Chapter 72 The threat is that of Huan Xun, the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince who brought you back…
Huan Xun, who was standing beside the carriage, naturally saw the person standing inside the threshold.
Even though they were colleagues, at least they had seen each other face to face when attending court.
It wouldn't be unreasonable to exchange greetings. But these two clearly weren't going to pay each other any attention; they glanced at each other and that was the end of it.
Surrounded by the crowd, Yu Nie naturally had no time to observe the two of them. She was simply curious about why Gu Xiangzhi had come to the inn in the middle of the night.
On the way back to Jian'an, he said that once he sent her into the city, they would have no further relationship.
Even if there was a connection, her identity couldn't be hidden forever, and he could come and see how she died.
She was puzzled, but Song Ai, who was concerned for her, frowned and said, "It's good that the princess is not injured."
“Yes, yes…” Cuiwei cried with snot and tears streaming down her face: “When I took people there, we couldn’t find you, Princess. We searched everywhere with Bai Zhiwei, but we still couldn’t find you.”
"The maid was so frightened that she thought Your Highness had been kidnapped by those assassins, so she had to run back to report to Song Juling. Song Juling went to the Imperial Horse Stables, and we were just about to go look for you again when you returned."
The Imperial Horse Stables were responsible for her safety, so if she went missing, they had to report it immediately.
Upon hearing this, Yu Nie roughly understood Gu Xiangzhi's purpose in coming.
She wiped away Cuiwei's tears and comforted her. Then she told her that in order to escape the pursuit, she had entered an abandoned house and happened to meet Huan Xun, who was chasing another group of thieves. Fortunately, he rescued her.
As she spoke, she glanced at him sideways.
Song Ai and the others had no misunderstanding about his identity. Cuiwei simply thought that her master was not called "Zijing" in order to avoid suspicion.
When Yu Nie told her about Huaiyuan's past, she didn't mention "Huan Xun." She always treated the two people as one, so she wasn't surprised that his identity had been "exposed."
Upon hearing that it was the Crown Prince's tutor who had rescued her, Song Ai led the palace servants to him and suddenly knelt down: "The princess's safe return is all thanks to Junior Tutor Huan. Please accept our bow." After speaking, the group kowtowed heavily.
His face was all smiles as he bent down and reached out to help Song Ai up, showing no air of superiority.
"Please rise, Master. The princess is blessed with good fortune. I merely happened to be there and do not deserve such a great gift."
Song Ai never expected that Huan Shaofu, who was rumored to have defied his superiors, angrily beheaded the second son of the Prince of Yan, and who usually frequented brothels to listen to music, enjoyed hunting, and had an icy demeanor towards everyone and was too lazy to exchange a single word, was actually much more approachable than the people in the palace had described.
Having been deceived once before, Yu Nie felt a chill run down her spine upon seeing his seemingly kind demeanor. She thought to herself, "What a master actor."
Huan Xun helped Song Ai up and glanced at her casually. Caught off guard by her gaze, she immediately put on a smiling face and adopted a meek and submissive demeanor.
He no longer looked at her, and when he spoke with Song Ai, he still had that ambiguous smile: "Now that the princess has returned to the manor safely, it is getting late, and we should also return to the manor."
After saying this, he gave her a very slight nod: "This humble subject takes his leave."
"Please take care, Lord Huan," she replied politely, suppressing the excited look in her eyes.
He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, his expression not cold.
But as he turned around, the warmth in his expression gradually faded from his brows, and by the time he entered the carriage, only a calm indifference remained in his eyes.
Watching the carriage disappear into the distance, Yu Nie finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Song Ai moved closer to her: "Princess, you were frightened tonight. I'll have the kitchen prepare some calming soup for you. Let's go inside."
Yu Nie nodded slightly in response.
However, before Song Ai could help her inside, she turned around and looked at the person at the door: "Your Excellency Gu is here so late, surely not to be a guard for my Hongzheng Pavilion?"
*
Inside the vast sleeping quarters, all the palace lanterns were lit simultaneously. The dragon-footed beast lantern in the center of the hall illuminated the brightly colored flying apsaras on the ceiling, making them gleam. The warm glow was cast evenly onto the carved beams and pillars, making the chicks on them seem to come alive.
On the table, the Boshan incense burner emitted wisps of smoke, mingling with the calming scents of lily and agarwood, with a touch of mint added. As it spread, it carried a slight coolness, like a gentle breeze carrying dew, making one feel less stuffy.
After refilling the two teacups on the table, Cuiwei quietly retreated with the tray, her movements so light that they made no sound.
Standing beside her was Song Ai, who led several palace servants to stand by, ready to be at her beck and call.
Yu Nie and Gu Xiangzhi, whose face was cold and stern, sat facing each other across a sandalwood table.
