Gu Moli turned around, walked back to the table and sat down. She picked up the brush again, its tip already hardened, and slowly began grinding it in the inkstone.
"Wait."
Qingwu was stunned.
"Wait for what?"
"Let him find out more on his own."
Gu Moli put down her pen and wrote a line of extremely small characters on a blank page of the scripture.
The deeper he investigated, the less he dared to act rashly, because sooner or later he would uncover something...
My trump card is bigger than he thought.
She paused, then looked up at the deep night outside the window.
"A wise person who dares not make a move is the most useful chess piece."
Qingwu didn't ask any more questions, retreated to the door, and pressed her back tightly against the cold door frame.
The wind outside grew stronger and stronger, making the old plum tree on the courtyard wall tremble violently and make a sound like ghostly wailing.
Just then, a very faint nightingale's song drifted from outside the window.
Two strokes, pause, then one more.
Qingwu's expression changed, and she immediately pressed herself against the door, glancing outside in the light of the corridor lamp. Her eyes flickered slightly, and she quickly returned to Gu Moli's side, her voice lower than the wind.
"Those two outside have already made contact with me."
"They are sisters under my mother's command, a pair of Shiqing and Huayi beauties, both of the Third Rank."
They sent a secret signal outside, saying that Her Majesty already knows you are in Luoyang, so you can rest assured.
Gu Moli paused for a moment, her pen still in her hand.
A drop of ink slowly spreads across the paper, forming a small, dense patch of black.
She didn't rush to ask anything else, but simply looked up at Qingwu.
"Does the password match?"
"That matches."
Gu Moli's lips twitched almost imperceptibly.
" Third Rank sisters, Mother Consort is certainly willing to part with them."
Qingwu hesitated for a moment, but still spoke.
"Your Highness, now that Sisters Shiqing and Huayi have arrived, why don't we leave the Marquis's residence first and then make further plans?"
Your subordinate fears that things might change if the night drags on...
"Leave?"
Gu Moli let out a cold laugh, held the scrap of paper close to the candlelight, and lit it. The flame illuminated her cold profile.
"How could I let someone who cursed my imperial brother to his death get away with it?"
"If a mere second young master feigning a limp dares to act this way, it's clear that the upper echelons of this Marquis's mansion have long been utterly corrupt."
She watched as the flames slowly devoured the edges of the paper, her tone calm and utterly unwavering.
"Besides, did I come here of my own accord?"
We were invited in with great courtesy...
Qingwu looked at her face, which was illuminated by flickering firelight, and lowered her eyes.
"Yes."
Time passed quickly in the Marquis's mansion; the lamps in Fallen Plum Studio were lit and then extinguished.
Gu Moli sat cross-legged on the futon, holding a string of sandalwood beads that she had casually taken from the old lady's gifts, and slowly and deliberately plucked at them one by one.
Qingwu crouched down at the base of the wall, pressed her ear against the cold cracks in the bricks, and listened for a long time before quietly returning to her side.
"The two on the east wall have changed shifts, but the ones behind the rockery on the west wall haven't been moved."
Gu Moli nodded without saying anything.
It's been three days.
Mei Zhongjun's crossbowmen had been crouching outside the wall for three whole days, embedded like Dingzi in the shadows around the courtyard. Their poisoned arrows were always pointed inward, and the sweet, fishy smell of bitter almonds, mixed with the chill, wafted into the courtyard in waves.
She's not in a hurry.
She shouldn't be the one in a hurry.
A person who has pretended to be lame for many years has managed to survive to this day in a place like the Marquis's mansion, a place that devours people without spitting out their bones, simply by enduring hardship.
But patience is something that only becomes increasingly scarce.
" Qingwu."
"Your subordinate is here."
"Have the sisters outside replied yet?"
Qingwu took out a pigeon whistle tube as thin as a hair from her sleeve. There were two very shallow scratches on the tube wall, which were the secret marks of the two sisters.
"Yes, I brought it in when I went to the kitchen to get breakfast."
"Say what?"
