Peach Blossom Decree Chapter 21

Chapter 21: Jinling City (4)

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“Is he mad?” Miss Xiao couldn’t help but whisper to her mother.

Madam Xiao also found it strange: “Nephew, is there some misunderstanding? In our family, there is no one named Xiao Zhaoling. Our eldest is Xiao Yue, and the second is Xiao Ting. Who are you looking for?”

When he failed the exam and when his father died, Lin Zikui had been disheartened, but he was innately strong and had bounced back.

But today, he felt truly defeated for the first time, utterly destitute. As a mere grass in Jinling City, a civilian couldn’t fight against officials!

There is no greater sorrow than a broken heart, and nothing compares to this.

“Zhaoling… truly, not in your household?” Lin Zikui asked one last time, hoping Madam Xiao was lying.

“He’s not here, there is no such person, dear nephew… let me have someone take you to the doctor? Your eyes, oh… oh my.” Madam Xiao covered her mouth.

“Ah! Mother! His eyes are bleeding!” Xiao Ting was frightened and screamed, hiding behind her.

Lin Zikui forgot to bow, forgot to say goodbye, forgot to apologize. He turned and left, and Madam Xiao took a step after him: “Dear nephew! You haven’t taken the money!”

Lin Zikui remained silent. Madam Xiao hurriedly urged the servant: “Take him out through the back door, don’t let anyone see him like this. Oh!”

In that moment, many thoughts crossed Lin Zikui’s mind. He remembered the first time he met the Second Young Miss at the Xingzhi Temple. She had run up to him, claiming to be the Second Young Miss of the Xiao family and that Xiao Huang was her father.

At that time, Lin Zikui hadn’t explicitly stated which Second Young Miss he was looking for. She introduced herself, so Lin Zikui never considered that she might not be the Xiao family’s Second Young Miss at all, but was… deceiving him.

She was only accompanied by three unique guards. They were interesting and kind.

But no proper young lady from a noble family would behave like that.

All the doubts converged in his mind.

So, “Xiao Zhaoling” was a complete lie…

He stumbled down the stairs, fell once, and no one dared to help him.

Lin Zikui was in a daze, walking like a walking dead.

At the entrance of the Xiao residence, the people from Chunshu Alley who had been waiting for a long time judged him with a few glances.

“Is that him?”

“Should be. Let’s go, ask him.”

One of them walked up and patted his shoulder: “Hey brother, are you Lin Zikui?”

Lin Zikui didn’t answer, just walked forward in silence. He couldn’t see clearly and wasn’t afraid.

“They said Lin Zikui is a blind man, look at him, isn’t he a blind man? Hahaha!”

“Yo, the clothes he’s wearing are pretty nice.”

“Are you Lin Zikui or not?”

They kept asking, surrounding him, but Lin Zikui didn’t respond.

“Answer the question!” Until someone pushed him down, and he, already in a daze, couldn’t stand properly and fell to the ground. He didn’t cry out in pain, seemingly unable to feel it anymore.

“Is there something wrong with his mind…?”

“Is he deaf?”

The men exchanged looks.

“But he looks pretty good, should be good business, might fetch a good price. I think he’s mute, no need to feed him mute medicine.”

“A mute, what a pity.”

Just then, Lin Zikui raised his head, his eyes bloodshot and blurry, his voice hoarse: “Do you know Xiao Zhaoling?”

The men exchanged glances.

“Yes, we do. Come with us, we’ll take you to see him.”

Hearing this, Lin Zikui’s bloodshot eyes seemed to brighten a bit.

These men didn’t dare to kidnap someone on the street, filled with officials and nobles. They originally planned to follow him for a while, but didn’t expect him to be so foolish, easily tricked into going with them.

However, Lin Zikui’s moment of clarity didn’t last long.

He seemed to realize something was wrong and suddenly stopped.

“Who sent you, Tang Mengyang or Xu…”

“…”

The men suddenly became aggressive and tried to bind him. Lin Zikui, not knowing martial arts, could only struggle desperately, kicking and punching, shouting for help: “In broad daylight, this is Jinling, under the emperor’s feet, you can’t get away!” The men didn’t expect his strength and shouted: “Drug him, quickly!”

