Chapter 26: The Drug
The canary in the corridor fluttered into the bamboo cage, and Feng Linzhi took a half step back, twisting her handkerchief.
"Princess..." Feng Linzhi grabbed Chao Yinzhen's apricot-colored sleeve, and a few strands of silk thread emerged from his armor. "Miss Liu might be..."
The words came to the tip of his tongue but he swallowed them back.
Wait a minute. If someone caught my brother and Liu Yueli alone in Listening Snow Pavilion, the Feng family would be humiliated.
Chao Yinzhen shook her hand off. "Are you scared now? Why didn't you hesitate when you framed Miss Luo just now?"
Feng Linzhi looked at the rockery stone that Luo Zhaohan had lifted up with his bare hands, and her throat tightened.
The bluestone weighed at least a hundred pounds, but Luo Zhaohan moved it easily.
She huddled behind Chao Yinzhen and caught a glimpse of Sun Honglei watching a play not far away, her calves trembling.
"I'm sorry..." Her voice was as soft as a mosquito.
Chao Yinzhen sneered, the pearls on her golden hairpin rustling. "Do you know how to save face now?" Then, turning to Luo Zhaohan, she shouted, "This princess has wronged you today. If you want a beating or punishment, just ask!"
Luo Zhaohan stood with her head down in the shadow of the parasol tree, her white skirt stained with mud.
She dug her fingertips deep into her palms, and the tea she had just drunk turned into a fire in her stomach.
The bloody smell at the root of the tongue grew stronger, and the person in front of him became a double image.
"Miss Luo?" Sun Honglei suddenly took a half step forward.
Only then did Chao Yinzhen realize something was wrong.
Luo Zhaohan's body was shaking violently, the jade hairpin in his hair was about to fall, and the blood line from his lips meandered to his chin, glowing a strange golden red in the sunlight.
She subconsciously tried to help him, but was startled by the scorching body temperature and let go.
"You poisoned me..." Luo Zhaohan grabbed her shoulders fiercely, the buttons of her Yunjian jacket digging into his palms. "That cup of tea..."
"Nonsense!" Chao Yinzhen struggled in pain, scratching the back of Luo Zhaohan's hand with his nails. "If this princess wanted to harm you, why would she resort to such despicable means?"
"Okay!" Sun Honglei inserted himself between the two of them.
Luo Zhaohan staggered backward, and when her back hit his palm, the cloud pattern on the cuff of her official robe brushed against her neck.
The girl's breath was scorching, her hair was soaked with sweat and stuck to her cheeks, and her eyes were abnormally watery.
"Prepare some cold water!" Sun Honglei shouted at the stunned servant, then turned to Chao Yinzhen with a scowl, "The princess better explain herself clearly."
Chao Yinzhen, who had always been simple, stared at the bite wound on Luo Zhaohan's lip and was shocked.
What's wrong with her looking so weird?
Luo Zhaohan leaned against the vermilion lacquered corridor pillar, breathing rapidly, and the white mist overflowing from his cherry lips turned into tiny ice crystals in the cold wind.
A warm breath suddenly brushed against the back of her neck, startling her so much that she turned around abruptly, and her brocade shawl swept the snow off the stone railing.
When she saw that the person coming was Sun Honglei, her pupils suddenly shrank and she pushed the man's chest hard with her ten fingers.
"presumptuous!"
Sun Honglei staggered back half a step, his black leather boots leaving wet marks on the bluestone slabs.
He raised his eyes and saw the woman's rosy cheeks, and suddenly felt his throat tighten - this situation was clearly caused by the aphrodisiac Warm Love Powder.
The candlelight shining through the carved windows of the attic illuminates the stone table in the pavilion, and the pot of steaming Junshan Yinzhen tea is still there.
Sun Honglei clutched the jade pendant at his waist, his knuckles turning white. He had clearly seen Luo Zhaohan sip only half a cup just now, so how could he be so deeply poisoned...
"Don't come over!" Luo Zhaohan staggered back to the plum tree, his long black hair falling over his shoulders like a waterfall.
The heat surged in his body, and even the fragrance in the woman's hair became an aphrodisiac poison.
I vaguely recalled the plain silk picture album my mother gave me on the eve of my wedding, which was emitting an ambiguous soft light under the candlelight.
Sun Honglei looked at her bitten lips oozing blood and his Adam's apple rolling.
The Sun family, a century-old prestigious clan, never allowed their eldest sons to decide their own marriages. My grandfather's preference must have been for a dignified and noble woman, not this general's legitimate daughter, whose engagement with the Xie family had been broken off. But if...
"Young Master Sun?" The exclamation of the accompanying maid awakened his reverie.
