Chapter 41

 

Yuan Ci Xian took two steps, and was reminded by the burning gaze from behind, she looked down, only then did realize that Lu Shi Qing was still holding her hand, and her heart couldn’t help but tremble.

It’s amazing, she was held by the future Imperial Teacher. This was a road leading to the pinnacle of life.

Yuan Ci Xian was so excited that her heart beat a little faster. She squinted at Lu Shi Qing’s profile face, but saw that he looked serious as if he was just leading a sheep, and she couldn’t help but want to make him fluctuate too. Feeling his slightly sticky and damp palm, she whispered: “Assistant Minister Lu seems to be very nervous?”

The white waves in Lu Shi Qing’s heart had already risen thousands of feet high, but he replied calmly without looking to the side: “Well, it’s the first time I see so many people, I’m a little nervous.”

He was just bluffing.

Yuan Ci Xian said ambiguously: “It’s also my first time, and I’m still a little shy.”

Her tone was ambiguous, and of course he understood, but he still remained calm and composed: “Oh, just see more in the future.”

Yuan Ci Xian said ‘in your dream’ in her heart, but continued to tease him with code words: “The people are so cute, in your heart do you feel, sweet?”

The more she talked, the more Lu Shi Qing choked, and the more sweats overflowed from his palms, he avoided the heavy and answer the light: “I don’t think it’s cute.”

“But I looked at it…” Yuan Ci Xian moved closer to his ear, her eyes rolled, and she exhaled, “It’s very cute.”

Lu Shi Qing felt weak all over his body, he really didn’t know how he get back to the carriage, only thinking that he would lose it if he let go. Even if she blew the wind from east to west, he would just stand still.

In fact, his social skills were not bad. For example when he was in front of the common people like before, he who was usually very indifferent, could act quite close to the people in the blink of an eye. But then he ran into Yuan Ci Xian, this battering ram, who attacked and beat him all the way, making his eardrums vibrate and his heart trembled.

So when the refugees dispersed and the carriage drove into a mansion arranged by the governor of Shuzhou, he went back to his room to cooled his head without saying a word.

Yuan Ci Xian also ran to take a bath contentedly, while thinking about the farce in front of the city gate just now.

Lu Shi Qing pardoning the gatekeeper could be said to be a beautiful job. First, it was to demonstrate the benevolence of the imperial court and appease the hearts of the people at this moment when everyone was in danger. Second, it was to put a long line to catch big fish, using this to follow the vine to find out the mastermind.

Of course, based on what he said when he questioned the gatekeeper, Yuan Ci Xian deduced that this matter may have something to do with Ping Prince, the local snakepowerful local bully who oppress the people of Huainan, and in fact there was no need to go to great lengths to investigate.

Perhaps because she had such preconceived ideas that after a few days when Ping Prince came from Yangzhou in the east to discuss the follow-up matters of disaster relief with Lu Shi Qing, she subconsciously became a little wary of this person.

Especially the next day, when Lu Shi Qing went out to inspect the river situations and returned late, and Ping Prince asked her to play chess alone, she became even more vigilant.

She remembered that Xu Shan said that he was assassinated on the way to the capital to work for Zheng Zhuo, and his life was almost lost. At that time, she didn’t ask more questions out of politeness, but later she thought about this matter more than once, thinking that the so-called assassin might have something to do with Second Prince or Third Prince, that was, Ping Prince.

Now that Ping Prince suddenly wanted to play chess with her, did he have ulterior motives and wanted to test something?

She was not sure about his plan, but she couldn’t refuse directly, so she perfunctory played a game of unqualified chess with him, and then used tiredness to an excuse, yawned a few times, and went back to her room.

Fortunately, this seemingly dangerous person did not stay for long. After a few days, when the disaster situation in Shuzhou stabilized, Ping Prince returned to Yangzhou.

Lu Shi Qing had been leaving early and returning late for most of the month, and Yuan Ci Xian didn’t want to disturb his official business, so she strived to say good morning and evening to him every day.

