Chapter 1044 "Secretly Crossing Chencang"
The young man's smiling peach blossom eyes sparkled in the candlelight. It was clearly just a show, but it made people feel uncomfortable.
She lowered her eyes and stared at the jasmine floating in the tea, digging her fingernails into her palms - since she knew that they would eventually go their separate ways, the bitterness at this moment seemed pretentious.
The warm fragrance in the private room became stronger and stronger. Jiang Xiaoan stuffed the piece of paper with names written on it into Fudong's palm while pouring wine.
The secrets of those aristocratic families flowed with the wine. Fudong silently memorized surnames such as Huang and Lu in his heart, but he couldn't help but glance at the boy's rouge-stained clothes out of the corner of his eye.
A strong smell of powder came from the window. Zhao Zhao frowned and pushed open the carved wooden window.
In the twilight, the lanterns in front of Hongxiuzhao's door lit up one after another, and the sound of crowds of people gradually rose. It was time for the party to begin.
"Are you tired, Mr. Zhao?"
Jiang Xiaoan's hand holding the cup stopped in mid-air.
She had concealed her real name and used the alias Zhao for more than a month. Now, with her hair tied with a silver crown, she looked like a noble young man.
"Just getting some fresh air." Zhao Zhao tapped lightly on the window frame with his fingertips, and the copper bells on the eaves rang in the wind.
Jiang Xiaoan raised his head and drank the wine in the cup, the amber wine wet the corners of his lips: "Miss Xiyin's pipa and Miss Shuying's sword dance, aren't they more moving than this street scene?"
The candlelight flickered in his eyes, and his collarbone, revealed by his slightly opened blue shirt, was slightly red, making him look like a dandy drunk in the land of pleasure.
Zhao Zhao looked at this actor inconspicuously. If he had not known his ability to act according to the situation, he would have been fooled by his dissolute appearance.
Suddenly, he saw the two top performers pouring more wine into his glass, and the gold and jade bracelets on their snow-white wrists jingled.
"Brother Jiang, since you have a beautiful lady to accompany you, I might as well..."
Before he finished speaking, the crisp sound of bamboo chopsticks falling to the ground came from the opposite side.
"Hey, Brother Zhao, please stay!"
Jiang Xiaoan stood up in a hurry, and his wide sleeves knocked over the agate wine cup.
The young man, who had been at ease just now, now felt a chill on the back of his neck - the two girls' eyes were as fierce as spider webs, as if they wanted to eat him alive.
Xiyin twisted the shark silk handkerchief and covered her lips with a smile: "The two gentlemen must go and come back quickly."
The golden peony trembled beside her temples, and the sweet fragrance made Jiang Xiaoan stagger half a step.
When turning around the corridor, Zhao Zhao caught a glimpse of a thin layer of sweat behind his ears and a slight curling of the corners of his lips.
This young miracle doctor is usually very good at diagnosing diseases, but he is so green in the world of romance.
"Commander Fudong."
Jiang Xiaoan lowered his voice and left a secret mark on the pillar with his fingertips: "The people from the Canal Transport Bureau mentioned at the banquet just now..."
"Zhang Zhubu, Wang Yayun, and Li Cangcao."
Zhao Zhao counted the gaps between the blue bricks and said, "There are still three deputy envoys whose names I haven't remembered yet."
"No problem."
Jiang Xiaoan took out the jade fan from his sleeve, and there were faint traces of ink on the fan:
"Every time they said a name, I drew a stroke on the wine stain." The moonlight passed through the silk, revealing seven watermarks of people's names.
The copper bells on the eaves rang softly, and Fu Dong's fingertips stroked the gilded patterns on the short blade in his sleeve: "It's okay."
She tilted her head to look at the pear trees falling in the courtyard: "The important people are already engraved in my heart, and the rest are just fleeting glimpses."
Jiang Xiaoan's fingers holding the silver folding fan were slightly stiff. He had specially copied the details of the thirty-six girls in the Anxiang Pavilion on gold-sprinkled paper, but now it felt like he was holding a hot potato.
He put his fist to his lips and coughed twice, then spun a silver flower in his palm: "In this case...should we go back to the Peony Chamber?"
There was an imperceptible tremor at the end of his words, and the two girls who were stuffing sachets into his collar flashed before his eyes again.
"Of course I will go back."
Fu Dong suddenly took a half step closer, and the tassels of the hairpins on her temples brushed across his shoulders: "Miss Liu said she had composed a new piece called "Treading on the Magpie Branches", and she is waiting for Master Jiang to appreciate it."
