For a moment, silence reigned in all four corners, and only the sound of Qin
Liu's wailing and sobbing was left, which was also stifled by her
trepidation.
Chen Li froze for a moment before she greeted him with a forced smile. She
said, "His Highness Jingwang is here? His Highness has not notified us in
advance. Our residence is full of ladies at the moment, and I have not
prepared, not prepared…"
The servant quickly interrupted, "His Highness Jingwang s-said…"
"No need to prepare."
Right at that moment, a clear and chilly voice came from behind him.
Everyone hurriedly looked in his direction.
He saw a noble young childe, walking slowly to the garden with the support
of a manservant.
It was clearly a spring day when all sorts of flowers were blooming, but he
was wrapped in a snow-white cloak with a circle of white fur at the
collar.The man had wide fluttering sleeves and a jade crown. When he
approached slowly, he looked like a god descending from the clouds, with a
noble and inviolable bearing.
But looking at his overly exquisite face, everyone felt that there was a bit of
charm in his arrogance, resembling the essence of a white fox.
The crowd froze for a moment before they hurriedly got up and bowed to
greet him.
The man was none other than Jiang Suizhou.
Seeing the garden filled with a bevy of women bowing to him, Jiang
Suizhou raised his hand, signaling them to rise.
He scanned the garden without a trace, and then paused on Qin Liu.
Sure enough. He thought to himself.
He knew that Chen Ti had gone to great lengths to get Huo Wujiu to come
to his manor and would not do nothing. However, he didn't expect that
Chen Ti would be so open-minded as to make such a move that would cost
him his wife and his troops just for the sake of tormenting Huo Wujiu.
He quietly glanced at Huo Wujiu.
As he expected, this person still looked aloof from the matter, and did not
even glance at Jiang Suizhou when he arrived.
But fortunately, seeing that the crying woman was quite far from Huo
Wujiu, she must have tried to frame him but failed. The situation was not
too bad.
Jiang Suizhou took a rough stock of the current situation deep inside. He
slowly walked up to Chen Li, stopping at a position three steps away from
her.
"I've come without informing you. I'm sorry for disturbing you, Madam
Chen," he said slowly.
Chen Li hurriedly bowed to him and forced a smile: "What is the Prince
saying? Your gracious presence here is a great honor to our humble
abode…"
Jiang Suizhou looked around at the garden of Chen's residence.
His own house was indeed quite simple and ordinary. It could not be
compared with those magnificent love nest manors Chen Ti bought with the
money he embezzled.
"Humble abode…" Jiang Suizhou pointed out with a smile that expressed
volumes surfacing on his face.
Chen Li inexplicably felt deeply flustered.
Then she heard Jiang Suizhou shifting the topic, saying with a gentle smile,
"It's going too far to say my presence brings light to your humble dwelling.
My visit today is merely because I don't trust the man in your residence. I
came to check if he's caused trouble again."
After saying that, his eyes leisurely roamed around the garden and finally
landed on Qin Liu.
"Now it seems that I have come at a good time, eh?"
His tone was gentle and sounded quite kind. But for some reason, the hearts
of everyone in the courtyard jumped to their throats, and they dared not
make the tiniest sound.
Qin Liu, who was shivering in her robe, cautiously raised her eyes and
looked at Jiang Suizhou.
Then she saw His Highness Jingwang, whose beauty transcended mortals,
gave Huo Wujiu a cold look and walked straight forward. The young
eunuch behind Huo Wujiu seemingly understood what he meant in an
instant. He trotted forward and brought him a wooden armchair.
His Highness sat unhurriedly on the armchair with his cloak fluttering,
graceful and noble.
Qin Liu saw that when His Highness was seated on the chair, his eyes fell
on her.
His cold and haughty eyes bore semblance to standing atop the clouds,
looking disdainfully at the mortals in the dust below. Nonetheless, his eyes
radiated an inexplicable charm, as if to suck people in. It was akin to a moth
flying into the flame, crashing into him.
For a spell, Qin Liu stared at him and felt her breathing stop.
