Chapter 111: Iron-Blooded Allies
The next day, it was still drizzling.
The mountain mist mingled with the fresh scent of pine and cypress, drifting lazily. Raindrops from the eaves, with a “drip-drop” sound, fell into the grooves of the bluestone, making ‘Liu Shang Yan Gui’ seem utterly tranquil.
Xue Sui lounged on a soft couch, eating chilled grapes.
Jinshu tiptoed in, knelt to one side, and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Prince Wei left the separate villa before dawn. Prince Duan personally escorted him to the outer gate of the **Flower Gate**. He looked extremely displeased. They whispered for a long time, and I don’t know what they discussed. Then Prince Wei, with a few personal guards, returned to the capital…”
Xue Sui listened, saying nothing.
Prince Wei’s birth mother, Consort Xian, was the Empress Dowager’s niece.
Therefore, Prince Wei was more favored by the Empress Dowager than other imperial princes. Among the current Emperor’s five imperial princes, apart from the youngest, Prince Chun Li Jian, Prince Wei never involved himself in the complex affairs of the court.
He was the epitome of a leisurely and wealthy prince.
For an imperial prince like him, even after the incident with the Xizi Jade Pendant, he would likely only receive a scolding and not suffer any fundamental harm…
However, the Emperor’s mind was always suspicious…
Whether Li Yan could escape unscathed would depend on how much influence the Empress Dowager had with the Emperor, what the Emperor truly thought of the Third Imperial Prince, and his attitude towards the events at the separate villa.
She wasn’t concerned with these matters.
She picked up a grape from the jade plate and leisurely popped it into her mouth.
“How is Xue Si?”
Jinshu looked up. “Fourth Miss’s pregnancy is unstable. She cried and cursed all night in the Jade Steps Pavilion, insisting that you set a trap for her. She swings between laughter and tears, looking as if she’s gone mad. The Princess Consort is at a loss on how to handle her…”
Xue Sui looked at the condensation on the rim of the jade plate and smiled faintly.
“When trouble arises, she feigns madness.”
“The doctor said Fourth Miss is deficient in both qi and blood, and her mind is affected. She needs complete rest to preserve the fetus… Prince Duan is still investigating the matter of the jade pendant and hasn’t done anything to her… However, the Princess Consort has confined her to the Jade Steps Pavilion and sent someone to inform the Marquis Jingyuan’s Mansion to come and fetch her for medical treatment in the capital…”
“What about Third Miss Gu?”
“That young lady is kind-hearted. Even though she has doubts about Fourth Miss’s fetus, she stayed by the stove where the medicine was being brewed, watched the maid prepare the medicinal soup, and personally brought it to Fourth Miss, ensuring she drank it. She then stayed by her bedside. She likely didn’t sleep all night…”
Xue Sui nodded slightly and sighed.
“Speaking of this matter, I used her.”
Several renowned upright scholars resided in Qixia Pavilion, including Zhao Hong. These esteemed scholars valued reputation and integrity the most. They not only wouldn’t easily bow to imperial power but might even criticize it—
If they witnessed her in Qixia Pavilion, they would testify for her.
This way, she could completely absolve herself.
“Aunt Jinshu, please take my box of calming and mood-lifting spices to Third Miss Gu. Remind her to take good care of herself and not to grieve excessively.”
As she spoke, a clear, light cough was heard from outside the window.
Xue Sui glanced at the uneasy Jinshu and raised her chin.
“You may go and attend to it.”
“Yes.”
Jinshu rose and withdrew.
The room door closed.
Silence fell in the room.
Li Zhao’s robe corner swept over the accumulated water outside the threshold, and he leaped in, holding onto the windowsill.
“Madam Ping’an’s layout is truly exquisite. Her decisive actions and ability to stir up trouble are truly admirable.”
Through a bamboo curtain, his voice was laced with a smile and a hint of teasing.
Xue Sui remained still. “Didn’t Your Highness also go with the flow and stuff the Xizi Secret Letter into the woodshed of Zhang Pozi in Ting He Garden?”
