The Emperor Reads Storybooks Hidden in His Official Reports 34

Chapter 34: Go With Me

The young man secretly made a “wait a moment” gesture to Li Jianyu.

Li Jianyu sat back down, planning to see what the young man was up to.

“Big Brother… I… I want some water…” The young man knelt on the ground, bent over, and said pitifully to the man guarding the door, “I feel so sick.”

“You…!” The man was about to flare up, but when he met the young man’s moist eyes and delicate features, he was stunned.

“What’s wrong with him now?”

Another man walked in. This man was different from the guards in their coarse linen clothes. He was dressed better and seemed to have more authority.

Li Jianyu noticed that this was also a man from the Great Xi.

“Big Brother, I want some water…” The young man seized the opportunity, coughed a few times, and his voice was so weak it sounded as if he could faint at any moment. “I have a chronic illness. I really can’t take this kind of travel…”

Travel?

Li Jianyu keenly caught this word.

He didn’t know how long these people had been tied up, or where the kidnappers intended to take them.

“Give him some water!” the leading man said angrily. “He’s been driving me crazy these past few days! If he weren’t so good-looking, I would have thrown him to the side of the road to die of illness long ago. So whiny.”

The man guarding the door thought of how they had to stop for this person all the time on the road these past few days, and he was also full of impatience.

Only then did Li Jianyu realize that everyone here, both men and women, was more beautiful than the next.

It seemed they were planning to sell them to a brothel?

“Woo…” Hearing the man’s words, the young man shrank back, both scared and aggrieved.

After giving the young man some water, the man guarding the door said, “Boss, what should we do now? What if he really dies? We won’t be able to deliver the goods.”

The leader said, “It’s fine. Old Man Bai is coming today. I’ll have him inspect the goods right now. It’s best to have him take the person away first. That way, if he dies, it won’t be our business, and it won’t be on our heads.”

Good thing I didn’t act rashly, Li Jianyu thought. This Old Man Bai they were talking about was another important clue. He couldn’t alert the enemy.

So… who was this young man? Could he also be here to investigate the case? Otherwise, why would he stop him?

“The boss is really smart!”

“I’ll go find Old Man Bai. You watch them all!” The leader pointed at Li Jianyu. “Especially that man. Bah, I’ve tied up so many people, but I’ve never seen anyone so good-looking.”

After the two of them left, Li Jianyu moved closer to the young man and asked in a low voice, “Who are you?”

“My name is Chong Xi,” the young man said with a grin. “What’s your name? You’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”

Li Jianyu said, “Wang Yu.”

“You… you’re not scared?” A young girl at the side, seeing the two of them still in the mood to chat, asked with red-rimmed eyes and a trembling voice.

Chong Xi said with conviction, “Don’t be afraid. Someone will come to save us.”

Before long, the wooden door creaked open again, and the leading man walked in with an old man. The old man was thin and small, with shifty eyes.

“Where’s the beauty you were talking about?”

The leader pointed at Li Jianyu.

“Oh my god…!” the old man exclaimed. “Truly beautiful! I, Bai Dahe, have really broadened my horizons today!” The old man was startled when he saw Li Jianyu, in disbelief.

Li Jianyu rolled his eyes.

The old man dazedly rushed to Li Jianyu. “Beauty, with such peerless looks, this old man is unwilling to marry you off to those Taotie.”

[T/N Taotie: A mythical beast in Chinese folklore, known for its extreme gluttony. It’s often depicted as a ferocious, monstrous creature. Here, it’s used as a metaphor for lustful, predatory men.]

Li Jianyu was startled.

Taotie?

The old man reached out to touch Li Jianyu’s face.

Li Jianyu shrank his neck in disgust, avoiding the old man’s presumptuous gesture.

“You… what do you mean, marry me off to a Taotie?” Li Jianyu paused, changed his expression, and tried to look scared.

“Hehe, don’t be afraid, Beauty. Even a Taotie will be gentle with a beauty like you.” Unfortunately, the old man didn’t reveal anything more. He just moved closer to Li Jianyu and pulled open his collar.

Li Jianyu’s eyes widened.

Holy shit?

Thump—!

However, before Li Jianyu could do anything, the next moment, he saw the old man let out a muffled grunt and collapse.

A small pebble fell to the ground and rolled to the side.

At the open wooden door, Zhao Linxu stood to the side and said coldly, “You are not worthy of calling him Beauty.”

Zhao Linxu?

Li Jianyu blinked.

Why was he here?

Then he saw Zhao Linxu lead the lurking Luoye army in to check, untying everyone’s ropes. The men guarding the door were also subdued in a few moves.

“Don’t be so reckless next time.” Zhao Linxu went forward, straightened Li Jianyu’s clothes, and buttoned them back up. He rubbed his wrists, which were red from the ropes. “If you need to investigate a case, just let others do it. If not, I can do it too.”

“You can’t. You’re too big and burly. It’s too much of an eyesore. They wouldn’t want you.” Li Jianyu poked Zhao Linxu’s chest with his forefinger.

After Chong Xi’s ropes were untied, he stood up and went to Li Jianyu’s side. When he met Zhao Linxu’s eyes, he was startled.

Zhao Linxu also stared blankly at Chong Xi, his whole body stiff, as if he had seen a ghost.

