Proof of Admiration

Changfeng, with a sword at his waist, had silently appeared three steps behind her, tall and solemn, like a silent stone statue.

Gu Jinghong felt a chill run down her spine, but quickly switched back to the bewildered expression she wore after recovering from a serious illness. Gone was the shrewdness of Manager Gu; she looked more like a young girl who had gone astray and was struggling to find her way out.

Her voice carried a hint of panic: "I... I woke up and felt that the warm room was too stuffy, so I asked the elder sister and the guard brother to come out for some fresh air with me... But in the blink of an eye, the elder sister and the guard brother disappeared... This place is so big and so unfamiliar... I got lost after walking a few more steps."

Seeing that Changfeng remained unmoved, Gu Jinghong lowered her head, and the mole at the corner of her eye became even redder.

She murmured softly, "...Did I do something wrong?"

Changfeng showed no expression, but turned to the side and made a "please" gesture: "Now that you are awake, you should see the prince. Please come with me."

The prince... is he the one who told him to "get rid of" her?

Gu Jinghong's face turned slightly pale as she walked in the direction Chang Fengqing had indicated.

Just as Gu Jinghong was pondering why the prince would seek her out, she suddenly heard Changfeng behind her add casually, "Miss seems to... be very good at finding her way around."

A casual remark caused a thin layer of sweat to break out on Gu Jinghong's back.

She lowered her eyelashes. "You jest, sir. I was just wandering around aimlessly. It's just that this palace is so large and imposing that it inspires fear."

"The paths around the Prince's residence are somewhat complicated. However, the best way to find your way is to follow the rules."

As he spoke, Changfeng finally turned his head to look at her. "The prince dislikes crowds, and even more so, he dislikes people with many thoughts. Now that you have been given a second chance at life, you should cherish it and take good care of yourself."

Gu Jinghong's face showed confusion and gratitude: "Thank you for your guidance, sir. I understand, and I will not cause any more trouble for the prince and you."

Changfeng withdrew his gaze and said nothing more.

Before long, Gu Jinghong followed Changfeng to the study of the Prince's mansion.

The moment you step inside, a calm, scholarly atmosphere mixed with the crisp scent of pine fills the air.

The study was extremely spacious and open, resembling a small library. The four walls were high, from the ground to the ceiling, all covered by floor-to-ceiling brown and black sandalwood bookshelves, densely packed with all kinds of classic books and scrolls, as vast as the sea.

A wooden ladder leans quietly against the tall bookshelf, making it easy for the owner to climb up and access the precious books placed at the top. The floor is paved with huge, polished blue bricks, as smooth as mirrors, reflecting the sunlight filtering through the windows and the deep outline of the bookshelf. Walking on it, the sound of footsteps is barely audible.

At this moment, Xiao Chengyan, dressed in dark green casual clothes, sat on a long table of the same color and material as the bookshelf. He was tall and straight, with distinct facial features and an extremely cold and aloof demeanor. He truly possessed the "peerless beauty" described outside.

He didn't look up when he heard footsteps.

Changfeng bowed respectfully: "Your Highness, the person has been brought." After saying that, he stepped back and stood at the door of the study.

Only Gu Jinghong and Xiao Chengyan remained in the empty study.

He just left her hanging like that.

Gu Jinghong did not feel uncomfortable; instead, she looked at the map behind Xiao Chengyan.

The map showed the southwestern part of Dayong. Gu Jinghong recognized a mountain near the lower edge called Fengzhang Mountain, and beyond Fengzhang Mountain was Nanzhao.

However, the information on this map seems a bit outdated, because between Dayong and Nanzhao on this map, there is a place that, if I remember correctly, once had a country called Nanfeng...

After a long while, Xiao Chengyan put down his pen, looked up at Gu Jinghong, and said, "...Miss seems quite interested in my map?"

Gu Jinghong was taken aback and looked away.

