Chapter 3 Even Disregarding Innocence
Xie Qi's tense body relaxed a little.
From the moment Lu Yuan entered, he had been wondering why this Miss Jiang would risk being discovered and having her reputation ruined to help a complete stranger like him.
So it turns out he wanted something from her, which makes sense now.
"Miss Jiang, please speak frankly. I will do my best to help you."
“I knew you were skilled in martial arts from the moment you came in,” Jiang Zhi said without revealing his identity. She poured him a cup of hot tea and handed it to him. “I need you to help me find an opportunity to kill Yan Wenkang, the second son of the Earl of Zhongqin’s mansion.”
Xie Qi nearly choked on the tea he had just swallowed. "What did you say?"
"Is it difficult?" Jiang Zhi smiled faintly. "The Earl of Zhongqin's mansion is a noble family with an extraordinary status. It's normal for you to find it difficult."
Xie Qi couldn't help but wonder, "What grudge does Miss Jiang have against Yan Wenkang that would lead her to take someone's life?"
"Yan Wenkang wants to marry me, but everyone in the capital knows that Yan Wenkang is an uneducated, lecherous, and gambling man with a large number of concubines. I don't want to marry him, but my wife at home won't allow it, so I have no choice but to resort to this."
At this time in his previous life, Yan Wenkang had already asked the Jiang family for his life.
Although the stepmother wanted to use her to curry favor with the Earl of Loyalty, she was afraid of the old lady and feared being labeled as mistreating her eldest daughter, so she kept delaying and did not dare to agree.
Until the Xie Qi incident, in order to ensure that the marriage would fall into the hands of her own daughter, the stepmother plotted to drug her at a banquet and personally led people to catch Yan Wenkang and her arguing, completely ruining her reputation.
"this……"
Hearing her say that, Xie Qi did not immediately agree.
Killing Yan Wenkang is simple.
Although he had not returned to the capital for a long time, he had heard of Yan Wenkang's reputation. In fact, he knew more about him than this Miss Jiang did.
I heard that Yan Wenkang injured his health while playing with his concubines, and he is probably no longer able to have children. The Countess dotes on her youngest son and has not let a word of it slip out.
However, if Yan Wenkang were to die at his hands, the Zhongqin Earl's Mansion would certainly not let it go and would become enemies with the Wuyi Marquis's Mansion, which was something he did not want to see.
Seeing Xie Qi hesitate, Jiang Zhi chuckled inwardly, not expecting him to agree anyway. "Fine, I've put you in a difficult position. Just pretend I never mentioned it."
Xie Qi frowned.
He has always been clear about his gratitude and grudges. Today, Miss Jiang disregarded her own innocence and was even injured in order to help him.
And what she helped Xie Qi was not just his life.
He was ordered to lead troops to guard the border, but a letter came from the capital saying that his mother was seriously ill and on the verge of death, so he rushed back from afar.
Hearing that the abbot of Puzhao Temple possessed a good remedy for the illness, he secretly went up the mountain at night to seek it.
Unexpectedly, he ran into Lu Yuan at Puzhao Temple and was mistaken for an assassin and captured.
Lu Yuan is the emperor's eyes and ears. If the emperor finds out that he has returned to the capital without permission and imperial decree, the entire Marquis of Wuyi's mansion will likely be implicated.
Therefore, he was determined to repay Jiang Zhi's kindness.
So what if she doesn't want to marry Yan Wenkang? He has plenty of ways to deal with that.
"Please wait a few more days, Miss Jiang. I have other important matters to attend to, but I will personally settle this matter for you once I have finished."
Xie Qi took out a jade pendant from his bosom and solemnly handed it to Jiang Zhi, saying, "With this jade pendant as my promise, I, Xie, will certainly not fail in my trust."
Jiang Zhi reached out and took it; it was a white jade dragon pendant, warm to the touch, with a delicate and translucent texture, clearly an extraordinary piece.
