Xin Wujiang climbed out of the window and returned to a dark alley. Xueqing was waiting there to keep watch for him. When she saw him come out, she immediately went to meet him and whispered, "Master."
Xin Wujiang nodded solemnly and said, "Let's go."
He turned and left. Xueqing didn't dare to ask any more questions. He just had to watch his master's affairs. He couldn't cross the line unless his master said anything.
After taking less than three steps, Xin Wujiang suddenly stopped. Xue Qing was stunned: "Master..."
Then Xin Wujiang turned his head and looked at the window on the second floor of the teahouse.
Xueqing frowned. What was the master looking at?
Xin Wujiang didn't know what he was looking at, but soon, a sliver of snow appeared in his field of vision. The man stood in front of the window, smiled and waved at him, "Go on!"
"What?"
Lan Shuang raised her hand and a package of things was thrown towards him. Xin Wujiang subconsciously raised his hand to catch it.
"I don't want broken things. General, please return them to me when they are repaired." Lan Shuang said and closed the window.
Xin Wujiang: “…”
I didn't break it, why do you want me to fix it?
Xue Qing looked at the thing in his hand blankly, "What did the Saint Lady say?"
Xin Wujiang closed his hands and put the handkerchief back into his arms. "Nothing, let's go."
"yes."
Xueqing touched her head, feeling so strange.
…
Lan Shuang sat down and drank the last sip of tea, then put down the teacup and walked out. "I've had enough tea. Come on, go for a walk with me."
The maids did not suspect anything and nodded and followed her. The three of them first went to the jewelry shop and bought some rouge and powder. Seeing that the sugar-roasted chestnuts were good, Lan Shuang bought a bag to take home.
As soon as she arrived at the gate of the Imperial Master's Mansion and walked around the screen wall, Lan Shuang saw a thin, snow-white figure standing behind it.
Lan Shuang was stunned. Was he waiting for her here on purpose?
She didn't dare to be too sentimental, but it seemed that her guess was correct.
She bowed slightly: "Godfather."
The Imperial Master slowly turned around and glanced at her. Seeing that she was holding an oil-paper bag, he couldn't help but frowned: "The things outside are not clean, why did you buy these?"
"Eat it. It won't make you sick if you eat something unclean."
Lan Shuang smiled and handed the paper bag forward: "It smells really good, do you want to try it?"
The sugar-roasted chestnuts had just come out of the pot and were still warm, with a faint fragrance that kept coming into the imperial teacher's nose.
The Imperial Master turned his face away and said in a cold voice, "Where did you go?"
Lan Shuang said honestly: "Let's go to the teahouse for tea."
"Just tea?"
The Imperial Master's words hinted at something. Lan Shuang raised her eyebrows slightly. "What else? If you have something to say, why not just say it directly? Why are you beating around the bush with me?"
The Imperial Master narrowed his eyes suddenly, his expression slightly tense.
The two maids following behind were so frightened that they dared not breathe and wanted to shrink into the cracks in the ground.
Lan Shuang handed them the sugar-roasted chestnuts and said, "Go back."
"yes."
The maidservant ran away as if she had been pardoned.
The Imperial Master stared at Lan Shuang for a while, then suddenly said, "Come with me to the study."
"OK."
…
After arriving at the study, the Imperial Master dismissed everyone, leaving only him and Lan Shuang in the room. He sat while Lan Shuang stood.
"Kneel down."
He didn't get angry, but just scolded in a deep voice.
Lan Shuang didn't move. "I wonder what I did wrong. Why does my foster father want to punish me by making me kneel?"
"You can't kneel down even if you're not guilty? Lan Shuang, who do you think you are? I indulge you and pamper you, do you really think I can't bear to touch you?"
The Imperial Master stroked the armrest, his face dark and gloomy.
Lan Shuang remained calm, her gaze fixed on him, "I can kneel, but after this, our father-daughter relationship will be completely severed. Do you really want me to kneel?"
The Imperial Master sneered, "Kneel."
"good."
Lan Shuang knelt down, her skirt lifted, her back straight, without a trace of servility. She raised her chin slightly and looked at the Imperial Preceptor, "Is my foster father satisfied?"
The Imperial Master was stabbed in the face with a neither soft nor hard touch. Not only was he dissatisfied, he also felt indescribably awkward and irritated.
"What on earth did you do today?"
"Drinking tea." Lan Shuang replied again, "I just sat in the teahouse for a while. The maids can testify to this. If you don't believe me, you can call them to confront me. They are all your people anyway and won't protect me."
"Really?" The Imperial Master chuckled and leaned forward slightly. "But why did I hear that Xin Wujiang also went out?"
Lan Shuang's heart tightened, but she didn't show it on her face. "What does it have to do with me if he goes out?"
"What's it to you?"
The Imperial Master slowly leaned back in his chair, smiled for a moment, then suddenly stopped smiling and swept everything on the table to the floor with a flick of his sleeve.
The inkstone rolled over, and the ink stained the corner of Lan Shuang's clothes, leaving a large ink stain on the hem of her clothes.
The smile on her lips froze and she looked at the Imperial Master coldly.
The Imperial Preceptor suddenly stood up, pointed at her, and questioned, "You didn't go to see the Crown Prince that day. You went to see Xin Wujiang, right? The only people who left the table with you that day, besides the Crown Prince, were the Fifth Prince and Xin Wujiang. And you've always looked down on the Fifth Prince, so—you went to see Xin Wujiang, right? And the same is true today."
Lan Shuang didn't expect that the National Master was so all-powerful that he even dared to watch Xin Wujiang, not to mention that every move of everyone in Juyuan was in his eyes.
What she didn't expect was that he was so perceptive. She was so careful, but he still guessed her plan almost exactly.
No wonder he was the one who almost sat on the throne in his previous life. His mind and scheming are unfathomable. To deal with him, you can't just rely on pretending to be stupid, you have to be direct.
Lan Shuang pondered for a moment, then smiled with relief: "Foster father, is the reason you're calling on me today just because I'm looking for Xin Wujiang?"
The Imperial Master said nothing, but just looked at her coldly.
Lan Shuang didn't care. She tilted her head and asked, "Foster father asked me to seduce the Crown Prince and the Fifth Prince, wasn't it just to use them to stir up trouble?"
Regardless of the reaction of the Imperial Master, Lan Shuang lifted up her skirt and stood up again. The place where the ink had just been splashed was now smudged, making it look like a splash-ink painting. It did not look messy, but rather added a bit of interest.
She smiled and said, "But the Crown Prince is foolish and lustful, cowardly and incompetent, yet stubborn and self-righteous. He's completely unfit for any important role. And the Fifth Prince... he lives the most carefree of all the princes. He seems to be idle and hangs out with the dandies in the capital. But doesn't Godfather think that such a person is even more terrifying?"
"So you think Xin Wujiang is useful, so you approach him without permission?" The national teacher narrowed his eyes, looking dangerous.
"Yes, General Xin commands a large army and has made many military achievements. He's a hot commodity that everyone wants to grab. Why don't we take the initiative? No matter what my adoptive father wants to do, he needs someone to accomplish it."
Lan Shuang tried to persuade him patiently, but the Imperial Master refused to accept it. He stared at Lan Shuang for a moment and suddenly asked an irrelevant question: "Are you only interested in his military power?"
"What else?" Lan Shuang asked back.
The Imperial Master fell silent for a long moment, then gently stroked his sleeve. "I don't need disobedient pawns. I have my own choices, and it's not your turn to make the decision for me. Get out and stand in the yard. When you've figured it out, come back in."
Lan Shuang chuckled: "Okay."
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