Chapter 15 Kunshan Jade Shattered
Chen Changmo, with his beautiful eyebrows and eyes and dressed in white, was graceful as a person in a painting. He stood out among the musicians in this room and it was hard for people not to focus on him.
She walked silently between Chai Jing and Chen Changmo, blocking Chen Changmo with her body.
Chai Jing cleared her throat and was about to speak, but when she saw Luo Jin's actions, she almost burst out laughing. She held back her laughter with difficulty, coughed twice,, "This is my first day in office today. I heard that you are all top musicians. I don't know much about music theory. Please tell me your best piece of music, so that I can have a preliminary understanding. Next month, it will be Empress Dowager’s birthday. I will select five musicians from you to play music. The selected ones will be rewarded."
Several musicians looked at Chen Changmo, thinking that he must be the first to open the show. His qin skills were superb and he was the leader of the Imperial Music House. He sat in the most conspicuous position in the first row of the west, which was usually the starting point.
Without waiting for Chai Jing's instructions, Luo Jin quickly pointed to the first female pipa musician in the east row, "Start with you. Then play in turn!"
"Yes!"
The pipa musician held her pipa and played a song.
Luo Jin couldn't tell whether it was good or bad. She just felt it sounded good. When the female pipa player finished playing, she clapped her hands immediately, "Good! Nice! Next!"
Next was a male musician who played the flute. He picked up the flute and started playing.
"Good, next!"
After half an hour, all the musicians in the east row played their instruments. It was finally the turn of the musicians in the west row.
Chen Changmo sat in the first place in the west row. He straightened the qin in his hand and waited for Luo Jin's instructions to start playing.
Luo Jin smiled slightly and pointed to the last person in the west row, "This side... from the back to the front. The sister in red, it's your turn!"
The female musician in red had a zither. She was stunned for a moment when she heard the words and looked at Chen Changmo's position. She didn't start her performance until Luo Jin repeated it again.
It was another half-hour performance. Luo Jin secretly glanced at Chen Changmo. He looked a little anxious, but he pretended to be calm and kept smiling. Unfortunately, Chai Jing's sight was blocked and couldn't see his smile at all.
The performance of the second in the west row ended. Chen Changmo was the only one who didn't play. He put his hands on the strings again.
Luo Jin suddenly ran to Chai Jing and grinned, "I'm hungry... is Princess hungry?"
Chai Jing suppressed her smile and nodded, "This official is hungry."
Luo Jin blinked, "Really? Princess is hungry too? I heard that the second prince prepared a lot of delicious food in Changfeng Yard. Let's go and eat, okay? Let's get off work?"
Chai Jing smiled, "Okay, get off work! Everyone has worked hard today. go back and rest early!"
Chen Changmo's lips moved, wanting to say something, but didn't say anything in the end. He glanced at Ruan Qin, the female musician playing the pipa opposite him, and winked.
Ruan Qin stood up, "Your Highness, Musician Chen hasn't played yet! Should we wait until he finishes playing before..."
Luo Jin raised her eyebrows, "Call 'Official', not 'Your Highness', understand? Our princess is now the Music Envoy, so we have to call her 'Official'."
Ruan Qin said, "Yes..."
Luo Jin smiled, "Okay, you can retreat."
Ruan Qin was stunned. But Luo Jin had already helped Chai Jing out of the door.
She said helplessly: "Sir, the Princess is in a hurry to eat. Maybe she won't come to listen to the qin. It's all because of that deputy envoy, she keeps making trouble..."
Chen Changmo frowned and said: "Let's leave it as it is for now. The Princess will come tomorrow, so there is no need to rush."
"But I think... that deputy envoy is deliberately excluding you. But she is the deputy envoy, and we can't do anything about her."
"Thinking too much, maybe... she is really just hungry."
...
Chai Heng's new house was renamed Changfeng Yard and its scale was ridiculous. Luo Jin estimated that it was larger than the campus when she was in college. The artificial lake at the entrance alone must be several hundred square meters. There were black and white swans swimming in the lake, so leisurely and content. Chai Jing saw Luo Jin staring at the swan for a long time and joked, "Want to eat swan meat?"
Luo Jin laughed, "You’re calling me a toad, right?"
Chai Heng hesitated, "If you want to eat... I'll have someone cook it for you? How do you want to eat it? Steamed or braised?"
Luo Jin waved her hand at once, "No need."
Chai Heng took them to visit the back garden again.
The scale of this back garden shocked Luo Jin again. It was estimated to be at least as big as six football fields. The back garden was well planned. There was a separate area for planting flowers, for planting various fruit trees, a large bamboo forest, and willow forest.
There were numerous animals in the back garden. As soon as Luo Jin entered, she saw a peacock on the roadside spreading its tail and two monkeys lying on a fruit tree nearby, fighting for an apple. It was as if she had come to a zoo.
As she walked inside, her eyes suddenly lit up, "Ah, it's GunGun!"
"Be careful, that's an iron-eating beast, it's fierce!" Chai Heng stepped forward and stopped Luo Jin, "You'll die if it bites you!"
Chai Jing frowned, "Why do you keep such a ferocious beast?"
Chai Heng said, "It eats bamboo. Normally, it doesn't bite people. Just don't get close and it'll be fine."
