Unintentional Surprise (GL) - Chapter 5

If she didn’t act now, it would be too late.

The zither player, Wen Dinglan, suddenly changed her seated posture. She stood up and, together with the lead dancer Dong Qing and the other performers, gracefully cradled her instrument and began to dance.

“Wen Dinglan? She’s dancing?!” exclaimed Che Kuiyuan, the Prime Minister’s grandson, utterly shocked.

Wen Dinglan silently thanked Che Kuiyuan for his outburst, as it interrupted the poison-laced wine cup’s slow but inevitable journey.

For now, King Yama had spared Jiang Shunyao’s life.

Wen Dinglan had never danced before—at least, not in front of guests. Che Kuiyuan had once offered a great sum at the Pavilion of Melodic Strings just to see her dance, but Wen Dinglan had always refused his request.

Yet today, she was willing to display her dance skills in front of a crowd.

No wonder Che Kuiyuan was so taken aback.

But he wasn’t the only one surprised. So was Dong Qing, the lead dancer.

Changing the musical piece at the last minute was already a serious matter—so why hadn’t Wen Dinglan given them any prior warning that she was going to dance herself?

What was even more baffling: Wen Dinglan danced, danced—and then made her way toward Jiang Shunyao?

“One song, one dance—might this be enough to catch your eye, my lord?”

Wen Dinglan’s lips moved gently, her breath fragrant as orchids. Her sudden closeness left Jiang Shunyao flustered and disoriented.

He hadn’t yet drunk any wine, and yet his cheeks flushed as though he were drunk already.

The guests were watching him, and the beauty was watching him—he had to respond somehow.

Trying to appear composed, Jiang Shunyao raised the poisoned wine cup and held it between them like a barrier. “Your song haunts the dreams, your dance stuns the world.”

Wen Dinglan paid no mind to his compliments—her sole purpose was to save this unlucky soul. “Then may I ask, my lord—could you grant me this Scholar’s Wine?”

Her meaning was clear: she wanted only the wine cup and wine jug at his place.

The guests laughed teasingly, joking that the newly crowned top scholar had already won a beauty’s heart.

Jiang Shunyao’s throat bobbed as he swallowed nervously. He was completely unfamiliar with situations like this and wasn’t sure whether or not to grant Wen Dinglan’s request.

“My lord?” Wen Dinglan pressed again, clearly unwilling to let him off the hook, determined to get his wine.

Across the table, Che Kuiyuan grew jealous and flustered. He called out repeatedly, “Lovely Dinglan, marvelous Dinglan, I’ve got wine too! How’s mine any worse than that Scholar’s Wine of his?”

Wen Dinglan ignored Che Kuiyuan completely, her gaze soft and seductive, fixed only on Jiang Shunyao.

Would he give her the wine—or not?

Wen Dinglan didn’t wait for his answer. Boldly, she took matters into her own hands.

She stopped playing, still holding her zither as she stepped even closer, so close that Jiang Shunyao instinctively leaned backward. But he leaned so far that he hit the back of his chair—he had nowhere left to retreat.

Her delicate, unstrung fingers flirted with the moment, brushing the peak of Jiang Shunyao’s wrist.

The touch was both ambiguous and suggestive, stirring feelings of springtime infatuation. And in Jiang Shunyao’s dazed moment, she snatched the wine cup from him.

Jiang Shunyao thought she was going to drink it—toast in front of all the guests and down it in one gulp.

But she didn’t.

Wen Dinglan’s move was far more seductive—and far more shocking.

She tilted the cup and slowly poured it out. The poisoned wine touched no lips—it instead flowed over her treasured zither.

The surrounding guests thought this was just another novelty from the Pavilion of Melodic Strings. Their laughter and cheers didn’t cease.

But Jiang Shunyao saw clearly, understood fully—

That wine was laced with rot and acid. The moment it hit the zither, it corroded the strings in an instant, snapping them with a force impossible to ignore.

The sharp twang of broken strings was masked beneath the audience’s cheers.

Thanks to Wen Dinglan’s life-saving gesture, Jiang Shunyao could finally see the truth.

He no longer blushed or stammered. Instead, his expression turned solemn and composed.

Because no matter who you are—when faced with the brink of life and death, there’s no smiling through it.