Chapter 146 - Jiang Ying Yue (42)

Because Jiang Ying Yue was watching and had requested to spare the innocents, no lives were lost at the fire that Jiang Li started.

Well, the plan was not to kill anybody anyways, but since the girl spoke up, he earned more reason to stick to it. The man knocked out everyone and then tossed them out to the gardens. Only after ensuring nobody would be trapped inside did he begin to burn the huge and majestic-looking house down.

After half an hour, the whole house was reduced into nothing but cinders. Upon hearing this, Jiang Ke once again became very angry. He immediately hurried home, dying to smack down the damn young man who seemed hell-bent on harassing him to death. However, to his extreme annoyance, when he arrived there, the culprit was no longer around, already five miles away, coaxing his crying mother in his own estate.

Looking at his own home which now became heaps of ashes, the Marshal's whole body trembled in rage.

Who could understand the pain in his chest? Or explain the alarming and unhealthy rise in his blood pressure?

He went to the Chen Wang Residence to condemn him officially before his mother and to demand compensation for the wrecked house. Now he regretted it so much because he actually gave the damn man the opportunity to burn down the largest one which was not only his own dwelling place, but which also housed many important doc.u.ments. Even his tiger tally was left inside! 

'A titled Prince could be this despicable for a mere woman?'

'He's a genius?'

'NO! he's f*cking demonic! And that damn bastard hit me hard this time. How am I going to explain to His Majesty about the burned tiger tally?'

He knew that Chen Wang had a bad impression of him due to the meeting they had with the Emperor a year ago. But even if they had grudges between them, why couldn't they just settle it like true men, dueling in a proper place?

Thinking of this, Jiang Ke fumed in anger. Everything that had happened today seemed to have bottled his anger up so when it reached the cap, he ended up beating a few of the estate's guards and dismissing so many servants to relieve it. 

...

To the Grand Marshal's relief, when tomorrow comes, the news about his main wife's skinless face and his house getting burned did not become the city's greatest gossips. Something else became the talk of the capital, a matter that even shook the court. 

Hai Wang had proposed to migrate the people from the East because he predicted a famine would strike down that land soon! 

It had to be said that everything the leads do would easily become the people's center of attraction. This case was not an exception, especially now that it concerned many livelihoods and lives. The commoners' thinking processes were not that complicated. Since a member of the imperial family announced it, it must be from a credible source.

Of course, while people's thoughts were simple, it didn't mean they didn't know how to hold doubts, not everyone believed it right away, starting to inquire about information from the merchants who just came from that region. To everyone's surprise, Hai Wang's words seemed to hold some truth in them. So it immediately turned into words of mouth, eventually reaching the ears of that one in the palace.

At the court meeting that morning, since not all the ministers were informed of the issue, they began talking and guessing why the Emperor's mood turned downcast.

Not many knew it was because his least favorite son actually managed to get a hold of intel that even he had yet to get. Intending to condemn his hated son for gathering secret forces behind his father's back, the Emperor voiced out his suspicion to Chen Heng. But this only resulted in him becoming more depressed after finding out that a few of his neutral ministers were on Hai Wang's side, jumping in to say that they had heard of the clues too and only managed to piece out the truth due to Hai Wang. 

"My beloved ministers, are you all saying to Zhen there have been signs of drought in the eastern region but it's only became more apparent these days?"

Grumpily, the old guy swept his eyes around, looking at his retainers that were lining up on both sides one by one. He paused his gaze to the Marshal who kept giving evil glares to Chen Wang. He saw that the other military officer in the place was tauntingly smiling at the Marshal. 

Chen Wang now learned to be so childish? That stiff and rigid young man? Wait, the more important problem was why the other retainers, apart from those two, were just lowering his head and not making even the slightest sounds?

The Emperor took a breathe slowly.

Still, in a bad mood, he glared at the only person in the place who looked relaxed and unfettered. "Chen Wang, Zhen can see that only you seem to be not acting he doesn't hear Zhen. Why don't you answer Zhen's question?"

Everyone else pretended they didn't hear the anger and sarcasm in the Emperor's tone. Eyes got drawn to the young general standing opposite the Marshal, next to prime minister Sheng.

They gave him a look of pity. Was the Emperor getting senile? Why was he asking something about the east to somebody stationed half of his life in the south? 

Hai Wang saw the way everyone was looking at Chen Wang. He looked down to hide the amused glint in his eyes. 'Hehe, Chen Wang is a boorish and ignorant in these ministers' minds. Yeah. Ignorance is bliss. Yet it is also fatal. How would everyone react once they hear him speak?'

Unfortunately, the male lead's expected reply did not come.

"Sure, Your Majesty." A few moments later, with the same carefree look, Jiang Li laughed and said. "This Prince answers,... forgive me for being stupid, but, well, I don't have any knowledge of what's going on."