Chapter 345 - Floundering Calvary

After leaving the Emperor, Lei Xing went to see Princess Nalan again. She had to go meet the girl and reassure her again before she did another foolish thing. Although she had sent him an update on the situation, Lei Xing was still surprised that the Emperor did not ask after Princess Nalan. 

But then again, he already had enough things to think about and did not care for Princess Nalan's drama. And Lei Xing did not mention it either as there was no point bothering him with something she had under control. Moreover, she was sure he was getting updates on the matter from other sources.

Earlier today, someone or other - it was currently under investigation had gone to inform Princess Nalan about the imprisonment and criminal charge of her dear Prince. Naturally, the valiant Princess Nalan could not take this affront on her household and took it upon herself to save her "Prince". 

So she got in a fight with her Imperials guards who were - more like beat them up considering they were all too scared of actually harming her. Then she continued her rampage, this time with a sword she had taken from one of the Imperial guards. She harrassed all the unfortunate servants who came across her path, before eventually bullying one maid who could not run fast enough into guiding her to the prison.

In the end, a brigade of Imperial guards cornered her. Obviously vastly outnumbered, in a last-ditch effort Princess Nalan put the sword to her throat and decided to threaten her way out but the guards did not move and simply circled her. Luckily, Lei Xing was the first person of authority to arrive on the scene with her retinue, out of breath and a bit worse for wear, wearing a simple robe over her nightdress with her hair up in an unadorned ponytail. It was obvious she had hastily departed her palace to come here. 

This crazy episode managed to end on a peaceful note after Lei Xing talked Princess Nalan down, after all, she could not have possibly hoped to make it to the prison, break Prince Yi out, and then actually escape the fortress that is the palace. Even Princess Nalan was not that stupidly reckless. 

Therefore, Lei Xing rightly guessed that she was only doing all this for attention to make her point clear: If they killed Prince Yi, she would kill herself and her blood will be on their hands... which she clearly stated after Lei Xing assured her that she would talk to the Emperor and they will work it out. After which, Princess Nalan dropped her sword and peacefully followed Lei Xing back. 

Of course, the Imperial guards all followed along worried that Princess Nalan would attack Lei Xing or something. But in the end, nothing more happened. So by the time the Emperor who was interrupted in a meeting had rushed over, it was all over. Despite his irritation with Princess Nalan, he had the good sense not to interrupt Lei Xing's talk with Princess Nalan and simply returned to his meeting trusting that Lei Xing could handle the situation. 

Thankfully, Lei Xing had actually managed to de-escalate the situation before the Emperor arrived, because she rationalized that given the current situation, it was quite possible that the Emperor would outrightly call Princess Nalan's bluff and tell her to go ahead and do it. After all, it was not as if he feared her country and if he showed weakness, then she would try to force a pardon out of him which was obviously not something he would want, especially not publicly.

Moreover, there was also a chance that with Princess Nalan's character, if her stance was challenged, she might have truly gone ahead with it simply out of pride. Therefore, a confrontation between the two of them would have definitely not gone well. So at least the escalation of another disaster was averted. 

After ensuring that Princess Nalan had regained rationality, Lei Xing left her in her room and then quietly ordered for all of Princess Nalan's servants to be replaced. Being loose-lipped was not allowed, especially after they had been warned to keep palace matters quiet from their guest when she went on lockdown. After all, Lei Xing was their mistress, not Princess Nalan. 

Therefore, even though the problem had been taken care of, how it came to be still had to be addressed. Ming Shu was currently overseeing the interrogation of Princess Nalan's former servants as well as the Imperial guards who were on duty at her residence at the time.

The punishment of the guilty party would be up to Lei Xing and even though she was not keen on it, she recognized that it was a necessary evil to maintain order in the system. After all, it was her orders that had been "flouted" - probably because she seemed too easygoing. She always rewarded achievements but never actually bothered to punish "wrongs" to Ming Shu and Xiao Ruo's disp.l.e.a.s.u.r.e . She usually let things go with a simple apology, and at most, she would dismiss the person from her presence. 

Although it was usually that Lei Xing never really felt the wrongs, often simple mistakes were ever bad enough to warrant "punishment". Moreover, she had never been faced with an egregious wrong before or perhaps it was that Ming Shu quietly dealt with them herself worried Lei Xing would be too lenient. 

Therefore, even though no one said anything to her, Lei Xing suspected that they all thought of her as "easy". Ming Shu had already spoken to her privately and advised that she would need to come down hard with punishment on this matter to make an example of this. The Empress's words were not to be taken lightly. 