One stood upright like a pine tree, while the other slumped over, one hand supporting his left cheek. He picked up his iced tea, took a sip, and frowned as if he were suffering from the bitterness.
Gu Xiangzhi raised his hand: "You all go and wait outside."
Song Ai, who had been keeping her head down, looked up at Gu Xiangzhi, who had his back to the door, and said, "Your Excellency, according to palace rules, I must attend to the princess and am not allowed to leave without permission. Besides, it is already late at night, and there may be inconvenience. If Your Excellency has urgent business, it would be better to summon me to Xianliu Pavilion tomorrow. I will make proper arrangements."
According to the laws of Beiye, when a princess receives foreign officials, a female official or eunuch must be present; those who violate this rule will be punished according to the law.
Someone like Gu Xiangzhi wouldn't be unaware of this.
But after Song Ai spoke tactfully, his expression remained unchanged, and he simply repeated his cold words from before: "Go out and wait outside."
"Gu..." Song Ai was about to speak when a white-clad guard general blocked her way.
Although the other party did not say a word, the meaning was crystal clear.
Song Ai narrowed her eyes, showing no intention of backing down.
The Imperial Horse Administration was the most important piece in the emperor's hands. Through the painstaking efforts of the Ming and Zhao emperors, the Imperial Horse Administration has developed over decades and now has a force of 30,000 elite soldiers, all to prevent the aristocratic families from completely controlling the military affairs of Jian'an City.
On the surface, the Imperial Stables were only responsible for raising horses and protecting the safety of the imperial family, but in reality, they had only one master: the emperor.
This was something that everyone in the court knew perfectly well. Even in the inner palace, old men like Song Ai were well aware of it.
The Imperial Horse Administration wielded immense power within the palace, and no one dared to challenge its authority. Everyone understood that opposing the Imperial Horse Administration was tantamount to defying the Emperor's authority.
In Song Ai's eyes, however, palace rules and regulations were the bottom line, and could not be trampled on in the slightest. Etiquette and law emphasized the distinction between insiders and outsiders; any private contact between the princess and any foreign officials could trigger rumors and damage her reputation.
Although Gu Xiangzhi was a eunuch, he was ultimately the second-in-command in the emperor's powerful machinery. If word got out that a princess was alone with such a person, it would be no small matter for her reputation.
She wanted to protect her.
Seeing that Song Ai wanted to confront him head-on, Yu Nie wanted to prevent her from offending someone as ruthless as Gu Xiangzhi.
She eased the tension by saying, "Song Juling, you take the others and wait at the door. I will call you if anything happens."
"Princess……"
"Go down."
Seeing her resolute attitude, Song Ai understood her meaning as they looked at each other, and could only reluctantly retreat to the door.
A row of solemnly armed white-clad guards stood at the entrance. After everyone inside had left, one of the guards stepped forward and closed the door directly.
Unarmed and defiant, Song Ai was unable to stop them and was blocked at the bottom of the steps.
In an instant, besides the two of them, only a young attendant remained in the hall.
Before the dull thud of the door closing had even subsided, Gu Xiangzhi cut to the chase: "My men told me that you went to the Buddhist temple overnight to retrieve a medical book."
Having said that, he stretched out his hand, and the attendant presented him with a square box.
The moment Yu Nie caught a glimpse of the box, his heart tightened.
When she was being assassinated, she was being chased so closely that she dropped the box halfway.
Unexpectedly, it was picked up by his people.
Recalling his words, she blurted out, "You were following me?"
Gu Xiangzhi did not answer her. He personally opened the box, took out the yellowed medical book, and turned the pages with a rustling sound.
She assumed he didn't recognize the words, but unexpectedly, he began to read aloud the sentence from the first page, word by word: "Horse meat should not be eaten with granary rice, or one will surely contract a serious illness; turtles should not be eaten with amaranth, or one will develop a turtle-like mass..."
Yu Nie was shocked; he actually knew these words.
Could it be that he was also...? She dared not think any further.
His voice was as cold as frost, his gaze scrutinizing and piercing: "Princess, don't tell me you're reading books like this. You're plotting something, trying to fake illness and become critically ill to avoid a marriage alliance?"
Although it was a question, there was not a trace of doubt in his tone; every word sounded like it had been struck from frozen ice, chilling you to the bone.
His eyes seemed to suggest that if she said yes, he would draw the chain sword wrapped around his waist without hesitation and kill her with one stroke.
Perhaps she was upset by everything that happened tonight, or perhaps it was because of him that she had to become a princess and was being hunted down.
It's all his fault for that arrow!
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and she retorted angrily, "So what if I am? Can't I even save myself? The juvenile prison is meddling too much! I won't implicate you, so what are you worried about..."
