Chapter 28

“Or... are you jealous?”

A smile touched Ye Rui’s lips, but when she met Xie Tinglan’s gaze, that calm expression seemed to falter a little.

“Only that you act without thinking about the consequences.”

Ye Rui let go of Xie Tinglan and shrugged, unconcerned by the rebuke. “If you don’t enter the tiger’s den, how are you supposed to catch the tiger cub? Since there’s an opening, we might as well try.”

“What if she catches you and uses you to threaten me?”

As soon as Xie Tinglan said that, Ye Rui’s eyes flickered. She leaned forward, half resting against the desk, and asked with a smile, “Am I really that important to you? Important enough that she could use me to threaten you?”

Xie Tinglan looked neither surprised nor flustered. “Important. I still need you to do things for me.”

Ye Rui clicked her tongue and muttered, “One thing in your mouth, another in your heart,” then said no more. But just as she lowered her head and spread out the xuan paper, she couldn’t help glancing at Xie Tinglan again. The other woman’s expression seemed to have relaxed somewhat; she was staring blankly at the official documents, all focus and no distraction.

Ye Rui began practicing her handwriting and did not mention Mu Xue’s name again, but after a moment she still asked, “If that woman comes looking for me again, should I go or not?”

“Since she agreed to help me, I’ll give her the proper reward. She has no reason to ask you to accompany her again.”

“You’re that sure of yourself?”

Ye Rui let out a soft laugh and lowered her head to keep writing. Thinking of how Mu Xue had wanted to poach her before she’d even drunk herself into unconsciousness yesterday, she had a feeling this wasn’t over yet.

Xie Tinglan did not answer. She had been unusually quiet today. At that, Ye Rui suddenly put down her brush and asked, “Were you sick again yesterday?”

“Mhm.”

Xie Tinglan answered lightly, and Ye Rui could only shake her head helplessly when she saw the steaming soup. “Why don’t you eat more? Have something hot to warm your stomach.”

The corners of Xie Tinglan’s lips lifted slightly, though she still did not look up. “Why are you so concerned about me? If I want to eat, I’ll eat. If I don’t, I won’t.”

She sounded a little sulky, but Ye Rui only felt a little sour and a little sweet in return; the gloom that had weighed on her all morning also lifted. “If you won’t eat, then I’ll feed you.”

With that, she was already standing up. Xie Tinglan set down her brush and turned to look at the increasingly stubborn woman, letting out a cold laugh. “Are you getting bolder by the day?”

“Yes.”

Ye Rui answered firmly, then went to the other side, picked up the soup bowl, and stirred it a few times before saying, “You have big ambitions. You can’t afford to have your body fall apart before you’ve achieved them.”

She lifted the spoon and held it to Xie Tinglan’s lips. Xie Tinglan did not eat; instead, she said, “You’re quite good at coaxing people. Did you learn this somewhere?”

Xie Tinglan still didn’t take the spoonful. Instead, she reached out and took the bowl from Ye Rui’s hands. Ye Rui smoothly set the spoon back into the bowl and handed over the whole thing. Xie Tinglan slowly stirred the soup. Today it was ginseng chicken soup; the aroma was rich and fragrant enough that even Ye Rui found herself craving it.

It was all because she hadn’t been focused on eating just now; she hadn’t really tasted today’s soup at all.

“Learn what? Every word was from the heart. Or do you think it doesn’t make sense?”

Xie Tinglan curved her lips slightly, then took a sip. The warm soup spread through her stomach, and her body did indeed begin to warm little by little.

Outside the window came the rustle of falling plane tree leaves, as if a sudden shower had swept through, carrying the scent of autumn.

“Did I say something last night to make you angry?”

Ye Rui admitted her fault obediently. Usually she was as wild as a horse that had broken its reins, but when her voice softened and she sat properly to accept criticism, she looked much more docile.

Xie Tinglan turned to look at Ye Rui and saw that her gaze was fixed on her, bright and earnest. Her hand tightened around the spoon; it knocked lightly against the bowl with a clear little ring.

“No. It was only that Mu Xue was speaking without restraint and angered me.”

As the words fell, Xie Tinglan thought again of what Mu Xue had said last night—she had personally run to my boat to demand someone; if she was afraid I’d eat her up, then why did she send her here in the first place?

“Then there won’t be a problem with this cooperation, right?”

Ye Rui was a little worried. If Mu Xue was fickle, agreeing now only to go back on it later, wouldn’t her drink have been for nothing? Wouldn’t she have boarded that painted pleasure boat for nothing?

“There won’t be.”

Xie Tinglan withdrew her gaze and took another sip of soup. “Since she agreed to it, she’ll see it through. She may even have news tonight.”

That efficient?

Ye Rui had never known exactly what Xie Tinglan wanted Mu Xue’s help for, and now Xie Tinglan still refused to say. Ye Rui couldn’t help feeling a little stifled, so she tentatively asked, “What do you need her help with?”

