Chapter 896: Trust Ah Zu, Gain Eternal Life
Zu An cupped his hands and said, “This humble subject isn’t in his best condition, so I’ll withdraw for now.” At the same time, he sent a ki transmission to Bi Linglong. “Don’t worry, I got this.”
Even though she didn’t know what he could possibly do, this man had done the impossible again and again in the dungeon. Bi Linglong immediately calmed down. “In that case, then, I won’t keep Sir Zu any longer. Please rest well.”
She called in the lesser eunuchs after saying so, and she also sent some men to bring over Zu An’s medicines and gifts.
The empress figured that this was because Bi Linglong was embarrassed. She didn’t treat Zu An as an outsider, but how could a young lady like her be comfortable talking about such things in front of other men?
Zu An was surprisingly quick-witted as well, and chose to use the situation as an excuse to leave.
When Zu An left, the empress looked at Bi Linglong with a smile. “There’s no need to be scared; just let those older nurses take a look. It’ll just be for the formality.”
She didn’t think that Bi Linglong would actually do anything that would bring shame to the royal family. After all, everyone had witnessed how she behaved all these years in the palace. She was the definition of a well-bred young lady, the perfect candidate to become the crown princess. She had never made any large errors like that in the past.
She thought, That emperor really had something wrong with his head when he asked me to do this. He’s way too paranoid. Hm… Looks like I have to be more careful in my dealings with Zu An in the future.
Bi Linglong forced a smile. She obviously didn’t dare to refuse again to avoid bringing suspicion upon herself. She said, “Then, why doesn’t your highness use this chance to visit the crown prince?”
The empress had just brought up the purpose of her visit, so stalling for a bit of time like this wouldn’t draw any suspicion from her.
The empress nodded. “I should do that. I reckon that chubby kid has been scared quite badly this time.” He was her blood nephew, so it wasn’t inappropriate for her to call him that.
Bi Linglong replied, “The crown prince has indeed been frightened, and he has many injuries too. He was crying out in pain when the doctor applied medicine earlier.”
The scene of a blood-soaked Zu An fighting Zhao Han’s split soul, as well as his battle against Xu Fu, couldn’t help but appear in her head. That’s what it means to be a real man, not like the way the crown prince is…
“If that brat can cry and scream, that means that he’s fine,” the empress said with a smile. She clearly understood the crown prince’s nature well.
The two of them chatted while walking over to the crown prince’s chambers. His butt was sticking out as he played cricket and fought with two lesser eunuchs. But when he noticed that people were coming, he immediately jumped back into bed and screamed ‘ouch, ouch’.
Bi Linglong and the empress were left speechless.
The empress was also completely stunned when she saw the crown prince try to deceive her. But she couldn’t really expose him in front of everyone. She sat down by the bed and offered her sympathy.
“Auntie!” Zhao Ruizhi began to act cute. Even though he was normally rather slow, he still had such instincts.
“Hmph, you’re supposed to call me ‘Your Highness the Empress’ in the palace.” Despite the empress’ words, she didn’t seem to be upset at all.
Bi Linglong heard her asking questions here and there. She knew that this woman was taking the chance to get more information about what had happened in the dungeon.
But unfortunately, Zhao Ruizhi was too slow. Together with the fact that the emperor’s split soul had replaced him during the second half of his dungeon experience, he could only reply ‘I don’t know’ to everything.
The empress was instead left completely baffled. She gave up when she noticed that she wouldn’t be able to get any useful information. She was already planning to meet with Zu An and ask that guy some questions.
After warning the maids and eunuchs to take good care of the crown prince, she got up to leave. When she left the room, she stared at Bi Linglong.
Bi Linglong knew that she couldn’t dodge that topic any longer. She could only say in an embarrassed voice, “The two older nurses over there, please follow me inside.”
The empress nodded and gestured for the two nurses to go in. It was obviously improper for her to be inside when this kind of thing was being done. She would just wait outside.
Bi Linglong wanted to stall for some more time inside the room, but she was cut off by the two older nurses.
“Crown princess, please hurry up. We need to report back after we’re done too.”
“You can remove your clothing now.”
Bi Linglong cursed inwardly. No wonder those lesser eunuchs were all scared of these older grannies. They were all fierce and impatient women. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do. She could only slowly start to take off her clothes.
