Chapter 212: People Scaring People, Scaring People to Death

“Your Highness, how did it go?”

Outside the Law Academy, Han Jingru and Yu Bowen waited by a carriage.

Yu Bowen walked a few quick steps to greet Chen Hong. The latter glanced at him and said, “Get in the carriage first.”

“Yes.”

Yu Bowen followed Chen Hong and Han Jingru into the carriage.

Lifting the curtain to enter the cabin, he could not help but pause.

Although the carriage looked ordinary on the outside, it was extremely luxurious on the inside, paved with five-colored velvet rugs and furnished with soft couches.

What surprised him even more was the presence of two slender, beautiful women inside.

“Welcome, Your Highness~”

“Hmm.”

Chen Hong, who had been timid in front of Sect Leader Xu, sat heavily on the soft couch with a gloomy expression.

The two women, one pouring wine and the other peeling grapes to feed into Chen Hong’s mouth, immediately clung to him like vines, wrapping around his arms on both sides.

Standing at the cabin door, Yu Bowen was stuck, neither advancing nor retreating. In his view, men and women should be separated. As a male outsider, being in the same cabin as the Prince of Linping’s female dependents was inappropriate.

“Why are you standing there stunned! Hurry up and get in!”

Chen Hong seemed to be in a bad mood and spoke in a low, reprimanding tone.

Yu Bowen hurriedly scrambled in and sat by the carriage door, eyes lowered, not daring to glance at the scantily clad female dependents.

“Brother-in-law, what did Sect Leader Xu mean?”

Compared to the cautious Yu Bowen, Han Jingru was used to Chen Hong’s behavior.

Chen Hong was also much more polite when speaking to his brother-in-law. “It would have been better to listen to Jingru earlier. You guessed right; Sect Leader Xu is indeed unwilling to move this Law Academy official.”

“Brother-in-law, Ding Suian is more than just a Law Academy official. Two months ago, he took a woman out for a night stroll and caused a scene at Wanan Gate upon returning to the city. Although the woman wore a veil, news later spread that she was none other than Sect Leader Xu…”

“…”

Chen Hong had heard of this before, but he hadn’t believed it at the time.

As the only female Sect Leader of the State Religion, Sect Leader Xu was high and mighty, aloof and untouchable. How could she go for a night stroll with a mere Dutou who didn’t even have a title at the time?

But recalling her straightforward, warning-laden words just now, “He is a person of the State Religion,” Chen Hong felt a surge of inexplicable irritation.

“Your Highness~”

Just then, Yu Bowen, standing by the carriage door, could not help but ask about the matter he cared about most. “Has the Sect Leader agreed to uphold justice for my Yu Clan?”

Hearing this, Chen Hong suddenly glanced over, his eyes fierce, scaring Yu Bowen into shutting his mouth immediately. Although he didn’t know what he had said wrong.

Beside them, seeing this, Han Jingru eased the situation for Yu Bowen. “What was Sect Leader Xu’s meaning?”

Both men asked similar questions, but when Chen Hong turned to Han Jingru, his expression was much softer. He sighed, “The Sect Leader’s meaning is to let this Prince take him and use him.”

He was too embarrassed to say directly that Xu Jiuxi had asked Yu Bowen to host a banquet and make peace.

That would make it seem like he, a dignified Prince of Great Wu, carried less weight in the eyes of the State Religion—or rather, Xu Jiuxi—than a twelfth-rank baron.

Han Jingru thought for a moment and said, “Brother-in-law, what the Sect Leader said coincides with what I was thinking.”

“Oh?”

Chen Hong felt uncomfortable thinking about Ding Suian and responded perfunctorily.

Han Jingru continued, “Brother-in-law, relying solely on the support of the State Religion now will leave you thin on strength. You must know that the Prince of Shuochuan still controls the Vermilion Bird Army.”

The carriage rumbled along as he lowered his voice. “That Ding Suian brought back the family of the Duke of Zhenguo, the two sons of Prince Huanyang, and the remains of many heroes from Southern Zhao, and saved seven thousand prisoners of war. Who knows how many people in the army are grateful for his kindness? If such a person could be used by you, why worry about not achieving your great goal?”

“Sigh, that may be true, but he is close to my fifth brother, and his personality is unruly and difficult to tame. How could it be that easy?”

“Brother-in-law, that is where you are wrong! In my observation, that Ding Suian is definitely not a person of the Prince of Shuochuan; at most, he is a person of Princess Xingguo. With the State Religion mediating in between, if you, Brother-in-law, show respect for talent and befriend him, even if he cannot be used by you, at the critical moment, his not siding with the Prince of Shuochuan would be of great benefit to you.”

“But his personality is unruly.”

Chen Hong’s fat face twisted as he repeated it. It seemed he really didn’t like Ding Suian.

Han Jingru probably saw his attitude and thought about it before persuading him in a low voice, “Brother-in-law, everything should be for the greater good. After achieving your great goal, you can vent the frustration in your chest.”

This was to persuade him that now was not the time to talk about likes and dislikes. Once he became Emperor in the future, if someone made him uncomfortable, wouldn’t it be easy to deal with them?

