Reborn To Be The Imperial Consort [BL] Chapter 163: Preening Black Dahlia — IV

"Did you hear?"

"Hear what?"

"So say—"

"—Crown Prince—"

"—nowhere to be—"

"—speculated that His Highness—"

"—Missing."

Over the course of three months of winter, rumours ran rampant, raging through the lowly teahouses, flowing in the veiled whispers of the wealthy.

From the Forbidden City to the JiangHu wilderness, not a single person was unaware of the most curious yet troubleso news in years.

The heir apparent to the throne of the kingdom of DaHuo had disappeared. What initially seed like a ridiculous proposition to entertain seed to have beco a reality.

Almost as if overnight, His Imperial Highness, the Crown Prince had vanished into thin air, nowhere to be found.

Not even the best trackers employed by the Imperial Family or those sent after him by the clans of JiangHu found a single trace.

No one could catch a glimpse of so much as even his shadow. Trackers knew not where to look. More than once they were left scratching their heads in bewildernt.

How was it humanely possible for a man like the Crown Prince to simply vanish into thin air?

The question lingered most persistently. More and more questions followed the first, then ca the rumours, conspiratory, contradictory, and speculative all at once.

The Beggar Sect moved, priding themselves of having a large, impenetrable network of information. They failed like many before them.

Those with access to the Forbidden City claid the Imperial Noble Consort to be distressed, braver ones claid the Empress in shambles. Braver yet, proclaid the Emperor in a fix as well.

So rumours speculated it a ploy to dispose of the Crown Prince, much like his younger brothers — the second prince who died young, and the posthumous third prince who died in his mother’s womb — had been years before.

No one knew the truth, none could verify.

These rumours had co to life steadily, origin unknown, source even more so.

When months passed, the rumours at their peak, His Highness the Crown Prince was still gone. Though the Imperial Family had yet to declare him dead, a vast majority of JiangHu believed him to be so.

Now, they just awaited the Emperor’s edict of change of the heir apparent.

In the storm of this commotion, the events of months prior, of so mysterious physician aiding the Heavenly Demon Cult was buried clean. It was forgotten by most, JiangHu’s attention entirely stolen by sothing far more interesting.

However—

Just when the raging storm of the missing Crown Prince seed to cool down, yet another — no less astounding — rumour rose.

The Divine Phoenix’s only nephew had fallen gravely ill. He may as well be on his deathbed.

Those that visited the strong woman to express their sympathies claid to have seen her weep, so claid to have seen the ticulous Li Jinhua distraught.

Soone who asserted themselves as one of the doctors whispered of the beautiful youth’s failing body. Of the sickly bed, of the pallid face.

People began to believe it more and more. Those with so romance in them lanted the tragedy of the dying young doctor who hadn’t even seen the door of adulthood, and the vanishing of the Crown Prince.

What a tragedy! To love so deeply that grief took one away and impaired the other left behind.

...

Branch of Divine Phoenix Hospital, Zhejiang Province.

"Did you hear it?" A raven-haired man unceremoniously sat down beside another. "You seem to be dying."

The one beside him looked up from his writings, eyebrows drawn tight. "I am what now?" Behind his brown eyes, flashed an exasperated gold. "First I was ill, now I’m dying?? What sort of things is shizun spreading about ?"

The raven-haired man, plain-looking and kind faced, Hu Lijing in disguise, shrugged vaguely. "How would I know anything? Was it not your suggestion to do this?"

Li Xinyuan — dressed in plain white robes and wearing a skin face mask — pinched his nose, feeling an impending headache knock against his temples. "I did not expect it to... To beco so large." He sighed deeply, golden eyes fixed on the ceiling in resigned silence.

Hu Lijing observed him, casually huddled against him intentionally. "What did you expect? Rumours always beco big when known people have involvent."

"Ah, just... Forget it. Leave alone. I have been struggling to organise my thoughts and notes on what to reach next. Don’t add to my stress."

"Isn’t it because of the Crown Prince’s disappearance?"