Three fingers suddenly emerged from under the black arrow sleeves and accurately grasped her cloud-patterned ribbon.
Jiang Xiaoan's ears turned red like bloody agate: "Those chirping sounds send chills down my spine!"
He suddenly lowered his voice, and the jade bamboo fan bones made a clear sound on the blue brick floor: "Why don't we go to Zuixianlou to taste the newly brewed plum wine?"
Fu Dong lowered his eyes and looked at his right hand with white knuckles, and a dimple was faintly visible at the corner of his lips.
The bitter feeling that had just lingered in my heart suddenly turned into spring snow melting under the eaves.
She deliberately pushed the celadon teacup so that it clanked loudly: "When Master Jiang said he would protect me, he spoke with great force."
"When will I ..."
Jiang Xiaoan was so anxious that he slammed his folding fan on the stone table, scaring away the gray sparrow that was looking for food.
Looking at the flickering candlelight in Fudong's eyes, he picked up the fan that had fallen to the ground resignedly and said, "Forget it. I will do whatever the commander wants."
As dusk spread through the window lattice, Fu Dong's fingertips brushed across his palm, dropping a gilded token.
Jiang Xiaoan felt as if a ball of fire was burning from the lines on her palms to behind her ears, and even her words about "secretly crossing Chencang" became the intermittent chirping of cicadas.
It was not until Fu Dong pulled out the jade flute from his waist and knocked it on the stone table that he realized that he had been staring at the phoenix hairpin with a pearl in her hair and was distracted.
As the midnight bell sounded, Jiang Xue's fingers trembled slightly as she held the "Shui Jing Zhu". The dried crabapple flowers sandwiched between the pages had long been crushed into powder.
Xiao Zhan silently moved the crane-patterned candlestick half an inch closer, watching the flickering flames weave a galaxy of stars in her eyes.
Xiao Zhan looked at the figure curled up on the couch and reached out to take the book off her lap: "It's very cold on spring nights, go to bed and rest. If there's a book you want to read, I'll read it to you."
Jiang Xue's eyes moved and she suddenly turned over and got off the bed.
The sandalwood cabinet door creaked softly, and she waved at him while holding up a blue booklet: "Please come over and be the storyteller, Prince Consort."
As she moved, the brocade nightgown slipped down half of her shoulders, revealing her creamy skin.
As soon as Xiao Zhan sat down on the edge of the bed, the hardcover booklet was stuffed into his palm.
When I saw the four gold-embossed words "The Secret of Hehuan" on the cover, the tips of my ears instantly turned red.
He casually flipped through two pages and saw a meticulously painted picture of mandarin ducks embracing each other. He was so shocked that he almost dropped the book.
"When did Xiaoxue develop the habit of collecting books?"
He gathered the quilt around her shoulders, his fingertips accidentally touching her soft shoulders, and his Adam's apple rolled unconsciously.
"I asked Qingdai to bring it from Mingxuan Pavilion last month."
Jiang Xue leaned closer with her chin propped up, the scent of jasmine in her hair lingering around her nose: "How did my husband know there was such a bookstore? Could it be..."
The last syllable was drawn out, and her white fingertips poked his hot earlobe.
Xiao Zhan grabbed the hand that was making trouble at his neck and confessed helplessly: "I did buy a few books when I was young."
Thinking back to those days when I was hiding in the study to study, even my neck turned red.
In those sleepless nights, holding the book, I imagined the eyes and eyebrows that were so close to me at this moment.
Jiang Xue's sly smile was reflected in the diamond-shaped mirror: "Do you still have those rare copies? Lend them to me someday to study them."
Her fingertips moved along the lines of the shirt's hem, and suddenly stopped at her chest. "By the way, the book says that men are used to relieving themselves. Have you ever tried this before?"
The tassels on the mahogany bed frame moved without wind. Xiao Zhan grabbed her wrist and said in an unusually hoarse voice, "Xiaoxue, do you really want to listen?"
The candle flame suddenly burst into a lamp spark, and the room was full of flickering light and shadow. The brocade quilt was rolled up into a ball with a light laugh.
Dusk shone through the carved window lattices. Xiao Zhan looked at the woman leaning on the chaise longue, tracing her delicate jawline with his fingertips.
If it were half a year ago, he would have held this restless little fox in his arms and disciplined him, but now the slightly raised belly line under his palm made him move more gently.
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