“Brother, I only have that kind of drug!”

“Doesn’t matter, just knock him out!”

A handkerchief soaked in a strong fragrance was pressed over Lin Zikui’s mouth and nose, and soon, he lost consciousness.

Not far away, the young heir of the Prince of Yunnan, Yan Sui, with keen ears, heard someone calling for help.

“Did you hear that?”

“Your Highness… it sounded like someone calling for help.”

His Highness Yan: “Damn it, the people of Jinling have such poor conduct, let’s go! Get your weapons, let’s save him!”

Meanwhile, in the palace’s inner court, Xiao Fu was summoned to the Imperial Study. Xie Laosan, using some trivial tricks, had alleviated the emperor’s pain from the poison, earning him a place of honor.

Emperor Wen Tai looked at Xiao Fu and couldn’t help but think, “Why does Xiao Fu, only two or three years older than me, look so much younger? It must be because I worry about state affairs and the people too much, wearing myself out.”

Xiao Fu didn’t even look at him directly, which infuriated the emperor, who thought to himself that he would have Xiao Fu’s head eventually. How dare this dog act so arrogantly!

Yet, he had to be courteous and try to win their favor.

“Divine Doctor Xie, do you have any way to find the mother bug?”

“Oh, Your Majesty knows about the mother bug? That’s not simple.” Xie Laosan crossed his legs.

Emperor Wen Tai had just learned about it and explained how the mother bug controlled the other bugs: “Once the mother bug dies, I will surely die as well. We must catch the person controlling the mother bug! This person must be the one behind everything!”

“That’s not difficult, as long as Your Majesty gives me a…”

Emperor Wen Tai instinctively responded: “Three bowls of blood?”

“Pfft—no need for that. Only an unskilled bug master would use three bowls of blood to sacrifice to the bug king.”

Emperor Wen Tai was even more impressed: “Then what does Divine Doctor Xie need?”

“I need a handful of your dragon whiskers.”

“…A handful?”

Compared to three bowls of blood, he didn’t know which would be more painful.

Xie Laosan gestured: “Just a small bunch, with the roots.”

“…Fine.” Emperor Wen Tai reluctantly plucked hairs from the back of his head, the pain unbearable, and cursed the eunuch beside him: “Be gentle, or I’ll have your head!”

Soon, a small bunch of hair was gathered.

Xie Laosan performed a ritual with the hair, using it like a shaman to cast spells on a jar. Soon, a black bug emerged.

Seeing this, Emperor Wen Tai became uneasy, pulling a eunuch in front of him.

The eunuch swallowed nervously, sweating all over.

Xie Laosan dipped his finger in tea, placed the bug on the ground, and drew numerous chaotic lines around it.

Emperor Wen Tai noticed: “This looks like… the palace?”

The eunuch hit his whisk: “Oh no, Your Majesty! This is a map, this is the palace, this is Wuyi Alley, this is Taiping Street, this is Anle Lane!”

Soon, the bug slowly started to move, seemingly sniffing the air with its antennae.

To Emperor Wen Tai, this was miraculous.

Xiao Fu found it boring and yawned. When would this end? He wanted to go back to his temple.

The young scholar must be missing him a lot.

“Your Majesty! It’s crawling towards Dazhong Tower, let’s go, let’s go, oh, Your Majesty, it stopped!”

The eunuch’s high-pitched voice announced, and the bug stopped in a corner.

“This is…” The eunuch thought, “Kaishan Temple! Your Majesty, it’s Kaishan Temple.”

Emperor Wen Tai’s expression became uncertain and anxious: “Kaishan Temple? What does this have to do with a temple? Is the person hiding in the temple? Divine Doctor Xie, what’s going on?”

Xie Laosan sighed: “This indicates that someone who has come into contact with the mother bug is here.”

“Kaishan Temple, Kaishan Temple…”

Emperor Wen Tai muttered, quickly calling for the Brocade Uniform Guard: “Go investigate Kaishan Temple, find out who visited today!”

The nearby eunuch suddenly covered his mouth: “Your Majesty…”

Emperor Wen Tai glared at him: “Speak up!”

