Chapter 132: Abducting Xiao Wan Back to the Prince’s Manor
Wei Wanlan’s figure froze slightly.
That Pikong Jian looked much the same as the day he first transmigrated: the same knife-strip face, hair tied in a crown, wearing Daoist robes, pupils shiny, thin as a piece of firewood.
If he didn’t already know this was a relatively scientific world of political intrigue…
Wei Wanlan felt a chill in his back molars.
Back then, he had seen with his own eyes Pikong Jian being turned into a hedgehog by random arrows.
That was the first time he witnessed killing. The winding stream of blood under the corpse, thick and bright red, seemed to still be flowing by his feet even now.
How could he resurrect?
Yet such an impossible thing appeared right before Wei Wanlan’s eyes.
Pikong Jian repeated the sentence with his mouth, urging Wei Wanlan: “—Send away the people beside you!!!”
How could the Little Emperor be easily controlled by a “ghost”?
The current Wei Wanlan held great power, even becoming a powerful figure surpassing the Regent. The Emperor furrowed his brows and said to Tang Tuan:
“There is a problem with that Daoist. Go catch that Daoist.”
Tang Tuan bolted faster than a cheetah.
His figure drifted away almost instantly!
An Ruyi’s hat and clothes fluttered in the wind. An Ruyi followed with his gaze but didn’t see the Daoist’s full face, seemingly catching only a glimpse of a smoke-green Daoist robe, and was slightly startled.
“That person runs fast… I don’t know if General Tang caught him.” An Ruyi’s tone carried worry.
Wei Wanlan, on the contrary, relaxed, pressing his chest and letting out a small sigh of relief.
—If I, Tang Tuan, and An Ruyi all saw Pikong Jian, that means he definitely isn’t a ghost!
As long as he is human, he can be caught.
No one can dream of hurting Zhen; the Regent will worry about Zhen!
With this thought, Wei Wanlan was also afraid of alarming the Turkic envoy inside Drunken Immortal Tower.
He got up and left with An Ruyi, walking along the wall.
Walking onto the main road, Wei Wanlan said to An Ruyi, “The Regent’s procession just passed; he shouldn’t be too far from here. Eunuch An, let’s walk toward crowded places.”
Tang Tuan missing his strike and failing to return to report until now actually explained the high level of the opponent’s martial arts and the severity of the problem.
Based on lightness skills (Qinggong) alone, the Daoist had reached perfection.
An Ruyi nodded hurriedly. “I listen entirely to Little Young Master.”
Then Wei Wanlan and An Ruyi continued forward along the path the Regent’s carriage had just taken.
The West Market was bustling.
But such a grand procession was especially easy to recognize!
Wei Wanlan followed An Ruyi, catching up to the tail end of the Regent’s procession.
Several Jinwu Guards heard movement from behind and thought some commoner was overly enthusiastic, intending to admire the Regent’s true appearance up close, and were about to admonish and block them.
They ran right into Eunuch An’s delicate face with thin eyebrows. Eunuch An pulled out the white jade token of the Chief Eunuch from under his sleeve. “A word in private, brother…”
The token couldn’t be faked.
The eunuch’s shrill voice was also genuine.
The expression of the Jinwu Guard in the procession became increasingly serious:
“There are actually martial world ruffians stalking His Majesty, wanting to harm His Majesty?”
That Jinwu Guard hurriedly stepped out of formation to report ahead, passing many soldiers in the same column. He rushed to the Regent’s carriage. Knowing Ashina Shali was also there, he only wrote in the palm of his hand when reporting, not letting the Turkic Khan see.
Thus, the report took no more than half a cup of tea’s time.
At the very end of the Regent’s massive procession, a small carriage with a green cloth top slowly trailed behind, also protected by heavy troops, moving equally slowly. An Ruyi walked beside the carriage.
The moment the curtain covered the window, Wei Wanlan’s thump-thump-thumping heart finally calmed down slightly, a sense of security gradually surfacing.
—As long as the Regent is nearby, nothing will happen, right?
The real Pikong Jian should be dead.
Then, why is this person who looks very much like Pikong Jian stalking me? Is he here to avenge Pikong Jian?
…
With a mind full of chaotic thoughts, he leaned against the carriage wall and slept for a while.
When he opened his eyes again, the carriage door was slowly opened by someone.
It was very quiet outside. A sliver of pear-blossom-white moonlight shone in from the outside, illuminating the Regent’s face.
Wearing those luxurious brocade clothes, he was reaching in to scoop him up.
Wei Wanlan followed the flow readily, hurriedly leaning in to hug his neck tight, seeming to hear him chuckle low and deep:
“Xiao Wan is good.”
Wei Wanlan felt very warm, rubbing against his neck and whimpering. Unconsciously, his tone took on a complaining note:
” Wu, where is Ashina Shali?”
“Sent back to the relay station.”
“What about the person chasing Zhen?”
“Didn’t see him. Tang Tuan hasn’t returned either. This King sent people to search. I’ll drop you here nearby; Xiao Wan will have to suffer sleeping here tonight.”
Only then did Wei Wanlan look past his shoulder to see where he had been taken. The stone lions at the gate were majestic, the huge plaque inscribed with gold hooks and silver strokes, the front yard spacious—The Regent’s Manor.
