Chapter 39 Princess, Don’t Kill Me
"Yangyang." Xiao Renyu changed his words.
"I hope you can continue to help me."
Chu Yangyang slowly opened the food box, looked at the pastries inside, raised her eyes and asked, "Sister Renyu, are you really willing to trust me? What if I stab you in the back again?"
Xiao Renyu was stunned for a moment before he smiled and said, "I overthought what happened before and misunderstood the princess."
She paused, feeling distressed. "After what happened last time, Brother Xifeng seems to have harbored a grudge against me. The few times I've looked for him, he's always made excuses..."
So that's how it is. She couldn't deal with the King of Hell herself, so he couldn't come to her.
Chu Yangyang raised an eyebrow and said kindly, "Sister Renyu, to deal with Lord Luo, you must use wisdom, not brute force."
Hearing that Chu Yangyang didn't resist, Xiao Renyu continued, "According to what the princess said, I will listen to the princess more in the future, and I hope the princess can teach me everything she knows."
"Of course, of course." Chu Yangyang pulled her hand out and gently patted the back of Xiao Renyu's hand. "If we sisters take action, isn't it certain that Lord Luo will be in our pocket?"
Chu Yangyang herself felt that her smile was very cunning.
The two exchanged a few hypocritical pleasantries, and then Xiao Renyu left contentedly.
As soon as Xiao Renyu left, Miao Yun came hurriedly.
"Princess, Zhao Yi suddenly came to the Prime Minister's residence to look for you." Miao Yun leaned close to Chu Yangyang's ear and whispered softly.
"Zhao Yi? The horse slave in Prince Jing's mansion? How did he know my identity?" Chu Yangyang looked surprised.
After thinking for a while, she said, "Take him to the back door quietly, don't let anyone see."
Chu Yangyang walked towards the back door, stepping on the moss on the bluestone slabs.
Zhao Yi curled up in the shade of the camphor tree. The whip marks on the back of his neck shone bloody in the moonlight, and his fingers were nervously picking at the broken tiles in the cracks in the wall.
Zhao Yi turned around and saw Chu Yangyang, and suddenly fell to his knees, "Please have mercy on me, my lord!"
He banged his forehead hard against the stone steps, his face wrinkled and scowled. "The gambling house wants to chop off my hands and legs. Please, please save my life!"
Chu Yangyang hid her face in her cloak and hood and sneered, "Why should I save a lowly slave like you?"
Zhao Yi hesitated for a moment, his eyes suddenly flashing with a fierce look, his Adam's apple rolling under the loose skin, "I know the secrets of the Prime Minister's Mansion and Prince Jing's Mansion."
Miao Yun was about to scold, but Chu Yangyang raised her hand to interrupt him.
She stared at Zhao Yi and asked, "How can a horse slave in Prince Jing's mansion know about the affairs of the Prime Minister's mansion?"
"Ten years ago, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, I remember it clearly. The horses in the stable had been sick for several days and were nearly dead. That day, while I was tending to them in the stable, I saw Prime Minister Chu and Prince Jing come to the pavilion behind the stable."
He paused, staring at Chu Yangyang with his triangular eyes, "Prime Minister Chu told King Jing that the Luo family must be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise there will be more trouble."
Chu Yangyang's heart skipped a beat. Hadn't her father always been at odds with King Jing?
Why did they go to Prince Jing's Mansion to conspire on important matters ten years ago?
Chu Yangyang immediately calmed down and questioned, "You bold slave! My Prime Minister's Mansion has nothing to do with King Jing. How dare you deceive me with false information?"
Zhao Yi pulled out a small wooden figurine from his arms. The old wood grain on it had the word "Yang" crookedly carved into it. "This is the item the Prime Minister left at the Stable Pavilion that night..."
Chu Yangyang took the little wooden man, and the smell of osmanthus powder mixed with horse manure entered her nostrils.
The memory came back to her mind as expected. This was the wooden figure that Chu Yangyang carved when she was a child. She gave it to her father as a birthday gift when she was four years old.
My father has been carrying it with him ever since.
One year, her father lost the little wooden man. He felt very sad for a while and begged her to carve a new one for him.
Her fingertips suddenly tightened, and a trace of panic flashed in her eyes. Could it be that her father really had teamed up with King Jing to kill the Luo family?
If this is true, would Luo Xifeng kill her the first thing he did when he found out about this?
