Chapter 27: His Child’s Mother!
When Du Yu’s furious roar rang out, Yue Tang had already quickly leaped toward the temple’s west wall with Huo Yun.
Hua Lin was waiting in the adjacent alley with the horse carriage; he would drive away from here at the fastest speed after picking up Yue Tang.
But since the Du Family had already made preparations, this withdrawal naturally would not be easy.
Arrows chasing after them repeatedly grazed past their bodies several times. When they urgently dodged to the rooftop of a house outside the west wall, Yue Tang felt the dampness on Xiao Huo’s arm.
“No problem! Uncle Hua gave me a hemostatic pill!” Xiao Huo took out a pill, popped it into his mouth, and then came to help Yue Tang climb over the wall again.
Yue Tang waved her hand: “No rush.”
Xiao Huo looked down and was startled: “Princess!”
From the first day his master took over teaching him his skills, he was told that the top priority at all times was to protect the princess completely. Over three years, putting Yue Tang’s safety first in everything had become his instinct, so she had not been hit along the way.
But at this moment, her body was weak and her breathing unsteady, clearly not in good shape either.
“Just take it slow.” Yue Tang gestured for him to stay calm.
Back then, after Wei Zhang carried her to Hua Lin, Hua Lin said she had nine deaths and one life. Even if she survived, she would need three or four years of careful conditioning.
But Yue Tang could not wait; she feared that further delay would make the situation even more uncontrollable, so as soon as three years were up, she came to the capital.
Escaping from the siege of dozens of assassins, though she was confident in the plan, her body was still feeling the strain.
But it was no major issue.
After all, she wanted to live well more than anyone else.
To live and avenge all the dead.
Just now, she burned the eulogy written to A Li in front of Zhang Shaode, using the lives of the He and Zhang families as sacrifice; perhaps it could bring some comfort to little A Li in the cold underworld.
Xiao Huo accompanied her to sit down under the corner of the roof, letting her lean against him.
At this moment, the sound of carriage wheels rose from below, and the two held their breath again, looking down together.
A horse carriage that had long been parked ahead was now driving toward the temple doorway in front.
Then, a satin-robed middle-aged man got out of the carriage first, bent down to place a footstool, and immediately after, another person stepped out.
This man was tall and straight; once he landed, he strode nonstop into the temple gate.
Yue Tang fixed her prone position, motionless like a sculpture in the wind.
Huo Yun noticed her abnormality: “Princess?”
Yue Tang withdrew her gaze, her brows furrowed tightly: “So strange.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It seems like I saw A Qi again.”
She looked up again toward the figure ahead.
That figure gradually blurring into the night still appeared tall and upright.
Huo Yun thought for a moment: “How about your subordinate goes to check it out?”
“No need! It’s dangerous here; we must leave quickly.”
She quickly turned her body.
But before she could steady herself, her figure swayed softly, and then her whole body rolled off the wall top!
“Master!”
Huo Yun flailed and rolled down after her.
“Get out of the way!”
Just then, someone flashed like lightning ahead of him and caught the already unconscious Yue Tang first.
Huo Yun was shocked: “Master?!”
Wei Zhang frowned: “You dare incite her to do something this dangerous; I’ll deal with you when we get back!”
Huo Yun was speechless; seeing that he had already left, he could only hurriedly follow.
……
By the time He Hui led men to burst into the Buddha Hall, Yan Bei had already arrived outside the temple gate.
But he held his troops back, not moving until the sounds of arrows rose chaotically inside the temple and the situation began to grow chaotic; only then did he quickly enter the temple gate and stand in the corner watching the scene before him.
There were few monks left in the temple, but Imperial City Department troops were everywhere one looked.
Gao An said: “Should your subordinate report your presence?”
“No need! Wait for me outside.”
Yan Bei pulled a cloth mask from his bosom and tied it on, then vanished into the night in the blink of an eye. Several shadow guards in the shadows followed after.
