Chapter 67 Part 2

 

Yuan Ci Xian was indeed distracted: “What does Sir think?”

“Let’s do the reverse plot. The way to break the conspiracy lies in changing the situation. Since right now it’s not the best time for Ping Prince to do it, then it’s the best time for us to do it.”

Yuan Ci Xian seemed to understand, and said in surprise, “Sir means because it’s not appropriate for Ping Prince to do anything now, so let’s create an assassination before him, and turn passive into active?”

What should I do if she always has such a tacit understanding with “Xu Shan”.

Lu Shi Qing nodded unhappily, and said: “Exactly. Xu’s idea is that His Highness will quietly arrange a group of assassins to “assassinate” Diannan Prince before Ping Prince. The northern part of Jiannan Province has densely populated prefectures and counties, and once Diannan Prince “assassinated”, it will be taken care by all sides, and it will surely alarm the court. His Majesty is not afraid of Diannan Prince to the point of wanting to kill him, so when something like this happened, it’s impossible not to make a superficial effort, and he will definitely send someone to escort him.”

Yuan Ci Xian’s anxiety suddenly disappeared, and she said pleasantly: “In this way, there is no need to take the risk reporting this to my father and reminding him to be careful. Naturally, Ping Prince will not catch His Highness and my Yuan family to have any relations. And with His Majesty’s order, the support from the surrounding prefectures and counties is enough to protect my father, and it will be very difficult for Ping Prince to attack.”

Lu Shi Qing nodded. More importantly, Yuan Yi Zhi would not be forced into a desperate situation to the point of using his private troops.

Yuan Ci Xian laughed: “Sir has a clever plan, just like…” She paused at this point.

Zheng Zhuo and Lu Shi Qing both looked at her questioningly.

She originally wanted to say that he was like Lu Shi Qing. But the problem was when Lu Shi Qing helped her expose the Jiang family, he made use of some hidden people, and did not expose himself, so in the eyes of the emperor, Zheng Zhuo and other princes and courtiers, this matter had nothing to do with him at all. Now that she suddenly said such a sentence, it would inevitably make the two people suspicious.

Although she was not completely honest with Lu Shi Qing about Zheng Zhuo, but it was also relatively impossible to tell outsiders about his private actions.

So she gave a dry laugh “hehe”, and continued, “Just make me prostrate in admiration!”

Lu Shi Qing’s eyebrows behind the mask twitched.

Prostrate in admiration? Does she know what kind of pose this is? Then just throw yourself to the ground!

Zheng Zhuo let out a dry cough, as if he could smell the sourness that permeated around him, and hurriedly smoothed things over: “Mr. Xu’s method is feasible, but the assassins I send must seriously fight with Diannan Prince, otherwise it won’t fool others. But the sword has no eyes, so in order to avoid accidental injury, I hope to get some pointers from County Princess to ensure that Diannan Prince understands the cause and effect in the shortest possible time, so that he can cooperate with me in this scene.”

This was exactly Zheng Zhuo’s purpose, to ask Yuan Ci Xian about the follow-up communication.

She nodded: “It’s not difficult. Let me tell you a few things, and after my father listened, he will soon be able to guess that the assassin is a friend.”

After Yuan Ci Xian finished explaining, the meeting was over. But before they went their separate ways, Zheng Zhuo became playful, and asked her: “County Princess came to the appointment, afraid Assistant Minister Lu didn’t know about it?”

On the side, Lu Shi Qing craned his neck. Although he knew Zheng Zhuo, this kid, was provoking trouble, but he was really curios of Yuan Ci Xian’s answer. After a moment, he saw her smiling and said, “He doesn’t know. He’s very petty, if he knows, he’ll turn the world upside down.”

Zheng Zhuo gloated at Lu Shi Qing whose face had already darkened, and asked, “Today is Flower Festival, you don’t go out with him for a spring hike?”

“Yeah, right.” Yuan Ci Xian pouted, “Later, let him step on the mud, he’ll think it’s dirty, let him look at wildflowers, the flowers and leaves must be all symmetrical, isn’t this too difficult for the flowers. Where is he still interest in spring hike!”

Zheng Zhuo laughed.

Lu Shi Qing really wanted to beat him up. Sitting on the edge of a cliff, he still dared to laugh so wildly, was he not afraid of falling off from rocking back-and-forth laughing.

Yuan Ci Xian sighed, her fiancé was such a buzzkill.

She sighed and was about to say goodbye to the two of them, but she saw Zheng Zhuo got up one step ahead of her: “I have important matters, and I have to leave first. I’m afraid I will have to trouble County Princess and Sir to wait here for a while.”

The three of them wanted to hide from people, it was best to step out of the mountain separately. Yuan Ci Xian originally wanted to leave first to avoid being alone with one of them, but since Zheng Zhuo said so, she could only nod her head and said, “It’s alright, if Your Highness have something to do, please go first.”

Lu Shi Qing was a little comfortable now, he glanced at Zheng Zhuo and signaled him to go as fast as he could.

Zheng Zhuo secretly smiled in his heart, and before leaving, he added to Yuan Ci Xian: “Since County Princess feels that enjoying the flowers with Assistant Minister Lu is a buzzkill, it’s better to walk around with Mr. Xu. He even told me a few days ago that he doesn’t have someone to go on spring hike with him.”

