Chapter 1250: Revenge (3)

Qi Haoran was not in the King’s Residence. In fact, he was not even in the capital.

“He went to the West Mountain camp for a military parade.” Mu Yangling smiled and said, “A while ago, the cannons ordered by our family and the West Mountain camp arrived. In a moment of joy, he got the West Mountain camp to set up an array drill and called many ministers from the court over.”

As expected of Qi Haoran’s son, Little Bear’s eyes immediately lit up. “When those old ministers finish the military parade, they’ll know how powerful the cannons are. Do you think they’ll increase the orders for the cannons?”

Also a little tempted, Little Treasure whispered, “Then the cannon factory can also make a profit.”

Mu Yangling looked at them with a smile and said, “Your Royal Father probably has the same idea, so he won’t stop them. Alright, let’s not talk about this anymore. Hurry up and follow me in. I’ve gotten someone to prepare a lot of delicious food for you. I’m sure you’ve suffered outside. It’s only been a few months, but you’ve lost a lot of weight.”

Little Treasure and Little Bear touched their faces and giggled together. The guards standing at the side were speechless. The little masters had lost weight after the incident in Weizhou. Although they had been traveling previously, they had become much fatter. At that time, they had thought that if they could bring such a Crown Prince and Prince Rong back to the capital, King Rong and the Emperor would definitely reward them.

Just by looking at the physiques of the two little masters, one could tell how much effort they’d put into serving them.

Unfortunately, man proposes but God disposes. Coincidentally, they met Ogedei. After scheming and worrying, the two of them did not gain any weight. After leaving Weizhou, there were repeated assassination attempts on them. The extra weight that they had gained after more than two months disappeared in an instant.

The guards’ hearts ached!

When these two young masters returned to the capital, the Emperor and King Rong would definitely feel sorry for them. If their master felt sorry for them, would the subordinates still have a good life?

Hence, everyone looked at the young masters with tears in their eyes. “Eat, eat. Who knows, if you eat a lot during this meal, you might more or less gain some weight…”

Little Treasure and Little Bear didn’t know what the guards were thinking. They only felt that their gazes were very strange and thought that they were hungry. Considering the friendship they had developed over the past few months, Little Treasure decisively asked Fourth Aunt to prepare a table of food for the guards.

“The bandits and assassins are still under your watch.” After giving the order, Little Treasure followed Fourth Aunt and Little Bear into the backyard.

“The assassin is the one you caught in Shandong? Then what’s with the bandits?”

The news of the two children encountering assassins on the way had long been passed back to her, thus she was aware. But when did the bandits appear?

Little Treasure and Little Bear looked at each other. Thinking that Fourth Uncle (Father) didn’t hide anything from her, they immediately told her everything in detail. In the end, they asked, “Fourth Aunt, from what they said, these people have been dealing with Fourth Uncle. Have you noticed?”

Mu Yangling sneered. “How could I not have noticed? When your Fourth Uncle was an official in Lingnan, someone secretly exchanged the rice seeds that our grain store provided to the commoners. Ever since then, your Fourth Uncle has been looking for the people left behind by Qin Fang. Many of them have been removed.”

In the first few years, Qi Haoran had made a huge move. He had almost turned Jiangnan upside down and found such people in many shops and teahouses. As there were many people involved in the case, they thought that the people Qin Fang had left in Great Qi had already been cleaned up. In addition, there were also people who couldn’t withstand the torture and confessed everything they knew. But now, it seemed that they had only caught people who provided finances and information. They had yet to get rid of any of Qin Fang’s private soldier groups.

Mu Yangling’s expression was solemn. Seeing that the two children were also sitting with stern expressions, she said with a smile, “Alright, we’ll talk about this when your father comes back. Let’s eat first.”

Little Bear looked around and asked, “Mother, where are Little Brother and Little Sister?”

“They went to the palace.” Mu Yangling said helplessly, “Your second uncle wants Little Fu to start learning, and the two children requested to go to school when they saw this. Your father finds them annoying, so he simply packed them up and sent them to the Royal School to annoy the teachers instead.”

Little Bear was dumbfounded. “Baozhu went to the Royal School too?”

