With these words, everyone looked even more suspicious, staring at Tie Ci. Tie Ci naturally couldn’t say anything or explain, but her silence in everyone’s eyes appeared to be guilt.
The Nanyue naval officers exchanged glances, their expressions grim. People at the bow began making flag signals, and warships in the distance also started approaching.
Someone grabbed Wan Ji, demanding he explain clearly. Before Wan Ji could speak, he suddenly cried out and pitched forward, startling the person who had grabbed him.
Everyone crowded around to look at his complexion—like Xiao Xueya’s, it had turned ashen gray in a short time, though his forehead burned with fever, appearing like an acute illness.
He seemed to have been poisoned by the same thing.
Tan Qingbo arrived at this moment and examined both men. After taking their pulses for a long while, he hesitated before saying: “These two gentlemen’s condition appears to be from a toxin called Wanxiang Grass, common in Qianzhou. It’s most suitable for dissolving in wine—colorless, tasteless, and untraceable. After consumption, it causes yang deficiency and cold sensitivity, like typhoid symptoms. But if treated with typhoid remedies, the poison will enter the lungs and organs, causing prolonged illness without cure.”
Before he finished speaking, there was an uproar, with someone cursing: “What a vicious heart!”
Everyone knew who this cursed, and Tie Ci’s people also erupted in fury, shouting angrily.
Someone else yelled: “Still trying to argue! Commander Wan drank a mouthful of wine, so he was also poisoned—this is ironclad evidence!”
Everyone talked at once, emotions running high, constantly pressing forward. More soldiers rushed across gangplanks onto this ship.
People kept pushing forward, and some waving hands nearly struck Tie Ci’s nose.
Suddenly there was a sharp whistle, and everyone vaguely saw sparks flash before their eyes. The next instant, the person waving his hand cried out and pulled back—a feathered arrow had grazed his boot tip and embedded in the hard ironwood deck.
The man’s withdrawn hand bore a bloody groove as he looked up with sudden alarm.
Only then did people see Buqing on the mast, coldly holding a bow, the tattoos on his bulging muscular arms appearing fierce.
At the same time, several crisp sounds rang out as gangplanks and bridges connecting surrounding ships to this one snapped and broke. Soldiers on the bridges fell into the water, while more soldiers were stranded on other ships.
But people looked bewildered, clearly not understanding how the gangplanks had broken.
Obviously this scene provoked the Nanyue naval forces on the ship, and more people rushed over—their numbers far exceeded Tie Ci’s side, since this was originally a naval warship.
Tie Ci’s guards drew their swords in unison, the curved light dazzling, ringing out together as they protected Tie Ci in their center.
Another sharp, ear-piercing sound rang out as the Nanyue naval forces also drew their swords.
Buqing flipped down from above, blocking in front of Tie Ci. Chi Xue urgently said to Tie Ci: “Your Highness, this isn’t the time for conflict. We should get off the ship first!”
Tie Ci shook her head.
Getting off the ship would let the enemy succeed.
The enemy’s original goal wasn’t to poison Xiao Xueya to death, but to timely incite the Nanyue naval forces and prevent this military force from submitting to her.
Today, just causing a disturbance would suffice—they didn’t even need major conflict. As long as she was forced off the ship, this naval force would never become hers again.
The method could be called simple and crude, with the only clever aspects being the poisoning technique and timing.
After all, acting too early and the naval officers wouldn’t suspect her so quickly; acting too late, when the naval forces had developed loyalty to her, they also wouldn’t suspect her so readily.
But sometimes the simplest methods were most effective.
The enemy hidden in the shadows was skilled at seizing opportunities and understanding human nature.
Chi Xue was getting anxious.
She naturally knew getting off the ship meant all previous efforts would be wasted, but not getting off the ship—on a Nanyue naval warship in the middle of the river—who knew what might happen in the dead of night.
This place was already not far from Yannan. If these naval forces, grieving over Xiao Xueya’s “murder,” simply rebelled in anger, killed the Crown Princess, and defected to Yannan, Yannan would certainly welcome them.
No, this might well have been done by Yannan’s people.
But how was it done?
A pot of non-poisonous wine that no one had touched from beginning to end—how did it suddenly become poisonous?
Chi Xue couldn’t figure it out and felt this problem definitely couldn’t be explained clearly now, but the Crown Princess’s safety had to be ensured.
