Arrival at Ping Cheng
On the tenth day of the third month, the six kingdoms set out and returned to their capitals.
The sky was only just beginning to brighten. Emperor Hongjia, dressed in imperial robes, led the assembled crowd in seeing them off on the official road outside the traveling palace. Everyone had risen early. After waiting a while, the rulers of the six kingdoms arrived one after another.
Emperor Hongjia exchanged a few words with them, then walked to the Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu. “Ruler of Chu, has the Crown Prince recovered?”
The Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu did not look well. His face was swollen, and dark circles lay beneath his eyes. “Many thanks for Your Majesty’s concern. Zhang’er has already awakened. It is only that he suffered too great a fright and cannot come to take leave of Your Majesty.”
“No matter, no matter.” Emperor Hongjia waved a magnanimous hand and gave his assurance at the same time. “Ruler of Chu may set his mind at ease. Zhen will certainly discover the culprit behind the attack on the young men this time and give all of you an explanation.”
After hearing this, the Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu sneered inwardly without cease. There were not many with a grudge against the Kingdom of Chu who could beat his son into such a state. He knew very well who it was.
He cast a covert glance toward Lu Ronghuai, and his eyelid twitched violently.
“This sovereign trusts His Majesty.”
Emperor Hongjia put on an air of warmth and patted the Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu on the shoulder, hinting, “After Ruler of Chu returns, do not forget the important matter.”
The Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu did not say much more. “Your Majesty may rest assured.”
Emperor Hongjia laughed heartily and even had someone present the Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu with a box of treasures, saying it was recompense for Crown Prince Chu’s injuries.
The other five rulers exchanged looks. Each saw in the others’ eyes that there was something unusual in this.
The Ruler of the Kingdom of Yu stood beside the Ruler of the Kingdom of Duan. Seeing Emperor Hongjia and the Ruler of the Kingdom of Chu talking and laughing together, he said with disdain, “We all said that old Chu had suffered a great loss on this trip, yet looking at the situation now, perhaps the ones kept in the dark are us.”
“The Kingdom of Chu has linked itself with the Kingdom of Lu behind our backs. This is treachery,” the Ruler of the Kingdom of Shi also said.
“We shall speak of it after we return,” the Ruler of Kang Kingdom said quietly.
Before long, the rulers of the six kingdoms boarded their carriages and departed with their officials and young nobles.
Emperor Hongjia stood atop the high platform and watched into the distance. Only after the last line of soldiers had disappeared from sight did he clap his hands and laugh aloud.
“Convey Zhen’s verbal decree. See the baggage packed. We return to the capital within the hour.”
He had only just spoken these words when a fast horse came charging out from the end of another winding path.
“What is the meaning of this?” Han Zheng, Minister of Rites, looked at the suddenly appearing rider, startled and suspicious.
“Report! Urgent dispatch from Ping Cheng!”
The messenger on horseback galloped to the foot of the high platform, hurriedly dismounted, and knelt on the ground with the letter raised in both hands, shouting himself hoarse at Emperor Hongjia.
Emperor Hongjia caught only the words “urgent dispatch” and could not hear the rest clearly. He immediately led the others down from the platform and came before the messenger.
“What did you say?” Emperor Hongjia asked.
The messenger replied, “Reporting to Your Majesty, urgent dispatch from Ping Cheng. Prince Qi led five thousand elite soldiers into the mountains to sweep out the bandits, but encountered a mountain slide. Prince Qi and the five thousand elite soldiers were all buried within the mountain. Their lives or deaths are unknown!”
The crowd erupted at once.
Noble Consort Fang cried out, “Jun’er,” before she fainted away.
The Empress ordered people to carry Consort Fang back to her sleeping chamber. General Fang Xinhai of the Southern Guard then led his son and daughter to kneel before Emperor Hongjia. “Your Majesty, please issue the order. This subject will depart for Ping Cheng at once to search for and rescue Prince Qi!”
Emperor Hongjia’s mind remained numb for quite some time. Only when Fang Xinhai called out to him did he come back to himself, grief showing on his face.
He took the letter from the messenger’s hands and read through it quickly. The last shred of hope in his heart was extinguished as well.
To travel from Ping Cheng to Ye Jing by carriage required more than half a month. The messenger had ridden back at urgent speed, and even so, seven or eight days had already been spent on the road. In other words, Prince Qi had already been buried in the mountain for seven or eight days.
Could anyone still be alive?
