Chapter 32: Test

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"Jing Chen was ambushed on the border area of the Southwest." Emperor Hongzheng picked up the confidential letter on his desk, and his gaze looked profoundly at Jing Shao.

"Second Imperial Brother, he... did he get injured?" Jing Shao asked in shock, seeing Emperor Hongzheng's calm appearance, he realized that his brother should not have run into something life-threatening, and only then did he slightly calm down a bit.  

Emperor Hongzheng controlled his gaze, then handed the letter in his hand over to him. "Look at it yourself."

Jing Shao quickly opened the thin piece of paper, skimming over the conventional greetings, and anxiously search for words indicating he was "safe".

"... Fortunately, the guards given by the third prince risked their lives to protect me, Er Chen was not severely harmed, and will return to the capital within a few days."

Seeing this line, Jing Shao exhaled and then read it again from the beginning, before returning the letter to his imperial father.

The meaning of the letter was that the situation was already becoming clearer, and regarding the assassination, there were only a few words. But with what kind of nature Jing Chen had, it meant that it must have been an extremely treacherous occurrence.

Jing Shao slowly clenched his fist. If these were the people sent by the Southwest King, if they were not able to accomplish the goal this time, they would definitely return with a new plan of action. The southwest territory was three thousand li away from the capital, and he didn't know what hidden dangers there might be along the way. As he pondered over this, his thoughts wildly whirled through his mind.

"Imperial Father, for those three thousand li, the mountains are tall and the journey long. Er Chen will be bold, asking Imperial Father to allow Er Chen to take a troop of soldiers and horses to meet Second Imperial Brother." Jing Shao knelt on the ground and said earnestly.

"Jing Chen has already said there are no problems, get up now." Emperor Hongzheng sat back on the throne, picked up the petitions on his table and began to read through them.

"Imperial Father!" Jing Shao refused to get up.

Leaving aside the Southwest King, who never did things by halves, since this kind of an incident happened, perhaps it was someone else using underhanded methods, in any case making the Southwest King their scapegoat.

After a long time, Emperor Hongzheng glanced at the Jing Shao who was still kneeling, and sighed helplessly, "Zhen has already sent people to go!"

Only after hearing this did Jing Shao feel relieved. The fifty soldiers he had sent to protect his brother would surely still be following him, and since this dangerous situation had occurred, they certainly would have revealed themselves. In addition, there were also the men sent by his Imperial Father, so unless some soldiers and horses were brazenly dispatched to chase the party down to kill them, they should not meet any more danger.

Jing Shao came out of the imperial study and ran into An Xian, Emperor Hongzheng's closest Elder Eunuch, with a little eunuch who was holding a tray with tea. It seemed that they had just come from the tea preparation room and, seeing Jing Shao, they quickly bowed in greeting.

"Eunuch An," Jing Shao politely smiled, "even after so many years, you still like to do things yourself."

"One must not be the slightest bit negligent about the Emperor's everyday food and drink. This servant is never reassured by these careless and haphazard children, so I must always watch over it. We let Wang Ye see this poor performance."

Perhaps because he was always constantly worrying, An Xian was not at all fat like the normal old eunuchs, and when he walked, he did so in a vigorous manner.

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