Peach Blossom Decree Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Jinling City (5)

Emperor Wen Tai immediately broke out into a cold sweat.

He had always known that Xiao Fu was skilled in martial arts, but he never expected that the Commander of the Brocade Uniform Guard, one of the top experts in the entire Daye Dynasty, would be taken down in a single move!

If Xiao Fu truly intended to rebel, the emperor’s head would have already fallen to the ground!

At that moment, Emperor Wen Tai suddenly stopped doubting him. If Xiao Fu wanted to kill him, it would have been an easy task—why bother with poison?

But Xiao Fu was still a major threat!

Before Commandant Huang could say anything, a voice filled with urgency came from below. It was Empress Dowager Xiao: “Xiao Fu!”

Xiao Fu didn’t even glance at his elder sister.

Empress Dowager Xiao’s voice rang out clearly: “Commander of the Brocade Uniform Guard! If Marquis Dingbei wants to leave the palace, let him go! Do not make things difficult for him!”

Emperor Wen Tai: “Mother!”

“Emperor! Let him leave!”

“But… if Xiao Fu is truly intent on…”

Empress Dowager Xiao turned her head and said, “Let him go. Does my word mean nothing to you anymore?”

“…”

Emperor Wen Tai locked eyes with her for a moment, but there was nothing he could do. He waved his hand. “Withdraw! Let Marquis Dingbei leave the palace.”

After all, he was just leaving the palace, not assassinating him.

Empress Dowager Xiao: “Your uncle specifically sought out a divine doctor to cure the poison in you, and yet you still suspect him at this moment? That’s truly uncalled for!”

“Isn’t it because he doesn’t even respect me? Does he think the imperial palace is his playground where he can come and go as he pleases?”

Indeed, Xiao Fu did not hold him in regard.

His achievements had overshadowed the emperor, and drawing the Brocade Uniform Guard’s sword had clearly shown his disregard for imperial authority.

Empress Dowager Xiao: “Have you forgotten who helped you seize this empire all those years ago?”

Hearing this, Emperor Wen Tai became thoroughly enraged. “Back then, the Retired Emperor wanted to weaken the regional kings! The Yunnan Prince Mansion was the first to be targeted. The Yan family only supported me in the struggle for the throne because of their own selfish motives!”

“Even with selfish motives, he was still a hero!”

The two most powerful figures in the empire were bickering loudly in Fengtian Hall, but it had nothing to do with Xiao Fu. Following the signal from the alarm arrow, he arrived at the scene where Young Master Yan had already beaten a group of human traffickers to the ground. They lay there cursing: “Do you know who our master is? Tell us your name, and we won’t let you off!”

“Oh, sure,” Yan Sui crouched down, casually playing with a short dagger, his tone teasing. “The name’s Yan Sui. Tell your master to come at me! In broad daylight, you dare kidnap a scholar? I can’t just stand by and watch!”

Yan Sui had just arrived in the capital, so his name was unfamiliar.

“Who are you? Never heard of you before. Acting all high and mighty! My master will have you thrown into the Ministry of Justice’s prison soon enough!”

“Oh? You want to throw me in prison?” Yan Sui had initially drawn his sword just to help out, but upon hearing that, his anger flared. “Fine, go ahead! Come to the Yunnan Prince Mansion and arrest this heir. I’d love to see who has the guts to try!”

“The Yunnan Prince Mansion…”

“Are you… are you surnamed Yan?!”

The group had only been ordered to kidnap a poor scholar, but now they realized the situation had escalated beyond their control. Even if their master intervened, it wouldn’t end well. They immediately knelt down, begging for mercy: “Young Master Yan, we didn’t recognize greatness when we saw it. Please, forgive us and let us off like a fart in the wind!”

“What were you kidnapping that scholar for?” Yan Sui stood up and lifted the curtain of the damaged carriage, taking a look inside.

