Was the conversation over trimming the candle in Chapter 51 intentional or unintentional?
The moonlight was too dim, and there was a distance of two or three meters between the two of them. With only the light of the lantern in her hand, Jiang Geyun could not see Cheng Xi's face or his expression when he said those words. Everything was so hazy, just like the night before her eyes.
Jiang Geyun hummed in agreement and took a few steps forward.
As she approached, Cheng Xi's previously somewhat gloomy face became much clearer—the person before her had a handsome face, elegant features, and a refined spirit, exactly as she remembered.
It was as if the two met again immediately after parting in the painting.
...
The days when Jiang Geyun was training in Xuandu Academy passed by exceptionally quickly.
Looking back on the first ten days or so after she transmigrated into the book, troubles came one after another, and every day was filled with all sorts of things. The threat of death was always with her, so that time seemed particularly long. She gradually got used to the slow and heavy pace.
So much so that one day during her training at the Zhenyi Division, she casually asked the system a question and was suddenly surprised to find that more than ten days had passed in the blink of an eye!
Artificial stupidity—no, I mean artificial intelligence, don't disappear!
She still really needs it!
...Never mind, it's not that necessary, let's just disappear.
The good news is that she won't be bothered by sudden punishments; the bad news is that the hosting program is far too unintelligent, the ominous deadline hasn't been resolved, and she's missing a real-time reminder.
Jiang Geyun had no choice but to place her hopes on the Xuandu Bureau, hoping to find a way to dismantle the system after officially entering the Xuandu Bureau.
The "Old Stone" that Zheng Yi mentioned was a very healthy old lady. After meeting her, Jiang Geyun further understood the logic behind Zheng Yi's nickname.
The Commandant Zhao had a full head of silver hair and a stubborn personality. Her figure had shrunk somewhat due to her age, and she was of medium build. Looking at her from head to toe, she resembled a cold, hard stone.
Whether Jiang Geyun was lucky or unlucky to be recruited by her is unknown.
On the first day the two met, Jiang Geyun was forced to practice until she couldn't stand up by Commandant Zhao.
The next day, under the pressure of the deadline, Jiang Geyun gritted her teeth and rushed to the Zhenyi Division Martial Arts Hall as usual. When Zhao Duwei saw that she arrived on time, his eyes lit up.
Jiang Geyun's heart skipped a beat as she was stared at by Zhao Duwei's bright eyes.
Her return to Lianzhou was due to several reasons: firstly, her magic was now fully developed, allowing her to take on the task entrusted to her by Zheng Yi; secondly, she had long desired to exonerate the Cheng siblings and the timing was perfect; and thirdly, because... if she didn't find an excuse to leave, her death might not be two months from now, but tomorrow...
"Devil Coach," you're terrifying.
However, Jiang Geyun's ability to deal with this batch of floating spirits so easily was largely thanks to Commandant Zhao's guidance.
Escape from fleeting memories.
Jiang Geyun looked at Cheng Xi, blinked slowly, and presented the lantern in her hand to Cheng Xi.
Cheng Xi did not take the lantern; instead, she stepped back and retreated into the dim light inside the carriage.
His expression became indistinct again.
Jiang Geyun could only hear that gentle, smiling voice saying:
"My lady, why don't you come up and have a chat?"
...It was more like a terrifying demon than the floating ghost from before.
Jiang Geyun tightened her grip on the lantern handle.
The situation was dangerous just now, which is why she decisively appeared and saved these people. Otherwise, facing Cheng Xi, who had... cough cough, had been intimate with her before their farewell...
She paused, then gestured with the lantern further.
This time, Cheng Xi understood and reached out to take it.
From the moment they met again until this moment, the two finally had a real connection. They were both stunned for a moment, but then realized that the other had not noticed, and quickly returned to their original state.
Jiang Geyun lowered her head, leaned forward and got into the sedan chair, taking advantage of this moment of being hidden in the shadows to calm her emotions and let the heat in her slightly flushed cheeks return to normal.
Seeing that she was settled, Cheng Xi nodded to the person outside the sedan chair and said, "Post station."
After he finished speaking, the sedan curtain fell.
The group looked at each other in bewilderment.
