cold clothes

In the end, Leng Yi failed to obtain the poison and returned to Zhuoyu Pavilion empty-handed with Qing Tan.

Zhuoyu Pavilion was the brightest spot in the backyard. It was a three-story building surrounded by three rings of lanterns. In the cold wind, the lanterns swayed and dazzled like the fringed hem of a girl's dancing skirt. Even with her eyes covered, Leng Yi could feel the light.

A thought flashed through Leng Yi's mind, and she suddenly realized. What good would it do for her to go to the herbal medicine shop immediately to assassinate Liang Shuyun? Such a despicable thing should be done by someone who specializes in it.

Leng Yi laughed and grabbed Qing Tan's clothes, saying, "Take me to see Yun Qiu!"

Qingtan smiled slightly and said, "I originally planned to introduce Miss Ningbi to Miss Yunqiu." In her heart, she couldn't help but complain that she always spoke so suddenly and abruptly.

In the music room on the first floor, Leng Yi and Yun Qiu met again after a long time. Leng Yi got straight to the point and said, "You know now, Liang Shuyun wants me to serve him tomorrow night."

“Yes, I’ve already received the message,” Yun Qiu glanced at Leng Yi a few times and chuckled, “You look more like an assassin than a prostitute right now.”

Leng Yi's inner thoughts: That sounds really uncomfortable... I'm neither of those, I'm the Avenger!

“You should keep your promise,” Leng Yi said coldly. “I want him dead tomorrow night, so don’t tell me the time isn’t right yet.”

"No, no, no, the time has come," Yun Qiu said happily.

This surprised Leng Yi for a moment, followed by a surge of joy, but her mind immediately calmed down: "Since that's the case, you should have a plan. You can tell me now."

“Of course,” Yun Qiu gave her an affirmative answer, and then handed her something. Leng Yi grasped it, and the touch told her that it was a dagger.

Then Yunqiu whispered in her ear, "Here's the dagger. You can use it however you like."

Yun Qiu's voice was always so captivating, like the strings of a harp, stirring the heart. Leng Yi's emotions were stirred, and her chest began to burn. But—

"Are you trying to send me to my death with such an obvious murder weapon?"

Leng Yi's face darkened. A dagger was even less reliable than poison, not to mention that she was just a ten-year-old girl. She had no chance of winning against a grown man with a weapon. "Is this dagger coated with a deadly poison? Would a single cut be fatal?" That was a bit more likely.

Yunqiu chuckled and replied that it wasn't poisonous, then said something that shattered Lengyi's worldview.

So this dagger was meant for her to commit suicide... Prostitutes at Fengxiang Pavilion are allowed to carry daggers, and if they are forced or abused by malicious customers, they can use the dagger to commit suicide... To harm customers with a dagger? The dungeon at Fengxiang Pavilion will make you wish you were dead.

However, Leng Yi still brought the dagger, because Yun Qiu had told her she could use it however she wanted. Of course, she couldn't possibly kill Liang Shuyun with just a dagger; Yun Qiu simply assured her that she wouldn't be punished for slashing Liang Shuyun a few times, thus giving her a chance to vent her anger. Truly killing Liang Shuyun would require other means.

sleepless nights.

Leng Yi got up at the crack of dawn and first danced for half an hour to warm up her muscles. After more than a month of training, Leng Yi had adapted to the rhythm of Zhuoyu Pavilion and her progress was so fast that even she was surprised. Wei Feng and Xia Hua felt a deep sense of crisis.

After the dance, she went to visit Lingcao for a while. Lingcao was rather frail, and her injuries were already slow to heal. Unexpectedly, she caught a cold and had been bedridden for half a month. Lingcao felt deeply guilty, believing that she had not fulfilled her duties as a maid. Lengyi comforted her for a long time each time.

“I have never regarded you as a maidservant who is inferior to me. You are my beloved older sister who has given me so much warmth. If I had not been selected into Zhuoyu Pavilion, I would be no different from Lingcao.”

Leng Yi didn't expect these words to change the mindset she had developed since childhood; she only hoped to convey the idea of ​​equality to her, since in this place, besides her, probably no one else would listen to her complaints.

Today, Leng Yi was extremely focused in class because, apart from killing Liang Shuyun, she had no other thoughts on her mind. Her excellent performance left the teaching staff speechless. In particular, during the classical Chinese class, Leng Yi shared her insights on literary theory, which made the teaching staff feel ashamed. They left dejectedly, saying, "I am ashamed to be a teacher."

In truth, Leng Yi didn't consider herself particularly outstanding; she was merely standing on the shoulders of giants (the accumulation of knowledge and advanced education from thousands of years later). Moreover, she was an adult in spirit, possessing both adult logical thinking and childlike memory... It really felt like she was cheating, and she felt very sorry for the younger girls competing with her, so she could only offer her apologies. In terms of dance and music, she couldn't catch up with the others in a short time, after all, it relied on years of practice and hard work. Speaking of which, the one who improved the most was Wei Feng. Xia Hua was all-around talented, Wu Xue was good at dancing, and Nong Yue was good at playing the zither, while Wei Feng didn't excel in any particular talent. She had a good voice but lacked breath control, and failed to inherit Liu Xia's mantle.

A little rant from Lengyi: If this were modern times, Breeze would probably go for the "dumb beauty" route.

Lengyi skipped the afternoon art class, citing her still-healing eyes. Mainly, she didn't want to see Qingchun. Her eyes could actually see, but she couldn't tolerate strong reflected light. Lengyi boldly took off her eye patch and looked in the mirror, then screamed in pain, thinking she was going to go blind a second time. So, the semi-transparent gauze covered her eyes, and the whole world became hazy through the thin gauze.

The clock in Leng Yi's heart ticked away, making her restless, as if ants were crawling all over her body, both hot and itchy. It felt like an eternity. Night fell, and the lanterns of Fengxiang Tower were hung high.

Leng Yi changed into a maid's uniform and rushed to the servants' quarters, but a voice suddenly called out to her. She turned around and saw a young man emerging from behind a pillar.

"Yin Jiu, what are you doing here?" Leng Yi asked in surprise. In her memory, Yin Jiu never went anywhere except the herbal medicine hall.

Yin Jiu revealed a slightly mischievous smile: "Didn't you want to poison someone? I'll help you."

Through the thin gauze and cold clothes, she thought Yin Jiu's mischievous smile was just her imagination. Before she could react, Yin Jiu took her hand and ran all the way to the kitchen in the front courtyard.

When Leng Yi first entered the kitchen, she was immediately drawn in by the aroma of food filling the room. Several large pots were steaming, and the tables were laden with all sorts of delicacies.

“Fengxianglou will prepare delicious food in advance for guests who have reserved private rooms, and serve it to them as soon as they arrive,” Yin Jiu said, pointing to a note under the plate with the name of the private room and the guest’s name written on it. “So the best way to poison them is to put the poison in the food. You’re going to poison Liang Shuyun, the Vice Minister of Works, right?”

Leng Yi: "How did you know?"

Yin Jiu: "I heard it from others, everyone knows about Miss Ningbi's reputation."