Ask the Nine Ministers

Chapter 316 Warm Chamber
The carriage curtain fell, shutting out the wind and snow outside.

The interior of the carriage was dimly lit, with a brass heater emitting a refreshing fragrance of orchids, slowly dispelling the chill.

Xue Sui said, "Your Highness's help today is of utmost gratitude to this humble nun. However, the journey to Shuiyue Nunnery is long and there are many spies around. Why should we give them any further leverage?"

"sit down."

Li Zhao swept his sleeves, sat up straight, and said nothing more.

His casual clothes accentuated his broad, straight shoulders and lean, powerful waist. A dark fox fur cloak was casually draped over his side, with a band of deep black fox fur around the collar, which made his jawline appear cold and hard...

Seems angry.

Xue Sui shut up.

The wheels rolled over the bluestone slabs with a creaking sound.

Li Zhao finally turned his head and his gaze locked on her wrist.

"Give me your hand." His tone was cold and unyielding, leaving no room for argument.

Xue Sui did not lift his eyelashes and did not listen.

She even pulled her injured wrist in half an inch, hiding it even deeper...

"Skin injuries are nothing to worry about."

"Hmph." Li Zhao sneered, "Are you really going to stick to my stubbornness?"

"Compared to Your Highness's unauthorized intrusion into the Prince's residence today, directly confronting Prince Duan's sharp edge, this humble nun's price is insignificant."

She looked at Li Zhao with clear, bright eyes.

"Your Highness, have you considered the consequences of your actions? All the effort I put into distancing myself from this humble nun on the Imperial Street has been wasted by storming into the Prince's residence today."

"Is there any consequence worse than having your body collected?"

Xue Sui felt a slight pang of sadness.

This person has a really sharp tongue!

"If I had arrived any later, how did you plan to escape?" Li Zhao met her gaze, his eyes suddenly darkening, as if a dangerous storm was brewing within them.

"Should I rely on past relationships to get by with him? Or... am I really planning to drag myself into this too?"

Xue Sui gave a very faint smile and slowly opened his mouth.

"I was forced to do this by circumstances. I hope Your Highness will forgive my foolishness."

"Is this laughable?" A flash of malice crossed Li Zhao's eyes, but it vanished in an instant. "I don't find it laughable. I only find your helplessness utterly hateful."

"This humble nun knows what she's doing," Xue Sui said, downplaying the issue. "What Prince Duan seeks is not my life. At least... not for the time being. He has his plans, and I have my response."

"You trust Li Huan that much?"

His tone suddenly turned cold, carrying a hint of suppressed anger.

Before Xue Sui could explain, in the next instant, Li Zhao's hand gripped her forearm like an iron clamp. The force wasn't great, but his gaze was fierce, sharp and scrutinizing, pulling her close without allowing her to break free.

My fingertips suddenly touched an unusual bulge on the inside of the sleeve.

"What are you hiding in your sleeve?"

His voice was very low, his breath almost brushing against his earlobe, carrying a scorching heat.

"Good stuff." Xue Sui raised his eyes, his gaze reflecting the red glow of the flickering embers, calm and undisturbed.

"It's lethal upon contact with blood. Would Your Highness like to give it a try?"

Li Zhao suddenly laughed.

The smile didn't reach his eyes, but it conveyed a sense of understanding and relaxation.

"Xue Ping'an, is your life so worthless? Cutting your wrist once in Baohua Palace wasn't enough, you want to gamble your life again in Duanwang Mansion?"

Xue Sui smiled, "Didn't Your Highness see it? Only by being more ruthless and unscrupulous than the other side can we gain a chance of survival."

This was her creed for survival.

It was also a resolute determination etched into one's very bones.

Li Zhao felt that this move was crazy.

He groaned and leaned in without warning, trapping her in the shadows of the corner of the carriage.

The two were extremely close, their breaths mingling.

His voice was low and deep, carrying a kind of painful, gritted teeth.

"I told you to stay in the nunnery and not to go down the mountain, why didn't you listen? Do you know that Baohua Palace is a den of dragons and tigers? Do you know that Li Huan issued the order to suppress rumors in order to dig up the roots of the old case and prevent it from being reopened?"

“I know.” Xue Sui met his eyes, her voice clear and calm.

“I knew about the trap in Baohua Palace, that’s why I went there. I also know what Prince Duan wants to do… but I can’t watch them die because of me.”

She paused, her voice slightly choked as she thought of Jinshu and Xiaozhao.

“I have been destitute and wandering since childhood… To me, the lives of those who are willing to treat me sincerely and give their lives for me are more precious than my crippled body. They are not ordinary servants, but my family. I am not like Your Highness, who is born into wealth and privilege, and can be… discarded like trash.”

Li Zhao listened to the deliberate boundaries she drew in her words, and the phrase "abandoning a child is like discarding a worn-out shoe" was like a needle, igniting a nameless anger in his heart.

"Xue Ping'an!"

He suddenly grabbed her thin shoulders, forcing her to look up and face him.

"Stop spouting your nonsense about being a 'poor nun' or 'Your Highness.' There's no need for such pretense between us."

Xue Sui was scalded by the surging emotions in his eyes.

She instinctively tried to break free, but he held her even tighter.

The wind and snow howled outside the carriage.

A suffocating silence fell over the carriage.

Finally, Xue Sui lowered his eyes and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, there are too many people around."

This is a reminder, and also a form of submission.

Li Zhao's chest heaved violently as he forcibly suppressed his turbulent emotions. He slowly released his grip, but his other hand darted out with lightning speed, his fingertips twitching slightly as he easily slipped into the hidden pocket in the sleeve and pulled out the protruding object—

A small, tightly sealed amber ball, about an inch long.

