Чистое сердце в нефритовом сосуде

Глава 73

This unexpected disaster came out of nowhere and left us with much to ponder.

Do not lean against the west railing to lock in the clear autumn. Chapter 57 of the main text.

Chapter word count: 3770 Update time: 09-08-13 13:41

The jade shop incident served as a wake-up call, making me hesitant to leave the Prince Qing's residence carelessly again. After all, the Prince Qing's residence is still relatively safe. However, I had already made an appointment with Shen Tingxuan, and it wouldn't be good to break my promise. So, after a few preparations, I went to the Second Prince's residence. Before leaving, I left the waist token left by Shen Haoyu at Qiufeng Garden and quietly slipped out. More cautious than usual, I was afraid of falling into someone's trap, and even if something happened, I couldn't let it involve the Prince Qing's residence.

When I jumped down from the wall, standing there was not only Dongcheng, but also Shen Tingxuan, who was smiling gently. I called out sweetly, "Brother Ting."

Shen Tingxuan laughed and said, "Huai En always surprises me when he comes to my residence."

I could only force a smile and say, "Well, this time I'll let you know first, won't I?"

"Didn't we agree to have lunch together? I've been waiting for quite a while, and I'm getting a little hungry now." Shen Tingxuan rarely cracked a small joke, and I nudged him: "Then what are we waiting for? Lead the way, I really miss the delicious food at Brother Ting's house."

Following Shen Tingxuan, they arrived at a unique pavilion overlooking the lake. Standing upstairs and gazing out the window, they could see the entire back garden of the Second Prince's residence. "This place is occasionally used to entertain guests," Shen Tingxuan explained.

I casually found a stool and sat down at the table, smiling as I said, "Brother Ting, you're really going all out, treating me to dinner here!"

Shen Tingxuan looked at me with a hint of indulgence and instructed the eunuchs outside to bring the dishes. Soon, one delicacy after another was placed on the table: bird's nest with phoenix tail shrimp, coral golden shrimp, seven-star purple crab, phoenix pork tenderloin, stir-fried three-shredded rolls, deer antler three treasures... Looking at the table full of fragrant dishes, I swallowed hard, my mouth watering. To be honest, I don't have any particular fondness for food, but with so many dishes laid out before me, the temptation was immense.

Seeing my expression, Shen Tingxuan shook his head with amusement: "Did the Prince Qing's Mansion mistreat you?"

I quickly said, "Not at all, it's just that Brother Ting must have put a lot of effort into preparing this. I noticed that the young prince rarely eats these kinds of things." I felt even more grateful to Shen Tingxuan, as he had always tried his best to treat me very well.

"It's rare to eat with Huai'en, so naturally the meal should be plentiful," Shen Tingxuan said, picking up his chopsticks and gesturing for me to eat quickly. I then began to eat heartily without any hesitation. As I ate, I felt a little unsatisfied and looked around. Shen Tingxuan quickly asked, "What are you looking for?"

"Wine," I mumbled, still with the duck breast in my mouth.

“We didn’t prepare any wine,” Shen Tingxuan said with a smile, “because I was afraid you’d get drunk in your excitement.”

I was surprised. I'd only ever gotten drunk twice at Qiufeng Garden: once on New Year's Eve with Song Zhixuan and the other time was that Mid-Autumn Festival. Meeting my gaze, Shen Tingxuan looked away somewhat awkwardly. I immediately understood; it seemed the Prince Qing's residence also had spies from the Second Prince's household.

To avoid awkwardness, I chatted with Shen Tingxuan while eating, occasionally telling a few jokes, and the atmosphere gradually warmed up again. After I finished eating and drinking, I wiped my mouth contentedly, and Shen Tingxuan told someone to remove the food.

Because I was too full, I had to stand up, push open the door, and walk into the corridor. I leaned against the railing and looked at the rippling blue water below. Shen Tingxuan also came out and asked, "What's wrong?"

I rubbed my stomach and said with an embarrassed smile, "I ate too much."

Shen Tingxuan smiled and shook his head: "I won't dare to prepare so much for you next time."

I stuck out my tongue secretly, took out the flower tea making instructions I had written down earlier from my pocket, and presented them to Shen Tingxuan with a smile.

"What is this?" Shen Tingxuan asked hesitantly, a hint of confusion on his gentle, handsome face.

I laughed and said, "Won't you know when you see?"

Shen Tingxuan took the folded paper from my hand, slowly unfolded it, and said leisurely, "Huai'en, how come your handwriting is still so bad after all these years?"

I thought he would praise me, but instead, he ignored what I wrote and only noticed my ugly handwriting. I looked at him, a little annoyed, and he smiled slightly: "However, the process of making this flower tea seems feasible." Seeing that I still didn't look too happy, he added: "You're really clever, worthy of being my sister Huai'en!" Only then did I smile.

Shen Tingxuan looked at the paper again and asked, "Does Huai'en want me to make this flower tea?"

I laughed and said, "Brother Ting, don't you love this tea? If you can make it yourself, you won't care about the little bit that Golden Sparrow Kingdom gives you."

Upon hearing this, Shen Tingxuan's smile deepened. I added, "If it works out, Brother Ting can have it secretly produced. Not only can you drink it yourself, but you can also sell it to others at a much higher price than ordinary tea, earning Brother Ting a lot of hard-earned money." I knew that merchants had a low social status in this era, and officials were not allowed to engage in commerce. However, many officials secretly supported others or simply found people to do business under other people's names. Among the princes, only Shen Tingxuan had no maternal family to support him, nor did he have his own fiefdom. All his income came from the prince's salary, which was obviously far from enough. Perhaps this would make Shen Tingxuan more financially secure.

