Chapter 154 How Embarrassing!

The Chanyu of the Xiongnu has sent agents to infiltrate the territory of the Han dynasty, attempting to contact a certain vassal prince within the borders. Their ultimate plot remains uninvestigated to this day, and Brother Qin must remain vigilant.

This was the content mentioned in the silk message sent to Qin Cheng by Nangong Shang.

To Nangong Shang, this intelligence had not yet revealed its full gravity, but upon reaching Qin Cheng, it stirred up monstrous waves in his heart.

Qin Cheng was well aware of the historical event regarding the collusion between the Xiongnu and a certain vassal prince within the Han borders, harboring malicious intentions. However, having only encountered this on a screen in his past life rather than within formal historical texts—in truth, Qin Cheng had rarely touched upon formal history—he did not know whether this matter was true or false. Consequently, when he was targeted by the assassination attempt of "Thunder" on his way back from Chang'an to Shanggu, Qin Cheng had been unsure whether he should suspect that vassal prince, or the renowned swordsman in his service.

Now, with the intelligence sent back from the desert by Nangong Shang providing corroboration, even if he could not be one hundred percent certain, the matter was close enough to the truth.

The Xiongnu were indeed colluding with a certain vassal prince within the Han borders with malicious intent.

With this premise established, Qin Cheng realized that the assassination attempt by "Thunder" he had suffered previously was no longer difficult to comprehend.

Qin Cheng closed his eyes, rapidly running through the sequence of events in his mind while desperately trying to recall the relevant incidents from his past life.

Just as he was pondering, Qin Cheng suddenly felt as though his entire body had been struck by a bolt of electricity. He abruptly opened his eyes and leaped up in shock!

"You... you little girl, where do you think you are pinching?!" Qin Cheng covered his vital parts with both hands, his face turning beet red, his eyes bulging as he glared at the gloating little Rong'er.

"Heehee, Rong'er is just giving the General a massage, what's wrong with the General?" Little Rong'er looked up at Qin Cheng with an innocent little face, perfectly capturing the image of a clueless, bewildered young girl. "Rong'er saw that the General seemed to be falling asleep, so I used a bit more strength. Is the General alright? Did Rong'er hurt the General?"

Standing to one side, Bai Xinxi could not help it and let out a snort of laughter, her bright, cunning eyes looking teasingly at Qin Cheng.

"Of哪里不好按，偏偏按那里，还加大力道？！我真是服了你了！" (Translator's note: maintaining the natural flow: "Of all places to massage, why there, and why use extra strength?! I really give up on you!") Faced with little Rong'er's innocent expression, Qin Cheng was at a loss, yet the discomfort in his lower regions forced him to rub it for a long time before he finally let go of his hands.

"What are you laughing at? Is it that funny, huh?" Seeing that Bai Xinxi was not reprimanding little Rong'er for abusing his precious treasure, but instead stood to the side covering her mouth and giggling incessantly with mischief in her eyes, Qin Cheng felt anger welling up. He closed in on Bai Xinxi and wore an extremely wicked smile as he "interrogated" her.

"No... no, it has nothing to do with me. It was her, it was Rong'er..." Bai Xinxi "dared not" meet Qin Cheng's gaze and retreated a few steps in "panic."

"It has nothing to do with you?" The smile at the corner of Qin Cheng's mouth grew even more wicked as he advanced step by step toward Bai Xinxi. "What does a child like her know? Isn't it because you didn't teach her properly at home? And besides, my little brother here was treated quite like that, um, and you actually say it has nothing to do with you? Tell me, did the two of you conspire together?"

"No, really, there's no such thing!" Bai Xinxi backed up continuously until she accidentally bumped into the railing outside the pavilion. Her body tilted out of control, and seeing that she was about to tumble into the pond, she let out a startled gasp of "Ah."

Qin Cheng stepped forward and caught Bai Xinxi in his arms, timely halting her momentum toward the pond. The moment he embraced her, the enchanting tactile sensation transmitted through his hands sent his soul dancing lightly. Before he could even digest this flying sensation, he heard Bai Xinxi exhale an "Ah" from within his arms that made his soul leave his body. Qin Cheng's limbs went soft, and he stumbled, almost falling into the water together with Bai Xinxi. This prompted another series of gasps from Bai Xinxi, and those cries of "Ah" were simply the most mesmerizing and blood-boiling, imagination-stirring music in the world.

Holding the beauty's soft, delicate body in his arms, while Qin Cheng's spiritual world was dancing gracefully, his physical body also quietly reacted. That soaring pillar of heaven was now buried deep within some warm territory, making Qin Cheng feel so ethereal that he felt he was about to sprout feathers and ascend to immortality.

There was no help for it; his days in the military camp had been too stifling.

Little Rong'er saw Qin Cheng and Bai Xinxi embracing tightly, their bodies pressed together without a single gap between them. Especially upon seeing the two of them shifting restlessly due to unstable footing, her delicate face flushed bright red, and she quickly covered her eyes with both hands, crying out in shame and anger, "So embarrassing, so embarrassing! How can you do this in front of other people!"

As she spoke, little Rong'er could not help but part her fingers covering her eyes by a crack, peeking out from between her palms.

"Speak, did you or did you not?" Holding Bai Xinxi, Qin Cheng had originally intended to release her and part ways once he stopped her from falling into the water, but once pressed together like this, his body simply refused to obey, stubbornly unwilling to separate! With no other choice, Qin Cheng could only pretend to fiercely interrogate Bai Xinxi.

