His Majesty Fights the Inner-Courtyard Battles in My Place 8

Qingping looked at Li Yue with some fear. Just now, did she—did she hear it wrong? Did their Furen  just tell the Marquis to roll in?

The servants in the courtyard all took two steps back in unison, lowered their heads to look at the ground, trembling with fear.

The few elderly people who had come to ask for money were also feeling a bit lucky now that they hadn’t spoken up yet.

Qingping had originally been very worried that Xie Wenzhao coming here now was to stand up for Qu Hanyan. Now seeing Li Yue’s attitude, she was even more worried—could it be that Furen was going to fight the Marquis?

Qingping in the past would never have had such an outrageous thought, but not long ago she had just witnessed Furen boxing. Now she felt there was nothing impossible in this world.

Seeing that Qingping was still standing in place, Li Yue opened his mouth and asked her, “Is there anything else?”

Qingping shook her head blankly and replied, “No.”

“Then go out and call Xie Wenzhao,” Li Yue said.

Qingping responded with a “yes,” turned around, and began to walk out. She had only taken two steps when Li Yue called her again: “Wait a moment, bring me a chair first.”

That stone stool was uncomfortable to sit on.

After saying this, he looked at Qingping’s thin arms and legs, then changed his mind and said, “Forget it, forget it, I’ll move it myself. You go out.”

Li Yue turned to go back into the house, but as soon as the sunlight hit him, he felt a bit dizzy, so he sat back down on the stone stool. Lowering his head, he glanced at his own hands—his arms and legs were now not much thicker than Qingping’s.

He casually pointed at two servants and said, “Go inside and bring out a chair.”

The servants didn’t dare delay for even a moment and quickly went into the house to carry out a guifei chair [贵妃椅 – an ornate chaise-style reclining chair traditionally used by women in high-status households].

Qingping arrived outside the Jixue Courtyard, where Xie Wenzhao stood beneath the stone steps. He wore a blue round-collar robe, and though no anger could be seen on his face, because he had been thinking about what Qu Hanyan said about Meng Fu cursing people the whole way over, there was still a trace of amusement lingering on his face.

Qingping bent her knees in a salute and said, “Furen invites you… inside.”

Xie Wenzhao found it odd that Qingping spoke so haltingly. He gave a sound of acknowledgment and stepped into Jixue Courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, Li Yue was sitting under a very large Chinese toon tree, dappled shadows from the leaves falling on the hem of his robe. He held a folding fan in his hand, fanning himself very quickly. The cool breeze rustled his clothes, making a rustling sound.

Qingping walked over and softly said, “Furen, the Marquis has arrived.”

Li Yue gave a sound of acknowledgment but didn’t even lift his head, continuing to fan himself.

Xie Wenzhao walked forward two steps and noticed that today’s Meng Fu really did seem somewhat odd. The Meng Fu of before would absolutely never dress like this and sit outside, nor would she stay silent upon hearing of his arrival.

For some reason, the pressure around Xie Wenzhao suddenly increased. Although there were quite a few servants in the courtyard, aside from the sound of the fan stirring the wind, there was no other sound. He inexplicably felt a sense of “a storm about to descend, wind filling the building” [山雨欲来风满楼 – idiom: a sign of impending turmoil or crisis].

Then, Xie Wenzhao comforted himself, thinking he was overthinking it. This was the marquis’s residence—his home—what was there to be nervous about? He gathered his scattered and irrelevant thoughts and opened his mouth to ask Li Yue, “How is your illness? Did the doctor come to see you today?”

Li Yue said, “Won’t die for a while.”

Xie Wenzhao frowned slightly. This really didn’t sound like something Meng Fu would say. What was wrong with her today?

He silently looked Meng Fu over. At this moment, her face bore no expression. She was just sitting there, eyes lowered. Her left hand rested on the stone table, revealing a section of fair little forearm. Her index finger gently tapped on the table’s surface. This appearance for no reason at all made Xie Wenzhao feel afraid.

When Xie Wenzhao realized he was feeling fear, he immediately gave a low laugh. Had he become so useless? Being scared by a back courtyard woman? What was there to be afraid of about Meng Fu? The most terrible thing she’d ever done was forcibly break him and Meng Yu apart. She had nothing left worth his attention.

