The Demon Lords-Chapter 581 - 78: Injury_1

It was raining lightly in Li Tian City.

The street vendors and peddlers who usually clamored loudly for business had been quieter these days. The storytellers in the teahouses were no longer leaving their audiences in suspense with "to hear what happens next."

Even the always-bustling red-light districts had been unusually quiet. The old brothel madams, who normally strutted about, now dared not venture out to stir up trouble.

The city remained the same, and the people remained the same, but both had become exceedingly cautious.

More patrols of soldiers than usual marched through the city, a white cloth tied to their left arms. Their stern steps and the redness in their eyes, staring at the occasional passerby, suggested they were ready to pounce and kill.

They were elite soldiers who had waded through mountains of corpses and seas of blood; when their fury truly flared, it carried a potent, murderous aura that was daunting to behold.

Li Tian City, once the old stronghold of the Wenren family and thus a "capital" of sorts, was home to citizens who were no country bumpkins but worldly folk. Yet, it was precisely because of this that the recent events chilled them to the bone, a stark contrast to the blazing summer heat that made their necks feel cold.

「...」

In an inn, a waiter had just delivered a tray of food and wine. A burly man in only a black jacket, standing by the entrance, took the tray from the waiter and tossed him a piece of broken silver.

Normally, the waiter would exclaim, "Thank you for your generosity, sir!" and announce the amount of the tip, so the counter staff and other attendants on the first floor would all shout in unison, "Thank you for the reward!" to enhance the patron's prestige.

But this time, the waiter merely bowed to the man with a fawning smile of thanks, not daring to shout. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

In these times, any form of celebration or clamor was highly inappropriate.

The burly man paid it no mind and, carrying the food and wine, pushed open the door to a room.

Inside the guest room, by a small table, sat two men.

One was dressed in a green robe, appearing to be in his early thirties, with a youthful, almost boyish face and a high-pitched, reedy voice.

The other, clad in a scholar's robe, was over fifty, stroking his goatee. His face was aged, but his eyes were exceptionally clear and sharp.

The burly man placed the food and wine on the table, paid his respects, then silently exited, closing the door behind him and resuming his previous post in the corridor outside.

「Inside the room,」

Li Yinglian picked up the wine jug, first pouring a cup for the older man opposite him, then for himself. After setting down the jug, he sighed.

"This is just my rotten luck," he said. "For the first time in so many years, I receive an assignment to leave the capital, and who would have thought such an incident would occur? Oh dear, oh dear, how am I going to explain this to the Crown Prince when I return?"

The older man chuckled lightly. He didn't reach for his drink but instead took a handful of fried peanuts, tossed a few into his mouth, and said while chewing, "Eunuch Li, why stress yourself so? Such a major event has occurred—how could it possibly have anything to do with you?"

Li Yinglian pointed at the older man.

"You! You just don't understand how masters think," he said. "For a servant like myself, on the outside, it might seem like our prestige depends on our master's, all glorious and grand. But in the end, it all comes down to whether the master favors you and is willing to use you. If the day comes when your master no longer needs you, even the newest, lowliest eunuch or palace maid will dare to look down on you!"

"Hm?" The older man clearly didn't quite understand.

"It's just bad luck! Imagine, the Crown Prince sends me on this one trip, and this sort of thing happens. Next time, even if only to avoid ill omens, I suspect he wouldn't dare use me again. Oh, woe is me."

Li Yinglian continued to wallow in self-pity.

"Heh." The older man finally understood. Life in the palace is truly difficult, and eunuchs are natural actors, he thought with a sigh.

The older man immediately replied, "Eunuch Li, though you may see it that way, how do you know whether the Crown Prince will feel sorrow or joy upon learning of this? Consequently, how do you know if he will see you as bringing bad luck or good luck in the future?"

Li Yinglian had just raised his wine cup. Hearing this, his wrist trembled, and wine spilled. He quickly glared at the older man before him and snapped, "Impudence!"

The older man merely chuckled, continuing to eat his peanuts, unfazed.

"You old fool, do you even know where we are? Do you know Lord Jingnan returned to the city last night? The streets outside are swarming with Jingnan Army soldiers, their eyes all bloodshot and terrifying!"

The older man remained calm. "We are all dogs at our master's feet," he said. "We're family here. Why is it so hard to speak frankly behind closed doors? Could it be that now that you, Li Yinglian, have entered the East Palace with the Crown Prince, your status rivals that of a future Wei Zhonghe, and you've immediately become so high and mighty? Too refined to associate with an old brother like me, with whom you once shared scraps from the same dog bowl?"

"Old Man," Li Yinglian said, "you've been out on the streets for too long, grown too lax. I don't blame you."

"I, too, would like to live a peaceful life. I, too, would like to buy a small courtyard in Yanjing, have a couple of maids attend to me, and enjoy my old age. But can I? If I, Man Yin, dared to say to the Crown Prince, 'I'm old, I don't want to work anymore,' believe it or not, the very next day my corpse would be floating in a stinking ditch outside Yanjing!"

Li Yinglian's eyelids drooped slightly. "Alright," he said. "Say whatever you want. I rarely get the chance to leave the palace, so I'm actually interested in hearing your opinion. When I return, I'll have something to discuss with the Crown Prince."

"That's more like it! You, stop all this fuss. You, Li Yinglian, weren't so timid when you schemed to kill your adoptive father to get ahead."

"You're straying from the topic."

"Not at all. Let's start with this current matter of yours. What is the relationship between our master and Lord Jingnan?"

"Maternal uncle and nephew."

