Chapter 53: The Winner

Lu Zhi strode into Tinglan Pavilion, making his way to her bedchamber.

Two maidservants were currently attending to her beside the bed.

One of them was carefully feeding her sips of water.

The young girl remained completely motionless, extremely weak, as if she had lost consciousness altogether.

Upon entering, Lu Zhi walked briskly to the bedside. His tall frame bent down, and his fingers first tested her breathing, then checked her pulse, and finally touched her forehead.

Her breathing was faint, and her pulse was likewise weak, but she had no fever.

The man snatched the water bowl from the maidservant's hand and fed her himself. After several consecutive attempts, seeing that she had swallowed the water, he immediately gave a command:

"Hand me the bowl of porridge!"

The maidservant quickly passed the bowl into Lu Zhi's hands.

The porridge had just been cooked and still radiated a gentle warmth.

Holding the spoon, Lu Zhi fed her slowly, mouthful by mouthful, occasionally wiping the corners of her mouth with a handkerchief.

Just as he had fed her a little less than half a bowl, the physician was brought in.

Lu Zhi instructed the maidservants to lower the gauze curtains and stood up to let the physician examine her.

The diagnosis was much the same as what he had observed: she was not in any immediate danger, but simply extremely weak.

The entire day passed with her in this exact state.

By afternoon, Lu Zhi sat within the warm chamber with a cold expression. After a long while, he finally summoned his subordinates and issued his instructions.

Throughout the day, he had hardly left Tinglan Pavilion, and some seven or eight maidservants had been assigned to wait upon her.

As dusk fell, he returned to her room, where the maidservant was just feeding porridge to the young girl.

The man stepped closer, took the bowl and spoon from the maidservant, and sat at the edge of the bed to feed her himself. Every gesture of his was remarkably meticulous.

He had barely fed her a few mouthfuls when the young girl stirred slightly...

*******

Yan Xi gently moved her head, and her slender fingers also slowly curled up, brushing against the quilt beneath her. The touch was silky, and her hazy consciousness gradually grew clear and distinct.

She felt someone feeding her porridge and instinctively swallowed.

After who knows how long, she slowly opened her eyes.

Her vision was blurred, and at first she could not clearly make out the person before her, only vaguely sensing a tall figure.

Yet as her vision grew clearer, the person before her transitioned from a blur into sharp definition. At last, she saw his face clearly.

That strikingly handsome visage, dazzling no matter the time or place, instantly struck her field of vision. Almost simultaneously, Yan Xi's chaotic consciousness fully returned, and she remembered everything.

The young girl's pupils dilated slightly, as if she were looking at a mortal enemy, and she instantly realized that it was he who had been feeding her porridge.

"Get lost..."

Her strength was feeble and her breath was thin, yet she showed no trace of submission. Yan Xi raised her hand to strike away the bowl of porridge in the man's hand.

Her blow missed, however, as the fellow simply sidestepped slightly and then pressed down on her raised slender arm.

"Mmph..."

Yan Xi struggled.

Yet she had little strength to begin with, and now, feeling utterly limp, she was even less of a match for him. How could she possibly raise her arms again? A pair of pure, watery eyes turned sideways, fragile yet unyielding, her breathing slightly hurried as she stared fixedly at him.

"Let go..."

Lu Zhi did not let go. Standing tall and looking down with lowered eyelids, he handed the porridge bowl to the nearby maidservant, scooped another spoonful as before, and brought it to her lips.

How could Yan Xi ever comply? She immediately turned her face away.

With a sweep of his large hand, Lu Zhi forced her face back, once more thrusting the thin porridge toward her mouth, uttering a single, stern word:

"Drink!"

How could Yan Xi yield? She clamped her lips tightly together, biting down on her pearly teeth, her whole body already trembling slightly.

Their gazes locked directly.

Lu Zhi spoke up: "Would you rather die?"

