The next day, when Xiao Shao went out, Qi Yan hadn't woken up yet.

Xiao Shao deliberately took a detour to the side room, wanting to mock Qi Yan a bit with things like, "Don't all you scholars tie your hair to the roof beam and stab your thighs with awls to study? The sun is high in the sky and you're still sleeping?" Or perhaps, "With how much you sleep, how did you manage to pass as the Tanhua?" "Surely the other candidates of your year aren't all like you, right? Because if they are, our Daqian Dynasty is doomed."

But when he stepped inside, Qi Yan was hugging the quilt, half his face buried in it, acting as if this quilt was his own wife. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his complexion couldn't be called good either; it was obvious that his body had suffered a severe deficit and hadn't recovered yet. However, the way he slept while hugging the quilt actually looked quite tranquil, so Xiao Shao paused and ultimately didn't wake him up.

He headed out the door on his own: "Forget it, I'll go see how the arrangements at Jiuli Alley are going first."

The steward had sent a message early in the morning. Since the Qi family were criminals, someone had to be sent over to handle the transfer of the deed and contract. Xiao Shao had nothing to do anyway, so he planned to go take a look. Otherwise, if he brought Qi Yan over and the place hadn't been tidied up yet, it would look too unseemly.

He then got into the carriage and drove all the way to the alley.

Xiao Shao's status was noble, and the steward did not dare to neglect him. In just one short night, Lady Qi had already rented an unoccupied courtyard in the alley and moved out of the Jiaofangsi.

When he entered the house, Lady Qi was making breakfast.

Glutinous rice was kneaded into the shape of peach blossoms, wrapped with a sugar filling, and placed on the stove to steam. Seeing Xiao Shao, she put down her work and led the two tiny little girls to kneel before him.

The two little ones knelt in a row. Xiao Shao sidestepped to avoid their bow, twirling his fan as he looked around: "This residence is not bad."

It was a courtyard with two enclosures, bright and clean, looking quite decent. Xiao Shao thought to himself, 'When Qi Yan comes to see this, he surely won't cough up blood again.'

If he really got angered to death, who would read and review the memorials?

Seeing the fire simmering in the kitchen and the glutinous rice pastries freshly out of the steamer, he raised his hand and picked one up: "Lady Qi has such craftsmanship?"

Lady Qi said, "It's prepared for Qi Yan. He likes to eat the plum blossom pastries from Tongxing Hall. Now that I can't move around freely in the alley and can't buy them, I just steamed some."

Xiao Shao raised an eyebrow. Tongxing Hall was a famous pastry shop in the Capital City, and its signature dish was candied preserves, which were very popular among the noble ladies of the capital. Yuan Yu always carried two boxes to coax little girls, but Qi Yan liked them?

He thought of the unsmiling, cold-hearted Lord Director from his past life, and then thought of Tongxing Hall's flashy, colorful paper packaging. Finally, combining the two—the aloof and stern Lord Director finishing the reading of an imperial decree, and then reaching into a colorful box to pick out a plum blossom pastry—he couldn't help but reveal an expression as if he had just eaten a fly.

Weird, truly weird.

He felt this association was a bit nauseating, but when his carriage passed by Tongxing Hall on the way back to the city, as if possessed by ghosts and gods, Xiao Shao called for the carriage to stop, went down, and carried back two boxes of pastries.

By the time he returned to the mansion, it was almost afternoon.

After finishing lunch in the mansion, Qi Yan was force-fed another two pots of medicine. He had a rare good dream yesterday, curling up in the warm quilt and sleeping peacefully all night. His bones had softened, and his complexion looked a bit better. However, when he looked at himself in the mirror, he still looked like someone recovering from a long illness. So he paused and instructed a servant to bring a box of eyebrow powder.

The dark kohl from the mother-of-pearl box was applied to the tips of his eyebrows, lightly and evenly blended, finally giving him a bit more life.

He got into the carriage with Xiao Shao.

As soon as Xiao Shao got on, he rested his head on a cushion and half-lay down. Qi Yan, however, was probably still a bit afraid of Xiao Shao; he sat stiffly in the corner, perfectly straight, without the slightest unnecessary movement.

Seeing him like this, Xiao Shao wanted to tease him, so he opened the pastries, picked one up with his fingertips, and pressed it against Qi Yan's lips: "Eat it?"

He propped up his head with great interest and observed: Did the former Director, who was below one person and above ten thousand, really like to eat this cloyingly sweet stuff?

