The Regent’s Secret

The Pan Palace in the capital region was built against the mountains, with the Si River in front and the Wuliang Mountain behind.

Wuliang Mountain was a famous mountain in the world, with towering peaks, clear sunrises, and colorful sunsets. There were also green pines, waterfalls, rare birds, and all these beautiful scenes complemented each other.

Li Yi had long wanted to go there and paint. He didn’t want to disturb anyone, so he brought two, three servants to follow him from afar. He walked ahead alone, eager to climb the mountain. He had already gone a few miles before dawn.

Behind him were rugged rocks, and beneath his feet was a sea of clouds. Zhao Yuan sat alone on the top of a cliff, practicing his breathing exercise, which was his daily practice.

After the sunrise, he finished his exercise and used his fingers to simulate a sword dance before calming himself to read.

Every day, he was punished to stand outside the classroom and listen to lectures that others could hardly understand. For Zhao Yuan, who had been practicing martial arts since he was a child, he could understand it all clearly.

Although he occasionally thought of the silhouette of his mother crying when they parted ways during his journey to the capital as a hostage, Zhao Yuan realized more and more that he was an abandoned son of the Zhao family and that he had to rely on himself for everything.

On a clear morning in the mountains, the cool air made Zhao Yuan’s mind even clearer. He took out his textbook and reviewed yesterday’s lesson with his excellent memory.

Halfway through his studies, Zhao Yuan suddenly jumped up and disappeared in an instant. After waiting for a few moments, the golden-yellow clothes of a figure emerged from the shadows of the trees.

The cliff behind Zhao Yuan was a dead end, but seeing that Li Yi was still climbing up, he hesitated for a moment before returning to the top of the cliff and sitting down.

As soon as he appeared, someone shouted, “Who is ahead? The Crown Grandson is here, who dares to startle him?!”

Li Yi had never imagined that there would be someone here in such a remote and dangerous place so early in the morning. He hadn’t even considered the possibility of assassins or anything else. Who could have foreseen his impulsive decision to come here?

He was very curious as to whether the person rustling in the bushes was a woodcutter, a Taoist priest, or perhaps a small animal.

The figure finally revealed themselves, and Li Yi was astonished to see that it was the Dian Nan Wang Shizi.

The youth had his black hair tied up in a bun, a half-new and half-old jacket draped over his body, and a scroll in his hand. The morning sun shone on his body, and Li Yi stood in the backlight while the youth lowered his head, neither seeing nor acknowledging him.

Before the eunuchs could speak, Li Yi spoke first, “All of you, step back.”

“Your Highness?”

“I want to speak with the Shizi alone.”

The youth was only a young boy, and the eunuchs could do nothing against the Crown Grandson. They retreated to a distance where they could see but not hear anything.

“How did you get here?” Li Yi asked Zhao Yuan with a smile.

With beautiful deer-like eyes and a deep-seated emotion, Zhao Yuan thought to himself that if he were a trapped animal, Li Yi would be the young son of a hunter, unaware of the danger and only curious.

“I’m studying,” Zhao Yuan replied succinctly to Li Yi’s question.

Li Yi took a few steps forward instead of calling someone over and asked, “It’s cold on the mountain. Why aren’t you studying indoors? Is there anything inconvenient?”

“Not cold. Not inconvenient.”

Whenever the Crown Grandson asked, Zhao Yuan’s responses were short and almost rude.

Li Yi thought that the Shizi’s bureaucratic language was difficult to hear, but he didn’t care about it at all. His gaze fell on the book in Zhao Yuan’s hand, and he asked, “What book is that?”

The Shizi didn’t speak, but slowly handed the book to Li Yi.

Li Yi took it and saw that it was yesterday’s “Book of Poetry”. Even at the Imperial College, students copied their own textbooks, but the handwriting in the Shizi’s book was strong and sharp, which greatly exceeded Li Yi’s expectations.

There were no notes on the top half of the pages, it was purely a book.

Li Yi didn’t need to think to understand that the Shizi stood outside every day, so how could he hear the lectures? However, the Shizi was indeed eager to learn. Judging from his current appearance, he had been reading books in the early morning for more than just one or two days.

Li Yi turned to yesterday’s “Cao Worm” and said, “‘I have not yet seen the man, but my heart is anxious. Now that I have seen him, I feel at ease. My heart has calmed down.’ Do you know the meaning of these sentences?”

