Chapter 52 - 2#
“It’s a miracle you didn’t break your leg.” Rong Jiu glanced at him, “You only know how to treat my words as wind passing the ear.”
The man’s voice was indifferent, but his tone was definitely not. That cold voice indeed carried a faint murderous aura.
Otherwise, Xinsheng wouldn’t have been almost scared witless just now.
Rong Jiu had said many things. Usually, if asked like this, Jingzhe might not be able to recall them immediately. But at this moment, in a flash of lightning, he really did remember.
——“Anyone who survives because of you, I will personally break their necks.
——“You save one, I kill one.”
Jingzhe: “…This injury isn’t considered serious.” He subconsciously grabbed Rong Jiu’s sleeve, somewhat afraid that he might really do something.
…He just pulled a little, it didn’t escalate to the level of saving someone.
Seeing Rong Jiu not speak, Jingzhe leaned forward again and said softly: “I don’t have many friends around me, there aren’t many people like that. I’m not someone who helps whoever comes along.”
Rong Jiu looked cold. Not many, but enough.
Enough to be annoying.
Jingzhe hugged the medicine pack, squirmed a few times, rolled to Rong Jiu’s side, and looked at him pitifully, “I will take the medicine, Rong Jiu, don’t be angry.”
Rong Jiu glanced at him sideways: “Will you really listen?”
Jingzhe nodded vigorously.
In the man’s indifferent black eyes, a small figure was reflected: “Good, after you finish this batch, someone will send more. You must take it from now on, don’t forget.”
This was like a bolt from the blue, leaving Jingzhe bewildered.
“…I, this, there’s more?”
Rong Jiu: “Only when I am satisfied can it stop.”
Jingzhe: “…”
What a cool, ruthless person.
…
In the new palace room, Consort Kang had just gone to rest.
She had been recuperating for about ten days, and the night terrors had finally improved a bit.
Many people felt that Consort Kang was extremely unlucky this time. The dry weather and frequent fires in autumn actually happened to her.
This mistress had a weak temperament. Any palace consort could climb over her head. Although she was a Consort, sometimes she was not even as good as a Concubine. However, she had several capable palace servants under her who never let Yongning Palace be bullied by outsiders. The disaster in Yongning Palace this time was also thanks to these people’s nimble hands and feet, which allowed Consort Kang and her entourage to be settled quickly.
A faint smell of medicine filled the hall.
The palace servant on night watch just stomped his feet to drive away drowsiness when he suddenly stood up straight and then bowed.
Kangman passed by them silently. One or two held their breath, daring not to slack off.
When Kangman first arrived at Yongning Palace, his name was originally supposed to avoid the taboo of the honored one and shouldn’t use the character “Kang” anymore.
However, Consort Kang was kind and didn’t care about this, so she didn’t make him change it.
So Kangman was still Kangman, and his temperament hadn’t changed a bit.
After patrolling, Kangman confirmed that everything was fine, then returned to his own residence. On the floor, several palace servants were already kneeling, some were eunuchs, and some were palace maids.
Hearing the footsteps from outside, one or two showed terrified expressions on their faces, and their bodies trembled slightly.
Kangman walked past them slowly, sat down on the chair in the front of the room, and said lightly: “Have you thought about what to say?”
“This lowly one, did not leak…”
“I have always acted according to Grandpa’s instructions in the past, daring not to neglect.”
“…Never betrayed you…”
“Wronged, this is really being wronged…”
“Wronged?” Kangman listened to their chatter and laughed. But this laugh looked like a sinister grin, “Our house wronged you?”
For a moment, the whole room became quiet, as if the noise just now was an illusion. No one dared to defend themselves anymore.
Kangman: “Good, it is being wronged. Then tell me, recently…” His voice lowered a few degrees, “Why is it that everything our house does goes wrong everywhere? There is always someone one step ahead, disrupting our house’s layout.”
His eyes were like sharp eagle eyes, scanning everyone.
“If it’s not you, then who could it be?”
The gentler Kangman was, the more the people below trembled. That was fear to the extreme.
But they also knew why Kangman was angry.
Ever since the fire in Yongning Palace, no matter what Kangman wanted to do, it would inexplicably fail. Originally proceeding according to plan, it should have been smooth, but often capsized in the gutter.
Just as Kangman was flying into a rage, fragmentation footsteps came from outside.
Then, someone stood at the door and said in a voice neither high nor low: “Kangman, Consort Kang wants to see you.”
Kangman immediately stopped talking, glared fiercely at the group of people on the ground, then stood up again, straightened his lapel, and walked out.
After Kangman left, the people on the ground gasped for breath, as if they had escaped with their lives.
“…Who on earth betrayed the Eunuch? Might as well confess quickly, so as not to harm us.”
A thin female voice said.
“Exactly, I don’t want to face the Eunuch’s anger anymore.”
