Unbeknownst to him, his older sister had matured and become confident, just like their mother when she was alive. She was at the prime of her life.
Unfortunately, this beautiful age occurred during a chaotic era.
As Si Xinian saw Xie Lanzhi approaching, she stopped three steps away. Her dark shadow, like a mountain, obscured Si Xinian's figure. She looked at him with concern in her soft eyes and asked, "Little brother, is there anything else that's bothering you?"
Despite her fierce appearance, she possessed an unexpected gentleness, and her concern for him was genuine and without any pretense.
A sudden, inexplicable sense of security washed over him. Si Xinian's eyes widened in surprise, but he immediately suppressed the emotion.
He politely said to Xie Lanzhi, "Thank you for your concern, Marshal. I am much better now. If it weren't for the precious medicinal herbs from the Southern Region, I might not have made it this far."
Xie Lanzhi carefully examined the boy. He resembled the little girl by seven parts, and she felt a sense of familiarity when she looked at him. However, the boy had too many negative emotions, and his eyes were always inexplicably gloomy. He only showed a little emotion when he saw her and her sister. He was probably so guarded towards others that he was ready to retaliate at any moment.
Alas, this chaotic world has driven so many people insane.
She said, "Don't be so polite. I've already had your palace cleaned. You can go back to live there anytime."
"Qinian is extremely grateful." Si Qinian nodded and said, "Qinian has heard about it all during this time. I am very grateful to Your Majesty for your care. I will definitely repay you in the future."
Xie Lanzhi was slightly surprised, and her words sounded awkward. It seemed that it would take some time before he would lower his guard around her.
She nodded: "We'll talk about the future later. You should focus on recovering now."
After saying that, she looked at Si Xitong eagerly, and their eyes met. Unexpectedly, Si Xitong was also looking at her.
Xie Lanzhi had kept it from her for three months, and now she felt somewhat ashamed: "Fu Feng, I..."
The little girl seemed a bit awkward when she saw her, probably because she was upset that she hadn't told her about her brother's poisoning.
Si Xitong took the initiative to walk up to her and personally led her to the side. Xie Lanzhi skillfully took her hand. This scene made her younger brother think deeply.
The two spoke alone.
She said, "I admit my first reaction was to blame you for not telling me about Anian. If it weren't for you, maybe..."
She paused, a slight hint of hurt creeping into her expression.
Xie Lanzhi said, "This matter is a bit complicated, and I admit that I am prepared." When she changed the subject, her tone became serious: "I am prepared that my brother cannot be saved. If he dies, I will not tell you that he died of poisoning."
According to the original story, this child was supposed to die, but was saved by the medicinal herbs she sent out by chance, which also indicates that she changed part of the plot.
It's a miracle my brother didn't die.
Upon hearing this, Si Xitong's pretty face tightened, and she gripped Xie Lanzhi's hand, her nails tightening slightly. But it was only for a moment before she quickly relaxed.
"I understand. If it were me, I would probably make the same choice as you."
Such decisiveness and rationality are both heartbreaking and admirable.
Xie Lanzhi couldn't help but look up and pat her head: "Fortunately, everyone is safe and sound."
Si Xitong looked up, her eyes shining brightly, and she nodded obediently: "Mm."
This scene reminded Si Xinian of how his elder sister had unconsciously stroked his head earlier. Si Xinian raised his hand to scratch his head and fell into deep thought again.
Unbeknownst to her, the imperial sister had become almost one with that evil spirit.
Xie Shangguang, who was standing next to him, was already used to the Marshal and the mistress being all lovey-dovey. However, when he saw Si Xinian scratching his head, he knew that he had been recovering from his injury for a long time and must not have taken a bath for a while.
So he stepped forward and kindly offered to scratch Si Xinian's head: "Do you have lice? It's okay, I'll have the Imperial Hospital get you some camphor oil to fumigate them later."
Si Xinian brushed his hand away, raised an eyebrow, and thought to himself: Where did this idiot come from?