Luo Zhaohan suddenly groaned and dug his slender fingers deep into the cracked bark of the plum tree.
The remaining snow rustled against the collar of her fox fur coat, but it couldn't quench her burning heat. She stared intently at the sword at Sun Honglei's waist, then suddenly pulled out her golden hairpin and pressed it against his throat. "Come even half a step closer, and I'll be splattered with blood!"
The noble ladies watching gasped, covered their lips with silk handkerchiefs and stepped back half a step.
Only Chao Yinzhen from Prince Duan's Mansion came forward quickly, holding up his brocade skirt and asking, "What happened to Miss Luo?"
Sun Honglei closed his eyes, turned around, stood in front of the princess, and whispered, "I'm afraid Miss Luo drank the love wine by mistake. Please take her away quickly."
He caught a glimpse of Luo Zhaohan stumbling towards the lake and said anxiously, "If a scandal breaks out, I'm afraid even the princess won't be able to withstand General Fuyuan's wrath!"
"What did you say she won?" Chao Yinzhen's eyes widened. Although she was spoiled, she also knew that this matter concerned a woman's reputation. She immediately tugged at Luo Zhaohan's sleeve and said, "Come with me to the warm room!"
"Don't touch me!" Luo Zhaohan shook him off violently. She looked at the frozen lake and suddenly chuckled.
Just now in the pavilion, Chao Yinzhen's maid specially changed the tea, and now she is trying to act like a Bodhisattva.
The remaining sanity was like a candle in the wind. She looked at the bronze bell hanging on the eaves of the pavilion in the middle of the lake, and remembered what Xie Wuqi said when he broke off the engagement: "Be chaste, quiet and respectful."
It turns out that the woman's innocence is just a jade ruyi in the man's hand.
"Luo Zhaohan!" Chao Yinzhen looked at the determination in the woman's scarlet eyes and felt an inexplicable palpitation in his heart. "What are you going to do?"
The sound of tearing silk answered her.
Luo Zhaohan tore off the shawl wrapped around the plum tree branches and leaped down to the crowd's exclamations. The ice cracked, and the black fox cloak blossomed into a mournful, gorgeous bloom in the inky water.
"Help! Help quickly!" Chao Yinzhen's scream startled the crows.
The maids rushed to the lake with lanterns, but no one dared to break the ice and go into the water - a girl in the boudoir would suffer endless troubles if she got wet, so which servant would dare to touch the general's daughter?
Sun Honglei's hand, which was about to untie his cloak, stopped in mid-air.
If he rescued her now, Luo Zhaohan would have to marry him tomorrow. However, the dark figure was slowly sinking in the ice cave...
"Never mind, saving lives is the most important thing!" Sun Honglei's knuckles turned white as he crushed the gravel with his official boots to catch up.
A hand suddenly reached out from behind the rockery and grabbed his belt. The young man in blue gasped, "Are you crazy? If you jump down to save someone, the whole capital will report you two for your private dealings tomorrow!"
"Get out of here!" Sun Honglei waved him away and tore off half of his clothes with his belt hook.
The floating ice on the lake crashed against the stone shore, and Luo Zhaohan's black hair was scattered among the green waves, like a crumpled ink painting.
Chao Yinzhen rushed to the lake with her skirt lifted up, and her golden horse-faced skirt got entangled in the dead branches.
She leaned half of her body over the railing and saw Luo Zhaohan breaking out of the water. Her coral earrings hit her cheek painfully.
The girl's lips were purple from the cold, but her eyes were clear as a knife: "Please make way."
Sun Honglei stopped walking, the hem of his official robe was splashed with mud.
Luo Zhaohan's paddling posture was extremely strange, with his ten fingers gripping the floating ice for leverage, which was clearly the ice-breaking swimming method used by soldiers from the northern border.
"Bring me the cloak!" Chao Yinzhen pulled off the shark silk handkerchief from his wrist and threw it over, but the handkerchief fell on the duckweed.
Luo Zhaohan grabbed a weeping willow on the bank with her backhand, her soaked skirt clinging to her body, outlining her sharp features. Sun Honglei turned his face away, his Adam's apple moving.
After everyone had dispersed, a little maid came stumbling over, holding a fox fur coat.
Chao Yinzhen shook out his scarlet cloak and wrapped the person in it. When his fingertips touched Luo Zhaohan's neck, he shuddered - the skin was so hot that it could be used to make pancakes.
"Go through the west corner gate..." Before Chao Yinzhen could finish his words, his wrist was grabbed by a hand like an iron clamp.
Luo Zhaohan's eyelashes were covered with ice, and the scarlet in his eyes had not faded: "This is not the way to the wing room."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