Seeing her thinking, Zhao Yi suddenly grabbed the hem of her pomegranate-red skirt, startling her so much that she pulled out her hairpin. "I heard the prince say with my own ears, 'Prime Minister Chu's brilliant plan kills two birds with one stone.' I couldn't have heard it wrong."
A jackdaw was startled in the corridor, and Chu Yangyang took a half step back and bumped into the door knocker.
The bronze-green door knocker jingled, reminding her of the sound of Luo Xifeng's jade pestle hitting the bronze mortar when he was pounding medicine.
The moonlight streamed across the wooden man's rough eyebrows and eyes.
"How much silver do you want to keep your mouth shut?" She pulled off the jade pendant from her waist and threw it on the ground.
"I swear on my grandson's life that this matter will never be spread to anyone else."
Zhao Yi stuffed the jade pendant into his shoe and chuckled.
"Get lost." Chu Yangyang shouted contemptuously.
Zhao Yi then disappeared into the night with his back hunched, like a rat crawling into a gutter.
Miao Yun looked at the receding background, feeling somewhat worried. "Princess, is what this lowly slave said true?"
Chu Yangyang lowered her hat and tucked the little wooden figure into her arms. "Whether it's true or not, this scoundrel will come again. Before he comes, we must first stabilize him and find out what he said."
In the Bishuiyunju of the Prime Minister's Mansion, willow catkins fluttered like snow.
Chu Yangyang stared at the fifth spring swallow returning to its nest on the eaves.
She stroked the rough carvings on the little wooden figure with her fingertips. "Miaoyun, have you heard from Zhao Yi lately?"
Miao Yun shook her head. As she pinned a freshly picked crabapple blossom on her hairpin, she caught a glimpse of the princess' bitten lip in the bronze mirror. "Logically, a gambler like that, after getting a taste of success, should come back for money soon. And the people the princess sent out found Zhao Yi hiding at home, refusing to leave. Could it be that he's really resigned himself to retirement?"
Chu Yangyang shook her head and said, "Impossible. A dog will always eat shit."
Suddenly, she looked up sharply and asked, "Miaoyun, you said Zhao was at home all day?"
Miao Yun nodded blankly.
Chu Yangyang crushed the willow buds in her palm, the juice staining her nails green. "Oh no, get the car ready."
After walking for most of the day, the willow alley in the dusk was filled with the smell of rotten leaves. Chu Yangyang stepped on the wet blue bricks and came to a simple wooden house.
Miaoyun pushed open the wooden door covered with mildew.
The moment the door was opened, there was a sudden crisp sound of a pottery jar breaking.
"Don't kill me! Please!" The hoarse roar caused dust to fall from the door frame.
Chu Yangyang and Miao Yun exchanged a glance, then suddenly walked in.
The man huddled behind the stove trembled instantly when he saw them. "I will never again dare to speak nonsense about the Prime Minister's Mansion and Prince Jing's Mansion! Please spare my life, Princess!"
Chu Yangyang stood there in a daze.
There was straw in Zhao Yi's messy hair, and the hideous bruises on his neck were purple in the twilight. His bloodshot eyes were staring at her.
"What are you talking about? I don't understand." She had just taken half a step when Zhao Yi suddenly grabbed the coarse porcelain bowl on the stove and smashed it at her temples.
Dark red blood trickled down his throat, and a strange chuckle rang out from his throat. "Look, I can do it myself without dirtying your hands. Please spare my life!"
Miao Yun screamed and tried to pull Chu Yangyang back, but Chu Yangyang noticed that the man's twitching fingertips were quietly touching the pile of firewood.
She kicked the straw away, and a rusty hatchet fell to the ground with a clang.
Zhao Yi's expression twisted instantly. He grabbed the broken teacup on the table and guzzled the water. The water mixed with blood foam flowed down his chin and into his collar.
His eyes suddenly widened, and his Adam's apple rolled violently as if it was strangled by an invisible hand.
With a "pop".
Zhao Yi smashed the broken tile cup next to Chu Yangyang's embroidered shoes.
Dark purple blood foam was already flowing out from the corner of Zhao Yi's mouth.
"Hurry up and scratch his throat!" She knelt beside Zhao Yi, and she and Miao Yun frantically patted his back.
"Princess, what are you doing here?"
Suddenly, a deep male voice sounded at the door.
Chu Yangyang raised her head and saw Luo Xifeng's figure blocked by the setting sun that was fragmented by the door frame.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
