Classical Chinese dance student Mei Yanran found her first love between the pages of a online novel. When a traffic accident grants her one wish, she seizes the chance to transmigrate into the world of her favorite story!
Bright, bold, and beautifu...
Chu Yexuan wondered if his eyes had been playing tricks on him. He spent the next bit of time fruitlessly searching around the roofs, hoping to catch another glimpse of the man. In the end, all he was left with were cold ears and the distinct memory of the figure simply winking out of sight.
....winking?
A sudden thought occurred to Chu Yexuan before he made a beeline for the palace. For now, he would have to head home and give the failure further thought.
--
Much later in the night, Ling Fengxiao was interrupted from his reading by a nighthawk that flew to his window with a piece of paper tied to its leg. He unfurled the paper to see two horizontal lines drawn near the top, followed by the words: southeast, shadow arts.
Two horizontal lines meant failure; Shuyang hadn't been able to follow the man to the end. But the written words changed Ling Fengxiao's surprise into puzzlement, then caution. In his youth, Chu Yexuan had been declared a top talent by a martial arts master, who had taken him away to train for a few years. He was a genius at fighting and came back with a formidable set of skills. Speed and lightness techniques were his forte, but there was one area that he had never been able to master.
The so-called 'shadow arts' was a collective name for the highest realm of lightness techniques, whose users were so quick that they could seemingly vanish into thin air. Nothing short of that could have eluded Chu Yexuan's own skills. But the number of shadow arts users were rare in the jianghu, so for a common spy to exhibit such skills seemed like a laughable idea.
But Shuyang would know, Ling Fengxiao thought uneasily, If he had seen the real thing.
And according to the paper, the prince had lost their little intruder in the southeastern part of the capital---which matched the previous reports of his scouts that had tracked the spy to an area that included the Mei Estate.
A complicated expression flickered past Ling Fengxiao's eyes before he burned the message over a candle flame.
--
"He didn't come out today, either?"
In her room, Mei Yanran was casually chatting with the scout who'd just returned from spying on Ling Fengxiao's front gates. She hugged a pillow to herself as she curled up in the covers, biting the corner of her lip.
"I never knew he was such a homebody," she muttered to herself. "Do his servants do all the work for him?"
The scout at the window remained silent. Incidentally, this one shared an uncanny resemblance to another Chinese actor---Lin Zhiying, or Jimmy Lin.
Rất tiếc! Hình ảnh này không tuân theo hướng dẫn nội dung. Để tiếp tục đăng tải, vui lòng xóa hoặc tải lên một hình ảnh khác.
"Anything else worth mentioning, Xiao Lin?" Mei Yanran asked. Like Little Chen, Little Lin was another favorite of hers---though his baby face made him less suited to be head guard like Chen Xiao. Appearances were important in this line of work, after all!
"Third prince Chu Yexuan came to visit," Lin Zhiying replied simply. "And...he tried to follow me back, but I lost his tail."
"He did? Wait---how did you lose him? When and where?" Mei Yanran sat bolt upright. Chu Yexuan isn't an easy person to shake off!
Lin Zhiying blinked. "With the shadow arts that you had us learn, young Miss. I was getting close to the estate, so I made use of it to cover the final distance."
Mei Yanran leaned forward and poked him in the forehead. "You used the shadow arts in front of Chu Yexuan?! Why did you do that?!" It was an uncommon technique in the Conspiracies of the Northern Court world, but one she'd given to her guards during the setup period as added security measures. The Goddess of Fates had said that introducing too many anachronisms would affect the stability of the novelverse and its original characters, which was why Mei Yanran had defaulted to using what was available.
"Because young Miss said we were not to expose ourselves under any circumstances," Lin Zhiying replied. "The shadow arts was the only viable move to escape him when he was catching up. All of the other methods I tried failed."
"I should've given you guys more common sense when I made you!" Mei Yanran bemoaned as she clutched her head. "Alright, uhm, okay, let me think."
If Chu Yexuan was following Xiao Lin, it won't be long before he tells Ling Fengxiao about this. Actually, who knows---maybe Ling Fengxiao already knows everything!
"Tell Xiao Chen," Mei Yanran said next, "To call off watching Ling Fengxiao's estate. Immediately!"
Lin Zhiying murmured an assent before he hesitated. "Young Miss, my apologies."
"No need, you were just following orders," Mei Yanran waved him off distractedly. "I should've thought it through before sending spies on my crush. Urk, at least ones that wouldn't be caught."
"My apologies again, young Miss."
"Don't wear that expression, your kicked-puppy face is too strong," Mei Yanran held up her pillow to block Lin Zhiying from sight. "It's fine now, so just go to bed."
Looking a little lost, Lin Zhiying nevertheless dipped his head a final time. "Should I report to Head Guard Chen first before bed, young Miss?"
"Yeah, do that first, then bed, then whatever he says," Mei Yanran felt herself sweating in embarrassment. When she asked the Goddess of Fates to make her a bodyguard unit, she'd emphasized wanting 'strong and capable fighters' who could face off against all the different martial arts types both in and out of the novel. While most of the guards at the Mei Estate were stock NPC-type characters, she'd had fun customizing character traits for a select few. Chen Xiao was the 'worldly-wise, levelheaded leader type that's super dependable,' while Lin Zhiying was the 'baby of the group, simple and easy to tease.'
But 'innocent' and 'simple-minded' mean two different things, ahh!
With a frustrated noise, she dove into her covers and curled up into a ball.
Fine then, I'll just focus on the female lead until it's time to visit Ling Fengxiao! All roads lead to the protagonist, so I refuse to believe that she can't bring us all together somehow!
The bright moon outside her window glimmered peacefully as she fell asleep.
--
Author's Note: Oh yeah, the header drawing is supposed to be Chu Yexuan, btw. Young, confident, and great with smiles, ahaha~
