HomeAfter I Bloom Hundred Flowers DieChapter 677: Capture for Study

Chapter 677: Capture for Study

Shen Xihe didn’t rest, instead taking over Long Yan’s official duties, working through the night to review and quickly arrange the remaining matters.

By midnight, the lights remained bright. As she continued working, Xiao Changfeng and Xiao Changgeng also stayed awake, watching over Xiao Longyan. As expected, Longyan developed a fierce fever at midnight, and the physician tried many methods but couldn’t bring down his temperature.

Shen Xihe had brought Zhenzhu with her. When Xiao Changfeng and Xiao Longyan’s advisor personally came to plead before her, Shen Xihe directly refused: “My maid only has a rough understanding of medicine. Prince Jing’s condition is aggressive – she likely won’t be able to help. I’ll send word to Wendeng County now to request Imperial Physicians.”

The palace physicians had come once before when Xiao Longyan was saving Xiao Changgeng. After Changgeng’s condition stabilized, they returned, as their duty was to protect the Crown Prince.

If something happened to Xiao Longyan and Xiao Changgeng here, they wouldn’t be punished for delayed treatment. But if anything happened to Xiao Huayong, they would pay with their lives, so naturally they dared not linger.

“Crown Princess, regardless of success or failure, please let Miss Zhenzhu try. Going to Wendeng County to request physicians would take several hours round trip…” The advisor dropped to his knees with a thud, kowtowing as he begged.

The advisor also knew some medicine, but he was truly at his wit’s end, which was why he came to plead before Shen Xihe.

“Your Highness Crown Princess, Prince Jing is after all the Crown Prince’s brother, addressing you respectfully as Imperial Sister-in-law. Now Prince Jing’s life hangs by a thread. With someone knowledgeable in medicine by your side, Your Highness watching coldly from the sidelines – if word got out, it wouldn’t sound good,” Xiao Changfeng added. “If Your Highness doesn’t care about such things, would the Crown Prince also not care?”

Knowing to use Xiao Huayong to pressure her, Shen Xihe looked up from the account books and glanced at Xiao Changfeng, asking with a half-smile: “If I send my person to help, and Prince Jing has an unfortunate accident as a result, would you believe I had nothing to do with it?”

Xiao Changfeng and the advisor were stumped. If they said they would believe her at this point, and Shen Xihe truly took lethal action, what could they do? If they said they wouldn’t believe her, why would Shen Xihe send anyone?

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Changfeng said: “Doctors have benevolent hearts. Crown Princess, you work tirelessly, just as the Crown Prince traveled thousands of miles here to relieve the common people’s suffering. The Crown Princess has righteousness in her heart and is certainly not one to act like vermin. How could you take lethal action against your brother-in-law? If anything happens to Prince Jing, it would be heaven’s will and naturally have nothing to do with Your Highness.”

Listen to how well he speaks, Shen Xihe couldn’t help but raise the corners of her lips. At this point, she truly had no room to refuse: “Zhenzhu, go with Prince Xun.”

“Yes,” Zhenzhu responded.

The possibility of Shen Xihe letting Zhenzhu take lethal action at this point was extremely small. Xiao Changfeng somehow guessed this point, perhaps because she treasured her people dearly. Indeed, even if Zhenzhu took action and left no evidence, the Emperor couldn’t do anything to Shen Xihe, but when a prince died by treatment, having the servants who attended to him die alongside him wasn’t a big matter. Even if Shen Xihe wanted to plead for mercy, she would be powerless to save anyone.

As long as Zhenzhu acted, Xiao Longyan could be saved – this was what Xiao Changfeng believed.

“Today I discovered that this cousin of yours isn’t someone of shallow thoughts either,” Shen Xihe said when only she remained in the room. She flipped through a few pages of the account book as a faint fragrance of tagara wafted through the slightly open window, her eyes curving slightly.

The next moment, a warm embrace encircled her from behind: “In the Xiao Imperial clan, there are no fools.”

Not to say everyone was capable, but there were certainly none who were hopelessly stupid.

Previously in the Northwest, Xiao Changfeng had concealed some of his abilities or perhaps hadn’t revealed much.

“Does he have some unknown connection with Prince Jing?” Shen Xihe leaned back naturally, tilting her chin up to look at Xiao Huayong above her.

Shen Xihe didn’t believe a word about secret orders. Xiao Longyan was managing disaster relief – at this crucial time, he couldn’t possibly be easily transferred away. Regarding disaster relief matters, what secret orders would need to be given to Xiao Longyan?

This was Xiao Changfeng’s confident pretext. He knew well that she wouldn’t go ask Emperor Youning about it. Even if she asked, at most the Emperor would privately scold him a few times. He had come specifically to rescue Xiao Longyan.

“When they were young, they studied together. Little Eight once saved his life,” Xiao Huayong knew of this matter.

“Since you knew about this, why didn’t you send someone to delay Prince Xun?” Shen Xihe asked curiously.

“His Majesty sent him secretly, I only just found out,” Xiao Huayong lowered his head and pecked her cheek. “His Majesty has his methods. If I could always see through everything and know all matters, I wouldn’t still be maintaining false friendliness with him at this moment.”

They would have already torn off their masks and confronted each other directly.

Shen Xihe nodded, thinking of the last time Emperor Youning had moved against Xiao Huayong. If Xiao Huayong hadn’t happened to contact Xiao Juesong, it would have been difficult to escape. Emperor Youning had been able to snatch the throne from his elder brother and maintain his position steadily for so many years – he was certainly not someone easy to deal with.

As Emperor, having accumulated power for over twenty years, he could still swallow his temper – this was even more awe-inspiring.

She had slapped the Emperor’s face several times, yet Emperor Youning had let her off each time, never taking retaliatory action against her, not even issuing slight warnings. This wasn’t because he was incapable or afraid, but because he could maintain his composure.

Such a person normally wouldn’t act rashly, but once he did act – like that day at the traveling palace against Xiao Huayong – he would make it nearly impossible for others to turn the tables.

“Though Little Eight escaped with his life this time, I’ve lost at least three-tenths of his shadow guards – truly a heavy blow,” Xiao Huayong shared something happy with Shen Xihe. “I also captured some alive to study carefully.”

Of the people Xiao Longyan had knocked unconscious, he had taken two, naturally not taking them all as that would have aroused Xiao Longyan’s vigilance. The scene of today’s confrontation was chaotic – even Xiao Longyan himself couldn’t count exactly how many people had died, much less try to take a count, especially since some people had been blown to pieces.

Hearing this, Shen Xihe suddenly showed a strange expression: “You seem to enjoy capturing people to study…”

At the traveling palace, Xiao Huayong had also switched things around and captured the Emperor’s Divine Warrior Army to study them.

Seeing her look as if she’d discovered he had a strange hobby, Xiao Huayong couldn’t help but laugh: “This is called ‘know your enemy and know yourself, and you’ll never be defeated in battle.’ Now only Old Five’s secret guards remain. If I could catch a couple of them too, once I figure out all their training methods, I can combine the strengths of each group and train a batch of people myself. Wouldn’t it be interesting to play with them a bit, having them counter each other?”

“Prince Xin… likely has no intention of being your enemy,” Shen Xihe thought of Xiao Changqing, who now seemed to have become Buddhist-like. When Xiao Huayong’s men impersonated his people to attack Xiao Longyan’s men, Shen Xihe felt he must have known about it.

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