Answer

The longer I spend with Xiao Yingzhu, the more clearly I can sense the changes in our feelings.

And the subconscious temper that she showed towards him after being half annoyed just now seemed to have frankly stated the unclear ambiguity in the matter, clearly laying it out in front of the two of them.

Several commonly used names flashed through my mind, but each one I tried to blurt out was stuck between my teeth.

Neither the title of "Your Excellency" which sounds like a betrayal of the relationship, nor the title of "Mr. Xiao" which was created in vain when the relationship reached a certain stage, is enough to summarize the ambiguous relationship here.

When the two of them sat in silence in the same room, all these commonly used names became invalid, and none of them could be used in this delicate relationship.

But she couldn't ask Jiang Nian to just walk out of the room without caring about Xiao Yingzhu.

Although no one restricted her pace, the reluctance in her heart was like shackles restraining her ankles, making her stay in this awkward and delicate atmosphere moment after moment.

The door of the noble room was not closed tightly by Qin Lan, and it opened a little when the moisture-laden wind blew.

A cold and sharp wind blew in her face, and the paper in her hand rustled violently. Jiang Nian stood up to close the door, and without intending to look back, the scene of Xiao Yingzhu, who was as beautiful as a painting, came into her sight.

The bright light made his profile look flawless and fair, and his slightly drooping long eyelashes and distinctive jawline all revealed the owner's casual nature.

His cold yet subtly changing deep eyes and brows seemed to reappear before her eyes.

The string that had been hanging in the air suddenly broke, striking her clear mind.

His eyes felt dry for a moment, Jiang Nian opened his mouth and blinked again.

"Xiao Yingzhu."

The name that was between her teeth came out naturally in a daze. Her heart suddenly sank, and the paper wrinkled unconsciously. Her face showed no fear, and she looked at Xiao Yingzhu who raised his eyes calmly without saying a word.

His gaze was indifferent but deep, yet it was impossible to glimpse the thoughts within. I couldn't figure out what he was thinking, and seeing that he didn't react, I felt relaxed.

Jiang Nian pretended that he had never said that just now. He naturally took a chair and moved it next to him, spread the information on the table, and smiled softly at him.

"Talk about the delay?"

He suppressed the chilling and dangerous aura surrounding him. Xiao Yingzhu seemed to have dropped her usual nonchalant tone. A frightening look flashed in her eyes. He tapped the table nonchalantly and asked her patiently, like a teacher, "What's the problem?"

Jiang Nian's hair stood on end when he looked at her. Instinctively, she couldn't meet his eyes, fearing something might happen. She just sat quietly in her chair and handed the paper over.

"What consequences will the sentence 'Yan's information will be delivered one day later' bring?"

Slender fingers stretched out in front of her eyes, and the faint scent of sandalwood lingered in her nostrils. There was nothing life-threatening in the room, but Jiang Nian did not dare to relax. Because Xiao Yingzhu was closer to her when reading the intelligence, her nerves were even more tense.

She swore that she had just accidentally said his full name. Before this, she had been vaguely avoiding this name that hinted at a relationship, treating it as a line of defense, a warning sign in their ambiguous relationship, and they both kept it tacitly.

Will there be any consequences if I accidentally say the full name of the person I'm attracted to due to a moment of relaxation?

Jiang Nian had never thought about it.

She puts her career first.

This obscure and ambiguous relationship is just a spice in the highly tense and tiring life.

Would Xiao Yingzhu think the same as her?

Afraid of touching the forbidden fruit, Jiang Nian stared at the intelligence report in a daze. While Xiao Yingzhu was reading the information, he found some reasons to comfort himself that he had just said the wrong thing and it would not matter. But in the blink of an eye, he saw his own reflection in those dark and quiet pupils.

He lowered his eyes and looked at Jiang Nian, his lips moving.

"Do you understand?"

“…”

Being stared at directly by him from a close distance, the person she had just been thinking about was now looking at her without blinking. Jiang Nian subconsciously held her breath and looked away with a guilty look.

"Yeah, I understand."

She had already had some ideas before asking Xiao Yingzhu, and asking again was just icing on the cake. She shouldn't be lying if she said that.

The person opposite chuckled and leaned back on the edge of the table casually. He didn't question her words, but just went along with what she said, kind of letting her do what she wanted.

"Then tell me about it?"

The agarwood around him became fainter as the distance between them increased. Jiang Nian's nerves relaxed, but before he could catch his breath, his breathing was subconsciously held again.

This is really a bit like being caught daydreaming in class by the teacher, and deliberately not saying anything, so that she can repeat what she said to prove whether she really knows it or not.

...This person had never been so inquisitive before, except to test my identity.

Jiang Nian had reason to suspect that Xiao Yingzhu asked this question deliberately.

Fortunately, she had already thought of the answer in her mind before asking the question, so Xiao Yingzhu obviously misunderstood.

Jiang Nian looked back, a bright look of confidence flashing in his eyes.

"If we postpone it for a day, we can use the 'natural barrier' to slow down the crows' flight speed, delaying the arrival of the letter."

"This time...is just enough to prevent you from interfering with Meng Jian's plan, right?"

