Her “home” was that surreal and dazzling realm of immortals.
With her head buried in her knees, Yun Yi muttered, “If I knew the way home, why would I be crashing at your place?”
The ivory dragon-carved palace lamp cast a soft glow, outlining the clear, refined silhouette of the man beside her.
“This isn’t my home,” Xiao Zhi said.
It was merely a cage where he was on duty day and night, with no freedom of his own.
“Then where’s your real hometown?”
Xiao Zhi’s thoughts drifted for a moment—the paper kite from his childhood seemed to flutter back into his heart.
“At the foot of Fuyun Ridge.”
“Mm.” Her breathing was soft and light.
Compared to the modern, hyper-specific addresses of XX Village, XX Group, XX Number, the name of Xiao Zhi’s hometown was far more crude.
“Mm?” Fuyun Ridge! Yun Yi couldn’t stay calm for even a second.
Xiao Zhi opened his eyes and glanced at her.
Yun Yi quickly asked, “Is there a Taoist temple on Fuyun Ridge?” The village chief of the Xiao family had clearly mentioned there was a temple on the ridge.
“No,” Xiao Zhi said, trying to recall that barren mountain. Apart from wild beasts, human traces were rare, let alone a Taoist temple.
Yun Yi said firmly, “There is! The Taoist priest went abroad to exchange ideas with foreign Taoist priests. When he comes back, I’ll take you there for a visit!”
Although Xiao Zhi was completely bewildered by her words, he listened patiently. As Yun Yi ended her exclamation, Xiao Zhi’s “Okay” followed closely, a soft agreement.
“Is a ‘foreign Taoist priest’ a sheep-zodiac Taoist priest?”
“…No, a foreign Taoist priest. Blonde hair, blue eyes, babbling some nonsense language.”
“‘Go abroad’ means leaving the Yan Dynasty and going to the Northern Di or Southern Man?”
“As long as you have money, you can go to the North Pole or the South Pole.”
Xiao Zhi chuckled softly. “The phrase ‘so rich you could rival a nation’…” was coined for him.
Before he could finish, his right arm was elbowed by the girl. In the dim light, a pair of eyes bright as stars stared intently at him.
“Tsk,” she hummed softly. “You got me with that flex.”
Last time he woke up in the carriage, he had accidentally broken her vehicle due to excessive fear, so he asked, “That carriage of yours…”
“Wow! You finally asked about my Porsche!”
The girl, sitting cross-legged beside him, stretched an arm straight toward him.
In Xiao Zhi’s eyes, this gesture looked exactly like the wild monkeys on Foyun Ridge begging for food.
“Pay for it,” the wild monkey said without the slightest courtesy, wearing a terrible expression that read, “You, if you don’t pay me back, I’ll tickle you to death.” “Over seventy thousand!”
“Seventy thousand taels of silver?” Xiao Zhi was slightly stunned.
That four-wheeled thing, not even drawn by a blood-sweating heavenly horse, was worth that much?
Yun Yi’s almond-shaped eyes flew wide open. “That’s all my baby is worth?! That was my coming-of-age gift!”
Xiao Zhi shot her a sidelong glance. “Coming of age—you mean the hairpin ceremony? But you look at least a year or two older than my imperial sister.”
He recalled his half-sister. Even after her hairpin ceremony, her brows still held traces of childishness. But this girl before him, with her cunning and lively eyes—how could she possibly be fifteen?
Was he saying she aged quickly? Yun Yi was furious. She and the dog emperor couldn’t be friends anymore!
Fueled by righteous indignation, she snorted, “It’s gold, you hear me? GOLD! Sev——enty——thousand taels!”
Xiao Zhi was speechless.
Yun Yi pressed on relentlessly: “Aren’t you as rich as a nation? You’re the top boss. You’re not trying to welch on the debt, are you?”
“Your appetite is bigger than a mountain bandit’s,” Xiao Zhi said, feeling oddly like he was being set up.
“Pay up,” Yun Yi said, refusing to budge an inch on the amount.
The morning stars were sparse in the sky.
Wang Delan hesitated for a long time before asking, “Your Majesty, the hour…?”
“Change my clothes.”
The palace attendants filed in quietly, stealthily noticing the dark circles under the emperor’s eyes, and then glancing at Yun Yi’s bird’s-nest hair.
Yun Yi guiltily smoothed her hair down: As long as I’m not embarrassed, it’s everyone else who’ll feel awkward.
