Special Thanks to these patrons for their support!
S T E L L A R C L O U D
[Azurixa] [Celeste S.] [Christine G.-L.]
O R A N G E S T A R
[Debra W] [Fazzienaz] [K.Rom]
[Manon] [Tori D.] [Ziana K.-P.]
Y E L L O W S T A R
[Chlaudette P.] [Jia Y.] [Maria P.] [Mel Melz] [Passerby] [Smurfinbatik]
G O L D S T A R
[Cindy] [Nanashi D. Y.] [Nicole] [Reece P.]
R A I N B O W S T A R
[Allie] [Amanda] [Book W.] [Britnae M] [Christigale M.] [Haruka N.] [kuroneko_chan]
[Leticia P.] [Lily J.] [Liznel M.] [Michelle K.] [onepiece] [Philomena N.] [Sweetlove]
Also, many thanks to everyone who bought me coffee (*≧?≦*)
Gu Jiao inquired further, "Were you the one who tried to incite a conflict between the Marquis Ding'an Estate and the Supreme Commander Estate?"
"Yes." Yuan Tang did not deny it.
Gu Jiao added, "Were you the one who infiltrated the military camp to assassinate Gu Changqing?"
Yuan Tang: "Yes."
Gu Jiao: "Is it also you who went to Thousand Sounds Pavilion to find Fei Shuang?"
Yuan Tang: "That's right."
Yuan Tang admitted everything.
Gu Jiao remained looking calm from beginning to end. She was neither surprised nor puzzled by his blunt admission. Instead, she asked him after a moment’s hesitation, "How do you know so much?"
Tang Ming's hobby, Fei Shuang's real identity and even the whereabouts of the Emperor.
Yuan Tang said with a smile, "Do you think the State of Chen will send an incompetent hostage prince to the State of Zhao?"
That was true, just as the State of Zhao also sent a very talented An Junwang to the State of Chen as a hostage prince back then.
Hostage princes with no skills would only die in other countries once they set foot in the enemy’s territory.
Yuan Tang held out his hand, "Can I have my tassel back?"
"No." Gu Jiao flatly refused.
Yuan Tang sighed helplessly, "It was given to my imperial concubine mother by my maternal grandmother. It had always been hanging on my jade pendant. There were only two pieces of it, one of which was given to my imperial concubine mother while the other was given to my aunt."
Playing sympathy cards was useless in front of Gu Jiao.
If she said she wouldn’t return it, then she wouldn’t.
Seeing that Gu Jiao was really determined not to return it, Yuan Tang knew that he would never get his tassel back and accepted the fact with heartache.
"What do you intend to do now?" He asked.
"Tell on you." Gu Jiao said bluntly.
Yuan Tang: ...Is it fine to be so direct?
Yuan Tang said, "At least I helped you one time, remember?"
Gu Jiao responded, "You make it sound as if you didn't benefit from it."
Yuan Tang felt a twitch at the corner of his mouth, "Why does cousin tell you everything?"
The Crown Princess used the cat to test Xiao Liulang, and it was Yuan Tang who had the cat taken away. However, the cat originally belonged to Yuan Tang, so if Gu Jiao hadn’t informed him of the incident, he couldn’t have escaped being implicated in the matter.
Between them, no one owed whom. At most, it was Yuan Tang reaping benefits for helping others.
After Gu Jiao took her leave, the man in gray stepped in, "Your Highness, this subordinate will go and kill her!"
Yuan Tang snorted coldly, "Do you think it's easy to kill her?"
The man in gray responded, "She’s still young, and her martial arts is not up to par yet. Perhaps in another two or three years, I probably won’t be able to kill her!"
With the ability of the man in gray, he should be able to detect movements within a hundred paces, but he was only able to sense that girl’s presence when she was right under his nose.
Yuan Tang smiled faintly, "You won't be the same person in another two or three years either. What? Are you actually afraid of her?"
"There’s no such thing!" The man in gray exclaimed.
Yuan Tang covered his wound and finally showed a trace of pain on his face, "Now now, that girl is a useful talent. It's a pity to just kill her."
The man in gray thought for a moment and nodded his head, "In any case, there is no one in this world that Your Highness can't win over."
