Song Chuyi’s clear, transparent eyes were like a pool of limpid spring water, countless stars reflected within them, shimmering brilliantly with flowing radiance, like moonlight shattered across the ground. When she looked at you with such eyes, one simply couldn’t withstand it. Zhou Weizhao found it amusing, yet his heart melted completely. Sighing, he reached out to embrace her, gently patting her back: “It’s my fault for making you suffer such grievance.”
Clearly it had nothing to do with him whatsoever, yet he still took the responsibility upon himself: “If I had come earlier, you wouldn’t have had to suffer so much grievance and fright.”
Watching this, Qing Luo blushed from her face to her neck. She silently set down the cup in her hands, went out the door, and closed it behind her, then stood at the doorway in a daze for quite a while.
Qing Zhuo was both tired and hungry. With all the chaos outside, he had expended great effort to find some food. Only after eating and drinking his fill did he return. Seeing Qing Luo leaning against the doorway in a daze, he couldn’t help but find it strange: “What are you standing here for?”
Qing Luo said nothing, but Han Yan muttered in response: “Where would they still need us to serve them inside?”
These words carried a hint of resentment no matter how one heard them. Qing Zhuo looked at them both for a long while, abandoning his usual careless manner. He coughed to draw their attention upward, then sternly warned them: “Have you forgotten what happened in Yangquan? You are now Sixth Miss’s maids. Don’t forget your proper place.”
Qing Luo’s face paled slightly. In Yangquan, Zhou Weizhao had spoken as clearly as could be, explicitly telling them he didn’t need them to serve at his side, that he was giving them to Song Chuyi. Because of this matter, he had nearly sent them back to Longhu Mountain.
Han Yan’s complexion also didn’t look good. She glanced at Qing Luo, then lowered her head again. The Crown Prince’s Grandson’s heart clearly held only Sixth Miss—but they had originally still harbored some fantasies. What man didn’t have three wives and four concubines? Moreover, with the Crown Prince’s Grandson’s status, even the opera librettos sang about it—once there was a primary wife, there always had to be maids to warm the bed. But Zhou Weizhao didn’t have even the slightest such intention, and Sixth Miss was even less someone who could tolerate a grain of sand in her eye.
Seeing them like this, Qing Zhuo scratched his head. After thinking it over, he still sighed.
It seemed they couldn’t think it through. Unable to think it through and unable to obtain what they wanted, keeping them close would inevitably lead to trouble. He pondered for a while, then privately spoke to Han Feng: “This isn’t a solution either. These two maids harbor such thoughts—how can they serve Sixth Miss well? Keeping them at her side will only cause incidents. Let’s speak with His Highness. Better to have them return to Longhu Mountain.”
Though Han Feng had always felt Qing Zhuo’s brain didn’t work well, he had to admit these words made sense. Qing Luo and Han Yan’s thoughts were practically written on their faces. Especially recently, the closer it got to the Crown Prince’s Grandson and Sixth Miss’s wedding date, and the more the Crown Prince’s Grandson repeatedly said he didn’t want any secondary consorts and such, the more dejected these two became. He nodded: “I’ll speak with His Highness about it later.”
The clamor outside gradually quieted. Song Chuyi pushed open the window to look. The thick smoke in the air was no longer so suffocating and breathtaking. She turned her head to look at Zhou Weizhao, frowning: “The Ministry of Works petitioned His Majesty to hold this fireworks display. By rights, preparations should have been completed long ago. It’s not even being set off in the city—I heard it’s in the waterlogged fields in the suburbs, only visible from the city. With people from the Five City Military Commissioner’s Office and Shuntian Prefecture on duty, how could a fire disaster still occur? And what about those startled horses?”
Zhou Weizhao straightened the delicate jade hairpin on her head, also looking out following her gaze, lowering his eyes: “Urgent report from Hubei—the number of refugees in various places has increased drastically. Later it became uncontrollable. Now De’an Prefecture and Xiangyang Prefecture have both been completely occupied by refugees. The prefects of De’an and Xiangyang were both executed by the refugees. They opened the granaries to distribute grain, attracting surrounding refugees to loot wildly…”
“It’s already this serious?!” Song Chuyi couldn’t help but be shocked: “Didn’t the Hubei Provincial Governor Jiang Tianping’s memorial say the disaster situation was still controllable and wouldn’t spread? How has it now become this severe?”
Refugees opening granaries to distribute grain and even executing court officials—what were they planning to do? This was clearly rebellion!
“After the flood came epidemic disease. Jiang Tianping concealed and didn’t report it, leading to insufficient response from the court. He even privately hinted to two county magistrates where the epidemic was severe to abandon their cities and set fires, so that those two counties left almost no survivors. But even so, it didn’t prevent the epidemic from spreading. The common people suffer unspeakably, lacking clothes and food. The land was devastated by floods and lies abandoned. This year’s harvest is not to be thought of. Unable to continue living, naturally they must find ways to survive.” Zhou Weizhao adjusted the plain silk cloak on her shoulders, sighing: “Commander Chen Tao was detained by him. The Censorate Inspector escaped overnight, personally rushing day and night to the capital.”
Song Chuyi suddenly understood: “So those horses that ran into Zhuque Avenue were actually the Hubei Censorate Inspector’s?”
Zhou Weizhao nodded, his expression grim: “They had pursuers behind them—Jiang Tianping’s lackeys in the capital had long been waiting for the Censorate Inspector to walk into their trap. The Inspector, in desperate panic, could only run toward crowded places. A group of five people on five horses burst into Zhuque Avenue, causing a commotion among the common people. The pursuers behind them relentlessly gave chase. Back and forth, chaos erupted. A lantern-selling stall was overturned, igniting a nearby firecracker-selling stall, and that’s when the incident occurred.”
“The news came out this quickly?” Song Chuyi reacted promptly: “The Imperial Guard investigated this fast?”
With such chaos at the time, catching people would require considerable effort, yet after catching them they immediately conducted interrogations and even obtained results? Song Chuyi found it rather incredible.
Zhou Weizhao touched her hair: “Inspector Wang isn’t foolish either. Though he was sent out to serve as Censorate Inspector, his family is in the capital. Familiar with the routes, he burst into Inspector Tao’s house…”
Tao Dinghu was the Left Chief Censor of the Censorate. Going to find him was reasonable, but Tao Dinghu wasn’t a fool after all. This was a matter of utmost gravity. The memorials transmitted from Hubei still painted a peaceful picture. Not a single piece of news about refugees rebelling in Hubei had reached the capital. Whether things were truly as Inspector Wang described, he didn’t dare make assumptions. He immediately rushed to Chief Minister Chang’s residence—at this hour, on Mid-Autumn Festival no less, he couldn’t enter the palace, so naturally he could only appeal to the Chief Minister.
And once Chief Minister Chang knew, naturally Zhou Weizhao also received the news. It wasn’t because the Imperial Guard had investigated quickly, but rather because Inspector Wang had urgently revealed the entire sequence of events to Tao Dinghu.