Chapter 38 The Thirty-Eighth Kill

Things in Qizhou did not go as smoothly as Xiaoyu had imagined.

In particular, the governor of Qizhou was promoted and took up a post in Beijing under Zhou Xunran's nose.

Xiaoyu found out about it when she heard Zhou Yi tell her in the carriage while accompanying Zhou Xunran on an outing.

"Then the Yan Garden we are going to today is the promotion banquet of this Lord Li?" Xiaoyu asked.

Zhou Yi looked at Zhou Xunran carefully and nodded.

Xiaoyu thought to herself, no wonder Zhou Xunran had such a cold face these past two days. Even when Zhou Qingxue came to see him, he refused.

She asked in a low voice: "Why, does this Lord Li have such a powerful background?"

She remembered that when Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing heard about the Qizhou incident in the palace, they were furious and said that the incident must be severely investigated.

Zhou Yi opened his mouth and said three words silently.

Cao Shipeng.

It's him again!

Xiaoyu really couldn't understand. Zhou Xunran was the regent in the court with tremendous power. He also possessed the most influential way to relieve worries in the underworld. Why could Cao Shipeng make things so difficult for him?

She expressed her doubts: "It's just one person. Why don't we just find a killer to kill him from the door of worry? If one fails, then two. If two don't work, then three. We have so many killers, why do we have to let him go until now?"

"Even without Cao Shipeng, there will still be Zhao Shipeng, Zhang Shipeng, and Li Shipeng. What's important is not him, but the people behind him."

Who else could be behind Cao Shipeng except Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing?

It is easy to kill Cao Shipeng, but difficult to move Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing.

It's not that we can't change it, but once the leader of a country changes, countless people will be affected in the future.

Xiaoyu looked at Zhou Xunran, who was resting his mind with his eyes closed, and his body did not sway with the swaying of the carriage. In the past, when the two of them rode in a carriage together, his body did not sway much even on the roughest roads.

Xiaoyu felt that she was really blind before, which was why she thought he was a weakling who was powerless.

The carriage slowed down gradually. It must have reached Yanyuan. Zhou Yi suppressed his smile and looked around vigilantly. "Prince, we're here."

Zhou Xunran opened his eyes, and his vision was clear.

"Well, get off."

Xiaoyu followed them out of the carriage.

Yanyuan was a courtyard for banquets, and there were dozens of people who looked like butlers waiting at the door. When they saw the carriage of the Regent Prince's Palace appear, a butler came forward early and said, "Meet the Prince."

Zhou Xunran walked forward as if he saw nothing.

Zhou Yi took out the invitation: "Li Mantang's promotion banquet."

The butler took the note and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, please come this way."

Passing through the gate of Yanyuan, the further you go, the more you see small bridges, flowing water, and strange rocks. The exquisiteness makes Xiaoyu more and more shocked. She looked at Zhou Yi with a calm face, "Who is the master here? A place for eating is decorated more luxuriously than our palace."

Zhou Yi whispered to her, "This is the prince's property."

As expected, seeing Xiaoyu's eyes widened in shock, Zhou Yi withdrew his smug look.

"But no one else knows about this. You have to keep it a secret."

Xiaoyu covered his mouth and nodded cautiously.

Apart from other things, Cao Shipeng probably didn't know about it, otherwise he wouldn't have let Lord Li hold the promotion banquet here.

Xiaoyu felt happy when she thought about the expressions on their faces if they knew that the owner behind Yanyuan was Zhou Xunran.

She was giggling, but when she saw a group of people standing in front of the attic in front of her, her smile turned into confusion.

Li Mantang was waiting early in front of the attic where the banquet was held. Standing beside him were colleagues he knew and didn't know who had come to congratulate him.

But they are not the focus. When seeing Zhou Xunran's figure appear at the end of the road, Li Mantang put on a smiling face, lifted his robe and walked quickly towards Zhou Xunran.

Xiaoyu watched him getting closer and closer. There was a small black mole in the middle of the left eye, close to the Sibai point, which made Xiaoyu feel more and more familiar.

She had seen this Li Mantang before, but her memory was a little vague and she couldn't remember when she had seen him.

