Yangzhou Fourteen

The Qin Mansion has been on high alert recently. Qin Shuang openly closed the door to visitors on the pretext that the women in his family were almost kidnapped. He also twisted Lin Ya's disappearance into an attack while traveling with Aruo, and naturally reported it to the police.

The government officials searched the mountain in a large-scale operation. Although they did not catch anyone in the end, the time was enough for many people to make plans.

Aruo didn't know all this. She was injured by an arrow and caught a cold, and she lay in a coma for almost ten days before she recovered. She didn't even have the energy to comfort Caixin when she was crying.

Jing Lan came to the door once relying on their past friendship, but Aruo did not admit what Xuanqing said at all. He just said that he heard Shen Nan mention the people from Menghuzhai and accidentally saw the tattoo on Bai Yong's body in the capital, so he deceived him in order to get away.

The little girl's pair of watery black eyes were bright and innocent because of her injury, and her pale face looked pitiful. Ning Caixin and Qin Shuang beside her protected her like tigresses, so even Jing Lan couldn't ask anything.

Unwilling to give up, he went to Dayin Temple again, hoping to find out about Master Yiyuan. As a result, he was almost fooled by Master Yiyuan's profound Buddhist philosophy and considered becoming a monk to atone for his sins... but Su Zirui couldn't stand it anymore and drove him away.

In the 27th year of Jianning, Yangzhou underwent earth-shaking changes as August arrived.

Marquis Dingbei was ordered to investigate the salt administration, and all officials were worried. He then discovered that wealthy families in the Jianghuai area used silver bills to transport salt, which involved several cases of smuggling tea and salt. Some salt administration officials, fearing that the incident would be exposed, attempted to kidnap the salt transport envoys and the relatives of salt merchants and threaten them. After being arrested, they committed suicide by taking poison... In just a dozen days, nearly ten salt administration officials in Jiangnan were replaced, and some wealthy businessmen were also convicted after their properties were raided.

At the same time, the capital was not at peace.

A Ministry of Justice official, missing for over two weeks, has reported safe and sound from Shubeili, the youngest son of the Duke of Liguo. A full-scale search is underway in Yangzhou for his superiors. While the central government remains stable, trouble is brewing in the northwest. A traitor has emerged within the Zhenyuan Army, and the Governor of Liangzhou and other officials were attacked while on a mission. Governor Luo Yin, among them, suffered a broken leg, his life in imminent danger. This shocking news has even caused several replacements in the Zhenyuan Army's lieutenants...

At the same time, two secret letters were secretly sent from Yangzhou, one to the capital and the other to the northwest.

The wind and rain outside did not reach Aruo at all this time. She hid behind Qin Shuang and Qi Shaozhen to recuperate. The thing she hated most every day was that she could not lie down to sleep and could only doze on the soft pillow.

Time flies, and soon the Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching. After nightfall, the moonlight is bright and gentle, like a veil, adding a touch of mystery to the quiet night sky.

Inside the bedroom, beautifully carved candlesticks were arranged in an orderly fashion, but they were not lit. A large luminous pearl was casually placed on the table, enough to illuminate everything in the room.

In front of the mercury mirror inlaid with carved pineapple wood, a beautiful woman casually took off the hairpins from her temples, her long black hair falling like a waterfall, and she turned around and smiled touchingly.

"Zhenzhen, you go to sleep first. I'll go see Ruoruo." Qin Shuang opened her red lips slightly, her eyes charming and attractive, but unfortunately the words she said directly shattered all her fantasies.

The person lying on the bed with their limbs spread out hurriedly got up and put their hands around the slender waist. "Why are you still there when she's already asleep?"

"No, she has had an injury on her back recently. She always sleeps with her stomach on a soft pillow and her sleeping posture is not honest. She wakes up in pain every time. The scab that finally formed on the wound has been rubbed off by her these days. She must not have slept well. I have to go and see her to feel at ease." Qin Shuang laughed when he thought of her listless appearance like a drowned kitten these days. He had never seen such a dishonest injured person.

"Forget about other times, but tonight..." Qi Shaozhen hooked his fingers around her belt and raised his lips meaningfully, "How can we waste such a wonderful night?"

Qin Shuang glared at him and tried to slap his hand away, but he unexpectedly held her in his arms and fell on the bed, "Really... um!"

