The Princess Wei Yang

64.2.Insidious and Sinister

3风雨欲来:literallymeans storming is coming; means that trouble is about to come

Chaos amongst the disaster victims had passed by; slowly, Dalihad recovered its calm. But this peaceful period didn’t last long because afterevery disaster, an epidemic disease broke out. This was especially common inareas where disaster victims were afraid of the spread of diseases that theyimmediately buried the disease-infected people, horses, cows, and sheeps in theground. This behavior unintentionally infected the water source, causing morepeople to become infected. The Emperor sent large numbers of medical officialto disaster areas to treat the epidemic and eventually the situation was soonunder control. But because many traveling officials returned to the capital,the epidemic followed along back to the capital. Commoners were oftendetermined to work every day so after receiving treatment, they recovered verysoon. Unfortunately for the groups of nobilities, as people that didn’t moveoften, it was much more difficult for them to recover once infected. Three tofour highly ranked court officials had died in a row, causing shock and fear.

Prime Minister Li had been busy with this problem, which hadcaused him nights of restless sleep.

Da Furen saw this and slowly felt that the opportunity had come.

That night, Li Xiao Ran was tossing and turning restlessly, hecouldn’t sleep at all. At the moment, Da Furen suddenly sat up with sweatdrenched over her forehead.

Li Xiao Ran was surprised, he saw Da Furen’s unease expressionand asked: “Furen, what is going on with you?”

Da Furen’s expression was absentminded, it was as if she wasperturbed; she uttered something yet couldn’t speak recognizable words.

Li Xiao Ran felt anxious, he said: “What is going on!” Using thecandle’s light, Li Xiao Ran noticed that round-face Da Furen’s lower jaw wasvery pointy as if it could poke someone and her eyes had greenish-black shadowsunderneath, making her look anxious.

Da Furen tightly held herself as her whole body trembled: “I hada nightmare, it’s very frightening Lao Ye!”

It was only a nightmare, Li Xiao Ran laid back down and obviouslydidn’t care about what she said.

Da Furen felt angry inside but she suppressed it and said: “Isuddenly dreamt of many wooden people, and in their hands were wooden pegs,they used them to beat Lao Ye ---“

Hearing this, Li Xiao Ran’s expression immediately worsened, hesolemnly said: “What kind of dream is this!”

Da Furen showed a troubled expression, after a while, sheprobingly said: “Could this dream have some sort of omen ……”

Li Xiao Ran didn’t speak yet he had an uneasy feeling in hisheart.

He suddenly thought of twenty years ago, the Emperor had justascended the throne. That year in the summer, a drought broke out. Alchemistsand necromancers in the capital used their evil ways to bewitch commoners; someeven caused chaos in the harem, teaching concubines how to use voodoo. Theconcubines in the harem envied, berated, and exposed one another, accusing oneanother for cursing the Emperor. The Emperor furiously ordered the whole cityto be searched and in many concubine’s halls and commoner’s homes, countless ofvoodoo things were found. Under harsh torturing, imperial maids and concubinesadmitted that they were bewitched by superstitions and used voodoo to curse theEmperor and other maids and concubines. This incident implicated many innocentofficials and had caused the deaths of many. As a result, the Emperor orderedthat anyone found to have done voodoo, regardless of gender and age, must beexecuted or exiled. Now that Da Furen had this dream, did it foreshadowsomething?

Thinking of this, Li Xiao Ran thought of the recent outbreak ofepidemic and naturally couldn’t sleep. Da Furen dreamt of a wooden person andit aimed at him, was it an omen of misfortune? This guess made him displeasedand nervous.

In the middle of the night, a sound was heard at the window, whichroused Li Wei Yang from sleep.

Bai Zhi immediately took a look and busily said: “Xiaojie, itwas just the wind, it’s nothing, Nubi has closed it.”

Li Wei Yang didn’t know why sweat appeared on her forehead. Shelightly wiped it and then laid that back down again. She didn’t know why shefelt that a calamity was coming --- an ominous premonition ……

Thisnight, a storm was brewing3.