Chapter 29 All was silent. On the dragon bed, only Xie Qianli's voice could be heard…
Sweetie: "Listen to what the big wolfhound is thinking~"
"It would be good to hear what Prime Minister Su truly thinks."
"The Imperial Tutor's voice is gentle and warm; his voice is truly remarkable."
"Although His Highness Prince Yong's words are always sharp, his scumbag voice is so charming~"
That night, in the sleeping quarters of Weiyang Palace.
Ying Xi received a new item – Truth or Dare voice message bar x1
This item directly caused Sweetie to have insomnia and start chattering again. The theme revolves around the fact that this item is a rare drop, can get the character's true feelings, and is usually given when the relationship is at a critical point. It is used by the couple to clear up misunderstandings, break the ice, and warm up their feelings.
Now that the host is blessed with good fortune, she has obtained high-level items even in the early stages, which Tian Tong finds truly amazing.
Sweetie rubbed her hands together in anticipation, her excited, almost floating voice filling Yingxi's entire mind:
"Even if His Majesty doesn't have anyone he likes, it's still a boon for voice-obsessed fans!"
"ASMR binaural surround sound. Pick the one with the best voice and ask them to tell you their impression of you. It's a good way to massage your ears."
"This is a rare item, incredibly rare!"
"You can't even buy it from the in-game store; there's nowhere to spend money if you want to..."
The above statement contains a lot of information and too many new words.
Ying Xi lay there, her fingers twirling the blanket, curling up into a ball on her side, and whispered, "Will you answer any question I ask?"
“Of course, that’s the truth!” Sweetie said.
Ying Xi then summoned the system interface, where a truth-telling voice message bar appeared, its icon a small speaker. Ying Xi clicked on it.
Sweetie cried out excitedly, then suddenly shut up, waiting for the benefits to arrive.
The interface displayed many names, and Ying Xi chose Xie Qianli without hesitation.
Sweetie: "Big wolfhound! Big wolfhound!"
All was silent.
With eyes closed, the only sound in the dragon bed curtains was Xie Qianli's warm and deep voice lingering in her ears.
"Xiao Xi".
It has been almost ten years since I last heard my own name spoken by anyone else.
Ying Xi's thoughts were in turmoil, but he didn't show it. He knew that this Xie Qianli was somewhat different from the real person. Ying Xi asked, "Do you have any important clues about the Fengze assassination case?"
Sweet Tong: "..."
Sweet Tong was speechless.
Who would have thought that the emperor would use a love-related prop as a truth serum?
The host was already in bed, clothes off, and the atmosphere was perfectly set—he wasn't talking about feelings, he was talking about the case!?
The overly meticulous calculations, coupled with Ying Xi's apparent aversion to romance, diluted the subtle ambiguity brought by that childhood nickname.
Xie Qianli's voice remained the same, but limited by the topic at hand, it was impossible for him to express deep affection; he reverted to his usual calm and reserved demeanor.
“Feng Ze and I have known each other for many years. In the military camp, we almost ate and lived together. I thought I knew Feng Ze well. But Lian Qing told me that Feng Ze had left the camp alone many times over the years when we weren’t paying attention.”
"Lian Qing is very curious. He inquired and found out that the place is called Pingling Village, which is about a hundred miles away from Chang'an."
Did this become the trigger for his assassination attempt?
The prop effect ended, and Xie Qianli's voice stopped.
Ying Xi pondered the clues blankly:
——Pingling Village.
He knew at most the exact prefecture level of the area he ruled, but knew nothing about Pingling Village.
But that didn't stop Ying Xi from finding it strange. Feng Ze was a local, a long-time resident of Chang'an. What was he doing outside the city? Could there be an informant outside the city, someone who was behind it all?
Inside the dragon bed, Ying Xi turned over, her mind sharp and active, showing no signs of sleepiness.
Ying Xi increasingly felt that there were hidden secrets behind the Fengze case, perhaps things he didn't know in his previous life. Now, all the threads were intertwined and could potentially lead to his eventual downfall and death, so he had to act with extreme caution.
Ying Xi thought that if he couldn't trust others, he could investigate the matter himself.
***
The following morning.
After arranging for Yu Jing to cooperate with her and conceal the fact that the emperor was away on business, Ying Xi summoned Lang Xun.
"Guard Lang, go prepare clothes for me to leave the palace. Select two or three people to go with me."
Lang Xun's eyes shone brightly. He seemed completely unfazed by Ying Xi's polite refusal yesterday, and nodded emphatically, "Yes!"
Pingling Village is nearly a hundred miles away from the imperial city. We must hurry out of the imperial city so that we don't get caught in the dark before entering the village.
Fearing unforeseen complications, Ying Xi remained seated in the car the entire way, without even lifting the curtain.
Only when the carriage stopped due to congestion would Ying Xi listen carefully to the conversations of the people outside. Nowadays, the most talked-about topic among the people was the anti-corruption campaign that was sweeping across the entire Qin Dynasty.
