Chapter 3: Distraction

Night had fallen, and a thick stack of documents lay before Fang Rui, yet after an hour he stil hadn’t finished reading even one of them.

Those five days felt to Fang Rui like five long autumns. His thoughts were all on Shen Yu, how could he focus on reading these documents?

He looked up at Rong Tai standing in the outer hall and asked, “Has my beloved aide Shen returned?” It was already the fifth day. After tonight it would be the sixth, and he still hadn’t received news of Shen Yu’s return to the capital.

Rong Tai hesitated, guilt in his voice, “Your Majesty, Lord Shen returned to the capital two hours ago…”

Fang Rui’s eyes darkened, his gaze chilling. She had returned to the capital two hours ago…

“Rong Tai, it seems you don’t understand what I meant by ‘you must not delay,’” Fang Rui said evenly and calmly. That nonchalant tone carried a formidable force that made one afraid even to breathe deeply.

Startled by Fang Rui’s coldness, Rong Tai trembled and bowed his head, “Your servant was wrong, please punish me, Your Majesty!”

Fang Rui closed the documents, stood from his chair, and ordered, “Prepare night clothes for me at once and arrange for me to leave the palace.”

His mind was full of Shen Yu. He hadn’t seen Shen Yu in what felt like a lifetime, so he couldn’t wait any longer. He just wanted to confirm whether Shen Yu was still the Shen Yu of his memories.

Rong Tai dared not slacken and replied, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Do not let a third person know of my leaving the palace.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Rong Tai obeyed and went to prepare.

Leaving the palace went extremely smoothly. Fang Rui exited through the South Palace Gate and rode the horse Rong Tai had prepared, went straight, turned, then turned right halfway, and dismounted near the Grand Guardian’s mansion.

For safety he skirted the Grand Guardian’s residence through a back alley, intending to follow the old route and jump the low wall from the neighboring courtyard that belonged to a military general.

Others assumed a general’s mansion would be more heavily guarded than the Grand Guardian’s, but in fact the opposite was true.

The general’s defenses were, to put it mildly, lacking. Fang Rui, wanting to reach his destination smoothly, had refrained from suggesting that the general replace his patrol guards.

He leapt over the wall into the back courtyard without needing much caution, because there wasn’t even a single patrol figure. Just as he was about to jump across the neglected yard, he heard a cat mew at his feet.

Looking down, he saw a snowy white ball of fur, like a yarn ball, rubbing against his leg. Its nose was pink and tender, and a pair of gem-like blue eyes shone as they stared up at Fang Rui.

This white furball really was… exactly like in the previous life, without an ounce of backbone.

The white ball was a fluffy white cat, perhaps of an unusual breed. It was quite small, about half the size of an ordinary housecat, roughly the size of an adult man’s palm.

He pulled a small packet of dried fish from his pocket, took out a strip, and set it on the ground. The white ball sniffed and began to nibble.

Chewing the dried fish, the silly cat kept rubbing against Fang Rui’s trouser leg as if it had a mind of its own.

Watching the foolish white ball, Fang Rui suddenly smiled, bent down, and picked it up. It neither cried nor fussed. It was very cooperative and simply lay quietly in his arms.

He stroked its soft fur and joked with some doubt, “You little cat spirit, could you have been reborn too?”

The cat, of course, didn’t answer. It only rubbed against Fang Rui’s chest with lazy contentment, clearly comfortable and drowsy.

Cradling the white ball, he stepped onto a stone beneath the wall and, under the cover of night, leapt into the neighboring courtyard.

The neighboring courtyard was brightly lit. Hearing footsteps approaching, he quickly tossed the white cat into a heap of grass, dropped two small strips of dried fish beside it, and slipped behind a pillar.

First came two heavier footsteps, then lighter steps followed.

Hearing them, Fang Rui’s eyes lit up.

It was definitely Shen Yu!

“Young master, the hot water is ready, you may bathe.”

Bathe…

For some reason, the moment he heard the word ‘bathe,’ Fang Rui’s mind replayed Shen Yu’s words from the previous life: ‘Your servant is a woman by birth…’

‘Your servant is a woman by birth…’

How was he supposed to accept that a ten-year friend, a beloved minister of ten years, was a woman!

Especially since he had already fully accepted the idea that he was attracted to men!

He had to personally verify whether Shen Yu’s claim was true or false.

Even now, Fang Rui still harbored a sliver of wishful thinking.

He listened as Shen Yu’s footsteps entered the bathhouse while the two maidservants stood at the door. At that moment, the white cat’s mew came from the grass.

The two maids exchanged a glance and lowered their voices, “How come there’s a cat in the courtyard?”

The other maid shook her head, “I don’t know either. Maybe it wandered over from the general’s house next door?”

“How could it have come over? The old madam hates cats most of all. If she sees it, she’ll beat it to death. Hurry and find it.”

The two maids followed the sound of the cat, treading lightly so as not to scare it away. As they approached where the mewing came from, a dark figure stepped onto a nearby low wall, climbed onto the roof, and moved with barely audible footsteps. It dropped onto the roof swiftly, its motions fluid and seamless, not a trace of hesitation.

The figure in black shifted a tile on the roof, revealing a finger-width gap through which a faint light leaked.

Only after the black-clad figure was done did a maid pull the white kitten from the grass.

“Isn’t this General Lei’s concubine’s little white cat from next door? How did it run over here?”

The maid holding the kitten said, “I’ll return the cat, you attend to the young master.”

“All right.”

Inside the bathhouse, Shen Yu, standing by the tub, heard the noise outside. The hand that had been about to loosen her clothes froze, and she asked, “Xiuzhu, what’s happened?”

