Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

22. Zhou Zaiyue Sets Out to the Capital

 

Translator: Flying Lines

 

Zhou Zaiyue checked the pendant over and over again, stroking slowly with great caution the character “JIE” on it with his wrinkled hand, undisguised excitement in his eyes.

He had been looking for the owner of this jade pendant for over a dozen years…

Thank god! He was holding it now! God did show mercy on him and brought this pendant to him.

Zhou Zaiyue took a few deep breaths to calm his turbulent mind, his eyes glinting with hope.

“Where did you get this?” asked Zhou Zaiyue, unconcealed eagerness in his voice. He couldn’t wait to meet the owner of this pendant.

Xiao ShengNian was surprised as he had felt the change in his teacher who had always been cold and indifferent. Now he was staring with great tenderness at the pendant. What was Wen Nianxuan’s true identity?

“I got it from a Jianghu boy.”

“What’s his name?” Zhou Zaiyue asked.

“Wen Nianxuan.”

“Wen Nianxuan?” Zhou Zaiyue repeated the name as his eyes fell back to the pendant. After a while, he raised his head and said with determination in his eyes, “I want to see the boy.”

Xiao ShengNian was rendered in a daze as, if memories served him right, his teacher hadn’t left this place for three years. He had tried many times to persuade his teacher to go and live in the capital, but Zhou Zaiyue was unmoved. Xiao ShengNian felt it a pity that a learned man like this teacher should choose a secluded life in the mountain. And more than once had he mentioned to his brother that his teacher was an erudite of unparalleled knowledge.

His younger brother never took his words seriously who even said, “But I’ve never heard the name Zhou Zaiyue being mentioned in the whole capital.”

Xiao ShengNian then patted his brother’s head and retorted, “For erudite like my teacher, we shouldn’t judge him with those worldly norms. If teacher wanted fames, he wouldn’t have chosen a seclude life.”

In Xiao ShengNian’s view, Zhou Zaiyue was calm and indifferent like a peaceful lake hidden in the innermost mountain that would never be stirred.

“Let’s get going now,” said Zhou Zaiyue as he looked around the room and found he had nothing to pack. Then he found a piece of cloth and wrapped the jade pendant with great caution.

“Okay, teacher.” Xiao ShengNian nodded, overjoyed at his teacher’s decision to the capital. When he set out, he had taken this as his usual visit to his teacher and expected the same refusal as he had always been given when inviting him to the capital. Now this trip was more than worthwhile.

All his healing skills were taught by Zhou Zaiyue who gave him the medicine case. And it was during his learning with Zhou Zaiyue that he came to realize how excellent his teacher was and admire him ever since.

The medicine case was carved with a very novel pattern, a pattern he had never seen in other places until he saw Wen Nianxuan’s jade pendant. He had a guess that probably Wen Nianxuan was also a disciple of his teacher?

When they two walked out of the shed, the tiger lying on the ground stood up and stretched itself, its back arched, while the parrot flew to Zhou Zaiyue’s shoulder.

“I’ll go get a carriage,” said Xiao ShengNian in a somewhat resigned voice when they got to the foot of the mountain. A tiger and a parrot were too eye-catching. Besides, he couldn’t let the long journey tire his teacher out.

Luckily, Zhou Zaiyue was going to the capital with a prince or he would probably be denied entry because of the tiger.

Xiao ShengNian hired a carter and a horse-drawn carriage. After Zhou Zaiyue got in with his two pets, he mounted his own horse and headed back to the capital.