Chapter 19: That Appearance is Extremely Seductive
Bai Xiangxiu couldn’t care less about what other people thought. She hurriedly dressed up and asked Ye-mama, “Mama, do you think it would be good if I gave this to the prince personally?”
“Of course it would! I’ll tell you what, if the prince doesn’t have any matters to attend to today, he should be in Fragrant Garden!”
Ye-mama dearly hoped that Madame Xiu could complete the task by herself. At the very least, Madame Xiu’s appearance as she laughed merrily was extremely seductive, to say nothing of anything else. What man could withstand it?!
Bai Xiangxiu was overjoyed. She couldn’t let this chance go. She had to make the supporting male lead remember her. She clenched her fist inwardly, then went to prepare the gifts she had already put together. She could no longer bother with underhanded secret dealings. Anyways, the supporting male lead wasn’t so mean as to speak of this matter. The story had already explained his personality in detail, so she wasn’t afraid. As they say, don’t bite off more than you can chew, but remember that fortune favors the bold. If she continued like this, she wouldn’t be able to attract a second glance from the supporting male lead, let alone save herself from certain death. She had already prepared this gift for quite some time, but hadn’t gotten the chance to present it. Her gift was also placed in a small cloth bag, but it was quite different from a perfume satchel. When she was ready, she brought Xiao Shi out with her.
From Ye-mama’s point of view, Bai Xiangxiu even looked somewhat heroic as she stepped out.
Bai Xiangxiu had always been a bit passive. A male classmate had chased her for quite a while in her middle school days, but she still hadn’t figured out his motives even when she’d reached senior high. When she finally found out, he had already married and had kids. With her personality, she was only doing such a thing after arriving in the ancient times because of her fear of being beaten to death.
The scenery in the prince’s complex had become even more beautiful. Although the trees were starting to wither into a golden yellow, one could find a certain beauty to the desolate landscape. But at present, Bai Xiangxiu couldn’t appreciate the scenery. Relying on Xiao Shi for guidance, she made her way to Fragrant Garden, her heart a knot of anxiety.
Although Prince Li was a general, he was also quite well read, with rather elegant tastes. This Fragrant Garden was situated above a man-made lake with fountains and strangely shaped rock formations. It looked extremely grand, imbued with an ancient and grand sort of beauty. The couplets by the entrance were written with bold calligraphy that soared like dragons and danced like phoenixes, extremely pleasant to the eye.
She secretly admired the male lead’s vision. He was the male lead after all, other than having a liking for murder, he still had quite a few good points to him.
The pageboy standing outside stopped them, “Madame Xiu, may I ask what business you have here?”
“This concubine has some matters and would like to see the prince. Does he perhaps have some time?” This was the modern way of speaking. She didn’t know how she was supposed to ask to meet a man in ancient times.
The pageboy was startled. This Madame Xiu is quite direct.
He knew that the prince held more interest towards her than the other three mistresses, so he respectfully replied, “Please wait here for a moment, Mistress Xiu. This servant will go and inquire with the prince.” He turned and left.
Prince Li was currently sipping tea with Song Jiaoyue inside. Without anything better to do, they had started analyzing the current situation within the court, since the both of them were active within that circle.
The servant entered and spoke, “Prince, Mistress Xiu requests an audience.”
Long Heng raised an eyebrow, and for reason, felt a stirring of joy within his heart. The mistresses of the Spring, Summer and Autumn Gardens would come looking for him at least once a day, trying to gain his favor by sending over some soup or water. This was the first time the mistress of the Winter Garden had come to find him.
However, he kept a strict face and said, “Don’t you see that this prince has a guest? Let her wait.”
The pageboy froze for a moment, startled. Shouldn’t the prince be saying ‘Let her return? Making her wait… meant that he wanted to have her meet him? It looked like he really did feel differently about Mistress Xiu compared to the others. The servant went back to pass the message without saying anything else.
How would Song Jiaoyue not see his friend’s interest? What man didn’t like beauties? However, seeing the way he was acting nonchalant was quite interesting as well. He took a sip of tea before asking, “Why don’t we play a game of Chinese chess?”