Since it was a tease, naturally he wouldn't let him eat it properly. Xiao Shao held it at a tricky angle, leaving only a small place to bite. If Qi Yan wanted to maintain his manners, he would inevitably touch his hand, and if he didn't want to touch his hand, he would have to disregard etiquette and bite it over.

Whichever reaction it was, it would be very interesting.

Xiao Shao waited leisurely for Qi Yan to make a move.

Qi Yan froze for a moment, looking up and down at the pastry. Obviously, he also noticed it. He pursed his lips and retreated a little: "...No need, you eat it."

Xiao Shao narrowed his eyes: "You're not going to eat?"

"...No."

"Really not eating?"

"...Really no."

"If you don't eat it, I'll throw you in jail."

"..."

"Fine." After a moment of stalemate, Xiao Shao withdrew his hand and ate the pastry himself. However, he was never used to eating overly sweet small pastries. The sweetness stuck stickily in his throat, and he had to drink several mouthfuls of tea to wash it down. He commented, "It tastes a bit bad."

When he looked up, he saw Qi Yan with his eyelashes slightly lowered, looking almost sorrowful. His clear, black-and-white eyes were staring fixedly at him, hiding emotions he couldn't read.

—To be precise, looking at the corner of his lips.

"?"

Xiao Shao used a handkerchief to wipe away the pastry crumbs from his lips and smiled: "What, I try to feed it to you and you don't eat it, but now that I've eaten it, you're eyeing it? I can't spit this out for you."

Qi Yan merely looked at him quietly: "Doesn't Your Highness find it dirty?"

Xiao Shao: "...?"

This time, he was truly stunned, completely failing to follow Qi Yan's train of thought: "What?"

The pastry was freshly taken out. Besides Xiao Shao's hand having touched it, only... Qi Yan's lips had touched it?

Dirty?

Qi Yan said indifferently, "I have suffered castration."

His expression was very faint when he said this, not mixed with any emotion; he was simply stating a fact. From the court to the commoners of the Daqian Dynasty, eunuchs were indeed at the bottom of the chain of contempt. They were considered thieving sycophants who could be condemned without needing to discuss their merits or faults. No matter their status—whether they were noble scions or common peddlers—anyone could point at their noses and curse them as "rootless filthy things." Due to physiological limitations, even if they cleaned themselves daily, they could not compare to the cleanliness of others.

Xiao Shao finally understood what he was saying. His eyebrows shot up, revealing a very bizarre expression, and then he scoffed. He took another pastry from the box, shoved it straight against Qi Yan's mouth, and ordered: "Eat."

Qi Yan was stunned, but Xiao Shao's commanding tone was too obvious for him to dare disobey, so he took a small bite right from his hand.

The fragrance of plum blossoms bloomed on his lips; it was truly very sweet.

Before he could recall the taste of this pastry he often ate in his childhood, Xiao Shao had already withdrawn his hand and, without avoiding the small bitten-off part, ate the rest of the pastry in one bite.

"!"

Qi Yan was startled and almost stood up in the carriage. He hastily averted his eyes, not daring to look at Xiao Shao at all, and his ears instantly turned red.

Xiao Shao swallowed the pastry in a couple of bites, drank another two cups of tea, and then said: "How does this even compare? I mingled in the Shenji Camp before I came of age, you know that, right?"

Qi Yan's gaze darted away, and he only nodded slightly.

Xiao Shao was a notoriously mischievous devil in the Capital City. The Emperor and Empress had him in their old age and doted on him like the apple of their eye, giving him the stars if he asked for stars, and the moon if he asked for the moon. He also grew up looking flamboyant and handsome. Whenever he rode a horse down the main street of the capital, half the girls in the city would lose their hearts to him.

Unfortunately, Xiao Shao was not interested in romance. He liked military geography, crossbows, and firearms. Every day he would recite things like, "Why don't men carry the Wu hook, and charge to claim the fifty states of Guanshan." But as a prince, what the hell kind of 'Marquis of Ten Thousand Households' could he be enfeoffed as? The Emperor and Empress couldn't dissuade him, so they let him fool around in the Shenji Camp for a while.

It was only later, when the Crown Prince took charge of the state affairs, that Xiao Shao, for some unknown consideration, gradually turned into the current foppish playboy.