He then left after finishing his work, leaving Yuan Ci Xian and Lu Shi Qing looking at each other for a while.

After a stick of incense, the two left the stone pavilion side by side, and wandered together in the mountains.

Yuan Ci Xian was a little embarrassed. Originally if Zheng Zhuo didn’t say much, she would have gone back home, but now out of politeness, she had no choice but to ask Xu Shan if he was interested in spring hike.

After all, he used to be a person who loved the mountains and rivers, and was keen on traveling. Now in this treacherous Chang’an, in order to hide his identity, he rarely had the opportunity to come out openly. It was normal for him to hope that someone would walk around with him. And he just did her a big favor today, if she didn’t even ask, it would obviously be unreasonable.

Originally she was being polite, she thought that Xu Shan would be tactful, and would not travel alone with a woman who already had a fiancé, but he unexpectedly agreed. Now, even if she knew it was inappropriate, she couldn’t refuse.

Of course, there was a reason why Lu Shi Qing said “yes”. Yuan Ci Xian’s meeting with Zheng Zhuo was for political affairs, and she certainly wouldn’t feel guilty towards for him, but walking around with “Xu Shan” was different. After all, today was different from the past.

He believed that she still had a little conscience. He was very angry with her just now but had no place to vent it. Now let her feel guilty, and he might get some surprise treatment later.

And earned himself some compensation.

In early spring of Second month, the color of the grass was still light, and the peach blossoms in the mountains were not fully bloomed, most of them were on the budding stage. On the contrary, clusters of unnamed wild flowers grew on the side of the road, lining the grass field with bright background.

Yuan Ci Xian looked around as she walked, feeling a little uncomfortable, and didn’t have the nerve to squat down to take a closer look.

Seeing the admiration in her eyes, Lu Shi Qing actually had the urge to pick flowers for her, and when he remembered that he was now Xu Shan, a bunch of flowers had already arrived in his hands.

He couldn’t explain this behavior as his love of flowers, and took this bunch of bright red things in his hands and play with them all the way, so he had to grit his teeth and bite the bullet and handed it to her.

Seeing this, Yuan Ci Xian was taken aback, and hurriedly said: “Thank you, Sir.” Then she probably felt that the situation was a bit too ambiguous, so she quickly took the flowers, stepped forward and walked a little faster to separate a little distance from him.

Fortunately, she didn’t pay attention to the familiar hand.

Seeing that she kept a distance from him, Lu Shi Qing was a little relieved, but he couldn’t help thinking, if Yuan Ci Xian didn’t have ghosts in her heart, why do this?

When he slowly followed, Yuan Ci Xian tentatively asked, “May I ask you, Sir, where did Xǔ Sanniang go after that Lu river’s trip last year? She should be traveling with you today…”

At that time, because of Xǔ Sanniang’s arrival, Yuan Ci Xian made up her mind to keep a distance from Xu Shan, but she seemed to not stay in Chang’an afterwards. She had always found it odd, Xǔ Sanniang finally found the one she had searching for, then she just left, could it be that the two had a falling out?

Lu Shi Qing had no choice but to find a reasonable excuse and lied: “The situation in Chang’an is unstable, and her staying here will only increase the danger.”

The implication was that he sent her away for the sake of her safety.

Yuan Ci Xian said “Oh”, thinking it was made sense. On one side, she couldn’t help but feel the deep feelings between the two of them, and also thinking about how to end this inappropriate outing as soon as possible. Unexpectedly, Xu Shan also had the same intention, and said first: “It’s not early, County Princess should go back to the mansion for lunch. Where is your carriage parked? Xu will take you there.”

Originally, he and Yuan Ci Xian had better leave separately like Zheng Zhuo, but seeing that there was no maid around her, he was not at ease, so he asked this question.

Yuan Ci Xian waved her hand and said: “My carriage is parked far away, but my maid is waiting at the foot of the mountain, so you don’t need to waste time escorting.”

“Then Xu will take you down.”

She didn’t refuse, and when she arrived at the mountain entrance and met Jian Zhi, she said goodbye to him. To avoid attracting attention, Lu Shi Qing did not follow out of the mountain immediately, but stayed nearby for quite a while before leaving.

Today he rode a horse in order to come here as soon as possible. After leaving the mountain, he got on the horse and headed back to Chang’an City. But after riding for a while, he saw a carriage coming in this direction.

There was nothing special about the carriage, what was special was that he recognized the driver as Yuan Ci Xian’s maid, Shi Cui.

He wondered how could she appeared here at this time, and hurried forward.

Shi Cui also noticed him, drove over, and asked, “Mr. Xu, why are you here?”

Seeing she obviously hadn’t met Yuan Ci Xian, Lu Shi Qing frowned and said, “I just said goodbye to County Princess. Wasn’t you suppose to wait for her, what are you doing here?”

Shi Cui was stunned: “It was County Princess who sent a message asking me to come to the mountain entrance to pick her up.”

Lu Shi Qing recalled the direction Yuan Ci Xian and Jiang Zhi left from a distance below, his intuition felt wrong. He shook his head and said in with certainty: “There’s no such thing.”

Shi Cui also seemed to understand something, and her expression suddenly became tense, but before she could open her mouth to ask again, Xu Shan already lifted the whip in his hand, and galloped out.

The deserted mountain road was covered with grass and dust.

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