MLIAM Chapter 89

Chapter 89: Behave Yourself

Finally, I can see you with my own face…

Yu Shuli waited for a long time, until midnight, but Wei Yan still didn’t return. Not only that, but Zhong Nian, who had gone to see him off, was also nowhere to be found.

Anxious, he immediately ordered the entire Northwest army to be ready for action. Just as he was about to report to the Second Prince, he was informed that thousands of life lamps in the royal ancestral temple had been extinguished overnight. The Second Prince had received the report an hour earlier and had rushed to deal with it, and was probably already on his way.

An incident in the ancestral temple could be a big deal or a small one. But the fact that it happened just as the Second Prince was about to ascend the throne with the Imperial Decree made this “accident” seem particularly deliberate. If not handled carefully, it would be said that Zhao Lan’s enthronement was “not willed by Heaven,” an “ominous sign,” and “the ancestors’ anger.”

Yu Shuli’s saber crashed to the ground with a “bang.”

How could he not know that this situation of misfortune never coming singly was definitely the work of someone behind the scenes? But no matter how clear he was about it, his mind was still filled with chaotic worry for the safety of Wei Yan and Zhong Nian.

Wei Yan was in poor health, the residual poison not yet cleared. Even if he wasn’t entirely weak and had some martial arts skills, he would inevitably be bullied if he fell into the hands of Wanyan Jun.

Dong Siwen’s past experience had made Yu Shuli paranoid. He could no longer accept anyone close to him suffering in any way.

“Please tell the Second Prince that I must enter the Imperial Palace today. If there are any consequences, I will bear them alone.” After leaving a message for the Second Prince’s attendant, Yu Shuli rode off alone.

The attendant and soldiers tried hard to stop him, but they couldn’t. They had no choice but to send someone to deliver a message to the Second Prince overnight.

Ding Sheng, who was patrolling the area, ran into Yu Shuli riding his horse towards The Imperial Palace alone, and his expression changed drastically. He quickly pulled over a person next to him, and the two of them mounted their horses, gathered about a hundred cavalrymen, and chased after him desperately.

The night grew darker, and by the second half of the night, the clouds hung low, and a long, gray ink wash poured down, blocking the last trace of moonlight.

A storm was brewing.

Yu Shuli, with a sullen face, whipped his horse in the lead. The hooves of the cavalrymen chasing him trampled over the wet ground, leaving behind a winding trail.

A torrential downpour descended without warning. Yu Shuli pulled out the cloak and hat he had prepared, and threw it over his back.

Ding Sheng and Mu Shaoyang were behind him, gradually falling behind.

The two exchanged a look. Ding Sheng tried his best to urge his horse forward, braving the rain that plastered his face, and swallowed a mouthful of cold wind as he spoke. “Little General, we understand your eagerness to save Prime Minister Wei, but you need to calm down now…”

Yu Shuli turned his head to look at him, “Where do you see that I’m not calm?”

Ding Sheng met his pair of cold, yet panicked and helpless eyes, and couldn’t say a word for a moment.

“Little General…” His voice was hoarse, and he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, then continued to persuade, “Should we wait for the Second Prince’s instructions? What if we’re too rash and fall into an ambush, what will happen to the Second Prince if he is left alone?”

“Ding Sheng,” Yu Shuli’s hair was stuck to his temples. He pursed his lips and said, “Later, when we get to The Palace Gates, you guys guard it, I’ll go in alone.”

Panic filled Ding Sheng’s face: “General!”

He quickly whipped his horse and took a few more steps: “General! It’s not that I’m afraid of death! Since we brothers followed you, we’ve never been afraid of death! But now the Imperial Palace is not a battlefield, there are too many intrigues and deceptions, which we can’t overcome with brute force.”

Meeting Yu Shuli’s gloomy and heavy face, he wiped his face with one hand and said, “Prime Minister Wei guessed that you would force your way into the palace before he left, and specifically instructed me. Since I promised Prime Minister Wei, I must not break my promise.” He gritted his teeth, pulled the reins, and stood in front of Yu Shuli.

Yu Shuli braked suddenly. The warhorse neighed shrilly a few times, and finally stopped just as the two horses were about to collide.

Both of their faces were splattered with mud.

The hooves of the horses trampled uneasily in the muddy ground.

Yu Shuli’s fingers were tightly embedded in the reins, and his chest was churning like a raging fire: “Ding Sheng! Do you want to die!”

The two horses in front stopped, and the rest of the people barely caught up.

Mu Shaoyang also arrived, panting: “General, we still need to discuss this matter carefully. Prime Minister Wei’s delay in returning may be a trap to lure us in. We may be rebelling, but we can’t die like this without knowing why. If we go to save people, but are branded as traitors, wouldn’t we die unjustly!”

Ding Sheng persuaded, “Even a fool like Mu Shaoyang understands this, Little General, you need to calm down now.”

