56 Chapter 56
◎ His true form was revealed all of a sudden.◎
The sore soft flesh on his calf was being kneaded again and again. If Nanzhi or Lin Xiao did this, Xu Qinghe would naturally feel comfortable.
But the person who is with her now is Wei Che, her nominal new husband.
Xu Qinghe lowered his eyes, concealed the expression in his eyes, and finally stopped struggling.
But Wei Che obviously felt the tension in her body, so he had to put her legs down and watch her reach out to tidy up her messed up dress.
There were only the two of them in the carriage. She had taken off the veil on her face. Although there were still rashes on her fair cheeks, in his eyes, she would always be the beautiful princess with skin as white as cream and a face as beautiful as a lotus.
It’s a pity that this beautiful princess would rather live in someone else’s house than go back with him.
The carriage was traveling on the main road of Kyoto. Its wheels rolled over the cobblestones. Although steady, it was still swaying slightly from side to side, causing the pair of gold and pearl earrings on her earrings to sway left and right in front of his eyes.
Wei Che stared at her for a long moment before asking, "When are you planning on coming back with me?"
Then he readily stretched out his palm and waited for her to write on it.
Xu Qinghe clasped his hands together and pinched his fingertips.
This is a behavior she had when she was young. It often occurs when she did something bad secretly but was afraid of being punished by her parents, so she racked her brains to find excuses for herself.
Finally, she lowered her eyes and wrote on his palm: Wait for the prince consort to come back.
The commander of the imperial guards retired and returned home these days, so Qi Sheng, the deputy commander, was promoted legitimately. As soon as he took office, he began to carry out drastic reforms of the imperial guards under the instruction of Emperor Yongshun, and he rested directly in the palace these days.
So what she meant was: since Princess Jing'an was alone at home, she wanted to spend more time with her good sisters.
If it were someone else, they might have believed it, but under Wei Che's nose, he could still see this little movement clearly.
But he didn't expose it, just smiled and said "Okay".
When the carriage stopped steadily at the Qi Mansion, he reached out to help Xu Qinghe down, but was ignored by the latter. In the end, he could only watch his wife walk into the door of the other mansion.
In the bustling street in front of the Qi Mansion, a group of vendors who were quietly watching the excitement saw that in the morning, Prince Wei was waiting for the princess to come out with a cold face and unwillingness, but now, in just half a day, he became reluctant to watch the princess leave!
Within half a day, the news of Emperor Yongshun angrily scolding the Prince of Fuguo in the palace spread to the people.
In fact, it was not a very harsh reprimand at first, but the common people who were watching the fun were good at adding fuel to the fire, and combined with what they saw in front of the Qi Mansion today, they became even more unscrupulous.
In addition, in the following days, Wei Che seemed to have repented and came to the gate of Qi Mansion from time to time to ask to see the princess. The rumor became more and more true, and it became a rumor that under the earnest persuasion of Emperor Yongshun, Prince Wei repented and came to apologize, but unfortunately it was not fulfilled in the end.
When the former friends of Prince Wei learned about this, they thought that since Prince had failed to return to the right path, he might be able to lead others astray and protect them from the wind and rain, so they invited him to a restaurant to talk it out.
How could Wei Che not know their intentions?
But in the eyes of everyone, since he had suffered a setback in the Qi Mansion, he really needed to find someone to vent his grievances to.
When Prince Wei poured out his grievances about going to Qi Mansion five times in one day but not even touching a corner of the princess's clothes, everyone rushed to comfort him.
They were talking at once, as if if Prince Wei indulged in unhappiness for a moment longer, it would be their fault.
"How romantic and unrestrained we were in the past? Even if we get married, so what? Since the princess doesn't care about the prince, why should he bother to get close to her and make himself unhappy? Why don't we go to Tianxiang Tower together to have some fun?"
Wei Che was playing with the wine glass in his hand. He paused when he heard the words. He looked hesitant, and finally shook his head and gave up.
"Forget it. I was just reprimanded by His Majesty in the palace. His Majesty loves this orphaned princess dearly. Now that I've married her, how could I dare to do such things? Besides, I have a victorious Duke at home. How could I dare to act rashly in front of him? I'd better wait for some time before making any decisions."
In the eyes of many people, Princess Qinghe was indeed deeply loved by the royal family. No one doubted what he said, so he had to shut up in disappointment.
While people were toasting at the table, Prince Wei drank alone, occasionally complaining about his sufferings. Not long after, he looked drunk and walked to the window to sober up.
Someone rolled his eyes and asked the servant behind him to present a scroll.