Seeing Li Zhao lift the curtain and walk over, she smiled slightly again.
“In the end, the Crown Prince won this game.”
Li Zhao nodded noncommittally. “I am Madam Ping’an’s chess piece. If Madam Ping’an wins, then I win.”
Xue Sui lowered her gaze, not looking at his expression, and directly picked up the jade plate, leisurely peeling a grape.
“It’s just that Xue Liu doesn’t understand, why did Your Highness make the situation more complicated with a Xizi Secret Letter?”
“To win amidst chaos, and to divert the disaster elsewhere.”
The candlelight cast Li Zhao’s shadow on the window screen, like a lurking beast. His voice was playful and smiling, “You used me to set up this scheme, to confuse the public and check Prince Duan, didn’t you?”
Xue Sui did not get up, but merely sat up straighter, allowing his tall figure to envelop her, her voice calm. “You and I are cooperating. To say ‘used’ is too harsh.”
“Heh!” Li Zhao leaned in and flicked a stray hair from her temple with his finger.
“Do you believe that when you say such things, especially with the Love Silk Gu?”
Xue Sui: …
He always brought this up, leaving people to endless speculation.
After a long silence.
Xue Sui’s gaze shifted, and she suddenly asked him, “How did the Crown Prince know about Xue Si’s visit to Prince Wei’s mansion?”
She was unaware of this beforehand; they hadn’t communicated about it.
Li Zhao’s sudden utterance last night had startled her.
What if it backfired and made Li Huan even more suspicious of their collusion?
Li Zhao spoke unhurriedly, his tone light. “Prince Wei’s study has a painting of 《Plum Blossoms Reflecting Snow》.”
He raised his eyebrows, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes. “The painting is inscribed with the line, ‘The bright moon alone shines on the small window, tears fill a silk scarf to express heartfelt emotions.’ Such blatant longing, it would be hard for me to pretend not to see it.”
Xue Sui was slightly taken aback.
This poem did indeed have some connection to Xue Yueying’s maiden name.
Li Zhao said, “That day, Prince Wei’s mansion held a grand banquet, inviting many literati and scholars for a garden tour and poetry recitation. Coincidentally, I was also at the mansion. However, at the time, I was looking at the painting and was unaware of such hidden sentiments.”
Xue Sui bowed slightly. “Your Highness has a good memory and keen eyesight. Xue Liu is impressed.”
Li Zhao stared at her intently, a half-smile on his face. “It is Madam Ping’an who is meticulous and precise with her intelligence. You have opened my eyes.”
“Ping’an is not as thorough in her calculations as Your Highness.”
Their polite exchanges, back and forth, were rather tedious.
Xue Sui pouted after speaking, reaching for a grape as she said, “I didn’t want to trouble a pregnant woman, but Xue Si provoked me time and again. I had no choice but to counter her moves and see who the true player was behind this chess game…”
Li Zhao suddenly laughed and abruptly grabbed her wrist.
The temperature of his fingertips was colder than the chilled grapes. He tugged at the jade plate a few times, refusing to let go.
Seeing her pupils contract, Li Zhao chuckled and suddenly sat beside her, pulling her closer. He looked down, their noses almost touching. “What a coincidence, I also want to see who was the one playing the game at Old Mausoleum Swamp all those years ago?”
Xue Sui gazed at him, her fingertips gently pressing against his chest.
“Crown Prince—”
Recalling his words to Li Heng that they were “pure and innocent,” a smile flickered across her face. She gently pried Li Zhao’s hand away and continued eating the chilled grapes.
“So, what you want to investigate is Old Mausoleum Swamp.”
“Just curiosity, there’s no need for such wariness.”