The scholar wore a fur cloak of the same fine quality as his own, but he was unconscious, his cheeks unnaturally flushed, and the corners of his eyes were dark red, as if he had been bleeding.

Just last night, when Yan Sui had seen him asking for directions, he seemed perfectly fine. How had things changed so drastically by today?

Yan Sui reached out and lifted the sleeve of the fur cloak, revealing the Yan family’s crest.

“Tsk, so he really is wearing the same fur coat as me.”

“How did Xiao Fu’s cloak end up on you? My cousin doesn’t seem like the kind of person to casually give away his clothes… Who are you to him?”

No matter who this person was, Yan Sui had already decided to take control of the situation.

The trafficker immediately slandered the scholar: “This scholar stole something from our master! We’re not wrongfully accusing him. Look at the fur cloak he’s wearing—it’s almost the same as yours! How could that be? He must’ve stolen it!”

Yan Sui sneered. “Oh? So your master is Marquis Dingbei, huh?”

“The Marq…”

How had this suddenly turned into something involving Marquis Dingbei?

The trafficker dared not admit that it was the Luo Residence’s steward who had sent them, thinking that Marquis Dingbei was far away on the frontier. So, he nodded and went along with it: “Yes, yes, that’s right, it’s Marquis Dingbei!”

“Who said he was one of my men?” From afar, Xiao Fu landed lightly using his qinggong. When he saw Yan Sui, he felt relieved. “Yan Sui, so you were the one who shot the signal arrow.”

“No, no, it wasn’t me,” Yan Sui gestured with the short knife in his hand, his expression one of curiosity, as if enjoying some gossip. “Cousin, it was the person inside. You know him, right?”

Xiao Fu’s face instantly changed when he saw the familiar figure. He quickly stepped forward and yanked the carriage curtain aside with such force that it tore to pieces.

When he saw the unconscious Lin Zikui, Xiao Fu’s mind went blank for a moment, unable to process what he was seeing.

Lin Zikui… How had he come to Nanjing alone?

How had things ended up like this?

Xiao Fu slowly reached out and gently touched the skin near Lin Zikui’s eyes. It seemed painful as he flinched and frowned.

“Zikui?”

Those two words were spoken so softly, filled with anxiety.

Then Yan Sui watched as Xiao Fu slowly turned around, his black cloak swirling around him like the cloak of a king of hell. His voice was as cold as ice: “Kill them all. Leave one alive. Take them back and interrogate them under torture.”

Yan Sui nodded in agreement. “Marquis, which one do you want to leave alive?”

There was no need for interrogation now. One of the traffickers from Chunshu Alley rushed forward, panicking, and confessed: “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! It was Luo Residence’s steward who ordered us to do this! He told us to take Lin Zikui back to Chunshu Alley, give him muting drugs, torture him, and then kill him! Marquis! Young Master! We didn’t know he was your man! If we had known, we wouldn’t have dared to touch him even if we had a hundred lives!”

Yan Sui: “Which Luo Residence? Such arrogance!”

“The Minister of Justice’s… Luo Residence.”

Yan Sui: “No wonder they wanted to throw me in the Ministry of Justice’s prison! A third-rank minister thinks he can have people kidnapped in broad daylight?”

Xiao Fu’s voice cut in: “Who did that to his eyes?”

“Huh? What? No! Marquis, we didn’t touch his eyes! We only used an aphrodisiac to knock him out. He’s really fine! As for his eyes, we have no idea! He had just come out of the Ministry of Revenue official’s residence—Xiao Residence! We didn’t touch him! We only took a few taels of silver, just eight taels, Marquis!”

“Spare us, Marquis! Please, have mercy…”

“Hmm.” Xiao Fu’s face remained cold, his wrist flicking. Yan Sui didn’t even catch the motion—he only saw the bright flash of a Xiuchun blade, and in an instant, seven bloodied heads hit the ground, eyes wide open in death, refusing to close.

“…”

Yan Sui took half a step back.

