CH 23

Yuan Ci Xian was just discussing Zheng Zhuo during the day, but at night she actually listened to him in the dream.

It still shortly after her death. She heard Zheng Zhuo’s hoarse voice on the bridge saying: “I spent three days and nights searching through the water but couldn’t find her. It was you, you brought her body back, didn’t you?”

A question the was not a question, and the answer was actually a fist.

With a muffled grunt, he seemed to stagger and fall to the edge of the bridge railing.

Immediately afterwards, the other person punched again.

Zheng Zhuo was beaten until he was coughing and gasping, and said intermittently, “Do you, do you like her? Yes, why didn’t I see it? after all these years, I should have found out…” He laughed out loud.

But what answered him was increasingly dense fists.

Yuan Ci Xian was curious about who was beating him, and desperately pricked her ears to listen to the commotion above, but unexpectedly she woke up suddenly. When she woke up, she could only see the clean dust above her head and the pleasant sun of the early autumn morning outside the window.

She jumped up from the bed, and almost threw down the quilt in a fit of anger. ——This brother, don’t just smash your fists, can you say something!

She sat on the edge of the bed to calm down, and began to sort out the clues: It seemed that after her death, Zheng Zhuo sent someone to salvage her body, but a man who had admired her for many years took the lead. And since this man beat him to death with such a ruthless hand, does it mean that Zheng Zhuo was indeed the chief culprit who killed her?

She really couldn’t trust Xu Shan.

Yuan Ci Xian called Shi Cui with a sad face, and said: “Shi Cui, go and find out, among the gentlemen who know Sixth Prince in Chang’an, is there anyone who might secretly admire me.”

Shi Cui was stunned by her order, “Young Lady, how should I investigate this?”

She scratched her hair and sighed: “That’s right.”

She must have been confused by this tantalizing dream.

But in the end, it was not impossible to start. Judging from Zheng Zhuo’s tone of speech and his refusal to fight back, she felt that the two in the dream should be about the same age, had known each other for a long time, and had a deep friendship. So she said: “Then make a list for me, and find out all the men in Chang’an who are about the same age as Sixth Prince, have a close relationship with him, and knows me.

Shi Cui took the order, but seeing that she looked tired that she fell back into the bed, Shu Cui hurriedly said: “Young Lady, yesterday you said you will enter the palace this morning, The sun is high now, are you still going to sleep?”

Yuan CI Xian’s head that barely touch the pillow shot up again, “Ah, I forgot! Come on, help me get dress.”

…

Yuan Ci Xian first went to Zichen Palace to meet Emperor Huining. The old emperor was very “worried” about her, and these days he sent people several times to inquire about her injuries, saying that if she was fine, she should definitely come to the palace to let him take a look.

So she went to let him take a look, chatted with him, and then asked about Lu Shi Qing’s whereabouts.

Of course Emperor Huining knew what she was thinking. After all, he also heard that she went to visit Lu Shi Qing for two days even with her sprained leg, thinking that she was really dead set on his courtier.

Then helping other realize their wish, he took a thread to build a bridge, and asked someone to send her to Hanliang Palace.

Hanliang Palace was located by the Taiye Pond, built next to the water. It was a good place to escape the summer heat, and it was also more comfortable in the dry autumn season. Looking from a distance, the bejeweled jade palace and the vermilion eaves stand tall, looking like a fairyland.

Emperor Huining gave this palace to the Thirteenth Prince, probably because he doted on this son.

Yuan Ci Xian was led to a garden inside the palace by the palace servants, and saw Lu Shi Qing sitting in the octagonal gazebo, holding a book in his hand, flipping through it very leisurely, without being disturbed by anyone around.

Not seeing the young prince, she was puzzled and looked around, only to find that there were two other people on the high pavilion not far away. A little boy in brocade clothes was sitting at the desk and writing. Presumably it was the Thirteenth Prince, Zheng Hong. And another person was instructing him, looking down at his handwriting from time to time, it was his nominal di older sister, Zheng Yun.

She looked at Lu Shi Qing down below, and Zheng Yun in the pavilion above. Oh, this is the “by the side” that Lu Shuang Yu mentioned last time. This “by the side” is really “close”.

Yuan Ci Xian’s mood suddenly brightened, and the sound arrived before the person: “Assistant Minister Lu.”

Lu Shi Qing raised his head when he heard the voice, and was slightly taken aback when he saw her. But in the next moment he remembered the rascal things she did yesterday. He frowned and ignored her, just lowered his head again.

Zheng Yun on the pavilion above also heard the movement below, got up and stood by the fence. Yuan Ci Xian raised her head and bowed to her.

She nodded slightly at her, then turned around and said something to her brother. The little boy seemed curious, twisted his body, pulled his neck to look down.

Yuan Ci Xian smiled at Zheng Hong, and bowed to him, and waited for the siblings to return to their seats before sitting on the stone bench opposite Lu Shi Qing, chatting up with him: “Assistant Minister Lu, long time no see. Is your injury healed?”

She also knew it’s a long time?

Lu Shi Qing raised his eyes, and said coldly: “Troubling County Princess to worry, it’s all right now.”

