Chapter 1053 Dirty Tricks
"The Prince Consort and Your Highness have been childhood sweethearts, and have experienced life and death on the battlefield together."
Fu Dong placed her sword across her knees, the cold light of the metal reflecting the red corners of her eyes: "Jiang Xiaoan is a son of a noble family, how could he marry me, a deceased fiancé?"
The teacup made a crisp sound on the table. Jiang Xue looked at the secret guard who had been with her since childhood and asked, "Do you really want to cut off this relationship with your own hands?"
"It is best to cut off the emotional ties in time."
Fu Dong suddenly knelt on one knee, his dark clothes hanging down like an inky butterfly on the green bricks: "I only wish to protect Your Highness for the rest of my life, and this is the greatest perfection."
Outside the window, bamboo shadows danced. Jiang Xue recalled the words that the stubborn girl said when she carried her on her back and fought her way out of the siege on the night of the palace coup. In the end, she sighed, "It's up to you."
When the attendant hurried in to report, Fu Dong was just putting his sword back into the sheath.
Upon hearing Jiang Xiaoan's request for a meeting, the cloud-patterned buckle on the scabbard trembled slightly.
Jiang Xue caught a glimpse of the secret guard's suddenly tensed knuckles, turned around and ordered, "Please wait in the flower hall, Mr. Jiang."
"I'll take my leave."
When Fu Dong turned around, she brought with her a whiff of pine resin, which was the smell of incense she usually used after practicing sword in the morning.
After half a cup of tea, the young man in brocade robe and jade crown bowed deeply to the host:
"Please tell me, Your Highness, has Fu Dong ever mentioned which flower she likes the most? She said she doesn't understand romance, but that day I saw her bandaging the broken sword with wisteria in the martial arts arena..."
"Mr. Jiang."
Jiang Xue interrupted him and said, "The hundred-year-old wisteria outside the west wing was a gift from the late empress dowager to Fudong for her coming of age."
"If you can't pry her open, find a way to make her speak."
Jiang Xue tapped the teacup with her fingertips: "Aren't there ready-made methods for drunkenness or drug effects?"
Jiang Xiaoan suddenly got enlightened and stood up, looking at the princess with eyes full of admiration: "Your Highness is very far-sighted!"
I think these methods must be the secret skills used to subdue the third prince back then. Now he is willing to teach them all. This friendship is truly touching.
He considered the feasibility of two options.
Fu Dong has been avoiding him recently, so he's afraid that his invitation to a banquet will be turned down.
The pharmacological methods that I am good at are more reliable, but...
"Thank you for your guidance, Your Highness. I will go and prepare the Ecstasy Powder now."
"Wait a minute."
Jiang Xue suddenly stopped the young man who was about to leave and said, "Have you ever thought about the price of failure?"
The price? The worst that can happen is that Fu Dong breaks a few bones, which is better than not even being able to see him now.
Jiang Xiaoan touched the medicine bag on his waist and said with a smile: "It won't cost me my life."
"I want you to think clearly about what you are willing to give up for her."
Jiang Xue turned the jade ring: "Wealth and honor? Family inheritance? Or the medical skills that you are so proud of?"
The young man's expression suddenly became solemn: "To be honest with you, Your Highness, I have never calculated these in detail.
But now I know for sure - as long as Fu Dong can resolve her heart knot, I will have no regrets even if she asks me to cripple my acupuncture hands."
Jiang Xue's fingertips trembled slightly, causing ripples in the cup.
It was unexpected that this boy was so deeply in love.
She looked at the swaying peach branches outside the window and suddenly changed the subject: "I heard that Hongyunlou's Hundred Flowers Wine goes best with almond pastry."
Jiang Xiaoan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood.
If you put drugs in wine, it will inevitably be exposed later; but if you encourage people to drink good wine, you can't blame others if they lose their composure after getting drunk.
The princess's tactic of pretending to build a plank road while secretly attacking Chencang is really brilliant!
After the young man left in a hurry, Xiao Zhan stepped over the threshold with a food box in his hand: "If you don't eat, your stomach will rebel."
After such a tiring journey and having just taken the trouble to comfort the pair of enemies, he should be starving.
Jiang Xue looked at the pile of reports on the table and sighed, "I have no appetite."
The candlelight stretched her thin figure out long, and it swayed like a willow in the wind in the room filled with the scent of ink.
