Chapter 1071 "Enjoy life while you can"
Fu Dong stood on tiptoe to take down the top volume, but saw Jiang Xiaoan still beside him: "Wouldn't it be faster if we searched separately?"
"Many records of witchcraft in the Western Regions involve forbidden chapters."
The young man held down the page she was about to turn: "It's safer if we read together."
His fingertips passed over the alien totem on an ancient book, and the candlelight suddenly burst into star-like blue flames.
Jiang Xiaoan leaned against the bookcase and chuckled: "I'm serious."
"What?" Fu Dong paused as he was sorting out the files.
"Ever since you stepped out of my room last night, my thoughts have been occupied by you."
He tapped the sandalwood table with his fingertips: "Seeing you alive and well this morning, my heart finally feels at peace. If we were to separate now, I'm afraid I'd be distracted again, and my efficiency would be even lower."
He suddenly took a step closer: "Why don't we..."
“Bang!”
The bamboo slips were slammed on the table. Fu Dong's ears turned red: "If you keep talking nonsense, I will report you to the princess."
She walked quickly upstairs, her skirt sweeping across the stairs and raising fine dust.
Jiang Xiaoan looked at the slightly panicked figure, and the smile on his face deepened. It turned out that the cold and icy female official in charge could also show such a lively expression.
In another corner of the library, Jiang Xue was curled up on the Xiangfei couch and taking a nap.
Xiao Zhan stacked the approved memorials into two neat piles. Turning back, he saw the girl's sleeping face reflected in the candlelight, with the ink-colored memorials piled up like a small hill beside her.
He took off his silver-thread cloak with dark patterns and gently covered her with it, and with his fingertips he tucked the scattered black hair behind her ears.
"My cousin always stares at my aunt." The little emperor held his chin with his hand and ground cinnabar.
"Between husband and wife, this is not called peeping." Xiao Zhan's hand dipped in ink steadily placed the imperial edict.
"Then why does my cousin like my aunt?"
The tip of the purple hair brush is suspended above the word "准", and the ink drops spread out a small moon halo on the rice paper.
He looked at his sleeping wife: "When I first saw her, she was like a butterfly in the morning light. Later, I found that whether she was fluttering her wings or folding them, she was so beautiful that I couldn't take my eyes off her."
Jiang Heng tilted his head and thought: "Just like I like the sweet-scented osmanthus cake made by my aunt, steamed, fried or coated with honey, they are all delicious!"
Xiao Zhan's hands trembled, and the cinnabar left a sudden red mark on the memorial.
He rubbed his brows and changed the subject: "We need to finish dealing with this urgent report from the Ministry of Justice before 15:30."
Jiang Xue woke up from her stupor when dusk fell through the carved window lattices.
After eating the golden bird's nest soup served by the imperial kitchen, she looked at the mountain of memorials in the imperial study.
The lapis lazuli floor reflected the candlelight, casting flickering shadows on the gauze curtains, and the stagnant ambergris in the air made her breathing tight.
As Jiang Xue walked along the vermilion palace wall to the library, she suddenly felt a chill on her back.
She caught a glimpse of a few pieces of navy blue clothes flashing at the corner of the corridor. She stopped under the weeping crabapple tree and tapped the mutton-fat jade pendant on her waist with her fingernails stained with marigold juice.
The chief guard on duty stepped forward quickly and heard her lower her voice and say, "Remember to pour boiling water on the rat behind the third Panlong Pillar in the southeast corner."
When the sound of bronze armor clashing faded away, she had already thrown the handkerchief stained with flower juice into the koi pond.
The library was filled with the scent of agarwood. Fu Dong was standing on tiptoe to take down the dusty nanmu book box. Jiang Xiaoan, with ink stains on the corner of his robe, was slumped among the books on the floor.
"Your Highness, the female official in charge of the registry said that all the documents from the Western Regions have not been registered in the past ten years."
Fu Dong shook open the yellowed book and ran his fingertips over a blank space that was eaten by insects.
Jiang Xiaoan suddenly tore off the tassels at his waist and said, "Why not hurry up and head to Loulan..."
"Wait a minute."
Jiang Xue's fingertips slid across the gilded antique display cabinet and stopped in front of a secret compartment engraved with a lotus pattern.
She took out half of a tiger talisman from her personal brocade bag. The sunlight shone through the glazed tiles and left mottled marks on the talisman:
"Go to the Moyunzhai in the East Palace and fetch all the copies of "Records of Strange Stories from the Western Frontier" annotated by the Third Prince during his lifetime."
