Chapter 9 Why did His Majesty send him away?
Seventeen sat cross-legged on the bed and listened for a while. The servants were quite obedient to Wei Lifeng. After throwing him into the room, they kept their distance, probably worried about disturbing their master.
Yue Ge only told him to pretend to be captured by Wei Lifeng in order to find the hiding place where he was bullying those people outside, but he didn't specify what he would do.
He touched the longsword beside him. Because he had gripped it tightly, it hadn't been taken away. However... Seventeen reached up and touched his neck; the identity tag hanging there was gone.
Meanwhile, chaos had broken out in the palace.
Eunuch Yuanfu was happily preparing pastries for His Majesty, who had just woken up, when he suddenly saw a dark figure flash by and kneel on the ground.
He paused, wondering if His Majesty had something important to discuss. Just as he was about to close the door and leave, he heard the guard say, "Your Majesty, Seventeen has been kidnapped by Wei Lifeng."
Yuanfu's teacup fell to the table with a dull thud. Emperor Jing glanced at him and asked in a deep voice, "What happened?"
“This item was delivered by my informant who was planted outside the Wei residence. He saw Wei Lifeng kidnap another man, and this item fell to the ground when he left. He noticed that it matched the silver badge I was wearing, so he specially brought it to me.”
The guard stepped forward, his sharp eyes raised, and handed the object in his hand to Emperor Jing.
It was a small identification tag.
The guard pulled back his collar, revealing an identical silver tag around his neck, and said, "This belongs to Seventeen. My informant said that after Wei Lifeng kidnapped someone, he returned to his residence and kept talking about how he had made a good haul today. So I suspect that Seventeen was kidnapped by Wei Lifeng."
Emperor Jing fumbled with the small tablet in his hand; its warmth had long since dissipated, leaving only a slight chill.
The silver medal has two small characters engraved in the middle: Seventeen.
The guard who handed the silver token to Emperor Jing had a similar silver token around his neck that was gleaming, and two words could be vaguely seen: Ling Jiu.
"Did you find it?"
"Your subordinate is incompetent."
Emperor Jing placed the small card on the table and said coldly, "Yuanfu, you stay in the palace. I will go with Lingjiu to take a look."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Grandpa Yuanfu rubbed his fingertips together, sighing inwardly: Wei Xing's good days are over.
Everyone knew what Wei Xing had done, but they were frustrated by the lack of evidence. Emperor Jing sent people to investigate secretly for many years, but they still couldn't find anything.
As for his good grandson Wei Lifeng, he was spoiled by his family since childhood, which led to his arrogant and domineering personality. Relying on his grandfather to clean up his messes, he also acted like a tyrant in Yejing for many years.
Emperor Jing received complaints more than once, but Wei Xing's silver tongue and ability to twist the truth, coupled with coercion and bribery, often led to the cases being dropped before anything was found.
If Emperor Jing dared not act rashly a few years ago because his position was not yet secure, now he was determined to completely eradicate this stubborn force that had been entrenched in Yejing for many years!
Lingjiu led His Majesty to the outside of the Wei residence. After receiving instructions, the informant stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Your Majesty."
"Hmm, which way did Wei Lifeng go?"
"Your Majesty, please come with me."
The informant pointed in a direction and said, "That's the secluded house where Wei Xing's mother lived before she passed away. In the past, if Wei Lifeng wanted to do something, he would bring people to this secluded house."
Why isn't he in his own residence?
"Because Wei Xing forbade it. Wei Xing tolerated all of Wei Lifeng's actions, but he resolutely disagreed with this one thing. Wei Lifeng had no choice but to take the person to a remote residence, play with him, and then give his family a sum of money regardless of whether they lived or died, and then threaten them again."
Emperor Jing already knew about these things, but hearing them again from someone else only fueled his pent-up anger. He said with a deep frown, "Let's go and see."
Wei Lifeng was quite clever; he only hired poor people who had no money. After they took the money and were threatened, who would dare to make a scene? Complain? To whom would they complain?
He thought of the "evidence" he had already prepared, and a hint of coldness appeared between his brows. Ling Jiu, who was standing next to him, did not dare to look at him, but thought to himself: This little Seventeen certainly knows how to pick his time.
......
Seventeen sat listlessly in his room, and after thinking for a while, decided to go out and check the situation.
He had just thought about it and felt that His Majesty didn't seem to genuinely entrust this task to him, but rather... as if he was being dismissed.
However, Seventeen couldn't understand why His Majesty wanted to send him away.
But no matter what, His Majesty's words couldn't be false, and who knows if what he's looking for is in this mansion.
Although Seventeen's martial arts skills weren't considered top-notch in the Dark Guard Camp, they were more than enough to deal with the few servants in this secluded residence. He nimbly bypassed them and flipped over the roof beam.
Seventeen didn't know where this remote residence was located, but judging from its appearance, it wasn't small, and the Wei family was certainly wealthy.
The surrounding mountains and rivers are beautiful, and it is autumn. The mountain on the right is covered with fiery red maple leaves, which almost scorch the horizon.
After admiring the beautiful scenery for a while, Seventeen quietly jumped onto another side room, trying to find the "secret passage" in this secluded mansion.
In fact, Seventeen didn't know if there were any secret passages in this secluded mansion. He had only heard his brothers in the camp say that many wealthy families loved to build a bunch of secret passages in their mansions, and he didn't know who they were guarding against.
