Chapter 29 Chapter 29: Arousal.
After washing off the remaining soup on her fingertips, Jiang Hexue took a silk handkerchief and wiped it slowly.
"Shake your head," she instructed.
Fu Wang didn't understand why, but he did as he was told, shaking his head like a rattle.
"Did you hear that?" Jiang Hexue asked.
"What did you hear?" Fu Wang was puzzled.
"The sound of water in your head." Jiang Hexue put away the handkerchief and looked up at him. "Fu Er, it's been years since we last met. How come you've become so know-it-all?"
"Whether he loves me or not, I can judge for myself. Why do I need an outsider like you to teach me?"
Fu Wang stood there in a daze for a while, then laughed at himself.
"Hexue, I'm doing this for your own good," he said. "You saw how Qingyuan's plans completely failed at today's palace banquet. Could it be that your Highness had some hand in this?"
"Yes," Jiang Hexue said unconcernedly. "What a beautiful performance. My husband has such a plan, so I'm just adding to the fun."
"But he is so good at calculating. What will happen if he uses it on you?" Fu Wang gritted his teeth and said hatefully.
"He used me." Jiang Hexue repeated what he had just said, finding it amusing. "Before, I was just an orphan with no one to rely on. How could he have used me?"
"No matter what, you are the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Zhenbei." Fu Wang pressed on. "He Yedu should have been the heir of the Marquis of Zhenbei."
"The Marquis of Zhenbei has the Tiger Talisman in his hand. He has married you now and will help you and Heye reunite in the future. Won't you and your sister both be at his disposal?"
"Don't say such things." Jiang Hexue shook her head disapprovingly. "We're husband and wife, and we're family. Heye will have to call him 'brother-in-law' in the future, so how can he be used by others?"
"He could easily help Heye regain the throne of Crown Prince and inherit the military power of the Marquis of Zhenbei. Given his ability, would this military power really fall into Heye's hands? Aren't you two his puppets?"
"Besides, Hexue," he approached her, his blazing gaze fixed on her. "His Highness is no older than the other princes, and he's the Imperial Preceptor whose word is final. How can you be so sure he's indifferent to the throne?"
"Be careful with your words!" Jiang Hexue stepped back, and the unwiped water droplets splashed on his face.
She really had never thought about it that way.
According to the past, she and Shen Qingchen should have parted ways after dealing with Qingyuan and recognizing her brother.
But as time went by, we ended up in our current situation.
She didn't think Shen Qingchen was a power-hungry person, but she couldn't deny that Fu Wang's words really made her wary.
"Okay, let's not talk about him, let's talk about you." Fu Wang wiped the water off his face and asked nonchalantly. "Do you really love him?"
"Hexue, what do you think love is? Is it the same as how your mother feels about the Marquis of Zhenbei?"
Jiang Hexue shook his head, unable to give a definite answer: "Everyone is different."
"Then I'll try another approach." Fu Wang persisted. "Do you feel that, apart from Your Highness, your life would be unsatisfactory with anyone else, or—"
"Wouldn't it be nice to spend my life with him?"
"Not bad." Jiang Hexue did not hesitate.
Before she met Chen Qingchen, she always felt that living with her brother was the best choice.
She never thought that she needed to get married and find a husband to live with.
Fu Wang laughed: "But if you love someone, it should be the first kind."
"One last time, Fu Er. You don't need to teach me this." Jiang Hexue took a step back. "You're drunk."
"Maybe. After being scolded by you, I sobered up a lot." Fu Wang straightened up and sighed. "I care about you."
"Your Highness and I are both men, so perhaps I can see things more clearly than you do. If you don't want to listen, then forget it. Let's go back."
Jiang Hexue nodded meaninglessly.
"Is the guest hall for rest so remote?" Suddenly, she heard a voice from Qingyuan. She looked in the direction of the voice and saw Princess Has following a palace maid heading towards an even more remote palace.
"The guest hall wouldn't be so remote." Jiang Hexue frowned. "What's going on?"
"Xuemei, come with me," she said decisively. "Fu Er, go find His Highness for me."
"What are you doing?" Fu Wang grabbed her and realized something was wrong. "What does Princess Has have to do with you?"
"Since you still consider me a friend, then do as I say." Jiang Hexue glanced at the two people who hurried away. Without time to explain, he grabbed Xuemei and chased after them. "Princess, please stay."
She spoke in the Mengzhou dialect. Princess Has stopped and saw that it was her. She smiled and said, "It's you, Princess."
"Princess, are you resting in the Xunke Hall?" Jiang Hexue glanced at the maid. "It seems to me that this maid has taken the wrong path. How about asking my maid to lead you to find it?"
In fact, Xuemei didn't know the way either, but she was hers after all, so she could be trusted and it was okay for her to wander around the palace.
"Then Princess..." Princess Has hesitated.
"I will see which road she knows. Princess, you are tired from the journey, so please go with Xuemei to rest first." Jiang Hexue was anxious to send her away, fearing that something unexpected would happen in the next moment.
He repeated it to Xuemei in Longlin's language, and warned her, "Stay by her side every step of the way."
After finally getting Princess Has away, Jiang Hexue folded his arms and looked at her, "Don't you know the way?"
"I'm leading you to the guest hall," the maid insisted. "The noble who showed me the way earlier was heading there."
Jiang Hexue laughed and said, "Why don't you take me to see which noble person is so quiet?"
She believed in her intuition that this noble man must have bad intentions.
