Disclaimer: This is edited MTL. Do forgive any grammar mistakes as they are my own and not the author’s. I may add some of my own words for clarity sake, but I will try not to change the meaning of the whole sentence. When the author uses 成语 / Cheng Yu, which is something like idiom-like phrases, I may just translate them in simple English if they are not very meaningful. Otherwise, I will add a translation note. An example would be ‘不三不四’, I would most likely translate it as ‘dubious’ depending on the context.

Warning: Appreciation for literature and wordplay required in this chapter.

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Yan Ke was used to doing his daily routine himself without the help of any servants, besides that period when he was bed-ridden and in a coma and so had to be taken care of by others.

The steward followed behind Yan Ke, watching him plate the dessert that he had just made himself. He felt puzzled in his heart.

Since the Crown Princess culinary skills were so good, why didn’t he display them in front of the Crown Prince!

To capture a man’s heart, you should first capture his stomach. He was an old fogey and even he knew this principle, so the Crown Princess should know this as well!

But the steward contemplated further, the Crown Princess had been sick for the past few months, so he probably had the heart to woo the Crown Princess, but not the energy to woo the Crown Prince.

Steward: “Crown Princess, the Lord is extremely picky, if he tried your food, he would definitely like it.”

Yan Ke’s hand shook and he raised his head in astonishment.

Yan Ke: “Are you serious?!”

Don’t scare me!

Steward smiled from ear to ear: “Yes!”

Yan Ke felt all sorts of feelings rising in his heart and continued to carefully arrange the pastries neatly.

Seems like, he must never show off his culinary skills in front of Meng You.

The steward thought that Yan Ke was happy to hear this information and continued to talk: “Our Lord Crown Prince is stubborn but soft-hearted. If you give him a few compliments and make some nice dishes, you can surely tame his heart!”

Yan Ke nodded.

He can’t give compliments to him and he can’t make anything nice for him to eat! He knows this now!

Yan Ke just finished making the pastries and wanted to share it with the others when he heard a slightly familiar voice from the outside.

Tang Qi: “Aiya! Aiyaya! Crown Princess, you——”

[T/N: Aiya is a sound with a lot of meanings. In this context, it’s expressing amazement. It’s something between saying wow and sighing.]

Yan Ke turned his head to see Tang Qi, he had seen this person before, he was an imperial guard that directly served the emperor.

This voice was also the voice of the person that night who wished for Meng You and him to consummate their marriage soon.

[T/N: Chapter 10]

Tang Qi: “Was this made by the Crown Princess?”

Yan Ke nodded his head and split the desserts into two portions. He only liked to bake, as for eating it, eating a few pieces is enough to make him content.

Then he passed the rest of it to the steward.

Yan Ke: “You guys can go ahead and eat it!”

Tang Qi who had stretched out his hand to take one to try it, froze his hand mid-air.

What……what did he mean by this?

Weren’t they having a pleasant conversation that day?! How come once Meng You left the Manor, Yan Ke’s attitude became hostile!

Even though Yan Ke pretended not to see Tang Qi’s extended hand, but the steward could not pretend to do the same thing.

The steward looked at Yan Ke with a dilemma in his eyes.

Looking at his attitude, it was clear that the Crown Princess did not want to share the food with Tang Qi……

But Imperial Guard Tang Qi kept staring over at him, his meaning was obvious.

Yan Ke: “We don’t have enough to share with our own people.”

Tang Qi was ‘shot’ with an arrow called ‘Outsider’ and received huge damage.

Once the steward left, Tang Qi began to ask questions.

It is okay for him to die, but he must know what his crime was before he dies!

[T/N: The translation is a bit awkward, but he means that if he is getting snubbed, he must know the reason why before he can accept being snubbed.]

Tang Qi: “Did this lowly one offend the Crown Princess?”

[T/N: Author used 在下 / Lowly one / Lower person. It is a title that is used by people to express humbleness.]

Yan Ke smiled: “No, No.”

Tang Qi in his heart: You’re lying!

Tang Qi: “If the Crown Princess says it, this lowly one can correct his wrongs! The Crown Prince is not around but before he had left, he called us bros to help look after you.”

Yan Ke: “That day, what was the last sentence you said to Meng You?”

Tang Qi scratched his head: “May the Lord Crown Prince and Crown Princess consummate their marriage soon!”

There was nothing wrong with what he said!

Yan Ke nodded his head: “So do you understand now?”

Tang Qi was still at a loss: “I don’t understand.”