Lightly nibbling on his wife's tender red lips, Qi Shaozhen whispered to her, his clear eyes as gentle as water, "You've ignored me for a long time, Shuangshuang... I've learned a new position recently~"

"...Qi Shaozhen you are a bastard!"

After finally getting rid of Cai Xin who had been accompanying her, and pretending to sleep until Manju blew out the candle, Aruo climbed up from the soft pillow with a sense of relief and rubbed her chest.

She hadn't been doing well lately. From the time she was injured until the wound began to scab over, she'd been sleeping on her stomach for nearly two weeks, feeling her chest had flattened considerably. The wound was itchy, and the pain was excruciating when her clothes rubbed against her skin. During this time, Qin Shuang had cruelly forbidden her from eating sweets because of the medication she was taking... Her already depressed blood pressure had become unstable, her sleep had worsened, and she was incredibly irritable.

His eyes were dry and sleepy, but he really didn't want to sleep on his stomach, and he didn't want to wake up in pain as soon as he lay down. Aruo groped his way out of bed, put on a robe casually, and wanted to go out for something delicious to soothe his restless soul.

Tiptoeing to the window door carved with flowers and birds, Aruo recalled the nights when he had ordered takeout without telling his parents. He knelt on the table by the window with a smile, gently pushed open the window door, and was unexpectedly met with a pair of eyes as cold as the night sky.

Atop an endless curtain of deep blue swan silk, a moon hung high, its silvery light shimmering upon the figure before her. She wore a black satin gown with fine gold patterns, a red lining visible at the collar. Her hair, black as ink, was crowned with a jade hairpin. Her figure was as graceful as a jade tree, and she looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

The moonlight was vast and everything in front of her seemed like an illusion. As soon as she thought of it, her hand seemed to touch his face consciously.

Just as her fingertips touched the coolness, her wrist was grabbed by someone. The person in front of her sneered with a sarcastic look in his eyes.

Aruo came back to his senses instantly and blinked his eyes. "Hey, it's a real person... I thought it was just hallucinations from lack of sleep recently."

Her face was very pale, with dark circles visible under her eyes, and she certainly didn't look well.

He frowned slightly and looked down at her. The wrist in his palm seemed to be a little thinner and no longer had that soft touch. His thumb even touched the protruding wrist bone.

Judging from the two-story courtyard she lived in, the Qin family should have treated her well, but weren't they incredibly wealthy? How could they not even be able to raise a girl properly?

"Lord Su...why are you here?" Aruo looked at him blankly. This must be the Qin Mansion, or the inner courtyard.

"...I was just passing by." Su Zirui couldn't come up with a valid reason. He had just finished the work at hand and happened to be near the Qin Mansion, so he wanted to come over to see if she was still alive, so as to avoid someone nagging him all the time.

Aruo couldn't help laughing so hard that she doubled over. When she pulled her hand back, she hurt the wound on her shoulder and almost cried out in pain. She simply leaned her elbow on the windowsill, propped up her chin, and looked up at him leisurely, "Is it on your way?"

Su Zirui nodded calmly, saying with a hint of concern, "It's been half a month, and you're still not fully healed?"

"I was almost healed, but I didn't sleep well and got hurt again." Aruo said honestly.

"Nonsense." Su Zirui didn't know what to say to her. She was not honest when she was awake, and he didn't expect that she was not honest when she was asleep either.

There's nothing she can do. Her body can't keep up with her powerful soul.

"Hey, Lord Su, the night is long and I can't sleep. Let's go for a walk." She tilted her head and looked at him with interest, with a hint of teasing in her crescent-shaped eyes.

The familiar words made his brows raise slightly, and he chuckled softly. "With your condition, you might not even be able to get out the door."

"Moon-viewing is still okay." His words were meant to be sarcastic, but Aruo didn't hear the irony. She climbed out of the window and leaped lightly onto the roof.

When she was halfway in the air, her breath suddenly stopped and she almost fell down. However, the person who followed her couldn't bear to see it and put his hand around her waist and brought her to the roof.

"Does Mr. Shen know about your Qinggong skills?" Su Zirui had only seen her perform well once, and all the other times she performed well were horrible.

"Aha... As long as it works, thanks." Being held in mid-air by the waist under the moonlight was supposed to be a very romantic thing, but the feeling of weightlessness was too terrifying, and no amount of beauty could overcome the fear of falling.

