Time travel, quick transmigration

Xiaodie knew that her master was always very opinionated, and now that he seemed to know what was going on, she had no choice but to stop thinking and not say anything more.

"The servant knows."

Shi Yan smiled with delight upon seeing this.

"That's more like it. So from now on, you don't need to worry about the things between me and His Majesty."

Xiaodie nodded and looked at the letter tube in Shi Yan's hand.

"Your Highness, has Young Master Xiao written you a letter?"

Shi Yan unfolded the letter and glanced at it. Looking at Xiao Huanling's elegant yet sharp handwriting on the moon-white Xuan paper, she couldn't help but smile. Then she looked up at Xiao Die.

"Yes, I asked him last time if everything was going well in Luoyang, and this time he wrote me a letter in reply."

Xiao Die rarely saw Shi Yan smile so genuinely. Her eyes and brows were full of brightness and joy. A person's eyes cannot lie, and the sincerity of a smile on their face when someone is mentioned cannot be faked, whether it is genuine joy or perfunctory pretense.

Xiao Die was absolutely certain that her mistress had fallen in love with Xiao Huanling. In the past, she worried that Shi Yan would become obsessed with romantic love and end up in a tragedy, so she did not approve of Shi Yan and Xiao Huanling getting too close. But when she saw Shi Yan's smile, she only wanted her to be with someone she loved in return.

She had accompanied Shi Yan all the way, watching her go from the enviable Princess Consort of Shou to a female Taoist nun, wasting her prime years in the austere Taoist temple. Originally, her mistress and the gentle Prince Shou had a happy and fulfilling life. They were a perfect match, a story of love and harmony, and she had seen them together in perfect harmony. She believed they would always be the envy of others, growing old together. But even the most beautiful things cannot overcome the selfish desires of a monarch who holds the power of the nation and the life and death of others. Prince Shou abandoned her mistress, and His Majesty used his imperial authority to force her. From beginning to end, only Xiao Huanling truly cared for her mistress; she saw it all clearly. Since she couldn't change her mistress's mind, nor could she persuade her to distance herself from the other man, she might as well help the two truly devoted people and protect them.

After much deliberation, Xiaodie had already made her decision.

Shi Yan noticed that Xiao Die was staring blankly at the letter in her hand and didn't say anything.

"Xiaodie, what are you thinking about? Why are you spacing out?"

Xiaodie snapped out of her thoughts, smiled, and shook her head.

"No, I didn't think about anything."

"Your Majesty, please read the letter. I won't disturb you any longer. I'll go outside and keep watch. Otherwise, if His Majesty suddenly comes over without informing us, it will be difficult to explain if he sees Young Master Xiao's letter."

"Your Highness, please call me when you're done looking at it. I only finished half of the orchid embroidery yesterday; I was embroidering a handkerchief in the outer corridor."

Without waiting for Shi Yan's reply, she turned around and went to get her basket containing embroidery tools.

Shi Yan watched Xiao Die leave in a hurry but didn't stop her, only smiled helplessly.

"My lady, I was overjoyed to receive your reply a day ago. It wasn't for any other reason than the deep care and love you showed me in every word. Life is fleeting, like a blade of grass in autumn; not everyone is as fortunate as I am to meet a woman as genuinely kind as you. Yesterday, a rain fell in Luoyang. As I stood by the window watching the rain, I seemed to see you far away in Chang'an through the heavy rain. You held a beautiful peony, smiling gently, murmuring something. Your exquisite beauty was like that of a goddess. It wasn't until the sudden thunder startled me awake that I realized I had only had a beautiful, yet ill-timed, dream. Please don't be angry with me now. I meant no offense; I was simply expressing my feelings for you. As the saying goes, 'Thinking too much creates dreams,' and 'longing for someone every day without seeing them leads to lovesickness.'"

Upon seeing this, Shi Yan's heart skipped a beat, and her cheeks burned as if on fire. She finally calmed herself down and continued reading.

