After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

…………

A beggar trying to stage an accident, a strip of cloth stained with blood.

The study room lamp flickered.

A woman bowing gracefully, a Taoist nun kowtowing resolutely...

Before the smoke from the gun barrels had even cleared, several thunderclaps suddenly erupted from the ground.

The sticky blood from the human head clung to the robe like a wisp of mist…

The blades flashed menacingly.

Swords, fire... torches flew towards the palace...

The man in the melon-shaped hat, beaming, stood up from the study...

A narrow path, a shallow bamboo grove, I nudged the side of the artificial hill, descended the earthen steps, and picked up a letter from the ground… The sound of hooves echoed through the streets late at night… The heavy city gates slowly opened…

wind.

A whistling wind came rushing towards us from the front...

The sound of hooves echoed mournfully through the night.

Running around, running around... my thighs are sore and numb...

The cold reins were soaked with the sweat from his palms...

The chilling armor felt like thorns on my back, like a long, inescapable shadow...

Before the rolling green hills under the cover of night, stands a stone tablet...

"Bang!"

He pulled the trigger.

……

……

His tightly closed eyes trembled twice.

Curved eyelashes stirred up the fine dust in the light.

The first feeling in my mind was heat; my body felt like it was in a warm oven.

The second feeling is weight.

My body was being pressed down by something, and my fingers moved slightly in the warm breath, barely able to tell that they were being pressed down by several layers of thick quilts.

My limbs are a little stiff.

The warm white light pierced through, and my eyes, which I had finally managed to open, began to hurt a little.

He inhaled the cool air through his nose and blinked slowly for a while.

Only then did I get used to this kind of light.

Open your eyes.

The first thing that catches the eye is the white gauze of the mosquito net above.

The white gauze is very thin.

Through the white gauze, the vermilion wooden beams of the roof could be seen.

My lips were a little chapped, and I was thirsty. Only then did I feel a slight pain in my left thigh. This was the knife wound left by Ah Lin.

He twitched his limbs slightly, as if to get up, but a dull pain came from his abdomen, and his face turned into one of struggle and pain.

He then fell back down, his head sinking into the fluffy embroidered pillow, and exhaled a long breath.

A few breaths passed.

He poked his right hand out from under the quilt and covered his forehead.

A moment of disorientation.

I thought I had returned to the water towns of Jiangnan.

The dry, cold wind slipped through the crack in the door and blew against the back of his hand, forcing him to abandon his fantasies and realize that he was still in the North.

It took a while to recover.

Ning Nan still couldn't figure things out.

Images flashed through his mind, finally settling on a woman squatting beside him.

He narrowed his eyes: "Sister?"

The five fingers pressed against the face with a bit of force.

Am I on my way back to the South?

Or was it hidden somewhere?

He habitually sorted out the situation in his mind and suppressed his anxiety.

At this time.

"Click~"

The vermilion door to the room opened.

Ning Nan turned her head from her pillow and saw a woman dressed in a purplish-brown dress with her hair in a bun carrying a golden basin as she entered the room.

The girl had a round face and still looked quite young, appearing to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. She walked briskly towards the bed, exuding a charming and adorable air.

Ning Nan glanced at her feet and saw that she walked steadily. His heart sank slightly... It wasn't the woman from last night.

Steam rose from the golden basin.

The woman took a few steps on the ground with her embroidered shoes, then looked up with innocent eyes that met Ning Nan's somewhat suspicious and scrutinizing gaze.

"Ah!" the woman exclaimed, took a few steps forward, placed the golden basin on the coffee table in front of the bed, and smiled with delight:

"Ah, young master is awake?!"

The accent is a Beijing accent.

Ning Nan frowned slightly, looking at the unfamiliar little girl, and said in a dry voice:

"Hello... young lady... where is this place?...?"

The maid with her hair in a bun reached her small hands into a gilded silver basin, the surface of which was decorated with a pattern of intertwined lotus flowers.

She picked up a pale white hot towel, wrung it out, and water droplets dripped back into the basin, making a tinkling sound.

"Here?" the little maid asked with a sweet laugh. "This is the Third Prince's residence!"

"Young master,"

The maid placed the towel in front of Ning Nan and said in a slightly apprehensive tone:

"Let me wipe your face for you."

"Third Prince...Prince's residence?" Ning Nan frowned. The towel was right in front of him, and its heat hit his face. He hummed in response.

It's black in front of you.

A towel was slapped onto his face, and a small hand rubbed his face through the warm towel.

Filled with questions, Master Ning had no choice but to close his eyes...

I wiped his face, his neck, and his hands.

The maid named Xixue then lowered her rolled-up sleeves and picked up the golden basin.

"I'll go call Madam," Xixue said to him before closing the door.

Ning Nan squinted slightly, looking at the sky outside; it must have been just past noon.

Not long after.

A rumbling sound came from outside, like wheels rolling over the ground.

The door to the room was opened again.

Ning Nan looked in the direction of the sound.

Two maids with bun hairstyles, including Xixue, were in front, while a rough-handed old woman was behind.

Several people were surrounding a woman sitting in a chair.

The woman was dressed in white underneath a purple veil.

The old woman's hands appeared to be placed behind the chair.

Then, the "rolling" sound rang out again.

The chair entered the room.

Ning Nan then noticed that the room had no threshold.

This chair is also a wheelchair.

The pale-faced Master Ning's eyes darkened slightly.

The woman got closer and closer to him.

Ning Nan got a good look at the other person's appearance... with regular and dignified features and gentle eyes and brows.

Her hair was tied up, with a simple wooden hairpin inserted in it.

"Brother."

The woman went to his bed and spoke in a choked and suppressed tone.

Looking at the face so close to his, meeting that gentle yet pitying and self-reproachful gaze, Ning Nan felt a lump in his throat, unsure of what to say.

About half a year ago, I learned from the left protector who wore a Guan Gong mask that I had an older sister.

Ning Nan had almost a thousand doubts in his mind, feeling it was unbelievable and hard to believe.

At this moment, when the so-called "older sister" suddenly appeared in front of him, he felt a mix of emotions.

Doubt, disbelief, suspicion, wariness, closeness, probing... all sorts of complex emotions surfaced in his eyes.

He always thought his background was very simple: he was an abandoned baby who was picked up by his mother, nothing more.

Even now, though it seems as if he still has family members alive, he finds it difficult to feel any real closeness.

"Uh..." Ning Nan frowned and asked in a dry voice, "May I ask..."

It seemed she knew what he wanted to ask.

The woman with gentle features took his exposed hand, held it in her warm grasp, and smiled:

"My name is Tang Caifeng. I'm your older sister."

Ning Nan's eyelids twitched.

My gaze shifted downwards to the other person's hands that were holding mine.

Ning Nan then noticed.

The other person's fingers...

It seems a few are missing.