Su Xi did not know when the Yunzhou assassination attempt would happen. She was worried it might just happen in the middle of the night while she was sleeping. If she accidentally failed the mission and caused the emperor to kick the bucket, then it would all be over.
So she told Zai Zai in advance, saying she drifted into some alleys in Yunzhou and discovered people plotting to assassinate the emperor, telling Zai Zai to pay attention.
Lu Huan watched her earnestly making things up, saying she could pass through walls, could knock out a little evil spirit with one punch, and he felt amused in his heart. He forcefully held back his laughter and cooperated very seriously with a nod: “Mn, thank you, Xiao Xi, I shall naturally stay on guard regarding this matter.”
───♡───
A few days later, just as the emperor arrived at the Yunzhou temporary palace, the army also arrived right behind him. The army had traveled long by boat and carriage and temporarily camped outside the city, and according to the laws of the Yan Kingdom, several officials leading the army had to enter the city to meet the emperor in person.
Thus, the emperor and a few other officials held a banquet in the temporary palace to send off the Zhenyuan General.
Previously, there had been endless arguments over who would go to the northern border to pacify the rebellion.
The emperor originally favored the Second Prince the most. After all, the Second Prince was low-key and honest. Because his mother-concubine came from a humble background, he had no real network in the court. Entrusting him with military power was the most suitable, and the emperor could take this chance to reclaim the Zhenyuan General’s military authority to somewhat balance the situation in court.
The Fifth Prince had long been actively forming factions in court for his own gain. Although the emperor liked his mother-concubine, he still disliked his temperament. His ambition was enormous, and on top of that, he had a very good reputation among the common people. The emperor feared he would threaten the Crown Prince’s position, so military power absolutely could not be given to him.
But who would have thought the Second would act like a salted fish? Upon hearing he had to go to the northern border, he fell ill. First, due to an arrow injury, he lay bedridden for a full three months; by the time the Zhenyuan General’s grain and supplies were already assembled, he again claimed to have caught a chill and requested sick leave, dragging things out once more.
The emperor intended to support him, yet he was mud that could not be propped up.
The emperor was furious.
Thus, in the end, the matter of going to the northern border to quell the rebellion still fell to the Zhenyuan General.
For military power to fall into the hands of someone from an outside clan like the Zhenyuan General, of course the emperor could not be at ease! But fortunately, the Zhenyuan General had no sons and no heir. Even if he had thoughts of rebellion, he probably lacked the strength to do so.
So the emperor plotted it out this way, but he never expected that at the Yunzhou banquet, he would sense that the Zhenyuan General seemed somewhat unusual toward a certain Cavalry Commandant.
Among the thousands of civil and military officials in court, just those of third rank and above already numbered in the hundreds. Naturally, the emperor could not possibly remember every minor official. But he did have quite an impression of this sixteen-year-old youth.
Although they had only met once at the Qiuyanshan autumn hunt banquet a year ago, the impression had been deep. At the time, he thought the youth somewhat resembled an old acquaintance. He had merely assumed he was drunk and did not pay much attention.
Afterward, Yun Taiwei and the Zhenyuan General both successively recommended him, which slightly drew the emperor’s notice. Normally, when faced with such recommendations, the emperor would suspect those two were trying to arrange their own people within the court. But because he had a favorable impression of the youth that night, the emperor unexpectedly agreed. Anyway, it was only a fourth- or fifth-rank minor official.
But today, at the Yunzhou send-off banquet, the emperor was not drunk. His mind was completely clear. Under the blazing daylight, seeing the youth again, he unexpectedly felt a moment of daze, only sensing that his features faintly resembled that person— not in facial structure, but in certain subtle expressions that only someone who had lived with that person day and night could recognize.
But the emperor immediately mocked himself for imagining things. Under this whole heaven, does everyone not have two eyes and one nose? A little resemblance— what was strange about that?