But at that moment, His Highness Jingwang spoke. "Tell me about it," he
said, "What happened?"
It was only then that Qin Liu woke up as if in a dream and hastily looked at
the people around her. But to her surprise, she only stared blankly at His
Highness Jingwang for a few breaths, and that Madam Huo, who hadn't
spared her a single glance since he entered the garden, was actually looking
at her.
His eyes were ice-cold, and his brow was furrowed. He was looking down
at her, as if looking at something dirty.
Qin Liu took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.
Since His Highness Jingwang was here, the development of the situation
would definitely change. As for whether the situation would become more
serious or quashed depended on Jingwang's attitude.
Now it seemed that Jingwang detested Huo Wujiu, so she only needed to
add more fuel to the fire to make things worse.
She gulped and boldly shook off the maids on either side of her, and greeted
Jiang Suizhou, kneeling in front of him.
"Your Highness Jingwang." Her eyes welled up with tears, and she choked
up as she spoke, "The matter involves this lady servant's reputation.
Although it happened in public, this servant feels disgraced to speak of it!"
After saying that, she couldn't help herself anymore. She lifted her sleeve to
wipe her tears. While wiping her tears, she choked with sobs, "Why don't
you just let this servant die? At least, I'll die innocent!"
She knew that men succumbed to this the most.
As long as she showed weakness and became the victim, people would
become softhearted. A man's heart has always been biased. Once it melted,
the man would become increasingly partial. At this juncture, he would
believe whatever she said, wouldn't he?
While Qin Liu wiped the tears of her effort, Qin Liu didn't forget to peek at
Jiang Suizhou.
But she saw His Highness Jingwang acting as if he hadn't seen her tears at
all. He stretched out a slender, white hand from his cloak, picked the cup of
hot tea handed by the eunuch next to him, and drank it slowly.
"Forget it if you don't want to say it." he said indifferently.
Qin Liu froze.
Then His Highness put the tea aside, raised his hand and pointed randomly
in the crowd. Next, he named a lady and said unhurriedly, "My lady, please
come and give this Prince an account."
Qin Liu was completely dumbfounded.
She had forgotten that the man in front of her was a man who did not like
women. Her drama was clearly performed for the blind.
Qin Liu hurriedly turned her head back and saw that Jiang Suizhou was
pointing at the wife that the heir of the Duke of An Guo had just married.
She had interacted with the woman just now, and from the few words she
exchanged with her, she figured that she was a young pampered lady of a
rich family. Her husband's family also spoiled her, and she had never
suffered any hardship all her life. Her mind was as simple as a blank sheet
of paper.
Sure enough, hearing that Jingwang named her, the noble heir's wife was
dumbstruck. For a moment, she looked between Jingwang and Qin Liu,
standing there at a loss.
"Just now…" she opened her mouth cautiously, not knowing what to say.
Then Jingwang gently smiled at her. "Madam, just tell the truth," he
coaxed.
The lady hesitated for a moment, but still whispered, "It's nothing. It's just
that Concubine Qin didn't stand firm and leaned towards Madam Huo. But
Madam Huo dodged, and she fell headfirst into the lake…"
"Is that so?" Jingwang then asked.
The surrounding ladies exchanged glances, but none of them refuted.
Qin Liu's heart dropped to the soles of her feet.
She watched as Jingwang smiled lightly and nodded at the lady, and then
looked at her.
There was a trace of satisfied smile in his seductive fox-like eyes.
It was only then that Qin Liu came back to her senses.
It seems that Jingwang, who rushed here with overweening arrogance to
denounce Huo Wujiu publicly, was simply a false shot.
He came today to clean her up for Huo Wujiu.
But everything was so logical that she had a hard time saying anything.
—
On the carriage back to the manor, the only sound was the rolling of the
wheels.
Jiang Suizhou leaned on the wall of the carriage, his breath still a bit
uneven.
In fact, he could not get out of bed until today. Chen's residence was not too
big, but he didn't even have a palanquin. He had walked all the way to the
garden and already couldn't bear it.
Fortunately, everything was dealt with flawlessly.