“You think I’m a fool?” Raindrops fell from the top of Yu Shuli’s head, crossed his eyelashes, and lingered on his cheeks. “Ding Sheng, I have never been as calm as I am now.”

He chuckled: “What you said, how could I not know?”

“Then why, General… did you ride away?” Mu Shaoyang’s pupils still carried some unease: “Old Fourth and Chen Li are both in the military camp, and didn’t even have time to catch up. If the two of us hadn’t been on duty today, we probably wouldn’t have been able to catch up.”

“Mu Shaoyang, Ding Sheng,” Yu Shuli lowered his eyes: “I can wait, but Wei Yan can’t.”

“Since we are husband and wife, our life and death must be together. Every time I am in danger, he can appear by my side in time. Now that he is in trouble, I must be there.” His eyelids lifted slightly: “As for you, I never intended to involve you in this.”

“General! What are you talking about!” Mu Shaoyang retorted, “We in the Northwest Army should be one with the General!”

Yu Shuli shook his head and led his warhorse out of the way, “I think I know why Wanyan Jun is holding Wei Yan back… This, in the end, is our personal feud.”

The flickering lights of the Imperial Palace were right in front of him. Yu Shuli didn’t want to wait any longer. He pulled the horse’s head: “You wait for the Second Prince’s instructions, and don’t act rashly. I’ll be back soon… If I don’t come back…”

He turned his head, raised his eyebrows and smiled: “Then when you get promoted and make a fortune, come and pay respects to me and Wei Yan on this day every year.”

“General!” Ding Sheng and Mu Shaoyang shouted in unison, reaching out to stop him, but Yu Shuli had already galloped away.

Yu Shuli broke into the Imperial Palace from the Chang’an Gate on the west side, his expression like iron. He swept through hundreds of Imperial Guards, and went straight to the main Palace Gate with his sword, unstoppable.

Some Imperial Guards who came to capture the thief recognized Yu Shuli and tentatively stepped forward: “Duke Zhenguo…? Why are you breaking into the Imperial Palace at night…?”

Yu Shuli sneered: “Hand over Wei Yan.”

The faces of the Imperial Guards changed: “Wei Yan is a rebellious traitor. He has already been captured alive under the leadership of our wise and mighty Third Prince. If Duke Zhenguo wants to see him, you must have His Majesty’s handwrit.”

“Is that so?” Yu Shuli’s fingers clenched tightly on the hilt of his sword, and the veins on his forehead were exposed: “Then please let me through, I will go see His Majesty myself.”

The Imperial Guard’s words were unrelenting, and he held his spear across, blocking Yu Shuli’s path: “It’s late at night, His Majesty has already rested, please come again tomorrow, Duke Zhenguo.”

“What if I insist on seeing His Majesty tonight?” Yu Shuli twisted the hilt of his sword in his hand, took two steps forward, and said in a cold voice: “Do you think you people can block me for a few moves?”

The leader of the Imperial Guards hesitated, and took a step back hesitantly. “Duke… Duke Zhenguo, please don’t make it difficult for us…”

“It’s not that I want to make it difficult for you now, but that you want to make it difficult for me.” Yu Shuli pulled out his sword and held it across his neck: “If Wei Yan loses a single hair, you will all pay for it with your lives.”

He looked at the Imperial Guards behind him: “Where is His Majesty now? Lead the way.”

The Imperial Guard leader was held by the sword, and his whole person wilted down, even his voice was shrinking: “This… This subordinate does not know… The Third Prince and His Majesty are together…”

Yu Shuli’s blade trembled, and a bloodstain appeared on his neck. “Is that so? Then please trouble the leader to accompany me to find them. It’s impossible for both of them to be missing in this vast Imperial Palace, right?”

The Imperial Guard leader shuddered, and quickly waved his subordinates away with his eyes, and looked at Yu Shuli flatteringly: “This subordinate will accompany Duke Zhenguo to find them… Also please Duke Zhenguo… loosen up a bit… You’re strangling my neck…”

“Coward.”

Yu Shuli pushed the person in front of him, “Behave yourself, and lead the way quickly. Today’s matter has nothing to do with you, I don’t want to hurt innocent people’s lives.”

He raised his eyes and swept to the archers hiding on the eaves of the side, and pinched the shoulder of the Imperial Guard leader hard, turning the person’s face away, and smiled: “These methods of yours are obviously useless to me, you have all seen my abilities, haven’t you?”

The Imperial Guard leader pursed his lips and had to reluctantly wave his hand: “Archers, retreat. I will go and come back with Duke Zhenguo.”

“Sensible.”

Yu Shuli pushed the person, and found the Emperor’s bedroom all the way from the back garden, but found no trace of the Emperor along the way, and even Gonggong Li was nowhere to be seen.

Some familiar palace maids and eunuchs were even more invisible.

