Crazy woman, crazy woman… The two words kept reverberating in Imperial Concubine Jing’s mind. She had done so much for him, but he….
Imperial Concubine Jing gritted her teeth. A resolve coming from nowhere flashed in her eyes. Qin Yunuan was quite familiar with it. It indicated the resolve of someone longing for death after she had given up everything.
“Stop her quickly. She wants to commit suicide,” Qin Yunuan shouted suddenly, rushing at Imperial Concubine Jing. She tried to open Imperial Concubine Jing’s teeth, which was closed tightly. However, she was late. The poison hidden in the gingiva was already swallowed and reacted. Imperial Concubine Jing’s limbs began thrashing. Blood kept coming out of her teeth, streaming along her perfect jaw and forming a weird pool of blood on the ground.
She was suffering such great pain that her hands kept scratching on her face. The human skin mask that fit her face tightly was broken now, revealing the ugly scars on her real skin. Nobody could imagine her pain when her face was forced to be ruined.
“She can’t live,” said Qin Yunuan to Leng Changxi. Imperial Concubine Jing had the higher third-grade of rank, and she was quite favored by the emperor. Now she died without a reason in the Xiangguo Temple. Not only Qin Yunuan but also Leng Changxi couldn’t give the emperor a satisfying explanation to her death as well as Tong’s death, who had been killed by Dou Xianghuai and now lay beside Imperial Concubine Jing.
Qin Yunuan frowned. However, Leng Changxi was surprisingly calm. He touched his nose and said, “Empress Chen never wants her to be alive, so you can’t save her anyway.” After finishing his words, he looked at Dou Xianghuai, who witnessed Imperial Concubine Jing’s suffering to death. He looked like it was none of his business, but his fingers that cuddled slightly revealed that his heart was being tortured.
“Your lover is dead,” Leng Changxi raised his eyes to look at Dou Xianghuai, cold and calm as if he hadn’t belonged to the world.
“Lover?” replied Dou Xianghuai coldly, “She was simply a tool that I had used. She meant nothing to me.”
Qin Yunuan responded in a smile, “If she was really a tool to you, why did you bother to come to the Xiangguo Temple in the midnight, only to see Imperial Concubine Jing? And you even took the risk to kill a person that could be a threat to her!”
“Third Miss Qin, if I don’t get it wrong, the dead person was your servant girl whom you had been punished by flogging. If others learn her death, they will think that it’s your punishment that causes her death. Who will think that I was the killer? And this woman,” Dou Xianghuai lowed his head to glance at Imperial Concubine Jing’s body, “It’s Empress Chen who killed her. How come it has any connection to me?”
Leng Changxi raised his head proudly, “Your words indicate that you think you can get out with no harm. How foolish you are!”
Dou Xianghuai smiled cunningly, “‘The wily hare has three holes to his burrow.’ Leng Changxi, although I never fight against you, I know your tricks well. ‘Know your enemy and know yourself.’ Of course, I have some preparation.” He put his index finger to his mouth and gave a loud whistle. According to his arrangement, besides the 28 guards and 4 personal warriors he brought here, there were also some spies in the Xiangguo Temple, so he could escape in emergencies.
To his surprise, followed by a series of footsteps were not his heelers disguising as Buddhists in the Xiangguo Temple, but four rows of archers, 20 people in a row. They surrounded the little yard in no time.
The men Dou Xianghuai managed to put in the Xiangguo Temple were then pushed in with hands tied behind their backs. The man who took their lead was nobody else but Shang Xianhua, who promised to join in the Leng Army today.
Shang Xianhua salute Leng Changxi reverently, “General Leng, there were nine spies of the Dou Family in the Xiangguo Temple. Seven trainee Buddhists along with two Buddhists working in the kitchen were all caught.”
Leng Changxi waved to let Shang Xianhua leave. Thanks to his sophisticated eyes and precise experience, this time they could catch the men hidden in the Xiangguo Temple by the Dou Family so easily and quickly. It was worthful for Leng Changxi to try so hard to invite him to join them.
Seeing Dou Xianghuai’s stunned face, Leng Changxi was obviously amused, “By the way, what did you say just now? ‘Know your enemy and know yourself.’ Oh! It seemed that you didn’t know me well enough.”
Dou Xianghuai trembled, and cried, “You don’t dare to touch me. Most of the officers in provinces and many ministers are our people. ‘A slight move in one part may affect the situation as a whole.’ If you do something to the Dou Family, you are actually shaking the foundation and the lifeline of Qi.”
Leng Changxi raised his head to give a long laugh. How ridiculous Dou Xianghuai’s ignorance and arrogance was at present! It was unbelievable that he took them as his pride.
