Chapter 182
Chapter 182
“All right, Imperial Brother. Now let’s talk about the matter between us.”
After seeing Fusheng Duan off, Shengsheng Zhou shut the carriage door and sat down across from Weiqing Song with an amiable smile.
Every male lead in a novel came standard with one thing: a carriage that looked utterly ordinary outside but concealed a world of its own within.
It could easily hold four people and a parrot.
Excellent. Now, be they human or bird, there was no one inside the carriage who did not know she was Shengsheng Zhou.
Her smile deepened.
*Imperial Brother, you must understand. Fusheng Duan just left, so I’m feeling extremely low. I need someone to distract me from my grief.*
Weiqing: “…”
“First question. How did you know I was Shengsheng Zhou?” The carriage began to trundle forward. The coachman they had hired at the last minute was reasonably skilled.
Weiqing set down the book in his hand and countered, “Wouldn’t a normal person ask when I found out?”
Shengsheng held up one finger. “No, no, no. You were the first to discover it. I already know that much.”
“Fusheng Duan told you?” Weiqing narrowed his eyes and answered without hesitation.
Shengsheng looked at him innocently. “How could that be? I guessed.”
*Bingo~ Congratulations, you got it right.*
What a fine brother you are, Fusheng Duan, Weiqing thought with a smile that did not reach his eyes.
He should have smashed that box back into Fusheng’s face! Pointed at his nose and cursed, *Upper lip, lower lip, chin–now put them together, shut up, and get the hell out of my sight!*
Off to one side, Zhiyu Jiang held Siran Ming, who had fallen asleep at some point, while playing with the parrot in her arms.
Xiaosui rubbed against her finger.
“Imperial Brother?” Shengsheng waved a hand before Weiqing’s face, calling him back to himself.
“Ahem. The truth is, your Imperial Brother possesses a special talent for recognizing people.” Weiqing coughed into his fist.
Shengsheng asked, “For example?”
“After you died, the red mole on your original body disappeared. At the same time, the instant Mosheng Song woke, a red mole appeared on her face. Suo Luo claimed you had always had it, but my memory could not possibly be wrong. I sent people to investigate and discovered something suspicious. Most strangely of all, the timing matched perfectly.”
Weiqing poured himself a cup of tea to moisten his throat and stole a glance at her.
Shengsheng had lowered her eyes in thought.
*What was the next line after “Someone loves your towering ambition” again? Tsk, why did that song suddenly pop into my head?*
Weiqing: “…”
“Oh, I see. So that’s how I gave myself away.” Shengsheng put on an expression of sudden enlightenment.
Weiqing took a deep breath and patted himself down from head to toe.
Damn it. He had forgotten to bring his prayer beads when he left.
Noticing his poor complexion, Shengsheng asked in confusion, “Hmm? Imperial Brother, are you angry?”
Weiqing smiled with perfect gentleness. “You noticed.”
Shengsheng refilled his empty teacup to help him calm down. “Don’t get mad, Imperial Brother. It’s bad for the uterus.”
Zhiyu burst into laughter while holding Siran.
“Miss Jiang.” The veins on Weiqing’s forehead bulged.
Zhiyu naturally turned her head. “Yes, Your Highness?”
“Would you mind switching seats with me?” This little sister was beyond saving.
Zhiyu was, of course, happy to oblige.
Shengsheng, of course, had done it on purpose.
Her secret identity had fallen away so completely that it could no longer cover her internal organs, yet she alone remained immersed in the role-play of nobody recognizing her and was having the time of her life.
Damn it all!!
They bickered and played all along the road. There was the time they stumbled across a lost bear cub and its black-bear mother mistook them for cub thieves; the time they stopped at an inn and Siran was nearly kidnapped by human traffickers; and the time Weiqing was struck by an embroidered ball and nearly carried off by force to become a live-in son-in-law–
None of that was particularly important.
Let us skip ahead and jump straight to the Plot Point where the three of them returned to the palace.
Speaking of Plot Points, Shengsheng Zhou remained deeply puzzled by Xiaosui’s earlier claim that the villain might be in danger.
She was even beginning to suspect that Xiaosui had deliberately lured her there.
She ought to find an opportunity to restore Xiaosui’s human form. He would simply need a different face.
Switching to private-chat mode, Shengsheng started frantically poking A-Pang inside her head.
*A-Pang, A-Pang, A-Pang, A-Pang, A-Pang, A-Pang!*
A-Pang opened his eyes blearily. *I’m skinny, thank you very much.*
*If Xiaosui entered Jierge’s body, where did Jierge’s soul go? Was it erased?*
A-Pang released a long yawn, sniffed, and replied, *No. We would never do such a thing. Like the original owner of your previous body, Jierge’s soul went to another world.*
Shengsheng nodded. *Still no word from above about Xiaosui’s system?*
At the mention of this, A-Pang’s tone abruptly deflated. *Don’t even bring it up. Why do you think I’ve been sleeping all the time lately? I haven’t been able to contact the higher-ups for ages. Something seems to have happened at headquarters. Even my energy supply is starting to run short.*
Shengsheng’s heart sank. *What happens if you don’t have enough energy?*
A-Pang considered it. *Have Xiaosui focus on completing his missions. Without supervision from above, the requirements won’t be as strict. Once the world is corrected, I’ll receive energy.*
Shengsheng nodded. *I understand. Go back to sleep.*
Weiqing Song’s step paused.
Something had happened?
Had this world been abandoned by the so-called “higher-ups” Shengsheng mentioned?
“Imperial Mother.”
Shengsheng wiped away the Empress’s tears and patted her back to help her catch her breath.
Eyes brimming with tears, the Empress pulled her into an embrace. “Why did you take so long to return? You’ve lost so much weight. Imperial Mother missed you to death.”
Weiqing coughed, and the Empress dragged him into her arms as well. “Was the thunder monster in Deep Mountain too difficult to defeat? My two perfectly healthy children–how did you both end up so exhausted?”
Zhiyu Jiang, the thunder monster from Deep Mountain: “…”
How could the Empress generalize like that? Zhiyu did not merely make thunder. She could also summon a little drizzle.
After the Empress finally finished crying, Weiqing said that he and Shengsheng were going to visit Imperial Father and excused them.
They should have visited the Emperor first. However, when they arrived, the chief eunuch said His Majesty had fallen asleep and asked them to return later, so they had come to the Empress instead.
With Zhiyu beside her, Shengsheng knelt by the bed and spoke to the Emperor for quite some time.
Then Weiqing introduced Zhiyu to Imperial Father.
“Imperial Father, this is an expert of the Duanmu family who has descended from Deep Mountain–Zhiyu Duanmu.”
Shengsheng: “…” Zhiyu-fucking-Duanmu. Of course.
Zhiyu Duanmu herself opened her mouth, then closed it again.
The Emperor’s eyes widened for an instant when he heard the name Duanmu. “So you are a member of the Duanmu family.”
Weiqing nodded. “This expert descended from the mountain to benefit the common people and holds the people of our Zhen Kingdom in particularly high regard.”
The Zhen Emperor, apparently invigorated by being chosen by the expert, looked healthier already. He nodded, satisfaction in his gaze as he looked at Weiqing.
Weiqing proceeded to say so many shamelessly flattering things that even Shengsheng felt embarrassed for him.
*You became Crown Prince by kissing ass, didn’t you?*
Weiqing stopped talking. At last, he summed everything up with one question. “Therefore, this son wishes to appoint the expert as State Preceptor. What does Imperial Father think?”
Zhiyu Jiang: *Eyes wide as brass bells.jpg*