Jiang Jinzhao felt as if his heart had been pricked by an embroidery needle. His normally stern face remained tense, and beneath his wide sleeves, his hands clenched into fists. "Who do you think you are?"
Who is that "master" she keeps mentioning?
"Miss, you're finally awake!" Xiang Zhu came trotting in with a copper basin in her hand. Seeing Jiang Songyi trying to get up barefoot, she anxiously threw the basin onto the table. "You just hit your forehead. Let me take a look."
Jiang Songyi only then felt the burning pain in her forehead. Her last memory before she passed out was falling into an embrace that smelled of medicine. Her master's clothes were embroidered with green bamboo patterns... She suddenly grabbed Xiang Zhu's wrist and asked, "Who sent me here? Where's that person?"
"It was discovered by the maid from the Princess's mansion." Xiang Zhu rubbed her wrist with concern. "I swear I will lose ten pounds of weight when I return home, go to the training grounds and race horses every day, and I will never let the young lady be left alone next time!"
The sound of teacups tapping could be heard from outside the screen. Jiang Jinzhao had walked to the Eight Immortals Table without anyone noticing. His dark brocade robe shone coldly in the twilight. “Since you are weak, you should be more obedient. Today we are at the Princess’s Mansion. If we were in the wilderness—”
"Why are you meddling in other people's business!" Jiang Songyi grabbed an embroidered pillow and threw it at him. The golden peony on the pillow brushed against the man's temples. "If you have this spare time, you might as well go and coax your sister Yuyao! Even if I die in the streets, it won't be your turn to collect my body!"
[The lingering plague god! ]
[In the previous life, when I fell from my horse after shielding him from an arrow, did he ever come to take a look?]
Jiang Jinzhao's body swayed slightly. The sharp voices of his heart, mixed with fragments of past memories, surged back, and his temples throbbed. The girl's stubborn silhouette was cast on the screen, a striking resemblance to the white peacock he had raised as a child—one that would rather starve to death than eat the corn he fed her.
"The eldest master actually..." Xiang Zhu observed the expressions of the brother and sister and tried to smooth things over. "He has been here since you fainted. He even personally took care of the people from the Imperial Medical Bureau..."
“Stop talking!”
“No need!”
The brother and sister said in unison. The moment Jiang Jinzhao turned around, there was a sudden commotion outside.
"Is the county lady resting here?" Yang Shuyin's sweet voice penetrated the carved door. "Just now I heard the maid say that she saw a man coming this way. Could it be that a thief has sneaked in?"
The sound of the door bolt snapping startled the birds under the eaves. Jiang Yuyao, holding the hem of her Xiang Fei-colored skirt, rushed to the front. When she caught a glimpse of two figures behind the screen, her mouth curled up uncontrollably—the man was tall and slender, the woman had slightly disheveled hair, a sight that would have made anyone imagine something lustful.
"Oh my!" She covered her lips in panic, "Why is my sister in the same room with a man from another place? If this gets out..."
“How about spreading it?”
Jiang Songyi pushed aside the veil and emerged, her face grimified by the bruise on her forehead. She wore a moon-white skirt with a twined branch pattern, a few brownish-red stains on the collar, yet she exuded an air of sternness, akin to someone returning from the battlefield.
Jiang Yuyao was so shocked by the look that she took a step back and bumped into Yang Shuyin. The latter held her arm and glanced behind the screen with her almond-shaped eyes: "We are also worried about the safety of the county lady. Someone just said that they saw..."
"What did you see?"
The hem of his dark robe brushed the edge of the screen as Jiang Jinzhao stood in the candlelight, his hands behind his back. He bore a striking resemblance to his father, the line from his brow to his nose cut like a sword's edge. His lips were pressed into a straight line, and the air around him was terrifyingly low.
The noble ladies in the room fell silent. The color drained completely from Jiang Yuyao's face—how could it be her brother?!
Jiang Songyi's Xiang-colored skirt swept past the edge of the screen. She clutched a black jade chess piece between her fingers and casually glanced at the guests in the room, all with varying expressions. "Are you... moving the flower viewing banquet to the side rooms?"
