Ch27 - A Headache

Sooner or later, the struggle for the three vassal territories will begin. What Emperor Hongzheng so-called the right opportunity had not arrived yet, only because there were no reasonable grounds for action. Just him robbing and murdering a civilian family was absolutely not enough to propose the withdrawal of the vassal land. In his previous life, it was because Jing Shao met with danger while fighting in the Yunnan-Tibet region that Emperor Hongzheng ordered the Southwest King to send troops to reinforce him. How could they have known that the Southwest King, on the grounds of little harvests and having suffered natural disasters, would make the imperial court first pay for army provisions before providing troops, provoking the Emperor to become enraged, send an imperial decree about taking back the feudal territory? At that time, Jing Shao who had spent much effort and had just defeated the southern barbarians, could not yet return to the capital, and was imperially decreed to command the army and go west, to directly fight the southwestern vassal territory. 

In this life, there was no need for him to go and expend efforts without getting any results in the disorderly campaign against the chaotic southern barbarian rebellion. The sooner the war against the three vassal states begun, the better. Jing Shao was pondering deeply on his horse’s back, thus when he snapped out of it, Xiao Hei had already somehow walked to the Second Imperial Palace.

“You rascal, still thinking about the fresh grass in brother’s residence.” Jing Shao pulled Xiao Hei’s ears, finding it funny. Going to the Second Prince’s Palace as soon as he came out of the Imperial Palace, would surely arouse suspicion. As he turned the horse’s head from side to side, he ran into Jing Chen who just returned after getting off duty.

“What are you doing standing in front of the door, why not go in?” Jing Chen stepped off his palanquin and saw his younger brother, bored, pulling at his horse’s ear in front of the door. As a brother, he felt as if he had lost face and couldn’t help frowning. The only man in the capital who would dare let their horse run loose in the middle of the street was this younger brother of his that cause him endless worries. This time he was in a daze in front of his own door. Could it be that he rushed himself into another disaster?

Jing Shao flipped himself off the horse, scratched his head and said: “Wanted to find a person to go drinking with, unconsciously rode a horse to the front of elder brother’s door.”

Jing Chen glared at him: “You are this old now, still always thinking about riding horses and drinking wine. How unbecoming!”

Jing Shao smiled and gave the horse to his elder brother’s servant to lead away, himself walking abreast his brother: “Let’s go to Hui Wei Restaurant, it’s very close to here.”

Jing Chen massaged his forehead, letting the palanquin porter return to the residence, walking on foot with Jing Shao to Hui Wei Restaurant.

It was still not yet time for a meal and there were not many people in Hui Wei Restaurant. Jing Shao asked Boss Zhou, who was dressed all in dark red silk, for a private room.

“You know who this Zhou Jin is?” Jing Chen saw the two’s extremely familiar manner, couldn’t help but wrinkle his brow.

“Of course I know,” Jing Shao poured a cup of tea for his elder brother, “Xiao Yuan is just and honest, and he is not inflexible with his service to the people. Elder brother can try to win him over to your side.”

“If only you knew how to act appropriately too, that would be good,” Jing Chen nodded. Today at the Ministry of Rites, there were officials talking about how the Cheng Wang Fei and the Assistant Minister Xiao’s wife were close, thinking that Cheng Wang and Xiao Yuan certainly must be involved with each other. He could see that his older brother understood the advantages and disadvantages of this and didn’t plan to meddle.

Since he saw his brother, he might as well just tell him what happened in the palace, so that his brother was aware of all the things in his heart. As for the matter of Ge Ruoyi, Jing Shao felt somewhat awkward about it. His Imperial Father’s meaning was that the current situation was the most important thing to focus on, this matter was not enough to constitute a reason for attacking the southeast. Even if in the future it was made public during the war, it would be just icing on the cake. If it was not handled properly, the people would think that the imperial court didn’t care about whether their civilians were alive or dead, and was weak and incompetent. As for how he should handle this woman, it was completely left to him.

“If it’s inconvenient for you, send her to my palace and give her to your sister-in-law to supervise.” Jing Chen suggested. Seeing as the Cheng Wang Fei is male, he couldn’t constantly be looking after her and Cheng Wang’s secondary wife had been demoted. The second prince’s official wife, although not extremely considerate or gentle, knew how to manage the inner household.

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Jing Chen nodded, towards that person that just crossed the threshold with his younger brother not long ago, he was very satisfied with. He was of great erudition and scholarship, conducted himself modestly, just right for helping Jing Shao who was not good at dealing with schemes and tricks.

As they were speaking, a burst of noise from below interrupted the two’s conversation.