Xie Wenzhao hadn’t forgotten the purpose of his visit. His expression gradually cooled as he asked Li Yue, “This morning, Hanyan came to pay her respects to you, right?”

In the imperial capital, Xie Wenzhao was often described by young ladies as gentle like jade, a refined gentleman. Only when it came to Meng Fu was he extremely cold. In the first year after Meng Fu married into the marquis’s residence, he had even been unwilling to look at her once.

Meng Fu originally hadn’t placed much hope in this marriage. From the very night of the wedding, when Xie Wenzhao stayed in the study, she already knew that Xie Wenzhao did not like her. But no one ever said that marriage must involve mutual affection. She had long grown used to Xie Wenzhao’s coldness and remained indifferent to his taking concubine after concubine. Now that it had become Li Yue, she would care even less about such things.

Li Yue lifted his eyelids and slanted a glance at Xie Wenzhao. Then with a swish, he folded up the fan and said slowly, “Yes, so what?”

If they were in the palace, Gao Xi, upon seeing him in such a state, would have already knelt down and begged for forgiveness. But at this moment, Xie Wenzhao had yet to sense the danger looming.

He continued asking: “Did she mention the matter of Jixue Courtyard to you?”

“She did,” Li Yue replied.

“And what did you say?”

Li Yue stood up from the guifei chair, turned slowly around, looked at Xie Wenzhao, and lightly dropped the closed fan into his palm, producing a crisp snap. He said, “I said, no.”

As Li Yue’s words fell, the nearby servants all felt their hearts tighten and had the strong urge to flee from this courtyard—as though it were a demonic den or a pool of blood.

Xie Wenzhao’s reaction was actually even more intense than the servants’. He had never seen Meng Fu act like this before, but the tone somehow felt a bit familiar. His voice unconsciously softened a few degrees as he said to Li Yue, “Didn’t we agree yesterday?”

Li Yue gave a sneer. He had seen Xie Wenzhao many times before. Though not deeply familiar, he had thought this person was passable—not particularly talented, but at least not a useless hedonist. He hadn’t expected that he’d really come here to seek justice for Qu Hanyan. Turns out, this one had no brains either, just like Wei Jun’an and the rest.

The fire in his chest surged upward, and he raised his eyebrows to ask Xie Wenzhao, “Did I agree with you?”

“You said you would consider it,” Xie Wenzhao said.

“So, you don’t understand what I say?” Li Yue laughed again, but there was no smile at all on his face. He asked Xie Wenzhao, “I said I’d consider it, and that means I agreed?”

Xie Wenzhao pressed his lips together, not knowing how to respond. In the past, when Meng Fu said she’d consider something, it was almost the same as agreeing. Even if it couldn’t be done due to some reason, she would ultimately give him a satisfactory result.

What’s gotten into her today? Was she possessed by some demon or ghost?

Li Yue gave a short snort of laughter and mocked, “I really don’t know how someone like you got a post at the Ministry of Revenue. How do you usually handle things—by relying on your own imagination? When Qian Dongzhou says ‘consider it,’ that means he’s agreed with you? That’s wonderful. Zhen… I—didn’t know it was so easy to get things done in the Ministry of Revenue. I almost want to go find myself an official position. Maybe when Qian Dongzhou sees me, he’ll also say, ‘I’ll consider it.’”

Xie Wenzhao rarely made enemies with others. From childhood to now, he had never once argued with a girl. Hearing such unpleasant words from Li Yue, he was momentarily at a loss and didn’t react. In the end, he took a deep breath and said, “Meng Fu, there’s no need for this sarcastic ridicule. The reason I thought you had agreed to this matter was because I originally believed you were always gentle, magnanimous, understood the larger picture, and knew your place—”

His words were cut off sharply by Li Yue’s loud interruption: “Xie Wenzhao!”

Li Yue slammed the folding fan in his hand heavily onto the stone table: “In what capacity are you coming to demand Jixue Courtyard on Qu Hanyan’s behalf? As the Marquis of Xuanping Marquis Manor? As her husband? Or as some bored do-gooder with nothing better to do?”

“I won’t even mention those useless lines like ‘favoring the concubine and neglecting the wife.’ You say I was gentle before—well, that was back when I was willing to give you all some face. Now I see that the more face I give, the more shameless you become. This really isn’t good. You people haven’t even thought about leaving yourselves some dignity.”

