Chapter 3.05 – The Missing Protagonist (2)

Xiang Han only came back to his senses half a day later, and said without thinking, "Your skills are not bad, ah. How old were you when you first started learning to cook? How long have you been in Yun Lou?"

Luo Bai smiled bashfully and replied, "I've been learning ever since I was a child. However, I learnt from my grandfather, so the path I took wasn't a normal one, and I only came to Yun Lou half a year ago."

"Oh, oh." Xiang Han nodded his head, seemingly deep in thought. Half a year ago…that was around the time Prince Liang had been placed under house arrest. It seemed like this was really the butterfly effect.

Xiang Han's gaze instantly turned complicated. Luo Bai peeked at him for a little before he gratefully said, "However, I was originally about to be kicked out of this restaurant. Thankfully, this customer ordered my dish, the Furong chicken soup with fine vermicelli, nine times consecutively…"

Xiang Han: Huh?

"…Therefore when I heard that you wanted to see me, I specially prepared some small snacks. They were freshly made last night, I hope you do not mind."

Luo Bai was embarrassed and after saying his piece, he quickly took out a paper bag from behind. The moment he opened it, Xiang Han's eyes instantly turned round.

B-baked biscuits? They were even shaped like kittens, rabbits, and little chicks?!

In his last world, due to his character setting, he had been enduring because he was too embarrassed to eat such things. This world was set in an ancient era. Originally, he had thought he would have no fate with such snacks, but he never thought there would be a day he could let loose and eat to his heart's content.

Wait a minute, was Luo Bai a transmigrator?

Xiang Han instantly calmed down and asked, "These snacks are rather uncommon and unlike the other cakes I have seen before. Did you think of it yourself?"

Luo Bai immediately shook his head, "I learnt it from a recipe book passed down from my ancestors."

Oh, turns out his ancestors were transmigrators.

Xiang Han looked at the biscuits and the more he looked, the more satisfied he became. He raised his head and looked at Luo Bai's clear gaze and bashful smile. No matter how he looked at it, it was a waste to pair him up with Prince Liang. How awesome would it be if he could become an imperial chef?

Xiang Han asked his System without much hope, [Little Nine, will there be a problem if I destroyed the main CP?]

System: [As long as the storyline does not collapse and the plot is able to go on, it is fine. In the last two worlds, the main protagonist gong and shou also did not end up together, ah.]

Xiang Han's mood instantly soared as he instructed Luo Bai to sit down, thinking about how he should lure the other person back to his palace as he ate.

Just as the two of them were making idle chat, there was a commotion from the adjacent room, and then someone shouted, "You think it'll end with just Prince Liang? I heard Prime Minister Sun and the old Marquis Wei were both killed… We might not even be able to protect our own positions. A while ago, even Teacher Zhao was captured and afterwards, Prince Liang was put under house arrest…"

"Wasn't Teacher already released?"

"Fools, you don't understand. My father-in-law's small aunt's uncle…was on duty that day at the palace. I heard Teacher Zhao's son exchanged himself and took his place in order to free Teacher. That night, all the ministers knelt outside the Imperial Palace and every one personally witnessed Minister Zhao walk out from that person's chambers, completely covered in blood and unable to even walk straight.

"Tsk tsk…"

"Pft—— Cough, cough!" Xiang Han spat out a mouthful of tea and coughed violently. After hacking away, he was immediately stupefied. His biscuits…

Luo Bai saw his grief-stricken face that looked as if he wished he were dead as he looked at the biscuit and softly said, "I still have some. If this customer likes, do you want some more?"

"En, en, en." Xiang Han nodded furiously.

Before leaving, he specifically instructed his bodyguards to visit the next room and remember the names of those people. Each and every one of them had the free time to gossip blindly, clearly, they had nothing better to do. He would give them something to keep them occupied then.

After Luo Bai wrapped up the few pieces of biscuits, he walked Xiang Han to the exit. Xiang Han clutched his hands excitedly as he said, "Little Bai, are you interested in learning from an even more amazing chef?"

Luo Bai froze and instinctively replied, "Of course I do."

The reason why he fought so hard to stay in Yun Lou was in order to learn and improve his culinary skills before opening his own restaurant. From his sensitive palates, the distinguished guest in front of him was clearly not an ordinary man. Could it be his family ran a restaurant?

