Chapter 60 Distortion: Spread out your trap, and see if I tear it apart...
Xiao Yinshi looked at Feng Tan, saw the doubt in the young man's eyes, and suddenly smiled, his tone dismissive, "What, curious about my bedroom affairs?"
Feng Tan met his dangerous gaze and her heart skipped a beat. She said, "The rumors circulating do not match your image, sir."
Xiao Yinshi said, "A saint is one who is without feelings or desires. Everyone has desires in life, it's just a matter of sooner or later."
I used to have no interest in matters of men and women, but now I often feel lustful, simply because I have happened to meet someone whose desires match mine.
Xiao Yinshi lifted his leg and moved closer, his slender fingers playing with the strands of Feng Tan's hair that fell beside her ear. He then changed the subject, "Lord Feng, you were enlightened early. Before you even reached adulthood, you've already slept with all the girls from the Red Sleeve Pavilion and the male prostitutes from the Star Moon Tower. Since you're so open-minded about both men and women, why don't you play with me?"
The man's shadow shrouded Feng Tan in gloom. His words were scathing and revealing. She smiled at Xiao Yinshi, reached out and swatted away his mischievous fingers, saying, "I don't play with man-eating beasts."
Xiao Yinshi grasped Feng Tan's wrist as she struck him, the soft touch arousing a hint of lust in him. "The rules of the game are not up to you. Whoever is in charge gets to decide."
Feng Tan said sarcastically, "Be careful, one day a trap might fall and skin you alive."
Xiao Yinshi held her wrist and leaned down, whispering in her ear, "Go ahead and spread out your trap, and see if I can tear it apart."
Feng Tan withdrew her arm from his restraint, dispelling the unwarranted ambiguity. She vaguely sensed the reason why Xiao Yinshi had helped her so many times, but she wasn't quite sure.
She looked at him, and as she opened her mouth to speak, the man pressed a finger to her lips. "Don't always try to see through me; it won't do you any good."
So... what happens when you see through it all?
Xiao Yinshi would never speak without reason. His repeated assistance to her during the situation was not simply for the sake of a promise.
What is he going to do?
Feng Tan said, "Lord Xiao is joking. If I hadn't seen through you, I would probably be the one who got skinned alive."
Xiao Yinshi was preoccupied with a hundred thoughts. Looking at the smooth neck of the young man hidden in his summer clothes, which was flushed with a light red color, perhaps due to the wine, he darkened his eyes and said, "I will only take off the clothes, not the skin."
Feng Tan then mocked him again, saying, "Then you are truly merciful."
Xiao Yinshi said, "Not only am I kind, but I am also single-minded. No matter how dissolute you were in the past, I can cleanse you of all your past."
"..." Feng Tan closed his eyes, finding it pointless to say another word to this man, and asked, "Didn't His Majesty want the Censorate to close the case privately? Sir, please ask me some important questions so I can go home quickly."
"That's all," Xiao Yinshi said, watching the boy's departing figure with an inscrutable smile. He then uttered a sentence that kept Feng Tan up all night: "Lord Feng, you need to overturn the case quickly. If you delay any longer, I'm afraid I'll eat you alive right now."
***
The night was as dark as ink, but the lights in the Chu King's palace were still burning.
Princess Consort Gu Ningdai of Chu brewed a cup of tea, walked past the screen depicting a white tiger playing in the snow, and came to Feng Tingxiao, saying, "Your Highness, it is late at night. Please have a cup of tea to help you sleep."
Feng Tingxiao took the tea, took a casual sip, and asked, "Is everything settled?"
Gu Ningdai nodded, pursed her lips, and said, "However, there is something I don't understand. Since Your Highness wants to teach Feng Tan a lesson, wouldn't it be easier to just kill him?"
The man slammed the teacup onto the table. Feng Tingxiao wiped the water from the corner of his lips with his thumb, looking at Gu Ningdai with a half-smile, his voice wicked, "You assassins are all so stubborn. I wanted to teach her a lesson, why did I have to kill her? Isn't it more interesting to keep her alive than to kill her?"
