After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 172 A Visit to the Grand View Garden: Xiaoxiang Pavilion (Part 1)

Chu Yan and Xiang Yun walked east along the road and came to Cuiyan Bridge. Across the river, they could see a pavilion built on the bridge. After asking them, they learned that it was Qinfang Pavilion.

Walking south along the fork in the road from Cuiyan Bridge, you suddenly see an elegant pink wall with various brick carvings. The gate is a mix of blue and red, and two large red lanterns hang in front of it. Upon closer inspection, the three characters "Xiaoxiang Pavilion" on the plaque come into view.

Upon seeing the words "Xiaoxiang Pavilion," Chu Yan felt a sense of comfort, as if he could see Lin Daiyu in the words, living in this quiet and elegant villa.

Upon entering, one sees a courtyard filled with lush bamboo, with a covered walkway leading through it, where the bamboo shade is very cool.

"The Emperor has arrived!"

Suddenly a woman's voice rang out, and then two people hurriedly came from the corridor to bow. Just as Chu Yan was about to ask who they were, Xiangyun laughed and jumped out, grabbing one of their hands: "Haha, Sister Xiren is here! We didn't see you when we went to Yihong Courtyard!"

It turned out to be her.

Chu Yan sized up Xi Ren and saw that this person who was by Jia Baoyu's side was not particularly outstanding in appearance, slightly inferior to Qing Wen, and each of her own characteristics as Mushe and Qiuwen.

Xiren was originally from Grandmother Jia's household. Grandmother Jia liked pretty girls, and Xiren was indeed pretty and dignified, but she was a little stage fright. You could tell that although she was holding Xiangyun's hand, she was very nervous.

"Are you Xiren?" Chu Yan asked.

These words made Xiren even more nervous, and she hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, I am Xiren."

"No wonder Xiangyun keeps mentioning you; you seem to be a steady and amiable person," Chu Yan said with a smile.

Xiren blushed, and Xiangyun took her hand and laughed, "That's right, Sister Xiren has been playing with me since we were little. Every time I come to the manor, I always make sure to visit her."

Baochai and the others laughed and asked, "Where are your sister Yuanyang and sister Ping'er?"
While Xiangyun was speaking, Xiren secretly sized up the unfamiliar girl. Seeing that she was dignified and gentle, and that her smile was reserved and elegant, she knew that she was also a young lady from a wealthy family. Then, remembering that the princess from the previous dynasty had also come, she guessed that she was the princess.

"Who is she? Jin Chuan?" Chu Yan asked another maid who had come with Xi Ren earlier.

To everyone's surprise, the moment Jin Chuan's name was mentioned, the maid's eyes welled up with tears, and she said, "Jin Chuan is my older sister, I am Yu Chuan!"

On the other side of the corridor, Daiyu knew he had arrived, so she came out of the house to greet him. When she heard him suddenly mention Jin Chuan, she became suspicious. Baochai and the others hadn't mentioned Jin Chuan earlier, for fear of upsetting Yu Chuan. Why did he bring it up at this particular time?
How did he find out what Yuchuan looked like?
Chu Yan nodded and said, "No wonder Miss Bao and the others didn't mention your sister just now. They were afraid of upsetting you."

Yu Chuan lowered her head: "It's been a long time since then, there's no point in being sad anymore, thank you for your concern, Your Majesty."

Xiangyun quickly smiled at Chu Yan and said, "That's perfect! I was just thinking of asking my brother the emperor for an imperial decree to release the maids and Yuchuan from Yihong Courtyard."

The group looked at her in surprise. Yu Chuan was somewhat moved, knowing that Miss Yun had asked for the imperial decree on her behalf because of her sister, Jin Chuan, who was also close to Miss Yun.

Chu Yan was speechless for a moment and looked at Xiang Yun.

If Xiangyun had asked him for a decree before he arrived, he would have easily pardoned the maids. But since he had seen Qingwen, he had already made up his mind to take her.

