Ashes to Crown

Chapter 120: Chapter 76: Laughing Matter

The night was dark and still.

Chu Zhao threw herself onto the bed, limbs spread wide. She inhaled the sweet scent of her freshly dried hair and let out a long, comfortable sigh.

"This is the most relaxed I’ve felt in a long time," she said.

Ah Le, lying beside her, also let out a long sigh. "It’s because we finally found Ah Jiu. Now he can deliver the letters you wrote to the General."

Chu Zhao laughed. "He’s been beaten half to death, and you’re still thinking about making him deliver letters?"

That’s right. Ah Le sat up, her brow furrowed. "He won’t be able to travel long distances for a while in his condition. What should we do? Is there some medicine we can give him to make him recover instantly and get back to work?"

"Ah Le, try to have a little of the insight of a Capital City maid, will you?" Chu Zhao chuckled, poking her. "Stop worrying about Ah Jiu and think about who your lady saw today! Third Young Master Xie! Third Young Master Xie!"

’What’s so special about seeing Third Young Master Xie?’ Ah Le pondered this. "I know the Third Young Master is very famous, but he’s not necessarily better at delivering letters than Ah Jiu."

Third Young Master Xie was, of course, more famous than Ah Jiu. He was adored by all, like an immortal descended from the heavens. ’Had a man like that ever truly suffered? Could he travel on the road like a posthouse soldier?’

Although Ah Jiu had a bad reputation and a worse temper, and Ah Le didn’t like him one bit, he didn’t live the life of a pampered noble.

’When I gave his maids the medicine and told them it was especially effective for healing wounds quickly, they were overjoyed. They said that this time, their young master wouldn’t have to spend so long recovering from his beating.’

It was clear Ah Jiu was punished often.

It wasn’t surprising. During their journey together, she herself had wanted to hit Ah Jiu several times.

A man like that was infuriating, but a man like that was better suited for delivering letters.

Watching Ah Le’s serious analysis, Chu Zhao smiled, sat up, and nodded. "Yes, Ah Jiu is the most suitable for delivering the letters. I’ll look for him once he’s recovered. But it’s not so urgent now, because we have Third Young Master Xie. He can help me with something else. Once that’s resolved, the letters won’t be as pressing."

Ah Le understood. "So when you had me ask about Third Young Master Xie before, it was for this."

Chu Zhao nodded and lay back down. "Now that this matter is taken care of, I can rest easier."

In this life, she had avoided Xiao Xun and wouldn’t repeat her past mistakes, thus averting her own tragedy. Now that she had warned Xie Yanfang about the Third Prince’s plot to kill the Crown Prince, the Crown Prince’s fate would surely change as well.

’Xie Yanfang.’ She silently repeated the name, the corners of her mouth curving into a smile.

Ah Le heard her and giggled from her side. "Miss, you like Third Young Master Xie more, don’t you?"

"Of course not," Chu Zhao said immediately. But after the words were out, she felt something was off about her denial. ’More than who, exactly?’

Ah Le giggled. "It wouldn’t be strange if you did. Everyone likes Third Young Master Xie. Isn’t he a very nice person? Even after you said all those things about him in the street, he wasn’t harsh with you when you met him."

She had followed her mistress inside and watched from the side. Although she wasn’t close enough to hear what they were saying, she saw Third Young Master Xie and her mistress raise their cups to each other three times, chatting and laughing amiably.

He was nothing like that Ah Jiu, who was always sarcastic and passive-aggressive whenever he saw the Miss.

’Like him?’ Chu Zhao thought. ’What thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl—or for that matter, any woman today, regardless of age—wouldn’t like an elegant young gentleman? And not just now. Later, after Third Young Master Xie became Yan Lang... although he was no longer elegant, with his hands and body stained with blood, he possessed a different kind of beauty that still attracted many women.’

In her past life, there was an Aristocratic Family that held sway over a territory and wavered between Thief Xie and the court. Yan Lang scaled their walls late one night and somehow managed to charm one of the family’s women. She then convinced her brothers to lead their entire family in defecting to Xie Lang.

When Xiao Xun heard about it, he flew into a rage in the palace, cursing the woman for her shamelessness and Yan Lang for his lack of shame.

"Whether I like someone has nothing to do with whether he’s a good person," Chu Zhao told Ah Le. "Besides, it’s hard to say whether someone is truly good or bad."

’Hard to say?’ Ah Le blinked. ’Does that mean Miss doesn’t think Third Young Master Xie is a good person?’