Xie Tinglan did not answer at first; instead, she drank two more mouthfuls of soup. Her appetite seemed to be coming back.

“Rain and Mist Pavilion is a beauty’s refuge. I need some intelligence. If those beauties whisper into a man’s ear, there are no secrets that can stay hidden.”

After hearing that, Ye Rui didn’t find it strange. She’d guessed Xie Tinglan was after information. With the imperial examinations approaching, she probably needed inside knowledge about them; she just didn’t know what she planned to do with it.

“What did Mu Xue say to you?”

Xie Tinglan soon finished more than half the bowl of soup, and her appetite also returned when she looked at the dishes on the tray. She tidied up the documents in front of her, pulled the tray over, and began eating unhurriedly.

Otherwise that person would say again that she was being fed; what kind of propriety would that be?

Mu Xue had said a lot. By the end, she had even... even said many things that had to be blocked from the System; things like undressing, red lips tasting lightly, deep probing of flesh and desire, heavens above!

What exactly had she heard? Dead memories attacked me without warning!

Ye Rui suddenly felt all wrong inside; her face turned red in an instant, and that unnatural expression made it look as if she and Mu Xue had done something unspeakable.

Seeing Ye Rui’s flushed cheeks and darting eyes, Xie Tinglan’s expression immediately darkened. “What, was Mu Xue so beautiful that you forgot what she said, and only remembered how you were seduced by a place of soft beauty?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Why so sour?”

Ye Rui immediately shot back, but after she thought about Xie Tinglan’s words again and paired them with that lonely side profile of hers, she suddenly felt rather pleased.

Was Xie Tinglan jealous? Right?

Xie Tinglan frowned, and before she could speak, Ye Rui quickly went on, “At first she wanted to poach me and said some things to drive a wedge between us. After that, she started talking all over the place. It’s not worth mentioning.”

When Xie Tinglan heard that Mu Xue had tried to poach Ye Rui and sow discord, her gaze darkened. “Her words can’t be believed in full.”

Ye Rui naturally wouldn’t believe them. It was just...

“Then what about you? Can I believe what you say?”

She looked up at Xie Tinglan with bright, burning eyes. For a moment, the other woman seemed to freeze. What Ye Rui got in response was not Xie Tinglan’s answer, but her hand covering Ye Rui’s face.

Xie Tinglan had turned toward her and leaned in. That slightly cool hand pressed against Ye Rui’s warm cheek; following it was a wash of cold fragrance.

“My words; you may choose to believe them or not. As for what is true and what is false, you must judge for yourself.”

Xie Tinglan’s fingertips brushed Ye Rui’s earlobe and gently kneaded it. Ye Rui shrank her neck, but she couldn’t escape the other woman’s teasing touch. That cool hand insistently caught her neck, and those beautiful eyes looked straight at Ye Rui. In that instant, the domineering air around her seemed to demand that Ye Rui look only at her, and have only her in her eyes.

While saying she could choose whether to believe it, her actions were so overbearing and urgent it was as if she wanted Ye Rui to believe only her.

This woman’s “one thing in her mouth, another in her heart” was actually quite easy to notice.

“Then what you said just now about not being jealous—was that true?”

Ye Rui didn’t dodge. She looked up at Xie Tinglan, and for some reason a little moisture welled in her eyes when her earlobe was caressed; her gaze shimmered with bright, teasing water.

Xie Tinglan’s breathing caught. Her fingertips slowly moved to Ye Rui’s warm, soft lips, and just as she was about to speak, her breath escaped all at once.

“You guess.”

Ye Rui could feel the desire in Xie Tinglan’s eyes. It surrounded her like a warm sea, as if it wanted to nourish the sprout of longing in her heart until it grew into a towering tree.

Ye Rui caught Xie Tinglan’s wrist. Her fingertips stopped moving, but the warmth in those eyes only grew hotter.

“I guess...”

Ye Rui dragged out the end of the word, like a thread hooking the other person, wanting to pull her closer, then closer still...

Xie Tinglan’s lips were already nearing hers. Their breaths had just begun to tangle into heat when two sharp knocks from outside the door shattered the atmosphere.

Ye Rui came back to herself at once, leaned back, and used the back of her hand to rub her face, trying to press down the rising heat. Then, as if nothing had happened, she stood up and hurried back to her seat in small steps.

Xie Tinglan froze for two breaths. Then she exhaled deeply, shot a look at Ye Rui, whose mouth simply would not stop curving upward, and said, “Come in.”

The one who pushed the door open was Gong Yinzhi; in her hand was a letter. “My lady, this was delivered by someone sent by Mu Xue.”

Gong Yinzhi set the letter on the desk. She could sense Xie Tinglan’s displeasure, but the woman beside her was smiling foolishly as she ground ink, looking nothing like someone who had angered Xie Tinglan.

Xie Tinglan took the letter, scanned it quickly, and the corners of her lips lifted slightly. A trace of ruthlessness flashed in her eyes. “Good. Send word back to Mu Xue that this matter will definitely be settled for her.”