Gu Ningdai had served Prince Chu for over twenty years and truly didn't understand his intricate and complex thoughts. Her expression was icy as she continued, "Your Highness has ordered every official under your command to write an anonymous impeachment petition, which was sent to the Censorate just before nightfall. However, as the night has passed, the Embroidered Uniform Guard has still not made a move. This humble servant wonders if..."
“Such a steel blade is a deadly weapon; His Majesty is keeping it to deal with me,” Feng Tingxiao said with a faint smile, seemingly lost in thought. “However, Feng Shi would never have imagined that this steel blade he left behind would throw his court into chaos in just a few months.”
Gu Ningdai frowned and asked, "What does Your Highness mean?"
Feng Tingxiao left the matter unresolved, and looking at the woman's beautiful face in the candlelight, he frowned and said, "You've been using this human skin mask for eight years, shouldn't it be replaced?"
Under the pale light, tiny cracks could be seen upon closer inspection. Feng Tingxiao tapped his finger on the table and pondered, "Gu Ningdai has been dead for ten years. Her face is indeed not very useful anymore. I'll find a master of making human skin masks and a girl who looks similar to her to make another one."
Ten years ago, Feng Tingxiao married Gu Ningdai. On their wedding night, the King of Chu smiled as he lifted the veil from his shy new wife's head, then killed her with a dagger. After her death, her face was peeled off, soaked in a special potion, and then fitted with a mask worn by one of his trained assassins. This assassin had been attending banquets for officials' families and befriending noblewomen for years, secretly working for him.
Out of respect for the deceased Gu Ningdai, Gu Junwei, the son of the Minister of War, originally had a bright future ahead of him. However, he was unlucky and died that night after inhaling a large amount of Yin Ghost Poison while having fun at the Red Sleeve Pavilion with the Vice Minister of Revenue.
Gu Ningdai responded with a "yes," and then heard Feng Tingxiao speak leisurely, "Feng Qinghuang is still asleep."
"Yes, after we informed Consort Su, she acted swiftly. Realizing that Feng Qinghuang was investigating the Empress's death years ago, she administered a drug that would cause someone to lose their mind and slowly become demented." Gu Ningdai's gaze fell on the little girl playing with the white tiger screen in the snow not far away, and she tentatively asked, "Would Your Highness like to send me to detoxify the princess?"
Feng Tingxiao turned and walked to the screen, touched the smiling profile of the girl in the snow, and said, "No need, someone will come."
Few knew the perverse desires in their master's heart. Gu Ningdai looked at his handsome face, which unconsciously revealed a look of infatuation as he gazed at the screen, and bowed quietly to take her leave.
Before the palace doors closed, Feng Tingxiao stood in the dim light, gazing at her, his voice like that of a demon.
"The Imperial Concubine is a valuable tool in my hands. There's still one person missing from the matter of deliberately inducing Sister Feng to drink wine laced with aphrodisiacs. Tonight, change your clothes and take care of that person. Remember, you must not let the Imperial Concubine find out."
......
Just as Feng Tingxiao had predicted, Feng Tan took leave from the Ministry of Justice early the next morning and went directly to his residence.
As the sun rose in the east, the pavilions and towers in the Chu King's palace were magnificent in the golden light. Colorful birds perched on the eaves, and flowers bloomed in profusion. Feng Tan followed the eunuch leading the way through the caisson ceiling and corridors, all the way to the Chu King's bedroom.
Feng Tan was surprised that the King of Chu would receive her in his bedchamber, and asked the eunuch, "Does your prince usually receive guests here?"
The eunuch pushed open the palace door, but did not answer her question. He simply said, "Please come in, my lady."
Unlike the colorful layout of the Chu King's mansion, the Chu King's bedroom was pitch black. All the places that could let in light were covered with heavy brocade curtains, so not a single ray of sunlight could penetrate. Standing here, Feng Tan had a vague feeling of returning to the Joyful Palace in the Linzhang Sea. She felt uneasy and slowly took two steps back.
The clear sound of a lock clicking shut echoed from the main hall entrance. Feng Tan's heart skipped a beat. The King of Chu was unpredictable; what was he planning? He couldn't very well kill her here. Before coming here, she hadn't hidden from any spies. If something happened to her in the King of Chu's residence, he wouldn't escape responsibility. He couldn't kill her, so what was the point of all this?
