Chapter 636: Signboards
Translator: Pika
Qiu Honglei harrumphed. “I cannot stand her righteous attitude! It was one thing when I visited Chu Manor last time. She was indeed your wife back then, but the Chu clan already abandoned you for their own sake, so how can I still let her get away with that?”
Zu An sighed. “It’s not what you think. That was the best choice back then, and the Chu clan helped me in private afterwards.”
Qiu Honglei pouted. “I still feel like they abandoned you.”
Zu An was silent. He understood that all decisions made by a clan had to consider the benefits of most people. They definitely couldn’t act based on their own selfish whims, so he understood why the Chu clan did what they did. However, understanding was understanding. He didn’t feel too good about this either. He discovered that after arriving in this world, he never had a true family.
Qiu Honglei held his hand when she saw his dejected appearance. “Okay… My motives weren’t that pure either. I just didn’t want to see her act smug.”
Zu An smiled and pulled her into his embrace. “You’re a Devil Sect monster, right? It’s completely natural for you to do something like this.”
After doing what they just did, their relationship improved drastically. Qiu Honglei also leaned comfortably into his embrace to continue their affection that had just ended.
…
However, Zu An didn’t forget his objective for leaving the palace. He bought a hammock from a shop on the street. Qiu Honglei kept him company. She was surprised when she saw this. “Why are you buying this?”
“For your master of course. It’s pretty awkward for a man and woman to live together.” Zu An explained.
Qiu Honglei’s eyes widened. “You slept on the same bed as master last night?”
Zu An’s face heated up. How could he dare to admit something like this? He quickly said, “There’s no way that’s possible. Even if I wanted to, would your master agree?”
Qiu Honglei smiled. “You’re right. It’ll make more sense for her to kill you with one smack.”
Zu An thought to himself, it’s not just a smack, he was still sore from her kick this morning.
Zu An had to head into the eastern palace to clock in for work after he bought the hammock. There was something so big that happened in the eastern palace yesterday, so it would be bad if the crown prince’s secretary didn’t show up.
The two reluctantly separated. Qiu Honglei sighed as she looked at his retreating figure. She had no idea what in the world happened to her today. She clearly shouldn’t be so close to him because of her cultivation technique, yet she just had to argue with Chu Chuyan.
But when she recalled her attitude the last time she visited the Chu clan, she still felt awful. She finally felt better after facing her head-on today.
…
Zu An continued to received Chu Chuyan’s Rage points the entire way to the imperial palace. He thought to himself that he really pissed her off badly. He had to find a way to appease her anger.
But he had his work to take care of first. He had to enter the palace first.
Zu An pretended like he had no idea what happened and entered the eastern palace like normal. He immediately expressed his shock when he saw the flattened Eastern Palace.
Someone spoke up from the side. “Isn’t this Sir Zu?”
Zu An turned around. He noticed that a guard with dark circles was walking over. He smiled and said, “So it was Sir Piao.”
Piao Duandiao was quite shocked. An imperial guard like him obviously needed to recognize everyone who came in and out of the eastern palace. He didn’t expect the new crown prince’s secretary would know his name. This fella was way better than that arrogant Shi Kun.
As such, he immediately had a favorable impression of Zu An. “Sir Zu, the assassins attacked the eastern palace yesterday. There was even a grandmaster who came, and his majesty personally got involved. This place was razed to the ground from the blast waves.”
Zu An asked with concern, “Are the crown prince and crown princess okay?”
“They’re fine, they were just shaken up a bit. We’re using another palace to temporarily serve as the eastern palace. I’ll bring you there.” Piao Duandian said enthusiastically.
Staff like them who worked in the palace all aimed to not offend anyone. This fella was even quite nice to him, so he obviously wouldn’t treat him rudely.
“Thank you, Sir Piao.” Zu An cupped his hands. After yesterday’s interaction, he knew that this was a fella who liked to be in the limelight, so he was obviously going to adapt.
