After staring at that cover and title, Ning Yi almost threw the masterpiece to the ground. After another long bit, he finally summoned up all of his patience to open it. 

The first page was “The Secret History Between the Top Cocubine XianXian of Thousand Flower Brothel and Gu Nan Yi” 

Illustration: A lotus that looked more like a pumpkin. 

Ning Yi was drinking tea but quickly swallowed the tea in his mouth as he kept on reading, swiftly put down the teacup in his hand, and put it far far away from him. 

Staring at the bunch of “personal opinions”, and reading Ning Cheng’s snide remarks such as “I don’t know if someone would be jealous…and Gu Nan Yi has finally started to figure things out…”, Ning Yi’s eyes narrowed. There was no anger that Ning Cheng had hoped to see, but there was a kind of sharpness like a needle tip, a little cold, with a faint arrogant contempt.  

Second page: “The Incident of Gu Nan Yi’s Lighting-Fast Attack of Breast” 

Illustration: A man and a woman standing on the threshold of a door and stabbing each other in the chest. 

Guard Ning’s painting skills were quite impressive. All the figures in the painting, no matter what posture or expression, all looked like fighting cocks. 

Gripping the masterpiece in his hand, Ning Yi read the events and personal opinions three times, and began to cough. 

Although the painting was impressively not realistic, and he didn’t really want to look at it more, he still couldn’t help but read the thing twice before turning his face away. 

The moment he turned his face away, a very faint strange expression flashed across his eyes, a bit like anger but also a bit like being deep in thought. 

The crooked painting brightened and darkened under the flickering light of the lantern. In a daze, the very scene seemed to come alive in Ning Yi’s eyes. Ning Yi frowned and immediately turned the page. 

Third page: The font was particularly large, written in so much red paint that it almost hurts one’s eyes just by looking at it. The title was also rather frightening “Evil guard tricked person into searching the mountain, loyal Ning Cheng was almost killed!” 

Illustration: A really big puddle of red mud. 

Ning Yi ignored the guard’s blatant request to cancel his assignment but focused his eyes instead on certain words. This time, his expression was slightly more solemn. He rested his forehead on his hand and thought carefully for a while. After a long moment, he closed his eyes and sighed slightly. 

There was an expression of sorrow and helplessness in his eyes for a moment, very deep, far off. 

The fourth page, “The Most Charming Thing about Xiliang Posthouse is the One Lick” 

Illustrations… This time it was not the deafening painting skills of the great painter Ning Cheng, but another kind of deafening gift- Ning Cheng pasted a really large piece of paper, the master piece personally painted by Feng Zhi Wei. 

With great perseverance, he stole the only masterpiece the Marquis of Wei had produced thus far. 

The artwork was sealed well, and he wrote on it: Your Highness, this is Feng Zhi Wei’s painting. See, this was painted by Feng Zhi Wei. It took great effort for me to steal it. You have to return it to me after you have read it, otherwise Gu Nan Yi will castrate me if he finds out that I stole it. I took such a big risk in order to give you a surprise. Poor you, you must have been devastated after reading the previous pages, and this painting would definitely make you happy. I absolutely believe you will be awed by this painting. Oh, by the way, are you drinking tea while reading this letter? Please move the teacup away. If you got the painting dirty, then I will still get castrated. 

Ning Yi read the seemingly never-ending pile of nonsense with a smile in his eyes. He thought to himself that he had indeed never seen Feng Zhi Wei’s paintings. She was good at chess. Every time she played chess with His Majesty, she could wisely maintain the three-loss and one-win situation. Her handwriting was also good and was probably better than two-thirds of the court officials. He would imagine her painting would be the same. Maybe not the best, but not too shabby either, or perhaps she might even be better than he thought. 

Feeling a bit happy as those thoughts were swirling in his head, he carefully unwrapped the painting. 

The painting was spread out bit by bit…

Then…

His Royal Highness, the noble Prince Chu, who has rarely let his emotions show on his face, for the first time in his life, stood there completely dumbfounded….

