My Wife Is A Sword Immortal-Chapter 752 - 459: Differing Thoughts and Youthful Beauty (Readable)_2

Moments later.

Her eyes wandered, staring at the dark blue night sky outside the hall doors, deeply locked behind layers of palace walls, she murmured, "Sacrificial Moon Mountain... It has been a long time since I’ve been back."

The Great Hall had been quiet for who knows how long.

Behind the Purple Bead curtain, a woman dressed in white veils rose to her feet, her figure slender and graceful, especially her slim waist, strikingly curved.

The woman turned around, raised her hand to remove the veil from her face, and casually threw it behind her onto the floor.

After leaving behind a single sentence, she departed.

"Clean it up."

Not long after the woman in white vanished, a demure and elegant young girl in court attire stepped into the Great Hall with a group of palace maids.

Their movements were agile and brisk.

They pulled down the Purple Bead curtain that had blocked the line of sight of Zhao Rong and the other men, and the veiled white cloth that those men’s gazes had touched, and threw them both away.

They replaced the silk and cloth materials of the cushions and the seats where Her Highness had only once sat or reclined.

They scrubbed clean with a wet mop, over and over, the spots where Zhao Rong, Gu Yiwu, and Li Mingyi had just sat and the places they had stood.

And of course, the teacups they had used were to be thrown away as well.

The demure and elegant court-dressed girl, with tassels in her hair and a red floral ornament on her forehead, wore snow-white close-fitting court attire.

She stood poised in the center of the Great Hall, her expression calm, supervising the palace maids as they cleaned.

The maids were also silent and skilled in their movements.

There were no exclamations of surprise; it seemed as if they were already well accustomed to this task.

In the Great Hall, this silent scene unfolded.

At one point, the quiet and elegant court-dressed girl slightly turned her head, glancing at the spot where Zhao Rong had been seated, and muttered to herself:

"Golden thread among the moth’s snow willows... a smile full of laughter... and the fragrance that lingers... seeking him amidst the crowd thousands of times over... is it you who wrote this...?"

Soon enough, the same quiet, scholarly looking court-dressed girl, along with the palace maids, left with light steps.

Her name was Dou Kou.

She was the Palace Chief of the Feng Yi Palace of the Music Workshop, ranked alongside the Ritual Music Master Xue Chan and the seldom seen Colorfully Clothed Historian, serving closely by the Empress Dowager’s side.

...

On a corridor leading to the front hall of Weiyang Palace.

Zhao Rong walked in silence for a while, when suddenly he said, "Something is not right."

"What’s not right?"

Gu Yiwu, curious, turned his head to look at him.

Zhao Rong was slightly frowning, "Just now when I outright announced the decision to hold the Feng and Shan ceremonial offerings at Sacrificial Moon Mountain, both the Empress Dowager and that Prince Li had reactions that were off."

He spoke with some certainty.

Gu Yiwu thought for a moment, "But they seemed quite surprised, didn’t they? It must have been unexpected for them as well."

Zhao Rong shook his head, "No, with their level of qi cultivation technique, they should not have shown surprise at that moment. It was precisely their surprise that made me feel something was off."

Gu Yiwu: "......"

The robust Confucian scholar was confused and could not help but give his friend several glances. What kind of reverse thinking is this? Is it me who is wrong, or is it you?

As Gu Yiwu couldn’t help falling into self-doubt, Zhao Rong thoughtfully said, "So... these two had their little schemes, both hoping for the ceremony to be held on Sacrificial Moon Mountain? Interesting."

Upon hearing this, Gu Yiwu assertively said, "So should we change the location?"

Zhao Rong did not reply for a moment.

Gu Yiwu suddenly spoke up, as if he had recalled something, "Right, Ziyu, do you remember what I previously mentioned to you about the origins of this Dugu family?"

Zhao Rong looked at him and nodded.

Gu Yiwu said pensively, "The Empress Dowager is rumored to have come from commoner roots, hence, currently, she doesn’t have the support of a maternal family in court... And the late Emperor of Great Li’s discovery of Miss Dugu is said to have been due to the Ancestors of Great Li appearing in his dream, instructing him to meet her on a mountain."

Zhao Rong followed up, "Are you saying that this mountain was Sacrificial Moon Mountain?"

Gu Yiwu nodded lightly.

Zhao Rong fell silent for a moment.

He shook his head, "No need to change it, let’s stick with this place."

Gu Yiwu nodded understandingly, and Zhao Rong did not bother to explain.

The two continued to walk in silence.

The young Confucian scholar let out a chuckle, "Heh, turns out we were all thinking the same thing. How interesting."

