Chapter 55 - A childhood sweetheart

Last time, Gongxiang Xiao suddenly appeared and killed Xin Qing as a warning. Although it had been a mystery case without clues until now, it was generally believed that Jie Yu Yue was the culprit. However, after all, the murder happened in the Imperial Harem, so Empress Ji investigated the case thoroughly. After that, the Imperil Harem was under strict guard, which was stricter than before.

…… Maybe for this reason, Gongxiang Xiao didn’t dare to act willfully, but changed to a costume of a eunuch, stood with his hands in the sleeves behind a collapsed palace wall, and watched Yun Fenghuang approaching with an indifferent expression.

“Thank you, Shizi!” Yun Fenghuang smiled, greeted him with a salute when she came to him, and said happily, “When Xi Jing and Xi Le came to Hu Zhu Palace before, Xi Jing was arrogant, but Xi Le was considerate and gentle. I thought they had different temperaments even though they were originally from Yan Fu Palace. I didn’t expect Xi Le did so because of you… If she didn’t explain today, I would have thought that I was lucky to have a considerate maid!”

Gongxiang Xiao said lightly, “I thought you would accuse me of cheating you as soon as you saw me.”

“Am I so brutal?” Yun Fenghuang caressed her hair on the temples and said with a smile, “I originally wanted a smart maid to be my helper, and Xi Le meets all my demands. I can’t thank you more… Besides, I had always thought that the most awesome person within the Imperil Harem was Her Highness, but Shizi, you can even do such trick in Yan Fu Palace, showing your power and influence. Shizi, I’m so glad that I strayed into Small Fang Hu before and was able to meet you. Otherwise, where can I find a powerful backer like you?”

“You think too much,” Gongxiang Xiao said coldly, “The reason why Xi Le could come to you this time is simply that Empress Ji didn’t want Ji’s Family to know what she was doing in private, and her manpower available was limited. Therefore, we got the opportunity to take advantage of this. If Ji’s Family can be easily taken advantage of under normal circumstances, how can they be able to be ever-more powerful all these years?”

He paused and said in a deep voice, “Actually, the Empress has begun to suspect that you and I are in contact!”

Yun Fenghuang suddenly stopped to smile and frowned, “Because of Xin Qing’s death? Tell me. Since you have killed her, why did you involve Yan Lan Palace and Cheng Yue Palace into this, making it so influential that even the Empress Dowager knew it. How couldn’t the case be investigated thoroughly? It was just a maid. If you had had just found a secluded corner or a dry well to throw her, no one would have found her for ten days or a half month, then this thing would have passed now, right? Well, you tell me what should we do now?!”

“What should we do?” Gongxiang Xiao looked at her with sarcasm, “Gui Ren, shouldn’t it be you who finds a way alone? Is it useful for the Empress to suspect me? Not to mention that she has no evidence, even if she has evidence and you stand out to testify against me, so what? As long as Prince Regent’s Mansion is still in power, what could she do to me?”

“Shizi, you mean that you will be okay?” Yun Fenghuang was not annoyed when she heard this, instead, she showed a relaxed expression, “Then I will be relieved. Anyway, Her Highness has a great ambition, and she doesn’t care so much about His Majesty’s face. Then even if she is sure that I have connections with you, as long as you still have power, she is probably still willing to keep me in her side to see if I can be used in the key point… Shizi, I really want to thank you. Recently, I have been wanting to do something after a long super peaceful period, but I am afraid that I will make Her Highness unhappy if I would go too far. However, since I know that I am useful in this point, why am I hesitant?”

Gongxiang Xiao knew she was sharp-spoken, so he sneered a few times without continuing to bicker and just said, “I have two things to ask you. First, what’s your true purpose to make Jie Yu Yue solicit Wei Changkong? Second, recently, my father has planned to recommend several people to join the official, and among them, there is an offspring from a big clan who comes from afar… It seems that he is your old friend. Do you want me to arrange a meeting for you to talk about the old days?”

Yun Fenghuang narrowed her eyes and smiled, “As for the first thing, I have no good intentions for Jie Yu Yue. Wei Changkong? Although I have no grudges with him, he is about to be the teacher of your younger brother, then he is of course also my enemy! Shizi, I am very grateful for your help, so I intend to take advantage of Jie Yu Yue to encumber this person… Shizi, aren’t you happy to hear that?”

