The general shuddered when he heard his question.
General Lou made no order, ah! It turned out that General Hou was unaware of this!
The general was at a loss for words. He stammered for a while and finally stuttered a reply, “I mean, a few days ago, His Majesty asked Jingwang to stay behind in the palace, and then there was no more…”
Before he could finish speaking, Huo Wujiu’s low, icy voice interrupted him.
“A few days ago?”
The general didn’t dare to speak again.
Then Huo Wujiu also remained silent.
After a while, he clenched his teeth and looked down at the general, whose knees turned jelly by the terrifying look on his face.
“What good things did Lou Yue do?” he said.
His tone was still calm, but his voice was squeezed out from his teeth. That forcibly suppressed gloomy appearance heralding a tempest was even more frightening than when he was furious.
The general hurriedly floundered to explain: “General Lou was also left with no other choice! His Majesty somehow got information and especially arranged to take the Prince away after the court session…”
Huo Wujiu gripped the whip in one hand and raised the other, signaling the general to shut up.
The general instantly zipped his mouth.
He watched as Huo Wujiu led his horse with one hand. He turned sideways and around towards the back. The generals who were leading the army behind him immediately took their orders, and then the well-trained troops divided themselves into several wings and staged formations outside the city.
Huo Wujiu returned his attention to the general at his side.
“Tell Lou Yue to quickly burn incense and send prayers to Buddha. If anything happens to Jingwang, he won’t survive either.” His voice was glacial, speaking through clenched teeth.
“Go open the city gates,” he commanded.
After that day, the Hou Zhu spent two days in the palace in the world of wine and women.
However, his spending and drinking was now very different from before. He acted so perverse to the point of madness, so the people around him did not dare to persuade him. They only carried out his orders and daily informed him of the situation outside the city. Afterward, he would go to the dungeon to check if Jingwang was still breathing.
His Majesty beat him up quite badly that day.
His Majesty had never beaten anyone in his life. After that day, Jingwang, who was let down from the rope, was passed out, almost black and blue from head to toe. With his orders, the people who worked these days also gave him medicine and food every day. Jingwang might have been dizzy when he woke up, but he was hanging on for dear life and never died.
This lasted until this morning. The guard who went to the city gate to scout for news rushed back to the palace and dashed to the Hou Zhu’s bedchamber.
“Your Majesty, it’s terrible. Your Majesty!” The guard urged urgently, “The rebel, Huo Wujiu, has led an army outside the city! Your Majesty, you should pack up and escape from the palace!”
The Hou Zhu, however, replied, “Isn’t Lou Yue there?”
The guard was so anxious that he almost jumped. “Your Majesty, General Lou is probably lying to you! The spies at the city gate said that Huo Wujiu’s soldiers are all lined up outside the city. However, the soldiers under Lou Yue have not moved at all. Obviously, they are in cahoots!”
The Hou Zhu was holding a wine cup, looking at the swirling wine inside. After a while, he calmly opened his mouth and asked, “Did Lou Yue betray me too?”
The guard’s voice trembled with anxiety: “It’s too late to discuss this now, Your Majesty! Nothing is as important as your life! While there’s life, there’s hope. It’s not too late to behead these rebellious ministers later!”
All at the same time, the servants in the palace huddled together, knelt down, and begged the Hou Zhu to escape. Even the two concubines, who were leaning against his arms, were shivering all over in fright. Their fear weakened them to their knees and they couldn’t care less about fixing their dresses.
At this hour, if the army of the Northern Liang really were to invade the royal city, they were unlikely to survive whether His Majesty lived or died.
The Hou Zhu’s eyes were hazy. He sat there, looking at the gilded palace, full of kneeling people.
They were knocking their heads on the ground, and all he could only see were the tops of their heads. But although the palace was full of people, he felt as if he was alone in the entire world.
That’s right, although he lied to himself that his uncle went out of the city just to deploy the rescue army, who would bring his wife and children along to deploy a rescue army? He might have thought that Lou Yue was his final defense, but Lou Yue also ended up lying to him.
Everyone had given up on him.
From the time his father abandoned him like a piece of junk, he was forever a piece of trash that no one wanted.
The Hou Zhu gripped his glass of wine and rose to his feet, laughing at himself.
Jiang Suizhou spent the past few days in chaos.
Fortunately, those people believed him and did not dare to let him die easily. Whenever he woke up, he forced himself to eat something and hang on to that breath.
Nonetheless, there was real pain in his body.
He hadn’t been beaten since he was a child, let alone a beating that could have killed him. He was so numb with pain, and felt as if the pain was like scorching fire. It pricked his head down to the tips of his nerves.
He couldn’t fathom how Huo Wujiu spent a month down in this cell.
He was always unconscious, and he didn’t know exactly how long he had been there. Until this day, he barely had some consciousness, only to feel that the surroundings were blindingly bright. A heavy fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose, which was completely inconsistent from the dungeon he was in.
He opened his eyes hazily and felt the blinding golden light around him.
Where am I?
Jiang Suizhou moved and realized that his hands were tied behind him. He was actually sitting on a chair. It was soft underneath him, but the back of the chair was making his wounds sting.
Just then, he heard a voice.
“Are you awake?”
It was the Hou Zhu.
Jiang Suizhou reluctantly adapted to the blinding light around him, and slowly opened his eyes, then he found himself sitting in the resplendent palace.
This was the main hall of the Hou Zhu’s bedchamber. Under his seat was a wide imperial throne.