Everyone present was thinking the same thing, yet no one dared say it aloud.
Fang Xinhai understood it as well. Prince Qi’s odds were grim. Yet this was not only an imperial prince, but his own nephew. He had to go himself and confirm whether he lived or died.
“Your Majesty!”
Emperor Hongjia closed his eyes and nodded wearily. “General Fang Xinhai of the Southern Guard will depart for Ping Cheng at once. Find Prince Qi for Zhen. If he lives, bring back the man. If he has died, bring back the corpse.”
“Father Emperor,” the Crown Prince came forward and said sorrowfully, “allow Third Brother to accompany the General.”
Fang Xinhai cast a dark gaze toward the Crown Prince. “What does Crown Prince mean by this?”
The Crown Prince sensed the hidden anger in Fang Xinhai’s tone yet pretended not to notice. He then turned to Emperor Hongjia and explained with a mournful look,
“General Fang Xinhai of the Southern Guard is specially charged with finding Eldest Brother, but the bandits of Ping Cheng have not yet been pacified and remain a hidden danger. Third Brother is rich in battle experience. It would be better to let him sweep away the bandits and thoroughly resolve the troubles of Ping Cheng.”
What the Crown Prince said was reasonable, Emperor Hongjia calculated inwardly.
He could not lose one son and five thousand soldiers, only to fail in the end to catch even the bandits. If word of that spread, the whole realm would laugh at him.
“Very well. It shall be as the Crown Prince says. General Fang Xinhai of the Southern Guard and Third son will go together. Once each of you has completed your own task, then return.”
At this moment Fang Xinhai’s heart held only one thought, to find Prince Qi as quickly as possible. As soon as he heard Emperor Hongjia’s permission, he rose at once with his son and daughter and returned to make preparations for departure.
“Third son?” Emperor Hongjia looked all around for Lu Ronghuai.
Lu Ronghuai answered, “Mm.”
He stood neither too far nor too near, holding Chu Yuan’s hand. After hearing Emperor Hongjia’s words, he reached up and touched Chu Yuan’s earlobe.
“Come, it is time for us to go.” The two walked back hand in hand.
Only then did Chu Yuan understand. So the outing Lu Ronghuai had mentioned the night before was in fact a trip to Ping Cheng.
Even so, he still had doubts.
“Could it be that Your Highness can foretell the future?” On the road, Chu Yuan tilted his head and spoke teasingly.
Lu Ronghuai put on a mysterious air. “I know how to read palms. Thus I saw that Lu Rongjun would suffer this calamity.”
Chu Yuan: “...”
His expression of speechless exasperation must have been particularly vivid, because Lu Ronghuai dissolved into laughter.
“Truly. I also saw that he is fated to have no sons.”
Chu Yuan refuted him. “Prince Qi only recently gained an auspicious son. Has Your Highness forgotten?”
“That child is not his.” He spoke in an easy tone.
Chu Yuan was stunned. “...Then whose child is it?”
“Who knows?”
Lu Ronghuai curled his lip. When he had discovered the matter in his previous life, Prince Qi had already chopped both the child and the favored concubine into pieces no larger than bean curd. Not to mention clues, not even scraps remained.
Seeing the look on his face, Chu Yuan felt that the chances were greater that this man was making up lies to fool him. He simply stretched out his own hand and held it before Lu Ronghuai, intending to stir up trouble.
“Then Your Highness may read this subject’s palm as well.”
Lu Ronghuai lowered his gaze to the pale, slender hand held out before him. The palm was white enough to dazzle the eyes. Without the least hesitation he caught hold of it and took the chance to stroke it several times.
Chu Yuan glared at him.
Lu Ronghuai only smiled. “Ah-Yuan’s palm is exceptionally fine. You will enjoy great wealth and noble fortune all your life, with joy and freedom from care. There is also a fine husband who dotes on you dearly. Truly enough to make others die of envy.”
“You have not even looked!” Chu Yuan really was amused into anger.
“This Prince has looked many times before. This Prince has even kissed it.” As he spoke, he raised Chu Yuan’s hand and kissed it once.
Chu Yuan pushed him.
Three paces behind them, Xian Shuang and Xian Feng let out a heavy breath.
Xian Feng said, “When will Xian Yu and Le Shu join up with us?”
The days of watching the Prince and Prince Consort display affection were too hard to endure. He would rather go stay over there with Xian Yue.
