XH 83 - I'm not Munzhu's spy

Surprisingly, it was not Duan XiYing but An Jing that came to pick up Xiao Hua the next day. Despite the unexpected surprise, it cheered her up. Even if Duan XiYing's a pretty cool lady and quickly became her good friend, it was still An Jing's tenderness that acted like a balm to her frazzled soul. 

Her touch was gentle as An Jing helped Xiao Hua to get dressed and tied her usual hairstyle.

Her hair was forced to cut shorter thanks to the fire that had burned the lower ends into a coarse and wrinkly appearance. Before, her hair was waist length, but now it was in the middle of her back.

"Sister An Jing, can you tie the buns higher?" Xiao Hua suggested.

Not knowing what Xiao Hua wanted, An Jing still did what she wanted. After it was done, Xiao Hua gathered the rest of her hair that was not tied into buns and plaited them into a single, thick braid down the middle of her back.

Before, the feeling of having half of her long hair loose on her back felt nice and feminine, but now she wanted to tie them all up without hindering her movement or to distract her.

Le XiaoTing no longer had the bravery to follow 'Desire for beauty, Disregard her life' motto!

Yesterday, before the Third Prince left, he told her that she will be moving back to her room to rest. It was also to make things easier for Long Lian and the Eight Prince to visit her as Autumn Courtyard was a restricted area.

Xiao Hua managed to prod some information and it turned out that Autumn Courtyard was specially reserved for the Third Prince's VVIP guests to stay. Feng Jiu was one of his VVIP guests that no one other than the inner maids and secret guards knew about.

The secrecy made Xiao Hua even more curious but the Third Prince said if she manages to complete a task for him, he will let her know. Without needing to consider it, she immediately rejected it.

Xiao Hua: Did he still believe she did not know that the previous tasks that he had given were just a trap for her?! (°ㅂ°╬)

"Sister An Jing, can I visit Er Yen? I only knew that he's recovering but I would worry less if I could personally see how he's doing."

An Jing nodded with a smile. "You may."

With that, An Jing lifted Xiao Hua into her arms easily, carrying them out of the room and towards the next door.

The Third Prince had instructed An Jing to forbid Xiao Hua from walking and should only carry her when she needed to move. Despite the crazy amount of expensive medicine being used on Xiao Hua and the doctor had declared she had recovered, the Third Prince insisted she needed to have bed rest for another day.

Xiao Hua: This young lady got nothing to complain about other than being bored. ┐(￣∀￣)┌

Da Bei was standing outside the room and his eyes were filled with curiosity when his mother brought Xiao Hua to the next room but did not stop them.

Xiao Hua's nose caught the smell of medicine and to a lesser extent, blood. The bed was occupied by Er Yen, who looked thinner and weaker than she remembered. Fortunately, Er Yen was awake and his eyes were rather alert.

An Jing sat Xiao Hua down on a stool beside the bed and stood at the far corner to give them the illusion of privacy. 

"I remember you came back to save me," Er Yen speaks first with a slightly hoarse voice due to a large amount of exposure to smoke. It will take some time for his voice to recover back to normal. "Thank you."

"You are welcome. I thank you as well." Xiao Hua returned the gratitude and smiled in a bittersweet way when she saw the confusion in his eyes. "You could have climbed out of the window first, but instead, you make sure I'm the first one to leave. So you saved my life as well."

Er Yen snorted and that move made him cough. Xiao Hua quickly poured a cup of water for him to drink, easing his cough.

"You know what happened after that?" Er Yen asked. Since the moment he woke up, he was tended by a doctor and the inner maid, Elder Sister An Wan, who had dropped by a few times to check on him. No one bothered to tell him what happened.

"Long short story, because I'm in love with you, I agreed to become Munzhu's spy."

Er Yen jerked violently and stared at her in plain horror that even the pain from the rough movement had not distracted him.

Well, it was fun for a second but it was no longer funny when the other party does not have a sense of humor that was the same as hers.

Xiao Hua revealed the truth. "That was what Si Si wanted the Third prince to think. But the prince knew the truth that you are innocent."

Er Yen sighed in relief. "Fortunately."

"Si Si was the one that asked you to collect the fireworks, isn't it?"

His nod confirmed her suspicions. "She says she's passing a message from Steward Lau Zheng about the fireworks are not enough."

