Chapter 82
Chapter 82 The Painting of Ten Thousand Horses Galloping Ahead
Old Madame Hua squinted; somehow, she felt that something went wrong. On the face of it, the Empress appreciated Hua Qiyue very much, but after all, Old Madame Hua was a senior woman who had seen much of the world and she had caught sight of that cold light skimming over the Empress’ eyes.
“Qiyue, have you ever offended the Empress? Why do I have a feeling of unease?” Old Madame couldn’t help worrying about Hua Qiyue since she had now regarded Hua Qiyue as the treature of Hua’s Mansion.
“Grandmother, you worry too much. I’m just an ordinary woman, how can I offend the Empress?” Hua Qiyue smiled calmly and served Old Madame Hua with a bowl of soup.
Old Madame paused and composedly watched two Palace Guards escort a middle-aged man to the palace.
Since they finally caught a spy, the Changlong Emperor intended to punish him as a warning to others. Although the Changjing Kingdom hadn’t been trod by the Tumo Kingdom, it was still surrounded by enemies from all directions and was often bullied by these enemies.
Given a chance tonight, why not vent his anger on this spy?
Those two Palace Guards kicked Wang Zhong down to the ground. However, Wang Zhong laughed coldly and his face was filled with an unyielding expression.
“Your Majesty, Wang Zhong intended to mobilize Palace Guards during the banquet, and then break into Your Majesy’s study room secretly. Fortunately, I caught him at once! And now, I beg Your Majesty to punish him!”
One of the Palace Guards said in a cold voice.
The Changlong Emperor squinted and his fierce and cold eyes frightened all the people that were present, “Tell me, who was behind you and asked you to sneak into the palace of the Changjing Kingdom! Tell me honestly, otherwise, I’ll make you beg for death!”
Wang Zhong raised his bright eyes and laughed coldly, “Hahaha, the Changjing Kingdom is going to die. You, the evil Emperor, deserve a worse retribution than me.”
Hearing this, everyone gasped for air!
Unexpectedly, he was still arrogant even in front of the Emperor!
The Changlong Emperor’s facial expression was horrible and his eyes were filled with a murderous look, just like dark clouds without a shred of bright light. However, he didn’t directly order to kill him.
“You’re brave to be so rampant even in front of me, however… what I said before still counts!” The Changlong Emperor laughed coldly and said, “Shui Qianruo, as the most famous poisoner in the Changjing Kingdom, you’re allowed to deal with him, and I want the truth from him!”
As soon as the Changlong Emperor finished speaking, Hua Qiyue’s entire body was jolted!
Shui Qianruo, the most famous poiisoner in the Changjing Kingdom!
And Tianci, was poisoned by him!
Which meant, Shui Qianruo was the one who once hurt Tianci. So, Hua Qiyue would never ever regard him as a friend!
A man slowly stood out from behind the Emperor.
The man looked a little pale and ill, but his eyes looked extremely cold and icy. He seemed to be as tall as two meters but was very thin, and his entire body released a sense of weirdness.
Hua Qiyue lightly closed her mouth and gently clenched her fists.
Shui Qianruo came out from behind. Wang Zhong probably had heard about his fame, so, there was a tinge of a frightened look quickly flashing over his eyes.
All the people held their breath and gazed at him, watching this famous poisoner walk toward Wang Zhong.
Hua Qiyue fixed her eyes on them, and Ji Jing, who stood beside her, asked curiously, “Sister Qiyue, I find this man really weird. He seems to be like a dead man walking instead of a real person…”
Yes, Shui Qianruo had a poker face and his eyes had nothing but an icy and scaring light.
Under the gaze of all the people, Shui Qianruo indifferently stretched out his hands, and there slowly arose a ball of black light from them!
Prince Nan Yun Shimo raised his eyebrows calmly. He had met Shui Qianruo several times, but he didn’t know about him in depth. Unexpectedly, this poisoner was also a senior Qi Artist. Only those who were both Qi Artists and poisoners could poison others by using anima energy.
