Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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In just a few short days, many significant events occurred in the capital. After the Crown Prince was confined to his quarters for three days, the Empress Dowager, deeply frightened, passed away in the Kunning Palace. The entire nation mourned.
Heavy rains had been falling in the capital for several days, and the imperial relatives suggested that someone should go to guard the imperial mausoleum for the Empress Dowager.
Among the many candidates, the Emperor chose Lu Huan. An imperial edict was issued, stating that only the Ninth Prince was currently without a wife, and that he was exceptionally filial and benevolent. Therefore, breaking the precedent of the Yan Kingdom where princes could only be granted titles after reaching adulthood, Lu Huan was bestowed the title of Prince Qing of Yan, and ordered to observe a year of mourning.
After the imperial decree was issued, the entire court was shocked. Why would the Ninth Prince, who had recently gained considerable prestige in the capital, be sent to guard the imperial tombs? Wasn’t this a demotion?
General Zhenyuan and the Minister of War strongly advised against it in the court, saying that the Ninth Prince was too young and that another member of the imperial clan should be sent to guard the imperial tomb.
The Emperor insisted on this, ordering Lu Huan to depart with the coffin seven days later.
Neither General Zhenyuan nor the Minister of War knew that the matter of guarding the imperial tombs was proposed to the Emperor by Lu Huan himself. His thinking was simple: it was only a year. Su Xi was taking the college entrance exam this year, and if he wanted to get into a university in that world, it would be best to study by her side for a year. If he was too busy with official duties that year, he probably wouldn’t be able to finish his senior year of high school smoothly.
Besides, last time, in order to complete Mission Seventeen, he probably aroused the Emperor’s suspicion. It was a good thing to temporarily avoid the limelight now.
Now the Emperor couldn’t figure out what Lu Huan was thinking, but he felt in his heart that it was a good thing for the Ninth Prince to go and observe mourning for a year.
The power struggle among the Crown Prince, the Second Prince, and the Fifth Prince was brewing and won’t end anytime soon. After the Ninth Prince returned to the capital, the situation became even more chaotic. He practically had his other brothers completely under his thumb. Once the Second and Fifth Princes realize what’s happening, they’ll definitely join forces to deal with him.
The emperor was conflicted. On the one hand, he did not want anyone to covet his position, but on the other hand, he knew that he had to choose a suitable successor.
On one hand, he felt that Yanqing was the most suitable among the princes to shoulder the responsibility of the world, but on the other hand, he was somewhat wary of this son who was only recognized after more than ten years.
Now that Lu Huan has volunteered to guard the imperial tomb for a year, the emperor was relieved and immediately agreed.
….
The matter of guarding the imperial tomb was still under dispute. Su Xi had been busy with her homework these past few days and hadn’t been able to keep her phone on all the time, so she didn’t know about it yet.
The hot summer vacation was coming to an end, and she was troubled by something else.
Last night, a notification popped up in her class group, saying that according to tradition, all senior students would be required to live on campus.
[There are only three days left before school starts. Please make sure your parents are informed so that on the first day of school, you can bring some luggage and daily necessities to school. Your homeroom teacher will be waiting for you in the classroom and will assign you to your dorm rooms. /smile]
This was indeed a tradition of Su Xi’s School. However, before the summer vacation, the teacher said that the policy might change this year and that students boarding might not be necessary. So Su Xi and Gu Qin didn’t pay much attention to it. But unexpectedly, as the summer vacation was about to end, the school realized that boarding students would still be required.
The Su parents were a little worried. When they came back from work, they said with dissatisfaction, “Why do they suddenly want you to live at school? Can the school cafeteria provide enough nutrition? You’re in your final year of high school. What if you become malnourished?”
Su Xi, on the other hand, fully understood the issue of boarding at school, so she said, “It’s probably because it’s senior year and the school wants to make the most of the time.”
The Su parents thought about it and realized that made sense. Even though the house they bought later was only a few blocks from the school, not as far as their old one near the Third Ring Road, Su Xi still spent a lot of time commuting to and from school every day. Besides, with a TV and Wi-Fi at home, it wasn’t really realistic for her to concentrate on studying.
