Chongfei Manual [II]

Chapter 151.1

Affected by the sight of Wei Luo's tears, Zhao Jie picked Wei Luo up and carried her to the nearby couch. He leaned over, took off her shoes, and eased his expression. "Were you scared?"

Wei Luo saw him throwing the shoes that had been stained by someone else's blood into the charcoal burner bowl. The fire gradually engulfed the shoes. A short while later, they had been burned into ashes. She shook her head. She actually wasn't scared. She was feeling angry. She had originally been very happy tonight and the sudden appearance of the black-robed people had disturbed her happy mood. She suddenly thought of something and jumped down from the couch. Without caring that she was only wearing white socks, she started to run out of the cabin.

Zhao Jie called out from behind her, "Ah Luo!"

Wei Luo stopped at the prow of the boat and saw that the lanterns were still floating nearby. Underneath the moonlight, she could clearly see the river scene. The river had turned red from blood. The colored lanterns were immersed in the water and more or less were stained by the blood. Wei Luo flattened her lips. This time, she really was angry enough that she wanted to cry. Full of grievances, she looked at Zhao Jie and complained, "The colored lanterns have been ruined. They can't be brought back home."

Zhao Jie didn't expect that the reason she had rushed out here was look at this. His long arm stretched out and picked her up so that her feet were stepping on his feet. He lowered his head, kissed her forehead, and said, "It's okay. In the future, I'll make more for you."

Wei Luo wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned against his chest for a long time while feeling that life was difficult. She finally said, "Who were those people?"

She thought that even if they were hacked into mincemeat it wouldn't be enough of a punishment.

Zhao Jie's eyes deepened and his voice became quieter as he said, "I don't know yet, but I feel I'll be able to find out very soon." As he said, "Let's go home," he picked Wei Luo up and carried her as they disembarked from the pleasure boat.

After returning to Prince Jing's residence, Wei Luo went to the cleaning room to take a bath and went to sleep early. Zhao Jie went to the study and asked Zhu Geng, "What information did you get from your interrogation?"

Zhu Geng said, "To respond to Your Highness, two of them bit off their tongues and died. Another two were locked up. Yang Hao is watching over them. For now, we haven't been able to get any information."

Zhao Jie turned the jade ring on his thumb. Without any changes in his expression, he said, "Continue to interrogate. Try all of the torture methods. If they continue to refuse to speak, then skin them alive."

Zhao Jie's words weren't an empty threat. It was new method of punishment. Peel off a cross-shaped layer of flesh from a prisoner's head, then pour mercury into the wound. After that, you would be able to peel off a complete piece of skin from the head to the feet. It wasn't a baseless claim when other people called him vicious and merciless.

After Zhu Geng left, Zhao Jie sat in the rounded-back chair without moving.

It wasn't difficult to guess who would try to harm him. He was just missing evidence. Zhao Zhang was the only person that was able to compete with him for the throne in the imperial court. However, Zhao Jie felt Zhao Zhang's action was unexpected. Zhao Zhang had been confined to his residence for such a long period of time and was still able to keep track of his movements and had the courage to send assassins after him. Zhao Zhang's courage wasn't small. This choice would be cutting off all of his chances of retreating.

Unfortunately, Zhao Zhang has miscalculated the situation. The emperor was recently investigating Noble Consort Nong's matter. If Zhao Zhang acted too unreasonably, the emperor would only find him more bothersome.

Zhao Jie returned to the bedroom. After washing up, he lied down next to Wei Luo.

The young girl had fallen into a deep sleep a while ago. Her eyes were gently closed and her breathing was even. Zhao Jie raised a hand and gently stroked her eyelashes. His fingers felt itchy and his hand slowly moved downwards to trace her eyes, nose, and mouth. She was probably feeling ticklish. Her body moved away from his and she made an incoherent grumbling sound.

Zhao Jie took his hand back and suddenly thought of the scene on the pleasure boat when he had raised the sword to kill someone.

This hand was stained with blood, but she had embraced him without any concerns. He had killed someone and her first thought was whether or not the colored lanterns had been damaged. How could he not feel overjoyed about having such a wonderful, young girl?

Zhao Jie carefully brought her into his arms and quietly sighed, "Ah Luo, I wouldn't let you off in the past. In the future, I won't let you off either."

*****

Early next morning, Wei Luo received Zhao Liuli's invitation to enter the palace.

She heard that the army that had gone to Guang Dong to stop the armed rebellion would be coming back to the capital in a few days.

Wei Luo told Zhao Jie of her plans, tidied up, and went to the palace.

When she arrived at Chen Hua Hall, she had originally thought Zhao Liuli would be in really good mood. Unexpectedly, she saw her sitting on the couch with a depressed expression. Her face with supported by her hands as she miserably sighed.

Wei Luo walked forward and put down the pastries she had brought from outside the palace onto the small, vermillion-lacquered table carved with spirals inlayed with gold. "What's wrong?"

When Zhao Liuli saw her, it was as if she was seeing reinforcements. She grabbed her hand and said, "Ah Luo, stay here until lunch time and go with me to Zhao Yang Hall to eat lunch."

This was the reason why she was feeling miserable? Wei Luo sat down on the other side of the small table while feeling puzzled. She opened the oil paper package and peeled a sweetened, fried chestnut. "If you don't want to go, can't you just stay in Chen Hua Hall for lunch?" Zhao Liuli usually ate her meals by herself. She would only occasionally go to Zhao Yang Hall to accompany Empress Chen for meals.

It seemed that Zhao Liuli was truly in a bad mood. She didn't even become happy at the sight of sweetened, fried chestnuts.

Zhao Liuli honestly said, "After I got better from my cold the day before yesterday, imperial mother has requested that I go to Zhao Yang Hall to eat for every meal. But, imperial father is also there and the mood between the two of them seems strange. Neither of them will speak to each other. Eating a meal there feels like being torture. At first, I thought imperial father was only carried away by a whim. One or two meals would have been fine. But, he's been there for the last three days. Even imperial mother seems annoyed."

Wei Luo froze for a moment. She didn't expect that something like this would happen. After the truth about Liuli's poisoning had been revealed, Noble Consort Ning had lost all favor. It couldn't be that the emperor was feeling guilty towards Empress Chen and was trying to make up to her for past mistakes?

Thinking of this, Wei Luo lightly laughed as if she was going to be seeing a good show soon. "Okay, I'll go with you."

She was their daughter-in-law. It would be considered doing her filial duty to eat a meal with her father-in-law and mother-in-law and keep them company.