Piao Duandiao felt amazing when he heard Zu An call him Sir Piao. His expression became more and more friendly.
The two of them began to chat casually. Piao Duandiao felt more and more like this new secretary was a good fella. He was going to introduce this secretary to Jiao Sigun next time.
They quickly arrived at the new eastern palace. Zu An paid the crown prince a visit first, but the fatty was so alarmed last night that he was completely dispirited today. He wasn’t even in the mood to play anymore, and so he naturally didn’t want to meet with him.
Zu An didn’t mind at all. He was happy to remain invisible for the day. However, continuing like this without doing anything was a bit boring.
A while later, he asked the people around him and learned that the crown prince’s lesser tutor was also injured quite badly. Together with such a huge thing happening yesterday, today’s lessons were thus canceled.
He wondered if he could use this chance to get closer to big sis sect master… pah! Help Honglei’s master pass on information to her master.
No one will notice if he goes for a stroll, right?
He snuck towards the entrance, but he ended up running into a beautiful woman.
Zu An was alarmed when he saw who it was. He quickly took a few steps back. “I greet the crown princess!”
It was precisely because he unintentionally carried her that the emperor stingily wanted him to chop off his hand. Now, if he really bumped into her, there would be nowhere for him to run to.
The crown princess was given a fright. She quickly took a step back and regained her footing. The decorations on her dress bumped into each other from her sudden movements.
However, her mood was clearly not that great. She said with a frown. “And where are you off to?” Zu An obviously didn’t dare to say that he was skipping work. After thinking for a bit, he explained, “I wanted to use the restroom.”
The crown princess frowned in disdain. “You were late today.”
Zu An’s face heated up. After playing around with Qiu Honglei, he ended up being late. “The security outside the palace was strict and there were patrolling soldiers everywhere. That was why there was a delay.”
This woman had her fierce and arrogant appearance again. Her appearance yesterday was much cuter in his opinion.
The crown princess voiced her reply. “Remember to leave earlier next time. The crown prince’s secretary, apart from accompanying the crown prince in his studies, also shoulders the important duty of ensuring the crown prince’s safety. I didn’t see you anywhere yesterday when the assassins came. Fortunately, golden token envoy Sir Eleven arrived in time. You should learn from his example.”
“Of course, of course. I will definitely learn properly from his example.” Zu An didn’t argue with her that it would be even more strange for him to remain in the eastern palace when his shift ended. Hmph, I wonder what this woman’s expression would be like if she found out I am precisely golden token eleven!
The crown princess frowned. She sighed inwardly. Why was everyone so incompetent and infuriating?! Look at how mature and earnest Sir Eleven is, how he gives off a natural sense of security, yet this fella only knows how to put on that fake smile. If the crown prince only has these useless idiots at his side, how were they going to face King Qi in the future?
She wanted to say more when a tall and skinny lesser eunuch rushed over. “I greet the crown princess! Her highness the empress wishes for a meeting.”
Zu An recognized him to be one of the empress’ two lesser eunuchs, Little Gui. After the attack on the Palace of Peace, many high eunuchs were assassinated by the Shadow Group. Those two fellas really did get promoted like crazy.
The crown princess nodded. “There were too many things that happened these days. I almost forgot to wish the empress good health.”
She called over the stunned fatty off to the side and was about to head over to the Place of Peace. Little Gui said with a big smile, “The empress has invited everyone from the eastern palace as well. She wishes to reward those who bravely defended her last night.”
The crown princess was stunned momentarily, but this made sense as well, so she didn’t pay it too much attention. Even though the empress intends to rope some people in with this move, the crown princess didn’t feel a need to bicker over such a small matter with her. Furthermore, if she did interfere with this matter, the eastern palace’s people would resent her for it too. She wouldn’t do something so foolish.
Zu An’s heart instead pounded. He immediately knew that the crown prince and crown princess, even the entire eastern palace were just signboards, just pretenses. This was just for the sake of meeting him!