As night fell, the lights in Liu Hall became especially bright.
Hua Zirong donned a black changpao embroidered with a five-clawed golden dragon. Despite his festive clothing however, his expression was solemn as he flipped through the memorial booklets in front of him.
Meng County’s disaster is severe, and the civilians are left homeless.
Hua Zirong could only heave a bitter smile onto his face. Despite being the Monarch of Xiliu, I’m not only incapable of safeguarding the civilians, but I must even cover for the one who’s wronged them.
He set the cinnabar brush to the side before bringing his hand up to massage his temples. When the nearby eunuch saw this, he spoke up. “Your Majesty, why don’t you drink some ginseng soup and take a rest?”
“Mmm.”
The eunuch assisted him with washing up and getting into bed before finally blowing out the candles and leaving.
As the eunuch rounded the corner, the door to Liu Hall soundlessly opened, and a man covered in black slipped in, heading straight for Hua Zirong.
“Who is it?” Hua Zirong’s eyes fluttered open right away.
After being discovered, the intruder pulled a sword out and thrust it towards Hua Zirong, though the latter dodged to the side.
Because the man’s large movement left him vulnerable briefly, Hua Zirong was given an opportunity to dart towards the sword rack. A ruthless look appeared in the man’s eyes as he swept his sword towards Hua Zirong once more, but the commotion had already alerted the guards outside.
With the situation rapidly turning against him, the man in black took a sachet of powder from his robes and scattered it in the air before leaping out the window.
Hua Zirong quickly used his sleeve to cover his nose in order to avoid breathing in too much of the powder, but he could not avoid a bout of dizziness.
The guards outside the room quickly burst in as the powder dissipated. “This subordinate has failed in my duties. Please mete out punishment, Your Majesty.”
Hua Zirong’s eyes turned cold. “This Monarch doesn’t want him to walk out of the imperial palace.”
The guard gave a brief nod of gratitude before swiftly joining the party that had formed to capture the intruder.
After almost being assassinated, Hua Zirong was in no mood to rest. Instead, he put on his outer robes and sat in a chair.
Based on how ruthless his moves were, that person bore some personal resentment towards me. As for his backer, that’s something I’ll have to look into.
~~~
At the same time, the man who had attempted to assassinate Hua Zirong arrived at Liushui Xiaozhu. He dealt with the guards at the door without breaking a sweat, and changed into another set of clothes.
The guards who had pursued him here exchanged glances with one another, unsure if they should enter to conduct a search. Although Hua Ziqing was held captive, he wasn’t stripped of his title as prince, so they had reservations about barging in.
Now in a disguise, the assassin came up to the guards and said, “I’ve been here this entire time; nobody has passed by.”
Given this convenient excuse, the guards went along with it and left the place.
Watching them leave, the man in black smirked and internally chided Xiliu’s guards for being so useless. However, he also realised that he shouldn’t be celebrating so soon.
“Since you’re already here, you might as well come in and take a seat.” Hua Ziqing called out calmly.
The would-be assassin ignored him and started to leave, but was caught by a man wearing a black mask who had appeared out of nowhere. The latter pushed open the door and threw the man in black on the floor.