"His Majesty……"

Xiangyun was timid and embarrassed.

Xiren hurriedly said, “Miss Yun, the court will discuss who should be pardoned. We young ladies should not easily interfere with the government. I didn’t plan to go out anyway. Besides, we senior maids are called ‘secondary young ladies’ in the mansion. We are bound to share the honor and disgrace of the Jia family. You don’t need to worry about us. There will always be a way out.”

Xiangyun said bluntly, "You may not want to go out, but Yuchuan and the others may not."

"Girl, that's not what I meant!"

These words made Xiren anxious, and everyone who saw them laughed, including Yuchuan herself.

Daiyu emerged from the covered walkway, her graceful figure swaying gently, and smiled at Xiangyun, saying:
"That girl Yun has no sense of propriety. Now look what's happened! She's offended both Xiren and the Emperor. Luckily, you call the Emperor 'brother,' otherwise who knows how he would punish you!"

Chu Yan looked at her and saw Daiyu standing gracefully in the corridor under the bamboo shade, holding a round fan in her hand. Her little face was smiling and lively, and she was nowhere to be seen as she used to cry.
When Daiyu's eyes met his, her face flushed slightly, and she avoided his gaze.

Xiangyun laughed and said, "There's a saying: If the emperor can only decide who to pardon based on his own whim, and the court has to make all the decisions, then what's the point of being an emperor?"

Everyone looked on in surprise.

Chu Yan chuckled, "I did say that."

Xiangyun chuckled and said, "My brother the emperor also said that he would not be punished for his words. I beg you to pardon them. If you don't want to agree, then just refuse. I know that we have not made any contributions and need to serve the emperor so that we can ask for his favor in the future!"

Baochai and the others laughed and said, "Incredible! Yun'er is so thoughtful. It's admirable that she is so kind and righteous!"

So they stopped mentioning the pardon and went inside the Xiaoxiang Pavilion to sit down.

Zijuan and Xueyan had already prepared tea.

After Chu Yan entered the room, he first glanced at the furnishings. He saw that there was a curtain on the door to the right, which must be Daiyu's boudoir. To the left was her study, which had a moon window with a veranda outside. A parrot with its cage hanging under the veranda could be seen at a glance.

"I'll take a look into your study," Chu Yan said, and walked into Daiyu's study. He stood under the moon window, referring to the place where Jia Zheng in the novel "Dream of the Red Chamber" said that being able to sit by the window and read under the moonlight was a life well-lived.

The girls were somewhat surprised, but not all of them followed inside. Only Daiyu and Baochai came in, while Xiangyun whispered to Xiren outside, and the others stood at the door.

"This place is truly elegant, Miss Lin," Chu Yan said approvingly as he opened the window.

Just as Daiyu was getting nervous and wondering what he was doing, the parrot suddenly cried out, "The cold moon buries the flower's soul, the cold moon buries the flower's soul!"

Everyone was surprised. Qinghe was hearing this poem for the first time, and couldn't help but repeat it over and over, secretly praising the word "burial" as particularly strange and unique.

This prompted Xiangyun to quickly leave Xiren behind and squeeze in, standing next to Chu Yan and laughing and scolding the parrot: "When I teach you at other times, you just won't say a word. Why do you say such discouraging things as soon as the Emperor comes? Do you also know that this is a poem he wrote?"

Chu Yan laughed upon hearing this, "So it was you who taught this parrot to mimic speech."

Daiyu said, "Yun'er has nothing else to do when she comes to my place. All she does is tease the birds and play with the bamboo. I don't know where she learned some crooked poems, but she taught them all of them."

Chu Yan turned to look at her, but Daiyu turned her head away, and Xiangyun chuckled.

Chu Yan looked at the parrot and laughed, "The poem 'Cold Pond Crane Shadow' was written by Yun'er, and 'Cold Moon Buries Flower Soul' was written by you. Do you still think it's a bad poem?"

"Huh?" Xiangyun looked on in surprise.