“Young masters, if you have something to resolve then please just speak calmly!” The waiter tried to dissuade them with a brow beaded with sweat to no avail, as the two people grappling each other didn’t even hear his urge.

Jing Shao opened the door to take a glance, only to see two men wearing luxurious clothing fighting into a ball in the lobby, their kung fu was not very good, it could be said that they fought without an ounce of elegance. The man of taller stature seemed to currently have the upper hand, hitting the other guy onto the ground.

Jing Shao looked at the slightly familiar looking person who had been beaten onto the ground, staring a little closer, wasn’t it the Mu Lingbao that he had just seen a few days before? One of his eyes was still bruised. As for the other person… 

“Heir of the Duke Mao’s household,” Jing Chen seeing that he couldn’t recognize who it was, spoke to remind him, “The Empress the day before yesterday let out a rumor of her wanting to pick a Wang Fei for the Fourth Prince, Duke Mao and the North Marquis both have daughters of first wives that have not yet married.” 

Jing Shao hearing these words, immediately understood clearly. He couldn’t help but sneer, the plan the North Marquis’ family was trying to execute was actually quite good, but pity that afterwards, in his previous life, it was Duke Mao’s daughter that was married in. In the very end, when he suffered false accusations and was thrown in prison, the Fourth Prince’s father-in-law’s contributions couldn’t go unnoticed.  

“If the North Marquis is later connected to them by marriage, you must stay further away from them in the future. In front of younger sister-in-law, don’t bring up court politics too often.” Jing Chen closed the door, so as to avoid the people below from  seeing Jing Shao. After all, his wife’s older brother was being pressed down and beaten up, yet this younger brother-in-law was not helping, if this was spread around, then it wouldn’t look good.

Upon hearing his brother’s words, Jing Shao’s heart became a little uncomfortable. From his point of view, Jun Qing was more worth his trust than anyone, but his brother was saying that for his good, thus he coldly snorted and said: “Mu Lingbao and his dear sister born from the first wife are of the same morality and conduct, spoiled rotten by the North Marchioness, even if they want to think about pulling the North Marquis to their side, I bet they won’t even be willing to marry a girl like her to Jing Yu.” 

Jing Chen hearing this, muttered to himself irresolutely, “If Mu family’s young lady is truly how you said she is, then it would be better for us…”

“Brother!” Jing Shao immediately interrupted his elder brother’s words, “The military power in the North Marquis’ hands does fall short of Duke Mao’s but his troops are stationed in the Northwest, right now we are currently preparing to conduct a horse trade in the North West, this is much more useful than Duke Mao.” 

“Is that so?” Hearing this, Jing Chen frowned and thought deeply for a moment, “Since it’s like this, I will have people leak these details about the Mu family’s young lady to the Empress.

Jing Shao having hear this, secretly relaxed. He believed in Jun Qing, but had no way of explaining it to his elder brother. Jun Qing being part of that family was already hard to deal with, if the Fourth Prince and the North Marquis were connected by marriage, in the future when the two sides would oppose each other with equal harshness, then what position would Jun Qing, with that kind of soft heart, be put in? 

When he returned to his villa, it was already dark.

Jing Shao walked into the bedroom and saw Mu Hanzhang wearing white clothing from head to toe, leaning on the divan quietly reading. Soft candle-light shined on his face, a kind of peaceful beauty. He couldn’t help but hook up the corner of his lip, looking at this person, he only felt that all the unrest on the surface of the court and all the crafty machinations underneath seemed to totally disappear. 

Slowly walking over, he buried his face into his Wang Fei’s chest, deeply breathing in the faint sweet scent on his body. Jing Shao relaxed his body, slowly closing his eyes. Being reborn, his life was still filled with foul wind and bloody rain, only being at Mu Hanzhang’s side was he able to feel at peace. This person was the sole redemption the heavens gave him.

“What’s wrong? Did you suffer Imperial Father’s admonishment?” Mu Hanzhang rubbed the big head at his chest. 

“No, just a little tired from running around all day, that’s all,” Jing Shao raised his head to look at him. This type of gentle and handsome appearance was completely different from that round-faced Mu Lingbao who had one black eye. Suddenly, he thought about the painting he saw in the North Marquis’ office the day they went to visit. “Jun Qing, this generation of your family, were you named according to the nine ancient weapons?”

“The family is just like this, the three of us brothers and sister have the names of the three treasured knives.” Mu Hanzhang spoke with a warm voice, his father loved famous weapons silly, even his sons’ and daughter’s names were chosen in this way. 

The nine weapons from the ancient times, three knives, the first Lingbao, the second Hanzhang, and the third Suzhi.

Jing Shao furrowed his brows: “That young lady of the Mu family’s maiden name is ‘Mu Suzhi’?” 

