Chapter 109 Maidservant: "Sit here and pour me some wine."...

The moment their eyes met, Jiang Yuhuo reacted instinctively, instantly ducking and quickly circling to the other side as the maid leaped over. Several night owls that Jiang Yuhuo had summoned beforehand to provide cover flapped their wings and flew away, as if they had been startled by the newcomer.

The owl's gaze was sharp, almost human-like. The maid hesitated for a moment, unable to determine whether the gaze she had just met was from a bird or a person.

Taking advantage of this brief moment of opening, Jiang Yuhuo nimbly flipped over several times and moved far away from the Emperor's camp.

Even though this is a golden opportunity bestowed by heaven, killing Qin Yuqi is not so easy.

It was already past midnight when Jiang Yuhuo returned to Li Mengbai's tent. To avoid being followed by the maid, he wandered outside for a while until he was sure no one was chasing him before entering the tent.

Inside the tent, Li Mengbai's breathing was steady and light, clearly indicating he was fast asleep, but Jiang Yuhuo couldn't sleep.

Firstly, she had slept enough during the day, and secondly, whenever she closed her eyes to relax, she could hear someone calling her name, calling her name again and again, endlessly, as if trying to call her soul away.

Looking back at the person on the bed, Li Mengbai remained motionless; it wasn't him.

That means she must be hallucinating.

Jiang Yuhuo rubbed her temples resignedly, thinking that she must have been really too tired these past few days.

The next day, the prefect and officials of Shannan Prefecture accompanied the emperor on his inspection tour.

Half of the people in the camp suddenly disappeared. The rest were almost all people who needed to stay at the base camp to do odd jobs, as well as idle people like Li Mengbai.

Jiang Yuhuo couldn't stay idle.

When Li Mengbai came running over, smelling sweet after her bath, Jiang Yuhuo was chopping wood.

The steward of the Jiang family was already unhappy with the two down-and-outs eating and lodging at the camp for free. He couldn't do anything to Li Mengbai, the pretty boy, out of respect for his young master, but he wouldn't be polite to the pretty boy's maid. However, this rough maid seemed to be quite naive; when she was assigned to chop wood, she merely nodded indifferently.

"I'm much better." Li Mengbai walked around the people who were working, while Jiang Yuhuo's gaze remained fixed on the axe and firewood, without even lifting his eyelids.

He finally stopped beside her, his face full of displeasure. "When are you going to stop?! I told you I'm much better!"

"knew."

With another swift and decisive swing of the axe, the thick wooden stake was split in two.

Li Mengbai's breathing suddenly became rapid, her chest heaving noticeably. "Aren't you going to ask me if I've taken my medicine? It's such bitter medicine, I..."

“I can smell it even after you’ve finished drinking.”

After chopping the last piece of wood, Jiang Yuhuo glanced at him and complimented, "You look great today."

Li Mengbai changed into a clean new set of clothes today. Originally, they were new clothes for the young master of the Jiang family. The size was a little short for him, but his old clothes were too tattered and dirty after his bath, so he could only reluctantly accept the gift.

Even in such ill-fitting clothes, his noble air was still undeniable.

He tidied himself up in the meager conditions. After so many days of escape, Jiang Yuhuo probably only remembered his disheveled appearance.

So as soon as he finished tidying up, with water droplets still dripping from his hair, he went to find Jiang Yuhuo, but Jiang Yuhuo only had eyes for that pile of broken firewood!

But when she actually praised him, Li Mengbai didn't know what to say, only unable to suppress the corners of his mouth turning up.

"Leave your things here. This place is dirty and messy. Go back and rest so you don't get dirty again." Jiang Yuhu patted the dust off her hands and put the axe aside. Li Mengbai was dressed cleanly, obviously having changed, and it wasn't suitable for her to stay here. More importantly, she didn't want Li Mengbai to get involved in what was to come.

She glanced in the direction of the hunting expedition and said calmly, "After tonight, there might not be anywhere left to sleep."

Li Mengbai's lips curled up even higher; she was just afraid he would get her dirty. Her earlier anger vanished instantly.

He proudly raised his chin and said, "Alright, then I'll listen to you."

After leaving Jiang Yuhuo what she wanted, Li Mengbai returned home satisfied.

