Cry of the Midnight Jackdaw

10!

Chapter One Hundred and One,
Heart of Bamboo

“Duke, Duke?” Qing Xing lightly tapped Xiao Zuo’s right arm, and carefully reminded, “Duke, should we go back into the residence?”

The group escorting the bride long already went faraway, Xiao Zuo’s gaze withdrew from the empty corner, and he responded with an en like it was nothing, with a steady voice, “I want to be by myself for a while.”

The slightly warm winds mingled with the green leaves, and slowly fell onto Xiao Zuo’s shoulders, bringing a hazy air of vitality with it. Xiao Zuo hung his eyes down, and slowly headed west along the wall.

He faintly recalled when he just came to Jin, that winter day when he and Zi Wan and De Qing were dependant on each other for survival. The outside was falling with profuse snow, them three surrounded the sides of a stove, Xiao Zuo was leaning on a pillow on the side reading a book, while Zi Wan and De Qing excitedly played chess. Xiao Zuo would occasionally glance, sigh for their clumsy chess skills, then continue flipping the page.

“Duke?”

Xiao Zuo yawned, slightly opened his eyelids, and narrowed his eyes to look at her, “What time is it?”

Zi Wan’s hands held a bowl of soup, and merrily bent over, “There is still one dual-hour from dinner, would the duke like to drink soup to warm up?”

“Mm.” Xiao Zuo took it, he was still a bit sleepy from just waking up after a long nap, his voice was all abuzz, like a sluggish cat, “It’s going to be the new year soon.”

“Yes.” Zi Wan nodded her head, “It’s coming so fast.”

“These days……” Xiao Zuo pinched the spoon, and randomly stirred the white fungus in the bowl, like milky white bubbles surfacing in the sea, “Have been all thanks to you and De Qing.”

Zi Wan stopped cleaning up the chessboard, she slightly bit down, and shook her head, “It’s all thanks the duke’s fortune, without the duke, right now, Zi Wan would still be……”

De Qing already leaned on the couch and fell asleep, the bottom of Xiao Zuo’s eyes bore a shallow smile, the fingertips played with the softly hung tassels in his arms, “Now now, silly girl, why are your eyes going red when speaking.”

“We still have many years to go by together.” Xiao Zuo swallowed the sweet soup in his mouth, and licked the corner of his lips like he did not have enough, when he spoke, his voice was as light as muttering in dreams.

The face suddenly slightly went cold, Xiao Zuo blankly lifted his head up, the skies were all glum, the lead-grey dark clouds gathering in the distance seemed like crudely painted ink paintings, randomly spread by someone with a brush with ink. Sounds of wind by the ears rustled, faintly carrying with a thick humidity, the air was so dense one could pretty much squeeze out drops of water, a rainstorm was about to come.

Xiao Zuo stopped in his steps. In the distance, sounds of thunder rumbled, like the low cries of a god from the ancient times. The dark gloomy skies suddenly got torn apart by intermingling spiderweb-like lightning, pouring down with a waterfall-like rainstorm from the openings, and in the blink of an eye, Shang An’jing was washed so much by this overspreading summer rain that it was only left with the sound of rain and the music of thunder.

Xiao Zuo vacantly wiped the drops of rain on his face, his hair was all drenched, damply sticking onto the forehead lock by lock, he then seemed like he woke up, fixed his expression, and turned his head to run towards the residence’s entrance.

“Xiao Zuo!” He Xuan knitted his eyes while dragging Xiao Zuo underneath the umbrella, he took out a handkerchief from his sleeves and helped him wipe the water stains on his face, with some panic in his voice, “It’s raining so hard, what are you doing outside?”

Xiao Zuo seemed like he did not hear it, his slightly slowly lifted his head up and looked at He Xuan’s slightly grumpy eyes, and without any warning, wrapped around He Xuan’s waist, his tone even carried a bit of a pure attachment, stuffing the scolding He Xuan was about to immediately slip out at the throat.

“Brother Xuan, I really missed you.”

He Xuan paused, he subconsciously lightened his voice, and his fingertips gently fixed the loose hairs in front of Xiao Zuo’s forehead, and lowered his head to ask, “What happened?”

“Will you be in the residence in the afternoon?”

“I originally had something, but with this big of a rain, we’ll see after the rain stops.”

Even though the ground was paved with lime tiles, pedestrians bustled around back and forth, got shone by sunlight and drenched with rain throughout the entire year, so in the end, it turned the rocks all bumpy and rough. Xiao Zuo circled around a puddle, and made an en sound with a clearly down expression, and let go of holding He Xuan’s hand.