“Yes, my lady.”

After Gong Yinzhi left, Ye Rui gradually calmed from that moment of excitement. She began to think carefully. With the imperial examinations at such a sensitive time, Xie Tinglan had summoned Gong Yinzhi and the pair of gold and silver protectors to Capital City; she must be preparing to draw blood.

If it were only for protection, then Ri Xi and the other two could have handled it. Sending more people now meant she was probably going to kill someone.

Ye Rui couldn’t help thinking: such a grand and ambitious undertaking, a time when ink fragrance and talent should be in full bloom, would still end in a sea of blood and wind.

This marketplace of fame and power would still be built on piles of white bones.

Only after Gong Yinzhi had left the study did Ye Rui ask, “Can I know your plan?”

“Yes.”

The two of them did not mention what had just happened, as if the moment the door had been opened and closed, the matter itself had been taken away too.

“In truth, it’s quite simple. First, I’ll take the person the emperor wants to promote and make him out to be one of Duke of Wei’s people; then I’ll accuse him of cheating on the spot. As long as I say that man is one of Duke of Wei’s people, that person will surely seize the chance and push things along.”

After hearing this, Ye Rui understood.

If that one wanted to promote someone, he would definitely leak the exam questions to him. As long as they seized the evidence and exposed the cheating on the spot, then when Xie Tinglan pushed the blame onto Duke of Wei, that person, in order not to leave himself open to criticism, would naturally follow Xie Tinglan’s script.

Turning an enemy’s trick back on them and killing with a borrowed blade; Xie Tinglan really handled schemes like this with ease.

“Second, Duke of Wei’s people will naturally have plenty of evidence of bribery. As long as we get hold of that evidence, then even if that unlucky fool denies it, he’ll have no way to talk himself out of it in the face of proof.”

After Xie Tinglan finished, Ye Rui still had one thing she didn’t understand. “Then why call Gong-guniang and the others back?”

“Because on the day of the examinations, all security will be concentrated in the imperial city’s Divine Martial Square. If security outside the imperial city becomes weak, I’ll be like a target with a red bull’s-eye on it. I expect they’ll arrange for people to assassinate me.”

Xie Tinglan paused, picked up the wolf-hair brush, and wrote the character for “kill” on a document. Ye Rui glanced at the date; it was clearly the date of the imperial examinations.

“I want to find where they’re hiding and eliminate them before they make their move.”

Ye Rui slowly mulled over Xie Tinglan’s words.

These assassins couldn’t possibly have only come to Capital City recently. They’d probably already been lying low here for a long time, or perhaps had always been based in Capital City. As long as they found their hiding place, they could wipe them out in one blow; they might even be able to trace clues back to their master.

The people Xie Tinglan had sent out were all from the jianghu, which meant that in the end this slaughter would be classified as a jianghu vendetta. The authorities wouldn’t interfere, and the person behind it could never openly step forward; they could only swallow the loss in silence.

Xie Tinglan could probably even tell who their master was from everyone’s reactions. But Ye Rui guessed that since Xie Tinglan had already been assassinated so many times, she must have long since figured out who it was. This time, was there more than simple root-and-branch extermination? Was there a new force trying to kill her?

Could it be...!

Ye Rui forced that thought down. Once she calmed herself, she felt this was normal too.

The emperor’s heart could not be guessed. Who knew who would become a sacrifice under imperial power?

“Then why are you willing to tell me now?”

Ye Rui remembered that whenever she asked Xie Tinglan anything before, there were always conditions attached. This time, Xie Tinglan had laid everything out, and it left Ye Rui with a strange feeling.

She touched the third-rank guard token at her waist. Did that mean she had already been recognized?

“You just said Mu Xue was sowing discord. I’m guessing the only thing she could sow discord over between us is trust.”

Ye Rui was momentarily speechless. Xie Tinglan really was too clever; nothing could hide from her, and Ye Rui had no idea what she spent all day thinking about.

“I didn’t tell you for my own reasons.”

Xie Tinglan paused, then said with a cold laugh, “If you think you’re not trusted, that’s only normal.”

Ye Rui merely shrugged when she heard that; it was impossible to tell whether she was indifferent to Xie Tinglan’s words or unconcerned by Mu Xue’s attempt to drive a wedge between them.

“You really do seem able to calculate everything...”

Before Ye Rui even finished speaking, and before Xie Tinglan’s tail could rise in triumph, Gong Yinzhi came again. Only this time...

“My lady, Miss Mu Xue is inviting Miss Ye to meet with her.”

Ye Rui hadn’t even started feeling annoyed before she nearly burst out laughing. She looked at Xie Tinglan’s darkened face and spoke with a teasing lilt.

“You really are capable of calculating everything~”

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Author’s note: Prime Minister Xie: I’m so angry, I’m so angry!

Little Ye: Capable of calculating everything~