Chapter 2

The seventh princess’s appearance was excellent and refined, as bright as spring flowers.

The sons of Chang’an’s noble families fell over each other in eagerness to marry her. They, the children of the most prominent families, who never put royalty in their sights, openly fought for her.

Such a beautiful woman took the initiative to visit his door. If it were other people, they would have been overjoyed.

But Du Sinan was not happy at all.

Not only unhappy, but also full of vicious anger with nowhere to vent.

He looked at the smiling Seventh Princess Li Yaoying before his door, his angry eyes blood-red.

……

At present, noble versus lowly was clearly defined. Although these years were full of unceasing military disasters, it still could not shake the status of the noble families and large clans. Noble families and the poor were as clearly separated as the rivers Jing and Wei1.

Don’t look at the outstanding talents from common background that have emerged these past years. Once the world was pacified, it was still the noble families and big clans who controlled the court and the world’s situation.

Du Sinan was a native of Nanchu. Proud of his talent and determined to make a big career since childhood, it was a pity that he was of humble origin. Hearing that the north’s Wei wang Li De, and his eldest son Li Xuanzhen respected the intelligent, elected those who were capable, and that they only looked at talent and did not talk about family status, he packed his bag and came to join them.

He went north to look for the Wei army to join Li Xuanzhen. Li Xuanzhen was shizi and his tent already had competent people he heavily relied on. He did not want to be looked down upon by Li Xuanzhen. Deliberately arriving in Guanzhong before the Wei army, he made friends with local famous scholars, building his reputation, in wait for Li Xuanzhen to come make three humble visits to his thatched cottage2.

Originally believing he could sit at ease on a fishing boat during a storm3, he didn’t expect that Li Xuanzhen didn’t take the bait, but the fishing rod was pulled into the water by Li Yaoying.

At that time, the Wei army hadn’t entered the Guanzhong plain. Du Sinan studied every day behind closed doors, occasionally going out to visit friends. Unexpectedly, he encountered a group of bandits and was kidnapped deep into the mountains. Fortunately, a passing merchant caravan rescued him, escaping unharmed.

The leader of the caravan claimed to be a servant of the Li family in Wei County. They thoroughly comforted Du Sinan: sending someone to visit him every three days and sending maids and servants to take care of his everyday living.

Du Sinan happened to want to inquire about the Li family. He and the leader of the caravan were in communication for some time.

When he found out that the merchant leader was Li Yaoying’s servant, he drew a clear line with the other straightaway.

At that time, he thought that Li Yaoying was just a 12 or 13 year old boudoir little girl, so he thought that everything was merely a coincidence and did not take it to heart.

Who would have thought that Li Yaoying had deep schemes. Every time she sent her servants to visit him, she will have them carry a red silk-covered load, parading around ostentatiously. When someone became curious and asked, those servants would reply that they were Li Zhongqian’s servants.

Before Du Sinan could even react, the rumor that he had joined Li Zhongqian’s tent had already spread through Guanzhong.

So when the Wei army entered Guanzhong and Li Xuanzhen started to search for famous scholars in Guanzhong, Du Sinan was taken to be Li Zhongqian’s man.

He waited and waited but never saw Li Xuanzhen. He realized that Li Xuanzhen must have been suspicious of him and did not want to recruit such a untrustworthy person to his side as a strategist.

In the eyes of the world, Li Zhongqian had saved his life and also valued him. Gold, silver, and riches were sent to his home like water, treasuring him in every way possible.

If he cast himself to Li Xuanzhen, not to mention Li Xuanzhen’s distrust in his loyalty, he will first have to bear an “ungrateful” name!

Du Sinan could be flexible. Thinking about the how the situation had developed, he decided to settle for second best, taking the initiative to look for Li Xuanzhen to indicate his stance.

He came to Chang’an with great enthusiasm.

Then Li Yaoying jumped out again, personally paying a visit to Du Sinan.

