With a thud, the heavy object fell to the ground.
This alarmed the emperor, who was indulging in sensual pleasures with his concubine.
He stopped what he was doing, tilted his head back, and roared, "Little Li! What's going on!"
His response was a series of heavy objects hitting the ground.
"Your Majesty, I am afraid."
The concubine tried to hide in the old emperor's arms, but he impatiently pushed her away. He quickly pulled up his outer robe, and without even putting on his shoes, he lifted the beaded curtain and walked out to the outer room.
He cursed as he walked: "That damned little Li, he must have run off somewhere to slack off again. Wait until tomorrow, I'll skin you alive!"
Outside, the door was wide open, letting in a damp, cold evening breeze, bringing a chill.
A slender, dark figure appeared in the doorway. Upon seeing him, the figure paused for a moment, then smiled and greeted him, "Oh, still awake?"
After saying that, he neatly threw the person on his shoulder into the house, causing the old emperor to fall hard on his buttocks!
The old emperor looked up shakily, and by the cool moonlight filtering through the window, he could finally see clearly: the one lying on top of him like a dead man was none other than Little Li, whom he had called for a long time without getting a response!
Looking around, he saw a bunch of people lying haphazardly on the ground, some of them his night watch maids, and others his imperial guards!
Three breaths later, a blood-curdling scream echoed through the sky.
"Assassin! Assassin! Someone, save the emperor!!!"
Chu Hongluan picked at her ear without any regard for her image: "Scream! Louder!"
The bigger the commotion, the better!
"Make way, make way!"
Chu Hongluan stepped aside, and Ke Tinghe carried one person in each hand and tossed them inside.
The old emperor was startled again.
But just listening to the voice, looking at the figure, and the knife on his back—
"General Ke! I have treated you well! How dare you collude with a rabble to openly rebel?!"
Oh dear, I've been recognized.
Ke Tinghe shrugged innocently and gestured with his chin toward Chu Hongluan: "Don't blame me, blame her! Let me introduce you, this is our leader."
"Witch! Witch! Who are you?!"
Chu Hongluan kicked Ke Tinghe in the shin: "Get out! Go supervise the construction! Arrest everyone in the entire palace! Don't leave a single one out!"
"Hiss—just say it, don't hit me!"
Kotinghe left, grumbling and cursing.
Chu Hongluan turned to the old emperor with a smile: "You may not know me, but you should know this."
As she spoke, Chu Hongluan took out a jade pendant from her sleeve pocket—a complete pair of mandarin duck pendants.
The old emperor's pupils contracted.
"This mandarin duck pendant, half of it was stolen from your most favored son. At the time, it was contained in a seemingly ordinary purse, but guess what was embroidered inside?"
The old emperor glared at her hatefully, refusing to answer.
"It's a military emblem in the shape of a crouching tiger. Later, I sent someone to investigate, and found that there's a Japanese mountain ten miles outside of Kyoto, where bandits roam. In recent years, they've robbed a lot of military supplies and equipment. Unfortunately, the flags raised in that bandit stronghold also bear the same emblem. Do you know what this means?"
Chu Hongluan didn't expect him to answer. She just smiled and revealed the answer: "You good son of yours, you've been raising such a large private army behind your back, numbering over ten thousand. And now this half of the jade pendant has reappeared in his hands. He's trying to... force the emperor to abdicate, old man."
"I won't believe a single word you say!" the old emperor roared, his face pale with anger.
Chu Hongluan chuckled: "Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. Because just an hour ago, I sent a group of people to the Mo Prince's residence, kidnapped your son, and took him to Woshan as a hostage—"
Whoosh—crack—crackle crackle—
It was the sound of fireworks exploding.
"Did you hear that? This is the signal that the Tiger-Taming Army has been captured. The Tiger-Taming Army that your son painstakingly trained, and the Gale God Army Camp that you have been longing for, are now mine."
She casually brushed a stray strand of hair from her temple, her eyes flashing with a gentle yet inexplicably alluring light: "Why don't you guess what I'll do with these troops?"
"Witch! You witch!" The old emperor completely lost his temper, unleashing every filthy word he knew to hurl at Chu Hongluan. To curse her would bring condemnation from the entire world, and eternal infamy...
"Ten thousand years? Old man, I can live for much more than ten thousand years."
With those words, Chu Hongluan left gracefully.
The old emperor and the concubine who had been summoned to his bedchamber huddled together in a corner, trembling, watching helplessly as one after another, people whose fates were unknown, were thrown in.
Gradually, the outer room was piled up into a small mountain, filling it to the brim. The men in black then stepped over the mountain and threw people into the inner room.
"Let me go! How dare you! I am a Noble Consort! How dare you!"
"etc!"
"Miss Chu, please give your instructions."
Why is she tied up?
“This woman is somewhat strange. I knocked her unconscious three times on my way here, and she woke up each time. I had no choice but to tie her up with a rope.”
Chu Hongluan chuckled and waved for him to get back to work: "This is one of our own, let's leave him outside for now."
"yes."
So a woman, bound tightly, was thrown at Chu Hongluan's feet.
Chu Hongluan squatted down to meet her gaze, her eyes smiling: "Hello, long time no see."
"Chu Hongluan!"
Chu Hongluan was somewhat surprised. She recognized him so quickly?
"Consort Xu has a good eye."
Xu Qingqiu stopped shouting and retreated cautiously, her eyes full of vigilance: "What do you want to do?"
"Hmm." Chu Hongluan rubbed her chin in annoyance. "It's a bit complicated to explain, but I'm very busy right now. Just stay here and watch for a while. You're so smart, maybe you'll understand later without me having to explain."
After saying that, he picked her up like a tiny chick, leaned her against a tree, and went back to catching people.
Soon, even the imperial bedchamber was overflowing, and the old emperor was squeezed into a corner, face to face with a fat, burly eunuch, completely unable to move.
The entire palace had been cleaned up. Chu Hongluan stood in front of her bedchamber, dusted off her hands, and gave her second order: "Add firewood and pour oil."
"this......"
After all, the people who came were all righteous disciples. They looked at each other, hesitant, as if they were being asked to kill and set fires for no reason.
"Shh—do as I say. You'll understand why later."
Having come to this point, they can only console themselves that this world is fictional, and people are fictional, so they don't really count as life.
So firewood was spread around the entire palace, and more than ten barrels of oil were poured on it.
Holding a torch, Chu Hongluan tossed it to the ground without hesitation.
"stop!"
Two words, yet they sounded like the voice of the heavens.
It's finally here.
Chu Hongluan raised her red lips, and just as the torch was about to touch the firewood, she hooked her toe and kicked it upwards, reaching out to snatch the torch back into her hand.
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