The Splendid Brocade of the Painting Physician – Chapter 151

Chapter 151: Gao Changgong, Do You Believe?

After the man turned around, he saw that the person pressing a sword against his neck was a soldier in black armor. He had an ordinary appearance but a hidden murderous aura, and his physique was somewhat rugged. He looked like someone who had been on the battlefield for a long time.

But what surprised the man even more was not this person, but the group of armored soldiers standing behind him. At the head of the soldiers was a man in black robes, wearing a ferocious mask, with an especially noble and dignified aura. He was also leading a woman, also dressed in black and wearing a mask.

Even if the two of them didn’t reveal their true faces, they gave people a sense of aloofness and nobility that could be admired from afar but not approached.

“Who are you? Who allowed you to hide here, and what is your purpose?” Prince of Lanling asked coldly.

The man tugged at the corner of his mouth and forced a smile. He replied, “Who could I be? Just a businessman. In this world, doing business always involves some danger. It’s not surprising, is it?”

“Take out your identification token and show it to us!” Lu Yu shouted sharply, prompted by Prince of Lanling.

The identification token was a form of identification. It not only recorded the person’s name but also their ancestral home and occupation.

Zhao Wu increased the pressure on the sword. The pain of the sharp blade cutting into his skin immediately made the man panic. He hurriedly took out his identification token from his sleeve and handed it to Lu Yu.

“This, this is my identification token!”

Lu Yu glanced at it and looked at Gao Changgong. “He is indeed a merchant, but your ancestral home is not Pengcheng, but Hanyang Commandery in Qinzhou!”

Qinzhou belonged to the territory of Northern Zhou.

Lu Yu’s expression immediately became cold and fierce. He couldn’t help but shout, “Are you a spy sent by the Zhou State?”

“No, no!”

The man’s face turned pale with fright. He immediately confessed, “My ancestral home is indeed Hanyang Commandery in Qinzhou, but more than ten years ago, I surrendered to Eastern Wei, which is now Northern Qi, with Grand Commandant Luo. So I am now a true Pengcheng native!”

“Grand Commandant Luo? You mean Luo Chao? The Luo Chao who rebelled and was killed, Lady Lu’s husband?”

Under Lu Yu’s series of questions, the man lowered his head and replied, “Yes, it is Grand Commandant Luo!”

“So, why are you hiding your identity in this tavern? Are you Lady Lu’s person?”

When Lu Yu asked this, the man’s expression changed for a moment.

Zhao Wu shouted sharply, “Speak!”

The man felt suffocated and in pain. He hurriedly replied, “Yes, I am Lady Lu’s person. Lady Lu sent me here just to deliver money to an assassin, 100,000 silver coins!”

“And if the task is successful, I have to kill the assassin!”

“As expected… it’s her!”

This time, it was a sigh from a woman. The man became a little panicked and asked, “Who are you?”

Xiao Jinyu took off her mask.

“Is the person Lady Lu wants to kill me?” she asked.

When the man saw Xiao Jinyu’s face, his eyes widened, and he stared blankly for a long time. It was only after Lu Yu slapped him hard on the face with the hilt of his sword that he came to his senses.

“How dare you look at our Princess Consort of Lanling with such eyes! You’re courting death!” Lu Yu shouted.

The man looked at Xiao Jinyu in surprise again and hurriedly averted his gaze. He then glanced sideways at the masked Prince of Lanling.

“Princess Consort? Then you are… are you Prince of Lanling?”

He suddenly remembered the rumors that Prince of Lanling liked to wear a mask on the battlefield because his handsome appearance could not intimidate the enemy. And the two people in front of him had such a noble and dignified aura…

“I deserve to die! I didn’t know it was Your Highness, Prince of Lanling!”

“This hidden agent post of yours must have existed for a long time. Otherwise, four months ago, you wouldn’t have sent an assassin to kill me here. So, what you said about just delivering 100,000 silver coins to the assassin cannot make us believe you.”

Hearing Xiao Jinyu’s words, Lu Yu’s eyes lit up, and he shouted angrily, “You’re still not being honest, are you? Do you want to be tortured?”

“Zhao Wu, cripple his tendons first and see how long he can hold out!”

At the mention of crippling his tendons, the man became even more terrified.

“Wait, I’ll talk, I’ll talk! Actually, we are Lady Lu’s people specifically placed here to communicate with the Nor…”

As soon as he said this, the man suddenly stiffened, his eyes wide open as if in disbelief. He turned his head to look back, but before he could see anything, he collapsed to the ground.

The moment he fell, Xiao Jinyu saw a very short arrow stuck in his back.

Zhao Wu had already chased after the assailant. At this time, the fight in the tavern was also coming to an end. The shopkeeper was finally subdued by Nie Yinniang after being stabbed multiple times, the waiter was dead, and the bodies of several strong men were scattered all over the floor.

When Gao Changgong and Xiao Jinyu came out, the entire tavern was empty except for the people Nie Yinniang had brought and the shopkeeper.

“I’m sorry, two of them were very agile and escaped!” Nie Yinniang said. She then dragged the shopkeeper over and forced him to kneel in front of Gao Changgong and Xiao Jinyu. “If you have any questions, ask him. After all, he’s been the shopkeeper here for more than ten years!”

“So, for more than ten years, you’ve been communicating with the Zhou people, haven’t you?” Xiao Jinyu asked as soon as she spoke.

The shopkeeper’s face changed drastically, and he spat, “What communicating with the Zhou people? Young lady, don’t slander us and wrongly accuse us of being spies!”

