Chapter 629 - Oral Order (2/2)
Uh...apparently we had gone off topic. Back to Xiaocao, who was often ‘neglecting sleep and forgetting about eating’ at the Imperial Plantations. The emperor had something he needed to see her for, so he had no choice but to send an eunuch out to the suburbs to transmit his oral command.
The emperor had been in a bad mood recently. His right hand, Su Ran, had left. Although Su Ran’s disciples and grand disciples were all quite good, they still didn’t have the natural connection that he had with Su Ran. It wasn't something that could be cultivated in just a day or two. Thus, Zhu Junfan often felt that getting things done was not smooth as before, so he had a belly full of rage now. He was planning on letting it all out once Chief Steward Su came back.
Xiaocao galloped at top speed the entire way there and didn’t even bother to wash up or change her clothes before she entered the imperial city. The jade tile, which had been carved with a dragon on top, allowed her to go through all of the checkpoints without any problems. She directly entered the imperial study. The emperor was currently seated at his desks, frowning as he stared at the official doc.u.ments in front of him.
“Imperial Majesty, Miss Yu is outside waiting!” The direct successor that Su Ran had trained, Su Chi, quietly reminded the emperor as he glanced at his master cautiously.
“Quickly allow her to come in!” Zhu Junfan straightened his body and leaned back in his chair. His face was full of fatigue. These were truly troubled times. War had started at the northwest border and the northeast border was starting to become restless too. Then there was the stud farm there…
“Greetings to the emperor…” Xiaocao hadn’t even finished her official greeting before Zhu Junfan stopped her in her tracks.
“Alright, no need to act so falsely meek! Take this doc.u.ment and look at it for yourself!” Zhu Junfan took a sip of his already cold coffee and his frown became deeper. Should he change out the chefs in his private kitchen? They couldn’t even brew a cup of coffee properly. Why couldn't the coffee they made taste as good and fragrant as the one he had at the Yu Residence?
Yu Xiaocao obediently received the official doc.u.ment and flipped through it casually. Apparently, now that the stud farm at the borders had obtained some good breeding stock from the wild horses, it provoked the actions of some foreign tribes and they started to scheme against them. However, with the detoxifying pills that Xiaocao left behind as well as the well water that she had altered to contain some weak spiritual energy, the usual plots that could be used against them weren’t effective against the horses at the ranch at all.
However, at the time, Zhu Junyang was afraid of having her act too conspicuously, so the pills that Xiaocao left behind and the well water could only do so much. Counteracting the normal sort of poisons could be done, but there were all sorts of weird venoms and toxins to be had in the world. Thus, it wasn’t hard to concoct poisons that were out of the ordinary that normal detoxifying pills couldn’t cure.
This time, the stud farm had hit a hard rock. Other than the head stallion of the wild herd, Snow Scar, and the extremely intelligent Black Whirlwind, who had dodged this crisis with their heightened sense of danger, the rest of the horses at the farm had fallen into a trap.
It looked like the rest of the horses had become infected with a type of horse plague. They had fevers, pulmonary edema, and internal bleeding. If it wasn’t for the fact that they had special fodder, the well water with spiritual energy, and the detoxifying pills, then it was likely that the only horses remaining now would be Snow Scar and Black Whirlwind.
Even though this problem was discovered early and they had treated these horses with a lot of well water and pills, there were still a few older and weaker horses who had died from this. The most tricky problem was that the disease afflicting these horses was now resisting the effects of the detoxifying pills and gradually destroying the horses’ bodies. If this continued on, it was likely that…
A spark of anger and anxiety twined within Yu Xiaocao’s heart. The stud farm was her fiancé’s, Zhu Junyang’s, special project that he had poured his heart and soul into. She had stayed at the borders for almost half a year and it could be said that she had watched the farm slowly grow into what it was today. As for the horses at the ranch, she had a deep relations.h.i.+p with a lot of them. She absolutely couldn’t allow their special project to fall apart just like that. She also couldn’t allow her fiancé, who was on the battlefield risking his life for his country, to come back later and find out that his project had been utterly destroyed!
“Imperial Majesty, please send down your orders ah!” Yu Xiaocao was now very clear as to why the emperor had summoned her today. She held the doc.u.ments in her hand as she steadily stared at Zhu Junfan.
Originally, Zhu Junfan had prepared all sorts of arguments to convince her. Now he knew that he had thought too much. However, he glanced at Su Chi, who was standing at the side, and said, “We know that Beloved Official Yu has the ability to concoct medicines that are heavenly in effect and that you are quite skilled at diagnosing and treating. Thus, we were planning on sending you along with a few famous veterinarians there…”
He paused for a second before continuing, “We suspect that those foreign tribes have an expert at concocting poisons on their side. However, why would he send a poison that mimics a horse plague instead of directly killing the animals in one shot? This is quite suspicious and requires more thinking!”
Yu Xiaocao was quite clever and slightly furrowed her brows as she thought out loud, “Imperial Majesty, what you're trying to say is that the poison that they snuck into the farm is just a bait. Just who are they trying to bait out with this?”