From the censer, wisps of clear fog rose infused with a cold, light fragrance which added a bit of indolence and comfort to this end-of-summer afternoon. Although it was past noon and the heat outside wasn't any less, it seemed that the bedchamber they were in was getting increasingly cooler.
"Ying Ran, you have something on your mind?" Qi Mingyue was lying on the couch with a book in hand but he wasn't paying attention to it, his eyes were gazing at the dazed woman dressed in white.
Yingran snapped out of her thoughts, "Ah, Your Highness? This slave got distracted for a moment, I didn't hear what you asked earlier."
"You have something on your mind." This time, it wasn't a question.
She knew that nothing could be concealed from His Highness, so she nodded and replied, "I do have something on my mind but I'm still uncertain about it. Therefore, I dare not speak presumptuously to Your Highness."
"What speaking presumptuously? Since you have something to say, just say it so that I can share your worries." Putting down the book in his hand, he tugged on Ying Ran's clothes and with some youthful playfulness, he shook it, "Ying Ran is going to say or not?"
His Highness always behaved with such grace and calmness that it invariably made people forget that he was only twelve years old. Now, however, he showed such a rare, lovely look of a young boy, Ying Ran couldn't help chuckling, "Your Highness, it's not a big deal, it's just... last time, when I was in the Underground Palace and heard of Soul lure and the soul-attracting nature of it, I felt a little surprised."
At that time, he had noticed that she looked strange. As expected, there was something else to it. "Why were you surprised? Are these poisons not commonly available? What's their origin?"
"Your Highness guessed it well. All these poisons should come from An Yang and they are very rare. Ordinary people have never even heard of them, let alone used them. If I wasn't born in An Yang, I wouldn't even have known about them."
"I heard that you once studied medicine and poisons, all of your knowledge comes from the Yi family. It seems that your mentor must have been truly erudite."
Hearing him say this, Ying Ran lowered her head, and spoke with seemingly infinite emotion and sadness, "Shifu[1] could poison and cure but he never used poison to hurt people. Even when in danger, he didn't want to use poison to save himself. Ying Ran had no choice but to make poison to hurt others, as a result, I was expelled by him."
[1] 'Master' which refers to a highly-skilled teacher towards whom one feels respect.
It turned out to be like this, Qi Mingyue glanced at Ying Ran, who had sunk into thinking of her past memories, and saw that she looked miserable. He turned to ask about the previous matter, "You said you couldn't be sure, what was that about? What couldn't you be sure of?"
"I suspect that those who instigated the poisoning got all the poisons from An Yang, but as I said before, they're all very rare. In fact, they're not only rare but simply impossible to obtain unless it's An Yang's royal family."
"What you mean is that these are all the hidden poisons of An Yang's royal palace?" Han Ziqi had something to do with An Yang? Then what he did was for a personal agenda or actually directed towards Cang He?
"Although they're not for exclusive royal use, it isn't easy to produce them or find them in the secret places of Jianghu. Only the royal family can afford the manpower and material resources required for it. Therefore, I can't be sure whether that's the case or someone purposefully targeted Your Highness." The world knew about His Highness' temperament and talent as well as His Majesty's love for him, so it could be said that if they lost His Highness, Cang He would be in turmoil.
"Thank you for telling me, Ying Ran. I will inform Father of this matter. If Han Ziqi really has sinister intentions, then his days will not be long."
Since leaving the Underground Palace that day, An Ruolan had become somewhat insane; she would sometimes be good, sometimes bad, she occasionally asserted that someone wanted to kill her, sometimes she talked to the air as if making conversation with others, and sometimes, she giggled to herself or acted shy. They concluded that she might be reliving the time when she was still a child with Han Ziqi.
In order to ensure that she didn't hurt herself, the shadow guards were always there. Nevertheless, Father was still worried about the poison and thought that he might still get convulsion attacks. He spent his days leisurely, it wasn't that he didn't want to get up, rather, he couldn't move around at will since Father didn't want him to. Thus, he had nothing else to do besides resting like a patient.
He heard that the palace hadn't been peaceful recently. Since An Ruolan was locked in the Underground Palace, General An Yuan had been ill at home, and all the ministers in court were on tenterhooks. There was no impermeable wall in the world and this was the Imperial Palace to boot; rumours of An Ruolan's poisoning attempt finally came out. But no one knew what happened to Qi Mingyue. All of them thought that the murder attempt on His Majesty was unsuccessful, the entire plot was revealed, thus, he might have been imprisoned in the Underground Palace. Coupled with days of not seeing the Second Prince appear by His Majesty's side, they confirmed their speculation that the An Clan would be condemned.
