“Were you angry just now?” Feng Zhi Wei asked by her ear.
“Very angry.” Gu Zhi Xiao said in a serious tone and nodded decisively to show the seriousness of the situation.
“I’ll give you a way to vent your anger.” Feng Zhi Wei whispered, “Well, you go and accompany that little jerk. Don’t get angry yet. Listen to me. I will arrange for someone to protect you. You don’t need to be afraid of anyone bullying you. You can bully him as much as you can. Seriously, stepping on our Gu Zhi Xiao. They don’t want to live anymore?”
The unscrupulous aunty shamelessly whispered those provoking words until the three-year-old’s eyes lit up with excitement.
“Don’t take the monkey, but you can take the cae and your owl Xiaoqi.” Feng Zhi Wei said, “You and I modified the cage together. You should know what kills and what just scares people. Remember, it’s fine to scare people, but you must not kill. If something happens to you, it will also harm your father, understand?”
“Understood.” Gu Zhi Xiao immediately nodded solemnly, “Won’t harm father.”
“No.” This time it was Gu Nan Yi who spoke, “Can’t let her be alone.”
Feng Zhi Wei stood on tippytoe and whispered something in his ear. Master Gu frowned, looked at Feng Zhi Wei with puzzlement, but didn’t say anything more.
Hearing that Gu Nan Yi couldn’t stay, Gu Zhi Xiao immediately changed her mind and said, “No, want to stay with father.”
Feng Zhi Wei bent down and also whispered something in her ear. Gu Zhi Xiao’s eyes blinked a few times and promptly stopped talking.
The father and daughter looked at each other, wondering what Feng Zhi Wei had said to the other that had suddenly caused the other person to become so good-natured. Before they could talk to each other, Feng Zhi Wei had already picked up Gu Zhi Xiao and put her swiftly into the arms of the nanny who had been standing behind the emperor.
The nanny was the one who had held the emperor before. She had been standing in the corner the whole time, staring at Gu Zhi Xiao intently. Despite being a very experienced palace nanny, the woman was still frozen with stunned surprise when Feng Zhi Wei suddenly stuffed Gu Zhi Xiao into her arms. Feng Zhi Wei smiled at her, pointed at Gu Zhi Xiao, and said, “Please take care of her, nanny.”
The nanny stretched out her hand, hugged the somewhat awkward Gu Zhi Xiao, and subconsciously nodded.
Feng Zhi Wei led the envoy team to bid goodbye to the Regent. The Regent escorted them all the way out of Changping Palace. When they arrived at the door, they each got into their carriages. Feng Zhi Wei lifted the curtain amid the rumbling of the carriages, and sure enough, she saw that the carriage of Grand Marshal Lu Rui was also travelling on the same path as hers.
She smiled at Lu Rui through the curtain and said, “Grand Marshal, just now in the palace, your ability to drink thoroughly impressed this marquis. Judging by your appearance, I am afraid you can go another hundred drink rounds without any difficulty. Could I be so daring as to ask the Grand Marshal to teach me a thing or two?”
“Why not?” Lu Rui gave her a side glance that was as tender and charming as a woman, “Not far ahead is my residence. The marquis could come and continue the previous feast?”
The two of them laughed in their respective carriages, filling the air with their unsaid taunting dare. The two carriages followed one after another towards the direction of Grand Marshal Manor.
Getting off the carriage and walking into the inner courtyard, Lu Rui’s demeanor was completely different from the one he had back in the palace. His lazy and arrogant expression turned to one of solemnness. People kept coming out to salute him from all directions, and then retreated silently at his gesture. It can be seen that the Lu Manor is extremely well guarded and trained.
After entering the inner study and then the secret room of the inner study, it was then that Lu Rui bowed deeply, saying, “Marquis Wei, I apologize for offending you before.”
Feng Zhi Wei returned the bow and said with a smile, “Why was the Grand Marshal so arrogant at first but so respectful now?”
“Arrogance, because there was no choice in that circumstance.” Lu Rui said with a smile, “Respect now because Marquis Wei deserves it.”