A palace maid approached with a bronze basin, following the usual morning routine for the emperor.
But with a single glance from the emperor, the assistant dream team perfectly divined his will, and they all departed the bedchamber along with the imperial presence.
Yun Yi pursed her lips. “In period dramas, emperors always wash up right by their dragon beds. Why does he have to be so conscious of his image?”
“Miss.” Yu Lian’er brought over a stack of clothes, even more exquisite than the two garments from the day before.
Yun Yi pinched the hem and admired it for a moment. “Oh wow, it’s really silk. What if I ruin it? Got any eunuch clothes?”
Yu Lian’er’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. The emperor had ordered the palace embroidery workshop to work through the night to make these in the style of a princess. Was Miss Yun turning her nose up at them?
“Miss, that… wouldn’t be appropriate, would it?”
.
After the emperor finished washing up and changing into his court robes, the familiar figure was nowhere to be seen.
A palace maid reported that Miss Yun had gone to wash up. The emperor instructed, “If she’s hungry, tell the imperial kitchen to prepare a meal.”
When the imperial procession reached the outside of Yongsui Hall, the emperor seemed uneasy and added another line: “Don’t let her sleep during the day. Accompany her for a walk in the garden.”
The garden behind the bedchamber was elegant and quiet, inaccessible to outsiders.
Then, court session.
Cen Ni reported on the recovery of the Northern Di envoy, stating that the situation was not optimistic.
After hearing this, Xiao Zhi said, “We must ensure the envoy recovers fully. These are turbulent times. I do not want the Northern Di to use this as a pretext to reignite hostilities.”
Cen Ni bowed deeply. “Your servant will naturally do his utmost.”
Before the assembled civil and military officials, Xiao Zhi carefully reviewed the national treasury accounts.
He hadn’t been concerned at first. Surely, he wouldn’t be short of such a small sum of money owed to a girl.
But as he read on, Xiao Zhi’s expression darkened.
“Your Majesty?”
“The national treasury can’t scrape together seventy thousand taels of gold?”
The late emperor’s national funeral, the Northern Di invasion, the emperor dispatching General Cui to station troops in the north—all of this required silver.
Sweat beaded on the minister’s forehead. “Your Majesty, the treasury is truly stretched thin.”
After court adjourned, the emperor leaned back on his dragon throne and rubbed his temples. “Minister Yan, you stay.”
.
With nothing to do, Yun Yi wandered along the blue-bricked palace paths.
“Sister Lian’er.”
“Miss…” Yu Lian’er’s face changed color. She hadn’t expected Yun Yi to slip out of Yongsui Hall. “How did you get out?”
This girl of ambiguous status—she didn’t look like a consort, but she wasn’t exactly an ordinary friend either—had insisted on changing into eunuch’s clothes.
She was even muttering strange phrases like “interrogate a eunuch to death,” none of which Yu Lian’er could understand.
“I’ve slept too much. Just getting some exercise.” Yun Yi swung her oversized blue sleeves.
If this was a dream, she hadn’t yet figured out how to wake up.
Xiao Zhi had gone to work, and she was loafing around in his bedroom. It was driving her crazy.
Since his palace was this big, she might as well look around. Maybe she could find a suitable place to stay temporarily while she searched for another way home.
Yu Lian’er was sweating profusely. “Miss, Miss Yun, you really should go back and rest.”
Yun Yi casually pointed at a courtyard—ordinary enough, with a faint resemblance to old Beijing’s siheyuan courtyards.
“Who lives there?”
No answer came from Yu Lian’er.
Along the vermilion palace wall, a column of ants marched like a tiny army.
“I do.” A solemn, authoritative voice shattered the surrounding stillness.
Thud, thud, thud… The muffled sound of knees hitting the ground followed immediately after.
“How dare you! Which palace are you from? You dare not kneel before the imperial procession?”
Yun Yi’s knees bent slightly. She was a modern person who had never knelt before. If she just dropped straight down like that, her kneecaps would probably shatter.
Frustrated over the treasury situation, Xiao Zhi’s eyes fell on the clueless young eunuch in the distance. Not only did he fail to kneel, but he was also craning his neck toward his old residence.
You wretched servant, what are you snooping around for?
The Minister Yan, walking alongside the emperor after court, said in a low voice, “Your Majesty, such a breach of palace etiquette by a servant deserves strict discipline. Your servant believes he should be given a hundred strokes with the staff and expelled from the palace.”
