Fields of Gold

When Yu Fan obtained first place in the imperial examinations, he was still quite young. His master, Great Scholar Yuan, proposed that he take the Hanlin Academy's internal examination to receive a temporary position as an academician there. Ever since the previous dynasty, there was an unwritten rule that said: 'A graduate of the imperial examinations who is unable to pass the Hanlin internal examinations cannot become an official of the central government.' Therefore, the temporary position at the Hanlin Academy had also been called 'excellent prospect', as whoever was able to get there was destined to have a bright future in officialdom.

Since Yu Fan had a beautiful running script and he had his older sister, Yu Xiaocao, as a connection, he had been chosen as one of the members of the emperor's inner ministerial circle and was in charge of drafting edicts. Later on, he also held several instructor positions at the imperial family's academy.

On one particular day, the emperor had Yu Fan organize the doc.u.ments in the imperial study. After they were split up into appropriate categories, the emperor would read and evaluate them. Just as Yu Fan was laser focused on his work, a little eunuch came in.

The little eunuch wasn't very tall and looked to be around twelve to thirteen years old. He had a fair and pretty face with a pair of large bright eyes that roved around with blatant curiosity. He looked extremely lively as he strolled quietly around the imperial study. From time to time, he would reach out inquisitively to touch things. Suddenly, Yu Fan flipped one of the doc.u.ments in front of him and the little eunuch was so startled that his face turned white. The eunuch froze, as if someone had shot a freeze ray.

Afterwards, the eunuch discovered that Yu Fan, who was reading through the imperial doc.u.ment, hadn't actually spotted him. He started acting like a little monkey again and stood on his tiptoes to head out of the study.

"Little Huizi, please pour a cup of tea for me." Yu Fan didn't even raise his head as he requested a drink.

The little eunuch froze in mid-movement and looked quite hilarious. When he turned his head around to look at Yu Fan, he noticed that the scholar still hadn't looked in his direction. The little eunuch stiffly left the imperial study and patted his chest once he was out with a frightened expression on his face.

His eyes flickered and he headed towards a certain destination. Before long, he came back with a pot of tea and appeared at the entrance of the imperial study. This time, he boldly entered the room and approached Yu Fan, who was behind the stack of imperial doc.u.ments.

When he saw that the cup next to Yu Fan's hands was empty, he clumsily lifted the teapot and began to pour tea into the cup with great effort. From his posture alone, one could tell that he wasn't used to doing this type of work and was quite unfamiliar with it.

"Oh no!" The boiling hot tea splashed out of the teacup as it tumbled in and a few drops hit the eunuch's fair, white hand. He cried out in surprise and his hand trembled. Tea spilled onto the desk and doc.u.ments that were neatly stacked there.

"What to do, what to do? I will be hit to death by my imperial...the emperor!" The little eunuch placed the teapot on a chair by the side of the table and began to use his sleeve to wipe the liquid off of the doc.u.ments in a frazzled manner. However, before he could begin, Yu Fan grabbed onto his wrist, stopping him in his tracks.

Yu Fan looked at the words written on the paper. Because it had become wet, the ink began to smudge and rise off of the doc.u.ment.

"You...what are you trying to do?" The little eunuch retrieved his hand and backed up a few steps, using his hand to cover his own face.

Yu Fan didn't even look at him as he continued to use some absorbent paper to gently blot the droplets of tea on the doc.u.ment. Although the words on the paper were lighter than before, he could still tell what words had been written on it, so it wasn't bad. If he had allowed that rash little eunuch to use his sleeve to wipe the tea off, it would have definitely caused the doc.u.ments to become a giant mess.

"Is...your hand alright ah?" Yu Fan took out a small container of wound ointment he always carried with him and wiped a fingertip on the little eunuch's scalded hand which had turned red. This ointment was very effective at treating cuts and burn wounds and wouldn't leave any scars afterwards. His second sister had personally made this for him, and ordinarily, he was too thrifty to use it on himself!

The originally hot and painful feeling on his hand had immediately disappeared, replaced by a cool sensation. The 'little eunuch' knew that this ointment wasn't ordinary, so he quietly said a word of 'thanks' with a bright flushed face.

