“A year ago you vanished without a trace. We all thought you were dead! Who would have expected you to turn up in a small royal city like Yao City!” Pang Shao and Ye Chu had reached a quiet room on the flower boat. He dismissed the serving maids, not forgetting to curse Ye Chu once, while lamenting his own bad luck. He had finally taken a fancy to a woman, yet even in such a remote place he ran into Ye Chu. From Ye Chu’s earlier stance, it seemed unlikely he would get to enjoy her charms.
“My great eagle hasn’t yet been worn down to a little bird, and my golden spear hasn’t fallen! How could I bear to die now!” Ye Chu laughed. “But you’d better watch out, or you’ll die suddenly from some venereal disease!”
Su Rong and Zhang Su’er had only just taken their seats when they heard Ye Chu’s words. Their faces flushed crimson, skin smooth as congealed cream, tender as water, suffused with a faint, evocative blush. Their rouged cheeks seemed ready to drip, their shy and enchanting manner utterly captivating. Their delicate, cherry-like lips curved daintily, slightly plump, adding touches of allure, yet from those soul-stealing eyes shone clear disgust. Such lewd talk was something no one had ever dared say in their presence before.
“Still as sleazy and shameless as ever!” Pang Shao thought that anyone capable of uttering such a line must be no less filthy than himself. The funny thing was, everyone used to consider him the more depraved one. Pang Shao noticed an empty seat beside Su Rong and Zhang Su’er and was about to sit there, but Ye Chu plonked himself down right between the two women.
“Damn!” Pang Shao cursed inwardly, thinking he could never match Ye Chu’s sheer shamelessness. He had only wanted to sit next to Zhang Su’er, yet Ye Chu planted himself squarely in the middle, one beauty on each side.
“In the end, I’m no match for this bastard Ye Chu. He’s bold enough and shameless enough!” Pang Shao swore to himself, then could only sit opposite with Liang Shan.
With a man squeezed between them, almost pressed against Ye Chu’s body, Su Rong and Zhang Su’er instinctively edged outwards. Their eyes turned to Ye Chu, but seeing him utterly composed, ignoring their gazes, they seethed inwardly yet could do nothing.
“Little Rong Su! I remember you used to brew tea rather well! How about it? Brew a few cups for me?” Sitting close to both women, he could almost catch the faint fragrance drifting from their bodies, stirring restless thoughts. He glanced sideways at Su Rong, her lovely face peerlessly beautiful, skin like snow and jade.
“Tea again? Damn it, can’t you drink alcohol for once!” Pang Shao was on the verge of losing it. He had known Ye Chu for so long, yet every time they drank, this fellow turned it into tea. Grown men acting like women, sipping tea, how could anyone stand it? Yet Ye Chu clearly enjoyed it. Back then, to get Ye Chu to touch alcohol, they had tried every threat and inducement. They even told him that if he drank, they would find renowned beauties from the empire to accompany him.
Their inducement worked. Ye Chu agreed that if beauties accompanied him, he might consider drinking. But when they went to great expense to bring such a woman, Ye Chu forgot his promise completely and drank tea with the sexy, alluring lady instead.
Most shamelessly, when Pang Shao and the others confronted him about breaking his word, Ye Chu replied indifferently, “Don’t you know that ‘consider’ is a polite refusal? Ah well, it’s your fault for being born too stupid and not understanding the ways of the world! Pitiful, truly pitiful!”
With that, Ye Chu left a crowd staring dumbstruck, strolling off with the sexy beauty, leaving Pang Shao and the rest gnashing their teeth in helpless fury.
Pang Shao had thought that meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land, especially since Ye Chu himself suggested drinks, he would at least touch some alcohol. Yet this fellow was still drinking his damned tea.
“Won’t even touch wine. Hardly a man!” Pang Shao could not resist provoking Ye Chu.