Meeting Chi Xue’s anxious gaze, Tie Ci said unhurriedly: “We definitely have to get off the ship.”
Chi Xue had just breathed a sigh of relief when she heard her continue: “But we can’t slink away like this—we need to have people properly escort us off.”
Chi Xue was astonished.
A bunch of heads turned around the cabin rear, each one pressed against the bulkhead, watching the scene before them and exclaiming in amazement.
Feng Huan with his sausage lips said unclearly: “Lived half a lifetime and finally get to see a military mutiny…”
Li Yuncheng said lazily: “Right, and right beside us too. You think when everyone’s seeing red, will they use us as sacrificial flags first?”
The young masters all shivered together.
Chang Qianmo reached behind and pulled out a small bundle, saying quietly: “So I’ve thought it through—we should leave now while everyone’s attention is on the Crown Princess at the bow. We’ll go down to the bottom hold, untie the shuttle boats from the bottom hold and leave on our own, going to seek refuge with the Qianzhou Provincial Administration Commissioner. Then we’ll say chaos broke out here, with soldiers forcing us, so we had no choice but to jump into the water to escape. How about it?”
At his words, everyone immediately got excited: “Right, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If we leave now it’s both safe and without consequences. The Crown Princess can’t blame us either—we haven’t even blamed her for causing trouble that implicated us!”
“Let’s go, let’s go. Damn it, on this ship with nothing to eat or wear, sleeping in communal quarters, smelling stinky feet every day. Even if we don’t go to Qianzhou, we could find any government office and they’d surely treat us well with good food and drink. Why suffer here? The Left Counselor of the Qianzhou Provincial Administration Commissioner’s office is my brother-in-law…”
“The Huangzhou Prefect is my distant cousin! If not now, when!”
The young masters pushed and shoved each other. Some hurried back to their cabins to pack valuables, others quietly went down to the bottom hold. Usually these people were surrounded by either Tie Ci’s or Xiao Xueya’s men, but today everyone had gone to the deck, so the young masters had clear passage. Feng Huan walked last, constantly looking back at the deck. Li Yuncheng was beside him, and the two exchanged glances, both stopping.
“You don’t want to leave?” they asked in unison.
Feng Huan scratched his head: “I feel like leaving now seems rather disloyal… What about you?”
“I think that while this situation seems about to explode, the Crown Princess may not be without solutions. If she resolves it and then discovers we ran away, we might be in worse trouble in the future than we are now.” Li Yuncheng frowned. “Besides, since something like this happened, it means someone’s watching this place. If we people run out at this time, who knows if we’re not delivering ourselves as hostages!”
Feng Huan was startled: “You make a good point. If that’s the case, why didn’t you persuade them to stay just now?”
“Those idiots won’t learn without suffering some hardship. Anyway, even if they’re caught as hostages, with their status there’s no threat to their lives—consider it buying them a lesson. Besides, the Crown Princess has been too arrogant, forcibly tricking us onto the ship and even ordering us to visit brothels. Adding some trouble for her isn’t a bad thing, as long as that trouble isn’t me.”
Feng Huan was silent for a long moment, then gave Li Yuncheng a thumbs up: “Better a dead friend than a dead poor man—I admire you.”
Li Yuncheng pushed him: “Stop dawdling, let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“Everyone else is fleeing. Even if you don’t plan to run, you have to act like you want to run, otherwise how can you face your friends in the future?”
Feng Huan was about to raise his thumb again, but Li Yuncheng couldn’t bear to watch and knocked his hand down.
The two then made a show of randomly wrapping up bundles and also headed toward the bottom hold. But after walking just a few steps down the stairs, they saw a figure flash ahead.
“Who’s there!” Feng Huan was startled and shouted.
Li Yuncheng tried to cover his mouth but was too late, breaking out in a cold sweat.
A black shadow walked over from the corner. This person had an ordinary appearance but seemed to know them, casually greeting them: “Oh, it’s you two. I came to the ship’s bottom to get rice to help the kitchen cook.”
Feng Huan nodded dumbly. With so many people on the ship, he couldn’t possibly know everyone, but he felt it was normal for others to know him.
Li Yuncheng’s gaze, however, fell on the other person’s fingers.
This person had a strange smell, and there seemed to be something grayish-black under his fingernails.
But his expression was very calm, as if he really was an ordinary cook helping with meals.
Something was wrong.
With the tense standoff above, the kitchen staff were also Xiao Xueya’s soldiers—how could they still calmly arrange cooking at this time?
