thrush

The pale moonlight illuminated the young man's thin face, the light and shadow were half bright and half dark, and his half-smiling expression made him look particularly sinister.

Si Jue didn't intend to respond. Yue Ningning stood up first and walked over to him, shaking his cold hand. She tried to hide her inner panic, "Why are you here so early?"

She had just sent a carrier pigeon an hour ago, hoping that he could go to Shanghua as soon as possible. Jiangzhou was a full day and night away, but now Si Jue had appeared in front of her. He must have decided to go to Beijing early.

But she was completely unaware of this, and even her informants there hadn't reported any news of Si Jue's departure. She didn't know if they had already betrayed her, or if Si Jue had already dealt with them.

She thought it should be the latter.

Yue Ningning looked up with an innocent look on her face, and hugged the boy's neck with a look of surprise: "Zi'an~ I just wrote to you, hoping you would come back soon."

Si Jue put his arms around the girl's waist, rested his head slightly against her neck, and raised his lips: "I saw it, a surprise for you."

But there was no joy on that pale face.

Yue Ningning couldn't see his expression, but she felt a chill down her spine. When she'd followed System 3022's instructions to rescue Si Jue from being kidnapped by pirates in Jiangzhou, she'd had a vague feeling this young man wasn't like the one the system had described.

3022's Si Jue is a bright and outgoing young man, raised in love. Although he can only be an idle prince, he does not hate his brother. It is only when Si Pei increasingly strays from the path of a tyrant that he begins to plot to usurp the throne.

But after getting to know him, Yue Ningning discovered that Si Jue was not only taciturn and aloof, but also very intelligent, even cunning. She was often in a subordinate position in their interactions, feeling powerless and manipulated.

The most important thing is that Si Jue doesn't look like someone who has no intention of usurping the throne.

Yue Ningning had sent a trusted confidant to investigate, and she knew Si Jue must have a considerable force at his disposal, though it was hidden so well that even Si Pei couldn't detect it. She had wanted to have the system open its eyes to see what was going on, but that useless 3022 couldn't find anything.

Even though the Si Jue she met was exactly the same as what it described, Yue Ningning had no choice but to bite the bullet and follow the plot.

"You came to the capital early, aren't you afraid that Si Pei will notice?"

Si Jue released his hand, smiled, and took two steps back: "The Empress Dowager ordered me to accompany her."

"How long can you stay in Shanghua this time?"

"At least after the Chunshu Banquet."

Si Jue closed the window and said, "Is something wrong?"

His tone was certain, and Yue Ningning nodded quickly, pulling him to sit down. "Today, I met someone in the bookstore...who shouldn't be here."

Si Jue raised an eyebrow: "Who is it?"

"Jing Yao."

Before Yue Ningning finished speaking, the young man opposite her had a stern expression, and his fingers gripping the teacup turned slightly white from the force: "How could she..."

They both believed Jing Yao had been imprisoned in the Eastern Palace by Si Pei and harbored resentment towards him. The fact that she had stabbed Si Pei with a dagger in a fit of rage at their birthday banquet a while ago, as they had predicted, was the best evidence of this. They had thought their relationship would become even more strained, but after that night, everything seemed to have quietly changed.

Si Jue naturally received the intelligence that Yue Ningning received, but he only knew that their relationship had improved, and he had no idea that his royal brother had actually dared to let Jing Yao leave the palace.

"Didn't she try to run away?"

Si Jue wondered if she, Zuo Yuanwu, Baili Wenfu and the others had conspired to find some way to escape, so she pretended to agree to please Si Pei so that he would let down his guard and wait for an opportunity to escape.

"She really did return to the palace." Yue Ningning recalled the scene of the carriage leaving and tapped her palm: "Also, I'm afraid she has already seen "Hidden Dragon"."

Si Jue's expression suddenly grew serious, and her brows furrowed. "Most people can't see the details in this book, but she knows what happened back then. If she really saw it, she would easily guess who it was written about."

Yue Ningning nodded: "So I took down the first and second volumes first."

“Has the book started selling?”

Yue Ningning shook her head and hesitated for a moment: "It's just that a few other guys have also seen this book..."

Her eyes turned, but the meaning of her words was clear.

"I'll take care of it."

Yue Ningning breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, but fearing that Si Jue might notice something, she hugged the boy's arms with both hands, "Isn't this a bit cruel?"

Si Jue reached out and stroked the top of her hair, his voice as cold as ice as he smiled, "It's better to clean it up."