Which corrupt official had his home raided, and which clerk was punished...?
The emperor is about to publicly execute a group of rats in the bustling downtown area of Chang'an.
The people are not worried about scarcity but about inequality, a topic they readily discuss.
Ying Xi curled the corners of her lips into a smile inside the car.
The city gates of the imperial capital were heavily guarded.
However, when the guard Lang took out his waist token, the carriage was immediately allowed to pass. His status as the head of the Imperial Guards of Weiyang Palace was more useful than anything else.
The vehicle entered the flat plain and continued forward.
It wasn't until nightfall, when all traces of people had vanished and the mountain path was covered in dark, slanting shadows of trees, that Ying Xi and her companions finally found the road sign pointing towards Pingling Village, following the map of villages near Chang'an that they had retrieved from the secret repository.
The road sign was old and dilapidated.
The road has been in disrepair for a long time. It is located deep in the wild mountains, overgrown with weeds and deserted.
Yingxi looked out of the car. There were no lights in the distance, and occasionally an owl would call, its call blending into the darkness and giving it an eerie feel.
With a loud crash, the two lanterns on the front of the cart swung forward sharply, and the horses pulling the cart neighed loudly, their cries echoing across the wilderness, exceptionally mournful.
Lang Xun quickly tightened the reins: "Whoa—"
Two guards got out of the carriage to check the situation, and Ying Xi followed them down.
It turned out there was a pothole in the road, with stones mixed with wet mud at the bottom. The carriage wheels broke due to the impact, and the carriage body tilted to one side.
“Young master, this…” The two guards looked at each other in bewilderment.
Who could have imagined that the carriage would suffer such an accident?
Even if the car is towed out of the deep pit, it can't move. Whether it turns back or continues forward, it has to be done on foot.
This cast an ominous shadow over the journey to Pingling Village, and Ying Xi tightened her guard.
Suddenly, a strange hooting sound was heard from the treetop, and a dark shadow spread its wings. Lang Xun lit a lantern and saw that it was a large owl with a fierce expression.
The owl swooped down on the group.
The guards waved them away, and the owl fluttered to a dilapidated archway not far away. Lang Xun shone his lamp on the archway, the light piercing through the darkness—this was the village entrance.
The filthy wooden board had "Pingling Village" written crookedly on it.
However, due to the erosion of time and the passage of time, the characters on the plaque are incomplete, leaving only a solitary character for "mausoleum," making the scene extremely eerie.
The unexpectedly high-octane opening of the horror movie caused Sweet Tong to suddenly gasp and the system interface to flash.
Although they knew there must be some secrets hidden in this village, Ying Xi and the others had no choice but to continue forward since they could not retreat.
Surrounded by mountains and filled with buildings, Pingling Village is filled with dilapidated, dark thatched huts scattered at varying heights. A small river flows through the village, and the water is completely colorless in the darkness of night.
A gourd, belonging to someone unknown, floated on the water, caught by a tree branch. Ripples eroded its surface, causing the gourd to bob back and forth. The sound of the water changed accordingly, rhythmically: plop—plop—
A thin layer of sweat appeared on the guard's forehead.
Lang Xun was slightly better, but he still kept his lips tightly pursed, and even the slightest extra movement would make him more vigilant.
"Young Master." The guard hesitated, then lowered his voice considerably.
He didn't say it outright, but Ying Xi understood perfectly, looking around and saying softly, "It's too quiet."
Even at night, in ordinary villages, you can often hear a few dogs barking from the houses, and the sounds of villagers moving around will also bring a few lights on.
But Pingling Village was like a dead place.
Yingxi observed the village with increasing caution. Suddenly, a mountain wind arose, and after turning a corner, the funeral banners hanging from several houses brushed against the walls, making a rustling sound.
Ying Xi stopped and brushed aside the funeral banner. She saw that the door of the house with the banner was wide open, the door panel was broken and dilapidated, and there were some tattered cloth scraps and broken porcelain pieces on the ground.
Lang Xun, fearing that Ying Xi might prick her foot, reminded her, "Young Master, be careful."
Ying Xi walked cautiously, observing for a moment before whispering, "This family is all dead, which is why the house was robbed. More than once."
Lang Xun pursed his lips, saying nothing, but gripped the hilt of his sword even tighter.
In an instant, a pale apricot light flickered on the windowpane in the distance, vanishing in a flash, like a will-o'-the-wisp. A silhouette was cast on the windowpane. It was impossible to tell whether it was a person or a ghost. Sweetheart exclaimed, "Your Majesty!"
This might be the only living person they've seen on this trip.
Ying Xi ordered, "Go and see what's going on."
Two guards immediately went to one of them, carefully approaching the distant house.
The other continued to follow, protecting Ying Xi from both sides with Lang Xun. The three of them had not walked a few steps when they suddenly heard a terrible, inhuman scream coming from several houses away: "Ahhhhhh!"
The sudden scream pierced the darkness, completely shattering the silence of Pingling Village.
