Chapter 48 Adding fuel to the fire
Fuyuan General's Mansion.
It was the ten-day holiday of the Imperial College, and Luo Jince had been pestering his sister since early morning.
The young man was born with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, but he wanted to imitate those little girls' behavior and clung to Luo Zhaohan's sleeves, refusing to let go: "Sister, sister, please tell me more about Master Pei!"
Luo Zhaohan knocked the teacup hard on the table, causing ripples to appear in the celadon cup.
She was wearing a lilac-colored corseted riding coat, and the golden hairpins in her hair jingled as she moved. "Luo Jince! From the hour of Chen to the hour of Xu, you've been muttering about Pei Ji for six hours. If you dare mention his name again, I'll kick you into a horse stance in the martial arts arena."
"But you hid such a big thing as Prince Duan's matchmaking from me!" Luo Jince stamped his feet in frustration. When he heard his mother talk about this today, he almost spilled the freshly brewed cloud tea all over himself.
That was Pei Ji! The youngest official in the court, the Dali Temple official, the one who had shot down two eagles with a single arrow during last year's autumn hunt!
The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he became. He suddenly rushed to his sister and said, "You always said that in your previous life, Master Pei was the only one willing to help you. Such a good marriage—"
"Jince." Luo Zhaohan suddenly interrupted him, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the silver-threaded cloud pattern on her cuffs. The candlelight flickered beneath her eyes, illuminating them even more clearly. "Do you know what the difference between heaven and earth is?"
The boy was stunned.
"Master Pei is like the bright moon, and we are mortals in the mortal world." She reached out and poked her brother's forehead, not too hard or too soft. "Do you think the Dali Temple files are so easy to investigate? The last time he was reviewing a disaster relief case for me ten years ago, he knelt outside the imperial study for two hours."
Luo Jince was about to speak when he saw a wry smile on his sister's lips. The smile was fleeting, as swift as the wind passing over the eaves.
"Besides..." Luo Zhaohan stood up and pushed open the carved wooden window. The night breeze, wrapped in the fragrance of osmanthus, blew towards him. "Our family's fate of being confiscated and exterminated remains unchanged. Why bother involving others?"
The words were spoken lightly, but the boy's face turned pale instantly.
He recalled passing by the ancestral hall three days ago and catching a glimpse of his sister kneeling before the ancestral tablets, burning incense and praying. Amidst the swirling smoke, her plain skirt seemed so thin it seemed ready to dissolve at any moment.
"But...but Lord Pei..." Luo Jince's voice was muffled, but suddenly his eyes lit up, "The day before yesterday, I got a third-class rating for my policy essay, and Lord Pei even gave me the 'Essence of Policy Essence'!"
Luo Zhaohan was startled when she heard this. She naturally remembered the blue booklet, with the powerful words "Unification of Knowledge and Action" written on the title page, so powerful that they could be seen through the paper.
At that time, I was surprised that such a cold and serious person like Pei Ji could pay attention to his brother's schoolwork.
"Chunxi said that the other day at the Treasure Pavilion, Lord Pei stared at the mutton-fat jade hairpin you picked for a long time!" Luo Jince became more and more excited as he talked. "And on the night of the Lantern Festival, when you released the river lanterns-"
"Luo! Jin! Ce!"
"Ouch!" The young man ran away, almost knocking over the celadon vase on the table. He was too familiar with the look in his sister's eyes - she had the same murderous look when he secretly read her correspondence with Xie Wuqi last year.
Luo Zhaohan casually picked up the embroidery frame and pretended to hit it. The gold and silver threads shone brilliantly in the candlelight. "If you dare to send someone to follow you again, do you believe I will smash all those cricket jars of yours?"
"No, no, no! That's the 'Golden Armored General'!" Luo Jince begged for mercy, but couldn't help muttering, "It was clearly Chunxi who saw it herself."
Suddenly a gust of wind blew outside the window, causing the candle flame to flicker.
Luo Zhaohan looked at the dying red candle on the table and suddenly sighed, "Jin Ce, did you know that I went to Daxiangguo Temple to draw lots the day before yesterday?"