Yue Ningning no longer questioned his decision. She had only hired those guys after they came to Shanghua, and they were not her confidants. There was no guarantee that they would not be able to keep their mouths shut and expose her if they were really investigated.

It would be more reassuring to kill him.

It's a pity that those stories were originally written to build momentum among the people. In fact, there are not many scenes mentioning the brothers Si Pei and Si Jue, and ordinary people can't see anything.

But it was really bad luck to meet Jing Yao.

"Are you staying here tonight?"

She leaned softly in the boy's arms and could not see Si Jue's expression.

"No, I want to go back and go to the capital to meet the prince tomorrow."

Si Jue calmly moved the girl's head away, ignored Yue Ningning's eyes that were not sure whether they were real or fake, and went downstairs.

Yue Ningning felt that he was not in a good state tonight, and she didn't know what made him unhappy.

——

In the early morning, before the sun set, the Yilan Palace in the East Palace was silent except for the sound of two people's steady breathing.

Jing Yao was in a good mood last night and slept well, and actually woke up earlier than Si Pei.

She didn't sleep very well at night. When she got up, the quilt was kicked into a ball, and her right hands and feet were slanted towards the person next to her.

Jing Yao, on the other hand, propped up her face to admire Si Pei's peaceful sleeping face. She had long discovered that unless she rolled over, Si Pei would always sleep in a perfectly straight position, with his hands folded in front of his stomach, very straight.

Seeing the sleeping man motionless, Jing Yao became playful and got out of bed to get a pencil for drawing eyebrows.

She was too lazy to crawl into the bed, so she just sat beside him, leaned over to straighten his face, picked up the pen and started painting.

Jing Yao quickly drew two dark, square eyebrows for Si Pei, making him look like two caterpillars lying on his handsome face. Jing Yao suppressed a smile, thought carefully for a moment, and then began to draw his eyes.

He drew two big circles on each of Si Pei's eyes, and still thought it was not funny enough, so Jing Yao waved his hand and added some cat whiskers for him.

The handsome face of the man under him had been tossed beyond recognition. Before Jing Yao had finished admiring his work, he keenly noticed the rolling of Si Pei's Adam's apple and the muffled sound as thin as a mosquito's hum.

It looks like he's about to wake up.

Jing Yao suppressed his smile and threw Luo Dai to a less conspicuous place, pretending to lean beside him and look at him gently.

After a while, the man slowly woke up and happened to bump into the girl's smiling eyes.

"Why are you up so early?"

Si Pei asked as he prepared to sit up from the bed. He was concerned about whether Jing Yao had enough sleep, but Jing Yao could only see a black face like a tabby cat moving in front of him.

Jing Yao couldn't laugh. At least she had to wait until Eunuch Ming came in and saw Si Pei's expression before she could laugh.

"I slept enough, and I didn't feel sleepy, so I woke up."

Jing Yao could only speak in small sentences, not daring to look at her. Finally, Si Pei got up to wash up. The maids came in with their heads down, put their things away, and left immediately. No one dared to look at Si Pei's face.

Until Eunuch Ming walked in.

"Madam Jing." Eunuch Ming looked at the girl in front of him with a smile, turned his head and prepared to pay his respects to his own prince.

Seeing the serious-looking Si Pei with black eyebrows, dark circles under his eyes and a beard sloppily drawn on his face, some people including Eunuch Ming couldn't help laughing.

"Your Highness... tsk..."

Eunuch Ming couldn't hold back his laughter and let out a sigh.

Jing Yao couldn't hold it in any longer and started laughing out loud.

“Hahahahahaha…”

"Um?"

Si Pei looked at Jing Yao, who was rolling around on the bed laughing uncontrollably, and Eunuch Ming, whose face flushed from trying to hold back his laughter, and began to doubt his own body.

"What are you laughing at?"

He looked around at his figure... there was nothing wrong with it.

Puzzled, Si Pei subconsciously wiped his face with his hands, only to find that his hands were covered in black.

"This is--"

He sniffed the light fragrance and special rock smell and immediately guessed what it was.

It is the ink used for drawing eyebrows.

Si Pei looked at Jing Yao, who was lying on the bed, laughing so hard that he was exhausted, and pretended to pounce on him viciously. The girl felt a stomachache when she saw the funny-looking man. She covered her stomach while laughing: "Wait... wait, if you come over here again, I'll laugh again."

