Chapter 337 Beat Her Up (Second Update)
Meanwhile, the expert, attracted by the flute music, used his lightness skill to arrive behind the artificial hill where Xiao Liulang was.
He wore a mask, revealing only a pair of eyes that were colder and more bloodthirsty than those of an ordinary assassin.
He landed steadily in front of Xiao Liulang and looked Xiao Liulang up and down.
When Xiao Liulang was a child, he saw Princess Xinyang use her flute to summon the late emperor's assassins; the tune she was playing was the same one he had just heard.
There was no one around, and his music was not loud, so it should only have been heard by the late emperor's loyal followers.
At first I was a little worried that I might have blown the wrong note, but it seems I did.
But why is he the only one? Are the others not in the palace?
In my memory, the late emperor's assassins wore such masks and possessed the same terrifying killing intent.
They do not indiscriminately kill people outside their mission, especially those who do not know martial arts, unless they are obstructed by the other party while carrying out the mission.
Xiao Liulang understood that as long as he didn't do anything provocative, the other man wouldn't attack him.
His eyes were filled with confusion and curiosity.
Xiao Liulang allowed him to look him over without any hesitation.
After a moment, as if to verify something, Xiao Liulang said to him, "Could you please help me pick a leaf from the top of my head?"
But the man walked away without looking back!
Xiao Liulang sighed.
He had initially held onto a sliver of hope that if he could summon the other party by playing a tune, he might be able to make them obey his commands. It seems he was overthinking it.
Princess Xinyang was able to control the late emperor's assassins not because of this song, but because she was the new master whom the late emperor had passed down to them.
When this assassin heard the music, he probably thought his former master was summoning him. But when he arrived and realized that he was neither the late emperor nor His Majesty, he turned around and left!
Well, that's all the time he can buy.
Gu Jiao dragged the person into a small dark room near Taiye Pond. Just as she threw the person inside, before she could even unleash her snowflake-like violent punches, a terrifying yet familiar aura approached.
ah!
You're back so soon!
She hasn't even started hitting her yet!
Niu Hulu Gu Jiao scratched her head in frustration, picked up the sack, and kicked it into Taiye Pond!
Then she ran away, chirping away!
Several palace maids in the Imperial Garden finally discovered that Consort Jing was missing. They searched around frantically, eventually alerting the Emperor.
By the time the emperor arrived from the Imperial Study, Consort Jing had already been pulled from the water by the assassin and taken back to her bedchamber in Huaqing Palace.
"Mother!"
The emperor rushed to Huaqing Palace and went straight to Consort Jing's bedchamber, but was stopped outside by Granny Cai: "Your Majesty, please wait a moment! The Consort is changing her clothes!"
The emperor asked anxiously, "What happened? Why has Mother Consort suddenly disappeared?"
Granny Cai said sadly and in a panic, "This... this servant is not quite sure either. Let's wait and ask Her Highness the Dowager later!"
The emperor said coldly, "Why don't you understand? Aren't you serving your mother personally?"
Granny Cai said aggrievedly, "I was serving the Empress Dowager when a maid accidentally burned her hand. The Empress Dowager is kind-hearted, so she asked me to take the maid back to Huaqing Palace to apply medicine. How could I have imagined that in the short time I was away, the Empress Dowager would fall into the water!"
"Fell into the water?" The emperor frowned.
From inside came the painful cries of the Dowager Consort Jing. Granny Cai hurriedly said, "The Dowager Consort is soaked! This servant will go in and serve the Dowager Consort first. This servant will take her leave!"
Granny Cai turned and entered the bedchamber of Consort Jing.
Before long, the imperial physician arrived. Just as the physician was about to bow to the emperor, the emperor impatiently waved his hand and said, "Hurry up and go inside!"
The imperial physician shuddered in fright and hurriedly carried his medicine chest inside.
The emperor waited anxiously outside the palace for almost half an hour before Consort Jing finally finished getting ready.
"Your Majesty." Granny Cai, her eyes red, came out and invited the emperor inside.
The emperor hurried to the bedside, sat down, and looked at Consort Jing, who was sitting at the head of the bed, pale, with a bruised and swollen face and a huge bandage wrapped around her head. His heart ached.
He looked coldly at Granny Cai: "Didn't you say it was just falling into the water? Why are you injured?!"
Such a serious injury!
This isn't the full extent of the injuries! It's just the tip of the iceberg!
Although Gu Jiao didn't have time to make a move, on the way to drag the person into the small dark room, Consort Jing's head was banged against the steps seven or eight times, and her buttocks were rubbed against the bluestone slab a hundred or eighty times. The burlap sack was worn through, and her pants were also worn through! It was a bloody mess!