“Young master, it’s General Lei’s little white cat from next door that accidentally ran over.”

Hearing it was only an ordinary kitten, Shen Yu’s hand, which had been gripping her garment, relaxed.

After a sigh of relief, Shen Yu began loosening her clothes. When Shen Yu was a man, her appearance was refined and elegant, the sort young women fancied: fair and clean, full of scholarly charm. Even Fang Rui, who had been attracted to Shen Yu, admitted he was first taken by Shen Yu’s looks. Neither overly effeminate nor excessively heroic, he was like a well-made braised dish: rich but not greasy, pleasingly balanced, impossible to resist once tasted.

As a woman…

Fang Rui had never pictured Shen Yu as a woman. Shen Yu’s male guise was ingrained in his mind.

Shen Yu began to unfasten her clothes. On the roof, Fang Rui held his breath. He had spied on Shen Yu countless times, but had never stooped to peeping at her bathing.

The stealthy, sneaky Fang Rui’s emotions were a jumble right now. He was nervous, scared, expectant, and guilty all at once…

So complicated that Fang Rui himself couldn’t tell whether he hoped Shen Yu was a woman or a man.

Fang Rui didn’t blink. He watched the clothes come off slowly, revealing rounded shoulders. As he watched Shen Yu’s movements, he hadn’t realized his right hand was touching the tile beside him, and he’d turned that tile in his mind into Shen Yu’s shoulder, stroking it left and right. When he finally realized, he felt like a lecherous fool…

He’d thought that once the clothes came off, the truth would be as plain as Shen Yu’s skin, white and obvious, but…

What were those white strips of cloth wrapped around Shen Yu!?

Could it be…

Images of Shen Yu’s flat chest flashed through his mind and he seemed to understand something. He realized what those white strips were for. No wonder he had never suspected Shen Yu’s disguise at all!

Watching Shen Yu’s slowed movements, he almost blurted out, ‘My beloved aide, hurry and undo everything.’

Just as the white wrap was about to be undone, Shen Yu suddenly froze, seemingly sensing something. She grabbed fresh clothes from the hanger, slipped them on, scanned the room, frowned, hesitated for a long moment, then dressed fully.

Fang Rui was speechless.

He had already mentally prepared himself, and this was what he was shown!?

Shen Yu left the bathhouse even though she had been inside for a very short time. Cuizhu exclaimed in surprise, “Young master, you’ve finished bathing already?”

Shen Yu shook her head, “I have urgent matters to attend to. Prepare it for me again tomorrow morning before court.”

“Yes, young master.”

After replacing the tile, he turned over and lay on the roof staring at the night sky, hand over his eyes. Inside, Fang Rui felt ruined. There was no mood left to watch the stars.

But to be honest, Shen Yu’s waist was truly what the idiom ‘slender as a graceful willow’ described. It was thin enough to encircle with a hand. No wonder in his previous life he thought Shen Yu was too frail and thought his health weak, and every winter he would send ginseng and snow lotuses to the Grand Guardian’s residence as if they were free.

As he thought on, Fang Rui recalled the skin he’d glimpsed earlier. At first he hadn’t wanted to think about it, but once he did, he immediately felt a warm rush slowly flowing from his nose.

He raised a hand to wipe and glanced at the blood on his hand.

Fang Rui’s expression was helpless. Inwardly he thought: I’m in the prime of youthful vigor*, this is** unavoidable.*

After a long while, Fang Rui climbed down the way he’d come, jumped into the neighboring general’s courtyard again, and left from there.

Back in the palace, Rong Tai’s face showed urgency. “Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager came just now.”

Fang Rui paused in the act of undressing, then quickly stripped off his servant’s robe and tossed it into Rong Tai’s hands, smiling coldly, “And then?”

He had been reborn for over ten days but had not gone to see the Empress Dowager nor paid his respects.

Letting the Empress Dowager think he was sulking was, in a way, better. He didn’t know how to face her now.

After all, the woman who had once been his birth mother had attempted to kill her own son.

Rong Tai replied, “I told Her Majesty you had already gone to bed, but the Empress Dowager didn’t believe me. She thought you were in the hall but avoiding her.”

At that, Fang Rui smiled and praised, “Well done.”

If she thought he was avoiding her, she wouldn’t guess he’d slipped out of the palace at night.

Having changed, Fang Rui reached under the bed and pulled out the wooden box he’d only begun keeping there recently.

Seeing the box, Rong Tai immediately averted his eyes and stared straight ahead, as if he had no idea what was inside the box.

Fang Rui’s face was earnest as he looked at Rong Tai, as if entrusting something important. “Rong Tai, you know my penchant for curiosities, but now I must settle down. Help me dispose of the things in here. It’s not much, no more than about ten volumes.”

Rong Tai nearly screamed. He couldn’t help wondering what His Majesty meant by ‘not much’!

When he handed the wooden box to Rong Tai, he felt a bit reluctant to do so. After all, the box had been with him for eight years, full of memories of him and Shen Yu.

But he intended for his orientation to return to the proper track. If he kept these trinkets, even Fang Rui himself feared he might end up bending the other way again.

After placing the box in Rong Tai’s hands, Fang Rui, still serious, said, “Remember to return this wooden box to me.”

Rong Tai didn’t say anything.

“Also, find me something normal.”

Rong Tai looked puzzled and asked, “Your Majesty, what do you mean by ‘normal’?”

The emperor replied solemnly, “Something between a man and a woman.”

Rong Tai started getting worried. Should he fetch an imperial physician to examine His Majesty?