The truth could no longer be concealed.
Lin Ting turned her head to look at Duan Ling, who stood behind her.
Due to his height, his raised hand easily reached over her shoulder, gripping the windowsill, an action that seemed to encircle her in his embrace.
She sniffed, catching a whiff of fragrance.
Even though Duan Ling had changed into fresh clothes, the scent of wine still lingered on them.
The sandalwood aroma that was naturally part of his body mixed with the wine, creating a pleasant fragrance, faintly mingled with a trace of her own scent, perhaps from the rouge and powder she had rubbed onto him when she kissed him.
Lin Ting’s gaze drifted downward, noticing that the rouge at the corner of Duan Ling’s lips had been completely wiped off.
His lips were still red, rubbed raw, more dazzling than those of some who wore makeup, and when he looked down at someone, his gaze seemed to hook them.
She was slightly startled, averting her eyes, her back pressed against the windowsill as she raised her hands to remove her veil:
“Lord Duan, how did you recognize me?”
Duan Ling watched as Lin Ting removed her veil.
Her face slowly revealed itself, different from her usual light makeup, the heavy makeup of a dancer made her appearance strikingly aggressive.
The dark eyebrows on her face were perfectly shaded, like green feathers, the golden-red plum blossom hair ornament on her forehead harmonized with the natural spring colors, her powdered skin was very white, but rouge added a hint of color to it.
However, the vibrant red lipstick she had originally applied had faded, the color having been rubbed off, though her lips were still red.
Duan Ling noticed that the two of them were too close, so he took a step back, retracting his hand.
He leisurely adjusted his official hat, covering the long hair that Lin Ting had recently run her fingers through, lightly tossing the question back at her:
“How do you think I recognized you?”
Seeing Duan Ling take a step back, Lin Ting breathed a little easier, the scent emanating from him constantly reminding her of what she had done:
“Is it because I said I’ve been a dancer for five years, but my dance skills are poor?”
If she had known this would happen, she wouldn’t have been lazy and slept for that extra hour last night.
Perhaps she could have danced better.
Duan Ling glanced at her eyes, his fingertips brushing over the embroidery on his wrist guard, not answering but asking in return:
“Why did you disguise yourself as a dancer and sneak into Prince Liang’s mansion?”
Lin Ting half-truthfully said,
“The reason I disguised myself as a dancer and sneaked into Prince Liang’s mansion is because I wanted to save a friend who was taken by Prince Liang… kidnapped, I’m worried about her safety.”
After today, the news of the woman Prince Liang recently brought back being rescued might spread.
Since Duan Ling had discovered that she had disguised herself as a dancer and been to Prince Liang’s mansion, he would definitely associate this incident with her, so it was better to omit the existence of the study and confess to saving someone, half-truths are the most convincing.
“I believe Lord Duan has also heard a bit about Prince Liang’s preferences in that regard, my friend fell into his hands, there would be no good outcome.”
Lin Ting appealed to his emotions, trying to convince him to let her go.
Duan Ling laughed:
“You really have a lot of friends, helping one after another.”
Lin Ting also forced a few laughs, fabricating:
“To be honest, my current dream is to make friends all over the world.”
To earn all the money in the world.
He took a few more steps, just happening to step on a spider that was still crawling on the ground, leaving its corpse:
“To save your friend, you came to Prince Liang’s mansion alone? Miss Lin Qi is quite loyal.”
“But aren’t you afraid of being caught and charged with intending to harm Prince Liang?”
Duan Ling adjusted the embroidered spring knife hanging at his waist, looking back at her, his gaze as benevolent as ever.
Lin Ting couldn’t figure him out:
“Lord Duan, you wouldn’t expose me, would you?”
Duan Ling: “What do you think?”
She sweet-talked:
“I think not, Lord Duan is ‘kind-hearted’, ‘merciful’, how could you bear to expose me. Don’t worry, I won’t harm anyone, I’ll leave as soon as I save the person.”
His eyelids lowered, his tone unclear:
“Kind-hearted, merciful, what a kind-hearted, merciful person, so that’s how Miss Lin Qi sees me.”
Lin Ting continued to say some nice words to him, then looked for an opportunity to slip away.
Just as she was about to speak, a light knock came from outside the window:
“Lin Ting?”
Jin An, after searching the west wing and seeing that she hadn’t come to meet him to go to Prince Liang’s bedroom, came to the east wing to look for her.
“I’m here.” She quickly responded.
Lin Ting heard Jin An’s voice, and naturally, Duan Ling heard it too, looking at the shadow reflected on the window, knowingly asking:
“Miss Lin Qi, did you bring a helper along?”
“It’s my friend Jin An, Lord Duan has met him before, he came to help me. There’s no time to lose, we should leave now,”
Lin Ting added a thank you for not exposing her, then climbed out the window.
The window opened and closed.
The room returned to quiet, Duan Ling slowly shifted his gaze after a while.
There were two guards outside Prince Liang’s bedroom door, making it impossible to climb in through the window.
Lin Ting observed for a moment, made a shushing gesture to Jin An, signaling him not to speak, as he wasn’t skilled in ventriloquism, speaking would reveal that he was a man, it was better for him to be mute.
She pulled Jin An along, pretending to be lost, walking up to the guards, and before they could question her, she preemptively said:
“Gentlemen, we’re lost, Prince Liang’s mansion is too big, we can’t find our way back to our room.”
The guards’ stern faces softened a bit at the soft address of gentlemen’.
They wore thin veils and dancer’s dresses, clearly dancers.
