Chapter 90
Chapter 90
When Su Qinghe reached the rear courtyard, he had not expected to find the two princesses there as well.
His steps halted instinctively. Watching the three royals sitting together in easy harmony, timidity rose in his heart. He did not know whether he should approach.
Once, he had believed the Second Prince was someone like him.
In childhood, everyone had held great expectations for them, believing they would become brilliant moons rising over the sea. Yet as the years passed, the truth emerged: they were merely the most ordinary grains in the vast ocean. Their talent could not support their beauty, and their ability did not merit the indulgence they received.
Without the protection of a maternal clan, anyone could trample them, mocking their mediocrity and dismissing them with contempt.
Su Qinghe had chosen to build a high wall and imprison himself within it. The Second Prince had covered himself in sharp spines and bitten anyone who came near. Yet whether one used softness or thorns, both were merely protecting a pitiful scrap of pride. Neither response could change anything.
That was why, when the Second Prince asked to become friends that day, Su Qinghe had felt delighted. The hope of huddling with a kindred soul for warmth made him temporarily forget that this was the “official” Sheng Yiren had mentioned who arranged for northern grain to move south, the man who could fight beside Big Brother Shen and solve Yizhou’s floods.
He had watched the Second Prince and Sheng Yiren speak confidently about the long-range merchant expedition. He had watched them try to carve through mountains and open roads until every corner of Jian’an was connected. He had watched them offer each other tea, confident, dazzling smiles upon their faces. At that moment, an invisible wall had crashed into place among the three of them, separating Su Qinghe completely from the Second Prince and Sheng Yiren.
He finally realized that he and the Second Prince had never been alike.
The Second Prince truly was exactly as Big Brother Shen described him.
Brilliant, bold, and the very best sort of person.
So now, seeing that Second Prince, bright as the blazing sun, seated beside princesses of elegant and exalted birth, Su Qinghe grew timid. He retreated, unable to make his legs carry him another step.
They were true scions of the imperial house, standing at the summit. He was nothing more than common grass that could barely lift its head and steal one glimpse of light through the gaps in the branches of a towering tree.
He was no great swan capable of flying abreast of the sun.
How could he be worthy of the Second Prince’s friendship? He ought to know his place. He could not break through the wall around himself, nor the walls separating him from others.
Su Qinghe turned to flee. But the instant his foot moved, Xie Chengze’s loud, soft voice called out, “Qinghe! Why are you standing there? I’ve waited forever. I’m starving for those pastries!”
Not the distant royal *this prince*, but a simple *I*.
Not Second Young Master Su, but Qinghe.
He called Su Qinghe by his familiar name as naturally as an old friend. Su Qinghe abruptly realized that the Second Prince had never once called him Second Young Master Su.
From beginning to end, Xie Chengze had always called him Young Master Su. Not because he was the Su family’s second son, but simply because his surname was Su and his name was Su Qinghe.
Unable to stop himself, he raised his eyes. Without warning, he saw the brilliantly smiling young man sprawled atop that towering wall, then leaping down from it. Su Qinghe rushed forward in panic, intending to catch his falling body. Yet the young man landed without injury and walked toward him with light, delighted steps.
With every step, a vast crack split the wall. It swayed on the verge of collapse.
Only when the young man reached him and took the redwood food box from his hands did Su Qinghe, his grip suddenly empty, realize that Xie Chengze truly stood before him.
A great hole had already opened in the wall around him. Behind it, three small heads poked through and regarded him with open curiosity.
There was no mockery, no contempt – only the friendly gazes he had not seen in so long, falling on him like gentle light.
“Come. Sit with us.”
A cool palm closed around his wrist. Su Qinghe looked down at the fair hand, slightly smaller than his own. For some reason, his fingers and palm began to tingle and itch.
Th-this was the first time his skin had touched anyone outside his family!
His body instantly stiffened like a puppet. As though pulled by strings, he sat upon the stone stool, lowered his head, and did not dare look directly at the others.
“Try them! Qinghe’s pastries are amazing!” Xie Chengze became a compulsive salesman on the spot. He eagerly lifted the food-box lid and arranged the plates on the stone table, his voice rising and falling with dramatic flair. “A masterpiece beyond even the imperial chefs, exclusively for Qinghe’s friends. You deserve it~”
Xie Shu and Xie Ping’an: …
Second Brother, is this what you’re really like in private?
Still, the pastries on the white-jade plates looked genuinely tempting, all in designs the girls had never seen. Young girls naturally loved sweets, and neither could resist reaching out, picking one up, and tossing it into her mouth.
The next instant, their bright eyes opened enormously wide.
“Wh-what is this?! This burst of fragrance, this molten center as sweet as rich honey without sticking to the teeth – ”
“It is soft as a white cloud, fragrant as tea stripped of every trace of bitterness. This palace has never eaten anything like it!”
Xie Chengze: …Why were they making up phrases again?
“Xiaobiao, you try one too.” Xie Chengze pushed a plate toward him. Zhu Xiaobiao tasted one and shuddered from head to toe. “Last time, Your Highness said Young Master Su’s pastries were better than the imperial chefs’, and I didn’t believe you… Heavens, with skill like this, Young Master Su could enter the Imperial Kitchens and immediately become the head imperial chef!”
“Second Young Master Su!” Xie Shu immediately looked at Su Qinghe with desperate longing. “Please! Go work in the Imperial Kitchens! They make the same few pastries over and over. This palace has eaten them for sixteen years! I’m about to vomit!!!”
Su Qinghe: ?
Who – who was she pleading with?
“I had long heard that Second Young Master Su was skilled in the culinary arts. I thought it meant an ordinary level, never imagining such rare delicacies. I feel as though I missed out on a thousand taels of gold!” Xie Ping’an exclaimed, not forgetting to snatch another pastry from under Xie Shu’s hand and stuff it into her mouth.
Xie Chengze: ?
Why did that sound like the ancient version of a “missed fortune” meme?
Knowing the two princesses praised him so lavishly only for Xie Chengze’s sake, Su Qinghe raised and folded his hands in salute. His voice trembled slightly. “Your Highnesses flatter me. It is merely a poor little skill.”
“This palace is not flattering you. I’m praising you with solid facts,” the straightforward Xie Shu retorted. Then she slapped Xie Ping’an’s hand in anger. “Second Sister! Stop eating! Did you not say you wanted to slim down before meeting the third-ranked scholar?”
“Not important, not important.” Xie Ping’an lifted an arm to block Xie Shu’s attack while reaching for another pastry. “I’ll take some back for Mother Consort. Second Brother, you don’t mind, do you?”
Xie Chengze smiled. “Of course I do. Put them all down. I only let you have a taste, not eat every last one.”
Xie Shu and Xie Ping’an: …
The two girls immediately sat properly, not forgetting to stuff the final pastries into their mouths. “Mmph, mmph. We’re done.”