After discussing it for a while, they signed the document. Before school started, Mother Su went to buy daily necessities for Su Xi.
Su Xi had no objection to living at school; she only had one worry—
If she went to live at school, how would Lu Huan come over each time? If the starting screen was still her room at home, then Lu Huan will be caught by her parents sooner or later.
Was there any way to change this start screen?
But if she was going to change it, where should she change it to? After she went to school, she’ll definitely be sharing a dorm room with three other girls from her class; there won’t be a single room. She couldn’t just let Lu Huan magically appear in her school dorm, could she?
This was a huge problem.
The night before school started, cicadas chirped incessantly in the trees of the neighborhood, making a great fuss.
Su Xi had finished her summer homework. She downloaded several sets of senior high school study materials online, printed them out at the print shop downstairs in the community, and was slowly starting to preview them.
The temperature was gradually getting cooler, so instead of turning on the air conditioner, she opened the window. The cool breeze around 10 a.m. helped her roll up the test paper.
Su Xi pressed the test paper down with her elbow, looking a bit restless, and couldn’t concentrate on the previewed material for a long time.
She was still wondering what would happen to Lu Huan after she started living at school.
Besides that, now that she was in her final year of high school, she definitely couldn’t use her phone too often. Even though her parents didn’t really care, Su Xi still had to focus all her attention back on her studies in order to be responsible for herself.
She could meet with Lu Huan once a day during lunchtime.
All she needed to do was give Lu Huan a key to her own house. Her parents weren’t home at the time, so Lu Huan could just enter and exit through her own room.
But— alas.
Su Xi felt that if she did that, they would have far fewer chances to meet. Even before they parted, she already felt a faint sense of reluctance.
Su Xi hadn’t given much thought to the future with Lu Huan.
That was not quite right. She had actually thought about it a bit… She originally thought that after she passed the college entrance exam and finished university and graduate school, she would find a job and occasionally go home to visit her parents. As for Lu Huan, he would stay in court handling government affairs, which was no different from going to work. After they both got off work, they could do many things together.
There was no need to worry about finances; he could take some money out of his country at any time. And even if he couldn’t take it out one day, she could earn money to support him.
However, the sudden move to boarding at school made Su Xi realize that she had been thinking too simply.
Her previous plan essentially classified Lu Huan as a person from that world, whose role in this world was simply to stay by her side and accompany her.
But in reality, if Lu Huan lived here, he would still need friends and social connections here. After he came here, people would ask him what he did for a living and where he graduated from. If his experiences in these areas were completely blank, then he would forever feel alienated from her world…
More importantly, what would her parents say then?
Su Xi bit the tip of her pen, which was looking a bit bald.
She loved Lu Huan, and just like she promised that night, no matter what happened, she would never leave him. If her parents disagreed? Was that such a big deal? He didn’t have the education required in this world? That wasn’t a problem either; as long as they were together, they could solve things gradually.
Thinking this, Su Xi put down her pen and decided not to do the test for now. She opened her phone and planned to call Lu Huan over to discuss it quietly while her parents had finished showering and gone into the bedroom.
As if by telepathy, Lu Huan suddenly appeared in her room.
Su Xi was startled and lowered her voice, “Why did you suddenly come here?”
“Your school starts tomorrow, and I want to take you somewhere,” Lu Huan said in a low voice.
He went to Su Xi’s bed and pulled out a cardboard box, which contained some of his clothes from this world.
“Now?” Su Xi glanced at her phone: “It’s almost eleven o’clock.”
Lu Huan was wearing a white robe, and the cloth strip binding his hair was also white. Su Xi realized that the Empress Dowager must have died two days ago, and he was still observing mourning. He could only return to the Prince’s residence for a short while in the evening. She wondered if he had gone hungry after observing mourning all day.
Su Xi immediately said, “Are you hungry? I’ll go make some noodles.”
“I’m not hungry.” Lu Huan patted her head and said, “I just couldn’t get away during the day, so I could only come now.”
