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Chapter 898, Part 2: King Manor’s Secret

The empress was speechless. No matter how much she flaunted her strong will, she almost broke down under those words.

Zu An thought to himself, Don’t try these tricks with me. If you knew I really said that in front of the emperor not too long ago, you might just faint from shock!

“Your highness, what’s happened in the capital while I was gone?” he asked. He had been brought into the palace and kept there ever since he left the dungeon. He had no idea what was happening outside of the palace.

Without enough intelligence, it was easy to create errors in judgment. But who knew better about what was happening outside the palace than the empress herself?

“Is this empress not beautiful enough? You can still afford to think about these matters?” The empress harrumphed. However, she still replied, “After you all went into the dungeon, King Qi Manor’s side seemed to be pretty confident, while his majesty’s side was struggling to look calm. Even though I don’t know what kind of trump cards both sides were hiding, I’m more inclined to trust his majesty. Zhao Jing can’t win against him.”

Zu An nodded in deep sympathy. Zhao Han really was an old fox. He had fooled everyone from start to end. If not because they had just happened to encounter Westhound Tomb, Zu An would already be a pile of bones right now.

The empress said with a cold snort, “Then, something happened to the dungeon. The libationer personally concluded that the elements inside collapsed. King Qi Manor’s people appeared to be grieving on the surface, but they actually almost burst out laughing in joy.” As someone from the crown prince’s very family, she clearly didn’t have a good impression of King Qi.

“His majesty acted quite weirdly in that period. I’ve never seen him so panicked before. Even though he did everything he could to hide it, he could fool others, but how could he fool me?” the empress remarked confidently. After all, the two of them had been married for so many years, so she understood him best.

“His majesty’s mood has been quite poor. Many of the lesser eunuchs who served him disappeared for some reason. I heard that they were executed because of some small mistakes.” The empress frowned. “Only when you all exited the dungeon safely did his mood improve a bit, but even then, it was just a bit. I can still feel the wrath he’s holding in.”

Zu An thought, How can he not be mad? His split soul was destroyed in the dungeon for some reason. His eternal life project failed at the final step!

“Is there anything else? Did anything major happen in the capital?” Zu An asked.

“Your return was the biggest event already.” The empress didn’t really understand why Zu An was so concerned with that, but after thinking about it for a bit, she said, “Apart from this, there were several times where our men had conflicts with King Qi Manor’s people. Zhuxie Chixin wasn’t there either, so many people died. The Chu clan’s little young master kept asking after his brother-in-law day and night, as if he were some girl. No wonder the Chu clan has declined; all of them are wusses. The previous minister Sang Hong’s clan returned to the capital. His majesty used to trust him greatly, and he seems to be summoning him from time to time to discuss some things…”

She talked about many of the things that had happened in the capital in the meantime. Many of those things really were insignificant compared to the dungeon’s events.

Zu An was surprised and remarked, “So Sang Hong came back.” A bright and beautiful face suddenly appeared in his mind. Didn’t this mean that Zheng Dan had also come back?

“I almost forgot that the two of you had a bit of a grudge in the past.” The empress chuckled. “Sang Hong helped the emperor take care of many dirty things back then. It might be his reputation that he’ll have no successors. But this might not necessarily be a bad thing. When he was a subject, everyone wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible. Now that he has no one inheriting his legacy, they don’t think of him as much of a threat. Furthermore, with a pretty daughter and a beautiful daughter-in-law, there are quite a few people who are paying more attention to them.”

“Sang Hong is the emperor’s trusted aide, after all. He seems to be making a comeback now too. Will those people really dare to act recklessly?” Zu An asked with a bit of confusion.

The empress explained, “A rags to riches clan like the Sang clan doesn’t have as much backing as the other great clans. After messing up his mission in Brightmoon City, the Sang clan suffered a fatal blow. Furthermore, for some reason, the warriors the Sang clan raised for all these years disappeared overnight. Without that force, why would those young masters fear the Sang clan?

“Many people in the capital believe that Sang Hong has tacitly agreed to this as well, that he actually wants to marry his daughter off as quickly as possible. This way, he can rebuild the Sang clan’s former glory.

“But those great clans aren’t stupid. Sang Hong’s daughter comes from a family that isn’t all that impressive, and the Sang clan carries too many grudges with other clans. No one wants to take the Sang clan’s young miss in as their main wife. However, she’s just too stunning, so it doesn’t seem right to take her in as a concubine. The reason why so many people are being so careful is because they want to get a buy one get one free deal. After all, the Sang clan’s widowed daughter-in-law is also a genuine beauty.”

Zu An snorted. “There’s no need for you to try and test me with these things. The Sang clan and I were detained together on our way to the capital, and we developed some camaraderie along the way. If I can help them, I’ll naturally help them.”

“Tsk, you’re probably thinking the very same thing as those clans.” The empress sneered. Men were all up to no good.

“You’re overthinking it. How can the Sang clan let those people get their way? An upright gentleman like me obviously wouldn’t have those thoughts either,” Zu An said with a firm expression.

“You? An upright gentleman?” The empress had a strange look on her face. She really had the urge to spit on Zu An’s face at that instant.

