Sleepless
Zhao Youyi nodded, his expression inscrutable: "If it really is him, then it's perfectly normal for my brother to be completely unprepared."
Her brows were furrowed with a hint of sorrow and sadness, making one want to smooth them over. Unconsciously, Chu Chanyin reached out and gently placed his finger between her brows, his touch light: "Don't frown."
Zhao Youyi looked up at him in surprise. They were so close that she could almost smell the delicate fragrance of plum blossoms on his sleeves. Their eyes met, and she saw a different kind of emotion in his eyes.
But it vanished in an instant, as if it were just her illusion.
Seeing that she had finished her meal, Chu Chanyin said, "It's getting late. We'll go out and gather information again tomorrow. Let's rest early tonight."
Zhao Youyi nodded, pulled his outer robe tighter, got up and left, as if some ferocious beast was chasing him.
The room was dimly lit, and Chu Chanyin stared blankly at his palm. The candlelight stretched his shadow long, illuminating his thoughts little by little.
Tonight is destined to be sleepless.
A dark shadow flashed past inside the prefectural governor's mansion. The guard who was dozing off seemed to sense something and looked up at the roof. He saw that the moon was bright and the stars were few, just like any other day. He cast a questioning look at the guard next to him: "Did you hear anything?"
The guard beside him yawned: "No."
Tonight, the prefect is staying in his newly acquired concubine's room again. His wife threw a huge tantrum and fined several servants, including them, for their monthly wages. As a result, they are drowning their sorrows in alcohol and are in low spirits.
Chu Chanyin went straight to the prefect's study. Zhao Youli and his entourage had stayed at the prefect's residence. The prefect was the most likely and convenient person to take action against Zhao Youli. Moreover, the prefect of Yunzhou was the empress's father and a true royalist.
In order to better control the government, the Empress Dowager even chose empresses from humble backgrounds. At first, Zhou Yuhai was just a sixth-rank official. Later, when his daughter became empress, he took advantage of the Empress Dowager's influence to become the governor of Yunzhou.
This man was greedy and lustful, and an inhumane official. However, because he was the emperor's father-in-law, no one dared to impeach him. Fortunately, Yunzhou was poor, and the prefect's corruption did not have much impact on the central government. It was just that the people of Yunzhou suffered.
The guards in the manor were lax in their duties, and Chu Chanyin easily sneaked into the study. His eyes quickly swept around, observing and touching each of the furnishings in the study, until his eyes sharpened when he touched the painting of a goddess descending to earth on the wall.
Without hesitation, he drew the soft sword hidden at his waist and stabbed it behind him, where a man dressed similarly to him stood.
And the man's sword was right there at his neck.
The blades gleamed coldly, and in the darkness, their faces were obscured. Chu Chanyin mentally reviewed the experts from Shenjing, Fuzhou, Yunzhou, and even the Southern Barbarians. He was able to sneak into the study silently. If it weren't for the sound of this person drawing his sword, he would probably have already become a dead man under this person's sword.
The two stood in silent confrontation, neither wanting to alert the guards outside the door.
"Sir, you don't want to be discovered by the guards outside, do you?" the man said, his voice quite strange.
Chu Chan remained silent for a moment, then called out in an ambiguous tone, "Zhao Nianwan, it's me."
After saying that, he removed the sword from her neck.
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youyi still held the sword to his neck and said warily, "Although your voice sounds a lot like his, I'd still like to offend you just in case."
In order not to attract the attention of the people in the mansion, she could not light candles, so she could only get close to him and rip off his face mask.
Because they were close together, and because of the way she pulled at her face towel, she easily smelled the fragrance of plum blossoms on him.
And his handsome face that captivated countless people.
"Your Highness!" Zhao Youyi was both surprised and embarrassed, and could only stammer as she called out to him.
Seeing her expression, Chu Chanyin couldn't help but chuckle. "I thought Miss Zhao was too forgetful and had already forgotten her cousin."
Zhao Youyi quickly denied it, saying that she would never forget him, no matter who she had forgotten.
After saying that, she felt a little guilty. She really had forgotten. She remembered everyone else, but she forgot him.
Chu Chanyin clearly remembered this incident as well, but he just chuckled twice, neither confirming nor denying it.
