429. Palace Night Banquet

Seeing the unconscious boy in brocade clothes on the couch, everyone was shocked. They stared at Zhao Zhefang standing on the side in horror. One person stepped forward excitedly and said, "Are you crazy? Kidnapped the prince of Ding Wangfu in Licheng!" Just thinking of the blood on Ding Wang's hands over the years made them shudder. Ding Wangfu also has the omnipresent secret guards and Qilin. If Ding Wang knew about this, not only them, but also their nine clans and cats and dogs would not be able to escape death.

Zhao Zhefang smiled helplessly and said, "How can I kidnap the prince of Ding Palace?"

"What's going on?" Everyone looked at Zhao Zhefang with a serious expression.

Zhao Zhefang sighed and said, "Who has been taking care of you these days? I don't need to guess, right?" After hearing his words, the three people's expressions changed. Zhao Zhefang continued, "He has already told me, so I asked you to come here. The news of the missing prince of Dingwang Mansion will definitely not be kept secret for long. By then, the guards of Dingwang Mansion and the Mohist Army may search every house. By then... I'm afraid it won't be hidden anymore."

The three of them looked a little ugly, staring at Zhao Zhefang and said, "What's the point of you asking us for this matter?" They were originally important noble families in Da Chu, but they were not taken seriously after they joined the Dingwang Mansion. This time, Dingwang granted officials a lot of titles, but obviously excluded most of the famous families. After that, each family almost broke their heads for the unfulfilled position of left prime minister, but in the end, Dingwang gave the position of left prime minister to an outsider Chen Xiufu. At that time, they had already understood that Dingwang didn't need them at all. Following Dingwang, these noble families that had been passed down for generations were destined to decline. So, when Mo Jingli came to them, they were quickly tempted. Not only because of the benefits and future that Mo Jingli promised them, but also because they had to try their best.

Zhao Zhefang sneered on his somewhat old face, "Do you think you can escape if Prince Ding finds out about this? Prince Ding's mansion is looking for that person everywhere. If he is caught, do you think he will betray us?"

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat. They secretly regretted that they were too impulsive in agreeing to Mo Jingli's request. Perhaps they were all frustrated by the cold reception from Prince Ding's mansion and the loss of the position of Left Prime Minister. Would they really have a good future following someone like Mo Jingli? But now that things have come to this, they can't turn back. Not to mention that Prince Ding absolutely cannot tolerate betrayers, but Mo Jingli has some handles on them, so they can't turn back.

"So what are you going to do?"

Zhao Zhefang lowered his brows and pondered for a long time, then shook his head and said, "The young master is still very useful, and cannot be moved. But... it's not safe to keep him in my house." Everyone looked at each other and nodded. There was no secret place in the Zhao mansion to hide people. If the young master was left here for a long time, it would indeed be unsafe.

"What should we do?"

Zhao Zhefang thought for a moment and said, "We must first find a secret place to hide the young master."

"What should we do with the little emperor? With that man's character, I'm afraid he won't keep him. Why not..."

"Not yet. If the little emperor does not attend the banquet in the evening, it will definitely arouse suspicion from Prince Ding's Mansion." Zhao Zhefang shook his head.

"Your Excellency, King Yu of the Great Chu requests to see you." A guard reported in a low voice outside the door.

Under the eaves outside the door, Mo Xiaobao sat on the carved beam under the eaves, bent over the window to eavesdrop on the plan inside, a big smile on his delicate little face.

After a while, several people came out of the study. Before leaving, Zhao Zhefang told the guards at the door to keep an eye on the people inside, and then left with the other three. Today, all the people with some respect in Licheng gathered in Prince Ding's mansion. If they didn't show up, it would arouse more suspicion.

Seeing Zhao Zhefang and the others leave, Mo Xiaobao quietly descended from the eaves, looked at the two people guarding the door, frowned, and quickly took out a small and exquisite gadget from his sleeve pocket and gently pressed it at one of them.

There was a slight whoosh sound, and a man at the door fell to the ground with a thud. The other man was startled and just opened his mouth to call for help, but his eyes went dark and he also fell to the ground. Xu Zhirui stood behind the pillar with a cold face and glared at Mo Xiaobao. Mo Xiaobao smiled at him and pulled him into the study. Outside, two dark guards in black landed silently in the yard, looked at the guard lying on the ground and smiled at each other. After a while, the two guards were moved to a secret place, and two inconspicuous men in guard uniforms appeared at the door of the study.