Aruo waved her hand casually and sat down on the ridge, taking a breath. "I think if I get hurt twice more, I'll become one of those ordinary girls you mentioned, the kind that takes three breaths after two steps."

Su Zirui glanced at her indecent sitting posture with disdain, shook his head and sat beside her, "If you do it two more times, you can cross the Naihe Bridge directly."

"Bah, bah, don't talk about this. I heard from my brother that you have been very busy recently." Ignoring this, Aruo held his cheeks with both hands and tried to find a topic out of boredom.

"Not bad." The layout of the Qin Mansion was interesting. Su Zirui habitually looked at the surrounding buildings.

"Is it okay? Then why didn't you come to comfort me?" Aruo was a little dissatisfied. "Lin Ya is already under investigation by the government, and I don't care whether she lives or dies."

Su Zirui laughed in anger. He had been in the dark to begin with. Lin Ya was questioning him as a matter of routine, and he had only read the files sent by Beili. How could he be treated differently in her words?

"Excuse me for reminding you, I saved your life. Not only do you not want to repay me, but you also want to frame me? Do you know the legal punishment for falsely accusing an imperial official?"

Aruo angrily accused, "Excuse me, but you also made me turn a corner before the Naihe Bridge. At most, we're even."

Even? Su Zirui felt upset when he heard this. Every time he settled accounts with this girl, he always thought about settling the score. Is he such an easy person to fool?

"What a joke! Your brother has caused so much trouble for me recently, and how many things have I done for you and your sister?" When Su Zirui said this, his eyes turned cold.

He had not expected that Qi Shaozhen and Qin Shuang would counterattack without hesitation, and would directly bypass Luo Yin to attack the Zhenyuan Army. Now that the Ning family in the northwest is investigating the issue of military pay, the Luo family has to give up some military power in Luo Yin and Liangzhou in order to preserve and clear themselves.

The Qin family... their influence in the northwest should not be underestimated.

"Don't think I don't know. Isn't it good for you, brother, to do this?" Aruo didn't know what her brother and sister-in-law had done, but since Luo Ziran didn't have time to bother her, she could guess that something must have happened within the Luo family. Combined with her injuries, it wasn't hard to guess who it was. "Besides, who said he wanted revenge for me? In the end, it was still my brother who took action."

The girl lifted her chin slightly and hummed. Her already snow-white face looked almost transparent under the moonlight, which made his eyes darken and his fingers move slightly.

Too lazy to tell her that the person who hurt her was dead, Su Zirui looked at the night sky in the distance and said, "Yes, your brother is the best."

Why does this sound so aggrieved?

Aruo tilted her head to look at him. His profile was still cold and indifferent. Didn't Old Xue say that the poison had been cured? Why did he still look a little sick?

Thinking about how busy he was during this period, Aruo felt a little reluctant. After all, he had saved her... She didn't like to owe anyone, whether intentionally or unintentionally. She had her own scale in her heart. She always had to repay the favors she received. Maybe the way of repaying was a little strange, but this way she would not have any worries.

Wait, still?

An idea flashed through his mind, and Aruo excitedly moved closer to him and looked up, "Su Feng..."

"I'm talking to you..." After considering it for a while, Su Zirui was still worried about the brother and sister, so he turned around and planned to give them a good warning not to interfere.

Their eyes met, and the pair of eyes like cold ponds suddenly became deep, with an indescribable complexity in the flash of their eyes, as if something was hidden under that hint of coldness. Her heartbeat suddenly accelerated. Aruo knew rationally that she needed to retreat, but she could not move and just stared at him blankly.

Her almond-shaped eyes seemed to be plotting something, cunning and clever, like stars. The tip of her nose was almost close to his, but he had no intention of retreating. What a joke! Even the most vicious person couldn't make him retreat.

"What are you thinking about?"

His breath brushed against her cheek, and Aruo's ears involuntarily felt hot. She whispered, "Um... I, I'll treat you to a meal? You haven't tried Qianlixiang's dishes yet, right? They're..."

"good."

"Yangzhou's unique specialty...eh?"

The girl's bewildered look made him laugh, as if something soft had touched his heartstrings, stirring them slightly. His thin lips curled up slightly, and his brows softened, a rare moment of coldness. "Are you stupid?"

This silly look was so attractive that he even wanted to stroke her head.

"No," Aruo suddenly came back to his senses and leaned back awkwardly, "You agreed too quickly, I couldn't react for a moment. So, when can you show up openly?"