Seventeen crouched in the shadows, waiting for the maid to leave, when she suddenly saw a figure running towards her in the distance, and could hear the person calling, "Xiao Lan! Xiao Lan!"
The maid whose name was called stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow in surprise as she asked, "Registrar Zhao?"
"Xiao Lan, do you know where Young Master Sun is?"
"It should be in the Orchid Garden. Go and take a look."
Xiao Lan pointed in a direction to the west, and Zhao Zhubu thanked her repeatedly before heading towards Lanyuan without stopping.
"Oh dear, why are you in such a hurry?"
Xiao Lan patted her skirt, clutching the scroll in her hands, and continued walking back. Unbeknownst to her, a dark figure followed Zhao Zhubu towards Lan Garden.
"Young Master Sun?"
Who is it?
Zhao, the registrar, bent over and knocked on the door, but a very impatient male voice came from inside, along with several delicate cries.
"Young Master Sun, I am Zhao Yuan."
The wooden door in front of Zhao Yuan was opened, and the fat man inside almost filled the entire doorway. His face was full of fat and he asked impatiently, "What is it?"
"Young Master Sun, the accounts for this year have been calculated, and there seems to be some problems."
Zhao Yuan was terrified and wanted to ask for a solution. After all, the shop was given to the young master by the master, but the young master spent his days indulging in pleasure and would ask the master for money whenever he ran out. The master got annoyed by the demands and set a limit for him, so the young master would come to the shop to get money.
In the past, he would have sent this account book directly to the master, but this year the losses were too great, so he thought he would send it to Young Master Sun to see if there was any way to make up for it.
But Zhao Yuan was wrong. This good-for-nothing playboy obviously had no interest in these things. He simply took the ledger, glanced at it casually, and then looked up. Ignoring Zhao Yuan's expression, he turned around and slammed the door shut. Then, ambiguous moans came from inside.
Zhao Yuan hurriedly tidied up the account books, stood there and sighed. The loss was a small matter, but what if the master blamed him?
A somewhat lonely figure walked away into the distance. Seventeen stared at him for a while, and when he was sure that the other person had left, he immediately flipped over and jumped to the spot where Zhao Yuan and Wei Lifeng had just been standing, and picked up a piece of paper that had fallen into the crevice.
This was accidentally scattered here when Wei Lifeng threw away the ledger. Because it was tucked in a corner, Zhao Yuan overlooked it.
Seventeen picked it up and looked at it, but found that it didn't seem to be an account book. After a moment's thought, he immediately turned around, put the paper in his pocket, and went back to the room where he was tied up.
Back in his room, Seventeen took out the paper again and looked at it. It had many words written on it, but he couldn't understand their meaning. It was as if it had been written by someone suffering from hysteria.
Seventeen frowned, looking left and right. Then he remembered what they had been taught in the camp: to take it out and examine it in the sunlight, but he found nothing.
That's strange. How could a piece of paper that isn't part of the accounts be tucked inside the ledger?
Seventeen's intuition told him that this piece of paper must be of great use!
Since I can't figure it out right now, I might as well keep it for now and ask him when Brother Yue comes back or when I see His Majesty.
The whole afternoon passed without Wei Lifeng coming to the room where Seventeen was locked up. Seventeen ran out again to check, and it seemed that Wei Lifeng was intentionally leaving him hanging? Seventeen didn't understand, but it was better that this fat pig didn't bother him, so that he wouldn't have to knock him out to protect his "innocence".
It was late at night, and there were even fewer people in this place, which was already deserted. Seventeen couldn't sleep, so he took out the paper again to study it.
A candle was lit on the table. Seventeen seemed to remember something and flicked the paper over the candlelight.
It's here!
The 17th Party Congress was overjoyed, as it turned out that the important words on the paper needed to be stirred with a flame to be revealed.
He carefully held the paper over the flame, being careful not to actually burn it. Fortunately, he had learned this method in the camp before, and now that it was his first time practicing it, Seventeen was a little nervous, but he still held it steadily.
Soon the candlelight illuminated the entire sheet of paper. Seventeen picked it up and saw that several words in a darker color had emerged from the previously covered paper.
He read the words together, his expression somewhat puzzled, but it was clear that this was not some kind of account.
Just then, a "click" sound came from outside the door. Seventeen immediately put the paper back in his arms, jumped up and lay down on the bed, pretending to be asleep.
With my eyes closed, I could only hear the door seem to open, and a familiar scent rushed in...
"His Majesty?"
Seventeen immediately opened his eyes and jumped up. He smelled the fragrance on His Majesty's body, and his beautiful eyes widened as he looked at the other person with joy.
Emperor Jing changed into a black night-clothes and wore a veil. When he saw Seventeen, he jumped up, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "How did you know it was me?"
He was completely covered up, but Little Seventeen had sharp eyes.
Seventeen scratched his head without answering. Surely he couldn't say that it was the fragrance on Your Majesty that made him recognize it?
"Your Majesty, I have discovered this."
Remembering his earlier discovery, he immediately took out the paper that had just been touched from his pocket and handed it to Emperor Jing.
"Where did you come from?"
Emperor Jing glanced at the contents of the paper, his eyes visibly sharpening, seemingly with a hint of excitement. Seventeen, oblivious, recounted everything he had seen that afternoon to the other party.
After listening to Seventeen's story, Emperor Jing stared at Seventeen for a long time, so long that Seventeen became somewhat uncomfortable.
"Your Majesty? Is there a problem?"
"Seventeen, you...you're lucky."
A note from the author:
----------------------
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com