Quick Travel to the Clouds

Chapter 508 The Princess Who Wants to Compilation 5

How to treat them equally?

No, to be precise, how to walk on the tightrope between satisfying the expectations of the masters behind them (proving that she is addicted to beauty), appeasing these "time bombs" that may explode at any time (jealousy, resentment, and competition for favor), and not getting caught up in it?

Yun Chu's eyes became completely calm, like the surface of a frozen lake.

To the outside world, one must maintain the illusion of arrogance, willfulness, and extravagance. Rumors of feasting, reveling, and collecting beauties must not cease.

You have to do enough surface work.

She needs to summon these four people in turn to create open and secret struggles caused by "unequal distribution of resources" in order to conceal her true intentions and provide cover for the preparations for her travel plan.

The frequency and intimacy of summons can become a means of conveying information to the master behind the person.

We must take the initiative to exploit (or even induce) conflicts between these beauties and spies in the mansion.

Jealousy, vying for favor, quarrels, these trivial matters can best create a feeling that her place is lively, chaotic, and idle.

When necessary, she had to personally play the role of a foolish judge and make some seemingly biased but actually disorganized decisions.

The opportunity to "travel" is the core goal.

Planning...needs a starting point.

She glanced at the maps stacked on one side of the desk, and an idea flashed in her mind.

Perhaps, one could exploit the very act of debauchery? — Under the guise of collecting the most beautiful men in the world, one could personally leave the capital to select "rare treasures"?

This reason seems to... fit her personality perfectly.

Yun Chu moved the heavy Panlong paperweight away and gently lifted up the small stack of papers underneath - that was the manuscript secretly collected by the original owner about the local customs and landforms. The handwriting was beautiful but carried an irrepressible yearning for the distant places.

She would actually record her travels and organize her data here. Amidst the clamor of drinking and socializing, behind the guise of "favoring" men, this study was the only place where she could temporarily drop her disguise.

Yun Chu picked up a brush, but didn't dip it in ink. He simply placed his wrist on the blank rice paper, concentrating his attention.

She needed a perfect plan, which would allow her to perform this ridiculous drama well and carve out a path to freedom for the real mission in her heart.

The pen on the fingertip paused in the air for a moment, and finally fell, but only wrote two words:

free.

The handwriting is deep and powerful, penetrating the back of the paper.

Outside the study, it was still the place where the Sixth Princess, Huang Yunchu, indulged in debauchery. Inside the study, she was the only one who knew that the fight had just begun.

*

The cool wind blew across the waterside pavilion. Liu Rufeng, dressed in plain brocade, sat by the railing with her knees hugged, looking down at her reflection in the water with a sad expression. The teardrop mole at the corner of her eye made her look even more miserable in the sunlight.

He calculated the time and knew that at this time every day, Huang Yunchu would pass by here to practice sword in the back garden (even debauchery requires an excuse to be "strong").

The sound of footsteps came.

"Like the wind?"

Yun Chu's voice was lazily hoarse, pausing a few steps away at just the right moment. She had changed into a riding outfit embroidered with gold thread, which accentuated her tall figure. Her signature uninhibited smile remained.

Liu Rufeng turned around suddenly, his eyes instantly filled with tears, and he wanted to cry but couldn't: "Your Highness... I just... remembered that the Nuanyu Pavilion was so cold last night. Maybe Your Highness is tired of Rufeng's boring appearance?" He stood up and bowed gracefully, his skirt spreading out like snow waves.

Yun Chu sneered inwardly, but on the surface he put on a look of pity, reaching out to support her. "How could that be? I've just had a new friend recently, so I'm just trying to get more out of her. Rufeng's beauty is a unique charm in the capital, how could I possibly forget it?"

Just as her fingertips were about to touch Liu Rufeng's arm, Yun Chu lightly brushed past his ear and plucked a willow leaf that had been stuck there. Her movements were swift, with an undeniable alacrity that was subtly inconsistent with her dandy image.

"The flowers and leaves have no intention, so why bother to stain them?" Yun Chu twisted the willow leaf and spoke softly, as if he was talking to the leaf, but also as if he was referring to something else.

The sunlight fell on her eyelashes, casting a small shadow and obscuring the cold scrutiny deep in her eyes. "It would be so much better if this leaf were clean. If it were stained with vulgar powder, it would be less beautiful."

Liu Rufeng's hand froze in mid-air as he stretched it out. The tenderness and grievance on his face froze in an instant, leaving only a barely perceptible tremor deep in his pupils.

(Liu Rufeng thinks: Was that unintentional? Or was she trying to warn me? When did her movements become so smooth and precise? That phrase "vulgar powder and rouge"... Did she notice something?)

He bowed his head again, his voice a little tense: "Your Highness is teaching me a lesson... I... I have learned my lesson."

Yun Chu laughed heartily, returning to her frivolous look. She casually threw the willow leaf into the water, turned around and left: "Go, don't stand here in the wind, be careful not to get your little face dirty." She walked lightly, as if the almost cold warning just now had never been said.

Liu Rufeng knelt on the spot, looking at the willow leaves swirling in the water, without moving for a long time.

In the afternoon, the bamboo curtains in the study were half rolled up, and light and shadows danced.

Bai Mo was painting a picture for Yun Chu. He was dressed in a moon-white robe, his temperament as ethereal as a quiet orchid in a valley, and his brushwork was extremely graceful.

In the painting, the "Sixth Princess" is lazily leaning on a beauty couch, holding a jade cup in her hand.

"Your Highness is so heroic that it is rare to be painted." Bai Mo's tone was cold, his eyes focused on the drawing paper, but his mind was trying to depict the other person's expression.

Yun Chu lazily fiddled with the peacock tail feathers in the glass vase beside the couch: "Bai Mo, your painting is exquisite and beautiful, but it lacks a bit of flavor." She shook the wine glass, her eyes blurred, the typical look of being drunk and dreaming.

Bai Mo's pen tip paused slightly: "Your Highness, what do you think is missing?"

"Taste..." Yun Chu dragged out the tone, suddenly sat up straighter, leaned forward, looked over the rim of the cup, and looked straight into Bai Mo's eyes.

At that moment, her eyes seemed to reveal a penetrating clarity, completely detached from her drunken state. "Look at that pine tree outside the window. It's majestic! You know? It just stands there, so strong!"

"The me in your painting is limp, like a boiled shrimp. How can I have the air of a noble? I am nothing but floating flowers in stagnant water."

With a "click," a drop of ink dripped from Bai Mo's accidentally tilted pen tip onto the snow-white drawing paper, spreading a small, glaring black stain. Bai Mo, usually calm and noble, trembled slightly in a rare moment.

(Bai Mo thinks: Flowers floating in stagnant water?! She actually nailed the irony implicit in my painting! This metaphor is so apt and poignant… Did she really see the deliberate frivolity in the painting, or… did she really have such a keen eye? That momentary look…)

He quickly calmed himself, lowered his brows and said respectfully: "Your Highness has a keen eye. It is Bai Mo's skills that are not good enough. I have not been able to capture even a fraction of Your Highness's essence." However, alarm bells were ringing in his heart. This princess who "only knows how to enjoy herself" did not seem to be as easy to fool as the rumors said.

Yun Chu leaned back on the couch and resumed his laziness: "Oh, forget it, let's just leave it at that. When the painting is done, hang it in my library. Maybe I can use it as a mirror when I'm drunk one day! Continue painting, continue playing music, and continue dancing!" The musician standing beside him hurriedly plucked the strings, and the study was filled with the soft music again.

Bai Mo looked at the woman's face in the painting, blurred by the light and shadow of wine, and doubts grew in his heart.