CH 69

Lu Shi Qing was distraught by Yuan Ci Xian’s desperate move that he almost lost his mind, and couldn’t detect the change immediately, only subconsciously reached out to block the knife when its tip was three inches away from his heart.

But his hand froze after he stretched it, and suddenly stopped on the edge of the blade.

After such a short breath, the dagger pierced into his chest, with a “rip” sound, it penetrated the flesh at once.

Yuan Ci Xian only had time to rush to him after that, kicked away the assassin who forced himself to stand up under the serious injury, and hugged him in shock: “Sir!”

After she shouted, she glanced at the black-clothed man who was dying on the ground in surprise, and then looked at Lu Shi Qing again.

After all, the black-clothed man was at the end of his strength, and that stab was made by sheer will, which was not very powerful. Although just now Lu Shi Qing was a step late when he stretched out his hand, he still had time to hold the tip of the knife, at worst it would only cut his palm.

But why did he get distracted at a critical moment?

Lu Shi Qing’s eyes were dizzy for a while, and he subconsciously grasped Yuan Ci Xian’s wrist. But because he knew that she didn’t have the strength to bear his whole body, he used all his willpower to not fall down, until he faintly heard a rush of footsteps, and vaguely saw a figure rushing over.

It was Zheng Zhuo who arrived and rushed forward to support him.

Only then did Lu Shi Qing let go of his strength, borrowed Zheng Zhuo’s arm strength, gritted his teeth and said to him: “Tell her to go…”

At this juncture, he still used Xu Shan’s voice.

Zheng Zhuo knew that he was afraid of fainting and exposing his identity. He glanced at the dagger stuck in his chest, frowned and said, “I know.” He then said to the obviously frightened until her lips trembled Yuan Ci Xian, “Is County Princess’s carriage nearby?”

Yuan Ci Xian had been staring at the knife on Lu Shi Qing’s chest, and didn’t hear clearly the conversation between the two just now, until she heard the word “County Princess” and asked “What did you say?”

Zheng Zhuo repeated: “I said carriage. Mr. Xu is seriously injured and cannot be jolt on the horse.”

She nodded like pounding garlic, said “I’ll go find it” then turned and ran down the mountain.

After she left, Lu Shi Qing was helped by Zheng Zhuo to sit down in front of a rocky mountain, staring at the direction Yuan Ci Xian left and asked: “The assassin in the mountain…is it clean?”

“It’s clean, don’t worry.” After Zheng Yao finished answering, he carefully tore off a corner of Lu Shi Qing’s clothes to avoid pulling the handle of the knife, and quickly said while inspecting his injuries, “No vital injuries, but the position is a bit worrying. It’s too risky to pull the knife now, afraid we really have to wait for her to find the carriage. Hold on for a while.”

He dismissed Yuan Ci Xian just now to avoid exposing Lu Shi Qing, but now it seemed that the carriage was indeed necessary.

But Lu Shi Qing didn’t care about his injury, blinked his eyes hard to stay awake, and explained: “Go and check the dead assassin…” He was referring to the black-clothed man who raged at the end.

After Zheng Zhuo asked which one it was, he hurriedly got up to check, and turned around to answer: “He died of excessive blood loss. Face down, legs straight, and left hand pressed on the chest.” After he said that, he seemed to feel something wrong, and added, “Press it at the exact same position as your wound.”

Lu Shi Qing coughed and said weakly, “Press his left hand to his right palm…”

Zheng Zhuo quickly do as he said, then walked back and said, “What’s going on? ”

Actually, he just felt something suspicious before. He was a person who practiced martial arts, and it was obvious that the stab was weak, logically speaking, Lu Shi Qing shouldn’t have been hit.

Before the dagger was pulled out, Lu Shi Qing was still able to maintain his sanity, and replied: “Ping Prince is suspicious of me…”

The Jiang family fell too neatly, and Ping Prince noticed something wrong from it, suspecting that “Xu Shan” was not a commoner adviser, but probably an official hiding in the court.

Today’s group of assassins was sent by Ping Prince, the primary purpose was to get rid of “Xu Shan”. But when the plan failed, they settled for the second best, which was to verify his identity.

Even if the black-clothed man could snuck up and took off the mask on “Xu Shan”, and found out who he was, it was impossible for him to return to report the news, so he chose to leave obvious wounds on his body. Pretending to use a seemingly ferocious killing move and forced him to react subconsciously when in distress.

