Xie Qinghe shook his head softly.
“This is merely my duty.”
Before departing, Lin Ting voiced a long-burning question: “Why rebel?”
She still couldn’t comprehend why Xie Qinghe had suddenly turned traitor.
Xie Qinghe offered a bitter smile, unwilling to elaborate.
“Fate plays cruel tricks.”
Xia Zimo’s expression darkened.
Seeing this, Lin Ting pressed no further.
She scaled the wall and returned to the streets.
The Crown Prince’s assassination attempt had plunged the city into lockdown.
The streets had emptied by half, with remaining vendors packing up to return home.
Lin Ting purchased a new dress from a nearly closed tailor shop her previous outfit stained with Jin Anazi’s blood was unwearable.
After changing, she hurried through the streets but saw no sign of Duan Ling.
Had he gone to aid the Crown Prince in capturing the assassins?
Yet even then, given his character, Duan Ling would have left someone to inform her.
Now even the coachman, carriage, and those two Imperial Guards had vanished.
Before rescuing Jin Anazi, Lin Ting hadn’t forgotten Duan Ling waiting on the street.
Feigning ignorance, she’d paid a beggar to inform Duan Ling she felt unwell and needed extended time in the privy.
Could he have discovered her lie?
In truth, she’d been gone barely half an hour-a plausible duration for stomach troubles.
Uneasy, Lin Ting turned toward their residence.
No sooner had she stepped forward than rain began falling the day’s near-constant showers pausing less than an hour before resuming.
Her oilpaper umbrella remained in the carriage, and the street vendors had shuttered their shops.
Initially shielding her head with her hands, she soon abandoned the futile gesture and walked through the downpour.
Ancheng’s weather seemed transformed by the deluge, turning bitingly cold.
After many days, the city finally cooled like the capital.
Lin Ting gathered her thin dress closer and quickened her pace.
Within steps, an umbrella extended from behind, sheltering her from the torrent.
Then came the scent of agarwood.
Lin Ting whirled around.
Her gaze first caught the jade-white hand gripping the umbrella handle slender as bamboo, fingertips faintly pink-before rising to a flawless face.
Startled, she breathed, “You-“
Duan Ling wiped the rain from her face with a handkerchief:
“It was a bit chaotic on the streets earlier. The constables were conducting searches, so I had the coachman move the carriage elsewhere. You only sent someone to tell me you needed to use the restroom but forgot to mention where. I couldn’t bring you an umbrella.”
Lin Ting touched her nose apologetically:
“Sorry, I forgot. Have you been waiting on the street all this time?”
The rain poured from the sky, but the oil-paper umbrella caught every drop, shielding them completely.
The only sound around them was the relentless patter of rain.
Compared to the urgency of the downpour, Duan Ling’s voice was calm and steady:
“Yes, I’ve been waiting for you to return.”
Lin Ting’s heart skipped a beat inexplicably, as if an electric current had surged through her, leaving her tingling and restless.
She changed the subject: “After I came out from the restroom, I heard someone tried to assassinate the Crown Prince? As an Imperial Guard, shouldn’t you be helping to catch the assassin?”
Initially, the constables had been too busy chasing the suspect to shout about an assassination, but once the city was locked down, news of the Crown Prince’s attack spread quickly.
So it wasn’t strange that she knew about it now.
Duan Ling continued wiping the rain from her face and hair, his fingers lingering on her.
“The Imperial Guards came to Ancheng only to gather intelligence and monitor the local officials. Other matters don’t concern us. If the Crown Prince was attacked, the secret guards and constables will handle it.”
Lin Ting let out an “Oh.”
She didn’t want Duan Ling involved in this affair either.
Duan Ling ran his fingers through her hair, inhaling its fragrance, and asked casually, “You only heard about the assassination after leaving the restroom?”
“Yes, but before going, I heard shouts about chasing someone on the street. My stomach was bothering me too much, and I thought it was just a common thief, so I didn’t ask around and went straight to the restroom.”
Duan Ling gazed into her eyes, seeing his own reflection:
“Why did you change your dress?”
Lin Ting leaned closer, tilting her face up:
“I accidentally soiled my dress in the restroom, so I bought a new one from a nearby shop and changed. Sorry for making you wait so long.”
“It’s fine. I’m just glad you’re back.”
She hesitated: “I just went to find a restroom-of course I’d come back.”
Duan Ling neatly folded the handkerchief he’d used to dry her face and tucked it back at his waist.
“It’s too dark. I was afraid you’d lose your way and not find your way back.”
Lin Ting pressed her lips together.
“How could I? I might not have your photographic memory, but I’m not a child—I’d definitely find my way back.”
“My worries were unnecessary.”
The carriage was waiting at the end of the street, and Duan Ling led her toward it.
Lin Ting had gotten a bit wet from the rain.
Sitting still in the carriage made her cold, even with the extra coat Duan Ling had brought from the magistrate’s office.
Unconsciously, she edged closer to Duan Ling.
For some reason, his body always ran warmer than hers, and the proximity was comforting.
Whenever she leaned in, the long hair cascading down her waist would brush against his hand resting at his side.
The carriage had a small stove with warm water.