It wasn't until the man in black couldn't stand it anymore and offered a suggestion: "My young master said to return to the post station as usual."
—The people temporarily hired are certainly not as close as the Crown Prince's personal attendants; he needs to remind them to understand the Crown Prince's meaning.
The man in black shook his head helplessly, then his gaze paused slightly.
—That's not right. Logically speaking, someone as thoughtful as the Crown Prince should remember something like this.
The hired knights around them seemed to only then come to their senses, and the man in the lead, surnamed Song, looked ashamed. He chuckled and the group headed toward the Zhudu Post Station as originally planned.
Inside the sedan chair.
This sedan chair was naturally inferior to Su Heng's carriage, and it swayed slightly as it moved. The lantern placed between the two of them flickered, its light flashing like a heartbeat.
In the dim light, Cheng Xi said in a low voice, "Again... I'm troubling my wife to save me."
Jiang Geyun's mind was a jumble of nonsense, with thoughts like "Anyway, you're already prepared to repay me with your body." She said aloud, "It's alright. I'm actually glad I arrived in time... Why is my lord traveling at a time like this?"
Cheng Xi covered her mouth with her sleeve and coughed lightly.
Jiang Geyun then realized that he seemed to have an old injury that had not yet healed.
She immediately leaned forward with concern and asked, "Did you bring any injuries from the painting?"
Cheng Xi shook his head, still covering his lips. Jiang Geyun couldn't see his expression, but she could vaguely hear a hint of...pleasure in his words.
He said, "This trip home was arranged by my elders; I had no choice..."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Geyun understood.
Sure enough, the Cheng family was exactly the hellish place she had imagined. Cheng's father, who had quickly welcomed a mistress into the family after his mother's death, and his stepmother, who had her own child… Sigh…
She stopped asking about the "unavoidable" situation and put the seemingly genuine "pleasure" behind her. Instead, she said seriously, "Don't worry, my lord, I've arrived in Lianzhou, and I won't let you get hurt."
Cheng Xi nodded, lowered her hand, and lowered her eyelashes.
Jiang Geyun took the initiative to change the subject, asking, "Does my lord know of any interesting things that have happened in the capital recently?"
Cheng Xi seemed to have his attention diverted, and asked with curiosity in his tone, "Is it about the Tu Lan delegation's tribute mission to the capital, or the accident at Ci'en Temple? I've heard something about it, that things aren't very peaceful... Is Madam alright?"
The mission case was ultimately handled by the main villain.
How to manipulate Ur to make him obediently return to Tulan, how to resolve his "conflict" with the foreign woman, how to restore Ci'en Temple to its former glory of flourishing incense offerings, and how to provide written, acceptable, and verifiable conclusions for both cases...
In the past, Jiang Geyun was busy, and Su Heng had little to do with leisure.
During those ten days or so, the two did not see each other once.
Therefore, Jiang Geyun didn't know how these two matters in the capital were finally resolved, nor did she know what the "truth" had become when it reached Lianzhou.
She regretted starting the conversation with that topic.
Jiang Geyun remained calm and said, "Thank you for your concern, sir. Everything is fine."
Cheng Xi seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, his brows and eyes relaxing, and said, "That's good, but... my wife seems to have lost some weight?"
Meeting Cheng Xi's gaze, Jiang Geyun tried her best to hide her guilt and said, "I just did some training recently, it's nothing serious. It's you, sir, who smells of medicine on you?"
Cheng Xi smiled and said, "I have been frail since childhood, as my wife knows."
After saying that, he leaned back and said hesitantly, "I haven't taken any medicine recently, but my wife can still smell it. How annoying..."
Jiang Geyun immediately shook her head.
Putting aside the fact that she didn't dislike him in the first place, and might even say she liked him, just considering how cautious Cheng Xi was right now... even if she really disliked him, she wouldn't be able to say those kinds of things at this moment!
Cheng Xi lowered her eyes, relaxed her body a little, and sat up straight again, as if she believed Jiang Geyun's statement.
Seeing how easily he believed her, Jiang Geyun suddenly felt a little embarrassed. She wondered if she had some kind of white knight complex, which was why she cared so much about Cheng Xi, especially about "this" Cheng Xi.
