Chapter 155.1

“You really don’t want to mobilize some soldiers with you?” Lou Xia Er swayed his body, seeing Liang En Zai off the imperial palace. Leisurely, he leaned against the door frame, confirming once again.

“How big do you think Fan Luo City is? If I take a battalion with me, where should I lodge them?” Liang En Zai rolled his eyes, jumping on his horse that was waiting outside the imperial palace.

“Well, you do have many Knights, don’t you?” Lou Xia Er curled his lips into a bright smile, asking. He admitted that he was jealous. He was jealous of the heartless man in front of him. This man had just waved his hands and thrown all the pressure from the court to him while packing his things and going South to get married.

“Even if there are many, they can’t compare to your army. And, Regent, Your Highness, did you forget? Fan Luo City and Da Hui now don’t have a superior-inferior relation anymore. It also means…” Liang En Zai paused, provokingly raised his face, “I’m just the Wangye of the tiny Fan Luo County, and we have to send the tributes to Da Hui yearly. Of course, we must save our money.”

“Stop it!” Lou Xia Er rolled his eyes. He fumed, “Not to mention Prince Jing’s mansion’s properties, those silvers you’ve robbed all these years… Your assets are enough to buy the whole imperial palace of Da Hui!”

“Oh, brother Lou, why do you underestimate me like that? You hurt my feelings! Without your support, how could our Knights have today’s prosperity? But how could you say that the Knights had robbed? During this year, I don’t even know how much money I have to give out to make up for the loss!”

“All right, all right! Let’s put it aside. I’m annoyed when you talk about it. Remember what you’ve promised me. Get going and hurry to sign the peace treaty with the Blood Union. Otherwise, I don’t care if you live in the East or the West, you have to bring your ass back here and work as the Minister of the Ministry of War for me.”

“No worry! I’ve finished preparing the treaty. You just need to wait for Guangci House to send it to you.” Liang En Zai lifted his head to check the sky, the sun was already up in the west. He hurried to turn his horse around and waved Lou Xia Er goodbye. “It’s getting late. If I keep talking with you, I’ll be forced to camp in the wilderness! When you have time, come visit my humble country!”

Lou Xia Er stood by the imperial palace’s gate, looking at the man and his horse leaving far away. He sighed and turned around, walking into the palace when the man’s shadow disappeared.

The Emperor’s situation was severe. The five-year-old Prince could smoothly enthrone because of the cooperation between Liang En Zai and him. The news of him being the Regent had been spread around the palace or even outside of Da Hui. He knew what they would say about them, especially about him.

However, only him and Liang En Zai knew the truth. Why did they have to help the ninth Prince enthrone while the Emperor was seriously ill and his harem was chaotic? Because, among the princes, only the Ninth Prince was the only son of his late sister. The palace rumored that his sister died after giving birth to the Ninth Prince. However, he knew that she was shocked to death because of Li Wen Xiu’s new concubine.

He didn’t want to take the world from the Li family, but he didn’t want to see his little nephew to be boycotted by the other brothers from the same father but different mothers, either. Thus, he asked Liang En Zai’s Knights to threaten the Emperor. If the Emperor didn’t agree with his proposal, he would level his harem and kill all of the Li family’s offspring. The Da Hui’s royal family would have to encounter a major blood change.

It was good that although Li Wen Xiu had so many wives and concubines for his whole life, his Empress had only two Princesses. So, he had no son from the main line to inherit his throne. No matter who would take the throne, they were still sons born by his concubines. And so, the five-year-old Prince now took the throne with the grace of the emperor and was supervised by him.

The Feng Qing era ended from here. Thereupon came the first year of the Xin Qi Regime.

—

When the last beam of sunlight fell on Yue Kui Town, a man and his horse strolled into town.

“Master, you’re finally here. We’ve been waiting tiredly for you.” A young man in his twenties wearing blue clothes stepped forward and respectfully received the reins from the handsome man in white. He took the horse and complained while walking toward Yue Kui Inn.

“No matter what, it’s already good that I arrived before sunset.” Liang En Zai smiled, cocking his head to one side and sweeping his eyes to aggrieved Qing Feng. “What? Wu Ji provoked you again?”

“He dares!” Qing Feng shook his head in denial. “It’s Wu Xing. I don’t know who had beaten him up. He came to the Knights with a swollen face.”

“Sigh, you’ve known him for years and still he could affect you? Go, tonight’s dinner is on me. Feel free to order whatever you want.”

“Psst, it’s just a small inn. Except for boiled beef, they have only some salad. Master, dare you purposely doing this? You chose this inn to treat us to? Why didn’t you do that when we were still in the imperial city?”

“Well, now we can’t compare to the past. Your Master doesn’t have a stable salary from the court anymore. And from now on, I have to take care of the people in my county. If I don’t tighten my pockets, then what’ll come in the future?”

“Don’t you dare play games… Regent Lou said that you robbed dozens of thousands of gold ingots from the old Emperor. Feeding the people in a county is no big deal…”

Liang En Zai almost slipped in surprise. “You guys also knew this? No wonder why you didn’t want to be dismissed and you were so persistent to follow me to Fan Luo County. I thought that your sleeping conscience finally woke up… I didn’t expect you guys to be aiming at my gold! I’m telling you! Fan Luo County is my territory. There are so many masters there. You guys should watch out…”

“Psst… Who do you think you can fool?… Everybody knows that Fan Luo City is remote and desolate. It shouldn’t be much different from Yue Kui Town… Master, don’t think that just because Qing Feng hasn’t crossed Zhong He many times that I’m unaware of what a barren southern city looks like…”

“Aha! Qing Feng, let’s make a bet. If you believe this when we arrive in Fan Luo County, I will lose this bet.”

“Deal! What do you want to bet?”

“Let’s bet on your Wu Ji.”

“Can’t make a bet on Wu Ji.”

“Then we’ll make a bet that Wu Ji will sell his life to me.”

“This… Deal. If I win, Master, you can’t make Wu Ji risk his life anymore…”

“Deal.” He actually didn’t want to let his Knights continue to risk their lives for him any more. Later on, he had to try his best to reform Fan Luo County, and he needed them to sell their physical strength to him, not their lives!

And that was how the pitiful man was sold down the river by his bedmate and his conscienceless master.