ITF Chapter28

In the third year after bringing Luo Congye back to the estate, Bai Heting returned to the capital due to an injury.

Just as he was about to leave, the steward, Su Xingchuan, presented him with several sheets of brown paper.

The sixteen-year-old Bai Heting stood by the desk, his posture as straight as a pine and his demeanor as refined as jade with no remaining trace of the rough street life he had once been immersed in. He casually flipped through the items in his hand. The handwriting on the paper was quite childish, and he had a vague impression of most of the sentences. They looked like transcriptions.

“What is this?” Bai Heting asked.

Su Xingchuan offered the explanation he had prepared, “The child you brought back used your ink and brushes without permission in the library and was caught by the servant responsible for cleaning.”

Bai Heting asked in surprise, “He’s literate?”

Su Xingchuan nodded. “By the looks of it, he knows a bit.”

Bai Heting flipped through the pages again.

This was more than just “knowing a bit.”

The child’s living quarters back in Urdan had been incredibly ordinary, and he was only six years old when his family was destroyed, yet he was able to recognize so many words.

He really must have been a fortunate child.

His hand suddenly paused as he moved through the pages, and he pulled one sheet out from the pile.

Scrawled across it in large, uneven handwriting were three characters: “Bai Heting.”

He kept his eyes lowered, staring at the paper in silence. At that moment, Su Xingchuan only regretted that he hadn’t quietly destroyed the pages with Bai Heting’s name on them beforehand.

Although Luo Congye was young and spoke little, he was well-behaved and quick with his tasks, earning him much affection from Su Xingchuan. The steward’s original intention was merely to gauge Bai Heting’s attitude toward the child’s ability to write, but he had accidentally overlooked one detail.

Even though Bai Heting never strictly enforced strict etiquette among the servants, addressing the general directly by his name was still far too offensive.

Fearing that Bai Heting might hand down a severe punishment in a fit of anger, he explained further, “He holds you in absolute admiration, which is why he offensively wrote down your name. He has been told never to do it again, and he has already been punished.”

The youth’s cold, composed gaze moved from the child’s clumsy handwriting to the face of the nearly forty-year-old Beta.

“How was he punished?” Bai Heting asked.

“Punished with…” For a rare moment, Su Xingchuan found himself at a loss for words.

He had only handed down a few trivial punishments at the time, but he didn’t dare lie to Bai Heting’s face. He could only lower his voice and answer truthfully, “His meals for the week were restricted to coarse bread, and two months of his wages were docked.”

“What kind of punishment is that?” Bai Heting withdrew his gaze and continued flipping through the papers in his hand.

Su Xingchuan’s heart sank. Just as he was racking his brains for a way to plead for leniency, Bai Heting spoke again, “Find a school for him.”

Su Xingchuan froze upon hearing this.

Although the initial goal had been achieved, this couldn’t exactly be considered a punishment.

He asked probingly, “Send him to a monastery?”

Bai Heting had heard rumors regarding the corruption within the church in recent years. After a moment of thought, he instructed Su Xingchuan, “Send him to a city school. The things they teach are more practical.”

“Understood.” Seeing that Bai Heting truly had no intention of severely punishing Luo Congye, Su Xingchuan finally felt relieved. “I will go arrange it right away.”

“One more thing.” Bai Heting called him back again. “While I am away, open the library to everyone. Books are placed there precisely for people to read.”

The number of literate servants in the estate could be counted on one hand. Su Xingchuan had not expected such a proposal from him, so he reminded him, “If any of the treasures bestowed upon you by His Majesty go missing, it will be difficult to account for.”

Only then did Bai Heting remember that he had ordered people to toss the pearls and colored gems granted to him by Bai Yi into a chest of drawers inside the library.

*

Those things were later moved elsewhere by Su Xingchuan, but looking at Luo Congye’s blank and startled expression, the boy had probably never even touched that drawer full of jewels.

Who would have thought that his sneaking into the library had truly been for nothing more than reading and practicing his writing?

Bai Heting gave a soft snort. “Is your handwriting still that ugly?”

It took Luo Congye a long while to snap out of his daze from these two unexpected questions.

When he was a child, he had traced Bai Heting’s name countless times in the library and had even been punished for it, but he never imagined that Bai Heting actually knew about it.

The embarrassment of having his secret laid bare crashed over him like an overwhelming wave, yet the crest of that wave carried a hint of hidden joy.

Perhaps the general had not been entirely indifferent to him after all.

The rims of his ears burned fiercely, but he still forced himself to maintain an air of composure on his face, answering in a low voice, “It’s not ugly anymore.”

Bai Heting seemed to have no intention of probing for the truth, simply closing his eyes with a touch of weariness.

Luo Congye did not break this fleeting moment of peace. He swallowed the words “it really isn’t ugly” back down into his stomach. It wasn’t until the residual glow of the sunset gradually faded away that he spoke up with measured care.

“The new physician…” he asked with careful caution, “has he prescribed any medication for you?”

“Why do you ask that?” Bai Heting slowly lifted his eyelids.

Luo Congye looked toward the last streak of red light on the horizon, pulling out a barely passable excuse, “I just… thought about what happened during the autumn hunt.” He then added calmly, “I heard from Adjutant Qiu that this physician is new, so it’s better to be cautious.”

Bai Heting closed his eyes again.

What a groundless worry.

How could he possibly make that kind of low-level mistake a second time?

“He did.” Bai Heting said.

Luo Congye’s spine suddenly straightened as he looked down at him. “What kind of medicine?”

Bai Heting’s eyelids twitched, but he didn’t answer.

However, this reaction only made Luo Congye increasingly anxious, “Did you take it?”

“I used it.”

“Do you feel unwell anywhere?”

Bai Heting stopped responding again.

He had an odd expression on his face as if he were hiding something, which made Luo Congye panic a little. He reached out to check the temperature on the side of Bai Heting’s neck before asking in a serious tone, “Where does it feel uncomfortable?”

Bai Heting slowly exhaled a long breath and answered candidly, “I feel annoyed.”

Luo Congye hurried to say, “If it makes you feel unwell, then don’t take it anymore.”

Bai Heting opened his eyes, finally pushing beyond the limits of his patience.

Idiot.

The medicine he prescribed is you.

“Shut up.” He scolded coldly.

The author has something to say:

Su Xingchuan: “Luo Congye is truly a well-behaved child.”

Zhou Chengbei: “?”

Su Xingchuan: “This child is also very smart.”

Bai Heting: “?”

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