“Oh?” Feng Zhi Wei smiled, “The Grand Marshal is the right-hand man of the Regent and the most important minister in Xiliang. Why would there need to be so cautious as to put on a show in public? And what merits have I accomplished to deserve the Grand Marshal’s bow?”
“Marquis Wei probably is not willing to trust me.” Lu Rui gave a wry smile, “Yes, I know my own reputation of being a treacherous minister, but it’s of no importance to me and not worth mentioning. Today I dared to invite Marquis Wei here, it was really just to ask one question.”
“Please speak.”
“Rumor has it that the adopted daughter of Marquis Wei was found by chance at a pier in the South Sea?” Lu Rui looked a little anxious, “Could Marquis Wei tell me where your daughter was found? What was the situation at that time? Are there any marks on her?”
Gu Nan Yi, who had been sitting silently drinking tea, suddenly looked up. Feng Zhi Wei just smiled with indifference and said, “Why is the Grand Marshal inquiring about this?”
Lu Rui stared at her for a bit before nodding with resignation, “If I don’t explain things clearly, I think Marquis Wei would not tell me the truth no matter what. In that case, I will venture to tell a secret of Xiliang court. I imagine with the kind person Marquis Wei is, the secret would not be told to a fourth person.”
Feng Zhi Wei smiled and replied, “The Grand Marshal would naturally not make any mistakes when it comes to judging people.”
Lu Rui gave a helpless glance at the eighteen-year-old marquis who was as slippery as a glass egg. He slowly took a sip of his tea, checked the doors and windows on all four sides again, and then sat back down.
The candlelight in the dark room was dim, flickering and trembling, making the man’s face, which was as fair as a woman’s, appear dim and darkened even as his eyes sparkled with the light of melancholy.
Seemingly trying to come up with the right words, or to calm the tumultuous emotions in his heart, he waited a long moment before he finally spoke slowly, “The story began at the end of the seventeenth year of Xiliang…”
=================
The lights in the secret room of the Xiliang Grand Marshal’s manor were dim as the three people sat and listened to a secret story that could not be made public.
In contrast, the lights in the study of the Tiansheng Chu Manor of Prince Chu were bright. His Royal Highness Prince Chu was still working on the documents on his desk late into the night.
The servants tiptoed in and out, for fear of disturbing His Highness while he was pondering on important affairs of the empire.
His Highness was indeed pondering on important affairs, but they had nothing to do with the empire.
The five-petal lotus palace lantern on the desk was bright, illuminating a thin brocade bag with seven layers of sealing wax that completely encased it. One glance at how well and tightly the thing was sealed, anyone would think it was a top-secret military report that would affect the very existence of the empire. (How many layer of seal indicates how important the document is)
Under the lamp, Ning Yi supported his forehead with one hand while staring at the brocade bag, a bit speechless as he thought to himself that Ning Cheng was getting worse and worse. Even if the matter relating to Feng Zhi Wei needed to be tightly sealed and rushed through a special channel for 800 miles, there was no need to use seven coats of sealing wax, right? What if some faction had mistaken it to be some top military secret and tried to take it away with all their might?
His Royal Highness Prince Chu silently complained for quite a while before he finally reached out and weighed the brocade bag in his hand and immediately frowned again– so heavy? He had just asked him to compile a summary of important matters relating to Feng Zhi Wei, but did the guy take that to mean he wanted a novel?
He had a bad feeling about this. Standing up, he closed the windows before returning to his seat at the desk to open the brocade bag.
The moment the brocade bag opened, a book fell right out of it. The papers were neatly stapled, and there was even a cover made of hemp paper. What’s more, there is even a picture on the said cover. The color was daring, and the brushwork was creative. It took Ning Yi a long while before he finally figured out under the picture of a cockfighting cock that had no refinement to it at all was Ning Cheng’s crookedly written title of the book “The Grand Record of the Dream of Xiliang”.
After staring at that cover and title, Ning Yi almost threw the masterpiece to the ground. After another long bit, he finally summoned up all of his patience to open it.
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I can’t wait for Ning Yi’s reaction to Ning Cheng’s report!