Chapter 194: Uncaged
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Before, Fan Xian had never looked at Si Lili carefully. He'd never even paid attention to her beautiful face, because Fan Xian's face was much that way too. Yet since they had left the capital on this long journey, for some reason, little by little, she had left her mark on his mind.
Perhaps it was her pitiful past. Perhaps it was the cruelty of the Overwatch Council's methods. Perhaps it was what that former head of the Seventh Bureau had said the first time he entered the prison of the Overwatch Council - Fan Xian's methods might have been cruel, but his heart was soft. Every part of him could still easily weaken.
He kept on reminding himself that he couldn't have feelings for her, but more and more he felt a certain exquisite pity for Si Lili. It wasn't a false pity, but a feeling that came as a natural result of encountering someone with such a transient life, completely different from the beautiful and seemingly extraordinary Eldest Princess.
In the past few days, Fan Xian had taken the pills he always carried on his person, and searched the lakeside wilderness for several different kinds of suitable plants. Somewhat stupefied, he had blended them with the pills. This was his promise to Si Lili, and since Si Lili had told him about Chen Pingping's thoughts, although he didn't know whether or not they were true, he agreed to treat Si Lili.
As for Operation Red Sleeve, Fan Xian didn't really pay any mind to it. The things he thought about were simpler and more direct.
After a few days of treatment, Si Lili's face had not changed, but she was going to the toilet more. Fan Xian waited calmly to one side, making the young woman feel rather embarrassed. The convoy gradually made its way eastward around the great lake. Two days later, they were able to cross over the lake, where the Northern Qi army would be there to receive and protect them.
"People in Northern Qi call this lake the 'Northern Sea'." Si Lili sat by the lake side, idly fingering a coarse reed stalk.
Fan Xian looked at her. "When did you go to Northern Qi?" he asked.
"When I was very small. My parents took me and my elder brother and we fled for our lives. The Overwatch Council was hunting us. Many of my grandfather's trusted aides died, and no one would dare take us in." Si Lili laughed bitterly. "To be honest, I have no memory of my grandfather, but I know that at the time he was the prince most likely to take the throne."
Fan Xian made some calculations. It had been a number of years since the assassinations of the princes of the Kingdom of Qing. He couldn't help but be silent for a moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Si Lili's clothes flutter in the breeze. He smiled. His own mother had killed this woman's grandmother. He couldn't let her know that.
Si Lili sighed, smoothing the hair on her temples that had been blown out of place by the wind from the lake. "Because the Council was following us so closely," she said with a worried frown, "my father died by the blade of a palace guard. My mother was lucky enough to escape with my older brother and me. We were in such a big country, and yet there was nowhere we could go. After some thought, we had no choice but to flee to a foreign country, and we finally settled down in Northern Qi."
Fan Xian frowned. A family torn apart, their father killed, forced to flee a foreign country. Dark times indeed.
Si Lili looked out at the slowly shifting mists of the lake and sighed. "It's a shame that times of stability can't last forever. Somehow, the royal family of Northern Qi learned of our identity, so we were taken to Shangjing."
Fan Xian frowned again. "They must not have had good intentions."
Si Lili turned her head and smiled at him. "And you do? The Emperor of Qing, and the royal court – did they have good intentions for us?"
Fan Xian was at a loss for words for a moment. He gave a self-deprecating smile. "They're still an enemy nation."
"Before my father died... that's what we said, too." Si Lili seemed to have recalled something. She slowly closed her eyes, her long eyelashes fluttering. "Then my mother fell sick and died, and it was only my brother and me left, on our own. As the royal family of Northern Qi wanted to make use of our background, they took us in. So we grew up in the royal palace of Northern Qi."
"Is that when you met the Emperor of Northern Qi?" Fan Xian came closer to her, tightening her cloak. "I guess you and the young Emperor were childhood sweethearts."
Si Lili smiled. "His surname was Zhan. At the time, he didn't seem like a monarch in the slightest. He was the same age as me. But he was like my brother. The two of them used to get up to trouble in the palace all the time."
"So how did you end up agreeing to become a spy for Northern Qi, and return to the Qing capital for them?" Fan Xian was very interested in the matter.
"The Emperor of Northern Qi wanted to marry me." Si Lili turned around, fixing Fan Xian with a smile that didn't look much like a smile. "And I hated that enemy nation. I had irreconcilable differences with the royal family of Qing. So I wanted to return home. That was reason enough for me."
Fan Xian shook his head. "That's not reason enough."
