Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Zhan Mingyue seemed to have a liking for Lu Jin’an.

On the road to the Capital City, whenever she found the slightest opening, she did her best to sidle up to Lu Jin’an.

If she wasn’t “accidentally” dropping her handkerchief, she was pretending to stumble.

I stood off in the distance, shaking my head in silence.

How to put it?

She ought to be a girl from a proper household.

Probably the first time in her life she’d ever tried to flirt with a man-and she was doing it so clumsily.

“That’s not how you play the temptress,” I murmured when Zhan Mingyue came back with nothing to show for it.

Her brows shot up. She wanted to curse me out, but in the end she couldn’t squeeze out much.

All she said was, “What right do you have to laugh at me? If you tried to seduce Lord Lu, he’d pay you even less attention.”

Before Zhan Mingyue had even finished speaking, a young eunuch came over and relayed a message-clearly to me.

“Miss Song, Lord Lu asks that you come to his carriage.”

Zhan Mingyue’s face went white with anger.

Lu Jin’an was in a casual robe the color of ink-washed green, seated by the window. When I arrived, he didn’t even turn his head.

He only pointed outside at the passing scenery.

“We’ll be leaving Jiangling shortly. Will you miss it?”

I paused.

“No.”

“Do you know what I mean?”

He turned to look at me. His gaze felt like it could probe straight through to the bottom of my heart.

“I mean him.”

My fingers, hidden in my sleeves, clenched hard.

What did Lu Jin’an know?

Did Xiao Qibai tell him something? Or had he already come after us?

Just as my thoughts tangled into a mess, Lu Jin’an suddenly smiled.

“Just a joke.”

He pushed a small oil-paper packet toward me.

“Peach blossom cakes-Jiangling’s specialty. Once we leave, you won’t be able to get them anymore. Will you miss them?”

[Xiao Qibai]

Peach blossom cakes were Hongxiu’s favorite.

The thought struck Xiao Qibai the moment a servant carried a food box into the study.

“Your Highness, why is it peach blossom cakes again?” Song Wanrong pouted, looking a little displeased. “Rong’er is allergic to peach blossoms. Every time I eat them, I break out in a rash.”

“I forgot,” Xiao Qibai said, instructing the serving woman. “Take them away. Don’t make them again in the future.”

Song Wanrong brightened at once. Standing by the desk, she ground ink for Xiao Qibai.

Maybe it was because she knew she was finally safe now-she smiled sweetly, and she was dressed more brightly than usual.

A trailing red gown, a golden butterfly hairpin swaying as she moved.

For some reason, seen from the side… she looked a bit like her.

The wind slipped in through the window, and Xiao Qibai’s heart abruptly fell into turmoil.

He lowered his eyes to the paper, only to realize that what he’d written was-

[Cease clinging to the waters that have already flowed; turn back from the sea of bitterness; awaken early to the cause of love.]

The final lines she sang beneath the setting sun that day.

His hand trembled.

Xiao Qibai said, “Pei Ren.”

“Here.”

“Bring her here.”

Song Wanrong watched Pei Ren leave-he didn’t even ask who “she” was.

There was only one person His Highness would summon to the study in that kind of voice.

With a displeased pout, Song Wanrong was already thinking about what she could do today to make His Highness completely sick of Hongxiu.

Before this, Song Wanrong had never imagined she would spend this much effort on a mere actress.

…

Xiao Qibai hadn’t expected it either.

Waiting in the study, he had only one thought in his mind-

So many days had passed since he last saw her.

That day, after she finished that play, she left carrying the puppy’s corpse.

Under the sunset, her figure had been unsteady and pitiful.

That was the last time he saw her.

These past few days he’d ignored her, and she hadn’t sent any young attendants to seek him out again.

Still the same-stubborn, refusing to lower her head.

Later, he’d have to spend more effort to discipline her properly.

Xiao Qibai was thinking this when, at some point, Pei Ren appeared at the doorway.

His face was pale, his breathing unsteady.

“Your Highness.

“Hongxiu… she’s gone.”

Xiao Qibai shot to his feet.

The inkstone tipped over, and thick black ink splattered all over Song Wanrong-head to toe.

Xiao Qibai himself was also drenched in ink, but he seemed not to notice at all. His voice shook as he demanded,

“What did you say?”

Pei Ren’s voice broke, on the verge of tears.

“Sister… Sister is gone.”