Even though he avoided meeting, she still came to his door from time to time. And every time, she swaggered, hailed, and supported, bringing dozens of strong slaves and soldiers through half of Chang’an with great fanfare.

The Li family’s seventh young lady who had the appearance of a flower, face of the moon, the best in the Central Plains. Who, every time she was out of the palace, had Chang’an’s hedonistic sons chasing from behind on horses just to catch another glimpse of her.

She deliberately went out of the palace to visit Du Sinan. Needless to say, within a few days the rumor spread.

Du Sinan was so angry that he vomited blood: now Li Xuanzhen was even more suspicious of him!

What made Du Sinan even more furious was that Li Yaoying ruined his path to a high official position but, from beginning to end, never had any intention of recruiting him for Li Zhongqian.

She simply looked down on him, carelessly standing at his door, smiling and saying a few words, turning her head and leaving, completely lacking in sincerity to seek talent.

In other people’s eyes, it was the noble Seventh Princess who perceptively saw the talent of the Du family gentleman, dropping her noble status, humbly asking for guidance.

Du Sinan had unspeakable bitter sufferings yet also had to suffer the jealous ridiculing and taunts of the capital’s hedonistic sons.

……

These two years of resentment and sorrow have all come to mind, making Du Sinan gnash his teeth loudly.

Li Yaoying smilingly indicated to a sturdy servant.

The healthy servant picked up several big loads of firewood, rice, mutton, vegetables and other things, striding into the courtyard.

Du Sinan laughed coldly and said, “Undeserved work should not be rewarded.”

Yaoying laughed lightly: “Du lang4 is highly talented, deserves it.”

Du Sinan’s chest rose and fell violently, very much wanting to spray a mouthful of blood onto the Seventh Princess’s face.

”Du lang’s complexion looks unwell, still needs to stay in bed to recuperate. I will leave you alone.”

As usual, the sturdy servant just put down the burden, Yaoying said goodbye, the soft whip in her hand tapping her palm, obviously absent-minded.

But her face still had a drifting smile, her eyes full of concern.

Having such a shrewdness at such a young age, while also this beautiful, bound to be a great trouble for the trusted aides in the future.

Du Sinan’s complexion was ashen.

Yaoying turned around and walked down the stone steps.

Xie Qing, the family’s general, greeted her with a horse and asked in a deep voice, “Your Highness, are you going back to the palace?”

Yaoying mounted her horse, turning the horse’s head: “I’m going to stroll around the west market. Second brother is coming back, I will pick out a new saddle for him.”

Not long after Li De became the emperor, he took Crown Prince Li Xuanzhen and his second son Li Zhongqian on a military campaign. The good news came back not long ago. Calculating the distance, in another five to six days, the army will have returned to Chang’an.

Xie Qing consented, looked back to glance at Du Sinan, then followed behind Yaoying on horse.

Yaoying knew that Xie Qing must have wondered why she had an odd attitude towards Du Sinan, neither placing him in an important position nor straightforwardly killing him to eliminate future problems.

She could not touch Du Sinan.

He was supposed to be the number one strategist under Li Xuanzhen’s tent. Whenever she wanted to make things difficult for him, she similarly felt pain all over.

She could only think of another way: preventing him from joining Li Xuanzhen.

Now it seemed that this method worked well. Second brother had successfully avoided being hurt by Du Sinan.

As for recruiting Du Sinan and making him available for personal use….

Yaoying shook her head.

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1 Meaning that they were clearly distinguished and distinct. I thought using the actual analogy suited the mood better.

2 From the Romance of Three Kingdoms, where Liu Bei recruits Zhuge Liang to his side by visiting him three times. Pretty much having Li Xuanzhen seek him out in order to prove he was highly valued.

3 Meaning to stay calm during a crisis.

4 lang: minister, official, also used as a prefix behind a number to indicate ranking. eg- dalang: eldest son, erlang: second son (used on LZQ). It is quite versatile so I’ve decided to use the pinyin instead of fully translating it. When it can be translated as # son, I’ll use that.