Chapter 47 - 2#

It was said to be a rest, but having just returned, how could one truly relax?

As soon as Jingzhe returned to the palace, he walked around a bit. After greeting Zheng Hong at the General Services Department, he went straight to the Imperial Kitchen.

Mingyu was very happy to see him.

Although he was curious about Jingzhe’s experiences in Shangyu Garden, the Imperial Kitchen wasn’t the place to talk. He led Jingzhe through various turns to his own quarters.

“Where is Sanshun?”

As soon as Jingzhe entered the room, he didn’t see Sanshun.

Mingyu: “Sanshun has good fortune. Chief Zhu took a liking to him and wanted him over as an attendant.”

Jingzhe was stunned, then smiled: “With his personality, that is indeed good.”

Mingyu poured water for Jingzhe: “Who says otherwise? Just look at Sanshun’s personality—stubborn. If someone treats him well, no matter who it is, he won’t betray them.”

Sanshun didn’t care about etiquette or worldly customs; he lived very honestly and transparently, caring only about the people he valued.

And he had strength.

For someone like him, following a good master, like Chen Mingde, and now following Zhu Erxi, was a good path.

Mingyu gestured for Jingzhe to sit: “About the matter you asked me to help with earlier, I asked around.”

Jingzhe frowned and took a sip of water.

“People in the Imperial Guard indeed know that Nanny Ming wasn’t killed by Gu worms. There was indeed a wound on her back, very smooth—a fatal wound.” Mingyu licked his lips. “However, it was chaotic at the time. To avoid trouble, this matter was covered up.”

Actually, in the palace, murder with a knife is a capital crime.

But with Gu worms involved, expediency prevailed. Many things were put aside, especially cases like this where cause and effect couldn’t be determined at all. They would be classified as unsolved cases, and no one would investigate them in detail.

Especially for someone like Nanny Ming. The person behind her was already hiding and covering up; they would never demand a strict investigation for the sake of a pawn.

Wouldn’t that expose themselves?

“What about the North Wing?”

“I checked. Neither Heye nor Handan knew who Nanny Ming went out to see that day. However, they both knew that every few days, Nanny Ming would go out once, taking no one with her. It had become a routine,” Mingyu said. “Also, the two new managers at the North Wing—one retired from Yongning Palace, and the other used to serve in the Empress Dowager’s palace but was demoted for a few years” before going to the North Wing.

Jingzhe raised an eyebrow: “Yongning Palace? Consort Kang? How could anyone retire from her place?”

Yongning Palace was a good place to be.

Consort Kang had a very good temper. Previously, Talented Lady Liu lived in her palace. Her temper was much worse than Consort Kang’s, so arrogant and domineering, yet Consort Kang tolerated her.

“Have you forgotten? Previously, when the Empress Dowager investigated the palace maids, wasn’t someone found in Yongning Palace having an affair?”

Jingzhe thought for a long while before recalling that such a thing had indeed happened, and Consort Kang had even fainted from anger.

“This nanny was originally the managing nanny of Yongning Palace. after such a big scandal, she should have been expelled. It was Consort Kang’s kindness that pleaded for her, allowing her to go to the North Wing to spend her old age in peace.”

Jingzhe pinched the bridge of his nose. If the North Wing had no further clues, he could only continue to work on the Imperial Guard?

“If you want to use this matter to find out who actually killed Nanny Ming, it might not be easy.”

Jingzhe looked up: “How so?”

Mingyu had gone through many twists and turns to find an acquaintance in the Imperial Guard to find out this much.

“Someone suppressed this matter.”

But one could only know that it was suppressed, not who suppressed it. The subordinates just did whatever the superiors said.

Jingzhe lowered his brows. This meant they weren’t allowed to investigate.

Actually, if he wanted to pursue it, it wasn’t impossible. He could just find Rong Jiu.

Rong Jiu definitely had more connections than him.

It’s just that thinking of Rong Jiu again, Jingzhe couldn’t help but show a pained expression.

Mingyu looked at him, then looked again.

“Did you quarrel with Rong Jiu?”

This person was sharp; he immediately noticed Jingzhe’s strange expression.

Jingzhe: “…No quarrel.”

When did he quarrel with Rong Jiu?

After that midnight horse ride, they hadn’t seen each other at all.

Mingyu: “If not a quarrel, then why do you look so weird?”

He looked at Jingzhe’s face suspiciously.

“No, you definitely quarreled!”

Jingzhe felt wronged: “I really didn’t.” He glanced at the closed doors and windows, then whispered what had happened earlier.