"He's really made something of himself. He's ready to go to the Yellow Springs with Li Huan at any time."

Caught off guard, Xue Sui had his things snatched away. The struggle aggravated the wound on his wrist, causing him to gasp.

"Li Zhao! Be gentle!"

The outburst of rebuke, born of pain, strangely quelled Li Zhao's anger.

After being scolded by her, his sharp eyes suddenly lit up with a smile.

He gently pinched open the amber ball. Inside was an extremely fine brown powder.

"Am I not as effective as your little bit of poison?"

He snorted and made a gesture as if to bring the wax pellet close to his nose to smell it.

Xue Sui's expression changed slightly, and she quickly reached out and slapped him away.

"Are you out of your mind? This stuff will cause skin ulceration upon contact, even a god couldn't save you."

Li Zhao noticed her tension and worry, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he gave a half-smile.

"If Li Huan had really intended to attack just now, would you truly have wanted to die together with him?"

"why not?"

Xue Sui moved his arm to ease the lingering pain in his wrist, and said coldly, "A life for a life, very worthwhile. At least I'll take someone down with me..."

She wasn't trying to anger Li Zhao; it was just that her wound was hurting, and she couldn't be bothered to listen to his sarcastic remarks. Seeing his annoyance and dissatisfaction seemed to lessen the pain, so she took it as a way to vent her anger.

Li Zhao's face fell as expected.

"To die with him, aren't you afraid of defiling the road to the underworld?"

He leaned down, staring intently into her eyes with a commanding presence.

"If you dare to do this again, I'll break your legs first, then lock you in the secluded bamboo grove, where you'll never be allowed to go anywhere..."

Xue Sui was so angry he laughed, and let out a soft sigh.

"Your Highness is overthinking it. This humble nun values ​​her life very much. I cannot leave the Prince Duan's residence today, but tomorrow someone will deliver the irrefutable evidence to where it is. No one will get away with it."

Li Zhao's eyes suddenly sharpened, and he gave her a deep look.

"I have my own plans for this matter, and I forbid you from taking any more risks."

Xue Sui rubbed his temples and said in a low voice, "It's not that bad..."

"As for it," Li Zhao coldly ordered, "close your eyes and rest. There's still a lot of trouble to come back to Shuiyue Nunnery."

Xue Sui pursed his lips and remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement with his words.

She sat back down on the stool, her hands folded and placed on her knees.

Eyes focused on the nose, nose focused on the heart, like an old monk in deep meditation.

Li Zhao sat opposite her, no more than an arm's length away.

He stopped talking, straightened his back against the other side of the car wall, and closed his eyes to rest.

The carriage fell silent for a moment.

The two men stood like two opposing stone statues, silently locked in a power struggle within the confined space.

The carriage drove along the long street, its wheels rolling rhythmically over the snow-covered cobblestones.

The two deep ruts were quickly covered by the newly fallen snowflakes.

It was as if no one had ever come, and no one had ever left.
-
After leaving the city gate, we headed east along the snow-covered official road.

Li Zhao's gaze traveled from her lowered eyelashes and pale cheeks, finally settling on her injured arm. Her fingertips tapped lightly on her knee, as if she were deliberately enduring something...

Time passed extremely slowly.

The wheels rolled over a bumpy dirt road, and a violent jolt suddenly came over us.

Xue Sui's wound throbbed with pain, his brow furrowed slightly, and he instinctively used his right hand to protect it.

A faint red stain had appeared on the cotton cloth wrapped around the wound.

Li Zhao squinted, his brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

Xue Sui turned his face towards the car window...

Li Zhao could no longer restrain himself. He reached into his robes, pulled out a flat, small jade box, and casually tossed it onto her lap.

"Medicine for wounds." The statement was concise and to the point, sparing even the most basic explanation.

Xue Sui picked it up and glanced at it.

The box was warm to the touch, clearly indicating that it had always been kept close to his body.

She put it aside and didn't touch it.

"Afraid it's poisonous?" Li Zhao lifted his eyelids.

"Don't worry, I can't bear to see you die."

After saying that, his gaze swept over her pale face, and his tone softened.

"Hurry up and apply it, so that I don't see it in my way."

Xue Sui remained silent.

Although she didn't think Li Zhao's wound medicine was better than her own, it was still a token of his goodwill.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

As I lifted the lid with my fingertips, a slightly spicy medicinal aroma wafted out.

She lowered her eyes, untied the blood-soaked cloth from her wrist, revealing a gruesome wound.

The carriage was swaying constantly, making it quite inconvenient for her to operate with only one hand.

"Clumsy," Li Zhao muttered, then suddenly reached out and snatched the medicine box without a word.

Xue Sui pursed her lips, which were slightly pale from blood loss and the cold.

No blocking.

She knew Li Zhao's style of doing things, and there was no point in arguing at this moment.

Li Zhao lowered his head, grasped her slender wrist, and with an almost tyrannical focus, dipped his fingertips in the cool ointment, applying it little by little to the hideous wound.

His fingertips were rough, yet his movements were surprisingly delicate.

The cool ointment mingled with the pain of the wound, causing Xue Sui's body to stiffen, her gaze fixed on his lowered eyelashes.

Warmth flowed through the silence...

A delicate fragrance filled the air, and the sound of wheels rolling couldn't mask their breaths as they were so close together.

A silent, taut tension grew within the cramped carriage.

Suddenly, the carriage rolled over a deep pothole and lurched violently.

"Ugh..." Xue Sui lost his balance and let out an unconscious groan, his whole body uncontrollably tilting towards Li Zhao.

Caught off guard, her forehead bumped into his solid chest.

(End of this chapter)