When Fu Dong took the talisman which still had body temperature, he found that there were small wet marks on the edge of the princess's wide sleeves.
The late spring wind swept across the abandoned stage in the East Palace, blowing up the faded remnants of costumes.
When Fu Dong pushed open the rusty bronze door, he startled the jackdaws perched on the eaves.
Under the jade paperweight on the desk was the unfinished "Kucha Music Score", and in the dried ink in the inkstone was a piece of gold foil - it was the remaining page of the gold-sprinkled Xuan paper that was the third prince's favorite during his lifetime.
Feng Ziqing was currently smashing the seventh royal blue-glazed teacup in Fengyi Palace.
The secret letter hidden in the eunuch's braid when he got up and dressed in the morning was now rotting in the mud of the Lingnan Post Road.
Her fingertips, stained with scarlet nail polish, slid across the dark layer of the dressing table and touched a cold object - it was the wolf tooth necklace left by Ateli, the tips of the teeth emitting a dark blue light.
Jiang Xiaoan stroked the dusty window frame with his fingertips, and a dead branch poking out from the wall hooked onto his sleeve:
"Who would have thought that the weeds would grow over the stone steps in the East Palace? They say the former crown prince was a god-like figure, but now..."
He suddenly turned around and met Fu Dong's inquiring gaze. The mottled palace walls reflected the skylight, casting tiny shadows under her eyelashes.
"What? Am I wrong?"
He deliberately took a step closer, and the moss seeped into the cracks between the bricks, releasing moisture.
Fu Dong took a step back and crushed the dead leaves: "That's true, but..."
She pursed her lips and swallowed the second half of the sentence. It was unsettling to see this carefree guy suddenly become serious.
"But it's not something I, Jiang Xiaoan, would say?"
He suddenly pulled out an oil-paper bag from his bosom. The sweetness of the osmanthus candy diluted the musty smell: "Try it? It's new from the West Market yesterday..."
Before he finished speaking, he laughed out loud. Sure enough, he saw Fu Dong holding his forehead and shaking his head. The tense atmosphere was instantly shattered by the autumn wind.
When warmth suddenly wrapped around her wrist, Fudong realized that the bag of candy had fallen to the ground at some point.
The thin calluses on Jiang Xiaoan's palms brushed against her wrist bones: "Since we are alive, we should enjoy life while we can. So, Fudong, will you marry me?"
The last syllable of the song hung in the shadows of the interlaced beams and pillars, startling the gray sparrow perched on the beams.
"You!" Fu Dong pulled his hand away suddenly. The tips of his ears were still burning from the things he had talked about under the lamp last night, but now they were thrown into boiling water.
When she turned around, her skirt swept across the scraps of paper on the ground, but as she crossed the threshold, she heard a chuckle behind her: "It's okay, I'll come back tomorrow with the marriage certificate."
The musty smell of the East Palace library was mixed with the scent of pine and ink on Jiang Xiaoan's body.
When the volume of "Strange Stories of the Western Regions" suddenly emerged from the dust, both of their fingertips simultaneously landed on the yellowed pages.
The last chapter recording the secret art of the living dead had disappeared, and the incision was so smooth as if it had been carefully cut by someone.
"Yun Zhen is wearing Jiang Ke's shell, and this page just so happens to be..."
Jiang Xiaoan used his sleeve to wipe off the spider webs on the cover and suddenly chuckled: "Do you think it's too late for me to go to the moat to pick up the confetti now?"
Fu Dong looked out the window at the twilight engulfing the palace walls, and a dead leaf happened to fall on the missing page of the book.
She suddenly remembered the way Jiang Xiaoan's Adam's apple trembled slightly in the morning light when he said "enjoy life while you can".
The two of them pondered for a moment in silence. Jiang Xiaoan suddenly stopped flipping through the book and said, "Fudong, do you think this book "A Study of Western Regions Witchcraft" that suddenly appeared was written by Yun Zhen?"
Fu Dong unfolded the catalog in his hand and said, "It's unlikely. First of all, the Imperial Guards are heavily guarded. It's impossible for him to break through the three sentries and sneak into the East Palace. Secondly..."
She traced the ink on the yellowed paper with her fingertips: "This list records more than 700 books in the collection, and the handwriting is clearly written by the prince himself."
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