Zhou Yi saw that she was in a daze, staring at Li Mantang blankly. Zhou Yi touched her secretly and asked, "What's wrong?"

Xiaoyu shook her head, "I just felt that he looked very familiar, as if I had seen him somewhere before."

Although the sun was shining, the weather was still gloomy and cold. Li Mantang seemed not to notice it and kept standing there talking to Zhou Xunran.

Xiaoyu frowned and wanted to step forward to remind them to go into the attic first.

Zhou Yi stopped her with his eyes, "Your Highness, please make your own arrangements."

Xiaoyu was still worried, and her resentful eyes kept scanning Li Mantang's body.

Perhaps her expression was too obvious, Li Mantang finally spoke and invited Zhou Xunran in.

Xiaoyu followed them, and when she followed them into the house, she finally remembered that this Li Mantang was not a stranger, but the rotten father who abandoned her and her mother when they were children!

She was only five or six years old at that time and didn't remember much. She only remembered the black mole under Li Mantang's eye and the figure of him ignoring her mother's pleas, shaking off her mother's arm and turning away.

Xiaoyu frowned, looked at Zhou Yi, then looked at Zhou Xunran who was listening to the ministers attending the banquet, and finally her gaze fell on Li Mantang.

It was not until the end of the banquet and leaving Yanyuan that she withdrew her gaze.

I returned to Qingwuyuan with a heavy heart.

Zhou Xunran asked Zhou Yi to go first, leaving Xiaoyu behind: "Do you know Li Mantang?"

Xiaoyu nodded absentmindedly, then responded: "How do you know?"

After saying this she bit her lip in annoyance. Saying this was tantamount to admitting that she knew that jerk.

She rubbed the corner of her sleeve tightly with her nails, neither admitting nor denying: "I can't say we know each other. We haven't seen each other for more than ten years. He probably doesn't remember me."

Zhou Xunran looked at her, his fingertips under his robe anxiously touching the Buddhist beads on his wrist.

What's going on? Why can't I hear anything when I look into her eyes?

"From your tone, I can tell you that something unpleasant has ever happened between you? You haven't seen him for more than ten years. Did you meet him when you were a child?"

Xiaoyu didn't want to say anything more. "Oh, don't ask me. I don't want to talk about this now. Your evening herbal meal hasn't been cooked yet. I'm going to the kitchen now."

After she finished speaking, without waiting for Zhou Xunran to say anything else, she turned around, lowered her head, and walked out.

These days she had heard Zhou Yi talk about this Li Mantang, a lustful man who had more than a dozen wives and concubines in his mansion, not to mention the mistresses he kept outside, both known and unknown.

I think what happened with my mother back then was just a romantic affair of his.

Xiaoyu hammered a passing branch in annoyance. He didn't know if his mother was possessed by a ghost to follow such a rotten man.

She lowered her head and walked quickly. When she passed the corner of the garden, she bumped into a figure without paying attention.

A sharp voice suddenly sounded from the front: "Who is it? Are you blind? How dare you bump into me! Do you believe me, I will dig out your eyes and feed them to the pigs!"

Xiaoyu looked up and said, "I've met the lady."

When Zhou Qingxue saw that it was her, the sly look on her face subsided a little, "It's Xiaoyu, you're not here to serve my brother, but you're in such a hurry, where are you going?"

Compared to when she first came to the palace, Zhou Qingxue's face has become rosy and her body has become plump due to the pampered life she has received these few days.

Xiaoyu didn't want to argue with her: "Miss, go to the kitchen and prepare the evening medicinal food for the prince."

"Oh, okay, then you go quickly, but don't let my brother go hungry." Zhou Qingxue held the arm of the maid beside her and turned aside to let her go first.

Xiaoyu bent his knees towards her and walked over quickly.

But no matter how fast she walked, she could still hear Zhou Qingxue scolding the maid, "I don't want your eyes anymore. You can't even see a person this old! If I bump into you and hurt the baby in your belly, I'll skin you alive!"

She must have used force. The maid moaned softly, "Miss, it was my fault. Please spare my life."

After that, the little fish could no longer hear it.

She went straight to the kitchen and began to prepare the ingredients for the medicinal meal according to the prescription left by Doctor Chu.

