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Chapter 49: Candied Fruits
Close to midnight, Yu Huanchen returned alone, shrouded in the cover of night.
Su Guan immediately got up and anxiously approached, asking, “Husband, have you found Sui Sui?”
Yu Huanchen’s face was solemn as he shook his head, saying, “Yu Xinyi, accompanied by guards, is still searching. How are my parents?”
“Mother heard the rumors, her old illness relapsed. After drinking some medicine, she barely managed to fall asleep.”
Su Guan poured him a cup of tea and spoke softly, “Father went to the capital, but has not returned.”
Yu Huanchen took the teacup, nodding thoughtfully.
Assassins openly attacked the carriage of a military officer from the court at the Yongning Bridge. The Chief of the City Patrol, responsible for the safety of the capital, arrived late. Jumping to the conclusion of revenge killings by northerners is premature and potentially dangerous given the limited information available.
Unless it was orchestrated by someone higher up.
Examining the crossbow and weapons used by the assassin, they were all coated with a potent poison. Meanwhile, the sister’s arm had been injured, and she had been taken away by Wei Qi for two hours, her fate unknown.
Lost in these thoughts, Yu Huanchen suddenly noticed that his wife hadn’t moved for a long time. Glancing to the side, Yu Huanchen saw Su Guan sitting behind the table, her head bowed, nose red, and her ten slender fingers almost tearing the handkerchief apart.
Bending down to get a closer look, Yu Huanchen watched her teary eyes with a hint of sparkle and asked uncomfortably, “What’s wrong?”
Suddenly leaning closer, Su Guan quickly turned her face away and wiped her eyes, feeling guilty. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t asked Sui Sui to leave the mansion, she wouldn’t have been injured…”
Her voice choked, and her head lowered even more, only the slightly trembling lower jaw visible. Yu Huanchen suddenly felt as if he had been cut by a knife. He awkwardly extended his fingers to wipe away his wife’s tears.
“Don’t blame yourself; the assassin was after me.”
Yu Huanchen explained, “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I shouldn’t have let you ride in my carriage.”
Now all they could do was hope that Wei Qi would take good care of his sister.
…
When Yu Lingxi woke up, it was the thick of the night.
The sight of red veils, soft curtains, and flower-shaped candle holders made her momentarily dazed. If it weren’t for the neatly bandaged arrow wounds on her arm still aching, she would have almost thought she was still in a dream of her past life.
Perhaps the poison had been detoxified; Yu Lingxi’s thoughts were unusually clear. She turned her head slightly and saw Ning Yin had changed into a snowy robe, sitting with legs crossed on a chair beside the bed, supporting his temples with his eyes closed, resting.
Accustomed to seeing him in dark military attire, the change in style gave him an aura of a handsome mountain deity. The light on his side profile, with a straight nose and pale lips, was soft. The thick lashes covered his cold, piercing eyes, making him appear gentle.
Memories before losing consciousness gradually resurfaced. Yu Lingxi remembered herself speaking incoherent words and recalled Ning Yin’s dark red eyes.
Did he stay by her side all this time?
Yu Lingxi’s heart stirred, and she softened her gaze.
About to look more, she saw his thin lips parting, and he spoke slowly, “Miss still has the strength to sneak a peek. It seems the recovery is not bad.”
As he spoke, Ning Yin opened his eyelashes, revealing eyes darker than the night. Yu Lingxi suspected he must have a third eye hidden.
Enduring the pain, she sat up slightly and looked around, asking, “Where is this?”
“A brothel,” Ning Yin said.
Yu Lingxi blinked, the quilt slipping down to reveal the translucent inner garment. The red veil above, embroidered with an explicit spring scene of a man and a woman, lay sprawled open…
Yu Lingxi averted her gaze, her subtle expression not escaping Ning Yin’s eyes.
He raised an eyebrow, “Although the things here are bold, they are all clean.”
“What about these clothes…”
“The clothes were naturally changed by me personally for Miss,” Ning Yin’s lips curled imperceptibly. “Others’ hands are dirty and not worthy of serving Miss.”