Yan Ke: “Okay, that’s fine, then let’s go back to the original topic. Meng You said that you guys should take care of me. In what way should you take care of me? A friend’s wife, you’re welcome to help yourself to her?”

[T/N: Author used 朋友妻，不客气 / Peng You Qi, Bu Ke Qi / ‘A friend’s wife, you’re welcome (to help yourself to her)’. It’s a bastardised idiom and an innuendo. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The original idiom is朋友妻，不可欺 / Peng You Qi, Bu Ke Qi / A friend’s wife, should not be coveted. The pronunciation is different but the reading is similar.]

Tang Qi fell onto the chair with his butt: “Good…goodbye!”

Yan Ke: “Take care, I won’t send you off.”

Yan Ke didn’t even lift his head to look at him, without doing so, he already knew that his words would scare off that person.

Tang Qi hurriedly left the Crown Prince Manor.

His heart had been scarred terribly by that phrase ‘A friend’s wife, you’re welcome to help yourself to her’.

No wonder……no wonder even Meng You was unable to do anything against him!

——

Meng You had been walking throughout the past four days when he finally reached his destination.

Meng You: “Make an inventory of the troops and horses and then set up camp.”

The tent tied with the smallest tie must be the marshal’s one. Meng You entered it with a few lieutenant generals and started to prepare plans and routes for the day of their attack.

[T/N: Author used最小扎好的肯定是帅帐 . I’m not sure what this means but I roughly translated it to ‘The tent tied with the smallest tie must be the marshal’s one’. It doesn’t seem to be an idiom either so I’ll leave it as it is. Note that Meng You is probably the Marshal in the army.]

There was a soldier doing the inventory of their troops and horses. As the soldier counted, he discovered that there were a number of people who were not part of their troops around that kept suspiciously looking towards the marshal’s tent.

 “Report!”

Meng You was in the middle of their discussion, when there was a situation happening in the barracks. Meng You frowned and pushed the curtains away as he walked out.

Meng You: “What happened?”

The soldier brought out the suspicious people: “These people blended themselves into our barracks and were doing something unknown while acting suspiciously.”

Meng You looked at the detained people, most of them were unfamiliar faces except for one of them.

It was the messenger that had sent a family letter to him on the first day he left.

Meng You unhappily asked: “What happened?”

The messenger straightened out the letter in his hands and gave it to Meng You, raising his voice: “My Lord, this is a family letter from the Crown Princess.”

Meng You: “………”

He had only left for four days and yet he could receive so many family letters, the lieutenant generals were all shocked: “………”

Meng You ears turned red, and hurriedly collected all the letters: “My…my wife misses me easily.”

Everyone: “………”

Meng You wanted to change to another topic and looked towards the group of messengers: “Do all of you send letters as a group?”

Messengers: “It’s……It’s not like that. My Lord, didn’t you say that before you reached the border, we were not allowed to send anymore letters from the Crown Princess? So our numbers kept increasing in threes every day. Adding on the fact that one person’s speed on a horse is much faster compared to the speed of an army travelling, so we decided to just go together with the army.”

Meng You: “………”

Meng You: “You’ve all worked hard, go ahead and take a break.”

Meng You turned around and entered the marshal tent, even though they still had further things to discuss but the other lieutenant generals cohesively decided to wait outside the door. After all, there were so many letters, he would need time to open them all.

Meng You looked at the dozens of letters and sighed.

It’s his own fault, he didn’t explain clearly to Yan Ke, but he didn’t expect that licentious person to change his mind so quickly!

Meng You’s mood was heavy as he opened the letters.

Meng You: “………”

[T/N: Letter 1]

: No matter how emotional the course, Crown Prince can we divorce?

[T/N: The author used 万水千上总是情，太子咱两和离行不行? / Wan Shui Qian Shang Zong Shi Qing, Tai Zi Zha Liang He Li Xing Bu Xing? The 情/Qing before the comma and the last word 行/Xing rhymes.

The full meaning is that ‘No matter how deep the waters are, or how far they need to travel, their love will not change from the distance, Crown Prince, can we divorce, okay?’ but this translation lost the rhyme so I paraphrased a bit.

Also, 万水千上总是情 / Wan Shui Qian Shang Zong Shi Qing is a saying that means no matter the distance, their love will not change. It’s usually a romantic phrase but since they currently don’t have any love for each other… HAHA well it still works for them. Man the author is smart with their wordplays.]