In the midst of the fierce discussion and scolding, the Youye Pavilion in the harem stayed silent. It wasn't known whether Han Ziqi knew that things had been exposed as he hadn't made a move.
However, now that he heard Ying Ran's words, there was no need to wait any longer. It seemed that he needed to go and ask earlier than anticipated.
Just as he was about to get up, he heard Hong Qui run in, "Your Highness, guess what His Majesty has found for you today?!"
"Seeing how excited you are at the sight of it, could it be that it's a handsome and talented man?" Qi Mingyue saw her face full of smiles, light footsteps coming inside, and began to poke fun.
But unexpectedly, Hong Qui widened her eyes and covered her mouth in disbelief, then exclaimed, "How did Your Highness know that His Majesty asked people to find a talented person for you!"
Qi Mingyue was also surprised, "Father asked people to find a talent? What for? There is no shortage of talented people in the palace."
"I heard that he's a musician. His Majesty was afraid that Master would be bored, so he specially sent someone to look for him. It's said that he's good at music, especially in many kinds of musical instruments."
He remembered mentioning it a few days ago, after learning Tianyin's Heart Technique from Jiang Yao, he needed to learn a musical instrument to use it. Father didn't want him to get overly fond of her and get too close to her, hence, he found someone else to teach him.
Qi Mingyue smiled knowingly, "I've been in the house for a long time and it was getting somewhat unbearable, so I just thought of learning a skill during this free time. Although I understand music theory, I still lack guidance from a famous teacher. Since he's here, direct him to the side hall."
When Hong Qui left, Ying Ran said with a heavy face, "Your Highness, Hong Qui doesn't know how to be serious, she doesn't understand that it's not appropriate for you to strain yourself nowadays. It's getting late, so it would be better to pass it on to tomorrow."
Qi Mingyue smiled at her gently. "Ying Ran is really considerate. I wonder who will marry you in the future and have the blessing of having a wife like you." He didn't order anyone to call back Hong Qui, evidently, he had made up his mind to see the musician today.
"I will serve Your Highness all my life." If she wanted to marry someone, she wouldn't have come to Cang He's Imperial Palace, but since she had come and met such a master, she didn't have the intention of leaving. She lowered her head, somehow, her eyes were tinged with some sadness. She sighed silently and followed behind Qi Mingyue.
When he reached to the side hall, in addition to Hong Qui, a man in blue was waiting inside. Upon discovering Qi Mingyue stepping into the hall, the man hurried forward to pay his respects, however, he paused when he saw the young man and stared at him while standing still in astonishment.
He saw a young man walking leisurely towards him with his hair loose and a smile as bright as the moon on his face. He was dressed in a moon-white robe, which made him look like an immortal. His clear eyes were deep and calm but held some coldness. The man stared at the young man in front of him and could hardly believe that someone with such charisma was only twelve years old.
"What are you looking at?"
Hearing him suddenly speak, the calm but indifferent voice made the man wake up from his daze, he hurriedly bowed in ceremony, "This lowly one is named Mo He and has seen Your Second Highness. This lowly one was rude just now, this one hopes Your Highness can forgive my sin."
"En, get up." Qi Mingyue answered lightly, sat on the highest chair[2] in the hall and glanced at him curiously, "I heard you're good at music?"
[2] It means the seat meant for the highest-ranking person.
"I don't dare, I just have a little understanding." Mo He looked at the young man who, without any scruples, sat on the seat solely meant for the monarch to sit on and his face showed obvious surprise. Qi Mingyue saw his expression and flashed a smile, this man was very interesting, all of his thoughts were clearly visible on his face; it made people want to tease him.
"I wonder what kind of instrumental music Mo He is good at?" Leaning against the chair obliquely, Qi Mingyue casually held long stands of Hong Qui's hair and began to play with it. He brought it to his nose to smell, his posture was extremely frivolous and wanton, "What does HongEr use? I'm unwilling to let go, it smells so good."
Between the beautiful maid and the young man, there was an overflowing charming atmosphere. Although it was just a casual action and a simple smirk, it could already speed up people's heartbeat.
Mo He saw this, hurriedly lowered his head and turned red. He didn't expect that such a dignified little prince would behave like this in front of an outsider.
Hong Qui, however, paused in surprise, averted her eyes, and immediately lowered her head shyly, causing Ying Ran on the side to desperately try to hold back her laughter as she struggled to endure.
