Chapter 51 Chapter 51 Or was he really just like he was before...

with something on his mind? Biezhi hadn't slept well that night, and she closed her eyes near sunrise. When she opened them again, the blazing sun slowly fell on her eyes through the window.

She glanced at the unfamiliar bedroom and sat up with her eyes wide open, her chaotic thoughts suddenly clearing up.

Last night's events came flooding back to her mind, and Biezhi's thoughts stagnated.

Ji Ran was her master, and also the current regent.

In front of Ji Ran, she had not only expressed her dissatisfaction with her master, but had even expressed displeasure with Prince Su.

She had attempted to escape but was brought here.

When Prince Su left last night, he seemed to say that he would live here from now on?

She looked around and felt that she was in a gorgeous and exquisite prison.

Living here was clearly imprisonment!

"The young lady is awake." Hua Chao entered with a copper basin, wrung out a dry handkerchief, and handed it to the stunned, speechless girl. Fear filled her watery almond-shaped eyes. She leaned forward another half inch: "Young lady?"

"What?" Bie Zhi came to her senses, staring at her for a moment before lowering her eyes and taking the wet handkerchief.

Yes, he had been scolded, but he had also deceived her. Wasn't that even?

She clutched the handkerchief,

pondering for a moment, feeling the urge to speak with Prince Su. With this thought, Bie Zhi nodded gravely, took a deep breath, and asked, "Where is the prince?"

The girl looked serious, as if she had made a firm decision. Hua Chao replied, "The prince went to court this morning and hasn't returned yet."

Having finally made up her mind, Hua Chao's words seemed a bit rash, and Bie Zhi hesitated.

He was the current regent. If he had deceived her, then so be it. Who needed a justification?

The most obvious thing before her eyes was that he hadn't deceived her.

It was she who had been constantly jumping on Tai Sui's head for the past two years, and even kicked him in the face when she was unhappy. She had truly offended Tai Sui.

As Hua Chao was straightening her clothes, she caught a glimpse of the girl, whose face suddenly looked sad again. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly, thinking she was unhappy because she couldn't see the prince. "I'll send someone to tell Guard Jiang that Miss Jiang is looking for the prince. "

Bie Zhi quickly stopped Hua Chao, "I'm not that anxious."

Looking at Hua Chao's puzzled expression, she sighed deeply, drooping her ears as she went to wash up. When she returned, she saw that the guards who had been guarding the bedroom door last night had been withdrawn.

"The prince ordered them to withdraw before he left," Hua Chao said.

Bie Zhi glanced back at her, the dejection in his eyes gradually replaced by a surge of joy.

Does this mean that he's not going to lock her up anymore!?

Suddenly, she felt so excited that she almost wanted to fly. She lifted up the hem of her skirt and ran out. When she ran into the courtyard and saw the guards patrolling outside, it was like a bucket of cold water was poured on her, making Biezhi's heart go cold.

She stood in the middle of the courtyard and looked around.

Not only were there patrolling guards outside the courtyard, but there were also people guarding the walls. Not to mention herself, even a fly couldn't leave here at will.

Biezhi had been here several times before, but she had never seen so many guards.

She fiddled with the bushes beside her in annoyance, and out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of a tall figure walking quickly. He seemed to have noticed her presence and stopped to look.

The four or five court officials who came back with him hurriedly stopped and looked around in confusion.

Fu Huaiqing's gaze fixed on Biezhi beneath the treetops, his shimmering almond-shaped eyes filled with annoyance. His eyes darkened a little, and he retracted his gaze, swiftly walking towards the study. Within

half a day, a steady stream of courtiers arrived to report on government affairs, filling the Jingjing Palace like a bustling crowd.

They arrived one after another, without a break. Often, before the previous group had even left, the next was already waiting outside the study. Bored, Biezhi took Hua Chao and moved a chair into the pavilion, counting the officials coming and going.

Nearly twenty people came that day.

Some officials came within a quarter of an hour, while others took half an hour or more.

Biezhi couldn't help but smack his lips. He was so busy on a daily basis, how could he have the free time to appear before him disguised as Jiran, let alone occasionally as his master.

But then he thought: before he met Jiran, the master's orders were always conveyed through Qingshan, and he had indeed communicated with him only after six months of knowing Jiran.

Night fell, and the court officials were still lingering.

When Cheng Jin arrived, Bie Zhi was still waiting for the dusty minister who had just arrived to leave. He had been gone for an hour or so, but still hadn't left.

