Chapter 90 A Narrow Encounter: Huan Xun, what are you doing here?
He had been staying in Huaiyuan all along, and since arriving in Jian'an, Yu Nie had never had a proper chance to change his ways.
Although I chatted with Langxi until late last night and went to bed late.
The next morning, she got up very early, not even wanting to miss a moment of sleep, thinking of taking Langxi and Ahui out for a walk.
Fearing that her identity would be discovered and cause trouble, she specially changed into her most familiar Taoist robe, calling it a disguise, and pretended to be her senior brother and sister with Langxi Ahui.
Despite the assassination attempt that had occurred, Song Ai, the magistrate, was still worried.
Besides insisting on accompanying him personally, he secretly sent several White Guards to protect him, while he and Cuiwei stayed on either side of Yu Nie.
When she left Hongzheng Hall, she made a special detour to the west wing to find Mei Nian and inquire about Gu Xiangzhi's whereabouts.
Mei Nian replied that no news had been sent from the palace yet, and he planned to go to the palace later to check on the situation. He would report back to her as soon as he had any news.
Seeing her worried expression, Mei Nian comforted her, "Princess, there is no need to worry too much. Our Junior Supervisor is, after all, a capable and close minister of His Majesty, and besides, the Senior Supervisor is looking after us. The Senior Supervisor has always valued the Junior Supervisor and will not sit idly by."
Upon hearing this, Yu Nie nodded slightly and instructed Mei Nian not to forget to send someone to inform her if anything happened.
After Mei Nian agreed, she left with Lang Xi and A Hui.
They were traveling incognito, not by carriage, but wherever was lively.
The three of them strolled around leisurely, while Song Ai and Cui Wei lagged behind them.
As you walk east from the museum, the thick clouds filter the sunlight, making it soft and relieving the summer heat.
As far as the eye can see, pavilions and towers with green tiles and flying eaves are scattered in an exquisite and unique manner. From time to time, elegant music and the sounds of drinking and playing drinking games can be heard from some taverns.
The stalls on both sides of the long street are dazzling, with vendors selling flower garlands, sorting fruits and vegetables, and red-roofed stalls selling all kinds of snacks. The aromas are incredibly tempting, and many people are waiting in front of the stalls to buy the delicious and colorful meat buns.
The weather has been pleasant these past two days, with no sun in sight, so quite a few people have been out strolling around.
Amidst the bustling crowd, Yu Nie and his two companions were drawn to a sugar figurine stall.
The stall owner was drawing sugar figures of a mother and daughter. With just a few strokes, the sugar figures on the bamboo sticks were vivid and lifelike, just like the mother and daughter figures in front of them.
"Shall we draw one too?" Yu Nie turned to Lang Xi and A Hui beside him and asked.
Lang Xi, with his sword tucked into his arms, replied, "Sure, but your junior brother doesn't like sweets, so we'll have to ask him if he wants any."
Ah Hui doesn't like sweets, which Yu Nie knew, but she clearly had another idea in mind.
She said with a smile, "It's okay if Junior Brother doesn't like it. Junior Sister and I can divide his portion for you later, or I can eat it all for him."
"In short, the three of us always have to have three of everything. Otherwise, how would others know that we're inseparable from the bottom of our hearts, and that the three of us are the best in the world?"
Last year on the Lantern Festival, the three of them were picking out sword tassels at a roadside stall when only two stall owners remained.
The stall owner advised her to choose a different color, but she refused, insisting on buying the exact same one, even if it meant going back to the stall owner's home to get it.
This had become her personal quirk, but she only shared it with Langxi and the others.
The three of them also made a pact to give each other gifts every year on the Lantern Festival. It doesn't matter whether the gift is expensive or cheap, whether it's handmade or bought from outside.
They agreed that this promise would never be changed, no matter how the world changes or how things turn out.
Upon hearing her speak, Song Ai subtly shifted her gaze, glancing at the three of them before quickly looking away.
Langxi and Ahui both understood her personality well.
Ah Hui smiled and raised her hand, gesturing: "Okay, we'll do whatever Qiqi says."
Although the three of them were about the same age, in their eyes, Yu Nie was more like a child.
She chuckled twice: "I knew it, my junior brother wouldn't be willing to refuse me."
When it was their turn, she pulled the two of them towards the stall.
The stall owner, who had just finished serving his customers, greeted the three of them as they approached, wiping the sugar stains off his coins as he did so.
"What would you three like to paint? You three young Taoist priests seem to have an extraordinary air about you. How about painting a crane wandering among the clouds?"
