Chapter 79

 

Yuan Ci Xian’s lips parted slightly as she lay on the ground, staring blankly for a while. She originally thought that this mechanism might lead to a secret room containing important things, but she had not expected that there would be such a deep underground passage.

To build a hole under the emperor’s feet, it seemed she married a bold fat mouse.

She hung half of her body into the passage and saw nothing but a narrow and simple passage. There was only a pull ring on the door and several wall lamps hanging on one side of the mudstone wall. The candles in the lamps were enclosed in shades, emitting a dim yellow halo that looked somewhat eerie and terrifying from a distance.

Yuan Ci Xian shuddered, got up and brushed off her clothes Although she was curious about where the passage led, she silently restrained herself from going further. She thought it was better not to wander around at night and instead try to probe Lu Shi Qing later. She also wanted to see if he was honest with her.

After she made up her mind, and was about to take off the jade brush rest and restore everything to its original state, but when she stretched out her hand, she suddenly froze and stopped an inch away from the wall.

Wait a minute. Why is the wall lamp in the underground passage on?

The wall lamp used short candles, which would burn out within an hour, but Lu Shi Qing had already set out to greet the guests two hours ago, and it was absolutely impossible that he forgot to extinguish the candles before leaving the underground passage. So, who lit the wall lamp? Such a private bedroom, such a hidden underground passage, who would enter it on this wedding night?

Yuan Ci Xian hesitated for a moment, turned back again, walked down the stone steps step by step, and when she reached the nearest wall lamp, she took off the lampshade, checked the length of the short candle, and felt even more strange.

The short candle didn’t burn much, it looked like it was just lit for two sticks of incense. And two incense sticks ago, she was sitting alone in this bedroom, and she was sure that no one had ever opened this door. Then it must be someone who came here through from the other side of the underground passage.

She shuddered and had goosebumps all over her body, she subconsciously felt the danger, and wanted to turn around and back out. However, when she stared straight at the end of the underground passage, she changed her mind.

No. Lu Shi Qing was a cautious person, it was absolutely impossible to keep such a hidden danger by his side, so this underground passage must be harmless. After all, he wouldn’t even want to show her face to the guest, so how could he allow anyone to have the possibility to enter this bedroom from outside.

She stood still and rethought the whole thing, and found several doubts.

First, it was against the law to dig tunnels underneath. How could Lu Shi Qing be so negligent that the mechanism on the wall were exposed so easily to the outside? Even if he didn’t guard against her, he should be guard against other people.

Second, he had been greeting the guests for a long time, even if he couldn’t get away because of the guests, how could he not think of her at all, and even dismissed the servants from the bridal chamber, leaving her alone without any helps? Was he not afraid that she would starve to death?

Third, since there were no servants in the room, it meant that Lu Shi Qing had no intention of restraining her, so why did he specially emphasize the words “sit still and don’t move” before leaving? He clearly knew that she like to contradict him.

Yuan Ci Xian blinked her eyes in a daze, and looked into the dark depths of the underground passage again.

These problems could be explained as “coincidence”, but as Xu Shan said: too many coincidences are not coincidences.

Apart from coincidence, the only thing that could answered all the doubts was: Lu Shi Qing intended to let her discover this underground passage.

For a moment Yuan Ci Xian’s heart was beating like a drum, and for some reason, she was so nervous that her palms were sweating.

She remained silent for a while, and finally took the short candle in her hand, then walked slowly towards the depth step by step.

This dank underground passage was not particularly long, and there was only one turn in it. Yuan Ci Xian walked cautiously at first, but later she was guided by a strong and inexplicable intuition to walk faster and faster, until she came to the end and saw a pull ring that was exactly the same as where she came from, with a thin thread attached to it.

She fixed her eyes on the secret door slanted above her head, reached out her hand to touch the pull ring, then pulled it down hesitantly.

There was another “creak” sound, and the secret door opened from the back to the front. She held the candle in one hand, and supported the stone wall with the other to take a few steps up. At the end of the step, she slowly raised her head.

What caught her eye was a beautiful bridal chamber with a layout similar to the Lu Mansion. There was light on all sides, and a man wearing a black wide robe with big sleeves and a wooden hairpin with a silver mask covering his face, was standing opposite and looking at her. On the wooden hanger in his hand, hung a dark red round-neck robe, which was exactly what Lu Shi Qing wore after changing clothes to greet the guests.

Her expression was stiff, she looked at him motionlessly until she saw him slowly raise his hand, pinch a corner of the mask, and then gently move it away.

The moment she saw the face behind the mask, Yuan Ci Xian trembled all over, and a drop of candle wax spilled from the short candle in her hand. The hot candle wax dripped to the web between her thumb and forefinger, causing her to subconsciously throw away the candle in pain, she frowned and hissed.

Startled, Lu Shi Qing rushed forward to grab her hand, as if wanting to check her injuries. Yuan Ci Xian had already come to her senses, pulled her hand from his palm, took a step back, and tilted her head slightly to stare at him.

Lu Shi Qing didn’t move anymore, frowning, and seemed to have a hard time swallowing.

Yuan Ci Xian slowly shifted her eyes from his face to the front of his clothes, then stretched out her hands to open his collar, wanted to push his outer robe and inner clothes to the sides. But because her hands were trembling, she tried several times but couldn’t move them away. Finally, she lost her patience and simply gritted her teeth and tore it fiercely.

With a “rip” sound, his jade-colored chest was completely exposed in front of her eyes. Near the heart, there was a hideous scar. The new flesh hadn’t grown completely flat yet, it was bumpy and bright red.

Lu Shi Qing didn’t try to stop her, just stood still and let her move, until her fingertips touched his scar, and she couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

Yuan Ci Xian rubbed her fingertips back and forth on his scar, and suddenly smiled wryly.

