Chapter 165 (2/2)

Lee Yu smiled and shook her head to say, ”Last time, I regreted not to see your true potential and underestimated your confidence. But this time I think it should be different. Maybe I'll offer a price you can't refuse.”

Ning Que looked at her beautiful face and said, ”There are few things in the world I can't refuse. But Her Highness, you're truly one of them.”

Lee Yu slightly startled, with a slight anger appearing in her eyes and a touch of blush on her cheek. Ning Que's pun could be said to be rude and shameless, or respectful and flattery. She felt shameful but did not know how to deal with him.

A moment later, she looked at Ning Que with faint sarcastic and said with a smile, ”You're really pretty.”

Ning Que suddenly turned away, secretly regretting not using this sentence previously. As a result, she stole this sentence for her use.

Outside the court, it was young eunuch Lu Ji who waited to take Ning Que out of the palace.

Walking along the Imperial Garden for a long time, they finally saw the imperial city gate in the darkness. The wobbly palace lanterns have been far away from the eunuchs and palace maids pa.s.sing through the palaces. Lu Ji, who has lowered the head and led the way ahead, slowed down his footsteps and kept the voiced down to say ”Thank you”.

Ning Que knew what Lu Ji thanked for, so he shook his head with a smile and did not say anything.

Outside the Imperial City, it was the court bodyguard Deputy Commander Xu Chongshan who was responsible for guarding the night palace.

After a harsh or even kind of perverted long examination, Ning Que was finally taken to the duty room next to the imperial city gate. He rewore the shoes and the belt and later looked at Deputy Commander Xu. Then he said with a bitter smile, ”Why you waited for me here?”

There were only two of them in the room.

Xu Chongshan looked fully helpless and looked at Ning Que to seriously greet a bow and gratefully said, ”I've worried about it the whole day. After all, I still have to express my grat.i.tude to you.”

Ning Que looked at him and shook the head to say, ”Lu Ji took me out of the palace and you are here for the night duty. His Majesty certainly knows this thing. I even think whether his Majesty specially left us some time for a united stance.”

Xu Chongshan said with deep regret, ”It's too late now. Even if his Majesty has guessed something, I still have to shut my mouth.”

Ning Que looked at the nominal boss and said with a comfort, ”Guessing is different from knowing after all.”

Xu Chongshan came over with two rough short legs and looked at Ning Que. Then he seriously said, ”If this time I really lost his Majesty's favor, I'll follow you from now on. My legs are too short to run fast, so you must wait for me.”

Ning Que has told a pun when talking with Lee Yu and then heard another pun at the Imperial City gate. The palace bodyguard Deputy Commander's position and att.i.tude directly surprised Ning Que who kept waving the hand and said, ”Your Grace, please don't say so. My waist and legs are good but not so strong.”

Xu Chongshan pretended to be displeased and said, ”You have a thin waist but a fat thigh. Don't be so humble.”

Ning Que heard this weird flattery with a serious accent of Hebei Province and could not help shuddering. So he quickly changed the topic and lowered the voice to ask, ”Your Grace, is it easy to expose our secret guard ident.i.ty? Before entering the palace, Eunuch Lin has pointed out my ident.i.ty.”

Xu Chongshan explained. ”Eunuch Lin is the server of his Majesty and of course knows the list of secret guards. Except for few people in the palace, no one knows your ident.i.ty, including Her Majesty.”

Ning Que remembered that previously in front of the Empress, his Majesty really has not talked about secret guards with him. So Ning Que started to be at ease.

Suddenly he thought of one thing and asked earnestly, ”How about... Her Highness?”

Xu Chongshan looked a little embarra.s.sed and thoughtfully said, ”Guessing is different from knowing. Didn't you say these words before?”

”Nice to meet you, my emperor brother.”

”Sit down please.”

The Emperor waved his hands at will, indicating the Prince Li Peiyan to sit down, and then put down the papers at hand. Suddenly, he thought of one thing and asked, ”Last time I let someone deliver the two barrels of double-distilled wine to your mansion. Did you drink it? Do you like it?”