My knees slammed into me three times, my arms slammed into me five times, and my back was slammed into me dozens of times…
At her age, she still has to suffer like this. If it weren't for her martial arts skills, she would have lost her life long ago!
Even though he had martial arts skills, he was still very, very badly injured!
She couldn't move at all; any movement caused her excruciating pain!
Granny Cai knelt down with a thud, choking back tears as she said, "This servant...this servant also thought it was just a simple case of falling into the water...this servant..."
Consort Jing said weakly, "Your Majesty, this matter has nothing to do with Granny Cai. Please do not take your anger out on her."
Her weakness at this moment was not feigned.
They are incredibly weak and could collapse at any moment.
"You may all leave," said Consort Jing to Granny Cai and the palace servants in the bedchamber.
Granny Cai and her group looked at the emperor nervously, fearing he would punish them. The emperor waved his hand coldly, and everyone withdrew with a sigh of relief.
"Why are the palace servants ineffective this time?" the emperor muttered through gritted teeth.
Consort Jing raised her arm, which was aching as if it were about to break, gently placed her hand on the back of the Emperor's hand, shook her head and said, "It has nothing to do with them. It's just that the opponent is too powerful."
The emperor asked, "What about the assassins and secret guards I left for my mother?"
Consort Jing said, "The assassins have been lured away, and the secret guards have been knocked unconscious."
"That's a top-tier expert from the Imperial Palace!" The Emperor gasped. "Who could be so skilled?"
Consort Jing shook her head: "I don't know either. I felt something was wrong at the time, but before I could see what the other person looked like, I was... injured by them." She was too embarrassed to say that she had been put in a sack, she couldn't bear the shame. "That person took me to the vicinity of Taiye Pond. If the assassins hadn't returned in time and scared him away, I might have been in serious trouble. That person even knew to throw me into the water, forcing the assassins to go in and save me, so that he could escape."
"So vicious...so vicious!" The emperor clenched his fists, trembling with rage.
Consort Jing lowered her head, withdrew her hand, and smiled bitterly: "Did I... cause His Majesty trouble? If I hadn't suddenly returned to the palace, none of this would have happened."
The Emperor held her hand tightly: "Mother, please don't say that! It was my decision to bring you back to the palace! Someone couldn't stand to see you return and tried two schemes in one day, almost taking your life! Don't worry, Mother, I will definitely find the mastermind behind this. I will risk my life to bring her to justice and seek justice for you!"
These words were practically a direct reference to Empress Dowager Zhuang.
Consort Jing covered her mouth with a handkerchief and coughed a few times in distress.
"Mother!" The Emperor coldly looked at the imperial physician kneeling on the ground, "What is the state of Mother's health?!"
The imperial physician replied with trepidation, "Your Majesty, the Imperial Concubine is seriously injured and has been frightened by falling into the water. She will likely need to recuperate for some time before she can fully recover."
The emperor roared, "Then what are you still doing here? Hurry up and go brew medicine for your mother!"
Yes! Yes!
The imperial physician left, drenched in cold sweat!
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!" Eunuch Wei strode in.
"What is it?" the emperor asked.
Eunuch Wei said, "This servant found Xiao Xiuzhuan unconscious near Taiye Pond."
"he?"
The emperor went to the small garden of Huaqing Palace.
Just now, Eunuch Wei summoned the imperial physician, who administered acupuncture to Xiao Liulang. Xiao Liulang slowly regained consciousness, opened his seemingly heavy eyelids, and asked, "Where am I?"
Eunuch Wei hurriedly said, "This is Huaqing Palace! Compiler Xiao, you fainted at Taiye Pond just now! Why did you faint?"
Xiao Liulang looked bewildered: "I... just now I think... I saw a suspicious person, like Jiaojiao... I called her name, and she knocked me unconscious."
"What? The little miracle doctor knocked you unconscious?" Eunuch Wei looked at the emperor in astonishment, and he saw the shock in the emperor's eyes as well.
The emperor, being a seasoned ruler who had experienced intrigue and power struggles, carefully inquired about the location and time of Xiao Liulang's incident and quickly matched the man with the assassin who had attempted to kill Consort Jing!
Xiao Liulang was utterly astonished: "Your Majesty, are you saying... that Consort Jing was attacked... and that Jiao Jiao was the culprit? How is that possible?"
His acting skills have improved again. He's only done such shameless things once or twice, how come he's become so proficient?
Does he really have a talent in some area?
Wei Gonggong asked in confusion, "But I just interrogated the palace servants, and no one else was around at the time except for her."
