Chapter 18 Origins of Liking and Favor

The lingering touch and warmth on his fingertips, like a brand, remained even after Lu Wensheng led him to the door of the accounting room on the top floor.

The location of the accountant's office was not difficult to find. Lu Wensheng only needed to spot a well-dressed pimp, lure him to a corner, and then easily trick him into revealing his location through a combination of knocking and threatening, half-real and half-fake intimidation.

This area is a melting pot of all sorts of people, and it's always been chaotic. It's called an accounting office, but it's really just a storage room, except that some of the items there are valuable.

Shen Hegui is about to rule the world, so Lu Wensheng doesn't understand why he touches and cares about every jade bottle and jade ornament.

Until the display shelf behind her slid open, her back lost its support, a sudden feeling of weightlessness washed over her, and she fell into the arms of a fragrant maiden.

"Stand firm on your own."

Shen Hegui's deep voice was close to her ear, and his hot breath poured into Lu Wensheng's collar without any obstruction. The sudden closeness made her mind go blank for a moment.

When she came to her senses, Lu Wensheng only had time to turn her lips to the right. Unfortunately, with this movement, her soft lips landed squarely on Shen Hegui's constantly bobbing Adam's apple.

The two froze the moment they touched.

Xiao Yuan's apologetic voice rang out in my mind at just the right moment: "[I'm sorry, host.] It's useless of me; I can only watch helplessly as the original character comes out to cause trouble."

Lu Wensheng was flustered and at a loss, completely forgetting that he should have moved his lips away first.

She thought Shen Hegui would be very angry after being offended, but to her surprise, he simply helped her steady herself, then released his hand from her lower back, his tone calm to an almost eerie degree: "Stand firm yourself."

Lu Wensheng stammered softly, "Stand...stand still." She tried to discreetly observe Shen Hegui's expression.

She had only made wild guesses earlier, but Shen Hegui was so angry. Now, with such a direct offense, why was his reaction so calm?

Lu Wensheng couldn't understand it.

Hearing the sound of papers turning behind him, Lu Wensheng snapped out of his daze and took small steps toward Shen Hegui, his legs trembling with fear.

Lu Wensheng had heard the sound of the antique shelf being pulled by the mechanism, so he wasn't too surprised when he suddenly saw such a large secret room.

Roughly estimated, the secret room was about fifty square meters in size. Apart from a few large wooden crates neatly stacked in the corner and a set of table and chairs, there was nothing else.

Shen Hegui raised his eyes, his gaze lingering for a moment on her reddened ear tips before he spoke: "Come and take a look at these things in the ledgers to see if they are suitable for money laundering according to your method."

A hint of surprise flickered in Lu Wensheng's eyes.

There really are ledgers in this accounting office!

The doors and windows were tightly closed, and the room was not bright. Lu Wensheng squinted, the handwriting on the account book was still so blurry that it made him dizzy.

Just as she was about to get closer to take a look, an extremely soft halo quietly spread out, illuminating the small area in front of her.

She couldn't see where Shen Hegui had taken the thing from, nor did she know what this half-piece of something that resembled neither stone nor jade and emitted a soft glow was.

"What is this? It's so beautiful!" Lu Wensheng exclaimed.

"You like it?" Shen Hegui stood entirely in the shadows, his expression and emotions unreadable.

Lu Wensheng was still holding a piece of paper in her hand when she said, "I like it!"

She had seen many luminous pearls of different sizes at Prince Su's place before. They all shone, but none of them were as dazzling and soft as the crescent-shaped jade in front of her.

Shen Hegui: "Then I'll give it to you."

Lu Wensheng put down the ledger in his hand, reached out to take it, but said something completely different: "How could I accept this? This must be very expensive, right? What's it called?"

Shen Hegui said in a calm tone: "It has no name. I have many of these things. They're worthless."

Lu Wensheng played with it with great affection, and upon closer inspection, she noticed a tiny red mark on the extremely thin edge, so she ran her fingertip along it.

A few drops of the remaining red liquid spilled onto Lu Wensheng's fair fingertips. She lowered her head and smelled it, a delicate fragrance lingering in her nose: "It smells so good, is it flower wine?"

Before Shen Hegui could stop him, Lu Wensheng licked the liquid into his mouth.

In that instant, Shen Hegui, standing in the shadows, had extremely deep eyes. His pupils uncontrollably transformed into the vertical pupils of a beast, and then suddenly widened and became round.

Lu Wensheng smacked his lips twice, somewhat disappointed: "It only smells nice, but it has no taste at all."

Shen Hegui's voice was a little hoarse. His gaze lingered on Lu Wensheng's rosy lips, unable to look away: "Let's look at the accounts first."

The big boss next to him started urging him on, and Lu Wensheng, who was used to being a corporate slave, picked up the ledger and started to get down to business.

Just for this little glowing thing, her trip was definitely worthwhile.

When he's in a good mood, Lu Wensheng is not only patient and meticulous in his work, but also very efficient, as if he's been given a shot of adrenaline.

Lu Wensheng quickly got into the swing of things: "The value of the items fits the final process of consolidation. Besides the precious medicinal herbs that are valuable in themselves, these little things with vague records but special symbols are also very interesting."

"Take ink for example. My hometown is a major producer of it. The most common ink blocks contain only pine soot and charcoal, which anyone can afford if they grit their teeth." But if top-grade tung oil soot or lacquer soot is used, and precious medicinal materials and ingredients such as musk, borneol, pearl powder, and gold leaf are added to enhance the aroma and color, and then it is carved and engraved by a famous ink craftsman, the price can reach tens of taels of silver. Famous people will grow old and gradually lose their strength, so the production of these ink blocks will gradually decrease, and they will become more and more valuable.

