Chapter 55 Chapter 55 It was already the Double Ninth Festival in September,…
It is now the Double Ninth Festival in September and the weather has turned cooler.
The water in the mountain lake was icy cold, and soon Jin Shiyue's body became numb from the cold.
Jin Shiyue was not good at swimming to begin with, and when she suddenly fell into the water, she was frightened and kicked around wildly, which made her get farther and farther away from the shore, and her feet could no longer touch the bottom.
"Help! Help...ah..." Jin Shiyue called for help intermittently towards the shore. She was about to collapse and sink to the bottom of the lake. Qian Ruofang on the shore, on the other hand, had a panicked look on her face.
Qian Ruofang and several of his servants were not good at swimming. Seeing Jin Shiyue getting farther and farther away from the shore, they didn't know how to rescue him.
If Jin Shiyue drowned, wouldn't it be her fault when the matter was traced back?
Qian Ruofang looked around carefully and saw that there seemed to be no one else here, so he gritted his teeth and quickly fled the scene with a few servants.
No one knew what happened by the lake. Even if Jin Shiyue died, it was just because she was in a bad mood after losing the polo game and accidentally fell into the water. It had nothing to do with Qian Ruofang.
Qian Ruofang ran too fast and didn't have time to notice Chen Xuan who finally rushed out from the woods.
Chen Xuan originally thought that they were making a lot of noise by the lake, and he didn't want to confront Jin Shiyue, so he didn't go out, but stayed in the maple forest to enjoy the scenery.
Unexpectedly, after the quarrel between the two parties, Jin Shiyue accidentally fell into the water. Seeing that Qian Ruofang ran away without rescuing her, he certainly couldn't just stand by and watch her die.
Both Jin Gui and Su Yue were servants of the mansion, and neither of them could swim.
Shen Xuan can swim, and now he is the only one who can go into the water. He quickly took off his outer robe and plunged into the cold water regardless of the two attendants behind him who tried to stop him.
At this time, Jin Shiyue could no longer struggle and sank to the bottom of the lake.
There are dense aquatic plants at the bottom of the lake, and if you get entangled by them, it will be very dangerous. Fortunately, Shen Xuan was a good swimmer and he quickly swam up with Jin Shiyue.
When he was brought to the lake, Jin Shiyue had already choked on water and passed out. Jin Gui and Su Yue were already frightened to the point of paleness, and when they saw that Shen Xuan was fine, they immediately hurriedly pulled them ashore.
After getting ashore, Shen Xuan pressed Jin Shiyue's abdomen hard, then lifted his feet and shook them upside down, causing him to spit out all the lake water he had swallowed.
After a violent coughing fit, Jin Shiyue finally recovered her breath.
He opened his eyes dazedly and found that in front of him was Shen Xuan, who was soaked all over.
Seeing that he had woken up, Shen Xuan showed a relieved expression and said, "Fortunately, you didn't drown for long. It seems that your heart, lungs and brain were not injured. You are lucky."
You have to know that this is in Dajin, where there are no advanced rescue equipment like in the modern world. If Jin Shiyue choked on water and her heart stopped for a while, and her brain was deprived of oxygen for dozens of seconds, she might not be able to be saved.
Jin Shiyue shivered with coldness, and after being stunned for a while, she realized that it was Shen Xuan who saved her.
"You..." He felt mixed emotions at this moment, and his previous hostility towards Shen Xuan also disappeared.
Seeing that the other person's lips were also frozen white, he lowered his head a little embarrassedly and said: "Thank you for saving my life."
At this time, an autumn breeze blew, making the maple forest by the lake make a rustling sound. Jin Shiyue was so cold that she couldn't help but sneeze loudly.
"It's so cold." Shen Xuan said as he shivered and put his coat on.
He asked Jin Shiyue to go to the windproof woods with him, and asked Su Yue to go back and get her clean clothes.
Then he asked Jingui to pick up some dry branches to make a fire, and he and Jin Shiyue sat around the fire to warm themselves.
Both of them were in a miserable state now, but with the fire to keep warm, it wasn't so cold anymore.
Shen Xuan broke off some dry branches and stuffed them into the fire to make it burn more vigorously, while Jin Shiyue secretly looked at Shen Xuan's expression through the firelight.