A woman's voice was shouting, bowls and plates were smashed, and a child was crying loudly.
"There's no food at home, and the child is sick. Don't scare the child! Don't scare the child!"
The child's cries grew even more hysterical, as if facing utter terror. The woman's voice rose even higher.
The child's crying suddenly stopped.
Night fell into a brief, deathly silence.
A moment later, the woman cried out, "My son!!! My son!!! Give me back my son, or I'll kill you, I'll fight you to the death!!!"
Another death is about to occur in this deserted village.
Yingxi was still clueless, but she couldn't stand by and watch the child's mother be murdered.
Another guard followed the sound and came to the rescue. Lang Xun dared not leave the emperor again, feeling that Pingling Village was eerie and dangerous everywhere.
Lang Xun drew his sword!
Who could have imagined that before news of Fengze could be found, two people would already be lost in this small village.
Lang Xun dared not act rashly again and protected Ying Xi as they walked along the wall.
Lost and confused, I felt like I was surrounded by empty houses and didn't know how to break out of this predicament.
Lang Xun walked around, glancing left and right.
Ying Xi, relying on the system, had a tested and working return-to-city function that allowed him to instantly take Lang Xun back to the study in Weiyang Palace. Therefore, he dared to personally go out of the palace to investigate the case, and he was not concerned about the danger. He appeared calm and composed, which made Lang Xun secretly respect him.
Another gust of night wind blew by, passing a house and breaking the door open. The door creaked in the wind.
As Lang Xun paused, Ying Xi caught a glimpse of a damp patch on the wall under the moonlight.
He crouched down and looked at the stains; they weren't blood, but rather water stains, signs that someone had lived in the house. "Let's go in and take a look."
Lang Xun immediately used the hilt of his knife to pry open the door. The dark inner room contained a bed and a cabinet, but there was a female corpse hanging from the rafters!
Lang Xun was horrified.
Lang Xun blocked Ying Xi with both arms.
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh—" Sweet Tong completely broke down and logged off!
In an instant, the system interface went dark, and the return-to-city function was disabled. Ying Xi suddenly lost her most reliable trump card, which truly shocked her.
But his confusion lasted only a moment. Ying Xi forced herself to calm down and could only order Lang Xun with even more composure: "Put down the body and carefully examine it."
On the contrary, Lang Xun seemed to be the one who was frightened, and said with difficulty, "Yes."
The Imperial Guard Chief was no pushover after all. Lang Xun sheathed his sword and went to carry the corpse. Feeling something was amiss, he carefully shook the hanging woman. A pair of embroidered shoes fell off, revealing a burlap sack covered with a woman's clothes.
Lang Xun: "It's fake."
The female corpse was a smokescreen, meant to deter anyone who came upon seeing the scene.
In a flash, Ying Xi quickly pointed to the cabinet in the room, and sure enough, the cabinet door was already trembling violently: "Open it."
Lang Xun then slashed the wardrobe with his blade, breaking the door open. A girl crawled out of the wardrobe, along with a child whose mouth was gagged with a wad of cloth.
The girl threw a stack of things out of the wardrobe and said:
"Sir, spare my life! Sir, please don't kill my brother!"
“I’ll go with you… I’m yours completely. I’m not sick yet, and I can still take care of you…”
After speaking, the older sister rushed towards Lang Xun, pretending to unbutton her clothes, revealing her bare shoulders.
The younger brother, fearing his older sister would suffer, recklessly bumped into Lang Xun's leg.
The siblings were truly devoted to each other, but they misplaced their hatred.
Lang Xun hurriedly pushed the siblings apart, grabbed the younger brother, lifted him up and questioned him: "Kid, you've run into a fortune! If you have a grievance, seek justice; if you have a grudge, seek revenge. Tell me right now, what's going on in this godforsaken place!"
Lang Xun looked fierce, which frightened the brother and sister, who were too scared to move.
Ying Xi shook her head, stepped out from behind Lang Xun, and took the lead: "Stop, let them go first. We are merchants from Chang'an. Our carriage broke down and we were passing through this place. We originally wanted to stay overnight, but we couldn't find any living people in the village, so we asked around."
The younger brother was then put down and hugged his older sister tightly. The two of them stared at them with wide eyes, like frightened animals.
Even though it was dark and they couldn't see clearly, Ying Xi's voice and his physical appearance didn't seem like those of a ruthless bandit, so the siblings calmed down.
The older sister wrapped herself in her clothes, timidly patted her younger brother, got up and closed the broken door that had been blown open by the strong wind, then pulled her brother down to kneel and beg, "Since you are a businessman, please give us some money... no, please give us some food."
The siblings, who had initially shared a common hatred for the enemy, were now filled with tears, and they sobbed one after the other in the dilapidated house.
But I left in a hurry and didn't have any money or food.
However, Ying Xi possesses the wealth of the world, so how could he not fulfill this small condition? It's just a matter of time.
Without any qualms, the emperor, having gotten something for nothing, said, "Let's get down to business first."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
