Chapter 104 Chapter 104 Reunion He was blindfolded with black silk...
"Did you know that he is now in charge of the Flying Fish Guard?"
Feiyuwei was an agency in Qi and Song that specialized in surveillance, search, arrest, and interrogation. It had its own independent prison and could even bypass the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Dali Temple, and was directly controlled by Emperor Jiaqing.
"That madman doesn't care about state affairs. Logically, I should be in charge of Feiyuwei. But when I was appointed regent, that madman just grabbed Feiyuwei and refused to let go. Chang Da also interfered, so he finally got it."
Nan Qiong Shuang smiled meaningfully, "You mean, he's now in charge of a lot of spies?"
"Exactly." Li Xuanbai rested his arm on the fence. "Do you know why that lunatic insisted on giving him the control of the Flying Fish Guard?"
"Because, nowadays, he is best at using spies, training spies, catching spies, and examining spies."
In the light, Nan Qiongshuang raised her eyebrows and smiled.
"What? You fell on me and became my colleague?"
Li Xuanbai saw that her tone was still relaxed and sighed:
"Don't take it lightly. His methods for dealing with traitors these days are no joke. Last time, he discovered a double agent in the Feiyu Guards, stripped him of his tendons and skin, and hung him at the entrance of the Southern Pacification Office, where he dried him in the sun until he turned into bacon."
Nan Qiong Shuang shrugged.
The same thing is done in a more extreme way in the Pure Land.
She rubbed the handle of her fan lightly. "Even if he wants to peel off my skin and hang me on the city wall, I'll accept it. In our line of work, don't you have this much awareness? Is that all you have to say?"
Li Xuanbai looked at her nonchalant expression and could not believe that under her delicate appearance, she was so fearless and indifferent to life and death.
"There's one more."
She sighed and fanned herself, "You say."
"Did you know that he can now tell fortunes?"
She was stunned.
"Divination?"
"Divination, planning, judgment, and the art of yin and yang. After he came down from the mountain, he spent several years as a monk in a Buddhist temple. The temple was often visited by wandering celebrities, so he learned some of the skills of the Yin and Yang School and began to ask for divination and tell fortunes."
She understood what he meant, but still couldn't believe it and laughed in surprise.
"you mean……"
"What I mean," Li Xuanbai spread his hands, "is that whether his eyesight is failing or you've taken Fengming Pills, he can tell who you are just by flipping a coin and casting a fortune."
She laughed out of anger. People really do laugh when they are at their uttermost.
"He can predict accurately?"
"He calculated it accurately." Li Xuanbai nodded. "He predicted Chang Da's sudden illness and came up with the plan to release the tiger into the mountains. So, I'm afraid he even knew that Chang Da and I would take off our armor and enter the Forbidden City. And--"
He suddenly pointed his finger at her: "-Maybe he already knew you were here."
Her heart skipped a beat.
She didn't know if it was her illusion, but as soon as Li Xuanbai finished speaking, she seemed to smell something familiar under her nose...
What she was most accustomed to was the smell of his pillow, quilt, pajamas and neck.
Gu Huaijin's breath.
She got goosebumps all over her body.
"So, I suggest you don't pretend to lose your voice," he said. "Pretend to lose your memory."
She rubbed her temples, and after hearing what he said, she opened her eyes and asked, "Amnesia?"
"Just say that she's the lost daughter of the Xie family in Qinghe. Later, due to some strange circumstances, she returned to the Xie family and has completely lost her memory. She doesn't know what happened before." He said, "I'll take care of the Xie family."
This method may not be impossible.
"So, even if he burns tortoise shells and tosses copper coins, as long as you insist you've lost your memory and you don't even know what you did, what can he do to you?"
"What's more, you have the support of the Qinghe Xie family and the protection of the emperor?" She continued with a meaningful smile.
"Exactly."
Nan Qiong Shuang hugged her shoulders and fanned herself leisurely with a round fan. The gentle breeze brushed against her face, causing her hair to rise slightly.
"That's interesting." She picked up the handle of her round fan, her eyes curved, "Let's do it this way. On the day he comes back, the emperor will hold a banquet. If I don't get killed at the banquet and return to the palace safely—"
Holding a round fan, he pointed at Li Xuanbai with a smile, "This matter is all thanks to the Regent."
After taking the Fengming Pill, her voice became especially sweet and gentle, and she tried to flatter him, which made his heart skip a beat.
This vicious woman can actually say nice things to flatter others.
He sneered.
"Remember, change all your old habits, like being clean, afraid of the cold, preferring light food, and avoiding meat and fish."
She raised her eyebrows and smiled, a little surprised, "You remember it quite clearly."
He ignored her teasing and tapped the table with his fingers. His fox eyes, reflecting the flickering candlelight, seemed determined to win.
