Incense smoke curls up, filling the empty meditation room.

Across the misty green smoke, Yaoying and Tanmarajaka looked at each other for a moment. She was in a trance for a moment, and for some reason, a strange feeling surged in her heart.

Tanmarajiva was indifferent and cold, without a trace of worldly affairs. Such a look did not belong to him.

"king."

Bisha bowed to Tanmaraka and broke the silence, "Princess Wen Zhao is fine."

Yaoying came back to her senses, slightly curved her eyebrows, and smiled at Tanmarajiva, indicating that she was fine.

When the monks came looking for her, she was already out of danger.

Her eyes were large and long, and they were radiant even when she was not smiling. When she smiled, the corners of her eyes curled up slightly, as if a gentle breeze was blowing, and under the snow-capped peaks, thousands of peach and apricot trees were in full bloom, bringing with them the beauty of spring.

The winter in the royal court is cold and long, but when spring comes and flowers bloom, it is also bright and gorgeous.

Tanmarajiva moved his eyes away and fell on the long table, where a scroll of scriptures was spread out open, the golden handwriting on the pages looking ancient and pale.

In silence, there was a burst of hurried footsteps outside the meditation room. Yuan Jue clasped his fists outside the door and said, "King, we have captured all the people, not one is missing."

Yao Ying heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Since the people have been captured, I will go back first and not disturb the wizard and the generals."

Tanmarajiva and Bisa would definitely interrogate who instructed those guards. She was out of danger now and could go back to the yard to wait for news.

She turned and walked out.

"Princess, please stay."

Yaoying turned around, but Tanmarajiva, who had just tried to persuade her to stay, did not look at her and said to Bisu, "Since he is your subordinate, you should interrogate him yourself."

Bi Suo was stunned for a moment, then responded respectfully, looked deeply at Yao Ying, stepped out, and before walking down the stairs, he looked back at the meditation room.

Yaoying was still standing at the door, her fingers clutching the white robe he had put on her, her eyelashes flickering, looking a little dazed.

Tanmaraka walked towards her step by step.

Yao Ying looked up at him and unconsciously took a step back.

Yuanjue let down the felt curtain, and the golden curling grass pattern floated and flowed, blocking Bisa's sight.

Bi Su's face had a complicated expression. She was distracted for a while and then left quickly.

The felt curtain fell, and the Zen room fell into darkness with a faint smell of cold fragrance.

Tanmarajiva walked closer to Yaoying, and his gaze upon her was like a ray of moonlight in the quiet night, deep and calm, gentle and cold, not too aggressive, but containing an unquestionable force, as if he could see through all her thoughts and see into the deepest part of her heart.

Such a Tanmaraka made Yaoying feel a little breathless. She looked at him and subconsciously tightened her back.

Tanmarajika lowered his eyes to look at her, his gaze passing over her disheveled hair.

She loves beauty and even on the snowy mountains she never forgets to look at her face in front of the ice. She keeps herself neat and tidy every day.

If she had not been stranded in this remote foreign land, she would have been a carefree young lady with family by her side.

"Are you hurt?" he asked softly.

It would have been better if he hadn't asked. After he asked, Yao Ying immediately felt a dull pain in her shoulders and neck. The guards had just caught up with her, grabbed her shoulders, and dragged her for a long distance.

Tanmaraka did not miss the flash of pain on her face, and nodded his chin, motioning her to sit down at the table.

He regained his composure, and Yao Ying relaxed. She walked to the long table, sat down cross-legged, and glanced curiously at the scriptures on the table. She saw that the handwriting was his handwriting.

Tanmaraka stood behind her, leaning forward.

A breath mixed with a cold fragrance approached Yao Ying. She was startled for a moment, then realized that he was looking at the scar on her neck. She lowered her head and lifted her loose hair.

"Did it get scratched?"

Yaoying couldn't see the back of her neck, so she turned around and asked Tanmarajiva, her eyes were clear and full of trust, a kind of closeness and admiration for an elder.

When others looked at him, there was love, admiration, enthusiasm and respect in their eyes.

Her gaze was not as enthusiastic as others, but there seemed to be something that others did not have, something he could not put his finger on.

Tanmarajiva hummed and looked at the back of Yaoying's neck.

There were several purple fingerprints on her snow-white skin, which was as white as cream. The fingerprints were shocking to the eyes, extending from her neck into her clothes. It could be imagined that she had been roughly strangled by the neck and dragged.

Tanmarajiva turned and walked away, and after a while he came back with a gilded clam box in his hand and placed it on the table.

