Chapter 28 - I Get Angry When...

I glared at the groveling man in front of me.

Ling sat beside me, still trembling from surprise at being held hostage.

I wanted to kill every single one of them, but her hand held tightly on my sleeve.

“I am most sorry, your majesty. I will severely punish them myself-”

“Not enough.” I grumbled and stood, despite the insistent pulling of my sleeve. “Your men not only attacked me but my Shen Ling! Threatened her!” I hissed a little louder than I intended, and the whole room shook.

The man’s head hit the earth again.

I wanted to growl and kick him, but I knew that his only mistake had been in hiring idiots as guards. I was not going to bully an innocent man because I needed to vent. I was not that kind of person.

I allowed Ling to pull me back to my seat, where she held onto my arm like a lifeline. I wasn’t sure if it was to alleviate her fears or to prevent me from killing the captain of the guard.

I let him grovel some more, while I tried to get my temper in check.

‘Why am I so angry to begin with? Ling is safe and the idiot that threatened her is dead. I shouldn’t be so angry still…’

Oh.

“…”

I wanted to hit myself.

I had forgotten that I usually get angry over nothing when I am hungry…. And I had vomited today’s breakfast apart from using Chi both to cleanse the poison and during the fight.

I sighed.

“I expect no less than fifty lashes and demotion.” I admitted, patting Ling’s hand on my arm. Seeing that my anger was in check, she calmed too.

“Yes, your highness! Thank you!”

“I still haven’t set you off the hook, Captain. If word of this got to the capital, the emperor would demand the lives of all those involved… yours included.”

I heard him swallow and took my time with the follow-up.

“However… seeing as you are a sensible person, and that my Shen Ling doesn’t want me to shed any more blood. I will leave the matter at that. So long as you are true to your word.”

“Yes! Thank you, your majesty.” He kowtowed again, before moving to bow to Ling, who blinked in surprise. “Thank you too, my lady.”

I turned and winked at her.

I had decided to give her my last name for this matter so that I had an excuse to defend her in front of the captain. As a servant, even to a prince, her position was lower to that of the captain, and thus she deserved no consideration in this manner. But with my last name, she became my family and thus related to the imperial family. That made her untouchable.

“Raise your head, Captain.”

He did and offered me a kung-fu salute. “Please allow this servant to make it up to you, your highness.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“And how will you do that captain?”

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Two hours later, we had finally left Jin port and were on our way west again.

Beyond my wildest expectations, the captain of the guard had offered to accompany us to the west, so that he could atone. His lieutenant would take over his duties during the couple of days it would take us to reach the northern border of the Liang Province.

Easy for him to say.

Now I was on edge because we had an unknown element with us.

On the bright side, Ling had to act like my wife to keep up appearances. Which meant that I wouldn’t be spending my nights alone.

Could you hear my grin?

Once the town was out of sight, the crew members organized a small gathering to thank us for helping them, and I was finally able to eat my fill and, since there was nothing for me to do during the rest of the day, I went to my cabin for a shut-eye.

I had barely just closed the door when I heard a light knock. So light that I almost thought I had imagined it.

‘Who the fuck is it now’ I was getting grumpy again from lack of sleep.

I opened the door wanting to tell whoever was knocking to scram when I noticed Ling’s hand hanging in the air like she was about to knock.

I blinked.

“Ma-Master looked tired. This Xiao Ling came to see if there was something she could do for him.” Her cheeks heated as if she had suddenly understood her own words.

Smiling, I took her outstretched hand and pulled her inside.