The lighted room was crowded with people. The rustling noises with people’s talking voice covered the sound of Leng Changxi’s moving out the tile with the tip of his long finger.
The half-a-chi-wide little hole was enough for Leng Changxi to observe the whole picture inside. Du Wei was sitting in a big bathtub to have a bath with his eyes closed. He looked rather painful. The maids around him were hurried to spread some herbs to his bathwater. There was a swaying figure behind the folding screen. His identity remained a secret until he began to speak.
“You’ve behaved really well recently. At least, His Majesty trusts you very much,” the person behind the folding screen stroke out slowly. As Leng Changxi had expected, he was Jing Yuanchu.
There must have been a connection between Jing Yuanchu and Du Wei.
Jing Yuanchu strode to Du Wei. He snapped out his finger suddenly and poked it hard at Du Wei’s bare shoulder, who hissed as if that little finger had killed him.
“Well. The old skin is soft after being soaked. It can be replaced by a new one,” Jing Yuanchu nodded. As soon as he turned around, those maids who looked as gentle as the water around Du Wei, who was unable to move, immediately pulled him out of the bathtub. They poured out all the wasted water and into another potion which was as red as blood. The pungent smell of medicine it gave out could be smelled clearly even by Leng Changxi, who was lying on the beam.
“Change his skin.” With Jing Yuanchu’s order, Du Wei was thrown back into the tub. Under the red potion, his skin began to crack. Then it began to peel off in chunks as if Du Wei had been changing his clothes. The maids scrambled to retrieve the old skins from the tub.
It looked like Du Wei had stripped off a layer of clothes along from his face to his body. The new skin that showed up, which made people dare not to look at it directly, looked as if it had been burnt by the fire. Du Wei’s real skin was full of bumps and hollows. Not until the skin on his face also faded did Leng Changxi know what was disgusting. His face could not be called a normal face, which was full of crisscrossing burn marks preventing people from seeing his real appearance.
Watching Du Wei undergoing the torture, Jing Yuanchu seemed to enjoy it, “You need to replace the skin every thirty days. This is merely the first time. You should remember that now that you choose to work for me, you should finish your task. Of course, if you want to quit and stop changing the skin, the new skin that attaches to your body will slowly embed into your skin and sticks to it. Oh. Yes. I forget that you’ve already lost your skin. You’ve sold it to me. Anyway, if you want to give up halfway, you will wait to see your skin crack and live a life worse than death.”
To Leng Changxi’s surprise, Jing Yuanchu treated people in such a cruel way. Leng Changxi had heard of the method, which was extremely bloody.
It was also a surprise that Du Wei could bear the pain. While handling the pain of skin peeled off, he answered Jing Yuanchu in a loud voice, “I, Qin, would like to sacrifice my life for Your Royal Highness. All I want is that the two b*tches, Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan, can die like dogs.”
Qin?
Leng Changxi was more focused when overhearing.
Jing Yuanchu suddenly looked up and laughed. Looking at Du Wei, he said in a disdainful and mocking tone, “Qin Linfeng! Qin Linfeng! Who can predict the future? You and I had once been classmates for a while when you had a study tour in West Xia. But now you’re as pitiful as a dead dog, fawning in front of me. However, no wonder that you abandon your dignity and beg like that, without me, you would have died in the palace of Qi.”
Qin Linfeng?
Leng Changxi’s brain was empty for a moment. Clever as he was, it never occurred to him that the true identity of Du Wei was Qin Linfeng, who used to play tricks and should have died a long time ago.
“Who is it?” Jing Yuanchu seemed to realize the unusual situation on the roof. He looked up suddenly, only to find nothing on the roof. He went out of the house to chase, but the roof was empty. All he could see was the usual moonlight and starlight.
“Your Royal Highness, what’s wrong?” The guards in the yard came immediately.
“Have you been in the yard all the time?”
“Yes, Your Royal Highness. I’ve been guarding here all the time.”
“Have you seen anybody coming in?” Jing Yuanchu always felt worried in his heart.
“No.”
“Alright,” Jing Yuanchu waved and returned to the yard. In the yard, the maids kept carrying basins into the house. Du Wei needed a lot of water to change the skin, “Keep your eyes on the noise. No accident is allowed.”
At the same time, Leng Changxi had already flown back to the yard of Jing Yuanxiao. At the corner, Qin Yunuan was still waiting for Leng Changxi to return. Once she saw a black shadow from afar whose shape was similar to Leng Changxi’s in general, she hurried to welcome him, “What?”
There was a flash of cold light unexpectedly. Qin Yunuan was keenly aware of a murderous intention. As she retreated, a bladed dagger flied across the air with a strong murderous intention. The person seemed not to expect that Qin Yunuan, a seemingly fragile little woman, actually could have such a sensitive reaction.
The person was approaching her step by step. The cold light flashed in the narrow path. Qin Yunuan took a few steps back when behind her was nothing but a blind alley. When she was about to retreat to the end, Qin Yunuan suddenly had mysterious strength, giving the person hit on the shoulder, which she thought was just a kind of resistance.