Li Yuncheng suddenly remembered what that smell on this person was.
His family had in-laws serving as assistant commissioners in the Hubengwei military camp, and he had visited the military firearms depot… this was exactly that smell!
What was this person doing?
This person had been handling gunpowder. Discovered by someone, he should want to silence them, right? But why did his expression remain so calm and peaceful, laughing and chatting as usual?
Whether having secrets discovered or planning to kill people, shouldn’t there be some nervousness?
Li Yuncheng inexplicably felt this expression was somewhat familiar…
It seemed like that Rong Wei who held a guard title and always buzzed around the Crown Princess daily…
Speak of the devil—Rong Wei suddenly emerged from the darkness.
He glanced at the nervous Li Yuncheng and oblivious Feng Huan, then said to the previous person: “Same as usual.”
Li Yuncheng suddenly saw that the external cabin door of the bottom hold ahead was already open, with a small boat half-floating out. Several people lay sprawled across the boat—exactly Chang Qianmo and the others who had said they wanted to secretly slip away earlier.
His mind thundered as he hurriedly said quietly: “We didn’t see anything! We’ll go back right now!”
“You’re quite alert,” Murong Yi smiled. “No good, don’t leave. Good friends should stay together.”
“We’re sons of high ministers. If you kill us, the Crown Princess won’t have good days either!”
“What are you thinking? Who said anything about killing you?” Murong Yi winked at him. “This ship is going to sink. We won’t have time to save you later, but since you want to slip away yourselves, just get lost first.”
Li Yuncheng was astonished. Looking at the small boat again, he realized some people’s fingers were still moving—they had apparently just been knocked unconscious.
He breathed a sigh of relief, then realized what this meant and cried out: “This ship is going to sink? Why would it sink? You… you’re installing gunpowder! You plan to blow up the ship once the conflict above starts!”
Murong Yi said in surprise: “Didn’t expect there’d be a smart one among the wastrels.”
Li Yuncheng broke out in another cold sweat.
What kind of madman was this?
With the Nanyue naval forces and Crown Princess guards in standoff above, he was pulling the rug out from under them here.
Once both sides started fighting, he would blow up the ship from below.
Caught off guard, everyone would fall into the water. Then he could calculatedly rescue the Crown Princess while capturing several naval officers, forcing them to submit.
Or simply blame the ship explosion on some nonexistent enemy, making the Nanyue naval forces believe someone else was causing trouble, thus redirecting the current conflict.
Thinking about it now, this was indeed an excellent solution, but not everyone’s first reaction to trouble would be killing and blowing up ships.
How crazy was this person?!
But Feng Huan suddenly pointed at the small boat and cried out in alarm.
Murong Yi turned around to see that the rope tying the small boat had somehow broken, and the boat that had been half-exposed was now drifting away.
He was astonished.
Someone in this world actually dared to steal people right under his nose?
Before he could give orders, a figure flashed as the two people nearest the cabin door rushed over.
Moments later, water splashed and sprayed in all directions—they had actually started fighting underwater.
Murong Yi hadn’t expected anyone to be bold enough to ambush right beside this ship, still trying to get something for nothing.
It seemed these people had also been waiting for the young masters to come out. Seeing people come out halfway while Murong Yi and others seemed held up by Feng Huan and Li Yuncheng and apparently hadn’t noticed this side, they grew bold and simply approached to act.
A figure flashed as Murong Yi personally rushed over and leaped into the water.
…
At the bow, the atmosphere was tense with drawn swords. Large groups of naval forces pressed forward, and the blade gleams at the front were almost touching Tie Ci’s clothing.
Both Chi Xue and Dan Shuang were pulling at Tie Ci, wanting her to avoid the situation first—they couldn’t start fighting with the naval forces right here.
Tie Ci stood at the bow, observing the entire ship. The deck buildings had three levels, with the innermost level being where she lived. Coming out the door and walking down the passage, it was all narrow paths wide enough for only one person, with height differences from the deck—there was no possibility of two people walking side by side to make a move.
Once on deck, it was even more open and spacious, visible to adjacent ships. With so many people witnessing at the time, plus her own people, since they all said no one had approached, then definitely no one had.
Besides this, what else could have been used for poisoning?
Suddenly a waterfowl’s long cry sounded over the river surface. The wind seemed stronger, rolling waves that crashed in succession. White sails rustled and shook in the wind. If the people on ship weren’t so crowded, holding onto each other, they would probably fall over.