Chu Zhao looked at her. "Ah Le, do you know who provoked the Third Prince’s anger toward me?"

Ah Le froze. ’It couldn’t be, could it?’

Chu Zhao smiled. "Surprising, isn’t it? And he’s the one who told me himself."

Ah Le leaped off the bed. "Miss, how can he be so wicked! You have no history with him, no grudge. Why would he harm you!"

The girl, her hair unbound, paced back and forth on the floor like an enraged fighting cock, looking as if she wanted to storm the Xie Mansion right then and peck that elegant young gentleman to pieces.

Chu Zhao laughed, getting up to grab hold of her. "What are you so angry about? We have no history, true, but we’re also not friends or family. He works for the Crown Prince. In his schemes against the Third Prince, why would he ever spare a thought for me?"

The words made sense, and yet something felt wrong. Ah Le stared at Chu Zhao, at the girl’s calm smile under the dim lamplight, her eyes showing not a single trace of anger.

"Miss," she said, grabbing the girl’s arm. "How can you not be angry? Even if you’re strangers, he can’t just bully people like that."

’Bullying?’ Chu Zhao considered it.

"In my eyes, this is nothing," she said, giving Ah Le a soft smile. "All that matters is that I achieve my goal. What kind of person he is and how he treats me is irrelevant. I don’t care."

Ah Le didn’t say anything. She just reached out and hugged her.

"Miss, I know why you’re like this," she murmured. "It’s because you’ve been hurt so many times that you’ve stopped caring."

Chu Zhao stiffened. ’Is that it?’

’Hurt too many times?’

She had indeed been hurt a great deal, and always by those closest to her—her uncle’s family, and Xiao Xun.

If her own relatives could treat her that way, then the actions of a stranger were truly of no consequence.

"I used to be like that," Ah Le said, leaning against her shoulder. "Before I met the General, I was just a street urchin, stealing to survive. I got beaten every day, and what I stole was often stolen from me. But I never got angry back then. I used to tell myself, ’They aren’t my parents, so why should they be good to me? It’s only normal for them to hurt me.’ Miss, I know now that it wasn’t that I wasn’t angry. It was that I couldn’t be, I didn’t dare to be. If I didn’t accept the abuse as normal, I wouldn’t have been able to survive."

Chu Zhao had long forgotten about Ah Le’s childhood. She reached out and patted her on the back soothingly.

"Until I met the General and you, Miss," Ah Le said. "That’s when I learned that I didn’t have to be hurt, that it was okay to get angry when someone hurt you, and it was okay to get even."

She lifted her head, patted Chu Zhao, and her eyes were firm.

"Miss, one day, you’ll be like me. You’ll meet someone who treats you well and won’t let you be hurt."

Every time her own heart grew so hard she thought she couldn’t feel anything, Ah Le would warm it back to life. Chu Zhao sighed softly and nodded with conviction. "I will. I’m sure I will."

Ah Le let out a breath of relief, then said indignantly, "Third Young Master Xie isn’t a good person. Can you rely on him to do what you asked?"

Chu Zhao said, "What I need him to do isn’t for my sake, logically speaking. It’s for his own."

She smiled at that. Of course, it would benefit her as well.

She raised an eyebrow with a hint of smug satisfaction.

In her past life, the Xie family’s Yan Lang had also been one of her tormentors. He constantly cursed her and her father and had shown no mercy to Uncle Zhong and the others, hunting them down to the last man.

So, in this life, she would have Xie Yanfang protect the Crown Prince. That way, Xiao Xun would never become the Emperor, and Xie Yanfang would never turn into Yan Lang. He would have to remain an elegant gentleman serving the Crown Prince for the rest of his life.

...

...

The night was deep, and in the post house, the only light came from Xiao Xun’s quarters.

He had learned of the incident in the streets that everyone now knew about, and he had also learned of the things that no one knew.

"That Xie Family’s son... he’s the same posthouse soldier who was with Miss Chu," Tie Ying reported. "When she saw him being punished, Miss Chu rushed out like a madwoman to protect him, cursing Xie Yanfang."

A look of surprise crossed Xiao Xun’s face. "Such a coincidence?"

The coincidence, of course, was not that Miss Chu had seen the Xie Family’s son being punished. It was that when Miss Chu was fleeing to the Border County, that same Xie Family’s son had been working as a posthouse soldier, delivering letters to the very same place.

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