Men are naturally stronger. In his haste, Ji Lingchuan didn't hold back his strength. When Song Nanxin was pushed by him, she fell backward and bumped into the bookshelf behind.
The neatly arranged books on the shelf immediately tumbled down in a mess, and some even hit Song Nanxin.
Song Nanxin was in so much pain that tears welled up in her eyes. She covered her shoulder and looked up at Ji Lingchuan in disbelief.
"I just wanted to clean the study for the young master. Why is the young master so angry?"
Ji Lingchuan tightly held the wooden box in his hand. His phoenix eyes were fixed on Song Nanxin as he said,
"Cleaning the study is the servants' job. This is not a place for you. It was my oversight that I didn't explain this to you before. Since we've met here today, I'll emphasize it again."
When Ji Lingchuan spoke with a cold face, the aura of killing and warfare on him was released without reservation, making it hard for Song Nanxin to breathe.
"The study is a forbidden area in the Jingtao Courtyard. Without my permission, no one is allowed to enter, let alone rummage through the things in it. If any military secrets are leaked and it affects the military situation on the border, even if you are the imperial - bestowed young mistress, I will not show any mercy!"
Ji Lingchuan's words were extremely harsh, and there was no trace of affection in his eyes when he looked at Song Nanxin.
Song Nanxin felt a lump in her throat, extremely aggrieved.
She secretly gritted her teeth, curtsied, and apologized in a humble tone,
"It was my oversight. I forgot that the young master is the commander of the Xuanjia Army. I'm here to apologize to the young master. I guarantee that I won't make such a mistake again."
After saying that, she limped out with her aching body.
As she passed by Ji Lingchuan, he smelled the fragrance of almond flower balm on her.
The anger in his heart was instantly extinguished. When he came to his senses, Song Nanxin was no longer in the study.
Ji Lingchuan looked at the box in his hand and didn't go after her to explain. He returned to the table, sat down, gently ran his finger over the lock, and then opened the long - sealed box.
If Song Nanxin had been there, she would have been extremely surprised.
Because what was inside the box was not any military secrets, but many well - preserved letters.
On the cover of each letter, the words "To Mr. Lingji" were written in delicate and elegant small regular script. The handwriting was surprisingly similar to the annotations on the ledger that Song Nanxin had presented to the Princess of Ning on that day.
However, compared to the ledger, the handwriting on the letters was more immature, with a slight tremor in the strokes.
Ji Lingchuan looked at the letter in his hand, recalled the neat and elegant handwriting on the ledger, and his gaze turned deep. He looked up in the direction where Song Nanxin had left.
This black box was indeed his taboo, and he never allowed anyone to touch it.
So when he saw her holding it just now, he snatched it back without thinking.
But when he calmed down and thought about it, the small characters she wrote on the ledger were very similar to those on the letter.
Moreover, no one knew that when he first got these letters, they were always faintly scented with the pleasant fragrance of almond flowers.
As time passed, the fragrance on the letters had long since disappeared.
The next time he smelled it was on the night when he consummated his marriage with her.
Both she and her younger sister Song Yihuan had a similar smell to that on the letters, but this fragrance seemed to come from the balm.
Could she be the one from that year?
...
After Song Nanxin returned to the Yixiang Pavilion, she sat on the chair and thought it over and over again, feeling something was off.
Ji Lingchuan's reaction was too extreme. It didn't seem like he was just angry because she had touched some military secrets. It was more like she had touched some unmentionable taboo of his.
She guessed that the taboo should be related to a woman, otherwise he wouldn't be so nervous.
Song Nanxin squinted slightly and thought to herself, could it be that Ji Lingchuan had a sweetheart before he married her? Were they still secretly in touch? Was the black box filled with tokens of their love?
A woman's intuition is extremely sharp. The more Song Nanxin thought about it, the more she believed her guess was right. She couldn't help but clench her fists.
She was determined to win Ji Lingchuan over. Such an excellent husband could only belong to her, and no one else was allowed to covet him!
She called Bai Zhi over and said, "Find out what the young master did before his marriage, who he contacted, especially if there were any women. The more detailed, the better. Don't miss a single detail."
Bai Zhi replied, "Yes, miss."
Song Nanxin thought that since she and Ji Lingchuan had an unpleasant encounter in the study during the day, with Ji Lingchuan's personality, he wouldn't come to her for a few days. However, after nightfall, the Shulan Courtyard suddenly received a message from the Jingtao Courtyard, saying that Ji Lingchuan would stay in the Shulan Courtyard tonight.
Moreover, he was already on his way!
This caught Song Nanxin off guard. She quickly asked someone to try to delay Ji Lingchuan, and at the same time, she asked Nanny Zhao to go to the Tinglan Garden to fetch Song Yihuan.
Nanny Zhao rushed to the Tinglan Garden. She saw Song Yihuan teaching Song Yixuan how to write in the room. Without saying a word, she rushed in, grabbed Song Yihuan's wrist, and dragged her out. "Fourth miss, the eldest miss is eager to see you. Come with this old servant quickly!"
Seeing Song Yixuan's pale face and covering his chest in fright, Song Yihuan's face instantly turned cold. But Nanny Zhao was too strong, and she couldn't break free. She was half - dragged and half - carried to the secret room of the Yixiang Pavilion, avoiding others.
Song Yihuan was fuming with anger. When she saw her eldest sister in the secret room and was about to question her, her eldest sister stopped her with a single sentence:
"The young master is on his way. He'll probably arrive at the Yixiang Pavilion soon!"
Song Nanxin grabbed Song Yihuan's hand and stuffed a small porcelain bottle into her palm. "Before the young master arrives, you must apply this balm. Listen, tonight, besides serving the young master well, you need to apologize to him. Say that you didn't mean to go to his study during the day. Try to find out what's in the black wooden box. No matter what he says to you tonight, you must tell me every single word afterwards!"
After saying that, before Song Yihuan could react, her eldest sister pushed her from the secret room into the main room of the Yixiang Pavilion.
Stumbling, Song Yihuan looked at the canopied bed in the darkness, feeling her heart pounding violently.
"Greetings to the young master."
The voices of the maids and servants greeting came from outside.
The next moment, the door creaked open, and Ji Lingchuan walked in.
In the quiet room, listening to the man's steady footsteps approaching, Song Yihuan's heart skipped a beat. She turned around, lowered her long and curly eyelashes, and forced herself to calm down.
Since things had come to this, she could only do her best.
She quickly applied the balm to several parts of her body, removed the hairpins from her hair, and her soft and black hair cascaded down from her head, spreading behind her.
She untied her belt and took off her clothes, leaving only a cute bellyband. She gently stroked her long and smooth hair and held her breath, waiting.
After Ji Lingchuan walked around the screen, he saw a woman with her back to him, having taken off her clothes and revealing her fragrant shoulders and fair arms.