Chapter 278
Chapter 278
The note contained only a contact signal, not a location.
“The pigeon isn’t dead, only injured. Fetch Shen Qingzhu and see whether he can heal it quickly enough to fly back.”
Jiang Yunsui raised her hand. “Me! I can help!”
She had plenty of things suitable for treating the pigeon: pills and powders made from Verdant Jade Mushrooms, as well as her own Imperial Flowing Essence.
Shen Qingzhu helped when he arrived, and together they overdid the treatment slightly.
The pigeon’s wounds were not completely healed, but it was bursting with energy.
Gone was the frightened trembling from when Milk Tea caught it. Now it cooed incessantly.
It still could not fly and was excessively noisy because it felt so energetic.
Its wounds were minor and had been caused by Milk Tea’s talons. Most of its condition had resulted from sheer terror.
Once treated and separated from Milk Tea, the pigeon improved every day.
Within two days, it had recovered and could fly wildly around the room.
“Go.”
They returned the note to its tube exactly as they found it and released the pigeon.
After it flew away, Jiang Yunsui whistled. Milk Tea, hidden on the roof, spread its wings and followed.
They had released the pigeon to discover the identity of its contact.
A person could not follow a winged pigeon, but a golden eagle could.
Golden eagles flew far higher than pigeons, and Milk Tea was exceptional even among its kind. It could soar into the clouds. Unless it wished otherwise, the pigeon would never notice it.
Milk Tea also possessed extraordinary eyesight. Once it fixed on prey, it would not lose sight of it even from eight hundred meters away.
Now Jiang Yunsui and the others only had to wait at home.
Nanshu sighed. “Having eyes in the sky makes so many investigations easier.”
It also made delivering messages easier.
Milk Tea flew more than five times faster than an ordinary eagle. Not even the famously swift gyrfalcon could outrun it.
Unfortunately, the household had only one golden eagle.
Ji Yan’an looked at Jiang Yunsui. “Little Yunsui, I have a task for you.”
She blinked. “What task? Tell me!”
Little Mushroom looked supremely confident. “I can definitely do it.”
Ji Yan’an smiled. “Hatch a group of eagles for me.”
“Using pigeons to deliver messages is too dangerous,” he explained. “As happened today, they easily become prey for eagles and other large birds. Losses are high, and with bad luck, the message never arrives.”
That was why he never entrusted especially important messages to pigeons.
Jiang Yunsui’s eyes lit up. “Will we use eagles to carry messages?”
Ji Yan’an looked in the direction Milk Tea had flown. “I’ve noticed that animals hatched or raised beside you are not only healthy but intelligent. Perhaps they will be easier to train.”
Eagles hatched beside Jiang Yunsui would not lose their proud, untamable nature. Rather, they developed emotions ordinary animals lacked.
Milk Tea and Huohuo both had terrible tempers, but they understood more of human speech. Because they cared for Jiang Yunsui, they willingly obeyed her. They were not tamed; they had simply chosen her and wished to protect her and follow her commands.
I’ll consider that a compliment, Jiang Yunsui thought proudly.
“All right. I’m very experienced at that.”
She had already raised two birds.
With the matter settled, Ji Yan’an would naturally obtain the eggs himself.
Jiang Yunsui grew hungry and asked Fat Chef for a bowl of sweet fermented-rice dumplings.
She had eaten only a few noisy slurping mouthfuls when Milk Tea called from the sky.
“That was fast.”
Everyone who heard emerged from the room and saw Milk Tea land on the windowsill.
Jiang Yunsui would have liked to command it to land handsomely on her little arm, but Milk Tea was too large and its talons too sharp. It could easily scratch her by accident.
Thus, Milk Tea always landed on a tree, wall, or roof near her.
“Milk Tea, you’re back!”
“Prepare a bowl of meat,” Ji Yan’an ordered.
It was Milk Tea’s reward for its hard work.
The meat was already prepared, and the eagle devoured it in a few bites.
“Milk Tea, where did the pigeon go?”
Jiang Yunsui finished her dumplings, rubbed her belly, and burped before asking.
“Coo…”
That eunuch.
Jiang Yunsui blinked. “The Eunuch Sun who turned green?”
Milk Tea nodded.
Nanshu immediately cursed. “That old villain is colluding with the Barbarians! Is he trying to betray the country?”
“Someone else stands behind him,” Shen Qingzhu said. “However ambitious a eunuch may be, without true authority, what could he use to negotiate cooperation with the Barbarians?”
Nanshu realized he was right.
Ji Yan’an’s face turned icy.
Nothing enraged him more than collusion with the Barbarians.
The men of the Ji Family had died because of a traitor working with them.
“Someone secretly follow Sun and investigate thoroughly.”
Jiang Yunsui began raising her hand, only for someone to press her little arm down.
The hidden guard Ji Qi emerged and accepted the order.
With Ji Yan’an’s deliberate indulgence, his hidden guards had been trained by little Jiang Yunsui until their concealment grew increasingly formidable.
Even imperial hidden guards could not easily detect them.
Besides, given that stingy emperor’s nature, would he truly assign hidden guards to protect Eunuch Sun all the way to Mobei?
“I can investigate too,” Jiang Yunsui protested.
“Is your wine ready?” Ji Yan’an asked.
Her attention shifted immediately.
“Oh, right. I wanted to check it that day.”
“Come. We’ll look together.”
More than a month had passed since the wine was started.
With Jiang Yunsui’s care, the late-ripening grapes had lingered sparsely on the vines until now, but they had all been eaten.
When a wine jar was opened, the aroma of alcohol emerged with a faint scent of grapes.
Jiang Yunsui had treated the wine with great care. Even the water contained a generous amount of Imperial Flowing Essence.
If the essence could have passed through a sealed jar, she would have added more every day.
“It worked!”
“It smells wonderful,” Nanshu said.
Fat Chef hurried over with a wine ladle.
“Let me, let me!”
He truly loved wine.
He craved his share of Monkey Wine every day but could never bear to drink much. Even so, little remained now.
At the scent of grape wine, he brightened, eyes gleaming.
He dipped the ladle into the jar and lifted it with exceptional care.
“Quick, bring a bowl.”
A pure-white bowl was handed over. The wine’s lovely purplish-red color looked especially striking against it.
Shen Qingzhu and Ji Yan’an were both surprised.
“I never expected grapes truly could become wine.”
Fat Chef’s pale, bun-like face flushed with excitement.
“Why couldn’t they? Monkeys make wine from fruit.”
“That depends on luck,” Shen Qingzhu replied. “Otherwise Monkey Wine would be everywhere.”
In all his years, he had encountered it only once.