Su Yuanyuan was actually quite curious about this matter. She tentatively asked, "Brother Yun Jian, who taught you the art of mechanisms?"
Cang Xuan finally turned around to face her and said, "I taught myself."
Xiao Ba anxiously said, [How could it be self - taught? The mechanism formations he set up clearly bear the shadow of the master. Little Yuanbao, ask him again how he self - taught.]
Su Yuanyuan then asked the question as Xiao Ba had taught her.
Cang Xuan replied, "Naturally, by reading books."
Su Yuanyuan blurted out, "Where is that book? Can you let me take a look?"
Cang Xuan said, "I burned it."
Xiao Ba was furious. [The book he read must be the one left by the master about mechanism formations. He actually burned it. How hateful!]
Cang Xuan looked at Su Yuanyuan curiously. "Why do you ask these questions? Do you also want to learn?"
Su Yuanyuan said with an embarrassed smile, "How could it be? I'm just curious for a moment. You can observe the stars and make calculations, your martial arts are so good, and you can also design mechanism formations. Is there anything in this world that you can't do?"
Cang Xuan raised his eyebrows and said, "I'm capable of far more than this. You'll find out in the future."
...
Su Qing truly experienced what it meant to be extremely anxious in this lifetime.
He had waited in the side hall for a long time, but Su Yuanyuan still didn't come out of the closed door.
Just as he was fidgeting and about to get up to knock on the door to inquire, he heard Su Yuanyuan's footsteps outside the side hall.
"Daddy!"
Su Qing jumped up from the chair and stepped forward to greet her. Sure enough, the next moment, he saw Su Yuanyuan walking in lightly and throwing herself in front of him.
"Daddy, Yuanbao is back!"
Seeing that she was no longer listless and weak as when she came, but had become as lively as before, Su Qing reached out and touched her forehead. Finding that she was no longer feverish, he let out a relieved sigh.
However, to confirm, he still tentatively asked, "Yuanbao, your eyes..."
Su Yuanyuan looked up at his whole body and curved her eyebrows. "Daddy, Yuanbao can no longer see those ghosts of yours."
The next moment, Cang Xuan, holding a black jade fan, also walked in behind Su Yuanyuan.
"I've temporarily closed her celestial eye. For some time to come, she won't be troubled by these eyes anymore," Cang Xuan said.
Su Qing caught the keyword. "Temporarily? Does it mean that after the time limit, she will see those things she shouldn't see again?"
Cang Xuan replied, "That's right."
Seeing Su Qing looking worried, Cang Xuan explained, "I know what the adoptive father is worried about. As Master Kong Wen said, if the celestial eye is permanently closed, Sister Yuanbao's celestial soul will surely be affected. Only in this way can her celestial soul be preserved."
"How long will this temporary method last?" Su Qing asked.
Cang Xuan and Su Yuanyuan glanced at each other and saw silent understanding in each other's eyes.
Cang Xuan said, "On the fifteenth day of every month, she needs to come to me to close the celestial eye once."
Once a month. This frequency was still acceptable.
Su Qing agreed.
"You're proficient in this. I'll leave it to you."
After solving the problem of Su Yuanyuan's eyes, Su Qing planned to take her away.
As the master of the Prince Cang's Mansion, Cang Xuan pretended to persuade them to stay. "Adoptive father and Sister Yuanbao, why don't you have dinner in the Prince Cang's Mansion before leaving? It's just that there are few people in my mansion, and the cook's skills are not good. I'm afraid I'll neglect you."
Su Qing declined his kindness. "Come to the Duke Yong's Mansion tomorrow, and then we'll sit down and have a good meal together. I'll invite you to drink the sharp - edged wine from the north of the desert."
After a pause, Su Qing said, "When you're free in the future, you can come often."
Cang Xuan smiled triumphantly. "Okay."
To show his sincerity, Cang Xuan personally escorted Su Qing and Su Yuanyuan out of the Prince Cang's Mansion.
"That's far enough. It's windy outside. You should go back quickly," Su Qing said to Cang Xuan. Since they became adoptive father and son, his attitude towards Cang Xuan had softened greatly. The look in his eyes when looking at Cang Xuan couldn't help but show a bit of kindness.
After Su Yuanyuan and Su Qing got into their carriages respectively, Cang Xuan bowed with clasped hands, showing great courtesy. "Cang Xuan sees off the adoptive father and Sister Yuanbao."
Cang Xuan stood outside the door all the time, watching the carriage of the Duke Yong's Mansion leave until it disappeared from his sight. Then he turned around and entered the mansion.
Walking with his hands behind his back on the tree - shaded path in the Prince Cang's Mansion, Cang Xuan said to Tian Shu,
"Tian Shu, send the inventory list of the warehouse to my room. I'm going to choose a gift for the Duke Yong's Mansion tomorrow."
Tian Shu looked surprised and thought to himself, Ah? Is the master going to propose marriage tomorrow? Isn't it too soon?
Unable to hold back, Tian Shu said, "Master, shouldn't we first find a matchmaker to propose marriage on our behalf? You haven't completed the three letters and six etiquettes. Proposing directly seems a bit improper."
Cang Xuan stumbled in his steps and looked back at Tian Shu. The look in his eyes made Tian Shu shrink his neck involuntarily.
Was he wrong?
The master cared about Miss Su Si in every way and had done so many things in private. Didn't this mean that he had taken a fancy to her and planned to get married?
It couldn't be that, just like he did for Old Xu's mother, it was just about doing good deeds and accumulating virtue, could it?
"Do you need to worry about my marriage? Do you think I don't know the proper way to handle this?" Cang Xuan said. "Talk less and do more. If you can't do it, I'll replace you with Tian Xuan to serve me."
Tian Shu quickly said, "I'll surely finish inventorying the warehouse before nightfall and send the list to the master!"
The Qianji Pavilion.
Cang Xuan walked in and came to a long object covered with purple brocade.
He lifted the brocade, revealing a long zither with a smooth and intact lacquered surface below.
His long, fair fingers hooked up and gently tapped on the zither surface. He smiled and said,
"Tomorrow, I'll be able to see its owner."
...
The scene of the farewell outside the Prince Cang's Mansion just now was soon reported back by the spies lurking around the mansion to their respective masters.
In the Wang family, Wang Chongling's face became extremely gloomy after he heard the news. "Are you sure you didn't see wrong? Were they really affectionate and smiling?"
His confidant replied, "Absolutely certain!"
It seemed that Su Qing had really joined hands with that boy Cang Xuan. Now, the capital defense army was still in Su Qing's hands, and Cang Xuan was on the side of the Prince of Jin. It seemed that the Tong family was determined to oppose them.
In the Prince of Jin's Mansion, Xiao Zisheng tightened his grip on the paintbrush in his hand after he heard the news. The ink dropped on the paper and ruined the painting he was working on.
"Did you say that Miss Su Si was also with them?"
The attendant replied, "Yes."
Xiao Zisheng's breathing involuntarily became heavier.
Everyone thought that Cang Xuan was on his side, but only Xiao Zisheng himself knew that Cang Xuan didn't think highly of him at all. The way he looked at him was no different from the way he looked at the other princes like the Prince of Huai and the Prince of Xuan.
Moreover, before he was enfeoffed as a prince, Cang Xuan had dared to attack him.
What was Su Qing's purpose in taking his daughter to the Prince Cang's Mansion? A marriage alliance? An alliance?
Su Qing had lost his military power because of Cang Xuan and was forced to come to Shengjing City. Had the feud between them really been resolved?
Regardless of how the various forces speculated, Su Qing took Su Yuanyuan back to the Duke Yong's Mansion safely.