CH 46.1

Yuan Ci Xian glanced at the Wupeng boat behind him, cleared her throat, “No, I’m not cold…”

Her expression was three points embarrassed and seven points cautious, and just as Xǔ Ru Qing expected, she began to retreat from “Xu Shan”. Lu Shi Qing should be happy about this, but seeing her seemingly shocked look, he couldn’t bear it, and had the urge to comfort her.

He silently gritted his back molars and held back.

After all, once this comfort was uttered, it would not only offend his teacher’s madam, but also offended himself, and it would also trap his deceased teacher into injustice.

After a long time, he explained: “It’s Xu who is a little afraid of the cold. If County Princess doesn’t mind, can I borrow your carriage?

Yuan Ci Xian let out a low and short “oh”, suddenly realized: “So it is, Sir, please.”

After she finished speaking, she turned around and walked to the intersection where the carriage was parked, walking quickly along the way.

She lost a lot of face, mistakenly thought that Xu Shan was caring for her.

Seeing her hurried back, Lu Shi Qing’s heart softened again. He took a few steps forward, coughed and said, “County Princess should add more clothes when you go out.”

Yuan Ci Xian was slightly taken aback, not because of his words was strange, but felt that his cough was very similar to Lu Shi Qing.

She was a little confused. When she was with Lu Shi Qing, she thought about Xu Shan from time to time, but now that she was with Xu Shan, she was thinking of Lu Shi Qing.

What’s wrong with her.

Yuan Ci Xian quickly put away her wild thought, and said, “Thank you, Sir, for your concern.”

The two walked a long way, and got into the spacious carriage one after the other. Yuan Ci Xian poured a cup of tea, handed it to Lu Shi Qing, and said politely: “Sir, if you’re afraid of the cold, drink some hot tea.”

Lu Shi Qing didn’t reach out to take it.

He knew that after returning to the capital this time, it would be much more difficult to hide his identity than before, after all, Yuan Ci Xian was quite familiar with him.

No matter how spacious the inside of the carriage was, it was narrower than the outside. His hands were white and nice-looking. The journey south must have left a very vivid impression on her. He couldn’t let the cat out of the bag.

Seeing that he didn’t pick it up, Yuan Ci Xian put the tea pot in front of him, and withdrew her hand embarrassingly.

She suddenly remembered the hot wine she had just seen in the Wupeng boat.

When Xu Shan came to the Yuan Mansion to attend the banquet, he said that he was not good at drinking. But was it because he was not good at drinking, or was it because in the past he was drunk and no longer want to drink with other women? She thought the latter was more likely.

Seeing that she looked a little embarrassed, Lu Shi Qing couldn’t help feel that he was too much, tried to remedy it: “Thank you, County Princess, Xu will drink it later.”

She smiled and said nothing.

“County Princess mentioned in your message yesterday that you had something to discuss with Xu. May Xu ask what it is?”

When it came to the business, Yuan Ci Xian was no longer restrained and retreated, and hurriedly said: “Oh, that’s right, when I was in Shuzhou with Assistant Minister Lu, I met the third prince, Ping Prince. It was mostly fine, but one time, he invited me to play chess together, and I was wondering if this matter has anything to do with Sir?”

Of course Lu Shi Qing knew about it. At the beginning, he was busy outside and Liu Yuan Ci Xian was alone in the mansion. Although he knew that Ping Prince would not harm her, he was not at ease, so he arranged a lot of spies.

He said: “There should be.”

Yuan Ci Xian frowned: “He really wants to use my chess skills to spy on whether I have contacts with you?”

Lu Shi Qing nodded.

“Fortunately, I was careful.” She smiled sheepishly after saying that, “But even if I didn’t, it’s not a big problem, after all, I only watched one game of Sir’s chess.”

Lu Shi Qing also thought this way. He had studied his teacher’s chess skills for many years, and he had not fully understood the mysteries inside, let alone Yuan Ci Xian. So at the beginning, when she wanted to play chess with him, he didn’t refuse. One, there was still a gap between him and his teacher’s level, and two, she had not understood the essence of his teacher’s chess skills.