[T/N: Letter 2]

: Crown Prince, you have no feelings, I have no loyalty, if we don’t divorce now, what better time is there?

[T/N: The author used 太子，你没情，我没义，此时不离，更待何时？This doesn’t rhyme but it is a style of poetry in Chinese, you have to finish the next line with the same number of words you started with. The first 2 words mean Crown Prince, so it’s not part of it. So this is like a 3,3,4,4 poem in chinese.]

[T/N: Letter 3]

: Crown Prince, look at this letter, doesn’t it look like our divorce letter?

[T/N: Letter 4]

: Crown Prince, while you have yet to become the emperor, why don’t we divorce! If we divorced after you became the emperor, you would still have to leave half the empire for me, that would be such a waste!

[T/N: Letter 5]

: Crown Prince, Imperial Guard Tang came to our house, but as he said something that offended me, I chased him out. I feel that, I’m a petty and vengeful man, this type of man would pull down your status as a Crown Prince, how about, let’s discuss this a while, let us divorce?

………

[T/N: Letter 6]

: Fourth day of waiting for the Crown Prince to reply my letters! TAT!

Meng You could actually understand that novel expression at the back, TAT.

After understanding it, Meng You’s heart felt even more troubled.

Because he didn’t reply Yan Ke, so he cried? Which was why he was expressing his dissatisfaction by asking for a divorce?

Meng You sighed, he took up a brush, dipped it in ink and helplessly began writing a reply.

After he finished writing the letter, he passed it to a messenger in the barracks.

The messenger had left for only the time taken to burn an incense stick when Meng You thought back about his reply letter, paragraph by paragraph. Finally, he decided to write yet another reply letter to send to another messenger.

Finally again, because of a small mistake, he sent three messengers.

Today’s weather was sunny and cloudless, to Yan Ke, it was really a great day!

A happier event was that, two messengers had come to the Crown Prince Manor carrying two reply letters from Meng You.

Not one letter! But two letters!!

Two letters! At least one of it must be a divorce letter!

Yan Ke‘s heart was filled with expectations as he opened the first letter.

Yan Ke: “………?”

: Knowing your feelings for this Lord, this Lord feels that there are many things that I should explain clearly to you but I’m unable to convey them properly through this letter. Wait for this Lord to return and I will explain it to you. This Lord is doing well at the borders, only that the land here is worse than the one back home. This Lord doesn’t like it. Also, the Lord didn’t bring his own cook, this Lord really doesn’t like the army cook’s dishes.

Don’t cry, even if you cry, this Lord can’t see it. Also, with your weak body, worrying too much about unnecessary things can cause illnesses.

Yan Ke rolled his eyes in his heart, he only cared about whether he would send the divorce letter or not, yet this guy only wants to describe his life in the borders.

Yan Ke lost his expectations and opened the second letter.

: This Lord is doing well at the borders, you don’t need to worry. I heard that when writing letters, one should only write only about good things and exclude bad things. But anyway, this Lord also has nothing bad to report about. Take care of yourself while you’re at home, autumn is coming, remember to wear more clothes when the weather becomes colder. For other matters, wait for this Lord to return and we will discuss it.

Also, don’t cry.

Yan Ke looked at the two letters and was a bit perplexed, what did he mean?!

Soon, a third messenger appeared while panting at their door, this solved the questions in his heart.

The messenger stared blankly at the two open letters in Yan Ke’s hands: “One of these letters……was ordered by the Lord Crown Prince to be burnt but I didn’t expect that you two would be so fast, I ran the whole day and yet I still couldn’t catch up.”

Yan Ke looked at the two letters in his hands and subtly stiffened.

It was probably the first letter that Meng You wanted to destroy, Yan Ke looked at the two letters in his hands and couldn’t help but laugh.

Yan Ke asked: “How long does it take to travel from here to the Lord Crown Prince?”

Messengers: “Approximately a day.”

Yan Ke nodded his head: “Then all of you can take a break today, you’ve all worked hard. Tomorrow, please help me send some more things to the Lord Crown Prince.”

Messengers: “Yes, Crown Princess!”

Yan Ke returned to his room and kept the letters. Once Meng You returned from battle, he must put these letters in front of him and ask him, what did he mean! What was ‘Knowing your feelings for this Lord’?

He himself didn’t even know! What feelings is there! Does the feeling of wanting to be a happy divorced couple count?!

The next day, Yan Ke woke up early in the morning, headed to the kitchen and started to make himself busy.

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