Li Xinyuan cursed in his heart, Hu Lijing with his uncanny ability to hit the nail on its head.

"What led you to believe so?"

"For what it is worth, you’ve been agitated because your last correspondence with him was a few months after his disappearance."

"..." Li Xinyuan looked down, long eyelashes casting a faint shadow over his cheeks. His hold on his pen tightened. "If you have nothing better to do, create so instrunts for based on these drawings."

Hu Lijing snorted at the deflection but did not press, raising his hand to grab the rolled up paper the surgeon held to him.

"I understand."

"... Oh, that reminds , where is Bai Huiqi?"

"Him?" Hu Lijing canted his head, halting in front of the door to look over his shoulder. "I left him by the waterfall to practice freezing and undoing the effect on running water."

"Has he gotten better?"

"His control is better than before, though he is in need of more practice."

Li Xinyuan digested the information carefully, nodding as he humd. "Be patient with him."

"Ugh," Hu Lijing rolled his eyes in discontent. "You say as if I beat him up for failure. I do no such thing!"

Li Xinyuan rolled his shoulders, swallowing a soft noise as he massaged his stiff neck. "I have never suspected sothing of that nature, Lijing. Are you perhaps paranoid?"

"..."

"I surmised so. Now run along. I will be in need of those instrunts for the next lesson if no patient cos for ."

Once the nine-tailed fox spirit was gone, Li Xinyuan’s shoulders sagged, the tension he tried to massage away ebbing as he slumped on the table, the brush forgotten aside.

Forehead pressed on the surface, the surgeon bit his lower lip, eyes closed tight. He couldn’t help but hate the past few months they had spent hidden away from all the watchful eyes.

His lips pursed, thoughts drifting away from him.

It all began when soone from JiangHu sent an assassin after them. The man killed himself before Li Xinyuan could interrogate him using his family’s — from previous life — thods.

The killers did not stop. After the first, one more ca, then another, and another.

The five tried, all failed. Then, in the na of loyalty, killed themselves right before Li Xinyuan could get anything out of them. So had poison hidden under their tongues, so between teeth, each place more creative than the last.

After the fifth failed attempt on his life, Li Xinyuan could no longer bear the constant pressure, the stress, and the night terrors of the past that ca back to haunt him.

Paranoid, he spent seven sleepless nights before finally devising a plan that would give him breathing room.

If most of the assassins were aware of his identity, then the ones sending them should be too.

Hence, he hatched a plan, not his best, but mostly foolproof — he was deprived of rest and constantly alert for more than a week or two, he could not expect too much — plan.

Li Xinyuan took Hu Lijing and Bai Huiqi, recruited help from a trusted craftsman of the Li Clan. They forged new faces and identities before going into hiding in one of his aunt’s hospitals.

But before he could start spreading rumours of his ailing health, the more startling ones of Liu Mingyun being missing began.

For a while, the surgeon was reluctant to believe it. But when he got a letter from the man himself, he realised what was going on.

The Crown Prince — his betrothed Liu Mingyun — had found out about Li Xinyuan’s life being in peril and took it upon himself to scatter the attention.

In a peculiar way.

In the last correspondence they shared, Liu Mingyun had assured him that it had no harm to him. That all the chain of events were approved and aided by the Emperor for a task Liu Mingyun had to accomplish.

And now, in the wake of all that was said and done, he was left to hide in plain sight.

Li Xinyuan cupped his chin on the heel of his palm, fingers curling against his lips, eyes fleeting between the open window and his ssy notes.

He was waiting on a letter from a man who might not even have ti for rest. Still, he waited anyway.

How painful the wait for a single letter was, he now knew. Even a single word would suffice to soothe his worries just a fraction.

*ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻*ੈ✩‧₊˚*ੈ✩‧₊˚

Author has sothing to say:

Bamboo: Since Ai uses em dashes, I’m now going to use (abuse if necessary) em dashes the British way (with space before and after the words) cause ai does the normal way [/Villain_laugh.jpg/]