Chapter 104: Night visit, life hanging by a thread (1/2)
Chapter 104: Night visit, life hanging by a thread
There was some distance between Solitary Enclosure and the Han estate. No matter how fast Long Feiye went, he still needed time to get there. It wasn’t long before Han Yunxi’s neck was aching and she started feeling uncomfortable. When she raised her head, the wind whipped against her face again, blowing her long hair hither and yon as it lashed against her like knives.
Han Yunxi buried her head again, only to lift it shortly afterwards. If she kept her head bent for so long, it was likely her neck would be stiff by the time they arrived at the Han estate. Of course, Long Feiye felt every little movement made by the person on his back, but he kept his eyes forward without saying a word, as if he was already used to it.
But…but…this was the first time His Highness Duke of Qin had piggybacked anyone!
After a while, Han Yunxi’s neck had finally grown too sore for her to bear it. She was already tired from staying up all night and just about exhausted from keeping still on Long Feiye’s back so long. After some hesitation, a sneaky expression crept onto her face as she secretly licked her lips. Her hands, which had been clutching Long Feiye’s shoulders before, carefully stretched out and slowly wrapped around his neck. As soon as she did, Han Yunxi was afraid to move any further until she saw that Long Feiye had no reaction. She timidly rejoiced. This was much more comfortable for her arms. Her eyes spun in their sockets as she wetted her lips again, before carefully turning her head to the side to rest against his back.
Of course, her movements were still very stiff. Last time when Long Feiye had taken her to combat the mosquito swarms, he’d forcefully pulled her into his embrace. But this time she was the one nestling closer on her own initiative. Would this fellow think she was being wanton and not abiding by the wifely virtues? Han Yunxi felt depressed as she recalled his earlier warnings. These ancients and their pedantic ideals!
Han Yunxi waited a long time without hearing any sound of dissatisfaction from Long Feiye. She mused, this guy is running so fast, he probably has no time to worry about me. Finally, her taut nerves relaxed. She wasn’t even sure what she was afraid of, but let out a breath and murmured in her heart, ‘Your Highness Duke of Qin, please excuse me. I don’t mean anything else by this, I just want to borrow you to lean on for a bit.’
When the person on his back finally settled in, Long Feiye’s furrowed eyebrows relaxed as well. Again, he remained silent, though his gaze grew deeper as a shadow flitted across them. It was hard to tell what he was thinking. Their journey was quiet the whole way aside from the sound of wind and the inadvertent sound of their…heartbeats.
The skies were still dim by the time they reached the Han estate, since the wintertime sun always rose late. Han Yunxi pointed out the way and Long Feiye quickly led her noiselessly onto Third Madame’s roof. Though she’d gotten Long Feiye’s promise, Han Yunxi still didn’t want to find any clues in Third Madame’s quarters. It’d be best if the Han Family wasn’t involved at all; she could always follow clues from elsewhere.
The layout of the Han Family courtyards were more or less the same, so Han Yunxi used her body’s previous memories to pinpoint Third Madame’s rooms, which had buildings bordering a courtyard on three sides. Right now, everything was quiet in the courtyard because no one had awakened yet. But Han Yunxi knew she had less than an hour before the servants would get up.
“Can you tell me what your clue is now?” Long Feiye asked in a low voice.
Han Yunxi gave a concise summary of her tea-drinking day in Madame Li’s courtyard and what she found in the little wooden house. Long Feiye was intelligent enough to piece together the rest. It wasn’t strange for there to be snake poison in Third Madame’s wooden building, but the fact that they’d been replaced was suspicious.
“So I want to search the entire courtyard and see if there’s traces of other snake poisons,” Han Yunxi explained.
She’d found the snake poison in the wooden building because 1) those kinds of snake poisons were high in toxicity and easy to detect, and 2) their traces hadn’t been fully cleared from the medicine cabinets. Before, Han Yunxi had hoped to find other snake poisons here. Now she really hoped that wasn’t the case.
“This clue might be suspicious, but not highly so,” Long Feiye said objectively.
Of course Han Yunxi was clear about that. “I hope that I’ve overthought things.”
At these words, Long Feiye gave a cold smile as he looked with displeasure towards Han Yunxi.
“Bring me down,” she said frostily, a hint of command in her tone.
Long Feiye gave a jerk as he met her furious eyes. Curiously enough, he didn’t argue but held her in his arms to land on the ground and silently opened the front doors to the house. Han Yunxi observed how he worked the door with practiced ease and couldn’t help sighing in emotion. This guy was the high and mighty Duke of Qin, but he possessed so much potential to be a good thief. If it wasn’t for him, she really wouldn’t have been able to get inside.
Han Yunxi hobbled through the open doors, Long Feiye following in her wake to shut the doors behind them without a trace. The first room they reached upon coming inside was the guest hall. Though there was little possibility of snake poison hidden here, Han Yunxi still limped around in a circle as she scanned the room with her poison sensors. Long Feiye stood like a door god by the entrance, watching Han Yunxi as she slowly moved about the dim surroundings.
If Han Yunxi was well, she could walk very quickly, but her foot injury couldn’t help but delay things. Fortunately she had the detoxification system to save time, or else she’d have to trouble Long Feiye to bring her over multiple times. Soon enough, they scoured all over Third Madame’s residence without finding a thing, leaving only Third Madame and Han Ruoxue’s rooms unchecked. Right now, mother and daughter were probably both still dreaming.
“Nothing in any of the places?” Long Feiye was clearly disappointed.