After Being Mistakenly Taken for a Fellow Traveler by Emperor Long Aotian - Chapter 66
Zhou Xun: … Truth?
After noticing his skeptical expression, the Emperor scratched his head and cheerfully said, “Truth, well, that would be…”
“Your Majesty, I didn’t know you were coming. I’ve failed to extend a proper welcome.” A balding official wearing an official’s hat, sweating profusely, ran over to them. His expression was extremely delighted, as if he had encountered something great: “Reporting to Your Majesty, the new siege weapon called the ‘Truth Cannon’ has made significant progress!”
Zhou Xun: ?
He turned to look at the Emperor, who was originally looking at the sky. Upon noticing Zhou Xun’s gaze, the Emperor’s fingers, which were clasped behind his back, started twitching.
Zhou Xun: …
He changed his angle to look at the Emperor, and as soon as their eyes met, the Emperor immediately turned his head away.
Zhou Xun: …
Why isn’t the Emperor looking at him?
Since the carriage ride, the Emperor had suddenly started ignoring him…
Zhou Xun: … This feels a bit odd.
Even with Zhou Xun’s intelligence, he couldn’t figure out why the Emperor had suddenly started “cold-shouldering” him. He considered this for a moment and decided to give up trying to interpret the Emperor’s inscrutable mood.
At the moment he turned his head, the Emperor, who had been looking at the sky, secretly glanced at him and sighed with relief.
A passerby holding calculation papers on the other side of the camp: ?
From his perspective, standing at the other end of the camp, the taller person was looking at the sky while the shorter person was looking at him. When the shorter person turned to look elsewhere, the taller person carefully lowered his head and sneakily glanced at him as if afraid of being noticed.
Passerby: …
… What’s up with these two men?
But he had no interest in their relationship. For him, the cannon being adjusted was far more fascinating than what these two men might be doing in broad daylight.
“Xiao Gao, have you calculated the ballistic trajectory yet?” The voice of another person reached the passerby’s ears.
The passerby turned back and said to the young man in front of him, “Not yet. His Majesty said we need to design a new launching platform with four degrees of freedom based on the new projectile’s shooting range and provide a trajectory model according to each degree of freedom’s corresponding rotation angle and extension. But at the moment, I have no ideas…”
“It’s fine, for the short term, we can rely on experience from multiple test firings to estimate the shooting range,” the young man, who was taller and had a bright smile, patted his shoulder and said. “We’ll take it slow. His Majesty also said, ‘The road ahead is long and has no ending; yet high and low I’ll search with my will unbending.’ If we can get things done in our lifetime, it’s not too late.”
“Mm…”
The young man’s mood was still somewhat depressed. The taller man laughed and comforted him, “So what if you can’t figure it out? His Majesty’s salary will still be paid as usual! Besides, your job is much safer than others’… Recently, the burning group had another fire. They’ve been digging up something in the nearby graveyard, saying it ignites even in daylight, and are researching it!”
“The graveyard?” The youth looked up with some surprise and fear, “What can you find in a graveyard?”
“His Majesty called it… ghost fire,” the young man said mysteriously. “They want to see what use this ghost fire can have in the daylight! By the way, did you receive your salary from last month…”
“Brother Fu, what’s wrong?”
“Go buy some ginger and He Shou Wu (fleeceflower root). Just look at your head…”
The two of them continued chatting and laughing as they walked away.
Zhou Xun was walking back to the carriage, taking one last look at the valley. The valley was bathed in a thin golden twilight from the setting sun, and the voices of the young men and the sounds of construction and sawing grew fainter.
“?”
He felt a curious gaze from behind. Looking back, he saw the Emperor already looking up at the sky while seated in the carriage.
Zhou Xun didn’t point it out, just smiled and got into the carriage with the Emperor.
The carriage rolled out of the valley, and after a long time, Zhou Xun finally heard the Emperor speak.
“How… how do you find this place?”
He looked back, but the Emperor still didn’t look at him.
“Isn’t it strange? Like a place full of odd people and weird things?”
Zhou Xun shook his head.
“This is a valley hidden with gold,” he said softly.
……
When they returned to the Forbidden City, it was already late in the evening.
Throughout the journey, the Emperor continued to avoid looking at Zhou Xun, sitting very upright at all times. Nearing the palace gate, he finally said to Zhou Xun, “It’s quite late. Let’s have dinner when we get back, freshen up, and then get some rest, okay?”
Just as Zhou Xun was about to respond, the carriage driver stopped the carriage.
The Emperor asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Replying to Your Majesty, someone is waiting at the East Gate,” the driver said.
Zhou Xun: …
Why is there always someone waiting in front of the East Gate?
…And the previous three times, it was Zhou Cai, his good older brother.
Could it be Zhou Cai waiting at the East Gate again this time?
