CH 97.1

Chapter 97.1 – Straight to the Point

The weather was still unbearably hot at the end of June, but with King Wu departure from the capital, peace returned to the inside and outside of the court.

After King Wu left, only the Crown Prince and King Wei remained in the court. The Crown Prince had a steady personality, and his position was not easily shaken, so he had always sat steadily in the middle of the court. On the other hand, without his brothers to hold him back, King Wei took the opportunity to gather a lot of power.

Neither Qi Yang nor Lu Qipei intervened in the court situation – since the Crown Prince was there, the court matters were still under his control. But privately, they placed a lot of spies in both the Wu Mansion and the Wei Mansion. The aides working in the two Mansions, as well as other people close to the kings who could influence their decision making had been carefully investigated.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to find anything out. Everyone had a clear background. Let alone their private investigation, even if they tied them up and send them to the Court of Judicial Review, they probably wouldn’t be able to find out anything else.

“Is it really just me being paranoid?” Qi Yang took the investigation results of King Wu Mansion’s aides and doubted herself.

Lu Qipei took another look at the investigation results on King Wei Mansion’s people, but didn’t say anything after reading it. She had a calmer disposition compared to Qi Yang, and she was not in a hurry, just waiting for the results to show themselves in the future.

And they showed themselves faster than she expected. Just a month later, news came from Mingzhou that King Wu had disappeared.

When Qi Yang entered the palace, the Emperor was standing in Xuanshi Hall, furious at his officials. “King Wu went for disaster relief, accompanied by armored guards. No one asked him to personally go and endanger himself, so how could he have run out to the front and get washed away by the flood!?”

After saying this, he took two steps forward, then turned around and slammed on his table. “Those officials and those guards, are they all dead?”

Those people in Xuanshi Hall were all important ministers working in the central government, and none of them had gone to Mingzhou. How could they have done anything regarding the mishap that fell on King Wu?

But the Emperor was furious, so what else could they do? Naturally, they could only bow their head and plead guilty, hoping to appease the Emperor’s anger.

Standing outside Xuanshi Hall, Qi Yang could hear the Emperor’s roars coming from inside. When the little servant at the door saw her coming, he looked like he just saw his savior. Without waiting for her to say anything, he quickly went inside the hall and whispered a few words to Zhang Jian, who was guarding in front of the court.

After hearing that Qi Yang was asking for an audience, Zhang Jian didn’t know whether he should be happy or worried. Finally, he informed the Emperor.

When the Emperor heard Qi Yang coming, his anger slightly subsided. He paced back and forth and let out a long sigh before waving his sleeves at Zhang Jian, saying, “Let her in.”

Not caring that the officials were still there, Qi Yang came in and greeted the Emperor, then asked straight to the point, “I heard that Royal Brother Wu met some danger in Mingzhou. I wonder how things are right now?”

A princess should not be involved in political affairs, but King Wu was her brother, and what she asked about was his safety. Naturally, the officials could not say anything.

It’s just that the Emperor was being furious about this matter just now, but Qi Yang just brought it up again… The officials withdrew their heads and wanted to take a few steps back, feeling that their ears might suffer again.

But the Emperor’s tolerance towards Qi Yang was beyond their imagination.

The Emperor was glaring in anger before, but right now he only furrowed his brows and told Qi Yang with a deep voice, “It’s good that you’re worried about your brother. Unfortunately Mingzhou officials are not capable. Your Royal Brother is missing now, and I don’t know how he’s doing.”

After hearing this, Qi Yang asked, “What happened? I still don’t know what’s going on, I hope Royal Father would enlighten me.”

When this thing was mentioned, the Emperor was so angry that he didn’t want to say anything else. He waved his hand and had Zhang Jian repeat what happened. After receiving the order, Zhang Jiang went forward and told Qi Yang the whole story about what happened with King Wu.

King Wu left the capital a month ago, and indeed did a good job based on the memorial that he submitted previously. And because this was his first time doing this kind of job, the watched it closely and didn’t interfere, so the people affected by the disaster benefited a lot.

Since he was doing good deeds, he naturally accumulated some reputation. King Wu who was beloved by the people subconsciously became big headed.

The rain in Mingzhou stopped a few days ago, and the water level also dropped. Someone advised King Wu to take the lead and visit the area stricken by disaster. At that time, King Wu was already a bit full of himself and agreed without much thought.

After choosing a sunny day, King Wu personally went to the disaster area and led some people to return to their home.

Everything was going fine, but somehow there was another flash flood in the mountains. It was clearly a sunny day, but the flash flood swept away not only King Wu who was personally taking the lead, but also all the people who were returning to their homes!

As soon as this incident occurred, Mingzhou was shaken. The local governor sent many people for a rescue operation and helped people along the way. Unfortunately, King Wu could not be found even after several days of searching. King Wu’s life or death was unknown, and it was impossible to hide such a big news. In the end, he had to write a letter pleading guilty.

After reading it, the Emperor was so angry that he almost broke his table. But no matter how angry he was with King Wu’s carelessness after his success, the one who was washed away by the flood and disappeared was still his son.

He was not willing to be too harsh to King Qi nor King Chu, let alone King Wu. So not only did he get angry at Mingzhou officials, even the officials who came to discuss what happened also suffered.

After hearing Zhang Jian’s statement, Qi Yang remained silent for a moment then said, “Royal Brother Wu was a bit careless in his actions. But I’m afraid someone might have instigated him to come to the disaster site personally. The sudden flood is also very strange, it must have been done by someone on purpose.”

Incidents have happened continuously in recent months that even Qi Yang and Lu Qipei sensed something unusual. How could the Emperor, who had been in the center of power for decades, not have noticed anything?

Especially after King Wu’s incident this time, the Emperor also felt the pressing threat, but he couldn’t figure things out yet. This was the real reason he was so angry.

But being angry was just being angry. The Emperor naturally didn’t need to be reminded of what to do. “I’ve already sent people to investigate. Now that King Wu’s life and death is still uncertain, we need to send more people to find him.”

Qi Yang bowed her head in agreement, and the officials next to her were secretly relieved to see the Emperor calm down.