By the time Huo Wujiu brought Jiang Suizhou back, it was already late at night.
He still entered through the back window and sent Jiang Suizhou back to his room. After Jiang Suizhou had changed his clothes, Huo Wujiu openly went out from Jiang Suizhou’s room again.
Meng Qianshan, who was guarding at the door, discovered that Madam Huo was looking radiant in his wheelchair. For a moment, he was about to speak but bit his tongue instead.
Huo Wujiu, on the other hand, didn’t even spare him a glance. With something resting on his lap, he rocked his wheelchair and drifted away.
Meng Qianshan couldn’t help but stare at Madam Huo’s back.
The General was different from ordinary people. His legs were obviously crippled, but despite sitting on a wheelchair, he gave off the feeling that he could walk as if on wings.
Meng Qianshan stared for a while, shook his head, and went into the room to serve his master.
In Huo Wujiu’s room, Wei Kai was like an ant on a hot pot, anxiously spinning.
Others might not know what those two had done, but he was in the know. Because of this knowledge, he knew how dangerous it was for their General to go out, which was no less than wandering under the eyes of the ruler of Southern Jing.
Hence, the later it was, the more flustered Wei Kai became.
Fortunately, the door opened on the second night watch, and the sound of a wheelchair sounded from the door.
Wei Kai felt like he had walked through the gates of hell. How stimulating.
“General, how are you?” When the door was closed, he asked this right away.
Huo Wujiu raised his hand and tossed a light coin bag into his hand.
The purse was more than half empty, and only a few pieces of silver were left at the bottom of the coin bag. When he poured them out into his palm, they jingled down emptily.
Wei Kai hid all the heartache in his eyes.
Forget it, forget it… Although the money here was his hard-earned savings when he was wandering about destitute in Southern Jing, his General had never been short of money since childhood, let alone the spare money at hand. Spend it all, spend it all…
However, he couldn’t help asking, “Did you buy something?”
After he asked, he raised his head and looked toward Huo Wujiu.
Huo Wujiu got up from the wheelchair and sat down beside him. He was playing with a big object in his hand, like a mask.
His master held it under the lamp, his eyes downcast as he examined it. The light brightened the smile in his eyes, and the corners of his mouth, which had always been downward, curled up on one side. The smile was so faint that it could hardly be seen, but when it surfaced on Huo Wujiu’s face, the smile looked particularly dazzling.
“Yeah, I did,” Huo Wujiu replied casually. After speaking, he raised the object in his hand and showed it to Wei Kai.
“Jingwang gave it to me. Does it look nice?”
Wei Kai swallowed his saliva, unable to find his voice for a spell.
…Humph, not one bit!
So a fortune was exchanged for this? Whatever the cost, the rough-crafted mask depicted a fierce beast with a bloody mouth. The fierce beast, named Tao Wu, was a legendary evil beast in the Book of Supernatural Beings. It was a slow-witted, arrogant and cruel monster that always thrashed wildly through heavenly paths. It was used by the people to ward off evil spirits, much like fighting poison with poison.
How could their General be pleased with such a thing!
Wei Kai stared at the mask and could not say anything for a while, which made Huo Wujiu dissatisfied.
He frowned and questioned unceremoniously, “Are you deaf?”
Wei Kai met the General’s gaze, which hinted at an unkind spark, and temporarily resigned himself to his fate.
Forget it. Although he never went to school, he still knew when to point to a deer and call it a horse. Now that the tyrant was in front, even if this young lord was infected by that stupid and fierce beast and turned into a mallet, he had to agree with him.
“… It’s beautiful.” His words were against his will, but he reluctantly agreed under the coercion of the mighty.
Fortunately, Wei Kai didn’t suffer a big loss.
After that day, he received monetary rewards from Jingwang’s room under various grounds. The amount was more than several times greater than what he had lost to Huo Wujiu.
Although Wei Kai was also a man who would never bend over for five buckets of rice, he still clutched the money that Jingwang returned and looked at the General, who was putting away the cheap mask as if it were a precious item. He could not help but feel that Jingwang was more human than the General.
After that day also, Jiang Suizhou ended his sick leave.
He had long recovered, but he lingered in the residence for two more days, until the day of the Grand Court Assembly. He knew he could not relax at this juncture even if he wanted to loaf on his job. After all, at the hunting ground on that day, he really gave Pang Shao a devastating blow.
Sure enough, the atmosphere in the courtroom was quite strained today.
The Hou Zhu had never been a person who could hide his thoughts. Today, he showed his indifference to and rejection of Pang Shao for all to see. Presently, most of the people in the courtroom were Pang Shao’s henchmen. Pang Shao was frustrated, so these people were shaking in their boots. All throughout the morning, the courtroom took on a particular atmosphere because of this.
However, from the looks on the Hou Zhu’s face, Jiang Suizhou also figured that he was merely angry at Pang Shao.
He had read historical records carefully over and over and knew that the Hou Zhu and Emperor Jingling were in a hostile relationship. Emperor Jingling favored the original owner’s biological mother, while the mother of the Hou Zhu, the current Empress Dowager Pang, was the long neglected consort of Emperor Jingling. It was written in history books that the Hou Zhu barely saw the Emperor when he was young. He didn’t even recognize who his father was until he was around five years old.
Afterward, to coax him, Pang Shao got incomparably close to him and spoiled him.
Hence, even if neither of them was aware of it, Jiang Suizhou was well aware that Pang Shao had filled the vacancy of a father for the Hou Zhu. For this reason, even after such a huge turmoil, in the Hou Zhu’s heart, he still couldn’t renounce Pang Shao.
Even if he wanted to punish him, he would never kill him for that day.
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