Prince Liang liked new things, including people, it was well known that he loved to invite singers and dancers from outside to perform in his mansion.
As they said, Prince Liang was extravagant, his mansion was large, comparable to a long street, and the pavilions, terraces, corridors, and walkways in the mansion were somewhat similar, making it easy for those unfamiliar with Prince Liang’s mansion to get lost.
But the guards were still a bit suspicious.
They asked: “How could you get lost, weren’t there maids to take the dancers back to their rooms?”
“You’re right, after the performance, there were maids to take us back to our rooms.”
She paused, “But we didn’t want to go back.”
The guards were surprised: “What do you mean by that? What do you mean you didn’t want to go back?”
Their first thought was that these two dancers had deliberately come to Prince Liang’s bedroom, trying to seduce him to rise in status.
“What I mean is… to knock you out.”
As soon as the words fell, Lin Ting threw a handful of knockout powder in their faces.
They quickly reached for their knives, but as soon as their fingers touched the hilts, they fell to the ground.
Lin Ting stepped over the unconscious guards on the ground, jumped to the door, and directed Jin An to drag them into the bushes, so it wouldn’t be too obvious.
Passersby seeing no guards at Prince Liang’s bedroom door they might wonder where they went, whether they were called away or slacking off elsewhere, it would rarely occur to them that something had happened, giving them some time to search for the person.
If they saw two people lying at the door, anyone with a brain would know something was wrong.
Martial artists have great strength, the higher their martial arts, the greater their strength.
Jin An easily carried the people into the bushes, glanced at the powder on their faces:
“Why did you use so much knockout powder?”
Lin Ting carefully placed the remaining knockout powder, pushed the door open and went in:
“It’s just in case, I was afraid they might wake up halfway.”
She used almost half a pack this time.
“Even so, you used too much at once, save some.”
Jin An followed her in, closing the door behind him,
“Don’t forget, knockout powder costs money too.”
Lin Ting slapped her forehead:
“Oh right, the money you spent on the raw materials for the knockout powder came from the public account, we should save some. Next time you make knockout powder, remember to control the cost, don’t fail too many times.”
Jin An: “…”
He shouldn’t have reminded this money-obsessed person.
Prince Liang’s bedroom was filled with various precious jade, porcelain, paintings, and calligraphy, dazzling to the eye, Lin Ting felt like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden, her eyes were wide open.
Compared to her amazement, Jin An was calm, not paying attention to these things.
Passing them, walking five steps further in, they could see a beauty couch and a set of huanghuali chairs and table behind a floor screen, on the table were fresh fruits, tea cups, and pastries that were changed daily.
Lin Ting touched her flat belly, having danced for so long, she was a bit hungry, but finding the person was more important, she put away her desire to eat.
As she walked, she felt that the ground beneath her feet was soft, looking down, she saw a wool carpet.
The wool carpet was exquisite, the pattern of a hundred birds on it was lifelike, embroidered with gold and silver threads, an ordinary person could live a good life for a while with just one of those gold threads.
Lin Ting walked on the wool carpet as if she were stepping on gold and silver, she couldn’t help but sigh that the life of a royal descendant was beyond the imagination of someone like her.
The Duan family’s house was also decorated with carved beams and painted rafters, but it was decorated modestly, with the style of a literati, unlike Prince Liang’s mansion, which was extravagant, with food, clothing, and utensils all showing a style of excessive luxury.
She didn’t continue to look, starting to search for places where a person could be hidden, moving quickly.
In a short while, they had searched Prince Liang’s bedroom back and forth several times.
This was the last place they hadn’t searched, if they couldn’t find the person here, it meant the person wasn’t in Prince Liang’s mansion.
Lin Ting leaned against the wall and knocked lightly, listening for the sound of a mechanism, accidentally knocking off a lantern, from which a half- burned piece of letter paper rolled out.
She picked it up and looked at it, on the paper was written:
“Fu.. Didn’t find out the whereabouts of the remnants of the previous dynasty
Is Prince Liang related to Fu Chi?
Remnants of the previous dynasty, the word ‘Your Highness’ carved in the wardrobe.”
Lin Ting was slightly lost in thought.
So the reason the Imperial Guards and Prince Liang were investigating Fu Chi was to find the remnants of the previous dynasty.
The Imperial Guards were acting on the emperor’s orders, Prince Liang wanted to find the remnants of the previous dynasty himself, to claim credit from the emperor.
Lin Ting took the half-burned piece of letter paper and showed it to Jin An:
“Take a look.”
“It’s none of our business.”
Jin An glanced at it, then continued to check the decorations, when he picked up an inkstone, the floor near the huanghuali canopy bed suddenly opened downward.
Below the floor was a row of wooden steps, with a faint light coming from inside.
They looked at each other, then went down the steps one after the other.
The secret room was cool, the air had a strange smell, with a faint hint of blood, Lin Ting was not used to it, covering her nose and mouth.
The walls of the secret room were hung with a variety of special tools, whips, short chains, candles, gags, swords, on the ground was a box of jade Ruyi, and some things even she couldn’t name.
The room was as big as an ordinary bedroom, a canopy bed occupied the center.
On the bed a person was curled up, she was wearing a flowing gauze dress, with a face that could make fish sink and birds fall, but now her face was pale, her eyes empty, staring into the air, her hands and feet were shackled.
Lin Ting was the first to see the woman, she quickly went to the wardrobe and found a relatively normal outer garment to put on her:
“Miss Song?”
The client had said his sister’s surname was Song.
After a while, the woman reacted, realizing that there were two “dancers” in the secret room, she asked blankly:
“Who are you?”