similar
Meng Zheng's eyes were fixed on the paper, and he casually put the pen back into the pen holder.
"Let her go..."
Glancing at the piles of letters beside him, he paused and raised his hand to rub his brow.
"Let's go to the side room. Just tell her it's the talking room."
Talk room?
The attendant was stunned for a moment, then lowered his brows in response and bowed as he left the study.
…
There were only a few lines scribbled on the letter paper, and the familiar written tone on it made Meng Zheng feel bored. After a period of fatigue in his heart, only emptiness remained.
That's all.
He is really tired of this game of power.
Others can afford it, but his body can't.
After a moment of confusion, Meng Zheng gathered himself, placed the unfinished reply under Emperor Changde's letter, and then left the study.
—
The Princess's residence hadn't changed much since I first came here.
After hearing the servant's reply in the side hall, Jiang Nian nodded. However, since the servant did not recognize her, she finally did not say that she wanted to leave on her own.
The distance from the front hall to the side hall is not far. After talking with Xiao Yingzhu last night, Jiang Nian suddenly realized that instead of passively waiting for others to deliver the letter and delaying it until the Zuihualou mission, it would be better to take the initiative to do it now.
Although I can’t say that I will have much more say, at least I can control the current affairs myself.
She didn't want to experience the coercion and coercion she had felt from Xiao Yingzhu again from Meng Zheng.
The attendant leading the way stopped in front of the side hall and gestured to her, "Miss, His Highness is waiting in the hall. Please wait a moment and follow me inside."
Jiang Nian was stunned for a moment, then replied in a low voice, "Yeah."
—
The side hall was well-lit, with floating light dancing under the window lattice. Meng Zheng had already taken his previous seat.
The door behind him was gently closed by the servant.
Jiang Nian clenched the bag in her hand, walked over to sit across from Meng Zheng, and smelled the scent of herbs. Suddenly, she raised her eyes and asked, "How is the Fourth Prince doing lately?"
He was always used to polite greetings, but Jiang Nian's words caught him off guard. Meng Zheng tapped the table with his fingertips, lowered his brows and raised his hand to suppress his cough.
"No problem."
"Miss Jiang, why did you come to me today?"
The topic returned to the main track. Jiang Nian suddenly thought that the decadent air he had just seen from him was due to his eyes being blurry. After a moment of silence, he took out the envelope from his bag thoughtfully.
"Actually, I came to see the Fourth Prince today because I'm going to Zuihualou the day after tomorrow. In case anything goes wrong, I thought it would be best to come in person."
Not understanding what Jiang Nian meant by "mistake", Meng Zheng raised his hand to take a sip of tea and looked at her inquiringly: "Miss, do you need me to send someone to the building to help you accomplish this?"
Surprised by his words, Jiang Nian's mind went blank for two seconds. He instantly thought that if other people later found out how many forces were involved in Zuihualou's siege of the goddess, and Meng Zheng appeared in this line, he would never be able to clear himself even if he jumped into the Yellow River, and the situation would immediately become a mess.
In line with the idea of not involving anyone if possible, Jiang Nian shook his head: "No, I didn't express myself clearly."
She considered the complexity of the upcoming situation and the fact that Meng Zheng's cooperation must not be cut off and a clear time must be set. Then she said:
"The Fourth Prince is in charge of matters related only to the remnants of the Bishop's faction. If they get involved... then it will be troublesome."
"But the Zuihualou mission involves a lot of things, so I have to spend a lot of time on it, so..."
"I'm afraid we'll lose contact due to some unexpected events, so I came here specifically to bring you the reply letter I sent you a few days ago, and to discuss a time to contact you."
In ancient times, transportation was slow. There were many variables in the process from her going on a mission to sending the letter and until the letter reached Meng Zheng. It was difficult to predict at which stage the process would get stuck and stagnate.
Jiang Nian was also a little thirsty at this time, so he took a sip of tea before continuing, "Also, after the Zuihualou incident... I have to go back to Pingzhou, so it will be troublesome to contact you again."
She pushed the reply letter in front of Meng Zheng and smiled slightly, saying, "Since this matter is urgent, I would like to ask His Royal Highness the Fourth Prince if you could help me to settle this matter before I return to Pingzhou?"
Thinking of Jiang Nian's identity, Meng Zheng immediately checked where she lived.
Now that she had taken the initiative to propose the changes that were bound to occur later, he was no longer surprised.
Meng Zheng looked away from Jiang Nian's smile and thought of the questions asked to him in the letter from Emperor Changde.
That string of words is really disgusting.
At the moment, apart from completing the task assigned to him by Emperor Changde and cooperating with Jiang Nian, nothing else seems to be important.
"……good."
Jiang Nian watched him open his mouth to agree, and then his brows furrowed again. The scene he saw when he came here just now, which he thought was due to his eyesight, appeared in his mind again.
After hesitating for a moment, she looked directly at Meng Zheng and spoke her mind:
"I've heard recently that Your Highness is not feeling well. I wonder if this is true. I know this may be presumptuous, but in order to ensure the smooth progress of this cooperation, I hope Your Highness will not be offended."
