Imperial lineage
"But Aunt, you can't just kill me. You have to let Ah Shi bring me down in a fair and square way..."
“That’s right. I need to ensure the proper transfer of the imperial lineage within you, rather than watching it decay.”
"So, Aunt, you really know where the imperial lineage is?" His eyes sparkled with joy, and he even leaned forward slightly without realizing it.
"Oh, so you want to know where the imperial lineage is?" I clicked my tongue twice. "Too bad, even if I told you, you wouldn't be able to see it. Your cultivation isn't high enough, nephew."
His tone was somewhat urgent: "As long as my aunt is willing to tell me, I will naturally find a way to see it."
I frowned, unsure whether I should pity him: "Nephew, you don't naively believe that the imperial lineage can really be seized by force, do you?"
I leaned forward and looked at him, mimicking his posture: "If it's really possible, why don't I kill you and transfer the imperial lineage to someone else?"
He remained silent, just staring at me intently.
I instantly understood why he was interested in the imperial lineage: "Nephew, you've been fooled. The imperial lineage can never be maintained by external forces, but some sects' special secret techniques can indeed steal a portion of the fortune. However, you already have that portion, and you can't steal more. I'm afraid your subordinates have delusions about the imperial lineage, which is why they're using you as a butcher's knife."
His face stiffened, but his tone remained defiant: "Auntie's attempt to sow discord was ineffective."
“Heh…” I shook my head: “You naturally have many ways to verify whether the person who encouraged you was doing it for you or for himself. You don’t need to listen to me.”
"Auntie seems to be very frank!"
“I have nothing to hide. Even if it is the imperial lineage, you won’t be able to see it even if I point it out to you. Your cultivation level is not high enough, so nothing will work. Once your cultivation level is high enough, you will be able to find it yourself.”
"Auntie is speaking like the Director of the Imperial Observatory right now."
"I am not. The Imperial Observatory will welcome him as its true director in the future. It has nothing to do with me."
“It’s too much of a conversation if we don’t see eye to eye,” he stood up, still bowing to me in a proper manner to say goodbye: “Thank you for the wine, Aunt. Goodbye.”
"Take care, and don't bother seeing me off."
I glanced at the untouched dishes on the table and immediately told the innkeeper to pack them up: "Send them to the Crown Prince's residence, and while you're at it, get the money back for this meal."
"Ah?" The shopkeeper hesitated, "This..."
"It's okay, you don't need to worry. I just mentioned it. If he pays, he pays; if he doesn't, we'll settle the bill anyway."
"Okay, I understand, young lady."
We sat back downstairs, and the banquet continued amidst laughter and joy.
The entire restaurant was in a relaxed atmosphere.
Time always flies when people are eating and drinking, and before they know it, it's already late at night.
I could sense that ghosts were approaching the restaurant, and more and more of them were appearing.
When I went up to the second floor, I realized that the aroma of the food and the peaceful atmosphere had attracted the unconscious ghosts in the vicinity.
I said to Wu Qing, who was next to me, "Let's give them some too."
Wu Qing cupped his hands in greeting and said, "Yes." Then he found a few cultivators who didn't drink alcohol to handle the matter together.
But Wu Qing didn't return after making the donation. When I went back up to the second floor, I found that more and more ghosts were coming, and many of them were ones I had seen before. In other words, these ghosts were not grateful and planned to continue to take advantage of the Imperial Observatory's donations...
I scanned the ghosts downstairs one by one. None of them dared to meet my gaze; they all lowered their heads. I roared, "Get out!"
Perhaps because I was too angry and my emotions were too volatile, even the sky flashed. However, the lightning was fleeting, but the ghosts below had obviously seen it and dispersed instantly.
I patted Wu Qing on the shoulder and asked, "They still won't leave after we gave them alms, why didn't you drive them away?"
“I…” Wu Qing scratched his head: “What I was thinking was that since Miss Xu asked for almsgiving, so…”
"So, how can they freeload off me?"
He smiled sheepishly.
I shook my head: "Wu Qing, this is not how you do good deeds. Greedy people, whether human or ghost, should be killed or driven away. At this time, you should not be soft-hearted."
Wu Qing bowed to me and said, "I understand, Miss Xu."
“Let’s go,” I waved to them, “back to the banquet.”
Finally, as the banquet was drawing to a close, Ah Shi arrived. He knocked so loudly that the door slammed shut: "Auntie, Auntie!"
I rolled my eyes; it seemed this guy was drunk too. I went over and opened the door.
Ah Shi was like a lump of mud that had melted in water. As soon as I opened the door, he slumped weakly forward against the door frame...
I quickly caught him, and said with disdain, "How much did you drink?"
"Auntie," he looked up at me with a silly smile, "Auntie, I'm finally, finally out..."
I supported one of his arms and pulled him inside, saying, "Didn't we say that if we can't get out, we won't come out for now? We can get together next time, right?"
“But…” he suddenly burst into tears: “I still want to come.”
"Fine, fine," the drunkard said, "You're here, okay? Stop crying..."
But he couldn't stop crying: "Waaah, Auntie, do you not want me to come?"