The emperor: “Guards—”
Bam! Yun Yi’s heart leaped.
Oh my Queen Mother of Heaven! Between getting beaten with a staff and kneeling, she didn’t hesitate for a second. She surrendered.
Xiao Zhi lifted the carriage curtain. The short eunuch ahead swayed unsteadily, like a piece of kelp, collapsing into a sloppy, dragging kneel. In the instant before his knees touched the ground, the young eunuch quickly rolled up the hem of his robe and tucked it underneath as thick padding.
I’ll just pretend to be an extra, Yun Yi thought as she knelt.
Yes, she was facing that palace wall.
Xiao Zhi’s brow twitched. An inexplicable sense of familiarity surged through his chest.
He then glanced at Yu Lian’er, who was kneeling to the side, her body trembling slightly, and immediately understood what was going on.
The emperor lowered the carriage curtain. “Forget it. Move on.”
Minister Yan walked alongside the left side of the imperial carriage, continuing his report on the treasury’s revenues and expenditures.
Just as the carriage passed the kneeling eunuch, a strange gust of wind arose. By the time Yu Lian’er looked up again, Yun Yi, who had been kneeling beside her, had vanished.
Xiao Zhi had grabbed her and pulled her into the carriage.
Yun Yi: “?” Where am I? What’s happening?
Just as she was about to speak, he clamped two fingers horizontally across her lips.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Yun Yi’s eyes went wide open.
“Your Majesty?” Minister Yan’s voice hesitated outside the carriage before he continued his report. “General Cui’s military pay, provisions, and the soldiers’ winter clothing will require a considerable amount of silver. Seventy thousand taels of gold… where are we supposed to scrape together that kind of money…”
Scrape together?!
Yun Yi’s anger flared as she listened, but she could only blink furiously: You’re this broke? You can’t even come up with this little bit of gold?
Xiao Zhi’s fingers squeezed like chopsticks.
Yun Yi glared at him: I’m not a side dish!
Xiao Zhi glanced back at her. She looked exactly like a goose that had been captured by villagers after repeatedly causing trouble.
“Pfft.” The emperor’s laughter drifted out from inside the carriage.
Minister Yan: “?”
They arrived at the treasury gate.
A young eunuch was now accompanying the emperor. Minister Yan paid it no mind and bowed to welcome the imperial presence inside.
Xiao Zhi walked in side by side with the young eunuch, lowered his head, and said, “I can’t come up with that much gold right now.”
Yun Yi stood straight as a ramrod, looking every bit the creditor. “So you want to run a tab?”
“…Though it was the truth, the Son of Heaven had truly never endured such treatment.”
“I will pay you back.”
“Mm, that’s what every debtor says.”
Inside the treasury, jade artifacts and antique curios dazzled the eye, making Yun Yi stare in amazement.
“Take your pick of these,” the emperor said generously.
“No limit on the quantity?”
“Mm.”
Yun Yi ran over to a shelf lined with rows of jade ornaments, intricately carved rare stones, gold and silver jewelry…
She was rich!
Xiao Zhi followed, looking up to observe her expression. “You like them?”
“I love them!” Yun Yi picked up a jade abacus, genuinely praising, “It’s so green it looks fake!”
Xiao Zhi made a “go ahead” gesture.
Yun Yi helped herself without the slightest hesitation.
Court beads, bracelets, waist badges—though the badges would be hard to keep on her person, she hesitated for a second before putting them back down.
Xiao Zhi watched her, like a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar, standing quietly to the side as she rummaged and chose.
When he looked again, Yun Yi’s forearms were completely covered, layer upon layer of emerald green, moon-white, and translucent bangles.
Xiao Zhi had seen greedy people before, but never anyone quite this greedy.
“Aren’t they heavy?”
“Not heavy!” She shook her head like a rattling drum.
“That way is the gold vault.”
“Huh?!”
Didn’t he say there was no gold?!
As the door to the gold vault slowly opened before her… Yun Yi took a deep breath, greeted by a sea of gold.
She wanted to sing.
—On the Hopeful Field!
The emperor leaned against the doorframe, his spine, which had been tense all through the court session, now relaxing inch by inch.
“I’m taking this.”
“I’m going to take until you go bankrupt!”
“Be my guest.” Xiao Zhi smiled leisurely.
Before long, a glittering, golden wild person took heavy, deliberate steps, one by one, and shuffled over in front of the emperor…
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