Chapter 25: A Discourse on the Art of Acting

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The train of her dress wound across the ground, spread over the long bamboo leaves that had fallen everywhere. A breeze lifted a few strands of her dark hair and the sleeve embroidered with orioles perched among flowering branches. The fluttering bamboo leaves followed her like butterflies, winding around her.

Qin Jinghao tilted his head slightly, as though pondering something, then gave a small nod. Slowly, a smile curved across his lips, brightening heaven and earth. He walked toward Luo Yunyao at an unhurried pace.

Luo Yunyao watched him approach with effortless grace, his sleeves stirring lightly with every movement. The green bamboo seemed to lean against him, yet he was more beautiful than the bamboo itself.

He was ethereal, graceful, drifting with the slightest motion—and yet there was something breathtakingly arresting about him.

Luo Yunyao stared in fascination. She lamented inwardly that she had spent so much time dressing herself, while the man before her seemed to need do nothing at all. In his ordinary appearance alone, he could make people want only to gaze at him, forgetting even to breathe.

The man she loved was someone whose every movement—or, more accurately, whose mere presence—created its own effortless elegance.

Qin Jinghao reached Luo Yunyao’s side and discovered her gazing at him in rapture. He found it rather amusing. Had she been looking for so long without growing tired of him? He considered asking, but decided against it; it might make him seem conceited. General Qin was not someone who cared about his outward appearance. He simply was as he was.

Taking advantage of Luo Yunyao’s distraction, Qin Jinghao lowered his head and leaned close to her face. Looking at his girl’s delicate, flawless skin, he was seized by a mischievous impulse. He leaned toward her and gave her cheek a gentle puff of breath.

Luo Yunyao felt his warm, cool breath brush across her face. She froze for a moment, then, before her cheeks could turn completely red, pushed him away and complained coyly, “What are you doing?”

Qin Jinghao simply drew her into his arms. Seeing her bashful expression, he deepened the curve of his lips. This was his girl—always so captivating.

Luo Yunyao gave him a token push. Naturally, she could not move him, so she comforted herself by pretending that she had struggled enough and leaned against him instead. She continued to grumble at Qin Jinghao, “Who have you been spending time with lately? Who taught you to be so wicked?”

Qin Jinghao lifted his head and watched the green leaves drift gently downward. In a calm, unruffled voice, he said, “I have been with Yunyao all this time.” There was a faint hint of teasing and amusement in his words.

The sentence sounded like a declaration of love. In truth, Qin Jinghao had learned to be so wicked by following Luo Yunyao.

She was not fooled. The moment she realized he was teasing her, she tried once more to push him away, but could not bring herself to do it.

All she could do was cling to her talkative nature—and her habit of forcing a reason where none existed. “What does that have to do with me? Stop slandering me, will you?” After thinking for a moment, she found an excuse to defend herself and decided it was highly convincing. “It’s simply because you were born exceptionally gifted. Yes, that must be it.”

At times like this, Qin Jinghao always indulged her. This time, he even offered a rare self-criticism. “Yes. I was simply born this wicked. I never realized it until Yunyao appeared.”

Luo Yunyao remembered a romance novel she had once read. Which one it had been was impossible to determine now, for she could no longer recall the title. But she remembered one sentence:

You were the one who dragged him down from his altar.

How perfectly it suited this moment. Luo Yunyao had brought this aloof gentleman, as pure as jade and untouched by the mortal world, down from beyond that world and into its midst.

All Qin Jinghao’s mischievous teasing and playful wickedness—everything so at odds with his temperament and his past—existed because of Luo Yunyao. They had come into being because of her, and only because of her.

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Luo Yunyao made it clear that she was satisfied with Qin Jinghao’s answer. She thought to herself that this man always uttered irresistible declarations of love without even meaning to.

Bewitched by both his words and the man himself, Luo Yunyao had no idea that this sentence would later become the very promise that allowed this jade-like man to keep her completely under his thumb.

The more otherworldly a man seemed, the more impossible he was to guard against.

Qin Jinghao naturally had no intention of warning Luo Yunyao about his devious intentions. He did not even want to give her time for further thought. He had always known that Luo Yunyao was clever.

Picking up their earlier subject, Qin Jinghao continued, “A woman dresses for the man who appreciates her?”

He wore a suitably curious expression as he asked, “Is that another saying from Azurefall?”

Luo Yunyao saw nothing improper in it. She had never minded using the things from her own era in front of others—especially not in front of Qin Jinghao. She wanted him to know the unguarded, unembellished version of herself. Besides, she could simply blame it on Azurefall.

“Yes.”

A probing, interested look appeared in Qin Jinghao’s eyes, though his face remained expressionless. “How come I have never heard it?”

Luo Yunyao sharply raised her head to look at him. Seeing his blank expression, she sensed the atmosphere grow heavy. She stared at him for a while, then seemed frightened by his manner and lowered her head with a wounded look.

Ever since the two of them had confessed their feelings, Luo Yunyao had always been able to see tenderness in Qin Jinghao’s eyes. But this time, he was as cold as jade, just as he had been in the beginning.

She answered in a low voice, “It’s a saying from Azurefall. How could you have heard it?”

