…
As the horse's hooves crushed the morning dew, Jiang Songyi swung the carved horn bow over her shoulder. The gilded quiver struck the jade pendant at Su Sheng's waist, its tinkling sound startling an early oriole in the woods.
"Let's go!" Su Sheng deliberately rolled up his black sleeves, making them rustle. He turned his head and raised his eyebrows at the Jiang brothers, "Mr. Zizhu said--" He deliberately dragged out the last word, waiting to see Jiang Jinzhao frown.
Yu Huanshen suddenly poked his head out from behind a tree. "Late affection is worth less than grass!" He fluttered open his folding fan, revealing a newly copied copy of "Linglong Fu." "This is the owner's favorite line from the play."
Li Tingzhen quietly tucked his copy of "Purple Bamboo Night Talk" into his sleeve. A poor scholar couldn't afford newly printed books, so this old, frayed copy was the annotated copy he'd copied overnight for Jiang Songyi.
Jiang Yihuan's knuckles cracked. The gold thread of the purse at his waist broke, revealing Jiang Yuyao's crooked bamboo leaves—the stitching was glaringly clumsy compared to the sachets Jiang Songyi gave to poor students.
"Don't worry, Third Young Master." Crown Prince Xin Yidao suddenly coughed, the Buddhist beads on his wrist brushing against Jiang Songyi's quiver. "I also think this statement makes sense." His pale fingertips brushed the silver lines on the girl's sleeve. "It makes sense."
Jiang Songyi's ears twitched slightly. In her previous life, when her master had transferred her soul, he had used the same cinnabar pen to mark the soul-locking chain. She suddenly drew her bow and arrow, and the white-feathered arrow whizzed into the air three inches in front of Jiang Jinzhao's foot—right in the jasmine sachet he had brushed off that day.
"Your Highness, be careful." Su Sheng took the opportunity to hide behind the prince, his black cloak sweeping across the fallen flowers on the ground. "Cousin, I will protect you!"
Jiang Yihan was so angry that he laughed: "Who is protecting whom?" He crushed the arrows on the ground with his boots, but saw half of the "Nirvana Mantra" exposed under the prince's wide sleeves - the handwriting was exactly the same as the blood letter written by Jiang Songyi in his previous life.
"Let's go." Jiang Songyi climbed onto her horse, her deerskin boots tapping lightly against the horse's belly. The white jade hairpin in her hair suddenly snapped, and as her long black hair fell to the ground, she felt as if she were reliving the rainy night in her past life when her mother's belongings were taken away.
Su Sheng hurried after him, the tassel of the sachet on his waist brushing against the Buddhist beads on the prince's wrist. He didn't see the golden light flash in Xin Yidao's eyes behind him—that was the incantation flowing from the chain when Jiang Songyi's soul was sealed in his previous life.
"Master, wait for me!" Yu Huanshen galloped away, waving his folding fan. The "Linglong Fu" on the fan was lifted by the wind, revealing the fragments of Mr. Zizhu's play script inside. Li Tingzhen rode silently to catch up, a fresh hemostatic herb hidden in his coarse cloth sleeves.
Jiang Yihan suddenly snatched the reins from his brother's hand: "Brother, do you really believe that nonsense?" As a warrior, he had excellent eyesight and clearly saw the light pink scar on Jiang Songyi's left arm - the same location as the arrow wound on his brother's heart.
Jiang Jinzhao stroked the blood-stained Buddhist beads on his wrist, the scent of sandalwood mixed with blood lingering in his nose. "Third brother, do you remember the assassination attempt when you were seven?" He ripped open his shirt, revealing a hideous scar that snaked like a centipede. "It was Song Yi who blocked the knife for me that day."
A sudden gust of wind swept through the forest, sweeping down the magnolia blossoms from the trees. Jiang Songyi glanced back, just in time to see the prince raise his hand to catch the falling petals. On that pale wrist, the inscription of the mantra for the afterlife overlapped with the imprint of her soul.
"Your Highness, are you really going?" She reined in her horse and turned, the tip of her deerskin whip brushing Su Sheng's nose. "There's a lot of miasma in the deep mountains."
Xin Yidao chuckled and wrapped Buddhist beads around the handle of her whip: "I have the community leader to protect me." A golden light flashed at his fingertips, startling the beasts in the forest and causing them to scatter - this was the sign that the seal from the previous life had loosened.
Su Sheng suddenly screamed, "Snake!" He clung to the crown prince, his crimson cape tangled around their waists. Jiang Songyi reluctantly drew an arrow, and the white-feathered arrow grazed Su Sheng's ear, piercing the venomous snake's vital points.
"My cousin's courage," the prince said, slowly pulling back his sleeves, "is comparable to his appetite."
Amidst the laughter, Jiang Yihuan suddenly hurled his dagger. With a flash of cold light, the second venomous snake was pinned to the tree trunk. He crossed his arms and snorted, "Waste."
As the sun rose higher, a tiger roared from the depths of the forest. Jiang Songyi shielded the prince behind her with her backhand, startling Su Sheng and the Jiang brothers, who simultaneously drew their swords. Li Tingzhen suddenly rode forward and handed her a handkerchief soaked in herbs: "County Lady, cover your mouth and nose."
Yu Huanshen took out the purple bamboo sachet and said, "I have been begging for this for three months!" Before he finished speaking, a dark shadow suddenly jumped out of the forest - it was a snow-white tiger cub.
Jiang Songyi's hand on the arrow suddenly stopped. The tigress she had shot to save Jiang Yuyao in her previous life also had a crescent-shaped mark on her forehead. As the arrow trembled, the prince suddenly grasped her wrist and said, "All living things suffer."
A white-feathered arrow pierced the air, barely glancing off the tip of the tiger cub's ear. The creature, startled, leaped into the forest, leaving behind a trail of blood-stained, plum-shaped marks. Jiang Songyi stared at the bloodstains, a trance that seemed to recall the tears of her former tigress's dying tears.
"The community leader is kindhearted." The prince's fingertips shone with golden light into her wrist, "You will be rewarded."
Su Sheng was about to speak when he saw the Jiang brothers galloping over on horseback. Jiang Jinzhao held a gilded box, the very one that had once held Jiang Yuyao's birthday gift. Inside the box lay a white jade hairpin—clearly a pair with the one Jiang Songyi had broken.
The morning mist still hung in the forest. Xin Yidao's knuckles, gripping the reins, were pale blue. He lowered his eyes and coughed softly. The Buddhist beads on his wrist trembled with the sound, startling dewdrops from the leaves. "If the county lady finds me a burden, then I'll be fine."
"Your Highness, please be careful with your words!" Jiang Songyi interrupted hastily, the tip of her deerskin whip brushing against the prince's pale wrist. The hand seals her master had made in her past life, when he had carried her soul across, were the same as they were now. "I'm afraid your Highness will be burdened."
Xin Yidao raised his eyes and chuckled, with golden light flowing in his eyes like a sealing spell: "In that case, I'll trouble the county lady to take care of it." As he rode his horse, his wide sleeves fluttered, revealing the quiver at his waist - it was the magical weapon transformed from the soul-locking chain in his previous life.
Jiang Yihuan watched coldly as the two rode side by side, his black iron wrist guards nearly crushing the reins. Bai Linxi suddenly turned and drew his bow. The sound of the arrow piercing the air startled a jackdaw, and a hare collapsed into a pile of dead leaves.
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