Chapter 474 Meeting an Old Friend (5)

"You want to deny it?" Xie Jingxing frowned: "That's not fair, Shen Jiaojiao."

"I'll give you silver." Shen Miao made a quick decision: "No matter how much you want, I can compensate you."

Xie Jingxing looked at her quietly for a while. For some reason, Shen Miao felt that his gaze was filled with daggers, as if Xie Jingxing wanted to kill her. After a while, Xie Jingxing finally smiled and said through gritted teeth, "Do you think I'm a prostitute or a male concubine? Silver? This prince has never lacked silver."

Shen Miao was silent.

Xie Jingxing took a deep breath and asked, "How did you find out?"

Shen Miao was caught off guard by his sudden change of topic and asked in confusion, “What?”

Xie Jingxing picked up the mask on the table: "How did you find out my identity? I died in battle two years ago. No matter what, it doesn't make sense for you to guess my identity the moment we met."

“I guessed it before I even saw you.” Shen Miao said, “I guessed you were from Daliang, but I didn’t guess you were from the royal family. Later, when I saw you at the tribute banquet, I felt vaguely familiar with you, so I just made a bold guess.”

Upon hearing this, Xie Jingxing gradually frowned, looked at Shen Miao, and said, “You guessed it two years ago?”

“That night at Wolong Temple, the young marquis came over to drink tea and eat snacks,” Shen Miao said calmly, “Luckily, I was able to have some of those snacks.”

Xie Jingxing raised his eyebrows: "So what?"

“Unfortunately,” Shen Miao said, “The snacks seemed to be made by the chef of the Daliang royal family. They tasted very delicious.”

Xie Jingxing was slightly startled.

Two years ago, he'd witnessed Shen Miao framing Shen Qing and Prince Yu at Wolong Temple, and out of interest, he'd gone to her room with her. Hungry after running around all night, he'd taken advantage of Shen Miao's tea to eat some snacks... and even fed her a piece. He'd been working in Mingqi, living a life of luxury, and the Daliang Dynasty's pastry chef had been with him, too. The pastry had been made by the Daliang Dynasty chef.

Xie Jingxing had thought of many clues that Shen Miao might have used to guess his identity, but he had never expected this to be the case. A package of pastries could actually give him away, but… His eyes were sharp as he looked at Shen Miao and asked, “How did you know this was made by the Daliang chef?”

“I had a chance to eat it once.” Shen Miao said.

She had indeed tasted it once. Naturally, gifts from other nations would be present at Ming Qi's tribute banquet. As for the pastries, they were merely a minor gimmick. Ming Qi's Yongle Emperor loved pastries, and the royal chefs were ingenious, adding fruit juice to the pastries to imbue them with a fruity aroma. It was the novelty of eating the cold pastries at the tribute banquet that led Shen Miao to make them several times specifically for Fu Xiuyi. However, Fu Xiuyi didn't like sweets, so she always gave them directly to the servants, much to her dismay.

The cakes that Xie Jingxing ate that night had the fruity aroma of Liang Dynasty royal cakes. At that time, they had not yet paid tribute, so it was impossible for these cakes to be passed down. Shen Miao found it strange at the time.

Although Xie Jingxing didn't know where Shen Miao had gotten the cake, he didn't ask any more questions. He just said, "Is that all?"

"It was just a lucky guess." Shen Miao lowered her eyes. How could she be so sure that Xie Jingxing was from Daliang just based on a bag of pastries? Her real suspicion started with the Imperial Physician Gao Yang she saw in the palace. At the time, she only felt that he looked familiar, but later she finally remembered that she had seen this Imperial Physician Gao before. At the tribute banquet in her previous life, Daliang sent a prince and an important official. The important official was a famous think tank of Daliang. Fu Xiuyi had asked Pei Lang to pay more attention to this person. It was none other than Gao Yang. Gao Yang's identity at the time was not some Imperial Physician Gao, but a court official of Daliang. And that day in Mingqi Palace, she saw a subtle familiarity between Xie Jingxing and Gao Yang, and coupled with the pastries before, she more or less made some connections.