Li Yue paused to cough, then continued scolding: “As a Marquis, you interfere in inner residence matters with your eyes closed—that’s you losing your mind. As a husband, if Qu Hanyan’s courtyard is no good and you can’t handle it, that’s your own incompetence. And as some idle fool who believes in things like fengshui and birth charts, that just means you’re out of your mind. Now tell me, who exactly is the one who doesn’t understand the bigger picture, who’s the one out of line? Go on and say it clearly.”

Li Yue had always been skilled at sarcastic and ironic speech. When he cursed someone, he left no room for retreat. Now, even speaking of his past gentleness, he didn’t feel a trace of guilt.

“Why aren’t you talking?” Li Yue raised his hand and gave a loud slap on the stone table, making all the servants shudder along with it. “Talk!”

From the moment Li Yue called him by his full name, Xie Wenzhao was already stunned. In a daze, he felt like he had somehow ended up in the imperial court, being reprimanded by the emperor.

Especially that shout of “Xie Wenzhao”—he almost knelt down on the spot.

After a long moment, he squeezed out a sentence: “…Did you just call my name?”

“Is there a problem?” Li Yue sneered coldly. “You called my name, so why can’t I call yours? Is your name more precious? Or will saying these three characters cause someone to die?”

Xie Wenzhao moved his lips but didn’t know how to refute Li Yue.

Li Yue spoke so righteously and confidently that if he tried to argue seriously with him over this, he might just end up being mocked even more.

“And another thing—Qu Hanyan is in poor health and wants to switch courtyards. What, does she not have a mouth of her own? She needs you to speak for her?” Li Yue looked at Xie Wenzhao’s appearance and felt a surge of irritation. With a cold snort, he mocked, “Aren’t you just disgusting!”

Xie Wenzhao felt that Li Yue’s words were truly over the line. When he was at Tingshui Pavilion earlier, he hadn’t believed that Meng Fu would curse people. What Qu Hanyan said to warn him, he’d taken as a joke. But after arriving at Jixue Courtyard and getting thoroughly scolded by Li Yue right off the bat, he was now also feeling quite angry. He said, “You’re simply being unreasonable. Isn’t it just a courtyard? Must you go this far?”

“Isn’t it just a courtyard? You think her courtyard isn’t good—then give her yours!” Li Yue turned and sat back down on the guifei chair. He sneered again. Even though he now sat slightly lower in height, it was clearly Xie Wenzhao who had been completely overpowered.

Li Yue said, “Xie Wenzhao, oh Xie Wenzhao—being generous with what isn’t yours, do you have no shame? Do you have no shame at all? And you even have the gall to come here and ask me if I’ve gone too far! If this isn’t begging to be cursed, then what is it?”

“You, as a Marquis—what kind of Marquis are you? Actually believing in all this useless crap, getting led by the nose by a young woman. If I were you, the moment someone snapped me out of it, I’d have already gone off to find a rope and hanged myself. And yet you still have the face to come here? Truly, in a forest this big, there really are all kinds of birds.” [林子大了，什么鸟都有 – idiom: “In a big enough world, you’ll find all kinds of strange people.”]

“How do you still have the face to stand here? Should I go get you a rope?”

Xie Wenzhao was shaking with rage, even his hands were trembling. Before this, he had never thought of himself as inarticulate. But now, with Li Yue speaking, he found himself unable to get a single word in.

Not only because Li Yue spoke too quickly, but also because—he didn’t dare interrupt.

He actually didn’t dare.

Even Xie Wenzhao himself found it laughable. He was so angry that his vision was spinning, his mind went completely blank, and in the end, he flung his sleeves and left.

Qingping and all the servants in the courtyard were directly stunned—Furen’s presence was just too powerful. This was truly “if man blocks, man dies; if Buddha blocks, Buddha dies!” [人挡杀人，佛挡杀佛 – a hyperbolic phrase meaning someone is unstoppable, cutting down everything in their way.]

Xie Wenzhao blocked—and Xie Wenzhao got killed.

—

T/N: Li Yue is deliciously savage. Not your usual brooding emperor or ice-cold male lead.