Xiao Liulang said solemnly, "Jiaojiao did not enter the palace today. Although she has some skills, she does not know lightness skill. She cannot enter without going through the main gate."
That's the absolute truth.
Gu Jiao's lightness skill was indeed nonexistent. The emperor had experienced this firsthand. On the night he was assassinated, Gu Jiao fled with him on all fours!
The emperor's legs almost broke from running!
If she knew kung fu, she wouldn't need to use it even in a life-or-death situation.
This time, without waiting for the emperor's orders, in order to clear the little doctor's name, Eunuch Wei went to the palace gate himself and asked the guard Gu Jiao if she had entered the palace.
"No!" the guard answered with absolute certainty.
Eunuch Wei: "Did Compiler Xiao enter the palace on his own?"
Guard: "There's also a young eunuch from Renshou Palace."
This young eunuch did not arouse Wei Gonggong's suspicion, because Empress Dowager Zhuang did indeed frequently send people to Bishui Hutong to deliver things or to bring people from Bishui Hutong into the palace.
Eunuch Wei returned to Huaqing Palace to report: "The little divine physician did not enter the palace today."
Xiao Liulang said thoughtfully, "Could it be... that someone is impersonating Jiaojiao?"
The emperor gritted his teeth: "Did you even get a clear look at her face?"
Xiao Liulang shook his head slightly: "I didn't see it very clearly, but the back view was very similar, the clothes and hair accessories were the same, and there was also that little basket on his back!"
In the palace, no palace maid would wear a blue dress and carry a small basket on her back; this was clearly Gu Jiao's attire.
The emperor's gaze turned cold: "It seems there really is someone impersonating the Little Divine Doctor!"
Xiao Liulang suddenly realized, "The reason he didn't kill Chen to silence her is probably because he wanted to use Chen to reveal her identity. Unfortunately, she didn't know that Jiaojiao couldn't use light kung fu, which gave her away."
This balance is very delicate.
Even Eunuch Wei didn't know that Gu Jiao didn't know how to use light-body skills. He thought that since the little divine doctor was so skilled, she must be able to fly over rooftops and walk on walls like the imperial guards.
Because even he didn't know, the emperor believed that the murderer didn't know either.
It seems the murderer overlooked one crucial detail.
Since the murderer intends to frame Gu Jiao, then the mastermind behind it all cannot be Empress Dowager Zhuang.
No matter how much the emperor disliked Empress Dowager Zhuang, he couldn't believe she would frame Gu Jiao. During his time recuperating in Biyue Hutong, he had personally witnessed how good she was to Gu Jiao, and he knew that she cherished Gu Jiao just as much as he did.
The suspicion against Empress Dowager Zhuang was dispelled without any further investigation.
"But if it wasn't her, then who else could be so intolerant of Consort Jing..." the Emperor muttered coldly to himself.
His voice wasn't loud, but Eunuch Wei still heard it.
Eunuch Wei glanced at Xiao Liulang cautiously, thinking to himself that such words should not be said in front of Xiao Xiuzhuan. He could only pray that Xiao Xiuzhuan had not heard it.
Xiao Liulang's expression remained unchanged, as if he hadn't heard anything at all. He pondered seriously for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, since that person framed Jiaojiao, he must be trying to provoke conflict between Huaqing Palace and Renshou Palace."
It's no secret that Gu Jiao is close to Renshou Palace. If it's not proven today that Gu Jiao isn't the murderer, this fire will inevitably burn down on Empress Dowager Zhuang.
Xiao Liulang said solemnly, "Your Majesty, please forgive my bluntness, but someone wants to incite Your Majesty, the Imperial Concubine, and the Empress Dowager to fight amongst themselves, so that others can benefit from their conflict. I understand that there is an irreconcilable conflict between Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager, but with a formidable enemy at hand, Your Majesty must not fall into the trap of others."
In the past, emperors would not have listened to these words.
But today's events are supported by irrefutable evidence, making it difficult for him to disbelieve.
After Xiao Liulang left the palace, the emperor sat quietly in his study for a long time until the imperial physician came to report on Consort Jing's condition. Only then did he get up and go to Consort Jing's bedroom.
"Has the murderer been found?" Consort Jing asked weakly.
The emperor hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not mention the fact that the murderer had impersonated Gu Jiao and been encountered by Xiao Liulang: "There are no major clues at the moment, Mother Consort, please rest assured, I will continue to investigate."
Consort Jing smiled and said, "Yes."
Today is a day when Liu Lang pampers Jiao Jiao.
(End of this chapter)
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