“Use your brain,” the expression in Leng Changxi’s eyes was cold, “If the emperor hadn’t agreed and participated in the plan, how could it be realized perfectly? It was quite hard to make Lu Jinghua, who had sent messages for you, the elite guards in the Dou Family, and you, the son born by the legal mother of the Dou Family to occur at the same time in the same place.”
That is to say, the emperor’s favor to Lu Jinghua was for others to watch. Firstly, it could eliminate Imperial Concubine Jing’s alertness. Secondly, it could lay the foundation for Imperial Concubine Jing’s promotion and her praying for Queen Mother in the Xiangguo Temple.
Qin Yunuan took a tumble. The whole thing was planned ahead from the beginning to the end. So what about her? What role did she play in the plan?
Leng Changxi seemed to realize Qin Yunuan’s strange mood. The moment she trembled, he put his hand backward and held hers tightly. He put her little soft hand in his palm, fingers intertwined with a little strength so that she wouldn’t go far.
On the other side, Leng Changxi raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at Dou Xianghuai, whose face turned black and blue. He gave a cold ultimatum that wouldn’t accept any resistance, “Master Dou, you have nowhere to go.”
Dou Xianghuai was still resisting stubbornly, “This prayer in the Xiangguo Temple was for the better condition of Queen Mother’s disease. Have you already decided to make the situation hard to end?”
“Queen Mother’s disease?” Leng Changxi sneered, “Master Dou, you know what? The biggest disease that the emperor and Queen Mother have been worrying about is that the Dou Family hasn’t been removed yet. Just admit it. You’ve already lost.”
Indeed. He had already lost. Actually he had lost completely since the time he decided to leave Hangzhou for the Royal City, or the time he couldn’t bear his yearn, hoping to resume the relationship with the girl of the Lu Family, whom he had loved, or the time he took the risk of death to intrude Xiangguo Temple. No, the truth was that he had never won.
At first, he only thought that he could make good use of Lu Jinghua’s beauty. Out of his expectation, he gave out his true heart to her. However, he ended up marrying a daughter of an eminent family and abandoning the women he loved most to serve the interest of his family. By the time he was able to dominate his own marriage and fate, the person in his heart was no longer the same.
Just now when they were in the wing-room, he tried to give her a kiss like the soft one they once had in the season when phoenix tree flowers were dropping one by one in the past. It used to give them the same pleasure as having the forbidden fruit. However, her refusal was true, and her disdain was also true. His heart became cold at once. His intelligence was right. Her heart had given to a man named Leng Changxi and was no longer his.
The dead Imperial Concubine Jing lay on the ground silently. There had already been post-mortem examiners and servant girls coming near to deal with the corpse. With her spreading hair and red lips, it seemed that she just fell asleep.
“Yes, I lost,” murmured Dou Xianghuai, but his eyes were still lingering on the body of Imperial Concubine Jing. After all, he was reluctant to part with her, “I lost mostly because of myself, not you, Leng Changxi.”
Leng Changxi, “You vastly overrated yourself.”
All of a sudden, Dou Xianghuai smiled grimly. He looked at the soldiers around him, pulled out a short dagger from his arms and stabbed his heart directly. He did it deeply and severely with a resolve to death, making people wonder where his courage to penetrate his own body came from. Dou Xianghuai even repeated the process of pulling out the dagger and stabbing it to the heart again and again. Blood flew out from his body, and the scene was horrifying.
Qin Yunuan frowned. Before she could feel disgusted, a pair of large hands covered her eyes. They were warm and rough, with thin calluses as the result of long experience of leading armies and fighting. They were his hands, gentle and filling her with the sense of safety.
Turning back, Leng Changxi only gave Shang Xianhua one order, “Clear it up.”
“Yes.”
After that, Leng Changxi pulled Qin Yunuan to leave the yard, leading her to another yard, which was quiet and deep inside. It was hard to imagine that there was such a quiet yard in the Xiangguo Temple, which was famous for its magnificence. It might have been built especially for a retired superior. The yard was empty with the fragrance of orchid. In the east of it, there were quincuncial piles for practicing martial arts.
Leng Changxi dragged Qin Yunuan to the quincuncial piles until she wretched his wrists.
Before she could say something, Leng Changxi said in a blaming tone, “I’ve already told you not to befriend with her.”
“How would I know that General Leng had such an arrangement. I thought…” Qin Yunuan said the first half of the sentence confidently, but she stopped suddenly before finishing the second half. This was because Leng Changxi drew near her abruptly. He strolled slowly, forcing her to a quincuncial pile at the height of one man. Its coldness stimulated her senses, which was in sharp contrast with the heat she saw in Leng Changxi’s eyes.
“You thought what?”
“I thought…” Qin Yunuan extended her tone. However, the next moment Leng Changxi’s hot lips covered her mouth with an overbearing search. He pressed her on the quincuncial pile, licked her mouth, and put her hand into her clothes.
