Even with 300 more occupants, Supreme Splendor Hall still looked as spacious and empty as before. Imperial Physician Gao surveyed the 300 extra patients and keenly felt a desire to go die. How could he manage all these people?!
--
As soon as Grand Preceptor Xie returned home, he was summoned into the palace by Empress Dowager Xie. After learning of the events at the Hall of Punishment, he fell into a long silence.
"We misjudged her!" Empress Dowager Xie said hatefully.
Grand Preceptor Xie glanced at his eldest daughter's angry white face and spoke in a low voice. "We did misjudge her. If my heart had been on guard that day at the execution grounds, this subject wouldn't have followed along with her." If he knew this girl was a man-eating wolf, he would have thought twice at the execution grounds. How could the imposing emperor be held under duress by Fang Tang and his crew? Were the imperial guards all dead people? Grand Preceptor Xie couldn't release the temper suppressed in his chest. If he had thought more deeply back then, he and his daughter wouldn't be the passive party now.
Empress Dowager Xie gently stroked the armrest of her chair, her tone worried. "Will there be any problems in the assembly three days from now?"
Grand Preceptor Xie wasn't concerned about this. He smiled and said, "Once Lou Zigui dies, His Majesty will know that everything she's done was useless."
Empress Dowager Xie trusted that Lou Zigui would definitely die from poison, but she still felt anxious. "Who did Ning Yu learn her martial arts from? Why doesn't father know anything about this matter?"
Grand Preceptor Xie's face turned ugly at these words.
"Her wet nurse just happened to fall ill and die before she came to the palace," Empress Dowager Xie continued. "Father, you were the one who arranged that wet nurse. Since Ning Yu is at cross-purposes with us, can you be sure that wet nurse really died from sickness?"
Less than four people in the world knew that Ning Yu was a female. They included Ning Yu herself, the Xie father and mother pair, and the deceased wet nurse who had raised Ning Yu and stayed by her side growing up.
Grand Preceptor Xie shook his head. "It's pointless to investigate that old nanny's death now."
Empress Dowager Xie could understand her father's meaning. Whether that wet nurse died from disease or by Ning Yu's hands meant nothing to them when it yielded the same results. They had delivered Ning Yu to the throne, nurturing a tiger that invited calamity. Those who indulged their enemies were asking for trouble.
"Esteemed Empress Dowager should wait patiently for three days," Grand Preceptor Xie said. "As long as Lou Zigui dies, His Majesty will have no choice but to bow her head to you."
"Ah, men," Empress Dowager Xie thought back to the scene of Ning Xiaoyao and Lou Zigui standing together at the Hall of Punishment and smiled coldly. "Loyalty and honor are all lies. For the sake of power and his own life, will Lou Zigui still remember to avenge the crown prince?"
Grand Preceptor Xie couldn't help but rejoice that he'd arranged for an extra chess piece.
--
Currently, Ning Xiaoyao was sitting at a long table in the imperial kitchens. She'd managed to polish off three big bowls of rice, one bowl of red braised pork, and a bowl of scallop soup. Big Boss Black perched on the table as he mewled at Ning Xiaoyao.
"Ninny, are you a rice bucket[1. rice bucket (饭桶) - fan tong, a phrase that both means a "big/piggish eater" and a "fathead, good-for-nothing."]?"
YOU ARE READING
Unruly Phoenix Xiaoyao
Historical Fiction****for offline purposes only **All the credits go to the author and translator *The image is also not mine. Synopsis: The fat cat Black Tubby said, "Supreme Commander is a good person, meow!" The bird Grandfather Sparrow said, "Supreme Commander is...