Qingwu brought the pigeon whistle to the candlelight. The thin layer of beeswax on the tube melted when heated, revealing a silk thread narrower than a fingernail wrapped inside.
Gu Moli took it and examined it under the light.
On the silk, there was only one line of small characters.
Mei Zhongjun, Prince An's Consort, repeating crossbow, more than three months.
Gu Moli placed the silk thread back on the candle flame, watching it curl up, turn black, and finally turn into a wisp of ash that fell into the inkstone. Only then did she slowly and methodically use the tip of her brush to completely disperse the ash.
More than three months.
The second young master of the Marquis of Luoyang's Residence, who had pretended to be a cripple for many years, secretly engaged in arms dealing with Prince An's Consort for more than three months.
It's still a repeating crossbow.
Those were standard military weapons that the imperial court explicitly prohibited from being privately possessed. Throughout the entire Great Yan Dynasty, apart from Chang'an and Luoyang, only a few large camps on the border were willing to equip them with them.
The Prince An's Residence lacked weapons, while the Marquis of Luoyang's Residence guarded the largest blacksmith workshop in the Central Plains and the armory of Ziwei City.
One dared to ask, and the other dared to give; it was truly a fantastic deal.
No wonder Mei Zhongjun, an unfavored second son, could afford to keep so many assassins, and no wonder he dared to openly hide crossbowmen in the backyard of the Marquis's mansion.
What he held in his hand was not the private property of the second young master of the Marquis's mansion, but overwhelming evidence enough to execute the entire Mei family three times over.
Gu Moli opened the scripture and made a few light scratches on the blank pages with her fingernail.
After she finished drawing, she looked up at the window paper.
The dim light shone on the window paper, making everything unclear, but she knew that in the darkness outside the wall, ten crossbowmen were drawing their bowstrings and aiming poisoned arrows at the room.
" Qingwu."
"Your subordinate is here."
Have you learned the secret hand signals used in the royal court?
Qingwu nodded.
"I have studied it."
"Good."
Gu Moli didn't open the window; she simply walked to the window and gestured for Qingwu to come over.
"Go and project your hand shadow onto the window paper, then use sign language to tell Shiqinghuayi three things."
Qingwu bowed her head and obeyed the command.
"First, ascertain the exact time when the Marquis's heir will return to the manor."
"Secondly, when the young master enters the manor, I want there to be a commotion outside, the bigger the better."
"Third, find a way to get something with the pattern of Prince An's Consort's bedroom and submit it."
Qingwu noted them down one by one, walked to the window, pressed her fingers on the window paper, and in the dim light of the inner room, her finger shadows transformed into a series of silent instructions on the thin window paper.
This set of instructions is both complex and simple; to an outsider, it's nothing more than yawning and stretching.
After doing all this, she withdrew her hand and quietly retreated behind Gu Moli.
A few moments of silence fell outside the window.
Immediately afterwards, a deep hoot of an owl came from afar, two short cries followed by one long one.
received.
Gu Moli lowered her eyes and picked up the string of sandalwood beads again.
Looking at her overly calm face, Qingwu couldn't help but ask a question.
"Your Highness, what are you doing...?"
"Feed the wolves."
"What?"
" Mei Zhongjun is a hungry wolf,"
Gu Moli flicked a bead, her voice as soft as a sigh.
The wolf had been starving for days and had lost its rationality.
If at this moment, you throw a bloody piece of meat near its mouth.
"Is it thinking about whether the jerky is clean, or is it in a hurry to swallow it in one gulp?"
[Thanks to: Zixingfeng for the love letter + 2 inspiration capsules + Xiuer + update reminder + flowers, Yan Yan for the love letter, MiFen, Zhijian for the likes, Ruyue for the likes, Huimou, Doujiao for the inspiration capsules, Nagi for the update reminder x2, Xuelin, Zhuren for the flowers x2, Xihuan for the flowers, Bailang for the update reminder, Lizhi for the flowers, Ali for the flowers, and everyone else for their love and support!]