EWRN - Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Zither, Chess, Calligraphy, Painting, and Beauties
Huo Jinyu entered Jinxiang Palace. The palace maids were all waiting outside the hall; upon seeing Huo Jinyu, they were about to bow and kneel in salute. Huo Jinyu quickly waved her hand, and the palace maids retreated to either side. A melodious zither tune drifted out from within the hall, and Huo Jinyu momentarily paused her steps.
The zither’s sound was melodious and graceful, like a long, fine rain. Every note was crisp and pleasant, its resonance lingering among the rafters.
Huo Jinyu tiptoed into the palace and saw a woman in white robes sitting by a zither in front of a window, her back to the palace doors. A pair of fair, delicate hands plucked at the strings. A gentle breeze blew in from the window, lightly lifting the woman's long, ink-black hair. This woman was none other than Princess Yan, Yan Xi.
It is said that the sound of the zither can express a person's innermost feelings. Huo Jinyu could actually hear a sense of melancholy in the music, mixed with a hint of some emotion she couldn't quite understand.
Suddenly, the music swelled, the melody becoming urgent! The tune twisted sharply upward, the sound as startling as a great bell. It was like ten thousand horses galloping forth; Huo Jinyu could hear the urgency and resentment in the music. She was surprised to hear such a grand melody and profound emotion in a woman's playing.
Yan Xi's fingers plucked forcefully at the strings, which vibrated violently. The knuckles of her slender hands had turned white from the excessive force.
For some reason, Huo Jinyu felt a sudden, sharp pain in her heart. A voice inside her told her to make Yan Xi stop, or she would get hurt if she continued like this!
Her feet followed her heart's impulse. Huo Jinyu strode toward the person who was lost in the music, unable to extricate herself.
Yan Xi was playing the zither before the window. As her emotions deepened, she unconsciously poured her true feelings into it. She thought of her homeland, her grasslands, her parents, her foolish older brother, her silly sisters... gone, all gone!
Her hands moved swiftly and fiercely across the strings.
Suddenly, a large, strong hand reached over her shoulder and seized her frenzied hands. The zither let out a buzzing sound. Without her hands to press them down, the strings vibrated wildly.
Yan Xi turned her head in astonishment to look behind her. She saw Huo Jinyu standing there, bent over with a frown, holding her hands. The current scene looked as if Yan Xi was half-encircled in Huo Jinyu's embrace, an extremely ambiguous posture.
Yan Xi's face remained as cold as ice. There was no pitiable scene of two streams of tears slowly trickling down her cheeks as Huo Jinyu had imagined. Huo Jinyu sighed with regret in her heart.
What a pity, Huo Jinyu thought. I didn't get an excuse to dote on my Beloved Consort.
"Don't play anymore." Huo Jinyu pulled Yan Xi's hands over. She saw that all ten fingertips had already turned bright red, looking stark and conspicuous against her fair, white hands. It made one's heart ache for these delicate hands. "We would be heartbroken." Without thinking, Huo Jinyu actually said it out loud.
Hearing this, both of them were stunned.
Huo Jinyu straightened up somewhat unnaturally and changed the subject. "Beloved Consort, why are you playing the zither inside the palace? The weather outside is quite nice."
"It's too sunny outside." The tips of Yan Xi's ears were still a little red as she replied coolly.
Huo Jinyu: ...
"Ahem, then why isn't Beloved Consort in the center of the hall, but by the window instead?" Huo Jinyu found another topic, though it was obviously a pointless question.
"For the ventilation, naturally." Yan Xi also stood up and continued to reply coolly. Although she wasn't in a good mood at the moment, as the master of Jinxiang Palace, she naturally had to attend to the Emperor properly when she visited.
The two went to the main hall, where Yan Xi personally brewed tea for Huo Jinyu.
Huo Jinyu thought she had to find something to do, otherwise it would be too boring for the two of them to just sit in the main hall drinking tea.
"Beloved Consort, how about a couple of games of Go with Us?" Huo Jinyu took the initiative to break the silence.
"Alright." Yan Xi replied faintly and called a palace maid to fetch the Go board and stones. She also felt that just sitting there wasn't a solution; it felt strange. How could the Emperor come to a consort's palace just to sit and stare at each other, doing nothing?
Soon, a palace maid brought over the Go board and stones. The two moved to a couch. A low table was placed on the bamboo couch, and the Go board was set upon it. Huo Jinyu took the black stones and gave the white ones to Yan Xi.
Yan Xi accepted the white stones without ceremony. Although she wasn't an expert at Go, she had learned a little. Back in the Northern Kingdom's royal court, when her Imperial Father was still alive, he had hired tutors to teach her and her siblings. But perhaps the people of the grasslands were accustomed to valor and not so used to things like strategy; none of them were very skilled at Go.
There is a saying in Go: "Gold in the corners, silver on the sides, grass in the center." This is a phrase every student must learn when starting out. Yan Xi followed this teaching carefully, placing a white stone on the "star point" in the lower-right corner on her side. Huo Jinyu also placed a black stone on a star point on her own side.
They played back and forth. Except for the central "Tengen" point, the two had already occupied all eight star points on the board.
Yan Xi played conventionally, building her formation within her own territory. Huo Jinyu, however, extended her claws into Yan Xi's territory.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Huo Jinyu captured the first white stone. Yan Xi stared at the board, lost in thought. She immediately played a stone to remedy the territory that had been devoured. However, Huo Jinyu's black stones had already formed two "eyes." Not only did the white stones fail to reclaim the territory, but they also needlessly sacrificed innocent stones. Yan Xi's face remained cold, showing no trace of emotion, but she secretly tightened her grip on the stone in her hand.