When she was idle in the mansion, she accidently heard that back then he originally did not want to alarm the local officials near Shangzhou, but planned to hide his whereabouts and arrest some corrupt officials. But because of her assassination, he had to make a great fanfare all the way, so naturally it inadvertently alerted the enemy. That’s why he stayed for three days in Tangzhou, the junction of Shannan East Province and Huainan Province, in order to ensure the smooth delivery of disaster relief supplies.

Yuan Ci Xian felt that she had caused trouble for the court, and felt very apologetic in her heart. Seeing that Lu Shi Qing was so busy every day, it seemed that it was a good time to show her attentiveness. In the next few days, she practiced her cooking skills diligently.

After chopping the tenth cutting board, Cao An, Zhao Shu, Shi Cui, and even Xiao Hei cried bitterly, and turned around and ran away when they saw her holding a bowl. At last, there was a leap and breakthrough, and a bowl of colorful and fragrance vegetable tofu soup was successfully cooked.

That’s right, in order to be close to the people, she chose such common ingredients.

However, fortune is as unpredictable as the weather, everyday maybe bring fortune or calamity. In the end, Lu Shi Qing did not drink this bowl of soup that was approved by the masses. The reason was because Yuan Ci Xian intercepted a letter on the way to deliver the soup.

A letter sent from Chang’an, and a letter addressed to Lu Shi Qing, signed “Shaohe”.

Yuan Ci Xian turned back halfway, and instead of delivering the soup, she gave it to Xiao Hei to drink, and then went back to the room with the letter.

Assistant Minister Lu, who heard that midnight snack would be vegetable tofu soup, waited in the room for a long time, and finally saw Yuan Ci Xian came in empty-handed. She burst into his study very elegantly, pulled out a letter from her sleeve very gracefully, and threw it on his desk: “Assistant Minister Lu, here is a letter for you.”

After much deliberation, she couldn’t do such immoral thing like open the letter in secret, so she had to bring it over.

Lu Shi Qing glanced at the inscription on the carp-patterned letter, he was taken aback for a moment, and said, “What would you write to me in the name of Shaohe State Princess?”

Wow, this reaction was really perfect, he completely brushed himself clean with one sentence, and denied all possible correspondence with Zheng Yun.

Yuan Ci Xian was almost moved, but after looking at the words “Dear Zishu” on the letter, she still felt that Lu Shi Qing should not be trusted. If this was the first time they had such contacts, people wouldn’t call him so intimately. She was so shameless but she never called him “Zishu”.

She glanced at him, and didn’t buy it, “I have been diligently practiced cooking these few days, how can I write to you? Open your eyes and take a good look, this is written by Shaohe State Princess herself.”

Yuan Ci Xian really misunderstood Lu Shi Qing this time, he really thought that she was playing around with him just now, after all Zheng Yun had never written to him before.

With an “oh”, he took the letter, and glanced at the intact wax pattern on the seal of the letter.

Yuan Ci Xian snorted: “I haven’t open it, so you don’t need to check it.”

Lu Shi Qing glanced at her: “Why don’t you open it if you want to see?”

Oh, did she hear it wrong? Yuan Ci Xian was overjoyed in her heart, but pretended to be dissatisfied on her face: “Who said I want to see it?”

Lu Shi Qing twitched the corner of his mouth: “It’s a good thing you don’t want to. If you tear it open, I might report you to the official and have you arrested.”

“…”

Yuan Ci Xian originally thought her love was finally reciprocated. She gritted her teeth in anger, took a deep breath and endured.

Well, he won this game, and she would be the victor in the next game.

After Lu Shi Qing finished speaking, he lowered his head and opened the letter, but he didn’t intend to tell Yuan Ci Xian to avoid it, and generously opened the letter in front of her.

But she also wanted to save her face this time, would not eagerly read the content of the letter, but instead kept looking at the pillars above her head, pretending to be uninterested to avoid suspicion.

There was only one piece of letter paper, after sweeping over a few sentences of greetings Lu Shi Qing looked up and saw her like this, he then suddenly got up and left.

Yuan Ci Xian was taken aback: “Where are you going, don’t you want to read the letter?”

Lu Shi Qing said lightly: “I’m going to relieve myself, why do you care?”