"..." Meng Zheng lowered his eyes and coughed softly a few times, then raised his hand to drink the tea. "I felt a little unwell yesterday, so I feel a little tired today. I will recover after a short rest. I am very grateful for your concern, Miss Jiang. Please rest assured."
After spending more time with Xiao Yingzhu, Jiang Nian has learned some of his keen perception and penetrating sharpness. In addition, she is currently concerned about Meng Zheng and focused on his expression, so naturally she did not miss the haste when he lowered his eyes.
Recalling the time when she cared about Meng Zheng on the boat and how Meng Zheng responded to her...
Jiang Nian knew he had said something wrong and his eyes fell on the teacup in front of him.
The misty fog lingered, rose into the air, and dissipated, leaving no trace.
Meng Zheng is a sensitive and thoughtful person with a paranoid view on things. It is difficult for him to show weakness to the fate that was destined for him since birth.
Even though she was unwell, she still didn't need anyone's care. She went to Cang County alone with them. Even after being overworked, she still didn't rest. She continued to track down the remnants of the bishop's followers, and then used all her circumstances and everything she had to speculate to investigate their position and her identity...
As the fourth prince, he certainly has more things on his hands. In addition to these, he also has the task of investigating the death of the eldest princess.
This matter can be dealt with after Emperor Changde completes this task and then questioning the captured remnants.
He bought them all together.
His body was so fragile yet he chose to do this. It looked like he was torturing himself in various ways.
Rather than openly seeking power on the throne, he seemed to be using these seemingly endless tasks to escape and forget some things.
There was a brief silence, and Jiang Nian's mind was filled with doubts and thoughts, which flashed through his mind in just a moment and then disappeared into nothingness.
She grasped some indescribable intuition invisibly, and then raised her eyes and looked at Meng Zheng again.
"As allies, we don't need to know everything about each other, but we do need to know a few things so we can work together."
She tilted her head slightly, her smile light and gentle.
"What do you think, Your Highness?"
Meng Zheng was stunned, and an indescribable feeling spread in his heart.
Before, when he looked at Jiang Nian, even if she pretended to be gentle and soft, like a bright flower, indicating beauty, he only felt her decadence in the sun.
But now…
For some reason, through her eyes, although he saw the bottomless black hole and decadence, as well as the faint foreshadowing of decay spreading to deeper and more peripheral places, he also saw a strange flower.
Flowers as bright as the moon bloomed on the rotten, maggot-eaten flesh, looking so beautiful and tempting, even with a fragrance that could only be sensed.
Meng Zheng was silent for a moment, suppressing his thoughts, and then curled his lips: "Of course, what do you want to ask, Miss Jiang?"
Jiang Nianqing's smile deepened, and he looked like he was seeking the truth: "I want to ask, Your Highness, do you regard me as 'the same kind' or 'different'?"
If she got the answer from Meng Zheng, then she would know what Meng Zheng's spiritual core was, and thus be able to more confidently judge his future actions and possible changes.
...She finally understood why Xiao Yingzhu liked to tease people so much, and then at the right time, she would ask some questions that were not too excessive or out of line, so that she could find out everything about a person inside and out.
This endless testing of others is addictive.
In addition to increasing others' vigilance and fear of the testing party, it can also infer and verify one's own thoughts from the testing party's various reactions, thereby gaining a sense of security that one will not be backstabbed.
Since people’s hearts can be seen through, what is there to be afraid of?
How puzzled she was about Xiao Yingzhu's suspicion before, now she felt the same way.
They are all people who are secretly insecure and wary of being framed to death, so their ideas are not too far off.
And now, she has learned and put into practice all the practices of Xiao Yingzhu that she used to hate.
It’s true that people’s hearts are fickle.
Then she should make good use of what she has learned so far.
So let’s start with Meng Zheng.
—
The more frank and sincere Jiang Nian's smile was, the more uncomfortable Meng Zheng felt in his heart.
Has my body reached its limit?
He lowered his eyelashes listlessly, then raised them again after a moment: "Miss Jiang, there's no need to test me. You should know..."
His sharp gaze penetrated Jiang Nian's heart until he saw his own reflection deep inside. Meng Zheng curled his eyes slightly, and even his sickly appearance could not hide his joyful mood.
"We are all the same kind of people."
"At this moment, it is completely true."
Opposites attract, likes repel.
But what if the other person is a mirror that can reveal the extent of one’s inner corruption?
He hates hypocritical social interactions, but becomes a hypocritical part of the vortex of power.
Jiang Nian hates deception and lies, but relying on them becomes the key to his survival here.
He was unable to accept other people's sudden changes in their choices of right and wrong, which exposed his character flaw of being unable to accept the complexity of human nature.
Jiang Nian is unable to accept her inner fragility and avoidance, which exposes her contradictory character flaw of being unable to face her true feelings.
Even though the past and experiences are different, these similarities... can definitely resonate with each other.
They are essentially the same kind of people after all.
Unfortunately, only one can be saved.
Another hope was completely extinguished at this moment.
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