“Yan Sui, take my token into the palace. Tell the Empress Dowager to release Xie Laosan, and say that Duke Chang’s health is failing.” Xiao Fu tossed him the token, then removed his cloak and gently placed it over Lin Zikui.

“Throw these heads in front of Luo Residence’s gate,” Xiao Fu coldly commanded before walking away.

Soon after, Yan Sui saw Marquis Xiao carrying a person wrapped in a large black cloak onto his horse with one arm.

Just two streets away was Duke Chang’s residence.

“Physician!” Xiao Fu hurriedly rode back to Duke Chang’s residence, carrying the person down and striding into the manor while shouting, “Summon the residence’s physician immediately!”

He gently placed Lin Zikui on his own bed. As the black cloak was opened, Lin Zikui’s curled-up figure was revealed. His face was unnaturally flushed, and his skin was burning hot—whether it was from pain, itching, or the effects of an aphrodisiac was unclear.

Xiao Fu touched his cheek and only then noticed his own hand was trembling slightly.

His heart twisted as if it were being cut.

The residence’s physician, already out of breath, hurried over: “Marquis! Marquis! I’m here!”

This physician was a retired imperial doctor with excellent medical skills.

“Quickly, check his eyes!” Xiao Fu moved aside to make space for the physician, just about to stand up when he realized Lin Zikui’s hand was tightly clutching his sleeve, refusing to let go.

He reached out to hold it and felt something in Lin Zikui’s grip.

Xiao Fu slowly pried his hand open and found several shards of dark glass, which had been clenched in his palm for so long that his hand was cut, badly wounded.

Xiao Fu’s heart trembled.

The physician saw it too and quickly removed the Marquis’s hand, exclaiming, “Oh dear, how did it come to this…”

The physician carefully removed the glass shards, then bandaged Lin Zikui’s hand to stop the bleeding. “This young man is burning up! Did he take an aphrodisiac?”

Xiao Fu didn’t respond, his brows furrowing even deeper. After seeing the bandaging was done, he gently pulled at Lin Zikui’s four fingers. To his surprise, Lin Zikui’s fingers moved unconsciously in response, lightly gripping back, while muttering incoherently.

It sounded faintly like, “Miss Zhao Ling…”

Xiao Fu had never felt such pain before, a seething urge to kill spreading uncontrollably from his chest. “Quick, check his eyes! How do we counteract this damned drug?!”

The physician examined Lin Zikui’s eyes while shaking his head. “His eye injuries are quite severe. I’ll apply external medication to ease his pain and treat the wounds… we can only try our best! As for the drug… I…” The physician scratched his face awkwardly. “I’m afraid I can’t treat it. You may need a maid or servant to… help him relieve it?”

Xiao Fu didn’t answer, urging the physician, “Just treat his eyes for now. Hurry up and prepare the medicine! Don’t waste time!”

He pressed the physician like a life-or-death situation, watching as the physician ground the medicine, then dripped it into Lin Zikui’s eyes to cleanse them. Afterward, he applied more ointment before covering Lin Zikui’s eyes with two layers of white cloth.

Xiao Fu’s chest burned with anxiety. “Will this work?”

The physician replied, “Over time, the pain should lessen.”

Lin Zikui woke from the pain, his body trembling suddenly. In a hoarse and confused voice, he called out, “Second Young Miss.”

Xiao Fu immediately gripped his uninjured hand. “Lin Lang, I’m here. Don’t be afraid.”

The physician, packing up his medicine chest, was astonished as he looked at Marquis Xiao.

Without even raising his head, Xiao Fu waved him off. “What are you looking at? Hurry up and leave.”

The physician quickly grabbed his chest and ran out, but as he reached the door, he turned back again and said, “Marquis! It’s fine as long as the tension is relieved. But this young man’s body can’t take any more strain from you right now!”

Xiao Fu: “Get out. And don’t speak a word of this to anyone.”

Once the door closed, the room darkened.

Author’s note:

Xiao Fu: I’ll handle this myself.

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