Chapter 145
Chapter 145
Weiqing Song looked down at the startled girl in his arms, then released her.
He had never seen this woman. Was she a new consort his father had taken?
He stepped back twice, intending to turn and leave, but the frog button on his sleeve accidentally caught the clip securing the girl’s veil. A gust of wind arrived at that exact moment, and when she turned to look at Weiqing, the veil brushed her face and fell.
Her cloud-gray gauze dress cinched around a slender, delicate waist. Her skin was snowy, her lips painted vermilion, and fine silver beads dangling from her hairpin tangled with her black hair.
Even a man who had seen countless beauties had never encountered a woman so striking.
Feeling the veil fall, she reached to catch it. But the snow-white silk slipped through her pale, jade-like fingers and landed on the ground.
From Weiqing’s angle, he could clearly see her thick, butterfly-like lashes trembling without end from nervousness.
And the vivid red mole on her left cheek made it nearly impossible to look away.
Weiqing went rigid. The instant he saw that mole, the heart he had gradually calmed began to thrash once more.
He seized the slender arm before him and stared fixedly at her. “You…”
Before he could finish, hurried voices came from behind.
“Princess… Ah! Greetings, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Shengsheng Zhou almost stopped breathing. Had Weiqing recognized her?!
At the sound of Suo Luo’s voice, Shengsheng clutched at it like a lifeline. “Matron!”
The voice was gentle as water, unlike the clear voice in his memories. Weiqing’s eyes dimmed for an instant.
He must have lost his mind…
“Matron Luo.” Weiqing looked without expression at the matron anxiously examining the girl, his voice calm.
Seeing Shengsheng unharmed, Suo Luo sighed in relief and regained her composure.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, I did not expect to meet you here.”
After the brief greeting, she said to Shengsheng, “Your Highness, this is His Highness the Crown Prince, your elder brother by blood.”
Shengsheng glanced timidly at the man before her and whispered, “Brother…”
Weiqing gave her a meaningful look. “I heard my imperial sister had regained her senses, but I have not yet had time to visit. Still, did my imperial sister always have that red mole on her face?”
Of course she had not. Strangely enough, the mole seemed engraved upon Shengsheng’s very soul. The moment she awoke in this body, it had appeared on this face overnight.
Suo Luo patted Shengsheng’s hand gently. “Perhaps Your Highness has forgotten because you haven’t seen the princess in some time. This red mole has naturally always been there.”
Shengsheng secretly raised a thumb. Worthy of someone seasoned by palace life. She could lie through her teeth as effortlessly as breathing.
*I can’t hear her thoughts,* Weiqing thought.
Perhaps it was merely a coincidence.
Losing interest, Weiqing nodded. “I have other business. I will visit my imperial sister’s palace another day.”
Shengsheng had just relaxed when the man stopped again as he passed her.
“But my imperial sister addressed me incorrectly. I am not simply your brother. I am your Imperial Brother.”
Only when the scent of paper and ink vanished completely from her nose did Shengsheng come back to herself.
She had noticed before that a male lead like this ought to possess a sister-doting attribute. Yet Weiqing seemed to despise his foolish little sister.
Thinking she was upset, Suo Luo said sympathetically, “Your Highness needn’t take it to heart. His Highness the Crown Prince… has always been like this.”
Shengsheng nodded obediently. “Mm.”
Inside, her eyes rolled toward the heavens. Weiqing, who behaved like a gentleman with everyone else, was actually like this with his own sister.
Still, she relaxed.
At least she did not have to fear too much contact with him and the risk of exposing herself.
Besides, he was an ancient man who revered ghosts and gods. Surely he would not believe in something like reincarnation.
…
After following His Highness back to the Eastern Palace, Jian Zhang did not dare say a word.
He had meant to help His Highness clear his head, only to leave him in an even worse mood.
Of all their bad luck, they had run into that little princess.
When His Highness was young, he had once doted greatly on the witless princess–until the day she pushed him into a freezing pond in the tenth lunar month…
That alone would not have mattered much, but the young princess had planted her foot firmly on his shoulder when he tried to swim out, forcing him beneath the icy water again and again.
His Highness had nearly died from the relentless high fever afterward. When he finally survived, all he received from the parents shielding the culprit was one careless sentence: “She’s young and doesn’t know better. As her older brother, you shouldn’t hold it against her.”
Whether Weiqing himself or Jian, who had spent so long worrying about him then, neither had ever let go of the grudge. Naturally, they both loathed the princess.
Weiqing plucked a maple leaf from his robe, though he had no idea when it had landed there. Seated at the writing desk, he held its stem and pondered for a moment.
“Jian Zhang.”
The man he called immediately tore himself from those childhood memories. “What are Your Highness’s orders?”
Weiqing tossed away the maple leaf and crushed it underfoot. “Find out exactly when the princess regained her senses, down to the hour, and when the red mole appeared on her face.”
Unfortunately, he had never believed in coincidences.
Whatever else might be said, his memory was perfect after a single glance.
He was certain that Mosheng Song had never possessed such a red mole.
There were far too many inexplicable things about Shengsheng. Besides, he had once read a storybook in which the protagonist reincarnated into his witless son’s body, played the fool, concealed his strength, and personally slaughtered his blood enemies.
So look–wasn’t it suspicious?