Jiang Yuhu carried the chopped firewood into the cooking tent. Everyone in the tent liked her because she was honest, hardworking, and diligent. Since they had often been bullied by the manager, they were willing to talk to her more. Although the workload of preparing for the evening's banquet was huge, the atmosphere in the tent was harmonious.

In the evening, two maids accompanying the Jiang family accidentally sprained their ankles and were unable to serve at the banquet. The Jiang family steward was extremely anxious. The prefect had instructed the emperor that he disliked extravagance and was not interested in beautiful women. The entourage was already small, and now that two were missing, where was he supposed to find two more people?

Oh, right! There's one more person.

On this day's hunt, the emperor returned with a full load. Apart from a few military officers who had some gains, the prefect and his son had a rather meager harvest. It was not yet late autumn, and there were not many wild animals in the mountains. Moreover, the two were preoccupied with their own thoughts, and they did not even perform at their usual level on this trip.

When His Majesty's gaze swept over him, Prefect Jiang clearly saw the contempt in the other's eyes, making him feel utterly hopeless. Only the emperor's favored minister, Lord Liu, gave him a rather approving look, leaving Prefect Jiang in a state of utter uncertainty.

This feeling of unease persisted until the banquet, which was the first formal reception for His Majesty. Although the decree was to avoid extravagance, every aspect, from the dishes and wines to the entertainment, was meticulously planned, with every effort made to keep it understated.

The emperor, having changed out of his hunting attire, now wore a black robe embroidered with gold. His expression was cold and noble, and his aura imposing. He sat on his high seat and occasionally asked a few questions, which the prefect and the assembled officials below answered with trepidation.

After a few rounds of drinks, the conversation gradually shifted from the local customs and culture of Shannan County to deeper topics.

"I recall that Shannan Prefecture was once extremely prosperous in the previous dynasty, boasting three thousand temples and attracting immortals from all over the world to come and worship. Your Excellency, is it truly such a grand occasion?"

Seeing that the topic was about to veer off into his poor governance, Prefect Jiang broke out in a cold sweat and stammered, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. This happened a hundred years ago. This old minister... this old minister is not aware of it either."

The emperor smiled and said, "Prefect Jiang is too modest. You should know better than anyone how many temples, pagodas, and cultivators there are in the city. Otherwise, why would Shannan Prefecture still be renowned as the 'Immortal Capital' a hundred years later?"

Upon hearing this, the old prefect scrambled from behind the food table, knelt before the emperor with his hands on the ground, and cried out, "This old minister deserves to die! I did not mean to conceal anything, but this place is too close to the Immortal Gate. Whenever I want to destroy the temple, the people want to abandon the city. I have no choice but to give up if I want to keep the people here..."

Seeing his father like this, Young Master Jiang quickly knelt down beside him as well.

The emperor interrupted this seemingly earnest and sincere speech. He took a sip of wine unhurriedly, seemingly oblivious to the scene below, and began to speak slowly, “When I was young, I studied with the Grand Tutor. Whenever we discussed the previous dynasty, the Grand Tutor would use the eight words ‘Born of faith, perished by licentious worship.’ What about the eight hundred years of the Great Zhou Dynasty? In the end, it couldn’t even win a single battle and had to wait for an immortal to save it.”

He sneered a few times, "The national treasury's money and grain are all used to build temples and support monks... They claim to be the chosen ones, but what has been the result?"

"Everyone seeks immortality and asks about the Dao, neglecting production and abandoning agriculture and sericulture. If everyone in the world goes to worship gods and immortals, who will support the world?"

His brows furrowed, and his voice became colder than ever before. The maid who came to serve wine was startled, and her hand trembled, spilling the wine from the pot onto the emperor's sleeve.

The maid was even more horrified when she saw this. She immediately knelt down and kowtowed, so frightened that she could not even speak clearly while begging for mercy.

A hint of disgust flashed in Qin Yuqi's eyes. He did not stop the maid from kowtowing until her head was bleeding, but continued to pound on the person sitting below.

"I believe that the Prefect should understand this principle well. After all, it was Prefect Jiang's ancestor who led the army in the last battle against the previous dynasty. But now it seems that the Prefect has forgotten how his ancestors got to where they are today."

This is already a very stern warning.

The officials of Shannan County, large and small, knelt down in fear, and no one paid any attention to the maid who had kowtowed at the emperor's feet until her head bled.

Liu Dan couldn't stand it anymore. He belonged to the central government and had no connection with the local area, so the emperor's censure of Shannan Prefecture would not fall on him.