Luo Jin didn't dare to go forward, she just watched the panda leisurely eating bamboo from a distance. She once dreamed of raising a panda, but it was just a thought. Unexpectedly, someone would really raise one here.
So pandas have such a fierce reputation here? They were considered violent beasts?
Most of the animals here were semi-free-range. They were basically left alone in the forest. There were enough varieties of trees and they could find food by themselves. Because they were all vegetarian animals, they didn't hunt each other. Still, they would occasionally fight.
"Okay, let's go to have dinner first. It's ready." Chai Heng said. The kitchen in Changfeng Yard was also large, but it wasn’t fully utilized. Chai Heng only hired two cooks, which was enough. In fact, most of the rooms in the yard were vacant. There were only a dozen servants in Chai Heng's household. Including him, the master, such a large house couldn't be fully utilized.
The mansion of this corrupt official originally kept many beauties and servants. There were as many as hundreds of people. Since it was bachelor Chai Heng’s turn to live in it, it was inevitably much emptier.
When the food was served, Luo Jin had no intention of eating with the Chai siblings. She was now a female official. A female official was still a minister and was not qualified to eat at the same table with the princes and princesses.
But Chai Jing pressed her down on the chair and threatened, "Don't move! Otherwise, I'll deduct your wages!"
Luo Jin immediately became obedient, "Won't move. Absolutely won’t!"
Just as it was time to eat, Chai Heng's men came to report, "The Crown Prince is here!"
Luo Jin looked at Chai Jing in embarrassment, "I'll move a little? Can the wage not be deducted?"
Chai Jing laughed, "Okay. Move. Can't be disrespectful to the Crown Prince."
Amidst the talking, Chai Qi walked into the dining room. The three of them stood up and bowed.
"Forego the formalities... Second Younger Brother, I heard that your yard is quite big and was wondering if you could help me raise my beloved pets?" Chai Qi smiled, "My house isn't as big as yours and there is no place to raise them."
"Of course, my back garden is big!"
"Then... bring it up!" Chai Qi waved his hand.
A cluster of people pushed in two carts from outside, each with a large iron cage on them.
When Chai Heng saw the things in the iron cage, his vision went black. "Black... bears?"
Chai Qi nodded, "They are well behaved. How about you help me raise them?"
Chai Heng shook his head rapidly, "I can't raise them. I have many animals in my back garden. Letting these two animals, they might as well be all eaten."
"Let them." Chai Qi didn't care.
"No, they're too precious. Can't be eaten! If I raise it, it has to be kept in a cage and meat will be bought every day to feed it."
"Forget it." Chai Qi was a little disappointed and waved his hand to let his men take the black bears back.
Luo Jin didn't dare to speak and silently stepped back a few steps.
Who would keep black bears as pets? And they were well-behaved? This thing could send a person's head flying with a slap, okay?
With the Crown Prince around, she felt that it was somewhat inappropriate for her to eat with the Chai siblings. Chai Jing was indeed close to her, while Chai Heng was easy-going. But in the end, Chai Qi was the Crown Prince. Luo Jin wasn’t sure of his temper and didn't want to show any impertinence in front of him.
She bowed, "I feel a little unwell, so I'll retreat first."
Chai Jing understood her thoughts and nodded, "Retreat."
Luo Jin left the dining room and came to the outside of the yard.
She hadn't eaten yet and was a little hungry. She definitely couldn't go to the dining room, so she went to the kitchen to take some food back.
She didn't meet anyone along the way. After all, the garden was big and there were few people. It was dark, and there were no lights on the path. Luo Jin didn't have a lantern, so she could only grope her way forward in the dim moonlight.
Suddenly, she noticed a small figure in front of her, walking furtively and looking back. The figure looked only about one meter tall, like a child.
Luo Jin recalled how Chai Heng hadn't married yet and didn't have any children... Was this brought in by a servant? But Chai Heng was a prince after all. Even if he had a good temper, he wouldn't let a servant's child wander around in the Prince's manor, right?
She felt uneasy and followed the child carefully all the way, wanting to see where he was going.
The child walked for a while and quietly entered the door of a courtyard at the back. Just then, two maids came out from inside and the child hid beside them.
A maid said, "Everything is packed. I'll go find Deputy Envoy Luo and tell her that she and the Princess will stay in this courtyard tonight."
Another maid said, "She should be in the dining room, right? She is so lucky. Princess treats her so well. It is rare that the Princess treats a commoner like a sister. You go find her. I'll get some more candles."
"Get more. Don't know how many candles the Princess likes to light. If she likes it brighter, it might be a dozen or so candles a night!"
After the two maids left the door, the child appeared from the dark and sneaked into the courtyard.
Luo Jin followed all the way and saw the child enter the inner hall, take out a package from his arms, open the teapot, and carefully pour it in.
As her eyes widened, she covered her mouth.
He actually spiked the Crown Princess's tea! Was this something a child can do?
After the child spiked it, he returned the same way he came. Once he walked into the courtyard, Luo Jin could see his face clearly under the light of the courtyard.
That wasn’t a child's face! Just looking at this face, this person must be at least in his twenties. Not a child at all!
Luo Jin immediately thought of someone.
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