Qi Mingyue was silent for a while and didn't speak, he just played with Hong Qui's hair. He glanced at the person standing below in interest and saw that Mo He kept his head down throughout, he was already red considering the appearance of his exposed ear that was flushed crimson. Mo was shrinking as much as he could as if he hadn't seen anything and almost wished to bury his whole person in the ground.
The smile on his lips deepened a little more and he finally decided to let the musician go. He began unhurriedly, "Tell me everything you know and I'll learn from you if I see something good. What do you think?"
Mo He didn't dare delay any further. One by one, he introduced different instruments and Qi Mingyue listen to what he explained, thinking to himself that he did have some talent. Then, he ordered people to display all the instruments mentioned, took a look at them all and if there was an interesting one, he asked the musician to demonstrate, and eventually, he picked a long instrument that was wider than a guqin.
"This is a zither with a broad and gorgeous range of sound. It can produce a melodious and far-reaching sound, whether it's gentle and elegant or generous and passionate, you can play as you wish. If Your Highness likes it, Mo He will give Your Highness the technique of playing the zither."
Qi Mingyue thought it sounded good. Looking at its shape, it was similar to the known zither but the number of strings was slightly different. It must not difficult to learn, so he asked him to start teaching the playing method immediately.
 When Qi Xutian stepped into the side hall, he saw Qi Mingyue pressing his fingertips on some musical instrument, but behind him, a man stretched his arms around him and it looked as if he was embracing him with his front pressed up against MingEr's back, furthermore, he was also caressing MingEr's fingers. Qi Xutian didn't know what he was doing, his face sank and the chill around him became more and more intense as he approached.
On the other side, Mo He was talking to Qi Mingyue with concentration but felt chills all over his body, a horrible and ominous feeling of impending doom seized him. However, before he could say anything, everything blurred in front of his eyes as his body was flung outside.
When Liu Yi stepped into the side hall behind His Majesty, he suddenly saw a figure attacking him, and only when he was about to meet it with both palms did he discover that the flying object looked very familiar. Then, he quickly changes his palms into a grip, grabbed the man, and held him by his collar only to discover that it was the musician he had personally found before. After recognising him, Liu Yi placed the musician on the ground.
Mo He stayed still in the same place. In a flash, he was thrown and caught. He went flying through the air but before he could react, the weak scholar landed safely on the ground and still felt a little confused.
Liu Yi took a look at him and realised the situation; His Majesty had another attack. He shook his head and patted Mo He's shoulder lightly. "Didn't I tell you to stay away from His Highness? I warned you that if you don't listen, you must take care of your own life."
"Father, he is only teaching me how to play the zither." Seeing that Mo He was suddenly thrown out, Qi Ming understood that Father didn't like him to be so close to others. He had also forgotten that this was the time when Father returned, he should've stayed away from Mo He so as not to get him into trouble.
"If I was aware that he was a musician, you thought I would have spared him?" Qi Xutian stood on his side, stroked his nape, and asked with dissatisfaction.
"Alright, then let him go back. I've almost learned, just practising more would be enough." He asked Chief Liu to take Mo He away. Qi Mingyue thought that he should practice by himself to be safe, so as to not arouse his Father's anger again. In recent days, because of Lianxin gu in his body, Father Emperor's temper had become even more capricious, so to speak, his moodiness and irritability were even greater than before. He couldn't help but begin to sympathize with the courtiers, if they made even a single wrong move, they would be the target of his anger.
"You seem to be in a bad mood, I wonder what for?" If he was like usual, he wouldn't have taken action without saying a word.
"Your keenness is very good, there is indeed something wrong. " Qi Xutian sat down next to him and caressed his hair uneasily, with deep killing intent brewing in his eyes. He said slowly, "Han Ziqi isn't in the Youye Pavilion. It seems that he realized something was wrong and escaped to save his life."
Today, he ordered people to bring Han Ziqi for questioning but no one was found in Youye Pavilion. However, even if he had martial arts skills, he wouldn't have disappeared like this from the palace. Whether it was the bodyguards or the palace people, they had never seen him. It could be deduced that he was still in the palace.
Suddenly thinking of something, Qi Xutian shouted, "Liu Yi! Order people to go to the Underground Palace!"
Liu Yi understood the meaning of his words and hurriedly left.
The Underground Palace was heavily guarded. Even if Han Ziqi could break-in, did he know where the real Underground Palace was? Even if he did, he would be no match against those shadow guards, thus, An Ruolan would be unharmed. Qi Mingyue wasn't particularly worried about it.
Qi Xutian, however, looked at him nervously, "Do you feel unwell anywhere?"
Ying Ran also took ahold of his wrist and carefully checked the state of the gu in fear of an accident.
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