The Cry of the Phoenix Which Reached the Ninth Heaven-Volume 2 Chapter 78
Chapter 78: You're Precisely the One We Want to Kidnap
When Ye Junqing saw that Yao Mowan was leaving, he immediately followed after her.
"How do you know that he won't have that chance? Huangfu Junxiu hasn't left yet, and even if he's left, who can guarantee that Chu Mobei wouldn't sent more secret envoys?" Ye Junqing disagreed with what she said.
"Me!" Yao Mowan abruptly stopped walking and radiance light flashed through her clear eyes. When Ye Junqing saw the confidence in Yao Mowan's eyes, his agitation faded. For some reason, he had groundless faith in Yao Mowan's words.
"You're going to get involved in their business?" asked Ye Junqing in an annoyed tone.
"Prince should remember that everything Yao Mowan gets involved in is Yao Mowan's business." Yao Mowan's smiling dimples were like flowers. Beneath the moonlight, that smile seemed to be a peony haloed in silver, incomparably graceful and mysterious.
When Huangfu Junxiu got back to his residence, he started mulling over the conversation again. He couldn't shake off the feeling that there was more to what Huan Caier had said. It sounded like someone passing themselves off as an envoy of the crown prince had already gone to look for Huan Heng before they had arrived, but who could it be? Right at this time, a white pigeon flew in the window. Huangfu Junxiu got up and walked to the window. When he saw that there was no one around, he reached out to grab the pigeon and carefully remove the bamboo tube to take out the letter. The contents of the letter caused his expression to turn grave.
It was already past midnight, so there wasn't a single person on the main street. There'd occasionally be a gust of wind, but the surroundings were silent and desolate. At this time, a palanquin with eight carriers was currently moving through the streets at a hurried pace. The palanquin carriers were panting from exertion. Suddenly, a black figure weaved through them and the carriers were instantly no longer able to move.
Yuelai Inn, Sky, first room.
(In the Thousand Character Classic, Sky is the first character. The order of the characters had been used in the ancient era as a numbering system.)
"Preposterous! Release me! Don't you know who I am!?" Huan Heng sat on the chair with his back straight as he glared at the woman in front of him whose features were concealed by a black veil.
"Since we've kidnapped you, of course we know who you are. Jing Xin not only knows who you are, Jing Xin even knows why you were trying to enter the palace in the depths of the night." Yao Mowan lifted the teacup and leisurely sampled it.
"Your name's Jing Xin? How did you know that this old man was trying to enter the palace?" Huan Heng took a deep breath to calm down, then he started sizing up the person in front of him. Although he couldn't make out her features, he knew that this person couldn't be underestimated based on that cold gleam in her eyes.
"General, you must be very shocked to find out about the fact that the person who had been in contact with you this entire time wasn't actually an envoy from Shu, right?" Yao Mowan got straight to the point.
"You! How do you know about that!?" Huan Heng was astonished and looked towards her in alarm. This was something that would involve the lives of everyone in Huan Residence, so there was no way he could keep calm.
"Because Jing Xin was the one that had pretended to be a Shu envoy this entire time to maintain contact with you, General." Yao Mowan didn't mince any words and said this calmly.
"Do you think I would believe that?" said Huan Heng coldly.
Yao Mowan's lips curved as Yin Xue moved swiftly to place a jade pendant with the character 'north' on the table. When Huan Heng saw this jade pendant, his eyes widened in shock.
"General, you should believe now, right?" said Yao Mowan as she casually set down her teacup.
"Who exactly are you? What's your motive?" demanded Huan Heng, his brows furrowed sharply.
"Jing Xin's naturally not an ordinary person to be able to realize General's desire to rebel and make contact with General using the identity of a Shu envoy in such a timely manner. As for the motive… It's not difficult to guess!" Yao Mowan lifted her brows as she looked towards Huan Heng.
"You want to revolt? Humph, do you have that ability?" Huan Heng glanced coldly at Yao Mowan in clear skepticism.
"It's not yet time for Jing Xin to prove that to General, but General doesn't seem to have any choice but to follow Jing Xin." Yao Mowan voiced the reality of the situation.
"Not necessarily." Huan Heng took a deep breath and looked towards her calmly.