Chen Hong was finally persuaded, but he asked with difficulty, “How should this Prince befriend him?”

Han Jingru leaned forward and chuckled, “Brother-in-law, Ding Suian is young and loves beauty. You can set up a banquet to invite him, and reveal some of your quirks during the feast. It will show openness and trust, and can also narrow the distance between you.”

As they were speaking, the woman kneeling behind Chen Hong to massage his shoulders began to turn pale. Fine beads of sweat seeped from her forehead, and her jade-like fingers began to twitch uncontrollably.

Chen Hong noticed the movement behind him stop, glanced sideways, and saw her abnormality. He chuckled, “Can’t take it anymore?”

The woman hurriedly crawled from behind him to his front, kneeling on the ground. Her trembling arms tightly hugged his calves, and she begged in a low voice, “Please, please, Your Highness, grant me a Medicinal Pill.”

Chen Hong looked down without responding.

His composed demeanor was as if he were specifically enjoying the sight of the woman’s gradually distorted face.

“Your Highness… My Lord, please, My Lord, please grant this lowly slave a Carefree Pill. Your slave cannot take it anymore.”

She was a beauty, yet she crawled like a dog at Chen Hong’s feet, the self-deprecating nonsense in her mouth never stopping.

“Hehe~”

Only then did Chen Hong take a small celadon bottle from his bosom and pour out a vermilion Medicinal Pill.

“Your Highness~”

The other woman, seeing this, also begged in a soft voice, her body pressing closer.

Chen Hong seemed pleased. It greatly made up for the dignity he had lost in front of Xu Jiuxi just now, so he generously poured out another one.

The two of them swallowed them impatiently.

In just a moment, the previously distorted, hysterical woman’s cheeks flushed with an abnormal crimson, the pain in her eyes dissipated, replaced by a watery, seductive look.

Her body softened as she climbed back onto Chen Hong, ignoring the two male outsiders in the carriage, and began to undress herself.

“Jingru, you two go first. Tomorrow, this Prince will host a banquet at the residence to entertain the Duke of Chu County, and you two will accompany him.”

“Yes.”

“As, as you command, Your Highness.”

Yu Bowen stuttered and hurriedly followed Han Jingru out of the carriage.

In the past, the Prince of Linping was, in his eyes, someone who respected talent and had no airs, but look at today.

As he got off the carriage, a glance showed that the inside of the cabin had become a scene of absurdity.

The two stood still on the street, and the large carriage continued to rumble toward the Linping Commandery Princes Residence.

Yu Bowen was a bit dazed, but he heard a gentle and kind voice beside him, “Bowen, Bowen?”

“Ah? Heir Apparent.”

“Hehe~”

Han Jingru’s gentle-as-jade face carried a reassuring smile. “The Prince is treating you as one of his own. As one of his own, one should naturally be more casual, hehe.”

Speaking of this, Han Jingru patted the other’s shoulder and added, “But as a close official by the Prince’s side in the future, you must not say what shouldn’t be said, and what shouldn’t be seen, you should pretend not to see. As a subject, one should manage the reputation for their superior. What the superior is not convenient to show others, we must cover with a layer of brocade; what the superior does not want others to know, we must patch up thoroughly.”

“This subject understands.”

At the hour of the Rooster.

Before leaving work, Ding Suian received an invitation from the Prince of Linping, Chen Hong, asking him to visit the residence tomorrow to talk. The wording vaguely mentioned wanting to mediate between him and the Yu Clan.

Ding Suian casually threw the invitation into the drawer. How thick-skinned are you? You want to mediate, so you just mediate?

At the hour of the Rooster, he returned to his home on Suimian Street.

“Make Do, I heard that a female sex demon has been causing trouble in Central Heaven recently, specifically harming good men. You keep a close eye on things.”

Before entering the door, Ding Suian joked.

Make Do patted his chest and guaranteed, “Little Lord, don’t you worry! Let alone a female sex demon, even a female fly won’t be able to fly in!”

Not bad, very spirited!

Returning to the backyard, it was silent.

Pushing the door to enter the room…

Hmm, no one.

A casual partner is worry-free; they don’t cling.

He left in a hurry this morning and didn’t have time to tidy up; the bed was still covered with that dirty sheet.

Ding Suian walked to the bed, pulled off the sheet, and threw it aside. This kind of thing couldn’t be kept; it was all evidence.

Fortunately, Lin Hansu and Zhao Yan had been staying at the Princesss Residence these past few days.

Should I burn it later?

“You want to burn it?”

“Yeah.”

Eh?

Ding Suian responded, only then reacting.

He turned his head abruptly, scared so hard his little heart almost jumped out of his throat.

On the rafters, half a snake body was coiled, the scales crimson red.

Xu Jiuxi’s upper body was hanging upside down, black hair hanging down like a waterfall, her waist and the snake body winding around the beam formed a ninety-degree angle, her enchanting face facing him, red lips curled into an eerie smile.

“Old Xu! People scaring people, scaring people to death!”

“I am a demon, not a person~”