Xie Lanzhi was a little nervous when she first met her brother-in-law, but now that he wasn't as hostile as she had imagined, she breathed a sigh of relief.
However, she didn't think her brother-in-law accepted her so quickly; it must have been something the girl said to him.
Ask her when you have some free time.
Xie Lanzhi looked at the sky; the sun was rising in the east, shining brightly—a rare and beautiful day.
She had almost finished dealing with her political affairs and could take a few days to spend time with the young lady and her brother-in-law.
She said, "I heard from Shang Guang that you annotated this book."
When Si Xitong mentioned the book, she became as eager as a model student, saying, "Lanzhi, tell me more about the economic lockdown cases when you have time. I need more information."
Xie Lanzhi suddenly broke out in a sweat. Actually, she only knew a few things, and she had already said everything she could. Now that she had piqued the young girl's interest, it was really difficult to handle.
She coughed lightly and changed the subject, saying, "Such a nice day, shouldn't we have a good chat with my brother, wait for him to recover, and then think about what he should do in the future?"
Si Xitong seemed completely unconcerned. But she thought of her younger brother's personality. Especially during the time their father was alive, his reactions to the husbands chosen for her were always unexpected.
She glanced at the man before her and suddenly warned, "Be careful these days. If Qinian makes any unreasonable demands of you, just refuse. Don't pay him any attention."
A bad feeling came over me, like my eyelid twitching again.
Xie Lanzhi glanced at Si Xinian sitting in the chair and wondered if her eyelid twitching was because of him.
"Then you need to give me some information first, on how to deal with your brother?"
Si Xitong looked regretful: "Sometimes I can't guess what he's thinking, especially when I'm choosing a consort, he always does something unexpected."
Xie Lanzhi's face darkened: "What has your brother done regarding the selection of the imperial son-in-law?"
Perhaps it's because the process has been a bit long, or perhaps there are too many candidates for the imperial son-in-law; each one requires time to memorize.
Si Xitong picked three items: "The son of the former Left Prime Minister was selected by the Emperor. The next day, he became infamous. His past misdeeds were exposed, and he was forced to move his entire family."
"The second one was the Right Chancellor's nephew, who was chosen by the Emperor. Less than three days later, it was revealed that he had a mistress and three children. It was said that even the Right Chancellor was unaware of this. Later, the Right Chancellor was demoted to Bingzhou."
Finally, Si Xitong covered her mouth with her hand and coughed lightly: "And then there's the top scholar, whose background is spotless, yet he still nitpicked and found fault with him."
Xie Lanzhi raised her eyelids again: "What's wrong?"
"He couldn't get it up." Si Xitong said with a slight embarrassment, "That very night, he drove the proud and arrogant top scholar to the Spring Breeze Pavilion to examine himself."
This shows that even the top scholar was deceived by the fabricated rumors, which is why he went to that kind of place in a fit of anger.
He really is a troublesome younger brother.
Xie Lanzhi began to ponder. How dare the other party treat her like this? He didn't even understand her. Her weakness was that she didn't like to use violence.
Thinking about this...
Xie Lanzhi's alarm bells went off immediately. Wait, the three people the little girl mentioned earlier were all provoked by their weaknesses.
That child wouldn't...choose this?
Xie Lanzhi immediately looked at Si Qinian, and their eyes met. His gaze lingered on the white belt around her waist. Their eyes locked for a moment.
Xie Lanzhi met his gaze directly. The boy's eyes were also arrogant, but he managed to hide them in the blink of an eye. His shrewdness was beyond that of ordinary people.
As expected, this character matches the original work.
"Very good. It seems I've been chosen." Xie Lanzhi's right hand restlessly touched Ebai.
Si Xitong couldn't understand what her younger brother would do, but she could understand Xie Lanzhi's every move. Then, she looked worried: "What should we do? Qinian's martial arts skills have always been good, and his masters have always been masters of their respective sects."