Usually she was in the kitchen, chatting and laughing with everyone, and sometimes she would help the nanny light the fire or the old woman cut vegetables when she had time. Now she was so quiet, Zhang Chuanjiang, who received everyone's inquiring eyes, touched his clean head and walked towards Xiaoyu.

"Xiao Yu, the fire is too big. This medicinal food should be cooked over a low fire at the beginning, and then over a high fire for a quarter of an hour, and then back to a low fire. Have you forgotten all this?"

Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment, then seeing the blazing fire in front of him, he immediately pulled out two pieces of firewood as thick as his wrists.

Zhang Chuanjiang sat down next to her and asked, "Did something happen when you went out with the prince today?"

The little fish shook his head and went to study the firewood inside.

Zhang Chuanjiang was embarrassed. It would be better for him to prepare a banquet with ten vegetables and ten meats than to ask such a rough man to comfort a little girl.

He was considering his words when he saw Nanny Zhao appear at the door.

Everyone knew when Aunt Zhao and Xiaoyu made peace. Zhang Chuanjiang walked towards Aunt Zhao as if he had seen a savior: "Oh my ancestor, you are finally here."

Faced with his strange enthusiasm, Aunt Zhao was confused: "What's wrong?"

Zhang Chuanjiang nodded in Xiaoyu's direction and said, "That little ancestor is angry."

Madam Zhao looked out and saw that it was Xiaoyu. She felt relieved and looked at Zhang Chuanjiang jokingly: "Why, did you provoke him?"

"Oh, how dare I provoke you? It has been like this since I came back from the prince."

Nanny Zhao said confidently, "Don't worry, leave it to me."

She came to sit beside Xiaoyu and said with a smile: "Xiaoyu, make some medicinal food for the prince."

Xiaoyu didn't hear that she and Zhang Chuanjiang had been whispering for a long time. When she heard it, she only said one word: "Yeah."

Only then did Nanny Zhao realize that the matter was more serious than she had imagined.

If she had asked this question in the past, Xiaoyu would definitely have a lot of explanations, such as the prince didn't eat enough and needed more food, the weather was cold and he needed to have more food to warm his body, it was raining and he needed to have more food to replenish his body, etc. There were too many reasons to count.

Now there is only one word.

Madam Zhao wanted to ask her a few more questions, but Xiaoyu asked her back, "Madam, why are you in the kitchen?"

Madam Zhao sighed in frustration, "If you hadn't told me, I would have almost forgotten. The young lady said she was frightened while walking in the courtyard just now, and asked me to make her a bowl of soothing soup."

Zhou Qingxue was surprised? Xiaoyu thought, could it be when I came to the kitchen and met her?

Madam Zhao said to herself, "I asked who it was, but the young lady refused to tell me and even ordered the maid not to tell me. Alas, the young lady is kind-hearted. But I am not someone who is easily bullied. If I find out who scared the young lady, I will make sure she is punished."

After Madam Zhao finished speaking, Xiaoyu said calmly, "It should be me."

"Ah? What did you say?" Nanny Zhao didn't react for a moment.

Xiaoyu said, "When I came to the kitchen, I walked too fast and almost bumped into the young lady. I think I was the one who frightened the young lady."

Aunt Zhao: “….”

There were other people in the kitchen. She was too excited when she spoke just now and did not control her voice. Now there were at least two or three maids who heard her words that someone was going to be in trouble.

Madam Zhao whispered to Xiaoyu: "Yu'er, you are slapping Madam's face."

Xiaoyu burst out laughing. She tilted her head and leaned on Madam Zhao's shoulder, "Madam, you still care about me."

Seeing that she really laughed, Nanny Zhao also breathed a sigh of relief.

Nanny Zhao knew what kind of person Zhou Qingxue was when she first saw her. She was able to take good care of her because she was the prince's biological sister.

Nanny Zhao could guess what Zhou Qingxue was thinking when she put eye drops on Xiaoyu in front of her today.

However, even to protect the reputation of the prince, Madam Zhao could not say these words in front of Xiaoyu. She gently advised Xiaoyu: "Just stay away from the young lady in the future."