The young girl answered bluntly, without the slightest show of weakness: "Yes!"

The room plunged into a dead silence once more, the air cold and heavy.

The maidservants all trembled in fear.

Lu Zhi's gaze grew noticeably darker.

*******

Their gazes remained locked. For a long, long time, it was still the man who spoke first.

He released his grip on her, dropped the porcelain spoon back into the bowl, and stood up. Without turning around, he tilted his head slightly, maintaining a composed demeanor. With his thin lips parting slightly, his voice was chilling:

"Very well. I will have your two maidservants sent back to you. As for that fellow A-Tai, don't think I don't know where he is..."

"As for that pair of siblings, I simply chose not to hunt them down."

Saying this, he slowly turned around, his straight and imposing figure bending forward just a fraction, his gloomy eyes staring straight into hers.

"Shen Yanxi, I didn't actually kill your maidservant, and I let the siblings off the hook. Don't push your luck! Push me too far, and I don't even know what I might do..."

Yan Xi's body was still trembling slightly, and she continued to meet his gaze head-on.

The atmosphere in the room remained frozen.

For a long time—so long that it was impossible to tell how much time had passed—the man finally straightened his posture once more, averted his gaze, and turned to leave...

Until he was completely gone, Yan Xi still kept her hands tightly clenched...

*********

On the second morning, while the young girl was still in bed, urgent footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the house.

Yan Xi's heartstrings tautened, and she immediately sat up.

Before long, the sounds grew closer, the door was pushed open, and two cries rang out one after another:

"Miss!"

"Miss!"

With her heart surging with emotion, Yan Xi immediately got out of bed and hurried toward the door to welcome them.

The owners of those voices were none other than Qinglian and Taohong!

She dashed to the doorway of the beaded curtain, and the two maids arrived there at that exact moment.

Accompanied by a crisp sound, the curtain was lifted, and the three of them were finally reunited.

All of them were tearful. Qinglian and Taohong instantly seized their young mistress's hands, speechless for a moment, unable to hold back their tears.

After the mistress and servants had calmed themselves for a good while, Yan Xi sternly ordered the other maidservants in the room to leave entirely.

Once everyone had gone, she pulled the two of them to sit on the bed and questioned them about what had happened that day.

"How did the two of you get caught by him that day? Where have you been all these days, and that pearl hairpin..."

As Yan Xi spoke, she looked at Qinglian. Because of that pearl hairpin, she had once been convinced that Lu Zhi had committed murder.

If she searched her heart, the only reason she had been able to steel herself these past few days was because she felt increasingly desperate and uncertain.

She had no idea what had happened to the two of them.

Lu Zhi had a dark heart; there was nothing he wouldn't do!

In a fit of rage, taking a life was second nature to him.

If he had truly killed the two of them, she really would have fought him to the death!

Qinglian replied: "As soon as the boat set sail, I was caught by him. These past few days, he kept us locked up in a separate courtyard."

Taohong nodded: "Yes, me too. He is terribly clever. Who knows how he figured it out, but he... he searched with such precision. It seemed as soon as I hid, I was dragged right out..."

Qinglian continued: "Afterward, he had the two of us tied up, gagged our mouths, and locked us together. When he left, he even plucked a pearl hairpin from my head... Could it be that he used that to threaten you, Miss...?"

In just a few words, Yan Xi understood everything.

He had anticipated everything.

He had foreseen that she would not surrender obediently after being captured, and had therefore taken Qinglian's hairpin in advance.

Yan Xi nodded and briefly recounted her own experiences that day, leading up to the present moment and how she had managed to trade for their return.

Hearing this, both maidservants felt a pang of deep heartache, tears welling up in their eyes once more.

"How could Miss do such a thing?"

"Miss's constitution is already weak..."

As Taohong and Qinglian spoke, they burst into tears again.

Yan Xi, however, remained calm. "It's fine. Aren't we all alright now?"