The boy immediately pricked up his ears.
"The fortune says, 'A lone wild goose steps on the snow; do not ask where it came from.'" Her fingertips brushed against the paperweight on the table, a piece of chicken bloodstone stained with blood. "With a fate like mine, why burden others and myself?"
These words made Luo Jince's heart ache. He remembered his sister's coming-of-age ceremony, when she had looked out at the courtyard full of red silk and said, "No need to bother." Back then, he'd just thought it was just a girl's shyness, but now, thinking about it...
"But Master Pei—"
With a "bang", the embroidery frame fell on the back of the rosewood chair.
Luo Zhaohan raised his eyebrows: "If you mention the word Pei Ji again, I will beg my father to send you to the Northern Frontier Camp tomorrow!"
"I'm going to rest! I'll be right there!" Luo Jince scurried to the door like a rabbit, and finally peeked through the door frame: "Sister, you look best when you smile, really!"
"roll!"
The carved wooden door slammed shut, shaking off a few fallen leaves from the eaves.
Luo Zhaohan looked at the swaying bead curtain and suddenly felt his fingertips go cold.
How could she not know that Pei Ji treated her differently? That day in the Dali Temple prison, his figure standing against the light was the last warmth of her previous life.
But that’s why we can’t let him get involved anymore!
As Luo Jince stepped out of the door, he almost bumped into Chunxi who was running towards him.
"Hello, young master." Chunxi looked anxious, but still did not forget to salute respectfully.
"Yeah!" Luo Jince coughed dryly and straightened his back.
Chunxi secretly winked at Luo Zhaohan and tapped her chest twice with her fingers.
Luo Zhaohan immediately understood that Chunxi was hiding an important letter in her arms. The only person who could deliver the letter to them right now was Concubine Zhang from the Xie Mansion.
Luo Zhaohan nodded to Chunxi, then turned to look at his younger brother Luo Jince, who was squatting at the doorstep playing with crickets.
The shadow on the bluestone slab was stretched long by the setting sun, and a few strands of hair stuck up on the back of the boy's head. She suddenly remembered the messy hair of this child when he was wrongfully imprisoned in his previous life.
Her throat felt tight, so she cleared it and said, "Jin Ce, let's talk inside."
"Okay!" Luo Jince jumped up holding the cricket cage, and the bamboo cage cast tiny spots of light under the sun.
Chunxi fastened the door and pulled a wrinkled envelope from her jacket. The oil-paper package was damp, with a half-petal of osmanthus still stained on the edge.
"This is..." Luo Jince just opened his mouth when his sister raised her hand to stop him.
"Last month, the second young lady of the Xie family fell into the water. Do you remember the mugwort paste that Aunt Zhang sent?" Luo Zhaohan explained as she opened the letter, "Ever since the marriage proposal from the Xie family was cancelled, this concubine has been sending news from time to time." The moment the letter paper opened, the fragrance of ink mixed with the faint scent of sandalwood hit her nose, and her heart suddenly jumped - this smell was very much like the tribute incense she had smelled on the altar in the ancestral hall in her previous life.
The cricket cage in Luo Jince's hand fell to the ground with a "click".
He really couldn't understand how his sister could be related to the concubine in the deep mansion.
The afterglow coming through the window lattice fell on the letter. Suddenly, I saw that the fingertips of my sister holding the letter had turned white. When she raised her eyes again, her eyes, which were usually as calm as water, were shaking violently.
"Miss Xie Jiayu..." Luo Zhaohan's voice was hoarse, as if a piece of hot coal was stuck in his throat. He stared at Xie Jince and spoke word by word, "Aunt Zhang said that Xie Wuyu has a special liking for you and was planning to ask her brother to send you a knee-length shirt."
She thought of the girl in her previous life who always liked to hide in the corner of the corridor and peek, her goose yellow shirt blown up by the draft, like a timid butterfly.
Who could have expected that such a shy girl would dare to send a token of love to a man outside her mother's heart?
Luo Jince's ears suddenly turned red: "How is it possible? The last time we met at the rockery, she couldn't even speak clearly..." The voice stopped abruptly, and the boy covered his mouth suddenly, realizing belatedly that he had let the cat out of the bag.