Yu Lingxi couldn’t come back to her senses, not because she felt ashamed, but because she couldn’t imagine Ning Yin, who seemed to hold the world beneath his feet, serving others in dressing and undressing with what kind of emotions.
He used to disdain doing such things.
The light fabric on her body seemed to warm up. She exclaimed, “Oh, thank you.”
Unexpectedly, as she moved, the pain from her arm made her hiss.
Ning Yin frowned, got up, grabbed an embroidered pillow, placed it behind her waist, then opened the door and said something to the person waiting outside. When he returned with a bowl of medicine, he saw Yu Lingxi frowning and kneeling on the bed, searching for something.
Ning Yin’s gaze followed her soft black cascading hair down, briefly pausing at her slender waist. He then moved forward, pressed her down on the bed, and asked, “What are you looking for?”
“My jade piece.”
Yu Lingxi gathered the bedding, enduring the pain from the wound as she gestured the size. “It’s the piece of ink-colored jade that was previously in the sandalwood box.”
What kind of precious thing was worth her remembering like this?
Thinking of her holding that box with a weak look, Ning Yin stirred the soup with a porcelain spoon, coolly saying, “Lost.”
“Ah…”
Yu Lingxi sighed lightly, unable to hide her regret. “That jade piece was originally meant to be a gift for you.”
The hand stirring the spoon paused slightly.
“But it doesn’t matter. I’ll give you an even better one next time.”
Surviving the ordeal was the greatest fortune. Yu Lingxi chose not to bother about such gains and losses. Looking at the bowl of dark brown soup in Ning Yin’s hands, she cleared her throat and finally stretched out her uninjured right hand obediently, saying, “I’ll do it myself.”
Her fingertips were delicate and white, showing a lustrous sheen under the candlelight.
Why bother with another jade?
Ning Yin raised an eyebrow: The best jade is right in front of him.
Ignoring the right hand that Yu Lingxi extended, he calmly scooped a spoonful of the soup, blew it slightly cool, and brought it to her lips.
Yu Lingxi was surprised, then smiled lightly. “There’s no one else here, Your Highness doesn’t need to be so formal.”
As she spoke, Ning Yin opened his eyelashes, revealing eyes darker than the night.
Then he remembered something, nodded, and said, “Forgot, Miss doesn’t like me feeding with my hands. I need to change the method.”
After saying that, as if interpreting his own meaning, he withdrew the porcelain spoon, brought it to his own mouth. He deliberately misunderstood himself, and Yu Lingxi had no way to resist.
She had to lean forward, bite onto his spoon, and in a thunderously fast motion, gulped down the bitter medicine. Because the movement was too hasty, some of the medicine spilled. It dripped down the corner of Yu Lingxi’s lips, staining Ning Yin’s lower garment with two faint brownish wet spots.
A very faint ripple spread in the dark, bottomless eyes of Ning Yin. He wiped the corner of her mouth with his sleeve.
“Hey, don’t dirty your clothes.”
Yu Lingxi tried to dodge, but when she saw Ning Yin’s eyes darken, she obediently stayed still. Ning Yin slowly wiped the corners of her mouth, indifferent as he said, “Miss’s mouth isn’t dirty.”
Having tasted it before, it was sweet and soft.
After wiping her mouth, he resumed feeding her the medicine.
Yu Lingxi stared at him as if it were the first day she met Ning Yin, not blinking an eye, even forgetting the bitterness of the medicine. She wondered if it was just an illusion, but she felt that Ning Yin’s temper was exceptionally good at the moment.
However, knowing that he had a deep mind, the calmer he appeared, the more out of control he might be inside. She was afraid he was holding something back.
While she worried on this side, Ning Yin, thinking she found the medicine too bitter, took a piece of candied fruit from a small dish and put it between her lips. Yu Lingxi was momentarily stunned, and as she tasted the candied fruit, it went from the tip of her tongue to her heart, sweetening her senses.
Holding her knees, with three lush strands of black hair falling from her shoulders, she silently savored the sweetness of the moment.