He frowned, and the unease in his heart grew stronger.

“Go, to the Imperial Library.”

The Imperial Guard leader paused, and awkwardly rubbed his robe: “Duke Zhenguo… His Majesty is not here, maybe he is resting in a consort’s courtyard… We… What are we going to do in the Imperial Library? Why don’t I take you to ask at the gates of the various ladies’ palaces?”

“Looking at your reaction, it seems that His Majesty is in the Imperial Library.” Yu Shuli smiled: “You’ve been taking me in circles in the Imperial Palace for so long, do you think I don’t know it at all?”

His voice instantly turned cold: “Are you one of Wanyan Jun’s people too?”

The Imperial Guard leader was stunned, and leaned to the side, about to escape.

Yu Shuli, however, turned his sword hilt and knocked it on the back of the person’s head, not knowing whether he had knocked him unconscious or killed him. “Then there’s no need to treat you kindly.”

He flew over the eaves and walls along the way, going to the Imperial Library at the fastest speed, breaking through the arrows all the way, as if entering a deserted place.

Outside the Imperial Library, hundreds of soldiers were waiting in formation.

Yu Shuli recognized that most of these were Lord Xunyang’s men.

He smiled contemptuously: “Sure enough, you’re all waiting for me here.”

The candlelight in the Imperial Library was bright, and one person’s figure blocked the candlelight, and slowly pushed the door open.

“Ji An, long time no see.”

Behind the door was Wanyan Jun, with his own complete face.

He tore off that layer of “Zhao Xuan” disguise, gave up that false identity of “Third Prince,” wore a light snow-blue shirt, held an oil-paper umbrella, and walked slowly in the rain.

He covered the umbrella over Yu Shuli’s head, revealing a slight smile: “Finally, I can see you with my own face.”

Yu Shuli was wet all over. He dodged out of the umbrella, wiped the water stains on his face without caring, and sneered, “Wanyan Jun, you’re disgusting. Do you think wearing this blue shirt can wash away the blood on your hands?”

The man’s smile stopped abruptly, as if a crack had been torn open, and the fingers holding the umbrella handle trembled: “Disgusting? Do you know how much effort I put into this day?!”

“You’re a Xizhao person, living in a foreign country, I can completely understand your desire to return to your country, and I even had a good relationship with you at the time. But later, you were willing to be with Zhao Xuan, indulging in pleasure and wasting your life. You’ve changed, I don’t even recognize you anymore. Now you’re even trying to interfere with the Da Liang regime, and you’ve introduced things like Five Stone Powder into Da Liang, wanting to poison the ordinary people of Da Liang, you’re really crazy!”

“You care about Five Stone Powder…? How could that kind of thing come from me?” Wanyan Jun took a step forward, approached Yu Shuli, his tone softened a little, trying to pull Yu Shuli’s hand: “Ji An, you’ve misunderstood me…”

Yu Shuli avoided his touch with a pale face: “Wanyan Jun, now that things have come to this, do you still think I’m a fool?”

“The poison that His Majesty used to control Wei Yan, the medicine that Lord Xunyang used to control Quzhou, the longevity pill that His Majesty ate, and the Five Stone Powder that you later gave to Wei Yan and Dong Siwen, all came from you, right?”

Wanyan Jun’s eyes stopped on Yu Shuli.

After a while, he put down his hand and sighed: “Ji An, you’ve become smart, which really makes me unhappy. How good would it be if you were still the same as before?”

Yu Shuli’s face completely darkened.

The air between the two seemed to freeze, and the sound of rain rustled.

Wanyan Jun handed the umbrella in his hand over. Seeing that Yu Shuli didn’t take it, he kept tilting the umbrella over, and he himself was drenched in the rain.

“I still miss the old days… At that time, you and I were the best of friends, we always went to and from school together. You took me through the streets and alleys of the capital, we enjoyed the delicacies, saw the great rivers and mountains, and talked about our future together. I always thought, if I could have told you my feelings earlier than him, that would have been great…” Wanyan Jun said about the past as if there was no one else around, and suddenly, raindrops fell from his eyelashes, and he smiled: “I always wanted to ask you at that time, would you be willing to go back to Xizhao with me? But I didn’t dare to ask, I was too weak at that time. But now it’s different… Ji An, I can give you everything you want, as long as you go back to Xizhao with me…”

“Shut up!” Yu Shuli looked over hatefully, drew himself away from the past he was talking about, and finally walked out of the umbrella, pointed his sword over: “Where did you take all the people in the Imperial Palace? Has Wei Yan been detained by you too? If you don’t release people, leave your life here, and don’t even think about going back to your Xizhao.”

When Wei Yan was mentioned, Wanyan Jun, who had been kind to him, revealed a trace of contemptuous sneer: “Is that so? You want to kill me? You don’t care about Wei Yan’s life?”