“Your servant suddenly remembered, the daughter-in-law of Prime Minister Xu is pregnant and her pregnancy is unstable. After court today, Prime Minister Xu mentioned going to Kaishan Temple to offer incense.”

Emperor Wen Tai was shocked: “How can it be Prime Minister Xu… how! Brocade Uniform Guard, go check if he really went there!”

If the bug had headed towards Prime Minister Xu’s residence, the suspicious emperor would have thought Xiao Fu was trying to cause trouble.

But since it was reported by his trusted eunuch, it was completely different.

When the people tracking the mother bug returned, saying they had traced it to Jiangxi Jishui, Prime Minister Xu’s birthplace, known for producing talented people, it confirmed the suspicion even more.

However, using poison was originally arranged by Prime Minister Xu for his daughter, concubine Hui. He wasn’t innocent.

Xiao Fu looked at the gray sky outside Fengtian Hall.

A storm was brewing; the sky was about to change.

After Lin Zikui was drugged unconscious, he was stuffed into a carriage. The men from Chunshu Alley, known as procuresses, almost stripped him of all his belongings.

“These clothes are fit for royalty, such quality… wasn’t he supposed to be a poor scholar?”

“What’s this?”

“Shards of glass, throw them away!”

“The silver, keep it.”

One of them pulled out a cylindrical object about the length of a finger and the width of a thumb: “What’s this? I don’t recognize it, it’s just some junk.”

Seeing it was worthless, he casually tossed it out the window.

At that moment, there was a sharp “whizz” as the signal arrow shot into the sky, bursting into dazzling light, scattering like a shower of flowers.

Yan Sui, who was searching for the victim, looked up: “Huh, that’s the signal arrow from Prince Yunnan Residence. Who set it off?”

Without a second thought, he chased after it.

In the Fengtian Hall, Xiao Fu abruptly stood up upon hearing the noise and went out to look.

“A signal arrow!”

This is bad. He had only given that arrow to Lin Zikui. How could he be in Jinling? Could someone else have set it off?

The tail of the arrow descended, emitting a blood-red glow.

Xiao Fu’s heart tightened. This red glow signified the signal arrows custom-made in his inner camp. The number of people who had such arrows was very few!

Without hesitation, Xiao Fu shouted, “I have urgent business outside the palace!” and in the next moment, he leapt onto the eaves of the grand hall. Moments later, a group of Brocade Uniform Guard, dressed in crimson-black flying fish uniforms, appeared around him.

Emperor Wen Tai rushed out, startled. What was Xiao Fu trying to do? Was he planning a rebellion?

Xiao Fu declared, “I have urgent business outside the palace!”

The Brocade Uniform Guard surrounded him: “Marquis Dingbei, this is the palace, not your residence. Get down!”

“Oh, Commander Huang?”

The commander was in the palace, but the deputy commander wasn’t. It seemed that the deputy commander had gone to Jiangxi in pursuit.

Several pieces of information flashed through Xiao Fu’s mind in an instant. However, his gaze anxiously flicked towards the distance. The flare arrow had been set off nearby, and whoever had set it off, he had to check it out.

“What if I say, I won’t come down?” Not only did he not come down, but he also strolled leisurely across the glazed tiles on the roof. Then, he swiftly kicked a tile, sending it flying unexpectedly towards Commander Huang!

Commander Huang raised his sword to block, but Xiao Fu kicked out a row of tiles, each one coming straight at him but at such a tricky angle and speed that they were almost impossible to defend against!

His movements were as swift as lightning. He quickly reached the back of a young imperial guard without making a sound and effortlessly drew the guard’s sword from behind him.

With a swish, the silver-white blade reflected his icy gaze.

“Rebellion! Rebellion!” Emperor Wen Tai shouted, “How dare you draw your sword in the palace! Commander Huang, seize him at once!”

The dazzling flash of the sword vanished in an instant! The next moment, the blade was somehow held against Commander Huang’s neck. Xiao Fu’s hair was only slightly disheveled, and his eyes were as sharp as ever: “If you don’t want to die, get out of my way.”

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