Objectively speaking, Xiao Chengyan's voice is deep and magnetic. If it weren't for his innate coldness that lowers the temperature of his voice, it might be considered gentle.

Gu Jinghong lowered her eyes, adopting a cautious and reserved demeanor: "This humble woman has never seen such a painting before... It turns out to be a map, crisscrossed and winding, quite beautiful indeed."

He seemed unconcerned by her excuse, and looked at the memorial in his hand again, a faint voice escaping his thin lips, "Tell me, why did you wander around my manor after waking up? What in the manor are you so interested in?"

Xiao Chengyan didn't ask her name; he went straight to the point. His attitude couldn't be clearer—to him, the woman before him, whether she was named or not, round or flat, was nothing more than a vague chess piece placed on the chessboard by someone playing against him.

The fleeting glimpse of a butterfly between his collarbones, though it once stirred a ripple in his heart like a pebble thrown into a still lake, has now long since faded into silence.

Beneath the surface, what truly captivated him was the hidden hand lurking in the shadows, repeatedly attempting to disrupt the chessboard of his royal palace.

Allowing her to enter the Jinwang Mansion was merely a casual move on his part. Standing here, she was like a caged bird; no matter how sharp her wings, she couldn't stir up even the slightest trouble.

This certainty is the disdain unique to those in power, and even more so, the cold-blooded heart that has been immersed in power politics for many years, manipulating people's hearts and the situation at will.

Gu Jinghong was naturally aware of this, and after a moment's thought, she blurted out, "This humble woman... is afraid."

Xiao Chengyan looked up at her and asked, "Afraid?"

Gu Jinghong nodded: "I am from a poor family. I have suddenly come to this beautiful and prosperous unfamiliar place. I know it is a place that is beyond my reach. I am afraid that I will not be able to stay."

Xiao Chengyan put down the memorial in his hand, his whole body stern, and his gaze suddenly sharpened. "What was the purpose of that carefully designed fall on the Rainbow Bridge during the Lantern Festival?"

"Whose handwriting was that unique page of annotations that was 'coincidentally' found outside the mansion gate the other day?"

He paused, his gaze falling on Gu Jinghong's lowered face. "And those poisonings, disguises, traps and mechanisms that I no longer want to talk about... If you have anything to say, feel free to speak up. My Jinwang Mansion is not an unreasonable place."

Gu Jinghong's body stiffened almost imperceptibly for a moment.

Sure enough, he knew it all, and so clearly.

In fact, apart from the death from freezing in the snow yesterday, which was orchestrated by Gu Jinghong, the rest were all the work of Grand Secretary Qin Jin... Qin Jin is a man who is not meticulous in his work and is always causing her trouble!

Gu Jinghong happened to witness what happened that night at the Lantern Festival.

That day, Qin Jin sent Qian Hong, a girl from Zhuoyue Tower, to approach Xiao Chengyan, hoping to use her beauty to fall into his arms. Unfortunately, not only did she fail, but Qian Hong also tore her valuable dress.

As the manager of Zhuangmu Pavilion, Gu Jinghong was hiding in a private room of a restaurant by the Rainbow Bridge, quietly observing from the railing.

Since she took over as head of the department, Qin Jin has almost without exception assigned her all the tricky and difficult tasks that required careful planning. Even the shrewd and resourceful Yun Ni is often entrusted with important responsibilities.

But this time, for such a crucial and potentially disastrous "close-quarters" task, Qin Jin actually abandoned her and Yun Ni, choosing instead Qian Hong...

As Gu Jinghong watched the performance on the Rainbow Bridge, she caught a glimpse of a small figure in an old, gray dress, shivering in the cold wind. Since it was freezing, she asked the restaurant staff to give the girl some food.

That girl… Gu Jinghong’s gaze narrowed slightly, and he instantly made up his mind.

She suddenly raised her head, her eyes instantly filling with tears. The tears came quickly and suddenly, falling to the ground with a "plop, plop," filled with immense grievance.