Yang Shuyin's scarlet gold hairpin shook violently. She hadn't expected Jiang Songyi to be so brazen—if an ordinary noblewoman were caught in a secret meeting, she would have paled and fallen to her knees, begging for mercy. But the woman before her showed no shame at all. Instead, she leaned against the chessboard as if watching a play, the tassels of her intricate golden phoenix hairpin untangled.
"The county lady is joking." Jiang Yuyao said softly, "We are just worried about your sister's safety..." She suddenly raised her hand to cover her lips, "Ah! Why is there an endgame on this chessboard? Could it be..."
"Could it be something?" Jiang Songyi said, the chess piece landed on his fingertips. "My brother is here studying the Zhenlong chess game at Bailu Academy. Do I need to report to you?"
Yang Shuyin suddenly stepped forward, her nails painted red pointing directly at the screen. "If that's the case, why is the county lady hiding it?" She deliberately pinched her voice to a sharp tone, "What's hidden behind this is probably something that cannot be seen in public..."
"Miss Yang, please be careful with your words!" Xiang Zhu suddenly appeared from behind the screen, holding a gilded tray with a bowl of pitch-black medicine in her hand. "The county lady just drank a tranquilizing soup, and the imperial physician told her to rest." She placed the medicine bowl heavily on the table, and the splashed medicine stains drew strange patterns on the blue bricks.
Jiang Yuyao, however, had already taken advantage of the chaos to approach the screen. Her gilded armor scraped across Xiang Fei's bamboo bones, and she suddenly exerted her strength to push the entire screen over. "Sister Song Yi, how foolish! Such a disgrace to our family..."
The sandalwood screen crashed to the ground, raising a cloud of dust. The golden python pattern on Jiang Jinzhao's dark brocade robe gleamed in the sunlight. He clutched a half-rolled chess manual in his hand, his brow furrowed like a mountain. "Jiang Yuyao, do you still have respect for others?"
The whole room was in uproar.
Xiang Zhu brought a bronze mirror just in time: "Is the county lady's hair messy?" The mirror reflected Jiang Songyi's perfectly intact snake bun and two female doctors from the Princess's residence kneeling behind the screen. Everyone then saw clearly that four maids holding swords were waiting in the side room, dressed as the Princess's personal guards.
"Brilliant." Jiang Songyi clapped her hands and chuckled. "Sister Yuyao's 'catching an adulterer' scene is even more exciting than the West Market Opera Troupe." She suddenly stopped smiling. "But what is the crime for defaming the county lady's reputation? Should we ask the Supreme Court to make the final decision?"
Yang Shuyin stumbled back, her embroidered shoes catching on the hem of her skirt. She finally remembered the memorial from the Censorate last month implicating her father—the four-character red-lettered comment, "You are not a good parent." It burned like a branding iron down her spine.
Jiang Yuyao dug her fingertips deep into her palm. She had clearly bribed the servant to lead the men to the abandoned courtyard, so how could it be possible... She caught a glimpse of Su Sheng's hurriedly fleeing back, and suddenly a thought struck her - it must be the Crown Prince's interference!
"Sister, please forgive me!" She knelt down suddenly, her pearl hairpin brushing against the corner of Jiang Jinzhao's robe. "I was just worried and confused..."
"What a mess you make when you're worried." The pearls hanging from Jiang Qingzhi's crown jingled. "The force with which you pushed the screen just now seemed like it was meant to take someone's life."
Jiang Songyi suddenly picked up half of the silk screen from the floor. The embroidery of a butterfly flying through a peony was stained with a smear of rouge. She tossed the silk cloth toward Jiang Yuyao and said, "This color is very similar to the rouge that Young Marquis Su wore on his clothes this morning."
In the dead silence of the room, the sound of bells and bracelets suddenly tinkled from the corridor. The Princess's head nanny slowly entered, holding a gilded invitation: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince wishes to see Princess Jiaqing—he says he has found a rare treasure and wants to give it to her to enjoy."
Xiang Zhu's eyes widened as he glared at Jiang Yuyao, his tone filled with indignation: "Second Miss, how can you speak so arrogantly? How can the eldest son be such a treacherous person? He is the brother of our county lady!
Yang Shuyin narrowed her eyes slightly and interrupted with surprise, "Young Master Jiang?"
Could it be that Jiang Yuyao's action was just a joke?
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