“As for the second thing…”

She raised her lips slightly, “Shizi, if you are talking about Qi Jiulu, there is no need to arrange the meeting for me to talk about the old days. I have nothing to say to him… Shizi, just do what you did to Xin Qing before!”

“Gui Ren, you are really cruel.” This answer obviously made Gongxiang Xiao not very satisfied. He said with a frown, “Gui Ren, it is said that the man was your childhood sweetheart, and the deep affections between you two were not less than His Majesty and Ms. Yuan… Gui Ren, even if you two were separated for some reason, aren’t you even nostalgic?”

Yun Fenghuang pondered, “Maybe it is because I am so chaste that I don’t want to cheat His Majesty?”

Gongxiang Xiao was dismissive to pay attention to her gibberish, “Qi Xinyun said he had something important to tell you. It’s about the death of your sister… Oh, Qi Jiulu styled Xinyun.”

“Shizi, since you have said so personally, even if I am impatient to see the guy surnamed Qi, how can I not give you a face?” Yun Fenghuang immediately said with a smile, “Shizi, when would be suitable in your point of view? His Majesty was requested by the Empress in the past two days to sleep with the newcomers one by one, and after a few days, he may frequently come to Hu Zhu Palace. So, Shizi, what’s your point of view?”

Gongxiang Xiao sneered, “Subtle words and evasions! I will arrange the meeting as soon as possible, and Xi Le will tell you if there is any news.”

He knew that Yun Fenghuang came out this time to meet Ms. Xie, and people might be doubtful if he delayed her for too long. So, after he said this, he planned to leave… Then he remembered something before he left, “I merely enjoined my servants to throw Xin Qing’s corpse into Cheng Yue Palace before. Cui’s Family has always had a holier-than-thou manner and can’t tolerate any unfairness, but I didn’t expect Consort Xin acted decisively that she even encumbered Yan Lan Palace silently. If Noble Consort Gui’s trusted attendants hadn’t been alert and had her witnessed the miserable corpse floating in the pool, what would have happened to her fetus? It is said that you have searched the Imperial Harem with Consort Xin before? If you have something to do with her in the future, be careful! Otherwise, it doesn’t matter that you are dead or disabled, but don’t encumber me!”

Yun Fenghuang was about to leave, but she was stunned, “What? Xin Qing was actually sent to Yan Lan Palace by Consort Xin? How did she do that?”

“How could I know?” Gongxiang Xiao sneered and went off in a huff.

He quietly returned to Tai Chu Palace in the Imperial Court and changed back to his own costumes. Then he took the page Dou Su who was supervising here, left the Imperial Harem and returned to Prince Regent’s Mansion.

Prince Regent’s Mansion was of great renown and influence, so there were a lot of visitors, carriages and horses there day and night. Since Wei Changkong lived in the guest house now, many scholars came to visit him, and it was even more lively now.

Seeing the return of Shizi’s carriage, they all gave ways, and watched the carriage with the sights of envy and awe.

But when Gongxiang Xiao noticed that, he only laughed at himself.

He remembered the year when Gongxiang Ji was greeted to be enthroned from Fuyang County to Dijing City. The carriages and ceremonial mace were so ostentatious and swanking. At that time, he was led by his father to greet the Emperor in the suburb. The group of them set off at dawn. After several hours of waiting in a rest pavilion, there was a scout reporting that the Emperor would arrive in a few hours.

So, lots of important officials and people of imperial clans tidied their appearance and lined up outside the pavilion. When they saw the flags flying and the dust causing by horse hoofs in the distance, they immediately knelt down on the ground to welcome the Emperor’s carriage… Gongxiang Xiao was innocent at that time, but he was ill-affected by the light of nature.

Therefore, although he also knelt down behind his father, he was unwilling to kowtow and touch the ground where the wheels of the Emperor’s carriage had rolled with his forehead as the etiquette. When the Emperor’s carriage arrived near him, he saw the so-called Emperor inside the carriage through the shaking bead curtain. Gongxiang Ji was fifteen at that time and looked naïve from his appearance. He pretended to show calm complexion on his face, but he could not conceal his panic.

