Jingtao Courtyard.
On Ji Lingchuan's desk, there was a letter. The cover of the letter was written in beautiful running script with the words "For Mr. Lingji".
Seeing this reply letter on the desk, Ji Lingchuan felt as if his breath was about to stop.
He sat down on the chair, picked up the letter in his hand, and gently stroked the characters on the cover with his fingers.
This running script was completely different from the previous delicate regular script and the official script he taught Song Yixuan. If one looked closely, one could tell that the stroke trends carried a bit of the shadow of his calligraphy. But different from his wild and sharp style, her calligraphy hid a kind of grace within its casualness.
It made him think of the sassy and charming "Miss Rou" he had briefly met at Qi Lei's place.
He carefully opened the letter and took out the thick letter paper inside. He put it in front of his nose and smelled it. The faint fragrance of newly - blooming apricot flowers wafted into his nostrils, making him suddenly feel as if time had turned back and he was back to the moment four years ago when he first received her letter.
In the first year of Taichu, there was a war on the border. Ji Lingchuan was entrusted with a crucial mission to lead the army to defend the border, and completely lost contact with that young friend.
After arriving at the border, he always missed the fragrance of apricot flowers on the letter. When he was free, he would go into the apricot forest to drink and relax. Gradually, he could distinguish the scents of apricot flowers at different stages.
And he was sure that the fragrance of apricot flowers on the paper was exactly the same as that of that year.
He read the content of the letter word by word. She never mentioned the past, just like meeting "Mr. Lingji" for the first time. The letter was filled with reverence for Mr. Lingji and curiosity about the twelve border cities. She also asked in the letter when he would publish the second volume of A Miscellany of Yangshan.
In the first volume of A Miscellany of Yangshan, Ji Lingchuan only wrote about Shuoyang City, and there were still fifteen other cities left unwritten. Looking at the signature "Respectfully submitted by Rou Huan", Ji Lingchuan could picture a delicate and curious face in front of his eyes.
The frost on his eyebrows and eyes gradually melted. He carefully put the letter back into the black wooden box, then found a blank piece of letter paper, dipped his pen in ink, and started to write a reply to her.
Due to various accidents, they had missed each other for four years. Four years later, things had changed and they couldn't recognize each other.
It was never too late to get to know each other again from now on.
After finishing the reply letter and sealing it tightly, there was a knock on the study door.
"My lord, your subordinate has brought the person back. No one in the mansion noticed."
Not long after, Ji Lingchuan opened the study door. He looked down at Fuzhou, who was dressed in black and acting furtively: "Well done."
Following Fuzhou to an empty side room in Jingtao Courtyard, Ji Lingchuan pushed open the door and walked in.
Baishao was lying with her eyes closed on a chair. There was Fuxing guarding the room, and an old woman that Fuzhou had found.
Ji Lingchuan walked up to the sleeping Baishao and glanced at Fuzhou. Fuzhou understood and stepped forward to feel around Baishao's face. After feeling all over her face, Fuzhou shook his head.
"My lord, her face is real."
Ji Lingchuan frowned slightly, then lowered his head to look at the woman's hands. On her right hand, there were clearly three scabbed wounds, which obviously looked like they were scratched by something.
Ji Lingchuan pondered for a moment and said to Fuzhou: "Go and find someone to verify her identity. Remember, don't let anyone notice."
Soon, Fuzhou brought back an old granny. The granny was an old servant in the mansion. After taking the silver and repeatedly promising not to talk nonsense, she felt the sleeping Baishao's body under Fuzhou's hint.
After a moment, the old granny said: "My lord, this girl is indeed a woman."
Ji Lingchuan waved his hand: "I see. You can go."
Ji Lingchuan glanced at the unconscious person and said to Fuzhou: "Send the person back."
Back in the study, Ji Lingchuan recalled everything that had just happened and gently tapped his fingers on the table. After leaving the palace today, he had gone to the Qionglizhi Troupe and watched a play performed by that "Cui Taizhu" with his own eyes.
In terms of figure, Cui Taizhu's build was indeed very similar to that of the maid Baishao. The only difference was that Cui Taizhu had no wounds on his hands.
Was he wrong? Was there really nothing wrong with that maid named Baishao?
But he never doubted his intuition.
If he wasn't wrong, then he had probably alerted the enemy before.
Song Yihuan got the reply letter from "Mr. Lingji" from Boss Sheng of Youyang Bookstore the next day. The reply came even faster than she had expected.
When replying to him, she had used the name "Rou Huan". So when she opened the reply letter, her heart was pounding. She couldn't help but wonder what he would write back.
Would he sternly scold her for trying every means to get close to him?
Taking a deep breath, Song Yihuan unfolded the letter paper in her hand. At a glance, she broke into a smile.
"I never thought that the writer of A Miscellany of Yangshan would be a woman. I'm deeply surprised and at the same time, I'm impressed by the girl's talent. I wonder how the girl managed to copy my calligraphy so similarly?"
"The girl asked when I would write the second volume of A Miscellany of Yangshan. Unfortunately, I'm going to Xingzhou soon. This matter may be delayed for some time. If the girl is interested, the content of the second volume will mainly focus on Xingzhou..."
Xingzhou.
Song Yihuan tightened her grip on the letter paper. For the first time, she was so looking forward to the trip to Xingzhou.
...
As soon as the imperial edict for the autumn hunting and sacrifice to heaven ceremony was issued, every household in the capital became busy. Not only the Prince Ning's Mansion received the edict, but also the Marquis Ding'an's Mansion, the Duke Jiang's Mansion, the Meng Mansion, the Cao Mansion... All those with titles or official positions in the court could bring their families to accompany the emperor. For a while, "the autumn hunting trip" became a very popular topic.
Whether it was common people or the nobility, the topic at banquets and on the dinner table was the autumn hunting ceremony. Being able to follow the emperor to Xingzhou had become a symbol of honor.
The Prince Ning's Mansion was also extremely busy for this autumn hunting trip. Song Nanxin was called by the Princess of Ning every day to learn how to handle the mansion affairs. They wouldn't be back for two to three months on this trip to Xingzhou, so they needed to arrange all the expenses and personnel allocation in the mansion for these three months. She was so busy that she had no time to make trouble for Song Yihuan.
But Song Yihuan wasn't idle either. These days, she was also busy packing her luggage for the trip and had no time to think about other things.
This time, not only she and Song Yixuan were going, but also the two maids, Fuling and Chunxing, would accompany them to serve. All in all, the four of them had packed four or five boxes, and this was after Song Yihuan had deliberately controlled the amount.
While packing, Song Yihuan found the apricot - flower dress that she had stuffed at the bottom of the box again. She was slightly stunned and her movements froze.