"You look unfamiliar. Are you new? How come you're serving in the imperial study today? Where did Little Huizi go ah?" Yu Fan glanced at the little eunuch's beautiful visage. Although his siblings were all quite fortunate in the looks department, he still had to secretly compliment the person in front of him. He also wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad thing for a eunuch to have such an attractive appearance.

The little eunuch stammered, "Eunuch Little Huizi...had received the emperor's orders to leave the palace for an errand and had me take his place in the study instead. This is the first time I've been assigned to the imperial study, so I was feeling quite nervous and was afraid I might do something to make Milord angry, so...it looks like I made a giant mistake earlier, what should I do?"

Yu Fan saw that the little eunuch's elegant large eyes were full of tears and stated kindly, "Don't cry, in a moment, I'll apologize to the emperor and say that it was my mistake. The emperor is kind and won't blame me."

The little eunuch sniffled a few times and used his sleeve to wipe his eyes and he quietly said, "Thank you, Official Yu. You are truly a good person!"

This little eunuch wasn't a true eunuch. In fact, 'he' was Imperial Princess Danyi[1] disguised as one. She had heard her father mention that a young scholar who had gotten first place in the imperial examinations was now working at the imperial study. He was only sixteen but got first place. He also said that he was talented beyond measure, had a highly retentive memory, and vast breadth of knowledge and experiences. He was one of those hard to come by talents.

Imperial Princess Danyi became even more curious about this scholar after hearing her imperial father praise him a few more times. She wanted to know just who exactly could obtain so many compliments from her father. Thus, she shook off her personal palace maids and changed into a little eunuch's clothes to secretly come to the imperial study. The heavens were helping her as the eunuch who usually served the imperial study, Little Huizi, was unexpectedly not there. Thus, it was easy for her to trick the imperial bodyguards and enter the imperial study smoothly.

At that time, Yu Fan was sitting behind the large stack of imperial doc.u.ments doing work. Imperial Princess Danyi couldn't see him behind that and thought that there was no one in there. Disappointed that she wouldn't be able to see him, she wandered around the imperial study. Usually, she never had the opportunity to get so up close and personal in the space that her imperial father worked in. Thus, she looked around with great curiosity.

Just as she was immersed in looking around, she heard a sound from behind the stack of doc.u.ments, which startled her immensely. She secretly looked over and sensed that the person behind the doc.u.ments hadn't noticed her presence. She hurriedly did her best to retreat but had unexpectedly been mistaken by the other person for Little Huizi and had been ordered to go make some tea. How could she possibly know how to brew tea? She ended up stopping a palace maid and revealing her identity so that the palace maid would make a pot for her. Unfortunately, she had never poured tea before and made the mistake of splashing the important doc.u.ments on the desk.

The tears in her eyes were real as she was truly afraid. Her imperial father normally treated her very well and doted upon her but she had done something wrong. Sneaking into the imperial study and dirtying the imperial doc.u.ments were a big mistake and he would definitely reprimand her furiously. So scary, so what should she do?

Official Yu was so gentle and kind. Not only did he not blame her, but he also helped her put on some medicine on her hurt hand and decided to take the blame for her. A few hazy feelings rose inside the thirteen year old Imperial Princess Danyi's heart, though she didn't know what they meant at this point.

The second time she saw Official Yu was when she was at Jinan's Frozen Desserts Store, which was under the management of Princess Consort Xu.

At that time, Imperial Princess Danyi had begged her father for a long time before he finally allowed her to leave the palace. She clothed herself in men's clothing and threw off the two attendants that came with her. She strolled around the streets for an entire morning. When her stomach began to growl with hunger, she raised her head and saw the sign for 'Jinan's Frozen Dessert Store'. Excited, she squeezed through the crowd to get into line.

Every time Princess Consort Xu entered the palace, she would always bring delicious cakes and pastries along! She had often heard her older imperial brother mentioning the frozen desserts were even more delicious. There was ice cream, iced sweet porridge, iced coffee...unfortunately, by the time he got back to the palace with the sweets, they had already melted into a sweet soup and lost their original flavor. Today, she needed to eat her fill and try all of the frozen dessert in the store! There were many people there today and she had been bumped into by someone else before long. Imperial Princess Danyi silently cursed the other person for not having manners as that person didn't even say a word of apology after crashing into her.

