I'm Competing With The Male Lead For A Woman - Chapter 14

The capital has been rainy lately.

Raindrops fell on the Prince of Yan’s residence’s dark gray tiles like dancing white jade beads. Before long, they soaked the walls and stained them into a monochrome painting.

On the east side of the Prince of Yan’s residence, there was a small pavilion called “Night’s Rest.”

There used to be many lush green mint plants next to the pavilion, which were very pleasing to the eye.

However, the servants were now carrying dozens of pots of mint, preparing to move them elsewhere. After all, an uninvited guest had arrived at the pavilion, and the flowers and plants in the residence were all going to suffer.

The uninvited guest herself was leaning on a bamboo wheelchair, letting a delicate and lovely little maid tie up her hair.

Wearing the fur cloak that Princess Zhaoyang had just sent yesterday and holding a warm hand warmer, Xiao Jin immediately felt that her life was complete.

The servants lifted the flower pots, but they didn’t know where Xiao Jin wanted to move the mint.

They could only ask with fear and trepidation, “Your Highness, where do you want to move these plants?”

Xiao Jin took the tea handed to her by the steward. She didn’t drink it immediately. Instead, she lifted her eyelids and glanced at the mint.

“Since these flowers were a gift from the Crown Prince, they naturally cannot be thrown away.”

The servants thought, Your Highness, you know that these were a gift from the Crown Prince. If you handle the Crown Prince’s gift improperly, it would be a serious crime.

Xiao Jin didn’t care at all. She continued, “I’ve heard that mint can clear the eyes and cool the blood. It’s suitable for medicine, so take them to Cangjin Alley. I’m sure Doctor Su will find them useful.”

After hearing Xiao Jin’s words, the servants were dumbfounded.

Even if His Highness had a special liking for Doctor Su, or had other intentions, he shouldn’t be giving away wild mint.

Who gives wild mint as a gift?

Besides, this was mint from the Crown Prince. How could His Highness just give it away to someone else?

In reality, Xiao Jin didn’t plan to consider the Crown Prince’s feelings. She also had no intentions toward Su Tan. She just couldn’t think of a good person to give them to, so she just casually gave them to Su Tan.

Furthermore, mint was a good thing. It could clear the blood and the eyes and could also be used as medicine. Both its properties and its color were a perfect match for Su Tan.

To repay kindness with kindness and to repay green with green, that was what a gentleman would do.

However, the reason Xiao Jin wanted to move these mints was that she had accidentally learned from a servant that these potted plants were all gifts from the Crown Prince to the original character and had been in the pavilion for many years.

Although mint itself was an innocent plant.

But as soon as she knew that these plants were from the Crown Prince’s palace, according to common web novel tropes, Xiao Jin felt that there was a high possibility that there was chronic poison in the pots.

And it was the kind that could slowly kill a person.

So just a few days after she transmigrated, Xiao Jin started to renovate the original character’s courtyard and moved all the things the male lead had given away.

Seeing a servant lifting a glazed vase with great effort and then looking at the instantly empty courtyard, Xiao Jin couldn’t help but sigh. The male lead had given the original character too many things.

She planned to stack some of them in the storeroom first. If possible, she would also check for invisible and odorless poison on them.

After the maid combed her hair, she took a hairpin and tied up Xiao Jin’s hair.

Xiao Jin held her cup, took a sip of tea, and looked at the steward standing beside her.

After staring at the wrinkles on the steward’s face for a while, she suddenly remembered that in the original novel, the funeral jade artifacts for the original character’s burial were handled by the Crown Prince and this person.

So she put down her teacup. “Old Zhang, I’ve heard that you seem to have a good understanding of antiques and jade.”

Steward Zhang was stunned. He seemed a little surprised. How did His Highness know that he liked to collect jade?

For twelve years in the residence, Steward Zhang knew that this master was very paranoid. He put on a smile and answered honestly, “Replying to Your Highness, this old servant does not dare to claim to have a good understanding of antiques and jade. I just dabble in it a little.”

“Just dabble a little.”

Xiao Jin played with the token in her hand and casually handed it to Old Zhang. “Then help me take a look. Is there anything wrong with this token?”

Steward Zhang looked at the token Xiao Jin handed him. Although he was confused, he still respectfully took it.

He stared at the patterns on it and then carefully reached out and stroked the bronze token.

The area his fingertips touched seemed to have some scuff marks.

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes, seemingly staring at the pattern on the teacup lid. In reality, she was using her peripheral vision to observe Old Zhang’s expression.

Since the original character’s funeral was arranged by the Crown Prince and Steward Zhang, it was not impossible for Steward Zhang to be a spy planted by the Crown Prince in the Prince of Yan’s residence.

Following this logic, if the assassination was the Crown Prince’s doing, then Old Zhang would have a strange reaction when he saw the token.

However, the facts proved that when it came to the field of appreciation, Old Zhang was very passionate.

He held the hard, lumpy token as if he were holding the He’s Jade. He was so focused that he didn’t even blink, let alone show any strange behavior.

Realizing that she had miscalculated, Xiao Jin couldn’t help but rub her forehead. Sure enough, a background character like Old Zhang probably doesn’t have any hidden identities.

But just as this thought came to her, Steward Zhang’s expression became serious.

Xiao Jin became interested. She remained expressionless and waited for Old Zhang’s next move.

After a long time, Steward Zhang held the token and respectfully asked, “Your Highness, may I smell this token?”

Xiao Jin remembered the pungent smell and nodded. “You may, but this thing smells bad, so just a light sniff will do.”

“Thank you, Your Highness.”

Steward Zhang felt that His Highness’s temper had gotten much better, so he worked even harder.

