Chapter 245: I Only Want to Die by Her Hand
Upon entering the city, Xiao Jingyi’s first order of business was to take up residence in the State Mansion and examine its records. He had even sent men over a month in advance, so the results of the investigation into the common folk were already complete and delivered directly to him.
Now, it was time for him to audit Jiang Ming.
Jiang Ming: "..."
’Thank goodness I haven’t done too many unscrupulous things,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, I’d probably be drenched in a cold sweat by now.’
Initially, Xiao Li had only arranged for Xiao Jingyi to visit each state capital to let people know that the princes of the Xiao Family had all submitted to the Empress, thereby suppressing any rebellious sentiments among the populace. He hadn’t been asked to do this much.
Xiao Jingyi was performing better than expected.
Jiang Zhou and Lu Ling sat drinking tea in an attic pavilion, from where they could see the distant, gleaming Silver Armor Army.
Even though he knew his father had done a decent job and there were no major issues, the pressure from the Imperial City still made Jiang Zhou break out in a sweat. "Prince Wei is only twenty this year, but he feels harder to deal with than those shrewd old foxes in their fifties and sixties."
Lu Ling toyed with his Bone Flute and chuckled nonchalantly. "Don’t underestimate a child who could grow up in the Imperial Palace without his mother’s protection. As I said, he’s the only prince who kept his title and still holds power. The Empress is ruthless, but she cherishes and utilizes talent. Anyone who can survive under her is by no means incompetent."
Even if the Empress was still wary of this prince, if he didn’t have some real skill, she wouldn’t just be wary of him—she would have packed him up and sent him straight to the Imperial Mausoleum.
Jiang Zhou said, "From your tone, I can’t tell if you hate the Empress or you’re praising her."
Lu Ling suddenly grew serious. "There’s no need to doubt. It’s praise."
Jiang Zhou gave him a strange look. "Because she destroyed the Lu family?"
Lu Ling had been exiled by the Lu family for his preference for heterodox arts and certainly hated them for it. But when disaster befell the family, he still went back. His hatred probably didn’t run that deep; after all, it was the family that had raised him.
Lu Ling shook his head, his words shocking. "It has nothing to do with the Lu family. I love her."
"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..."
Jiang Zhou nearly choked to death on his tea.
"You... Her former Prince Consort was Lu Yanzhi..."
’By generation, she’s his cousin-in-law.’
Lu Ling sneered dismissively. "That good-for-nothing Lu Yanzhi doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as her. I love her for who she is—her beauty, her ruthlessness, her tyranny, her cold-blooded heart. It was love at first sight."
Jiang Zhou: "..." ’What a freak.’
"Then you shouldn’t be here. You should go to the Imperial City."
Lu Ling’s expression twisted with anger. "What’s the use in going? The moment she sees my face, she’ll sentence me to death."
As a youth, he lived in Lu Yanzhi’s shadow. Now, even with Lu Yanzhi dead, he still couldn’t escape it.
It was clearly his own face, but because it resembled Lu Yanzhi’s, people pinned all of Lu Yanzhi’s sins on him.
’Such hatred!’
Jiang Zhou asked curiously, "You’ve seen the Empress? What does she look like?"
’Just how beautiful must a woman be to capture the heart of a scoundrel like Lu Ling?’
An image surfaced in Lu Ling’s mind: the night of the coup in the Imperial Palace. She was in a red dress more dazzling than fresh blood, surrounded by her silver armor escort—like a goddess, yet more fearsome than a demon.
She had forcefully suppressed everyone, holding the Jade Seal as she reigned over all under heaven.
Jiang Zhou stared at his trembling pupils and flushed cheeks, stunned. "Holy shit, you’re a freak! What are you thinking about?"
’That look on his face... he’s definitely not thinking about anything decent.’
Lu Ling raised a hand to cover his eyes, but he couldn’t hide his turbulent emotions. "Jiang Zhou, you don’t understand. I just want to die by her hand."
He lowered his hand and opened his eyes, his gaze resolute. "I will make her kill me with her own hands."
Jiang Zhou: "..."
’It’s incomprehensible. How did I end up friends with a psycho like him?’
----
While Prince Wei was busy with his investigation, Xu Nianqing hurried off to find his father.
Xiao Li, wanting to watch the show, tagged along. But the result was...
"I am going to marry you! If you don’t agree, I’ll ask Prince Wei to officiate our wedding."
Niu Jiahua stubbornly insisted that everything she had done was for the sake of marrying Xu Nianqing. It was a tale of unrequited love, spun with obstinate pestering.
