270 Just Do It!
After leaving Liaodong County, there were no more assassination attempts.
It seemed that the group of powerhouses had stopped taking revenge. It was obvious that Liaodong County was their territory. In their territory, they were inevitably more daring.
However, as long as they left their territory, the powerhouses would not dare to do anything rash. After all, assassinating the Regional King was not a small crime.
Once there was evidence of their crime, they would definitely die!
Yu Niaoniao could finally heave a sigh of relief. She finally did not have to worry about the rest of the trip.
Five days later, the convoy successfully arrived at Wang Song City.
Magistrate Liu had long known that they would come. He had gotten someone to clean the courier station in advance and even ordered someone to prepare rich food and wine.
During the meal, County Magistrate Liu repeatedly clarified to Yu Niaoniao.
“Princess Consort, you have to believe me. I really didn’t neglect the villagers of the Xia family village. I arranged accommodation for them according to your instructions and even distributed food to them. In the end, they all ran away overnight. I don’t know what happened. Don’t blame me!”
He was really aggrieved. That group of villagers had come and left so suddenly that they did not even greet him, making him feel uneasy. He was afraid that the villagers had gone away because he had done something wrong.
Yu Niaoniao said as she ate.
“Don’t be nervous. I know this has nothing to do with you. I don’t mean to blame you. You’ve already done a good job.”
County Magistrate Liu heaved a sigh of relief. “The Princess Consort is wise.”
After Yu Niaoniao ate and drank her fill, she went to bed. However, Xiao Juan could not sleep yet as he had received a secret letter from the Imperial Capital.
The secret letter was written by Yan Nanguan. In the letter, he mentioned three things.
The first was about the Eastern Expedition Army. Previously, Yan Nanguan had received a secret letter from Duke Lang. When he knew that something had happened to the Eastern Expedition Army, he immediately reported this matter to the emperor.
The emperor was about to send troops to suppress the Eastern Expedition Army when they received an urgent report from Duke Lang before the army set off. He said that the problem with the Eastern Expedition Army had been resolved.
Duke Lang had relied on his ability to resolve the huge problem in the east evidence. Logically speaking, he should be rewarded. However, Yan Nanguan said in the letter that the emperor had no intention of rewarding Duke Lang at all.
Yan Nanguan did not dare to second guess the Holy Decree. He could only tell Duke Lang about this and let him figure it out himself.
The second point was related to the emperor. Recently, the emperor established a new department called the Sky Wolf Guards. Wei Huai’en, the emperor’s most trusted eunuch, was in charge of the Sky Wolf Guards.
The reason why this department was established was that the commoners had more and more complaints about the Eagle Guards of late. The most common thing the emperor heard every time he went to court was the criticism and condemnation of Duke Lang and the Eagle Guards by the officials.
In order to appease public anger, the emperor temporarily established the Sky Wolf Guards. Its main duty was to supervise the Justice Department and ensure that there were no violations in the operations of the Justice Department.
In other words, the emperor had put a layer of shackles on the Justice Department. As the person in charge of the Justice Department, Xiao Juan was at a disadvantage.
Lastly, Yan Nanguan wanted to remind Duke Lang that Princess Tao Ran had entered the capital. Princess Tao Ran was not the emperor’s favorite daughter, but she had the worst temper.
The key point was that she was obsessed with Duke Lang.
Yan Nanguan specially wrote about this to let the Duke of Lang County be mentally prepared. Princess Tao Ran was a difficult person to deal with.
Xiao Juan put the letter to the candle flame. The letter was ignited and quickly burned to ashes.
He did not take Princess Tao Ran’s matter to heart. What he cared about more now was the Sky Wolf Guards.
He knew very well that setting up the Sky Wolf Guards to appease the public anger was just a facade. The emperor was warning him.
The underlying message was that everything he had now was bestowed by the emperor. If he could not do what the emperor wanted, the emperor could replace him at any time.
However, if he really did as the emperor said and let Prince Min and his son die on the way to Liaodong County, it would violate his principles.
How should he choose between the emperor’s orders and principles? Xiao Juan had hesitated about this before and she told him to adhere to his principles. Therefore, he chose to protect the lives of Prince Min and his son and let them arrive at Xingning safely.
By doing so, Xiao Juan knew that he would definitely make the emperor unhappy. He was ready to accept the consequences.
The next day, the convoy continued on its way.
The weather was cold, and Yu Niaoniao was not in the mood to ride a donkey. She stayed in the carriage all day long, other than eating and sleeping, she drew and read.
Later on, she was really bored, so she simply combined the activity of reading and painting. She expressed the plot of the book in the form of a drawing. A month later, she finished an entire comic book.
Compared to reading text, the threshold for reading such comics was lower because they were all paintings. Even if one could not read, one could understand the meaning.
Yu Niaoniao felt that such comics should be quite popular. Her heart skipped a beat as she had an idea. Perhaps she could draw a comic strip of what she and Xiao Juan had encountered in Liaodong County.
When she was painting, she could highlight Xiao Juan’s heroic and handsome appearance and mold him into a great hero to dispel his ferocious image among the commoners.
She did it immediately!
Yu Niaoniao picked up her paintbrush and threw herself into painting again.
Recently, Xiao Juan realized that Yu Niaoniao often peeped at him and liked to draw secretly.
He wanted to see what she had drawn, but she hid the paper tightly every time and refused to show him.
The more she hid, the more curious Xiao Juan became.
At night, while Yu Niaoniao was asleep, Xiao Juan quietly woke up and opened the box cage.
This box was filled with Yu Niaoniao’s things. There was everything inside.
But there was no drawing paper.
Xiao Juan refused to believe it. He flipped through the other boxes, but he still could not find the drawing paper he wanted.
Where did Niaoniao hide the drawing paper?
Xiao Juan was puzzled.
Coincidentally, Yu Niaoniao turned around.
She lay on her side on the bed with her lapel slightly open, revealing a corner of the drawing paper.
Xiao Juan was stunned.
She actually hid the drawing paper in her arms!
Xiao Juan walked to the bed and looked at the sleeping figure. After hesitating for a moment, he could not suppress his curiosity. He reached out his well-defined fingers and gently pinched a corner of the drawing paper.
He exerted a little force and tried to pull the drawing paper out.
At this moment, Yu Niaoniao suddenly turned around again.
Xiao Juan was shocked and quickly stopped.
Yu Niaoniao lay on the bed with her limbs spread out.
She pressed the drawing paper under her.
Seeing that she did not wake up, Xiao Juan heaved a sigh of relief.
Then, he found it amusing.
He had seen confronted many big scenes and had never panicked in life-and-death situations. At this moment, he actually felt nervous.
It was unknown what Yu Niaoniao had dreamed of, but her little mouth curled up and she laughed strangely.
“Come and chase me. If you catch up to me, I’ll let you hehe!”
Xiao Juan was speechless.