Chapter 60: You Are My Biological Sister
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
In the main hall of the Black Office, the atmosphere was solemn. A few civilian staff were summarizing news while chief constables were on standby. Once there was news, they would immediately set off to patrol.
Dongfang Liren was sitting upright in front of the hall, commanding and dispatching people. After being assassinated last night, she thought that the empress would call her into the palace to reprimand her and had been waiting for the imperial edict.
But what she didn’t expect was that the edict-bearer from the palace didn’t come. Instead, a maidservant from the Prince of Jing Estate ran to the hall and whispered in her ear, “Your Highness, Her Majesty has come…”
“Uh?!” There was a man hiding in Dongfang Liren’s bed. When she heard this, her beautiful face naturally turned pale. She asked nervously, “Is Her Majesty in Jasper Pavilion?”
“No, Her Majesty is waiting for Your Highness in the garden. Her Majesty wants Your Highness to go over quickly.”
Dongfang Liren secretly heaved a sigh of relief. She hurriedly got up and tidied her clothes. After walking out of the hall of the Black Office, she whispered, “Hurry up and tell Ye Jingtang to go back. Leave through the back door. Don’t let Her Majesty see you.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
After making arrangements, Dongfang Liren suppressed the chaotic emotions in her heart and slowly walked through Jasper Pavilion with her maidservants to the garden of the prince’s estate.
The estate garden was very large. There was a lake on the side of Jasper Pavilion, with tens of thousands of colorful koi fish.
In the veranda by the lake, the Great Wei empress, who was wearing a red dress, was leaning against the railing, holding a porcelain cup in her hand and feeding the fish. Several maidservants of the estate were standing respectfully not far away with their heads lowered, awaiting orders.
Dongfang Liren got the maidservants to retreat and went forward alone. “Sister, why are you here?”
The empress looked at the koi in the pool and said in an intimate tone, “You were assassinated by a rebel yesterday, so I naturally came to visit you. Sit down.”
Dongfang Liren hesitated for a moment before sitting down beside her. Her silver fat-headed dragon python robe and the empress’s red dress looked like ice and fire.
“Did you just go to Jasper Pavilion to look for me?”
“I saw that you were busy with work in the Black Office, so 1 didn’t go up.”
“Oh…” Dongfang Liren felt relieved. “Nothing happened to me last night. It’s just that the assassin hasn’t been found yet. I will definitely do my best to capture the rebel…”
The empress turned her head and looked at her good sister beside her. “Who protected you last night? To be able to protect you from the Blood Bodhi, this person is quite capable.”
Dongfang Liren didn’t dare to deceive the empress blatantly. After some thought, she said, “It’s a new helper from the Black Office. His name is Ye Jingtang, and he’s a child of a merchant family of Heavenly Water Bridge. His martial arts skills are not bad. I’m prepared to take him into the Black Office and let him hold an important position…”
“His vigilance is so high, and he’s loyal and unafraid of death. Naturally, he has to be entrusted with heavy responsibilities. The rebel hasn’t been caught yet. If he infiltrates the palace and causes trouble, it won’t be easy to explain to the court officials. Get Ye Jingtang to patrol the Imperial City with the experts of the Black Office. The empress dowager is timid and was frightened yesterday. Let him often patrol the surroundings of the Longevity Palace so that the empress dowager can sleep peacefully.”
Hmm? Dongfang Liren was baffled. It was fine to patrol the palace, but getting Ye Jingtang to go to the empress dowager’s residence to patrol, wasn’t this inviting a wolf into the house… No, sending a sheep into the tiger’s den?
If the empress dowager, who was lonely, discovered him, could she still sleep?
It wasn’t easy to say this out loud, so Dongfang Liren only said tactfully, “Ye Jingtang protected me last night and was injured…”
The empress had just seen the energetic Ye Jingtang and asked with concern, “Is his injury serious? Do you want to send an imperial physician to take a look?”