"The prince is in such a good mood that he even has time to train the young prince at this time."

"I guess the prince would not even bother to take action given the difficulty."

"Young Master is quite courageous, but he forgot to clean up after himself." If someone suddenly came and found two people lying at the door, wouldn't they be exposed? Therefore, as a secret guard, he had to clean up after himself for his master at any time and anywhere.

"With the stature of the young master and young master Xu, they can't handle something this big."

The two looked at each other and couldn't help but have an idea: the young master walked in so cavalierly, was he sure that they would come to help deal with it?

In the study, Mo Xiaobao danced with joy, searching here and there happily, and soon found a lot of interesting things. The Zhao family had not moved into this mansion for long, so naturally there were not many secret places. Moreover, even if there were some secret passages, they might not be hidden from the eyes of someone who had been clever and eccentric since childhood and had learned a lot.

Xu Zhirui sat on the couch, watching someone rummaging through boxes and drawers, and frowning at the two people lying on the couch. Many times, Xu Zhirui really didn't know how this cousin who only beat him when he was less than two years old grew up to be like this. The cousin's aunt was obviously gentle and elegant, and the uncle Prince Ding was also very imposing and had a kingly demeanor, but this cousin grew up to be a strange man. Except for that pretty face, there was no time to rest.

"Are you here to see them?" Xu Zhirui asked unhappily.

Mo Xiaobao raised his head and glanced at him, then threw a small porcelain bottle over and said, "What's there to see? They've been drugged, and they'll wake up just by smelling it. This was given to them by Sister Yun Ge, and it can dispel all the effects of the drug." After saying that, he continued to look through the letter book that he had taken out of a locked cabinet of Zhao Zhefang without looking up.

Xu Zhirui wordlessly placed the medicine bottle under the noses of Qin Lie and Mo Suiyun for them to smell. Sure enough, Qin Lie woke up first in less than a moment. He was not surprised to see Xu Zhirui, and sat up silently. After a while, Mo Suiyun also woke up, but he was not as calm as Qin Lie and almost cried out. However, Qin Lie and Xu Zhirui covered his mouth from the left and right.

Mo Xiaobao stood up from the bookcase and stuffed a thin book into his arms, apparently he had found what he was looking for. He waved his hand and said, "Don't be afraid, we are the ones outside." Mo Suiyun looked at Mo Xiaobao in cloth clothes, then looked at Qin Lie who looked exactly like Mo Xiaobao but in a dark brocade robe and looked more like the prince of Dingwang Mansion than Mo Xiaobao, and was speechless for a moment.

Mo Xiaobao didn't care about Mo Suiyun's shock at all. He smiled and stepped forward, put his arm around Mo Suiyun's shoulder and said, "Good brother, thank you so much this time." No matter how stupid Mo Suiyun was, he knew that he was being used. He pushed Mo Xiaobao's hand away in a bad mood, pointed at Qin Lie and asked, "Who is he?" Mo Xiaobao smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. Do they look alike? Do they look like twin brothers? This is hard to deal with."

Mo Suiyun looked at Qin Lie for a long time before saying, "With such a superb disguise, no wonder Uncle Ding was able to deceive the King of Xiling Town, Nan Wang and the King of Li." Mo Xiaobao smiled and raised his hand to pull Qin Lie's face and said, "This thing is extremely difficult to do. Ordinary people can't learn it at all. I can't do it either..."

Qin Lie raised his hand and slapped away Mo Xiaobao's hand that was messing with his face.

"He's shorter than you." Mo Suiyun looked at him carefully for a long time before finally saying, "He's Qin Lie." As soon as the word "short" was mentioned, Qin Lie's aura suddenly turned cold. Although his complexion couldn't be seen because of the change of appearance, the cold light in his eyes showed that this was Qin Lie's pain. Yes, in terms of age, Qin Lie was the oldest among them, but in terms of height, he was only about the same height as Xu Zhirui. You know, Xu Zhirui is not even ten years old. Not growing tall is the pain of every man, and boys are the same.