“Not that it’s anything important.” He Xuan came to understand in this instant, he hooked Xiao Zuo’s pinky in a probing manner, then lightly coughed and changed his words, “Going tomorrow would be fine too.”

He felt Xiao Zuo’s pinky slightly curl, seeming to scratch his palm, creating a soft itch.

❀

“Just back from riding horses?” He Xuan was leaning against the doorframe, Mr. Yin Su always had a very obedient appearance in front of him, not moving at all nesting in his arms, lazily half-narrowing its eyes.

Xiao Zuo was dressed neatly, his hair was tied high up, wearing riding shoes, while the tied leather belt made his waist seem even easier to grasp. His face was still hot from riding horses, like a steamed magnificent red cloud, making his pitch-black almond eyes look even more fond.

“En, those riding grounds are certainly not bad, Brother Xuan is so busy he has no time to go with me.” Xiao Zuo hung his eyes down a bit sadly, stroked Mr. Yin Su’s smooth back, making the fat cat meow a few times, and then lazily swing its tail.

“It will be the autumn hunt soon, do you want to go with me?” He Xuan bent over and put Mr. Yin Su onto the ground, the little cat unhappily grumbled, and seeing the two-legged beasts minding their own business, it extremely unhappily went off to pout.

“”Alright. Xiao Zuo was so excited his tone raised up, wrapped around He Xuan’s neck, and intimately rubbed around his collar, and satisfactorily sighed, “At that time, I will ride better than you.”

“En, Li Nu is the most incredible.” He Xuan lightly laughed.

The hunting ground for the autumn hunt this time around was changed. In previous years, they would go to Mt. Luo just east of the river, but this time, it just happened to be Lord Yong’s fiftieth birthday celebration, so He Heng chose Su Province that was in Lord Yong’s territory, and instructed a few days ago to enclose an area for the hunting grounds. Lord Yong was only a few months younger than He Heng, his birth mother was originally an unremarkable palace maid, and was raised beside He Heng’s mother since young , so he was close with He Heng. Hence, He Heng put importance into this birthday celebration, personally inspected it several times, and insisted he would make it to satisfaction.

“Put on an outer robe, your wind chill hasn’t even gotten well these days, don’t get cold.” He Xuan’s arm was hung with a prepared outer robe, caught a joyful Xiao Zuo jumping down from the carriage, and patiently advised.

“Yes yes yes.” Xiao Zuo replied, then took it and put it on. Just as he was going to say something, his front suddenly hovered with a shadow, he subconsciously raised his head up, and met straight-on with that pair of ridicule-filled eyes of He Yang’s.

“Hah, so his Highness the Crown Prince even brings you for the autumn hunt too.” He Yang lifted his chin high, his features lingering with a gloomy air, “This inseparable?”

He Xuan knitted his eyebrows, he inconspicuously took half a step forward, barely blocked He Yang’s venomous snake-like gaze, his gaze was even provocative, and only indifferently lifted the corners of his lips, and spat out a “beat it.”

“You!” He Yang immediately seemed like a stray cat that got its tail stepped on, and threateningly jumped up about to pounce over, He Xuan slightly narrowed his eyes, looking at He Yang like he was looking at a dead object.

“Husband!” Suddenly, a clear and bright woman’s voice came over, briefly stagnating the tense atmosphere for an instant. Xiao Zuo looked past He Xuan’s shoulders, and saw the incoming person wearing a narrow-sleeved green short top, with a lake-blue dress blown by the wind like the rippling surface of water.

He Yang’s face immediately changed, then turned his head and berated the maid beside the woman, “Didn’t Ibw tell you watch the consort carefully, why are you guys here?”

“It’s not her fault, I was too bored by myself, and came out for some air.” The woman was evidently Zhao family’s legal daughter, He Yang’s consort, maiden name Yun Xin(bamboo heart).

“Greetings to your Highness the Crown Prince.” Zhao Yun Xin’s imperial mannerisms were very up to standard, her tone was a rhythmic palace dialect, and her entire body was seeping with a prim and proper air. He Xuan helped her up, “No need for too much courtesy.”

“Let’s go.” He Yang glanced at Zhao Yun Xin, then spoke with knitted eyebrows. Zhao Yun Xin then slightly apologetically smiled, “I shall come again another day to pay respects to your Highness.”

“Thank you, Consort.”

He Yang pulled on Zhao Yun Xin’s arm, the golden dangling ornament on Zhao Yun Xin’s head swayed, and flashed with a slight light.

“Let us go too.”

Xiao Zuo followed one step behind He Xuan, and ponderingly looked at Zhao Yun Xin’s slender back.