Seeing her, Cheng Jin asked, "Young lady, what novels or stories do you like to read?"

Bie Zhi, assuming he was delivering a message, was stunned by the question. "Novels?"

"Young lady, you're used to traveling all over the country. I imagine it would be boring to be idle at home all of a sudden." Cheng Jin and Jiang Yue had long anticipated her doubts and had been answering her since last night, trying to avoid her noticing any flaws in their responses. "I wonder if there's anything you'd like to read? The prince has ordered us to go and find some to entertain you."

Bie Zhi had read quite a bit recently and didn't have any particular desire to read at the moment. "Nothing in particular—" she paused, a hint of a smile in her eyes. "But there is something I'd like to read."

"What?" Cheng Jin, delighted, pressed on.

Biezhi smiled brightly: "The imprisonment type."

Cheng Jin: "......?"

Did he hear something wrong?

"Prisoner--" Cheng Jin hesitated a little, "What does the imprisonment type mean?" "

The man is in a high position and powerful, and the woman is alone. The man imprisons the woman somewhere for various reasons. The woman flatters him on the surface, but secretly they are planning to escape." Bie Zhi explained to him patiently to prevent him from collecting some useless information. "In the end, the woman got what she said and successfully left. This is probably the type."

"After leaving, will she come back?" Cheng Jin's heart skipped a beat. He always felt that it didn't match what he was looking for. What he was looking for was a lingering ending, not a separation. If they found a separation, the prince would definitely sink them to the bottom of the lake to feed the fish. Thinking of this, he shuddered: "Tragedy?"

"That's not it." Bie Zhi realized the difference between the two people's ideas, and said, "In the end, the man must have found the woman, and the two lived happily together."

Cheng Jin breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help asking, "Does the man the girl like also behave in the style of this novel?"

"Uh." Bie Zhi fell silent. Of course she didn't like him. If she met a man from a novel in real life, she would definitely run as far away as possible. "I like good-looking men."

Cheng Jin was speechless.

He was quiet for a moment, then said, "The prince is quite good-looking."

Bie Zhi hiccuped in shock.

She opened and closed her mouth for a long time, her expression serious: "Don't say such scary things."

Prince Su was good-looking, but his good looks were deadly!

She could kiss Ji Ran, but if the man that night had been Prince Su, she wouldn't have dared to flirt with him, even if she had the guts.

Thinking of this, Bie Zhi subconsciously glanced up at the deserted corridor, then retracted her gaze to Cheng Jin, who was hesitant to speak. She couldn't help but ask the question that had been lingering in her heart for a long time: "Is he always so busy?"

"He's relatively free today," Cheng Jin said, the night still being early. "Normally, the prince is busy in the palace until midnight, and if it's too late, he usually rests in the palace."

Bie Zhi blinked, puzzled.

Why did he come back so early today?

It was already 1:15 PM when the Cabinet's Chief Minister, Lin Yiqing, left.

In the study, Fu Huaiqing set down the memorial beside him, pressed his eyebrows, and asked indifferently, "Has she retired?"

"The lights are still on in the courtyard, so she probably hasn't." Jiang Yue replaced the tea with a fresh cup and placed it on the table. He glanced at his master's gaze toward Qinghe Courtyard and said, "Your Highness, would you like to go over and take a look?"

As he finished speaking, a guard from the academy stepped forward.

"Your Highness, Miss Biezhi requests an audience," the guard said.

Fu Huaiqing's brows raised slightly at this.

He hadn't expected her to come, having assumed she was planning to play coward for a while.

Jiang Yue led everyone out, not forgetting to close the door behind them.

After Lin Yiqing left, Biezhi waited a moment, making sure no more court officials were coming to report on government matters. Her first visit to the Su Palace had been to the study, so the surroundings were familiar to her.

The only difference was the man behind the desk.

Last time, he was just the Su Prince, but now he was her master, also known as 'Ji Ran'.

Fu Huaiqing stood up and stared at her face: "Have you eaten?"

The casual tone was very familiar, as if they had often done this before. Biezhi was silent for a while, nodded, and looked at the man steadily, wanting to say something but stopping herself.

On the way here, she had a lot of questions she wanted to ask, and she had decided to ask them, but now that she saw him, she was a little afraid to ask.

Fu Huaiqing saw what she was thinking, but did not ask, and waited quietly.

Biezhi prepared herself mentally for a long time, so long that the breeze that blew gently around gradually died down. She pursed her dry lips and said, "I want to see Jiran, can I?"

She wanted to see the real Jiran, not the Jiran he pretended to be.