Thinking to herself, she subconsciously rubbed the Shouzhuo belt at her waist.
"...My wife?"
Cheng Xi's voice brought her back to her senses.
Jiang Geyun looked up upon hearing this, missing the fleeting depth in his eyes.
She said, "Let's not talk about what happened in the capital. I will tell you everything later. I haven't been back for a long time. I wonder how Lianzhou is?"
Cheng Xi said, "...Lianzhou has been peaceful recently, but I don't know when such evil spirits arose in Zhudu."
This brings us to Jiang Geyun's area of expertise.
She only practiced magic under Commandant Zhao, but she originally wanted to find a way to dismantle the system, so how could she waste such a good opportunity? She spent almost all her free time in the Xuandu Academy's library these days, so this kind of knowledge was completely at her fingertips.
Jiang Geyun smiled and said, "The ferry crossing is bustling with people, and the atmosphere is inherently complex. If there is any slight disturbance, these floating spirits will gather. You can regard them as the embodiment of negative emotions, which are not easy for ordinary people to deal with... But even if you come into contact with them, you will only be unlucky for a while. You can rest assured."
What she didn't say was that the floating phantoms that appeared tonight were extremely malevolent, and if she didn't intervene, someone in the convoy would really die.
I don't know why it was so vicious; only she could take action...
She didn't want Cheng Xi to worry too much, so she only told him the most basic situation.
Cheng Xi seemed relieved, yet also as if she had never been nervous at all.
The two remained silent for a short while.
Jiang Geyun tried hard to think of some topics.
Some things were too secretive, and Xuan Dujian would definitely not allow her to divulge them, so she couldn't speak of them; others were too trivial, and she worried that telling them would bore Cheng Xi...
While she was hesitating, Cheng Xi spoke first.
He spoke of the local customs of Lianzhou: the new lotus leaves in Mirror Lake, the newly harvested tea, the new book he happened to read, the approaching Qixi Festival... as if he wanted to completely dispel the terror brought by the wandering spirits, or as if he were just chatting idly.
His voice was already pleasant to listen to, like a warm spring flowing over stones. Now, he spoke in a gentle and unhurried manner, subtly circling around things that Jiang Geyun might find interesting.
Jiang Geyun's attention was drawn to him, as he imagined new lotus leaves emerging gracefully from the water, the fragrant aroma of fresh tea leaves, the fascinating and whimsical stories in new books, and the city filled with lanterns during the Qixi Festival...
Just as they were talking animatedly, Cheng Xi paused for a moment.
Jiang Geyun also stopped and looked up curiously.
Cheng Xi smiled and said gently, "Thanks to your help tonight, my lady. Do you have a place to rest? Perhaps..."
The sedan chair stopped.
A respectful voice came from outside the sedan chair: "Young master, we have arrived at the post station."
The lamplight reflected in Cheng Xi's eyes, revealing a tender affection.
He asked softly, "Why don't we rest at the post station for the time being?"
Jiang Geyun blinked again.
If she hadn't talked so much with Cheng Xi and had left earlier, she might not have needed to rest at the post station. Given her current pace, she would certainly be faster than the caravan, if not faster than a horse.
Was it intentional or unintentional?
If she did it on purpose, then what about Cheng Xi?
Jiang Geyun smiled faintly and said, "Of course, I will keep watch for you, my lord."
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Author's Note: Hehe, just trying to create a romantic, candlelit chat atmosphere [covering face and peeking]
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Also: Adults may have noticed that I used 丨 to avoid censorship before (because I felt it looked better than | and / ×). Starting from the last chapter, I changed it to - (because I found it had less presence). Actually, I hesitated for a while about whether to wait until the next book to change it, otherwise, the inconsistency in a book would make my OCD uncomfortable. But after thinking about it, I will revise the text and write side stories after it is finished, so I can change it all at the same time! I changed it anyway!
Also: This is a good opportunity to talk to you all about the revisions and extra chapter arrangements! I'm a bit ADHD-ish, so my thoughts are jumping around a lot. I'm already trying to correct it, but if you find anything in my writing that's still too disjointed or difficult to understand, please let me know. It will be a great help when I'm revising! I'll also be arranging extra chapters with hints and the final chapter, muah!
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