“Anjie, I’d like to pay a visit to Ye City!” said the empress dowager to the emperor- Long Anjie. With Ye Lang’s appearance, she could no longer hide from this problem any longer.
“I know, I’ll make the arrangements,” Long Anjie didn’t object. He nodded and left to make arrangements. This matter had stressed him out too.
If possible, Long Anjie also wanted to personally visit them to resolve the problems between himself and his sister.
“Oh, little troublemaker, you said if I died, you would be sad and you’d cry. Was that true?” Princess Longji looked at Ye Lang, smiling. She wanted to hear something nice from him again.
“It’s true! When you die, I’ll throw you a grand funeral, I’ll guard your grave!” nodded Ye Lang.
“…”
“And, I’ll kill all the people who wanted to kill you, then bring their heads to you as an offering. Then, I’ll burn lots and lots of paper money for you, servants, mansions, furniture- and if you want, I can burn a paper handsome husband for you…”
“Go away!!”
“…”
“Cousin…”
“What!”
“Please don’t die. If you die, I won’t be able to see you again and I’ll be sad,” Ye Lang looked up at Princess Longji, pleading with his eyes. He didn’t want Princess Longji to leave him.
Her heart warmed, then hugged him tightly. She said gently, “Silly child, I won’t die. I want to care for you for the rest of your life…”
“…”
Ye Lang didn’t speak. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t. He didn’t mind though, it was very, very comfortable…
And just like that, time seemed to stop…
Recently, there’d been a rumour in Dragon City that Princess Longji had a bastard child. Everyone had their opinions, and as the rumour travelled, it became crazier and crazier.
“Did you hear? I heard Princess Longji has a bastard child!” At a random corner of Dragon City, passerby A was speaking very mysteriously, carefully, to passerby B.
“Then do you know whose child is it?” said passerby B.
“This I don’t…” answered passerby A, shaking his head.
“You dare come to me with so little information? Let me tell you about the princess’ child- didn’t she have a passionate fight with the third prince of Ai La Empire a few years ago? It must be him!” declared passerby B.
“Eh, that’s bullshit. They were fighting with passion, that’s true, but it was with knives and swords and they were preparing to kill the other! How could they have been together!!” At this point, passerby C appeared, “Let me tell you something I got from a reliable source. She had this child with one of the aristocrats of the Soaring Sky Empire. She’d never announced it because of the current relations between both kingdoms!!”
“Cheh, that’s impossible. That’s not even Princess Longji’s child. I heard it’s actually the empress dowager’s… And that’s why Princess Longji is just a front. Haven’t you heard, the empress dowager often visits to care for the child…”
“Are you sure…”
“It’s very true!!”
Discussions like this occurred everywhere in Dragon City, but they were all in secret because they’d been in deep trouble if they were caught. Not only was Princess Longji discussed, but even the empress dowager was also dragged into it.
And finally, they even suspected the emperor, Long Anjie himself! Rumours were terrifying!
Of course, there was a small portion of the people who were actually speaking a little truth—
“You’re all wrong! I heard this child is Princess Longji’s cousin, the empress dowager’s grandchild!”
“Mm, me too! This child calls the princess ‘cousin’, and the empress dowager calls herself ‘grandma’ so he must be a grandchild!”
“But I also heard the child would never call her grandma, sometimes even refusing to allow the empress dowager to call him her grandson!”
“There’s a problem there! There must be a problem!! At the empress dowager’s birthday ceremony every year, even if not every princess who’d been married off attended, all the princess’ children had attended at least once. Why haven’t we heard of this little prince?”
“And I heard, this child appeared suddenly. He didn’t come with anyone else, and not a single princess knew…”
“Apparently no one here is allowed to talk about his identity!!”
“Looks like it’s something they cannot tell us…”
“I’m just saying this is not something you can talk about, including you!!”
“Ahh, the Black Wings are here…”
Suddenly, the people dispersed, disappearing from the Black Wing Mercenary Group. The riders didn’t pursue either, they just shook their heads and continued talking amongst themselves.
Their biggest duty right now was to calm the storm, to stop people from speculating any further!
Discussions about Princess Longji was still acceptable, they were just gossips at most. However, when the empress dowager herself was being discussed, then it was a whole different matter!
In reality, to calm this storm, theoretically, they should just announce this child’s identity. However, it was obvious this was not going to happen or they wouldn’t have sent out the Black Wings.
Mobilising the Black Wing Mercenary Group would actually make the situation worse. Although it had stopped the rumours temporarily, it would only cause more speculations, more suspicions.
Long Anjie and the empress dowager must have thought of this, but this was what they had to do. There were only two possibilities- either the child’s identity couldn’t be announced, or the child’s identity would soon be announced- so any speculations were harmless.
No matter what, everyone was curious. Who was this child?
At this moment, on a street in Dragon City, the child everyone was talking about strolled along. He was alone though. There were no guards, no mercenaries by the child’s side.
It was obvious he’d slipped out, successfully shaking off Princess Longji and the rest.
Although he was a hot topic, very few people had actually met him so anyone who saw him only treated him as a regular child. A 7 or 8-year-old.
Then again, if you thought about it, this would mean Princess Longji would have had the child in her teens.
Everyone also had different opinions about his age. Some said he was 4 or 5, everyone was only guessing.