Chunxi burst out laughing and was about to make a joke when he saw the girl take out another piece of thin paper from the envelope.
Luo Zhaohan stared at the handwriting on the paper and suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. The handwriting was surprisingly similar to the calligraphy his brother practiced. Dusk deepened outside the window, and the last ray of sunlight brushed across the paper, illuminating the three characters "Luo Jince" with a terrifying and eerie light.
"Liu Yueli..." She almost squeezed out the name from between her teeth.
The scene of Liu Yueli personally teaching them how to practice calligraphy is still vivid in their minds. Who could have thought that this kind of intimacy would become a knife that would stab the Luo family in the future?
In a trance, I returned to that rainy night in my previous life.
The moss on the stone steps of the Dali Temple was swollen by the rain. She hid in the eaves, clutching the umbrella handle, and watched the crimson official robe emerge from the depths of the rain.
The lantern in Pei Ji's hand spun in the wind, and the dim light reflected on the silver fish bag on his waist, making people's eyes hurt.
"The evidence of the Luo family's collaborating with the enemy is conclusive." The man's voice was colder than the rain falling from the eaves.
At this moment, facing this fake letter, Luo Zhaohan finally understood where the so-called "ironclad evidence" came from.
Her father's letters, her brother's notes, anything with the blood of the Luo family, could be copied exactly by Liu Yueli.
She suddenly remembered the day of the broken engagement, when Xie Wuqi stared at the jade pendant on her waist - it was not hatred, but rather like a hungry wolf seeing bloody meat.
"Sister?" Luo Jince waved his hand in front of her eyes, "You look so bad."
Luo Zhaohan spread two pieces of letter paper on the table, and the ink formed black shadows in the twilight.
Chunxi took out a lighter and lit the candlestick. The flickering flames cast three young faces on the wall, swaying in size.
"Look at the inflection of the brushstrokes." She pointed at the character "Jin" on the fake letter. "Liu Yueli likes to pause at the vertical hook, like a tadpole dragging its tail." Her finger moved to the poem her brother had written the day before. "But you are straightforward, like a sword unsheathed."
Luo Jince leaned in to take a closer look, and suddenly cried out, "Last time Liu Yueli helped me copy a book, the teacher also said that this handwriting..."
"You say it's more like you than what you wrote?" Luo Zhaohan sneered. The candle flame popped, and the crackling sound startled Chunxi's hand, causing candle wax to drip onto the letter paper, instantly etching a charred hole.
From outside the window came the sound of the night watchman's clappers, three long and two short. Luo Zhaohan stared at the hole and suddenly remembered the day in his previous life when General Xie's coffin returned to the capital, and the white flag was torn by the north wind, making a sound like ripping silk.
Xie Wu Yu was wearing mourning clothes and hiding at the end of the funeral procession, with half of the jade pendant that had not been given away in his arms.
"This letter from Madam Zhang..." She pinched the osmanthus flowers on the edge of the letter paper, "I'm afraid it was sent with the fragrance of Miss Yu's hair wash." No wonder the letter had to be delivered overnight. Madam Xie must have smelled something.
Luo Jince suddenly grabbed the fake letter and held it close to the candle flame: "Burn it all!"
"Keep it." Luo Zhaohan snatched it away, "This is Liu Yueli's work, and it's also a fatal handle for the Xie family." The flame licked her fingertips, and the burning sensation made her sober.
In her previous life, she was too clean, which allowed those people to throw dirty water on her without restraint.
Chunxi fetched some well water to cool her hands, and a few thin pieces of unmelted ice floated in the copper basin.
Luo Zhaohan looked at the moon's shadow swaying in the water and suddenly asked softly, "Do you think Xie Wuqi is so anxious to break off the engagement? Is it really because of Liu Yueli?"
The room was filled with silence.
Luo Jince stared at the broken moonlight in the basin, and suddenly remembered the look of Xie Wuqi staring at Liu Yueli in a daze while guessing riddles during the Lantern Festival last year.