Xiang Han was overjoyed and patted his shoulders, "Great, then let's go back to my house. My house has many chefs and each one of them is very amazing."

Luo Bai could not help becoming excited and hurriedly asked, "I wonder which restaurant does this guest come from?"

Xiang Han, "Uh…"

Today was Zhao Ze's rest day and one of the rare days he had the time to go out. However, he had just taken a few steps when he suddenly saw a familiar figure.

He blinked furiously and upon confirming that it was indeed a certain person, his heart clenched. Taking big steps, he strode towards the other man.

Why was the Little Emperor outside the palace? Without a single person by his side, had all the bodyguards in the palace died? Moreover, who was that shorty beside him?

Zhao Ze had yet to draw closer to them when suddenly, countless cold glints flashed as they headed towards the Little Emperor. His heart dropped and without thinking, he had already rushed forward while bringing out various hidden weapons.

Xiang Han froze, and once he recovered, he hurriedly pulled Luo Bai and hid inside the restaurant.

The unexpected visitor abruptly revealed himself, directly blocking the two people's escape route and drew his sword in a flash.

Xiang Han saw the situation was turning ugly and immediately planned to let his System take control. However, Luo Bai had been shocked silly, directly pushing him onto the ground and using his own body as a shield. Thankfully, there was still Zhao Ze, who arrived just in time, kicking the sword away which narrowly missed them by just a few inches. In the end, the sword merely grazed his elbow.

Xiang Han & System: "…" Good sword, they nearly had to step in.

Hearing the commotion outside, the shadow guards finally appeared and with their help, the intruders were quickly captured.

Zhao Ze glanced at one of the men and his expression instantly changed. He immediately went forward and tore off his mask, shouting furiously, "It really is you."

Xiang Han had just torn off his outer robes and helped Luo Bai dress his wounds when he heard those words. Turning his head to look, he recognised the other person.

It was the Marquis of Wei Yuan, Viscount Wang Jun. The old Marquis of Wei Yuan was a high ranking chancellor in court but three months ago, he died after falling from his horse which had been spooked. Wang Jun should have succeeded him but because of the original host's disgust for politics and ministers, it was already a miracle that he did not immediately waste the Wei Yuan family. How could he allow Wang Jun to succeed his position and become a Marquis?

Xiang Han was helpless when it comes to Prince Liang's methods. The old Marquis of Wei Yuan could be considered half a battle horse who was willing to go into battle for the country of Da Ji. Speaking of which, there were so many ways he could have died, yet he actually died from falling off a spooked horse. As long as you were a person, you would find it suspicious.

However, Xiang Han had another hypothesis later on. Prince Liang had deliberately set his death up to look extremely suspicious so that people would grow wary and blame his death on the original host. Anyhow, there was no evidence and everything was up to him depending on how he chose to say it.

Wang Jun glared at Zhao Ze with resentment and gritted his teeth, "Zhao Ze, our brotherhood was truly in vain. You actually sold your life to this incapable Emperor. I, Wang Jun, was really blind…"

After his tirade of curses, Luo Bai standing by the side was completely shaken and stuttered, "Y-Y-You a-a-are…"

"The Emperor," Xiang Han impatiently helped him to close his jaw.

With a light push, Luo Bai directly bit his own tongue and teared up in a flash, "Pain."

Xiang Han, "Uh…"

In the face of Wang Jun's fury, Zhao Ze was silent. Finally, he shook his head and said, "I've told you before. The Marquis death is unrelated to the Emperor and also warned you not to do it, but you…"

Speaking to this point, he sighed and waved a hand to signal for his men to take him away. Then, he turned to look at the Little Emperor.

Xiang Han watched as he walked towards him and instantly felt uneasy. But after thinking, he realised an important point. He was the emperor, what did he have to fear? Therefore, he immediately straightened his back.

Although Xiang Han did not suffer a single injury, thinking of the dire situation earlier, Zhao Ze still had lingering fears. He wanted nothing more than to grab the Little Emperor by his ears and teach him a lesson. Who allowed you to sneak out of the palace and hang around the streets? Don't you know how dangerous the outside world is? Don't you know how important your identity is, you should not sit under overhanging eaves[1]?

But he still remembered his own status as a minister, and, although he was angry, his attitude was still respectful. "Your Majesty, please return to the palace."

"Oh." Xiang Han felt as if he had just escaped a calamity and hardened his scalp as he instructed, "Bring Little Bai along. He did save Zhen's life."