She thought of countless possibilities. Could she pretend to faint because of some internal injuries? Or should she just kill these two to silence them? But everything she thought of came with a huge pile of terrible consequences that would only lead to her own end.
When she took off all of her clothes and only had her underwear left, one of the older nurses said with a chuckle, “Crown princess, your skin is so nice! It’s white and soft like tofu.”
“Wow, look at that waist, that perky bottom. You’ll definitely be able to give birth to a prince.”
“Crown princess, we just need you to sit over there and spread your legs.”
…
These older nurses were already in their later years, and they all spoke bluntly. Their status in the palace was special, so they didn’t need to fear the crown princess. That was why they joked around just like women from a marketplace.
Bi Linglong was embarrassed and upset. She really wanted to smack their mouths. At the same time, she began to grumble inwardly about Zu An. That guy had told her not to worry, but where was he now that she was already at this critical juncture?
When she sat down on the bed, the two older nurses squatted down and moved closer to her. A hint of killing intent flashed through Bi Linglong’s eyes. Ki flickered across her palms. Now that things had already reached this point, she had to take a risk.
Suddenly, a piece of the bed’s wooden frame lifted open. A black figure darted out, knocking the two older nurses out.
“Ah!” Bi Linglong subconsciously cried out in alarm. She had never expected someone to actually jump out from underneath the bed! But she immediately clutched her mouth when she saw that it was Zu An.
Even so, it was too late. Her cry of alarm reached the ears of the empress, who asked, “What happened?”
Bi Linglong reacted quickly and immediately responded, “It’s nothing! It just hurt a bit just now.”
“Oh.” The empress didn’t suspect anything and instead reprimanded the two older nurses. “Nurse Du, Nurse Wang, be more gentle! The crown princess’ body is precious; you two better not be messing around.”
“Of course, of course…” Zu An pinched his throat and said in an ambiguous voice.
Bi Linglong was shocked and overjoyed. She asked, “Ah Zu, why are you here?”
Then, she noticed that he was staring at her. She realized that she was only wearing the thinnest underwear, and that most of her skin was in full view. She quickly grabbed her clothes to cover her chest. She gave him an upset look and asked, “Did you not get enough of a look over the past few days yet?”
“Your skin sparkles like jade; it reflects the beauty of nature itself. How can I ever get enough?” Zu An sighed in praise.
Bi Linglong was happy to hear his sincere praise, but her reservation as a young lady made her too embarrassed to say that out loud. She could only avoid his gaze while blushing.
Zu An said, “I knew that the two nurses came to examine your body, so I used that as an excuse to leave. Then, I waited for a chance to come back, but there were guards everywhere around the Eastern Palace. I could only come in through the secret passage we took before. You won’t blame me for that, right?”
“Of course not, but…” Bi Linglong’s expression became strange. “But you can’t come into my room through this passage without my permission in the future.”
“Relax, am I that kind of person?” Zu An said with an upright expression. However, inwardly, he laughed. This was how young girls were. Even though they were completely willing, they just wouldn’t admit it. He didn’t have to argue with this kind of stuff. When the time came, he’d just come. He’d know how she really felt when he checked to see if the door was locked or not.
Bi Linglong put on her clothes again in a hurry. Then, she looked at the two older nurses on the ground, asking, “What do we do now?”
These two older nurses were elders in the palace, the emperor’s trusted aides. They couldn’t be bribed. Did they really have to kill them? But what about afterward?
Zu An chuckled. “Don’t worry. Trust Ah Zu, gain eternal life.”
When he said that, he summoned Daji. Bi Linglong felt a fragrance fill the air. Then, she saw a ridiculously beautiful woman dressed in white appear in the room.
Bi Linglong wasn’t too surprised this time, since she had already seen Daji in the dungeon. However, she still couldn’t help but give her a few looks. This person looked just like a real person. Was she really just a summoned creature? And she’s so pretty too… Did the perverted Zu An do anything weird to her?
Zu An undid the two older nurses’ acupoints. They were a bit dizzy when they woke up. The first thing they saw were Daji’s deep and beautiful eyes; they were quickly trapped and couldn’t escape.