This stretch of river was close to the sea, with an extremely wide surface. Wave after wave crashed thunderously against the bow, then shattered into misty spray that covered people’s heads and faces.
Tie Ci gazed at that water mist and suddenly said: “You think this wine was granted by me, that no one touched it in between, and since Grand Manager Xiao was poisoned, I must have poisoned the wine—even if I wasn’t poisoned, that doesn’t prove anything?”
“Of course!” someone shouted. “Who knows if you even drank any!”
Tie Ci: “Then what if I prove this wine was actually poisoned midway?”
Immediately someone said: “Impossible! Your own people said they encountered no one midway, and there were many people on deck who all said no one approached. How could you prove it? Frame someone in full view of everyone? Or are you saying a ghost poisoned it?”
The soldiers burst into laughter.
Dan Shuang angrily stepped forward, her gaze sweeping through the crowd, but before her were angry, red faces, everyone facing her with murderous intent clashing.
Mu Si immediately stepped forward behind her, drawing his sword even faster.
Someone said contemptuously: “What, can’t argue so you want to kill people? Then come kill us.”
Chi Xue pulled her back, whispering in her ear: “Trust Her Highness. Since she asked this way, she must have an idea. Don’t escalate the situation.”
Dan Shuang barely restrained herself, her icy face showing slight color, stunning the crowd momentarily.
Immediately someone laughed: “Women are women after all. When us men raise our voices a bit, they melt like water.”
Another jested: “Such a beauty—Brother Ma San, speak more politely, lest you hurt her tender heart…”
Having stayed in the military for three years, even a sow would look beautiful. These soldiers usually maintained strict discipline but were severely repressed. Now with their commander down and emotions agitated, they spoke lewdly without restraint. This person was only halfway through when suddenly a figure flashed before his eyes. The next instant his neck tightened, his feet left the ground, cold wind and water vapor hit his face, and river water rushed toward him.
He was confused for a moment before realizing he was being held in the Crown Princess’s hand, standing on the bow’s protective board with his feet dangling, facing the rushing river water below.
Below, there was an uproar.
Even Chi Xue was astonished.
This was the time to appease—why had the usually steady Crown Princess acted first?
Tie Ci stood at the bow with river waves thundering, voices boiling, and chaotic sounds all around. Her ears suddenly twitched.
Below, the soldiers who were already resentful and indignant saw the Crown Princess actually provoke first, and their minds thundered.
Military men were unruly, and Xiao Xueya’s troops were especially untamed. Usually only recognizing their commander, they didn’t much care about hierarchy or imperial dignity. Now with anger flaring, someone immediately drew a sword and jumped onto the bow, while from an adjacent ship, someone drew a bow and nocked an arrow, shooting straight at Tie Ci with a “whoosh.”
Tie Ci simply held the man up to block in the arrow’s direction.
The soldier instinctively cried out in alarm, but Tie Ci released her grip just before the arrow would have struck his face. With her other hand, she sliced through the air with her fingers together, breaking the arrow in half as it fell past her clothing.
This move stunned everyone into momentary silence.
In the brief quiet, Tie Ci suddenly called: “Rong Wei!”
As if by telepathy, a strange bird call sounded from the river surface.
Following the sound, Tie Ci looked down to see Murong Yi clinging to the ship’s side below the bow, grinning up at her.
Under his feet, he seemed to be standing on something dark and black.
Tie Ci’s heart leaped with joy.
She and Murong Yi truly were telepathically connected.
At this moment, on this entire ship, only he had guessed her suspicion.
No wonder when he had come out first earlier, she hadn’t seen any sign of him—he had indeed gone underwater.
She held the soldier’s collar in her hand and called softly: “This brother? Brother?”
The man had been closing his eyes waiting for death, but at her call, he startled and jerked in her grip, suddenly opening his eyes.
Tie Ci turned him around to face everyone, and he nearly died of shame, his face flushing red.
This scene, in the eyes of the Nanyue naval officers, was like humiliation. Their faces darkened like water as they all swore in their hearts to fight the Crown Princess to the death this time.
Tie Ci acted as if nothing had happened and said: “Watch carefully!”
Author’s Note: Starting today I’m going to Beijing to attend the Chinese Writers Association’s 10th National Congress, which will last several days. My saved manuscripts are running low, so there might be random 4,000-character updates. Please don’t blame me.