As the words fell, the huge study fell into silence.

Fu Huaiqing glanced at her slightly raised eyes, with a hint of determination in his eyes, as if she would not leave if he did not agree.

His eyes darkened. "Why?"

"Every Ji Ran you've seen is me in disguise." His clear voice was tinged with a slight hoarseness. Fu Huaiqing knew why she wanted to see Ji Ran, but he just didn't want to admit it. He lowered his eyes and stared at her. "Even so, do you still want to see him?"

The man's deep voice carried a sense of pressure that he himself didn't even realize was suffocating.

Biezhi's hard-won courage faltered. She subconsciously took a half step back, a hint of fear in her eyes, but she didn't flinch. "In fact, in my eyes, no matter who is impersonating him, he is just Ji Ran."

All she had seen was Ji Ran's face.

That was all.

She didn't know if there were any other differences between them; maybe there were, maybe not.

Fu Huaiqing laughed bitterly.

His forehead throbbed wildly. "What will happen after we meet him?"

Biezhi hadn't thought about what to do after that. After all, she had to see him to know for sure. She shook her head. "I don't know."

Fu Huaiqing laughed angrily.

His gaze fell on her face, scrutinizing her, as he stepped closer. "Let me tell you, how are we different?"

Biezhi lowered her gaze to the tip of his shoe, retreating with his steps.

Before she could retreat to a safe place, he grasped her palm. His slightly calloused fingertips brushed her pulse, and he silently pulled her forward a little.

Afraid she would break free, he reduced his strength.

Biezhi struggled unsuccessfully for a few moments, then gave up. His gaze frightened her, and she frowned unconsciously, saying, "I know I've offended him in many ways—"

"My eyes are different from his," Fu Huaiqing interrupted slowly, not wanting to hear another word of her unfamiliarity. He had imagined all sorts of scenarios after she discovered his identity, but he hadn't expected this. "The Jiran you see most of the time is me." Biezhi

had realized this last night, as she tossed and turned, just as she had seen the real Jiran the day after returning to Beijing to meet her senior brothers and sisters.

Their difference lay precisely in his eyes.

The real Jiran couldn't hear a sound, and the emotion in his eyes was much calmer than the Jiran she saw. If the Jiran's eyes in her eyes were a rippling lake, his were a calm pool.

"So, it still won't work?" Fu Huaiqing's voice wasn't as steady as usual, his gaze gripping hers. "Even if it's all me, it still won't work?"

"In my eyes, he's Ji Ran, and Ji Ran is him." Bie Zhi was almost breathless under his pressure, and with the thought of killing or cutting her up, she spoke: "Could it be that if the prince is pretending to be Ji Ran, he won't appear as Ji Ran? All the men who have appeared in front of me, all the men I've had close contact with, in my eyes, are all Ji Ran, not the prince."

She was not the type to be manipulated. How could someone who was used to walking on the edge of a knife keep giving in? "Even if it wasn't the prince pretending to be Ji Ran that night, but someone else, it was still Ji Ran in my eyes, it was all Ji Ran's face, and it was naturally his that I kissed."

Bie Zhi spoke without hesitation, her voice trembling slightly at the end, and she couldn't tell whether it was caused by anger or the fear that came with belated realization.

She stared at him, panting slightly.

After hearing what she said, Fu Huaiqing's expression froze slightly, and the grip on her wrist loosened half an inch.

This made Biezhi seem a little bewildered and stayed there.

Last night, when she was least afraid of death, she had thought that it was no big deal if she died, and he would kill her or cut her up, it was up to him, but she had never thought of what would happen today.

He seemed a little stunned.

In an instant, an elusive thought flashed through Biezhi's mind.

She inexplicably felt that no matter what she said, he would not kill her.

Prince Su valued this friendship more than she thought.

Biezhi frowned and glanced at him cautiously. Could it be that because he was in a high position, no one else dared to speak so frankly except her, and he accepted it happily?

Or was he really interested in her as he said before?

Biezhi: "..."

Damn it.

Can anyone in the world really like someone who scolds you behind your back from time to time?

No way? No way?

Biezhi still felt that it was highly unlikely.

Seeing his expression, she couldn't help but wonder if she had gone too far. Biezhi hesitated, then tugged at her wrist, which was in his grasp, but she couldn't break free.

Fu Huaiqing's gaze fixed on her for a moment, his throat seemed to be blocked by a breath, and after a while he spoke: "Even if it was someone else pretending to be Ji Ran that night, would you still kiss him?"