“Ahem…” Zu An felt a bit guilty himself. He quickly changed the topic. “Was there anything else that happened?”

The empress slowly said, “There are some other things that happened. Something strange happened in King Qi Manor…”

Zu An waited for a long time, but she didn’t say anything else. He couldn’t help but ask, “And?”

The empress smiled. “Let me tell you a story first.”

Zu An was confused. What kind of story was she going to tell him now? But he still patiently listened.

“Once upon a time, there was a male dove and a female dove. Underneath them was a young sheep that was eating grass. Soon afterward, a big bad wolf came and ate the lamb. What do you think the female dove said to the male dove?” The empress’ eyes flickered with light. There was a mysterious charm in her expression.

Zu An vaguely recalled hearing this story from somewhere, but he replied with an unsure tone. “The lamb below has died?”

“Yup. Below… the lamb… died,” the empress repeated. However, her tone changed a bit. She laid down on the bed and hooked her fingers toward Zu An. She looked at him seductively.[1]

Zu An was speechless. How could he hold himself back, though? He pounced over.

Eunuch Lu’s eyes twitched as he listened to the moaning coming from inside. Then, he released a long sigh, as if something had been satisfied. He silently transferred his ki, sealing off the sound coming out of the room to prevent any guards from noticing anything.

…

Meanwhile, in the Eastern Palace, Bi Linglong tossed and turned about in bed. Her personal maid Rong Mo rubbed her drowsy eyes and came inside to check on her. “Crown princess, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing, I just can’t sleep for some reason. You should get some rest yourself,” Bi Linglong replied.

Rong Mo replied with an ‘oh’, then left while yawning.

Bi Linglong suddenly thought of something. She called out to Rong Mo and said, “Right, you can’t come in no matter what you hear later.”

“Why?” Rong Mo was a bit confused. Wasn’t it normal for her to care for the crown princess?

Bi Linglong blushed. She pretended to be angry and said, “I’m already having trouble sleeping, if you keep running in and out, it’ll become even harder!”

When Rong Mo saw her master get angry, she stuck out her tongue and said, “Alright, alright. I won’t disturb the crown princess anymore.”

Bi Linglong sighed in relief when she saw Rong Mo leave quickly and even close the door behind her. She moved her blankets and looked at the lock. After some hesitation, she still locked it.

However, after lying on the bed for a while, she suddenly reached out and unlocked it.

Just like that, sometimes it was open, and sometimes it was closed. She gradually fell asleep during this endless wait.

…

Meanwhile, the storm seemed to have reached a calm. There were fine beads of sweat hanging from the empress’ temples, and her hair was a bit damp. There was a happy and sweet smile on her face. When she sensed that her damaged meridians had obtained nourishment, that she hSad recovered a bit, her mood became even better.

“You really don’t know how to treat girls properly at all! I almost feel like I’m becoming a tool to vent your frustrations on.” Despite having said that, she didn’t sound angry at all.

“What, you don’t like it?” Zu An also felt refreshed. The pressure he had experienced while being chased by the emperor was so suffocating it was hard to even breathe, so he let everything go during this session.

“You’re really a bad man.” The empress laughed. “But this empress likes that sort of roughness.” A young lady might like someone who was gentler, but for a mature woman like her, she knew what it was that she needed.

“What happened in King Qi Manor?” Zu An didn’t want to talk about feelings with her for too long and immediately changed the topic.

“You still haven’t forgotten about that?” The empress was a bit unhappy, but she still said, “Whatever. Since you made this empress happy, then I’ll just tell you. Just treat it as your fee.”

Zu An had a strange look on his face. Judging from how proud she looked, he felt as if she were throwing some dollar bills at him after getting what she wanted.

“King Qi’s concubine suddenly lost her footing and fell into a pond a few days ago, drowning to death,” the empress said.

“How can that be?” Zu An was stunned. “What about the maids that were serving her?”

Even though that woman was a concubine, for better or for worse, she was King Qi’s concubine. Who knew how many people were serving her? Why would something like this happen?

“That’s what’s strange about it. It was rumored that she ran over to the pond in the middle of the night, so there were no maids to serve her.” The empress seemed rather happy about that disaster. “As for her death, there are a few rumors going around the capital. Some say that she really did accidentally lose her footing; some speculated that she was doing something wrong and was caught. Some others say that she saw a secret she shouldn’t have seen and was silenced… What do you think it is?”

“An affair?” Zu An asked probingly. She had run out alone in the middle of the night, so he couldn’t help but think of that.

“That’s what I thought at first too,” the empress said with a smile. “But Zhao Jing is pretty handsome and charming, so I really can’t imagine why his woman would look for someone else. Furthermore, who dares to have an affair with King Qi’s concubine in King Qi Manor? There’s definitely something more to this.”

Zu An suddenly had a strange look on his face. “In the eyes of others, I reckon that they would never expect their graceful and dignified empress to be doing what we just did, right?”

“You!” The empress was finally defeated. She pounced over and bit him…

. In Chinese, it sounds like ‘Below… itches… so much.’ ?