Chapter 14

When dinner time arrived, a maid inquired, "What would Your Majesty like to have for dinner?"

Without looking up, Linghu Xuan replied, "Something simple."

However, glancing at the adorable little merman on the table, he quickly added, "Wait, what do you want to eat?"

Having filled up on sunflower seeds, Ran Xi shook his head, "I'm full, you go ahead and eat."

With a wave of his hand, Linghu Xuan dismissed the maid.

Bored, Ran Xi leaned on the edge of the teacup, tilting his head to read Linghu Xuan's memorials.

Despite being in vertical traditional script, his family's forcing of ancient medical texts on him made these easy to understand.

The memorials were dull. One official went on about his ill health, lack of appetite, shaky legs, poor posture, and nightmares, hinting at his nearing end.

Ran Xi thought it was a resignation letter, but the official concluded with a pledge to serve until death as a token of the emperor's grace.

"Why cling to your position when you're too old to function?" Ran Xi pondered.

Linghu Xuan circled something with a red pen and nonchalantly wrote "reward" before tossing it aside.

Ran Xi figured a secretary-like figure would handle the actual rewarding process based on standard practices.

The official's lengthy plea was a bid for recognition, showcasing his diligence despite lack of achievements; a classic case of an ancient hard worker without tangible results.

Linghu Xuan opened another memorial.

This one detailed financial matters, with dense traditional numerals listing prices for rice, tea, cloth, and firewood—utterly uninteresting.

Losing interest, Ran Xi watched Linghu Xuan, who studied the document intently, pulled out a delicate jade abacus, and began calculating, the purpose of which was unclear.

The young emperor's slender fingers moved swiftly across the abacus, a pleasing sight.

Ran Xi admired Linghu Xuan's dedication to his role, even personally verifying the accounts.

What a fine young man.

The door opened, and a line of graceful palace maids entered, lightly placing over twenty dishes on the dining table.

Ran Xi: "..."

Is this what counts as 'simple' for an emperor?

Do emperors get penalized for eating fewer dishes?

The head maid approached, whispering, "Your Majesty, please have your dinner."

Linghu Xuan, focused on his accounts, ignored her.

Ranxi gazed at a dewy, spherical object on the table, filled with curiosity and an eagerness to taste it, along with a plate of garlic ribs, a tender-looking tofu pudding, two salted duck eggs surrounded by a beautifully arranged circle of shredded carrots, cold cucumber salad, eight-treasure porridge, and grilled lamb skewers!

Compared to lunch, it was indeed much simpler, with more vegetarian dishes and fewer meat dishes.

At that moment, two palace maids entered, carrying a huge platter, which they placed in the center.

It was a golden, fragrant, and tender roasted suckling pig!

Roasted suckling pig was something Ranxi had only seen in TV dramas before, having never tasted it himself.

He patted his bulging belly and called out in a low voice, "Linghu Xuan, Linghu Xuan."

Linghu Xuan looked up at him: "What is it?"

Ranxi said gently, "Dinner will get cold if we don't eat it now."

Linghu Xuan replied, "If it gets cold, we'll just throw it away and make it again."

He bowed his head to continue working on his accounts, with the abacus clicking away.

Such a waste!

Ranxi, unable to contain his urgency, blurted out, "You can do your calculations later, I want to eat!"

Linghu Xuan: "..."

If you had said so earlier, he immediately stood up, picked up the teacup that held a small merperson, and sat down at the dining table.

He himself wasn't picky about food and casually asked, "What do you want to eat? I'll get it for you."

The palace maids prepared to serve the emperor's meal were all taken aback.

How did this happen, the Emperor himself serving someone a meal?

Oh, it's the adorable little merperson, not surprising at all.

Ranxi pointed at the plate of green, round, and juicy-looking things.

Linghu Xuan picked one up for him with chopsticks.

Ranxi held it, took a bite with a smack, and found it a bit sour—it was actually a grape. These ancient grapes were much smaller than modern ones, not as translucent, but they seemed to have a unique chewiness, delicious!

Ranxi only regretted how small he was now, unable to even finish a grape, let alone the never-before-seen roasted suckling pig. His teeth couldn't even break through the pigskin!