Li Peiyan frowned and honestly said, ”That wine is too scorching.”

The Emperor said unhappily, ”If it isn't scorching, why drink it? Since childhood, you had a poor body but was still spoiled by mother. So your body continued to be so weak.”

Li Peiyan laughed twice and said, ”Anyway, I have the emperor brother to cover me. I am fine with being weak.”

After finis.h.i.+ng this sentence, he became serious and stood up from the chair, beginning to enter the monarchy-administer time period. He reported, ”West-Hill mission team is ready to leave and Long Qing is also about to leave Chang'an. I urge his Majesty to leave this person in Chang'an.”

The Emperor said casually, ”The previous agreement was for the young man to enter the Second floor. Since he had no ability to enter, I'm not to blame. And the agreement is also invalid, so let him go as he wants.”

Li Peiyan felt a little surprised listening to those words and anxiously said, ”My emperor brother, he's the hostage of Yan Kingdom. How can we let him leave?”

”The Tang Empire is famous in the world for its cavalry warriors and the spirit of not surrendering, not for some hostages who hang out in Chang'an's brothels every day.” The Emperor said with a slight ridicule, ”In those years, the Yan Emperor sent his crown prince to Chang'an, not for my sake but for his own benefits. If I did't accept his son, wouldn't he be afraid every night that my cavalries might break into Capital Cheng at any time and entered his palace? In order to let that old guy sleep better and live a few days more, I had to accept it.”

”You have to understand that it's these emperors of Yan Kingdom and South Jin Kingdom who urgerly sent hostages to Chang'an City, not I want them to come. My Tang Empire even has to spend money and food on those d.a.m.ned crown princes.”

The Emperor waved his hand and said, ”Let Prince Long Qing go as he wishes. Chang'an City doesn't raise useless men.”

Ning Que got off the horse carriage in the alley of Lin 47th Street and quietly slipped to the narrow lane of back courtyard. He spoke out the cipher at a distance from

the wall. Then the back door of Old Brush Pen Shop was pushed open with a squeak. Ning Que dodged in with the fastest speed.

Ning Que took over a hot towel to wash his face and put the feet in a hot water basin with proper temperature. He felt so comfortable as to utter a groan, with the tiredness from yesterday to today swept away. The tightened spirit for a long time has finally soothed down.

During the whole day, he climb

ed the Academy's back mountain, defeated Prince Long Qing to get the qualification of entering the Second floor, and changed from a forgotten Academy student to a genius who the Academy and South School of Haotian Taoism asked for. Afterwards, it was discovered that he was the owner of the calligraphy section. So he entered the royal palace, had a meal with his Majesty, and chatted with the imperial family...

Shock after shock, a wave was followed by another wave. They all happened witihin one day, which was really hard to imagine and might also be very difficult for someone to copy in the future. In the outsiders' eyes, it was already dizzying enough, let alone Ning Que himself. When Ning Que finally lay on the familiar bed, he still felt somewhat absentminded

and unreal.

Sangsang added half a scoop of hot water to his foot-was.h.i.+ng basin and squatted on the floor to look up at him. She curiously asked, ”Young master, what does the Emperor look like? With a long and white beard?”

”It's Santa Claus who has a long and white beard, not the Emperor.”

Ning Que reclined on the bedclothes and pointed the aching thigh with his fingers, indicating Sangsang to ma.s.sage a few times. He said, ”His Majesty, ah, in fact, is not too old. I really do not know what kind of person he is?”

This was a very honest remark. For the Emperor of the Tang Empire, Ning Que has always felt somewhat complicated in the past few years. From that natural disaster to the many details of the City of Wei stronghold, he could feel the Emperor nowadays was a legendary wise monarch. However, whenever he thought of the bloodshed in General's Mansion and those murders who were still sitting in the imperial court, he had to put a question mark for the wise monarch in the heart.

