This is just the beginning

Half a month later.

On a beautiful, gentle day, a procession of carriages and horses galloped across the sky. Inside the carriages, a curtain embroidered with dark patterns fluttered like waves. A breeze blew, and a corner of the curtain lifted, revealing the lower half of a man's fair face, his thin lips tightly pursed. Suddenly, as if a thought struck him, the corners of his mouth curled up.

The curtain embroidered with dark patterns slowly fell down, and that smile was like the blooming of a night-blooming cereus, fleeting in an instant.

Yuan State, Diqu City.

Inside the mansion, a fifteen-year-old girl in a pink and goose yellow cloud-shoulder dress stood in the courtyard. Suddenly, she turned her head as if sensing something, and her sight seemed to penetrate through layers of obstacles, looking into the distance behind her.

Not sure if he saw anything, Jiang Jingyuan just turned his head thoughtfully, raised his foot and continued walking forward.

The people from the Rong family said that Jiang Jingjian would arrive in the capital at noon, and Jiang Jingjian would definitely take a bath and change his clothes immediately before going to the palace to meet the emperor. So she would go to Prince Yan's mansion and wait for him first.

…………

Around noon, a huge procession of carriages and horses entered the capital city. Pedestrians on both sides of the street avoided the procession and looked sideways with curiosity as they walked.

Prince Yan's Mansion.

The carriage stopped on the street opposite the mansion. A man dismounted, approached the carriage and whispered, "Your Highness, we have arrived at the Prince of Yan's Mansion."

A "hmm" sounded from inside the curtain of the carriage window, and the curtain embroidered with dark patterns was gently opened by a slender white hand, and a figure in white clothes got off the carriage slowly.

The white clothes embroidered with gold thread swayed slightly as he walked. Jiang Jingjian raised his eyes and walked towards the open gate of Prince Yan's Mansion in front of him. Behind him, a group of white-clothed attendants with swords on their waists followed him indifferently, without looking away.

Jiang Jingjian's face was calm, and there was a slight chill of spring around him. He walked onto the small bridge in the courtyard and suddenly saw a pink figure standing quietly in front of him.

He paused for a moment, and the coldness around him disappeared instantly. He walked towards the girl with a curved mouth.

At the same time, a group of white-clothed figures with murderous intent who were following closely behind him turned around and retreated silently, leaving only one person following Jiang Jingjian not far behind.

"Jiang Jingjian..."

As the person in front gradually approached, Jiang Jingyuan raised his head slightly, his dark eyes were calm, with only a slightly dazed look that was always fixed on the face of the person in front.

"Why are you waiting here?" Jiang Jingjian stood in front of her with a smile on his face.

Nineteen-year-old Jiang Jingjian was much taller than she remembered...

She was clearly still dressed in white, but as she watched the river scene unfold, she felt as if it had changed a lot. Like the chill of spring, her every move carried a subtle chill that couldn't be completely concealed...

Strange? Not really, she thought. She just felt that he had changed a lot.

Her dazed eyes wandered over the face of the person in front of her. Suddenly, Jiang Jingyuan caught a glimpse of a cold light out of the corner of her eye. She turned her gaze and saw a thin tassel earring hanging on the right ear of the man in front of her.

The gold chain is passed through the red ropes, woven into a peace knot, and then strung with five exquisite golden Five Emperors coins, with a slender tassel at the end.

The tassels rested lightly on his shoulders, and the golden Five Emperors' coins gleamed with a cold light in the sunlight.

Is it because of the tassel earring that it looks different... Jiang Jingyuan was stunned for a moment, looking at the smiling face of the person in white in front of him, pursed his lips, lowered his eyes, and said a little uncomfortably: "Welcome, welcome back..."

Jiang Jingjian's smile suddenly became more charming. He said "hmm" softly, put one hand around her shoulders and stroked her black hair from behind, and hugged her lightly with the other hand. He smiled and said softly, "Long time no see."