Their gazes fell on the painting again. Chu Chanyin's expression was strange. He had been so engrossed in the painting that he hadn't noticed Zhao Youyi's approach.
The reason was simple: the goddess in the painting bore a striking resemblance to the Empress Dowager, and the painting also bore the Empress Dowager's private seal.
Zhao Youyi whispered, "The Empress Dowager has given both the Emperor and the late Emperor a cuckold's horns..."
"What do you mean?" Chu Chanyin was so shocked that he couldn't speak.
Seeing his shock, Zhao Youyi quickly made a "shh" gesture. Although the Empress Dowager had forced her to marry in her place, she would not comment on the Empress Dowager's private morality. After all, she had only seen the surface and did not know how much true feeling was behind it. Even if there was no true feeling, so what? It was already difficult for women to live in this world, so women should not make things difficult for each other and criticize each other.
Zhao Youyi reached out and carefully felt the painting. Sure enough, he found a protrusion. He pressed it gently, and the wall behind the painting loosened slightly. With a gentle push, a dark room appeared.
The two exchanged a glance, and Chu Chanyin lit a candle to observe his surroundings by its light.
Inside was another small world, where hundreds of portraits unsurprisingly all bore a face that bore a striking resemblance to the Empress Dowager.
At first glance, it gives one a chill down their spine.
Chu Chanyin carefully made his way forward by candlelight, and walked to the desk where there were still unfinished paintings. He glanced at Zhao Youyi and gestured for her to come over.
Zhao Youyi stepped forward and followed his gaze to search. In the most inconspicuous place on the desk, there was a small box with a small and exquisite lock on it.
The two exchanged a glance, and Chu Chanyin took out a box that he had already made from his sleeve, and gently tugged at Zhao Youyi's sleeve as he was about to unlock it.
Zhao Youyi's gaze fell on the box in his hand, and she raised an eyebrow. She tacitly put the original small box into her sleeve, then took the box from his hand and put it back in its original place.
It seems that Chu Chanyin already knew that there were letters between the prefect and the capital hidden inside. As expected of the King of Chu, he has many experts under his command and never does anything without certainty.
Zhao Youyi did not show much emotion, but reminded him to put on his mask before leaving the secret room.
The two put the items back in their original positions, then opened the window and jumped out to leave in perfect unison.
The two skillfully evaded the layers of guards, only removing their masks once they returned to the inn.
"Didn't my cousin say she wanted to rest early tonight?" Chu Chanyin asked her while tidying her messy hair, his eyes filled with a smile.
Zhao Youyi chuckled, "Cousin, isn't your sneaking into the prefect's mansion also a violation of our previous agreement to rest early? And why didn't you take me with you..." After saying that, she glanced at the box in her hand, "Cousin, you probably had this planned all along. Since it concerns my brother, why did Your Highness keep it from me?"
Chu Chanyin discovered that his cousin would call him "Your Highness" or "Your Highness" whenever she was unhappy, but would call him "Cousin Brother" properly when she was in a good mood, and would only call him "Brother Cong" when she was in a good mood.
Chu Chanyin smiled helplessly, poured her a cup of tea, and bowed, saying, "It was Huai Cong's fault. I apologize to my cousin. Please calm down."
Zhao Youyi took the cup of tea, took a sip, and realized that the tea was still warm. She looked at him suspiciously and said, "Cousin, your tea is still warm."
"I originally intended to get the evidence and tell you tomorrow, so that I wouldn't fail halfway and make you happy for nothing," Chu Chanyin gestured for her to sit down. "I had already received news of this matter before I arrived in Shenjing, but at the time I was worried that my cousin was a weak woman, and that Brother Nianling had passed away suddenly, so I was afraid that this matter would make you feel uneasy."
After saying that, Chu Chanyin shook his head with shame, "I didn't expect my cousin's martial arts skills to be even higher than I imagined. Although I understood how you dealt with the assassins, I still knew too little about it."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Youyi also touched her nose guiltily. Naturally, she could not reveal her full strength in front of someone she barely knew. Although the two had been childhood friends and her brother trusted her and entrusted her to him, none of this could eliminate her vigilance.
So she only felt guilty for a moment, said "I see" and then offered no further explanation.
