Chapter 578 - 280: Daughter of the Wolf King (Part 2)

Chapter 578: Chapter 280: Daughter of the Wolf King (Part 2)

Qing Shisan quickly whistled a few times, and someone went to report it to the authorities. Feeling refreshed after the fight, Chef He went to the kitchen and cooked up a few of his signature dishes. He rearranged a table and chairs, letting the Red King and the others eat while they waited for the people from the Government Office to show up again.

Poor Guo Zifei had just returned to the Government Office when he heard another report. Upon asking, he found out it was the Fragrant Pavilion again, related to the same case. He was dumbfounded. His hat tilted and fell to the ground, leaving him standing there at the entrance, utterly bewildered and unsure what to do.

Zizi thoughtfully wrapped some stir-fried pork in a vegetable leaf, rolling it into a perfect bite-sized piece. After blowing on it to cool it down, she obediently placed it in the Red King’s mouth.

Zizi had recently heard about another method involving mouth-to-mouth feeding. Unfortunately, with so many prying eyes around, she couldn’t try it, much to her regret.

"Their Miracle Technique is a bit strange. If it weren’t for Zizi, leaving him alive wouldn’t have been easy."

Qing Shisan said "leaving him alive" wasn’t easy, not "killing him."

Sometimes, in a real fight, keeping someone alive is harder than killing them.

With nothing else to do, Qing Shisan started talking with Zheng Xiu about the Barbarian’s Miracle Technique—the one he started using but never got to fully unleash. That blood-red wolf head had been seething with killing intent, and his curiosity got the better of him. "Forgive my poor judgment," he began, "but I can’t tell what Path he follows."

Zheng Xiu thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Zizi rested her chin in her hand. "Could it be... a Divine-Tuning Witch?"

Zizi had witnessed the incident with Fairy Mei firsthand. Her rule of thumb was: when in doubt, blame a Divine-Tuning Witch. If you encounter a weird, flashy-looking Miracle Technique, chances are nine out of ten it’s related to the Divine-Tuning Witches.

Hearing this, Zheng Xiu couldn’t help but laugh. "Inviting a wolf into the house? No, more like inviting a wolf to possess you?"

The chefs eating with them also burst out laughing. But as they laughed, the smiles on Zheng Xiu’s and Qing Shisan’s faces slowly faded. They looked at each other. On second thought, it seemed entirely possible.

The dishes on the table were quickly cleared; the fight had made the chefs hungry. Just then, a few whistles sounded from outside the building. Qing Shisan and Zheng Xiu exchanged a glance. Zheng Xiu chuckled. "We didn’t get the people from the Government Office, but we got the people from the Ministry of Rites."

No sooner had he spoken than several elderly men in ornate official robes hurried inside. The man in the lead was none other than the powerful Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Dou Jiuyi.

"Dou Jiuyi pays his respects to the Red King!"

Dou Jiuyi entered and saw the group eating and drinking as if nothing had happened. His expression shifted, and he jumped in fright. ’Are they already holding the funeral feast?’ But he immediately plastered on a polite, if awkward, smile. "Greetings, Your Highness." Feast or no feast, upon seeing a Prince, observing the proper courtesies was the priority.

’This is a disaster.’ Dou Jiuyi’s mind raced. Who in the Court didn’t know that the Red King was in charge of the Disaster Prevention Bureau? He had countless Odd People under his command and was arguably the most powerful man besides the Emperor himself. Even the Second Prince, who used to constantly cause trouble for the Zheng Clan, now kept his head down like a quail, not daring to provoke the Red King at the height of his power.

The recent case at Xiaoyao Square had left Dou Jiuyi in a cold sweat. He had been terrified that damned Lord Blade would stupidly implicate him before he died by yelling something like, "I’ve got powerful people backing me!" to the Red King. It had scared Dou Jiuyi so much that he’d had someone secretly deliver a small gift to the Red King Mansion as a token of apology.

Right now, no one wanted to get involved with the Red King of the Disaster Prevention Bureau, Dou Jiuyi included.

Dou Jiuyi went forward to inspect the scene himself. The moment he saw the Barbarian’s miserable state, he couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air, which was tinged with the enticing aroma of food. He stood frozen in fear for a moment before reaching out with a trembling hand to check for the Barbarian’s breath. It was still there. Only then did he let out a sigh of relief.

’As long as he’s alive, it’s fine.’

’I can still explain this.’

Straightening up, Dou Jiuyi wore a bitter smile. "Your Highness, to be frank, this... puts your humble servant in a rather difficult position."

Zheng Xiu glanced at Dou Jiuyi. Qing Shisan whispered something in his ear, and a look of realization crossed Zheng Xiu’s face. "So you were the one who sent that Moyu Paperweight."

One second Dou Jiuyi was smiling bitterly, the next, unconcealable joy filled his eyes. "Does Your Highness like it?"

Zheng Xiu chuckled. "I heard my Mao’er used it to press down its litter. No wonder it said digging in there felt especially satisfying recently."

Huh?

Mao’er?

Digging??

Pressing down litter???

