Chapter 5 - His Majesty Is Angry (2/2)

He couldn’t move. His whole body was in pain. At this time, when he saw this scene, his heart couldn’t help but feel apprehensive. He truly felt a bit regretful.

The assassin gathered his strength and said in a loud voice, “If Your Majesty is still angry, you can continue to punish me. I, Li Huan, have a cheap life. No matter how much punishment, I can endure it all!”

Someone kicked him hard and shouted angrily, “Shut up!”

After a stick of incense burnt, the pale-faced Gu Yuanbai dismissed the crowd with a wave of his hand.

Li Huan looked at his expression and swallowed the blood in his throat.

That day, Li Huan took a brothel girl to the riverside for an outing. While playing with the girl, they both fell into the water. There were reeds in the water that could prolong underwater breath. The feeling of flirting underwater was exciting, so Li Huan did not rush to take the girl ashore. When he pulled his head out of the water to breathe, he happened to catch a sight of the emperor coming toward the river.

Li Huan spontaneously sunk to the bottom of the water. The river was muddy. He grabbed the brothel girl and got into the reeds. The dense reeds concealed them. Afraid that the woman next to him would make any noise, he covered her lips and locked her limbs, while he watched the person on the riverbank from between the gap.

The person on the riverbank looked down at the water while not knowing people were watching him from within the reeds.

Undoubtedly, Li Huan was not at the bottom of the water, and yet he held his breath like he was suffocated. After the emperor left, he took the girl ashore. He almost killed a person because of the insensibility within the tension.

Who would have known that the man on that day was the emperor? What he was looking at was a sacred face?

Gu Yuanbai calmed down for a while. The look in his eyes was heavy as he asked coldly, “Who let you into the palace?”

Li Huan opened his mouth wide, but uncommunicative.

“Whatever you say, Zhen doesn’t care,” said Gu Yuanbai. “Who knows if what you’re saying is true or false. Zhen will personally investigate it. After checking the source, Zhen will invite Youngest Gongzi Li into the palace to see if Zhen has caught the right person or not.”

The emperor said it word by word gently and without any stress, but Li Huan felt chill on his back.

Gu Yuanbai said with a smile, “Come, send Gongzi Li to Imperial Preceptor’s house. Bring the best medicinal materials and let one hundred palace servants follow. Send him to Li Residence with great fanfare and enthusiasm!”

Captain of the Imperial Bodyguard’s expression was solemn as he responded, “Your servant obeys the order.”

“If Imperial Preceptor asked,” Gu Yuanbai said, “just tell the truth. If Imperial Preceptor wants to enter the palace to plead guilty, tell him to wait for his son to recover first.”

“Yes.”

Li Huan was carried out of the palace with a wry smile. He supposed that this procession was more extravagant than when the emperor went out of the palace.

The emperor might feel that two days of punishment was not enough to vent his anger, and thus planned to do something like this. He had thought that the emperor would not tell his father lest his father died under exasperation.

Yet, he didn’t expect the emperor had a mutual affection with his father. Nevertheless, even if his father was angered to death, it couldn’t be compared with letting the emperor’s cool his temper.

At this time, even if his father was angered to death, the people in the country would say that he died because of this unfilial son of his. Not only that, they would be grateful for the emperor’s benevolence and grateful for the emperor’s grace toward the Li Residence.

From then on, his father could no longer speak brazenly about his mutual affection with the emperor.

“Ai,” Li Huan sighed and chatted with the person beside him, “Big brother bodyguard, if my father doesn’t ask, please don’t take the initiative to tell him.”

The Imperial Bodyguard’s face was expressionless, but there was faint anger.

Li Huan was silent for a while. Suddenly, he opened his fist which had been clenched. There was green silk wrapped in his fist. He put the green silk into his clothes with difficulty and looked at the horizon as his mind wandered.

He had the position of an emperor and the appearance of a celestial being.

Status, power, and the country were all in the hand of that person. The emperor raised by the whole territory of Great Heng even had hair as smooth as satin.

The next time he wanted to see the emperor, he had to wait until this body healed.

*

After Li Huan was sent back, Imperial Preceptor Li Bao wanted to go to the palace to plead guilty. However, Gu Yuanbai did not want to see him and let people sent him back to his residence. After three days of going back and forth like that, Li Bao’s spirit withered. His whole person seemed to have a 70-year-old man’s lethargy in an instant.

All the people who should know about Li Bao’s three days of going to the palace yet not entering was aware of it. Except for some well-informed people, outsiders did not know why Li Bao could not get the emperor’s favor overnight.

Two days later, a few of the Imperial Bodyguards in the palace were executed. The bloody corpses were transported to Li Residence at night. Li Bao was horrified and directly fainted.

Li Bao sat in the ancestral hall once he gained consciousness. After dawn, he wrote a thousand-word apology letter to the emperor.

After the letter was submitted, Li Bao anxiously waited for news from the palace. His eldest son had become an official in the Imperial Court, but his qualifications were mediocre. Now, he only wandered in the bottom, but he still had the chance to advance.

However, right now, their whole family from the elders to the children knew it had been spoiled.

The eldest son’s face looked grim. Everyone had an unsightly expression.

Li Huan was placed in the room to recuperate. The family could not criticize him at this time, but they were still resentful.

Why is he so bold as to break into the palace?

That’s the Imperial Palace! The Forbidden City! It’s the place where the emperor lives! How dare Li Huan?!

Li Bao looked haggard. He had never had such an experience in his whole life. Nowadays, the emperor treated his ministers well and he was even closer to him. But now, when he wanted to see the emperor, he couldn’t even enter the palace gate.

After some unknown time passed, the palace finally sent someone to his door.

The messenger’s face was indifferent. After politely greeting Imperial Preceptor Li Bao, who came with a cane, he spoke bluntly, “His Majesty sympathizes with Imperial Preceptor’s health. Currently, Youngest Gongzi Li is seriously injured. The whole of Li Family should be busy taking care of Youngest Gongzi Li. In this case, there is no need to participate in the Lantern Festival Palace Banquet.”

Those who could attend the palace banquet could be said to be the people who were part of the center of the political right in the whole Great Heng Dynasty. Now that they couldn’t attend the palace banquet, they were excluded from the center of the political right?

Hearing this, everyone’s expression turned rigid. Li Bao’s hands fiercely shook. He knelt on the ground and sobbed, “Many thanks to His Majesty for His compassionate kindness.”

The emperor was truly angry.

For the first time, the people of Li Residence kneeling on the ground recognized the facts in front of them.

Was there any future for them and Li Residence after they had infuriated the emperor?