10 1.10: Under the cherry blossom rain

In a guest room located at the back courtyard of the temple, Qin Feng was sitting on a round-back wooden chair facing the open window with a pondering look on his face. His left hand fiddled around with a thumb ring delicately and exquisitely carved out of top-quality black jade with a golden 'Qin' character beautifully engraved on its surface.

At this time, the two personal guards, Mo Li and Mo Xu, who were sent to investigate the people that visited the temple today came back to report. Mo Qi was also present at the side from quite a while ago as he stood there watching the general lost deep in his thoughts for an hour.

He was wondering what could be so important for the general to ponder so seriously in silence without moving from his spot for almost an hour. The curiosity was scratching his heart but he could only keep the cat inside as it will surely die if he really inquired the general about it.

Seeing his fellow comrades enter and kneel before the general to report, Mo Qi finally shifted his interest to them instead. He also wanted to know for what difficult mission the general had assigned his two personal guards for.

Not just one, but two! It wasn't an exaggeration to say that just one of the general's personal guards could handle very dangerous missions and were strong enough to defeat more than twenty armed men by themselves. It must be a very important secret mission this time.

"General!" Mo Li and Mo Xu knelt on their knees and cupped their hands above their head respectfully.

Qin Feng finally got out of his thoughts but didn't shift his eyes from the outside and asked, "Did you get what I told you to?"

"Yes, general! We have got it all here." saying that, Mo Xu took out a paper scroll from his chest pocket then respectfully handed it over to Qin Feng with both hands raised up above him.

Qin Feng turned his gaze to the paper scroll and took it nonchalantly. Unfurling it, he read through the neatly written and arranged list of names of the guests and their identities, about the outing and everything that happened there. As he read through the scroll, his brows knitted further and he calmly tossed it aside without reading the rest of it.

Who would've thought that he would stumble upon so many things after arriving in the temple? First that mysterious beautiful man and now the incident that took place in the side hall of the temple.

Although he was in the faction loyal to the throne and was neutral towards the internal conflicts between the two princes for the throne, he couldn't just turn a complete blind eye to the current situation in the court. As a neutral party and also the person with the military tally, he was also responsible for keeping a balance over the other two hostile factions in case chaos ensued in the court.

He could turn a blind eye on their petty schemes behind the scenes but to dare to scheme in broad daylight and even drag his maternal family over this! Just because he had been out of the capital for half a year, their guts actually increased to even dare challenge his neutral stance like this. They were really tired of living!

With the change in his emotions, the air inside the room also froze as if winter had descended upon them again. Mo Qi, Mo Xu and Mo Li shuddered unconsciously as they felt suppressed by the pressure emitted from the general. Mo Li and Mo Xu had experienced it two times in just a day which made them feel very miserable inside.

Just who dared to provoke this devil king again? If they knew who it was, they will definitely go over and beat them until they vented their grievances for this!

Mo Qi gathered his courage and tried to ignore the imposing aura around the general. He asked, "General, is there something wrong with the report?"

At his question, Mo Li and Mo Xu secretly shot a glare at him as they cursed him inside their head.

'F*ck that Mo Qi! How could he ask such a question when the general is in a bad mood? What if he directs his anger at us instead?'

'Just because he wasn't the one who made the report, he dares to actually form a pit for us? Just you wait, when I am out of this safely, I will make sure to beat you into a pulp!'

Not knowing that his two comrades had already written his name at the top of their hit-list, Mo Qi boldly grabbed the scroll thrown aside by the general after getting a single gesture as an answer to his question.

Finally after he read through the report, Mo Qi understood why the general was suddenly in a bad mood.

To think that someone would actually dare to go against the general, they were being too smart for their own good.

Even with the emperor's worsening health, the general was still the most heavily favoured official of the emperor and also the young hero of the nation. With his status as the General Zhong Yong as well as the next Protector General of the first rate Qin clan was already enough to make him highly respected among the court officials and even the imperial family had to give him due respect in the surface.

Now to think that someone would actually dare to plot against the general; even though the general's maternal family wasn't very close to the Qin family, they were still close relatives by blood so if one of them was implicated somehow, the other couldn't escape from it either.

In today's incident in the temple, the two main characters involved were none other than the fifth prince, Long Ji Jing and the eldest legitimate daughter of the duke of Jing's manor, Shen Yu Miao, who was also the maternal cousin sister of the general.

After the death of the Empress Xiande, the duke of Jing's manor started to show obvious signs of decline. The general's mother, Shen shi¹ was the second legitimate sister of the late empress and was married into the Qin family. The duke manor already had no hopes to regain their former glory as they were reduced to the point of using their daughters to raise their status instead but it still did no help to them.

The empress died young right after giving birth to the seventh prince while the Qin family were only loyal to the throne and they only decided to form a marriage between them because of their status as a declining aristocratic family. Although the emperor heavily favoured the Qin family for their great lineage and the talents produced throughout the generations, his paranoid nature still kept him wary from the potential danger the Qin family held towards the imperial family.