"Exactly. That's how outsiders see it. They say Lord Jingnan is a great pillar of support for our Crown Prince, that only with Lord Jingnan around can our master's position as Crown Prince be secure. But outsiders don't see the truth. You and I, surely we know it in our hearts, don't we? Is there any genuine affection between Lord Jingnan and our master, the Crown Prince? No. This man, Lord Jingnan… one might even ask, does he possess even a shred of human feeling?"

Li Yinglian remained silent.

"On the night the Tian Family was exterminated, Her Majesty the Queen was visiting her parental home. He, Lord Jingnan, dared to wipe out his own kin right in front of Her Majesty. Since returning to the palace, the Queen has been bedridden with illness; it's even rumored she's developed hysteria. Our master, the Crown Prince, setting aside other matters, has one trait we all acknowledge: his filial piety. The bond between him and Her Majesty the Queen is truly genuine. Tell me, after this incident, aside from what's necessary for his future succession to the throne, would our master harbor any familial affection for this uncle of his? Heh heh. Ultimately, Old Master Tian was also our master's maternal grandfather. Lord Jingnan is a man who could mercilessly slaughter his own parents. Only our current Emperor would dare to use such a person. In the future, when our master ascends the throne… heh."

Li Yinglian slowly closed his eyes.

"Alright, I know you live in the palace, where rules are many and strict. My words make you uncomfortable. Fine, we won't speak of this. Let's talk about Marquise Jingnan. You've been in Li Tian City for some time now. Have you met Marquise Jingnan?"

Li Yinglian opened his eyes and shook his head. "Marquise Jingnan resides deep within the Jingnan marquisate manor, which is heavily guarded. Moreover, before Lord Jingnan set out on his campaign, he left orders that the manor was not to receive any guests until his return. Never mind me, acting on the Crown Prince's orders; even if Wei Zhonghe himself came with an imperial decree, he wouldn't be able to enter this manor, believe it or not."

"I believe it, I believe it. Lord Jingnan indeed has the authority to show no deference to anyone."

"So, since I arrived in the city, I've been staying at the post station outside. I haven't met the Marquise. I had intended to wait until after she gave birth, then present the Crown Prince's gifts and get a receipt to take back, which would count as fulfilling my duty. After all, no one knew how long Lord Jingnan would be away on this expedition. I couldn't just wait around indefinitely. Who would have thought this would happen?"

"Do you know where the incident occurred?"

"On the mountain path of Tianhu Mountain. Everyone in Li Tian City is talking about it. The commotion that day was apparently quite significant."

"Commoners' talk often can't be trusted too much. The people in Li Tian City are all saying Lord Jingnan's excessive killing brought retribution upon his wife and child. They say his wife had a nightmare while awaiting childbirth and wanted to go to the Taoist temple on Tianhu Mountain to pray for the Lord. Who would have thought that on her way back, a divine thunderbolt struck her dead? And to cap it all off, they add the so-called 'good is rewarded, and evil is punished' as a final judgment."

Li Yinglian smiled faintly. "The information I gathered also points to this version."

"Do you believe it?"

"Of course not. An old master in the palace once told us that he had pursued cultivation his entire life but hadn't heard so much as a fart from the heavens. So, all this talk of 'good and evil will ultimately be rewarded,' or 'Heaven has eyes'—it's all nonsense meant to fool people."

Hearing this, Man Yin leaned back in his chair. "You, you… you've truly been in the palace too long. Your way of thinking has become a bit warped."

"How so?"

"This talk of a divine thunderbolt—it's obviously as false as can be. Yet you actually waste time thinking about it."

"Then what should I be thinking about?"

"Think about Marquise Jingnan! Besides being the Lord's wife, what other identity does she have?"

Li Yinglian's expression suddenly froze.

Man Yin continued to pop peanuts into his mouth, speaking slowly, "These past few years, I've been helping the Crown Prince recruit certain figures from the jianghu in shady places to do equally shady work. More or less, I've had contact with people from the Spy Bureau. Perhaps because they see us as the Crown Prince's men, and also because we've never overstepped, they've largely turned a blind eye. But to be honest, while everyone says the Silver Armored Guard of Qian State is all-pervasive, our Yan's Spy Bureau is certainly no pushover. Take that Marquise, for instance. If she weren't pregnant, she definitely would have accompanied Lord Jingnan on this expedition to the Snow Plains. A woman like that—do you think she'd become distraught simply because her husband was away at war and she had a nightmare? And then foolishly go to Tianhu Mountain to offer incense and pray for safety? Does she not know how many enemies Lord Jingnan has out there? Setting aside others, just in this land of the Three Jin, the number of people who want to kill Lord Jingnan is countless!"

Li Yinglian listened, taking small sips of wine.

"The crux of the matter is why our Marquise Jingnan would leave the heavily guarded marquisate manor to go to Tianhu Mountain."

Li Yinglian smacked his lips, then subconsciously asked, "Why?"

Unexpectedly, Man Yin's next words so startled Li Yinglian that the wine cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the floor. Instantly, the burly man keeping watch outside heard the crash and burst into the room.

"Out, out!" Li Yinglian immediately pointed to the door and cried out sharply.

The burly man hesitated for a moment, saluted, then withdrew from the room, closing the door behind him once more.

Li Yinglian clutched his chest with his left hand. He was no longer sitting in his chair but squatting on the floor. Raising his head, he stared at Man Yin, this old fellow, and questioned in a low, hoarse voice, "How dare you! How dare you!"

Man Yin remained perfectly at ease, continuing to eat his peanuts.

And the question he had posed earlier still echoed in Li Yinglian's ears, each word piercing his eardrums:

"Eunuch Li, you were sent by the Crown Prince to offer congratulations for Lord Jingnan's child. Well then, did His Majesty also send someone?"