Yan Xi also launched an attack toward Huo Jinyu's star point. Although she gained a piece of territory, Huo Jinyu extended her claws into the "belly" of the white stones. In no time, she had disrupted the formation Yan Xi had painstakingly built and captured many white stones.
Seeing this, Yan Xi finally frowned. Yan Xi was seriously contemplating the situation on the board, unaware that Huo Jinyu had been watching her the whole time. When Huo Jinyu saw Yan Xi frown, she found it quite adorable on that face that had been frozen and unmoving for so long.
Huo Jinyu deliberately caused trouble in Yan Xi's territory. Every time Yan Xi was about to complete a formation, Huo Jinyu would butt in and take away Yan Xi's "liberties."
After only one or two times, Yan Xi noticed something was amiss. "Your Majesty is doing this on purpose." Yan Xi glanced at Huo Jinyu, her face cold.
"Not at all, not at all. I was just playing a few moves randomly." Huo Jinyu no longer referred to herself as 'We'. She emphasized again, "In private, it's fine for Xi'er to just call me Jinyu. Calling me Your Majesty is so distant."
"Jinyu's few random moves have pushed this servant into a corner." Yan Xi tacitly accepted Huo Jinyu's suggestion, fulfilling her wish in the empty hall.
Hearing that pleasant voice say the words "this servant," Huo Jinyu felt her heart's defenses instantly crumble, a sweet feeling spreading deep into her soul. Huo Jinyu couldn't describe this sudden sensation. She only knew that she... quite liked this feeling.
After capturing two more of the stones Huo Jinyu had placed to cause trouble, but also losing a stretch of liberties, Yan Xi's heart grew increasingly agitated. Back in the Northern Kingdom, losing at Go was a common occurrence, and she had never taken it to heart. But for some reason today, her heart was in turmoil. Especially whenever Huo Jinyu placed a few stones to harass her, she actually found herself getting angry. This was simply incredible. When had she ever gotten angry over a trivial matter like a game of Go? Could it be because... because this person was Huo Jinyu?
Realizing what she was thinking, Yan Xi was startled. Her fingers lost their grip, and a white stone slipped from her hand with a clatter, falling onto the board and scattering a few other stones.
Not understanding the reason, Huo Jinyu picked up the white stone, restored the board, and handed the stone back to Yan Xi. "Here. What are you thinking about, Xi'er, to be so careless?" Huo Jinyu asked casually.
Yan Xi took the stone. Their fingertips brushed lightly. Both Yan Xi and Huo Jinyu suddenly retracted their hands as if pricked. Touching each other's warm, soft fingertips, they both felt a slightly numbing sensation shoot up their arms to their heads.
The two suppressed this feeling of agitation and discomfort. They continued the game as if nothing had just happened.
Gradually, Huo Jinyu had occupied more than half the board. Yan Xi had long since realized that Huo Jinyu was just teasing her with the game, so she simply stopped thinking seriously. Wherever Huo Jinyu played, Yan Xi would follow.
Huo Jinyu raised an eyebrow but said nothing more. Another quarter of an hour passed, and the game ended. The territories enclosed by the black and white stones were clear at a glance without needing to be counted. Yan Xi had been crushingly defeated.
They played two more games. In these two games, Yan Xi simply followed wherever Huo Jinyu played, which caused Huo Jinyu no small amount of trouble.
Two hours passed. Yan Xi had lost three games in a row and had long since lost interest, even though Huo Jinyu had made significant concessions.
It wasn't yet time for the evening meal. Huo Jinyu stopped playing and instead began to teach Yan Xi how to play, guiding her hand. Everyone has their own way of Go, a path that must be discovered on one's own and cannot be taught by others. What Huo Jinyu taught Yan Xi, however, was the art of formation, military strategy, and tactics.
Yan Xi was intelligent. She understood what Huo Jinyu taught her immediately and learned quickly. Yan Xi thought to herself, As expected of the Great Yuan's imperial family with their profound heritage. Their skill in Go is far beyond what the motley tutors of the Northern Kingdom could compare to.
Unconsciously, the sky gradually darkened. It was time for the evening meal.
The palace maids served the meal in unison. The two sat at the dining table, with a palace maid helping to serve the dishes. Yan Xi stared at the food, a little lost in thought. Since that day, Huo Jinyu had never again placed food on her plate. The chopsticks in the palace maid's hand delivered more food to the bowl before her, and Yan Xi snapped back to her senses. What on earth was she thinking about? Huo Jinyu was the Emperor. How could an Emperor personally serve food to a consort? Perhaps that day had just been an illusion. For now, she should just eat properly and not think about things she shouldn't.
After the evening meal, palace maids cleared away the dishes. Huo Jinyu sat and drank some tea for a while, then got up to prepare to return to her Hall of the Slumbering Dragon.
Seeing that Huo Jinyu had no intention of staying, just as Huo Jinyu was stepping out of the palace, Yan Xi called out, "Jinyu."
Hearing her, Huo Jinyu turned back with a puzzled look and asked, "Is there something else, Xi'er?"
Seeing her dazed expression, Yan Xi felt a sudden surge of anger for some reason. "It's nothing. Rest early tonight."
"Oh, alright. You rest early too, Xi'er." Huo Jinyu waved goodbye and left Jinxiang Palace.
That blockhead, just let him sleep alone!
Yan Xi cursed inwardly, returning to her bedchamber with a cold face. The sky was growing late; after reading for a while, it would be time for her to extinguish the lamps.
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