Chapter 31, Thirty-One Concubine
Jiang Linzhi, of course, would not tell Lu Huantang the truth. He suddenly laughed and said, "I told him that only you and I know about the corpse, and that he can't touch either of us. Just stick to your guns and don't let go."
In order to avoid being discovered, Jiang Lin urged Lu Huantang to leave quickly. Lu Huantang frowned and looked at him with concern, but suddenly became stubborn and stood still.
His mind was filled with images of her coming to save him, her sinister and crazy demeanor in the lobby—basically, she was very much to his liking.
Whether it was ambiguity or scheming, they never openly expressed their feelings for each other. Now, Lu Huantang simply couldn't tolerate it anymore. Perhaps tomorrow someone else would try to scheme against him, and perhaps he wouldn't be so lucky next time. So he asked, "Did you come to save me for my sake or for the Jiang family?"
As spring draws to a close, the flowers have faded and the yellowed, curled petals are blown down by the wind. Jiang Linzhi quietly looks at Lu Huantang, no longer in a hurry, and says, "They are not in conflict."
Which is more important?
"Do you want to hear the truth?" Jiang Linzhi's mask-like smile vanished, and she looked at him calmly.
Lu Huantang, who was usually adept at seeing through people's hearts, was extremely nervous at this moment. He knew the baseness of human nature, but at this moment he still wanted to get a satisfactory answer. He silently clenched his fists, but his face remained calm. "Yes."
After a long silence, Jiang Linzhi finally said, "I said I would give you my life, and that's the truth."
The man, who had experienced many affairs, was as nervous as a young boy. He suddenly became hesitant to look at Jiang Linzhi, his eyes darting around. In the end, he said nothing and disappeared over the wall.
A general who has fought a hundred battles, a beauty confined to her boudoir.
Jiang Linzhi glanced in the direction the person had left, then sat back down in his chair, took a bite of the burnt meat skewer, and sighed.
After settling matters at the border, Jiang Linzhi returned to the capital with Jiang Jinyi. Before she could even see Qi Lingjun, Jiang Linzhi was taken to the Regent's Palace. Sensing something was amiss, Jiang Linzhi immediately called out, "Chen!"
There was no sound at all.
Jiang Jinyi slowly sipped his tea, and waited a few moments with her before chuckling with delight: "Tie him up and throw him in the other courtyard, so he won't disturb the refined guest's tranquility."
After the initial panic subsided, Jiang Linzhi calmed down and casually sat down in a chair, saying, "Is there such a rule when visiting the Prince's residence? Alright, Your Highness's hospitality is too much to refuse."
After the courtyard was arranged and her clothes were changed, Jiang Linzhi looked at the woman's hairstyle in the mirror, rolled her eyes, and said to the maid, "You know who I am, right?"
The maidservant bowed respectfully: "Young Madam."
I don't know what's gotten into Jiang Jinyi lately. Before, Jiang Linzhi treated him like a high-ranking male prostitute, but now he seems to want to take a deep, affectionate approach with me.
Jiang Linzhi rolled her eyes so hard she almost couldn't turn them back, but then she thought that she didn't seem to have anything to do, so she picked up her pen, wrote a letter to Qi Lingjun, and decided to stay there.
In the evening, Jiang Jinyi changed out of his court robes and asked, "How is the person?"
The maid bowed her head respectfully and said, "The young mistress seems to be in a good mood. She had a plate of crispy pork ribs and two plates of side dishes for lunch and is now resting in the courtyard."
Jiang Jinyi was clearly surprised that Jiang Linzhi didn't make a fuss, and unconsciously smiled and said, "I know."
The maid was both shocked and frightened, and lowered her head even further. The regent was indifferent to the queen, and the women who had climbed into his bed over the years were killed after they were used. He always had a cold face, and although this smile was affectionate, it was really chilling.
When they entered Xiyuan, Jiang Linzhi was roasting glutinous rice cakes in the courtyard. The orange-yellow firelight reflected on Jiang Linzhi's face, and the same scene flashed through Jiang Jinyi's mind again.