Seeing that Qin Lie was about to lose his temper, Mo Xiaobao rushed over and suppressed his ingratiating smile, "Don't be angry, don't be angry... The little emperor just made a slip of the tongue. We can't afford to compensate him if he is killed... Mr. Shen also said that you started practicing martial arts too early and your development is late. You will grow up after the age of sixteen." Qin Lie felt that he did not feel comforted at all after being coaxed and comforted by a kid who was several years younger than him.

Xu Zhirui stood by, crossed his arms and looked at them unhappily, saying, "Are you guys leaving or not? Do you think this is your home?" Mo Xiaobao smiled and said, "Let's go...you and Qin Lie go, I'll stay with the little emperor."

"Nonsense!" Xu Zhirui stared at him coldly, with a bit of the demeanor of the second son of the Xu family. Mo Xiaobao drooped his face, "Brother Zhirui, if we all leave and Zhao Zhefang comes back and finds out, how can we play later?"

Xu Zhirui said, "Didn't you find something? Go back and give it to Uncle Ding, and then just come over to arrest the person."

"Who are you catching? I don't know where Mo Jingli is hiding. If I run away, he will definitely not come out or do something bad. What if he gets angry and kills people in Licheng, and ruins Xin'er and Lin'er's birthday banquet? And my father said that he would put on a good show tonight to scare those old men who don't know the seriousness of the matter. If the show is over, I will die very ugly!" Mo Xiaobao said righteously. Xu Zhirui rolled his eyes, "Then what do you want?" Mo Xiaobao put the book that escaped from his arms into Xu Zhirui's arms, "You and Qin Lie go back first and give this to my father and mother. I will stay here to see what this Mo Jingli is so powerful."

Mo Suiyun refused, "If you want to stay, you can stay. I don't want to stay here and risk my life with you."

Mo Xiaobao looked at Mo Suiyun with a fake smile, "Brother, you are wrong. We are obviously on the same boat. How can you escape?" Mo Suiyun said, "I only agreed to cooperate with you to bring you here, but I didn't agree to accompany you to catch Mo Jingli." Mo Xiaobao's delicate face suddenly became fierce. He grabbed Mo Suiyun's collar and shook it vigorously, "Humph! You are on this prince's pirate ship and you still want to get off? Do you want to do it? Do you want to do it? Don't do it, right? Believe it or not, I will scream and tell Mo Jingli that you and I are working together to deceive him?"

Mo Suiyun waved his claws away in anger, "You lunatic! Are you going to die?"

Mo Xiaobao stared at him with a slightly obscene smile, "If Mo Jingli really came, I might have escaped with my life, but you can't say for sure."

"I. Know!" Mo Suiyun glared at Mo Xiaobao with gritted teeth.

Mo Xiaobao nodded in satisfaction and said, "That's good. Just stay with me and I'll make sure you're safe. There's a saying that goes like this... For a brother, you'll risk your life for him, right? Aren't we good brothers?"

Bah! Who is your good brother? If you come to your place, you will only stab them.

After dealing with Mo Suiyun, Mo Xiaobao sat on the couch and waved to Xu Zhirui and Qin Lu, saying, "Okay, Qin Lie, change clothes with me. Then you two can go back first." Qin Lie raised his eyes and glanced at him calmly, saying, "I'll stay, you go back."

Mo Xiaobao puffed up his cheeks and glared at the face that looked exactly like his own, saying, "I am the prince! I have the final say! You secretly disguised yourself as the prince and ran away, but I haven't settled accounts with you yet!"

Qin Lie glanced at him calmly and said, "What can you do that I can't? You don't have to stay here in person." Except for the fact that Mo Xiaobao was mean, vicious, and had a dark mentality, he was no worse than Mo Xiaobao in any way, and the age difference was not in vain.

"No!" He still wanted to meet that pervert Mo Jingli. His father told him something very interesting and he wanted to verify it himself, otherwise it would be a shame.

Qin Lie was too lazy to speak again, so he pulled out Xu Zhirui's dagger for self-defense and put it against his neck, "Let's go."

