Chapter 29
JIANG SUIZHOU SILENTLY cursed him.
You must be joking. How about we break your legs and see how easily you can kneel?
He looked up at the emperor, then glanced out over the crowd. Most of the surrounding officials wore expressions of restrained amusement. The schadenfreude was obvious as they eagerly awaited the spectacle.
Watching the emperor torment him and Huo Wujiu was probably the long-awaited highlight of the entire night for them.
He paused, then rose and turned gracefully toward the emperor, bowing.
“My companion was disrespectful. I beg Huangxiong’s forgiveness,” he said.
The emperor chewed the shrimp ball idly and smiled.
“Mm, forgiven. But how do you plan to make amends?”
Jiang Suizhou glanced at Huo Wujiu beside him.
“Although this useless invalid can’t use his legs, I assure you that he will show his respect,” he said coldly and disdainfully, as if contaminated by something vile.
His tone was filled with impatience and loathing as he looked over his shoulder at Meng Qianshan and gave an order.
“Hurry up and drag him over. Make him kowtow to His Majesty.”
Those last few words were spat through clenched teeth and dripped with pure loathing.
It was clear that the Prince of Jing deeply despised the man who had been forced into his household.
And yet, he kept him locked up in his room to torment?
The emperor’s delight only grew as he observed this.
Meng Qianshan was frozen where he stood behind the prince, too stunned to move.
He knew that His Highness had to pretend to hate Madam Huo, but surely this was going a bit too far…
What should he do?
Just then, Jiang Suizhou deliberately caught Meng Qianshan’s gaze and gave him a slight frown.
“Careful with his legs,” he said. “Don’t let his filthy blood stain the carpet and bring bad luck to His Majesty.”
There was a long-standing superstition in the Jing court regarding the spilling of blood at imperial events. If an emperor’s birthday banquet were to be marred by bloodshed, it might send catastrophically bad luck his way.
And so, upon hearing this, the emperor became mildly alarmed.
“What filthy blood?” he asked immediately.
Jiang Suizhou glanced at Meng Qianshan and gave a slow blink.
“Nothing to be concerned about,” he said indifferently. “As long as my servant is cautious.”
Then he looked back at Meng Qianshan.
“If even a drop falls on the ground, I’ll have your head.”
Meng Qianshan jumped in fright, then met Jiang Suizhou’s gaze and understood.
Right…the prince had warned him before they left!
Meng Qianshan quickly turned and knelt before the emperor.
“Your Majesty, save me! M-Madam’s legs, you see, last night…His Highness… Oh, His Highness didn’t mean to!” he stammered in terror. “But the wound on the madam’s leg still bleeds at the slightest touch and hasn’t scabbed over yet, so this servant doesn’t dare risk bringing bad luck to His Majesty!”
Seeing the Prince of Jing’s servant shaking like a leaf in front of the emperor, everyone in the room instantly understood the situation. Clearly, Jiang Suizhou had overdone it during yesterday’s session of torment and worsened his injuries.
The emperor felt a surge of satisfaction.
Indeed, it was as his uncle said: What was most entertaining wasn’t beating a dog, but putting two dogs in the same pen and watching them tear each other apart.
However, he couldn’t quite stomach the idea of having Huo Wujiu bleeding on the floor while kowtowing at his banquet. Not out of respect for his ancestors or anything else, but because it was inauspicious. He feared it might shorten his lifespan.
But he couldn’t let the matter of respect go unaddressed.
The emperor’s smile deepened, and his gaze shifted between Jiang Suizhou and Huo Wujiu. Finally, it settled on Jiang Suizhou.
“Then forget it. This isn’t the time or place for such a disgusting display,” he said. “I’m not an unreasonable man.”
Inwardly, Jiang Suizhou breathed a sigh of relief. Externally, he assumed a haughty expression tinged with dissatisfaction at both his servant’s insubordination and the lost opportunity to humiliate Huo Wujiu. He even glared coldly at Huo Wujiu to really sell it.
But before he could relax in full, the emperor spoke again.
“However, since he is your concubine, the two of you could be considered of one heart, mind, and body, correct?”
Jiang Suizhou looked up at the emperor, who smiled smugly back at him.
“You can kneel on his behalf.”
All the officials in the hall were seated, their eyes fixed on him.
Apparently, the emperor intended to turn his disappointment into an opportunity to escalate things. If he couldn’t degrade Huo Wujiu, then Jiang Suizhou was a perfectly acceptable substitute.
Jiang Suizhou took a deep breath and clenched his teeth.
He’d just known this dim-witted emperor, under Pang Shao’s instructions, wouldn’t let the matter rest so easily.