"Since you want me to help you, how are you going to repay me after the task is accomplished?"
Hearing this, she lowered her eyes and thought for a moment.
Then he turned his wrist, touched the green mountain and green lotus butterfly silk fan to his chin, and smiled:
"...Your Majesty. Let's get this done first, then we can talk."
*
When she returned to Handan Palace, Yuanxiang had already prepared hot water for washing her face and ointment for applying a facial mask.
She sat in front of the dressing mirror and let Qinglian help her take off her hairpins.
"Your Majesty often visits the Regent, so you must be careful. There are so many people around, and if you are seen..."
"Every time I go, he deliberately withdraws the guards from the area." Cicadas chirped outside the window. She was tired, her voice weak. "Besides, who in the palace would dare to provoke the Regent? The Emperor is so weak, everyone knows who to rely on and whose side to support. Even if someone saw us, Emperor Jiaqing would be the last to know."
Yuan Xiang: "Just don't let General Chang know."
It was late at night, and only a few candles were lit in the Handan Palace, their flames flickering in the mirror.
She was silent for a moment, "You're right."
She didn't want to think about it anymore, so she yawned and her eyelids drooped heavily.
Ever since she heard Li Xuanbai say in the Daming Palace, "Maybe he already knew you were here," her heart has been beating fast.
What would happen if he found me?
Gu Huaijin.
How long has it been since we last met? Over five years.
It felt so distant, like a lifetime ago. Sometimes she would really wonder, were those days when they fell asleep in each other's arms on the Tianshan Mountains really not just a dream?
If it wasn't a dream, how come there is no trace of it at all?
He had completely disappeared from her life. The man who had once pressed his forehead against hers, rubbed his eyebrows against hers, and who had asked her to tell him everything and even to die with her, had completely vanished from her world.
Old friends are old friends. Even if we meet again, we will be riddled with scars and unrecognizable, and we will never be able to recognize each other again.
Yuanxiang helped her remove all the hairpins and carefully combed her hair with a jade comb. She looked at the warm and shiny jade comb and thought to herself.
During the year of Qiqiao (Qi Qiao), they used a jade comb to comb their hair into a bun, which was considered a hair-tying ceremony.
but.
It's like trying to find a sword by carving a mark on a boat. There's no need to think about it anymore.
If they recognize each other, they will kill each other.
At night, she had a dream.
In the dream, she was like a drowning person, being pushed up and down by the waves involuntarily, wave after wave, and the fluctuating ceiling almost blinded her eyes.
He didn't speak. After not seeing each other for so long, he didn't say a word, just panting.
His body blocked everything. She could see nothing but the ceiling.
His neck was dripping with sweat. His Adam's apple was rolling. And his veins were throbbing.
It was still the same one, in the same spot. Every time he got angry, lost control, or became emotional, a thick blue vein would bulge out.
She stretched out her hand and found that her palms were surprisingly sweaty and her arms were sore.
Confusedly, trembling slightly, she touched his blue vein.
He felt it, sighed, and his hot breath sprayed on her face anxiously. He leaned down and kissed her.
The pistil was pierced inch by inch, from the corolla all the way into the calyx.
Before his eyelashes and the bridge of his nose blocked all her vision, before the soreness in her body forced her to bite her lip, she saw it.
Now, there is a small black mole next to that blue vein.
I can't see his face, only his sigh:
"Bright..."
A drop of water, with a ticking sound, broke the surface of the water.
She woke up suddenly and realized it was a dream.
My whole body was burning hot, and even in the thin quilt, it felt like it was about to spontaneously combust.
Her body seemed to be still trembling, and she felt a little embarrassed. But she was terrified, and in the deep silence, she couldn't stop trembling.
Jiaojiao. That name again.
Who is Chu Jiaojiao?
Even when he did this, he didn't know her name.
She sat up, hugging the quilt. The night was cold, the soothing incense had gone out, the moonlight outside was bright and white, and the cicadas chirped cheerfully, one louder than the other.
How can I sleep on a night like this?
"Awake?" Wu Dao's voice.
She laughed, "Why aren't you sleeping so late at night?"
"I don't get enough sleep. Otherwise, how could I have done my teaching? I would have died of exhaustion."
"What's up?"
"There's news from the sect. I have something to tell you."
She listened quietly.
"Gongsun Hong needs your assistance."
Gongsun Hong was her colleague at Jiletang. She was beautiful and charming, skilled at playing the pipa, and as graceful as a peony.
"She is now lurking by Chang Da's side, but she is not yet Chang Da's concubine. She is only acting as a musician in the general's mansion."