“Do you know the identity of the assassin?” Ning Yin picked up a handkerchief and casually wiped the sugar stains on his fingertips.
At his words, Yu Lingxi recalled the scenes before and after the assassination attempt. When blocked on the bridge, the disguised assassin had been secretly observing the carriage of the Yu Mansion. Later, during the attack, the lead assassin seemed to hesitate for a moment upon seeing her and Su Guan.
“We were using my brother’s official carriage. The assassin probably mistook us inside the carriage for my brother.”
Thinking for a moment, Yu Lingxi continued, “There are quite a few people in the court who are wary of my brother, but only a few have the ability to mobilize such skilled individuals for a street assassination.”
Those who dared to use such a direct and brutal method were undoubtedly relying on the protection of imperial power.
Ning Yin chuckled. “Not too foolish.”
He tossed the handkerchief casually onto the table and lowered his eyes. “It’s just past midnight; get some more rest.”
Yu Lingxi snapped out of her thoughts and shook her head. “I just woke up; I’m not sleepy.”
“Detoxification requires rest, and the medicine contains calming herbs.”
Leaning down, Ning Yin gently covered her eyes with his hand, his voice soft and deep. “Close your eyes.”
With darkness enveloping her vision, Yu Lingxi’s eyelashes trembled restlessly in the palm of his hand. After a moment, a wave of drowsiness truly surged up. She slowly closed her eyes, and not long after, her breathing gradually became even, sinking into the sweet darkness of dreams.
Once she was sound asleep, Ning Yin slowly released his hand and adjusted her blanket. Then he stood up and walked out.
The faint light in Ning Yin’s eyes extinguished along with the warm glow when he stepped out into the warmth. In the quiet and dark night, the ethereal blue mist dissipated, and the stars and moon lost their luster.
With Zhaji ready with his subordinates kneeling before the steps, Ning Yin left.
…
In the hour of early morning, Eastern Palace.
Approaching the time for the morning court audience in the palace, Ning Tan, clad in a fur-lined robe, lay on the bed, angrily tossing things around.
“Useless! All of you are a bunch of useless people!”
He was so angry that his face turned purple. “Messing up something as simple as killing women, unable to even kill a person. How many times has this happened? Raising these useless people for what?”
The palace maids and eunuchs knelt on the floor, but conspicuously absent was the shadow guard he kept.
“Where is the Shadow Slave?”
Ning Tan shouted the name of the shadow guard loudly. “Cui An, go and bring him to me! The trouble caused by the Yu family and the seventh prince cannot be tolerated!”
Cui An bowed and withdrew to carry out the order.
Cui An, disdainful of running errands for Ning Tan, found this situation strange. The shadow guard, born with the darkness of the night, had always performed covert operations for the Eastern Palace. This was the first time it was nearly dawn, and the shadow guard hadn’t returned to report.
Could it be a mission failure, causing him to run away?
Impossible.
Cui An quickly dismissed this notion. The shadow guards were a group of deadly warriors privately funded by Ning Tan. Raised for a decade, they remained loyal. Ning Tan had been in the Eastern Palace for many years and only had this one team that completely obeyed him. He valued them greatly.
One mistake wouldn’t lead to desertion.
The shadow guard’s hideout was located near the Eastern Palace, at Guang Mansion. Cui An soon arrived at the entrance of the shadow guard’s residence, but felt that something was amiss. The main gate of the shadow guard’s residence was tightly shut, with no one on guard. However, a strong smell of blood permeated the air.
Such a strong smell of blood reminded Cui An of the last time he had sensed it, which was five or six years ago. Cui An’s gaze turned cold. He signaled his subordinates behind him to be on guard and then reached out and pushed against the door.
With a creak, the door opened, and thick crimson liquid dripped down from the lintel.
Looking inside, the dawn light was faintly visible.
More than eighty corpses of the shadow guards hung neatly, blood-drenched, along the corridor. With a light breeze, they swayed gently in rotation.
The culmination of ten years of effort in the Eastern Palace, annihilated overnight.
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