Chapter: 110 out of 513 – Who saved her? (1)
The crown prince paused. Holding the lute, he let out a laugh. “She’s clearly a woman. Who raised her to have such a stubborn personality? If a man had jumped into the river, would he have her strength to keep holding on in such a cold river?”
Taxue turned his head away. He didn’t want to keep looking at the person in the river. Although the success of a general required the death of thousands and he had long become accustomed to seeing people dying while following the crown prince, his heart still felt slightly reluctant when he saw this innocent woman struggling to live.
Taxue said, “Your Highness, the wind here is cold. How about you go back to your room?”
The crown prince nodded. His hand pressed down on the lute’s strings and the sound of the lute abruptly cut off. Holding the lute, he stood up and walked two steps towards his room. But, in the end, he stopped.
“Taxue, imperial father frequently says in order to accomplish major things, you can’t let trifles bother you. Isn’t that right?” His voice was very low, and even sounded somewhat distracted.
Taxue silently stood in place.
“I shouldn’t be soft-hearted.” The corners of Zhao Zhe’s lips rose slightly, but his fingers tightened around the lute. “But… Take her out of the water anyways. If she already stopped breathing, then I tried my best…”
The waves from the river had crashed over her so many times and it was such a cold night too. She should have definitely taken her last breath already…
The crown prince silently comforted himself with these thoughts. Nie Sangyu was probably already dead. If he had her taken out of the water, it shouldn’t ruin things for him.
Hearing his master’s order, there was a slight hesitation in Taxue’s eyes. But, he still tied a rope to the mast and threw the other end of the rope overboard. He slid down the rope and slowly lengthened the rope until he reached the other boat.
However, in the silent dark night, in the gap of time when Zhao Zhe was hesitating, someone had quietly woken up, dropped a rope down on the side of the boat, and silently carried Nie Sangyu back onto the boat.
And so, after Taxue had swum over here, he saw another rope hanging from the boat. There was no one there.
Was there someone else that was also awake? Taxue shivered and disbelievingly raised his head to look.
The deck of the boat was a blanket of blackness. Under the crown prince’s orders, sleeping drugs had been added to the food during dinnertime. Just in case, sleeping incense had also been lit in each of the rooms. No one should be awake right now.
Then, who had come down into the water and taken Nie Sangyu away?
While thinking about this, Taxue loosely hanged up the rope on a hook, then he climbed up the boat using the other rope.
There were watery footprints along the entire path, so it was very easy to follow. Taxue followed the path, but he suddenly saw a person standing outside a room on the second floor.
Ning Yuxuan seemed to have been admiring the view of the river. Hearing footsteps, he turned his head slightly and said, “Sir Taxue, your martial arts skills are pretty good. It’s so late at night. Why aren’t you sleeping? Are you here to pass along an order from the crown prince?”
Had the sleeping drugs not affected Marquis Moyu? Taxue’s face paled. A chill went up his spine. He was a tall and strong man that rarely felt such fear.
Was he the one that saved Nie Sangyu? Then, did he also know that the crown prince was the one that tried to kill Nie Sangyu?
No, he was only following the crown prince’s order to save her. Marquis Moyu didn’t have any evidence. He didn’t know that the crown prince had arranged for people to sneak onto the boat. Why would he suspect the crown prince? He was just losing his head from feeling too panicked, and had almost revealed his mission under Ning Yuxuan’s eyes.
After calming himself, Taxue said, “The crown prince hadn’t fallen asleep yet and saw evildoers trying to murder Madam Ning on the deck, so he had this subordinate come over here to save her. We didn’t know that you had already saved her.”
“Someone wanted to murder Nie Sangyu?” Marquis Moyu blankly looked at him for a moment, then he turned around and kicked opened the door to Nie Sangyu’s room.
There was a person lying on the bed and peacefully sleeping. Ning Yuxuan turned around and said to Taxue, “Sir Taxue, you must have been mistaken. Sangyu is peacefully sleeping in her room. Who wants to murder her? I only recently woke up because Mingjie was walking around too loudly. He was having trouble falling asleep. How could I have saved her?”
Taxue was stunned. He raised his head and looked at Ning Yuxuan’s tidy robes and cloak lined with fox fur. There wasn’t the slightest trace of water on him. If he had recently gone into the river to save Nie Sangyu, he definitely wouldn’t have had time to change clothes before meeting him.
Then, this meant that he didn’t know something had happened to Nie Sangyu?
Taxue felt baffled. In front of him, Ning Yuxuan’s innocent expression was even more bewildered than his. He naturally couldn’t continue to stay here, so he could only say, “Since it’s like that, perhaps, someone had hanged clothes there and the crown prince was mistaken.”
“En, then Sir Taxue, you should go back to rest.” Ning Yuxuan yawned and said, “I don’t know what Mingjie was up to in the middle of the night. He was very noisy before, but he’s quieted down now. I’m going back to my room to sleep.”
“Excuse this humble one,” Taxue said.
—
Taxue returned to the other boat in the same manner he had come and repeated the conversation he had with Ning Yuxuan to the crown prince without missing a word.
After hearing the news that Nie Sangyu had been rescued, instead of asking if she was still alive, he first asked, “He doesn’t know that someone had harmed Nie Sangyu? And, his clothes were dry?”
Taxue honestly said, “This subordinate thinks it’s unlikely that the marquis was the one that saved her. He said he had woken up because Sir Ning was too noisy. Also, when her room was opened, there was a person lying in her bed.”
“How do you know for sure that person was Nie Sangyu?” Zhao Zhe pursed his lips. “Did you see her face?”
Taxue lowered his head. He was only the crown prince’s herald. How could he barge into a married woman’s bedroom to look at her sleeping face? The marquis had been right next to him and naturally wouldn’t allow him inside to look.