But Lu Shi Qing came to his senses at the last moment, and let himself be stabbed, and the black-clothed man pressed his chest when he was about to die, showing that he had stabbed this position on “Xu Shan”. Once Ping Prince sent someone to collect the body and get this information, it was possible to follow the clues to find Lu Shi Qing.

If the fact that Xu Shan’s role as an advisor was exposed, or even if the Yuan family and Zheng Zhuo were proved to be involved, it was not a desperate situation. Only when which sides he was on was exposed, then these many years of hiding and advancing step by step would come to naught.

Fortunately, now, he let the assassin left a fake message.

After hearing this, Zheng Zhuo figured it out, sighed, lifted his mask, saw that his face was gray and covered in cold sweat, he smiled back: “If you don’t want to make her a widow then hold on. Once you die it means one dead body and two lives, Lu Zishu is dead, and Xu Congxian is gone too.”

Lu Shi Qing snorted, and now he became sober as if he had returned to the light: “I can’t die, I have a big temper, and my life is also big.” After saying that, as if he wanted to say something that could make himself more energetic, he “hissed” and asked Zheng Zhuo, “Do you think she is too nice to ‘Xu Congxian’?”

Zheng Zhuo glanced at him: “Isn’t it all you? What’s the difference.”

“Of course it’s different…” Lu Shi Qing smiled wearily.

He didn’t have to make life difficult for himself. Rather, he originally played his teacher’s role according with his teacher’s speech habits, demeanors, and even interests, ideals, and ways of thinking. Later, although he distorted his teacher’s image in front of Yuan Ci Xian several times due to emotion, he really couldn’t tell how much this “Xu Shan” was himself or his teacher. And whether Yuan Ci Xian’s good impression for this “Xu Shan” stemmed from his part or his teacher’s part.

He used this annoying question to held his drowsy eyelids, until he heard a flurry of footsteps before he came back to his senses, and struggled to put on the mask.

Of course Zheng Zhuo was one step faster than him, and directly slapped the mask on his face, as if trying to ruin his appearance, and made him almost groan in pain.

It was Yuan Ci Xian who returned. She was running out of breath, and her voice could be heard before the person came: “The horse…the carriage is here…”

Zheng Zhuo picked up Lu Shi Qing, followed her down the mountain, and put him on the carriage.

The carriage came so quickly, in fact, it was still thanked to Jian Zhi and Shi Cui. After Yuan Ci Xian rode away with the horse, the two rushed to the nearby post station to get another horse, and chased all the way here. There was a section of the mountain road going up that was rugged and narrow, which was originally not big enough for a carriage, but the three master and servants drove up desperately.

Knowing that Xu Shan was injured, the two maids hurriedly took the utensils that were in the carriage to fetch water and get ready.

Seeing this, Yuan Ci Xian also wanted to lift the curtain to go in, but was stopped by Zheng Zhuo: “I have to treat Mr. Xu’s wound, still ask County Princess to ride the horse to escort.”

She had to listen to him and nodded: “Then I’ll let Shi Cui to give you a hand.”

Zheng Zhuo was afraid that she would become suspicious if he refused, so he nodded in response.

Yuan Ci Xian ordered Jian Zhi to drive to Chang’an City, while she rode in fear. After a while, she faintly heard a muffled groan from inside the carriage, followed by many rustling noises.

She pursed her lips tightly without saying a word, and whipped her horse stiffly all the way until Zheng Zhuo’s guards came to pick him up.

There was nothing wrong with this decision. Yuan family’s carriage must be returned to Yuan Ci Xian.

Yuan Ci Xian watched several guards carry Lu Shi Qing, who had fainted, into another carriage, and asked Zheng Zhuo who came down from behind the curtain later: “How is Mr. Xu?”

Zheng Zhuo’s hands were full of blood because he didn’t have time to wipe it, he said simply, “He’s fine for the time being, County Princess don’t have to worry.”

Even when Yuan Ci Xian heard the sentence “He’s fine”, she still couldn’t relax, just glanced at his hand and nodded reluctantly.

In terms of relationship, Xu Shan was closer to Zheng Zhuo rather than her, so she naturally had no reason to say ‘please help him’. And the concern for the overall situation made it impossible for her to send Xu Shan back to the city to take care of him no matter how anxious she was.

She really couldn’t do anything, and it was not suitable for her to do anything.

