After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Chapter 94
Jiang Suizhou returned to the manor late today, but hadn’t chanced upon Pang Shao.
The servants in the Pang residence waited in fear and trepidation in the house until after the fourth night watch. When the sky slightly brightened, a servant from the gate house came to report that their master had returned from the palace.
The servants around had never waited upon Pang Shao with such gloomy countenance.
For a moment, everyone dared not step forward. They watched Pang Shao stride all the way to the main hall, close the door and go straight to meet the ministers who were waiting in the Pang Manor until dawn.
The servants outside the door heard Pang Shao lose his temper in the room.
As for the ministers in the room, no one dared to breathe heavily.
They were all aware of Pang Zong’s thoughts. It wasn’t a day or two for him to curry favor with Pang Shao. However, no one expected this man to be so bold and also so coincidentally be met with an accident on his way to the Pang Manor.
Pang Zong’s father was Pang Shao’s elder brother born from a concubine. Although his official position was not as high as Pang Shao, he was a very powerful right-hand man. Today, Pang Shao pushed his whole family out in order to get rid of suspicions on him. For Pang Shao, this wasn’t a gecko breaking its tail, but his own arm.
Pang Shao was rightfully furious.
However, he was getting older. He spent the greater part of the night in the palace and had little strength to fly into a temper. Nevertheless, he smashed a tea cup, reprimanded several people in front of him, and sat in the master’s chair, gasping for breath.
“I thought he was just a sick dog who could not live for a few years, but I didn’t expect such sharp teeth and claws. I’ve always underestimated him.” Pang Shao clenched his teeth in anger.
The officer beside him immediately asked, “Chief Minister, could it be that someone did this on purpose at this time?”
Pang Shao sneered.
“Otherwise, do you think he just wanted to use the emperor’s court robe to frame Jingwang and came to me to ask for credit? That his horse coincidentally got spooked, he fell to his death and coincidentally allowed the emperor’s robe to fly out of his carriage?” he questioned, “If you do think so, then it is the gods in the sky who want my life.”
The man promptly agreed, “What Your Excellency said is true. This matter is indeed fishy! But… How did Your Excellency know about who directed it?”
Pang Shao raised his eyes and stared at him.
“From the top to the bottom of the court, who else needs to do this, and who else has the ability to execute it?”
“Uh…”
For a moment, the crowd looked at each other.
Pang Shao scoffed.
“Just in time, His Majesty loves hunting. I’ll give him a big gift in the hunting ground in a few days to make amends.”
After Pang Zong died, even Jiang Suizhou’s errands at the Ministry of Rites proceeded a lot smoother.
In a few days, he finished the task at hand.
Seeing that the summer was about to start, the day when the Emperor would leave for Tianping Mountain approached. Jiang Suizhou rested for a few days, and then began to prepare for the hunting trip.
This was indeed quite a problem for him.
He was inept at horse riding. Before transmigrating, he went to the racecourse at most and rode around the flat track in full gear. After coming here, he traveled either in a sedan chair or a carriage, and never once rode a horse.
Once they arrive at the hunting ground, it would take some effort to find ways to avoid loafing on his job.
Gu Changyun and Xu Du were also quite worried about Jiang Suizhou’s decision and came to persuade him several times.
Their uneasiness was nothing more than distrust of Huo Wujiu. Huo Wujiu was disabled after all. He couldn’t walk on the road. If there was any danger, he naturally couldn’t be counted on.
Jiang Suizhou, on the contrary, was quite at ease.
“It’s fine. I believe there won’t be too much trouble at the imperial hunting ground,” he pacified them, “What’s more, Huo Wujiu is a prisoner of war, and this Prince ‘hates’ him. Naturally, I should keep an extra eye on him. In that case, I can avoid anything about going hunting in the mountains.”
Hearing Jiang Suizhou’s argument, the two also felt that there was some truth in it. Furthermore, they really could not persuade Jiang Suizhou, so they could only give up.
At the end of April, the Emperor’s honor guards left Lin’an.
Hundreds of majestic chariots, under the escort of the palace guards, left the city mightily and headed all the way to the north.
Tianping Mountain was more than 200 miles northwest of Lin’an and within the borders of Suzhou prefecture. It was originally a beautiful landscape, famous for its precipitous peaks and steep cliffs, and covered with maple trees. It was entirely picturesque with the red maple reflected in the river in autumn.
Before the capital was moved down south, it was quite lively in the mountain, with frequent visitors, along with a Daoist temple there. However, in the second year of moving the capital, Pang Shao took a fancy to the territory and ordered people to surround it, and it later became an imperial property. Even the Daoist temple on the mountain was demolished and transformed into a palace.
This was also the first time Jiang Suizhou took a trip out of Lin’an City.
He took Huo Wujiu into the palace early in the morning and boarded the carriage of the Jingwang Manor.
The Hou Zhu has been unhappy these days. He also kept a straight face the entire morning, and it was not until he saw Huo Wujiu that he showed a rare smile and harshly ridiculed him.
The Hou Zhu’s mood turned sunny for a short time. Nonetheless, he didn’t forget to dispatch 20 to 30 percent more troops to surround the Jingwang Manor carriage.
Jiang Suizhou noticed this as soon as he got into the carriage.
He swept the curtain for a couple more glances and smiled at Huo Wujiu, “Look at this, such mighty weaponry is only around His Majesty.”
Huo Wujiu glanced out faintly through the gap in the carriage window and uttered a meaningful laugh.
