"So it's you."
A handsome young man walked out of the bamboo forest. He was also wearing a long brocade robe with ivory trim and silver thread. Compared with the white ball, he looked very elegant and slender.
He walked in front of Shen Miao and stopped, looking down at her condescendingly with a probing look in his eyes.
This young man was extremely tall, and Shen Miao barely reached his chest. As if looking at a child, a mischievous smile played on his lips, but because of his handsome face, it didn't offend anyone at all. If it were an ordinary girl, her heart would probably be beating faster and her face would be flushed.
However, Shen Miao was not really in her prime after all. She glanced at the other person and said nothing.
The young man smiled, and a delicate short knife suddenly appeared in his hand. He pointed the sheath end of the knife at himself and used the handle to lift Shen Miao's chin, forcing her to look up.
Shen Miao had no choice but to look at the other person.
The young man, about eighteen or nineteen, had sharp eyebrows and star-like eyes, his eyes seemed to be filled with autumn water, and his half-smile was very moving. However, the depths of his gaze chilled people, those were sharp eyes that could almost see into the heart of a person. Such a person, even if he appeared cynical on the outside, was probably as cold as ice and difficult to penetrate.
She took a deep breath, stepped back, and let the hilt of the dagger leave her chin. She said gently, "Thank you, Young Marquis."
Xie Jingxing smiled, and asked in an unclear tone: "Do you know me?"
"No one in the capital doesn't know the name of Young Marquis Xie." Shen Miao said calmly. There seemed to be some irony in these words, but when she said them, they were surprisingly serious, making it impossible to discern her tone.
"I don't know you." Xie Jingxing glanced at her, then glanced at the shivering Tuanzi on the ground: "It was you who asked Su Minglang to pass the message to the Su family."
“Send a message?” Shen Miao looked at him and suddenly smiled slightly: “It’s just to teach him a way to avoid being scolded by his father, to divert his attention. Why did you use the word ‘send a message’? Young Marquis, you are thinking too much.”
“Thinking too much?” The young man chewed on the words playfully, and suddenly pressed forward, almost forcing Shen Miao onto the huge tree trunk behind him. His expression was ambiguous, but his tone was very clear: “If I didn’t think too much, you would have deceived me.”
Shen Miao frowned.
Although Ming Qi wasn't overly strict about relationships between men and women, it was still considered impolite for unmarried men and women to engage in such behavior in broad daylight. Especially since Guangwen Hall was filled with children of noble families, if anyone saw them, she didn't mind ruining her reputation, but she was afraid that Shen Xin would be ashamed because of her. In her previous life, the Shen family was destroyed because of her, and she finally understood her parents' good intentions. In her new life, she was the one to protect the family, so how could she tolerate anyone saying anything bad about the Shen family? Especially since it was all because of her.
Thinking of this, Shen Miao said impatiently: “Thank you, Young Marquis, for bringing an army to question me. What exactly do you want to do?”
Xie Jingxing stared at the girl in front of him.
He had always possessed an incredibly sharp intuition about everything, able to discern the underlying undercurrents even from the surface. This was honed over a decade of life, grappling with battlefield slayings, witnessing the treacherous struggles beneath the surface of Dingjing, and the sinister plots within the imperial harem. His seemingly arrogant growth wasn't entirely due to luck. Of the numerous sons of the noble families of Mingqi, countless passed away each year for various reasons.
He never takes anything lightly.
Su Mingfeng wouldn't think anything else of Su Minglang's words, and Master Su also thought it was just a casual reminder from his son. But he saw it differently. The timing was perfect, and true coincidences were rare in the world. Many superficial coincidences were man-made.
He could conclude that someone was instigating Su Minglang to say these words, but he didn't know what the purpose was.
He planned to meet this person.
However, when he actually met this person, he was surprised.
Xie Jingxing had originally assumed that someone who could utter such profound words, and who was from Guangwen Hall, must be the son of a prominent official, or perhaps a young man on the verge of a career in government. Perhaps he was trying to win over the Su family, or perhaps he was playing hard to get. However, when he saw this person, he almost thought it was Su Minglang deliberately playing tricks. It wasn't until the girl called out to Su Minglang that he was certain it was him.
The girl before him was short, barely reaching his chest. Her face wasn't particularly attractive, just cute at best. She looked only about eleven or twelve, with a double bun, a round face, round eyes, and small lips. Standing there, she looked like a lost deer in the jungle. Yet, she stood straight and dignified, speaking slowly and leisurely, as if she were a concubine trained in the palace. Could it be that she wanted to be the empress? If Xie Jingxing hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would have nearly choked on his own saliva.
Looking up, down, left and right, she is just a yellow-haired girl.
Until I spoke a few words to her.
She looked childish, but her tone was calm. Far from betraying a trace of panic, she seemed rather impatient. This was a first for Young Marquis Xie. Other women would have blushed at his approach, but she remained expressionless, truly uninteresting.
Maybe he was too young and didn't understand anything. But why did he understand what the Su family was saying?
He placed one hand on the tree trunk behind Shen Miao. From the outside, it looked like he was almost holding Shen Miao in his arms. Xie Jingxing lowered his head and leaned very close to Shen Miao.
"You're not afraid of me."
“The young marquis is not a man-eating monster, what is there to be afraid of?” Shen Miao said calmly, “If there is nothing else, I will go back to the academy first.” After saying that, she was about to leave.
"Stop." Xie Jingxing raised his hand, and Chen Miao's hair brushed against his palm, making it itchy as if ants were crawling across it. He withdrew his hand, stepped back a few steps, and leaned against the tree, his hands folded across his chest, returning to his cynical look.
“Remind the Su family, what is your purpose?”
His words were as sharp as his eyes, never concealing their sharpness. They were direct and impulsive, yet contained infinite depth.
Shen Miao sighed slightly in her heart.
Xie Jingxing was even smarter than she'd imagined. Su Minglang had found this place with just one word. And after finding this place, he even asked about the purpose. In her previous life, she'd only thought he had a broad mind, but now it seemed he was a man of profound understanding.
How could one conceal one's true intentions when dealing with intelligent people? Unfortunately, she never wanted to hide.
"Nothing, just self-protection."
After saying this, she bowed slightly to Xie Jingxing, and without caring about anything else, she turned around and left.
Six words, Xie Jingxing would understand.
Behind her, the young man raised the corners of his lips and played with the short knife in his hand.
"Su Minglang, what's her name?"
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