The Past Calls (1)

Yinyue studied Ronghe's face while he mulled over her questions. He didn't resemble his father, Chancellor Jiaowei at all. Or any of the Chancellor's sons. Jiaowei and his other sons shared the same ratty look with a big nose, squinty eyes, and buck teeth. She had met them by chance more than a few times in the Central Palace before being sent to Yandi.

The only similarity Ronghe shared with his father was the tall and well-built physique. Yinyue wondered if it was a blessing in disguise. Yet, he shared a certain composure similar to Jiaowei — an ability to look calm in the face of a storm.

Her eyes drifted to his quivering fingers rubbing on his white seed. Maybe he hasn't fully mastered that ability yet. Unlike that old fox, Jiaowei, he took too long to answer her questions. And he also avoided her gaze by lowering his eyes to the weiqi game.

A thought popped into her head. Is Ronghe even Jiaowei's son? The background reports done on him pointed out a glaring fact: his father does not favor him. Normal for a mere concubine's son.

Both Hushiyi and Yinyue sent a request to the Capital for a candidate to fill the magistrate's position in Bian. The request submission started as a private joke to see how many candidates who passed the Imperial examination would reject the position.

Instead, they received news of Ronghe's application. A voluntary one. And a letter of no objection from Jiaowei. A confirmation that the Chancellor didn't care about his illegitimate son at all.

"Well, I prefer to keep out of the complex politics in the Capital," he replied. "All I want is a long-term job with enough money to feed and shelter myself. A simple life."

Yinyue could listen to the unspoken meaning in his words. Ronghe didn't want to be near to his family.

She rubbed her chin, musing over his answer while he placed his white seed down on the board. "Why not be the manager of the Chancellor's private side business, then? You are not a legitimate son and usually a concubine's son learns how to run a family business like the shops."

"No talent for business," Ronghe answered quickly. "They may incur losses with my lack of experience."

"But don't you think of your family?"

Ronghe snorted at her question. "Sometimes distance serves for better familial ties."

When Ronghe first picked Yandi for a posting, he didn't realize his results in the Imperial Examinations raised her suspicions of him. Who wanted to post themselves out to a hostile border terrain in the middle of nowhere?

Yinyue stood up and dusted her gown. She walked over to her desk and rummaged through the strewn scrolls while Ronghe watched.

After pulling out a sealed plain brown envelope, she took a long look at it, considering if she should really hand it to Ronghe, without checking the contents.

Yinyue recognised the seal. If she possessed the paranoid mind of the other Grand Princes, Jiaowei would like her to believe Ronghe was a spy sent by his father on behalf of her Emperor-father.

The other possibility crossed her head: Jiaowei could be sending a warning, too. The family of Jiaowei's primary wife stood on the Empress's side. But why would a concubine's son help the primary wife?

After all, Yinyue heard that Ronghe's mother died at the hands of the primary wife. And no one turned up at his mother's burial. The poor woman didn't even get proper funeral rites. That told her he had no backing from a maternal family.

No one with such good results would choose a posting in Yandi. She only approved his posting because someone like him without much of a family was hard to threaten. Besides, Yinyue did a thorough background check on all the key officials, regardless of whether her dear Emperor-father exiled them to Yandi.

She glanced at Ronghe. He bore such an intense look of concentration on the game. She moved back to the weiqi table and placed the letter on top of the game seeds.

"What's the meaning of this?" Ronghe eyed the letter with his name and rank written on it. He dared not touch it.

The stamped seal on the unbroken vermillion beeswax made him wary of its contents. It was from his father's department. They only sent such letters if it involved confidential materials. Why was it even addressed to him?

Ronghe could feel Yinyue's eyes on him, probing him with wariness. He cursed his good father silently in his head. His father had deliberately sent a letter this way for a no good reason, probably to stir mistrust.

He unopened the envelope and pulled out the letter within, in front of Yinyue.

"Would you like me to leave?" She asked.

Ronghe sensed the iciness in her tone. He shook his head. Yinyue turned her gaze on the weiqi game, pretending to ignore him.

He didn't care if Yinyue snuck a peek at the letter. Jiaowei had never cared for Ronghe or his late mother. Even if Ronghe lay dying, he would expect his father not to turn up.

Whatever his father had to say in a letter, probably had more with the politics in the Capital. His eyes swept over the contents of the letter. His hand trembled as he read on. No, he won't go back. He shook his head — he can't go back.

"Anything wrong?" Yinyue raised her eyebrow at Ronghe.

She didn't want to ask, but his expression was too telling. His hands trembled, his lips quivered, and his face turned pale. Yinyue glanced at the letter in his hands. Was it bad news?

"If you need leave to return to the Capital—"

"I don't!" Ronghe snapped suddenly, cutting off her offer.

He realised he overstepped his boundaries. "I apologise."

Yinyue smirked.

"I won't accept your apology until you tell me what's in your letter."

"They want me to return to the capital." Ronghe blinked, dumbfounded by what he read, and offered the letter to her.

Yinyue took it from his hands and read it. She cleared her throat after reading half of the contents, trying not to burst out laughing. Ronghe looked like he was about to drop into a vat of poison.

"So you have been offered as a candidate for my fifth sister's husband selection…," she spoke. Yinyue had no doubt that Jiaowei's primary wife had something to do with it, especially based on the detailed background report she has on Ronghe.