Unlike his brother, Orange Prince, Li Tingzhu was a lone wolf who often travelled to help people in need without asking for anything in return. Perhaps growing up in the company of Dark Robe Brotherhood motivated him to traverse the pugilistic world as a vaunted hero the moment he felt he was adroit enough. It was the only trait he shared with his siblings, namely his sister, Li Hongzhuang.
No more than ten people were privy to the secret that fourth rank on Seventeen Hidden Wyrms, Cloud Comb Wind Hairpin Hero Wang Zhu, is actually Li Tingzhu. Part of the reason he brushed off people trying to get friendly with him, during his assignment as state proctor, was because he felt purging corruption was part of his dream of being a hero. He had no interest in wealth or authority; he was interested in the people’s problems and was willing to lend them a hand. In this aspect, he was most like his father among his siblings. For him, helping those in need wasn’t noblesse oblige but a genuine desire to do good from the bottom of his heart. Unfortunately, he, in contrast to his father, didn’t understand women.
In the twenty-five years Li Tingzhu had been alive, the women he came into contact with most were his sisters and mothers for the rest of his life had been dedicated to martial arts, with the aim of mastering all swordplay, and his career. If you were to split his brain, you’d find sword manuals and lists of jobs waiting for him to attend to.
It’s typical for affluent families to teach their kids about romance to ensure their offspring were outstanding. Li Tingzhu spent all that time on learning how to wield a sword, nevertheless. Back then, you could mute him if you put a girl in front of him. As he grew older, his ability to deal with women worsened. These days, you could mute him and make him feel uncomfortable if you just told him a woman was around. Nonetheless, all hope was not lost as he finally met the one destined for him at Dai Youming’s manor.
Ever since seeing her smile, he could never get her or every word she said out of his mind. Thus, he decided to break his stereotype and assigned agents to Liu Shan men to keep tabs on her and send gifts daily. His plan “worked perfect” until running into today’s bottleneck.
***
“Stop right there!” Red Prince chased after Ming Suwen.
Ming Suwen looked over her shoulder and gave a, “Yeah?”
Red Prince, still a few metres away, backed up when he caught a whiff of Ming Swen’s scent, starting a domino effect when he crashed into one of his subordinates.
“What do you want now?”
“Hmph, why are you asking the obvious? Stop feigning ignorance. Wh-why did you trespass into my estate?”
“How do you expect me to know what you want, weirdo?” Ming Suwen was full of glee similar to an experimenter watching her test subject. “Since you asked, I shall clarify. Your stuff is in the way. Don’t send stuff to Liu Shan Men again. That’s all I had to say. Thanks and bye.”
“Wait! Why can’t I send gifts?”
Ming Suwen flapped her eyelids in quick succession. “Because they irritate my eyes.”
Red Prince’s hand pointing at Ming Suwen had a seizure upon hearing her response. “Why… Why are you so rude? I can understand others not understanding me, but why don’t you understand?!”
Ming Suwen pushed a side of her chin to tilt her head: “Meow?”
While his men were trying not to bleed from their noses, Red Prince was furious, thinking, how can she have forgotten?!
“That day… You told my subordinate you understand me. That’s why I sent so many gifts. How can you be so heartless?”
“Yeah, I do.” Deliberately raising her voice, Ming Suwen added, “You just want to make things difficult for Liu Shan Men, don’t you? How are you innocent now?”
“What a joke! Why would I, a Prince, bother with an office that can’t decide what it is?! I sent gifts because… because…”
“Because what?”
Red Prince thought his heart was going to tear its way out of his chest as he held his gaze against Ming Suwen’s. There was no way he could answer that question in public if it would be hard for him to answer in private.
“I… I…” Desperate, Red Prince pointed to the female constables behind Ming Suwen. “Pretend you don’t understand, then. Surely you people would understand why I’ve been sending presents daily. You’re not stupid, are you?”
“We do understand.” Sounding condescending, they rhetorically questioned, “You just want to make things difficult for Liu Shan Men, do you not? You just want to stop us from working on cases, right?!”
God damn it! Why does nobody get it?!
Trivia
Red Prince’s Alias – “Comb” goes with “cloud”. It’s saying “To comb through the clouds”. “Clouds” acts as a replacement for “hair”, Together, they express a groomed appearance. In other words, he’s a dapper gentleman. “Hairpin” refers to his lineage. More specifically, it symbolises he is a direct descendent of… If it was given to ladies of a harem, it would mean that she’s the legal wife/main wife.
