Ministers Begging Me to Ascend the Throne

Chapter 712: Chapter 348: Provocation_2

When Prince Chu was mentioned, Li Jue’s expression changed. He didn’t regard the Crown Prince, Duke Zhen, Lord Wei, and Prince Jing seriously, but Prince Chu made him very apprehensive.

Zhao Yao noticed the change in Li Jue’s expression and thought to himself, as expected.

"I was able to escape right under your nose thanks to Fourth Brother’s people rescuing me, otherwise, I’d have been fish food by now."

Hearing Zhao Yao say this, Li Jue frowned, indeed it was Prince Chu.

"I suppose you never expected my Fourth Brother’s people to be in Jinling, right under your noses," Zhao Yao continued, "You’ve been frantically searching for my Fourth Brother’s people these days, haven’t you? But there’s no clue, is there?"

Li Jue was caught off guard by Zhao Yao’s guess, as he continued, "You thought Jinling City was under your control, and yet you were completely oblivious to my Fourth Brother planting his people there."

At this point, Zhao Yao paused, took a few sips of tea, and then went on, "I heard that Brother Jiao is the smartest person in Jinling, no, in the entire world, and that everything in Jinling City is under your control, is that right?"

Li Jue didn’t speak, but his gaze towards Zhao Yao was extremely intimidating and fearsome.

"It seems you were completely unaware of my Fourth Brother’s activities," Zhao Yao mocked Li Jue openly, "Brother Jiao, who do you think is smarter, you or my Fourth Brother?"

Just as Li Jiao was about to speak, Zhao Yao interrupted him, "Oh by the way, isn’t my Seventh Brother also difficult to deal with? I heard you’ve been busy dealing with my Seventh Brother and the Song Family these days, but it seems you’re not a match for them."

Tong Xi noticed Li Jue’s disrespectful gaze towards Zhao Yao and wanted to scold Li Jue, but he couldn’t utter a sound. His whole body was cold and stiff, even his eyeballs couldn’t move, as if someone had blocked his points.

Zhao Yao leaned back against the chair. He played casually with the tea cup in his hand, his gaze indifferent as he looked at Li Jue, whose expression was as dark as water across from him.

"Brother Jiao, you look down on us princes, yet you’re now being toyed with by them, how does that feel?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a familiar voice, "Tenth Brother, what are you doing here?"

Zhao Yao turned towards the sound and saw that it was Prince Jing who had called him, exclaiming in surprise, "Seventh Brother!" He then stood up and walked towards Prince Jing. "Seventh Brother, what are you doing here?"

Prince Jing did not answer Zhao Yao’s question, instead he glanced at Li Jue and then looked at Zhao Yao.

"Why are you with Li Jue?"

"We just ran into each other and exchanged greetings." Zhao Yao glanced at Prince Jing and then at Li Jue, "Seventh Brother, are you here to see Mr. Li?"

"The First Talent of Jinling invited me for tea, how could I not come?" Prince Jing knew that Zhao Yao’s recent disappearance was because Li Jue had sent someone to capture him. Although he didn’t like this younger brother of his, Zhao Yao was still his brother, and he needed to protect the dignity of the Imperial Family in front of outsiders. "There’s nothing more for you here."

"Okay, then I’ll leave first." Zhao Yao looked towards Li Jue, smiled, and said, "Brother Jiao, we can’t continue our conversation today, let’s catch up some other time." With that, he left with Tong Xi.

After leaving the teahouse, Tong Xi came to his senses. His face was pale, and lingering fear was still in his eyes.

"Your Highness, you and Li Jue were too frightening just now."

Zhao Yao gave Tong Xi a disdainful look, "When did you become such a coward?"

"Your Highness, didn’t you notice that Li Jue’s gaze could have eaten you alive?" After the fear subsided, Tong Xi was full of anger, "That Li Jue is too arrogant, daring to want to kill you. Why don’t you have Lord Wei or Prince Chu kill him?"

"Do you think Li Jue is so easy to kill? Besides, he has his uses; it’s not the time to kill him yet."

"But he’s too arrogant. Who does he think he is, he..."

Zhao Yao interrupted Tong Xi’s indignant words, "Alright, let him be arrogant for a while longer, and when the time is right, I’ll definitely settle the score with him."

"Your Highness, it’s truly an injustice to you."

Zhao Yao patted Tong Xi’s shoulder and laughed, "I’m not wronged at all." He truly didn’t feel wronged.

"Your Highness, why is that Li Jue looking for Prince Jing?"

"What else could it be, it’s obviously about the imperial examinations." Zhao Yao sensed someone watching him but didn’t mind, "Let’s go."

"Your Highness, where are we going next?"

"Let’s just stroll around." Having been either locked up in a secret chamber or hiding at Mr. Fan’s place these past days, and now finally able to walk around openly, he naturally wanted to take a proper stroll.

After wandering for a while on the busiest street in Jinling, Zhao Yao noticed the gaze previously watching him had disappeared, probably because Eighth Brother’s men had driven away Li Jue’s people.

Zhao Yao bought some snacks and then went to a bookstore to buy some storybooks. While buying the storybooks, Zhao Yao handed the letter to He Lianfang to the shopkeeper of the bookstore.

After buying the things, Zhao Yao returned with Tong Xi.

On the way back, with Lord Wei’s people watching over him, he didn’t worry about being followed by Li Jue’s men.

When Zhao Yao returned, he was thrilled to see that Song Jicai and the others were there.

Seeing Zhao Yao, Chu Huan and the others were both crying and laughing, and complaining at the same time.

Ever since Zhao Yao disappeared, the four of them had been looking for him. Although Grand Commandant Zheng told them Zhao Yao would be fine, they were still worried.

Zhao Yao briefly recounted what had happened to him in the past few days to Song Jicai and the four of them. They hadn’t expected so many things to be involved, including the fight for the throne.

"Boss, you got innocently entangled in this."

"Boss, isn’t being a prince too stifling for you?"

"Boss, I’ll go kill that Li Jue right now."

"If we’d known it was like this, we wouldn’t have come to Jinling, Boss."

Zhao Yao reassured Song Jicai and the others, "Aren’t I fine now?"

"Boss, don’t you feel wronged?" Chu Huan hadn’t expected Zhao Yao to be in danger, and yet the Emperor did nothing about it.

Zhao Yao said indifferently, "Not at all, why would I feel wronged?"

"Boss, does it not bother you that the Emperor treats you this way?" Shen Sen thought that if it were him, he would be very upset.

Zhao Yao shook his head and said, "Not upset, and even if I were, what right do I have to be upset?"

"Boss..." The boss is really too pitiful.

"Alright, I’m really not sad or bothered at all." Seeing Song Jicai and the others looking sympathetic towards him, Zhao Yao comforted them, "The Imperial Family has always been like this, you don’t need to be so surprised."

Seeing that Zhao Yao truly didn’t seem to mind, Song Jicai and the others stopped expressing their sympathy and instead asked, "Boss, what should we do next?"

"Wait for Eighth Brother to return, then we’ll go to Yangzhou."

Prince Chu reminded Zhao Yao, "Boss, that Li Jue probably won’t easily let you go, you need to be careful."

"I know." If Li Jue wanted to continue targeting him, Zhao Yao didn’t mind playing along. Before Eighth Brother returned, he had the time to deal with him.