Chapter 21 - 4#

However, in recent days, they have frequently encountered setbacks.

Two officials died suddenly at home, and the reason is unknown. One even died of a heart attack during sex.

A team of craftsmen who were supposed to be sent to the south all disappeared, and all the escorts were killed.

Three shops in the capital suddenly caught fire at night, burning all the goods… and intelligence to ashes.

And so on, and so on.

These all caused a lot of losses to the Prince Rui’s mansion.

These advisors were naturally sharp and immediately realized that this was the work of Emperor Jingyuan. Originally, they had rushed back to the mansion for this matter.

But they never expected that Prince Rui would be assassinated!

When the news reached the palace, the Empress Dowager almost destroyed half of the Palace of Longevity and Health.

The ground was littered with fragments, and many palace servants knelt down one after another. Even her most trusted female officials knelt on the fragments in pain.

Concubine Xu was terrified and sat on a chair, her face pale.

The Empress Dowager was panting, her eyes were red, and she slammed her palm on the table. She didn’t even feel her nails break. The way she gritted her teeth was as if she wanted to eat Emperor Jingyuan.

If the emperor appeared in front of her now, she was afraid that she could tear him apart alive.

“Bitch, bitch, I shouldn’t have left this bastard’s life in the first place.” The Empress Dowager hissed, “How dare he harm my son’s life!”

She waved her hand and threw away all the remaining teapots on the table. The hot tea splashed up and soaked the carpet.

The Empress Dowager bit her lip hard. Sure enough, only that madwoman, the Cishou Empress Dowager, could give birth to a madman like Helian Rong!

Cruel and cold, ruthless and heartless, and even more heartless!

The entire Palace of Longevity and Health was almost smashed to pieces by the Empress Dowager.

But it was not enough to vent the Empress Dowager’s anger.

…

The next day, when Prince Rui went to court, the wounds on his neck and arms, and his weak appearance of being unable to walk without being supported…

It was really frightening to see.

A censor came out and said, “Your Majesty, Prince Rui is seriously injured and his body is unwell. Why don’t you let him sit down and talk?”

Prince Rui was the victim, the unlucky one.

Emperor Jingyuan should have given him preferential treatment.

But the man on the throne just raised his eyebrows carelessly. His ink-black eyes stared at the censor who came out, and he said lazily, “Since you say so, then you can be Prince Rui’s chair.”

As soon as these words were spoken, two guards came out.

They quickly gagged the censor’s mouth, then took out a rope from somewhere, tied up the censor, and twisted him into a… shape that could be sat on.

Prince Rui’s face was particularly ugly.

Emperor Jingyuan looked at the human chair and looked at Prince Rui coldly.

“Prince Rui, he specially asked for this for you, why don’t you sit down?”

Prince Rui: “Your Majesty, why do you have to humiliate people like this? Censor Xu has worked hard for so many years, even if he has no credit…”

“Only hard work is a mistake in itself.” Emperor Jingyuan interrupted Prince Rui coldly, “If the money taken out of the national treasury every year is used to raise a group of guys who can’t do things and only have hard work, wouldn’t they all be wine bags and rice buckets!”

The Left Censor-in-Chief, Shen Zikun, coughed lightly and said in a loud voice, “Your Majesty, can we discuss Censor Xu’s problem later? Right now, the most important thing is that Prince Rui was assassinated on the street yesterday. This is a major matter, and I ask Your Majesty not to be distracted.”

In the court, Shen Zikun rarely got a good face from Emperor Jingyuan.

However, when he spoke, Emperor Jingyuan could listen to him more or less.

Then, the official in charge of investigating this matter naturally turned pale and had to bite the bullet and come out to report the current situation.

There were eight assassins who tried to kill Prince Rui, and they all committed suicide by taking poison.

Nothing on their bodies could identify them.

And when they traced their previous hiding places, they found that if it weren’t for this assassination, they would have been ordinary people in this capital.

Extremely, extremely ordinary people.

They even took out their portraits, and immediately some people could identify who they were, where they came from, and where they lived.

And when these relationships were extended, no problems were found.

The neighbors had no problems. The relationships had no problems.

Everything was fine.

Except that they were all ordinary people who suddenly jumped out to assassinate Prince Rui today.

And they were all highly skilled experts.

“This is impossible. If they are really highly skilled, how could they not be found out at all?”

“Yes, practicing martial arts is not that easy.”

“It takes a lot of time to have such skills. How can ordinary people…”

Yes, how could it be?

Prince Rui was supported by someone and slowly looked up at Emperor Jingyuan on the throne.

Emperor Jingyuan was lazily listening to the courtiers arguing below. He was always so careless, his cold face rarely looked down, and his half-closed eyelids sometimes made people think he was asleep.

Now, Prince Rui’s gaze seemed to have attracted his attention.

Emperor Jingyuan lowered his head slightly and accurately captured Prince Rui’s line of sight.

A strange emotion burned in the man’s black eyes, surging with viscous malice. A superior smile appeared on his beautiful face, but it did not suppress the violent killing intent pouring out of his body.