Mu Hanzhang nodded his head: “Why did you suddenly think of asking this? Is it that the Fourth Prince wants to pick an official wife now?”

“I was only curious,” Jing Shao shifted forwards, “If your younger sister looks like Mu Lingbao, then I’m afraid she’ll be very hard to marry off.” 

“How could there be that kind of terrible luck.” He glared at the person on him talking drivel, but thinking about Mu Lingbao’s face becoming that of a woman’s, Mu Hanzhang himself also couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

The next day, Jing Shao found Ge Ruoyi, who was temporarily staying in a small courtyard. 

It could not be contested that Ge Ruoyi, who had washed and changed into new clothing, was indeed very beautiful. One could only imagine, what kind of beauty the eldest son of the Ge family had for the Southeast King to not hesitate to murder the entire Ge family clan to obtain.

“The situation is like this right now, the Southeast King is killing people on his own feudal territory. The court cannot control it much. This kind of thing, even if you go investigate, he can just press a big criminal charge on the Ge family and at most it would make him seem as if just being severe in governance.” Jing Shao lightly sighed. 

The hope in Ge Ruoyi’s eyes instantly darkened, her pair of slim and soft hands gradually turn pale from her grip.

“Some words should not be said, but Ben Wang can tell you this, the imperial court will sooner or later take back the southeast feudal territory, but it will still take some time.” Jing Shao looked at her, slowly clasping his hand around the short knife at his waist. He already understood the personality of the Southeast king. It would be the same result if he were to find someone else to assassinate him, though it would take some trouble. However, if Ge Ruoyi was unable to recognize others’ good intentions, it would be disastrous to keep her here. 

“Wang Ye’s willingness to rush there for this commoner girl is already a great kindness and this commoner girl knows that this revenge can not be repaid overnight.” Ge Ruoyi was silent for a while, then suddenly knelt down and kowtowed for Jing shao. “Thank you for Wang Ye’s care these days, your great kindness and virtue will definitely be reported to the ministers.”

Jing Shao slowly loosened his hand on the knife. This woman was not only brave and resourceful, but also understood matters more than ordinary people. When he saw her body covered in blood in the Southeastern King’s palace, he sincerely admired this determined woman. This was also why he was unwilling to trick and make use of her, but to speak the truth, his reason, in the end, was that Ge Ruoyi and her in his last lifetime were the same, risking everything and putting forth all her efforts, yet in the end, she still lost everything. 

“Ben Wang will give you two options: the first, stay in the capital, in doing so, you must not cause a disturbance. After a few years Ben Wang will naturally give you chance to get your justice; second, Ben Wang will have a person teach you the martial art methods of concealed weaponry, this will help when you infiltrate the Southeast King’s palace, you take your revenge yourself.” Jing Shao calmly gazed at the Ge Ruoyi kneeling on the ground, his tone was steady and solemn, “If you do not know what to choose, then wait until you’ve decided to come find Ben Wang.”

“I choose the second option!” Ge Ruoyi nearly instantly gave him her answer. 

“You have to think about this clearly,” Jing Shao frowned, “If you don’t go, Ben Wang can find a good family for you to marry into.”

“This commoner girl will not back out of this promise, asking Wang Ye to help accomplish this!” Ge Ruoyi kowtowed to Jing Shao three times, afraid that Jing Shao wouldn’t give her this chance. 

After leaving the small courtyard, Jing Shao saw the waiting Mu Hanzhang standing beneath the peach blossom tree. 

“How did you anticipate that she would be determined on choosing the second option?” Jing Shao asked, this method was the result of discussion with his Wang Fei yesterday. 

Mu Hanzhang smiled, picked a peach blossom and tossed it into the water: “When willow leaves enter the water, they are like rootless duckweed, might as well become wildfire, even if it ruins oneself, it will also ignite and burn one’s enemy.”

Jing Shao hearing these words, only felt that he had enlightened him with perfect wisdom. To him, being reborn in this life, if he didn’t have Jun Qing and his brother to help him along, he was afraid he would become like how Ge Ruoyi was: completely reckless, also only wanting to be able to kill his enemies, even if he had to overturn the whole country, he still wouldn’t hesitate. 

In the blink of an eye, it was the last third of the fourth month, the Fourth Prince’s house confinement was finally over, after some persuasion, Emperor Hongzheng also gave his nod of approval to the matter of choosing a Wang Fei for him.

And yet, Jing Shao was still at home copying books. As the proper response of an elder brother, he sent his own beautiful concubine over, as if it were a celebratory gift congratulating of the lifted ban, and also as amends for snatching his younger brother’s beauty.