paused, then articulated, “Aye, Qilang is very good to me and always takes care of me. If he hadn’t saved me from the Prince of Jiankang, I may not be alive anymore.”


  She stood up and went to the screened window. Looking out to the verdant spring scene, she peacefully said, “Of course I remember how well he treats me…… Nurse, that time when Old Shang and I were lured to the river outside the city and almost fell into the hands of villains, Qilang was kind enough to come find and save me in the middle of the night.”


  She softly sighed. “Never before in my life had someone cherished me this much. Up until now, I had always been the one to try her best…… no one had ever left the city in the middle of the night and searched the wilderness for me. I had been drunk with happiness! Furthermore, he is the prestigious Qilang of the Wang House in Lang’ya.”


  “I’m always aware that he is good to me.”


  Chen Rong paused, her smile fading. “But this is this and that is that.”


  “I am indebted to him, but we can only remain as friends. Nurse, you best forget him. Your young lady can only be a nun for the rest of her life. A year or so from now, once Qilang gets married or finds himself a new love interest, once the chief of the Lang’ya Wang House recalls these nuns and servants home, I reckon the noblemen in Jiankang will lose their interest in a trivial woman like me.”


  She became rather cheerful at this juncture. “Nurse, we will want for nothing then. We’ll quietly leave this place and buy a house somewhere quiet. We’ll stay far from Jiankang and away from the interest of the aristocrats. I’ll acquire land somewhere that has not been invaded. I will be too old by then for my looks to attract attention. We should be able to have a peaceful life.”


  “Nurse, the more I think about if the more I am convinced that I’ll be able to get my wish this time.” So excited at this thought was she that her eyes twinkled and her dimples bloomed when she turned to her nurse.

  She came face to face with Nurse Ping, but also a man who was leaning against the doorway, snowy robe and inky hair, and quietly watching her.

  Chen Rong tensed.

  She blinked. The smile on her face gradually froze.

  She stared at the handsome lad leaning against the door for a moment before muttering: “I didn’t know you were here.”


  She almost slapped herself as soon as her words slipped out. Honestly, not only did you fail to do any damage control, you even uttered such words!

  Nurse Ping looked back and forth, then bowed her head and quietly slipped away.

  As soon as she left, the man surrounded by the morning light smiled at her. He curved his mouth, waved his sleeves, and slowly walked to Chen Rong.

  When she saw him approach, she involuntarily backed into the window screen.

  Helplessly, she could only bow her head while his fragrance wafted to her.

  “Annoyed?” He gently looked at her, his voice was clear and soothing, and very pleasant to the ear.

  Chen Rong nodded.

  His slender hand reached out, their fingers brushing across her shoulder like a dragonfly skimming the water before coming to rest on the windowsill.

  Inadvertently, he had enveloped her in his shadow.

  He looked down at her, his inky locks grazing her cheek.

  “Darling,” he breathed, “what should we do now that I heard your idea?”


  He lowered his head and touched his nose to her forehead. “Is another thought forming in your head?” He pressed his lips together. “You know me…… it would’ve been fine I didn’t know, but how can I help myself from getting involved now that I do know?”


  Sighing helplessly, he continued: “Even if my family and His Majesty want to arrange for me a wife or whatever else, I hate the idea as soon as I think of my dearest darling clapping, the wheels spinning in her mind as she plots her exit right on my wedding day.”


  “Darling, what are we going to do?” His voice was gentle and solicitous, yet also childlike and capricious.

  Because Chen Rong did love him, she was defenseless against his tone and address. Her face at once blushed. She drew back, hid her face behind her sleeves and yelled at him, “M-move away from me. And stop calling me darling!”


  She stubbornly stared up at him with a warning: “Wang Qilang, I am now a nun! You’ll certainly not call me your darling.” She had steeled herself again. Now, she stood up with a hardened face.

  As she was about to push Wang Hong away, footsteps were heard, followed by Yinggu’s voice outside: “Priestess, His Majesty has sent an escort to take you to the palace.”