Chapter 129: Lipstick Mark
Several Xizi merchants stared at the token, their eyes sharp, without uttering a word.
Gu Jie drew a scroll from the sandalwood box and slowly unrolled it.
It was a yellowed blueprint. Although incomplete and with blurry patterns, the outline alone was enough to recognize that this was a small part of the structural diagram for the Divine Arm Camp’s crossbow mechanism…
Alimu’s eyes lit up, and his throat bobbed.
“As soon as I entered the city, I heard that Princess Ping Le had frequent bouts of hysteria and acted improperly, leading to her being reprimanded by the Emperor of Daliang and confined to the Princess’s Mansion…”
Gu Jie’s eyes flickered.
How could his heart not be conflicted?
Princess Ping Le committed such a grave mistake, yet His Majesty only punished her lightly, no different from any of Princess Ping Le’s past transgressions.
Therefore, Princess Ping Le could do as she pleased…
And he knew all too well the consequences of betraying Princess Ping Le.
Gu Jie took a deep breath and narrowed his eyes slightly.
“As you merchants conduct business in Shangjing, you must know that the most honored princess of Daliang is Princess Ping Le. She is His Majesty’s darling. When His Majesty punishes the princess, it is merely for show. After some time, when the attention wanes and people forget about it, the matter will pass. There is no need to dwell on it…”
Alimu shook his head.
His bronze face drew closer, the curved saber reflecting Gu Jie’s suddenly constricted pupils.
“Sir, the integrity of Xizi merchants cannot withstand the schemes of those with ulterior motives. I regret to inform you that I cannot accept this business. Please leave.”
His tone was icy as he made a gesture of dismissal.
Just then, a waiter from the inn happened to knock on the door.
The waiter asked, “The food and drinks are ready. May I serve them, esteemed guests?”
Gu Jie did not answer him, his Adam’s apple bobbing slightly.
“I have heard that Master Alimu once exchanged a hundred bolts of silk for a captured caravan from bandits. Why do you now hesitate to exchange two boxes of pepper for a clear path?”
Alimu’s expression shifted slightly.
Clearly, the other party had come after ascertaining his identity.
Alimu lowered his head, exchanged a few words in Xizi with an old Xizi merchant beside him, and slowly looked up, asking Gu Jie.
“What does Princess Ping Le want?”
Only then did Gu Jie show a hint of a smile and say loudly, “Waiter, serve the food.”
He sat down and gestured to everyone, “You have all traveled a long way and must be hungry. Let’s talk while we eat.”
–
Outside the private room, someone was calling out orders for food and drinks.
An inconspicuous figure quietly slipped past, quickly traversed the corridor, and pushed open a hidden door in the adjacent room.
Inside, Li Zhao and Xue Sui were leisurely sipping tea.
The tea fragrance wafted, intermingling with the faint incense within the room, creating a peaceful and pleasant atmosphere.
A chessboard was placed before them, with black and white pieces arranged in a complex, evenly matched game.
The scout hurried in and whispered a few words into Li Zhao’s ear.
Li Zhao’s lips curved slightly. “The fish has taken the bait.”
Xue Sui’s fingertips caressed the teacup, gazing out the carved window at the twilight that was quietly spreading in the summer heat. She listened to the crisp chime of the Xizi merchant caravan’s copper bells, faintly audible amidst the inn’s clamor.
“Princess Ping Le is quite willing to pay a high price, even daring to tamper with the blueprints of the Divine Arm Camp…”
Li Zhao took a sip of tea and shook his head with a smile.
“Their calculations are precise, but they don’t realize that the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.”
Xue Sui put down her teacup and met Li Zhao’s gaze. “Your Highness, are you the oriole? Or the mantis?”
Li Zhao’s lips curved, teasing, “I can be the cicada, your cicada.”
Xue Sui: “……”
“If the cicada is willing to enter the snare, why can’t it bite back at the oriole?” Li Zhao chuckled softly.
The elegant tea fragrance intertwined with the scent of ambergris from his sleeve, stirring the heart.
Xue Sui’s hand, which was about to place a chess piece, happened to brush against his.
They exchanged a glance, and their overlapping robes quickly separated.
Xue Sui felt his scent clinging to her sleeve cuff.
Unromantically, she raised it to sniff, frowning in displeasure. As Li Zhao was about to make another move, she suddenly tapped his hand with a chess piece, quite forcefully.
“With such a seductive chess style, Crown Prince, be careful not to get pecked in the eye by the oriole.”
“Hiss…” Li Zhao looked at her in pain.
The cicada’s chirping outside the window suddenly became sharp.
Li Zhao suddenly smiled and held her hand as she was about to withdraw it.
“Does Ping An know…”
He guided her hand, placing the black piece into a dead end.
“The best hunter often enters the game disguised as prey—”
Xue Sui recalled what she had said to him that day at You Huang Ju, her eyes flickering slightly.
“Who the hunter is remains to be seen. But you and I are not rivals, at least not yet.”
Not yet, but the future was uncertain.
Li Zhao let out a low chuckle.
“Then let’s see who captures whom first?”
The candlelight flickered in his eyes, the subtle curve of his eyes seeming to pull threads, inch by inch, towards the throat, as if to see through a person.
The back of Xue Sui’s neck suddenly tensed. Beneath the skin, scorched by Li Zhao’s gaze, it felt as if thousands of ants were stirring, and the heat of the summer air crawled up her spine…
That feeling was unfamiliar.