"We don't want cranes, but could you please draw a small portrait of the three of us together?" Yu Nie asked, her eyes sparkling with amusement.
The stall owner chuckled and said, "That's easy. But judging from your appearance, the three of you must be from the same school. If you want to add some fun, you can try drawing a few strokes yourself and have a feel for it."
Upon hearing that he could write on his own, Yu Nie's eyes lit up, and he was eager to try.
She encouraged Langxi and the others, "We can draw it ourselves, why don't we give it a try?"
Langxi, who always granted her every request, looked troubled for once.
She hesitated, then said embarrassedly, "My paintings have always been extremely ugly, I can't show them to anyone."
Strangely enough, Langxi excelled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but his painting skills seemed to lack a certain talent, and he just couldn't seem to master them.
Yu Nie didn't seem to care: "Little Senior Sister, have you forgotten? My drawing is terrible too. Even my Uncle said it's worse than scribbles. Anyway, I'm here with you. If we're going to be ugly, we'll be ugly together. What's there to be afraid of?"
As she spoke, she put her arm around Ah Hui's shoulder again, her eyes crinkling with laughter: "Besides, we have a great painter by our side. Isn't this just like green flowers and red leaves, complementing each other perfectly?"
Her strange and unusual metaphors made Lang Xi burst out laughing. His previous restraint immediately dissipated, and he nodded in agreement: "Okay, then I'll give it a try."
The syrup dripped onto the stone slab and solidified into thin lines. Under the stall owner's guidance, Yu Nie first set an example. She held the copper spoon and swayed it left and right, first pouring syrup onto "herself" to give her a round head, and then crookedly added two short little legs, making her look like a round watermelon.
Seeing her skill, Langxi and Ahui couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines as they worked on the miniature portraits she created.
As expected, Yu Nie lived up to expectations and drew three "watermelon men".
The stall owner wanted to laugh but dared not, fearing he would lose the sale.
However, Yu Nie was quite satisfied with his technique, even feeling that it had the air of a master.
Under the stall owner's praise, she felt like she was the Wang Xizhi and Yan Zhenqing of the painting world, and immediately became elated.
Langxi wasn't as confident as she was.
From the moment she picked up the spoon, Langxi's hand trembled slightly. She stared at the stone slab for a long time, not daring to put the spoon down. She finally mustered up the courage to draw half a face, but her hand trembled and the syrup turned into a blurry sugar stain. Her cheeks burned, and she hurriedly tried to scrape it off with a bamboo stick, but it only made things worse and more unmanageable, very abstract.
Of the three, only Ah Hui's hand didn't tremble, and his skill was so proficient that he could draw a picture in just a few strokes, showing that he was quite adept at it.
Sometimes you have to admit that painting really requires talent.
All three had mastered their skills, and Yu Nie paid the money.
The three of them held up the sugar figurine and examined it carefully in the air for a long time. Overall, they can be described as the master school, the beginner school, and the beginner 1.0 school.
Instead of keeping their own, they exchanged them, and Ahui's ended up in Yu Nie's hands.
Looking at the exquisite sugar figurine in her hand, she couldn't help but sigh, "I really can't bear to eat it."
Ah Hui replied, "Why would I be reluctant? I'll draw you another one later."
“Then I’ll have a rabbit one too,” she said, pushing her luck.
Ah Hui agreed. When the topic turned to rabbits, he seemed to suddenly remember something important and was about to explain in detail.
Unexpectedly, a group of people galloped past him, and one of the guards bumped into him, causing his hand to tremble. The sugar figurine that Lang Xi had drawn by hand fell straight to the ground and shattered into several pieces in an instant.
Ah Hui frowned, a rare sight, and angrily stepped forward to argue.
Song Ai reacted quickly, grabbing his sleeve and gesturing for him to turn back.
Yu Nie, who was also angry, was about to make a move when she was pulled along by her and looked back in the direction of her gaze.
The paving stones clattered under the horses' hooves as a black ebony carriage drove up down the street.
The patterns on the carriage shafts are exquisite, and the gilded jade bells tinkle as the carriage sways gently.
Four pure white horses with red tassels and golden saddles pulled the carriage, a lacquered carriage inlaid with ivory and jade, with curtains open all around.
At a glance, one can see that the person inside the carriage has his eyes closed, holds a mutton-fat jade-handled whisk commonly used by the refined scholars of Beiye, wears a wide-sleeved official robe, has his hair covered with a hairnet, wears a jade belt at his waist, and has regular facial features.