Prince Rui shivered.

Emperor Jingyuan was excited.

The tyrannical emotion rested in his eyebrows and eyes, and the rich color added more beauty to his cold white skin. He stared at Prince Rui coldly, as if death was following him like a shadow.

Prince Rui swallowed hard… What’s going on? In his previous life, Emperor Jingyuan wasn’t this crazy, was he?

No matter how unrestrained he was, he should know the consequences of this behavior.

But now it seems that Emperor Jingyuan’s attitude towards him is already a fight to the death!

The disputes in the court could not immediately solve Prince Rui’s problem.

The emperor exempted Prince Rui from attending court, let him rest at home, and perfunctorily sent a lot of medicine.

From Emperor Jingyuan’s attitude, the courtiers keenly sensed the emperor’s dislike for Prince Rui.

This dislike was particularly glaring compared to the previous neglect.

This change in attitude was not only guessed by Prince Rui, but they also had worries.

After all, many officials had had dealings with Prince Rui.

After the court session, Emperor Jingyuan sat on the imperial carriage, closing his eyes to rest.

Ning Hongru said quickly in a low voice, “The Empress Dowager has invited the noble consort to the Palace of Longevity and Health again, but these few meetings, the Empress Dowager has been very cautious and has not even left a single person by her side.”

Emperor Jingyuan said “hmm” faintly.

Ning Hongru became quiet again.

In his opinion, the changes in Emperor Jingyuan in these few months were undoubtedly surprising, but on second thought, they were not necessarily untraceable.

Only those who served Emperor Jingyuan closely knew that for so many years, the emperor had never let anyone get close to him.

Not before, and even less so after ascending the throne.

The late emperor’s actions were disgusting.

And all things related to this naturally became taboo.

Not to mention having desires.

The Empress Dowager desperately tried to put people by the emperor’s side, and the emperor treated the harem as a fighting arena.

When he was in a rare mood, he would go to a few palaces, praise a few who were pleasing to the eye, and when he was unhappy, he would let them be smashed to pieces.

Emperor Jingyuan had always been like this.

Those he liked, no, it didn’t even have to be to the point of liking, even those who were pleasing to the eye, might attract destruction.

What Ning Hongru was thankful for was that Emperor Jingyuan still had some thin face for those of them who were useful, and could still endure that violent killing intent.

But what about those people in the harem… they were toys.

The toys were broken, destroyed, and shattered.

Isn’t that normal?

But what Ning Hongru never expected was that Emperor Jingyuan would actually pick up a toy that he liked in this harem, and even play the game of hiding his identity.

After playing with it for a long time, it was still not broken.

Not only was it not broken, but it was also alive and kicking, and extremely energetic.

When Ning Hongru was investigating Jingzhe, he couldn’t help but sigh. How could one person have so many things happen to him, attract so much attention, and still be alive now?

Emperor Jingyuan cared about him.

He was no longer just a mere toy.

Under Emperor Jingyuan’s cold and violent temperament, he barely had a restrained skin. Even though this skin was full of holes and was always on the verge of collapse, he did not do whatever he wanted.

Let Jingzhe still live well.

When they arrived at the Qianming Palace, Emperor Jingyuan entered the hall and left a sentence.

“No need to follow.”

Ning Hongru stood still outside, looked up at the sky outside, the sky was as blue as if it had been washed, and it was the time when the sun was brilliant.

He knew where His Majesty was going.

He also knew why Emperor Jingyuan wanted to attack Prince Rui.

To hit a snake, you have to hit its vital point. What the Empress Dowager cared about most was Prince Rui’s life. This was her lifeblood.

Who let the Empress Dowager touch the “toy” that Emperor Jingyuan liked?

…

All kinds of movements about Jingzhe were constantly flowing into the Qianming Palace, and Rong Jiu had already memorized them by heart.

So, turn right three steps here.

Then walk two more steps.

This is the place where Jingzhe will be after he finishes his work.

It belongs to the Zhidian Division, but there are not many people.

It was the secret treasure land that Yunkui told him.

Today, it was the same.

He sat under the tree, slowly chewing on a steamed bun.

It’s strange, Jingzhe blinked and said to himself, “Do I like him that much?”

To the point where he could have hallucinations?

How could he see Rong Jiu here?

The beautiful, handsome, cold white face, the tall and strong body, the smooth and tight waist and abdomen, and the elegant posture that was immersed in the bone marrow, like an illusion, just crashed into his eyes, making him unable to look away.

It’s not fake.

It was Rong Jiu who came to find him.

I like him so much.

Jingzhe’s eyes were sparkling.

I like him so much, so much.

He ran up and crashed into Rong Jiu’s arms.

Like a lively little dog, he bravely crashed into him.

So impulsive.

He didn’t even think about what to do if Rong Jiu pushed him away.

He stood on tiptoe and hugged Rong Jiu’s neck, not noticing that two strong arms were holding his waist, and said very seriously:

“Rong Jiu, I like you so much.”

To the point where, even though I know there won’t be a good result in the future, I don’t want to let go.