After the scene ended, Jiang Jinyi unconsciously blurted out, "Sister."
Jiang Linzhi stopped flipping the glutinous rice cake. Seeing this, Jiang Jinyi's confusion deepened. He took a few steps forward and asked, "Who exactly are you?"
Seemingly forgetting, Jiang Linzhi hooked her arm around Jiang Jinyi's neck, stood on tiptoe, and kissed him.
Having reached his current position, Jiang Jinyi must not be a person driven by lust. However, despite his repeated rejections, Jiang Linzhi, who rarely takes the initiative, still clings to him like a water snake. At this moment, lust has overwhelmed reason.
Knowing there was more to the story, and knowing that Jiang Linzhi didn't want him to know, Jiang Jinyi simply went along with her wishes and accompanied her to Mitianzhenhai.
The next day, before dawn, Jiang Linzhi left the Regent's Palace wearing only an outer robe. When she arrived at the Jiang residence, Qi Lingjun was watering flowers, still wearing his robe. It was too early, and Qi Lingjun's hair was still unbound, his jet-black hair swaying slightly in the wind. He heard the noise and looked over.
Jiang Linzhi walked over and said, "Can't you sleep without me?"
Qi Lingjun smiled and took out the letter he had just received from his pocket. The letter was written by Jiang Linzhi a few hours ago, and it contained only two powerful characters: "All is well."
These are the two words Jiang Lin wrote to Qi Lingjun the most.
Qi Lingjun knew she was just putting on a show, so he didn't answer. Instead, he said, "You only remembered me after you'd appeased two men?"
“You’re different.” Jiang Linzhi said as always.
Qi Lingjun lowered his eyes, all his emotions gathering, compressing, and dissipating in them, until finally he simply gathered her hair and said, "Let me comb your hair for you, Miss."
Going back twenty years, Qi Lingjun was a child prodigy in the State of Sui. He embodied the characteristics of a child prodigy: recognizing a thousand characters at the age of three and composing essays at the age of five. The Qi family had produced civil officials for generations, and such a prodigy was highly anticipated by the family.
The child prodigy himself believed this; studying was the easiest thing for him. He only needed to do the easiest thing and stand in the position everyone expected him to be in. As for his other personal matters, he could just follow the crowd and avoid making any mistakes.
All his plans went awry when he was seven. His elders were imprisoned for helping the female general and others who destroyed women's beauty to escape punishment. As a result, his entire family was implicated and some were killed, some were exiled, and some were forced into prostitution.
Clearly, no one wants to plant the Crimson Flower; clearly, that thing harms both the plant and others; clearly, it wasn't destroyed, so why should those who tell the truth be convicted?
Is it simply because it allows the state of Sui to survive?
"Isn't this one thing enough?" Jiang Linzhi, dressed in loose, coarse linen clothes and looking disheveled, leaned against a willow tree on the road to exile and asked Qi Lingjun, whose leg had been broken.
Receiving no reply, she put down her muddy foot a few steps away and said to Qi Lingjun, whose leg was broken and chained, "Crawl over here, kowtow to my foot, and I'll take you away."
Even at the age of seven, Qi Lingjun knew the principle of "How can one bow and scrape before the powerful and wealthy?" Moreover, the person in front of him looked like a local ruffian or a vagrant, not a powerful or wealthy person. So he endured the pain and refused to submit.
Jiang Linzhi didn't urge them, but followed the escort team every day. They ate coarse food and wild vegetables, while she roasted rabbits on the side; they slept in a dilapidated city god temple, while she stayed in a restaurant across the river; they were beaten and scolded by the soldiers, while she paid extra to watch plays.
Finally, when the soldiers could no longer bear the loneliness on the road and tore open the pants of this handsome child prodigy, Qi Lingjun looked at his family member cowering like a sheep in disappointment, struggled and scrambled to Jiang Linzhi's feet.