Shen Hegui understood immediately and said, "Therefore, the inkstone and the brush are similar in principle."

Lu Wensheng nodded: "Yes, but right now there is only this one ledger, so it is difficult to trace back."

Shen Hegui took the ledger from Lu Wensheng and carefully looked through it from beginning to end. Finally, he focused his gaze on the Longjing tea with a bright yellow circle drawn on it.

Bright yellow was reserved for the imperial family, so it's easy to guess what it means.

Lu Wensheng: "Imperial Dragon Well?"

"Hmm." Shen Hegui rolled up the account book and hid it in his sleeve. He had already thought of a way to investigate.

Lu Wensheng was slightly taken aback as he watched his swift and decisive movements.

Shouldn't a fake ledger be swapped before stealing it? Also, how did Shen Hegui know that the real ledger was hidden here?

Unlike others, darkness did not pose a visual obstacle to Shen Hegui, so he saw through Lu Wensheng's doubts at a glance.

At this moment, his patience was just as good as Lu Wensheng's: "I don't need to do things secretly. If I want to investigate a person carefully, he will have no secrets."

Lu Wensheng unconsciously raised her hand and rubbed her chest twice, feeling a little guilty yet proud. As a political enemy, Shen Hegui must have investigated her before, but he hadn't found out her biggest secret.

Faint footsteps could be heard from several dozen meters away.

Shen Hegui's ears twitched: "Let's go, someone's coming upstairs."

Lu Wensheng carefully hid the glowing crescent-shaped jade piece and followed Shen Hegui back the way they came.

Stepping back onto the bluestone ground, Lu Wensheng realized that the bright sunshine had been replaced by a cloudy and rainy day.

She raised her hand to catch the falling raindrops, and looked at Shen Hegui beside her with a smile: "There is a folk saying that on the second day of the second lunar month, the dragon raises its head, the granaries are full, the small granaries overflow, and the sorghum and wheat are harvested like treasures. It seems that this year will be a bumper year!"

The rain, like a veil, softened Lu Wensheng's features.

Her smile was genuine, without any of her usual guardedness or reservations. The sincere joy that radiated from her eyes startled Shen Hegui.

Unbeknownst to me, the system's favorability rating dropped to -200.99, and then jumped back to -201 because it couldn't be displayed.

Suppressing the inexplicable goodwill rising in his heart, Shen Hegui stubbornly picked a difficult question to answer: "I remember, Zhang Mianzhi is one of your backers. I'm investigating his son, aren't you flustered or nervous?"

If Lu Wensheng were a native-born official, he would have knelt down on the spot to beg for forgiveness and said a lot of things like "Your Majesty, I am filled with fear and trepidation".

But she was different. She was not bound by feudal ethics, nor influenced by contemporary conformist thinking. She had a set of mature insights that were independent of the general environment.

Lu Wensheng: "You've already said that my backer is Zhang Mianzhi, and has nothing to do with Zhang Zhidong. Why should I be nervous about you investigating someone who has nothing to do with me?"

Fine raindrops clung to Shen Hegui's extremely long and thick eyelashes at the corners of his eyes, threatening to fall but not quite: "They are a family. If one of them commits a serious crime, the whole family will be implicated according to the law."

Lu Wensheng: "My surname is Lu, and if I have any children in the future, they will take my surname. I am just taking advantage of the situation; I am not marrying into the family."

Shen Hegui stopped in his tracks. Fine rain accumulated, gathering in the cracks between bricks and in the low-lying areas, forming puddles that stained the hems of their clothes with each step.

Shen Hegui: "Alright, let's not talk about Zhang Zhidong, let's talk about Zhang Mianzhi. Before, when you sided with Prince Su, Zhang Mianzhi protected you quite a bit. I'm not afraid you know, there were several times when I wanted to get rid of you, but he cleverly thwarted my plans. If he gets implicated because of his son, will you help him or not?"

Lu Wensheng lifted the hem of her dress and wrung out the water. She noticed the change in Shen Hegui's self-address: "I cannot answer this question now; that is a matter for the future." She looked up at the gray sky above, "Throughout history, few officials who have left their mark on history have had a good ending. To speak frankly with Your Highness, Yanjing is dazzlingly prosperous, and interpersonal relationships are intricate and ever-changing. If one wants to remain an official in the capital, one must abandon at least half of one's conscience."

Shen Hegui took a few steps forward and stood next to Lu Wensheng, asking casually, "How much conscience does Lu Qing have left?"

Lu Wensheng turned his head and answered in an extremely slick manner: "Your Highness, please don't compare me to those inflexible people. My conscience sometimes deals with matters, sometimes with people, and it changes every day."

Shen Hegui actually wanted to set a trap for her? Dream on!

During their brief conversation, the spring rain intensified. A normal person's first reaction would be to seek shelter under the eaves, but Lu Wensheng and Shen Hegui seemed oblivious, standing face to face in the long alley, letting the rain soak them.

Spring rain soaked his hair. Lu Wensheng waited, waiting for Shen Hegui to say the words he most wanted to say from the bottom of his heart.

A few round raindrops dripped from the ends of her long, curled eyelashes. Shen Hegui was also waiting, waiting for the final result she had considered in her heart.

Reason told him that he should get rid of Lu Wensheng immediately after he had used him; keeping him alive would cause endless trouble. But his heart was pulling at his reason, telling him that Lu Wensheng could not be killed, and that he would definitely regret it in the future.

In the ensuing tug-of-war, Shen Hegui said something that was completely unexpected.