“This prince has never helped anyone wear their clothes before. Yet, instead of seeing it as an honour and being grateful, you are getting angry instead?”
Su Xi-er pursed her lips. Now that things have come to this, there’s no use even if I say more.
“Many thanks, Prince Hao.” She then laid down, shut her eyes, and turned her body over, no longer looking at him.
Pei Qianhao didn’t speak, choosing to sit on the wooden chair until the sky turned bright.
~~~
Prince Hao was alerted the next day by some knocking on the room’s door. It was Wu Ling, who had taken a fine steed that could travel extremely quickly in order to make the round-trip to the capital and back to the County Government Office overnight.
Outside the room, Wu ling bowed and whispered, “Su Xi-er was sold off by her parents when she was young, then made to carry out odd jobs in a tavern following that. As a budding beauty in her youth, there were many who looked into her at that time.”
The temperature seemed to drop drastically as Pei Qianhao replied, an air of danger now in his voice. “Continue your report.”
“She suffered quite a lot of hardships in the tavern. Some men wanted to bring her back to raise her as a child bride, while others wanted to play her even as a child…” At this point, Wu Ling could no longer continue elaborating. It’s too tragic.
Pei Qianhao coldly snorted, his aura frigid enough to seep into people’s bones. “Continue.”
“Your Highness, Su Xi-er is too pitiful. When she was young, someone touched her face and she almost… Fortunately, the manager of the teahouse was someone with a conscience and rescued Su Xi-er. However, not only did the manager lose his life over this matter, even the teahouse was implicated since he had offended a noble. In such circumstances, the teahouse couldn’t even continue to do business.”
Pei Qianhao finally understood why she revealed such a pained expression. I didn’t expect that her childhood experience was so…
It appears that I have crossed the line with my actions.
“Your Highness, this subordinate has already investigated properly. The person who caused Su Xi-er to almost lose her life that year was the Pei Residence’s collateral branch. It was the Empress Dowager’s eldest paternal cousin, Pei Yong.”
“This prince has understood it clearly. Withdraw and prepare a few good-looking female dresses and send them here. Additionally, bring some white fungus lotus seed soup[1] as well.
Wu Ling was dumbstruck. What! Female dresses and white fungus lotus seed soup? What does Prince Hao want to do?
“Quickly go.” Pei Qianhao swept a cold glance at him.
Wu Ling still hadn’t recovered from his astonishment. However, he didn’t dare to disobey Prince Hao’s instructions.
Hence, Wu Ling immediately accepted the order and left. Once again, I am doing things related to women. Sigh, these days, anything I do can only be associated with Su Xi-er.
Pei Qianhao turned around to look at the room, thinking about the woman lying inside it. Carefree times. I reckon it was before she was sold off by her parents right?
Neighbouring younger brother. Cotton candy. Yun. All of these are the most wonderful memories in her heart. Everything after that was only filled with pain.
That was why she would shout ‘yun’ with a face filled with despair. She will never be able to return to her carefree life, doomed to be haunted by those agonising memories.
However, Pei Qianhao didn’t know that this experience wasn’t Su Xi-er’s at all. In fact, the other soul that was now in Su Xi-er’s body had an even more wretched experience than this.
The pain that eroded her bones was like a nightmare that was hard to obliterate from her mind.
When Pei Qianhao returned to the room, Su Xi-er had gotten up. Due to the lack of suitable clothes however, she had remained in bed all this time.
“Don’t worry, this prince won’t let you go out while wearing this.”
“This servant’s clothes…”
“You might as well stop keeping that coarse attire. This isn’t Beimin’s imperial palace. Why don’t you wear what women should wear?”
Su Xi-er was just about to refuse when Pei Qianhao continued, “Didn’t you say that this prince loves beauties the most? Aren’t you afraid that this prince will fly into a temper and throw you to the wolves if you don’t wear some good looking clothes while by my side?
He is the most powerful here. I can’t disobey. If I insist on wearing the coarse attire, I wouldn’t put it past him to take it off and discard it
“This servant obeys Prince Hao’s instructions.”
Right after she spoke, there was another knock on the door, and Wu Ling’s voice could be heard. “Your Highness, the white fungus lotus seed soup is here. The dresses need to be bought at the silk mill.”
Pei Qianhao walked to the door to open it. He took the white fungus lotus seed soup and shut the door without uttering a single word.
1. Here’s a picture for you to visualise:
Source: https://www.xinshipu.com/zuofa/686336