Long Yan raised his head to glance at him. His amorous eyes were narrowed slightly, and they looked extremely charming. He was naturally born with a cool, handsome face, but his eyes were extremely mesmerizing. He looked even more beautiful than women.
Song Jiaoyue liked beautiful things, so he rather admired his friend’s eyes and would even draw them quite frequently into paintings on the faces of beauties. However, he would never dare admit that out loud, otherwise he might get promptly stabbed through with a sword. He would have to be blind not to see the trace of tenderness that flashed across those usually icy cold eyes. Therefore, him asking the other to play chess was simply a way to make things difficult for Long Heng.
However, upon seeing those eyes turn cold again, ruining the sense of beauty that’d just radiated out of them, Song Jiaoyue stood up and said, “Let’s forget about it. If I hold up your date with the beauty, I’m afraid we won’t be able to continue being friends.”
He smiled gently, making Long Heng, whose worries had been exposed, utterly incapable of retorting. Luckily, they understood each other and went through the motions of farewell before sending each other off.
Bai Xiangxiu was waiting anxiously outside. She wanted to go in to see the supporting male lead, but the pageboy was actually making her wait.
Just as she was getting even more worried, she saw the supporting male lead coming out from afar. Alright, so they’d seen each other, but what could she do with this one glance? No, she couldn’t let him leave just like that.
In that moment of desperation, Bai Xiangxiu’s IQ took a nosedive and she chose to employ a rather unorthodox method. When the servant said, “Mistress Xiu, the prince invites you to enter”, she hurriedly took a few steps forward and accidentally ‘fell down’.
It wouldn’t be good if the beauty suffered a fall, so Song Jiaoyue naturally reached out to catch her. He felt a pain from his palm, as if something had been placed there. Just as he was thinking it strange, the beauty stood up and glanced at him once with her limpid eyes before walking away.
That glance made his heart skip half a beat. Although he had a few women at home, they couldn’t compare to her looks. Mistress Xiu had an outstanding appearance, but more importantly, she had that special aura about her. She seemed delicate, yet she carried some sincere naivete to her which could enchant any man. However, what had she passed to him just now?
After waiting for her to walk away, he surreptitiously peeked at his hand and ended up staring blankly at the item sitting in his palm. Rage rose in his heart. How was this woman suitable to stay by his friend’s side?! He wanted to expose her, but he still hesitated for a moment before he made a move with his hands, speaking in a low tone, “Recklessly causing trouble!”
Ah?
Everyone looked at him in confusion. They didn’t understand who that sentence was directed towards. He then opened his hand right in front of Bai Xiangxiu, some pieces of cloth and white smoke spilling out of his hands.
This… this must be the legendary inner power! The story had described the supporting male lead as an expert as well, but his power couldn’t be compared to the male lead’s. He had actually destroyed her gift for him, and that exclamation was clearly directed at her!
Bai Xiangxiu was speechless. So he didn’t speak of it, but he had destroyed it without looking at it, so it looked like sending gifts wasn’t going to work. Bai Xiangxiu was so afraid that she ran into the Fragrant Garden, her heart beating like a drum. Was it really alright that she had failed to seduce the supporting male lead and even made him hate her?
Feeling extremely put out in her heart, she walked towards the male lead. The study in this Fragrant Garden was extremely lavish. Although it had been renovated, it was decorated perfectly in the ancient style.
The male lead, Long Heng, sat behind a writing desk, seemingly reading a book with the utmost seriousness. He didn’t even raise his head upon hearing someone enter, simply asking, “What’s the matter?”
Bai Xiangxiu hadn’t actually come looking for him for any particular reason, she was still reeling from the mental blow the supporting male lead had given her. She took out the fragrance bag from her sleeves and placed it on the desk. But this fragrance bag looked a bit unfamiliar to her eyes. Looking at it closely, she saw that it was a little cloth bag she used to wrap bookmarks with.
Heavens! She wanted to find a block of tofu and kill herself with it. She had given away the wrong present! Someone tell me how I should handle the situation now! I’m waiting online, hurry hurry hurry!