In his previous life, Xie Qi used this jade pendant as a token to propose marriage, but it ended up in the hands of his stepsister, Jiang Yunqian.
Thinking of this, Jiang Zhi felt that the jade pendant was quite an eyesore, but she couldn't show her disdain in front of Xie Qi, so she casually put it into her dressing case.
But he accidentally aggravated the wound on his neck and couldn't help but hiss.
"Let me apply some medicine to Miss Jiang's wound," Xie Qi said, taking out the wound medicine and stepping forward. "If we delay, it might really leave a scar."
Jiang Zhi didn't refuse. She sat on the soft stool, turned her face to the side, and raised her head, revealing a small section of her fair and fragrant neck.
Lu Yuan stopped her in time; her wound wasn't deep. The jade hairpin had grazed her neck, leaving a bloody mark.
"Don't worry, I've spent a lot of time in the military, so I'm quite adept at handling these kinds of minor injuries." Xie Qi didn't know whether he was reassuring Jiang Zhi or himself.
Although he came from a noble family, he was used to living in the army, surrounded by burly men. When had he ever applied medicine to a young lady in her boudoir?
The long, elegant neck in front of him gave him the illusion that he could easily break it with the slightest force.
He could only carefully dissolve the medicine on his fingertips and slowly apply it with gentle pressure.
But her thoughts drifted back to when she was submerged in the bathtub.
In a moment of crisis, he acted swiftly without much thought, but now, recalling the scene makes him feel uneasy.
To make it realistic, she took off her clothes before going into the water, leaving only a handkerchief wrapped around her.
To avoid being abrupt, Xie Qi didn't even open his eyes.
Even so, the delicate fragrance unique to young girls, the wet sound of water, and the warm, soft body he accidentally touched in the small bathtub all made his Adam's apple bob.
She sacrificed so much for him.
Xie Qi suppressed the erotic thoughts in his mind, his face remaining expressionless, but his ears had unknowingly turned bright red.
It caught Jiang Zhi's eye and she found it amusing.
Isn't Xie Qi supposed to be a spirited, noble, and dazzling young general? How could he be so easily embarrassed?
After the medicine was applied, Xie Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
This is much more difficult than leading troops into battle.
Having wasted so much time, and with dawn approaching, it was time for him to head back.
*
The next morning, when Madam Jiang woke up and heard about what had happened the night before, she summoned Jiang Zhi to ask her questions.
“Grandmother, Lord Lu was just conducting a routine search and did not make things difficult for me,” Jiang Zhi replied, picking out the less important information. “I only heard that he was chasing an assassin, but I have no idea who it was.”
Madam Jiang was over fifty years old. Her white hair was neatly tied into a bun at the back of her head. She was slender but stood very straight.
Although she saved Xie Qi in her previous life, she was also offended by it and suffered from palpitations. After returning to the manor, she fell ill and died less than two years later.
Granny Ji, who was serving her grandmother, patted her chest in relief, "Fortunately, the eldest young lady helped the old lady light some calming incense and went to bed early yesterday. Otherwise, if the Imperial Guards had disturbed her, the old lady's heart palpitations would probably have relapsed."
Madam Jiang agreed wholeheartedly, saying, "Lu Yuan is a man of deep thoughts and enjoys the Emperor's deep trust, so we must not offend him. But if he acts out of line, you can tell your grandmother that our Jiang family will not be bullied by anyone."
She was strict and rigid, and rarely smiled.
In her past life, Jiang Zhi was afraid of her and, apart from paying her respects daily, dared not easily set foot in her grandmother's courtyard.
Now that Jiang Zhi has already died once, there's nothing to be afraid of anymore.
At least compared to her stepmother's two-faced nature, her grandmother was upright and honest, and would not do anything to harm others in secret.
"Granddaughter understands." She replied softly, then thought for a moment and said, "Granddaughter has a request for Grandmother."
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