Dongfang Liren found it difficult to answer. She hesitated for a moment before saying, “It’s not too serious. He should be able to do patrols. I will arrange it later. Hmm… the Blood Bodhi is really powerful. If I stay in the estate, I will be worried about the people 1 send to the Imperial City making mistakes. 1’11 enter the palace to accompany you for the next two days to prevent the subordinates from being distracted.”
The empress could tell that her sister wanted to run to the palace and continue to be sweet with her lover. She got Ye Jingtang to enter the palace to patrol just to fulfill his desire to see the thousand-year-old ancient tree, but she didn’t say anything about this.
“Alright. There’s a lot of work in the court recently. With your help, I can be more free. Speaking of which, you’re not young anymore. You should choose a husband. Have you found anyone recently?”
Dongfang Liren sat up straighter. “Sister, why are you bringing this up again? You don’t even have anyone to sleep with. As your sister, if I have a good candidate, I should give him to you first. How can I beat you to it?”
?
Liren, do you really have the cheek to say that?The empress took a deep look at her younger sister. She didn’t say what was in her mind and didn’t expose her. She just looked at the lake. “Hehe~ I’m just afraid that you’ll be anxious and do something stupid.”
“Sister, you’re thinking too much. Why would I be anxious… anxious…” Dongfang Liren looked at the fish food that the empress had thrown out and saw that at the bottom of the clear lake, there was a… a…
Dongfang Liren’s cold, arrogant, and noble face stiffened, and her eyes were full of shock and confusion!
The empress sighed softly. “An item used in the boudoir can be seen in the garden. 1 really don’t dare to think about how many things are hidden in the house.”
Dongfang Liren’s scalp went numb. She recalled that the empress dowager had said yesterday that she wanted Hongyu to throw this dirty thing away…
That wretched girl Hongyu threw it at my door?!
Is there something wrong with her brain…
Seeing that her sister had misunderstood, Dongfang Liren hurriedly explained, “No, no. Sister, listen to my explanation. The empress dowager asked someone to throw this thing away…”
The empress had seen Ye Jingtang destroy the corpse with her own eyes. Seeing her sister still pushing the blame to the empress dowager, she felt even more speechless. “Sigh, you’re not young anymore. It’s normal for you to yearn for the love between a man and a woman. If there’s a man you like, tell me. No matter what, it’s better than a stone to warm your heart…”
Seeing that her sister didn’t believe her, Dongfang Liren couldn’t say anything. She could only explain the ins and outs of this item in detail before instructing coldly, “Someone, come scoop this thing up and throw it away. Then pull Wang Chihu out and flog him twenty times. If he dares to come up with any bad ideas in the future…”
The empress originally thought that her sister and Ye Jingtang had already developed to the point of using props to liven things up in bed.
But when she saw Liren’s innocent reaction from embarrassment to anger, she felt that it didn’t seem like it. The empress shook her head and said, “Forget it. Wang Chihu’s original intention was to get rid of evil for the people. I was just joking with you. Are you sure you don’t have someone in mind?”
Dongfang Liren didn’t want to talk to her sister about this topic at all. She changed the topic. “No, let’s not talk about this. Hmm… Sister, you like poetry the most. What good works have you heard recently? Tell me. I’ll help you comment.”
The empress leaned against the railing and caressed her forehead. The helplessness between her brows was evident. “Okay. Wait till the Double Ninth Day in fall comes around, I’ll bloom when other flowers’re to be withered and gone. The rushing fragrance is sure to sweep through Yun’an, and there’ll be golden armor spreading all o’er th’ town. What do you think?”
Dongfang Liren was proficient in poetry and song. When she heard the poem, her brows turned solemn. “This poem is filled with killing intent. It seems to have dissatisfaction with the court… Who wrote it? I’ll capture this person and interrogate them.”
“No need.” The empress threw some fish food into the lake. “The upper echelons have to be tolerant. If we don’t allow others to write, don’t allow them to speak anywhere, and imprison them on groundless accusations, it means that we have guilty consciences. i have never cared about the writings of scholars.”
“Sister, you are wise…”