"You always worry about Fudong and the others, but you have to eat on time. Do you want our Yaoyao to be like a little bean sprout when she is born?"
Xiao Zhan scooped up the soup and joked, a smile showing at the corners of his eyes amid the hot steam.
Jiang Xue paused holding the silver spoon, and tapped the edge of the celadon bowl with her jade-colored nails:
"How can a father treat his daughter like this? Yaoyao must be a beautiful and charming girl."
The silver-red skirt rippled as she turned around, and the golden hairpins in her hair shattered into stars in the morning light.
"That depends on whether her mother is willing to finish the tonic."
Xiao Zhan placed a kiss on her forehead, the scent of pine mixed with the sweetness of blood swallow in his sleeves: "The imperial physician said that this bowl of snow clam is the best for nourishing qi and blood. Yaoyao's peach blossom noodles depend on it."
A few kingfishers flew past the carved windows of the dining hall. Jiang Xue suddenly put down the bowl with lotus pattern and said, "Yun Che, I seem to have taught Master Jiang a dirty trick."
His amber pupils reflected the calm expression of the person opposite him, and the crystal shrimp dumpling was left between his lips and teeth, but he was reluctant to swallow it.
Xiao Zhan served her the dishes leisurely, "Madam, you have a trick up your sleeve. Why didn't you mix aphrodisiac into my wine back then?"
Before the last word fell, Jiang Xue choked and drank half a cup of snow pear soup, and her face turned red.
"You act like a saint all day long, how dare I offend you?"
She poked the brocade pattern on his chest with her fingertips: "Besides, why would I need to resort to unorthodox methods to deal with a piece of wood like you?"
The silver bracelet jingled as it struck the edge of the jade plate.
Xiao Zhan smiled and held her wrist, the gilded armor feeling slightly cool in his palm.
People only saw her commanding presence in the court, but they didn't know that this powerful princess would show such a lively demeanor in front of him.
Just like at this moment, she deliberately smeared plum jam on his cuffs, her eyes as cunning as the fiery red fox in the hunting ground when she first met him that year.
"I'll take you to the plum garden to digest the food later."
He wiped the sauce stain from her lips and said, "I heard that the boy from the Jiang family knelt in the imperial study for half a day this morning."
These words caused Jiang Xue's fingertips to tremble slightly, and the pearls hanging from her temples emitted fragments of light.
The undercurrent between the court and the public was wrapped in the morning breeze and spread across the nine palaces. At this moment, in the Meixiang Pavilion, the gilded stove was heating up a secret warmth.
As undercurrents surged in the court, officials from the aristocratic faction met privately to discuss strategies for self-preservation, and colleagues from humble backgrounds were also secretly speculating on the direction of the situation.
In sharp contrast to these anxious people is the leisurely appearance of the couple Jiang Xue and Xiao Zhan.
It happened to be a holiday, so Xiao Zhan specially arranged to go out of the city for an outing.
He had noticed that his wife was feeling depressed during her pregnancy, so he specially chose a manor on the outskirts of the city to prepare a spring banquet.
Newly sprouted toon shoots mixed with freshly dug tender bamboo shoots and paired with some wild vegetables are more to Jiang Xue's liking than the delicacies from the palace.
Taking an afternoon stroll in the countryside, Jiang Xue took off her fancy clothes and wore only a plain spring shirt, with her long dark hair loosely tied with a silk ribbon.
Xiao Zhan's eyes swept across her slightly bulging waist and abdomen. He recalled the imperial physician's report the day before that the pregnancy was stable, and the corners of his lips unconsciously curled up.
The shepherd's purse flowers on both sides of the path in the field swayed in the wind. When Jiang Xue leaned over to pick them, her skirt brushed against the newly sprouted mugwort tips.
"Look at this."
Xiao Zhan braided the wild flowers into a ring and gently covered her hair.
The tiny petals made the light red at the corners of her eyes even brighter - this was a subtle change brought about by pregnancy, but it unexpectedly neutralized the heroic spirit between her brows.
Jiang Xue stroked the flower crown and asked if it was appropriate. Xiao Zhan stared at her face which was glowing softly. "If I ask a painter to copy it now, I'm afraid he will be frustrated that it's difficult to depict the charm of the painting."
He tapped his eyes with his fingertips: "Why do I need a bronze mirror to look at my reflection?"
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