However, the person went back repeatedly. His body shivered suddenly when he spat out a mouthful of blood.
It was weird that this little girl with such strange skills could have such a deep inner Qi.
Qin Yunuan looked at her palm, a little surprised. She didn’t know since when she had had such power. However, it was also helpful. At least she wasn’t afraid of the man popping up to kill her anymore.
Raising her head slightly, Qin Yunuan shouted to the coming person, “Who has sent you here?”
The man wouldn’t answer but took sidesteps to go forward. After throwing the dagger in his hand away, he took out the long sword hidden around his waist. Waving it quickly with the silver light, the man attacked towards Qin Yunuan quickly.
Just when Qin Yunuan prepared to play the old trick again, the man froze suddenly. There was a huge hole in his chest. What had pierced his chest was nothing but the dagger which he had just dropped on the ground, which swiveled as if it would have torn the assassin’s heart to pieces.
Holding the dagger, Leng Changxi walked slowly from behind the assassin to his front. His eyes were cold without emotion. He witnessed that the assassin lost his strength slowly and slid all the way down with his back against the wall.
“It tells you that you should not throw the used weapon away causally in the future. Oh. You already have no future,” Leng Changxi gave the assassin a strong kick, which ended his life completely.
“Changxi,” Qin Yunuan looked at the body of the assassin on the ground. At first, she was not afraid at all. But she realized how dangerous it was just now after Leng Changxi’s appearance.
Qin Yunuan held the arm of Leng Changxi, who squatted down, casually flipped through the assassin’s equipment and clothes, and found nothing.
“I’ll ask Leng Wu to deal with it later,” Leng Changxi turned back to glance at Qin Yunuan, “Nuan, I have a word with you.”
“I also want to talk to you,” Qin Yunuan looked around. After she confirmed that there was nobody around, she took Leng Changxi to a remote hut, which was used to pile up sundry. Without an emergency, no one would come to disturb them.
The hut was dark inside. Qin Yunuan didn’t want to light a lamp, which could cause more attention.
“The assassin just now, I think, is sent by Sima Ray,” Qin Yunuan felt worried, “Although there was no sign on his body, the way he pulled out the dagger was so familiar to me. There are several people around Sima Ray who are good at close combat acting like that. I suspect that Sima Ray has already known that we are in West Xia. Changxi, I need to hurry up.”
Leng Changxi stared at Qin Yunuan’s eyes, from which he saw her trust to him as well as the panic to the future. However, her eyes were still suffused with a firm light. She trusted you so much! Leng Changxi, you had to be strong. You could not let the woman who had followed you to suffer be in danger or grievance again.
“Nuan, Du Wei’s identity is false.”
“Of course, I know he is a fake one. You are the real prince of West Xia.”
“No. What I mean is that his identity of Du Wei is also false,” Leng Changxi gave a long sigh, “He is actually Qin Linfeng.” Then Leng Changxi told Qin Yunuan all he had seen previously. Qin Yunuan’s face changed slowly, from surprise to calmness. It seemed to have gone through a long time, or just a moment.
“I got it.”
“He needs to replace his skin every thirty days. Next time he replaces his skin will be the best time for us to attack him.”
“No need for that,” Qin Yunuan looked down, “Tomorrow is okay.”
The next morning the camp was restored to life. The soldiers who got up early dressed up to replace the night watch. The sound of the drill was heard from a distance. The powerful whirring of soldiers was a symbol of the country’s newest strength and its most powerful guard.
According to the custom, Jing Donghua should supervise the practice himself in the morning, so he arrived early. In the past, the emperor would either come alone or take just a prince with him. This time, however, he took three princes here. It was no doubt a kind of competition and comparison. Sure enough, both Jing Yuanchu and Du Wei arrived in the time to burn half an incense earlier. Only Jing Yuanxiao arrived loyally according to the scheduled time.
“Brother, you arrive on time,” on the platform to supervise the army, Jing Yuanchu looked at Jing Yuanxiao, who arrived later than them, and said with a smile. His casual words seemed to remind others that the crowned prince was the latest one to come.
But Jing Yuanxiao didn’t mind it. He laughed, “Father has asked us to arrive at this time. I think that if I arrive early and father still has something to deal with, it’s not good to interrupt him.” The crowned prince’s words are gentle and kind, mainly thinking about others. That was why Jing Donghua liked him despite his plain achievement in politics.
“Now that we have all come, we should all look at the good demeanor of our soldiers in West Xia.” Jing Donghua had been wrapped in a thick warm fox fur coat, but he suddenly disbanded and stood alone in the cold wind, looking down at the soldiers waving their swords, guns, and halberds.
The three of them approached the city wall on foot. Suddenly, Du Wei shuddered. Jing Yuanxiao asked quickly, “What’s the matter? Isn’t Mr. Du feeling well?”