The Buddha Hall where the incident occurred had already been fully occupied by the men led by Du Yu.
Many torches were stuck under the courtyard wall, illuminating the few corpses in the courtyard extremely clearly.
A trail of blood stretched from under the body of a middle-aged man in the center all the way into the hall.
Few officials of third rank and below in the Imperial Court left an impression on Yan Bei, but from observation, he could determine this was Zhang Shaode. The male corpse beside him was dressed in black, naturally He Hui.
He crouched under the eaves for a moment, then seized an opportunity to enter the Buddha Hall.
The Buddha Hall was instead empty of people, but the stench of blood assaulted the nose, and overturned sacrificial items littered the floor, making it almost impossible to step anywhere.
With the shadow guards providing cover from the shadows, he reached the area with the heaviest bloodstains.
Looking up, there was a large hole directly overhead.
Du Yu’s shouts urging the chase were still faintly audible, his voice lowered but laced with anger.
Yan Bei looked back at the blood on the ground, his gaze deep and intense.
Three years ago, on the imperial decree from the Former Emperor authorizing him to deploy troops back to the capital as regent, a special sentence was added: after returning to the capital, the authority to command troops of Prince Jingyang’s Mansion would not be reclaimed, and the Minister of the Bureau of Military Affairs with authority to deploy troops would also be Yan Bei.
In other words, the Current Dynasty had never had such a precedent; the Former Emperor broke it for him.
Such immense favor was precisely why Yan Bei felt deep suspicion and secretly entered the capital to investigate.
Now in the Imperial Court, the Shen, Mu, and Chu families divided power, vying against each other, while only Prince Jingyang’s Mansion followed the Former Emperor’s legacy decree, fully supporting the Emperor.
In three years in the capital, he had not established ties with any faction.
Being able to maintain a family relationship with the Du Family to this day was also because the Du Family did not collude with any of them.
The He and Zhang families were both subordinates of the Du Family; if the Du Family father and son wanted to kill them, no matter how many reasons, Yan Bei had no intention of intervening.
But according to the Du Family’s plan, their conspiracy against Zhang Shaode had already succeeded, and He Hui had also died as a matter of course; this farce should end immediately. So who was Du Yu chasing now? And how did this hole come about?
The evening breeze outside the door lifted the torches, and the flickering light illuminated an overturned fire basin in front of him.
Then two singed pieces of paper were flipped over by the wind.
He crouched down and picked up one.
Due to the paper’s damage, the text was fragmented, but it was still recognizable as an eulogy.
He tossed the paper away.
Then, as if stabbed in the spine, he shuddered all over and quickly grabbed the paper back!
……
Gao An was waiting outside the temple gate on orders.
As he rubbed his hands listening quietly to the sounds in the night, a hidden sentry signal from a shadow guard came from behind.
He turned around and saw Yan Bei striding out.
Just as he was about to call out, he saw Yan Bei standing before him with a face full of grim chill.
“Prince…”
Gao An was surprised.
Yan Bei’s cheek bulged as he clenched his jaw: “Immediately send people to search the whole city for a woman named ‘Wang Huan’!”
Gao An held his breath: “May I ask, Prince, who is this person?”
In recent years, Yan Bei had either been raising children or single-mindedly fulfilling the Former Emperor’s entrustment to assist the Emperor; he was aware of other matters though they did not escape his eyes and ears, but he always treated them as mere gossip, never losing composure over any.
But at this moment, after only a brief moment inside, he emerged like this!
“Wang Huan is A Li’s mother! The name signed on the marriage certificate she gave me is this one!” Yan Bei clutched several singed scraps of paper, his eyes like knives. “The marriage certificate was written in her own hand, yet in the fire basin of the prayer ritual the Du Family set up for He Jianzhong, the burned eulogy was in her handwriting!
“But she should have died three years ago!
“Now, do you understand what I mean?”
“……What?!”
Gao An, who had always been steady and composed his whole life, involuntarily staggered back two steps!