From the frontier fortress back to Chang'an City, he began to chase down the murderers who partic.i.p.ated in the case of General's Mansion that year. During this process, he found out that the Emperor did not look into this matter but secretly did many things these years, such as demotiong them and keeping at a distance with them. Although this lack of justification is far from sufficient, Ning must have admitted that for a country that has been forgotten by the world for so long and without any evidence of conviction and any necessary refutation, Your Majesty the Emperor has done enough.

As for the culprits in the case of General's Mansion, the Prince Li Peiyan and General Xia Hou... one was the younger brother of the Emperor. The other was the mainstay of the Tang Empire. They were still enjoying the fame and fortune. However, Ning Que could understand it.

Ning Que silently said in the heart, ”His Majesty, if you can't deal with your own younger brother, then let me do it for you.”

Sangsang sat on the bed, waving a small fist rhythmically to beat his thigh and looking at his face. She could not help feeling curious and asked, ”Does Her Majesty look beautiful? Her Highness seems to dislike her. But last time when I was in the House of Red Sleeves, I heard Xiaocao said that Her Majesty was the best-looking woman in the world, so his Majesty only liked her these years.”

Feeling the percussion of her small fist, Ning Que comfortably narrowed his eyes and said. ”You should spend less time with Xiaocao, for you can't learn any skills from her but only talking about the imperial harem like a gossip woman.”

Sangsang said: ”I'm just curious.”

Ning Que suddenly thought of one thing. So he opened the eyes and said with a sigh, ”There's nothing special with Her Majesty. It's also hard to summarize his Majesty. But at least I know he is truly a master on business.”

The master and the maidservant stared at the silver box on the bed, or accurately the paper in the box, and showed the same distressed look. After a long time of silence, Sangsang looked up and a little unwillingly asked, ”Send all of them to the palace?”

Ning Que answered with a husky voice, ” Of course not, two thirds at most. No... just a half. ”

Sangsang began to pick up some sections from inside the box. And she was very slow and unwilling, with a distressed expression on her face. Ning Que also felt very distressed and said with regret and lament, ”If I had known one day a piece of paper I randomly wrote would be equal to a silver note, how could I throw so much and burn so much? Even if I wrote it badlly, even with a lot of ink, a section still could be equal to half of a note. In this way, didn't we throw away a number of notes these years?”

Listening to these words, Sangsang's eyes suddenly became bright. She jumped out of the bed unusually quickly and rudely dragged Ning Que off the bed, lifting up the mattress to reach her hands in for a long time. Then she took out a small box and opened it on the table. She took out the paper inside and later exclaimed. ”Young master, I picked up a lot of sheets of paper that you had thrown in the past. Can you exchange these for money?”

Ning Que felt a little startled, subconsciously picking up a piece of paper on the top for a look, and then found that it was the mourning section he had written on the night when Zhuo Er had died. He was shocked and asked, ” I have already thrown this section. When did you pick it back?”

Sangsang smiled and no longer spoke.

Ning Que was shocked and speechless. After a long time, he came to himself and extended his both hands to hold Sangsang's little black face. He affectionately said, ”Sangsang, how can I live without you?”

At this moment, his stomach suddenly growled.

Ning Que took back his hands to rub the belly and took a look at the night scenery outside the window. He said, ” It takes a long time for dawn?”

”Yes, young master.” Sangsang asked in curiosity, ”What's the matter?”

Ning Que seriously said, ”At this time I miss the hot and sour noodle slice soup very much.”

Sangsang puzzled and asked, ”I heard there was at least a hundred dishes on an imperial banquet. Young master, were you not full?”

Ning Que said with a ridicule, ”Those innocent people didn't know the Royal Palace. Although there were all kinds of delicious food on the banquet, they still focused in delicacy and elegance. How could they serve the food like moving a mountain? I've now had the imperial feast. In the future you should not say that kind of words outside, lest people would mock our short vision after hearing that.”

Sangsang agreed and continued to ask quietly, ”The royal feast must be good. But young master, were you full or not?

Ning Que looked slightly stiff and honestly said after a moment of silence: ”Not yet.”

Sangsang smiled and said, ”I'm going to cook some noodles.”

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