He didn't give the woman who did the harm a chance to speak, but pointed
to a girl he'd had his eye on for a while. The girl looked young. She was
dressed in a gorgeous dress, and her emotions were all written on her face.
At first glance, she was a naive lady with a powerful backer, who could not
lie.
Sure enough, by exposing the concubine's lies, she had also let the main
wife dispose of her rightfully on the spot.
Although not to the point of killing her, the woman ruined her reputation
herself.
Because of this farce, he was also able to take Huo Wujiu away in advance.
He didn't have to stay there and choke on the rouge powder smell.
With this in mind, Jiang Suizhou was in a good mood and asked, "Are you
alright?"
His relationship with Huo Wujiu now was not so stiff. Naturally, he talked a
lot with him. As long as he started a conversation, Huo Wujiu would
definitely respond to him…
But silence answered him.
The carriage quieted down again after Jiang Suizhou finished asking. Huo
Wujiu next to him seemed to have not heard him, and didn't say a word.
Hmm?
Jiang Suizhou looked at him in confusion.
What's the matter?
Huo Wujiu, who was sitting there, turned his head and met his gaze coldly.
"Are you feeling better?"
Instead of answering his question, he asked a rhetorical question, abruptly
and at once, confusing Jiang Suizhou.
"What?" Jiang Suizhou was nonplussed.
Huo Wujiu suddenly raised his hand, directly covered his forehead, rough
and direct, and messed up the hair in front of his forehead.
Jiang Suizhou reflexively dodged to the side, but the space in the carriage
was narrow and he was not as strong as Huo Wujiu. Hence, before he could
resist, Huo Wujiu pinned Jiang Suizhou down and freely let his rough hand
press against his forehead.
A few moments later, he retracted his hand.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Suizhou got up from the carriage, breathing
unevenly.
Huo Wujiu, who had withdrawn his hand and also withdrawn his gaze along
with it, looked ahead. He had a cold expression, looking neither right nor
left.
"You're much better," he muttered.
Jiang Suizhou felt a little amused for a moment and retorted, "I don't have a
fever. What's the use of touching my forehead?"
Huo Wujiu gave him a sideway glance.
Jiang Suizhou was weak because of the drug. At this time, he was solely
preoccupied with holding onto the carriage to sit straight. He didn't know
that his pale appearance, unstable breathing, and disheveled hair were all
captured by Huo Wujiu.
Huo Wujiu paused, opened his mouth, and gruffly spoke. "Now that you
can move, come stay in your own courtyard," he said coldly.
"What?" Jiang Suizhou was taken aback.
Although Huo Wujiu was not the same as an ordinary concubine, he was, at
best, a prisoner of war detained in Jiang Suizhou's house. But …How could
Huo Wujiu sound so justified in arranging where he could stay?
Huo Wujiu said in a low voice, "If you die of consumption in your
concubine's room, I'll be sent back to the imperial prison."
After speaking, he turned around and did not look at Jiang Suizhou again.
Jiang Suizhou froze and returned to his senses.
Whoa! This man actually dared to openly curse him to death!
As expected, Huo Wujiu didn't often speak, but once he opened his mouth,
he would most likely anger people to death.
Jiang Suizhou glared at him with hatred and sat upright in the carriage.
I'm not going to die! As long as you don't chop my head off, I'll live a long
life!
With this thought in mind, he turned his head to look out the window and
ignored Huo Wujiu.
He failed to see that the hands Huo Wujiu placed on his lap were tightly
clenched into fists.
It was a man, hastily fending off his raging jealousy.
Even Huo Wujiu himself could not have imagined that just one glance, just
one glance at Jiang Suizhou's messy and frail appearance was enough to
upset him. His eyes burned. He was even irritable to the point of wanting to
shoot through the chest of the person who had shared this look with Jiang
Suizhou.
In the silence, an evil dragon seemed to be awakening in his chest.
The evil dragon was greedy and irascible, and his eyes were fixed
unwaveringly on a certain treasure.
—
The author has something to say:
Gu Changyun: You may not believe me, but if it weren't for luck, I would
have died 800 times over.