Turning His Strength Against Him, She Fell into His Arms; the Doors Opened on a Roomful of Spring
"Besides, if I were to simply wash my hands of this," Gu Moran turned and glanced at her, his voice so steady it was almost indistinct.
"Who dispatched those three hundred carts of life-saving medicine that left from the south gate early this morning, along with the three hundred Green City swordsmen who circled into the secret passage of Wild Wolf Valley?"
Zhen Meili froze, her fingers unconsciously loosening the crossbow's latch.
Before entering the city, she had indeed encountered that huge convoy with the vermilion license plate of the Prince's Mansion on the deserted road outside the South Gate. At the time, she was cursing which fearless merchant was going against the wind into a dead end. Now that she had spoken to him, the resentment in her chest had completely dissipated.
"Come in, don't squat outside in the cold wind."
Gu Moran turned and walked into the house, lifting her clothes to sit down.
"Close the door tightly. There's still a little bit of pear and fritillaria soup left in the kitchen. After you finish it, find a secluded courtyard to sleep in. Don't be a night owl here, climbing on the roof and tearing off the tiles."
"Come in then." Zhen Meili packed her things and stepped into the house.
"Hmm, Your Highness seems to be living a very comfortable life. Did you know I was coming?"
Whether I know it or not is unimportant; what matters is that your father knows.
"If Commander Zhen knew that his daughter had sneaked into the Prince's mansion's backyard in the middle of the night, he would probably take back all the riding whips captured at the front and break a couple of them."
Gu Moran didn't even lift his eyelids. He poked at the charcoal fire with a silver spatula, drawing a half-arc in the air. Then he picked up the rough pottery pot, poured half a bowl of boiling pear soup into the empty bowl, and pushed it flat across the smooth pear wood table. The bottom of the bowl brushed against the table and stopped two inches in front of Zhen Meili's elbow.
Without any hesitation, Zhen Meili picked up the bowl and took a big gulp, gasping for breath from the heat, but she refused to suffer any loss.
"I'm afraid of my dad? He can try to lay a finger on me; the old man can't beat me at all."
"If he really dares to make a move, the first thing I'll do when I get back to Luoyang is replace all the mechanisms under the threshold of my grandmother's Buddhist temple with hardened ox-tendon winches, just in time for my father to come home for a visit."
If he dared to step inside, the solid wooden fish that jumped out would immediately whack him on the head.
These words carried a reckless, fearless air, causing Gu Moran's silver shovel to pause for a moment in the charcoal ash.
Zhen Daijin is always meticulous in his troop deployments on the front lines, yet his old family home in Luoyang has produced such a troublesome brat who desecrates his own ancestral graves.
Zhen Meili finished the sweet soup in a few gulps, wiped her mouth haphazardly with her sleeve, and quickly rubbed the newly assembled Luban lock at her waist with both hands.
"However, to be honest, I noticed something was wrong when I was outside the city."
The three hundred truckloads of raw medicinal herbs secretly hauled out from the south gate all had double-layered moisture-proof bottoms added.
You've even mobilized your undercover agents in Mount Qingcheng, so why are you deliberately dragging your feet with the Guangdong and Liangguang medicine dealers in the city?
"Miss Zhen, you may not know this, Dali if you clean up that mess in Dali too quickly..."
Can the emperor, who is slumped on his throne in the capital, and the second son in Anyang City who is clamoring to "purge the court of corrupt officials" really feel at ease?
How could my second brother willingly stretch his neck to the southwest?
Gu Moran picked up the slightly cool tea beside him to moisten his throat, and gently tapped his fingertips on the edge of the pearwood wooden table.
Zhen Meili's fingers, which were pressing on the Luban lock, paused. The copper tenon, which had been moving nimbly, got stuck halfway and made a soft click.
She grew up surrounded by scheming relatives in the deep courtyards of Luoyang, and she was quick to understand the bloodless and insidious plots in the imperial court.
