Chapter 63: Rental Ducks and a Suspicious Letter
By the time Su Yanyue returned to the inn, the stars were pricking through the indigo sky. Lanterns flickered gently outside the rooms, casting warm golden light over the wooden walkway.
She barely stepped inside before a blur of motion flew at her.
"Aunt Yue!"
Three identical boys tackled her legs with the force of tiny, determined puppies.
Su Zhi clung to her like a koala. "We missed you!"
Su Lin sniffed her robes. "You smell like rich people!"
Su Rui squinted dramatically. "Did they poison your tea?"
Yanyue crouched down and hugged them all at once. "No, no poison. Just very small cakes and too many questions."
Yu Shiming followed behind her, one hand casually on his sword. "They were waiting at the door for an hour."
"I was supervising," added Uncle Feng, the innkeeper. "But I'm only one man."
Su Rui beamed. "We started a business while you were gone!"
Yanyue raised an eyebrow. "Oh no."
"We're renting ducks," Su Zhi announced proudly, hands on his tiny hips.
"Five copper a duck. One copper per minute," Su Lin added.
"They're trained. Very obedient," said Su Rui.
"…You stole ducks from the canal again, didn't you?" Yanyue asked flatly.
"They followed us," Su Rui said, innocent as ever.
"They liked us," Su Zhi added.
"We gave them names," Su Lin declared. "Feather King. Quackzilla. General Beak."
Yu Shiming choked on his tea behind her.
"I even drew up a sign," said Su Zhi, pulling out a crayon-marked board: "Fast Ducks! For Hire! No Refunds!"
Yanyue pinched the bridge of her nose. "Tell me you at least returned the ducks."
There was a suspicious silence.
"We'll return them tomorrow…" Su Lin mumbled.
Before she could begin a lecture, Uncle Feng handed her a folded letter. "This came for you while you were out."
Yanyue took it with a frown. There was no seal, just her name written in a fine, elegant hand. She opened it carefully.
Inside, a single sentence:
"Your tea deserves to be tasted by the imperial court."
No name. No title.
Just an address.
She blinked, rereading it twice. "This… could be a joke, right?"
Yu Shiming stepped behind her, reading over her shoulder. His gaze sharpened. "That address is near the Provincial Governor's residence."
"That can't be coincidence," she muttered.
The triplets, naturally, were trying to read over her arm too.
"Is it a treasure map?"
"Is someone confessing their love?"
"Is it a secret spy mission?"
Yanyue folded the paper quickly. "None of those. Go to sleep."
"But—"
Yu Shiming picked Su Zhi up like a sack of rice. "Bed."
Su Zhi flailed dramatically. "This is tyranny!"
Su Rui climbed onto his own pallet, still muttering about duck rentals and missed fortune.
Later, when the boys were snoring softly in a tangle of limbs, Yanyue sat near the window, looking at the letter again under the moonlight.
"Someone's watching me," she murmured.
Yu Shiming didn't respond right away.
Finally, he said, "They're watching for a reason."
"And you don't think it's my tea?" she teased.
"I think it's you."
His voice was quiet but sure.
She looked away, cheeks warm.
The ducks outside the window quacked indignantly.