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The next day, Jiang Chaoyu saw Zeng Chenhua writing stroke by stroke in his study.
"My lord, a letter has arrived from the First Prince!"
Yun Qi presented the letter, while Jiang Chaoyu sat to the side, propping her chin up with her hand, looking somewhat bored.
Observing Zeng Chenhua's expression closely, she noticed that he had been calm just moments before, but now his eyebrows were furrowed, which made her curious about what had happened.
"What's wrong?" Seeing his worried look, she couldn't help but ask.
What exactly was written in that letter that made him so troubled? She wanted to go and find out, but seeing his state, she restrained her curiosity. Since he was still thinking about it, she decided to give his study a tour.
To be honest, I hadn't really looked at it before, but now it looks extremely simple. The room has no more than three colors. Jiang Chaoyu couldn't help but wonder if they all really liked black and white.
As she wandered around, Jiang Chaoyu noticed that the important items seemed to be placed on high platforms, perhaps even obscured by standing on tiptoe. She decided to let it go; she wasn't one to pry into other people's secrets. However, she seemed to notice the screen, and her eyes lit up. She remembered that Zeng Chenhua had hidden a painting behind the screen before, and she had been stopped when she tried to look at it.
Jiang Chaoyu looked back and saw Zeng Chenhua still reading the letter, which instantly put her at ease. Although she wasn't the type to pry into other people's secrets, everyone has a sense of curiosity, and taking a look shouldn't be a big deal.
To avoid making too much noise with her footsteps, Jiang Chaoyu moved over slowly, and from her angle, it was practically silent.
Jiang Chaoyu gently moved the screen aside, catching a glimpse of the painting—it seemed to be the hem of a garment, but why did that garment look so familiar? Her excitement grew, and she moved faster, thinking to herself, "Almost there! Almost there!"
"What are you looking at?" Zeng Chenhua grasped Jiang Chaoyu's hand. The screen still covered the painting, and Jiang Chaoyu's plan had failed.
Surrounded by Zeng Chenhua, the two of them were left alone in the study, creating a somewhat ambiguous atmosphere. However, from Jiang Chaoyu's perspective, it was rather awkward, like being caught doing something wrong. She had no choice but to pull her hand away, turn around, and give Zeng Chenhua a fake smile.
"Hehe, I just saw that you have a painting here. If it doesn't get dark, it will get damp and the painting will be ruined."
This reason was so good that even Jiang Chaoyu herself was satisfied; it was practically flawless.
"Really?" Zeng Chenhua said with an upturned tone, as if he found it amusing to tease Jiang Chaoyu.
"Of course." She was joking; after all, she understood these things, otherwise, how could she have come up with this reason so quickly? Looking at herself with her back to the screen, curled up small in Zeng Chenhua's shadow, she wanted to escape.
Zeng Chenhua took Jiang Chaoyu's hand again and turned her around to face him, so that he could look at the painting directly. His breath brushed against Jiang Chaoyu's ear. Ever since he discovered this weakness of Jiang Chaoyu, he had always liked to do this. "In that case, I would like to trouble you to help me air out the painting, Madam."
When he saw her snuggling closer to him to avoid his scent, Zeng Chenhua couldn't help but feel happy, and even his words were filled with joy.
“I’m a little ticklish.” Zeng Chenhua took Jiang Chaoyu’s hand and slowly pulled back the screen, revealing a painting of a woman holding a sword behind it. The woman in the painting was wearing a mask, only revealing her eyes. However, her outfit seemed somewhat similar to the one she wore when she first met him.
After some hesitation, he asked, "Is this me?"
Looking up, she met Zeng Chenhua's gaze. She hadn't expected that the subject of her curiosity for so long was herself. Seeing Zeng Chenhua nod in affirmation, Jiang Chaoyu looked at the painting again.
The woman in the painting has such a firm gaze, yet it also carries a hint of murderous intent. Looking at this painting made her truly realize that it really was like that back then.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Chaoyu was a little confused. "Why did you draw me at this time?" Did he like her back then?
Zeng Chenhua stopped teasing Jiang Chaoyu and spoke with utmost seriousness, “Because I have liked you since then.” In the first life, Zeng Chenhua’s painting was also seen, but that painting depicted Jiang Chaoyu after her marriage; in the second life, it was seen again, but that painting showed Jiang Chaoyu wearing a crown under a temple; and now, in the third life, Zeng Chenhua has been attracted to Jiang Chaoyu from the very beginning.
For Zeng Chenhua, Jiang Chaoyu didn't need to wear fancy clothes or makeup; he found that Jiang Chaoyu herself was the most attractive quality to him.
"Your tenacity attracted me, and I realized how amazing a person can be!"
Zeng Chenhua considered these words to be the most sincere, but Jiang Chaoyu felt she had never heard anyone say them like that before. Jiang Chaoyu wasn't unfamiliar with accepting confessions, but the first time she heard one, the confession said her attractiveness lay in her resilience.
"Resilient," those were the words her master once said to her. Back then, she was ignored, but she managed to make a name for herself through her own abilities. Even her master said that she was like a weed battered by wind and rain, growing tenaciously.
However, when it came to her own abilities, Jiang Chaoyu readily admitted it, proudly boasting, "Of course."
