Ashes to Crown

Chapter 36: Chapter 36: The Return

In Chu Ke’s eyes, Chu Zhao had gone mad.

She’d been mad from the very beginning. Otherwise, why would she have struck Liang Siqing’s daughter? It was a blessing for her that those young ladies were even willing to spend time with her, yet she actually hit one of them.

She’d gotten lucky on the run and encountered the Heir of Zhongshan King. But instead of seizing the opportunity to build a connection, she’d offended him as well.

Chu Ke stopped arguing with Chu Zhao. He didn’t try to seek out Xiao Xun again, either. With Chu Zhao around, the Princely Heir wouldn’t give him the time of day. In fact, it would only make him seem more detestable.

’I’ll just have to wait until we get back. I’ll have Father take the lead. He and I will visit Xiao Xun together, make a formal apology, and then try to build a connection.’

At this thought, Chu Ke was overcome with a desperate longing to return, wishing he could just open his eyes and find himself already in the Capital City.

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The spring night in the Border County was still bitterly cold. As Ah Jiu swung himself onto his horse, he couldn’t help but sneeze.

”Enjoying the high life in the county seat for a few days, have we?” Zhang Gu chuckled from beside him. ”Your legs getting too weak to ride?”

Ah Jiu pulled his scarf tighter, leaving only a pair of bright phoenix eyes visible. ”I’ve been enjoying the high life for more than a decade, Brother Zhang. Keeping pace with you all on the road is nothing.”

’This kid never misses a chance to show off,’ Zhang Gu thought, cursing playfully. He cracked his whip. ”Let’s move, let’s move! Once we’re back, you can go enjoy the good life all you want.”

The posthouse soldiers cheered with laughter and spurred their horses onward.

Ah Jiu glanced back at the city, now cloaked in darkness. ’This whole affair is finally over,’ he thought. ’Once I’m back, my time as a posthouse soldier will be finished, too.’

He looked at Zhang Gu and the others. ’We won’t have much to do with each other after this.’ And then—his gaze drifted toward the distant wilderness. ’Those other people... that so-called General Chu Wei, that Ah Fu, and Miss Chu... I’ll never see any of them again.’

”Let’s ride!” he shouted.

”We’re going home!” another posthouse soldier yelled back.

”Going home.” Those two words sent a jolt of excitement through the posthouse soldiers, and they erupted, venting all their pent-up anticipation.

”We’re going home!” ”We’re going home!”

They galloped forward, holding their torches high. This time, Ah Jiu didn’t race to the front. The torchlight flickered in his eyes, but his gaze held none of their excitement or anticipation.

’After my mother died, I lost my home.’

’Home isn’t a home anymore. It’s a cage.’

But the melancholy was fleeting. The next moment, his eyes were once again filled with their usual untamed pride.

He raised his whip, let out a long cry, and spurred his horse into a gallop. Swift as the wind, he shot past the other soldiers, taking the lead once more.

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Although it was impossible to simply open one’s eyes and be in the Capital City, it was nonetheless drawing closer, little by little.

More than ten days later, through a drizzling spring rain, a majestic city appeared on the horizon. It was the capital of the Great Xia.

Sitting in her carriage, Chu Zhao gazed at the Capital City with complicated feelings.

To the thirteen-year-old Chu Zhao, the Capital City was still a strange place. But to the Chu Zhao of now, it was the place she knew best.

Here, she had met the man she loved. She had transformed from a plain, ordinary person into the most venerated woman in the realm.

But none of it had been her doing. She had done nothing. It was that man who had draped her in glory, and it was he who had crushed her into the mire.

Her destiny had been in someone else’s hands.

’This time, I will be the one in control.’

Chu Zhao’s hands, resting on her knees, clenched into fists.

”Father!”

Chu Ke, riding alongside the carriage, suddenly cried out and spurred his horse forward.

Chu Zhao snapped back to her senses and looked far ahead. A group of people was waiting on the main road. The man in the lead wore a simple cloth robe; he was too far away for her to see his face, but his build stirred a memory. It was her uncle, Chu Lan.

Her uncle’s build was so much like her father’s.

’I haven’t actually seen my uncle in a long time, either,’ she realized. ’When I first woke up in this life, I was in such a panic that I barely registered the family around me, my only thought was to get back to the Border County.’

As the carriage drew near, Chu Lan stepped forward to greet them. Chu Ke had already dismounted. If he weren’t so conscious of the crowd, he would have thrown himself into his father’s arms and poured out all the hardships and grievances of his journey.

Chu Lan paid him no mind, turning first to salute Deng Yi. ”You have my thanks for your hard work, Lord Deng.”

Deng Yi dismounted. ”I am fortunate to have fulfilled my orders.”

Chu Lan then turned his gaze to Xiao Xun’s carriage. A man of Xiao Xun’s noble status naturally wouldn’t be expected to disembark. At this point, even his carriage curtain remained closed.

”Father, that is the Heir of Zhongshan King,” Chu Ke said, unable to wait. His voice was a mixture of excitement and grievance. ”The Princely Heir is a man of great poise. If Chu Zhao hadn’t been so outrageous, he would have certainly greeted us by now. The journey was very dangerous. If it weren’t for him, we might not have made it back at all.”

It was improper to put it that way, as it made Lord Deng sound completely useless, but Chu Lan didn’t correct his son. Compared to a Princely Heir, a mere Small Minister from the Weiwei Mansion was indeed of little importance.

The task of finding his niece had been an arduous, thankless, and ultimately optional affair from the start. The Ministry of Justice had refused to take the job, using the excuse that she was Chu Ling’s daughter and pushing it onto the Weiwei Mansion. The Weiwei Mansion had also hemmed and hawed before finally foisting it upon this newly-appointed Small Minister.

