Conspiracy on a Snowy Night
There was no signature on the paper, and the handwriting was crooked, perhaps because the messenger did not want to leave any evidence.
Su Manyan had an idea in mind, guessing it was someone from the Crown Prince's side. She hadn't expected the Crown Prince to be so anxious. Xiao Lin had just been summoned to the palace tonight, and he had already rushed to contact her.
She hurriedly tore the paper into shreds and buried them in a hidden pit, stomping on them a few times to cover her tracks. After carefully looking around to make sure no one was watching, she returned to the house, humming an unfamiliar tune and planning how to deal with the creditors who would come to collect their debts tonight.
At the hour of Xu, the vermilion wooden door of the south wing was pushed open by someone returning home at night. The scent of snow foam mixed with the fragrance of plum blossoms became heavy, cold and sobering with the footsteps of the person returning home.
Xiao Lin just came back at this moment. Yunque took off his snow-soaked and cold cloak for him. His fingers gently rubbed his sore forehead, trying to soothe his inner anxiety.
Tonight's banquet was simply a celebration of the Southern Kingdom's abundant harvest, with the Baiyue people bowing their heads and singing songs of peace. This special summons to the palace was simply to humiliate him, to make him gaze upon the splendor of the Southern Kingdom and then kneel before his yellow robe.
The palace was filled with fine wine, singing girls, and all sorts of fun things. Watching the clinking of glasses for too long made him feel dizzy. He had once been a young and glorious general in the Hu Kingdom, so how could he miss such a banquet? But the location was wrong, the scene was wrong, and the mood was wrong. He just wanted to escape this hypocritical and filthy place.
On the contrary, the dark and gloomy cold palace made him feel more at ease compared to this noisy crowd. Xiao Lin picked up a cup of wine, and his fingertips touched the smooth and delicate white jade wine glass, which reminded him of the eunuch in the cold palace who was always smiling.
The eunuch who he initially thought was a gigolo.
Really... Xiao Lin shook his head, thinking that he must have drunk too much and was even imitating the characters in the picture book to be reminded of people by seeing things.
Even if it's just for a moment.
Even if it’s not real thinking.
After drinking a bowl of warm hangover soup, Xiao Lin's stomach finally felt better. He wiped the water stains from the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief. He felt that the room was too quiet. He raised his eyes and met Yun Que's impatient face before realizing:
Su Manyan is not here, so it is very quiet.
"Where is A Yan?" He couldn't help but ask, pretending that he hadn't thought about anything at the banquet.
These three words seemed to turn on Yun Que's chatterbox, and she told him everything about the disturbance in the study that afternoon. Her words were all about how Su Manyan had just accidentally soiled the study, and she begged His Highness not to blame her.
Yun Que's face flushed with excitement. She knew Yi Cui was a scheming girl, but she had never imagined she would even dare to frame someone so influential as Xiao Lin. If this continued, wouldn't it be lawless?
As she spoke, she recalled Su Manyan's pitiful expression during dinner tonight, her eyes watery and her nose pink from grievance, looking like a little girl. This always evoked the most unknown and tenderest part of her memory, and she couldn't help but feel distressed.
"The servants in the study have cleaned up everything and replaced any broken items. However, one painting was stained with ink, and I wanted to throw it away, but Ah Yan insisted on keeping it, saying she would personally apologize. So I agreed."
Xiao Lin didn't even blink when he heard the study was stained. He guessed that Su Manyan was investigating the poisoning. But the next second, when he heard that Su Manyan had fallen and injured his foot, his calm face changed.
"Her foot is injured. Is it serious? Where is she now? I'll go and see." His tone was unconsciously a little aggressive.
These three questions in a row stunned Yun Que. Xiao Lin usually acted indifferent to everything around them, so it was rare for him to lose his composure. But thinking back, Xiao Lin treated Ah Yan differently the first time they met. He invited her to bathe him, to help him prepare the dishes, and even let Ah Yan seep into every little detail of their lives.
Yunque often heard Ah Yan complaining quietly that His Highness always bullied her on purpose. But she thought it wasn't a tactic, it was just a childish attempt to tease her.
