Pampered Consort of the Fragrant Orchard

“I guessed that you would rush back when you got the news. It's been a hard two days, hasn't it– do you want to take a break?” Han Mingyi looked at the exhaustion on Du Xiaoli's face, pained.

Du Xiaoli shook her head and said, “Xiaoyi-gege, my father, he…”

Han Mingyi took Du Xiaoli's hand and said, “Let's go inside first and talk. Leng Yi, you guys should also come in to get a grasp on the current situation. Come along too.”

Although it was said that martial arts practitioners generally did not involved themselves with political affairs, where Du Xiaoli was involved, Luo Qi wouldn't stand idly by. Otherwise, he wouldn't have followed her and rushed over in such a short time.

Han Mingyi held Du Xiaoli's hand, and the group came to the house, where Han Mingyi took out a map of the bottom of Phoenix City and gave a general overview of the current situation.

“The Empress Dowager's deadline is tonight, so we'll be sneaking inside the palace today.” After finishing the situation, Han Mingyi explained what he was planning to do now.

“Then how did Zhong Bolin gather so many forces?” After Du Xiaoli heard Han Mingyi's analysis, she said, “Although the Prime Minister may hold the power, pulling so many officials together to rebel is too strange.”

“They're using compulsion to bring those officials under control, and there are some that he's lured.” Han Mingyi said.

“Compulsion? Could they be......” Du Xiaoli said in surprise.

Han Mingyi nodded and said, “That's right, Zhong Bolin is from Miaojiang. He has secretly shipped a lot of resources to the Miao border since he took power in his hands, and he also sent a lot of information over there as well. We only knew that he was smuggling funds, but we didn't know that it was to Miaojiang. Moreover, he’s very cunning, and we never got hold of any evidence against him. Later on, it was only when your father sent someone to infiltrate Miaojiang that he got the information, allowing us to take precautions against them.”

“My father– how did he know?” Du Xiaoli asked suspiciously.

“That I don't know, you would have to ask your father.” Han Mingyi said, “Maybe his hatred for Zhong Bolin pushed him to keep investigating him, so he found out the clues.”

Du Xiaoli felt that Han Mingyi's guess was very close to the truth. Alhough Du Yunhan had been blaming himself intensely for what happened back then, he hated the Zhong family just as much. If there hadn't been their forced marriage, the tragedy back then wouldn’t have happened.

“Since you guys are acting tonight, where is my father? I want to go back to see him.” Du Xiaoli said.

“He also has a plan. I sent some of my people to work with him both from the inside and outside. Once he takes care of those in the Du Manor, he will go to the palace to help us, and then together with General Ji, he will lead the army to wipe out those people. You rest now, and return to the Prime Minister's Manor with them at night.”

Du Xiaoli thought about it and nodded in agreement, saying, “You send someone to a place and bring me two people.”

“Sure.”

Han Mingyi had someone bring Du Xiaoli and Luo Qi down with them, asking Leng Yi and Leng Er some questions before also letting them go rest.

Han Mingyi sat on a chair, looking at the base map on the table, but in his head he was thinking of Leng Er's words, “Master, when you have time you should accompany the Princess more. You're always away– letting people take advantage of that to worm their way into the Princess' heart would not be good.”

His little princess–, it seemed that there were still people who harbored thoughts about her.

Du Xiaoli didn't sleep after returning to the house, instead sitting criss-cross and then cycling her internal energy back and forth through her body a few times. When she felt her fatigue had been eliminated and opened her eyes again, the sky outside was already dark and inky.

It was evening again, was everyone at the table for dinner? She sighed, tonight was destined to be a tumultuous night.

After a while, Xia Yuan brought some food. Halfway through eating, someone came to inform her that they were setting out.

Originally not having much of an appetite, Du Xiaoli heard that it was time to move, so she put her bowl down and went out. When she arrived at the courtyard, Leng Si was waiting for her in the courtyard with people.

She looked around– everyone was wearing black clothes, masked. Looking at her own dirty clothes, she gave up on the idea of changing her clothes. Anyway, they were so dirty, they looked black, or at least they were quite gray.

“Princess Consort, let's go.”

“Mm.” Perhaps because it was now the last possible minute, they directly went out through the gate and quickly ran towards the Prime Minister's Manor. They didn't want to encounter anyone halfway.

“Brother!” Du Xiaoli instantly recognized Du Xiuheng who was in front.

“Sister, why are you back?!” Du Xiuheng was not in his usual scholarly attire; a sharp set of martial arts robes made him look less gentle and passive. Seeing Du Xiaoli, he was taken aback.

“Brother, are you guys going to the house?” Du Xiaoli ran to his side and asked.

Du Xiuheng was with a group of black-clothed men, it looked like they were also heading to the Prime Minister's manor.

“Didn't you leave for the marital alliance send-off? Why did you come back?” Du Xiuheng asked.

“I heard that something happened at home, so I rushed back.” Du Xiaoli said, “Since we're both going home, let's go together, I'm afraid the news from the palace will affect father's safety.”

“Mm, let's go!” Du Xiuheng nodded his head and waved his hand to the people behind him, and everyone continued to run towards the Prime Minister's Manor.

Outside the Prime Minister's Manor, soldiers surrounded the Prime Minister's Manor in three layers both inside and three layers outside. This was the place where the rebels gathered outside the palace, so in order to protect Zhong Meiqing, it was heavily guarded.

The night shrouded the entire manor, and a single lantern pierced the darkness like a glimmer of starlight.

MoonWhisperer, skyrise's Thoughts

Thanks for your continued support~ happy reading!

--If you want to support the team, please donate .

--

If there are any major inconsistencies between the old releases and our new ones, please point them out for us, thank you!

Join our for more announcements and release updates~ We won't bite~