In just a moment, he put down his hands, stretched out his right hand to hold the girl's sleeve, and the two of them walked towards the study in the mansion together.

As he walked, the tassels beside his ears swayed slightly. Jiang Jingjian tilted his head, glanced at the figure behind him, and said, "Yuan Shi, have someone send the things to the study."

"Yes." Yuan Shi, who was following not far behind, responded immediately and turned around to prepare.

In a study room in Prince Yan's mansion, a young girl sat on a soft couch, surrounded by countless brocade boxes. Jiang Jingyuan picked up each box one by one, quietly waiting for Jiang Jingjian to emerge from the palace.

Most of the brocade boxes that Jiang Jingyuan had opened contained some rare and bizarre things from the Chen Kingdom, as well as a dozen pieces of exquisite but not luxurious jewelry.

No matter how exquisite the jewelry you can buy outside is, it cannot compare to the ones given by the palace. The magical instruments that can be easily obtained are not rare things either. They are far inferior to the salary in the palace and the treasures in the Rong family's treasury.

Jiang Jingjian knew this very well, so he picked out these interesting little things to entertain her.

Jiang Jingyuan then picked up the new brocade box, opened it, and paused before she raised her hand to pick up a silver ring from the box. She probed inside with her spiritual sense and took out several brocade boxes.

The brocade boxes were opened by an invisible force, and inside were bottles of elixirs, or dozens of yellow and black talismans stacked up -

The pills are all for healing and prolonging life, and the talismans are all so lethal that just a glance with spiritual consciousness can make one feel horrified.

Jiang Jingyuan: "..."

real……

Really understand her.

"Puchi..." Xu Qinglin's laughter suddenly rang out in his mind. Xu Qinglin mocked him mercilessly, "I remember you prepared these too."

Except for not preparing any jewelry... Jiang Jingyuan suddenly thought of the Five Emperors' Coins tassel hanging on Jiang Jingjian's right ear. She didn't know if it was a magic weapon, but she still remembered to prepare some jewelry next time.

Half an hour later, the door of the study was pushed open. The girl sitting among countless brocade boxes of different sizes looked up and saw a tall figure walking towards her with the light behind her.

"I heard something very interesting."

Jiang Jingjian walked in with a smile on his face and spoke slowly.

Jiang Jingyuan looked at him.

"Heh..." Jiang Jingjian closed the study door with his backhand. He lowered his head, the corners of his mouth raised, his chest rising and falling slightly as he let out a low laugh. "Jiang Jingsui and Jiang Jingzong started a quarrel. They were kneeling in the palace just now."

Jiang Jingyuan had a feeling that this was not unsurprising, as the tit-for-tat between the two of them had not been uncommon in the past three years.

But at the beginning, one of them was cold and sarcastic, and the other was smiling with a dagger in his heart. After a while, they gradually got to the point where they were disgusted with each other and had to compete with each other to see who was better.

She didn't think that what happened between Jiang Jingbai and Jiang Jingzong was definitely done by the Rong family.

Just as she had thought before, the two people had no vested interests involved, and as long as they stood on opposite sides in public, they were not far from real opposition.

A little spark can instantly turn into a sea of ​​fire and a battlefield...

Some people want them to be good, while others want them to be bad. And this matter of throwing a few sparks and adding a little fire doesn't even require the Rong family to bother to do anything—

Someone has been planning this day and night.

"It has been like this for years. It wasn't so serious in the beginning." Jiang Jingyuan said calmly.

She may be soft-hearted for a short while, but in the final analysis she is still a person who is very particular about the relationship between close and distant people and is emotionally indifferent.

The only person she cared about was Jiang Jingjian. As for Jiang Jingsui and Jiang Jingzong, they had nothing to do with her. Her greatest kindness was that she would not help to reconcile or fan the flames.