"There's an old pomegranate tree outside my room window. Occasionally, when I glimpse its orange-red blossoms, I remember Xiaodie mentioning how you loved those translucent, pink, sweet and sour pomegranates in the summer. I don't know what I was thinking back then, but after leaving the Xiao family's main residence, I looked at several houses but none of them suited my taste. Then I saw an old house that the family was moving out of town and was eager to sell, so I bought it without hesitation. It had two pomegranate trees. Maybe someday, when the pomegranates have ripened, you can come to my house and sit for a while, and I can peel a pomegranate for you myself."

"It seems I've become quite talkative without realizing it, please don't laugh at me. Everything is fine here in Luoyang, and things are going very smoothly, so you can rest assured. I will return as soon as things are settled in Luoyang. My wife, please remember to take good care of yourself and don't worry about me."

Shi Yan had never realized that Xiao Huanling was such a skilled man at touching people's hearts. In the past, Xiao Huanling's letters were always concise, restrained, and polite, as if he was deliberately avoiding something. But this time, every word he wrote expressed his longing and revealed the feelings buried deep in his heart. It was the first time a man had written her such a tender letter, leaving her overwhelmed.

"Xiao Huanling, you are so moving with your emotions and treat me with such a sincere heart. How can I bear to ignore your feelings? You know I can't bear to hurt you, yet you still write me this letter. What are you thinking and what do you want?"

Far away in Luoyang, Xiao Huanling washed his knife-wounded arm with clean water, wiped away the surrounding blood, and then took a celadon medicine bottle, opened it, and sprinkled the hemostatic powder on the exposed wound. Throughout the entire process, he did not even frown once.

Jiang He, standing to the side, frowned deeply.

“Brother Xiao, a simple treatment might not be enough. I’d better go and ask a doctor to take a good look at you.”

Xiao Huanling calmly wrapped the wound with a white cloth strip that had been scalded with boiling water and was almost completely dry. After dressing and tidying himself up, he raised his eyes to look at Jiang He.

"It's nothing serious, just a minor cut or scrape. Don't make a fuss about it."

Jiang He said urgently, disagreeing.

"The Thousand Machines Pavilion Master is cunning and ruthless. He suffered so many losses at your hands, and the vast Thousand Machines Pavilion was destroyed by you. He hates you to the bone. He is willing to risk his life to strike you. Although you were only hit by his knife, I am worried that he might do something to his own knife."

Xiao Huanling had his doubts, but he wouldn't be careless. He had already examined the wound and was confident that there was nothing wrong with it, so he gave Jiang He a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry, I've checked it. It's just a normal wound, and there are no signs of poisoning. You can rest assured."

Jiang He nodded upon hearing this, but he was still a little worried. Knowing that Xiao Huanling was stubborn, he decided to go to Luoyang in private to find the best physician to examine Xiao Huanling's injuries, otherwise he would not be at ease.

"The Thousand Machines Pavilion Master, Xiuyuan, was severely injured by you and lost an arm. He escaped by sheer luck and then vanished without a trace. We don't know if he died in some remote place. All the members of the Thousand Machines Pavilion have been executed, and the pavilion itself has been destroyed. Soon we will be able to return to Chang'an City to report to His Majesty."

As Jiang He spoke, he was already eager to return home. He hadn't had a good night's sleep for several days due to the relentless attacks, and he was exhausted.

Xiao Huanling noticed the dark circles under Jiang He's eyes and knew that all the brothers had been working very hard these past few days.

"Give the order to hold a grand banquet today to reward all the brothers. Apart from the items that need to be handed over to the national treasury, the brothers can keep everything else they collect themselves."

Jiang He's eyes lit up as soon as he heard that.

"That's a good feeling."

He then whispered in Xiao Huanling's ear.

"I'll go and secretly tell them that the brothers deserve some spoils after working so hard."