"No," I coaxed patiently, "No, I wanted you to come, I just didn't like you drinking like this."
"Really?" He turned his head to look at me, his eyes still glistening with tears, clearly distrustful. The smell of alcohol wafted over me, so I quickly turned my head away and replied, "Of course it's true."
Seeing that Ashi was drunk, Muli automatically came over and, together with Wuqing, helped Ashi up and walked back.
Even after being pulled away, Ah Shi still managed to shout at the top of his lungs, "Auntie! Auntie!"
It was as if we were never going to see each other again, so I quickly caught up, rolled my eyes, and replied, "I'm here, I'm here..."
His arms were tied up and he couldn't move. He kept turning his head back to look at me, and kept calling out, "Auntie, don't you want me anymore? Auntie?"
"Sigh..." I let out a long sigh, lamenting how drunkenness could ruin things. I walked over and pinched his cheek hard, gritting my teeth as I said, "I'm here, I didn't abandon you..."
He then bit my hand, mumbling, "You little brat..."
"Are you a dog? You even bite people?" I pushed his head to free my hand before I could hear him say, "Don't run away..."
Luckily, he didn't bite too hard, leaving only a shallow mark. I disgustedly wiped the saliva off his body and cursed, "How shameful!"
He just smiled sheepishly at me, like a three-year-old child...
After Mu Li and Wu Qing put him on the chair, he fell asleep sprawled out on his back...
I rolled my eyes at him, then rolled them again. Mu Li took my hand with concern and asked, "How are you? Does it hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt, you brat didn't bite hard enough."
"I'll take you to wash up."
“Okay,” I nodded and followed Muli to the kitchen to get water to wash my hands.
Muli used a ladle to scoop water from the water tank and pour it onto my hand. I turned my hand over a few times to wash away the saliva.
Then Muli asked me again, "Does it hurt?"
“It doesn’t hurt,” I said, shaking the water off my hands and holding them up to him. “Look, even the teeth marks have faded. He didn’t use any force.”
"Hmm," Muli hummed in response, then took my hand and kissed the vanished tooth mark, smiling as she said, "It's good that it doesn't hurt."
It's so strange, such a shallow mark, and they asked me twice?
When Mu Li led me back, we found that Wu Qing was already finding people to take turns managing the drunk people, planning to return to the palace.
Ah Shi was still deeply drunk in his chair...
Wu Qing came over and asked me, "Miss Xu, is the Tenth Prince coming back to the palace with us?"
"Go find someone from the Prime Minister's residence and have them come to pick you up."
Wu Qing said with difficulty, "As soon as I saw the Tenth Prince, I sent a servant to the Prime Minister's residence, but I heard that the Prime Minister's residence is also hosting a banquet today, and they are still cleaning up the mess. They really don't have time to come and pick up Ah Shi..."
"Uh... then let's find a horse-drawn carriage to take us back to the Imperial Observatory."
Ah Shi was placed in a carriage, and Mu Li, along with other people from the Imperial Observatory, followed the carriage slowly back to the palace in a grand procession.
Perhaps the Ministry of Revenue had given instructions, because the guards at the outer palace didn't make things difficult for us and let us in.
Upon returning to the Imperial Observatory, I noticed with my sharp eyes that the magical shield of the Imperial Observatory had been damaged. I ignored it and simply instructed the consuls of each department to count the number of people and return to their respective departments.
When we arrived at the main courtyard, Wu Qing and Mu Li helped A Shi to Wu Qing's room. I looked around the main courtyard and found no signs of damage, so I beckoned to the shadow in the corner: "Someone has been here."
“Hmm,” Shadow ran over and nodded at me, “but I’ve already thrown him out.”
"Has anything been stolen?"
"No, absolutely not. I spotted him the moment he came in, before he even had a chance to grab anything."
"Who is this person?"
“I have met the Crown Prince’s men before, in the Crown Prince’s main courtyard.”
“Very good,” I nodded, drew a wisp of ghostly energy from the shadow and wrapped it around my middle finger, and said to her, “Everyone has eaten tonight except you. Go to the Crown Prince’s residence now and have a good meal with the person who came here. If anything seems amiss, signal me and I will call you back.”
"Great!" The shadow was clearly pleased. "I haven't consumed magic power in a long time. Is this the only way to consume it?"
"You can only eat him, but you can't eat him to death."
"Huh? So it was just a matter of venting?"
I turned to look at her and said, "If you don't feel like you've had enough, you don't have to go."
"Yes, of course I'll go." With that, the shadow slipped away.
Just then, Muli returned and walked to the table, inviting me to have some tea.
I nodded and sat back down in the recliner.
He asked, "Aren't you going to sleep yet?"
I shook my head: "Shadow went out, I have to wait for her to come back, you go to sleep first."
"Then I'll wait with you." After saying that, he came over, picked me up, and then we sat down in the rocking chair together.
The rocking chair wobbled a few times, and I exclaimed, "What are you doing? You'll break the chair!"
“No,” he shook his head. “This chair is well-made and can support the weight of both of us.”
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