Wang Zhong was totally shocked, and that ball of black light suddenly left Shui Qianruo’s hands and fell on Wang Zhong’s forehead like lightning.
Wang Zhong was shocked again, and several seconds later, he fell down to the ground with his entire body trembling, constantly making heartrending sounds.
His eyes and nose were horribly distorted, and black water seeped out of the corners of his eyes, which looked extremely frightening. Some of the timid young and rich ladies screamed and covered their eyes, refusing to watch it.
“No, no… master, I’m begging you, please, I’m feeling very terrible! Very… very terrible… I’ll talk, I’ll talk!”
Hearing this, Shui Qianruo calmly crooked his fingers, only to see Wang Zhong immediately stop screeching.
Wang Zhong raised his head with his eyes red with blood. He trembled and pointed at Hua Qiyue who wasn’t far from him, “It’s her… Hua Qiyue is my… my informant.”
He accurately pointed at Hua Qiyue. Hearing this, suddenly all the people were surprised and shocked.
In an instant, Hua Qiyue became the focus of public criticism. All the people focused their eyes tightly on her for fear that they would miss her every expression.
Yun Shimo frowned; he hadn’t thought that this would happen tonight. Huangfu Changyu looked at Hua Qiyue in surprise as if he didn’t believe that she was the informant.
Ji Jing and Ji Feng were also shocked, but they both agreed that Hua Qiyue must have been framed!
Old Madame Hua was surprised and shocked and suddenly said in outrage, “How dare you! Recklessly slandering the legitimate daughter of the Hua’s Mansion, do you know what you’ve done?!”
“Old Madame Hua, this thief confessed everything after being handled by the poison master. Old Madame should listen to him, he will present witnesses and evidence to us,” The Empress said calmly as if what happened in front of her was a piece of cake.
Old Madame Hua looked at her worriedly.
But Hua Qiyue calmly smiled and said, “Grandmother, please don’t worry. It’s just a misunderstanding.”
Hearing this, Old Madame Hua was relieved a little. But the Second Concubine and others gave her strange looks.
Of course, the Changlong Emperor looked serious and severe. It wasn’t easy for the Changjing Kingdom to find a Qi Art genius, but now, this genius was considered by an unidentified spy to be his accomplice?
The atmosphere was very weird. The Changlong Emperor said slowly, “Wang Zhong, you told me that Princess Jinghua was your informant, do you have any evidence?”
Wang Zhong looked at Hua Qiyue with resentment, and said in a tremulous voice, “I have evidence…”
Hua Qiyue raised her eyebrows calmly, ‘It’s finally coming. The Empress prepared the birthday banquet for me all by herself, but now, it turns out to be my guilt banquet.’
“Present your evidence!”
The Emperor shouted coldly, and the Empress’ face became severe as if she felt sorry for Hua Qiyue, “Princess Jinghua is a brilliant genius. Your Majesty, it’s probably a misunderstanding!”
“Empress, don’t worry. If Wang Zhong can’t present the evidence, I’ll execute him at once!” The Changlong Emperor said and laughed coldly, looking directly at Wang Zhong with ruthless and cold eyes.
Wang Zhong tremblingly knelt down and said, “Your Majesty, the cipher that we used to contact with each other was in my house that is located at the capital, Changyi St, No. 298. As for the evidence, it was hidden in a box which is under my bed!”
What Wang Zhong said caused the whispering among all the people. After all, Wang Zhong had confessed, the evidence shouldn’t be false, right?
Hua Qiyue calmly took a sip of tea and stood up, saying, “Your Majesty, since Wang Zhong has already confessed the location, then, I beg Your Majesty to fetch the evidence at once so that Your Majesty can testify that I am innocent!”
People looked at Hua Qiyue with weird eyes and they didn’t think that this infanta should voluntarily beg His Majesty to fetch the evidence. So, was it true that Hua Qiyue had been framed?
