The Foolish Agent

Chapter 92

"He said he came on the Emperor's orders to ask Miss to treat the Fifth Prince of Xiping. He has the same illness as the Empress."

Leng Jie suddenly looked up and asked:

"Really? It's an imperial edict! It seems I have no choice but to go!"

The eunuch nodded hurriedly.

Leng Jie grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and rubbed it on her hands. She slowly stood up and said:

"Go and tell the Second Prince that I will go with him as soon as I have prepared the medicine."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The eunuch turned and walked towards the outer courtyard.

The eunuch left the backyard, and Ying immediately reappeared. Leng Jie pointed to the "snowballs" scattered on the ground and said:

"Brother Ying, go find three wooden crates and pack all these things in. When I get back, we'll make the final preparations for tomorrow's battle."

Seeing Zi Ying nod in agreement, Leng Jie slowly walked back to her room, picked up the medicine box Qing Feng had made for her, and then slowly walked out. Upon exiting the main hall, she saw the Second Prince anxiously peering inside from the doorway. Leng Jie once again admired Qing Feng's methods; ever since he set up the formation in Qingfeng Palace, even the arrogant Second Prince dared not trespass. And none of the palace servants dared to bring anyone in without authorization.

Leng Jie unconsciously revealed a cold smile, then quickened her pace and hurried towards the front door.

The impatient Second Prince called out eagerly as soon as he saw Leng Jie:

"Miss Leng, hurry up! Someone's waiting for you to save their life!"

Suddenly, Leng Jie stopped in her tracks. She coldly addressed the Second Prince:

"The Second Prince seems to have come to the wrong place. If you need someone to save your life, please go to the Imperial Hospital."

After saying that, he turned and walked back.

"You! Wait a minute!" Seeing that the lifeline he had finally found was about to turn back after just a brief encounter, the Second Prince was so anxious that he broke out in a cold sweat and hurriedly called out.

"Does the Second Prince have anything else to say?" Leng Jie asked coldly.

After being tricked by Leng Jie in the Imperial Garden's corridor, the Second Prince had always believed he was possessed to have done those things. He remembered what he had said to Leng Jie and the shameful things he had done. Since then, he had always avoided her. Today, he had no choice but to swallow his pride and come to ask for her help in person. He knew better than anyone the severity of the consequences if the Fifth Prince of Xiping died in his residence.

He gritted his teeth, clasped his hands, and bowed ninety degrees to Leng Jie. His tone was sincere as he pleaded:

“Miss Leng! I was presumptuous last time! I apologize to you here. Please, for the sake of my father, do your best to save the life of the Fifth Prince of Xiping this time. I will certainly reward you with a generous gift.”

Leng Jie glanced at the Second Prince with disdain, and said with a forced smile:

“I dare not accept the Second Prince’s generous gift. However, since the Emperor’s face has been mentioned, it seems that I have no choice but to go.”

As she spoke, she had already walked out the door, passing directly past the Second Prince, saying as she went:

"Tell me about the patient's condition?"

The Second Prince was still taken aback when he saw that Leng Jie had agreed to go rescue the people. He then quickly chased after her and replied:

“His symptoms are exactly the same as when my father first fell ill. That’s why I’ve come to ask you, Miss, to save him.”

Leng Jieyou turned her head and said seriously:

"In that case, we'd better hurry. I'll use my lightness skill to go first."

Before the Second Prince could react, Leng Jie, dressed in white, had already gracefully flown away. The Second Prince and his entourage were left dumbfounded, staring at her retreating figure for a long while before hurriedly running back.

When the Second Prince returned to his residence, he found his main hall in complete chaos. Leng Jie was desperately trying to force-feed milk to the Fifth Prince, whose face had turned completely black and whose eyes had rolled back, to wash away his stomach filth.

The Second Prince's wife, also known as the Little Princess of Xiping, was crying her heart out on the side. As soon as she saw the Second Prince return, she rushed towards him, scratching and hitting him while yelling:

"You devil, you devil! Why did you hurt my brother? Why did you hurt my brother? He was my only family! Waaaaah..."

The second prince forcefully pushed Princess Xiping aside and strode to Leng Jie's side. He asked urgently:

"How are you? Are you alright now?"

Leng Jie continued pouring milk into the funnel placed in Prince Xiping's mouth without looking up, replying:

"I will do my best. Whether he lives or dies depends on his luck."

Suddenly, Prince Xiping convulsed, spitting out all the milk he had just drunk. His pupils dilated, and after taking two deep breaths, he abruptly stopped breathing. The Second Prince involuntarily extended two fingers to Prince Xiping's nose to check, and saw him sway, stagger back several steps before barely regaining his balance.

