He Jinran thought to himself, "No wonder he wouldn't speak."
He grabbed Nineteen by the collar.
"You risked your life to find me, could it be that you were planning to kill me?"
He Jinran's words caused the expressions on Xuanming and the others' faces to change.
Nineteen shook his head, "No..." A mouthful of blood gushed out, but he quickly covered his mouth and nose.
Then, he tried to kneel down beneath He Jinran, his forehead touching the ground, in a submissive posture.
"Why do you kneel down so easily?" He Jinran thought to himself, "The assassins are truly lowly."
Can his deep-seated inferiority complex be changed?
He crouched down and took a closer look at Nineteen's eyebrows and eyes.
"With your delicate features, what would a normal person look like?"
After saying that, he filled in the blanks in his mind and chuckled.
Immediately, he forcefully pulled Nineteen to his feet, turned to Xuanming Xuanying, and said:
"You don't need to stay with me. He can't hurt me like this."
Xuanming and Xuanying exchanged puzzled glances.
Xuanming: "Does Your Highness wish to keep him?"
“That’s right.” He Jinran’s matter-of-fact words left Xuanming Xuanying and Mu Xiao outside the hall speechless.
Your Highness is still young; how could you take in someone like that?
Xuan Ying: "Your Highness, it would be better to hand him over to His Majesty and the General for disposal." It would be inappropriate for Your Highness to keep a bodyguard.
"No, if we hand him over to them, how will this idiot survive?" He Jinran curled his lips, not forgetting to glance at Nineteen.
Don't you think so?
Nineteen even nodded in agreement.
He never thought about his own life or death. In his view, wasn't dying a matter of course in order to carry out a mission?
"Alright, you can go out now." He Jinran said as he carried Nineteen to the inner hall.
And he didn't forget to say something to Mu Xiao outside the hall.
"Mu Xiao, prepare some bathwater. Also, you are all my people, and no one is allowed to reveal a single word about what happened tonight!"
Xuanming and the other two: "..."
"Yes." Mu Xiao finally found his voice and took the order to instruct the servants to prepare bath water.
Nineteen was being carried by He Jinran, and she felt a little uncomfortable.
He steadied himself and, together with He Jinran, walked into the inner hall.
He Jinran sat on the bed, quietly watching Nineteen.
Nineteen, due to his severe injuries, had legs that were trembling slightly.
When she met He Jinran's smiling eyes, she hurriedly looked away.
Xuanming and Xuanying did not leave the hall, but slept on the soft couch on the spot, but their hearts were in the inner hall.
“Xuanying, young master wouldn’t…” Xuanming said, his expression turning strange.
"Could it be something?" Xuan Ying pressed.
"Does he have homosexual tendencies?" Xuanming asked, then shook his head repeatedly. "I was just making this up, so don't ask His Highness."
“It looks like it,” Xuan Ying nodded, and quietly walked towards the interior of the hall, peering through the crack in the door.
But when He Jinran glanced at him, he quickly looked away.
"Your Highness is quite strange," Xuan Ying pondered. "Could he be thinking of sneaking out of the palace again?"
After pondering for a moment, Xuan nodded solemnly: "That's possible. But why would he go to all that trouble?"
Xuan Ying: "You'll have to ask His Highness." Although His Highness is not old, he is quite shrewd.
The two looked at each other, their skin crawling with wariness.
Your Highness, even if you wish to leave the palace, you must first inform His Majesty.
Now that the palace examination is over, His Majesty will definitely not make things difficult for you.
inner hall,
He Jinran looked at Nineteen, and his expression suddenly changed:
"Now you can tell me, what are your true intentions in coming to find me?"
He was no longer as cheerful as before; instead, he became cold and aloof.
Even now, he still doesn't know why Nineteen is looking for him.
Logically speaking, although he released Nineteen last time, Nineteen shouldn't be so devoted to a mere youth like him.
Last time, he did it purely to take advantage of Nineteen.
Seeing that Nineteen's knees were about to buckle and he was about to kneel again, he casually said,
"I'm not going to eat you."
Nineteen stood there for a moment, but still knelt on the ground, crawled two steps, and approached He Jinran.
"Your Highness said before that as long as I reveal the mastermind behind the murder, you will accept me as your subordinate."
He Jinran,
He did say that.
Then, he withdrew his cold expression and couldn't help but smile.
Yes, he found the assassin's methodical way of speaking quite amusing.
"Didn't you personally carry out the broken rod punishment on the mastermind behind it all? What, now that I know who it is, you're only now thinking of coming to me to ask for a favor?"
No, suddenly, his expression turned serious again.
"You mean, there's someone else behind the murder?"
Nineteen nodded, "Yes."
"Who is it?" He Jinran asked in surprise, and then with lingering fear.
These days, he hasn't checked the almanac before going out.
He is alive and well now thanks to luck.
Nineteen: "King of Qin".
He Jinran, is that him? If he's dead, then there's nothing to fear.
"What do you mean?" Aren't the King of Qin and Grand Tutor Gao mortal enemies? How could they possibly join forces to deal with him?
He didn't think there was anything wrong with the King of Qin, but he always felt that there was something wrong with Consort Hui.
Nineteen: "When I was in the Shadow Bureau, the Lord often corresponded with the outside world."
He Jinran: "You said before that you know nothing."
Nineteen: "I only found out about this recently."
"Really?" He Jinran looked at Nineteen again, his expression changing.
Could it be that he's doing all this just to follow me?
He asked, "Where did you find that information?"
"The Prince of Qin's residence." Nineteen said, pulling a bloodstained letter from his chest.
The letter cover had four large characters written on it.
"To be opened by the King of Qin himself."
He Jinran unfolded it to examine it.
Inside, only three words.
'Zongri Palace'.
That's it?
"yes."
"What does this prove?" He Jinran wondered. Could the person who wrote the letter be illiterate and have misspelled a word? He thought that Nineteen must be making a mountain out of a molehill; he couldn't see any problems with the letter.
"How can you prove that this letter was written by Grand Tutor Gao?"
Nineteen: "...clues."
"After all this talk, it's still just a clue," He Jinran thought to himself. His Majesty should be able to recognize Grand Tutor Gao's handwriting.
"How do you know it's the King of Qin and not someone else? Let alone the King of Qin being no longer alive, even if he were alive, he could easily say that this letter is just to say that he wants to go to the palace to meet with his father during the Dragon Boat Festival, and then he can make an excuse to leave."
Now that he's dead, he proves even less.
Nineteen: "Handwriting is evidence."
He Jinran: "Handwriting can be imitated; there is insufficient evidence."
Did this idiot even understand what he was saying?
"..." Nineteen was speechless, kneeling on the ground, her eyes lowered, at a loss.
"Nineteen, lift your head and let me take a good look at you." He Jinran's sudden laughter made Nineteen relax a little.
He raised his eyes, but quickly lowered them again, never daring to meet He Jinran's gaze.
"You're not even afraid of the royal guards, so why are you so afraid of me?" He Jinran chuckled. This ruthless assassin was utterly humbled in front of him.
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