With just a few casual words, this sickly prince turned the tens of thousands of soldiers fighting on the border into a tight noose Great Yan Dynasty court.
She placed the Luban lock on the table, leaned forward, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on the sides of her nose.
"I saw it clearly. You ruined my plan just now without making a sound. How many years have you been hiding in the shadows?"
"My father writes to me every day saying that you are kind and gentle but frail."
If he knew that the master he served could take someone's head from a distance, he would probably think he was a blind and useless piece of trash.
Gu Moran met those inquisitive almond-shaped eyes, and with two fingers of his right hand, he gently brushed the edge of the empty teacup, which silently cracked in two.
"Guess what, if even a single word of the conversation in this room tonight is leaked, will you pull the trigger of the crossbow hidden in your sleeve first, or will I crush the cartilage at the back of your neck first?"
Zhen Meili shrank her neck, her throat felt a little dry, and reached out to grab the soup spoon from the casserole.
"Your Highness, don't scare me. I'm here to seek refuge with my father and get some food, not to become an assassin because I'm tired of living."
"Alright, time to go to sleep!" Gu Moran waved his hand.
Seeing that she couldn't get the upper hand verbally, Zhen Meili's stubbornness, which she had developed in the Mohist Mechanism Valley, resurfaced.
She placed the empty earthenware bowl heavily on the pearwood table, the bottom of the bowl making a crisp sound as it hit the ground.
She slid halfway down the back of the chair, her almond-shaped eyes sweeping over Gu Moran's pale face before she uttered a crisp, local accent.
"Hey~ Your Highness, you look even fairer than the male prostitutes in the brothels of Luoyang's South Market. What are you doing, hiding in your mansion all day pretending to be sick?"
Zhen Meili lifted the sleeve of her wide cotton robe to wipe her chin, then slid her right hand along the edge of the table.
With a subtle, cunning force emanating from his fingertips, he probed directly towards the black iron token at Gu Moran's waist.
Gu Moran leaned back in her chair without moving an inch, her eyes lowered as she watched the slightly cool hand slip inside the white fox fur lining.
Just as Zhen Meili's index finger touched the cold, hard edge of the token, the Pure Yang True Qi within his body suddenly rebounded outwards along his robes.
Zhen Meili's right wrist was shaken so badly that the meridians twitched violently, and the skillful force gathered in her palm dissipated on the spot.
She was used to rolling around in the mud, and with the force of the recoil, she fell forward and landed solidly in Gu Moran's arms.
He instinctively grabbed Gu Moran's jade belt and started howling at the top of his lungs.
"Oh dear! Your Highness's physique is no different from the anvil in the blacksmith's shop outside the city; it's making my chest feel stuffy."
"I've come all this way to seek refuge with my relatives, and my bones are practically cracking from the cold in this snowdrift. Can't I even borrow Your Highness's charcoal stove to warm myself up?"
Just as Gu Moran was about to reach out and lift the mischievous girl up, the two thick, carved wooden doors of the side hall were pushed open forcefully.
Lin Qingdai gripped the door frame with her right hand, her sword sheath resting beside the threshold to support her slightly weak legs.
Murong Xue used her twelve-foot steel spear as a crutch, leaning on the stone bricks, her steps extremely heavy, her two thin eyebrows tightly furrowed.
Walking behind, Su Yao held a sandalwood abacus in one hand and gently rubbed her aching lower back with the other.
Two heads peeked out from the doorway; Meng Jiuning and Yun Shuyue, chewing on half a fried dough twist, peered inside curiously.
Zhen Meili remained perched on the edge of the soft couch, her eyebrows raised as she gazed at the row of women with disheveled hair and dark circles under their eyes.
"Huh~ It's the middle of the night, and the backyard of the Prince's mansion is quite lively."
"The lady in front, leaning on her gun, was shaking so badly her legs were practically trembling. The one behind, holding her sword, was even more unusual; her wrist guards were crooked, yet she was still stubbornly standing."