Someone changed her into clean boots. Qi Lingjun kowtowed hard at Jiang Linzhi's feet and said, "Please save me."
The officers and soldiers escorting the prisoner, seeing that the woman hadn't been bothered for so many days, assumed she wouldn't bother her this time either. After all, they were still officials, no matter how lowly they were, and what did this seemingly crazy woman matter to them?
To everyone's surprise, with two snapping sounds, the arms of the two soldiers were dislocated, hanging limply like puppets with broken strings. Even more strangely, the woman did not move.
Everyone was terrified. One of the soldiers staggered forward, shouting as he ran, "If you hurt any soldiers, you'll regret it! You'll regret it!"
The way the soldiers dragged their arms while running was really funny, their arms swinging back and forth like powerless rattles, which amused Jiang Linzhi so much that his eyes crinkled with laughter. He said to the void, "Wait, let's watch for three more breaths."
Three breaths later, the official's head exploded from his shoulder like a ripe bean and fell to the ground.
One of Qi Lingjun's cousins covered his cousin's mouth, preventing her from even crying. After the play ended, Jiang Linzhi said to another soldier who had wet his pants in fright, "Are you still going to complain?"
The officer shook his head repeatedly, but couldn't utter a single word of assurance.
Jiang Linzhi nodded in satisfaction, personally placed the iron chain binding the child into the hands of the soldiers, and said, "Just say that this child died on the road, and the rest of the court can do whatever it wants."
Someone mustered up the courage to say, "Heroine, he was originally pardoned by the emperor; he's just been following us all this time."
Oh, that makes it even simpler.
The elders who had originally planned to send all the young men in the family with Qi Lingjun fell silent. Following such a person was no better than being exiled.
And so, without anyone stopping him, Jiang Linzhi used his shoe to lift Qi Lingjun's chin, examined him carefully, and said, "Not bad looking. I hope your brain is as good as your face. If you're just a pretty face, I'll send you back."
What was supposed to be a conversation about choosing a slave took a turn for the better. But Qi Lingjun, with a sudden burst of courage, stubbornly raised his head and stared directly at the strange woman in front of him, who was just as beautiful: "You're not bad looking either."
Jiang Linzhi chuckled and said, "Let's go."
That departure lasted for twenty years. Qi Lingjun knew she was the mastermind behind the chaos in the Jiang family, knew she indirectly caused the deaths of his entire family, and knew her ambitions were far-reaching. But he still didn't have the answer to the question she had asked him.
Isn't simply keeping the Sui Kingdom alive enough?
The surrounding states had long been swallowed up in their own battles, and in the end they all belonged to the State of Wu. Those people had long since become citizens of Wu, and they were still alive.
Really? Qi Lingjun didn't know. But looking at the scene before him, most of those who returned to the Sui Kingdom had become slaves, and those who weren't were living in obscurity in remote areas. Could someone so difficult to manage still be granted a title and appointed a general?
Dislike gradually turned into acquiescence, and eventually into actively offering advice and strategies. Jiang Linzhi wasn't afraid of Qi Lingjun having too much power; for many years, Qi Lingjun had been in charge of all the Jiang family's business affairs.
The cool touch of the black hair in his hand pulled Qi Lingjun back to reality. He looked at the small, rosy marks on her slender neck and murmured, "When will this ever end?"
Jiang Linzhi heard him say that, and actually replied, "The year after next."
Jiang Jinyi had just gotten up when he touched the note on his pillow. The single word "Wait" silenced him completely.
Hearing the commotion, the maidservant outside came in to serve him and saw Jiang Jinyi sitting alone on the bed with a gloomy expression. The maidservant immediately knelt down and said in a trembling voice, "Your Highness, please forgive me, this servant did not see the young mistress go out."
Jiang Linzhi wanted to leave, but who could stop her? The scene in Jiang Jinyi's mind became clearer and clearer. He raised his hand and waved away the annoying maid, thinking to himself: Then just wait, one day she will come back to be his little wife.
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