"Speak! Who sent you here..."
A bucket of salt water was splashed down.
The badly beaten assassin let out howls of pain.
Outside the howls, Chu Junyi was sitting in the shade of a tree, listening to Fu Chengyuan interrogating the prisoner.
Beside him, Li Xinyue was gritting her teeth as she wiped Chu Junyi's face, applied medicine on his wounds, and from time to time had to endure a soul - searching interrogation from the doctor.
"Hey, young lady, do you know how to serve someone? Be gentle, gentle! The eyes are the most vulnerable part. You can't be so reckless, or he might go blind."
Li Xinyue turned her head away resentfully and glared at the meddling doctor.
The corners of Chu Junyi's tightly pursed lips twitched slightly upwards and then tightened again.
"Lord Chu, you look like an honest official at first glance."
Hearing this, Lord Chu tilted his head slightly in Li Xinyue's direction. "Oh? How do you figure that?"
While deftly applying medicine on the imperial bodyguard, the doctor taunted Li Xinyue in a sarcastic tone, "Corrupt officials are usually worldly - wise and smooth. How could they allow such a clumsy maid to serve them up close?"
Chu Junyi let out a snort of laughter. He could easily guess Li Xinyue's expression at the moment.
Even if the high - born princess served him clumsily, he could bear it.
Chu Junyi made a hollow fist and put it to his lips, coughing lightly. He said seriously, "Doctor Xing is quite... ah, right!"
Suddenly, his head tightened. The gauze almost squeezed his head in half.
Li Xinyue raised her eyebrows triumphantly and whispered threateningly in his ear, "Comfortable, Lord Chu?"
Lord Chu nodded through the pain. "Comfortable." But then he came to his senses and felt that there was something wrong with what the doctor had said.
Li Xinyue burst out laughing. "Doctor Xing is right." Then she turned back, raised her eyebrows, and happily admired the huge bow she had tied on Chu Junyi's ponytail. It looked just like a white hairband.
Imagine a grown man wearing a huge bow - shaped hairband. The scene...
She couldn't help taking a few steps back and looking carefully.
It seemed... quite good - looking?
But then she couldn't laugh anymore.
At this moment, the clerk of Fu Chengyuan, who was taking the confession in the distance, heard the commotion here and subconsciously turned to look.
Li Xinyue was also looking in that direction out of boredom. Their eyes met.
Li Xinyue's fighting spirit was aroused again. The corners of her mouth tilted upwards involuntarily, but an alarm bell rang in her mind. Remembering that she couldn't easily expose herself during this trip to the south of the Yangtze River, she quickly lowered her eyelids, picked up the basin of dirty water on the bench, and turned to leave through the gate.
Fu Chengyuan's clerk stared at her back, got up and handed the paper and pen to the clerk beside him, grabbed the folding fan on the table, tucked it into his waist, and hurriedly followed.
"Miss, let me do it. Let us rough men handle this kind of hard work. You and Lord Chu are honored guests from afar. How could you do such a thing?"
The copper basin in Li Xinyue's hand was snatched away. She quickly sized him up from the corner of her eye and then quickly retracted her gaze, lowering her eyelids.
She hadn't had much contact with the Fu family. Shouldn't they recognize her?
But again - not necessarily.
If someone was determined to win someone else over, even a single encounter would be enough for them to remember.
Perhaps, they had already recognized her.
Li Xinyue's heart was restless. She was wondering what their next move would be.
And how she could get out of this situation.
What was going on in the capital?
At this time, the clerk had already returned with the empty basin.
"Miss, here's the thing. My master would like to invite Lord Chu to his mansion for a simple dinner tonight. I wonder if Lord Chu has any dietary restrictions or preferences?"
Li Xinyue gave a cold laugh. This was a golden opportunity. "My master was born into a poor family and often went hungry. So he's not picky about food and has no dietary restrictions. Just good - tasting food will do. However, please tell Lord Fu not to go to too much trouble. A simple home - cooked meal will be fine. The recent case... is still a hot topic. If the meal is too sumptuous, it might give the impression of taking bribes."
The clerk gave a cold laugh, his eyes full of sharpness and cunning.
"Then does the miss know what kind of entertainment Lord Chu likes after dinner? I'll make arrangements accordingly."
"His greatest entertainment is..." climbing over walls.
"Scolding people! He especially likes to play the role of a teacher and punish this one and that one."
"Got it!"
Li Xinyue felt that his "got it" left her confused. There was something strange about it.
When she returned to Chu Junyi's side, the interrogation was already over. A strong smell of blood filled the air. Even from a distance, it could be smelled.
The yamen runners were cleaning the blood on the ground. Bucket after bucket of clean water was splashed. Li Xinyue's scalp tightened. It felt as if the water was like salt water splashed on a wound, extremely painful.
She shifted her gaze to Chu Junyi and told him what the clerk had said to her. Then she asked what "got it" meant.
Chu Junyi was slightly surprised, then let out a snort of laughter. He hooked his finger, signaling Li Xinyue to come closer.
He leaned over and whispered seriously in her ear, "He probably thinks Your Highness is my chambermaid."
Li Xinyue almost jumped up. She suppressed her voice and said indignantly, "What! I'm your chambermaid! You should be my chambermaid!"
Chu Junyi raised his eyebrows. He knew she would get angry.
"Who told you to tell him that I was born into a poor family and often went hungry?
Would a normal maid belittle her master like this?
In his ears, he probably thought you were being spoiled and arrogant, and that we were... " He coughed lightly and said somewhat embarrassedly, "flirting!"
And that so - called "scolding people", in the ears of a dirty - minded person, might have been misinterpreted.
Combining these two things, anyone would think wrongly.
Of course, Chu Junyi didn't explain the deeper meaning of "scolding people".
He didn't allow such things to pollute her ears and mind.
Li Xinyue thought the clerk had recognized her and was deliberately testing her. She didn't expect...
"Isn't it better than having them recognize you as Princess Yuanyang? You have to choose one of the two."
Li Xinyue moved her lips but said nothing.
"My lord!" Fu Chengyuan walked over with the confession.
Chu Junyi pointed at Li Xinyue, indicating that he should give the confession to her to review.
Li Xinyue's eyebrows twitched. This guy was probably taking revenge on her. He knew she was afraid of being recognized, but he deliberately made her face Fu Chengyuan.
However, the usually playful Chu Junyi was now serious, which made Li Xinyue hesitate whether to accept it or not.
Fu Chengyuan shifted his gaze, respectfully handed over the confession, then looked at Chu Junyi and began to report the results and clues of the interrogation.
Li Xinyue let out a sigh of relief. He didn't recognize her. This was a weight off her mind, and she didn't have to be on tenterhooks anymore.
She calmed down and looked at the confession.
It said that the assassins were hired by the unscrupulous merchants associated with the direct line of the Fu family.
Because the downfall of the direct line meant that the unscrupulous merchants associated with them would also be uprooted. So these people wanted to strike first.