"cough--!"
Before he could finish speaking, a tremendous force suddenly struck his neck.
The person opposite her leaped over across half a table and grabbed her throat tightly, choking her so much that she couldn't even cough properly.
The tea on the table was all spilled onto the surface, and the cup rolled halfway before falling to the ground with a clatter.
Hearing the noise inside the house, Song Ai and the others immediately tried to rush in, but were forcefully stopped by the guards at the door and could not break in.
She slapped his hand hard, her face flushed red, and her vision blurred.
He watched her struggle, his eyes devoid of any emotion, as if he were looking at a dying ant.
His hand did not loosen its grip in the slightest, his voice cold and stern as he instructed her: "Put away your schemes. Marrying into a foreign land is your duty, and also your destiny. You must marry into the Great Khanate."
She coughed until tears streamed down her face, and her eyelashes gradually became wet with the overflowing tears due to the feeling of suffocation.
He paused, his tone still chilling: "You'd better not take my words to heart."
After saying that, he released his grip on her hand without hesitation.
The air rushed into her lungs, carrying a slight chill, and she gasped for breath, her chest heaving violently.
He braced himself against the cold ground with one hand to steady his swaying body.
Gu Xiangzhi had already turned around, sat back in his previous seat with a blank expression, and flicked his wrinkled sleeves.
After recovering from the suffocating dizziness, she suddenly looked up, her eyes burning as she stared at her: "Marriage alliance was never my duty, and I wasn't the first person I chose!"
She said this simply to refute his so-called "duty." She did not accept offerings from the people, not even Zhao Huayan himself. At Shuoyang Temple, she had to work every day, and there was always work to be done.
She gave a mocking sneer: "You say this is my fate? In my opinion, all this trouble was caused by you. If it weren't for your arrow, I would have run away long ago."
“It’s all because of your insistence on being a good friend!” she retorted.
As Gu Xiangzhi listened to what she had just said, his eyes gradually darkened, becoming increasingly frightening.
He paid no heed to her last resentful remark, letting the deathly silence permeate the space between them.
After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice low and deep, as if pulled from an ice cellar: "You said you weren't the one chosen at the beginning... Where did you hear that from?"
He exuded a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine. He stared intently at her and demanded, "Tell me, who told you?"
In an instant, his gaze sharpened like an eagle's, and he uttered a single, deliberate word that pierced the silence: "Is it Huan Xun, the Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince who brought you back?"
Although she really wanted to betray Huan Xun, she couldn't afford to offend either of the two madmen.
They could only remain silent.
His gaze lingered on her face for a moment, his eyes like a fine net, as if trying to strip away all her pretense.
In his view, her words were tantamount to tacit agreement.
"Huan Xun, what else did you tell you?"
Seeing his persistent questioning, after calming down, a crazy idea suddenly popped into her head.
Since they're all mad dogs, why not let them fight each other?
Thinking of this, she deliberately pretended to be very protective of that person, and said with her neck stiff, "What did you say? Why should I tell you? Do you mean to take action against Junior Tutor Huan over something like this?"
Gu Xiangzhi did not respond, nor did he give her an answer.
He stared at her for a long time, then stood up: "Since you trust Huan Xun so much, you'd better put away your naivety, lest he sell you out without you even knowing it."
"These days, just be a good princess. When the time comes, obediently marry and go to the borderlands. Don't think about anything else."
He offered his bargaining chip: "You don't want the people of Lingbao Temple to... lose their lives for you."
Having said that, he didn't linger and turned to leave.
Before leaving, he made sure to take the medical book with him.
Yu Nie chased after him, but was stopped by Bai Zhiwei's men. He struggled and watched unwillingly as Bai Zhiwei took away the medical book he had obtained.
Her cursing and swearing were useless.
Once Gu Xiangzhi left, Bai Zhiwei also withdrew.
She seemed to have lost all her strength and collapsed to the ground. Cuiwei and Song Ai rushed to help her up.
Cuiwei's voice was very low, filled with worry: "Princess... are you alright?"
The hall was so quiet that the crackling of the candlelight could be heard.
After a long while, she slowly raised her head. For some reason, cold tears suddenly flowed from the corners of her eyes and slid down her cheeks.
She raised her hand to touch it, saw the dampness on her fingertips, and gave a dejected laugh.
"Princess…… "
"...Your Highness"
Song Ai and Cuiwei both expressed their concern.
Yu Nie calmly wiped away her tears and looked back at the empty box on the ground.
After a long pause, she turned back and gave them a smile, saying:
"I'm fine, I'm just... a little tired."
"I want to sleep."
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Author's Note: Yay! I'm on the Star Ranking! Thank you everyone for your support! [hugs][hugs][hugs][hugs][hugs]
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