The Princess Wei Yang

28.The Playboy

**biao ge/biao mei – way to address cousins

Li Wei Yang truly liked Li Min De because, in his eyes, she could sense a type of yearning that didn’t want to part. Even though San furen was his adopted mother and treated him as her real son, her personality was nonchalant and reserved, so most of the time, it left Min De feeling extremely lonely.

In the garden’s summerhouse, Li Wei Yang quietly retold him the stories of her life back in the village. She told him about the time when she would fold up her pants and wade through the water just to harvest wild duck’s eggs. Afterwards she would create a fire on the bank of the lake and cook the eggs by covering it in hot sand. She would then devour each and every one of it until there was nothing left.

Li Min De listened attentively with eyes filled of longing.

Living at the Prime Minister’s estate, he had never experienced something such as that. Not only did he feel it was a new kind of life, he could also taste the freedom in Wei Yang’s description.

He blinked and said, “San jiejie, one of these days, I want to visit the place you have lived before.”

Li Wei Yang stared into those eyes which revealed how much he wanted to flap his wings and fly away, chuckled and said, “Silly child, it isn’t a place where you can play.”

Li Min De lifted his head and stared at Li Wei Yang. Under the sun, her face revealed youthfulness, like a clear spring sky, but in those dark black eyes, it was hard to say whether she was happy or sad. It was a pair of eyes that was too complicated to read. This San jie, she really was unlike everyone else, Li Min De thought to himself.

On the other side of the garden, Li Zhang Le had just passed the rockeries when suddenly, she was startled by a figure jumping out of nowhere.

“Biao mei!” As these words were spoken, a young man dressed in a long silk robe from behind the rockeries stepped out and blocked her path.

Li Zhang Le recognized who this person was and smiled.

Li Zhang Le’s biological aunt had married General Zhong Yong. Later on, Zhong Yong inherited the noble position as Marquis of Bo Chang. Their oldest son, Gao Yuan, entered the palace to become the Crown Prince’s reading partner. During an assassination attempt on the Crown Prince, he had blocked the arrow for the Crown Prince and died at a young age. The Crown Prince was extremely sad about Gao Yuan’s death and pleaded the Emperor to reward Gao Yuan’s mother with the glorious title of Wei Guo furen.

Since the eldest son had passed away, Wei Guo furen began to dote on the other son, Gao Jin. Gao Jin was handsome and even though, he seemed like an upright person, he had grown up to become a playboy. His behavior had caught the Marquis of Bo Chang’s attention and several times, the Marquis had become so angry he wanted to teach Gao Jin a lesson but each time, Wei Guo furen would step in to protect Gao Jin. This was because at that time, Gao Jin had been Prime Minister Li’s favorite student. The Marquis would regularly visit the Prime Minister’s estate with Gao Jin for two reasons. First, the Marquis hoped Gao Jin’s studies would bring good results to satisfy some of his greed and secondly, he wanted to ride on the coat-tail of the Prime Minister’s reputation.

Even though Gao Yuan and Gao Jin were indeed blood brothers, they did not seem like they were born of the same mother. Gao Yuan had been young, talented and educated. On the contrary, Gao Jin was but a playboy. Prime Minister Li had tried teaching Gao Jin several times but seeing that he didn’t take his studies seriously, the Prime Minister had to give up.

Furthermore, Da furen had spoiled this nephew of hers, mainly because he was her sister’s only son left. Consequently, Gao Jin was able to come and go in the Prime Minister’s estate as he pleased.