Nightfall

Discussing the Sword

Listening to Li Yu’s words, Li Huiyuan was shocked. As a prince, he was not a man who was ignorant and incompetent. He naturally understood how much benefit Xia Hou’s death would bring to himself, but he still could not understand why his sister would be so adamant at this time that the throne would be his.

Li Yu looked at her brother’s confused look and thought that since their mother’s death, they had been depending on each other for survival, and the efforts and sacrifices she had made for her younger brother’s throne during past years. There were many kinds of feelings mixing in her heart. She said, “Ning Que is a student of the Second floor of the Academy, and Xia Hou died in his hands. How can that woman still be close to the Academy? No matter how good she is at being hypocritical and tolerating, the Academy could never support her. Now an invisible gutter appears between the Academy and her. How can her son be the emperor?”

Li Huiyuan finally understood. It was true that without the support from the Academy, no matter how the emperor loved that little bastard, he would not dare to hand over the empire to the empress so easily.

Thinking about this, the young prince’s breathing became a little heavier and he held his fist tightly. His eyes were filled with excitement and even a slightly dreadful look was added.

Li Huiyuan also recalled another message from He Mingchi. He said with a bit of distress, “Qinghe County’s Third Minister of Offerings died in Chang’an. I don’t know what kind of reaction the people there will have.”

Li Yu frowned and also felt that this was a bit troublesome. Over the years, the Qinghe County’s great family gave her a substantial monetary support. She was able to buy off the officials of the imperial court relatively easily. It was also due to the help from Qinghe County. Now their oldest senior died tragically in Chang’an City. No one knew what kind of impact this would have.

The house on the bank of the Yanming Lake suffered severe damage during the previous night’s battles. The beams were broken and the walls were destroyed. There were ruins all over the floor, and the place was a mess. Only the secluded yards of that house were relatively intact.

Ning Que and Sangsang returned to side courtyard. They took a bath and bound up their wounds with the help of Chen Pipi and Tang Xiaotang. After eating some food, they began to rest and then fell asleep.

The martial law on the street beside the lake was lifted. There was no more control except that the local government runner of Chang’an Local Government kept order and stopped the local citizens from going there.

The Fish-dragon Gang arrived at the bank of Yanming Lake as soon as they could. They followed Mr. Qi ‘s order and began to clean up and renovate the house. However, the destruction of the house was too serious. It was obviously not something that could be done in two or three days.

The maids and stewards, who were dismissed by Ning Que before the battle, returned to the house one after the other. They looked at the mess on the floor and felt afraid. Some of them even wanted to leave. But they signed the contract for ten years with the Grand Secretary’s Mansion, so when Grand Secretary, Zeng Jing showed up, they became calm.

Since there were servants taking care of them, Chen Pipi and Tang Xiaotang returned to the Academy. Today, Chang’an City was not very peaceful. Especially, when the World Wayfarers of Haotian Taoism and Buddhism Sect were both in Chang’an, they needed to be more cautious.

In the evening, the other courtyard was quiet. The sound of cleaning rubble and ruins was heard from the outside of the courtyard. Ye Hongyu also returned to the house beside the lake. She stood outside the threshold and looked for a long time at Ning Que and Sangsang who were sleeping. Then she returned to her bedroom, just as she did in the past few months.