Chapter 194: What Are You Doing?
Rumble!
Deep inside the underground tunnel, the sound of the earth shaking spread extremely far.
With Dumdum under his left arm and the empress dowager under his right, Ye Jingtang ran with all his might for more than 100 feet. Only then did the collapsed bricks behind him stop, and the rumbling in the tunnel quickly subsided.
From the explosion of the wall to the collapse of the tunnel, it had all happened in a matter of seconds. Under the tremendous changes, the two women couldn’t figure out what was happening. They only tensed up in shock and surprise.
At this moment, the light of a flame stick appeared in front of them. The middle-aged palace maid holding an official saber was running over.
Secret Guard Yang Lan had followed behind to guard against Ye Jingtang’s ulterior motives. She really didn’t expect such a terrifying battle to suddenly erupt in this tunnel that had been sealed for 200 years. She asked in shock “What’s going on?”
Without stopping his footsteps, Ye Jingtang handed the empress dowager directly to Yang Lan. “There was an ambush on the other side of the tunnel, and the tunnel collapsed. Get out quickly.”
The empress dowager had her eyes tightly closed. When she heard the voice, she realized that she wasn’t dead and hurriedly hugged Yang Lan’s neck.
When Dongfang Liren heard the voice, she suppressed the shock on her face and turned to look behind. “Who was over there?”
I’m not sure, but his martial arts skills are extremely high. His moves are exquisite and impeccable, but he doesn’t have enough stamina and strength. I’ve never encountered him before.”
While speaking, he carried Dongfang Liren horizontally and looked down at her. “How are your injuries?”
Dongfang Liren didn’t notice anything else at first, but when she heard this she realized her legs hurt a little. She hugged Ye Jingtang’s neck and said calmly, “They were scraped by gravel. It’s no big deal.”
The four of them ran quickly. After running for a while, they arrived at the stone room on the way.
Yang Lan carried the empress dowager into the spacious room and found that the door-sealing stone at the exit had fallen down. Iler footsteps suddenly stopped, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.
Dongfang Liren was also shocked when she saw that the exit was blocked. But when she looked carefully, she realized that Ye Jingtang had placed a stone pillar under the door in advance. The way she looked at him changed.
Ye Jingtang put Dongfang Liren down, took out a flame stick, and squatted down to check the door. He could confirm that the tremors just now were too great, causing the door-sealing stone to fall.
The door-sealing stone was three feet wide and blocked by the stone pillar. The stone pillar had been smashed apart, but there was still a gap of about two feet, which was barely enough to crawl out.
Ye Jingtang thought for a moment and prepared to enter to take a look.
But when Dongfang Liren saw that Ye Jingtang was about to crawl under the giant stone, she hurriedly pulled him back. “Come back. This stone probably weighs more than ten thousand kilograms. If it falls down on you, you will be cut in half on the spot. Don’t take the risk.”
Ye Jingtang looked at the gap above the ground. Although he felt that the risk wasn’t high, it was indeed there. The Prince of Jing and the empress dowager were slow, so he didn’t dare to let the two of them crawl through. He said, “I’ll go over and take a look at the situation first. Then I’ll get people to remove the door-sealing stone.”
Wait!” Yang Lan was a junior commander of the secret guards. Her martial arts skills were very high, but she didn’t think she could destroy a tunnel that was more than 100 feet long in two moves.
Originally, she had followed behind to prevent Ye Jingtang from taking advantage of the two women. However, judging from the short battle just now, if he really wanted to eat them all, it probably wouldn’t be a big problem for him to deal with her, a middle-aged but still attractive lady, together with the two women.
Yang Lan knew that her martial arts skills were inferior to Ye Jingtang’s. If a powerful enemy from the other end of the tunnel came to attack, it would be very difficult for her to block them. So she put down the empress dowager, turned over, and ducked under the stone door. “You stay here and protect Iler Highness and Her Majesty. I’ll call people over.”
Seeing this, Ye Jingtang didn’t follow her. lie looked up and inspected the surroundings. After confirming that the stone room’s structure was extremely solid, he turned around and checked the two women.
Dongfang Liren was wearing a silver fat-headed dragon python dress. The clothes on her upper body were intact, but there were many holes in rhe skirt. The empress dowager was the same, but her situation was much better since the two of them had protected her.
