"Who said I was going to eat?" Luo Cuiwei raised an eyebrow at Xiahou Ling, her eyes glancing casually at Yun Lie's direction. "It's you, and your fellow sufferers, eating together. Including the ones that were broken."
She's just been a bit slow-witted and lazy lately, yet they dare to disregard her.
If it weren't for the fact that pulling up a radish brought up the mud today, she wouldn't have known that these two had conspired to keep so many things from her!
It's time to remind them who sits in the head seat of the household.
Although Yun Lie was still unsure why Xiahou Ling was being punished in this way, a sense of sorrow for his kind welled up in his heart.
So he shuffled forward, and blurted out, almost as if possessed, "Perhaps... we don't have that many pears at home?"
His intuition told him that the consequences he would face would be far more severe than those faced by Xiahou Ling.
Therefore, his plea for Xiahou Ling was actually an attempt to get a "reduction in sentence" for himself.
Hearing him plead for her, Xiahou Ling seemed to tremble slightly and hugged the plate of pastries that Luo Cuiwei had just handed her.
One of the rules that the eldest daughter of the Luo family had for disciplining people was that no one was allowed to interrupt or haggle during the process; otherwise, the punishment would be doubled.
Sure enough, Luo Cuiwei smiled and held up two fingers: "The price has gone up to two hundred. If you don't have that many stored in the cellar, you can buy them at the market tomorrow. In short, if I don't see enough 'crystal cups' by nightfall tomorrow, then we'll start over. Deal?"
Xiahou Ling's smile froze on her face. As if afraid that she would raise the price again, she readily agreed to "deal" and immediately hurried to the cellar.
In her hasty escape, Xiahou Ling still managed to cast one last righteous glance at Yun Lie in the courtyard.
This time, Yun Lie finally understood the message in those eyes.
Her meaning was roughly: the truth has been exposed, someone's throwing a tantrum, my friend, you'd better pray for yourself.
Yun Lie swallowed hard, then looked up at his angry wife with a lack of confidence.
But he received a barbed, cold laugh that sent chills down his spine.
Luo Cuiwei stood in the lamplight at the entrance of the side hall, raised her hand and pointed inside, saying calmly, "Your Highness Prince Zhao, please come in."
The fake laughter in her sweet voice carried a chilling undertone; anyone who heard it would think that the space behind that door was not a study, but more like a torture chamber.
Yun Lie raised his hand to press his throbbing forehead, his long legs taking small, weak steps with difficulty, dragging out the process of "heading to the execution ground".
76. Chapter Seventy-Six
Outside the half-open window, dusk was falling, with occasional cool night breezes brushing through the cracks.
The candlelight in the side hall flickered on and off as the wind swept through.
Luo Cuiwei lowered her eyes and covered her eyelashes, leaning slightly to the side against the back of the chair, as if trying her best to calm her emotions.
She slowly adjusted her breathing, her left hand resting on her abdomen under the cover of the table, while her right fingertips gently stroked the abacus beads back and forth.
For a moment, the atmosphere was so quiet that it made one's throat tighten.
Yun Lie, sitting across the table, was still unaware of what Xiahou Ling had "confessed." Unsure of what Luo Cuiwei was angry about, he hesitated to speak and could only awkwardly raise his hand to rub his right earlobe.
"Don't come any closer, sit down and talk properly," Luo Cuiwei looked up and saw that he seemed to be about to get up and come over, so she raised her index finger and shook it. "Can I ask you something?"
After that brief silence, her expression and tone softened considerably.
Calm, polite, and distant.
This was even more upsetting to Yun Lie than a thunderous outburst or a table-flipping outburst of insults.
He sat down as instructed, his throat bobbing several times. "Ask me anything, I'll tell you everything."
Luo Cuiwei smiled slightly, her lips curving upwards, but her eyes remained calm and undisturbed.
“Let’s take it one step at a time. First, Your Highness went out after 3 PM, so you must have gone to see the person who tried to assassinate me today, right?”
Xiahou Ling encountered the man with the folding fan at the market before Shen Shi (3-5 PM). After subduing the man, two guards quickly took him away. Judging by the time, Yun Lie received the news around Shen Shi.
The title "Your Highness" made Yun Lie feel like he had a fishbone stuck in his throat.
Seeing the solemn and determined look in her eyes, Yun Lie had no choice but to suppress his frustration and nod.
"Who is he? Why did he attack me?"
“He’s a Northern Di person,” Yun Lie said, his eyes darkening with anger and fear as he recalled Luo Cuiwei’s perilous encounter that day. “Before we could find out his intentions, he bit open the poison sac in his mouth.”
Luo Cuiwei nodded calmly, accepting the explanation. "Does Your Highness and your advisors have any speculation about his intentions?"
Since the great battle that injured Yun Lie at the beginning of the year, the Northern Di have suffered heavy losses. The former leader was also overthrown and is now recuperating under the leadership of the new leader. They would never provoke Linchuan without a reason.
Upon hearing her address her as "Your Highness" again, Yun Lie frowned and said dejectedly, "Perhaps someone in the capital wants to stir up trouble between us and the Northern Di people in order to exhaust our energy and disrupt our efforts to revitalize Linchuan."
He kept using the word "we," deliberately trying to erase the distance she had intentionally created by addressing him as "Your Highness."
Luo Cuiwei ignored all of this, but suddenly her beautiful eyes widened in shock, "There's someone in the capital colluding with the enemy?!"
“It’s just speculation, there’s no concrete evidence,” Yun Lie pursed his lips. “However, I’ve arranged for people to follow the trail and ordered them to strengthen defenses and vigilance, thoroughly checking everyone entering and leaving the new city. Xiong Xiaoyi’s side will adjust their defenses tonight, so they won’t have any chance to sneak across the border.”
Given the current situation, these are all the efforts that can be made.
Luo Cuiwei nodded, turned her head to look at the window, and started fiddling with the abacus with her right hand.
****
If we speculate that someone in the capital is trying to use another person to do the dirty work, then it probably boils down to the struggle for the throne among the five princes.
Princess Jin Hui, Yun Pei, did not have a bad relationship with Yun Lie. Even if she still regarded Yun Lie as a potential rival in the struggle for the throne, she would never indirectly target Luo Cuiwei. Moreover, she had led the navy to guard the sea for many years, and the dignity and bottom line of a military officer were ingrained in her bones. It was unlikely that she would do something like colluding with the enemy to seize power.
As for Princess Huanrong, Yunxi, she is deeply favored by His Majesty and has the strong support of the Duke of He's mansion and the Ministry of War. Her chances of winning are extremely high, so there is no need for her to risk such a disgraceful act against Yunlie. After all, Yunlie has already been enfeoffed and left the capital, and has no advantage in the struggle for the throne.