Princess Xiping, on the other hand, had already fainted spectacularly.

Leng Jie packed up her belongings, walked to a basin of hot water, washed her hands, and left with the words, "Please accept my condolences!" before carrying her medicine box and walking out of the Second Prince's residence.

As Leng Jie stepped out the door, Qingfeng greeted her with an umbrella. Without a word, he first brushed the snowflakes from her hair, then took the first-aid kit from her. He said with a hint of reproach:

"You shouldn't have come here alone."

“He consulted the emperor; if I didn’t come, people would get suspicious,” Leng Jie replied softly. Suddenly, she looked up at the umbrella and asked, “You’ve been here long? Why haven’t you gone inside?”

"Just a little while! I overheard someone in the Imperial Study reporting to the old emperor that you had arrived at the Second Prince's residence. So I rushed over. I asked about the situation inside the gate and decided there was no need to go in, so I waited for you outside. Then the guard insisted on giving me an umbrella."

"Hehe, I knew you wouldn't use an umbrella in the snow." The two walked and talked under one umbrella for a while until they reached a relatively secluded spot. Because there were few pedestrians, the snow on the road had reached Leng Jie's knees. If Leng Jie stepped into the snow, it would take her a long time to pull her foot out. This was why she had used her light-footed skill to move ahead earlier. After so much snow, she knew that this kind of situation sometimes would occur, and she didn't want the Second Prince to see her struggling to walk in the snow.

Because Qingfeng was holding an umbrella, Leng Jie waited for him to suggest using his light-footed skill, but he seemed to be deliberately going against her today, refusing to mention it. After walking a few steps, Leng Jie couldn't bear the feeling of being unable to move an inch. She suggested:

"Senior brother, let's use our lightness skill! Let's see how good our 'walking on snow without leaving a trace' technique is?"

Qingfeng watched as Leng Jie stepped into the snow, unable to pull herself out for a long time, her glaring and furrowed brows showing her annoyance. He suppressed a laugh and replied, "Hmm, it seems the only way to get back now is through light-footed skills."

"Smack!" A snowball hit Qingfeng, and Leng Jie said angrily, "You're making sarcastic remarks like that! Laugh if you want!"

"Thud, thud!" The sound of two more snowballs hitting someone rang out.

"Haha, Xiao Jie looks cutest like this ever!" Qingfeng tossed aside the umbrella he was holding in his right hand, patted the snow off his clothes, and teased with a laugh.

"Cute, isn't it?" Leng Jie smiled eerily, then suddenly spun around at breakneck speed. His body rose instantly with the spin, along with a flurry of snowflakes. Unsurprisingly, the unsuspecting Qing Feng was drenched in snowflakes. When he finally reacted, all he heard was a string of silvery laughter lingering behind him.

"Hehehe..."

**************************************

As soon as Leng Jie and Qing Feng returned to Qingfeng Palace, Leng Jie dragged him to the backyard to witness the fruits of her labor over the past few days.

Zi Ying was packing the "snowballs" into the box as she had instructed when she saw Leng Jie and Qing Feng return at the same time. She immediately went to greet them and asked anxiously:

"How about it?"

Leng Jie rolled her eyes at him and replied angrily:

"What do you mean, 'how come'? He drank so much of my magic water, if he still can't ascend to immortality, then I might as well become an immortal myself!"

"Hehe, Qingfeng, look at your junior sister, she's so petty. It's just that she used a little too much of her poison, and she's getting angry with me for half a day." Ziying joked with Qingfeng.

Qingfeng was completely bewildered by their conversation, utterly clueless. He looked at Xiaojie, whose face was dark with disbelief, then at Ziying, who was grinning broadly. He asked in confusion:

"Is there anything I don't know? Why can't I understand? By the way, Xiaojie, what illness does Prince Xiping have?"

"Ah! You didn't know?" Leng Jie asked in surprise.

"Didn't Xiaojie tell you?" Ziying and Xiaojie asked at the same time.

Qingfeng looked at Leng Jie and asked, "Is there anything I should know but don't?"

“I thought you knew everything before you came to pick me up,” Leng Jie replied with a shrug.

“I only heard a eunuch report to the Emperor that you had gone to the Second Prince’s residence. Then I asked him what you were doing there. They told me you were going to treat the Fifth Prince of Xiping. I was afraid the Second Prince was playing a trick, so I rushed to the Second Prince’s residence. As expected, it was in chaos. I randomly grabbed a guard and asked him what was going on. He told me you were inside treating the Fifth Prince of Xiping. Seeing that someone was really sick, I didn’t go in.” Qingfeng told him everything he knew, then looked at Leng Jie and Ying with a questioning gaze, waiting for their explanation.