“Who is it…”
Whispering words sounded one after another.
These people below glared at each other, but all carried fear.
Xingzhi and Xinghe leaned together, both lowering their heads and saying nothing. They neither participated in these useless conversations nor looked very pale.
Compared to others, the two of them knew the reason for Kangman’s irritability better.
…These past two days, the Department of Prudence and Punishment was digging into Kangman’s past.
But Kangman’s path here was full of bloody footprints.
It simply couldn’t withstand excavation.
That group of people were the real vultures.
Kangman had dealt with them before. Unless necessary, he didn’t want to have any contact with them again.
This was the reason for Kangman’s rage.
Inside the main hall, a faint fragrance burned. It smelled somewhat nice, but inhaling it into the lungs would make one a bit drowsy.
This was a specially made soothing incense.
Consort Kang woke up easily at night. This soothing incense was to soothe her overly weak spirit, so it was lit every night.
Kangman silently passed through the outer side, went around the screen, knelt down in front of the soft bed, and whispered: “Your Highness, this slave is here.”
A pair of weak and feeble hands reached out from inside the bed curtains. Kangman hurriedly supported them with both hands, very carefully.
“Kangman, cough cough…” Consort Kang coughed twice and said slowly, “Look, is this moon very beautiful?”
Tonight there was no moon, and inside the hall, how could one see the moon?
Kangman didn’t think Consort Kang’s words were strange. Instead, he laughed along: “Your Highness is right. This moon is indeed very beautiful.”
More beautiful and bigger than the moon in the capital was the moon seen when looking up the night before leaving home.
Consort Kang smiled and withdrew her hand.
She sat up from the bed, looked out the window, and whispered a sentence. This sounded somewhat unlike the official language.
Rather, it had a bit of a feeling of outside the Great Wall.
Kangman seemed not to have heard it and continued to kneel by the bed.
…
Outside the palace, the Shen family.
Shen Zikun, who had already gone to sleep, put on an outer garment, got up, and walked alone to the study.
Mao Zishi was slumped in a chair, letting the housekeeper apply medicine to him.
A faint smell of blood filled the study. With the housekeeper’s bandaging, it was tainted with a strange fragrance, which was the scent of Golden Sore Medicine.
The medicines kept in Shen Zikun’s home were all the best.
With Zong Yuanxin from the palace making a move, could they not be good?
Even though Mao Zishi also had a lot of good medicine, some were still incomparable to Shen Zikun’s stock here. Whenever he was injured, he would always run to the Shen residence.
Shen Zikun had almost forgotten how many times he had seen Mao Zishi injured, secretly climbing the wall to come to the Shen residence.
The first time Mao Zishi climbed the wall, he happened to run into Shen Zikun admiring the moon in the middle of the night. As a result, a huge black shadow flipped over the wall and fell to the ground with a thud.
Shen Zikun looked silently at his junior brother, covered in blood, who looked up with a grin, “Hey, Lord Shen, quickly give me a hand, my hand hurts so much.”
At that moment, Shen Zikun, who was upright in conduct and steady in temperament, was thinking, why did father accept such a devil incarnate like Mao Zishi in the end?
This temperament was completely unlike father’s.
Thinking was one thing, but Shen Zikun still pulled Mao Zishi up and applied medicine for him personally.
Later, as it happened more often, the people of the Shen residence got used to it.
If a bloody person was found during patrol, don’t panic, first see if it was Mao Zishi. If it was, drag the medical officer over first, then go notify Shen Zikun.
However, this time, Shen Zikun’s injury didn’t look serious. It was just two cuts on his arm, looking a bit deep, but still just superficial wounds.
This kind of injury was already considered trivial on Mao Zishi. The housekeeper could also ignore that blood smell and bandage him up quickly.
Mao Zishi moved his arm and said with a grin: “Housekeeper Liu, your skill is really getting better and better.”
Housekeeper Liu smiled helplessly: “Little Sir, this was all honed on you.”
Mao Zishi was the disciple of the old dean. People in the residence often called him Sir. Because he was the youngest, the word “Little” was added. Hearing this, Mao Zishi always pulled a long face.
“How old am I, and you still always call me Little Sir.” Mao Zishi said unwillingly, “Can’t you just call me Sir?”
Shen Zikun said lightly: “As long as you still run here, you can only be Little Sir.”
Hearing this, Mao Zishi chose to shut up.
He couldn’t bear to part with the good medicine at Uncle Shen’s place. Emperor Jingyuan was very闷骚 (reserved but passionate inside). He looked like he didn’t like Shen Zikun, but the good medicines in this room were all top-quality products.
Even Mao Zishi didn’t have this stuff if he wanted it!
Shouldn’t he mooch a bit more?
After Housekeeper Liu retreated, Shen Zikun walked to Mao Zishi’s side, sat down, scrutinized the injury on his arm, and said lightly: “This time, what was it for?”