“Your Highness, Jinghong doesn’t know what you’re talking about. On the day of the Lantern Festival, Jinghong was indeed on the Rainbow Bridge, but I got separated from my brother. I was starving, and my brother said he would find me something to eat… I was wearing the same clothes as yesterday… Your Highness passed by me that day, and you don’t remember me at all?”

These words were originally perfectly reasonable, but unfortunately, the person in front of him was Xiao Chengyan...

Without thinking, he replied casually, "The girl in the gray robe that day? I remember her hair was even shorter."

With so many people at the Lantern Festival, how could he still remember an insignificant person?

Gu Jinghong continued, "That day, I had my hair up, so it was a little short."

"What about the person who froze to death in the snow outside the Prince's Mansion three days ago?"

Gu Jinghong gritted her teeth—Damn it!

As her thoughts raced, she suddenly grasped a crucial point—since he had pointed out the previous tests, yet hadn't mentioned "Princess Yongning" or the mark, perhaps... this mark held immense weight in his heart, so much so that he was unwilling to mention it lightly.

The words of advice Yunni gave her when she was doing her hair and makeup that day suddenly floated into Gu Jinghong's mind.

"Manager Gu, in fact, many of the things you have worked so hard to obtain could have been obtained simply by using your face, without lifting a finger."

"Master, you must trust Yunni. With your looks, even if you're facing someone as cold and heartless as King Jin, you can try to attribute all the unanswerable questions to 'admiration'... What man can refuse the admiration of a stunningly beautiful woman? You should know that admiration doesn't require anyone's consent."

Although Yunni's judgment may not be accurate, at the moment...

"Because I admire the prince, I fell in love with him the day he passed by on the bridge!"

She took a step forward, her breathtakingly beautiful eyes, along with the mole at the end of her eyebrow, faintly glowing red: "At the lantern festival, I caught a glimpse of Your Highness's dashing figure, which was etched into my heart. I inquired around and learned that you love chess, so I racked my brains to write down my annotations, hoping to catch your eye. But you... you treat me as if I don't exist. I... I really have no other choice."

Tears streamed down her pale cheeks, her expression sincere and earnest. "I know it was stupid to faint in the snow, but I was starving, exhausted, and I don't even know what I bumped into and scraped my shoulder... This was the only way I could think of to get closer to you..."

She finished speaking in one breath, her chest heaving violently, tears streaming down her face, yet her eyes gazing at Xiao Chengyan with a stubborn and ardent intensity, as if she were truly just a lovelorn woman tormented by love, willing to do anything to get closer to her beloved.

The study was deathly silent, with only the occasional soft crackling of the candlelight.

Xiao Chengyan looked at her quietly, his face expressionless. His deep eyes, like a cold pool, reflected her tearful and sincere appearance.

After a while, he suddenly stood up and walked around the desk.

His tall figure cast a long shadow on the ground, slowly approaching Gu Jinghong step by step, silently rolling across the smooth, mirror-like blue brick floor.

He stopped in front of her, hands behind his back, aloof and condescending, his gaze fixed heavily on her face.

If it were anyone else, they would probably have already knelt down and begged for mercy.

But she is Gu Jinghong, who has been a disciple of Qianyuan Pavilion since she was ten years old, for a full eight years, and her mental fortitude is extraordinary.

Her fingertips were already cold, but she still remembered that she was now a "little girl who admired the prince." While recalling what Yun Ni had taught her, she looked up at him, letting tears hang on her eyelashes, teetering on the verge of falling.

"Admiration?" After a moment, he parted his thin lips slightly and uttered two words, his eyes full of scrutiny and evaluation, even with a hint of detached indifference. "Prove it to me."

Gu Jinghong's brow twitched: "What did Your Highness say?"

Xiao Chengyan's gaze, like a cold probe, slowly moved down from her tearful eyes, across her slender neck, and finally settled on her slightly open collar—where a faint crimson edge could still be seen.

"You say you admire me, then that proves your 'sincerity'."