Chapter 69
Chapter 69
“Your Majesty… Thank heaven you are safe!”
Bound tightly on the floor, Rong Li’s eyes reddened the moment she saw him.
Siran found his subordinate’s undignified state difficult to look at.
Shengsheng ordered someone to untie Rong. San Zhang’s hands shook so violently that freeing her took considerable effort.
Good heavens above.
San might have snuck into the imperial palace to pilfer things, but he had never seen a living emperor.
A living emperor…
He stole a glance at the tall man nearby, who stood with lowered eyes fixed unblinkingly upon their chief.
If the Chief knew an emperor, why had she come here to become a bandit?
Restored to life, Rong hurried to the sovereign she had been pining for and whispered several sentences into his ear.
Shengsheng watched without comment, a trace of complexity in her eyes.
San glanced at her and understood.
Given the Chief’s divine abilities, she could probably hear every word that woman said.
What incredible power.
Shengsheng silently watched Rong’s movements and wondered whether the woman’s arms and legs were not numb after being tied for so long.
Martial artists truly were different.
After listening to Rong’s report, Siran nodded slightly.
“Since we are acquaintances, we should discuss the matter of your banditry.” He looked across at Shengsheng, his face wearing its habitual cold severity.
Shengsheng found this strange. Had Xiao Ming returned or not?
Despite her doubts, she agreed immediately and showed no hesitation.
Every soldier trapped belowground had been released. They had recovered from their earlier disgrace, reassembled their ranks, and now stood restrained but ready, as though they could trample the mountain into dust at their master’s command.
Honestly, they looked intimidating.
At least, the bandits who had received the order to release them found them terrifying.
Bandits feared soldiers as mice feared cats. The terror was carved into their bones.
Fortunately, they now had a pillar of strength: their adorable, tiny, indisputably mighty chief.
The thought made Yong Wu’s gaze toward the room even more resolute.
Inside the finest room on Mount Liang, two people of radically different ages and sexes sat at opposite ends of a long table.
To be honest, once Shengsheng learned she was in Yong Kingdom, she had essentially abandoned the idea of building her fortune through banditry.
A large enterprise attracted covetous eyes and official hostility. *Water Margin* had already taught her how such stories generally ended. She was prepared to disband the bandits on Mount Liang.
Robbery was wrong, after all.
Well… robbing other robbers did not count.
Even now, she kept defending herself.
More importantly, her disguise had a time limit. Once she finished raking in money, she still had to hurry back to Zhen.
Before she could speak, Siran opened by agreeing to let them continue as bandits.
Shengsheng was shocked. Even Rong Li was startled.
Your Majesty, you injured your head. You did not lose your mind!
Rong looked at him with unconcealed anguish.
“Your Majesty…” She tried to speak, but Siran silenced her with a glance.
His icy, vicious stare tolerated no dispute. It pinned Rong where she stood.
“Since that is settled, we will disturb you no longer.”
“Rong Li, withdraw the troops.”
He rose. Whether from blood loss or something else, his tall body suddenly collapsed.
Rong Li cried out in panic. “Your Majesty!”
Shengsheng could hardly leave him on the cold floor, so she ordered people to carry him inside.
The stronghold had only a few barely competent healers. Rong summoned the army physician who had accompanied them.
San Zhang, who had hoped to demonstrate his skills by going down the mountain and stealing a doctor, fell silent.
Rong claimed that the physician possessed a peculiar habit: whenever he treated a patient, no one else could remain in the room.
The physician with the “peculiar habit” paused.
He had not known that about himself.
He was about to voice his confusion when he caught Guard Li’s vicious glare. He immediately nodded at Shengsheng and the others.
“Yes. This physician is precisely that peculiar!”
Charming, was it not?
Only after entering with his medicine chest did the physician understand why he required such an eccentric habit.
His Majesty, whom Rong had described as unconscious, gravely wounded, and in imminent danger, had his eyes wide open.
When the physician entered, Siran even sat up at his leisure.
The physician stared.
What?
A long time later, the physician emerged with his medicine chest, exhaustion written across his face.
One look told Shengsheng something was wrong. Xiao Ming’s condition did not appear good.
Sure enough, under everyone’s curious gaze, the physician gave a sorrowful sigh.
“Alas…”
Rong promptly played her part. “Doctor, how is His Majesty?”
Only then did the physician shake his head. “His Majesty’s condition is poor. He requires a long period of quiet recuperation and cannot travel during that time.”
Rong seized upon the crucial point. “He cannot travel? But we must return to the capital soon. A kingdom cannot go a day without its ruler!”
The physician nodded in anguish. “Yet His Majesty’s injuries cannot endure delay!”
“Then what are we to do?” Rong cried.
Shengsheng stared at the pair.
What a well-rehearsed performance.
She moved her lips. Remembering that the man inside was Xiao Ming rather than Siran Ming, she felt slightly less resistant.
“Then… he can stay here for now.”
If that dog emperor Xunlan Liu possessed a double, surely Siran had one too.
The instant she agreed, Rong made a decisive announcement.
“Then I entrust His Majesty to you, Chief Dafu.”
Shengsheng shuddered at the title.
She had not expected what came next to be even more alarming.
Shengsheng assumed Rong would stay as well. Instead, as though someone had put a sword to her back, the scene changed and Rong was already mounted, poised to lead the cavalry away without so much as a backward glance.
Shengsheng watched the army recede.
Had Yong and Zhen agreed to abandon all effort together?
The Crown Prince of Zhen held a storybook in one hand and prayer beads in the other, apparently determined to spread the culture of wild speculation.
Yong sent troops to suppress bandits, then left its own emperor behind in the bandits’ den when the army withdrew.
Add Xunlan, deathly ill in a foreign land…
Well done, all of you.
This was no longer about individual kingdoms. Could the entire continent still be saved?
Inside, a certain man had been clutching Shengsheng’s quilt and inhaling her scent. At the sound of the door, he immediately lay flat with his hands folded over his chest, eyes closed and brows pinched in pain.
Shengsheng carried a small stool to the bedside, climbed onto it, and looked down at Siran.
“Stop pretending.”