The unfocused look in his eyes lasted only a moment before clarity returned.
Dong Chengfeng swept his robe aside, leaning lazily against the carriage wall. “Speak plainly—why did you abduct me?”
“I want to tell you a story, and also…”
Yan Sanhe said slowly: “Hear you tell a story.”
Dong Chengfeng laughed coldly. “Yan Sanhe, I have no interest in hearing stories or telling them. You…”
“The story of the Former Crown Prince Zhao Rongyu…”
Yan Sanhe leaned forward, looking directly into his eyes. “Are you not interested in that either?”
Former Crown Prince, Zhao Rongyu.
Dong Chengfeng thought he was hearing things.
Though these six words were taboo, he wouldn’t be so shocked hearing them from anyone’s mouth—except this person’s!
Except hers!
“Do you know…”
Yan Sanhe instinctively leaned her face forward. Dong Chengfeng’s heart jolted and he swallowed the words on his lips.
He shook his head and suddenly smiled.
“Yan Sanhe, you’re quite bold!”
“Your boldness is considerable too.”
Yan Sanhe closed her eyes briefly, then placed a jade pendant on the small table. The wild goose carved on it was lifelike.
Dong Chengfeng quieted for a moment, then suddenly burst into loud laughter again.
He was tall, his laughter loud—the entire carriage body trembled with his laughter.
After laughing enough, he spoke with the excited tone of someone forcibly handed fifty thousand taels of silver: “What’s wrong with this jade pendant? Is there some problem?”
Still pretending?
“Dong Chengfeng, let’s open the skylight and speak plainly. This jade pendant is yours. Mine is with you—you switched them when I was unconscious.”
Yan Sanhe: “This jade pendant comes from the same jade stone, carved by the same person’s hand. That person was the Former Crown Prince Zhao Rongyu.”
Dong Chengfeng: “And then?”
“Then you piqued my interest.”
Yan Sanhe’s eyes curved with a smile. “So… I found ways to investigate you.”
Dong Chengfeng showed some curiosity. “How did you investigate?”
Yan Sanhe: “We found a fat man who could play the qin and had him play for me. I have a good memory—after several pieces, I immediately found the one you played for me.”
Dong Chengfeng hummed. “‘High Mountain Flowing Water’ is a famous piece. Anyone learning the qin knows it.”
Yan Sanhe: “I inquired with him. After all, there aren’t many men who can play the qin, even fewer who play well, and with your looks…”
“How are my looks?”
“Rarely seen in the Central Plains.”
“Indeed rare.”
“Just like that, we quickly identified a qin master on the Qinhuai River.”
Yan Sanhe smiled gracefully. “Coincidentally, his surname was also Dong.”
Dong Chengfeng’s expression changed slightly.
He remembered now.
That day he’d been standing under the eaves thinking when someone suddenly vaulted over the courtyard wall. When guards came looking, they called him “Teacher Dong.”
“A qin master from the Qinhuai River—how did he become Prince Han’s strategist? And how would Prince Han’s strategist have the Former Crown Prince’s jade pendant?”
Yan Sanhe: “This made me even more curious.”
Dong Chengfeng: “And then?”
“Then I thought something wasn’t right. Jade pendants like this—someone of the Former Crown Prince’s status couldn’t just give them away casually.”
“Exactly.”
Dong Chengfeng raised his chin, looking at Yan Sanhe with indescribably complex emotions in his eyes. “They must be given to intimate associates.”
“So I sought out people from the Imperial Medical Bureau.”
“Imperial Physician Pei, I presume?”
“Precisely.”
Yan Sanhe nodded, answering honestly. “Imperial Physician Pei’s father once treated the Former Crown Prince in his early years. From his mouth I learned one thing.”
Dong Chengfeng spoke word by word: “Listening to qin music to fall asleep.”
Yan Sanhe nodded in congratulation. “You guessed correctly.”
“What about you?”
Dong Chengfeng pulled a jade pendant from his pouch and placed it on the small table. “Where did this thing come from?”
Yan Sanhe picked up her own pendant and sighed softly. “This is the story I want to tell you.”
Dong Chengfeng’s lips curved slightly, smiling somewhat roguishly.
“Before hearing the story, answer me first—who gave you this name?”
Yan Sanhe fell silent for a moment.
It wasn’t because he asked about her name, but because this person’s lazy smile at her was quite captivating.
As if the Dong Chengfeng who’d once enchanted countless women on the Qinhuai River had returned.
“My grandfather Yan Xing named me.”
“Where is your grandfather?”
“One year ago, he passed away.”
“Where is he buried?”
“Yunnan Prefecture, Fugong County.”
“Was he a native of Yunnan Prefecture?”
“No. In life he was from Peach Blossom Pool in Anhui Prefecture.”
“Who are your parents?”
“No father or mother. I’ve depended on my grandfather since childhood.”
Dong Chengfeng’s dark eyes suddenly deepened, his voice tightening. “When did you come to the capital?”
“This time last year.”
“What brought you to the capital?”
Yan Sanhe looked at Dong Chengfeng lightly. “To answer that question, you must hear my story.”
Dong Chengfeng felt his life had suddenly become interesting.
Like when a piece of music reaches its end—it should conclude with the final two notes—but unexpectedly, a rising qin note sounds in the distance, harmonizing with his music.
Between falling and rising notes, his heart suddenly stirred. Inexplicably, he wanted to change the key and play this piece again, to see if he could produce a different melody.
Dong Chengfeng’s lips curved upward. “Come, let me hear your story.”
“The story is simple. The Director of the Bureau of Astronomy, Zhu Yuanmo—the one your hidden guards were watching—half a year ago his father Zhu Xuanjiu died. When placed in the coffin, the coffin cracked three times.”
Yan Sanhe: “To this day, Zhu Xuanjiu’s corpse remains in the Zhu residence’s ice cellar. The coffin carried out was actually empty.”
Dong Chengfeng sighed lightly. “If I’d known, I should have urged the Prince to investigate the temple at night and make an issue of the empty coffin.”
Yan Sanhe ignored the self-mocking tone in his voice and continued:
“When a dead person’s coffin won’t close, it’s because they had obsessions in life. Over time, obsessions become demons. If not resolved, descendants will suffer misfortune.
Zhu Xuanjiu’s coffin exploded—his heart demon was extremely dangerous. So on the day he died, the Zhu residence’s second mistress died with both mother and child.”
“Yan Sanhe.”
Dong Chengfeng’s voice seemed tinged with alarm. “Why do you…”
“I!”
Yan Sanhe’s expression was grave as water. “Am the one who resolves heart demons.”
Damn!
Damn!
Damn!
Dong Chengfeng felt his skull was about to be lifted off by these few short sentences.
How could she be the one who resolves heart demons?
How, how, how could she be??!!
Dong Chengfeng’s face showed fear he’d never displayed before. Not only were his hands shaking, even his eyelids trembled.
“Where’s my qin?” he asked somewhat frantically.
Though Yan Sanhe didn’t understand why he suddenly asked about his qin after listening so attentively, she still pointed.
“Over there.”