The Emperor, sitting beside him, also sounded a bit irritable and impatient: “Why is there always someone waiting at the East Gate? From now on, put up a sign here: no one is allowed to park in front of the East Gate for more than the time it takes to burn an incense stick, and especially no kneeling. If anyone is caught kneeling, drag them away. If they have the surname Zhou, add extra punishment!”
Zhou Xun: …
Zhou Xun turned his head to glance at the Emperor.
Emperor: Awkward.jpg
Emperor: “…Oh, I forgot that you also have the surname Zhou.”
Zhou Xun: …
Emperor: “Never mind, I won’t make you kneel.”
“Your Majesty,” the investigating guard returned to the carriage and reported, “The person waiting at the East Gate this time is not that esteemed person.”
Zhou Xun: …
The guard spoke as if everyone in the palace was well aware of the name-coding for “that esteemed person.”
In a way, it seemed as if everyone in the palace knew who most liked to kneel at the East Gate.
“…Instead,” the name the guard mentioned made Zhou Xun lift his eyelids, “it’s Master Lu Xiandao.”
“Master Lu has returned from Qingzhou and has completed the task you assigned. He is here to report.”
“Lu Xiandao?” The Emperor was taken aback for a moment and then became pleased, “Oh, he’s back!”
A breeze lifted the carriage curtain. Outside, in the dusk, Zhou Xun saw a young man in a scarlet uniform standing there.
He was standing in a rather conspicuous spot, right in the center of the East Gate.
“Lu Xiandao,” the Emperor opened the carriage window and said, “Come to the study and talk—have you had dinner?”
Lu Xiandao immediately answered respectfully, “Replying to Your Majesty, I had dinner before coming.”
Emperor: “Oh, come in and talk then—have you been waiting here for a long time? Are you tired?”
Lu Xiandao replied, “Replying to Your Majesty, I’m not tired. And this place is quite clean.”
Lu Xiandao stepped aside, and the Emperor’s carriage entered the East Gate. Zhou Xun saw him bowing respectfully with his head lowered.
…He appeared very courteous, but Zhou Xun found the comment about the place being “clean” somewhat odd.
It wasn’t until they entered the palace that Zhou Xun remembered…
The spot Master Lu Xiandao was standing on was exactly where Zhou Cai most liked to kneel.
…
Before they could even have dinner, the Emperor rushed into the study to listen to Lu Xiandao’s report.
As usual, Zhou Xun was brought along, sitting beside the Emperor on a sofa, like a personal secretary or a lucky charm.
Zhou Xun: …
He could clearly feel that Lu Xiandao, after entering the study, couldn’t help but steal a glance at him.
…For him, it might have been a significant breach of protocol.
As Lu Xiandao reported on his duties, he first talked about his work in apprehending corrupt officials in a certain place—this was the initial task assigned to him by the Emperor. Zhou Xun, listening from the side, understood why Lu Xiandao had looked so surprised earlier.
Unlike other palace staff who had become accustomed to the Emperor’s special treatment of Zhou Xun, Lu Xiandao had been dispatched to Qingzhou the day after Zhou Xun was released. Having been absent from the capital for almost a month, he naturally didn’t know the current news. The way he looked at Zhou Xun was like someone from a remote village suddenly receiving intelligence updates.
…Indeed, a little over a month ago, Lu Xiandao might have still been contemplating Zhou Xun’s assassination case, marveling at his daring, and speculating about his future misfortunes. He probably had no idea that within just over a month, the entire Forbidden City had undergone such a transformation.
“The case of selling official posts in Qingzhou has now come to a close. The leader and over twenty others have been apprehended,” Lu Xiandao reported, “Aside from the leader, who will be executed after autumn, the rest have all had their homes confiscated and been exiled…”
Zhou Xun could clearly see that the Emperor, who had been listlessly sitting due to hunger, sat up straight with genuine interest at that moment.
Emperor: “Confiscated?”
Lu Xiandao paused and said, “Does Your Majesty feel that… confiscating homes and exiling them is too severe?”
Emperor: …
“Not severe at all, quite the opposite! Confiscate as much as possible, confiscate it all!” The Emperor threw his pen on the desk and said sternly, “These people, as court officials, acted as parasites of the court. They took the court’s salary but embezzled the treasury for petty gains, committing a grave crime that deserves the harshest punishment! So… the confiscation of their homes…”
The Emperor cleared his throat: “How much silver was confiscated in total?”
Lu Xiandao reported the amount. The Emperor clapped his hands and smiled broadly: “Good, good!”
Lu Xiandao: ?
The Emperor coughed lightly: “It’s truly wonderful to see justice served! Such people should be made to face the consequences… By the way, their houses were also confiscated, right? What about the tiles and bricks? They can be used to build walls…”
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