The autumn night wind sneaked in through the window cracks, and the “matchless painting” trembled in the wind. The bunch of large circles, medium circles, and small circles was all bunched together like golden stars flying in front of his eyes. 

After a long moment, Ning Yi abruptly inhaled a deep breath. Perhaps he had accidentally inhaled the cool midnight wind, or for other reasons, but he suddenly started to cough continuously. 

As he coughed, his shoulder shook.

As his shoulder shook, he quickly pushed away that wonderful, thrilling “Record of Dream of Xiliang” 

As he was pushing away that pile of “personal opinion” that made one want to just bash one’s own head in, he quickly spread out paper and ink on his desk.

He is preparing to write back to that no-good guard about this “Dream of Xiliang” book. 

The night was quiet, the study was secluded, and the deep yellow light shone on the white embossed paper with gold edges. The handwriting was strong and elegant as words came flying out one after another under the brush. 

“I present this to Master Ning Cheng, the author of “Dream of Xiliang”: 

I have read this book three times. I closed the book and thought about it again and again. I thought that since Mr. Ning had been with me since I was a child so it could be counted that I have watched you grow up. How could I have not discovered that you, sir, were so talented? Not only were you good at poetry and prose, but you were also good at calligraphy and painting. Your poetry was like golden stars exploding everywhere. Your calligraphy and paintings were like the mad dancing of demons. The drawing of the cockfight was also good. They truely look like fighting cocks.  

It seems that it was truly a waste of your talent to be just a guard. When you come back from Xiliang, I will send you to the village of Henei to be the head manager of the farmstead there. That place is located right next to the country of Nanmo, which is the most uncivilized, unruly, poor, and desolate land. I imagine once you, sir, arrive there, and your heavenly book is shared for all to know, then the fame will be unmatched. From that point on, the people of that land will surely eagerly hand their mountains and rivers to you. Sir, the great cause of our empire’s territorial expansion depends on your amazing talent. 

I have read the book sincerely. There were only four chapters, but each chapter was a classic, with ups and downs, causing me great anxiety to know what happened next. The “personal opinions” were especially breathtaking and magnificent.

As such, regarding you, sir’s “personal opinions”, this prince also has a few “personal opinions” that I would like to shamelessly present to you. I sincerely hope that you would not hesitate to enlighten me. 

First: About “The Secret History Between the Top Cocubine XianXian of Thousand Flower Brothel and Gu Nan Yi” 

Personal opinion 1: There is no bigger jerk than you in this world.

Personal opinion 2: This lotus case has been transferred to this prince. You, sir, don’t have to worry about it anymore. 

Personal opinion 3: This prince just needed a chance to send you away. 

Personal opinion 4: This prince’s hand is feeling a bit itchy. Sir, you should be careful. 

Personal opinion 5: Last time you spent a full month at FengXiang Tower (brothel). I thought you were chasing after little FengXiang fairy and were even planning to redeem her, no? You were just gathering writing material? Then forget it. 

Personal opinion 6: None. 

(The author didn’t bother to include Ning Cheng’s actual letter, which made it difficult to understand Ning Yi’s responses so I had to dig through my past translations and found it in #308 that was published Oct 21, 2024)

“Event: Gu Nan Yi wanted to listen to “Eighteen Touches,” and after listening to it, he wanted to touch. After touching, he asked about lotus buds. The lotus buds were shown to him, he threw them away, and called the girl a liar.” 

“Personal opinion 1: Gu Nan Yi is a jerk, who doesn’t know how to treat a lady like a gentleman. Personal opinion 2: Why is Gu Nan Yi so focused on lotus bud? This is worthy of exploring further. Personal opinion 3: I could not tell if a certain someone was jealous or not. Your Highness, you still have a chance. Personal opinion 4: Gu Nan Yi seemed to have finally started to understand the difference between men and women. Your Highness, you need to be careful. Personal opinion 5: No matter how clean a….. is, she is still a…., I am like Your Highness, and have no interest in these types of women. Personal opinion 6: Actually, Xian Xian’s chest really does look like jade lotus buds.


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