Chapter 225 Victory and defeat, decided in a single glance
Ji Qingwu hesitated whether to take the dagger.
At that moment, the door to the new house was pushed open.
The two maids were kicked out, and Princess Qingyun's angry voice carried outside.
"Where are your eyes? Those two earrings were right there on the table, how could they just disappear into thin air...?"
Qingyun finally waited for Li Chengxun to return. He had already changed into his bright red undergarment for bedtime. Before the two could exchange more than a few words, they learned that the emperor had arrived.
She was both surprised and anxious; she needed to redo her hair ornaments before she could go out and meet people.
But the gold and pearl earrings were nowhere to be found, and the more anxious they were, the less likely they were to find them.
Princess Qingyun said angrily, "If you still can't find it, can you take responsibility when my brother asks later?"
Li Chengxun placed one hand on her shoulder and used the other to move the golden crown away from in front of the dressing mirror.
"Princess, don't worry, we've found it."
He put it on her ear, brushed her earlobe, and whispered in her ear, "His Majesty is coming, it wouldn't be good to keep him waiting. I'll go to the front hall to greet him first. It's not too late for the princess to come out after she's ready."
People were moving around in the new house, and Li Chengxun, dressed in a red wedding gown, was about to leave.
Ji Qingwu's eyes were also darting around.
Emperor Wusu did not expose her lame excuse to her face, which meant he had no intention of punishing Mo Lingling.
Ji Qingwu stepped forward and said softly, "Your Majesty, the princess will have to wait a while before she is ready to come out and meet you. Why don't you go to the front hall and sit down first?"
As she spoke, she tried to open her eyes wide, looking at him expectantly.
He waited until her eyes were sore and glistening with tears before saying, "What's so great about sitting in the front hall? I think the back courtyard has a much better variety."
Ji Qingwu blinked slowly, and Emperor Wusu said leisurely, "There are people jumping into the lake in the water and people cutting tree bark on the shore. Isn't that much more interesting than just sitting there?"
Ji Qingwu bit her lip and continued to persuade, "Your Majesty underestimates me. I can do much more than just chop tree bark."
Li Chengxun happened to walk out of the room and saw two figures in the corridor.
The night was dark, shadows obscured the light, and the palace lanterns were lit.
The two were standing very close, talking to each other, at a distance that exceeded the normal distance for conversation.
The intimacy and tenderness were evident in the posture of one person looking up and the other looking down.
Li Chengxun took a few steps forward and recognized the woman with her back to him as Ji Qingwu.
He paused at one end of the corridor.
He happened to meet the man's gaze, and quickly lowered his head to avoid it, his heart filled with shock.
The smile on Emperor Wusu's lips had not yet faded, but when he looked at him, his eyebrows instantly lowered, mixed with displeasure at being disturbed, as well as an emotion that a fellow man could understand.
The outcome could be decided in a single glance.
Today was supposed to be a joyous day for Li Chengxun to marry the princess and have his wish fulfilled, but he felt a chill rising from his back, almost freezing cold.
Why did the Empress Dowager take a liking to him at the crucial moment when he was about to be engaged to the Ji family?
At the time, he thought it was because his talent was superior that he had won the favor of the royal family.
Looking back now, it was Emperor Wusu who orchestrated this.
The outcome of a single game is unpredictable...
Li Chengxun shook his head with a wry smile. He thought he was the one playing the game, but in reality, he was also a piece.
At that moment, Ji Qingwu also noticed someone behind him. As soon as he saw that it was Li Chengxun, he immediately turned his head back, afraid that if he looked at him for too long, the person in front of him would frown again.
Who knows if Li Chengxun is sober or not? If he says something incoherent again, she'd better run away first.
Ji Qingwu curtsied and deliberately raised her voice, "Your Majesty, you just asked where the bridal chamber is. It's right behind here. Now that the consort has come out, I won't disturb you any longer. I'll take my leave."
Before leaving, they made sure to pull Mo Lingling, who was covered in mud, out of the lake.
Ji Qingwu randomly found a room on the road and asked a maid in the mansion to find him a set of clean clothes.
Upon entering, Mo Lingling gripped the dagger tightly in both hands and was about to kneel down again.
Ji Qingwu wanted to reach out and stop her, but when he saw that she was covered in mud, he withdrew his hand.
“Miss Mo, it’s good that you’re awake. Don’t kneel down so easily. Your life isn’t that cheap.”
Mo Lingling's face turned pale, but her eyes remained stubborn as she said, "Miss Ji, I'm not here to assassinate him today. I don't intend to fight him to the death. I'm just... I'm just unwilling to accept this and want to ask him why he broke his promise back then."
Ji Qingwu looked at the dagger she was holding in her arms, protecting it like a treasure.
What happened back then?
Ji Qingwu had saved her several times, and Mo Lingling had long regarded him as someone as important as family. There was nothing she couldn't tell him.
“At that time, my father was poisoned and murdered in prison. Before he died, he left a confession. I knew there was something fishy about it, but there was nothing I could do. All the men of the Mo family were exiled to the remote and harsh northern border, and the women were enslaved.”
Ji Qingwu sat at the table and asked, "Since all women are registered as slaves, why did you become a government prostitute?"
Mo Lingling said, "The newly appointed county magistrate was my father's advisor. He forced me to become his mistress. I refused to comply, and he became angry and sent me to the Liangxiang Pavilion to buy new prostitutes on a boat."
"Our group encountered a band of bandits on the waterway to Lin'an. The bandits were cunning; they blindfolded us to prevent us from seeing the road and remembering how to escape."
"The girls on this boat are all beautiful and have great figures. How could this gang of bandits let them go? But I'm still relatively lucky."
Ji Qingwu frowned and said, "Someone has come to rescue you."
Mo Lingling nodded, gripping the knife tightly in her hand, as if drawing courage from the cold iron blade.
"This dagger sliced through the throat of the bandit who was pinning me down with a single stroke."
Mo Lingling said, "That person wanted to take me away, but I can't just leave like this. I still need to clear the name of the Mo family. Once I get to the capital, I'll have more opportunities to get to know high-ranking officials."
“But he said he would help me avenge my father, and told me to wait for him. All I needed to do until then was to protect myself.”
Ji Qingwu pondered, "Did he tell you himself that he is Li Chengxun?"
After a long while, Mo Lingling said embarrassedly, "I was so scared at the time that I forgot to ask his name."
Ji Qingwu gave her a look that said, "I knew it."
Mo Lingling said, "Besides, I was completely naked and embarrassed to take off my blindfold. He left this dagger with me. Afterwards, when I saw what the dagger looked like, I understood everything."
Mo Lingling's face was dirty, but she washed the dagger clean with lake water.
She pointed to the hilt of the knife and said, "Miss Ji, look at the patterns on this dagger."
The engraved pattern is thicker at one end and thinner at the other, resembling an upside-down pear.
"This is a pear, isn't that the same as a 'li'?"
At that time, the Mo family was detained by the government. Li Chengxun's father was a successful candidate in the imperial examinations and had organized the people to submit a petition. He was also imprisoned by the corrupt officials.
Although he was released after the case was closed, Li's father suffered severe torture in prison and died of illness not long after returning home.
At that time, Mo Lingling didn't think of anyone else who could share her hatred of the enemy.
Ji Qingwu examined the rune carefully. To be honest, it was really abstract, just two circles.
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