Looking at her adorable appearance, I couldn't help but want to pinch her cheeks. Her face wasn't very fleshy, probably because she had been training for many years, so when I hugged her, she seemed extremely thin.
But such a small and thin person can have the strength to kill someone with a bare fist; he is not to be underestimated.
Jiang Chaoyu moved Zeng Chenhua's hand away and slipped out of his embrace. Zeng Chenhua hadn't answered her question yet, so she asked, "Did something happen in the letter?"
Zeng Chenhua was still immersed in the happiness of having Jiang Chaoyu, but now that she was standing in front of him, he felt a little lost. However, he suppressed that feeling and replied, "I told you before that we intercepted Xie Yunyin's letters of collusion with the neighboring country, and now we have intercepted them again."
I had heard about this before, but seeing Zeng Chenhua's anxious look, there was a new development. "But is there anything different?"
Zeng Chenhua showed the letter directly to Jiang Chaoyu and said, "The Princess's birthday banquet is coming up soon, and they're going to harm her." Looking at the contents of the letter, it was nothing more than poisoning, but another question arose: who would poison her?
Jiang Chaoyu immediately grasped the key point in the letter and asked Zeng Chenhua a crucial question: "It's understandable that the envoy is coming, but who will administer this poison?"
Xie Yunyin had no way of contacting the imperial kitchen, let alone the envoys who came and went. Envoys represented the face of a country, and if an envoy were to poison someone, wouldn't that make it inconvenient to declare war on another country? Yet, the letter clearly stated the poisoner, only vaguely mentioning who had poisoned the person.
The letter specifically mentioned killing the emperor while the eldest princess was poisoned, as the poisoning would cause panic and draw everyone's attention to her. After reading the letter, Jiang Chaoyu began to feel that the matter wasn't so urgent and didn't require a solution.
She sat down on the chair next to him, with the same expression as Zeng Chenhua, but with a hint of disdain in her heart. She put the letter back into Zeng Chenhua's hand, wanting to hear what he had to say.
Do you think this is a setup?
Hearing Jiang Chaoyu's words, Zeng Chenhua understood that Jiang Chaoyu thought the same way he did. "This seems like a trap to lure out the person who read the letter. It seems they know that we read the letter."
"But I'm still a little curious, how did you find out about this letter? Are there any other letters?" Just looking at the letter in Zeng Chenhua's hand, there's not a single clue, unless they tampered with the envelope, so that they would know as soon as someone opened it.
Hearing Jiang Chaoyu's words, it seemed that the problem still lay with the letter. However, he didn't have any other contents. Usually, the letter would pass through his elder brother's hands before reaching him. "If you want more, you'll have to ask your elder brother."
Since that's the case, Jiang Chaoyu didn't want to pursue it any further. She looked up at Zeng Chenhua seriously and asked, "How many people do you think are behind them?"
“It seems they are weaving a net, and we seem to have stepped onto it.” As Zeng Chenhua spoke, he took Jiang Chaoyu’s hand. Although they had only spent a few days together, Zeng Chenhua had already formed a habit, and he felt a little uncomfortable if he didn’t hold Jiang Chaoyu’s hand.
Jiang Chaoyu, who was used to being pulled, let Zeng Chenhua pull her along, even though she wasn't used to it at first.
While still pondering, he realized that if one was in a hurry to break through, this letter could be a breakthrough for the reader, allowing them to capture the spy. However, upon closer inspection, the letter was riddled with flaws and loopholes.
Every detail seems reasonable at first glance, but upon closer inspection, they are all loopholes that are impossible to implement. It seems that the person who wrote the letter never had this plan at all; they were just testing whether the letter writer would be eager to fall for the trick.
"Do you think the princess was really poisoned on her birthday?" Jiang Chaoyu raised another possibility, one that she found highly unlikely.
However, Zeng Chenhua understood Jiang Chaoyu's implied meaning and chimed in, "If there was no poison, what harm would it do if we poisoned one of us!"
Since that's the case, the plan remains unchanged: we won't reveal the problems in the letter to the eldest prince, and we'll just see if he figures them out. Also, Princess Xu Huanong's birthday banquet is in half a month. Zeng Chenhua has planted some people in the kitchen; if no one poisons it, he'll arrange for someone to do so, making the contents of the letter seem real even if they aren't.
At that time, he was very much looking forward to seeing who would be the one to kill the emperor.
If someone were to actually come to kill the emperor, he would be even happier, because their plan would succeed without being carried out, and they could reap the benefits without losing a single soldier.
"Okay, let's make the plan then."
Just as the two had finished devising their plan, a carrier pigeon flew in from outside. It was the carrier pigeon from Crescent Moon Gate.
Since preparing for her wedding, she had somewhat forgotten about Crescent Moon Gate. This message sent by carrier pigeon probably means that Li Yuanxiu has something to ask her.
In front of Zeng Chenhua, Jiang Chaoyu grabbed the letter from the pigeon's feet and carefully read its contents. Unexpectedly, Li Yuanxiu mentioned in the letter that he had also received a letter and asked him to come to the Crescent Moon Gate immediately to discuss important matters.
Looking at the contents of the letter, the handwriting was indeed Li Yuanxiu's, and even the carrier pigeon was unique; no one else except the head of the Crescent Moon Sect used it, so the previous situation would not occur again.
"The Crescent Moon Gate is looking for me; I'll return immediately!"
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