“Brother Ying, you should tell him! You were the one who handled this matter,” Leng Jie said to Zi Ying.

Zi Ying didn't delay and repeated what she had said to Xiao Jie to Qing Feng. Qing Feng looked at Leng Jie in astonishment and asked:

"You knew all along that Xuanyuan was going to attack Xiping?"

“I only knew that this war was bound to break out sooner or later, but I always thought that Xuanyuan would adopt a defensive strategy. I never dreamed that he could organize an offensive in such a short time and win in one fell swoop,” Leng Jie said truthfully.

“But according to the timeline, the date they attacked Xiping coincides perfectly with the time you threatened the emperor in the Imperial Garden!” Qingfeng said, still unconvinced.

"Yes, I knew Xiao Jie had inherited your master's prophetic skills! She was so modest that she wouldn't admit it," Zi Ying said with a smile.

Leng Jie remained silent; she understood perfectly well. From the moment she left Jinghe, the situation there had spiraled out of her control and expectations. She could only hope that Duanmu Xingyue and Leng Yangtian could protect her base.

"By the way, didn't you just say you had something you needed us to do?" Qingfeng broke the silence when Xiaojie remained silent.

“Yes!” Leng Jie said, pointing to the three wooden crates on the snow.

"These are landmines I made. We'll place them along both sides of the road leading to the temple in a moment. When the emperor's carriage passes by tomorrow, Brother Ying only needs to pull the fuse on a tree in the distance, and these mines will explode immediately. When the horses and men are startled, there will definitely be chaos and people falling over. Consider this our small compensation to the Second Prince for what happened today! After today's events, I believe he will definitely seize tomorrow's opportunity."

"Is this the thing you used to blow up the Prince of Ying's Palace in Jianzhou?" Qingfeng asked, pointing at the box.

"Yes! But this one is very weak. Our intention is not to hurt anyone, but to cause a disturbance. So I adjusted the proportions of the explosives when I was preparing it," Leng Jie explained in detail.

"I don't understand at all? What do you want me to do?" Jianzhou didn't go with Ziying that time, so he didn't understand what Xiaojie was saying at all.

Leng Jie knew Zi Ying wouldn't understand, but explaining things to him that he had never seen before would be futile. Therefore, she didn't intend to waste her breath. She smiled gently at Zi Ying:

"Brother Ying, don't worry, just remember what I just said. As for what exactly happened, you'll understand when you see it tomorrow. As for what your responsibilities are and how to do it, I'll explain it to you in detail when we get to the scene tonight. Because you won't understand even if I tell you now."

"Okay, that's fine!" Zi Ying nodded in agreement with Xiao Jie's statement. Because after listening for a long time, he really didn't understand at all.

"Let's go eat first!" Qingfeng suggested.

“Yeah, now that you mention it, I feel hungry too,” Leng Jie chimed in.

"This cook's food is so much worse than Xiaojie's. I haven't been able to eat my fill for the past two days. I always feel hungry, but when it's time to eat, I have no appetite," Ziying said, rubbing her flat stomach.

"This is troublesome. It seems I've spoiled your palates," Leng Jie sighed jokingly.

“Yes, so you have to take responsibility,” Qingfeng said with a smile.

The three returned to the side hall for their meal, chatting and laughing. Because Leng Jie had been busy treating the Emperor and Empress's injuries and preparing gunpowder these past few days, she had delegated the cooking duties to several Jinghe cooks who had been pardoned by Qingfeng and brought back to the palace. These Jinghe cooks were simply ordinary people who knew how to cook the kind of common dishes that ordinary people ate. They couldn't really be considered chefs. Therefore, when faced with elaborate dishes, they often didn't know where to begin.

On the contrary, the coarse grains, when processed by them, had extraordinary effects. As a result, Leng Jie and the others had been eating coarse grains for several days.

Chapter 122 Ingratitude

On the first day of the tenth month, the Kingdom of Beifeng finally welcomed their sacred day. Not only were the people of Beifeng overjoyed, but even the sun, which had not been seen for a long time, appeared with a beaming smile in the azure east early in the morning.

"What a beautiful day!" Leng Jie walked out of her room, stretched in front of the bright sun, and exclaimed with a smile.

"Good morning, Xiao Jie!" Qingfeng slowly walked out from the next room and greeted her.

"Good morning, Senior Brother!" Leng Jie turned around and smiled at Qingfeng. Immediately afterward, Zi Ying's door opened, and Leng Jie spoke first:

Good morning, Brother Ying!

"Good morning!" Zi Ying replied briefly while tidying her clothes. Then, she looked up and asked:

"Have you packed your bags?"