Now that things have come to this, she will go and take a look, and then tell Shen Qingchen, so as to avoid any more mistakes in the Qingyuan incident.
Anyway, Fu Wang would go looking for Chen Qingchen, so she was not worried that she would not be able to cope with it. Even if it was difficult, she could solve it when he came.
She then followed the palace maid to the guest hall.
-
Although the palace is remote, it is not deserted. There are palace maids standing outside two or three side rooms to guard the door.
The palace maid led her into one of the rooms and respectfully closed the door: "I will stand guard outside the door."
Jiang Hexue nodded indifferently, locked the door herself, and looked around the ear room.
It was clean and tidy, and there was nothing unusual about the embroidered bamboo screen. Smoke was curling from the incense burner on the table. She sniffed and recognized that it was ordinary musk, with the addition of cloves.
Could it be that she was wrong?
Jiang Hexue walked around the room and didn't notice anything unusual. She just felt that the charcoal brazier was burning too hot and made her sweat slightly.
She simply extinguished the charcoal brazier, opened the window, and looked out, only to find that outside the plum forest was Empress Dowager Su's Kunning Palace.
She quickly closed the window again, sat on the couch, and fanned herself with her hands to cool off the sweat, but it had the opposite effect.
It's not just hot, it's also dry, like a sudden high fever, but even more unbearable.
Jiang Hexue reacted very quickly, and besides being annoyed, he was also confused.
She knew that the target was Princess Has, and she had come here by accident, but they had just changed places halfway, and Princess Has did not eat at the banquet, so how could she have the opportunity to take medicine?
Jiang Hexue couldn't figure it out and just felt that he should escape first.
She stood up and was about to push the door open when she heard a male voice outside: "Someone's coming?"
It turned out to be Zhou Yiheng.
Jiang Hexue carefully locked the door with his backhand.
"I'm here. I saw the little palace maid guarding the gate just now, so I sent her away." The person who answered was Su Min'er.
"At most a quarter of an hour." Zhou Yiheng chuckled. "She's been poisoned. When the prince comes, it's already a done deal. Why wouldn't she marry him?"
His hands and feet began to feel weak, and Jiang Hexue could not wait any longer.
Since she couldn't get out the door, she was good at climbing through the window. She pushed it open again, jumped onto the table, and slammed it with her shoulder, breaking a large piece of the wooden window pane.
"What's that noise?" Zhou Yiheng outside hadn't reacted yet.
"Of course she's noticed and is trying to run." Su Min'er snorted. "Go chase her! The Princess of Qingyuan is unfamiliar with the palace, what can she possibly do?"
There were heavy footsteps.
Jiang Hexue leaned against the window frame with his hands, glanced at a slightly higher height, and jumped down without hesitation.
Her heels were sore and weak, so she fell to her knees. She instinctively curled up in pain, but it was too late to suppress the pain.
The rich aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg penetrated my nostrils, and almost instantly, the feeling of heat surged up exponentially.
It was the Qingyuanxiang brand she kept in her sleeve pocket.
The colliding of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves strengthened each other's aphrodisiac effect, and the musk also increased desire. She couldn't bear the suddenness of this.
With trembling hands, he reached into his sleeve pocket and couldn't untie the knot even after several attempts.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer. She couldn't delay any longer, so she struggled to support herself and ran towards Kunning Palace.
"Where are the people?" Zhou Yiheng's voice was close at hand.
"The nearest palace here is my aunt's Kunning Palace. Let's go find her," Su Min'er said. "My aunt will surely be heartbroken over Ling'er's marriage and won't miss this opportunity."
Jiang Hexue turned abruptly.
There is no doubt that Empress Dowager Su will favor the side between the Su family and her dissatisfied daughter-in-law.
But there was another place she could go. She knew that across the plum forest was the Zhiyang Palace of Princess Rongchang, Shen Chuning.
She had never been there, so she could only take her chances.
Jiang Hexue instinctively chose a direction opposite to Kunning Palace, and stumbled towards that place while continuing to search his sleeve pockets to throw the incense card.
She had never felt so annoyed by the knot on her sleeve pocket. She was so angry that she gritted her teeth, tore it off with her hands, and threw away the piece of fabric.
The cool breeze finally made her feel better. When the plaque of Zhiyang Palace appeared before her, she breathed a sigh of relief.
The palace gate was tightly closed, and after knocking several times without success, she suddenly remembered that Shen Chuning had gone south to visit her family and should not be in the palace.
It's really annoying.
Jiang Hexue abandoned the main gate and did not dare to run anywhere else, for fear of encountering someone even more unfavorable.
The heat grew hotter and hotter, and she could not stand steadily. She could only hold on to the palace wall and move slowly.
Her vision was a little blurred, and she actually saw that the side door had opened a tiny crack, and a golden hook stretched out, hooking something in the grass.
As if she had found a life-saving straw, Jiang Hexue rushed forward and grabbed the golden hook. Regardless of the bloody wound on her palm, she begged, "I am Princess Heng'an, save me..."
"Aunt Imperial?!" The golden hook fell to the ground with a crisp sound.
The pain made her more conscious. The moment her vision came back to focus, she was surprised: "Rongchang? You're back?"
She described herself as embarrassed, but Shen Chuning dragged her into the hall without hesitation: "Let's talk about it later."
Jiang Hexue staggered, and before he could stand firmly, the scent of cloves filled his nose.
After suppressing some of the heat, it started burning again.
Jiang Hexue collapsed.
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