The Emperor Reads Storybooks Hidden in His Official Reports 29

Chapter 29: Aftermath

The next day, when Li Jianyu slowly woke up, he found himself already lying securely on a bed. He shook his head and felt that the way Zhao Linxu looked at him was even stranger. No, it wasn’t so much strange as… affectionate.

“I was… drunk last night? If I was out of line in any way, I hope Your Majesty won’t mind.” Li Jianyu rubbed his forehead. He couldn’t remember what had happened after he got drunk last night. He only had a vague impression that he had sung a song?

What song was it?

“It’s no matter. It was quite cute,” Zhao Linxu said with a smile. “After you’ve had your breakfast, shall we set off?”

Li Jianyu nodded.

After a pause, Li Jianyu couldn’t help but ask, “Was that really rice wine last night?”

Li Jianyu knew he was a bad drinker, but after coming here, a few cups of rice wine or fruit wine had never been a problem in the past. How had he gotten drunk from just one cup last night?

“It really was rice wine,” Zhao Linxu said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. “I also didn’t expect you to get drunk after just a few sips.”

Li Jianyu stroked his chin.

It was really strange.

Could it also be because of the changes in his body? Since he had escaped from the fire that day, Li Jianyu had realized that he was really unfamiliar with this body of his.

When he transmigrated, the owner of this body was already a half-grown child.

How did the original owner of this body die? And how did his own dead soul come to be attached to this shell?

“What are you thinking about?” Zhao Linxu smiled and extended his hand. “Let’s go.”

Li Jianyu nodded and somewhat uncomfortably took Zhao Linxu’s hand to get up from the bed.

Before, they had been brought down by the phoenix. The situation had been urgent then, so he hadn’t felt anything. Now, riding a horse and sitting in a sedan, going up step by step, he realized that the journey was long and the cliff was high.

Zhao Linxu was riding on horseback, with a sedan being pulled by another horse behind him.

Zhao Linxu smiled. “Little Carp, have you been to the capital?”

After a while, Li Jianyu’s voice came from inside the sedan.

“I haven’t.”

“Are you planning to go?”

“No.”

Zhao Linxu’s heart was pricked by this decisive and heartless reply. He continued, “Can’t bear to leave Luoye City?”

“I am the Lord of Luoye City. Just as Your Majesty is the lord of the Great Gong and will not stay in Luoye City forever, but will eventually return to the capital.”

Zhao Linxu looked at the mountain road ahead and sighed softly.

“That’s right.”

Inside the sedan, Li Jianyu also fell into deep thought.

After this storm was over and Zhao Zhanqi was subdued, Zhao Linxu would probably be leaving to return to the capital soon.

Everything that had happened before would be like a dream. When he woke up, it would be over, and it would fade with the passage of time. After that, Zhao Linxu would only become another passerby in his life.

Li Jianyu leaned against the soft cushion in the sedan, a strange feeling in his heart.

He couldn’t quite describe the feeling, but it was very uncomfortable.

…Disappointment?

Li Jianyu pouted and told himself not to overthink it.

XXXXXX

“City Lord!!”

After Zhao Linxu and Li Jianyu left the village at the bottom of the cliff and returned to Luoye City, they saw Meng Qingshu and Chen Zhishu welcoming them at the city gate.

After settling the turmoil in the capital, Chen Zhishu had brought Meng Qingshu back to Luoye City. In the past, Chen Zhishu and the Valiant Cavalry Army would have stayed in the imperial capital and waited for Zhao Linxu to return. But this time, Chen Zhishu had left the main army behind and personally escorted Meng Qingshu back to Luoye.

Seeing Li Jianyu, Meng Qingshu immediately rushed forward with joy.

“It’s good that the City Lord is safe and sound.” Meng Qingshu had left with Chen Zhishu before. When he heard about what had happened to Li Jianyu in the capital, his heart had been pounding with fear. Fortunately, everything was now settled.

“You’ve gotten fatter.” Li Jianyu pinched Meng Qingshu’s cheek in dissatisfaction. “It seems you’ve been living quite well, eh?”

Thinking about his own bumpy and turbulent days, and then looking at Meng Qingshu’s radiant appearance, Li Jianyu couldn’t help but sigh that people with the same fate had different lives, and that a fool has a fool’s luck.

Meng Qingshu’s ears turned slightly red, and he gave a dry laugh.

It was because he had a small appetite, and after being with Chen Zhishu, Chen Zhishu had been giving him all sorts of things to eat every day. Firstly, if he didn’t eat, Chen Zhishu would get angry, saying that it was not good to be hungry when traveling around. Secondly, as an ordinary commoner who had never been to the capital, he found the snacks and dishes in the imperial capital novel and couldn’t help but eat more.

“Your Majesty.” Chen Zhishu cupped his fists to Zhao Linxu. “The turmoil in the imperial capital has been settled. As Your Majesty guessed, there were enemy troops from the Great Xi attacking the city, and the North-South army was also watching from the side, looking for an opportunity to intervene, taking advantage of any opening.”

“It’s good that it’s settled.” Zhao Linxu nodded.

It seemed that on the day of Zhao Zhanqi and Li Jianyu’s fake wedding, there had also been a bloody storm in the capital, but Chen Zhishu had never disappointed him.

“What about Zhao Zhanqi?”

“He’s locked up in the prison.” Chen Zhishu paused and asked, “How does Your Majesty intend to deal with the traitor?”