It was rare to see Jiang Nian looking like someone waiting for praise. This was quite different from her usual calm and graceful image. Xiao Yingzhu couldn't help but lean on her wrist and watch her for a while. After a while, she smiled and asked softly:

"I only talked about Meng Jian's relationship with the Tongzhi who detained the letter. How did you infer so much?"

He seemed to have caught a glimpse of the fox tail that she had been hiding unintentionally, and his eyes and brows showed more interest.

An unexpected rhetorical question.

Jiang Nian paused as he was about to flip through the white paper, frowned slightly, and asked back, "Why don't you answer according to the routine?"

Xiao Yingzhu ignored the unfamiliar words that came out of her mouth again, changed her mind, and hinted at her to explain the "natural danger".

In war, people often use astronomical phenomena to judge the wind's direction, but with Jiang Nian's identity, he should not have access to this kind of knowledge.

She still failed to open the white paper in her hand. Jiang Nian forgot for a moment that in this era, these military strategies and astronomy were beyond the reach of ordinary people. She held the cover of the book upside down and fell into deep thought as she looked at Xiao Yingzhu's casual but meaningful gaze.

Just now, she was still speculating in her heart about Xiao Yingzhu's views on their relationship and worried that Xiao Yingzhu had different ideas from her. Now she should let it go for the time being.

Seeing Xiao Yingzhu's nonchalant and casual reaction, Jiang Nian intuitively felt that he should be like her, just treating the ambiguous relationship as a spice of life and not causing any unnecessary trouble.

In this case, can I now explain that I do not belong to this time and space?

If you keep the relationship ambiguous, even if you don't answer now, you will have to say it later, it's just a matter of sooner or later.

Or should we once again attribute this knowledge that is not accessible to the original owner to the fact that it comes from a strange book?

Xiao Yingzhu was probably almost tired of hearing this reason.

Her cheeks felt a little hot under his seemingly substantial gaze. Jiang Nian turned her head away as if to hide it. After thinking for a while, she covered half of her face with a book and looked at him with a smile with her eyes curved.

"you guess."

Anticipating that Jiang Nian would not tell him his identity so easily, Xiao Yingzhu did not react much, but seemed to have thought of something interesting. The interest between his relaxed brows seemed to radiate to his eyes, and even his dark pupils showed some interest.

"Guess?"

He raised his eyes and curled his lips, and the deep meaning in his eyes made Jiang Nian feel dangerous.

Her sixth sense made her nerves subconsciously tense up. Just as she was about to open her mouth to stop Xiao Yingzhu from speaking, the words that the other party spoke lightly shattered her usually solid psychological defenses.

Xiao Yingzhu smiled, supporting her head with her wrist, and looked at Jiang Nian as she had looked at him just now.

"Guess what? Guess if you're the original 'Jiang Nian'?"

His eyes were indifferent and cold, but not sharp and testing. Rather, they were like a slightly tipsy summer breeze, gently sweeping across Jiang Nian's every expression.

“…”

Jiang Nian's head was buzzing, and for a moment he just looked up at the other person.

The other person seemed to be unaware of the earth-shattering secret words she had said, and was still looking at her with his head tilted.

In that expressionless face, Jiang Nian seemed to see a bit of childlike innocence. The strange thoughts, coupled with the age and identity of the person in front of him, who was in his twenties, made him even more creepy and weird.

She opened her mouth, and after a while she found her voice again, then smiled softly and familiarly:

"What are you talking about? I'm not Jiang Nian, so who is Jiang Nian?"

There is no point in panicking, but Jiang Nian didn't know if he had revealed any inappropriate expressions in the moment when his mind went blank.

At this time, the more surprised the reaction is and the more unexpected the expression is, the more likely it is to dissuade the other person from continuing to think about it.

Xiao Yingzhu is so perceptive that he must have discovered it long ago, not to mention that he had accidentally been exposed twice before.

Observing the girl's body tensed up for a moment and then suddenly relaxed, the meaning in Xiao Yingzhu's eyes became even darker. It is better not to push people too hard, otherwise if they run away, it will be difficult to catch them.

Xiao Yingzhu turned her eyes away indifferently, letting Jiang Nian suppress her laughter. She waited patiently for her inner fear to subside before changing the subject in a seemingly soothing manner.

Unfortunately, Jiang Nian had never expected that Xiao Yingzhu would be waiting here. Seeing that his attention was diverted by his nonsense and that it would not involve the issue of being exposed, he naturally followed him obediently.

"You want to read the book Miss Tao gave you? Sure."

Jiang Nian, who had escaped danger, was very easy to talk to. It just so happened that this was the book she was curious about and wanted to read. Now that she could finally see its true appearance, she did not delay any longer and quickly opened the book.

The book cover was placed on the table beside her. With the bright white mist light from the window, she separated the two books, one above and one below, and placed them on the table.

Xiao Yingzhu lazily propped up his head and looked at her with sparkling eyes as she approached him, and curled his lips slightly. The next moment, when they saw the words on the cover of the book, they both had different reactions.

Xiao Yingzhu first raised her eyebrows slightly, looking very interested, while Jiang Nian...

Jiang Nian was stunned.

What is this word?

This is totally not the character that should be used in the Huan Dynasty.

This is a modern simplified Chinese character.