Seeing the merperson look so adorable, Linghu Xuan himself felt an appetite and started eating.

Ranxi: "Linghu Xuan, didn't you say the national teacher could find a way to change me back?"

Linghu Xuan's gaze darkened; yes, he had forgotten. At noon, the national teacher was preoccupied with telling him that the little merperson was a fool abandoned by his clan.

But for this, there might only be one method, and Linghu Xuan didn't even need to ask; he was very familiar with it.

Linghu Xuan confidently said, "It's quite simple, I'll teach you tonight."

Ranxi looked at him full of hope.

This young man really did inspire a sense of security.

……

After dinner, Linghu Xuan scooped Ranxi out of the cup, saying, "Let's go for a walk."

He specially changed into a high-collar shirt, stuffing the little merperson directly inside his collar, and had a palace maid comb his hair into a hairstyle of a minority from the west, with one side of the hair loose and the other side braided into small plaits, so the merperson sitting in his collar could hold onto the braids for stability.

Ranxi whispered, "…but weren't you going to teach me how to change back?"

Linghu Xuan: "Wait, I'm free today. Let's go out and have fun. I'll be busy starting tomorrow."

Ranxi: "Alright then."

He actually was quite eager to see the outside world.

Linghu Xuan disliked being followed. As an emperor, he had to be accompanied by a procession of people, but he asked them to keep their distance.

After all, with his unparalleled martial arts skills, he wasn't worried about encountering any danger on the streets.

Hidden in Linghu Xuan's collar, Ranxi clung to a braid, parted two strands of hair, and peeked out with his big, beautiful eyes to look at the surrounding shops.

The city, named Zhu City, was a bustling port city by the sea, frequented by tall, deep-set eyed Westerners and shorter, darker-skinned Southeast Asians.

Linghu Xuan had his own reasons for going out. He wanted to observe the bustling streets to assess the trade conditions and the lives of the common people, to see if it was as the local officials claimed, without any destitute dead.

As for bringing the little merperson, it definitely wasn't because he was worried the merperson might be bored in the palace; bringing such a small creature along was no trouble at all.

A candied hawthorn seller passed by.

Ranxi tugged on Linghu Xuan's braid, "Linghu Xuan, I want some!"

Linghu Xuan immediately bought a stick of candied hawthorns, swiftly moved into an alley, and handed a piece to the little merperson.

"Be careful eating it, don't get it stuck in my hair."

Ranxi: "Mm, okay, I promise I won't."

Linghu Xuan adjusted his hair to cover the little merperson eating and continued strolling.

A crowd had gathered ahead, buzzing with speculation about some incident.

Ranxi: "Wow, something exciting is happening ahead, Linghu Xuan, let's go check it out!"

Linghu Xuan disliked crowds, but he saw it as an excellent opportunity to gauge the public sentiment.

Disdaining to jostle with the crowd, he walked into a nearby teahouse, tossed a silver ingot, and made his way straight to the second floor, sitting in a private room overlooking the street. He then took the little merperson out from his collar and held him in his hands to watch the commotion.

Ranxi ate his candied hawthorn till only half was left, nibbling on it little by little, eyes wide and staring.

Being transformed into a merperson was quite blissful, it seemed.

He used to be nearsighted, unable to go out normally without glasses, but now, as a merperson, his vision was even better than that of someone without any visual impairment.

Clinging to the window frame, he saw a woman of graceful posture in plain clothes surrounded by the crowd below.

A piece of white cloth laid in front of her bore the words "Selling Oneself to Bury Father."

The woman sobbed softly, her head bowed.

There was no corpse of her father by her side, which made the situation even more pitiful: a body left alone somewhere, waiting for the daughter to sell herself for a burial.

The crowd around her discussed loudly.

"With her looks, she could fetch four to five hundred silver taels from a broker."

"If she learns some dance and can read a bit, she might even bring in a few thousand taels."

Ranxi, who had once been sold himself, was immediately moved by the scene, thinking how pitiful this lady was!

Suddenly, the woman looked up, revealing her stunningly beautiful and alluring face.

My goodness, what a breathtakingly beautiful girl.

