Chapter 50 050 Their thoughts were so in sync
One sentence stopped Shen Yongning's laughter. He stared at her without blinking. She was smart, and he had to be on guard. He threatened her first, "The Second Princess refused to summon you and had to feed her something. I don't think you want to see anything happen to her, do you?"
Pearl looked back and forth between the two, realizing that they were old acquaintances. For a moment, she stared at Qingli with hesitation. When she heard that the princess had been poisoned, she hurriedly called out to her in a low voice, but the princess did not respond. In her anxiety and helplessness, she could only place her hopes on Qingli.
"Lord Shen, you know I'm always pragmatic. Please feel free to speak your mind."
Hearing what he wanted to hear, Shen Yongning slowly stepped forward. When they were almost within arm's reach, Pearl lowered her eyes in fear, her hands trembling as she gripped the princess, already unresponsive.
Qingli gently raised her wrist, revealing a sharp dart strapped to her jade-like wrist, stopping him in his tracks. "As long as it's within my power, feel free to ask. But for anything else, you'd better take my life now, so as not to delay your schedule or ruin your plans."
"Heh..." Shen Yongning sneered, feeling both regret and admiration. His slender eyes were filled with vicious scrutiny and calculation as he slowly said, "Send me out of the palace safely, and I will offer you the antidote with both hands."
Qingli slowly stood up, knowing that Shen Yongning was suspicious, and decided to make things clear. "I have known Lord Shen for many years. Lord Shen should understand that I have no ambition. All that I did before was just to live a peaceful life. I am willing to serve you wholeheartedly."
Her candid words made Shen Yongning nod slightly. If he didn't know her, he wouldn't have allowed her to carry a hidden arrow.
But how could he not be on guard? Just then, the person on the bed let out a soft moan and slowly woke up.
Pearl wanted to cover the princess's mouth, but it was too late. Ling Shuyao reacted quickly and immediately stood up.
Qingli's expression changed slightly, and Shen Yongning raised an eyebrow to look at her.
On the palace road, Ling Shuyao walked with a face full of resentment, sometimes walking quickly and sometimes slowing down. Pearl followed closely behind, whispering to her to be careful. Behind her walked Qingli at a leisurely pace, accompanied by a eunuch who was half-bowed.
The eunuch walked with ease, just a step away from Qingli. The faint fragrance emanating from her body filled his nose.
The deep, seemingly endless palace path was like the path he had walked alone for many years, only to find himself walking alongside her for a while one day, making the tedious journey more interesting.
However, they ultimately did not walk side by side.
Ten steps from the palace gate, parting was imminent.
“Ah ha…” Lu Yunye jumped out from the side, whipping a branch in his hand, watching Ling Shuyao with great interest.
Instead of getting a retort, Lu Yunye clicked his tongue in amazement, "What's wrong with you? You're like a mute."
Ling Shuyao glanced back at Qingli, who was still wearing a reassuring smile. She thought about how Qingli had argued for her safety and even swallowed the poison herself to get the antidote. She had hope ahead of her, but Lu Yunye had blocked her way. She felt anxious and annoyed.
"Get out of my way!"
"Have you eaten gunpowder?! It'll ignite at the slightest touch."
Out of the corner of her eye, Qingli noticed that Shen Yongning visibly trembled when he heard the word "gunpowder." She couldn't help but think about it more deeply. Although Shen Yongning was the advisor to the Prince of Dingxi, he was ungrateful and heartless. He wouldn't risk entering the palace to commit treason knowing that the prince had already been eliminated.
Judging from the situation, it has already been done.
What was he doing?
Who was there to help them enter and leave the palace?
Qingli's breath hitched. She suddenly remembered that the Princess Consort of Dingxi and Consort Xian were sisters, but she had never met Consort Xian since entering the palace and had forgotten about this relationship.
My heart skipped a beat, echoing my chaotic thoughts. Ahead, Ling Shuyao and Lu Yunye were still bickering.
"I don't want to see you, get out of my way!"
"Today, I'm going to stand here and see what you can do to me."
"Rogue, idiot, fool."
The words were getting harsher and harsher. Lu Yunye stomped his feet twice in anger, but his hand reached for Qingli. In the blink of an eye, Qingli was also grabbed on the other side.
Lu Yunye tensed up as he met Shen Yongning's gaze.
There wasn't a single servant in sight on the palace road; only a gust of wind carrying snowflakes swirled on the ground, howling down to my ankles.
The five people on the palace path seemed to be frozen in place until a deafening sound from the Hall of Supreme Harmony in the distance brought them back to their senses.
The ground shook so violently that my feet went numb, and the intermittent sounds of swords clashing could be heard in the distance.
A voice called out from afar, "Assassin!"
Before Qingli's eyes flashed a flurry of swords and blades. Shen Yongning's schemes, ultimately based on pen and ink, quickly fell short. But with her standing amidst the swords, Lu Yunye was unable to make a move.
Ling Shuyao sent Pearl to summon the Imperial Guards. She picked up the hidden arrow that Qingli had been forced to remove to protect her and fired three arrows in quick succession. However, with her in front of her, she hesitated to shoot and missed her target.
Ling Shuyao's eyes reddened with anxiety.
Just as the battle reached its stalemate, the sound of footsteps could be heard. Ling Shuyao's face lit up with joy, and she turned around to call for help, but a sword fell on Qing Li's neck, forcing her to retreat repeatedly.
In a short while, Ling Shuyao's expression changed drastically. Lu Yunye also noticed something was wrong. Besieged on both sides, he had no choice but to rush towards Ling Shuyao. In the blink of an eye, a group of people rushed out from the side, and together with Shen Yongning, they took her out of the palace gate.