From her perspective as an outsider, the two of them seemed to be perfectly compatible, as if they had known each other for years, or perhaps even met in a previous life.
Just like how close she was to these two, perhaps they had spoken like this in their previous life.
She had previously worried that Ah Yan wouldn't care about His Highness's punishment for damaging the painting, but she had been worrying too much. Seeing His Highness's expression, there wasn't even a hint of anger; it was pure concern for Su Manyan.
Yu Que whispered about Su Manyan's situation, comforting him that it was not serious and hoped that it would not bring bad luck to Xiao Lin.
Xiao Lin just nodded to indicate that he heard it. When he stood up, he saw Yun Que looking at him hopefully.
Xiao Lin: “?”
"Your Highness, aren't you going to visit A Yan?"
Xiao Lin, who was about to go to the west wing, stopped when he heard Yun Que's words, which seemed to make his intentions more obvious.
He coughed and sat back down in his chair, his fingers delicately tracing the sides of the bowl. He replied dryly, "It's so late now. Let's talk about it tomorrow."
Xiao Lin didn't know how to explain his subconscious concern just now, and his panic after Yun Que pointed out his thoughts.
Why shouldn't a king be compassionate to his subordinates? He was a general, and caring for his subordinates was a good thing, and a common thing. The Si family soldiers who protected him had also suffered many injuries along the way, not to mention the soldiers in the barracks who treated illness as a common occurrence.
What was wrong with two men asking about each other's well-being at night? There was nothing strange about visiting friends at night. If Fengya Slope wasn't too far away, he would have gone there immediately to take care of his comrades, even if it meant staying overnight.
But if the person opposite was Su Manyan, it would be different.
Xiao Lin couldn't treat Su Manyan with a normal heart, even though he knew that he was an ordinary man.
All the weirdness comes from the first meeting.
Although it was their first meeting, he felt a strange familiarity, and subtly suspected that she was a woman. Therefore, he continued to treat her with male and female etiquette. However, in the end, he discovered it was all a misunderstanding and that she was indeed a man.
It was their first meeting, but she was clumsily protecting him, which made him suspicious and think she had ulterior motives. However, his repeated attempts were rewarded with the other party's sincere "coming for you".
But where did his preconceived sense of familiarity and unfounded suspicion come from?
Have they met before?
It's funny, but in fact, he still thinks Su Manyan is a woman in his heart.
Therefore, this steady young general has not yet figured out what attitude is most appropriate to treat Su Manyan. He always thought that the other party was trying hard to attract his attention. In the end, he found that his heart had been boiling from the beginning and had never calmed down.
Xiao Lin didn't understand why his heart was so moved. It was not until tonight that he began to slowly analyze his heart and analyze the weirdness from beginning to end.
After Yun Que left, Xiao Lin washed up and changed into clothes scented with ambergris. The soft, refreshing scent of bath water surrounded him, the unpleasant smell of alcohol had dissipated, and his dizzy mind became clearer.
He found it funny when he recalled his previous thoughts. One was the prince of the Hu Kingdom, and the other was a eunuch of the Southern Kingdom. They both grew up in the deep palace. How could they have met each other?
Maybe they are so destined to be together...
The shadows of the trees were reflected outside the quaint window. Xiao Lin saw carved railings and jade bricks, red bricks and black tiles. Xiao Lin had a thousand thoughts, but one of them must be what he was thinking about:
What happened to Su Manyan's foot injury?
A lone bird chirped, flapped its wings, and landed on a cold branch. Its mournful cries mixed with the sound of the night watchman's drumming at midnight, and carried from afar to Su Manyan's window.
She quietly put on her coat, tiptoed out of the yard, and took shelter under a broken eaves. As the roof leaked and it rained all night, the accumulated snow drifted down the fallen tiles and fell onto her hair.
Su Manyan hunched her neck and hid behind the wall, praying that the low wall could block the wind. Fortunately, she had anticipated that it might be too cold, so she had the foresight to bring a hot water bottle to warm her hands.
Damn it, why hasn’t he come yet?
With nothing to occupy her time, Su Manyan stared blankly at the stains on the wall. Even layers of ice couldn't hide the scribbled marks. A crack might indicate damage, a streak of paint a sign of a child's painting. Countless people had lived here, through the ages and dynasties.