Ye Chu treated Pang Shao’s goading as if it were air. Such crude tactics could never rile him. As for avoiding alcohol, it was a lingering effect from his previous life. In that life, excessive drinking had led directly to his untimely death, leaving Ye Chu with no interest in it now. Thinking back to his debauched days haunting nightspots in his former world, he would never have dreamed he could go three years without touching wine.
Seeing Ye Chu abstain from alcohol, Su Rong was equally astonished. She clearly remembered that three years ago, Ye Chu loved causing trouble and going mad after drinking. Many of his utterly conscienceless acts were done while drunk. For such a person to drink calming tea instead?
Unable to force Ye Chu, Pang Shao could only drag Liang Shan into drinking with him. Liang Shan, pulled in by Pang Shao to share drinks, felt flattered and repeatedly clinked cups with him.
He was also surprised by the relationship between Ye Chu and Pang Shao. Pang Shao’s friendliness towards him was clearly because of Ye Chu.
Liang Shan turned to look at Ye Chu, just in time to see him accept tea brewed by Su Rong. Yao City’s bright pearl personally brewing and serving tea, Liang Shan felt his blood surge at the mere thought. This was something he had never dared imagine before.
Reaching for the cup, Ye Chu’s fingers brushed Su Rong’s slender jade-like ones, silky to the touch. Su Rong instinctively withdrew her hand.
Seeing this, Pang Shao felt indescribable jealousy. “Back in the empire, a Highness once brewed tea for you. Now here, you still have beauties to keep you company!”
The words made everyone’s gazes snap to Ye Chu. Including Su Rong, several showed shock and doubt.
Highness?! What Highness?! Anyone called Highness in the empire must hold no small status! Could it be a princess? But if truly a princess, such a lofty and noble figure, how could she brew tea for Ye Chu? The group looked suspiciously at Ye Chu, feeling ever more that layers of mystery shrouded him.
Seeing Ye Chu ignore his jealousy, Pang Shao suddenly recalled something and grinned wickedly. “If that Highness knew you were in Yao City, wonder if she’d come rushing to kill you?”
“Damn!” Ye Chu finally swore loudly. “If you dare tell that little shrew where I am, you’ll never touch a woman again in your life!”
“I’ll tell her anyway!” Pang Shao flared up too, his face turning livid with rage. Back in the imperial capital, Ye Chu had sneaked to peep on Saintess Highness bathing, nearly getting caught, and fled in haste. That might have been bad enough, but the bastard tricked him by saying, “There’s a curvaceous beauty in the hot spring pool.” Without thinking much, he ran over and collided directly with the furious Saintess just emerging from the water. Thus began his miserable fate, beaten daily by the Saintess’s attendants for a whole month, never free of bruises.
Pang Shao kept explaining he had been set up by Ye Chu, but the Saintess would not believe him. In the end, he could only swear a vicious oath: “If I’m lying, may I never touch a woman again in the second half of my life!”
Only seeing him swear such a malicious vow did the Saintess reluctantly let him go, though still doubtful. Afterwards, she searched the world for Ye Chu, wanting to know the truth.
But Ye Chu was clever. By the time she searched, he had long vanished to who knew where, leaving the Saintess helpless.
“This time, I absolutely must tell Saintess Highness. Otherwise, who knows how she’ll punish me next.” Pang Shao shuddered at the memory of that month of torment.
Ye Chu suddenly laughed, looking at Pang Shao. “You can tell her if you like. But after that, any fun activities won’t include you!”
“Why not?” Pang Shao grew even angrier.
“Because of the rule that ‘in activities, everyone must listen to me’!” Ye Chu shrugged and smiled. One sentence left Pang Shao fuming yet silently grinding his teeth.
Pang Shao’s silence made Su Rong and Liang Shan gape, minds reeling as if struck by thunder. They stared incredulously at Ye Chu. Liang Shan’s lips even trembled. Wh… what! Pang Shao, heir of an ancient imperial clan, someone even the king treated with courtesy, actually had to obey Ye Chu?
Liang Shan felt his mind go numb, yet could not resist asking with a slight quiver in his voice, “Ye… Ye Chu! What exactly have you been doing these three years?”