Mo Xiaobao was stunned, and wanted to say something, but saw Qin Lie pushed the dagger down further, and it was just about to pierce his neck. "Do you want to go?" Mo Xiaobao was stunned. For the first time in his life, he found himself threatened? And the person who threatened him was threatening his own life. It was really inexplicable. You are not my wife. Mo Xiaobao complained in his heart. But those who wear shoes are afraid of bare feet, and those who are barefoot are afraid of those who are not willing to die. Compared with Mo Xiaobao who enjoys playing tricks on others, it is obvious that Qin Lie is the one who is not willing to die.

After a moment's silence, Mo Xiaobao finally lost the battle. He could only glare at Qin Lie unwillingly and walked to Xu Zhirui's side. Seeing Mo Xiaobao's stupor, Mo Suiyun was actually happy, "I finally know why you are so crazy." Because you guys are not normal people!

After leaving the study, Mo Xiaobao looked at the two guards standing at the door and was not surprised at all, "Thank you for your hard work."

"It's not hard, it's what I should do." A guard replied solemnly. He silently said in his heart: "Young Master, it would be the best comfort for us if you don't bother a little." Mo Xiaobao nodded in style and said: "Protect the people inside, Zhirui, let's go." Xu Zhirui followed Mo Xiaobao speechlessly. Even if this study is in a remote place and few people come here, you don't have to treat it as if it is your own backyard, right?

Tonight, the entire Dingwang Mansion was brightly lit. The hall in the front yard of Dingwang Mansion, which was specially used for banquets, was also full of distinguished guests. The people sitting at the top were naturally Mo Xiuyao and Ye Li. On the right were Mr. Qingyun and the Xu family, and on the left were Chen Xiufu and Xu Qingchen, as well as a group of important civil and military officials of Dingwang Mansion. The guests and envoys from various countries were sitting in the guest seats a little lower.

Below, Mo Suiyun and Mo Jingyu sat on the table of guests of Da Chu, but both of them looked a little dazed. Opposite them, at the Xiling envoys' table, an official behind Lei Tengfeng whispered in his ear, "I haven't seen the young master of Ding Wangfu all day."

Lei Tengfeng looked up and saw that the seat below Mo Xiuyao and Ye Li, which belonged to the young master Mo Yichen, was still empty. And it seemed that Mo Yichen was not seen when the two children were doing their one-year-old ceremony at noon. Lei Tengfeng glanced at Mo Xiuyao and Ye Li, who looked calm, raised his eyebrows and smiled, "We are guests here, so don't worry about these things."

Lei Tengfeng didn't care, but that didn't mean others didn't care. A man who looked like a Westerner stood up and asked curiously, "Prince Ding, why didn't I see the little prince of your mansion?" It's no wonder that these Westerner envoys were curious. The Westerner and the Central Plains didn't have much contact. Other people had seen Mo Xiaobao once or twice, but these Westerner envoys had never seen Mo Xiaobao. Naturally, they were very curious about the future heir of the Prince Ding's mansion.

Mo Xiuyao smiled faintly and said, "The prince is feeling a little unwell and will come over later."

It was just a simple sentence, but everyone present could understand the meaning and idea of ​​ignoring it. So some people's faces changed slightly, some were thoughtful, and some looked worried.

Mo Xiuyao glanced at the people below calmly, and his eyes lingered on Mo Jingyu and Mo Suiyun for a moment. Mo Jingyu and Mo Suiyun immediately felt a heavy pressure coming down on them like a physical object. Mo Suiyun's face turned pale and he lowered his head quickly. The wine glass in Mo Jingyu's hand shook, and some of the wine spilled from the glass onto his sleeves. Not caring about the other people's gazes, Mo Jingyu quickly put down the wine glass and clenched his hands tightly under the table.

Mo Xiuyao stood up, picked up a glass of wine and said with a smile: "Today is the first birthday of my son Yufeng and my daughter Yuya. Thank you all for coming from afar. The king and the princess toast you all." Beside Mo Xiuyao, Ye Li also raised her wine glass and toasted the guests from a distance. Everyone stood up quickly and said: "We wish the young master and the little princess a happy birthday." The guests drank a glass of wine, and the hall suddenly became lively. Mo Xiuyao waved his hand, and immediately a maid dressed in the Dingwangfu came forward to pour wine for everyone. The sound of stringed instruments also echoed faintly in the hall, and beautiful dancers danced gracefully. The whole hall was bustling with the sound of toasts.