Chapter 634: Struggling in Snow Mud, Climbing to the Bright Moon (Part 1)

"... Who are you?!" The young girl was startled. She glared at him, but her face had turned white first in the dim night.

In a Jianghu confrontation, this kind of fierce-looking but weak-hearted behavior was equivalent to the smell of blood floating to the nose of a hungry wolf.

Seeing Pei Ye lowered his head and stared at her until the distorted rage on this face gradually cooled down and turned into a pale, worried stubbornness.

"I, I am Li Cannan, the Eighth Princess of the Great Tang. The Ming Ming Niangniang is my biological mother... You, a man from outside, why are you in the palace? What is your crime?"

"He is my person." Li Xizhou only then caught up from behind, lifted her skirt, and stepped up the stairs.

Li Cannan glanced over. Her face turned white instantly. That red dress and gold face were like demon fire in the palace. She froze in place instantly, stuttering and not knowing what to say.

"Let her go." Li Xizhou said.

Seeing Pei Ye let go, stepped aside, and lowered his head to help Meng'er up.

"No ritual?" Li Xizhou looked at the young girl, her tone very casual.

"Subject, subject sister greets Princess Jinyang." Li Cannan hurriedly lifted her skirt and bowed deeply.

"Why beat and scold her?"

"..." Li Cannan stood stiffly, as if she were a rabbit under the claws of an eagle, unable to say a word.

Li Xizhou lowered her eyes and looked at her for a while: "Don't always vent your anger in the palace. If it reaches your mother's ears, won't you be punished yourself?"

"Yes... I will follow the Princess's teachings."

"You are not happy in the palace. A few days ago, the Sage granted you a mansion in the East Ward. Isn't that very good?" Li Xizhou said, "People always have high and low. You like to compare with others. It will be much more comfortable in the capital city than in the Great Ming Palace... Go back."

The woman only said these two sentences, her tone very light, and it was impossible to hear any

She glanced at the tall, cold, and stern young man again, bowed her head in a gesture of retreat, and without a word, stepped off the stone platform.

Meng'er had just finished checking her wooden limbs and looked up with a very relieved smile; clearly, they were not broken.

Seeing Pei Ye frowned as he looked at her: "Why did she hit you?"

"... Because of Prince Yongji's marriage, I suppose." Meng'er lowered her head, patting the footprints on her clothes. "Prince Yong has been close to my master these past few days, and the Eighth Princess is very angry."

Seeing Pei Ye pursed his lips, examining her body; there was almost no clean spot left. It wasn't just the marks of the assault; she was covered in mud and wet stains from the melting snow, looking as if she had fallen several times and struggled to crawl back up.

Her hair was disheveled in several places, and there was a bright red slap mark on her face.

Seeing Pei Ye frowned again.

"Then she should go find Li Youlong, why hit you—doesn't Li Youlong care?"

"There's no need to tell the master..." Meng'er looked at the young man's cold, angry expression and quickly smiled. "Oh, don't be angry, the master and I are very close. The master does a lot for me, and I'm used to suffering some grievances for the master, it's nothing... Besides, you really shouldn't blame the Eighth Princess too much."

The maid lowered her head, brushing the dirt off her clothes: "She isn't actually that bad, you know. In fact, among all the descendants of the Qilin, the one with the thinnest Qilin blood is the Eighth Princess—"

She stopped abruptly at this point, looking with some trepidation at the red-clad figure in the distance, but that princess didn't seem to have any intention of coming over, just standing quietly without even glancing in their direction.

Meng'er lowered her voice: "She doesn't even have her own palace in the imperial grounds, and whenever something happens, she always sits at the very end... Anyway, without Qilin blood in the palace, life is very hard."

She looked a bit dejected: "Now that this marriage was said to be destined for her by the Ming Ming Niangniang, only to be snatched away by us, it's only natural for her to be a bit angry."

She tilted her head up, and by now, the night sky was hung with stars, which were reflected in her smiling eyes: "Look at my face, she was so angry, yet she only left a red mark. If it were the strength of the managing matron, it would have turned bruised and bloody long ago."

Seeing Pei Ye watched her in silence. In truth, he had encountered this maid several times, and each time she looked to be in a difficult situation, yet each time she wore this same optimistic smile, as if she could cast aside every insult and pain her body suffered.

But Seeing Pei Ye was very skeptical that such a person truly existed. He was silent for a moment and said: "What do you mean by 'snatched away by you'? How was this marriage determined?"

At the mention of this, Meng'er's movements as she smoothed her skirt stiffened slightly: "The marriage, of course, was decided by the Ming Ming Niangniang. It's the so-called 'orders of parents, words of matchmakers'... His Holiness the Sage doesn't interfere in such things."

"But didn't the Ming Ming Niangniang designate Li Cannan?"

"..."

"Hmm?"

"Oh, don't worry about it, there might be a result at the banquet tomorrow anyway." Meng'er turned her head away. "At worst, you'll know when the engagement is finalized."

Seeing Pei Ye, however, was never one to take a hint. He frowned at the nervous maid and suddenly gave her forearm a gentle squeeze.

"Ah!" Meng'er cried out in pain.

"How many such falls have you suffered?" Seeing Pei Ye looked at her hand; the chilblains on it were equally swollen, clearly the medals of her arduous ice-chiseling. He was silent for a moment. "Every time you feel you can't bear it, if you think about this matter, can you become happy again?"

Meng'er shuddered violently, turning her head to stare at him in a daze.

Seeing Pei Ye looked at her in silence as well.

"... Alright." Meng'er twisted her fingers, revealed a smile again, and said in a soft, hoarse voice, "I'll tell you... but don't go around talking about it."

"Hmm."

"The Ming Ming Niangniang... will agree to the marriage between the master and Prince Yong."

"Why?"

"Because, actually, the reason the Ming Ming Niangniang doesn't agree to the master's marriage is because of the Qilin blood in the master's body." Meng'er said in a low voice, as if confiding an unspeakable secret. "But... but I have a way."

"What do you mean?"

"... I'm sorry, Seeing Pei Ye, I was hiding it from you before. I wasn't looking for the secret passage to escape." Meng'er lowered her voice very, very low, but she raised her head, her eyes sparkling. "Actually, the true legend is that the late Ming Ming Niangniang left behind a method to wash away the Qilin blood from the imperial princes, and I feel it's in the secret passage."

"... What are you thinking?" Compared to the fantasy of the secret passage, these inexplicable words were even more baffling to Seeing Pei Ye.

"It's true, Lord Pei, you aren't in the palace, so you don't understand." Meng'er's face turned slightly pale, and she insisted stubbornly, "They say the late Ming Ming Niangniang was truly a very, very good person. If you are very sincere, she will respond to your wishes... The master's and my wish is just to go see the snow in the north."

"Why do you always believe such things?"

"It's true!" This gentle maid spoke with force for the first time, her lips trembling slightly, her shimmering eyes fixed on the young man. "Lord Pei, it exists... it's true, it must exist..."

She slumped to the ground, having straightened her back to argue this point, but her lower limbs could only sprawl in the dirty, slushy snow. Her head and face were covered in debris and mud, and the slap mark on her face was by no means as light as she had claimed; it was now burning hot and red.

Seeing Pei Ye pursed his lips, unable to speak.

All these mud stains and scars were for the sake of the conviction she insisted upon, including that severed leg.