She waited patiently in line for a whole hour before she finally got to the ordering area. However, Imperial Princess Danyi wasn't influenced poorly by this and was still giddy at the prospect of being able to eat delicious food. She ordered a six inch ice cream cake and a bowl of frozen fruit ice and ate them both with great pleasure.

Unfortunately, when it came time to pay the bill, she discovered that her money pouch was nowhere to be found. After thinking a bit, she realized that the fellow who bumped into her must have stolen her wallet. She had never experienced such a thing, so her face turned bright red as she faced the waiter who had come over for her payment. If there had been a crack in the ground right now, she would have jumped right into it.

At this time, Official Yu Fan appeared like an angel in her sights. She was saved! She felt her heart relax by a lot.

"Official Yu!" When Yu Fan passed by her, Imperial Princess Danyi summoned up all of the courage inside her and called out towards him. At this time, it had already been two years since the first time she met him in the imperial study. She didn't know whether he still remembered her.

Yu Fan heard someone calling his name and looked in the direction. He paused for three seconds and finally remembered where he had seen that familiar face, "Oh so it's you ah! Were you sent out of the palace to run some errands? Ever since that day where we first met, I never saw you again. Have you been transferred over to somewhere else?"

"I...I had just been called over to fill the spot temporarily. Later on, I was sent over to serve Imperial Princess Danyi…" Imperial Princess Danyi stuttered out a reply.

"Ah, that's pretty good then! I heard Imperial Princess Danyi treats people well and doesn't punish her palace maids or eunuchs for no good reason. In the future, you'll need to be more clever and less clumsy." Yu Fan grinned.

"That uh...Official Yu, did you bring any money along ah?" Imperial Princess Danyi revealed a bashful look as she quietly said, "My money pouch got stolen and I don't have any money to pay for this…"

Yu Fan revealed an understanding expression and took out a banknote worth a hundred taels from his money pouch to help her pay for her food. Imperial Princess Danyi said in embarrassment, "Uh...I'm just borrowing money from you. When I get back to the palace, I'll repay you."

"No need, I'm a diamond card member here and enjoy a fifty percent discount off of everything. It's not that expensive. In the future, when you leave the palace, you must be careful, especially in places with more people. You need to keep an eye on your own belongings. This must be the first time you've left the palace, right? You're the most favorite target of these thieves. After coming out a few more times, you'll get used to it." Yu Fan waved his hand casually and told her to not take it to heart.

"No, I must...hisssssss——" Imperial Princess Danyi suddenly felt a sharp pain go through her abdomen, as if a knife was being dragged around in her insides. It hurt so much that she became cold and clammy, and she fell back onto her stool.

When Yu Fan saw this, he asked out of concern, "What's wrong? Your tummy hurts? Could it be that you ate too many cold foods causing your stomach to rebel?"

"It hurts, it hurts a lot ah!" Imperial Princess Danyi doubled over and held her hands against her abdomen. She almost didn't have the strength to breathe properly and tears dripped down her face.

Yu Fan saw that cold sweat had appeared on her face out of pain. He was a bit fl.u.s.tered and rubbed his hands, "Could it be cholera or acute appendicitis ah? That's not good. I'll bring you to the medicine hall and find someone to help you!"

When he bent down to carry the 'little eunuch', his hand inadvertently touched the backside and it felt oddly wet. After touching a bit more, it felt sticky as well, so he took his hand back to look and discovered that there were bright red blood stains. Yu Fan was shocked for a moment before he finally realized something. He almost threw the person out of his arms. This little eunuch was actually a girl! Someone who was able to leave the palace and was around that age could only be...

Imperial Princess Danyi was quite pitiful. The first time she had her period at age fifteen had occurred in such an awkward place and manner…

[1] She might actually be Imperial Princess Yi as well (who was mentioned in a previous chapter) since the author often forgets what names she's used before for her characters...