Chapter 277: Back to the Imperial Palace (III)

Translator: Storm in a Teacup

Soon, the ministers discovered something more.

After Long questioned the minister from many aspects, the minister finally admitted that he had taken bribes from the envoy, so he brought the envoy there…

The minister was taken away and flogged fifty times.

He was flogged fifty times! Even if he wouldn’t die, he wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in a short time. At least, he’d have to lie in bed for a month!

After a month, n.o.body knew whether this person could come back to the imperial court or not!

At this time, all the ministers realized that the emperor was back!

The real emperor was back!

After the morning meeting, Long returned to Qiankun Palace.

Learning that s.h.i.+ hadn’t woken up yet, Long was a little surprised, but he thought it was understandable.

Long knew that his empress was lethargic lately, but he could usually restrain himself.

Maybe he became more relaxed after returning to the imperial palace.

Thinking about this, Long asked all the servants to stay outside and he walked into the bedroom.

s.h.i.+ really hadn’t woken up yet.

Long walked over, sat down on the edge of the bed, and kissed s.h.i.+’s lips.

At this time, s.h.i.+ finally opened his eyes.

Seeing that s.h.i.+ woke up, Long smiled. “Qingzhou, you are awake.”

“Yeah.” s.h.i.+ yawned lazily. “I’m awake.”

s.h.i.+ got up and asked casually, “How was the morning meeting?”

Long smiled. “There was nothing special. By the way, one of the envoys escaped.”

“Oh?” s.h.i.+ raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t the Shadow Guardians know that?”

“No.” Long curled his lips. “Who knows how he escaped? But he is too stupid. He finally escaped and was brought back again.”

“Huh?” s.h.i.+ was puzzled. “What do you mean?”

Long smiled and recounted what happened during the meeting.

s.h.i.+ also thought it was funny. “He doesn’t know it was the imperial family who tried to kill them.”

“He doesn’t know that.” Long curled his lips. “So he came back here again.”

s.h.i.+ said, “Where’s he now?”

“Where else can he be? He’s been controlled.”

s.h.i.+ touched his chin and suddenly said, “Well, this envoy just came here like this… Could it be that he doesn’t know what has happened at the border?”

“Huh?” Long blinked. “You mean…”

“If he knew that, he would definitely know that we wanted to kill them.”

“That’s right.” Long also touched his chin. “He doesn’t know what has happened. He thought those people were really a.s.sa.s.sins, so he found a minister and asked him to take him to the imperial court so that he could meet me fair and square.”

“There are two possibilities. First, Northern Barbarians didn’t make attempt to a.s.sa.s.sinate my father. Second, they did that, but didn’t tell this envoy. That means this envoy has been abandoned by them.”

“No.” Long shook his head. “There are really not many people working for Northern Barbarians in our imperial city. It’s unlikely that he’s been abandoned…” At least he could be stay here to inquire about something.

s.h.i.+ frowned. “If so, the a.s.sa.s.sination… has nothing to do with Northern Barbarians?”

“It’s not easy to draw conclusions now. Let’s wait for the results from the Shadow Guardians.”

“Well, let’s just wait.” s.h.i.+ nodded.

“All right, let’s not talk about this. Qingzhou, get up for breakfast. You didn’t have dinner yesterday. It’s been all night. Aren’t you hungry?”

s.h.i.+ looked at him and smiled. “I’m really hungry.”

“I knew that. Get up soon. Don’t starve yourself.”

s.h.i.+ curled his lips and thought that he wouldn’t starve to death.

But he didn’t want to refuse Long’s kindness.

Therefore, s.h.i.+ got up obediently.

Long helped him to get dressed.

When the two of them got outside, breakfast had been served.

Eating the breakfast made by the imperial cooks, s.h.i.+ felt that a good life should just be like this.

The cooks outside couldn’t be compared with the imperial cooks at all!

The big breakfast also brought Long much happiness!

s.h.i.+ ate a lot, but not as much as Long.

Watching them, Liu Xiangyang felt a little sad.

The emperor and empress must have suffered a lot outside the palace! Look, having such a breakfast could make them so happy. Surely they hadn’t eaten anything delicious earlier!

Long curled his lips and caught a glimpse of Liu’s expression…

Having such a servant who loved his master… Long felt very happy!

After breakfast, piles of memorials were waiting for Long and s.h.i.+.

In the past few months, Long and s.h.i.+ had been staying outside. Although someone had summarized the major events in the court and sent letters to them, there weren’t many details after all. Moreover, the letters were just about major events.

At this moment, they naturally could know more things in detail.

The two of them spent most of the day dealing with the memorials.

And they also communicated with each other.

So, when they had lunch, it was already very late.

After half a day, the two of them gained a lot.

They learned what happened in the imperial city in the past few months. The reports were made by the Shadow Guardians who stayed there.

From the memorials, they learned about the political tendency and situation.

In addition, the memorials showed that most of the ministers in the court had become quite “behaved”.

And many more people began to support the emperor.

That was good news.

Luckily, those people knew the times. Otherwise, after the emperor came back, they would be the first ones to be dealt with!

Not long after they had lunch, the Shadow Guardian who was in charge of interrogating the envoy from Northern Barbarians returned.

Long immediately asked, “What’s the matter with the envoy?”

The Shadow Guardian told them the results of the interrogation.

After a while, Long and s.h.i.+ looked at each other and Long waved his hand to make the Shadow Guardian leave.

Those envoys had really been given up!

“Eastern Darkness has abandoned them,” Long sneered.

“Yes. He didn’t know anything… It’s reasonable. Something happened at the border and those envoys had never done anything useful. It is normal that they’d be abandoned.” Coldness showed in s.h.i.+’s eyes.

Long let out a long breath. “It seems that Northern Barbarians and Eastern Darkness have really united…”