Mu Yangling nodded helplessly. “That’s right. Your father said that our daughter doesn’t abide by the dumb rule of ‘it is a woman’s virtue to be ignorant’. He asked the teachers in the Royal School to teach Baozhu the way they taught the princes. In the end, Baozhu turned out to be a faster learner than Little Leopard. The teachers all like her very much.”

That was with the few brats with a comparison, right?

Little Treasure and Little Bear looked at each other and silently lowered their heads to eat.

At this moment, Qi Xiuyuan, who had been waiting for his son since he heard that he had returned to the capital, got impatient. He simply threw down his brush and walked to the entrance of the Imperial Study. Looking at the palace door with a frown, he asked Eunuch Wan, “Why isn’t the Crown Prince entering the palace at this time? Could it be that something happened on the way?”

After Eunuch Wan left, he took a step forward and bowed. “Why don’t I get someone to check?”

Qi Xiuyuan nodded.

Eunuch Wan immediately instructed the guards to look for the Crown Prince, so the guards in the palace found their way to the King’s Residence.

Seeing the golden words “King Rong’s Residence”, the palace guards felt that things were bad. The Emperor had been waiting for the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince had come to the King’s Residence. When he found out about this, he would definitely be jealous.

The guards would be the ones suffering in the end.

The group walked in dejectedly and bumped into their former colleagues, who had just eaten their fill and were full of smiles.

The guards who came from the palace sneered and said to the guards who were protecting the Crown Prince and Prince Rong, “You guys sure enjoy yourselves. His Majesty is still waiting for you guys to report.”

The guards stiffened. Oh no, they had relaxed the moment they returned to the King’s Residence and almost forgot about this matter.

“You didn’t ‘almost forgot’. You really did forget!” The palace guard, who was familiar with his colleagues’ thoughts, reminded them cruelly.

“Where’s His Highness? His Majesty is waiting in front of the Imperial Study. It might not be too late to make up for it now.” The key was that it was their mission to find the Crown Prince. Perhaps the Emperor would be in a better mood when he saw that they had indeed found the Crown Prince.

This was simply impossible!

Qi Xiuyuan had already received the report earlier. When he found out that the Crown Prince had gone to Qi Haoran’s house first, he sat in the Imperial Study in a bad mood and exuded a cold aura.

Eunuch Wan lowered his head and stood behind him, trying his best to reduce his presence.

However, Qi Xiuyuan still did not let him off. It couldn’t be helped since Eunuch Wan was the only one in the entire hall. Among the eunuchs in the palace, Qi Xiuyuan could only trust him. Hence, he asked gloomily, “Am I not as good as his Fourth Uncle in the Crown Prince’s heart? Why would he look for Haoran first instead of entering the palace to look for me?”

Eunuch Wan said gently, “Perhaps the Crown Prince wants to send Prince Rong back to the King’s Residence first? As the eldest brother, it’s only right that he takes care of his younger siblings.”

Thinking of his son’s personality, Qi Xiuyuan nodded slightly and said, “I’ll ask him when he enters the palace.”

Cold sweat almost broke out on Eunuch Wan’s forehead.

The guards anxiously brought the Crown Prince back to the palace. Little Treasure didn’t think too much about it. He had already eaten and drank her fill, so he stood up and said, “Then, Fourth Aunt, I’ll go back to the palace first.”

Little Bear immediately stuffed two small steamed buns into his mouth and said anxiously, “I’ll go with you. Since my father isn’t around, let Royal Uncle settle the matter of the assassin. These people’s target is our Qi family. It doesn’t matter to us two since we’re grown up, but what if they target our younger siblings? They’re still young, thus we have to be wary. It’s better to find these people as soon as possible.”

Little Treasure thought about it and agreed. He brought Little Bear into the palace.

The two of them specially brought Qin Fang’s portrait with them. On the way, they refined their prepared speech so that their father would take the matter seriously. Unexpectedly, when they saw their father, the other party’s first question was, “Why didn’t you return to the palace right away and instead went to your Fourth Uncle’s house first?”

Little Treasure was stunned before he answered matter-of-factly, “Little Bear wanted to go home, so I sent him home.”