Yuan Ci Xian looked at the back of his hand, and saw that the scab had faded away, only the skin color of the wound was slightly red, it seemed there was really nothing wrong, so she continued: “That’s good.” She asked again, “If you don’t teach Thirteenth Highness to study, why do you sit and read book here?”

Lu Shi Qing calmly answered while still looking down at the book: “When His Highness finishes the homework arranged by Lu, Lu will naturally check it.”

She said “Oh”, and said in a strange way: “But like this, it’s so boring for Shaohe State Princess to be alone above.”

Lu Shi Qing paused the hand holding the book, and said lightly: “Lu’s errand is to teach His Thirteenth Highness to study, not to entertain Shaohe State Princess.”

She sighed, and continued to probe: “You don’t know how to pity on fragrance and jade.”

He seemed to sneer: “There are so many fragrant and jade in the world, it’s useless for Lu to take pity. If County Princess seems too idle, it’s better to do good deeds.”

Listening to his tone that was lighter in each sentence, it was not like what Lu Shuang Yu said that he and Zheng Yun were in love with each other.

Yuan Ci Xian said happily: “I’m not idle, I’m busy enough caring about you, what do others have to do with me?”

Lu Shi Qing happened to be flipping through the book, and before he looked up at her, just hearing this sentence his hands couldn’t help but tremble, but he still covered it up, and continued to lower his head and said calmly: “Really?”

Heh, then who was the person she met yesterday.

Yuan Ci Xian stretched out her hand to make an oath: “It’s absolutely true. If it wasn’t for the inconvenience of my legs, I would definitely come to visit you every day.”

Lu Shi Qing didn’t say a word.

Heh, don’t think he didn’t know she wasn’t hurt at all.

Seeing his indifferent attitude, Yuan Ci Xian stopped asking for trouble, and said: “Okay, you read the book, I’ll just look at you.”

Lu Shi Qing’s hand trembled again. What’s wrong with this girl, she didn’t come to bother him for more than half a month, he even thought that she had given up her heart. Who would have thought that now she kept babbling love words at him.

How could he still be able to read a book? It was not that he couldn’t hold his cool, but when she sat across from him with her chin propped up like this, and staring at him non-stop, no matter how unmoving people were, they would still feel uncomfortable.

What’s more, there was Yuan Ci Xian’s fiery gaze at the front, and there was a cold light sweeping over from time to time on the high pavilion behind, which was simply the combination of ice and fire.

Lu Shi Qing felt uncomfortable, so the movement of turning the pages of the book was naturally slow. Yuan Ci Xian found that the time when he was reading one page now, he could read about five pages before.

Before coming here this morning, Yuan Yu told her that the subtlety of loosen the rein in order to grasp better was in the words “seeming neither close nor distant”. Now that she had left Lu Shi Qing in the cold for more than ten days, it was time to show her favor towards him. From the look of it now, this method seemed to be really working, brother did not deceive her.

However, Yuan Ci Xian felt that since Lu Shi Qing could still read, this fire was still not enough. She wanted him to fail to read even one page.

She pondered for a while, calculated in her mind, reached out and pulled out one of the symmetrical hairpins in her hair, and then called him in a low voice: “Assistant Minister Lu, what book are you reading?”

Lu Shi Qing raised his head when he heard the sound. At a glance, he saw that a hairpin was missing from her hair, and immediately felt uncomfortable. He frowned and lowered his head and said, “Salt and Iron Theory.”

Then he couldn’t read any more. He glanced at her head from the corner of his eyes from time to time. Even though he tried his best to restrain the direction of his eyeballs, but because the impression in his heart, it was difficult to ignore, and his whole body became agitated.

In a stick of an incense, he didn’t turn a single page of the book.

He couldn’t take it anymore, put the book on the stone table with a “pop”, and asked her: “County Princess, where is the hairpin on your left?”

Yuan Ci Xian was overjoyed in her heart, reached out to feel her head, and said with surprise on her face, “Hey, where’s my hairpin? Why am I missing a hairpin?”

Lu Shi Qing calmed his face and took a deep breath, “It’s in your sleeve.”

“…”

This insight was a little too strong. Yuan Ci Xian bit the bullet and took out the hairpin, while muttering to herself: “Hey, why did it get into my sleeve?”

Lu Shi Qing interrupted her, and said in a forbearing tone: “Please wear it, and behave yourself. ”

Yuan Ci Xian Ci Xian was not reconciled, and still wanted to mess with him. She looked around, and said, “But there is no bronze mirror here, how should I put it on? If it is worn crookedly, my deportment will be wrong, isn’t it?”

This was a good question. If she wore it crookedly, he would feel uncomfortable.

Lu Shi Qing fell into deep thought, and suddenly heard her say: “Why don’t you put it for me?”

As she spoke, she leaned closer, her body almost passed half of the stone table, and he immediately caught a faint fragrance of floral dew, like peaches and apricots. It went straight to his heart, as if drenching him from head to toe.

Lu Shi Qing wanted to back away, but weirdly he didn’t move, squinted slightly, and looked up into her smiling eyes.

He might have to admit that those watery eyes… are very enticing.

So, before he could refuse her, his hand had already taken the hairpin she handed over to him.