She choked, threw him a sharp gaze, and when he went to the clean room, she bent her waist, lightly walked around to his desk, and read the letter spread out on top word by word. While reading she paid attention to the movement around her, but Lu Shi Qing seemed to have fallen into the latrine, and he only returned after half a day.

By this time, it seemed like she had read it three times, had already retreated to her original position, and continued to stand in front of his desk and look at the sky.

After returning to his seat, Lu Shi Qing glanced at her, slowly dipped his brush into the ink, and drew a circle on the letter to circled a word.

Yuan Ci Xian was attracted by this action, so she couldn’t help it anymore. She looked down and saw that his brush paused, and then circled another word. After doing this several times, he pieced together a few characters message: Be careful on the way home.

She was slightly stunned, and then realized that it was a code hidden in the letter, pointing out: “You still act like Shaohe didn’t pass the letter, you interpret this code so skillfully”

Lu Shi Qing glanced at her: “I thought the first thing you’ll ask is why did she remind me to be careful on the way home, is it possible that someone is going to assassinate me?”

Yuan Ci Xian choked, and muttered: “You still care about that. I am going back with you, if you are in danger, I will do my best to block the knife for you!”

He sneered, probably because he didn’t believe it, and explained her previous question: “It’s not a secret code between me and her, but I once accompanied Thirteenth Prince to guess the hidden acrostic, and she was also there, so she must have heard it too.”

Yuan Ci Xian said “Oh”: “I really envy…”

Lu Shi Qing thought it was funny: “Do you envy her?” What he said to Zheng Yun in a year was less than what he said to her in a day.

“Yes.” Yuan Ci Xian said seriously and affirmatively, “I really envy Thirteenth prince, who can learn hidden acrostics at such a young age.”

“…”

It was a trick.

Lu Shi Qing frowned, and continued to study the code on the letter.

Yuan Ci Xian succeeded in winning back a round, and was in a good mood, so she stopped putting on airs and went to his side to look at the letter together to see if there were any other messages, but she didn’t find the next word for a long time.

She frowned and said to herself: “What exactly does she want you to be careful about? There is no explanation.”

But Lu Shi Qing roughly knew it in his heart, closed the letter, lit it on the oil lamp until it turned to ashes, and said: “There are many people who want to kill me, but only a few who dare to do it.”

Seeing that he didn’t seem to take it seriously, Yuan Ci Xian no longer worried, and this time sincerely said: “Don’t worry, I assure you, you won’t die this time.”

“…”

Yuan Ci Xian was serious, after all, in her dream, he could still live for many years.

But Lu Shi Qing felt uncomfortable hearing these words, and said: “I won’t die this time, how about next time?”

She knew that the words she used were inappropriate, so she smiled coyly: “Next time also won’t die, you will never die.”

That also not good, he’s not a monster.

Lu Shi Qing didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh, so he waved her off and said, “It’s getting late, I’m going to bed.”

Yuan Ci Xian was also tired from making soup before, and now she was a little sleepy, so she nodded and yawned, then turned around and walked through the door. But as if remembering something, she stopped and asked him: “Assistant Minister Lu, why did Shaohe call you ‘Zishu’?”

Lu Shi Qing raised his head and replied, “Why can’t she call me by my literary name? In the whole Zhou Dynasty, no matter male or female, except for subordinates, anyone can call me that.”

This seemed to imply that Yuan Ci Xian could also call him that.

But how could she be content with such a title that tens of millions of people could also called, she showed her teeth and smiled slyly, then said: “Isn’t there few people who call you ‘Lu Shi Qing’?”

 

TN: the part where the two “flirts” at the beginning, the author kindly explained for people who don’t understand (me included)

YCX: Assistant Minister Lu seems very nervous?

LSQ: Well, it’s the first time I held a girl’s hand, I’m a little nervous.

YCX: it’s also the first time for me (being held by a boy), and I’m a little shy.

LSQ: Oh, just hold on more in the future.

YCX: Then I’m cute, (holding me) what’s it like in your heart, is it sweet?

LSQ: I don’t think it’s cute.

YCX: But I think (you are stubborn) it’s very cute.

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