This boy was a concubine-born son from Prince Ning’s manor. After meeting that person in Yunzhou, the emperor had brought him directly into the palace and conferred him as a consort. That person spent his youth and decline in the deep palace, never once seeing Prince Ning.
Was he getting senile?
Thus, during the banquet, he could not help glancing at the youth a few more times.
And by doing so, he discovered that the old fox, the Zhenyuan General, did not show anything on the surface, but several of the Zhenyuan General’s subordinates were clearly giving this youth extra respect.
This showed that the newly promoted Cavalry Commandant youth held no low status within the army.
The Zhenyuan General was consciously searching for an heir— this was not a good sign.
Alarm bells rang in the emperor’s heart. Keeping his expression unchanged, he once again glanced at the Zhenyuan General and that youth a few times.
Lu Huan naturally also sensed the emperor’s gaze. He could guess all of the emperor’s thoughts, so he pretended to act as if nothing had happened, lowered his head to drink, and did his utmost to blend in among the crowd.
Only, when offering wine to the emperor, his gaze could not help lingering for one extra second on the features of this ruler above all others.
Before he had heard the female Daoist priest’s so-called words about his parentage, naturally he would never have thought he had any connection with the present emperor. But after hearing it— though he did not believe it at all and thought the female Daoist priest was spouting nonsense— he still had to admit that his appearance did seem to have a few points of similarity with the noble, dignified person at the banquet.
Lu Huan lowered his eyes, the space between his brows slightly tightening.
This banquet lasted from daytime until night. Cups and goblets crossed, and many officials became thoroughly drunk. The Zhenyuan General also inevitably drank a few extra cups. Lu Huan drank some as well, but always remained clear-headed.
The mission prompt had said that there would be assassins at the banquet, so it should be tonight.
If he were to notify the temporary palace in advance to strengthen their guard, it would inevitably arouse suspicion. Thus, Lu Huan did nothing. He only lowered his pitch-black eyes, staring at the wine cup before him, waiting quietly for the assassination to appear.
The identities of the assassins were also easy to guess.
Last time, during the Qiuyanshan autumn hunt, the ones who attempted to assassinate the Second Prince were not rebels, but this time, at the Yunzhou temporary palace, the assassins would definitely be rebels.
Yunzhou had snow all year round and was already close to the northern border. Now that the people of the northern border lived in misery and warfare was frequent, yet the emperor had chosen to come to the temporary palace at such a time— although he came to make offerings to that Lady Qing, in the eyes of the northern uprising army, this was foolish and incompetent. Naturally they could not swallow this anger. Taking advantage of the fact that the temporary palace was not guarded as heavily as the capital, they wanted to seize the chance to capture the emperor in one fell swoop.
The problem was how to save him.
When Lu Huan followed the Zhenyuan General and several other military officers into the temporary palace, he had roughly memorized the palace’s layout.
The emperor was in the open, while those assassins were in the shadows. To drag out those assassins before they acted was nearly impossible.
He could only wait for them to act.
Lu Huan analyzed inwardly: if he wanted to kill the ruler in the central circle through layers of heavy guards, what would he do? Surrounding the palace directly, killing off the guard troops, and then approaching the emperor— naturally impossible. Because even if the palace guards could not withstand it, the Zhenyuan Army was stationed outside Yunzhou. One signal flare would have them rush in to encircle and exterminate the attackers. The only way would be for a few skilled fighters to disguise themselves, infiltrate the palace, use the tactic of “create chaos in the east and strike in the west,” and seize the emperor’s head amid the confusion.
If so, then later on, something big should suddenly break out somewhere— drawing the tiger away from the mountain.
Sure enough, in the latter half of the banquet, when all officials were already three rounds into drinking, a place in the temporary palace called Qinglan Courtyard suddenly burst into towering flames! All the officials stood up in panic, and the most anxious one was actually the emperor. He immediately shouted angrily at the Imperial Guards: “Why are you standing there dazed? Go put out the fire at once! If Qinglan Courtyard is damaged, I will hold you accountable!”