He nodded: “It’s all right, but since Ping Prince has become suspicious, he will make other moves. Xu will treat it with caution, thanking County Princess for the reminder.”

Ping Prince probably thought that Yuan Ci Xian had no scheming, young and gullible. Otherwise, he would never beat the grass and scare the snake like this.

Yuan Ci Xian shook her head to signal that he didn’t have to be polite, and then asked: “So, the one who assassinated you three years ago was Ping Prince?”

“Yes. At that time, I made some action to let Ping Prince mistakenly thought that I work for Second Highness, and did not expose Sixth Highness. It’s just that in recent years, the situation in the court has gradually developed in a direction that is beneficial to Sixth Highness. Ping Prince felt suspicious, so he went back and looked at the events of that year, and seems to guess that Xu may not be dead, and is very likely to serve under Sixth Highness. As for the relationship between Diannan Prince and Sixth Highness, he is still not sure, so he secretly went to test you.”

Yuan Ci Xian’s heart subconsciously tightened: “Prince Ping has already guessed to such a degree, aren’t we in danger?”

Lu Shi Qing shook his head: “It doesn’t matter what Prince Ping thinks, what matters is what His Majesty thinks. County Princess can feel at ease for now.”

If he was really Xu Shan, whether it was him, Zheng Zhuo, or the Yuan family, they were all indeed in jeopardy. But fortunately he was Lu Shi Qing. As long as he could control Emperor Huining, Ping Prince would not be able to make a big wave for the time being.

Yuan Ci Xian was reminded by his words, suddenly realized something: “In this way, the inside man of those assassin in Shangzhou should probably be Ping Prince! He knew that he can’t get rid of my Yuan family, so he wanted to let His Majesty, who was already afraid of my father, to do this job. He helped Nanzhao to kidnap me, and if this succeed, my father would be constrained, so he would be forced to act according to Nanzhao’s will, or His Majesty would misunderstand that my Yuan family is treasonous…”

“And even if this matter fails, he also thought up a plan to blame others. Not only can he suppress Second Highness again, but also successfully make His Majesty have doubts about the relationship between Sixth Highness and my Yuan family. Fortunately, Sir is resourceful and made this plan die halfway.”

Lu Shi Qing seemed to smile, acquiesced to his achievement, and did not speak.

He was aware after going south that Yuan Ci Xian already had a little trust to work together with “Xu Shan” and Zheng Zhuo, and no longer tried to probe as frequently as before.

Yuan Ci Xian also happened to be thinking about this. Because of her dreams, she was still unable to completely let go of her guard against Zheng Zhuo and Xu Shan, but this time the former fought for the suffering of the people in the court and asked the emperor to give up repairing the Huai River embankment, and the latter cleverly broke Ping Prince’s plan and helped the Yuan family escaped. It was really hard for her to remain unmoved, that’s why she discussed this with Xu Shan today.

But looking at Xu Shan’s strategizing style, she reckoned that her reminder was superfluous.

Yuan Ci Xian was silent for a while, and said: “It’s good if Sir is sure about Ping Prince. It’s not early, and I should go back. I hope you don’t blame me for today’s matter.”

Lu Shi Qing seemed to be slightly stunned: “Why would Xu blame the County Princess?”

She smiled embarrassedly, “Sir must have guessed that the reason Xǔ Sanniang came to Chang’an is because I sent someone to test Old Teacher Xǔ with your chess records.”

“It’s nothing.” He said indifferently, “Even for a business transaction, the two parties have to negotiate the price and inspect the goods openly and honestly, let alone a political cooperation involving lives and the future. It is normal for County Princess to have doubts about Xu. You acted cautiously and thoughtfully, His Highness and I should feel lucky to have such an ally.”

He was indeed a political advisor, he was really good at talking.