Chapter 74 Part 1

Lu Shi Qing had the habit of going to bed early because he had been carefully recuperating his injuries these past two months, but in fact, the sun had not even set right now. Yuan Ci Xian was still enjoying the cool in the courtyard, eating the cherries brought back by her brother from Daming Palace.

In Great Zhou Dynasty, cherries were rare and precious fruits, and the emperor would give fruits to newly promoted Jinshi every year to show the emperor’s grace. Most of the literati who could get the imperial cherry would write a poem happily, boasting how good the color of the fruit was.

The plate of Luoyang cherries in front of Yuan Ci Xian was the last batch of this season, if it’s a bit later, even the imperial family would not be able to eat it. This time, all the ministers was fortunate enough to taste it under the light of Prince Nanzhao. Yuan Yu, as a brother, would not forget his sister even if he ate a fruit, and only after bringing it back to her did he went to take a bath to wash off the alcohol.

The end of Fourth month meant it was approaching midsummer, the shades were dense and the trees were low, the courtyard was full of delicate and fragrant rose, and the cherry in front of her was big and fat, round like pearl and red like ruby, which made people feel good when looking at it. The only thing that spoiled the mood was that there were many mosquitoes on this hot day, and they would buzz in Yuan Ci Xian’s ears from time to time.

After staying for a while, she felt that she couldn’t sit still, and was about to go back to her room to eat alone, when she heard a report from a servant, saying that the Crown Prince Xi Ju was knocking on the door.

She was very surprised, forgot that a cherry pit was still stuck between her teeth and had not spit it out. She knocked her teeth, and “hiss” in pain. After rubbing her face, she asked, “What did he want?”

The servant didn’t know, and only said that Xi Ju was alone, looked like he had drunk too much at the palace banquet, and became drunk at the gate of Yuan Mansion, and they couldn’t send him away no matter what. After all, the other person had a noble status, and it’s impossible for the servants to use violent, and because Yuan Yu was taking a bath in the bedroom, they had to come to ask her for instructions.

Yuan Ci Xian thought for a while, spat out the cherry pit, covered her mouth and went out, but when she reached the door, she saw that Xi Ju was no longer making a fuss, but lying on the stone steps, motionless, and seemed to be asleep.

Her feet faltered, she glanced at the seemingly empty surroundings, seemed to be surprise, and stopped at a distance, “What’s the matter Your Highness?” After saying that, she turned her head and raised her voice to ask Shi Cui beside her, “Does Crown Prince followed by any guards? Go and have a look around.”

After Yuan Ci Xian finished speaking, she didn’t take a step forward until a group of Jinwu guards who were patrolling the night hurried over.

Shi Cui explained to her: “Young lady, this maid didn’t find the crown prince’s guards, but met some street guards.”

She nodded: “That’s fine.” She then looked at the leader of this team of Jinwu guard, “Troubling you to run this trip. I see that Nanzhao Crown Prince seems to be drunk, and I don’t know where he staying in the capital this time, still ask you to work hard and send him back.”

Seeing this, the leader hurriedly cupped his hands at her: “County Princess is polite, it’s this little one’s responsibility. But this little one was negligent for a while, and let the drunk crown prince came here by mistake. County Princess please don’t blame.”

Yuan Ci Xian waved her hand to signal that it was alright, and watched from a distance as they dragged the “sleeping” Xi Ju away, never get close to him from the beginning to the end. When the surroundings finally became silent, only then she ordered the servants to close the gate of the mansion, turned around and walked inside.

Shi Cui followed her and asked, “Young lady, what did the crown prince mean by this?”

Yuan Ci Xian sneered: “Of course he came to drag me into the water. Although His Majesty treated Nanzhao’s delegation well, how could he be defenseless in the face of the enemy’s crown prince who raised troops to invade Great Zhou just three months ago? After the palace banquet was over, he must have sent some spies to follow him. After Xi Ju found out, he simply came to me. Once I had contact with him, even if just asking you to help him up, the spies lurking around may be regarded as evidence of my close relationship with him.”

So she stopped at a long distance, and called the emperor’s most trusted personal guard with great fanfare to show her innocence.

After she finished speaking, she smiled sinisterly: “Believe it or not, if I stood beside him just now, he would shamelessly get up and dragged me.”

