Chapter 1104 Hibiscus Jade Forbidden Step
"Didn't you just say you wanted to get dressed up for the banquet?"
Xiao Zhan put down the bowl and brushed his fingertips across her slightly bulging stomach: "You are so greedy, just like the ferret we picked up in Mobei."
"Watch your step." Xiao Zhan touched her forehead lightly with his fingertips, and held Jiang Xue's elbow with his palm to steady her.
Dusk dyed the sky, and flowing clouds poured down like molten gold, giving a warm color to the pale face leaning against the railing.
Jiang Xue suddenly closed her eyes and raised her head, letting the rays of light flow between her eyelashes. Xiao Zhan's Adam's apple moved slightly, and his warm breath brushed past her ears: "Xiaoxue, what are you thinking about at this moment?"
"I want to cut this moment into a thousand pieces."
She suddenly opened her eyes, and the stars in her eyes turned upside down: "One is for the willows on the palace wall on the day we first met, one is for the bonfire on the way to the west, and the rest..."
The last sound melted away in the suddenly tightened embrace. Xiao Zhan rested his chin against the top of her head and heard a low laugh that shook her chest: "You're so greedy."
At the same time, Yun Yun was pulling Yun Zhen's wide sleeves through the red palace gate. The silver bell on her neck rang crisply as she looked around: "Is Princess Changle really not going to the banquet?"
Yun Zhen lowered his eyes, brushed her hand away, picked up the teacup and sipped it gently: "I rode my horse thirty miles out of the city this morning, and now I should be chanting scriptures in the Buddhist temple."
The bottom of the celadon cup made a clear sound. "Instead of spying on others, it is better to think about how to respond to the prince's inquiries."
"Fourth brother always thinks people's hearts are so sinister!"
Yun Yun's fingertips were entwined with the tassels of the necklace. She suddenly leaned forward and lowered her voice: "Do you know what the princess gave me today? It was half a piece of jade engraved with the totem of the Western Rong..."
"Yun Yun!"
Yun Zhen interrupted the conversation, and his dark gold-woven sleeves swept across the jade chimes on the table. His brows froze in the lingering sound: "The first lesson that the Eastern Prime Minister Wang Ting taught you is not to get involved in the country's affairs."
Yun Yun raised her chin and put the teacup down heavily. The sound of the celadon porcelain colliding startled the thrush in the corridor and it flapped its wings.
"Since Fourth Brother can settle down in the Imperial City, Yun Yun can naturally stay as well."
She deliberately emphasized the last few words, and lightly traced the old crack on the desk with her fingertips: "The words that His Royal Highness promised are still hanging between the golden painted beams and pillars of Xuanzheng Hall."
Yun Zhen's hand holding the pen suddenly stopped, and the wolf hair brush left a blob of ink on the memorial.
When he slowly raised his eyes, the candlelight just passed over his brow bone, casting a deep pool-like shadow in his eye sockets.
Yun Yun took a half step back unconsciously, the silk handkerchief in her sleeve was twisted into a knot - the young man in the palace of the Eastern Prime Minister who had helped her hide the broken glass cup in the past, now had a cold light in his eyes like the cold iron of the northern border.
"It's up to you." The pen fell to the edge of the inkstone with a click, splashing a few points of cinnabar like solidified blood beads.
Yun Zhen untied the gilded belt around his waist, and the sound of the jade buckles hitting each other was so crisp and piercing: "Just remember, every brick and stone in the imperial city has fangs."
He suddenly raised the corners of his lips, but the smile did not reach his eyes: "After all, you and I both know that this costume of brother and sister..."
The unfinished words were cut off by the strong liquor. The amber liquor rolled down his Adam's apple, but the burning sensation in his throat could not dilute the sourness in his chest.
What was a decade of dormancy? The hardest part was standing in front of the ladder to heaven, counting the steps as if nothing had happened.
Yun Yun stared at the swaying candle wax on the table and suddenly discovered that the winding traces looked very much like the handwriting of her fourth brother that she had secretly traced.
When the tenth glass of wine was finished, she reached out to support the staggering figure, but the black and gold sleeves swept across the back of her hand, causing a burning pain.
The carriage rolled over the cobblestone road during curfew, and the rumbling sound shattered the silence.
Yun Zhen leaned against the gilded carriage wall, with an abnormal flush at the corners of his eyes.