She would only listen and remember things that had nothing to do with her, for future reference, without developing any emotions in her heart - this had been evident in her before, and had become even more apparent in the past three or four years.

Although she is more lively now than before, her heart is cold.

Jiang Jingjian smiled and glanced at her——

How could one not be delighted by partiality? Especially Jiang Jingyuan's partiality, he really liked this feeling.

He and Jiang Jingyuan are the closest people to each other in this world, aren't they?

"Oh, there's one more thing." Jiang Jingjian's smile faded, leaving only a faint smile on his lips as he said, "His Majesty has allowed me to practice with the Imperial Master for a few months."

Jiang Jingyuan's expression froze, and he said hesitantly, "What I mean is..."

"It's a sure thing." Jiang Jingjian nodded with a smile on his face. His eyes were shaded by his eyelashes when he lowered them for a moment. A cruel and cold light flashed in his eyes, as if a lone wolf that had been dormant in the dark night for a long time finally bared its teeth and showed its claws fiercely.

Jiang Jingjian sat down at the table in the study, leaning back in his chair. Turning his head, the Five Emperors' Coins tassels slipped from his shoulders. He looked at the girl lying on the soft couch beside him, his lips curved wider and wider as he whispered:

"This is just the beginning..."

There was an unconcealable strange cold light of excitement in his eyes, and his chest rose and fell slightly. Jiang Jingjian closed his eyes with restraint, and when he opened them again, there was only a faint smile slowly spreading in his eyes.

"Will you come with me?" Jiang Jingjian asked casually, tilting his head.

National Master... When Jiang Jingyuan thought of Yan Rugui again, the first image that came to his mind was the woman in white crying sadly on the streets of Chen Kingdom.

She immediately cleared the image from her mind, and after thinking carefully, a sentence emerged in her mind: "Yan Rugui took advantage of others and caused great harm to others."

Jiang Jingyuan: "..." Can she really go to see Yan Rugui like this...

"He's not the one dressed as a woman... Pah, I'm not the one who's embarrassed, why should I hide from him?" Jiang Jingyuan thought, and the strange feeling that rose in her heart was instantly smothered in the mud by an invisible hand. In just a moment, her eyes returned to their calm and silent state. She thought calmly, "I don't know how Yan Rugui would react if I went there."

Should he pretend nothing happened? Or would he react in some other way? Would he just kick her out?

It’s quite interesting to think about.

There was a flicker of excitement in his lowered eyes for a moment. When Jiang Jingyuan raised his eyes, he nodded and replied calmly, "Okay."

Jiang Jingjian's eyes suddenly narrowed, and he slumped lazily in the chair, the smile on his face gradually widening.

Fortunately, I agreed... We had to separate due to circumstances a few years ago. It would be too dangerous if I couldn't keep an eye on Jiang Jingyuan's situation now.

Jiang Jingyuan always disappears in the blink of an eye. He is usually well-behaved, but he always does something worrying when he least expects it.

Maybe it's just a child's nature to love playing and taking risks, but he's really worried about Jiang Jingyuan...

…………

Half a month later.

The carriage stopped at the foot of the mountain. Two figures, one tall and one short, stepped down from the carriage. A man hurried over to the side and saluted, saying, "Your Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness Changsheng, the Imperial Preceptor is waiting for you on the mountain."

Jiang Jingjian nodded.

The man led the way in front. Jiang Jingjian let Jiang Jingyuan walk in front of him, and behind him were a dozen attendants. The group walked up the mountain road slowly.

Although they all had spiritual powers and were not troubled by rocks and plants like ordinary people, Jiang Jingjian still kept an eye on the steps and movements of the girl in front of him from time to time, ready to lend a hand at any time.

The dozen or so people behind them looked around vigilantly. As the saying goes, there is always a loophole in a perfect plan. Even though this is the residence where the national teacher practices, they will not relax at all.

Half an hour later.

The lush branches and leaves were parted, and a wide view appeared before everyone's eyes.