The late emperor had never been soft on rebels. Even if they were his own flesh and blood, he would still kill them without hesitation. Chen Zhishu didn’t know how Zhao Linxu would deal with Zhao Zhanqi.

Zhao Linxu pondered for a moment. “We’ll talk about it after we get back to the manor.”

The City Lord’s manor had been burned down, so these past few days, Meng Qingshu had been staying with Chen Zhishu in Luoye Garden. Zhao Linxu was naturally even more pleased. He stopped Li Jianyu, who was planning to find an inn, and insisted that he stay at Luoye Garden for the time being, with a perfectly justifiable reason.

After returning to the familiar Luoye Garden, Zhao Linxu washed up and then went back to the study to look at the memorials.

He had only looked at the victory reports these past few days at the bottom of the mountain, so now there were many memorials piled up.

After casually going through a few memorials, Zhao Linxu frowned slightly and picked one of them to read carefully.

This memorial was jointly submitted by the city lords of several cities on the border.

The entire content was a plea for Zhao Zhanqi.

It was full of emotion and sincere words, saying that the General of the North and South had endured hardships on the border with his soldiers for years, risking his life to protect the Great Gong. He had always thought of the people, and when enemy troops or bandits came, they were the first to stand in the front line, the most stable fortress on the border of the Great Gong. Therefore, in consideration of Zhao Zhanqi being Zhao Linxu’s brother, they asked him to let him atone for his crimes.

At the back was a list of signatures from the commoners of all the villages in each city, saying that all the commoners hoped that His Majesty could spare the Prince.

Zhao Linxu closed his eyes slightly, his fingers curled, his knuckles tapping rhythmically on the wooden desk.

Just as he was thinking, he saw a servant boy asking for an audience outside.

“Your Majesty, I’ve brought what you asked for.”

“Just leave it there.”

Zhao Linxu’s lips curled slightly. He placed the joint letter to the side, separate from the other memorials, and then looked at the collection of Dragon Gate Leaping Carp’s storybooks that he had asked someone to buy from the market.

He pulled out one that he didn’t think he had read before. A row of characters was written on the cover.

Fortune Fills the Court: Toad Daddy’s 50 Babies

Hmm…

Zhao Linxu’s eyebrow twitched. He had a bad feeling.

He opened it and saw that the story was about the Toad Lord, who, in order to find the mysterious man from that night, had pa-pa-pa-ed with all the beautiful men in the city. And then…

The Toad Lord got pregnant. The Toad Lord’s belly grew bigger, and when it was time to give birth, he gave birth to a full thirty little toads. It took the Toad Lord three days to finish giving birth.

…

Zhao Linxu: “…”

Zhao Linxu put away the storybook with a blank expression.

Honestly, imagining him pregnant and giving birth to thirty, and from the looks of the title, it would probably increase to fifty in the future—didn’t Li Jianyu’s eyes hurt?

Zhao Linxu rubbed his temples, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

He took a piece of Xuan paper, and for once, carefully ground the ink. Then he wrote a few beautiful and pleasant-sounding characters on the paper. After finishing, he carefully savored and pondered whether they were good.

XXXXXX

At dusk, the courtyard was quiet.

“City Lord, City Lord! This is bad!”

Li Jianyu, who had just finished washing up and changing into clean clothes, was lazing in the courtyard when one of Zheng Ke’s deputy generals rushed over.

“What’s wrong?” Li Jianyu was lying comfortably on the long bench and raised an eyebrow slightly.

“Something has happened in the prison!”

And when Li Jianyu followed the deputy to the cell where Xue Ni was being held, he was truly shocked.

The air was filled with the thick scent of blood. Xue Ni was lying on the side, his white robes stained a shocking red with blood. A dagger was stuck in his chest, half of it embedded in his flesh, and several doctors were gathered around him, trying to save him.

“What happened?” The scent of blood was too strong. Li Jianyu pressed on his stomach, suppressing his nausea.

Lu Ai and Zheng Ke were also there. Lu Ai came forward and handed a piece of paper to Li Jianyu.

Li Jianyu took it and saw that it was a confession written in blood by Xue Ni.

“Little Carp, what’s wrong?”

Li Jianyu turned his head and saw that Zhao Linxu had arrived.

“Something has happened to Xue Ni.”

Zhao Linxu glanced at Xue Ni, whose skin had lost all color, and frowned slightly. He said in a low voice, “Save him.”

“Your Majesty, this…” one of the doctors said, kneeling and trembling. “I’m afraid it’s not possible…”

Zhao Linxu said, “Do your best.”

Xue Ni could not die. He was useful to Zhao Zhanqi. Zhao Linxu did not want to lose such a bargaining chip.

The doctors had no choice but to try again and asked Lu Ai and Zheng Ke to change the location to treat the wound. Lu Ai immediately agreed and had someone bring a stretcher.

“What’s written on it?” Zhao Linxu pointed to the blood letter in Li Jianyu’s hand.

“It’s Xue Ni’s confession. It roughly says that the reason the Prince rebelled was all because of his instigation. He also contacted the Great Xi himself, and it had nothing to do with the Prince. Now he is filled with shame and can only commit suicide out of guilt.”

“Xue Ni is also afraid that We will use him to threaten Zhao Zhanqi,” Zhao Linxu said, shaking his head. “Zhao Zhanqi is not an irredeemable villain.”

If Zhao Zhanqi were a heartless and immoral person, so many people would not have pleaded for him, or even been willing to die for him.

Li Jianyu looked at Xue Ni and sighed, a sense of sorrow in his heart.