Held tightly in Qin Cheng's embrace under the broad daylight and the eyes of others, even with some improvement in the thickness of her skin, Bai Xinxi could not stop her earlobes from turning completely red. Especially upon feeling Qin Cheng's masculine symbol, Bai Xinxi felt that her limbs had lost all strength as if she were about to melt away. Her breathing grew rapid, and she panted incessantly.

"Ah?" Hearing Qin Cheng's question, Bai Xinxi, whose mind had gone completely blank, subconsciously echoed back. Her gaze brushed against Qin Cheng's blazing eyes, and she flushed with extreme embarrassment. "No, no..."

"Aish! General, Sister Bai, are you two done yet? My hands are getting sore from covering my eyes!" Little Rong'er complained with infinite grievance, looking deeply displeased.

Hearing little Rong'er's calls, though deeply reluctant in the innermost recesses of his heart, Qin Cheng had no choice but to temporarily separate from Bai Xinxi. Qin Cheng coughed twice, straightened his lapels, looked up at the sky, and said with an air of absolute solemnity, "The weather is truly hot today! Now, little Rong'er, go and pour me a bowl of fermented grain drink to cool off!"

"Oh." Little Rong'er lowered the hands covering her eyes, gave Qin Cheng a baffled look, uttered a dazed "oh," and scurried off to pour the drink.

Qin Cheng and Bai Xinxi exchanged a glance, each seeing intense, scorching heat in the eyes of the other.

A short while later, in the back courtyard.

From Bai Xinxi's boudoir came intermittent, sometimes gentle and sometimes rapid groans of "Mmh, ah, ah," accompanied by the hurried breathing of someone, continuing for a long time.

Little Rong'er poked her head in from the courtyard door, glanced inside, and then swiftly pulled her head back. Covering her eyes with both hands and her face flushed crimson, she muttered, "So embarrassing, so embarrassing! In broad daylight, really, how can they expect people to look? It's just so embarrassing!"

After muttering to herself for a long time, little Rong'er suddenly realized that she shouldn't be covering her eyes, but rather her ears.

After covering her ears and muttering for another long while, little Rong'er suddenly realized that what she should be doing even more than covering her ears was leaving this place.

Running toward the front courtyard for a few steps, little Rong'er stopped, glanced back at the small courtyard twice, her bright eyes now veiled in a thin mist. Staring blankly for a moment, she murmured, "Really, I don't know what's so great about that thing, why do adults all love doing it?

How curious!

Aish, how embarrassing really!"

...

The Piaoxiang Pavilion was a fairly large restaurant located in the center of Qiansang City. Its interior decoration was quite grand, featuring over a dozen tables of various sizes in the first-floor lobby and private rooms on the second floor. Situated right in the heart of Qiansang City, business at the Piaoxiang Pavilion had always been brisk. People from all walks of life, as long as they had some silver, loved to come here to drink.

With so many people, it was the best camouflage to conceal one's identity. For those people who preferred to stay in the shadows, coming here to discuss "business" was the least likely way to attract attention.

The best way to conceal one's tracks was not to deliberately pick remote paths, because the more remote the place, the fewer footprints there were, making one's own tracks the easiest to track and discover. Conversely, blending one's footprints into the vast sea of footprints made it impossible for pursuers to discern or catch a trace.

Therefore, Chen You had chosen the Piaoxiang Pavilion as the rendezvous point to meet the people from the other side.

As a trusted retainer of Liu An, the Prince of Huainan, Chen You not only possessed poetry and literary skills that made Liu An look at him with newfound respect, but he also demonstrated commendable capability when handling practical affairs. This time, when Liu An sent Chen You to Qiansang to rendezvous with the other side and negotiate certain matters, it was precisely this capability that won him the appointment. Otherwise, among the Eight Immortals of Huainan, there were so many talents, not to least of all the renowned swordsman Lei Bei; there was no absolute necessity to send him.

Dressed in the attire of a wealthy merchant, Chen You brought along two swordsmen disguised as attendants. They arrived at the Piaoxiang Pavilion just as dusk was falling, asked the waiter for a private room on the second floor, and waited quietly inside for the people from the other side to arrive.

Both parties had previously agreed on the meeting location and the secret password, waiting only for night to fall and the patrons to increase in number before the people from the other side would appear.

To be fair, Chen You had arrived half an hour early. Since this was his first time out on an official errand, Chen You knew what this operation meant for him. If he successfully handled this matter, his status among the Eight Immortals of Huainan would rise to another level, and becoming the premier retainer was well within the realm of possibility.

Thinking of this, Chen You could not afford to take this meeting lightly.

"Lord Chen, the time has arrived," one of the swordsmen said to Chen You, who was sitting with his eyes closed in meditation, half an hour later.

Chen You did not speak, nor did he open his eyes; he merely nodded slightly.

Seeing this demeanor from Chen You, the two swordsmen knew that his instruction was to wait, and thus they said nothing further, standing quietly to the side.

After another long moment, the door of the private room was knocked softly a few times.

Chen You did not move, nor did the swordsman behind him move.

After the span of about two breaths, the door of the private room was knocked softly a few times once more.

At this, Chen You revealed a smile, deliberately suppressing his joy as he said calmly, "They're here. Open the door!"