CH 25.2

That night, Cao An was kicked out by Lu Shi Qing. The next day at dusk he came to the study again, knocked on the door and said, “Master, it’s here!”

Lu Shi Qing happened to be by the door, so he opened the door by himself, and said, “What’s here?”

After asking, he suddenly understood, and frowned: “Why is it here at this hour?” He just asked someone to prepare water and wanted to take a bath.

Cao An secretly thought that this was Lancang County Princess’s plan, how could he know, but his face just asked: “Master, do you want to let her in?”

“No.”

After Lu Shi Qing finished speaking, he walked straight towards the clean room, but then heard Cao An’s voice behind him again: “Master, you really don’t want to let her in?”

You still talking? He stopped and turned around then asked, “You want to let her in so much?”

Cao An lowered his head and said “Don’t dare”, but suddenly heard Lu Shi Qing say “hmm”, “You have followed me for many years, and you have worked hard without credit, so I cannot completely ignore your proposal. I don’t want to let her in, but since you think it’s necessary, then let her in.”

He didn’t actually to say that.

Seeing the questioning look on his Master’s face, Cao An hurriedly said: “Yes, this servant really proposed you so. That…in order to prevent County Princess from looking around and finding something, how about this servant deliberately give her a chance to deliver tea to you, and let her simply come to your study?”

That’s fine, after all, what she’s after was him. If he didn’t lead her along, and let her run amok like a headless chicken, what if she found the secret passage in the mansion, by then afraid it would be much worse.

Lu Shi Qing was very satisfied with his cleverness, nodded to signal him to go, turned around and packed up the important paperwork in the study. But after he finished, he still didn’t see anyone come in. With nothing to do, he spread a piece of rice paper on the table, picked up a brush, and drew a few orchids casually, while glancing towards the door very few strokes.

Really, deliver some tea needs some dawdling.

It was not until the orchids painting was finished that there was a knock on the door. Lu Shi Qing cleared his throat, and asked lightly: “Who?”

The person outside seemed to clear their throat, and then said in a rough voice: “Master, the old lady asked this servant to bring you tea.”

As soon as he heard Yuan Ci Xian’s voice, Lu Shi Qing had to pretend not to know. He said “Enter” and lowered his eyes while thinking about how he should face her dressed up as a servant—surprised or angry, dazed or indifferent?

Unexpectedly, before he could decide, Yuan Ci Xian already revealed her true identity, approaching and smiling, “Assistant Minister Lu!”

He quickly entered the play, raised his head, and countless emotions flashed under his eyes in an instant, three points surprised, three points bewildered, three points indifference, and with just the right point of anger, he asked: “Why are you?”

After this, he sighed in his heart. Since being entangled with this girl, he couldn’t do serious things every day, but his acting skills were improved day by day.

Yuan Ci Xian looked at him with a smile: “It’s me, Assistant Minister Lu, are you surprised? Are you surprised?”

Surprise my butt!

He squinted his long and narrow phoenix eyes, looked at the two black mustaches above her lips, and her short shirt made of dark blue coarse cloth. He leaned against the back of the chair and said: “County Princess, if Lu is not mistaken, you are now trespassing into a private house. According to the laws of Great Zhou, Lu can report to the officials to arrest you.”

Yuan Ci Xian shook her head confidently: “No, you misunderstood.”

Lu Shi Qing waited for her to explain.

“In a few days, it will be the Ghost Festival. At that time, the ghost gate will be wide open, and the yin energy will be very heavy. I am afraid that some bull demon and snake spirit will try to intrude, and you won’t be safe here. So I took advantage before the day here and risk my life to test the defense of your house.” Her face didn’t change, her heart didn’t jump, she said it as if it was true.

Lu Shi Qing laughed and said, “I’m afraid there are no bull demon and snake spirit in the world, only you, County Princess.”

The person who was compared with demons and ghosts was not angry at all, only said with a serious expression: “Assistant Minister Lu, I am serious.” After she finished speaking, she glanced around, casually picked up the brush in his hand, and pulled a piece of rice paper. She then bent over to draw, and in a blink of an eye, a simple map of the Lu Mansion appeared on the paper.

She pointed to a few open paths on the top and said: “The defense of your side gate that are not facing the street are too careless, I can just walk right in.”

Lu Shi Qing said in his heart, if he hadn’t made any omission, how could she stand here and give pointers now, but his face on top seemed to be enlightened: “Oh, thank you, County Princess for mentioning it, Lu will definitely reorganize these places in the future.”

Yuan Ci Xian straightened up to look at him: “That won’t work, you have to leave the gate open for me ”

“There’s a main gate, why do you have to go through the side gate?”

“You mean, I’m welcome to go through the main gate?”