Hearing this, the smile on Shen Tingxuan's face slowly disappeared, and he just stared at me in shock. I was a little confused. Did he disdain doing these things in secret? I quickly said, "If Brother Ting feels it's inappropriate, it's fine to just make it for yourself to drink."

Shen Tingxuan shook his head, looking at me with a deep gaze: "Huai'en, thank you." I breathed a sigh of relief and glared at him with some dissatisfaction.

“Huai’en, the situation is probably a bit unstable these days. If you don’t have anything to do, you should stay at the Prince Qing’s residence.” Shen Tingxuan said calmly. I nodded obediently and then gave a brief account of what happened on the street yesterday. Shen Tingxuan’s handsome eyebrows gradually furrowed, and he pondered for a long time without saying a word.

Finally, Shen Tingxuan said, "Don't worry, I will send someone to keep an eye on you secretly."

After leaving the Second Prince's residence, I planned to circle around a few times before returning to the Prince Qing's mansion, as usual. As I walked down a secluded alley, even I, with my slowed senses, felt something unusual about my surroundings. I cautiously glanced around, my right hand discreetly gripping my short sword. Taking a deep breath, I used my lightness skill to sprint away. The people lurking in the shadows no longer concealed their tracks and followed closely. Looking back, I saw four tall, masked men.

In this important capital city, how could anyone commit such a blatant crime in broad daylight? The four men were hot on my heels. Although I was good at light footwork, my internal strength was insufficient. The longer the time dragged on, the harder it would be for me to escape. I had never regretted taking such a long detour as much as I did now. The Second Prince's residence and the Prince Qing's residence were only three streets apart, but now...

Fortunately, the four men were just following me, unlike the group I encountered at Qifeng Mountain who had obvious murderous intent, which calmed me down a bit. But if these four weren't going to kill me, what were they going to do with me? I couldn't help but think of the Ten Cruelest Tortures of the Qing Dynasty, and my scalp tingled. Maybe killing me would be doing me a favor.

I ran towards crowded places, hoping that a kind person might come to my rescue. But when people saw the four menacing figures behind me, they all avoided me. In such a vast city as the capital, is there not a single chivalrous person? And the Prince Qing's mansion is said to be very powerful. Didn't anyone see me being chased? Or did they also take this opportunity to hide and see which group was targeting the Prince Qing's mansion?

And then there's Shen Zexuan. You can always run into him when things are going well, but you can't find him whenever something happens!

Neither physical strength nor internal energy could match those four. We were still quite a distance from Prince Qing's mansion, and seeing them getting closer and closer, I knew I couldn't escape. So I stopped to catch my breath and rest. Seeing me stop, the four exchanged glances and quickly surrounded me. I wanted to greet them and try to build rapport, asking them not to use excessively cruel torture on me later, but without a word, they acupunctured my pressure points and fed me some powder I didn't know what it was, causing me to cough violently.

"I..." After calming my cough, I had only uttered one word when my speech was silenced again by acupressure. I don't know where they got a large cloth bag, but they put it over my head. This bag was really thick; with it over my head, I couldn't see any light at all.

I felt myself being lifted up and roughly shoved onto someone's shoulder. I had no idea where they were taking me. Were they taking me to see their leader to extract information about the Prince of Qing's mansion from me? I was jostled around on someone's shoulder for a while, feeling completely disoriented. I almost threw up the good food I had just eaten at Shen Tingxuan's. Finally, they stopped. I heard a wooden door creak open, and then I was slammed heavily to the ground.

"We've captured the person; the rest is up to you," a somewhat hoarse male voice said.

"Don't worry, money makes things easier," another deep male voice said.

Then I heard footsteps fading into the distance; I guessed the four people had left. I was pulled up by a force, thrown onto someone's shoulder again, and continued to be bounced around. This time, I wasn't far before being thrown down, and then I heard the sound of a door being locked. After waiting for a long time, footsteps came again, and someone unlocked the door; judging from the voices, there was more than one person. The sack was untied, and I saw light again. I squinted, a little unaccustomed to the light, and vaguely saw three figures. After a while, my eyes finally adjusted to the light, and I opened them. A woman dressed very beautifully was also carefully examining me, her expression seemingly a little confused.

"I didn't expect the girl Ah San sent this time to be so pretty. She looks so delicate and pretty in this outfit." A somewhat lewd man next to me stared at me, and I had a bad feeling. This was probably a place that would give women nightmares! I opened my mouth to speak, but my mute acupoints had been pressed, and no sound came out no matter how long I opened my mouth. The acupoints on my body hadn't been released yet, and I was completely unable to move. I was truly like a fish on a chopping board.

Another thin man spoke up: "I wonder what powerful person this girl offended. Not only was she sent here for free, but they even paid her to serve the lowest of men. Tsk tsk..." He shuddered as he spoke, and a chill ran down my spine. Instead of interrogating me about the Prince Qing's affairs, they sent me to this place to be tortured. Who hates me so much? I racked my brains, but still couldn't figure out who I had offended. Could it be that someone knew about my relationship with Shen Zexuan and was using this to harm him?

Thinking of Shen Zexuan and my current situation, I was terrified when it happened to me, even though I had seen it on TV before. What's more, I was unable to move or speak.

The man who had spoken earlier stared at me lecherously, and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "Sister Feng, since she has to serve other people anyway, why don't you let me go first..." The lewdness in his words sent shivers down my spine.

The beautiful woman known as "Sister Feng" glared at the man and said coldly, "You all get out first!"

The sleazy-looking man gave me a resentful look before being pulled away by the skinny man.