Lei Xing understood and accepted that perhaps she was too laid back in both mind and spirit for her new position. It was alright when she was living only having to worry about her own "problems", but it was obviously not alright when one had become the "law".

So this lax in her management of the palace coupled with the fact that she actually let herself get used by someone as unthinking as Princess Nalan in the first instance was weighing heavily on Lei Xing's mind. Even though no one scolded her or admonished her for anything - because the only person who was in the position coddled her and could apparently not bear to speak one wrong word to her her, she still felt the weight of disappointment.

Therefore, this day was an irritating one for all parties involved. 

***

"Father! Father!"

Prime minister Zhao frowned as he thought he heard his son's idiotic voice coming from outside his office. The lesser ministers he was discussing with also seemed to have heard something as they stopped talking and looked towards the door.

Prime minister Zhao got a bad feeling and immediately got up but before he could excuse himself, his idiot son burst through the door shrugging off the office assistants, obliviously exclaiming, "Father, we have to do something. Treason! How? It's a setup! The Emperor never liked Shan an-" He immediately fell silent as he finally noticed the ministers sitting around the table. But he then quickly regained his composure and narrowed his eyes at his frowning father and said, "Father, I need to talk to you."

Prime minister Zhao glared at his son and bit out, "We will continue this meeting later..." The ministers promptly rose, bowed their heads, and flocked out as Prime minister Zhao solemnly sank back into his seat.

Zhao Chang did not wait for his father to speak first, "Father, we need to do something. This is a conspiracy!" He said as he began pacing.

"Yes, we really should do something..." Prime minister Zhao said, leaning back in his chair.

"You agree?" Zhao Chang questioned in surprise, stopping in his tracks, he did not expect his father to be so easily persuaded. They were rarely ever in agreement. 

Zhao Chang had just gone to Prince Yi's manor where he was promptly informed that he had been arrested for treason of all things. So naturally, Zhao Chang had immediately turned and headed for the Imperial palace to get an explanation. Thankfully, he had the good sense to stop himself from attempting to barge into the inner palace to find the Emperor, and opted to calmly - in contained rage, trooped to the ministry departments to find his father for help.

Prime minister Zhao got up and walked over to the window as he said, "Of course, I've already arranged for some guards to whisk him away from prison, and then the two of you can sneak out of the city and gallop into the sunset..."

Zhao Chang's face lit up and he went over to his father with a smile, "Really?!"

Prime minister Zhao turned to his son with an infuriated expression, "You -!" He let out an irritated breath and bit out, "If not for the fact that I have heard of your wayward ways with women, I would be questioning your motivations with this -" He paused thinking of the appropriate word, "...Obsession with Prince Yi." he finished dismissively waving his hand.

Zhao Chang blinked at his father and then pursed his lips, "Father, you cannot possibly -"

"I can and I will!" Prime minister Zhao barked and then lowered his voice as he said through ground teeth, "Not only have you tried to sell your sister to him but now you want to sell your entire family to him! Can't you think straight?! You should know to distance yourself from trouble -!"

Zhao Chang frowned and cut in, "He is a friend, it's in times like these that friends need to show so -"

"If you had used your great zeal for friendship to form a proper friendship with Jun Kai then today your sister would be Empress!" Prime minister Zhao raged, "You better not try anything stupid or I swear I will kill you myself! In fact, what am I saying? Anyone out there! Guards, men, someone! Anyone" Three Imperial guards promptly shortly raced in and Prime minister Zhao ordered, "Escort my son home."

"Fath-!"

"If you say one more word or do one more foolish thing, I will disown you and you will be thrown out on the street and I will see how helpful your friends can be. Useless!" Prime minister Zhao growled, staring his son down. Zhao Chang locked angry gazes with his father for a bit, before turning and stomping his way out, with the servants flanking him.

Prime minister Zhao let out an irritated breath as the doors closed behind his wayward son. He could not believe he had almost been persuaded by his stupid son into boarding this sinking ship. What was he thinking? Jun Kai was definitely the better option. After all, it was not like Prince Yi was going to become a pawn in his hands, the boy seemed too confused in his actions to be any use.

As for that Lei daughter, so what if she was Empress. Empressed are replaced all the time. They had done it before and could do it again. Fine, the Emperor had put her in a protective cocoon, the girl never went anywhere without a host of guards - not that she even went out at all these days.

She was also never alone in the palace at all. The people around her were also too risky to approach. Even the cooks in the kitchen that cooked her food were all unapproachable. It was all quite infuriating but all they needed was one opportunity and it was only a matter of time until that opportunity presented itself. Something had to give and it will eventually give. 

The last thing he needed while biding his time was for his idiot son to draw unnecessary attention to him by running rampant for a lost cause.