Jiang Songyi gripped the reins tightly. In her previous life, when she broke into the prince's chambers, she had indeed seen the mausoleum blueprints on the desk. At that time, her master was using a red pen to select the blue brick pattern. Seeing her, he smiled and asked, "Which do you think is better, the peony pattern or the cloud pattern?"
"Your Highness," Jiang Jinzhao suddenly interrupted, "there are often wild beasts in the enclosure, so please speed up." He really couldn't bear to hear such outrageous words, but he couldn't get angry.
Xinyi Daoyi suddenly reined in his horse. There was a rustling in the bushes ahead, and a gray hare darted out. He plucked a leaf and blew on it, and the rabbit leaped over to nibble at his boots.
Jiang Songyi was stunned. In her previous life, her master always said that animals were easier to get along with than humans. It turned out that he was not joking. She was about to speak when she heard a sound of breaking air behind her.
"Be careful!" Jiang Jinzhao swung his sword to slash away the hidden arrow. Xinyi Daoyi had already climbed onto his horse, holding the rabbit's ears. The second arrow was nailed to the tree trunk, and the yellow silk wrapped around the arrow's tail had the word "four" written on it.
"It seems someone can't wait any longer." The prince stuffed the rabbit into Jiang Songyi's arms, the grass juice on his fingertips leaving blue marks on her sleeves. "Please help me, the county lady, take care of my pet."
Jiang Jinzhao stared at the arrow, his entire body shivering. He suddenly remembered how the Fourth Prince's carriage had "accidentally" knocked over two imperial censors during the Spring Examination last year. The yellow silk hanging from the shaft at that time was precisely this type of yellow silk.
The light in the forest flickered. Jiang Songyi gripped the reins tightly and suddenly said, "Hiding like this is not a solution, Your Highness." Her voice startled the chickadees on the branches. "Only by holding power can we achieve this."
With a "crack," Xin Yidao broke open some wild hawthorns and stuffed them into her mouth. Jiang Songyi was caught off guard by the sweet and sour taste, her cheeks puffed out and her eyes widened.
Jiang Jinzhao nearly broke the reins. He stared at the prince's fruit-stained fingers, then looked at his sister's sparkling eyes. Suddenly, he felt that this scene was very similar to the story of eloping lovers in a novel.
"County lady, please be careful with your words." Xinyi Daoyi shook the juice off her fingertips. "The Jinyiwei's ears are sharper than rabbits." As he spoke, he glanced towards the bushes, and sure enough, a piece of black clothing was passing by there.
Jiang Jinzhao couldn't stand it any longer: "Do you want me to step aside?" He was surprised to find that his tone was like that of a brother who had caught him cheating. As expected, the prince nodded in agreement: "Thank you."
"Father said the prince wouldn't live past twenty-five." Jiang Jinzhao's hand, veins bulging as he gripped the whip, turned and caught a glimpse of the golden hairpin in his sister's hair—a phoenix-headed hairpin awarded by the Empress. He suddenly remembered his father three days ago, staring at the astrological chart and muttering, "Unusual movement in the Purple Star."
Jiang Songyi waited until her brother walked away, then suddenly spat out the fruit core. "I have a way to make the Second and Fourth Princes die suddenly!" Two flames burned in her eyes. "I guarantee that it won't be traced back to Your Highness."
Xinyi said slowly while peeling a wild pear: "Tell me about it."
"The fourth prince loves beautiful women, so we can plant spies in his harem; the second prince is greedy for elixirs, so we can ask the Qi family to send some golden elixirs with added ingredients." She became more and more excited as she spoke, and did not notice that the dagger the prince used to peel the pear was emitting a strange blue light.
Jiang Jinzhao, standing behind the tree, was horrified. His sister, who only knew how to embroider yesterday, now seemed like a completely different person. He suddenly remembered the day she was reborn, covered in blood, yet she smiled and said, "This time, I want to live a different life."
"County Lady." The prince stuffed the pear flesh into her chattering mouth, "Do you think the prince is a pheasant?" He shook the dagger, with the tip of the knife pointing at his throat, "If you really want to kill someone, you should do it like this -"
Jiang Songyi's breath stopped as a cold light flashed, only to see the blade stop steady half an inch from his throat. Xin Yidao chuckled, "If I were to fight, why would I dirty my hands?" He casually nailed the dagger to a tree, startling a woodpecker.
Jiang Songyi stared at the swaying hilt, suddenly remembering how the Crown Prince had slit Yue Qingyang's throat with this very dagger during the siege of the city by the Dongling army in his previous life. Blood splattered across his moon-white uniform like red plum blossoms blooming in the snow.
"Your Highness doesn't believe me?" She bit her lower lip.
Xin Yi Daoyi suddenly opened his shirt, revealing the hideous scar on his chest like a centipede. "The tonic my fourth brother sent me three years ago, if it doesn't kill me, I'll just say it's a relapse of an old illness." As he fastened his belt, his fingertips brushed across the back of Jiang Songyi's trembling hand. "If you want to kill someone, you must first learn to save your own life."
Jiang Jinzhao couldn't bear to listen any longer and rushed out on his horse, "Time to return to camp!" He stared at the wrinkles in the prince's collar, as if a man-eating demon lurked beneath. The scar he had just seen matched the one recorded in the poison book in the secret compartment of his father's study—it was the mark left by the southern Xinjiang Gu poison.
On the way back, Jiang Songyi fumbled with the dagger that had suddenly appeared in her sleeve, stunned. The handle was engraved with a small corn pattern, the very gift her master had given her as a coming-of-age gift in her previous life. From the front, they heard the prince humming a folk song, the exact same tune as the lullaby Madam Jiang used to soothe her younger brother.
Jiang Jinzhao suddenly reined in his horse: "Father said so." The words came to his lips but he swallowed them back. He remembered the secret report he received this morning - three singing girls died in the Fourth Prince's villa last night, and their deaths were exactly the same as when the Crown Prince was poisoned three years ago.
…
The sunlight filtering through the forest shattered into tiny stars in Jiang Songyi's eyes. Her hand gripping the reins trembled slightly, as if clutching an unfulfilled obsession from a past life: "The history books will surely record the glorious era Your Highness has ushered in!"
Jiang Jinzhao stared at his sister's reddened ears, suddenly remembering when, at ten years old, she'd been crouching on the study windowsill, reciting "The Memorial to the Emperor on Leaving the Capital." She'd looked just like him when she reached the phrase "devote all one's energy to the cause." His father had said then that this girl resembled him, but now, it seemed, she resembled the posthumous title of "Loyal Marquis" on his grandfather's memorial tablet.
Xinyi Daoyi picked a maple leaf and played with it. The veins of the leaf revealed spider-web-like patterns in the sunlight: "Are you a reborn person?" He asked casually, as if asking about the weather today.
"Yes," Jiang Songyi answered simply. "In my previous life, His Highness taught me how to read and write, and gave me the strategies for governing a country." She lied without batting an eyelid, her wrist aching from the gilded wrist guard. In reality, the Crown Prince had never accepted her as a disciple in her previous life; she had secretly learned all those military strategies in his study.
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