Wei Wanlan didn’t know what happened, but his brain suddenly short-circuited, and he said softly, “Didn’t bring women’s clothes, can’t dress up as a little girl.”
“You don’t have to dress as a little girl to enter my Prince’s Manor.” The Regent took Wei Wanlan’s hand with a sense of helplessness. The night was deep and the road dark; he carefully led him over the threshold. “Let’s enter openly and honestly.”
A certain Regent abducted the Little Emperor home late at night.
Even at night, everyone in the Su Residence was shocked again.
Actually, the Su family had always been in a state of “we can happily accept whatever he does” regarding their current master.
So even when the Regent planned to usurp the Little Emperor’s throne and his ambition was known to all, they could accept it with a little effort.
Now that he was incredibly close with the Little Emperor and destined to go down in history as a great loyal minister, they seemed able to accept that too.
It wasn’t like the Little Emperor hadn’t come to play at the house before…
But.
But putting the eighteen-year-old Little Emperor in the same bedroom to sleep was, was a bit off, wasn’t it?
The Su family generals tried to convince themselves that the Little Emperor was precious and couldn’t get bumped or bruised outside the palace. The Prince’s move must be to personally protect the Little Emperor’s safety.
—Protecting safety doesn’t involve carrying him into the bedroom in a horizontal embrace!!!
—That’s treatment only the Princess Consort gets, okay!!!
Everyone in the Su Residence was a martial arts expert.
Although they didn’t want to eavesdrop, they couldn’t control their curiosity. Hearing the Little Emperor whimpering and the Prince murmuring to him… if this was a monarch-subject relationship, they would swallow two pounds of iron nails alive.
No, can, do.
Back then, they celebrated “Miss Xiao Wan” with thousands of cheers because although her background was a bit lacking, she could at least add a cub to the Prince’s Manor.
Now that Miss Xiao Wan was nowhere to be found, the one who came had a top-tier background, but—no, cubs.
However.
Your Highness, we want the seventh generation of Su family generals wuwu. The estate is too big; please fill it with young generals and little commandery princesses!
Unfortunately, Su Jingzhi wouldn’t listen to their wailing.
The Regent had always been the absolute authority in the residence.
Of course, they dared not be disrespectful to the Little Emperor. After all, the Little Emperor was formidable, able to reclaim military and political power from their Prince.
But with so many people, gossip was inevitable. Some, not knowing the full story, repeatedly questioned one issue:
—What means did Wei Wanlan use to regain power?
When Yun Niang got up at night, she heard some duty guards discussing with disdain:
“For the Little Emperor to go from being despised by the Prince to being cherished like a treasure, what trump card does he have? Could he rely on this face to charm the Prince?”
“That’s possible.”
Yun Niang hadn’t had contact with the Little Emperor, but discussing the master’s right and wrong behind his back was just wrong. When Old Madame Rong was around, the punishment was copying the Analects ten times.
Yun Niang took off a large embroidered shoe and threw it over—
“Chattering and gossiping. If you aren’t sleepy, go punch on the drill ground! What are you practicing tongue kung fu for!”
The embroidered shoe hit its mark.
The whispering stopped instantly, and the few generals scattered like birds and beasts.
Leaving Yun Niang standing silently alone in the summer night.
She had caught a glimpse just now. The True Dragon’s face looked exactly like Miss Xiao Wan. As for the nickname the Prince used for the Son of Heaven, listening carefully, it was also “Xiao Wan”… Perhaps from beginning to end, there was no Little Madam.
Maybe there had always been only one Xiao Wan, the Emperor himself; it was just that his cross-dressing couldn’t be made public.
The Prince had fallen in love with the Little Emperor long ago.
What to do?
This matter was as shocking as trying to usurp the throne.
Now, neither the Prince’s father nor mother was around. They couldn’t control it even if they wanted to, and didn’t know if they should. How did the Prince get tied with such a strange red string by the Old Man under the Moon?
Yun Niang thought for a while, and finally looked toward the Su Ancestral Hall. Enshrined in that hall were the ancestors of the previous five generations of the Su family.
Normally, that was the most solemn place in the Su family. Aside from Su Jingzhi, people rarely entered. Even when servants went in to clean, they had to burn incense and bathe first, fearing to offend the heroic spirits of the famous generals filling the room.
Yun Niang let out a sigh of relief with some gratification, thinking to herself:
” Sigh, as long as there is no unusual movement in that ancestral hall, it means they have all tacitly approved, right?”
Clatter…
Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter…
Clatter.
“What is that sound?”
Yun Niang’s expression turned solemn.
She suddenly heard the sound of a door lock shaking, and the sound came from the direction of the Su Ancestral Hall!
When the door lock shook, the wooden doors and windows shook with it. Those clattering sounds were coming from the doors and windows of the ancestral hall.
—It sounded as if the heroic souls of the entire ancestral hall couldn’t hold back and were about to rush out…
Yun Niang was startled by this conjecture.
Now she couldn’t care less about picking up the thrown embroidered shoe, nor could she care about the distinction between men and women. Relying on being nearly twenty years older than the Regent, she didn’t want this old face anymore.
“Must report to the Prince. Must report to the Prince quickly.”
“Disaster in the ancestral hall; your ancestors are coming out to settle accounts with you.”
The discarded embroidered shoe lay quietly in the grass.
On the corridor, the view of Yun Niang’s back running away faded into the distance…
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