Li Zhao’s lips curved upwards, and he continued with a smile, “You used the jade pendant to test, implicating the Xizi people, wasn’t it all to bring down Ping Le? Xue Si is a member of the Ping Le Women’s Society… Her harboring a Xizi token and intending to frame Prince Wei are both grave offenses. But even if His Majesty were to kill Prince Wei and Xue Si in a fit of rage, he wouldn’t blame Ping Le…”
He suddenly leaned closer, his breath brushing against Xue Sui’s neck.
“Shall we change the stakes?”
Xue Sui looked at him without speaking.
Li Zhao smirked. “How about we say Ping Le colluded with the Xizi people and intended to rebel? What do you think?”
Xue Sui did not reply.
The one thing an emperor could not tolerate was rebellion.
Even the greatest favor would vanish because of it.
“What does Your Highness intend to do?”
Li Zhao looked into Xue Sui’s eyes, not answering her. Instead, he extended his wrist and placed it on her back, gently stroking it as if to verify something.
“When Chen Henian examined you, he said you had an old injury on the third joint of your spine?”
Xue Sui’s body trembled slightly.
Li Zhao’s gaze swept over her tightly clenched fingers hidden beneath her wide sleeves, and he slowly smiled.
“Was this injury sustained when you were pushed and fell under the rockery at Pu Ji Temple back then?”
Xue Sui narrowed her eyes slightly, scrutinizing him.
The mist from the Biluochun tea on the table rose, blurring the gloom in her eyes.
“Your Highness has investigated me very thoroughly.”
Before her voice faded, she threw off Li Zhao’s hand, bit down on what she held in her palm.
“Then, will this knife of yours ultimately be plunged into Ping Le, or into me?”
Li Zhao hissed softly. “As long as the Love Silk Gu exists, you and I are ironclad allies. How could I bear to kill you?”
He gently rubbed the hand she had bitten, chuckling softly with a hint of indulgence in his tone.
“If you want revenge, just biting isn’t enough.”
Xue Sui’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.
Ten years ago, in the snowy Pu Ji Temple, a young boy had smiled like this, draping his fox fur cloak over her.
Xue Sui asked, “On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month in the second year of Chong Zhao, did Your Highness visit Pu Ji Temple?”
Li Zhao did not answer. He slowly enclosed her hand in his palm and said in an extremely gentle, yet casual tone, “I just want to tell you, next time, don’t harm yourself to resist attending to me. Everything external is fleeting, only life is precious. You must live well to be able to plunge the knife into your enemy’s heart.”
Xue Sui looked at him coldly.
She hadn’t cared about attending to him originally…
Wasn’t it to keep her promise to him?
She had suffered greatly this time, and this scoundrel was speaking such flippant words.
“Crown Prince—”
Xue Sui sneered. Before she could utter her mocking words, her palm was suddenly opened by him, and something was placed inside…
Cold and smooth, it was a lustrous and ancient porcelain container.
She asked, “What is this?”
Li Zhao released his hand. “Scar healing ointment, secretly made by the imperial household. Its scar-removing efficacy is divine.”
Xue Sui’s fingertips traced the cold porcelain surface, and she raised an eyebrow slightly.
“Your Highness cares about this?”
Li Zhao looked at her. “I don’t care.”
“Then what concern is my scar to Your Highness?”
“I want to care.”
The chilled grapes in the jade plate were each covered in frost.
Xue Sui smiled faintly, picked up a grape, slowly raised her chin, opened her mouth, and then forcefully, fiercely, stuffed it into Li Zhao’s mouth.
One.
Another one.
Only when Li Zhao’s wicked smiling face changed, and the juice, bursting with sweet and sour flavor, squeezed out of his mouth.
She then withdrew her hand, straightened her back slightly, and coldly issued an order for him to leave.
“Crown Prince, please leave!”
Li Zhao wiped his mouth with her handkerchief and picked up a grape from the plate, as if intending to retaliate… Then, after a long stare, he finally threw the grape, full of anger, back into the jade plate.
“Let’s see who the final player is in this game.”
Li Zhao turned and left.
The wind rustled the bamboo curtain, startling the copper bells under the eaves.