Si Pei stepped back helplessly. The maid handed him a mirror, and he could now see clearly what he looked like.

I just wiped my face twice, and now my whole face is black, turning from a calico cat into a black cat.

Si Pei washed off the traces of Luo Dai with warm water and sat next to Jing Yao with a good temper: "You woke up early and can't sleep, so you bother me?"

Jing Yao pursed his lips: "Why, no?"

She liked to torment Si Pei, especially to make him miserable and pitiful.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to atone for the crime of locking himself up in the palace!

Si Pei was delighted by the girl's coquettish appearance, so how could he bear to refuse? "Of course."

As long as Jing Yao likes it, he is willing to do anything.

Jing Yao looked at the face in front of him, which was now particularly handsome and clear after regaining its whiteness, and felt a pity in his heart: "I should have brought some more rouge."

"Do you want to redraw it?"

Although Si Pei was very considerate, Jing Yao thought for a while and shook his head: "This is not surprising enough, maybe next time."

Next time she would definitely give Si Pei a shocking and unique makeup look.

Whenever the word "later" was mentioned, Si Pei would feel secretly happy. He raised the corners of his lips and gently lifted up Jing Yao's scattered hair.

"Then I'll help you draw your eyebrows this time, okay?"

Perhaps it was Si Pei's natural imperial aura that began to take effect, or perhaps she was bewitched by those beautiful eyes, but Jing Yao still sat in front of the dressing mirror and let Si Pei hold her face and carefully draw her eyebrows.

The man's bony hands gently pinched a small, delicate piece of black ink. The scene looked a little funny, but Si Pei's meticulous expression still made Jing Yao slowly calm down. He closed his eyes and felt the black ink stone sliding across his eyebrows, and gently lifted his chin with his fingers...

Jing Yao secretly opened her eyes a little to peek at Si Pei who was carefully drawing her eyebrows, and couldn't help laughing in her heart.

"Xiaoli, Xiaoli, I didn't expect you to draw so well."

Jing Yao leaned in front of the mirror and carefully looked at the eyebrows that Si Pei had drawn for her. They were slender and had undulations like mountain peaks. The dark green color of Luozidai was most suitable for drawing such mountain eyebrows, which made Jing Yao's eyebrows and eyes more delicate and beautiful.

Jing Yao turned to look at Si Pei, who was smiling softly. He put the ink away and leaned closer to the girl's face: "Yao Yao is pretty, so everything she draws looks good."

That's pretty much it...

Jing Yao likes people to praise her beauty. It makes people feel comfortable to hear such honest words more often.

Looking at the little fox in front of him, its tail almost raised to the sky, Si Pei felt a faint itch in his heart as if being gently tickled by a feather. He moved closer and whispered, "Since I draw well, is there any reward?"

Jing Yao knew that Si Pei was harboring evil intentions and wanted to ask her for a "reward" kiss, but she was happy to give him a little sweet taste.

"you guess?"

The girl's voice was crisp and sweet, with a slightly alluring ending, which captured Si Pei's heart.

Jing Yao stopped teasing him and raised his jaw to kiss the man's lips.

She just wanted a simple kiss, just a quick taste, but Si Pei didn't do as she wished.

The man's strong arms restrained Jing Yao who wanted to retreat and break free. The girl bit her lips tightly and accidentally opened her mouth wide while breathing and shouting, and could only allow the man's lips and tongue to enter her room.

As they entangled, saliva flowed freely, which they both swallowed. Jing Yao's hands drooped limply, and Si Pei's arms tightened even more, as if he wanted to hold her close.

The wet kiss finally ended amidst Jing Yao's breathless pats. Almost at the same time, Eunuch Ming, who had been waiting outside for a while, finally came in and announced, "Your Highness, Prince Lin has arrived outside the imperial city gate."

Si Pei nodded as if not surprised: "I understand. Let him go to the side hall of the Gan Palace and wait."

Eunuch Ming bowed his head and stepped back: "Yes."

Jing Yao was kissed till he was like a paste, and his head was confused. It took him a while to realize what the two of them had just talked about.

Prince Lin...Si Jue will meet Si Pei later.

Jing Yao’s eyes suddenly widened, Si Jue!

Why did he come to Shanghua City now?

Jing Yao rubbed his temples. In his previous life, Si Jue had a reason to return to the capital only for the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet in October.

It’s hard to say if there’s something fishy going on here…

She grabbed Si Pei who was about to leave and said, "Can you... take me with you?"