"Chang Da had a son named Chang Zhong, who was a lecher. She intended to seduce Chang Zhong and use him as a pawn. Unexpectedly, he was too impatient and gradually lost her control, and was about to overturn the whole thing."
When she heard this, she knew what Gongsun Hong wanted to ask of her and sneered.
"So, she said that she wanted you to hook up with Chang Zhong, so that he wouldn't pester her all day and cause her trouble."
"I can't help you." She yawned. "If you don't have some skills, don't go on missions and don't drag others down with you."
Wu Dao chuckled for a while, but didn't try to persuade him. "I knew you would say that."
She didn't even bother to pay attention, she just lay back on the pillow and wrapped herself tightly in the quilt.
"Just answer her like that."
That night, although I lay down again, I couldn't fall asleep again.
The next day, Emperor Jiaqing asked her to play Mahjong with him again. She forced herself to remember the cards, not only to help him win but also to make him feel comfortable. She had to remember the cards of two people by herself, and the game became very difficult.
Even when playing Mahjong, I am distracted from time to time.
Sometimes, when I look at the cards in my hand, I suddenly think about tomorrow's affairs.
We're meeting.
She never dreamed that they would meet again after parting at Lan Pavilion.
In the past, whenever she had the slightest contact with Li Xuanbai, he would lose control and almost lose his composure on the spot several times.
Now, if he recognized her, would he kill her immediately?
If he was going to kill—she deserved it.
She admitted it.
"Deyin, Deyin?" Emperor Jiaqing, sitting on the other side of the card table, gestured in front of her eyes, "Have you lost your soul? Play a card."
That day, even the game of Mahjong, which she was used to, seemed too complex and annoying. At the end of the game, she couldn't bear it any longer and passed away, claiming to be ill.
Emperor Jiaqing always hated having someone spoil his fun while playing cards. He was about to get angry, but when he saw her expression, he said nothing.
The night before Gu Huaijin returned to the palace, she did not close her eyes for a moment.
Before I knew it, the sky outside the carved window lattice gradually brightened.
The patrol eunuch's drum, bang-bang-bang-bang
One after another, the sounds echoed throughout the long street.
When Qinglian and Yuanxiang got up, boiled water, combed their hair, and prepared water in the fresh and choking early morning air, she also got up.
Li Xuanbai said that Gu Huaijin was returning to the palace today. Although he hadn't held an official position, he still had to make an appearance at Ganyang Palace due to his high reputation.
The palace banquet held for him began at the hour of You.
She couldn't wait any longer. The knife was hanging over her head, and even if it didn't fall, it was making her scalp tingle. She was so anxious that she couldn't sit still. She had to find something to do.
She changed into night clothes and planned to use her lightness skills to sneak outside the Ganyang Palace and see him from a distance.
Look at what has become of her ex-husband, whom she has not seen for a long time and with whom she has a deep blood feud.
Although there are guards everywhere in the Forbidden City, these guards who come from military camps are not as skilled as the assassins who come from the underworld.
She easily concealed her figure, avoided the guards, and climbed onto a tall poplar tree outside the Ganyang Palace, peeking inside through the diamond-patterned window.
Inside the Ganyang Hall, the floor is paved with golden bricks. Six giant pillars with coiled dragons stand majestically. At the north end stands a gilded throne with dragon carvings. Above the throne is a coiled dragon caisson ceiling, painted with the twenty-eight constellations in a dazzling array of colors. In the center hangs a bright Xuanyuan mirror.
A man stood beside the throne, hands behind his back, dressed in a golden python robe. It must be Li Xuanbai, the regent attending court. However, she was standing too high, so she could only see the top of his crown.
Opposite, in the magnificent hall, all the officials were dressed in court robes of various colors, wearing crowns on their heads and holding tablets in their hands. They all faced the throne and bowed their heads to listen attentively.
Before the hundreds of officials in red, blue and green clothes, stood a figure in black clothes.
He was not wearing court robes or a Liang crown, and he had his hands behind his back. He looked tall, solemn, and gloomy.
A black silk was tied over her eyes and tucked back into her satiny black hair.
She heard her heart thump.
Gu Huaijin.
He does not hold any official position, but stands before all officials.
He had become like this. Without even a word, no one could get close to him.
Not that person anymore.
He is no longer the one who would cling to her, call her name, and kiss her non-stop.
If he found out...
If she were to be discovered by him, her fate would be even worse than that of Zi Ni before.
She made a prompt decision to push the willow branch back and turned around to climb onto the yellow tiles.
I heard that his martial arts skills have greatly improved and he is no longer the same as before, so he can't stay here for long.
Suddenly, she shuddered, as if her scalp had been electrified, and her hairs exploded.
She turned around for some unknown reason.
Gu Huaijin, through the black silk blindfold, quietly looked at her from inside the hall, head tilted upwards.
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