"If General dares to make contact with envoys of Shu, Jing Xin will immediately place the previously exchanged letters in the imperial palace's study. Although those letters are fake, it is true that General had gotten in contact with an envoy of Shu. The fact that Consort Chen had recently invited Chu Moxin over for dinner would be taken by Ye Hongyi as evidence of General colluding with the enemy." Yao Mowan analyzed the situation concisely.
"Then this old man can give up on relying on help from great Shu and remain loyal to His Majesty!" refuted Huan Heng.
"If you could, then you wouldn't have gotten in contact with Jing Xin's subordinate in the first place. General, what point is there in fooling yourself? And you should also understand what Ye Hongyi's like as a person by now. Look at the current Esteemed Prince. It shouldn't be hard to guess your own fate, right?" reminded Yao Mowan deliberately.
Huan Heng was silent as he considered things with a frown. From the look of things now, it was no longer possible to try and shift to Chu Mobei's side. Could it be that he really had to remain loyal to the imperial court? But it was true, even the outstanding military general, Ye Junqing, had fallen to the point of being kept under house arrest in the imperial palace, and that was despite being a member of the imperial family. If Ye Hongyi wanted to get rid of him, he would be able to do it without any difficulties.
"If this old man is willing to support you, what benefits will there be?" Huan Heng gave a long sigh as he chose to compromise.
"Jing Xin guarantees that your Huan Residence will no longer have any worries no matter where it is!" Yao Mowan's voice resounded with strength. When people reached Huan Heng's age, all they wished for was the safety of their family. If it weren't for this, he wouldn't have had his daughter give up on becoming empress.
In Moon Crossing Pavilion, Huan Caier had been waiting anxiously. However, instead of Huan Heng, what arrived was a letter.
"Your Highness, what does Master mean by this?" asked Zi Shuang as she frowned at the letter.
"Huangfu Junxiu is not a good person… How did Father find out?" Huan Caier was frowning as well as her heart chilled. Although this letter didn't state things clearly, she understood what her father meant.
What should she do? Should she give up? Back then, for the sake of Huan Residence, she had already given up on her happiness once. As of now, happiness was right in front of her, was she really going to have to let it slip out of her hands again? She wasn't willing!
At lunch the next day, Ye Junqing was just about to asked Yao Mowan about Huan Heng when Chu Moxin abruptly charged in angrily.
"Preposterous! If this prince catches that person, this prince will definitely yank out his tongue and feed it to a dog!" exclaimed Chu Moxin angrily. He plopped himself down so hard that Yao Mowan felt a gust of wind.
"Catch who?" asked Yao Mowan as she passed him a porcelain bowl.
"They actually dared to say that this prince was fighting over a woman with Big Brother! Could it be that there only existed one woman in the world? Even if there was only one, this prince wouldn't fight over her with Big Brother! Who the hell is Qing er? It's bullshit! And they're even saying that there has always been hostility between this prince and Big Brother, what a load of bull!" Chu Moxin huffed angrily as he sat in front of the table.
"What is Little Prince talking about?" Yao Mowan was slightly shocked to hear this. It was probably Huangfu Junxiu that had gotten this news, but why had he told Chu Moxin about the rumors?
"Rumors! This prince had only left Shu for a couple days, but a rumor like this actually started spreading!" Chu Moxin ground his teeth in fury.
"The people spreading these rumors are sure hateful," said Yao Mowan agreeably.
"Although the people spreading the rumors are hateful, the person pulling the strings is even more hateful! If he was sitting in front of this prince right now, this prince will definitely use this to pry open his mouth, then use this to yank his tongue out!" Chu Moxin was clenching a soup spoon in one hand and chopsticks with the other. That, accompanied by the sinister expression on his face successfully caused Yao Mowan's little heart to tremble a little.
It seemed like Huangfu Junxiu was doing this to probe her. These rumors had come from Shu right after he had made contact with Huan Caier, so there was no way he wouldn't be suspicious.
"Since the rumors came from Shu, the person behind this is definitely someone of Shu. Prince, rather than making such fierce vows here, why not head back sooner in order to actually deal with this?" suggested Ye Junqing slowly.
"Big Brother will definitely get to the bottom of this matter, so this prince doesn't need to worry about it. As for heading back… This prince isn't in a rush." Chu Moxin took a deep breath. He seemed to have glanced over briefly at Yao Mowan.
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Credits: Translated by Chiyomira
[Chiyomira's Corner]
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