Shi Cui nodded in agreement. This Crown Prince of Nanzhao had always acted unscrupulously. When waging war, other people would need to have sufficient reason to send troops, he was the only one who was willing to risk the world’s great opposition, and if he wanted to wage war, he would wage war, without even looking for an excuse.

Yuan Ci Xian was troubled in her heart, covered her teeth that were still a little sore, and was about to say that she didn’t want to eat that unlucky cherry again, when suddenly she heard three knocks on the gate behind her.

Is not over yet? She stopped, walked back with a frown, signaled the servant to open the gate, straightened her sleeves and was about to get angry. When the gate of the mansion was opened, she saw Lu Shi Qing with a gloomy face outside, and when he saw her, his eyes were like brooms, sweeping down from her face to the front of her clothes, to her chest.

“Why are you here?” Yuan Ci Xian was getting warm by his gaze, she looked down at her breasts strangely, and felt that the size was moderate and there was nothing wrong with it.

Lu Shi Qing didn’t say a word, his eyes moved up again, and when they fell on the side of her neck, he lifted his head to looked around at the dark surroundings, seemed to hate that he couldn’t see clearly. He then grabbed her wrist and walked into Yuan Mansion, and only let go when he reached the corridor of a bright hall, frowned and looked carefully at her neck.

Yuan Ci Xian reached out to touch her neck, wondering: “What’s on my neck?”

Lu Shi Qing fiercely pulled her hand away, signaling her not to block it, and after seeing it clearly, his pupils suddenly shrank.

What’s on her neck? It’s a suspicious red mark! Red mark!

This scene almost killed Lu Shi Qing. The veins on his forehead throbbed wildly, he gnashed his teeth and said, “What did Xi Ju do to you?”

Yuan Ci Xian was almost scared and twisted her neck by him, then said in a daze, “He didn’t do anything…” After answering, she asked, “How do you know he was here? You come here because of this?”

Because Emperor Huining was in the deep palace, he might not be able to deal with everything by himself in time, so the spies who followed Xi Ju also maintained a first-line contact with Lu Shi Qing. That was where he got the news. It’s just that the spies had already left when he arrived, so he didn’t have time to meet them face to face and ask about the specific details of Xi Ju’s visit to Yuan mansion. Right now, his head was like playing a shadow puppet show, and he couldn’t stop at all.

Seeing that he didn’t speak, Yuan Ci Xian only put on a murderous expression, and couldn’t help but feel that the place he was staring at was hot and itchy, so she stretched out her hand to scratch it, and then said in surprise: “Hey, what a big mosquito bump!”

Lu Shi Qing froze when hearing this, he stretched his neck and took a closer look again, only to realize that the red mark was not what he imagined. Suddenly he felt a little embarrassed, retracted his eyes and said lightly: “Yes, that’s what I want to say, there’s one on the right, but not on the left.”

The implication was that he was angry because he felt uncomfortable.

Yuan Ci Xian covered her neck and called Shi Cui to bring the ointment, while feeling he was being unreasonable: “Just to make you look comfortable, I have to let a mosquito bite me twice?”

Lu Shi Qing frowned, and turned away with his hands behind his back, and said with big attitude: “Body, hair and skin are the gift from the parent, naturally they should not be bitten. How long have you been staying outside that you got bitten by the mosquito.”

She thought that he was just talking nonsense, although she knew that most of the bump was bitten in her courtyard, she didn’t want to explain it to such a pretentious person, so she just let out a “tsk” and then ran to Shi Cui who had brought the ointment, and left him where he was.

Lu Shi Qing choked for a moment, seeing that since they were engaged, her wings had become harder and her vision had become higher, and she was not afraid that he would back out from being a backer. He had no choice but to gritted his teeth, followed her, then snatched the small porcelain bottle from Shi Cui’s hand, said: “I get it, you go down.”

This was Yuan Mansion, how could Shi Cui listen to his order, hearing this she glanced at Yuan Ci Xian.

When Yuan Ci Xian heard that Lu Shi Qing wanted to serve her, she calmed down a little, motioned for her to retreat, then raised her chin, tilted her head, stretched her neck under his eyes and said, “Go on.”

He frowned, reluctantly unscrewed the cap of the porcelain bottle, but he was as meticulously as ever, dipped his index finger in some green ointment, spread it evenly on her red marks, then lowered his head to blow on it.

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