Since Nanny Yu's suicide, Caiyu had learned from her just before her death the way she communicated with the secret agents of the Crown Prince.
At the Seventeen - Arch Bridge on the east side of Yan Nan Lake on Qichun Road, Caiyu counted from the east to the west and stopped at the thirteenth arch. She reached into the hole in the bridge railing.
She pulled out the stone blocking the hole and took out a letter sealed with wax.
After putting the stone back in place, Caiyu looked around. Not detecting anything unusual, she tucked the letter away, walked to the lakeside, sat down on a rock, and couldn't wait to open and read the letter.
There were two pieces of paper inside.
One was a letter from her younger brother. The words in the letter were all normal. It seemed that the Crown Prince had compromised.
The other was the message. Sure enough, the first thing the Crown Prince did was to agree to her condition - allowing her to postpone the task again and trying to make Song Yinghuai break his vow.
However, when Caiyu continued to read the following words, she was instantly in a daze. The unbelievable news made the letter in her hand slip from her fingers and float into Yan Nan Lake.
The letter was immediately soaked by the lake water. The ink on it quickly blurred into a mess and then drifted away.
Caiyu didn't even have the mind to fish out the letter. She just sat there blankly, unconsciously curling her fingers. With a complicated expression, she stared at the sparkling lake surface. Her clenched knuckles turned white from the force.
She never expected that the real reason why Song Yinghuai couldn't break his vow was actually...
"Shu'er!"
A clear voice came from behind.
Sheng Jiangli?!
Caiyu was startled and subconsciously glanced at the lake.
The letter had sunk to the bottom under the rolling waves of the lake. Only then did she calm her racing heart and turned around.
Sheng Jiangli leaped down from the bridge and landed in front of her.
Today he was wearing a dark - green straight - fronted long robe. There was a bamboo - green cloud - patterned wide belt around his waist, and a piece of excellent - quality black jade was hanging on it. His black hair was neither tied with a cap nor inserted with a hairpin. Like the barbarians from the border, he simply tied it up with a red silk ribbon.
The wind brought by his leap blew up a few strands of his hair in front of his forehead, which intertwined and danced with the red silk ribbon.
He was born with a rather feminine appearance, and without his military uniform, he looked even more handsome.
He happily strode towards Caiyu, but unexpectedly, Caiyu took a step back and curtsied respectfully to him. "General Sheng."
Sheng Jiangli stopped in his tracks and looked at her discontentedly. "What did you call me?"
Before Caiyu could speak, he continued. "Why don't you call me Brother A Li?"
Caiyu nervously looked around. After making sure there was no one around, she let out a sigh of relief and said nervously,
"General Sheng, didn't we agree to act as if we didn't know each other?"
"Now that there's no one around, why do we need to pretend?" Sheng Jiangli pouted. "Moreover, even if we just met yesterday, it's not the first time we've seen each other today. You were carried into my room yesterday. My woman, do I still need to pretend we're not familiar?"
"General Sheng!" Caiyu was exasperated. "Don't talk nonsense. Nothing happened between us yesterday!"
"Do you think others will believe that?" Sheng Jiangli stepped forward and got closer to Caiyu. His tone was a bit lazy, his voice slightly hoarse, and there was a hint of ambiguity in his words. "Will Song Yinghuai believe it?"
Caiyu was forced by him step by step until she was almost stepping into the lake. A flash of anger passed through her eyes, and she reached out to push against his solid chest.
"I just want to act in a way that I can be at peace with myself. Whether others believe it or not has nothing to do with me. So what if the Prince doesn't believe it? I'm just his maid! Even if he manages everything under the sky, can he still manage the innocence of a maid?"
"Really?" There was a glint in Sheng Jiangli's eyes. He smiled faintly. "I think the Prince of Yan doesn't care about many things, but he does care a great deal about your innocence!"
"General Sheng!" Caiyu quickly interrupted him. "This maid doesn't know why she met General Sheng here, nor does she know why the general wants to argue with this maid about the Prince's matter. If the general has nothing else to do, this maid will take her leave first!"