Xian Shuang replied, “Two days.”
Xian Feng said, “Excellent. Let us hold on.”
Xian Shuang said, “Mm.”
After the group returned, everything had already been packed. Xian Feng and the others loaded the baggage behind the carriage. Xian Shuang then drove the carriage, while Xian Feng rode beside it on horseback. The four of them headed straight toward Ping Cheng.
Fang Xinhai had set out before them. Lu Ronghuai also had no intention of traveling together with such an unpleasant fellow. In that regard, the two happened to think alike.
The carriage departed the traveling palace. After two days on the road, they joined up with Xian Yu and Le Shu, and then the group continued onward toward Ping Cheng.
The days on the road were not dull. Besides changing Lu Ronghuai’s medicine on time every day, Chu Yuan also had to watch over him and make sure he drank his medicine.
He had not known before, but the famous Prince Li was actually afraid of drinking medicine.
This was the first time Chu Yuan had encountered such an uncooperative patient. Every time he coaxed him into drinking the medicine, it took half a shichen.
Xian Feng secretly told him that after the assassination on New Year’s Eve, Prince Li had drunk medicine only once after waking up. After that he had not taken so much as a drop, and had stubbornly relied on his own powerful constitution to pull through.
A certain someone even argued with full confidence, “Even if I do not drink medicine, I will still recover.”
Chu Yuan parted his lips calmly. “Very well. Then if this subject falls ill in the future, this subject will follow Your Highness’s example and not drink medicine either.”
“...”
It was as though his seven-inch vital point had been seized at once. After that, Lu Ronghuai could only pinch his nose and drink the medicine obediently, though unwillingly.
Every time he finished it, he would look at Chu Yuan with a bitter and grievous face. Chu Yuan would smile and feed him a candied fruit to soothe a certain great tiger full of grievance.
Lu Ronghuai would catch hold of him and kiss him, taking revenge by making him taste the bitterness as well.
The two played and bickered all the way, arriving at Ping Cheng at the end of the third month.
The Prefect of Ping Cheng personally came to receive them at the city gate and escorted Prince Li and the Prince Consort into the city.
The Prefect had originally wished for Prince Li to stay at his own residence. Prince Li, however, disliked the fact that he had too many wives and concubines in the house and found it excessively ill-omened, ordering him instead to find a quiet and elegant separate residence.
In the end, the Prefect found the residence of a wealthy merchant and invited them to stay there.
After Prince Li and the others had been settled, the Prefect said with a face full of smiles, “This official has specially prepared a welcoming banquet for Your Highness and the Prince Consort. Your Highness and the Prince Consort may rest for half the day this afternoon, and tonight this official will host a feast to wash away the dust of your journey.”
Lu Ronghuai waved a hand. “Understood. You may withdraw.”
The Prefect respectfully backed out the gate, watching as the doors of the residence closed before his eyes.
Once the gate was shut, he slowly straightened his back, and all smile vanished from his face.
The servant walking beside him asked, “My lord, since Prince Li is willing to attend the banquet, why are you still displeased?”
The Prefect narrowed his eyes and turned toward home. “This official feels somewhat uneasy. That Highness... is difficult to read.”
The servant said, “This lowly one thinks he cares greatly for that beautiful male wife. My lord may as well curry a little favor with the Prince Consort.”
“Mm. Send two men to keep watch here in secret. Pay close attention to their movements at all times.”
“Yes, my lord.”
“How goes matters on General Fang’s side?” the Prefect asked as he walked.
“They are still digging for people in the mountains. It is only...” The servant covered his mouth and snickered. “What if they dig him out? At most it will be a corpse.”
The Prefect rebuked him, “Watch your measure. Do not speak too much.”
The servant shrank his head and answered resentfully that he understood.
“Now Prince Li has arrived as well, and Prince Qi’s life or death is still unknown. If you do not wish your head moved from your neck, speak less nonsense, or this official will not be able to protect you!”
“Yes, yes, yes. This lowly one understands. This lowly one’s mouth is tightly sealed.”
“Have those dancing girls and musicians been prepared?”
“They have all been prepared properly.”
“What of Xue Yingying?”
“My lord may rest assured.”
“Good. Go once more and inform those people that tonight they are all to attend the banquet. Not one is permitted to be late!”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
The Prefect: Have Xue Yingying win over Prince Li.
Lu dog: Prince Li has already been won over by Chu Yuanyuan.
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