Daiyu sneered: "I never wrote this poem, it was clearly you who did!"

Just as Chu Yan was about to speak, the parrot cried out again: "The colorful threads cannot hold back the pearls on the face, and the old traces of the Xiang River are already blurred!"

Xiangyun looked at the parrot and asked, "Whose poem is this?"

Baochai came over and said with a smile, "Come and see, there are two sharp-tongued girls here. One is called Parrot, and the other is called ~Pinyatou."

This refers to the argument between Daiyu and the emperor earlier, and everyone laughed.

Chu Yan knew where the parrot's poem came from. He turned around and saw that Lin Daiyu's beautiful, dewy eyes were now glistening with tears. Her delicate eyebrows trembled slightly, and tears rolled down her cheeks and chin, making her look like a pear blossom in the rain.

Everyone saw it and looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Why is Lin Daiyu crying again?" Chu Yan calmly reached out his finger and wiped away the tears on her cheek. Touching Daiyu's face, he felt that it was smooth and delicate, like a peeled egg that could be broken with a touch, making him want to stroke it again.

Fortunately, Daiyu's crying appearance was truly pitiful, so he abandoned his intention to tease her.

"Who's crying? It's just that the wind got in their eyes."

Daiyu turned her head away from his hand, wiped away her tears with her handkerchief, and looked out the window. Suddenly, she saw the parrot lower its tail, and a white creature landed on the wooden board of the cage.

Such an unseemly scene made her spit out a low snort, but for some reason she thought of Baoyu's dirty appearance outside the hanging flower gate, which was no less than that of the parrot at this moment, making him look rather filthy.

Daiyu turned to Zijuan outside and said, "Go and tell a maid to wash the cage and give it good food and water." As she spoke, she glanced sideways at Chu Yan, "His Majesty the Emperor has arrived, bestowing his favor upon the young ladies of the garden; the parrot will also get some benefit."

If someone else said these words, it would obviously be considered praise of the emperor.

But when spoken by Daiyu, it was full of her characteristic sarcastic and unsettling tone, and yet she was also beautiful, making it hard to be angry with her.

Chu Yan said slowly, "Speaking of which, a few days ago when I was reviewing memorials, someone delivered a letter to me."

Daiyu immediately knew what he was talking about, and her face turned red because Chu Yan had said that every time she asked him to do something, she had to pay a price.

These past few days, she's been thinking about how to get out of this mess. Should she remain silent and let him hug her again, or try to make him happy and ask him to forgive her?

Xiangyun asked, "Is it the letter that Sister Lin and I wrote?"

Chu Yan smiled.

Xiangyun also laughed and said, "Brother Bao came back a few days ago. We saw him outside the second gate... He looked so miserable and dirty. I never knew that corvée labor was like this. I never knew that corvée labor could be so hard."

Baochai laughed and said, "She is a young lady from a noble family, how could she know the hardships of ordinary people? Let alone doing corvée labor, even ordinary people only take a bath once every half month or once a month."

Xiangyun asked, "Why is that? Don't they think it's dirty?"

Tan Chun, Qing He, and the others also came to look. Baochai said, "Think about what you need for bathing every day. Firewood alone costs a lot of money."

Xiangyun laughed and said, "How much does firewood cost? There's plenty of it in the mountains. Don't try to fool me, Sister Bao."

Baochai was speechless. She probably understood some of the hardships of ordinary people, but after all, her family owned many shops, and she hadn't paid much attention to the money for daily necessities.

Chu Yan pinched Xiangyun's cheek. "We'll go hunting in the West Garden another day. You'll be in charge of gathering firewood. That'll show you how much money it costs."

Xiangyun hurriedly asked, "Are we going hunting in the autumn?"

Daiyu didn't say much; she knew that every penny she spent, every stitch, came from the Emperor.

She silently thought of something: after the parrot finished reciting that poem, it was Chu Yan who wiped away her tears.

(End of this chapter)