Since Lu Zhi wanted her, he certainly wouldn't let her die.

She had also roughly anticipated that in this game of chess, she could trade for the return of Qinglian and Taohong.

At the time, she had no other choice.

Thinking of this, Yan Xi recalled Xie Huaixiu.

If she needed a way out, an opportunity had indeed temporarily presented itself at that time—and that was Xie Huaixiu.

Had she known beforehand that the Marquis Xie on the boat was Xie Huaixiu, things might have turned out differently.

Yet matters had already reached this point; it was useless to dwell on it now.

With this in mind, Yan Xi brought up Marquis Xie to her two maidservants.

"Do the two of you still remember Marquis Wu'an, Xie Huaixiu—Uncle Xie?"

Both Qinglian and Taohong nodded. "We remember, naturally we remember. Marquis Xie was the sworn brother of our master... Miss, why do you bring him up?"

Yan Xi drifted slightly into a reverie.

When she had last seen Xie Huaixiu in her childhood, she was barely five years old.

Twelve years had passed since then.

And precisely because of that, she had long since forgotten what he looked like.

Speaking of her father's sworn brothers, in truth, there were two others besides Marquis Xie.

They were her Uncle Prince Sheng and Uncle Lu.

Very few people knew of this.

Strictly speaking, she ought not to have known either, but she had once accidentally overheard it from a conversation between her parents.

Among the four of them, Prince Sheng was the eldest, acting as an elder brother to the other three.

The rest, in order of age, were Xie Huaixiu, Lu Boling, and her father, Shen Xun.

As for why this matter could not be made public,

Yan Xi remembered her father saying this to her mother:

"Prince Sheng holds achievements so great they overshadow the ruler, and Li Yin is naturally suspicious by nature. We must steer clear of this suspicion."

At the time, she was too young to truly grasp her father's meaning, but by now she naturally understood it all too well.

Prince Sheng, her father, Lu Boling, together with Xie Huaixiu...

Put these four men together, and there was no one in the world who would not feel a sense of dread.

Yan Xi answered Qinglian: "Because I ran into him on the boat! He is right here in Yangzhou now..."

Her voice grew softer and softer as she spoke, especially with this final sentence.

Upon hearing this, Qinglian and Taohong naturally understood their young mistress's intent.

They had already lost once.

Her mistress had been imprisoned by Lu Zhi all over again.

Her mistress had deceived him the first time, but the second time, deception would no longer work.

They had already tried to flee once, and given Lu Zhi's sharpness and temperament, they would never get a second chance—unless...

"Is Miss planning to expose him?"

Yan Xi did not speak, but her eyes spoke for her.

The young girl nodded.

Yes, originally this was the worst of all worst strategies.

She no longer wished to have any entanglements with him, nor did she even wish to expose him; she merely wanted to stay far away from him, to escape completely so that she would never see him for the rest of her life. But that path had been completely blocked.

She had no choice but to choose this worst of all options, to bring this absurd farce with him to an end.

Taohong asked, "Then what shall we do? We... we can't get out..."

Just as she finished speaking, Qinglian took up the thread, looking thoughtful.

"If Miss wishes to take this route, perhaps we needn't rely on Marquis Xie. We could instead..."

At this, she raised her eyes to look at Yan Xi, lowering her voice:

"Miss, this morning when we returned in the carriage, I inadvertently lifted the curtain to look outside. Do you know how much of a coincidence it was?"

Yan Xi asked, "What is it?"

Qinglian replied: "I saw Meng Wenhui and Lin Yao'er. Meng Wenhui happened to lift her carriage curtain as well... But I'm not sure if she saw me; I was startled at the time and immediately dropped the curtain... Yet the two carriages were extremely close, almost side by side, even if only for a fleeting second..."

Qinglian did not continue, nor did she need to; Yan Xi had already withdrawn her gaze...

A premonition, a profound intuition...

Things would likely develop precisely in the direction she desired...