The Changlong Emperor was glad to hear that. If Hua Qiyue was really a spy, she should have already been frightened to death. However, she behaved so calmly and begged for His Majesty to act, why should the Changlong Emperor be unhappy?
“Fine! Whether Princess Jinghua was framed or not, we’ll know when the evidence is presented later! Someone, collect the evidence in Wang Zhong’s house immediately and present it to me! Since you, Princess Jinghua, are so calm, then I trust you!”
The Changlong Emperor laughed in relief, “Come on, let’s continue, don’t be bothered by such a small episode!”
Since His Majesty said it like this, nobody would talk about what happened to Hua Qiyue anymore. Then, the lively atmosphere came back to the banquet again, but Old Madame Hua’s face dimly showed a sense of anxiety.
The Second Concubine and Hua Mengshi glanced at each other and inwardly mocked Hua Qiyue, seeing that she would definitely be doomed after the evidence was presented, but now she still was so calm.
The Empress herself served a bowl of soup for the Emperor and gave a glance at Hua Qiyue with her beautiful eyes, only to see a wisp of proud light suddenly passing from the Empress’ eyes but every word she said expressed her sorry feelings for her.
Wang Zhong was taken away and the banquet went on. Dancers started to perform in groups and their attractive postures, as beautiful as butterflies, temporarily alleviated the tense atmosphere greatly.
The present ministers and their family members were all inwardly surprised that the Emperor and Hua Qiyue were so calm about what happened just now and they didn’t worry about it. It seemed that this show was becoming increasingly confusing.
One hour later, the Qi Artists and Palace Guards, who went to collect the evidence, came back, and they carried the box that Wang Zhong talked about to the center of the palace.
“Your Majesty, this is the suspicious object that we discovered in Wang Zhong’s house, but I haven’t opened the box to look at the contents yet.”
The Qi Artist that took charge of the search for the evidence said. That box was locked by a longevity lock without any traces of having been opened.
Wang Zhong was taken to the palace and he cried immediately when he saw the box, “Your Majesty, this is the evidence, please allow me to open it.”
After saying this, Wang Zhong took out a bunch of keys and tremblingly held one of the keys, walking to the box and kneeling to open the longevity lock.
He looked at Hua Qiyue with a weird eye and various inenarrable looks were hidden in his eyes. Wang Zhong must be very confused, why was Hua Qiyue so calm?
After all, she was now slandered as a spy from another country, and she would be notorious, even her family would be ruined once the accusation was confirmed!
However, she was still calm as usual, as if nothing had happened.
As soon as the box was opened, two Qi Artists stepped forth and took out the object from it. People were astonished, the object that was taken out from the box should be a piece of painting.
Wang Zhong said coldly, “Your Majesty, this is the evidence. On the back of the painting, there are characters written by invisible ink which were specially made by a Qi Artist. Those characters will be visible as long as being swept by fire.”
Hua Qiyue calmly sat there and there was no surprise, no delight, no anger and no worry on her face, which made Ji Jing worried and frightened.
While Princess Huiya occasionally glanced at Hua Qiyue, she was inwardly shocked by Hua Qiyue’s calmness.
Hua Qiyue was just an infanta who suddenly transformed from a past loser to a very famous Qi Artist and infanta in Changjing, and she was a legend per se. Now, something bad came to her, but she was still calm and tranquil; she didn’t know why she was so calm.
Princess Huiya felt stressed because of the tense atmosphere. She actually thought highly of Hua Qiyue though she also admired Yun Shimo secretly; she had never regarded Hua Qiyue as her enemy.
Ji Feng and others also occasionally looked at Hua Qiyue worriedly, but they were relieved inwardly when they saw her so calm.
Her calmness implied that Hua Qiyue wouldn’t lose!
“Someone, sweep the back of the painting with fire!”
The Emperor shouted coldly. As soon as he said this, an eunuch presented a fire.
“Ah… this… isn’t this the painting of Ten Thousand Horses Galloping Ahead?”
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