After a while, when he saw Shen Xuan looking up at him, he blurted out "I'm sorry."
Shen Xuan smiled when he heard this, thinking that the Jinning County Master was quite straightforward and not as annoying as he thought. After all, he is not very old, only fifteen or sixteen years old. In the modern world, he would still be in high school.
Seeing that the other party had apologized, Shen Xuan would no longer care about the previous farce, so he said: “Okay, seeing that you are so sincere, I will reluctantly forgive you.”
Jin Shiyue blushed when she heard this and said, "You saved my life anyway, so you are my savior. I will never compete with you for the title of Crown Prince, so you can rest assured."
After saying this, she seemed to remember something and said, "But there are many people in the capital who want to marry Xue Fenglin. Since you are already his fiancé, you must keep this position and don't let others take it away, otherwise I will not accept it."
Seeing that he was still thinking about this matter at this time, Shen Xuan was a little speechless, so he could only shake his head and said with a smile: "You are quite direct. I see that the children of famous families in your capital have always followed their parents' arrangements for marriage. How can they make their own decisions?"
"My father and mother love me, so I can make my own decision." Jin Shiyue said, "Fortunately, the prince is engaged to you, otherwise if he married Qian Ruofang, I would be so angry that I would die."
"After you go back, you won't want to settle the score with Qian Ruofang for what happened today, right?" Shen Xuan asked with a raised eyebrow.
He was afraid that the Lady of Jinning County would not give up and would drag him out to testify, dragging him into this storm.
Jin Shiyue looked at him and said, "Don't worry, I don't have any evidence in my hands right now. You are a man without any foundation in the capital, I won't drag you into this matter and make enemies."
Hearing this, Shen Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Seeing him like this, Jin Shiyue shook her head with a look of disappointment and said, "She's just a minister's daughter, and you're so scared?"
"Let me tell you, Qian Ruofang is your biggest rival. Lord Qian holds the position of Minister of Revenue, but he is a slippery person and has nothing to do with the Crown Prince or the Second Prince."
"Now that both sides want to win him over, they naturally have to work hard on marrying him. The Ye family has long been interested in Qian Ruofang's identity and has always intended to match her with the prince."
Seeing that Jin Shiyue had been staying out of the matter since she said she gave up Xue Fenglin, Shen Xuan couldn't help but ask curiously, "You've been analyzing for so long, why don't you analyze what kind of person the prince likes?"
Jin Shiyue burst out laughing when she heard that, and said to Shen Xuan: "With his status and appearance, the prince naturally likes girls who are smart, beautiful and have good family backgrounds."
At this point, Jin Shiyue realized that something seemed wrong, so she changed the subject and said, "But you don't have to worry. Although your family background is not good, the prince's word is law. Since the Xue family has accepted you, the prince should not despise you."
Shen Xuan knew that Jin Shiyue's mouth was faster than her brain, and she was also outspoken. He smiled and said nothing.
At this time, Su Yue happened to come back with Jin Shiyue's attendants, and both sides brought out clean clothes to change.
After everything was packed up, the two dried their hair by the fire, and then Shen Xuan and Jin Shiyue returned to the enclosure together.
Everyone knew that Shen Xuan had just had a polo match with Jin Shiyue, and it was a bit unpleasant.
It was quite surprising to see the two of them coming back together, talking and laughing all the way.
Mrs. Ye was even more surprised when she saw this. Jin Shiyue was originally invited by her to make Shen Xuan retreat, but now she has become friends with Shen Xuan, which is really puzzling.
At the same time, he felt a little admiration for Shen Xuan. He thought that although Shen Xuan was raised in the countryside, his words and deeds were decent, and he was able to subdue a troublemaker like the Princess of Jinning so quickly. If the Duke Shen's Mansion was still there, Shen Xuan's personality would be quite compatible with Xue Fenglin.
At this time, Qian Ruofang had already returned to her seat, and was looking around with a restless look on her face.
She suddenly saw Jin Shiyue and Shen Xuan walking out of the woods together, and her face changed.
He finally breathed a sigh of relief when he saw with a grim face that Jin Shiyue and Shen Xuan sat down together but did not come to cause trouble for him.
"Why did Jin Shiyue come back with that country boy?"
Qian Ruofang looked at the two of them sitting together and talking, seemingly quite intimate, and couldn't help but frown and ask.