Ye Jingtang squatted down to take a closer look and lifted Dumdum s skirt.
Dongfang Liren was stunned. She hurriedly took half a step back and pressed down on her skirt. “What are you doing?”
The empress dowager said softly, “What else can he do? He’s treating your injuries.”
Then she pulled Dongfang Liren to sit beside her on the small stone platform in the stone room.
Dongfang Liren pursed her lips. “Just let the doctor do it when she comes later.
You’re not a doctor…”
Ye Jingtang placed the flame stick on the edge of the stone platform, grabbed Dongfang Liren’s white boots, and lifted her skirt to check.
Dongfang Liren always dressed very formally. She was wearing white boots and thin pants underneath.
At this moment, there were a few holes in her white pants, a few grazes on the sides of her legs, and a few bruises from the stones.
These kinds of injuries were nothing to ordinary commoners, let alone martial artists. But they were a little shocking on a beautiful imperial princess who had been blessed since she was born.
Ye Jingtang carefully took off her shoes and untied the strings of her cloth socks. Before he could pull them down, Dongfang Liren’s face turned red, and her feet arched slightly. “Sigh…”
Ye Jingtang blinked and looked at Dumdum. lie didn’t say anything, but his meaning was probably: I’ve seen your entire body, and even your hair rubbed me…
Dongfang Liren’s eyes were full of strangeness. If they were in private, it would be fine if Ye Jingtang touched her feet. But now, the empress dowager was here…
Ye Jingtang pulled down a cloth sock, and a crystal clear foot appeared in front of him. The entire foot looked like it was carved from suet jade. He could vaguely see the veins through her fair skin. When his hands touched it, his toes even shrank.
Dongfang Liren maintained her noble and dignified demeanor as a princess, but there was obvious embarrassment in her eyes. Seeing Ye Jingtang squatting in front of her and helping her roll up her pants gently, she pursed her lips and wanted to say a few words to break rhe strange atmosphere.
But before Dongfang Liren could speak, she saw Ye Jingtang take out a small bottle from his waist and was about to pour it on her leg…
Wait!” The charm in Dongfang Liren’s heart disappeared as she hurriedly said, “Does this hurt?”
Ye Jingtang paused and said frankly, “Golden Wound Powder, disinfects, stops bleeding, and gets rid of bruises. It hurts a little.”
Dongfang Liren originally wanted to put on a strong attitude and endure it, but she was afraid that she would lose her composure if she shouted later, so she raised her hand and tapped her chest twice. Then her body went limp, and she fell limply on the empress dowager s shoulder.
Ye Jingtang held her fair and cold feet and sprinkled the white powder on her calf. He tore off a section of the hem of her skirt to wrap around her leg. He did the same for her left leg. Then he looked at her thighs.
Dongfang Liren’s face was red. Her limbs were numb and unable to move.
Seeing this, she hurriedly said, “My thighs aren’t injured.”
Ye Jingtang checked the surface of the skirt. There were indeed no holes. Then he looked at the empress dowager.
The empress dowager was supporting Liren and kept staring at Ye Jingtang touching Liren’s feet. Liren’s face was a little hot, and she could see the two of them exchanging glances. She felt that it was quite interesting.
Seeing the peerlessly handsome and gentle guard looking over and seeming to want to do the same to her, the empress dowager sat up a little straighter. “Umm… I’m fine.”
How are you fine? Your skirt is tom…”
Dongfang Liren’s gaze was solemn. Feeling that her limbs had almost recovered, she bent down, scooped up the empress dowager s legs, and placed them on her lap.
Ye Jingtang stood up and looked elsewhere.
Dongfang Liren lifted the empress dowager’s red skirt, and her snow-white and soft calves and ankles appeared in front of her. She paused and frowned. “Empress Dowager, aren’t you wearing pants?”
The empress dowager was in the middle of thinking that Ye Jingtang was quite a gentleman, but when she heard this, her face instantly flushed red, and she patted Dongfang Liren’s shoulder. “What nonsense are you saying? I m wearing them!”
Dongfang Liren looked at the small feet that weren’t even wearing socks. She knew that the empress dowager definitely didn’t wear pants like her sister, but with Ye Jingtang present, it wasn’t appropriate for her to say anything. She only helped the empress dowager explain. “It’s hot in the summer, and the pants in the palace are shorter. Don’t let your imagination run wild.”
