Chapter 11 — The day I stopped taking care of the books, the Marquis Palace collapsed

His eyes immediately turned red.

“If one day… I will pay back everything I owe you…”

I directly interrupted him.

“Bui Huyen Do, the debt book can be paid.”

“But not the human heart.”

He stood there for a long time. For a long time, no more words were said. Finally, he just replied softly:

“I understand.”

After he left, Ninh Van Tieu walked out from behind the screen. I stopped.

“When did the king come?”

"From the moment you said... the debt book can be paid."

I was momentarily confused. But Ninh Van Tieu only looked at me.

“Very well said.”

I lowered my head, intending to continue tidying up the book. He suddenly asked again:

“What about this king?”

I raised my head. Ninh Van Tieu took a step closer. The candlelight reflected on his cold face and eyebrows. In that familiar feeling of oppression, there was a rare ray of tension that was hard to detect.

“In her notebook…”

“What does this king count as?”

I hold the pen tightly in my hand. Heart rate suddenly beats faster. Outside Thanh Truong Ty, the night wind blew and rang the bell under the eaves. The clear sound rang out every now and then. One sound at a time. It's like tapping directly into my chest. I don't answer. But he took another step closer.

“Cui Linh Nghi, this king can slowly wait for her to figure it out.”

Ninh Van Tieu did not force me. Since that night, he still let me continue to look up the books, still stood up to help me block the cold arrows at the court, and still sent someone to bring hot porridge every time I stayed up all night. He rarely says soft words. But what he did... was more solid than any sweet words. After I was promoted to Commander of the Thanh Truong Department, my harp repertoire was almost filled with court notes. Some people say that women who are officials often have erectile dysfunction. Some people say that divorced women are not worthy of being used. There are also people who say that the Regent Prince uses people according to his personal feelings. When the Queen Mother showed me those chapter books, I just flipped through two volumes and burst out laughing.

“They scolded them really well.”

The Queen Mother also laughed.

“Aren't you afraid?”

“What's the use of being afraid?”

Ninh Van Tieu sat next to him and spoke faintly:

“It's okay to be afraid.”

"Whoever scolds her, this king will remember."

The Queen Mother glanced at him, smiling meaningfully.

“Van Tieu, I remember clearly.”

Ninh Van Tieu's face remained unchanged.

“My memory has always been very good.”

I lowered my head to drink tea, my ears getting a little hot again. Three months later, the Jiangnan relief money case officially ended. I took the Thanh Truong Department with me and recovered twenty thousand taels of white silver. The Queen Mother was extremely happy. Right in front of the court, she rewarded me with a palace. On the day of the palace banquet, Bui Huyen Do also returned to the capital to report on official duties. He was thinner than before, his skin had also turned a little darker, and his body was a little more weathered than before. It was said that in the Northwest, he started to resign from the smallest position in the army again, scored several successes, and finally regained some reputation. He stood in the middle of the crowd looking at me. In his eyes were all kinds of mixed emotions. The last bit of unwillingness was forced down to the bottom of my heart. In the middle of the banquet, he found an opportunity to walk to my side.

"Wish happy.”

I raised my glass of wine. He looked at the Commander's uniform on him.

“Now she… is much brighter than when she was at the Marquis Palace.”

I replied leisurely:

“If humans stand in the wrong place, they will naturally be covered in dust.”

He smiled bitterly.

“Even when stabbing others, she stabs accurately.”

I don't answer. He was silent for a moment.

“Lam Kieu Kieu is dead.”

I raised my eyes to look at him. He said in a low voice:

“The forced labor is too cold.”

“She only lasted two months.”

"Before he died, he was still scolding her and scolding me too."

I lowered my eyes. He seemed to want to see something on my face. But in the end there was nothing. For Lam Kieu Kieu, I have no pity, nor any feeling of gloating. I just feel... A rotten debt has finally been closed. Bui Huyen Do said softly:

"Linh Nghi, in my whole life... I probably won't marry anyone else."

I frowned a bit.

"Bui The Prince, you don't need to tell me these words."

His face immediately turned white.

“I just wanted to let you know…”

“I don't want to know.”

I calmly looked at him.

“Bui Huyen Do, don't take the rest of your life as compensation.”

“I don't accept it.”

His fingers slowly tightened. At that moment, the main hall suddenly became quiet. Ninh Van Tieu stepped forward. Today he was wearing royal royal clothes, with black and yellow python patterns covering his body, making all the nobles in the palace one level lower than him.