Chapter 45: Wrong Way Round

Since Lei Shengda went off to the military camp, the general’s residence’s defenses had grown increasingly lax. Even with Lei Shengda still nominally at the residence, for Fang Rui it was no trouble at all to slip into the general’s mansion unseen, then sneak into the Grand Guardian’s residence to see Shen Yu, and return the same way without worrying about being discovered.

A dark figure vaulted the wall from the general’s residence into the Grand Guardian’s residence with a nimble, practiced grace. He had even calculated his landing points with precision.

Knowing the way like the back of his hand, he avoided the patrols and reached Shen Yu’s courtyard smoothly. Just as he was about to knock on the window of Shen Yu’s bedchamber, something brushed against his trouser leg.

Fang Rui looked down and saw a fluffy bundle climbing onto his shoe.

Fang Rui smiled amusedly, bent, and scooped up the white cat.

He glanced left and right for a moment without spotting anything, then said curiously, “You little thing, somehow I always see you when I come back to look for Shen Yu.”

The white cat, with pinkish fur and fuzzy cat ears, flicked them and stared at Fang Rui intently, behaving as obediently as if Fang Rui were its keeper.

Shen Yu also liked cats, so Fang Rui didn’t shoo it away this time.

He softened his movements and knocked on Shen Yu’s bedchamber window. After several knocks with no answer, he concluded that Shen Yu must not be in. She had gone out.

The alley behind the bedchamber was seldom patrolled, but that didn’t mean it was never checked.

Fang Rui heard footsteps. Though distant, with careful listening he could tell they were coming toward this back alley.

Hearing this, Fang Rui tried to push the window open but it wouldn’t budge. Shen Yu had locked it from the inside.

Fang Rui gave a helpless smile. Shen Yu was growing increasingly wary of him. He pulled from his sleeve’s hidden pocket a silver needle ten times larger than an ordinary needle.

After years of these clandestine, late-night meetings with Shen Yu, he kept such contingencies on hand. Even as emperor, even with secret skills, he worried about being caught unawares one day while visiting Shen Yu. To avoid exposing his identity, these supplies could prove useful.

He slid the silver needle through the window’s crack. The “lock” wasn’t a real lock but a horizontal wooden bar placed on the window from inside the bedchamber.

Careful yet not slow, the movement was unhindered and soon two very soft thuds sounded from within the room.

A smile tugged at Fang Rui’s lips. He opened the window and leapt in. The instant he closed it, the patroller appeared behind the house with a lantern. Fang Rui’s timing could not have been better.

Barely inside, the cat leapt from Fang Rui’s arms, scratched its cute pink paw at its ear, then scampered under the cabinet as if to find a place for a short nap.

Fang Rui stood in Shen Yu’s room without rifling through her things, merely looking around. The room’s decor matched her character: simple, not overly adorned, mostly a few calligraphy and paintings on the walls, mostly orchids and mountain rocks. Everything was pleasant to the eye. Previously, whenever he came to Shen Yu’s room, his attention was almost entirely on her, leaving no time to study her furnishings.

Just as he was about to learn more about Shen Yu from the room’s arrangement, The cat, who had crawled under the cabinet to sleep, suddenly wagged its tail and popped its rear out from beneath the cabinet.

With his keen hearing, Fang Rui seemed to hear it gnawing at something under the cabinet, trying to pull it out.

Curious, Fang Rui crouched and reached under the cabinet, groped around, felt something, and then pulled it out along with the cat.

The cat still clutched a small bundle in its mouth that it had pulled out. Fang Rui glanced under the cabinet and then at the item wrapped in coarse cloth.

Was it hidden by Shen Yu under the cabinet, or by someone else?

He pried the small bundle from the cat’s mouth but didn’t open it immediately. Seeing that it was the size of an ordinary booklet, Fang Rui frowned and grew suspicious.

Thinking back with growing dread to the previous life when everyone believed the ledgers left by the prefect of Suozhou were in Shen Yu’s possession… Only after toppling the Empress Dowager did Shen Yu truthfully tell him she had never had those accounts.

Everyone thought the ledgers were with Shen Yu, which surely wasn’t baseless. If the ledgers were here without Shen Yu’s knowledge, that could be impossible.

Fang Rui hesitated a moment, set the cat on the ground, then with a solemn air opened the bundle.

But… when he saw the title labeled on the booklet, at that moment Fang Rui felt the suppressed wicked flame rekindle.

“Dianluan Daofeng”…that title alone… As someone well-versed in such things, he immediately understood what it meant. Fang Rui had accumulated many such collections before. Though none were particularly decent and despite having Rong Tai throw them away, he had read all their contents.

“Dianluan Daofeng” was indeed a fitting name. He even felt the edition he’d brought was too restrained.

Back at the Tiger Roar Camp, Fang Rui had suspected Shen Yu might have already seen the fire-avoidance chart before he brought them. It had been just a suspicion, he never truly expected to find such a surprising item in Shen Yu’s room.

To keep his promise to bring her the fire-avoidance chart, Fang Rui had searched a long time before finding a carefully progressive volume with very discreet illustrations. He never imagined Shen Yu had already read it in advance. How bold of her.

Shen Yu had just gone to speak with her mother and was not in the room. She returned and opened the door, at which Fang Rui looked up. He had been so engrossed he hadn’t even heard her footsteps.

Seeing Fang Rui, Shen Yu quickly shut the door, turned back with a slight irritation and said, “Next time you come, can you wait outside the window? When I’m not here, you shouldn’t intrude so casually…”

Shen Yu’s words stopped abruptly when she saw the cloth and booklet in Fang Rui’s hands. Her eyes widened and she hurried over, trying to snatch them from his grip. But Fang Rui, being mischievous, simply lifted his arm up.

Shen Yu was tall for a woman, but Fang Rui was rather tall among men, about a head and a half taller than her. Holding the booklet up, Shen Yu couldn’t reach it even on tiptoe.

“Put it down!” Shen Yu’s heart collapsed the moment she saw Fang Rui flipping through the booklet she’d hidden under the cabinet.

She had been afraid someone would catch her when she took the booklet out to dispose of it, but she never expected him to find it. Her face flushed crimson at once.

Fang Rui tossed the booklet toward the bed, spun his arm to encircle the tiptoeing Shen Yu, placed his hand on her waist, lifted her upward, pressing her tight against himself so her toes rose even higher.

Shen Yu panicked, unable to push him away, and cried angrily, “What exactly do you think you’re doing?!”

A warm breath brushed her ear and a hoarse voice said, “Just want to be cunning one more time. The second condition.”

He said this and then lowered his head.

Shen Yu’s eyes went wide in shock as the man, with a mask between them, bit her lip.

Shen Yu flinched in pain and couldn’t react immediately and she couldn’t even focus. Wait…this was the wrong way round! The one who wanted to bite the other person should be her!!