Zhao Yuan didn’t speak for a while, and originally thought that Li Yi would give up, but Li Yi was unwilling to let go. He handed the book back to Zhao Yuan and said gently, “It doesn’t matter if you can’t speak bureaucratic language well, or if you can’t express the exact meaning, but speak it out.”

Zhao Yuan thought to himself that Li Yi had asked for it, and spoke stiffly, “This verbose language, #%#@, see or not see, I don’t know what he’s talking about, #%#*…”

After a few sentences of local dialects and bird language, Li Yi was also confused.

“Take it slowly. Don’t be lazy to speak just because you can’t speak bureaucratic language well. You can understand it, right? The more you speak, the better you will become.”

When the Shizi responded with an “Mmm”, Li Yi was relieved that he was willing to learn.

“Let’s not discuss the deep meaning of the Book of Poetry, let’s talk about the literal meaning first. ‘I have not yet seen the man, but my heart is anxious.’ This sentence is simple, it means that when you haven’t met someone you want to see, you will feel very sad. Do you understand?”

Li Yi invited Zhao Yuan to sit beside him on a large stone. Li Yi was shorter than the Shizi. Zhao Yuan looked at his youthful appearance and thought he was already acting like his little teacher before growing up.

“Would Your Highness like me to speak frankly?”

“Speak freely.”

“This person can’t see her lover, and her body is on fire, but she can’t relieve it.”

Li Yi was at a loss for words. This explanation was crude, but it was also difficult to say he was wrong. Li Yi thought for a moment and said, “The people of Dian Nan are simple and open-minded, and this interpretation is not entirely wrong. However, now that you are studying at the Imperial College, you are here to get rid of this crude behavior and to learn deeply. Only then can you return and benefit the people in your own region.”

Zhao Yuan saw that Li Yi’s eyes were clear and bright, without any intention of falsehood, and he patiently listened to him even when he spoke such vulgar words. Zhao Yuan was a bit puzzled that even with such crude language, he couldn’t scare away the Crown Grandson. In this world where people were competing and scheming for power, were there still gentlemen like Li Yi who were like precious jade?

As he pondered, Li Yi continued, “‘When I also saw the end, I also observed the end, and my heart then calmed.’ Can you try to interpret this sentence?”

Zhao Yuan no longer played the fool and said cautiously, “When you see him, you calm down, and that line in the middle, ‘my heart is lowered,’ may mean that once you meet your lover, your heart will be settled.” 

Zhao Yuan spoke as if it was obvious, leaving Li Yi speechless. 

“First of all, ‘lowered’ doesn’t mean ‘surrender,’ it means to calm down and become peaceful.” 

“How can it not mean that? #%&… Can’t you see that?”

Zhao Yuan was flustered and spoke a string of gibberish, which gave Li Yi a headache.

It didn’t matter whether it was surrender or not. This was just a small detail in a love confession.

“‘When I also observed the end’, means that the two people have already made an agreement. ‘When I also observed the end, and my heart then calmed down.’ The whole sentence means that when I meet the gentleman and agree to have a conversation with him, my heart will finally calm down.”

“The Book of Changes says, ‘when a man and a woman observe the end, all things come into being.’ Therefore, ‘observe’ refers specifically to agreements in romantic affairs.”

“Are you saying that when they meet, they have to observe the end and create something? What if things don’t go well?” Zhao Yuan joked.

Li Yi was embarrassed and turned red. He stood up and took a few steps, but then turned back and saw the Shizi looking at him blankly.

Li Yi couldn’t help but sigh. In his previous life, he was a university professor who believed that if a teacher couldn’t teach well, they bore most of the responsibility. Moreover, the Shizi was simple-minded and lacked a solid foundation, so he couldn’t be considered a bad student.

He realized that he had been the Crown Grandson for too long, and he had become impatient even with his students.

Li Yi turned back and said, “I still have something to do today. If you’re interested in learning, take it one step at a time. Shall I find someone to practice bureaucratic language with you?”

This way, he could add someone to monitor him. Zhao Yuan stared straight at Li Yi and shook his head. He was clearly just a young man, but he made Li Yi, who acted like an adult, nervous.

“Well, how do you want to learn, Shizi?”

“Teach me, Your Highness.”