"I just saw the attendant who served the country boy come back in a hurry, and he also found the attendant of the Princess of Jinning to leave together. I'm afraid he saw something just now?" The old woman who served Qian Ruofang said immediately.
Qian Ruofang felt very uneasy when she thought that Shen Xuan might have seen her causing Jin Shiyue to fall into the water.
She already looked down on Shen Xuan, and now she felt even more disgusted with him.
Because he was afraid that Shen Xuan would tell others about what happened at the lake, which would be disadvantageous to him. Qian Ruofang took the initiative and began to slander Shen Xuan's reputation to other concubines.
"Just now when I was in the mountains, I accidentally saw that Brother Chen and Captain Pei were very close." Qian Ruofang pulled a few officials' wives who were on good terms with her and said softly, "This matter makes me feel uneasy, and I don't know whether I should tell it. If the prince knows about it, what should I do?"
Among these officials' wives there was one named He Yuning, the daughter of Lord He from the Ministry of Justice, who had always been upright in character.
She has always been good friends with Wang Qing, the daughter of the Wang family, who is also the sister-in-law of Ye Mi, the eldest son of the Ye family. After hearing Qian Ruofang's words, she immediately asked the maid beside her to call Wang Qing over.
"Is this true?" Wang Qing was surprised.
He Yuning said, "Qian Ruofang said it herself, and her words were very detailed, and the servants around her could testify to it. She is the daughter of a minister, and she has no grudges against that Chen Ge'er, so how could she say such nonsense?"
Wang Qing quickly informed Secretary Ye about this, and repeated the words she had heard from He Yuning in full.
"This is the Xue family's business, but the prince has always been closer to your Ye family since he was young." Wang Qing said, "What does your Ye family want to do, or what does the prince want to do? It depends on how you decide."
Ye Mi married into the Wang family a year ago, so she had no idea that the Ye family had arranged for Pei Xia to get close to Shen Xuan.
When Xue Fenglin was young, he lived in the Ye family for many years and had a very close relationship with him. Hearing that this country boy dared to treat the prince like this, he was very angry.
However, this matter concerned Xue Fenglin's reputation, so Ye Mi did not dare to act on his own, so he quietly asked someone to call Su Yue, who used to serve him, to come and question him.
But when Su Yue heard that it was Qian Ruofang who spread the news, she became very angry and told Ye Mi everything she had seen at the lake.
"Master, I have been following Brother Shen just now, and I know some inside information. Captain Pei must have been sent to Brother Shen by the palace, but he ignored him." Su Yue said: "Although Brother Shen is of low status, he treats the prince sincerely. I heard him tell Captain Pei that he likes the prince, this cannot be false."
Only then did Ye Mi realize what had happened. He did not expect that the Ye family was involved. He felt mixed emotions.
He thought for a long time before hurriedly going to Mrs. Ye. First, he told Madam Ye about the matter between Qian Ruofang and Jin Shiyue, and then he said, "Mother, Qian Ruofang has always been arrogant and proud of her talent. I didn't like her behavior. But because of her talent and Master Qian's status, I never said anything bad about her."
"But I think it's inappropriate for you to marry her off to the prince or Ye Chen. Her vicious temper shows that the Qian family has a bad family tradition and she is not a good match."
Madam Ye seemed to be thinking about something after hearing this. After thinking for a while, she said, "Qian Ruofang is indeed a bit cruel. It's a pity for her family background and talent."
"Then what should we do about her spreading rumors about Brother Shen?" Secretary Ye asked.
Madam Ye closed her eyes and rested for a moment before saying, "Don't worry about this matter. If he can get together with Captain Pei, wouldn't that be perfect?"
"Mother!" Ye Mi shook her head helplessly and said, "Xue Fenglin is not a member of the Ye family after all. Even if you love him, sometimes you don't have to extend your hand too far! Be careful that things will turn into the opposite extreme, and it will only wear out the affection between you!"
"Your aunt entrusted him to me before she died, and I have always treated him like my own son." Madam Ye said unhappily, "Lin'er knows what's going on. He knows I'm doing this for his own good, and he won't blame me."
Seeing that his own mother would not listen, Ye Mi did not say anything else. He could only sigh, turn around and leave, heading towards Shen Xuan.
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