She looked at the pebbles in the cracks of the wall. Under the moonlight, they glowed with a vast green halo, like the tiny paper lantern covers at a ghost market, densely packed together in an array. She hadn't touched them yet, but her hand itched. It was as if she had pressed her palm against this uneven wall countless times, sometimes lightly, sometimes hard, sometimes painfully, sometimes numbly. It was as if she had touched it deliberately for fun, or as if someone had forcibly pulled her hand and pressed it against the wall without mercy, leaving it covered in puncture marks.
By the time Su Manyan realized what was happening, her hand had already touched the weathered grey wall, feeling the dampness and biting coldness. But she felt as if she had been burned, and quickly retracted her hand, no longer touching the wall.
Su Manyan stared wide-eyed as her hand twitched unconsciously. Her heart felt like it had been rubbed, and a strange pain welled up inside her. She couldn't explain her sudden movement, so she could only think she was frozen. She shook her head vigorously to stay awake, closed her eyes, and forced herself to stop thinking.
So when Shadow Owl came, all he saw was a man squatting like a mushroom. The man seemed to have some magical skill of shrinking himself, and he kept curling himself up smaller, so much so that even he, who usually had good eyesight, didn't notice it.
The man in black and black boots stood in front of Su Manyan, his upright figure standing out in the snow.
Su Manyan looked up at the man: What a straight man.
He lowered his head again: I haven’t seen her, it’s not Aning.
Seeing that Su Manyan didn't recognize him, Yingxiao thought he was just playing dumb again. They had met a few times before, and his memory was of a fawning eunuch, full of sweet nothings and a servile, fawning demeanor.
But fortunately, he was an obedient dog, as the prince had said. It was unknown how this eunuch had gained the prince's favor, and how the empress had assigned him to serve the prince. Ironically, as the prince grew older, he seemed to have forgotten this eunuch.
Shadow Owl ignored Su Manyan's pretense and asked in a businesslike manner, "Where's the poison?"
Su Manyan was shocked: "Big brother looks so righteous, but he's actually a spy! Why is he so depressed?"
She quickly stood up and brushed the snow off her clothes, feigning panic in her tone, "Brother, please forgive me. Xiao Lin was too cautious. I didn't even have the chance to do anything."
Before he could finish his words, Su Manyan was grabbed by the neck and hit hard against the wall on his back.
"Useless wretch, regardless of whether you don't have the chance to strike or simply don't want to strike, since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has sent you here, there's no reason for you to hide away. Next time, if you dare to play tricks again..."
"Yes, yes, I was wrong!" Su Manyan begged for mercy hurriedly. The suffocation in her throat made her cheeks flush red. She coughed violently, and her fingers grabbed at the air randomly, praying for a way to survive.
The whispered plea for mercy seemed to be amplified even in the night. Shadow Owl was afraid of attracting attention, so he loosened his restraining hand, drew the sword from his waist, and pointed it at Su Manyan's neck: "Keep your voice down."
Su Manyan groped her neck, trembling with fear at the gleaming blade, swallowing all her curses. Still terrified that this killer would actually finish her off, she put her hand to her mouth, zipping it up, and widened her eyes to show she was determined to keep her mouth shut.
The purpose of intimidation was achieved. Yingxiao threw another small cloth bag to Su Manyan's feet and said, "Poison me within three days. If you still can't complete the task, bring your head to me." After that, he hurried away in the night.
Su Manyan returned to the house, furious. He opened the cloth bag and found a small bottle of transparent liquid inside. Attached to it was a note: "Add to drinking water, it will be colorless and tasteless."
The previous poison was still thrown under the bed, and now there is a new one.
Su Manyan wanted to wake up 625 to help analyze the poison, but she didn't expect to hear a faint rustling sound in the yard. Su Manyan pricked up her ears and listened carefully:
The person who came deliberately walked lightly and held the wooden door open with his hands, as if he was afraid that the sound of the wind would disturb the people sleeping in the house.
Why are you here again?
She originally thought it was the secret guard returning, but when her vision became clear, she discovered—
It’s Xiao Lin.
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