In Shangyu Garden, Jingzhe couldn’t find anyone to talk to, so naturally, he kept it to himself. No matter how good his relationship with Shien was, he couldn’t talk about these things.

Mingyu was a very good listener. Although his face twisted several times during the process, and it was unclear what his mood actually was, he listened to the end.

“…You just said that when the military camp was under martial law, Rong Jiu could still take you out to ride a horse?”

Finally waiting for Jingzhe to finish, Mingyu asked the first question with a strange expression.

Now, his expression was as strange as Jingzhe’s.

Jingzhe looked at Mingyu eagerly and nodded.

Mingyu: “Rong Jiu is definitely not just an ordinary imperial guard as he claims.”

He stated definitively, speaking very seriously.

That was a camp under martial law!

The Emperor was assassinated. How could an ordinary imperial guard bypass so many soldiers and successfully get out?

Not to mention, Rong Jiu brought another person!

Even if Jingzhe was asleep, such an attitude of coming and going freely was undoubtedly extraordinary.

Hearing Mingyu’s words, Jingzhe felt dejected.

He had actually realized it too.

Rong Jiu always glossed over his family background and didn’t speak in much detail. But if he really came from an ordinary background, how could he have such power?

Jingzhe believed that with Rong Jiu’s ability, it wouldn’t be hard to climb to a high position and become a high official who commanded respect.

But he was young.

Compared to the age required for such a position, Rong Jiu was simply too young. His family background, perhaps…

What concerned people most was the confusion hidden in Jingzhe’s heart.

What exactly was the relationship between Emperor Jingyuan and Rong Jiu?

Wuti was always a thorn in Jingzhe’s side.

After he left Shangyu Garden, Wuti couldn’t stay there either and returned to the palace with Jingzhe. It was now being kept in the palace stables.

Chen Changming had specifically instructed that Jingzhe didn’t need to worry about any of Wuti’s expenses; someone would naturally be responsible.

…How does that make one not worry!

Hearing this makes one worry even more!

A crazy and absurd thought had surfaced in Jingzhe’s mind. He dared not think about it in detail, but occasionally, in a sudden moment, it would strike fiercely, crushing him with immense hesitation.

Mingyu frowned and muttered to himself: “That night, Rong Jiu took you out, and after returning, His Majesty awarded you a good horse… This is indeed very strange.”

How could it be so precise? A reward given exactly at this juncture? It couldn’t possibly be compensation for the Cen family’s affairs from before, right?

There had already been one before.

That logic didn’t hold up.

Jingzhe nodded even more pitifully.

It really was scary and strange.

Mingyu looked down at him and amusedly found that Jingzhe had almost slid entirely under the table. His hands were clutching the edge of the table, his head resting on the back of his hands, looking at him with wet black eyes.

It made one’s hands itch, wanting to pet his puppy head.

“What on earth are you thinking about?” Mingyu laughed involuntarily. “You think, hahaha, do you feel that Rong Jiu might be related to… that person?”

He was too familiar with Jingzhe; one look and he knew what Jingzhe was thinking.

He laughed as he spoke. Before he could finish his sentence, he was already lying on the table, laughing so hard that tears came out.

Jingzhe’s face turned red from Mingyu’s laughter. He stood up all at once, appearing stern but inwardly weak: “I wasn’t thinking nonsense!” This is a suspicious point, do you understand suspicious points!

Mingyu, however, was laughing so hard he couldn’t catch his breath. Holding his stomach and crying out, he struggled to crawl up, wanting to collapse onto the soft bed, but his body was still shaking with wheezing laughter.

Angered, Jingzhe pounced on him, and the two wrestled into a ball on the bed.

Because Mingyu lost strength from laughing, he was miserably suppressed, pressed into the blanket by Jingzhe, unable to even crawl up.

Mingyu: “Wrong, wrong, wrong, I was wrong… Lord Jingzhe, spare this lowly one. This lowly one shouldn’t have laughed at you…” He was buried in the blanket, begging for mercy in a muffled voice.

His cries were quite desolate.

Jingzhe pursed his lips, punched him hard on the arm, and then rolled off.

Mingyu struggled to turn over on the bed, lying on his back, gasping for large breaths of air.

He was almost suffocated just now.

After he recovered and the two stopped playing around, Mingyu scratched his stomach: “I didn’t expect you to have such treasonous thoughts.”

Jingzhe pouted: “I didn’t!”

It was just that the timing of Emperor Jingyuan bestowing the horse was too coincidental. Jingzhe couldn’t be blamed for overthinking. Moreover, since that day, Jingzhe and Rong Jiu hadn’t seen each other again. Even if he wanted to ask, he had nowhere to go.