CRACK.
Xu Nianqing’s expression darkened so much it looked like it might crack.
"HAHAHAHA..."
Xiao Li burst out laughing, so hard that he fell off the roof. ’Close one,’ he thought. ’Luckily, a fall like this can’t kill me anymore.’
Xu Nianqing wanted to kill Niu Jiahua. "Kidnapping a County Magistrate is an unforgivable crime."
Niu Jiahua hid behind the Silver Armor Guards. "You were the one who was unfaithful first! I had no choice but to do this. And I didn’t kidnap him, I just invited your father to come with me to ask Prince Wei to be the judge."
Because Niu Jiahua had never mentioned Tianhu Village, Xu Shuangnian still thought she was just a romantic entanglement of his son’s.
Of course he was furious. He, a dignified County Magistrate, had been kidnapped for so many days and suffered so much. It was impossible for him not to want to kill Niu Jiahua. But faced with someone so difficult, reasoning was useless.
This was the Governor Mansion, and Prince Wei’s Silver Armor Guards were present. They couldn’t kill anyone here, so they could only swallow their anger.
Finally, Prince Wei found a moment to spare and prepared to deal with this amusing little matter.
After learning Prince Wei’s return route from Yuan City, Niu Jiahua had dragged Xu Shuangnian along to find him.
Although she didn’t know what relationship her "senior sister" had with Prince Wei, she felt that the prince this "senior sister" kept mentioning would surely be able to help her.
But kidnapping the County Magistrate was a capital offense, so she couldn’t mention that. After thinking it over and over, the moment she saw Prince Wei’s procession, she brought out the ridiculous excuse she had used to trick Xu Shuangnian.
It was true that the original Xu Qingyun had approached her of his own accord. It was also true that he had sweet-talked her.
Since the now-unfamiliar Xu Nianqing refused to acknowledge it, she would just make things up.
She claimed the two of them had pledged their lives to each other and met secretly in a cave. When her father suddenly appeared, Xu Qingyun was so scared that he ran the wrong way and tumbled down a slope. Afterward, she said, they took him back and served him good food and drink.
But in the end, he held a grudge against her father for scaring him into falling off a cliff and sent soldiers to their village to slaughter the old, weak, and young.
She claimed she had been left with no other choice but to bring the County Magistrate to find Prince Wei and ask him to uphold justice.
Niu Jiahua knelt on the ground. "Prince, Tianhu Village is a bandit stronghold, but the people in it are just ordinary folk who were forced to flee into the mountains because of the war. We beg you to grant us justice."
Xu Nianqing’s pupils trembled. Only one thought ran through his mind: ’It’s over!’
Not everything Niu Jiahua said was true, but it wasn’t all false, either.
No matter how this case was handled, his ambiguous entanglement with Niu Jiahua would become an indelible stain on his reputation.
How could he reveal Xu Shuangnian’s identity at a time like this? What would Prince Wei think of a relative from the Empress’s maternal clan?
If word of this got back to her, how could he possibly face the Empress?
As Xiao Jingyi listened to Niu Jiahua’s story, he stared at Xu Nianqing. His vacant gaze seemed to look through him at someone else, filled with complexity and longing.
Xu Nianqing knew his face might resemble the Empress’s. He still had a chance. He was waiting for Prince Wei to speak.
But unexpectedly, the next moment Prince Wei withdrew his gaze and looked at Niu Jiahua. "I am aware of Miss Niu’s situation. However, adjudicating cases is not within my duties."
He thought for a moment. "Governor Jiang."
Jiang Ming stepped forward. "I am here."
Xiao Jingyi said, "Have your men bring those mountain bandits down. If they are indeed ordinary people, see that they are settled properly."
Niu Jiahua was overjoyed. ’Our village is saved!’
Xiao Li sighed helplessly. ’This girl isn’t stupid, but she’s far too straightforward.’
’Xiao Jingyi had spoken of properly settling ordinary people. That was one thing for the other, genuinely ordinary folk, but Niu Tianhu and his men were real bandits who had killed and robbed people.’
’In this world, killing isn’t the crime. The crime is failing to kill your way to the top and become the one who makes the rules.’
’Forget making the rules; Tianhu Village didn’t even have the right to negotiate.’
’If they had killed Xu Shuangnian, their immediate crisis would have been resolved. And since he would have been killed within the borders of Yuan City after being kidnapped, there would be no way to trace it back to Tianhu Village.’
’While Niu Jiahua’s current actions were a good thing for the ordinary people in the village, she had pushed her father and the others out to be judged.’