Zheng Zhuo was worried about Lu Shi Qing before, and didn’t pay attention to Yuan Ci Xian at all. Only now did he realize that she was covered in blood and mud, and even her clothes were torn in several places. His brows furrowed, sighing inside for his carelessness, then said, “You hurry back home, as soon as there is news, I will send it immediately.”

Yuan Ci Xian glanced in Lu Shi Qing’s direction, nodded and said, “Thank you, Your Highness.” Then she turned back to the carriage.

Jian Zhi then drove towards the city.

As soon as Yuan Ci Xian lifted the curtain and went in, she smelled a strong smell of blood, and when she lowered his head again, she was horrified by two basins of blood.

Shi Cui was tidying up inside, when she saw her coming, she hurriedly made a barely clean place for her to sit down, and said: “Please bear with it Young lady, just now when His Highness pulled the knife from Mr. Xu, the situation is dangerous, and blood splattered everywhere.”

Yuan Ci Xian let out an “um”, and sat down numbly, as if she didn’t care too much about the stain.

Of course Shi Cui had some eyesight, hurriedly comforted her: “Don’t worry too much, Young Lady, His Highness is skillful, he managed to stop the bleeding, and now his guards have also brought wound medicine, I think Mr. Xu will be fine.” After that, she took a clean veil and wiped her face.

Yuan Ci Xian remained motionless and let Shi Cui served her, after a long time she asked: “Shi Cui, if Mr. Xu treats me like this, what can I give you him?”

Shi Cui stopped wiping.

How could she not understand what her young lady said. The reason why an intelligent person like Mr. Xu easily fell into the enemy’s tricks today was actually because caring makes chaos.

She hesitated and said: “Young lady, this maid know that I should persuade you not to think about it, but just now…”

Yuan Ci Xian tilted her head and stared at her: “What just now?”

“After pulling the knife just now, Mr. Xu passed out and he talked nonsense while he was unconscious, he seems…” She said with a bitter face, “calling your full name.”

Yuan Ci Xian froze when she heard this, she stared at the blood under her feet and stopped talking.

What Shi Cui said was indeed the truth. It’s just that Lu Shi Qing’s voice was hoarse due to his injury, and delirious talking with hazy breath, so she couldn’t recognize it. With Zheng Zhuo there, the mask was naturally not taken off, and she was not familiar with Lu Shi Qing’s body, so she didn’t find any clues when she went to help.

Yuan Ci Xian was tormented all day, and it was already dusk when she returned to Yuan Mansion, feeling very drained. After cleaning up, she hurriedly ate some food and rested. While lying down, her head was in a mess, and she couldn’t fall asleep no matter what.

The answer she had been reluctant to accept earlier still inevitably crashed into her heart following today’s events: Xu Shan was indeed special to her.

She originally had a certain amount of admiration for Xu Shan.

The first time she was attracted to him was when she watched chess game that day, when she heard him talk about the fish and shrimp in Xunyang, and his ideals and ambitions, she felt envious and admired. Later, when he came to the Yuan Mansion for the banquet, she lifted his mask in a drunken frenzy, saw his scars, and learned about his life situation, so she felt guilty and pity, and she did not hesitate to expose her scars to comfort him.

Her initial good impression for Xu Shan had nothing to do with appearance or age, it seemed that she just felt that she was very compatible with this person’s spirit and soul.

Then Xu Sanniang appeared.

The sense of loss that Xu Sanniang brought to her made her questioned, whether this kind of admiration was pure appreciation, or was there a bit of inappropriate feelings between men and women. So when she was on the bank of the Lushui River, looking at the Wupeng boat in the middle of the river, she felt extremely embarrassed and guilty.

After that, she pulled back before it’s too late, and forced herself to cut off all thoughts about Xu Shan. And she did. Maybe it’s because this period was not time for romance, maybe it’s the scruples about Xu Sanniang, maybe it’s the growing affection for Lu Shi Qing, or maybe it’s all those three, but eventually, when she saw Xu Shan again, she no longer stuck in dilemma.

However, the thought that she had finally let go came back to her mind now that she knew about Xu Shan’s affection for her.

She didn’t want to accept that Xu Shan was the kind of person who change mind once seeing something new, and she didn’t allow herself to be a person who change something that was already settled, but she was indeed in an uncontrollable mess right now.

Yuan Ci Xian laid down for a while, looked at the dark night outside, got up and hurriedly went to Yongxing Lane