Zhao Ze, "…" His heart suddenly felt very stuffy. Wasn't he the one who blocked the last attack?

The matter of him sneaking out of the palace was ultimately known since he had met with an assassination attempt. Moreover, it had even alerted the magistrate and imperial guards.

After returning to the palace, Queen Mother Hui first hugged him and cried loudly, cursing the 'damned' Wei Yuan family until she nearly fainted. Xiang Han had nearly believed that he had suffered a fatal wound and would not survive.

With much difficulty, he finally managed to coax the Queen Mother out, only for Teacher Zhao to arrive. First, it was bitter self-blaming before he started to criticise Xiang Han until he felt ashamed and swore to never sneak out of the palace again.

Afterwards, the matter was still not over. The next day, various court documents piled up high, like snowflakes, on his desk. Xiang Han's face twitched. He did not even have an ounce of desire to flip them open.

Moreover, in that very afternoon, 'Sir' Zhao came back again.

Xiang Han had thought his afternoon would be free and wanted to call Luo Bai over to research a little on culinary skills. Seeing that Zhao Ze had come, he was instantly unhappy and hardened his expression to ask, "Isn't Minister Zhao writing a dictionary now? How do you have the time to come over?"

Zhao Ze said, "Father was afraid that this lowly minister's skills are lacking and in order to prevent errors from leading people astray, he decided to personally handle the matter. Moreover, Your Majesty's lessons still require a teacher to conduct them and so this Minister will temporarily not be in charge of writing that dictionary." More importantly, he could not allow the Little Emperor any free time to sneak out of the palace.

Xiang Han wanted to look up at the sky and howl: Teacher, ah, teacher, if you're too idle, you can help Zhen settle this paperwork. What are you blindly supervising the smartest person in the capital for?

Therefore, he bitterly resumed his afternoon classes. Moreover, because of the assassination attempt this time, Zhao Ze added in horse riding and martial arts classes for him.

It must be noted this body's physical ability was really too poor, unable to even maintain a horse stance for a minute. Thankfully, he did not allow Little Nine to take control of his body that day when they had met with an assassination attempt. If Little Nine had accidentally lost control of its strength, he might have broken an arm.

After a bout of horse stance, Zhao Ze began to personally teach him how to use a bow. From the back, he half-hugged Xiang Han with one hand holding the bow and the other holding an arrow. However, Xiang Han's arms were too weak and it did not take long for him to appear defeated, both his hands shaking.

Zhao Ze had never seen such a weak person and could not help asking, "Why is Your Majesty shaking?"

"Zhen is too excited," Xiang Han angrily replied. If he still had his body from the previous world, he would already have abused this person to death.

Excited?

Zhao Ze quickly discovered their postures and, thinking that the Little Emperor had a crush on him, he quickly let go and subconsciously put some distance between them.

Although his impression of the Little Emperor had undergone some changes, there were still some lines which could not be crossed. After all, the other person was a monarch and he was a lowly minister, he could not be disrespectful.

He contemplated for a while and took the initiative to change topics, "If Your Majesty shakes like this, you will not be able to hit the bull's eye."

Xiang Han, "…"

[Little Nine, I suddenly have the urge to abuse him a little.] He silently gritted his teeth.

System asked, [How do you want to do it?]

Xiang Han, [Get a shot in and let him know how brilliant I am.]

[Understood.] System immediately took control of his hands and without waiting for Xiang Han to react, the arrow had already hit the bull's eye with a "swoosh".

Zhao Ze froze. Xiang Han also froze. System picked up three more arrows and prepared to launch them simultaneously until Xiang Han quickly came forward to stop it, [Enough, enough. Any further and it will be too excessive.]

Zhao Ze stared at the bull's eye and his tone became complicated, "Your Majesty is indeed outstanding."

"En." Xiang Han haughtily put the bow down and said, "Since that is the case, we'll end here for today."

Zhao Ze shook his head and continued, "This minister was saying that Your Majesty's luck was outstanding. The arrow actually managed to hit the bull's eye precisely when you shook."

"You…" Xiang Han felt angry and defeated.

"In the end, it was only a coincidence. Your Majesty should start from learning how to draw a bow first and after your hands have become steadier, we'll start on accuracy training," Zhao Ze said with utmost seriousness.

Xiang Han, "…" His heart was very stuffy.