The Confucian Scholar laughed as well.

At that moment, they could see that the banquet at the front hall of Weiyang Palace had come to an end, and the guests were leaving in an orderly manner. However, the young Emperor did not exit through the gates used by the departing officials; instead, he headed towards the rear hall, surrounded by a group of palace maids.

Despite approaching Zhao Rong and Gu Yiwu, the party of the young Emperor was quite far away, and the former two did not catch sight of them.

As they passed by, Zhao Rong noticed that the young Emperor seemed to have drunk quite a bit.

His delicate face was flushed with red, looking quite inebriated as he held the soft hand of the beauty who had just kept him company. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

However, at this moment, two crescent moon bearers beside the young Emperor gestured with their eyes to the other palace maids, seemingly about to take the young Emperor back to his sleeping chamber and part with the drinking companion.

Zhao Rong glanced over.

The young Emperor seemed to have no objections, obediently following his mother’s crescent moon sisters. He looked down at the hand he found beautiful and reluctantly let go.

"You should also go rest. I’ll come find you to play later," the young Emperor waved his hand drunkenly, and then they parted.

A short distance away on the corridor, Zhao Rong and Gu Yiwu watched this scene and exchanged a smile.

Gu Yiwu said with emotion, "Ah, to be young is so great."

"Oh, Brother Yiwu, you have a story?"

Zhao Rong teased.

Gu Yiwu cursed with a smile, gesturing with his hand, "What story? It was just some foolish mischief from when we didn’t understand a thing as kids."

Zhao Rong ’oh’ed with just the right touch of curiosity.

Sure enough, the robust Confucian Scholar touched his chin with its blue stubble and couldn’t help saying:

"As a kid, there was a neighboring family with an older sister I got along with very well. After school, she liked to climb over the wall, take us to play house, and speak her mind. Innocently unaware, we had our first awareness of each other—that day, I also first noticed how lovely her hands, her arms, her chest... cough, her cheeks were."

Zhao Rong suppressed his laughter, his face serious as he said, "And then you just ’snuggled’ up to her?"

"......"

The word ’snuggle’ was used with perfect subtlety.

Gu Yiwu snorted pridefully, "It was Sister Guo who snuggled up to me, took the initiative to hold my hand."

"Oh, really?"

But before Zhao Rong could express his curiosity, Gu Yiwu stomped his foot in frustration, saying:

"That day we were playing house, and I finally got to play the groom with Sister Guo as the bride. We hadn’t even exchanged our wedding bands before my mother showed up and gave me a thrashing. Isn’t that just ruining my fun?"

"Haha... cough, cough, yes, right." Zhao Rong tried to stifle his laughter and coughed, curious to know, "What happened afterward?"

"What could happen? My mother went and complained to both our parents. Our families had a bit of a feud, and after that, we rarely had a chance to play together. Was there any need for them to build the wall so high later that not even birds could fly over..."

In the midst of Gu Yiwu’s complaints, Zhao Rong couldn’t help but laugh and offered a few words of consolation.

This kind of innocent confusion about the matters between boys and girls, and the secretive awakening of young love, was indeed as romantically beautiful as a swath of blue in the sky. Yet, ultimately, it turns into regrets, big or small, lingering in the heart, suddenly remembered on some unknown night, prompting another restless night of tossing and turning in bed.

"Ziyu, when was the first time you held a girl’s hand?"

Gu Yiwu shook his head wistfully, then turned to ask Zhao Rong with curiosity.

"Me?"

Zhao Rong, with his sleeves rolled up and not stopping his feet, squinted ahead and suddenly sighed, "Ah."

Gu Yiwu’s eyes grew even more curious—could it be a regret more disappointing than his?

Zhao Rong shook his head disinterestedly, "Brother Yiwu, you know about me."

He paused and shook his head, "I knew Qing Jun from the cradle, even fought over her milk, and when I was still in split-pants, we started holding hands. And later, I met Qian’er... Ah, this holding hands business, indeed not much of a challenge."

It was nothing to fuss about.

The young Confucian Scholar said earnestly, with a slight hint of regret in his tone.

"......"

Robust Confucian Scholar: Do you think you’re funny?

The atmosphere turned awkward for a while.

Gu Yiwu didn’t really feel like talking to Zhao Rong.

Damn it, is this what it means to be childhood sweethearts? What an oversight.

Zhao Rong managed an apologetic laugh.

Just then, footsteps came from behind, and they both quieted down, straightened their expressions, and turned to look.

It was Li Mingyi in his python robe.

...