This person looked younger than Wang Situ, whom I had met at Yongxing Temple that day, and had a rounder face.
As the carriage drew closer, the onlookers stopped by the roadside, their eyes lowered, not daring to look directly at the people inside.
Some of the bolder ones secretly peeked at the people in the car, their eyes filled with either envy or resentment.
Yu Nie stood aside with the others, glancing around to wonder which high-ranking official was sitting in the car.
Before she could think it through, she heard Song Ai whisper, "This person is Li Xing, the Attendant Gentleman of the Secretariat."
“Li Xing, the Attendant Gentleman of the Yellow Gate?” she thought to herself, “Isn’t he Li Yunsheng’s biological father?”
Li Xing doesn't seem to have any particularly wicked or evil intentions, so how could he have raised such a vile person?
Fearing she might go out rashly, Song Ai cautioned her: "Although the position of Attendant Gentleman of the Palace is only a third-rank official, he wields immense power, even surpassing that of the Ministry of Personnel. Your Highness must not clash with Attendant Gentleman Li."
Even if Song Ai hadn't said anything, Yu Nie didn't think it was a good time to start a theory.
She still had Langxi and Ahui by her side. She had already experienced the complexities of Jian'an, so it was best not to offend such people openly for the time being.
Thinking of this, she held back and watched the convoy slowly pass by.
Following Li Xing's carriage were a series of prison carts, each carrying several prisoners.
What crimes did these people commit?
Song Ai had been staying in the museum these past few days and didn't know much about it, so she shook her head.
Seeing that Song Ai also didn't know, Yu Nie lost hope of finding an answer to the question. But then she suddenly heard a few whispers around her.
"Have you heard? Jincheng County was flooded, and these people swallowed a lot of disaster relief grain. Fortunately, Li Huangmen is very perceptive and is about to take them away for trial."
"Jincheng County is flooded? How come I haven't heard about it?"
"That's right. A few days ago, the imperial court's trucks carrying disaster relief grain were rushing out one after another. Didn't you see them?"
"..."
Listening to the conversation of the people around them, the carriage in front of them drove further and further away.
The long street came alive again, transforming from a still place into a vibrant scene.
Yu Nie picked up the broken sugar figurine from the ground and was about to comfort Lang Xi by drawing another one.
She looked up and found that Langxi and Ahui's thoughts were no longer on the sugar figurine.
Seeing that their gazes were still following the departing carriage, she couldn't help but ask, "Junior Sister, Junior Brother, what are you looking at?"
Lang Xi said, "I just heard my elder brother say that Jincheng County was flooded, but when your junior brother and I passed through Jincheng County, there was no flood there, only torrential rain."
How come there are two different answers to this?
Yu Nie asked suspiciously, "The Yellow River in Jincheng County hasn't breached its banks?"
Ah Hui nodded.
Upon hearing this reply, Yu Nie became puzzled.
After much thought, another possibility came to her mind.
Perhaps those people heard these words somewhere and misremembered them, which led to this misunderstanding.
This thought lingered in her mind, and she told Langxi and the others her exact idea.
After listening to her, the two of them felt that her statement made a lot of sense.
Ordinary people don't really understand the reports from the imperial court, and they usually just follow what others say, passing it around from one person to another.
It's quite common to mishear or get confused.
After thinking it over, they didn't dwell on it any further.
Yu Nie let Lang Xi pick out another sugar figurine, and the three of them each took one and turned to leave the sugar figurine stall.
A minor incident has passed.
The three of them strolled leisurely through the market for quite some time.
Before we knew it, the sun had climbed to its zenith, and it was noon.
She led the two towards Chongyue Tower, which was right next to Jinyue River.
“Chongyue Tower, Jinyue River…” Langxi looked at the tower’s name and couldn’t help but smile: “No wonder even the names are so similar.”
Once inside the building, the three planned to find a private room by the river to sit down and enjoy the river scenery while dining.
They were led upstairs by the small restaurant inside the store.
As Yu Nie passed by a private room, a familiar name suddenly entered his ears.
"Lord Huan, it's been a long time since you last visited." The woman's voice was soft and gentle, so sweet that it made one's ears tingle and even made her feel dizzy.
Yu Nie, who had already passed the entrance to the private room, paused.
She hesitated for a moment, then took two steps back and peeked through the crack in the door.
When that figure, which she knew all too well, truly came into view.
She felt a sudden surge of surprise, and without thinking twice, she pushed open the door and called out, "Huan Xun, what are you doing here?"
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