“You…”

Chong Xi came back to his senses, blinked, and turned to ask Li Jianyu, “Is this your friend? Is he here to save you?”

Just as Li Jianyu was about to reveal his identity to Chong Xi, he saw Zhao Linxu step forward excitedly, look into Chong Xi’s eyes, and say in a low voice, “Who are you?!”

“Chong Xi, from the Great Xi.” Chong Xi tilted his head and smiled, not at all intimidated by Zhao Linxu.

“From the Great Xi?”

Zhao Linxu’s eyes were fixed on Chong Xi.

He was indeed from the Great Xi, but why…

Could it be that he had mistaken him?

As the few of them were talking, they heard a commotion from outside.

“There’s a fight outside!” Shuo Lin, who was outside, shouted. “City Lord! Tell the others not to come out!”

At the same time, Shuo Yuan also came forward and closed the wooden door.

“What’s wrong?” Li Jianyu frowned.

Shuo Yuan said, “That old man had reinforcements following him. It seems they saw that he hadn’t returned for a long time and have attacked.”

“How many people?”

“Less than a hundred, but they are all regular army troops. We don’t have many people with us, so it will take some time to deal with them.”

Li Jianyu and Zhao Linxu exchanged a glance.

This matter was not simple. There were even regular army troops from the Great Xi involved.

Outside, there were the sounds of fighting, and the sound of arrows hitting the windows and the wooden door. Fortunately, the wooden door was sturdy and the windows were sealed, so the hidden weapons would not harm the unarmed commoners in the house.

Li Jianyu went to the window and peeked out through a crack in the wooden planks. Sure enough, he saw the two sides engaged in a fierce battle.

“Huh?”

“What’s wrong?”

Li Jianyu said, “Another group of people has arrived.”

Zhao Linxu also curiously peeked out.

Not far away, a tall man was leading a team and had charged in, helping the Luoye army to fight the enemy.

“They’re on our side,” Zhao Linxu said. “I don’t know who they are.”

“They look like they’re from the Great Xi. Could they be part of the Ghost-Faced Army?”

“No.” Chong Xi, at the side, heard their conversation and smiled. “The general outside is not part of the Ghost-Faced Army. He is the master of the Ghost-Faced General.”

Wait…

It was him?!

“Feng Ju Qianli?” Li Jianyu was dumbfounded.

With Feng Ju Qianli’s help, Old Man Bai’s troops, who had come from who knows where, were easily defeated.

The Luoye army tied up the captives one by one and gathered them together.

Feng Ju Qianli dismounted, pushed open the door, and his gaze swept over the people in the room, as if he were looking for something.

“Qianli!! I’m here!”

Seeing Feng Ju Qianli, Chong Xi immediately waved his hands excitedly, jumping up and down. Without waiting for Feng Ju Qianli to come over, he ran towards him and crashed into his embrace.

Feng Ju Qianli was pushed back a few steps by the force and held Chong Xi, shaking his head helplessly.

“Greetings, Your Highness the Princess Consort.”

The few deputy generals behind Feng Ju Qianli greeted Chong Xi.

Li Jianyu raised an eyebrow.

So he was a Princess Consort?

“It’s not easy to be a Princess Consort these days,” Li Jianyu said. “Does the Princess Consort of the Great Xi have to pretend to be kidnapped to investigate a case?”

What’s that? Zhao Linxu thought. The future Empress of the Great Gong was also kidnapped to investigate a case.

Feng Ju Qianli patted Chong Xi’s back and said in a low voice, “Don’t fool around.”

After pulling Chong Xi off him, Feng Ju Qianli went forward and greeted Li Jianyu.

“This must be the City Lord. This Prince saw the Luoye army outside.”

Feng Ju Qianli had rugged features and a cold expression. His words were also somewhat serious.

“Greetings, Your Highness,” Li Jianyu also nodded.

“And this is?” Feng Ju Qianli turned to look at Zhao Linxu. His intuition told him that the person before him was no ordinary person.

“Zhao Linxu.”

“So it is His Majesty.” Feng Ju Qianli was stunned and shook his head. “This Prince had intended to meet with Your Majesty on this trip. I did not expect to run into you here. Your Majesty must have also realized the seriousness of this matter and thus came to investigate personally?”

Zhao Linxu’s lips curled. “To be honest, today was just a coincidence. We are actually at a complete loss.”

“This is a long story. This Prince will talk to Your Majesty slowly after we get back.”

Feng Ju Qianli and Chong Xi mounted their horses and left with their army to settle down.

They were now halfway up the mountain. The Luoye army was moving slowly because they were taking the commoners back to the city. On the way, Li Jianyu said, “It seems something big is about to happen again. Perhaps Feng Juhua and Feng Juheng are unwilling to accept defeat and want to use some other despicable means to attack the Great Gong. Is Your Majesty going to leave to deal with it?”

“If I leave, will Little Carp be willing to go with me?”

Li Jianyu stared blankly at Zhao Linxu.

“What did you say…?”

“I said, do you want to go with me?”

“We can often come back to Luoye to see. You’ve done very well before. Luoye is already on the right track, and Meng Qingshu can handle the rest for you.” At this moment, the two of them were on the same horse, riding together. Zhao Linxu held Li Jianyu. “Go with me, okay?”