Although the wide robe covered his figure, the mask concealed his face and even his most recognizable eye contours, his voice was perfectly faked, and his identity was impeccably fabricated, but she was still very close to the truth several times.

She remembered that in the suburb of Chang’an, Lu Shi Qing was whipped by her elder brother, leaving a hideous scar on the back of his hand. Later, she went to Lu Mansion to bandage his wound, and found that his injury had not been treated properly at all, and instead showed signs of deterioration. She only thought that he was sloppy, but she didn’t expect that it was he who had come to the Yuan Mansion as “Xu Shan” the day before, and used makeup powder to cover up the wound so he wouldn’t be exposed, which caused the wound to fester.

She remembered that when he came to the Yuan Mansion for the banquet, she successfully lifted his mask, but only made him show the corner of his chin. She just thought it was because she was dizzy from drinking, and inaccurately knocked it askew, but she didn’t expect that it was Lu Shi Qing’s trick from the beginning to the end. He already knew that she was going to attack, so he turned his head in time; he also expected that she was suspicious of the face behind his mask, so he tried to use this method to win her sympathy once and for all.

She remembered that when she went to the south, she received news about Xu Sanniang at Zhu County Magistrate’s Mansion, and was about to rush back to Chang’an, but she was blocked by Lu Shi Qing with some strange reason. She only thought that he had feeling her, but she didn’t expect that his blocking had another meaning, which was to prevent her from going to “Xu Shan” who was not in the capital at all.

In addition to all these, what was even more ironic was that a few days ago, she suspected that “Xu Shan” had a double identity and was probably an official of the court, so she looked around for opportunities to check, and even asked Lu Shi Qing for information. But she forgot that there was a so-called “darkness under the lights” in this world, she gave up the suspect who was close at hand, and spontaneously excluded him.

She had so many opportunities to get close to the truth, but missed it again and again.

Until today, on her wedding night with him, seeing him expose everything in an almost desperate way.

She pressed her hand on his heart, raised her head to look at the joy candles in the room, and said the first sentence after coming here: “Why, Lu Shi Qing?”

Since he had been lying to her for so long, why chose this moment to cruelly tell her the truth?

It was not impossible for him to continue to hide from her. Was it because the candle couldn’t be put out at wedding night, so he couldn’t deceive her eyes, and let her see his scar?

She didn’t want to know at this time. Even if Lu Shi Qing was Xu Shan, she would rather never know.

Her lips were trembling, her voice was hoarse, and her eyes were red. Lu Shi Qing looked down at her, paused for a moment, and then took her into his arms.

Because he could no longer hide from her.

Ever since Ping Prince left the capital, he had planned to find an opportunity to tell the truth, but every time he was about to say it, he stopped. Sometimes it was because she continued her excellent acting skills and never revealed the relationship between the Yuan family and Zheng Zhuo, so he felt a little uncomfortable. Sometimes it was because she seemed to have nothing on her mind and teased him cheerfully, so he was a little scared.

He was afraid that after he say it, he would never see her like that again.

How could someone as carefree and unrestrained as her be bound by a mere marriage contract? If she wanted to leave him, even ten contracts wouldn’t keep her.

So he kept procrastinating, until five days ago, he knew it was time.

He must marry her and keep her by his side. This was his selfishness. But he couldn’t completely put her under some concealment and reservations, this was his bottom line.

He should be wholehearted and honest with what he asked for, as should what she gave.

As for arranging an identical bridal chamber in Xu Shan’s house, it was because he hoped that she could truly combine Lu Shi Qing and Xu Shan in her heart tonight.

He hugged Yuan Ci Xian, held her tightly in his arms, and said, “I’m sorry.” He then repeated in a low voice, “I’m sorry…”

Yuan Ci Xian was almost suffocated by this embrace, and her bones seemed to be broken, she frowned and tried to struggle but couldn’t get away, and said unhappily: “Lu Shi Qing, it hurts.”

Lu Shi Qing let her go in an instant, she took a step back and looked at him with red eyes for a while. Seeing that he seemed to be about to ask something, she interrupted first: “Don’t ask me if I can forgive you, I don’t know now, I will answer you when I figure it out.” After saying that, she turned around and was about to go down the stone steps.

Lu Shi Qing thought to himself that when she figured it out, he might die in her heart, and in a hurry, he reached out and grabbed her wrist: “Ci Xian…”

He had never called her without her surname like this, but the first time he used it, it sounded like pleading.

Yuan Ci Xian was slightly startled, and after a pause, she wanted to pull out her hand, but after all, she couldn’t match his strength, instead it made him dragged her back, and she was reflexively wrapped in his arms.

She was so angry that she elbowed him, kicked back ruthlessly, and when she heard him grunt, she took advantage of his letting go to hurried down the stone steps. Just as she was about to leave quickly, but she heard him coughing behind her.

Yuan Ci Xian stopped and looked back at him, and saw that he was holding on to the edge of the wall with one hand and covering his chest with the other, looking as if his old injury had relapsed because of her strike, and he was in great pain.

She subconsciously took a step forward, but recalling the angle of the force just now, she felt something was wrong.

She was pushing downwards just now, how could she poke his chest?

He’s lying to her again!

She gritted her teeth resentfully, turned around and walked quickly.

Seeing that the tricks didn’t work, Lu Shi Qing hurried to catch up, “Yuan Ci Xian, wait for me.”

Yuan Ci Xian didn’t even look back, and said fiercely while walking quickly: “Waiting for you for what, waiting for your bridal chamber? If you’re so powerful, then go f**k yourself!”

Previous     TOC     Next

TN: she didn’t actually say ‘go f**k yourself’, but I think it’s more fitting.