r18novel Page 224
Page 224
Therefore, Emperor An removed his eldest son, Li Shouji, from his position in the court and arranged for him to recuperate in Shazhongbu, the hometown of his mother.
Of course, everyone understood that this was tantamount to exile! The eldest prince was now far removed from the court of Anguo, and the position of crown prince was basically out of his reach!
"Stop! Stop!" Just as the eldest prince was recalling these past events, filled with resentment and thinking about how to return to Andu, he saw his brother-in-law, Prince Wang, suddenly widen his eyes, make a vomiting face, and then shout loudly at the coachman.
As soon as the carriage stopped, Prince Wang jumped off without saying a word and lay down in the grass beside it, vomiting violently.
Seeing this, the eldest prince helplessly got off the carriage. Looking at the back of the Prince Wang who was vomiting incessantly, he said speechlessly, "He's already like this as soon as he leaves the capital?"
"If you don't want to accompany me to the central desert region, turn around and go back to your sister right now!"
"I will not return!" Prince Wang was no fool. He knew that the First Prince had lost all power in the capital, and as the First Prince's brother-in-law, he was naturally one of his supporters!
If he were to return to the capital now, he feared that he would be killed by the Second Prince before long, just like his father, the Duke of Wang, who had recently passed away!
"I am only saddened for my father! And for Your Highness!" Thinking of this, Prince Wang quickly spoke up, "How did things turn out this way?"
"Sigh!" The eldest prince also showed a helpless expression after hearing his brother-in-law's words, then shook his head and said, "The second brother is malicious!"
"I was merely caught off guard and suffered a mishap!"
"Fortunately, my father is aware of this, so he has preserved my title of king!"
"Once this storm has passed, I will definitely be able to..."
The eldest prince, while making grand promises to his brother-in-law, slowly walked over and gently patted the man on the shoulder.
"Dongshan... Ah!" But before he could finish making his promise, and before he could even utter the words "Dongshan rises again," a short arrow flew in from nowhere and pierced the Crown Prince's thigh!
Caught completely off guard, the eldest prince felt a sudden pain in his leg and instinctively screamed in agony!
Prince Wang was quick-witted at this moment. He quickly helped the eldest prince, who was about to fall, and shouted loudly, "Protect the prince! Protect the prince!"
At the same time, the more than twenty guards who were originally protecting the carriage surrounded it, drew their swords, and looked around warily.
At that moment, lightning flashed and thunder roared in the night sky, and torrential rain poured down almost simultaneously.
Everything seemed to have been prepared in advance, especially the forest path, which looked eerily strange under the flashes of lightning.
At this moment, the Crown Prince and his entourage still did not know where the short arrow had come from.
Just as another bolt of lightning streaked across the night sky, illuminating the darkness, the Crown Prince and the others were startled to find a strange man in black standing only twenty paces away from them.
Her figure resembled that of a woman, holding a sharp sword in her hand, but wearing a straw hat that concealed her face.
This woman was Ren Ruyi, and she had been waiting here for the Crown Prince's carriage for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn!
The Crown Prince's guards were no fools. Just by looking at her attire and the timing of her appearance, they knew she was an assassin, so without saying a word, they all drew their swords and stepped forward.
Unfortunately, the guards around the down-on-his-luck eldest prince were not very skilled, let alone when facing Ren Ruyi, who was now the ceiling of martial prowess in Andu.
It can be said that apart from Wei Tingyu and the two female Golden Shadow Guards, Ren Ruyi has no match for him in Andu now!
She didn't even draw her sword; with just a few flashes, she moved among the guards with a ghostly figure!
The unsheathed sword danced in his hand, leaving only afterimages. Every guard struck by the scabbard fell to the ground and fainted.
The eldest prince, Li Shouji, watched helplessly as the female assassin knocked down all the guards around him in just a few breaths, and he was terrified.
Upon closer inspection, he saw that his opponent had drawn his sword again and was thrusting it straight at him.
Li Shouji instinctively pushed Prince Wang in front of him, blocking Ren Ruyi's sword thrust.
However, the next second he saw Ren Ruyi flash her hand and seem to throw something at him, and then his vision went black and he lost consciousness!
……
After an unknown amount of time, Li Shouji slowly awoke amidst the rumble of thunder and torrential rain.
After his eyesight was able to barely make out his surroundings, he realized that this was actually the mausoleum of the late Empress Zhaojie.
The female assassin who had just killed all his guards and knocked him unconscious was standing a few steps behind him, looking at him coldly.
"Who are you?" Li Shouji mustered his courage and looked directly at the other person, asking, "Are you one of the second brother's men?"
"He's gone mad! You can't go mad!"
Do you know how serious a crime it is to assassinate a prince of the current dynasty?!
At this moment, the eldest prince, Li Shouji, disregarded everything else in order to save his life. He even knelt in front of Ren Ruyi, but still tried to persuade her.
"What about forcing the Empress to commit suicide and causing chaos in the country?!" Ren Ruyi sneered, looking at the eldest prince Li Shouji with a blank expression and asked.
