A Cold Wind (1)

Confronted with Zheng Wan’s rhetorical question, Cui Wang stopped answering again.

All the palace lanterns in the room were extinguished.

Only silvery moonlight poured in through the wide-open doorway. The wind caused the palace lanterns in the corridor to spin wildly, leaving shifting shadows on the ground, and causing Zheng Wan to curl up from the cold.

She gathered the lapels of her dress, and found in vain that one side had been ripped by the crown prince long ago.

At this moment, a snow-coloured robe was draped over her shoulders, bringing a burst of warmth.

Zheng Wan looked up and saw Cui Wang withdrawing his hands. He had taken off his outer robe and given it to her, and was now only wearing a plain inner garment, the corners of which were lifted by the wind, swaying gently.

If he had continued to speak coldly, she would have been able to put up steel thorns all over her body, but his sudden behaviour had made her feel like crying instead. Feelings of grievance, anger, confusion and fear swiftly surged forth.

“Cui Wang, are you angry? Because of what happened between me and the Crown Prince?”

Zheng Wan asked in a delicate voice.


Cui Wang cast his eyes down at her; his gaze went from her deathly pale little face to her long black feathery eyelashes, before finally falling on the pair of clear eyes under those long eyelashes. They were clean and transparent, like the springs of the heavenly mountains, and were currently reflecting all the trust and idolisation she held towards him.

They were truly a pair of eyes that could delude others.

Cui Wang lifted his sleeve and with a clatter, an object was flung down on the table in front of Zheng Wan.

“Open it.”

Zheng Wan looked at the object on the table. It was a small, square box, the sort that was usually used to hold jewellery. For some reason, she had a sense of foreboding.

“What is this?”

Zheng Wan opened the box smilingly, but when she saw what was in it, her pupils could not help but shrink.

A pearl earring. The pearl was round and flawless, and she used to like it very much; it was just that she didn’t know when she had lost one, and the remaining one now lay in her jewellery box.

“Ah,” she exclaimed delightedly. “I thought I had lost it, and was very sad for quite a while. Cui Wang, where did you find it?”

“Yanchun Gardens,” said Cui Wang.

Only then did Zheng Wan understand.

If he had picked it up in Yanchun Gardens, then she had probably dropped it on the day of Rong Yi’s birthday banquet, and it was most likely that she had dropped it when she was being badgered by the crown prince——

But, so what?

Unless…… he had found something out.

“I turned back that night. When I found this in the backyard of Liluo Garden, I happened to hear a very interesting exchange.”

With some kind of technique, a viridian bird suddenly appeared out of thin air. It flew once around Cui Wang before finally landing on the table in front of Zheng Wan. It then opened its mouth, and a fine voice rang out.


“Hongyu, hurry, tell me. I saw you leading the crown prince to the woods behind Liluo Garden today. Hehehe, did something happen… between you and the crown prince?”

Immediately after, there was a slightly deeper and quieter voice.

“What nonsense. It was the eldest princess who told me to lead the crown prince over there without leaving a trace.”

“She told you to lead the crown prince there? Why? No one usually goes there.”

“Who knows. These nobles are always doing mysterious and secretive things. Maybe there was something special… But,” the one named Hongyu lowered her voice, “When I returned, I saw the Zheng family’s young lady walk in that direction.”

“……Surely not? Could the eldest princess be creating a chance for the crown prince to meet privately with Lady Zheng? ……Hey, do you think it’s possible that the State Preceptor forced the crown prince to break off the engagement after seeing the beauty of the Zheng family’s lady, but the crown prince and Lady Zheng were unwilling, so they requested the help of the eldest princess? Was this banquet also held to fulfil their wishes? Otherwise, why would the Princess host such a large birthday banquet out of the blue?”

“I, on the other hand, heard a rumour that the eldest princess had a very good personal relationship with Madam Zheng before she came of age…”

After that, there were only random bits of conversation.

The jade-green bird closed its mouth; Zheng Wan was still a little staggered.

Those large eyes only contained stunned stupefaction, and nothing else. Yet, the clogs in her mind began to turn—Cui Wang had known this a long time ago; the reason he was taking this out only now, was probably because the state in which she had been in with the crown prince just now had provoked his anger.

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