Qin Jinghao felt uncomfortable seeing her like this, but his expression remained impassive, and his voice was equally flat. “A few years ago, there were rumors that I was accomplished in both letters and arms—that I knew everything from the history and political circumstances of Western Qin and Tiansheng, down to the customs and livelihoods of every minor kingdom, including Azurefall, which has already become a vassal state.”

He spoke so casually about his own accomplishments that there was not the slightest trace of boastfulness in his tone.

“The rumors were fairly accurate.”

Luo Yunyao was astonished, and more than a little impressed. Yet she kept her head lowered and replied aggrievedly, “So you mean you know every book and every common saying from Azurefall?”

Qin Jinghao looked at the bamboo and answered casually, “Not only Azurefall. I know the traditions of several other small kingdoms that have become vassal states as well.”

Luo Yunyao thought, Why don’t you just ascend to heaven while you’re at it?

Then Qin Jinghao continued, “Now tell me about ‘A woman dresses for the man who appreciates her,’ as well as the other saying you used before: ‘If no one provokes me, I provoke no one. If someone provokes me, I will repay him with one needle. If he provokes me again, I will uproot him completely.’ Where did those sayings come from?”

She had not expected Qin Jinghao to bring up old matters again. Or perhaps he had already noticed that something was wrong the last time, and had merely kept the evidence until the day he could expose her all at once.

Luo Yunyao was not frightened in the least. After a brief pause, she said righteously, “So what if I made them up myself? I am a newly crowned scholar of the imperial examinations, after all. Surely I’m allowed to possess some knowledge and a few twisted principles?”

That answer could not possibly convince Qin Jinghao. But Luo Yunyao knew that he respected her and would not continue questioning her. She had intended to use Azurefall to cover up all those sayings, never expecting to encounter an expert. It was a serious oversight on her part. All she could do was apologize to the sages of old and claim that she had invented them herself.

Actually... it could not really be called a lie. After all, Qin Jinghao had not believed her either.

Luo Yunyao did not want to continue discussing the matter. Remembering what had just happened, she asked with gleeful mischief, “So General Qin was quite the dashing young man a few years ago? Were the rumors really that grand?”

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Qin Jinghao was unconcerned and continued in the same calm, detached manner. “I was merely young and inexperienced.”

When he said that, he meant that he had once been rash and impetuous. Qin Jinghao considered his former brilliance nothing more than a tendency to thrust himself forward. Naturally, he had not forced his way to the front; General Qin had simply emerged there of his own accord.

In the short span of a few years, he might once truly have been, as Qin Jinghao said, young, inexperienced, and possessed of lofty ambitions. But now he had become a general who followed the middle path, restrained himself, and upheld propriety—a figure like a lofty flower on an inaccessible peak, a man as pure as jade and untouched by the mortal world.

What had that vile emperor done to the person she loved most?

The thought pierced Luo Yunyao’s heart with unbearable pain.

When Qin Jinghao’s gaze shifted from the bamboo back to Luo Yunyao, he discovered that her eyes no longer held their earlier teasing amusement. Instead, they were filled with pity.

Who could say where Luo Yunyao’s thoughts had wandered during the brief moment he had looked away?

Qin Jinghao was utterly helpless. The only solution was to change the subject; he could not allow her to continue looking at him like that.

“Weren’t you feeling very wronged just now? I thought you had some grand principles or reproaches to deliver to me.”

Luo Yunyao froze and instinctively asked, “Why did you keep pressing me about the source of those sayings? You don’t believe me? We’ve been together for so long. Don’t you know what kind of person I am? You’re awful. You’ve gone too far. You’re being completely unreasonable?”

She tilted her head, and the ornaments in her hair chimed crisply. Looking at Qin Jinghao, she asked, “Was that what you expected me to say?”

Qin Jinghao ignored her words and continued along his original line of thought. “So your wounded expression just now was an act?”

He deliberately adopted an angry air and once again made his face expressionless, turning his gaze toward the bamboo. In a tone devoid of emotion, he judged, “It was a convincing performance.”

Luo Yunyao caught hold of Qin Jinghao’s sleeve and gave it a gentle, coquettish tug. Her words, however, remained defiant. “And what about you? With that expressionless face, interrogating me like a magistrate—weren’t you acting too? You put on such a convincing performance, and you still have the nerve to criticize me?”

Imitating Qin Jinghao, she turned her gaze toward another stand of bamboo and, with an utterly blank expression, returned his own words to him.

“Still not as good as General Qin’s acting.”

At that, Luo Yunyao could no longer keep a straight face and burst into laughter. Qin Jinghao failed to maintain his composure as well. Though he merely moved the corners of his lips in a slow, restrained smile, this was his girl, after all.

Hearing her laughter, Qin Jinghao reached out, intending to ruffle her hair. But his hand paused when he noticed how carefully she had arranged it—she had dressed herself for him. So he stopped.

Luo Yunyao noticed his movement instead. She placed her head in his palm and rubbed against his warm hand.

“You can mess it up if you like. I wasn’t the one who arranged it anyway.”

Luo Yunyao even found herself an excuse.

She did not notice the venomous gaze concealed behind the dense screen of bamboo.

Yue Liuxi had been watching them the entire time, and had heard their playful banter.

She had been waiting here for Qin Jinghao. After all, she had spent many years by his side and knew exactly how to remain unnoticed by him.

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