Even though the token smelled horrible, he still endured the discomfort in his nasal cavity and sniffed it carefully.

After a long time, Steward Zhang shook his head. “Your Highness, this token is probably not ancient bronze. It’s made of copper that’s been artificially aged.”

“Oh?”

Xiao Jin didn’t expect that there was a hidden genius around the original character, an impressive human-shaped treasure appraiser.

So she asked, “What makes you say that?”

Old Zhang held the token and explained slowly, “Replying to Your Highness, to make copper look like ancient bronze, the most crucial part is to remove the reddish color from the copper and make it dark and ancient.”

“So antique dealers often use oily walnuts to rub on the copper, and then repeatedly wipe it with sulfur. This way, the copper will gradually turn dark and look exactly like ancient bronze.” [Note]

Xiao Jin frowned. “So the pungent smell on this token comes from sulfur and oily walnuts?”

Old Zhang returned the token to Xiao Jin. “Exactly.”

In that case, this token was deliberately faked by someone to frame another person.

Xiao Jin was thinking about who in the original novel liked crape myrtle when a guard hurriedly walked into the courtyard.

The guard walked into the pavilion, knelt, and presented a letter. “Your Highness, this is from the Grand Minister of the Dali Temple.”

Xiao Jin took the letter and only glanced at it before a headache began.

The page was full of traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese, which made her, a transmigrator with a low level of cultural knowledge, feel very ashamed.

Xiao Jin already had a phobia of words, so she didn’t want to read it.

She handed the letter to the steward. “Old Zhang, you read it.”

Steward Zhang’s eyes widened. He was flattered.

His Highness actually wanted him to read such a confidential letter. Had he become a trusted confidant that His Highness could rely on?

He had no idea that Xiao Jin was just too lazy to read traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese.

Meeting Xiao Jin’s calm eyes, Steward Zhang was so moved that his hands trembled. He took the letter and read it with a clear and powerful voice.

Xiao Jin automatically filtered out the pedantic phrases and extracted the key information.

The letter said that the assassins who tried to kill her were jianghu assassins who had no registered household and couldn’t be traced to anyone.

Their identities were so clean that it was suspicious. But she didn’t know if the Dali Temple was deliberately hiding something or if their identities were truly clean.

After all, the Grand Minister of the Dali Temple was a solid supporter of the Crown Prince. If the male lead had tried to harm her, it was only natural for the Dali Temple to conceal it.

Fortunately, Xiao Jin had hidden one of the bodies. She could find a trustworthy and knowledgeable forensic examiner to perform an autopsy and see if she could find any clues.

As soon as she thought of an autopsy, the image of that unlucky person in a blue robe and the chattering white parrot in the cage appeared in Xiao Jin’s mind.

That’s right. I’ll ask Su Tan to come and perform the autopsy tomorrow.

The system had always been very precise with the life extension. Last time, after Xiao Jin completed two missions, she got a total of nine days of life extension.

So these few days were her free time. The system would only release the next mission when her life extension was about to run out.

However, the system also kindly reminded Xiao Jin.

“Host, you can use this time to find out the truth of the Assassination Conspiracy to prepare for the main and side missions a few days from now.”

The fact that the system said this meant that the truth of the assassination was definitely related to the main and side missions.

With four days left, Xiao Jin decided to find some useful clues.

But she was also a little hesitant about where to start.

Xiao Jin felt that there were not many people she could trust. It would be too reckless to tell others about the token and the corpse.

At this moment, Xiao Jin thought of Chu Shao.

As soon as she thought of Chu Shao, the image of the sleeve stained red with blood and the way she gracefully walked through the hail of swords flashed in her mind.

Chu Shao’s steps were calm. With a silver sword in her hand, she looked like a merciful spring goddess, waving a dew-covered willow branch and sprinkling nectar on the world.

However, what dripped from the sword was not dew, but blood.

Although Chu Shao was a very dangerous person, Xiao Jin instinctively felt that the other person had many secrets and might know something about the crape myrtle token.

Being in the world of the book, Xiao Jin did feel that a madwoman was more trustworthy than someone lurking in the dark.

Thinking this, she made up her mind and was ready to find Chu Shao to discuss important matters.

So she said to Steward Zhang, “Later, please invite the Princess Consort to my room. Just say that I have something important to discuss with her.”

Old Zhang was stunned at first. Then he looked up and saw the dim sky.

Meeting Xiao Jin’s profound gaze, he instantly understood something. A smile bloomed on his face. “Don’t worry, Your Highness. This old servant understands.”

••••

That night.

After dinner, Chu Shao sat in her chair, bored, playing with a dagger in her hand.

This dagger was given to her by her mother. The blade was engraved with exquisite patterns. The tip was sharp and could easily stab into someone’s heart without needing to be poisoned.

With a slight flick of her wrist, after pulling it out, the blood gushing from the chest would splatter on her.

However, this kind of pleasure was too monotonous and was not a new experience.

The thin blade shone with a silver light, reflecting Chu Shao’s eyebrows and eyes.

She looked at the tear mole at the corner of her eye and suddenly remembered the ice lotus flowers blooming in the snow and the blood splattered everywhere.

Chu Shao really wanted to hear the children’s songs again and remember those beautiful melodies, but it had been a long time, and she couldn’t remember them anymore.

Just as Chu Shao was lost in thought, there was a knock on the door outside.

Chu Shao came back to her senses, put away the dagger, and a smile appeared on her lips. “Please come in.”

Author’s note:

[Note] Some content is referenced from: “Chinese Ancient Ingenious Skills and Crafts.”

(Jinjiang requires me to note this, so I’m saving my life with this!)