Yaoying thanked him, picked up the clam box, put her braid aside, turned around and tried to apply medicine on herself. After spending a long time trying, she didn't know if she had applied it to the right place. Her neck was burning and she hissed from time to time and gasped in pain.

After a while, a breeze blew past me.

Tanmarajiva sat down beside her, swept his cassock sleeves, took the clam box from her hand, leaned over, raised his hands, and untied her white robe with his slender fingers.

Yao Ying raised her head in surprise, twisted her neck, and groaned in pain.

"Don't move."

Tanmarajiva said softly, took off Yaoying's white robe and threw it on the carpet, then opened her collar with his fingers.

As he expected, the wound on his neck was just bruises, and there were a few deeper fingerprints on his shoulder, which were slightly bleeding.

She couldn't see the wound clearly, and most of the medicine she had just applied was applied to the intact area.

Tanmarajya said 'excuse me', slightly opened Yaoying's clothes, took out a handkerchief to cover her skin without fingerprints, dipped his fingers in the ointment, and applied it to her, without looking away and breathing steadily.

Yaoying lowered her head to make it easier for him to move.

"What does the wizard want me to stay for?"

she asked.

Tanmaraka remained silent.

As we got closer, his breath was still faint and almost imperceptible.

Yao Ying raised her eyes to look at him. From the side, her brow bones were full and plump, her features were clear and distinct, and there was a layer of light stubble on the top of her head, like light green lotus roots, which looked a little thorny.

She couldn't help but be distracted, wondering if it would feel as prickly as the lotus stem.

Then she thought: What a sin, what a sin, she dared not touch the Buddha's head, Prajna would go crazy.

As she was thinking, she suddenly felt tired and her consciousness gradually became blurred. Yao Ying shook her head gently, forced herself to cheer up, and slowly recounted what had just happened.

Tanmaraka kept her, probably because he wanted to ask her about her guards.

"General Ashina told me yesterday about questioning his personal guards. Someone must have leaked their whereabouts before, which led to the ambush of the Regent. When Ah Qing and his men came back last night, I asked them carefully. They should not have made any mistakes before."

"The person who leaked the news was probably someone from the Holy City. I was going to tell the general, so when the guards came to my house with the bronze talisman, I thought they were sent by the general... I saw that they were acting suspiciously, so I became suspicious. The guard was indeed up to something, and he sprinkled a handful of powder on me, but I dodged..."

"Ah Qing, hold the three people back. I just need to find a place with monk soldiers and call for help..."

Yao Ying felt better at the end of her speech and said, "By the way, I am grateful to Kakuro and General Ashina for giving me the bronze whistle."

She lowered her head, took out a copper whistle from her sleeve, and held it in her palm to show Tanmaragha.

"Master, this is..."

Before she could finish her sentence, her eyes went dark, her hands dropped weakly, and her body collapsed.

Tanmaraka raised his wrist and grabbed her arm.

Yaoying fell into his arms and rubbed her forehead against his chin. Although it was only for a brief moment, the soft and smooth feeling of their skin touching each other lingered for a long time.

Tanmarajiva held Yaoying in his arms. The girl had a delicate body, her face buried in his crimson cassock, her eyelashes trembling slightly.

Even through several layers of thick clothes, a faint fragrance can still be smelled.

It feels soft in the palm of your hand, with even bones and flesh.

"Mage..."

Yaoying murmured.

Tanmaraka closed his eyes and remained motionless.

A room filled with fragrance.

After a while, Tanmarajiva let go of Yaoying, held her neck with his hand, let her lie down on the felt blanket, took out a quilt and a soft pillow, and settled her down. He stared at her for a moment, gently rolled up her sleeves, and took her pulse with two fingers.

She said the guards had sprinkled powder on her and she must have inhaled some of it and was now feeling the effects of the drug.

Tanmaraka lowered his blue eyes and looked at her quietly.

Yao Ying frowned slightly.

Tanmaraka helped her up and placed a few soft pillows behind her so that she could sleep on her side so that her injured shoulder would not touch her.

She curled up into a ball, her brows gradually relaxed.

Tanmaraj stood up and picked up the bronze whistle that had just rolled out of Yaoying's palm.

This copper whistle is an old item of his. Last night he asked Yuanjue to send it to Eagle Slave so that Eagle Slave could teach her how to use it. If Kaluga gets angry with her eagle again in the future, she can blow the whistle to warn him.

Tanmarajiva put the copper whistle into the small brocade bag on Yaoying's waist.

As long as it can be used.

…

After questioning the guards, Bisha returned to the meditation room to report.