"It's almost there." Su Zirui propped his chin up on his hand and looked at her lazily. The fact that they had been able to hold off for so long was definitely due to Beili's early appearance and planning. Now, staying in the dark was no longer effective.

"Oh? So, Su Feng, what did Luo Yin do? Did he embezzle the government silver? But it's only 100,000 taels. What can he do with it?" Yawning, Aruo pressed on. She wasn't wealthy, but she was putting herself in Luo Yin's shoes. 100,000 taels of government silver was something a commoner could never hope to earn in their lifetime, but for someone from the Luo family, it was nothing.

"Didn't I say I have no comment?"

"Officials from Yangzhou came to discuss a loan. Could it be they're planning to use the government silver to lend to merchants and profit from the interest differential?" Aruo had been under Qin Shuang's wing for a while, so he wasn't completely unfamiliar with these matters. "But 100,000 taels of silver isn't a terrible sum. Even if you find it, the Luo family can still pay it back with a little effort... unless it's a much larger sum, which the Luo family can't afford. That's painful!"

Seeing her words becoming increasingly outrageous, Su Zirui finally couldn't help but raise his hand and flick her forehead. Seeing that white forehead turn slightly red, he felt a sense of pleasure in his heart. "I've told you so many times, don't get involved in these things."

"But..." Aruo suppressed a yawn, forcing tears into his eyes, and then he said in a slow voice, "We are under the flowers and the moon, what else can we talk about if not these things? Why don't you find a topic?"

Hearing her comparing herself to a flower, Su Zirui turned his head and smiled softly, "If you're sleepy, go back to sleep."

"No...I can't lie down and it's uncomfortable," she said, not wanting to sleep with her chest pressed down. "Tell me, is this what I think it is?"

"no."

"How is that?"

"No comment."

"You're really bad at chatting."

In the distant night sky, the bright moon hangs quietly and elegantly, casting silvery light, as if everything is shrouded in this gentle moonlight, and all people and things in time become quiet and peaceful.

The woman's soft laughter, accompanied by the man's occasional appreciative responses, rose lightly, like ripples on water, and slowly returned to calm.

Su Zirui casually lifted his eyelids, his deep eyes scrutinizing the girl who had fallen asleep on his shoulder. Her fair cheek rested against his shoulder, a small pimple of flesh pressed against it, looking adorable.

His fingers moved, his eyes darkened, and he raised his hand to pinch her cheek.

After using a little force, the girl frowned and groaned unwillingly, but did not wake up. Her originally fair and tender cheeks were pinched to a red color, and looked a little bloody.

It's finally... a little more pleasing to the eye than the previous pale one.

With a satisfied look on his face, he leaned back leisurely, leaning against the dragon's mouth carved with waves and fish tails. As he stepped back, the girl who had been leaning on his shoulder slid down and leaned into his chest.

Afraid that she would fall, he stretched out his arms to hold her, the faint scent of peach blossoms lingering in his nostrils, as if in a dream, with just a little effort...

A soft breath brushed against his collar, his Adam's apple rolled up and down slightly, his cold eyes drooped slightly, hiding the restlessness in his eyes, his expression was as calm as water.

After a long moment, he murmured, not knowing whether he was dissatisfied with her casualness or mocking his own violent and disordered heartbeat.

From an angle he couldn't see, the girl in his arms slightly raised the corners of her lips.

Hehe, I made a killing. Tonight, Master Su must have been possessed.

The night was as dark as water. On the other side of the Qin residence, those private love words had just stopped when a faint light shone through the curtains, dim and ambiguous.

"I said..." The soft and hoarse voice just started and then died down, as if the voice was extremely tired.

After a long while, the voice softly rang out again, "Are you so relieved?"

Qi Shaozhen entwined his long fingers with his wife's black and smooth hair and hummed nonchalantly.

"I want to get up..." The exhausted voice paused for a moment before struggling to speak again, "I want to see who can let you go..."

A low, muffled laugh broke out intermittently. "Don't worry, it's someone she trusts. Have you forgotten? If a child trusts someone, they will get close to them. Our Ruoruo... when it comes to coaxing someone, you can make people want to cut out their heart for her to play with."

The person who was kissed so hard that he was completely speechless finally understood these words. He felt relieved, tilted his head and fell asleep peacefully.

My lover’s laughter is still ringing in my ears, I will sleep well tonight.