Ten years of licking blood with a blade in the Old Mausoleum Swamp, she had been forced to the cliff’s edge by her Senior Brother’s sword at her throat, and she had fought wolves in the mud. She had had physical contact with her Senior Brothers, but she had never experienced this sensation—
The ambergris on that man’s robe was like a living thing, entering her lungs with each breath, making her heart restless.
What a shameless Li Zhao!
Relying on his extraordinary charm and the subtle connection of the Love Silk Gu, he was trying to seduce her?
Xue Sui suddenly let out a scoff, forcefully withdrew her hand, grabbed the waistband with ornaments at his waist, and yanked hard.
Li Zhao, caught off guard, leaned forward. The jade belt buckle pressed into her palm, and the veins on his arm, propped on the desk, bulged. “Xue Ping’an!”
Xue Sui tilted her head up, her breath brushing against his Adam’s apple.
“Crown Prince, hide your tail properly! Otherwise, I don’t mind loosening your muscles for you, and then capturing you to be my appetizer…”
They stared at each other, eye to eye.
“Bang!” Suddenly, the sound of shattering porcelain came from the next room, accompanied by the jabbering of several Xizi merchants.
Li Zhao remained motionless, his nose almost brushing her forehead.
“Let go!”
“Hmph!”
Their entwined figures were reflected on the screen, then quickly separated.
Xue Sui tiptoed over, pressing her ear against the wall, listening intently.
Li Zhao moved closer. “What are they saying?”
Xue Sui’s lips curved slightly. “They’re saying that when jackals snatch meat, they hate people watching the show with torches the most…”
Li Zhao’s expression raised an eyebrow slightly.
Xue Sui: “They’re talking about people like you, Crown Prince, who appear calm and detached, as if uninvolved, but actually hide behind the scenes, stirring up trouble with ill intentions…”
Before she finished speaking, she felt a warm breath brush past the back of her neck.
“That lie is too carelessly told!”
A soft chuckle escaped Li Zhao’s throat, and he slowly turned his head, pressing it against the wall.
His wide sleeve brushed past her collarbone, and the man’s breath, mixed with his body heat, seemed to transform into an invisible spider web, trapping her in place.
His body was so close that his breath seemed to scorch the sensitive skin on Xue Sui’s neck.
“Do you really think I can’t understand and would just spout nonsense?”
Xue Sui’s breath hitched. She looked up, about to retort.
Unexpectedly, Li Zhao slowly lowered his head, his face inadvertently brushing past Xue Sui’s lips.
A faint trace of red lipstick was quietly left on his cheek.
She was stunned.
Li Zhao was also somewhat taken aback. He squinted and rubbed his cheek, looking at Xue Sui’s sternly composed, tense face, and couldn’t help but chuckle.
Xue Ping’an is truly a blockhead, completely devoid of romantic sentiment.
Li Zhao suddenly stepped back half a pace, leisurely wiping the red mark from his cheek.
“They clearly said that hawks will eventually blind wolves… You are that little wolf!”
Xue Sui: “……”
Explaining Xizi language in Zhongzhou dialect, the literal meaning was difficult to grasp.
But in this situation, as Li Zhao chewed each word from his throat, his deep gaze, the slightly upturned corners of his mouth, and his face, rubbed red, all seemed to hide danger.
–
Gu Jie from next door had already left.
All that remained was the language of the Xizi merchant caravan.
After Gu Jie left, the leader named Alimu actually bowed respectfully to an inconspicuous old man among the caravan.
“High Priest…”
“Call me Alah.”
“Yes, Alah,” Alimu said. “They say Zhongzhou women are as weak as lambs. I see this Princess Ping Le in Shangjing is more venomous than a scorpion in the desert… If she thinks she can use us like oxen, she’s miscalculated…”
Alah snorted lightly.
Mimicking Gu Jie’s tone from earlier, he rolled a sentence of awkward Zhongzhou official language on his tongue.
“A desert fox snatched a lamb and wants to repay with a wolf cub… Bah, who wants to do a suicidal business with her! Mu Ya’s revenge must be paid in blood.”
“Mu Ya, did she… did she really die at the hands of Princess Ping Le?”
Alah’s expression was grave. After a long pause, he shook his head and said, “We must find a way to meet Princess Wen Jia. Once we ask the princess, everything will be clear.”
Before he finished speaking, a mournful sound of huqin suddenly rose from downstairs, like weeping and lamenting, piercing through the inn’s bright lights.
A woman in a sky-blue cloud-gauze dress, her skirt fluttering, like a light cloud, slowly ascended the wooden stairs.
She was alone, without any maidservants.
She stopped at the door of the Xizi merchant caravan and knocked gently.
“Swallow from Xizi seeks an audience with the esteemed Master Alimu.”
She spoke in the Xizi dialect.
A phrase like restless sand grains before a desert storm, it entered everyone’s ears.
Alah suddenly stood up, and in his haste, he knocked over a teacup.
The tea soup flowed down the table and dripped onto the bluestone floor.
The woman, wearing an exquisite veiled hat, slowly walked in. Her embroidered shoes stepped on the wet tea soup. She looked at the surprised Xizi people and smiled faintly.
“Young Lady, you are…?” Alah’s voice trembled.
Her fair fingertips slowly reached up to the light veil of the veiled hat and slowly pulled it aside, revealing a beautiful and moving face.
“I am the person you are looking for.”
Happy Valentine’s Day! My dear readers~~
Li Zhao: Is this how you celebrate the holiday?
Xue Sui: What else?
Li Zhao: I should have known not to wipe off the lipstick mark.