It was pitch black, but footsteps came from the dark hall ahead. Feng Tan cleared his throat and said, "Does Your Highness not want to be in the light?"
“Heh,” Feng Tingxiao chuckled, and a rich, cool fragrance wafted from his body. “I like the feeling of walking in the dark, without having to worry about being watched by others, and I can do whatever I want.”
Feng Tan's words were sharp: "Those who attain great freedom can attain great freedom no matter where they are. Only rats in the gutter can't stand the light in the dark and only think about poisoning others."
This morning, Ren Pingsheng sent word that he had not received any news of Hu Shu recently. Hai Dongqing had made several trips to the palace but returned empty-handed. Coincidentally, the eunuch guarding Shang Chunxiang's personal maid was a bit lax today, which allowed Shang Chunxiang to send a message from the palace, saying that someone had plotted against Hu Shu and that he had been in a deep sleep ever since.
It was still unclear who had plotted against her, but Feng Tan immediately received a second invitation: "The antidote is at the Chu King's residence."
Feng Tingxiao wasn't annoyed by her sharp tongue and insults. He casually lit a tinderbox and lit the candles one by one around the quiet hall. The dim light illuminated the tall, jade-like figure of the man in his nightgown, his bare chest glowing with a warm luster, his body clearly defined.
The man, with his robes trailing behind him and his dark hair flowing over his shoulders, slowly walked up to Feng Tan, holding a candle. The light enveloped the two of them, illuminating their somewhat similar profiles, which were formed from the same origin.
The King of Chu was renowned throughout the capital for his romantic escapades. People had only ever seen him flirting with beauties in brothels and theaters, and they thought his romantic escapades were merely outward. But if they saw him dressed like this now, they would surely realize that his romantic escapades were in his very bones.
"Don't look at what you shouldn't see," Feng Tan said, averting her eyes, her voice still tinged with anger. "What good will it do you to make the princess unconscious?"
“It’s of no benefit to me, oh…” Feng Tingxiao leaned down, his teasing gaze falling on her face, and said, “Not really, you’ve come to find me, haven’t you?”
Feng Tan composed himself and said, "Your Highness wants to take revenge on me. Why not come at me? What kind of man comes after the princess?"
Feng Tingxiao curled his lips and said, "Then tell me, what is your relationship with the princess that makes me go to such lengths to harm her?"
Feng Tan looked into the light brown eyes of the person in front of her. Some things couldn't be said outright, because once they were, there would be no going back. She pondered for a moment, no longer fixating on why he wanted to harm Hu Shu, and instead said, "Your conditions."
She simply didn't want to spend another quarter of an hour with him, but Feng Tingxiao wouldn't have her way. He turned around and lit the candles in the inner circle again, and the bedchamber slowly became dimly lit. He said unhurriedly, "Years ago, before I was born, Emperor Jianming had a celestial master cast a divination for me. The divination said that I would have no children in this life, but that would be against the natural order..."
Feng Tan didn't understand what he was trying to say. He stopped abruptly at this point and instead calmly went to light the candle. She took a deep breath and asked, "Your Highness, it is true that I brought down your key figure in the Ministry of Justice. You have attempted to assassinate me and impeached me. You have already vented your anger. The princess has nothing to do with this matter. Why implicate the innocent?"
"Are you trying to preach morality to me?" Feng Tingxiao's eyes held a hint of sarcasm. His fingers, which were lighting candles, paused as he asked Feng Tan, "When you were with Xiao Yinshi, did you also preach morality to him?"
What on earth is he talking about now? Feng Tan couldn't keep up with his train of thought and just found him strangely terrifying.
Seeing that Feng Tan did not answer, Feng Tingxiao lit the last candle, stretched out his arm and pulled the hanging wire on the ceiling. A huge screen was spread out from the ceiling. The candlelight flickered and the screen separated the two of them, one in front and one behind. When he looked up, the pattern on the screen made Feng Tan's pupils shrink sharply.
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