’To be saddled with such an unpleasant task, his background and connections must be subpar,’ Chu Lan concluded.

Chu Lan quickly followed Chu Ke to Xiao Xun’s carriage and bowed respectfully. ”I, Chu Lan, offer my sincerest thanks to the Princely Heir.”

Only then did Xiao Xun lift the curtain. He nodded with a faint smile. ”Mr. Chu, you are too kind.”

Chu Lan sighed. ”I am ashamed. To have such a rebellious, unbearable girl in my family...”

Xiao Xun replied, ”Children can be mischievous. I’m sure she will learn with your patient guidance, Mr. Chu.” Clearly not wishing to dwell on the ”child” in question, he changed the subject. ”I have long heard of your great name, Mr. Chu, and that you are a star pupil of Master Zhu.”

Chu Lan had studied under the tutelage of the Jiujiang Zhu Family and now taught his own students at the Qiao Mountain Academy, earning him considerable renown among scholars. Hearing that even Xiao Xun, from as far away as Zhongshan County, knew of him, he smiled with a touch of pride, but replied humbly, ”You praise me too highly, Princely Heir. It is enough for me not to dishonor my master’s name. I would not dare call myself a star pupil.”

Xiao Xun said, ”There is a particular phrase I’ve never fully understood. Since I have the good fortune of meeting you today, Mr. Chu, I was hoping to ask for your instruction.”

Chu Lan said quickly, ”Please, speak freely, Princely Heir.”

Watching their animated discussion, Deng Yi’s expression remained calm, showing no sign of displeasure.

But this pleasant intellectual exchange was rudely interrupted by Chu Zhao.

”Uncle!” she called out, pulling back the carriage curtain. ”The Princely Heir has come to the Capital for an audience with His Majesty. Are you planning to make His Majesty wait?”

Her words were utterly discourteous. Xiao Xun seemed unfazed, having grown accustomed to the girl’s attitude, but Chu Lan was startled by her audacity. ’Such insolence!’ he thought, reeling. ’She’s just like her father—that degenerate son who dragged down the Chu Family!’

”Shut your mouth!” he roared, turning on her. Forgetting all about Xiao Xun, he strode over and pointed a finger at her. ”Get out of the carriage!”

He then turned and called to his men.

”Seize her and tie her up.”

For a scholar, the tall Chu Lan was terrifying when he lost his temper.

The servants swarmed forward, ready to drag Chu Zhao from the carriage, but Ah Le blocked the doorway. Fists flying and feet kicking, she single-handedly kept three or four of the male servants at bay.

Chu Zhao simply leaned against the window, unhurried, unbothered, and utterly still.

The commotion drew the attention of passersby. Xiao Xun’s carriage was particularly magnificent, and everyone’s eyes couldn’t help but be drawn to it.

Xiao Xun felt utterly humiliated.

Deng Yi watched for a moment, suppressing a smile, before stepping in to defuse the situation. He thanked Xiao Xun once more and suggested he proceed to the official guesthouse to await His Majesty’s summons. Just then, officials from the guesthouse arrived to escort him.

Without so much as a farewell to Chu Lan, Xiao Xun dropped the curtain, and his carriage drove off.

Chu Lan only had time for a hasty farewell bow. Chu Ke, on the other hand, was grinding his teeth in frustration.

”Father, do you see now? Chu Zhao was even more defiant on the road! So disrespectful to the Princely Heir,” he fumed.

Chu Lan’s expression was grim as he stared at the placid-faced Chu Zhao in the carriage. ’I truly had no idea this niece of mine was such a troublemaker,’ he thought. ’If I had known, I never should have let her return.’

’Then again, I should have known. She was raised by Chu Ling. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!’

”Are you all useless?” he bellowed. ”You can’t even handle one little girl?”

He glared again at Chu Zhao.

”Unfilial, rebellious girl! Tie her up!”

With the Family Head having spoken, the servants no longer held back. It wasn’t that they truly couldn’t handle a young girl; they had simply been holding back. Now that their master had given them leave to use force, well—

”What are you tying me up for?” Chu Zhao cried out, her voice so sharp it startled the servants who were just rolling up their sleeves.

”To take you to Miss Liang and have you confess your wrongdoing!” Chu Lan roared.

Chu Zhao said, ”I’m not going to the Liang Family.”

Chu Lan sneered. ”You refuse to go? Your aunt and your sister are over there right now, suffering punishment in your place! What, did you expect to go home, wash up, change your clothes, and have a nice meal and a good night’s sleep?”

Chu Zhao said, ”Even if I’m to atone, it doesn’t have to be at the Liang Family’s residence. Since they reported me, the matter should be handled by the government.” She looked at Deng Yi. ”Lord Deng, I should be going with you to the government office.”

’The government office?’ Chu Lan’s eyelid twitched. ’What is this damn girl talking about? Does she have any idea what that means? For a young woman, entering a government jail cell means her reputation is ruined forever.’

’If she was willing to go to the government office, why did she run away in the first place? It was obviously because she was scared!’

Deng Yi, however, wasn’t surprised. He didn’t see it as a threat aimed at Chu Lan, either. For a girl like this, being dragged to the Liang Family’s home to kowtow was probably a worse fate than sitting in a government jail cell.

’Of course, I was only joking before when I said I’d treat her like a criminal.’

Still, he saw the look of earnest expectation in the girl’s eyes as she sat in the carriage.

”Correct,” he said, turning to Chu Lan. ”Mr. Chu, I must take the prisoner back with me to report the completion of my assignment.”

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(End of Volume One)