Mingyu said bluntly: “Then haven’t you considered that if Rong Jiu is an important minister by His Majesty’s side, and because you almost had an accident, he took you out when strict investigation was required… Isn’t that a crime?”

Jingzhe was slightly stunned.

“His Majesty bestowed the horse to you the next day. If it was to warn Rong Jiu… Jingzhe, are you sure that on that night, there was really only Rong Jiu by your side?”

Mingyu’s slightly eerie words made Jingzhe shudder unexpectedly.

That night, Jingzhe was sure that the only people visible were him and Rong Jiu. So, he had always thought that only he and Rong Jiu knew about this matter.

If Emperor Jingyuan bestowed the horse to Jingzhe, it could only mean Rong Jiu said something, or perhaps Rong Jiu’s identity…

But was there really no one in the places they didn’t see?

At the very least, when Rong Jiu took him out, someone must have known, even if they didn’t see Jingzhe’s face.

Jingzhe recalled that vast field, the moonlight scattering recklessly on the desolate earth, those wantonly growing wild grasses, almost tall enough to cover a person’s calves.

Didn’t Jingzhe crouch and hide in the grass when applying medicine back then?

In such a lush field, hiding a few stalkers would indeed be a trivial matter.

What Mingyu said was indeed possible.

Jingzhe might not have failed to think of it.

It’s just that this possibility wasn’t any better.

It proved that Rong Jiu exposed his own weakness, and in front of the Emperor no less. Given Jingzhe’s identity, this made the whole thing seem absurd and ridiculous.

It was just that a certain indescribable panic always weighed on Jingzhe.

He was always overly sensitive.

Sometimes, Mingyu couldn’t say whether this was good or bad. Perhaps it was mostly good; otherwise, Jingzhe might not have survived safely until now.

Mingyu went to grab Jingzhe’s hands and found them a bit cold. He immediately took both of Jingzhe’s hands in his palms and rubbed them vigorously.

It was just early autumn, and the weather wasn’t that cold yet. With Jingzhe’s health, his hands and feet shouldn’t be this cold.

Mingyu said softly: “Jingzhe, what exactly are you afraid of?”

Jingzhe’s conjecture seemed like nonsense to Mingyu.

Emperor Jingyuan was assassinated that night. At such a critical moment, he naturally wouldn’t be alone outside, not to mention all the things Rong Jiu had done before…

Although Mingyu didn’t quite like Rong Jiu, he had to admit that Rong Jiu’s arrival had changed Jingzhe a lot.

Naturally, he didn’t want Jingzhe to be unhappy.

Jingzhe held Mingyu’s hand back, his voice a bit light: “…I’m afraid he’s lying to me.”

This tone sounded somewhat weak.

Jingzhe didn’t need a lot of money, nor did he want immense power. He just wanted to simply be with the person he liked, with friends by his side. That would be very satisfying.

…Rong Jiu, although different from what Jingzhe imagined from the start, being with him did indeed make Jingzhe feel unprecedentedly happy.

Everything he could say to Rong Jiu was the truth.

But what if Rong Jiu was lying to him?

What Rong Jiu wanted, he didn’t need to lie for; Jingzhe could give it to him. If there were lies under such circumstances… then perhaps what Rong Jiu wanted was something Jingzhe couldn’t afford to give.

Mingyu was silent for a while, then sighed and said: “You should have thought of this from the moment you chose to be with him.”

It wasn’t an easy thing.

Mingyu thought Jingzhe’s conjecture made no sense, but similarly, he didn’t think his own idea was much better… If Emperor Jingyuan was warning Rong Jiu, then it was definitely bad for Jingzhe.

Being targeted by Emperor Jingyuan, could it be anything good?

Haven’t you seen the many precedents in Qianming Palace? Mingyu didn’t want Jingzhe to follow in their footsteps.

Jingzhe patted his own face to cheer himself up: “Never mind, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. If something really happens, we’ll talk then.”

Mingyu rolled his eyes: “With your attitude, you’re really asking for trouble.”

Jingzhe smiled: “I don’t seek trouble; trouble comes naturally.”

This couldn’t be blamed on him.

…

The solitary corridor, the long shadow, at some point turned into two.

Jingzhe stared at that shadow and was silent for a moment.

He had been thinking about Mingyu’s words as he walked.

Mingyu had comforted him, and only then did Jingzhe realize that he had actually been unconsciously tense.

Concerning Rong Jiu, concerning Wuti.

Some things, perhaps he really was overthinking them.