Xiao Shao: "The leaders of the Shenji Camp coaxed me and refused to show me the real stuff, trying to fool me with discarded toys. So I knocked one of them out, put on his uniform, and snuck into the storehouse in the middle of the night. Once I had seen enough, I came out with my arms around the shoulders of a bunch of drunken patrol soldiers, and even shared a leg of mutton with them."

He recalled: "The food in the military camp couldn't compare to the imperial palace. The leg of mutton was still tainted with the smell of earth, its fatty skin smoked pitch-black by the charcoal fire, and sprinkled with coarse salt, but didn't I eat it just the same?"

Qi Yan's brows knitted tightly together, not knowing whether he wanted to call Xiao Shao rebellious or ignorant of etiquette. But thinking of the vast moonlight over the mountains in the northern suburbs of the imperial city, and the youth galloping his horse under that moonlight, for some reason, he actually felt a bit of longing.

The two of them finished the pastries in the carriage, taking turns eating piece by piece. The carriage also wobbled its way to the alley. Qi Yan followed Xiao Shao off the carriage. As soon as he stepped down, looking at the small courtyard building in front of him with its grey bricks and dark tiles, draped with vines, he paused slightly.

This place was much better than he had imagined.

The Jiuli Alley in his dream was a desolate, ruined place that hid filth and grime, where his sister had taken shelter and could only linger on, surviving with her last breath. However, this courtyard was quiet and clean, with winter jasmine and kudzu vines planted in front of the door. It was not much worse than the original Qi family courtyard.

Qi Yan raised his hand to knock the door ring, his hand actually trembling a bit.

Facing the small courtyard's vermilion-painted door, he began to feel afraid.

He was afraid that all this was just a fleeting illusion, a foolish wish and delusion born from his excessive torture. Thus, he hesitated and staggered, feeling timid as he approached home. For just these two steps, he dared not cross them for a moment.

Xiao Shao stood beside him with his arms crossed: "Are you not going in? If you're not going in, we're going back."

It was a tone of disdain, but the instant Qi Yan heard his voice, his heart dropped back into reality.

Xiao Shao was here; it was not a dream.

His fingers twitched, and an inexplicable thought arose in him—he wanted to grasp Xiao Shao's sleeve. But as a servant, this action was too impolite, so he took a deep breath and pushed the door open to enter.

Everything inside the house was even more like a beautiful dream than a dream itself.

His relatives were safe and sound. His sister brought out pastries, and the two little girls were swinging on a swing in the courtyard. The delicate fragrance of glutinous rice paired with the early spring wintersweet in the courtyard... every single thing was something he wouldn't even dare to dream of.

Qi Yan was blankly led by his sister's hand, pressed down at the table, and fed a pastry. He swallowed the food vaguely, lowering his eyes to conceal the moisture in them.

Xiao Shao went to the neighboring tavern to find a place to drink, leaving the time for the siblings. When he had drunk almost enough, he came back to find Qi Yan to return home.

He shooed the little Tanhua onto the carriage: "Alright, you've seen it. Are you satisfied?"

He thought to himself that now that he was satisfied, he would have to review the memorials for him in the future. If he couldn't finish reviewing them, he would have to stay up late to do it. In short, he had to return this favor. Who would have expected that Qi Yan would lift the hem of his robe and drop to his knees before Xiao Shao with a thud right inside the carriage.

Xiao Shao: "?"

His hand trembled, and he nearly spilled tea all over Qi Yan's face.

Qi Yan raised his hands above his eyebrows and bowed to him properly; it was an extremely solemn etiquette: "I shall never forget the grace of today for the rest of my life. If Your Highness ever has any use for me in the future..."

Before his words faded, Xiao Shao grabbed the back of his neck and hoisted him up.

"..."

They stared at each other, wide-eyed.

Xiao Shao's hands moved faster than his brain. Before he even reacted, he had already acted. Qi Yan was thin and frail; hoisting him was no different from lifting a box of pastries. After properly settling the person onto the seat, Xiao Shao coughed once: "There is indeed a place I can use you."

He said sternly: "The Hedong canal is blocked. Do you have any solutions for flood control in that area? Write a policy essay for me as soon as possible."

Qi Yan also straightened his expression and frowned: "The Hedong canal? My father once served as the Salt Censor in that area. I am fairly familiar with the local hydrology and geography, so writing a policy essay won't be difficult. But why did Your Highness suddenly mention this?"

Xiao Shao flicked open his fan: "To submit a memorial to my father, and take you to Hedong to play."