"Yes, I've taken it to heart," Nan Qianyue said softly.
Qin Yi raised his hand and touched her ear. "Eat something first."
After saying that, he got up and picked her up.
The meditation room was small, with the table for vegetarian meals only four or five steps away from the bed. Qin Yi gently placed Nan Qianyue on the stool and sat down next to her.
Looking at the bland food on the table, Nan Qianyue suddenly lost her appetite, but then her stomach growled at an inopportune moment.
Qin Yi's eyebrows twitched, and he picked up his chopsticks to eat some food. "You have difficulty moving around, so I'll feed you."
Nan Qianyue lowered her eyes to look at the vegetable leaves at the corner of her mouth. It was obviously overcooked. She didn't open her mouth, her brows furrowing more and more tightly. "...I'll eat it when I get back to the capital."
"No." Qin Yi tossed the vegetable leaves into his own mouth, then tore off a piece of vegetarian cake and fed it to Nan Qianyue. "Eat this, it looks alright."
Nanqianyue couldn't help but shrink back. The taste of this pancake was too strange; it looked disgusting. "...I don't want to eat this."
Qin Yi felt his eyelids twitching. He stared intently at Nan Qianyue for a long while before finally popping the plain cake into his mouth.
"Then have some porridge." He scooped up another spoonful of white porridge and fed it to Nan Qianyue, while gently coaxing her, "Eat something, how can you recover if you're hungry."
Nan Qianyue glanced at Qin Yi, then smelled the white porridge near her mouth. Finding no strange taste, she reluctantly took a bite.
After taking one bite, she didn't want to eat anymore, and then she choked.
"I'm not eating anymore." She turned her face away.
Qin Yi's temples started throbbing. He put down his spoon and continued to coax, "Then I'll peel a pear for you." With that, he picked up the pear on the table and began to peel it.
Nanqianyue cast a glance at her, her brows furrowing again. This pear clearly hadn't been stored properly; the flesh must be rough. She sighed softly, "You eat it. I really have no appetite."
Qin Yi continued peeling, a helpless smile playing on her lips. "You two really do seem like sisters."
Nanqianyue raised an eyebrow, her eyes showing confusion. "What?"
He slowly said, "One is facing life and death but still cares about his reputation, while the other is injured and hungry but still picks at food."
After he finished speaking and peeled the pear, he cut off a piece and fed it to Nan Qianyue, saying, "Try it."
This time, Nanqianyue didn't have the nerve to refuse to eat. She obediently opened her mouth and took a bite of the pear. She almost spat it out as soon as it entered her mouth, but she endured the discomfort and swallowed it after chewing it a few times.
Qin Yi couldn't help but laugh at her expression. Only she could eat a piece of pear and have the effect of swallowing bitter herbs.
"Your brother is arriving soon. He has brought you clothes and food," Qin Yi said slowly.
Nan Qianyue was taken aback. "Nan Yichu? Why is he going out so late? What if those assassins haven't gone far yet?"
Qin Yi held her hand, "Don't worry, the road has been cleared, nothing will happen."
Nan Qianyue nodded in understanding, then realized that Qin Yi hadn't mentioned the crucial information yet. She quickly asked, "So, what's the background of that assassin leader? Have you found out?"
Qin Yi composed himself, looked into Nan Qianyue's eyes, and said, "He was once a retainer of the Crown Prince of Nan Jing."
He deliberately said only this one sentence first, and then observed Nanqianyue's reaction.
“Xiao Chen?” Nan Qianyue frowned immediately. “How could that be? Xiao Chen’s men would never kill me.”
She spoke with great conviction.
A cold glint flashed in Qin Yi's eyes, and his voice turned several degrees colder, "But it's precisely his people who want to kill you, kill you two years ago, and want to kill you again two years later."
Nan Qianyue stared intently at Qin Yi, trying to find traces of lies on his face, but apart from his increasingly cold expression, he remained unchanged.
“If he really is one of his retainers, then he probably wouldn’t know either.” Nan Qianyue had an inexplicable trust in Xiao Chen.
This left Qin Yi feeling frustrated and suffocated, which was truly unbearable.
"Didn't you lose your memory? How can you still trust him so much?" Qin Yi asked, feeling frustrated.
Nan Qianyue, however, sensed something else in the conversation. She countered, "So you mean I trusted Xiao Chen two years ago?"
Qin Yi felt like he had shot himself in the foot. He lowered his voice and said, "This person faked his death two years ago to escape from Nanjing. He later joined a killer organization in the martial arts world. This assassination was ordered by the Empress."
"The Empress? Why would she want to kill me?" Nan Qianyue was completely bewildered.
Qin Yi continued, "The old emperor intends to bestow a marriage upon you and the second prince. The empress will never allow the second prince to gain such a great help from the prime minister. Furthermore, you and I are entangled in many ways, and she will not allow the prime minister to support me. Killing you will save a lot of trouble."
Nan Qianyue lowered her head slightly, her brows furrowed, and her lips unconsciously pursed. She had only been back in the capital for a short time, yet she was already busy arranging her marriage.
The Empress has a eldest princess and a third prince, but the third prince died in battle three years ago. She has no children now, so what is she fighting for?
"Was the banditry in the outskirts of Beijing also arranged by the Empress?" she asked.
Qin Yi shook his head, his gaze deep. "It's the Eldest Princess."
"The Eldest Princess? Isn't she the Empress's daughter? The mother and daughter arranged for people to kill me one after the other? Her reason for killing me is the same as the Empress's?" It makes sense for a daughter to be of one mind with her mother.
Qin Yi looked away, not answering her directly. "The Empress's desire to kill you only arose after the old emperor intended to bestow a marriage upon you. The Second Prince has Marquis Xie behind him, and if he also has the support of the Southern Chancellor, his position as Crown Prince is secure."
Nanqianyue seemed to understand but not quite, her thoughts successfully led astray by Qin Yi. She stopped dwelling on the reason why the princess killed her, thinking, "Then isn't the empress going against the emperor?"
Qin Yi gave a cold laugh. "If the old emperor really wanted to bestow a marriage, he would have issued the imperial decree long ago. He just wants to see his subordinates check and balance each other, so that when the snipe and the clam fight, the fisherman can benefit."
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