He held the clothes and glanced at Su Xi.
Su Xi’s cheeks immediately flushed, and she turned away, refusing to look at anything.
Now that her parents were in the master bedroom, she would make noise if she went out of the room, so it would be difficult for Lu Huan to change his clothes. Anyway, it would be the same if she turned around.
Su Xi then asked him, “Where are we going? We won’t be back too late, will we?”
Lu Huan said, “Just for a little while.”
Su Xi glanced at her pajamas, then at the door, a sense of elation washing over her. She whispered, “But how do we get out? We have to make noise to get from the room to the front door.”
Lu Huan lifted her coat from the back of the chair and dressed her like a child. Su Xi obediently stretched out her hand.
“That way you won’t make a sound.” Lu Huan bent down, lifted her by the knees, and carried her horizontally. Practice makes perfect. The first time he carried her in a princess carry, Lu Huan’s ears turned red, and he was very nervous, afraid of offending Su Xi. But now he was quite skilled. He leaned close to Su Xi’s ear and said, “I walk very quietly.”
Su Xi was both nervous and excited, and nodded.
Lu Huan walked very lightly, making only a slight noise when closing the door, which was almost imperceptible to anyone, let alone Su Xi’s parents who were snoring loudly in the master bedroom.
He skilfully took the keys and put them in his pocket.
The two then left the residential compound.
Lu Huan hailed a taxi and drove off.
Su Xi discovered that he had actually had the driver drive to the opposite side of her school.
Across from the school was an upscale residential area, already expensive due to its prime location, but even more so because it was a school district property. If Su Xi remembered correctly, it should cost around 31,000 yuan per square meter.
Su Xi had a vague premonition of something and became increasingly excited.
Lu Huan led her inside, pressed the elevator button for one of the apartment buildings, then stood in front of an apartment, took out a key from his other pocket, and opened the door.
As soon as the door opened, the lights in the entryway turned on, revealing a bright and clean American-style apartment.
Su Xi was a little afraid of getting the ground dirty, so she didn’t dare to speak loudly. But she excitedly exclaimed, “When did you rent it?”
“I bought it.” Lu Huan raised his eyebrows, somewhat proud, but also a little uneasy, afraid that Su Xi would refuse. After thinking for a moment, he said, “There’s something else I want to tell you.”
Su Xi turned around to look at him and felt that he was speaking very seriously. Suddenly, she had a bad feeling and was afraid that he would say something like that he would never be able to come back. But she didn’t expect it.
Lu Huan’s next words made her look forward to the future to the extreme.
He stared intently at Su Xi and said, “I’m going to transfer to your class.”
Su Xi froze for two seconds, feeling it was all too unreal. She couldn’t help but take two steps forward and pinch his cheek— it was real. But why were the words coming out of his mouth like nonsense?
Lu Huan smiled and picked her up, spinning her around in the air. After Su Xi was put down, her breathing unsteady, he lowered his head and gently kissed her forehead, gazing at her with his eyes, and said, “I understand your concerns. I have made a request to the court over there to guard the imperial tombs for a year.”
“But guarding the imperial tomb, wouldn’t it be very lonely? Aren’t the guards in TV dramas all about being a solitary Buddhist monk with only a lamp burning in the dark…” Su Xi’s heart suddenly ached, unable to tell whether she was moved or heartbroken.
She hugged Lu Huan even tighter.
Lu Huan said, “It’s already so lonely not being able to see you often.”
But he didn’t say anything. He felt content as Su Xi hugged him tightly because she felt sorry for him, her soft, long hair brushing against his neck, soft and warm.
All was quiet, and the lights of every home shone brightly; yet another home had been added to the list.
Lu Huan had never experienced the feeling of home before, but he thought he had now. Whether in this world or that world, home was where she was.
The author has something to say:
Lu Huan: I need to go to university. If I don’t have a university degree, my future in-laws will definitely refuse to let me into their home.
Su Xi: About to have a puppy love on campus, suddenly nervous.jpg
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