Gongxiang Xiao, who was only ten years old at that time, thought indifferently that it was not surprising. This tribe brother had only been a son of a Princedom’s concubine. Because his legitimate mother had no sons and had to rely on him when she got old, she planned hard to make him be titled as a Princedom. He had always been isolated in such a small place in Fuyang County. How much knowledge could he have?

How couldn’t he be panic and at a loss in such a scene?

Gongxiang Xiao even maliciously hoped that the Emperor would fall down from the carriage because he was too nervous and lost his face in front of so many important officials and people of imperial clans. If so, what face did Ji’s Family have to insist on enthroning this inexplicable person instead of his father?!

… When he recalled it later, rather than saying that he was hostile to Gongxiang Ji at the time, it was better to say that he was full of jealousy.

He was jealous that the cousin whom he hadn’t even thought of before had great blessings to be enthroned; that Gongxiang Ji’s status was originally far lower than him, but the former was promoted directly and became the existence he had to bow his head and kowtow to say “long live His Majesty”; and that his father painstakingly planned to gain the throne but missed it, while Gongxiang ji who was far away in Fuyang County and had nothing to do with the turbulent waves of the Imperial Court was accidentally chosen…

This jealousy had almost disappeared in recent years.

He, as the Shizi and legitimate son of Prince Regent’s wife Princess Yuan, was born as the promising heir of Prince Regent’s Mansion. However, since the Step Princess gave birth to a son, he shared more and more embarrassing position in his mansion and became more and more like an outsider… At this time, he was even a little thankful that after Emperor Xiaozong passed away, the new Emperor was Gongxiang Ji instead of his father.

If his father had been enthroned, what would his situation be like now?

Could he live until now?

Gongxiang Xiao closed his eyes and forcibly interrupted his thoughts.

After entering the mansion, he first went to the study to pay respects to Prince Regent as usual, and Prince Regent also asked a boy serving in his study to come out, tell him that he didn’t need to be so polite, and asked him by the way if there was any trouble in the Imperial Palace or any other things that needed to be reported as usual. When his father heard everything was as usual, he would let him take a rest.

These remarks were basically made between Prince Regent’s servant and Dou Su, which meant, the father and son had never met during this time.

Not to mention had a conversation.

Leaving the study, Gongxiang Xiao went back to the house where he lived and happened to meet the Step Princess who personally carried a food box.

“Shizi, you are back?” Ms. Lu saw him and smiled slightly as she smiled gently and virtuously when she just married to the mansion. “You look thinner. Could it be that the weather is hot and you have no appetite? I will tell the kitchenette to stew you with some soup medicine to nourish… The servants around you should be more attentive…”

She babbled as if she were his biological mother. Even if she made a grotesque glance at Dou Su, her tone was soft, and she seemed not serious and just said that casually, but Dou Su shrank his head subconsciously, and admitted his mistake with a trembling tone, “Princess, I was guilty!”

“Thank you, Mother.” Gongxiang Xiao frowned slightly, blocking the boy serving in his study sideways, and said indifferently, “I think maybe I am taller, so I look thinner. Mother, you should also take care of yourself… I want to see my brother late. I wonder if it’s convenient?”

Hearing that he mentioned her sib son, Ms. Lu’s smile was stiff for a while and then chuckled lightly, “I’m afraid it’s not convenient. Zhen is weak. He just took the medicine and fell asleep.”

This answer was exactly what Gongxiang Xiao expected. Ms. Lu had never liked him to have too much contact with Gongxiang Zhen, and her excuse every time was that Gongxiang Zhen was not in good health. However, in fact, Gongxiang Xiao occasionally saw his brother, and his brother was in high spirits, but she said he was weak?

He had some complicated feelings about this younger brother before, but he had no intention to get close with him at this time.

He said so at the moment just to avoid Ms. Lu continuing to ask more or do something towards Dou Su… Previously, Ms. Lu used this kind of excuses many times to eliminate the manpower left by his biological mother, Ms. Dou.

“… You go to Lai Cui Building to invite Childe Qi here.” Saying goodbye to Ms. Lu, Gongxiang Xiao quickly went back to his residence, refreshed a little, changed his robe, and enjoined Dou Su, “Be smart when you go there and come back. Don’t be discovered by irrelevant people.”

Dou Su accepted the order and left. After a while, a man with a green robe entered the room trippingly.