Chu Chanyin did not press the matter. They both knew that the other was a smart person. Since they were human, they would have selfish desires and weaknesses. Why ask more questions? Everything was understood without words.
“This wooden box was made by one of my craftsmen. Brother Nianling’s matter is over. The Prefect’s mansion has taken in his eighth concubine. I guess he has no mind to go into the secret chamber to miss the Empress Dowager.” Chu Chanyin took the wooden box from her hand, then got up and grabbed a kitchen knife to swiftly and neatly split the wooden box open.
Zhao Youyi was stunned. Perhaps it was because Chu Chanyin had the appearance of a weak scholar, but the sight of this beautiful woman wielding a kitchen knife shocked her.
The beautiful woman, oblivious to her surroundings, asked with concern, her expression stiff, "Cousin, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
What should she say? Her beautiful cousin is so formidable that countless heroes have fallen for him?
She could only think these words to herself, and could only shake her head and ask, "Cousin, where did you get this kitchen knife?"
“Oh, this,” Chu Chanyin put the kitchen knife aside. “I asked Ying Jiu to buy it from the inn’s kitchen. I told the kitchen staff that I wanted to personally kill a chicken and cook for my wife on the way, so I needed to buy a good knife that I could handle.”
Zhao Youyi was a little dazed by the mention of "wife" in his words, but he quickly returned his attention to the stack of letters.
The two divided the letter into two parts and carefully searched for clues within them.
There are many correspondences between the prefects and the Empress Dowager, which are nothing more than writing sentimental poems to express their longing for the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager's replies are very brief, mostly just "I have read it, do not think about it."
But it also includes a few lines like "Having seen the vast ocean, other waters are nothing; having beheld the clouds of Wushan, other clouds are nothing."
It's not that they're heartless.
"The Empress Dowager was unwilling to enter the palace back then," Chu Chanyin recalled the rumors at the time. "After all, the late emperor was already in his twilight years, but the Song family was too eager to control the court and the harem."
"The current emperor is a survivor of the struggle for the throne. He is neither good at literature nor martial arts. Other princes were either imprisoned or died. In the end, the Song family supported him to the throne, but only to control the government." Zhao Youyi said with a frown as he flipped through the letters.
"However, what's the story behind my cousin saying that the Empress Dowager cheated on both the Emperor and the late Emperor?" Chu Chanyin was somewhat incredulous, but then he thought about it and realized that the Emperor and the Empress Dowager were only a few years apart in age. The palace was lonely, and they weren't biological mother and son.
“I accidentally saw the two of them leave one after the other while drunk at a palace banquet, but they were pulling and tugging at each other in the Imperial Garden, so I made a bold guess,” Zhao Youyi explained.
“Cousin,” Chu Chanyin called out to her, “I really don’t understand why the Empress Dowager would have an affair with the Emperor… The Song family is so powerful that no one dares to say anything about her having male lovers in private.”
Zhao Youyi was somewhat surprised that he would think this way, and also surprised that he would ask this question. She lowered her head and thought for a moment before saying, "Actually, I don't know either. It's lonely in the deep palace, so it's not surprising that anything can happen. Although no one dares to talk about keeping male concubines openly, it will still have an impact on Princess Fu'an if it gets out."
Upon hearing this, Chu Chanyin had a sudden inspiration. Princess Fu'an was the Empress Dowager's only daughter, and the Empress Dowager would not take the risk of impure bloodline in order to prevent her from being suspected.
When talking about Princess Fu'an, one naturally thinks of her being forced into marriage in place of another.
"When the Southern Barbarians learned of Brother Nianling's passing, they made it clear that they wanted a real princess, not some imposter. Princess Yulang volunteered for the marriage alliance and arrived at the border in about three months." Speaking of this, Chu Chanyin couldn't help but frown. The mistakes made by the men ultimately required women to sacrifice their lives to clean up the mess. This dynasty was truly corrupt and utterly spineless.
Zhao Youyi had lived in the capital for a long time, so he naturally knew about this princess, the youngest sister of the late emperor. When she was young, she fell in love at first sight with the son of the mighty general. Not two years after their marriage, the young general had to go to the battlefield and died under the iron cavalry of the southern barbarians. Since then, Princess Yulang had lived a secluded life. The situation in the capital had changed, and the emperor had changed. Long ago, no one remembered this story.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