The scroll slowly unfolded, revealing a landscape of mountains and rivers. However, when everyone saw the signature, they realized it was not the work of a famous artist.
Besides their daily pursuits of eating, drinking, and having fun, these people also had a hobby of collecting famous paintings and calligraphy. Now, after seeing this painting, some people scoffed, "It's not a famous artist's work, so why would you treasure it so much?"
Upon hearing this, Wei Che glanced at the scroll, then shifted his gaze away without making any comment.
But just a glance, the hazy scenery of mountains and rivers lingers in my mind.
The man who took the painting was about to take it back when he saw Prince Wei suddenly stand up and snatch the painting away.
The scene in the painting is clearly in the southern border.
Wei Che lowered his head again to look at the signature, which read "Nian Nan Jushi".
The lines drawn by the brush are slender and soft, with a woman's fragility, but the four characters at the signature are vigorous and bold, and look as if they were written by a man.
More importantly, the handwriting looked very familiar to Wei Che.
——That was clearly Xie Qi’s old handwriting.
After he replaced Wei Che's identity, he deliberately changed his previous handwriting as Xie Qi, but his previous handwriting could still be recognized at a glance.
"This painting... I want it." He put the scroll away and handed it to the servant. He added, "If you have any more paintings by this person in the future, please send them to the Prince of Fuguo's Mansion. This prince will reward you handsomely."
The young man who presented the painting readily agreed and began to talk loudly in everyone's ears, telling them about his various strange connections with the painting.
Wei Che, holding a wine glass, listened nonchalantly while walking back to the window, looking at the bustling street market downstairs with boredom.
This is a street in the capital that is not too noisy but also prosperous. There are all kinds of restaurants and shops on both sides. For example, opposite their restaurant is the Bamboo Tea House, which is visited by scholars and literati.
Among the endless stream of people, he suddenly saw a slender and graceful figure. Although she was wearing a veiled hat, he recognized who she was at a glance, and the corners of his mouth curled up involuntarily.
The girl has lived in the deep palace for a long time, so it is understandable that she wants to go out for a walk now. After all, she has always been that kind of person, appearing calm but actually being playful.
But just as he was hesitating whether to follow, a man appeared from another carriage at the door of the teahouse.
Wei Che's mouth corners suddenly tightened, and he immediately made up a scene in his mind about lovers being forced to separate and secretly meeting after they each started a family.
**
When Xu Qinghe entered the private room of the teahouse, she found out that she was not the only one invited by "Mr. Jiang", but there were six or seven people in total.
Most of the people were wearing coarse linen clothes, and they were obviously ordinary people who came here to seek a livelihood.
Fortunately, Xu Qinghe also changed into an ordinary dress today, but in order to conceal her identity, she covered a veil under her veil, which attracted everyone's attention.
She glanced at Lin Xiao, who followed her, and the latter readily replied, "My sister and I have both had birthmarks on our faces since we were born, so we had to cover our faces with veils. Furthermore, my elder sister suffered a serious illness when she was young, and she couldn't speak. It was truly pitiful, alas."
After saying that, he sighed deeply, feeling extremely disappointed.
Xu Qinghe concealed the smile on his lips, pretended to be sad, half-held his "sister" in his arms, and gently stroked her back to comfort her.
Lin Xiao is different from her and Nanzhi. They were either born in the royal palace or grew up in the imperial palace. In such a situation, they are naturally not as smart as Lin Xiao who mingles with the people.
Therefore, she only brought Lin Xiao here today, and the two of them pretended to be a pair of sisters who came here to make a living with nowhere else to go.
When all the painters finally arrived, Mr. Jiang finally showed up.
The visitor was a young man, about twenty years old, wearing a green robe. He stood in front of the crowd with a smile on his face, giving off a gentle and gentlemanly air.
He glanced at everyone one by one, then began to explain the purpose of his visit.
Only then did Xu Qinghe realize that he wanted to recruit a private painter who was good at drawing portraits.
I think it was a painting I had previously painted of the King of Nan'an and his wife, showing their deep love and dancing with swords among the red plum blossoms in the snow, that attracted the other party.
Mr. Jiang said that everyone who came here today could take away an ingot of silver when they left, but he would only recruit one painter this time, who would be the one who could draw the person he was talking about most similarly based on his description.
All of a sudden, everyone sat down at the table and started drawing according to his description.
Half an hour later, everyone started drawing. Mr. Jiang looked through the seven portraits and finally chose the one of Xu Qinghe.
Xu Qinghe was not surprised by this result.