Yuanjue told him that Yaoying had not left yet.

"Princess Wen Zhao has been in there all this time? It's been so long, why hasn't she come out?"

Yuanjue nodded.

Bi Suo looked at the closed felt curtain with a frown on her face.

The personal guard went in to report, the curtain was opened, and Tanmarajiva came out. He signaled Bishuo to go to the small hall at the other end of the corridor.

Bisa was surprised and followed him.

"I have found out that it was indeed my subordinate. Someone bribed him to hide Princess Wen Zhao. He knew that he could not take the princess away from the royal temple, so he planned to confuse her and hide her in an abandoned cave."

Having said this, Bisuo paused and smiled.

"The princess was very alert. She ran away while Xie Qing was struggling with them. Although she was caught again, she blew the bronze whistle for training eagles in time, attracting Kakuro and the monks nearby. Kakuro chased away one of her personal guards. When the others saw the monks coming, they knew that their plan had failed, so they did not dare to stay and had to give up their mission. The monks chased after them, and none of them escaped."

By the time Bisha was extremely anxious and asked Tanmarajiva to mobilize the monks to search for the person, Yaoying had already escaped from the hands of those guards.

After listening to his report, Tanmaraka had no expression on his face and suddenly asked, "Why did they hide Princess Wen Zhao?"

Bhisatta raised his head and looked directly at Tanmaraka.

“Because of you.”

Tanmaraka remained silent.

"Your Majesty..." Bi Suo hesitated for a moment and said, "They want to hide Princess Wen Zhao to threaten you and force you to agree to their conditions."

Tanmarajiva is a son of Buddha and a god in the hearts of the common people. The noble families dared to keep him under house arrest and control the world through the monarch, but they would never dare to harm him, so they would start with the people he cared about. Therefore, whenever there was a change in the court, Princess Chima's mansion would strengthen its defense.

Unexpectedly, this time the noble family chose to take Yao Ying as a hostage.

Bisha smiled meaninglessly: "That's not surprising... King, apart from the safety of the royal court, you don't have much to worry about..."

It should be said that he had almost no concerns. He cared about the world and worked hard. He became a Buddha for all living beings and a devil for all living beings. He did his best and left the rest to fate. He put life and death aside and had no selfish thoughts.

The aristocratic families had no way to deal with him because he had no weaknesses.

Bi Suo's tone changed: "But you asked me to escort Princess Wen Zhao back to Han... King, this is the first time you asked me to do a private matter."

In the past, Tanmarajiva's various kindnesses to Li Yaoying could be regarded as repaying her kindness. He helped take care of her as if he were caring for the common people.

But when he specifically reminded Biso, Biso keenly realized that something was different.

What would be the consequences if Li Yaoying was really abducted?

This time the family just made an accident, but what about next time?

Bhisuo clenched his fists and stared at Tanmaragha.

"King, the reason why the people are so fond of talking about the story of Madana is because Ananda was not moved, because Madana finally achieved good results, broke away from her infatuation, and became a monk."

"This is a beautiful story, so no matter whether you are a monk or not, you are not afraid to mention it."

"If Modanga succeeds..." Bishuo said word by word with a serious expression, "then she will be accused of seducing Ananda to fall. She will be spit on and cursed by Ananda's followers. She will become the target of public criticism, hated, and enmity. Everyone can step on her."

"She will be regarded as a demon, humiliated by the world, and degraded into dust, never to be able to rise again in her lifetime."

"The frenzied followers wanted to tear her apart."

He spoke sentence by sentence, with a thud and every word was like a pearl.

Tanmarajiva stood under a mural telling a story from Buddhist scriptures, his face solemn.

Bi Suo exhaled and said, "My king, I will be more vigilant and will not let such a thing happen again. I will send Princess Wen Zhao back."

He turned around.

Tanmaraka called him.

Bisha turned around.

"Princess Wen Zhao will stay here tonight and tomorrow as well." Tanmarajiva had his back to him and spoke calmly but with a hint of majesty, "until the meeting to establish the Regent is over."

That is to say, until Li Yaoying's safety is ensured.

Biso opened her mouth and sighed helplessly.

Tanmaraka continued, "Pass the order to close the city gates."

"From this moment on, you are only allowed to enter the holy city, not leave. If the four armies outside the city make a commotion, put them in the city wall and surround them without attacking them."

"Please enter the palace, lords."

Bishuo's heart tightened, and he replied in a deep voice.

It's time to close the net.

The author has something to say: Monks have no hair, and they don't have a buzz cut, but a very light stubble. You can search for pictures to see it.