He pulled aside the maid serving wine beside him and ordered her to help His Majesty clean the wine stains, so that he could replace the maid who was kowtowing.

The maid understood and nodded.

He originally wanted to give the maid a few more instructions, telling her not to be afraid, since serving the emperor when he was angry was no easy task.

Unexpectedly, the woman remained unfazed, put down the wine pot, and walked straight to the head seat.

This surprised Liu Dan somewhat.

As soon as she reached the main seat, she stood between the emperor and the maid. The space between them was not wide enough, just enough for the maid to bow her head. When she arrived, the maid was squeezed so much that she didn't even have a place to kowtow. Only then did she regain some of her composure from the panic and just knelt there without daring to move.

The new maid searched for a handkerchief on her person for a while, and finally found it in her sleeve. She pressed the handkerchief against His Majesty's sleeve, which was wet with wine, and began to absorb the liquid little by little. Although it looked like she was doing it properly, her actions had nothing to do with cleaning.

The fabric, stained dark by the wine, was visibly becoming wrinkled.

Qin Yuqi frowned and looked up.

What was initially a casual glance turned into a moment that nearly stopped his heart from beating. Almost simultaneously, he grabbed the maid's hand as she was cleaning the wine stains from his hands.

The maid tried to pull back, but he only gripped her tighter.

"His Majesty?"

It was a completely unfamiliar voice.

"Let her go, you stay."

The kneeling maid felt as if she had been granted a pardon, and hurriedly got up and stumbled back.

The emperor looked up at the seat below, and the maid who had been standing there understood, took a mat and placed it at the feet of the new maid.

He still held her hand tightly, his voice cold and hard, "Sit here and pour me some wine."

The new maid dared not disobey, so she sat down beside him on the mat and bowed her head respectfully.

The people kneeling on the ground looked at each other, not understanding what was happening. Why would His Majesty allow a maid to sit beside him? That should be the seats for the concubines.

But no one dared to utter a word. The officials had been severely reprimanded, and after finally returning to their own tables, none of them dared to provoke the emperor.

The dinner continued.

Only Liu Dan frowned and scrutinized the maid for a long time, only stopping when he received a warning look from His Majesty.

He seemed to have noticed something. Although this woman's face was completely different, her demeanor, expression, and movements were extremely similar to that person's. Even the slight curve of her pursed lips was exactly the same. No wonder His Majesty reacted this way.

However, they only resembled each other in expression; their faces were completely different.

Liu Dan pondered for a moment, then couldn't help but wonder if His Majesty was truly somewhat delirious; mistaking someone for someone else was certainly not a good sign. But if His Majesty could find some solace in others, it might be a way to heal his emotional wounds.

He shook his head, downed a glass of wine, and offered no answer.

The other officials were unaware of the reason, and even Prefect Jiang himself was unclear. His Majesty had never been interested in beautiful women, so he hadn't even prepared any concubines to accompany him this time. But this time, it seemed that... he had taken a fancy to one of the maids in his household?

Ever since that maid came to His Majesty's side, His Majesty's mind was clearly no longer on the matter of the ineffective suppression of the gods in Shannan County. He would occasionally turn to look at the person next to him, and as he looked, he would become lost in thought, not paying any attention to what the people below were saying.

That maid was strange; she always used only one hand when pouring wine, which was extremely disrespectful.

Prefect Jiang wiped the cold sweat from his brow. Regardless, he was fortunate that this woman had helped him out of that predicament; otherwise, given His Majesty's ruthless and strict nature, he didn't know how His Majesty would have dealt with him. There were many maids in the manor, and although he didn't recognize this one, it was good that she had diverted His Majesty's attention. He would definitely reward her family handsomely upon returning home.

The banquet, which nearly provoked the emperor's wrath, ended hastily. His Majesty said nothing in the end, only keeping the maid behind.

After the event ended, the old prefect hurriedly went to ask Lord Liu for the reason.

Liu Dan replied, "They do resemble an old friend quite a bit."

The prefect wanted to ask more questions, but Liu Dan refused to answer.

He was a heavy drinker and took a few extra sips. Finally, with a half-smile, he left with the words, "If this woman can be the one, the Prefect can rest easy from now on."

Then he left leisurely.

Young Master Jiang, standing to the side, spoke tremblingly, "But...but she's not from our household either?"