Mao Zishi said with a smile: “Went for a trip to the Court of State Ceremonial. These foreigners really know how to hide. Quite a few possess good skills.”
Although these people in the Court of State Ceremonial looked well-behaved, it was all because of the deterrence of the guards outside. If not for the heavy guards, their minds would have wandered long ago.
However, Emperor Jingyuan specially placed them in the Court of State Ceremonial not just to make them “abide by the law”.
Probing, observing.
Just like observing a group of ants, watching them fight with interest.
Mao Zishi vaguely guessed Emperor Jingyuan’s thoughts, but could only say he was a madman.
Ordinary people, who would dare to use such a thing to probe?
If one was not careful and capsized, this would not be a small matter.
However, going to the Court of State Ceremonial this time, Mao Zishi learned something not too small.
Before coming to the Shen family, Mao Zishi had already sent the news out.
Right now, Qianming Palace should have received the news, just waiting for His Majesty the Emperor to wake up tomorrow.
They all knew Emperor Jingyuan’s eccentricity. Unless necessary, no one dared to disturb him at this time.
Shen Zikun’s face darkened slightly, “Act rashly.”
He knew that the group of people in the Court of State Ceremonial had their uses, but Mao Zishi’s probe was somewhat alerting the enemy.
Mao Zishi said “Aiya”, softening into the chair like a lump of mud, “Uncle Shen, it’s not like you don’t know His Majesty the Emperor. He is very domineering. He doesn’t care about many things at all, very free and easy. But as for the development of events, he insists on full control. You tell me, how can there be such a weird person like him?”
Clearly not scrupulous about anything, not caring about anything, always giving people a ruthless temper of possibly burning everything clean at any time, yet wanting to grasp everything in his hands.
This squeezing was only on them, these poor wretches.
Mao Zishi was squeezed by Emperor Jingyuan. Every time, the only person he could complain to was Shen Zikun.
Shen Zikun: “He, it’s caused by his youth.” His voice was a bit light, as if falling into memories.
In fact, before Emperor Jingyuan was seven years old, Shen Zikun rarely saw him. The few times were all at the birthday banquet of Empress Dowager Cisheng.
Although at that time, the relationship between the Late Emperor and Empress Dowager Cisheng had already collapsed, every year at the birthday banquet, Empress Dowager Cisheng could always maintain her spirits and rarely had outbursts.
Afraid of provoking Empress Dowager Cisheng, the Ninth Prince’s seat was always arranged to be the most remote.
Shen Zikun had seen him eating alone in silence, and occasionally saw him smile helplessly at his close attendants.
Although young, he was very decent.
He was a somewhat reticent but still very gentle child.
In the end, how did he become what he is now, step by step?
There were too few things he could control in the past, so much so that today, that exploding desire for control was terrifyingly astonishing, like two violent extremes.
Mao Zishi still couldn’t hold back: “Uncle Shen, I am really puzzled. You tell me, that sister of yours, what exactly is she thinking?”
It might be somewhat treasonous for him to say this.
He was talking about the Empress of a country.
It was Empress Dowager Cisheng, Emperor Jingyuan’s birth mother.
But he was also the disciple of the old dean.
In terms of seniority, he and Empress Dowager Cisheng were actually of the same generation.
The reason he called Shen Zikun “Uncle Shen” was just because Mao Zishi respected him. Otherwise, he could openly address Shen Zikun by his courtesy name.
Precisely because of this, when Shen Zikun heard him mention it, he only showed a helpless bitter smile.
“She treats feelings very purely.” Shen Zikun rarely talked about the past, and for a moment, he was a bit entranced, “Because it’s pure, she cannot tolerate the slightest betrayal.”
The Late Emperor gave her hope, then ruthlessly shattered her.
“His Majesty was born by her. Although they don’t look alike, in reality, on this point, perhaps he is somewhat similar to her.”
Shen Zikun looked at Mao Zishi, his voice carrying a strange dullness.
“You said earlier that His Majesty might have… If this is true, remember to be cautious and more cautious.”
If something happens one day, Emperor Jingyuan will only be crazier than Empress Dowager Cisheng.
Mao Zishi’s face became strange. Uncle Shen didn’t know who Emperor Jingyuan liked, could he not know?
That was not only a man, but his identity was also particularly special.
What problems could this cause?
However, precisely because of their status gap, Mao Zishi also felt it was dangerous.
A small character like Jingzhe would not be easily discovered. But if he was discovered, Jingzhe had no ability to protect himself at all. Compared to Emperor Jingyuan, or the Empress Dowager, wanting to crush him to death was like pinching a bug to death.
He didn’t understand why Emperor Jingyuan always let Jingzhe live unknowingly, neither letting him know the identity of “Rong Jiu” nor transferring him to his side.
Was he having too much fun playing, or did he not plan for it to be long-term at all?
But…