Si Lili smiled. "Mainly, the Empress Dowager would not allow me to marry the Emperor, so I was allowed to return, allowing secret agents from Northern Qi to coordinate with me. On Liujing River in the capital, I set up a base of operations."
Fan Xian thought of something, and wanted to speak, but said nothing.
Si Lili guessed what he was thinking, and fixed him with a gaze revealing a hint of charm. "Si Ling and my other associates were all experts from Northern Qi, all skilled in the use of sleeping drugs. Those guests of mine who crossed behind my curtains had no way of touching me. Other people took my place."
Fan Xian raised his eyebrows, a strange expression on his face. He laughed. "Did you really have to explain it to me?"
"Did you not want to hear?" After all, Si Lili was a woman, with a bright heart and a quick wit. She had seen what Fan Xian was thinking, and was not angry. She instead asked gently.
Fan Xian laughed. "At least that night, you didn't fool me."
"If I had known you were a student of Fei Jie, then I would have hidden far away, and avoided... those knockout drops and the other lowlife drugs." Si Lili's gaze pierced him, charming him, shaking him.
Fan Xian looked a little uncomfortable. He chuckled, then met the young woman's gaze. "Since that day when you discovered you had been knocked out, did it scare you? Did you feel that your body had been recklessly defiled? Did you feel worthless?"
The breeze from the lake had little of the warmth of early spring. It was cold and raw. The reed stalks, not showing the slightest hint of green, wavered back and forth. The wind reached Si Lili's face, and she felt as if all the warmth had left it, unaware that there were two patches of red showing her shyness.
Some time later, Si Lili finally softly bit her bottom lip and spoke. "After I woke that day, I felt a certain secret bitterness, but I thought..." She bravely raised her head, looked Fan Xian right in his handsome face, and smiled. "I thought that losing my virginity to such a handsome young man as you was still worth it."
Fan Xian had not expected Si Lili to say something so brazen and so shocking. For a moment, he didn't know what to say. "That's... that's..." he could only mumble.
"That's... what?" Si Lili's smile didn't look like a smile as she fixed Fan Xian with her soft gaze.
"I feel that since you were a princess of the Qing royal family, and you always hung around the pleasure boats, you were in some danger. If the person you'd slept with hadn't been me, but instead had been some other pervert who used knockout drops, then what would you do?" Fan Xian cleared his throat. For some reason, he suddenly felt worried about Si Lili's difficult and dangerous situation.
Si Lili's face was somewhat sluggish. "I never considered myself any kind of princess. Just a pitiful woman from a hated bloodline who didn't know how to exact her revenge. Don't misunderstand me, Master Fan."
As night fell, the diplomatic mission convoy set up camp on a stretch of high terrain on the lake's edge. The carriages formed a protective semicircle, and in the middle were a handful of tents and some long, burnt-out lights. Si Lili and Fan Xian's dwellings faced each other. Perhaps because the day's earlier conversation between the two of them had been too emotionally draining, they did not leave their tents, and nothing occurred between them that night.
Everything was silent. In the distance, the faint outline of the Black Knights formed an outline on the slope, surrounding the encampment. The Tiger Guards and the Overwatch Council's agents organized together into teams, patrolling the camp.
The moon's bright light shined down onto every corner of the terrain. There were no clouds, no wind, and no stars. The silvery moonlight, like the gentle caress of a fairy's hands, touched each person in the camp, ushering them into a quick sleep in anticipation of tomorrow's difficult journey. Xiao En sat inside the heavily-sealed carriage. Fan Xian would not allow him to leave. The moonlight shined on the black carriage, reflecting strange beams of light.
Deep in the night, the whole camp seemed to have fallen into a sweet, dark sleep. A shadow, like a gust of wind, floated alongside Xiao En's carriage. It pulled out a key, wiped it with an oiled cloth, then slid it into the lock of the carriage door. The keyhole made no sound. The utmost care was being taken.
The carriage door opened. Xiao En slowly lifted his head and stared at the midnight visitor at the door. The iron chains that should have bound his hands had already been loosened and were placed steadily on the floor of the carriage.
Xiao En left the carriage, his long white hair draped over his shoulders. In the bright silver moonlight, he looked around coldly and frowned, knowing that something was very wrong. But he had little time to think. The old man looked at Fan Xian's tent. His whole body was like a shadow, disappearing into the night by the lakeside.
Fan Xian, who should have been sleeping, had his eyes open as he sat on a chair in his tent. His fingers softly grasped a teacup. Inside the teacup was a small amount of knockout drops and hibiscus seeds. Mixed together as a tea, they were very hard to detect.
He felt a slight change in the air outside, and began to count.
"One, two, three, four..."