"Steward Lau Zheng? Eunuch Lau Liu's son?" The guy that refused to let her wipe the floor after Si Si accidentally dropped the teapot?

Xiao Hua had seen him for a few times in passing since that day, treating her like a precious porcelain glass, not daring to approach her. Tian Zi informed her about him being adopted as Eunuch Lau Liu's son, who he had picked up from the street.

"Yes." Er Yen's expression softens with reverence. "He's my mentor."

As Steward Lau Zheng's sole apprentice, he was allowed to enter the Autumn Courtyard's storage to help his mentor to retrieve or placing things in the storage.

"He must be disappointed with me," Er Yen mumbled in distress and Xiao Hua swears she spotted tears in his eyes.

"Why would he be disappointed in you? You did nothing wrong."

Er Yen gripped the bed covers tightly. "I did not confirm if it was Steward Lau Zheng that issued that order or not. I should know that there would be enough fireworks because I counted it! But I did not question her and just went to take more!"

"You are just a servant. Who are you to question the order given to you by your superior?"

Er Yen's head snapped up at Xiao Hua's words. Her tone revealed nothing but scorn at his thoughts to question his orders that were given to him.

To Le XiaoTing, as long as the order from the superior does not make her commit immoral or rule breaking stuff, it was best to follow them. They were her superior with more experience than her after all. 

"I never questioned Steward Lau Zheng's orders!"

"Then stop wallowing in depression. Had Steward Lau Zheng blamed you?"

Er Yen's shoulder slumped. "I never saw him."

Xiao Hua silently covered her mouth with a palm, looking apologetic. If Steward Lau Zheng did not visit him, it might probably mean Er Yen's in trouble.

"You know, I nearly forgot we are currently in Autumn Courtyard! He's not allowed to enter to see you!" Xiao Hua perked up immediately when she thought of that. She sighed in relief when Er Yen perked up as well.

"I'm going to return back to my room, so if I saw Steward Lau Zheng, I will explain everything to him, so don't worry!"

Er Yen's eyes were filled with hope. "You will?"

"Yeah!"

With a bright smile filled with gratitude, Er Yen thanked her. "Thank you."

Xiao Hua nodded and stood up slowly. "Well then, I'm going now so rest more so that you can heal faster."

"Xiao Hua."

"Hmm?"

"I'm not Munzhu's spy." 

It took a few blinks before Xiao Hua understood what Er Yen was trying to tell her. With a soft smile, she said, "Let's be friends."

It was Er Yen's turn to blink his suspiciously bright eyes a few times before answering, "Okay."

Xiao Hua laughed and slowly walked out of the room. She did not dare to say 'I believe you' because she was not a naive girl that believes after one 'life-threatening' experience would make Er Yen be truthful to her. 

The Third Prince had told her that Er Yen was a hostage from Munzhu country, and it was unknown if Er Yen would have resentment towards the Guilin Kingdom or not, especially after witnessing another Munzhu's hostage gotten killed in front of him for being involved with Long Lian's kidnapping.

An Jing picked her up again after closing the door. "An Jing, do you know where Steward Lau Zheng is?"

Even if Xiao Hua could not trust Er Yen, she chooses to trust the emotion that he had revealed when he talked about Steward Lau Zheng.

"Lau Zheng is handling some matter." Eunuch Lau Liu had gone off to play hide and seek with the Second Prince's army so Lau Zheng was forced to handle Lau Liu's portion of work. "I will have him meet you as soon as he's able to."

"Ah, no need to rush! It's not important so I will talk to him when he's free." She did say she will tell Steward Lau Zheng about the truth if she spots him, so Er Yen should expect that it would not be easy for her to coincidentally meet the busy steward.

But reality always smashes expectation, so when Xiao Hua finally returned to her bedroom in the Spring Courtyard where the mess of the one sided fight was cleaned up, Steward Lau Zheng was anxiously waiting right outside her room.

Da Bei had gone to fetch Lau Zheng while An Jing slowly carried Xiao Hua towards her room, at the same time breathing in fresh air. Lau Zheng immediately dropped everything he was doing and rushed towards the Spring Courtyard.

Xiao Hua smiled at Steward Lau Zheng, feeling a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry for taking your time, so I will try to finish this quickly."

It was a sin to hinder a man with heavy responsibility with a limited amount of time, especially when Xiao Hua was just going to sound like a busybody by asking him to meet Er Yen.