At that time, I just thought it was the young man Mu Ai, but now when I think about it, there was clearly a hook in his eyes - to hook out the last bit of value in the Luo family bloodline.
The clapper sounded twice more, and Chunxi got up and closed the window tightly.
Luo Zhaohan couldn't help but fall into deep thought again.
"Sister? Sister!" Luo Jince waved the letter in front of Luo Zhaohan three times. Seeing that she was still staring at the sycamore tree outside the window, he leaned in and shouted in her ear: "Luo! Zhao! Han!"
"You're courting death!" Luo Zhaohan was so frightened that he almost knocked over the inkstone, and the wolf-hair brush dipped in cinnabar left a red mark on the rice paper.
She pretended to twist her brother's ears, but the boy dodged it deftly.
Luo Jince slammed the letter on the desk with a smile: "We were just talking about Miss Xie, why did you suddenly become dazed? Are you thinking of someone you know?"
"What nonsense." Luo Zhaohan picked up the letter and folded it carefully. The candlelight cast a faint shadow under her long eyelashes. "Sister, let me ask you, do you really not have any feelings for Xie Wuyu?"
The young man immediately stopped laughing, sat up straight and said, "Last year during the Mid-Autumn Festival, she fell into the water, and I just handed her a cloak. If I had known it would cause all this trouble..." His voice stopped abruptly, and his eyes suddenly widened: "Could it be that she did it on purpose that day?"
"Hush..." Luo Zhaohan placed her onion-like index finger between her lips. "Just pretend you don't know what's on a girl's mind. But Aunt Zhang's letter..." She tapped the cinnabar seal at the end of the letter with her fingertips. "It looks like she's asking for advice, but in reality, she's handing you a knife."
Luo Jince leaned over to read the letter, his hair brushing against his sister's shoulder. "Isn't this a very thorough plan?"
"Silly boy." Luo Zhaohan flicked his forehead with her finger. "Madam Zhang wants to borrow our help, but she doesn't want to give us any evidence. Look here—" She pointed at the tiny calligraphy on the letter, "'I am stupid and I hope you can give me some advice.' It's obvious that she wants us to add fuel to the fire."
As he spoke, he had already spread out the Xuelang paper. Luo Zhaohan rolled up his sleeves to grind the ink, the tip of his wolf-hair brush moving across the paper.
When the candle wick crackled and burst into sparks, seven or eight letters had already piled up on the desk.
Luo Jince held the last letter home and smacked his lips, "Sister, if you sell this handwritten calligraphy, it would be enough to buy ten baskets of snacks from Guixiangzhai."
"Stop talking nonsense." Luo Zhaohan pressed the wax seal on the envelope. "Tomorrow at 3:45 AM, have Chunxi disguise herself as an embroiderer and send it to the west corner gate of Xie's mansion."
Even as the night deepened and the dew deepened, lights were still on in both courtyards of the General's Mansion. Concubine Zhang, draped in a scarlet cloak, reclined on a soft couch, the rustling of stationery in the candlelight.
Xie Wuyu came over with a hand warmer in his hand: "What are you laughing at, mother?"
"It's funny that someone is more anxious than us." Aunt Zhang brought the letter close to the candlestick, and the flames suddenly engulfed the edges. "Just remember, the sharpest knife in the world is always borrowed."
She stroked her daughter's cloud-like hair and suddenly sighed, "If Miss Luo were a man, I would like to find a husband for you."
"Auntie!" Xie Wu Yu was so embarrassed that she hid under the quilt, but she didn't see the worry in her mother's eyes.
"Xie Wuqi actually rejected a beauty like Luo Zhaohan and chose the scheming Liu Yueli instead. It's really laughable."
There was a sneer on Aunt Zhang's lips, but she immediately stopped smiling and returned to her serious expression.
"After all, no one can be underestimated. Liu Yueli was able to devise such an intricate scheme, which shows how scheming she is. Otherwise, why would I have personally sought help from Miss Luo yesterday?"
"Never mind. It's not a bad thing to owe Miss Luo a favor. Yu'er, you need to study harder and ingrain this wisdom in your heart."
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