Caiyu pushed Sheng Jiangli. Although he looked delicate and handsome, his chest was as hard as marble, no less than Song Yinghuai's. He didn't move an inch after being pushed.
Caiyu got annoyed and pushed with all her strength.
He still didn't move.
A soft laugh came from above her head. "Sister Shu'er, you've never been able to push me down since you were a child. Why bother?"
Caiyu looked up and glared at him angrily. "Are you going to let me go or not?"
Sheng Jiangli looked at her blushing face with a pair of twinkling eyes and couldn't help but want to take a bite out of her face.
He sighed with a low laugh and silently stepped aside.
Caiyu was hiding a secret in her heart. She pushed past him and wanted to leave in a hurry.
Unexpectedly, Sheng Jiangli's voice slowly sounded behind her.
"Shu'er, don't you want to know how Father and the others are doing after they were exiled to Hainan? Don't you want to know what kind of life your eldest sister Qin'er is living in the capital? Don't you want to know where your second sister Xiang'er is now?"
His hoarse voice was like shards rubbed on sandpaper, gradually breaking the string of reason in Caiyu's mind.
Since her parents and the male members of the family were exiled, she had lost news of her family.
Her eldest sister had married Wen Zilong, a minister in the Ministry of War, early on and thus luckily escaped being implicated.
But her mother - in - law in the Wen family was not easy to get along with. Now that the Lan family had fallen, she didn't know how much contempt her eldest sister would suffer in her husband's family.
As for her second sister, she was the thorn in Caiyu's heart that she couldn't pull out.
At that time, she and her second sister and other female relatives were escorted to the capital to be official prostitutes. Along the way, the guards molested them, and she, her second sister, and her cousin were buried in a pit.
Her cousin died on the spot. When she woke up, she had been rescued by the Crown Prince's men. Whether her second sister was dead or alive was unknown.
What did Sheng Jiangli mean by his words?
Did he know the current situation of her family?
Caiyu took a few rapid breaths. Her heart was beating faster, like the drumbeats pounding in her chest.
She suddenly turned around, full of expectation and excitement. "A... Brother A Li, my father and the others..."
Sheng Jiangli looked at her eager eyes and smiled gently. "You finally deign to call me Brother A Li again?"
"You!" Caiyu bit her lip.
She couldn't tell whether Sheng Jiangli's words were true or false, but she didn't want to miss any news related to her family. So she glared at him angrily.
"I'm calling you now, Brother A Li! Brother A Li! Can you tell me now?"
Her voice was as clear and pleasant as the sound of jade colliding, crisply echoing in Sheng Jiangli's ears.
There was a strange glint in Sheng Jiangli's black eyes. He stared at her intently, and his gaze gradually became hot, like two burning sparks.
There was a gentle smile on his lips, and his eyes were half - smiling. "No, it's still a little bit short."
Caiyu:?
Out of the corner of his eye, Sheng Jiangli caught a glimpse of the figure in the purple - like twilight mountain gradually approaching. He opened his arms and tempted,
"Come, Sister Shu'er. After a long separation, you still owe me a hug."
Caiyu:...
She always felt that there was a hint of calculation in Sheng Jiangli's expression, but her eagerness for news about her family strongly urged her on.
She bit her plump cherry lips, looking skeptical. "I can give you a hug, but you won't go further and ask me for a kiss, right?"
Sheng Jiangli couldn't help but burst out laughing. "You're still as smart as ever!"
He opened his arms and extended a warm invitation. "Just one hug, I promise!"
It was just a hug. They had hugged when they were kids!
Caiyu lifted her skirt and was like a dancing butterfly. Her flying hair was like black satin fluttering in the air.
Sheng Jiangli's eyes flashed. He grabbed her footstep that had slowed down and suddenly pulled her into his arms, clasping her waist.
Caiyu's face hit his solid chest. Then, a cold voice like ice water sounded behind her ear.
"Lan Caiyu! What are you doing?!"