"Except my cousin." Yuan Tang snorted and said grumpily, "Winning over other people by this prince’s methods is truly an easy task. But as for him, even if this prince were to take out his heart and offer it to him with both hands, he just wouldn’t feel this prince’s sincerity.”
Gu Jiao returned to Bishui Alley.
Xiao Liulang had gone back from Hanlin Academy and was tutoring Little Jing Kong in his study at present.
Gu Jiao didn't disturb them. She first made her way next door to check on Eunuch Wei's injury, and then went to Grandaunt's room.
The Emperor suddenly wanted to eat sugar-coated duck, so Gu Changqing went to the kitchen to help Old Chief pluck the duck feathers.
The Emperor was the only one in the room.
Seeing her coming, the Emperor's eyes brightened, but when he thought that she was Empress Dowager Zhuang’s person, his eyes dimmed again and he asked indifferently, "Haven’t you already applied medicine and redressed Zhen’s wounds today?"
"I have something to tell Your Majesty." Gu Jiao said.
"What is it?" The Emperor asked.
Gu Jiao declared with a firm voice, "I know the person behind the assassination."
The Emperor sneered, "So you went to find someone to take the blame for your good Grandaunt."
"I'm not that bored." Gu Jiao took out the multicolored tassel from her bosom. "This was something I pulled off from the assassin when I fought against him. I previously asked Your Majesty if he recognized this tassel, but Your Majesty said you don’t. Does Your Majesty know why you don’t recognize it? Because the assassin is originally not from the imperial palace of the State of Zhao, and yet he knows Your Majesty's whereabouts like the back of his hand."
The Emperor frowned, "Who is it?"
Gu Jiao looked steadily at the Emperor and said, "The State of Chen’s hostage prince."
Gu Jiao's words were only half-truth. Except that this tassel was really not something she pulled off from the assassin, the rest of her statement was not false.
However, Gu Jiao only had this piece of tassel as evidence, and nothing else.
Whether the Emperor believed her words or not depended largely on his trust in Gu Jiao.
This was one of the reasons why Yuan Tang dared to confess everything to Gu Jiao. So what if Gu Jiao knew the truth? It was far-fetched to convict him with just a piece of tassel.
Compared with him, the State of Chen’s hostage prince, the Emperor would be more willing to believe that Empress Dowager Zhuang was the one behind the scenes.
The Emperor said in a cold voice, "Do you think by planting evidence against the hostage prince of the State of Chen, you can exonerate your good Grandaunt?"
"If Your Majesty wants to make his friends suffer and his enemies happy, then Your Majesty is free to assume so." With that, Gu Jiao turned around and walked out of the room.
The Emperor was furious.
He thought she was busy working in the medical hall seeing her running around outside day after day. As it turned out, she was looking for evidence in order to get that poisonous woman off the hook!
That poisonous woman was really something else. Even if one fell, there was a next person to follow her!
Imperial Concubine Dowager Jing, Ning'an, and the little miracle physician were all poisoned by that poisonous woman!
They were blinded by her, but he wouldn’t!
"I never will!"
At night, after Eunuch Wei regained consciousness, the first thing he did was to drag his heavily injured body to visit the Emperor and apologized to him, "This old servant failed to protect His Majesty... May His Majesty mete out a punishment for this servant..."
The Emperor looked at Eunuch Wei, whose hands and neck were covered with bandages. He opened his mouth, unable to bear seeing him in such a state, "You're not an imperial guard, why do you need to protect Zhen? Get up."
"This old servant dare not."
"I command you to get up!"
"...Yes!"
Eunuch Wei stood up trembling.
The Emperor told him to take a seat before continuing to talk.
Eunuch Wei said, "Your Majesty, this servant isn’t worthy."
The Emperor let out a sigh.
They were just the two of them here, why so obstinate?
"Your Majesty." Eunuch Wei opened his mouth, "I just met Young Miss Gu in the yard..."
The Emperor's eyes turned cold, "What? Are you here to speak for the Empress Dowager too?"
Raz P.'s Thoughts
To read advance GSPW chapters! Updates 7x a week (daily).
You can read up to 20 advance chapters in our patreon so you should go check it out. ^^
No patreon but want to support us? Then,
OR if you can't support us in money, you can always support us emotionally -just hope into . Hehehe~
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on fre(e)webnov(l).com