When the moonlight leaked through the red screen window and between his brows, Yun Yun suddenly heard a hoarse whisper: "You are not her."
"who is she?"
Yun Yun suddenly grabbed the fluttering curtain, and the dark patterns of Shu brocade hurt her palm.
The sudden sound of the night watchman's clapper rang out outside the carriage, startling her so much that the hairs on the back of her neck stood up - when did the jade pendant with a dragon pattern that she never took off from her fourth brother's waist be replaced by the unfamiliar jade pendant with a lotus pattern?
Yun Zhen suddenly chuckled, and tapped her forehead with his drunken fingertips: "My little princess, I played house with you back then just because I wanted to see Prince Dongxiang blow his beard and glare."
He tapped the car wall with his fingers, his eyes flickering in the sound of metal and jade clashing: "Just like now, I will keep your eyes..."
The unfinished words were swept away by the night wind. Yun Yun watched his back disappear into the mansion, and suddenly found that two jade hooks were missing from the belt around his fourth brother's waist.
She lifted her skirt and ran after him, her satin embroidered shoes stepping on the night dew condensed on the bluestone steps. She suddenly remembered the advice of the imperial teacher before she left: When a dragon is trapped in water, its scales become cold.
Yun Zhen violently shook off the other person's wrist and said, "How do you know that the gentle and dignified Fourth Prince when he was the Prime Minister of the East was not a fake? The one standing in front of you right now is my true self?"
Yun Yun staggered back half a step, her nails digging deeply into her palms.
She had indeed never doubted that her brother, who always hid apricot blossom cakes in his sleeves for her, would have such a sinister expression.
"Listen carefully."
The dark robe made a sharp sound, and Yun Zhen's eyes flashed with bloodshot coldness: "You can escape or stay, but if you dare to spy on my whereabouts again..."
The jade ring glowed coldly in the moonlight: "Use your blood to add color to the red maple leaves of Anguo."
The rumbling wheels crushed the frost all over the ground.
When Yun Yun looked at the resolute figure disappearing into the mansion, she suddenly recalled the time when she was five years old. It was also an autumn night like this. Her fourth brother carried her on his back through the ten-mile apricot forest despite having a high fever.
The silver-thread food box in the palm of my hand was slightly warm, and six jars of aged Bamboo Leaf Green Tea were lying quietly inside.
"They say alcohol is a poison that penetrates the intestines. I want to see if I can poison some truth out of it."
She took off the emerald moon pendant from her ear, which was a call for the secret guards of the Dongxiang royal family.
The celadon wine jar emitted a cold light under Yun Zhen's fingertips.
He suddenly let out a sarcastic laugh, grabbed the jar of wine and poured it into his throat.
The amber liquor flowed down his neck, soaking the coiled dragon pattern embroidered on his chest. Twenty years of proton career and thirty years of misplaced life, all burned to ashes in the spiciness.
When the moon-white figure floated over, he seemed to see the girl in front of Chengming Palace looking back with a palace lantern in her hand.
When Jiang Xue sneaked out of the palace on Lantern Festival that year, her golden hairpins shattered the stars on the ground.
"Xiaoxue..." The drunken fingertips touched the cold veil.
At the same time, on the tower of Suzaku Gate, Fu Dong, the leader of the Black Armor Guard, was kneeling on one knee: "The thirty-six followers brought by Princess Yunyun can all walk on the snow without leaving any trace."
Jiang Xue stroked the Buddhist beads on her wrist, and the lights in the distance made the cinnabar between her eyebrows even more charming:
"Send shadow guards to keep an eye on every brick and tile of the embassy. Tell the Ministry of Rites that I want to see all members of the Eastern Prime Minister's delegation attend the autumn hunting ceremony in three days."
At this moment, Yun Yun was tightly grasping the gilded tent hook.
The drunken man on the bed kept murmuring the forbidden title, which reminded her of the secret file she had found in the Anguo History Museum three days ago.
In the 19th year of Yonghe, the fourth prince of Dongxiang came to the capital as a hostage, and happened to be a classmate of the eldest princess, who had not yet reached the age of marriage, for three years.
The limp figure on the carved wooden chair suddenly twitched, and Yun Zhen's bloodshot eyes suddenly opened.
His distracted eyes swept across Yun Yun's anxious face. He mumbled something indistinctly in his throat, then tilted his head and fell beside the jade wine jug.
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