Li Shouji was taken aback when he heard this, then frowned, as if he understood something!
At the same time, his eyes fell on the sacrificial table in front of the mausoleum of Empress Zhaojie, where two human heads were placed!
"Ah!" In the flash of lightning, the expressions of the two heads were extremely ferocious, which frightened Li Shouji so much that he screamed and collapsed to the ground.
0Request flowers
"That's your good father-in-law, Duke Wang! And the former Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Tao Wei!" Ren Ruyi's face showed even more disdain when she saw Li Shouji's cowardly appearance. She said coldly, "Don't you recognize them?"
"Tao Wei?" Upon hearing this, the eldest prince, Li Shouji, felt a chill run down his spine. At this moment, he was even more certain that this assassin was not one of the second prince's men.
"It was he who conspired with your father-in-law to submit a memorial framing the Empress!"
"And he, Duke Wang, and you! are all accomplices who tacitly allowed Emperor An to collude with Beipan to wreak havoc on the people!"
Ren Ruyi spoke each word carefully, and the coldness in her tone sent chills down Li Shouji's spine.
"Who are you? What do you want?" At this point, he was powerless to argue and could only look at Ren Ruyi with a helpless expression and ask.
"I am Ren Xin!" Ren Ruyi raised her head slightly, revealing her stunningly beautiful face hidden under her bamboo hat.
The eldest prince, Li Shouji, was taken aback, then quickly raised his head and, using the flash of lightning, saw Ren Ruyi's face clearly.
That's right! Even ten or twenty years from now, Lee Soo-ki is certain that he will never forget this face!
After all, he had once lamented that such a beautiful woman had died so tragically!
"It's you? You're still alive?!"
"You did all of this?!"
Li Shouji was completely dumbfounded. He connected the dots between what had happened recently...
From the poisoning of Duke Wang to the leak of news that he had arranged for his subordinates to frame the Second Prince...
Until today, he was ambushed and killed by Ren Ruyi, who had been lying in wait...
All of this seemed like a large, pre-woven sack, and the person tightening the sack's opening was none other than the woman before us!
"You can't kill me! I only wanted to cripple her, not kill her!"
"I know you want to avenge the Empress. Go find your father!"
"Everything was approved by Father!"
Li Shouji now knew that Ren Ruyi's ultimate goal was to take his life; otherwise, there would have been no need to bring him to the tomb of Empress Zhaojie.
Now it's clear that the other side wants to put their own head together with the two heads currently on the altar to worship the Queen!
So he really didn't care about anything else and quickly begged for mercy, even trying to shift the blame to Emperor An.
When Ren Ruyi saw the eldest prince Li Shouji's appearance, she couldn't help but sneer.
What a touching scene of fatherly love and filial piety! She was quite moved!
However, Li Shouji's sophistry and calculations were useless to Ren Ruyi, because Emperor An was also on her revenge list!
Neither father nor son can escape; it's just a matter of order!
"Close your eyes!" Ren Ruyi coldly uttered these two words, which immediately scared Li Shouji so much that he wet himself!
"I beg you... don't kill me..." But before he could finish his last plea, Ren Ruyi swung her blade, and another head fell to the ground with a thud.
Half an hour later, Ren Ruyi placed the three human heads side by side on the altar and took out a tinderbox to try to light the candles on the altar.
However, due to the heavy rain, her tinderbox was soaked, and after several attempts, no flame appeared.
At the same time, a hand suddenly reached out from behind him, holding a blazing tinderbox.
Ren Ruyi glanced up at the man, then took the tinderbox and lit the candles on the altar.
This man was none other than Wei Tingyu! He had been secretly observing Ren Ruyi, after all, this revenge was something she had to experience herself! Wei Tingyu also knew that he couldn't do it for her!
Ren Ruyi was certainly aware of this, so in addition to being moved, she felt even more grateful for Wei Tingyu's secret protection!
Meanwhile, in front of the ambush site of the First Prince's convoy, Prince Wang slowly woke up.
Ren Ruyi's sword had not struck his vitals; he had simply fainted from fear and pain.
At this moment, Prince Wang looked at the corpses all over the ground, but unexpectedly, in his horror, he picked up a tiger head plaque from the eastern part of the desert.
"Tiger Head?! It's Tiger Head from Shadong! It was the people from Shadong who killed His Highness..." Prince Wang shouted in terror as he ran back towards Andu!
With his crazy, erratic behavior, I'm sure it won't be long before the whole of Andu knows about this big event!
……
Three days later at noon, in the main hall of the Duke of Chu's mansion, the Duke of Chu, the father of Princess Chuyue, stood with his hands behind his back, deep in thought with a worried expression.
He paced back and forth, his expression shifting between hesitation and determination. After dawdling for about fifteen minutes, he suddenly opened his eyes as if he had made a great decision, and turned to shout at the maid outside, "Go quickly! Call A-Yue here!"
Soon, Princess Chuyue skipped in, but when she saw the serious expression on her father's face, she froze on the spot.
Because, as far as he could remember, it was very rare to see his father so serious!