Ranxi had never seen such a gorgeous girl before, struck by her beauty, he immediately called out, "Linghu Xuan!"

Linghu Xuan, eating the remainder of the candied hawthorn, said expressionlessly, "Do you want to buy?"

Ranxi: "No, no, no."

He felt as though Linghu Xuan carried a hint of menace.

Clutching Linghu Xuan's fingers, he pleaded, "Look at how pitiful that lady is, she's so beautiful. If we don't help her, what if some villain buys her and takes her home?"

"Just give her some money."

His little merperson was so kind, and Linghu Xuan was greatly pleased, but he could tell there was something off about that woman below.

Would a woman selling herself to bury her father wear clothes made of Hangzhou silk brocade, which cost five silver taels per yard, at wholesale price?

Yet, to make the little merperson happy, Linghu Xuan summoned a guard.

"Give that woman below three silver taels, say it's from you, not buying her, just out of pity."

Ranxi looked at Linghu Xuan with approval. This villainous younger brother was really good-hearted, showing kindness without seizing the opportunity to dominate the beauty (perhaps also because his interests lay elsewhere).

The guard, a middle-aged uncle with an honest face, dressed in ordinary finery and sporting a belly, appeared so unremarkable that aside from his forgettable features, he just seemed like any other wealthy middle-aged man.

He went down and did as Linghu Xuan had instructed.

The beautiful girl pocketed the money but continued to kneel there, looking as pitiful as ever.

Bystanders commented, "Don't give her money; many have given her money, and she's just kept it, kneeling there for half the day, and she can be quite nasty too."

Ranxi was shocked.

Could this be a professional beggar?

Did such a profession exist in ancient times too?

Yet such a beautiful lady.

The guard, confident in his martial skills and sensing the Emperor's intent to test the woman, shouted, "You've been given money, now hurry and buy a coffin to bury your father."

He also dispersed the surrounding crowd, "Disperse, disperse, go on back home. With you all crowding around, how is the lady supposed to return home?"

Turning, he even reached to pull the lady's arm, aiming to help her up. Continuously kneeling and attracting so much attention, especially being so beautiful, was affecting the business on this street.

Ranxi watched, thinking the guard was bullying the weaker.

But then...

The delicate beauty stood up and punched the guard, sending him flying up against the teahouse's signboard from the second floor to the first.

The beauty—Qu Zhanxia, with a commanding presence, said, "If I want to kneel here, I'll kneel here. What's it to you to meddle!"

Linghu Xuan laughed, casting a teasing look at the little merperson.

Ranxi: "..."

He suddenly felt that the waters of this ancient world were very deep indeed.

But still, this lady was really beautiful.

After striking the man, Qu Zhanxia immediately regretted it.

She saw the little Emperor watching from the second floor, wearing a smile that was not quite a smile, as if everything was under his control.

Qu Zhanxia's purpose in selling herself on the street to bury her father was to attract the little Emperor's attention, then be bought by him, enter the palace, and seek an opportunity to assassinate him.

Linghu Xuan had seen many such peculiar assassins, but this one had martial skills superior to the others. From his vantage point, he was curious whether this female assassin would attempt to leap up and kill him directly or look for another opportunity.

Qu Zhanxia hesitated.

Assassinating him on the street now, with her poison-hidden weapons, offered a high chance of success and an easy escape, but the little merperson was still in the palace.

If she could infiltrate the palace, locate the little merperson, and then carry out the assassination, escaping directly with the little merperson would be more convenient. After all, it was Prince Cheng who wanted the Emperor dead, she just wanted the little merperson.

The two powerful figures locked eyes.

In a dimension only perceivable by martial arts masters, they had already battled for ninety-nine rounds.

Qu Zhanxia was utterly defeated!

She prepared to leave, seeking the next opportunity.

Linghu Xuan had no intention of capturing her, planning instead to have her followed and investigate her backers.

Ranxi looked at Qu Zhanxia, finding her more beautiful the more he looked, and weakly said, "Linghu Xuan, help her out."

"Give her a job."

"So beautiful, she shouldn't always be a professional beggar. Lead her onto the right path."

Linghu Xuan sneered.

"Alright."

"Arrest that woman."