She had been taught by a famous teacher since she was young. After entering the palace, she had nothing to do, so in addition to copying Buddhist scriptures for Queen Mother Wei, she also painted. While concentrating and calming her mind, her painting skills also improved a lot, and the portraits she made were even more lifelike.
She just stared at the portrait spread out on the table and slowly frowned.
Until Mr. Jiang called her again: "May I know your name, young lady?"
Lin Xiao replied for her, "Our surname is Wu, and my sister's given name is Nan."
Mr. Jiang looked at the sisters with admiration and said with a gentle smile, "Miss Wu, from now on you will be my personal painter. Your only responsibility is to paint my portrait according to my description. No need to ask anything else. For each portrait you paint, I will pay you one ingot of gold. Is that okay?"
A portrait in exchange for a gold ingot is too much of a reward.
Xu Qinghe acted surprised and quickly agreed, only asking Lin Xiao to say on his behalf that he would do his best to fulfill the employer's request.
Then the two sisters took the silver, money and gold ingots, put on their veils again and left the private room, but when they were going downstairs they ran into Wei Ming who was about to leave with his friend.
She was wearing a veiled hat and thought the other party would not recognize her, so she said nothing, apologized and prepared to leave.
Unexpectedly, Wei Ming suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist.
"Qinghe..."
Since Xu Qinghe has accepted the job as a private painter, he must not reveal his true identity.
Now that she was suddenly recognized by Wei Ming, she had no choice but to break free from his restraints and take several steps back.
Lin Xiao had already reacted by now and took the initiative to step forward to block the princess. Seeing that the princess was about to follow, he immediately glared at her: "Where did you come from, you lecher? You look like a decent person, but why are you holding my sister's hand in broad daylight?"
Although she had already expressed her loyalty to Xu Qinghe, she still felt sorry for General Xie who had helped her. Now that she saw that Wei Ming was about to ruin their plans, she naturally didn't look happy.
Before Wei Ming could confirm whether he had really recognized the wrong person, Lin Xiao had already protected Xu Qinghe and left.
The master and servant quickly left the bustling street and got into a simple carriage in a secluded corner. Seeing that no one was following them, they breathed a sigh of relief.
Xu Qinghe took out the silver ingot and gave it to Lin Xiao. She didn't say a word today, and it was only thanks to Lin Xiao's words that nothing went wrong.
Lin Xiao didn't dare to take it at first, but finally put the silver in his arms hesitantly, feeling extremely happy.
She had never owned such a large amount of money in her life!
The carriage went around several streets and made sure that no one was following it before it carefully arrived at the corner gate of the Qi Mansion.
Lin Xiao jumped out of the car first. Xu Qinghe was about to lift her skirt to follow when suddenly the door went dark and a tall figure stepped into the car, blocking the door tightly.
The person who came was Wei Che.
Xu Qinghe's tense body suddenly relaxed. She leaned back and looked up at him and asked, "What are you doing here?"
The carriage was already narrow, and it became even more cramped when Wei Che suddenly came in.
This person had long arms and legs, and even though he was sitting beside her, his long legs were still pressed tightly against her.
Xu Qinghe dodged to the side, and he continued to chase her relentlessly.
"What are you going to do?" Xu Qinghe had no way to avoid it, and could no longer endure it, so his voice became slightly louder.
This made Wei Che narrow his eyes again.
He came close to the girl, almost touching her nose:
"Princess, why don't you tell me first, when did you get better?"
The red rashes on her face were caused by her own application, and the sore throat was also faked.
Now that he was suddenly frightened, he was like a little fox finally showing its tail, revealing his true form.
【Author’s words】
A belated message: Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone!!!
I'm so sorry, everyone. A family health emergency happened two weeks ago, and I had no choice but to stop updating. It was resolved a little bit about a week ago, and I could have updated, but I couldn't stand my previous pace, so I wanted to revise the story. I didn't realize I underestimated the situation. The revisions were too slow, and there were too many things to change, so I had to give up in the end.
This is my first time writing, and the signing was unexpected. I didn't have any drafts on hand, so I rushed to finish them every day. I didn't know how to adjust the rhythm, and I didn't know how to set the plot. There were a lot of mistakes and omissions. Some of the things I really couldn't bear to read...
So I'm really grateful to everyone who saved my article! Thank you for supporting me, a novice. I'll keep working hard! I won't stay a novice forever! I'll keep working hard!
Finally, I am really sorry for the recent hiatus, and I am also very grateful to my family who have been waiting for me. Thank you everyone!
I wish you all the best in the future, success in everything, good health and happiness every day!!!
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