Chapter 27 The Night with Masked Man
Today night's sky is indeed clear and it giving a wonderful twinkling stars. In one side of the Li Mansion, two men are enjoying the wine and the view,
Prince FengEr sips his wine glass and gives a satisfy look,
"Hmm, I like how you keeps your wine, WeiDi...never disappointing me..."
"..." Prince Li doesn't respond. He seems drawn in his own mind.
"Wei Di? Qi WangDi!"
Hearing his name is called, Prince Li has conscious back and looks to Prince FengEr.
"I am sorry, SanWangGe...I don't listen.."
"What is in your mind? Try to share it with your big brother here..."
"..."
"You worry about the case, don't you?"
Prince Li surprises that Prince FengEr can guessing right, maybe it clearly seen from his look?
"For all these years, Han Country try to conquer our land but they never success coz our weapon is better than them. But if they can access and make weapons as good as us, or even better...I am afraid..."
"That's why you keep thinking who is the culprit behind these all?"
"..."
"The battle problem is actually not our problem...its the crown prince's problem. If he or someone else beside him is indeed the one who we are looking for, that means he digs his own hole! He is so hopeless..."
Prince Li understands what Prince FengEr means. Among the princes, the crown prince actually the most arrogant but fool prince. He is easily hot blooded and always thinking that violence is the best way to solve the problem. Very different with the late second prince...
Suddenly Prince Li says,
"I miss Er WangGe...in the situation like this he knows what to do..."
The Third Prince suddenly swings his mood after Prince Li mentioned about the late second prince. He becomes more serious and drinks all wine in his cup.
"You know, Er Wang Ge would be telling us to leave this problem to him so he can take care of it...but Wei Di, he is no longer here..."
"Yeah, you are right SanWangGe...he is no longer here..."
Its been years the second prince has been passed away. He died in one of the battle against Han Army... It was the hardest battle...at that time the King sent the second Prince and some princes to protect the border from furious attack of Han People. The princes saw it as the opportunity to gain the King's flavour to be a crown prince. Only the third prince, Prince FengEr and the seventh prince, Prince Li didn't want to join at that time. When the battle finished, they got a shock news that was telling the second prince couldn't make it, killed by enemy in the battle. It became the biggest sadness and regretful for both of the princes to lost their best big brother without they had any chance to protect him. In other hand, the first prince was granted the title of the crown prince for successfully protecting the border.
For Prince FengEr and Prince Li, they realized something dirty play maybe happened during the battle, for the first prince they know hated the second prince so much. In fact, if the second prince still alive, he would be the one who deserved to get the title of crown prince than the first prince. But they don't have any clue, just a speculation.
Remembering the second prince makes Prince Li drinks a lot, many many times.
He starts to become drunk, so he becomes more expressions.
"I will catch those bastards!! This time I will not disappointing Er WangGe! No matter is it the crown Prince, Minister Hua or anyone...If I find out they had a deal with Han, I will kill them by my own sword !!"
"Hmm...including HuaMuTan?" Prince FengEr who seems having higher tolerance of alcohol asks him curiously.
"HuaMuTan...? That woman...makes me confuse...you know SanWangGe...she has changed... a lot.... I don't know what her evil scheme this time....But she makes my heart uncomfort...that evil...HuaMu...Tan"
Prince Li then fall asleep in his drunk.
"Hmm, it seems you has known that this HuaMuTan is different...maybe you also start attracting to her, Wei Di...?...Like I do....?"
Prince FengEr drinks his last wine cup and then left the place.
A few minutes later in TanTan's room, TanTan still watching FangFang falls asleep. Then she feels thirsty after singing lullaby a lot. She slowly gets down from her bed to drink water, but unfortunately there is no water left in the table. She must go to the kitchen to fill the water. Feeling her ankle's pain has reduced, TanTan decided to go out from the room and take some water to drink.
At outside of room, her instinct tells that she is not alone.
"Who is there?"
She looks around and shocks to find a shadow man comes out behind the tree, a man with a black mask.. The same man who helps her out from the woods last time, is looking at her.
Feeling aware, TanTan stays back,
"What do you want?"
"Don't worry, I come not to harm you..."
The black mask comes closer and shows the dagger to TanTan. TanTan recognizes it as the poison dagger she is looking for,
"The dagger..?! Its yours? You...!!"
"Yes, but I am not your killer! It just at that time, one of the killer managed to use it back after I protect you with that dagger. So it is useless to investigate it anymore, HuaMuTan!"
"But..who are you? Why do you help me last time?"
"I am nobody...I come to warn you that you should not investigate the dagger anymore...or involve with me any longer or you will be in more dangers than you are already right now...Do you understand?"
The black mask man then takes out TanTan's hand and put a small bottle in the hand.
"What is this?" TanTan confusedly look to the black mask man.
"For your ankle...it will remove the pain immediately...."
"How do you know?" TanTan widens her eyes, she puts full attention to figure out the face behind the black mask, but the black masked man immediately turns around.
Before the black masked man tries to left, TanTan stops him with the question.
"Wait....if i can't investigate from your dagger, how can I find out about my killers...Do you know who they are?"
The black mask man has jumped to the top of tree, but he turns to TanTan and says a clue,
"Your enemies maybe closer with you without you realize...don't trust anyone around you... You will know more in the palace later..."
Then he left, leaving TanTan in puzzled. She looks to the small medicine bottle in her hand.
"Can I trust him? Is he actually an enemy or a friend? He knows my ankle is hurt...is that means he keep watching me all this day? Is he actually near?"
Thinking too many questions in her mind makes her forgetting her thirsty. She returns to the room and decides to use the medicine to proof if the black mask is actually a friend or an enemy.