As dusk settled, Qingli leaned over her horse. The cold wind had already taken away the last bit of warmth from her body, and she was aching all over from the jolting. In the dizzying moment, she lost her sense of direction and could only see that everyone was strapped with gunpowder and had tinder hidden at their waists. They were a group of desperados.
After a night of travel, as soon as a sliver of light appeared in the east, the group found a secluded spot in the mountains and began to whisper among themselves and discuss their plans.
Qingli tried to minimize her presence, lying on her knees with her eyes closed, but she couldn't even pretend to sleep. She just hoped that their plan hadn't succeeded and that they could hide away and find another opportunity.
But things didn't go as planned. Half an hour later, the group mounted their horses again and continued their journey.
Qingli's body tensed, trying to find some clues in the thick fog. She could sense their great malice. Everyone cast a vicious look at her and shouted, "Kill the emperor's precious daughter and avenge the prince!"
Shen Yongning just stared at her without explaining her identity. From the moment she left the palace gate, her eyes gleamed with an unusual light, and it was unclear what she was scheming about.
However, she was too lazy to ask him for help; she feared he would be the first to push her into the fire.
After all, he had already done it once.
When the thick fog dissipated, the group arrived at a farm. Qingli watched as the horses entered the pen, and they removed the gunpowder from their bodies. Her tense nerves relaxed slightly.
The bowl of water was thrown to the ground, the porcelain shattered, and a heated argument ensued.
Qingli was locked in the kitchen when she heard that three horses had died from exhaustion, and the rest had collapsed on the weeds and would need some time to recover.
With ammunition and supplies exhausted, some people began to consider retreating.
The fire in the stove was blazing brightly, and it seemed to ignite a ball of fire in Qingli's eyes.
At the horse farm on the outskirts of Beijing, the horse steward carefully inspected the records again, his expression changed drastically, and he took out yesterday's logbook to compare them. This time he was shocked.
The Fourth Prince, Ling Zizhan, frowned as he looked at the rejected document, and his brows furrowed even more as he listened to the commotion outside.
When the guard Xuan Ye saw his master put down his pen, he hurriedly opened the door, intending to scold him. However, he did not expect that the stable boy would stumble and fall in front of the door. Just as Xuan Ye was about to reach out to help him up, the stable boy nimbly climbed in.
Xuan Ye looked at his empty hands, turned around, took two steps, and closed the door.
The master has always disliked loud noises.
The stable boy seemed to have forgotten all the etiquette he had been taught, and stammered, holding up the booklet, "Four...four...four..."
"Tell me slowly."
The horse stableman swallowed hard before saying, "The horses in our stable have been replaced."
This is no small matter, but to be able to switch things out silently is not something an ordinary person can do.
How was it discovered?
"Look." It turned out that Ling Zizhan had come to the horse farm and marked each horse to record data. He also picked out pictures of the outstanding features. However, the records kept by the clerks yesterday showed that the horses were in a lethargic state. When they went to check the cause of the illness today, it was clear that it was not just one horse.
Ling Zizhan strode out of the house, walked to the horses, and examined them carefully. He immediately felt a pang of anxiety; it was clear that more than one horse had been replaced, and there were even sick horses mixed in.
"Take a quick inventory and see how many discrepancies there are."
This matter could be considered a big or small matter. The horse-keeping official quickly ordered his clerk to count the horses, only to find that there were more than five.
"But are they from the estate?"
The horse farm always gets its feed delivered by people from the farm, so it shouldn't be sabotaging its own livelihood, but only they can come and go.
Ling Zizhan murmured something, and seeing that dusk had fallen, he took Xuan Ye to the farm below.
The farm and the horse ranch were not far apart. Ling Zizhan walked across a field where the soil was frozen solid, and walking on it felt like stepping on stone slabs, producing a dull sound.
A few lonely stars hung in the sky, swaying precariously, their faint light falling on the ground as if shrouded in a thin mist, hazy and indistinct.
The excessive silence made Ling Zizhan stop. He placed his hand on the broadsword at his waist and turned his head to look at a group of people standing on a high place.
Meng Qingshan stared at the distant villa. After dealing with the matters in Taihe Hall, he was a step too late. These three days felt like three years, and he was filled with regret that he should not have agreed to her request in the first place.
But when she looked at me like that, she smiled and said, "I knew it, our thoughts are aligned."
"Why not coordinate from the inside and outside to lure them into the trap?"
“He’s ruthless and vicious; he’s already got his eye on me. I might as well take the initiative.”
He was shocked by her boldness, rationality, and that compatibility. There was always a veil between them, preventing them from being completely honest with each other. He thought that as long as he was fully prepared, if this matter succeeded, their relationship would only take another step forward.
Faced with temptation, he nodded in agreement, but he didn't do a good job.
A deep sense of regret enveloped his heart, almost suffocating him. He wanted to rush in, rescue her, and hold her tightly in his arms.
But the gunpowder was buried around the farm, where eighty-nine people, young and old, lived. He managed to hold back his will to break free.
The Second Prince, Ling Zizhou, waited for news. Someone had already gone to dismantle the gunpowder when he saw Ling Zizhan approaching.
Ling Zizhou asked, "Why have you come?"
Ling Zizhan looked at Meng Qingshan, only to see that the other man was looking at him sharply, as if he were very suspicious here. "The horses in the horse farm have been switched. I suspect that it was done by the people from the estate."
"Brother, how did you end up here?"
Ling Zizhou briefly explained the situation, and Ling Zizhan was surprised. He was far from the palace and did not know that such a big thing had happened in the palace, which also involved Ling Shuyao and Meng Qingshan's cousin.
Ling Zizhan was silent for a moment, then suddenly understood where the hostility from Meng Qingshan came from.
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