Dou Jiuyi was completely baffled. But he quickly composed himself and forced a reply, "As long as... Your Highness’s Mao’er likes it, that’s all that matters. But about the current situation..." Dou Jiuyi glanced at the corner again and gritted his teeth. "Although this is difficult for me, as long as the man is alive, there’s still room to maneuver. It’s strange, really. I had all the Envoys from the Northern Kingdom properly housed and ordered them to be watched day and night. I was afraid they would sneak out and cause trouble right under the Emperor’s nose. None of us could bear that responsibility. If a major incident occurred, it would be our heads on the line! This man is said to be one of the Wolf King’s fiercest generals. How did he get beaten to a pulp..."

Dou Jiuyi paused, stealing a glance at Zheng Xiu. He cleared his throat twice, quickly shut his mouth, and changed his tune. "How was he not watched properly and allowed to run out?"

Zheng Xiu was walking out. When he heard Dou Jiuyi say the man was one of the Wolf King’s fiercest generals, he stopped, and his expression changed.

Unaware of the turn Zheng Xiu’s thoughts had taken, Dou Jiuyi continued on his own. "Oh, yes, Your Highness, congratulations on becoming the Prince Consort! Now that you are the Prince Consort, future relations with the Northern Barbarian Countries will all depend on your mediation. That’s a matter of utmost importance! Your Highness, you may not know this, but the reason the Holy Emperor ordered our Ministry of Rites to watch these Barbarians so carefully is because the ones sent to Daqian on this mission have extraordinary statuses."

"That Princess is not some Little Princess from a remote Northern Barbarian tribe. She is the daughter of their Wolf King, equivalent in status to our own Grand Princess of Daqian. You see, this time..."

"Shh!"

Qing Shisan suddenly appeared behind Dou Jiuyi and clamped a hand over his mouth.

The atmosphere suddenly turned strange.

Zheng Xiu’s steps halted. The space behind him began to warp with a strange, distorted light.

The few elderly Civil Servants who had followed Dou Jiuyi inside suddenly felt dizzy. With a "BLEGH," they all collapsed to the ground, vomiting pools of yellow bile.

"Lord Dou."

Zheng Xiu’s voice was ethereal and indistinct, as if drifting from the heavens, yet he stood right before him.

His voice sounded calm.

But Qing Shisan, who knew Zheng Xiu well, sighed softly and released his hand from Dou Jiuyi’s mouth.

Zheng Xiu asked, "The Wolf King you speak of... is he the one who personally led his army into Daqian twenty years ago, only to be driven back beyond the border?"

Beads of cold sweat suddenly broke out on Dou Jiuyi’s forehead.

’It’s over.’

Dou Jiuyi’s legs went weak. Because Zheng Xiu’s appointment as Prince Consort had gone so smoothly, settled in the blink of an eye, it seemed Dou Jiuyi and the other Civil Servants in the Court had overlooked something.

Or rather, over the course of twenty years, they had gradually forgotten one thing.

The current Prince Zheng, Zheng Xiu, was the son of Zheng Haoran, who had died in battle on the Northern Kingdom Wilderness twenty years ago!

Dou Jiuyi’s pupils contracted. ’How could no one have remembered this?’

’Why on earth did the Great Emperor insist on making Zheng Xiu the Prince Consort?’

The Wolf King’s daughter, the Princess of the Northern Kingdom who was about to become "Madam Zheng," was the daughter of the man who killed Zheng Xiu’s father!

’Holy shit!’ Dou Jiuyi cursed inwardly. He couldn’t help but recall a similar plotline from one of Ximen Bei’s works. Reading about such a story in a book was enough to make one’s blood boil and eyes tear up with excitement. But when it was happening right in front of him, it all sounded... a bit melodramatic, didn’t it?

He felt as if he’d just had a bucket of cold, melodramatic slop thrown in his face.

Zheng Xiu stepped forward with a smile and patted Dou Jiuyi’s shoulder, asking word by word, "Lord Dou. You were saying... is that right?"

PLOP!

Dou Jiuyi collapsed onto his bottom, his vision darkening. He nodded. "Yes... yes..."

"So that’s how it is." Zheng Xiu rested his chin in his hand, his eyes seeming to glow. "No wonder it looked like he was coming for me from the start. He really was coming for me. Heh, heheh, heheheheheh..."

Zheng Xiu muttered to himself, a strange laugh rumbling in his throat.

"Lord Dou, no need to be nervous. Please, get up."

Zheng Xiu helped Dou Jiuyi up. "Today’s events have put you in a difficult position, Lord Dou. It seems quite hard to handle, doesn’t it?"

Dou Jiuyi nodded blankly. It was indeed very hard to handle.

Off to the side, a haze seemed to gather. Qing Shisan’s figure flickered, and after a blur of motion, he was wiping his Sleeve Sword with a kitchen rag he had picked up from somewhere.

The rag was soaked with blood.

"Let’s go."

Zheng Xiu walked out with his hands behind his back, leaving a single sentence hanging in the air. "Since it’s so hard to handle, don’t bother handling it at all."

Dou Jiuyi stared blankly as Zheng Xiu’s group departed, the inside of the Fragrant Pavilion a total wreck. At first, he didn’t understand the meaning of that sentence. It was only when he went to check on the severely injured Barbarian, intending to have him carried away, that he discovered to his horror a bloody hole in the man’s neck.

He was, by all appearances, long dead.