Whatever. It didn’t matter anymore. After all the humiliation he’d endured for Huo Wujiu in front of the emperor, one more kowtow was just another drop in the bucket.
He made sure to show his reluctance clearly on his face as he looked at the emperor, waiting for him to force the issue so he could grudgingly perform the kowtow and be done with it.
But at that moment, a deep voice broke the silence in the hall.
“Who gave him the right to kneel in my stead?”
The words carried a hint of disdain.
Jiang Suizhou froze.
What was Huo Wujiu doing?!
He turned back in surprise. Every eye in the hall fell onto Huo Wujiu, who lifted his head to fearlessly meet the emperor’s gaze from afar.
As he offered the emperor a languid yet provocative smirk, it felt like sunlight piercing through a deep valley. He sat upright and self-assured, with the air of a battle flag being unfurled, a beacon blazing atop city walls.
This was Huo Wujiu’s true self—bold, proud, endlessly radiant.
Jiang Suizhou heard Huo Wujiu continue.
“As a subject, I, Huo Wujiu, kneel only to my own sovereign,” he said slowly. “What right does the Prince of Jing have to kneel in my stead?”
The upward inflection of his tone could even be described as haughty.
The emperor’s eyes widened in anger.
“Your sovereign?” he said through clenched teeth. “The Huo family has always belonged to Great Jing. You are my watchdogs! Tell me, who is your sovereign?”
Huo Wujiu chuckled as if hearing a joke, then shook his head.
Jiang Suizhou had never seen him truly smile before. It was wild and dazzling, like sunlight reflecting brilliantly off a blade buried in sand.
“Even if the Huo family are watchdogs, we are no longer yours to command. As our ancestral teachings say, ‘Guard the north against foreign enemies, defend Yecheng,’” he said defiantly. “Your Majesty, the one who lost Yecheng three years ago was your father.”
The emperor trembled with rage.
How dare he?! The brutes who’d captured Yecheng were the traitorous and disloyal Huo family!
This was a blatant slap in the face. If the emperor had his way, then Huo Wujiu would have been immediately dragged away, cut into pieces, and fed to the dogs.
But he couldn’t do that. His uncle had said this man was still useful and needed to be kept alive. Besides, he couldn’t torment a dead man. The only way he could inflict the suffering Huo Wujiu deserved was by allowing him to live.
And so, though the emperor’s eyes bulged with fury, he forced himself to take a few deep breaths before he looked to Pang Shao for help.
Watching this exchange, Jiang Suizhou stood beneath the steps, doing his best not to smile.
Since the emperor had spared Huo Wujiu’s life once, he was unlikely to take it so impulsively. Jiang Suizhou knew this, but he hadn’t anticipated that Huo Wujiu would leverage this fact to openly challenge the emperor during the banquet.
So, Huo Wujiu was this good at provoking people, huh? No wonder he was usually so quiet—he was hiding his true power!
As satisfying as it was to witness, Jiang Suizhou knew he had to say something. If he remained silent, he would relinquish control of the situation to the emperor. Even if he didn’t kill Huo Wujiu, things wouldn’t end well for him today in that case either.
Jiang Suizhou grabbed a jade cup from the table and slammed it onto the table in front of Huo Wujiu.
A small jade cup was rather harmless, but the sharp sound of it shattering against the table corner was enough to startle everyone nearby.
Jiang Suizhou turned to Huo Wujiu, his expression dark and filled with poorly suppressed rage.
“How wonderful,” he said, his voice quivering faintly from attempting to contain the fury within his frail body. “It seems you need yet another lesson in how to keep your mouth shut.”
He enunciated each word very deliberately and spat them with such venom that it sent a chill through the entire crowd.
By all appearances, it seemed that if this hadn’t been the emperor’s birthday banquet, the enraged Prince of Jing would have lunged forward and strangled Huo Wujiu right then and there.
When the emperor saw this, his anger subsided slightly.
Right, there was still the Prince of Jing. He didn’t need to dirty his hands and ruin the festive atmosphere. The prince was sure to make his quarters a living hell for Huo Wujiu once they returned to their residence, in light of his loose, insolent tongue.
Below the tall dais, his uncle also gave him a slight shake of the head, signaling for him to quell his anger and not explode.
The emperor gritted his teeth and forced out a few words.
“How disappointing,” he said. “Enough of this; I’m hungry. Let the banquet begin.”
Without missing a beat, the officials lifted their cups, as though nothing had happened. The music resumed, flooding the hall with a melody both majestic and serene, as if it were striving to dispel the earlier tension.
The emperor downed a cup of wine.
Something felt wrong.
Though it was always entertaining to watch dogs tear each other apart… Why did it feel like when these two snapped at each other, he ended up gaining nothing?