Lu Shi Qing choked, took out the brush from her hand, put it back on the brush holder, and said, “Not welcome.” After saying that, he glanced at her face and frowned, “Your mustache is crooked.”

“Oh.” She responded, tore off a few tufts of hair in pain, carefully hid them in her sleeves, and then stood upright on the side.

Lu Shi Qing minded his own business by putting away the orchid painting, saw her standing still, and asked, “Do you have anything else to do?”

Yuan Ci Xian thumped her lower back: “Assistant Minister Lu, I thought about your safety so I worked so hard this time, you won’t invite me to sit down and have a sip of tea?”

He sighed: “You can do whatever you want.” Seeing her running to pour tea, he added, “Don’t touch the white porcelain tea set on the table.”

Yuan Ci Xian glanced back at him, secretly said “stingy”, changed to a celadon tea set. When she drunk enough, she sat down opposite him very “comfortably”, while looking around his study room.

Like the outside, his study room was also neatly arranged, even the frames of the Bogu shelf (antique display shelf) on the side were symmetrical up and down, left and right, and there were no rare antique treasures on it. After all, many valuable objects usually impossible to get in pairs.

Yuan Ci Xian curled her lips and sighed. What kind of Bogu shelf is this, why don’t you just dismantle it.

Lu Shi Qing put away the painting, and tied the ribbon. He then saw her sighing, didn’t know what dissatisfaction she had with his study, so he said coldly: “It’s getting late, if County Princess feels unwell, it’s better to go home earlier.”

She hurriedly withdrew her gaze, waved her hands to indicate that she didn’t feel unwell, and then desperately looked for something to say, “Actually, I’m here because I have something important to tell you.”

“You say.”

“That is…. ” She muttered for a long time, finally remembered something she could say, “Oh, when I came out of Hanliang Palace a few days ago, I met Sixth Highness who was going to teach Thirteenth Highness to learn martial arts. My intuition said it’s not right, what happened in the court?”

Lu Shi Qing hesitated slightly, raised his eyes then said: “You are a girl, what do you care about these things?”

“Curiosity, I am a very curious girl.”

“…”

Lu Shi Qing originally didn’t want to talk about this matter with her, but remembering what she said to comfort him last night, and then looked at her inconspicuous attire and this unyielding attitude right now, he gave a low “um” and said, “There is some movement.”

Yuan Ci Xian was indeed curious, but she originally didn’t intend to pry the news from Lu Shi Qing’s mouth, only looking for something to say, so she was very surprised when she heard it, “Can you tell me?” As she spoke, she moved closer to him, and whispered, “What is it?” Looking forward to him sharing a little secret with her.

He coughed and explained first: “It’s not a secret, and everyone in the court will know in a few days.”

“If I know it before the court courtiers, it’s a secret.” She smiled smugly, “But don’t worry, I will keep my mouth shut.”

She was right, even if she knew about it a moment earlier than the courtier, it was he who leaked the news. Lu Shi Qing really felt that he should stay away from her, but now he couldn’t even hold his tongue firmly.

He secretly regretted for a moment, then said: “The Second Highness has committed a crime. His Majesty is going to confine him in his mansion, and make him reflect on his mistakes behind closed doors. Not only teaching martial arts to Thirteenth Highness, but also the Jinwu Guard, which was under his control, will be handed over to Sixth Highness.”

Yuan Ci Xian digested the news for a while, and suddenly asked: “The ‘crime’ you mentioned is not related to what we found in the suburbs of Chang’an last time, right?”

Lu Shi Qing glanced at her, seemed slightly surprised, and then said: “Yes.”

Yuan Ci Xian’s lips parted slightly, and she said in surprise: “It’s amazing.” Then she asked, “But I told you last time that this might be a frame-up, have you ever gone back to confirm it?”

“What should be confirm, Lu has already confirmed it, and His Majesty is also very clear about what happened, so no need to concern County Princess.”

She said “oh”, looking a little disappointed.

Lu Shi Qing then raised his eyebrows: “County Princess seems to be very worried about His Second Highness.”

Yuan Ci Xian choked. This person was so cunning that he threw such a deadly label to her for no reason, if it is passed to His Majesty’s ears, it would be misunderstood that the Yuan family was in the second prince’s team.

She explained: “I just don’t want to see innocent people to be wronged. It’s easy to be convicted but it’s difficult to shed the crime, so it should be handled with caution. But since you said that His Majesty has found out the truth and the second prince indeed committed a crime, I naturally have nothing to say, and seeing that a candidate for the crown prince has been lost, I just worried about the future of Great Zhou.”

Lu Shi Qing smiled ambiguously: “County Princess is really concerned about the country and the people.”

Yuan Ci Xian said no in her heart, and when she was about to speak, suddenly the door was knocked, then Xuan shi’s voice came in: “Son, are you in there?”

Both of them stiffened their necks.