Qingqing finally caught up, panting, “You’re a grown man, how can you be so petty?” Li Qin said, “I am not as magnanimous as my fourth brother.” Seeing his anger, Qingqing became timid, staring at her toes, not daring to speak. Li Qin, finding her both amusing and irritating, said, “Miss Yuzhen has thoroughly scolded me. I’m here to invite you again to eat some honeydew.” Qingqing said, “I misunderstood you earlier, with the Fourth Prince…” Li Qin seemed unwilling to discuss this further, changing the subject, “Yesterday was my fault; I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that.” Seeing his sincere demeanor, Qingqing held back a smile, asking, “Did the Emperor send you to apologize to me?” Li Qin had her sit on a stone bench in the pavilion, solemnly stating, “It wasn’t the Emperor who forced me. I truly realized my mistake. Yesterday, I was impulsive; I shouldn’t have mocked you.” Qingqing felt both touched and saddened; touched that Li Qin finally admitted his mistake, but saddened because he only apologized for mocking her, not for the lavish meal arrangement. She said, “I didn’t blame you for mocking me; I am, after all, an ugly woman.” Li Qin replied, “At that moment, you didn’t give me face, and I said those things in anger, but I never truly thought that way.” Qingqing felt a bit bitter inside; if he didn’t think that way, why did he prefer Yafu? As her bracelet fell, she murmured, “The Crown Prince should realize that the mistake was in the lavish meal arrangement, not in mocking a young woman.” Qingqing looked aside, “I know, the Emperor must have sent you to apologize to me.” Li Qin was somewhat annoyed at first, but when he saw the tears in Qingqing’s eyes, his heart softened, and his tone became much gentler: “Actually, it wasn’t my own idea to come and apologize to you, it was the Empress Dowager.” So, it was the noble and dignified Empress who had prompted this. Li Qin didn’t hide this fact. He continued, “However, I also realize my mistakes. I shouldn’t have wasted resources, nor should I have mocked you.” Qingqing immediately smiled, clearing her throat, “Ahem… ahem… They say ‘a prime minister can hold a boat in his belly’, I, as the daughter of a prime minister, can at least hold a canoe. I’ll forgive you this time.” With that, they exchanged glances and burst into laughter.
They were sitting on stone chairs by the pond, and in their merriment, Qingqing accidentally dropped her jade bracelet into the lotus pond. Fortunately, it was caught by a dilapidated lotus leaf; otherwise, it would have been lost forever. This bracelet was the only gift Qingqing had received from Madame Liu since she was taken as a disciple, and although she was not much loved as a child, she cherished this rare token of affection and feared losing something so precious and getting scolded for it. She quickly stood up and said to Li Qin, “This is terrible, it’s a gift from my mother.” Li Qin thought she was attached to it because it was from her mother, which was understandable. Having been raised under the strict tutelage of the Empress, who taught him that filial piety was foremost among virtues, he knew the importance of such gifts. If he had lost something given by the Empress, he might have gone to any lengths to retrieve it.
Seeing no servants around, Li Qin stood up and broke off a branch from a nearby tree, intending to retrieve the bracelet, but it was too slippery, and after several attempts, it only drifted further away. Qingqing’s eyes welled up with tears, and Li Qin became even more flustered. After a few more careful tries, he still couldn’t hook it, and nearly lost it to the depths of the pond. Li Qin then had an idea, “I’ll hold your hand, and you try to hook it.” Qingqing, desperate, didn’t care about the propriety of physical contact between men and women. They leaned over the pond, trying to retrieve the bracelet, when suddenly a stern voice came from behind, “Li Qin, what are you doing?” Startled, they both turned around to see the Fourth Prince. Li Qin was about to question who dared to address him by name so boldly, but there was no time for that now. Before he could react, the Fourth Prince punched him hard in the face, causing blood to trickle from Li Qin’s nose and mouth. Without waiting for Li Qin to recover, the Fourth Prince jumped into the pond to rescue Qingqing.
The pond was at least three people deep, and Qingqing couldn’t swim. After a few splashes, she disappeared beneath the surface. Seeing the bubbles on the water, Li Qin realized the gravity of the situation and shouted for help. It was the height of winter, and the water was bitterly cold. The Fourth Prince, cold and anxious, couldn’t see Qingqing. The servants, hearing the Crown Prince’s call, rushed over. Without waiting for questions, Li Qin kicked some of them into the water, angrily shouting, “Hurry up and get Miss Lin out, or I’ll have your heads!” In his panic, he still remembered to threaten the servants, which was truly absurd.
After about half an hour, with no success and the Fourth Prince weakening, his lips turning purple from the cold, Li Qin, despite his own dizziness from the punch and his anger at the Fourth Prince, couldn’t stand by any longer. He ordered a servant to pull the Fourth Prince out and, disregarding the cold, jumped in himself. Miraculously, he soon felt Qingqing’s body and called for help to lift her out. His hand accidentally brushed against her soft, icy chest, and he saw her tightly clutching the bracelet that had fallen into the water.
With Qingqing now unconscious and barely breathing, Li Qin, disregarding the etiquette, rushed to the physician upon their return to the palace. “Physician, is Miss Lin in danger?” he asked urgently, pushing aside any sense of decorum. The physician, stroking his beard, hesitated, which infuriated Li Qin, “Just tell me if she’s in danger or not, what’s with all this hesitation?” The physician, intimidated, knelt down and stammered, “Your Highness, there’s water in Miss Lin’s chest… it’s hard to say…” Li Qin, growing more irritated, demanded, “Then clear the water from her chest, stop talking nonsense!” The physician explained that the only way was mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.