The commander of the Imperial Guards knew that Qinglan Courtyard stored all of that noble lady’s portraits. If they could not be saved today, if even half a painting burned, their heads would truly not remain attached. Thus, he panicked and hurriedly brought men to extinguish the fire.
The scene instantly fell into chaos.
The emperor rushed to Qinglan Courtyard, with the Zhenyuan General and others following closely behind. Lu Huan thought that it should be precisely at this moment that those people would strike amid the chaos.
As expected, the next second the situation suddenly changed! The person who had previously been the Yunzhou regional governor suddenly tore off the skin on his face, and together with several guards near the emperor, they abruptly pressed toward the emperor. From their wrists, they pulled out threads attached to needles. Though the needles and threads looked ordinary, when held one at each end by two well-trained individuals and swung forward at high speed, they could slice flesh into mud, no worse than any sharp blade. Because blades and swords were forbidden at the banquet, this was the only weapon they could use.
The surrounding officials, including the Zhenyuan General, had not expected this at all. Their pupils instantly contracted, and they cried out loudly: “Protect His Majesty!”
If not for having anticipated it, in such a perilous moment, the emperor truly might have been injured.
Fortunately, Lu Huan had already prepared. He moved extremely fast, picking up a few wooden beams whose rafters had burned through and fallen, still blazing on the ground, and hurled them over.
The razor-sharp thin threads were burned through by the torches before they could even touch a single strand of the emperor’s hair.
───♡───
Su Xi rushed home from school. She was not afraid that Mission Eleven had not been completed, but rather afraid that something might have happened when Zai Zai saved the emperor, that he might have gotten injured. But she had never expected that once she logged on, a notification immediately popped up on the screen:
【Congratulations, Mission Eleven (Advanced) completed: Saved the emperor during the Yunzhou assassination attempt. Reward: +1000 gold coins, +15 points.】
Completed this quickly? Zai Zai was simply too amazing. Su Xi’s entire face lit up in delight. At the same time, she noticed that last time her total points were still 102, yet now they had suddenly become 127!
What happened? Su Xi instantly froze. Apart from the points added by the mission just completed, where had the other 10 points come from?! Even if Zai Zai had been crazily annotating books and doing endless push-ups these past few days, he still couldn’t have suddenly gained ten whole points.
Su Xi was full of question marks, suspecting that the game system had bugged again, automatically completing some mission and awarding ten extra points.
But regardless, the faster her points rose, the happier Su Xi was. Because based on the nature of this game, once she reached two hundred points there ought to be some kind of big gift pack again.
When she found Zai Zai in the temporary palace, those disguised assassins had already been captured and were being interrogated personally by the emperor. Zai Zai and the Zhenyuan General and others were standing to the side inside the hall.
Su Xi thought that after Zai Zai heroically saved the emperor once, the emperor should already be viewing him in a new light. But Zai Zai did not seem to have any intention of taking out the jade pendant to let the emperor see it and restore his identity.
He must still be doubting the truth of what that female Daoist priest said.
But Su Xi in front of the screen knew that what the female Daoist priest said could not possibly be false.
Since Zai Zai had no intention of restoring the identity of the Ninth Prince, Su Xi began to hesitate, unsure whether she should help Zai Zai a little from her side, deliberately make his jade pendant appear so the emperor would see it.
If this were before, Su Xi— in order to complete the game’s final goal of letting the game’s protagonist ascend the throne— would certainly have followed the game mission and done so. But she could sense that Zai Zai seemed unwilling to participate in the struggle for the throne—
This made Su Xi feel troubled.
The goal was indeed important, but she did not want to go against Zai Zai’s wishes.
She watched the Zai Zai inside the screen with great inner conflict, then looked at the emperor for a while. In the end, she still did not take it upon herself to deliberately expose Zai Zai’s jade pendant for the emperor to discover.