"She's only fourteen," Xie Lanzhi commented. "You should have faith in me."
Her calm demeanor made Si Xitong even more worried, as Lanzhi usually disliked violence.
One person on the scene began preparing for the challenge her future brother-in-law would pose, while another worried about whether she could handle it.
At midnight, Xie Lanzhi made sure Si Xitong was sound asleep on the bed, then tiptoed out of the palace, picked up a casual outfit, and left.
Then we arrived at the training ground, where four braziers were lit to illuminate the surrounding area.
Xie Shangguang rubbed his eyes and walked wearily onto the arena: "Marshal, why did you choose to practice martial arts in the middle of the night?"
Xie Lanzhi lied without blushing, her face serious: "I'm doing this to train you. How many days has it been since you practiced martial arts?"
Upon hearing this, Xie Shangguang immediately snapped awake, all his drowsiness vanishing.
His eyes lit up, and he said, deeply moved, "Grand Marshal, you...you value this young man so much?"
"Don't I value you?" Xie Lanzhi retorted.
Xie Shangguang quickly counted the days he had been valued by the marshal, and it seemed like he had none. It was less than the amount his mistress had taught him.
He hesitated for a moment, not daring to tell the truth, and could only say, "It seems they value the boy quite a bit."
Xie Lanzhi coughed lightly and said, "Perform all the Xie family sword techniques you have learned in front of me."
"I need to check it."
Xie Shangguang didn't think much. He drew the sword from his waist, his figure as upright as a pine tree, the blade as swift as the wind, seemingly light yet powerful, all in every move.
Xie Lanzhi glanced at the sword moves as if reading a book, familiarizing herself with them before taking advantage of Xie Shangguang's distraction to imitate his swordplay.
The Xie family sword technique, with its thrusting, stabbing, slashing, and swirling movements, is very characteristic of swordsmanship.
Both of them were very focused.
Completely oblivious, in the pavilion, Si Xitong, carrying a lantern, watched the two from top to bottom.
Her gaze fell on Xie Lanzhi, and she watched as Xie Lanzhi gradually improved her skills from being unfamiliar with them, and even began to show some signs of practicing martial arts.
Her beautiful face was full of worry.
Five days later, Si Xinian moved into Lanqi Palace. The Xie family had just accepted a member of the Si family, and now another member had appeared, causing the Xie family to once again dispute the identity of the mistress's brother.
The Duke of Zheng was more excited than usual.
Xie Lanzhi and Si Xitong walked hand in hand, bringing a car full of gifts to congratulate him on his discharge from the hospital and his move into his new home.
Upon arriving at Lanqi Palace, they found that the palace servants had been dispersed, leaving only two people and eight guards. The once vast palace suddenly became empty.
Si Xitong had grown accustomed to her younger brother's aloofness.
When Xie Lanzhi entered the palace, she found that nothing in the palace had been moved. Apart from the bed and a few books on the desk, the teapot in the palace was almost untouched.
It doesn't look like a place to live at all.
Xie Lanzhi glanced at Xie Shangguang beside her. He went to greet Si Xinian, but was met with a cold reception and didn't even realize it. He was still chatting and laughing with others. He was really the complete opposite of Si Xinian.
Seeing that his elder sister's attendants were not wearing swords today, Si Xinian immediately turned around and went into the hall to find two swords himself.
The moment Si Xinian came out carrying two unsharpened swords, two pairs of eyes fell on them.
Xie Lanzhi thought to herself, "I can't escape after all. This kid must have figured something out, so he decided to challenge me by force."
She couldn't help but raise her hand to touch her face, muttering to herself, "This handsome man never likes to pretend. Do people really think I'm completely unskilled in martial arts?"
Seeing that she was full of doubt and unaware of it, Si Xitong looked into her eyes and said softly, "A-Nian, this time I didn't pick on your weaknesses."
Xie Lanzhi pointed to her eyes: "Indeed, the eyes are the windows to the soul. It's hard to escape the eyes of a wise person."