CH 78

After the Disabled God of War Became My Concubine Chapter 78

Openly...Openly what?

Jiang Suizhou was stumped by Huo Wujiu's words. He was dazed for a long time, before registering what Huo Wujiu said.

He immediately laughed, and unwittingly said, "It's different from what you're thinking."

Huo Wujiu was dumbfounded for a moment when he heard him, and asked, "What?"

The tea cup Jiang Suizhou was drinking paused before his lips. Then, he looked up at Huo Wujiu.

Not even Meng Qianshan, nor anyone else in the residence, knew about the relationship between him and those two concubines, only three of them knew.

Logic told Jiang Suizhou, the less people who knew about the relationship between him and the two concubines, the better. And not to mention, although he had spilled everything to Huo Wujiu, this matter was unnecessary to mention; saying it would instead cause an inconvenience.

But…

Under the gaze of those clear black eyes, Jiang Suizhou felt as though he lost all reasoning.

"Those two are merely aids kept by this Prince in the residence," he said.

Only after the words came out did Jiang Suizhou realize what he just said to Huo Wujiu. He somewhat regretted it at once, feeling that he was being impetuous just now.

But since the words were already out, he couldn't take them back. He could only console himself.

At any rate, Huo Wujiu and him now were grasshoppers tied together with a piece of string*, and Huo Wujiu had long understood the relationship between him and the Hou Zhu, too. Letting him know one or two other matters didn’t matter much.

*grasshoppers tied together with a piece of string (idiom) - people who are tied to each other for the better or worse

With this in mind, he continued, “This Prince pretends to be a cutsleeve just to hoodwink the public and let the emperor relax his vigilance with this Prince. And those two are also kept in this residence in the name of concubines. Yesterday, this Prince summoned Gu Changyun to come and discuss Pang Shao’s matter.”

After he finished, Jiang Suizhou couldn’t help hooking up the corners of his mouth, sitting upright in his seat, waiting for Huo Wujiu’s response.

Huo Wujiu would surely feel moved by his sincerity, right? After all, to him, this was a very big secret. He even told Huo Wujiu about all these matters, so his sincerity of working together with him should be clear.

However, he waited for a good while, and Huo Wujiu still had not uttered a word.

Jiang Suizhou couldn’t resist looking up at him.

To see Huo Wujiu pick up his chopsticks, lower his head, then continue eating.

“You…” Bewilderment washed over Jiang Suizhou’s face.

Then, he saw Huo Wujiu lift his eyes to shoot him a glance, before lowering his eyes back and giving a light sound of understanding.

“Got it,” he said.

“But, this has nothing to do with me.”

As expected of Huo Wujiu.

Jiang Suizhou indignantly gritted his teeth, but also picked up his chopsticks and continued eating.

But he didn’t see, the person in front with his head lowered was actually not eating. Instead, he was trying hard to hold back the lift of the corners of his mouth.

——

Having a clear target made it more convenient for Jiang Suizhou to handle matters.

That student of Qi Min was called Zhao Dunting, and he served in the Ministry of Personnel. He wasn’t a high-ranking official, but his tasks were very lucrative. His residence wasn’t as heavily-guarded as Pang Shao’s; Xu Du’s subordinates rather easily hid outside his residence, watching his everyday movements clearly.

Sure enough, the time when he was working outside coincided with the time when Pang Shao met with the mysterious courtier.

It really was him.

Jiang Suizhou only felt that this person hid too well, until all parties involved had died in his previous life. He also didn’t reveal his identity, and no one found out he was Pang Shao’s adherent.

This made it clear that although this official didn’t do much work, his skills were rather exceptional.

Jiang Suizhou asked Xu Du to remain watching his movements discreetly, not only to check when he would meet Pang Shao, but also to see whether he went to meet other people.

On the contrary, he had many contacts with Qi Min.

There were very few records about this person in the historical records, with most revolving around Qi Min.

He was Qi Min’s disciple. But Qi Min was an extremely upright person, even his relatives and friends wouldn’t have any sort of sheltered protection in the court. So even though he had students everywhere, he was not as powerful as Pang Shao, and he had no clique.

But this Zhao Dunting was particularly close to him.

Even if he had been in the palace for ten years, Qi Min didn’t look after him much. He even more didn’t have anything to rely on, and was extremely low-ranking. Yet, he still treated Qi Min like his own father. Even after Qi Min’s collusion, he presented a petition to beg Hou Zhu to let Qi Min’s corpse stay intact.

Exactly because of this, although his ranking as an official wasn’t high, he was rather wise in the palace affairs.

Since spring arrived in Jiangnan, the rain kept pouring. Every time it rained, Qi Min’s joints seemed to always ache, so Zhao Dunting had sent medicine to Qi Min early.

Jiang Suizhou’s death soldiers had inspected that medicine. It was an ordinary medicine, no other things were mixed.

After the medicine was delivered, Zhao Dunting still visited Qi Min every now and then. But Qi Min’s whole family was already accustomed to this, especially Qi Min’s wife, who treated Zhao Dunting especially dearly.

Jiang Suizhou calmly waited.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long for Xu Du to deliver him several letters of rubbings*.

*rubbings (or stone rubbings) are inscriptions cut in stone to create a copy of the original

They were brought back by Zhao Dunting from Pang Shao. Placed in the study, they were copied by Jiang Suizhou’s death soldiers, and then were delivered to Jiang Suizhou.

Looking at the contents of those several letters alone, they were all sent from Northern Liang and were written for spies. The letters very carefully inquired about every information of Southern Jing’s palace. And the last letter that was half-written, the handwriting alone was impressively Qi Min’s.

They had forged Northern Liang’s letters as well as Qi Min’s replies.

The secret letters were forged so realistically, even the names of the sender and recipient were stamped. Jiang Suizhou looked through the letters repeatedly, then slowly put them away with a grave look.