✿✿✿

“Whether you are a spy or not, we’ll find out when we get to Yecheng and interrogate you in the Imperial Court Prison!”

At this time, Gao Changgong added a sentence and then looked at Nie Yinniang. Nie Yinniang was stunned for a moment and immediately understood what he meant. She punched the shopkeeper, knocking him unconscious, and then stuffed a pill into his mouth!

“This person is very important. To prevent him from committing suicide or his companions from killing him, put him in a secret place first. We will return to Yecheng tomorrow!”

Nie Yinniang nodded.

At this time, Lu Yu threw a heavy box in front of Nie Yinniang and said, “This is the 100,000 silver coins your employer gave you. As for whether there are actually 100,000, you can count them yourself!”

This box was naturally found in the secret room where the man had been.

“Also, this tavern is yours now. However, our Prince wants to get all the information related to that person in Yecheng from you!”

Seeing their generosity, the resolute light in Nie Yinniang’s eyes couldn’t help but brighten.

Since it was a deal, there had to be something in return. This condition was not excessive for them.

The dozen or so assassins behind her were even more ecstatic and bowed to Gao Changgong in thanks. “Thank you, Prince and Princess Consort, for not holding grudges and being willing to take us in! We are all willing to serve you from now on!”

✿✿✿

Gao Changgong ordered the guards to search the entire Fenglai Residence tavern inside and out. They packed any suspicious items into boxes, intending to take them back to Yecheng. After several days of traveling, the armored soldiers who had followed him were all a little tired. So Gao Changgong took Xiao Jinyu and the guards to his residence in Pengcheng.

This was also a temporary residence he had used when he was stationed here for training.

Nie Yinniang and her assassins stayed at the Fenglai Residence tavern as their contacts to receive messages from “that person” in Yecheng.

“Changgong, do you know why that person in Yecheng wants to kill you?”

As soon as they settled down, Xiao Jinyu asked Gao Changgong to find her a brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. She asked while sketching on the paper.

“I know. It’s nothing more than for the Cizhou Kiln in Pengcheng. Three years ago, His Majesty handed over the Cizhou Kiln workshop in Pengcheng to Lady Lu to manage. She has made a lot of personal profits from it. Later, one of my imperial uncles, Prince of Zhao, reported this matter to His Majesty. His Majesty wanted to take it back, and it just so happened that I won a battle last year. So His Majesty, while drunk, gave it to me as a reward!”

“I think Lady Lu must be using the huge profits from the Cizhou Kiln to win over important ministers in the court, form cliques to seize power, and support so many spies, right?”

“You know all this, yet you still offered the Cizhou Kiln as a betrothal gift to marry me in front of so many people?” Xiao Jinyu asked in slight surprise.

Gao Changgong smiled, put his arm around her shoulder, looked into her eyes, and said, “Because the person I’m marrying is you, even the wealth of the world is not too much to give!”

Xiao Jinyu couldn’t help but smile and asked jokingly, “Aren’t you afraid that the Emperor of your Qi State will be wary of you?”

“I’m not afraid. I still have you, don’t I?” Gao Changgong said with a smile. His eyes shifted slightly and saw what she had sketched on the paper. He couldn’t help but feel curious. “A’yu, what is this you’ve drawn? It looks like a kind of porcelain, but I’ve never seen it before!”

Xiao Jinyu had indeed drawn a kind of porcelain. Moreover, she had drawn extremely delicate patterns on the porcelain, making it look even more fresh and elegant, pleasing to the eye.

“I want Yue Ying to stay here. He told me that he used to travel all over with his father, doing business in this kind of porcelain. I want him to help me fire this kind of porcelain, and I’ve also given him the recipe and techniques.”

“Alright, then I’ll arrange for some people to protect him here!”

Xiao Jinyu nodded and smiled again. “Changgong, let’s return the Cizhou Kiln to the Emperor! We’ll only be responsible for managing the porcelain firing techniques here.”

“Okay!”

Seeing that he didn’t refuse a single word, his attitude was very different from when she had asked to enter Northern Qi’s officialdom. Xiao Jinyu couldn’t help but smile again. She took his hand, went to the corridor, and leaned against the carved railing, looking at the crescent moon in the night sky.

At this time, the moon had just halfway entered the clouds, and its faint light outlined the clouds with a silver edge.

“Changgong, do you believe that celestial phenomena can really control the fate of the human world?” she suddenly asked, her eyes bright and distant, looking at the stars in the distant sky.

“I don’t really believe it. What about you?” Gao Changgong shook his head and replied with a smile.

Hearing this answer, Xiao Jinyu smiled with relief.

“I don’t believe it either. How can the fate of the human world be determined by celestial phenomena? Birth, old age, sickness, and death are inevitable laws of human life, but the choice of how to live and how to die, fate should be in our own hands!”

As she spoke, she stretched out her hand, welcoming the moonlight, as if she wanted to grasp the crescent moon in her palm. After a while, she retracted her gaze and looked at Gao Changgong.

“So…”

As soon as she started speaking, Gao Changgong’s face darkened, and he interrupted,

“You don’t have to say it, I know what you want to say!”

Seeing the obvious displeasure on his face, Xiao Jinyu turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck, gently pecking his lips, and said softly, “Then carry me to bed. I’m tired too!”

Only then did Gao Changgong’s anger subside, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly. He picked her up, and a black butterfly followed them into the bedchamber, flapping its wings.