To not attract the suspicions of the emperor, the Qin family could never hope to make deep connections with other aristocratic families so they could only stay low-key and interact less with others to not break their ancestral rules.

Due to this reason, the duke of Jing's manor couldn't get any benefits from the marriage at all and they still kept on declining until what they had was only an empty title with no power in hand.

But if the duke family was suddenly dragged into the mess and were forcibly tied together with the fifth prince then the neutral Qin family will also be affected and it will be hard to extricate themselves from getting tied together with the fifth prince's faction.

This move looked simple but was actually deadly towards the towering Qin family that could be toppled over if they failed to maintain the balance. Whoever planned this was really not simple.

"General, this....!" Mo Qi understood the seriousness of this matter and couldn't help but feel anxious inside.

"I know. Whoever came up with this scheme is definitely very cunning, ruthless and decisive in nature. They not only want to get rid of the fifth prince but also want the Qin family to fall. They must be wary of the military seal² in my hand thus dared to plot such a scheme. But..."

Qin Feng paused for a bit and a chilling smile formed on his handsome face as he finished with a sentence,"they had underestimated me too much."

Mo Qi's eyes lit up at his words. "General, have you thought about a solution?"

"You may say so. Since they dared to provoke me, they must be prepared for my retaliation. They want the throne right? Fine, I will just snatch it away right under their nose!" Qin Feng took back the scroll from Mo Qi, who was stunned by his words and looked at a certain name written in the scroll, his eyes deep and unfathomable.

'Long Ji Wei...To think that you were none other than my cousin as well as the rumoured sickly seventh prince. Maybe this is fate...our fate.'

...

Bai Yu: Achoo~!!

Inside the carriage, Bai Yu suddenly sneezed quite loudly as he was caught off-guard.

"Wang ye! Did you catch a cold? Maybe we shouldn't have come to the outing today. Your health is already so poor that you can't even sit in the garden for too long. And today you even drank quite a bit of wine in the open air. I will call for an imperial physician right after we get to the fu!" Xiao Mo who was sitting on the coach's seat outside the carriage was startled by the loud sneeze and started to lecture him to take care of his health worriedly.

Listening to him going non-stop over that one small sneeze, Bai Yu didn't know whether to laugh or cry. It was only a sneeze yet he sounded as if he would die just from a slight cold.

Well, if it were the original Long Ji Wei then he might indeed do so though...

'Sigh...might as well let him be.' Bai Yu shook his head helplessly.

Today's outing was really fun and all but the matter about the fifth prince and his maternal family was indeed quite a pain. He didn't really mind about his maternal family as they haven't contacted him even once after the death of his mother empress so he didn't have any deep attachment with them.

But then again, if the duke family was also gone then he would have no one to back him up and it will be harder for him to make allies to gain control over the court and ascend the throne to complete his task. It would be a humiliation to have your own maternal family side with your enemy instead of yourself. Even if it was because of the trap laid by Long Ji Ling, it still couldn't change the fact that the duke of Jing's family was now going to be tied together with the fifth prince, willingly or not.

This move played by his elder brother was really too good, he had to admit that.

But he also felt that something was missing. If it was only to strip him off of his last straw to get back up to his feet in the court then it wasn't really necessary for Long Ji Ling to go so far as to plot against the duke of Jing's family as he would soon die from the cold poison according to Long Ji Ling's plans and won't be an obstacle to him at all.

The duke family was also just a declining aristocratic family with no significant influence held in the court and was of no good use as a chess piece so why would he make such an unnecessary move?

Was Long Ji Ling too insecure about his own plot and so he set up a back up plan? Or is there something else to it...?

Was he thinking too much about it?

He quickly shook his head.

No. For someone as cunning as Long Ji Ling, he would never make such an unnecessary move just to get rid of an already dying man like Long Ji Wei so there must be something else that he wanted to achieve. As for what it was...he will know sooner or later.

He must move his plans forward. By this time, he already had quite a few useful chess pieces that could be used to escalate the conflict between his two brothers. They will be more than enough to stall them from diverting their thoughts towards the duke of Jing's family for the time being.

Coming into a decision, Bai Yu beckoned at Little Star who was looking out from the carriage window in boredom. Seeing his master calling for him, he excitedly floated over to him and was pulled by his hand before he could say anything.

Pulling his ears closer, Bai Yu whispered a few instructions to him which instantly made Little Star's eyes light up brightly in anticipation.

"I got it, master! I will do as you say! I was getting bored of only spying and not doing anything else all this time. Now I can finally do something more fun! Yay!" Little Star floated in a circle in excitement.

Looking at him energetically dancing in the air, Bai Yu flashed a small smile and then closed his eyes to take a rest.

Today was very fun and also tiring.

But the fun was only starting. As for whom it will really be fun and for whom it will be tiring, only time could tell.

***

1) The shi in Shen Shi is used to address married women. It can be seen as a surname.

2) Military tally/seal is the seal with the highest authority that can let the person holding it to mobilise any part of the military army of a nation.