Duan Ling poured her a cup of hot tea: “Didn’t you say you were going to buy pastries? Where are they?”
Lin Ting had been in a hurry to rescue Jin Anazi-she hadn’t had time to buy pastries, nor could she have carried a bag of sweets while saving someone.
“I didn’t get to buy them. I wasn’t feeling well, so I went to the restroom first. By the time I came back, the shop had closed.”
She lifted the tea and drained it in one go, feeling warmer instantly.
“I’ll buy them another day.”
Duan Ling refilled her cup.
“Some things can’t be left for another day—it’d be too late by then. But pastries can certainly wait.”
Lin Ting sensed there was more to his words.
He set down the teapot and asked:
“You said you weren’t feeling well earlier, how are you now? There’s an apothecary on our way back where you could see a physician.”
She hesitated.
“I felt better after using the privy. Probably ate something disagreeable. No need for a physician. With the citywide curfew tonight, most shops have closed early-the apothecary is likely shut too.”
Duan Ling glanced at the two paper pinwheels inside the carriage, then at the heavy rain outside, speaking softly, “You must have had the misfortune of eating whatever spoiled dish that tavern served. We’ll need to be more careful when dining out in the future.”
Lin Ting: “…”
…As if she were some unlucky wretch.
By the time two cups of tea had cooled, the carriage arrived at their estate gates.
Lin Ting hurried straight to her chambers to change her newly purchased gown had gotten damp from the rain, and wearing chilled clothes too long on this cooling evening might invite illness.
She didn’t wait to bathe before changing because preparing the bathwater would take the servants some time.
Now dressed in fresh robes, Lin Ting sat on the daybed drying her hair with coarse linen while awaiting the bath.
Duan Ling sat opposite, watching her.
Noticing his gaze, she swept her long hair aside.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Shall I help you?”
Lin Ting suddenly felt warm again.
“I can manage.”
Servants knocked before carrying in buckets of water to fill the freshly scoured tub.
Though not as efficient as Duan Manor’s staff, they worked briskly within moments, the perfumed bath was ready.
Once the servants withdrew and closed the door, Lin Ting set aside the linen.
“Shall I bathe first then?”
This nightly ritual of waiting for each other to bathe should have long become routine, yet her pulse still quickened every time.
Duan Ling removed his jade hairpin and placed it on the table.
“Go ahead.”
Tonight, he seemed unusually placid.
Where Lin Ting could usually sense subtle shifts in his mood, tonight there was nothing beneath his customary gentle demeanor lay an eerie stillness.
More like a clay figurine than her own sculptures exquisitely crafted, human yet not.
Noticing this, Lin Ting studied him for several breaths before finally walking past to the tub.
She drew the side curtains closed, untied her sash, and shed each layer of outer robe, undergarments, silk binding-hanging them on the screen.
As her slender silhouette moved behind the curtains, Duan Ling suddenly said, “You only learned of the Crown Prince’s assassination after leaving the privy, so you couldn’t have seen the fleeing assassin.”
Lin Ting’s foot froze mid-step into the bath.
She finally settled into the water, letting warmth envelop her arms.
Ripples spread across the surface as she ventured, “You saw him?”
“I did. And he reminded me of someone.”
“…?”
Back turned to the curtain, Lin Ting swallowed nervously, crumpling the bathing cloth in her grip.
Duan Ling stood.
“Strangely enough, he resembled Jin Anazi. Though the assassin wore no mask-just common cloth over his face-his bearing felt unmistakably like Jin Anazi’s.”
Lin Ting feared that if she sat in the bathtub too long without moving, he might grow suspicious from the lack of splashing sounds.
She began washing herself with a cloth.
“Could you have mistaken someone else for Jin Anazi? Assassinating the crown prince is a capital offense.”
“I only said he looked similar, not that he was Master Jin. How could I have mistaken him?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Duan Ling pulled aside the curtain shielding the bathtub.
Lin Ting barely had time to react before he leaned over, hands braced on the tub’s edge, and pressed his lips to the corner of her mouth.
At first, he nipped with deliberate force, then licked gently, his tongue teasing past her lips and teeth as he deepened the kiss.
The scent of agarwood flooded her senses.
Instinctively, she parted her lips, only to remember she was still undressed.
Unaccustomed to kissing like this, she reached for her clothes-but Duan Ling caught her hand, interlacing their fingers tightly.
His kisses trailed in slow, feverish succession-along the corner of her mouth, her cheek, her neck, her collarbone before returning to her lips, greedily stealing her breath.
She could barely breathe.
Duan Ling was like a venomous serpent, its scales gleaming as it slithered across her skin, leaving behind a slick, heated trail.
Unable to resist, Lin Ting arched slightly into his touch, surrendering to the kiss.
A part of her feared that if she didn’t yield, she would be dragged under, drowning in the depths of this passion.
His lips brushed the droplets clinging to her cheek before moving lower, capturing the frantic pulse at her chest.
Her heart was soft, as if it might melt in his mouth—and he, like some ravenous demon, feasted upon it.
He devoured her heartbeat.
The crimson of Lin Ting’s heart mirrored the red of his tongue-yet there was something undeniably different between them.
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