Ye Jingtang knew that there was a high chance she was wearing the same style of side-tie panties as Heroine Luo and Miss Yuhu, the kind that would fail off when pulled from the side, lie sighed in his heart, but he didn’t turn around to look.
Dongfang Liren held the empress dowager’s feet and carefully examined her calves. She found that there were only some dark red marks and very light abrasions. She didn’t even need any medicine. She breathed a sigh of relief and gently massaged them with her hands.
The empress dowager was still in some pain, but she didn’t say anything. She maintained her dignified bearing and looked at Ye Jingtang. “You’re not seriously injured, are you?”
Ye Jingtang looked at his tattered robe. “I’m fine. I’m not hurt at all.
Dongfang Liren gestured to her side. “You should bandage yourself too. If you have time to apply medicine, why are you enduring it?”
Seeing that no one had come yet, Ye Jingtang sat down beside Dumdum, crossed his legs, tore open his pants, and applied the medicine himself.
While Dongfang Liren was rubbing the empress dowager’s calves, she thought for a moment and said, “Ye Jingtang, did you find something? The tunnel was recorded in an old book. How could there be someone inside, and we happened to bump into him…”
Although Ye Jingtang’s source of information was not easy to explain, meetin someone in the tunnel could already be used as evidence, lie explained, “For the past two days, I’ve been investigating the murder case on Bamboo Street. I wanted to find books related to architecture, and when I was chatting with the shopkeeper of the bookstore, I found this book. 1 even heard that the Prince of Wu’s heir is a fan…”
?
The empress dowager blinked. “Dongfang Yin likes eating, but I’ve never heard of him being lascivious… Could it be that he has thoughts about me?”
Dongfang Liren stopped the Empress Dowager from letting her imagination run wild and said solemnly, “And then? You went to the Prince of Wu’s mansion yesterday, right?”
Ye Jingtang nodded. “1 didn’t have any direction, so I ran to the Prince of Wu’s mansion to take a look. In the end, I found that there was indeed this book in the Prince of Wu’s heir’s study. There were also creases on the page about the tunnel being dug…”
Dongfang Liren felt that Ye Jingtang was really too courageous. She frowned and said, “What does that mean?”
I just had a suspicion. When I was searching around, 1 discovered traces of dissolving oil outside the observation tower of the Prince of Wu’s mansion. I thought that the Prince of Wu’s heir might be plotting something in secret…”
The empress dowager said inexplicably, “You suspect that Dongfang Yin is up to no good because he reads erotic literature?”
It wasn’t easy for Ye Jingtang to explain his reasoning and how he arrived at this conclusion, so he explained casually, “I’ve always been so bold and imaginative when investigating cases. At first, I was just suspicious. I thought that this tunnel had long been abandoned and that the Prince of Wu’s heir was digging another tunnel. But when I came in today, I found that someone had been working in this tunnel that had been sealed for two hundred years. This can only mean that the Prince of Wu’s heir had discovered this land and has been doing something shady in secret…”
Dongfang Liren listened for a moment with a solemn expression. She thought for a moment and said, “It’s not that I don’t believe you, but other than the traces of dissolving oil in the mansion, the rest of your information is all unfounded conjectures. If he were an ordinary official, 1 could arrest him for interrogation without any reason. But Dongfang Yin is the heir of a vassal prince, and the Imperial Court doesn’t have any evidence to extort a confession. Doing this means forcing the Prince of Wu to rebel. Even if Iler Majesty issues a decree, the court officials will stop it.”
Ye Jingtang knew this. He turned to look at the collapsed tunnel and felt a headache. “We have already alerted the enemy. By the time the tunnel is dug, the other party will have long cleaned up the traces. I’m afraid it won’t be easy to find evidence again.”
Dongfang Liren said, “As long as Dongfang Yin is plotting something in secret, there will always be clues. When I go out, 1 will arrange for people to investigate secretly. If this matter can be confirmed, you will receive the greatest merit…”
While they were chatting, dense footsteps came from behind the door-sealing stone.
Hearing this, Ye Jingtang stood up and communicated with the palace servants who had rushed over…
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