#364 - One step away
Two quarters of an hour later, when the silver-armored Imperial Guard general appeared before Li Qi, Wei Changtian was nowhere to be found.
“This humble general greets Your Majesty!”
With a “thump,” the man knelt on one knee before Li Qi.
He was none other than Ding Zhong, the Imperial Guard general who had just gone to inform Yu Pingjun.
“Mm, rise.”
Lifting his eyelids, Li Qi waited for Ding Zhong to stand before slowly asking, “General Ding, where were you just now? Why did you arrive so late?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, this humble general was patrolling the palace just now.”
Ding Zhong replied without changing his expression, “After hearing the news, I immediately rushed to Tianlu Hall.”
“Patrolling the palace...”
“Bang!”
Li Qi suddenly slammed the table, his tone instantly becoming incomparably cold: “Just now, a thief entered the palace! I ask you, do you know?!”
“What?!”
His eyes widening abruptly, Ding Zhong looked up in incomparable shock: “Your Majesty, when did this happen?!”
“You don't need to know when it happened, I only ask you...”
Narrowing his eyes, Li Qi asked again in a deep voice, “Do you know about this?!”
“This humble general...”
The atmosphere within the hall instantly dropped to freezing point, and fine beads of sweat also appeared on Ding Zhong's forehead.
Do you know about this.
This kind of questioning could only mean one thing, and that was that Li Qi suspected him.
“Clatter~”
“Bang!”
Armor clattered, and without even thinking, Ding Zhong knelt down again and kowtowed heavily: “Your Majesty! This humble general truly does not know!”
“This matter is this humble general's dereliction of duty! Please punish me, Your Majesty!”
“...”
Truthfully speaking, Ding Zhong's performance actually didn't have any major problems, from beginning to end he seemed exactly like a general who had committed the “crime of dereliction of duty” should react.
On the other side, Li Qi's expression indeed softened slightly at this moment.
Whether Bai Youheng had entered the city through the secret passage was only a guess, so he was originally just trying to trick Ding Zhong.
Now that the latter had not revealed any “flaws,” it meant that he most likely really didn't know.
“Rise.”
“This humble general dares not!”
“...”
Soon, Ding Zhong left Tianlu Hall as quickly as he had come.
And as soon as he stepped out of the hall door, Wei Changtian appeared from behind a screen, frowning as he walked back to face Li Qi.
“Young Master Wei, you heard everything just now, right?”
“Mm.”
Wei Changtian thought for a while and then asked, “Your Majesty, are there any other secret passages in Fengyuan City that connect to outside the city?”
“There are, but none of the others lead to the north of the city.”
Li Qi answered truthfully, “And if someone were to enter the city through the secret passage north of the city, General Ding would not be unaware.”
“Therefore, in my opinion, Bai Youheng should not have entered the city through the secret passage.”
“I understand.”
Nodding noncommittally, Wei Changtian was still thinking about the conversation between Li Qi and Ding Zhong just now.
He indeed didn't hear any problems either, but if Bai Youheng didn't use the secret passage, then how did he enter the city?
There couldn't be any loopholes in the city gates and walls, and his own spies were mixed among the refugees outside the city.
The more Wei Changtian thought about it, the more confused he became, but he still couldn't think of a reasonable explanation.
Until he saw Chu Xianping again an hour later and told the latter everything that had happened...
“Young Master, Ding Zhong may have a problem.”
This was the conclusion that Chu Xianping immediately gave after listening.
“As an Imperial Guard general, if he heard that a thief he hadn't noticed had infiltrated the palace, he should immediately ask about the situation of that thief.”
“But he didn't ask a single question, there's definitely a problem here.”
Under Wei Changtian's surprised gaze, Chu Xianping continued to analyze calmly:
“If it were an ordinary person, they might be flustered for a moment, but Ding Zhong is a senior official responsible for protecting the safety of the imperial family of a country, so he shouldn't be such an incompetent person.”
“Unless... he already knows who this thief is.”
“...”
Chu Xianping's words fell, and the room fell into a brief silence.
Damn!
That makes sense!
After going over Chu Xianping's words again, Wei Changtian immediately stood up with a “whoosh.”
“Du Chang is still in the north of the city, tell him to keep a close watch on all places within five miles outside the city! Not even a fly can be let go!”
“Brother Chu, you and I will immediately go to the palace again!”
“Yes!”
Having just returned to the Princess's mansion and now having to go out again, Wei Changtian, who hadn't even warmed his butt, had made the most correct response.
Let Du Chang guard the north of the city to prevent Bai Youheng from noticing something was wrong and escaping through the secret passage again.
He himself would go to the palace to capture Ding Zhong and force him to reveal Bai Youheng's whereabouts.
If it had been half an hour earlier, he could indeed have made amends and completely trapped Bai Youheng in Fengyuan City.
Unfortunately, just as Du Chang received the order and began to deploy a large number of people in the north of the city, Bai Youheng, who had already recalled the Gu Diao, had quietly slipped out of the secret passage and fled east with the remaining four Dragon Guards without looking back.
“Empress, Young Master Bai has already left.”
Chou hour, Zihua Palace.
As the Empress's bedroom, under normal circumstances, the only men who should appear here besides eunuchs should be Li Qi.
But obviously, the man currently standing opposite Yu Pingjun is not the latter.
“It's good that he left.”
Slightly raising her delicate chin, Yu Pingjun took a step closer, smiling as she looked at Ding Zhong and asked, “General Ding, why do you look so worried?”
“Empress, His Majesty is already suspicious of me...”
Ding Zhong's expression was serious as he recounted what had happened in Tianlu Hall just now.
He originally thought that Yu Pingjun would at least be concerned, if not turn pale after hearing it.
But who would have thought that the latter's smile would become even wider, and there was even a hint of disdain on her face.
“Giggle, General doesn't need to worry.”
“Since Wei Changtian already knows about Bai Youheng entering the city and has made such a big commotion with the city lockdown, it's normal for Li Qi to have such suspicions.”
“Moreover, General has not revealed any flaws, and now that Bai Youheng has also left, what can they do?”
“This...”
Hearing this, Ding Zhong shook his head, thinking that it would be good if it were really that simple.
After thinking for a while, he was just about to open his mouth again to discuss the next steps with Yu Pingjun, but who knew that a pair of jade arms would slowly wrap around his neck at this moment.
“Your, Empress...”
His pupils contracted slightly, although Ding Zhong had long engaged in illicit affairs with Yu Pingjun, he didn't have the slightest mood for it at the moment.
Only...
“General...”
As the wide phoenix robe slowly slipped down, the body that had once caused two emperors to fight over it also appeared before his eyes.
Looking at Ding Zhong's dazed appearance, Yu Pingjun slowly brought her lips closer, sending a moist and warm sentence into the latter's ear.
“Don't worry about those things, how about this palace serving you well?”
“...”
A stunning beauty, a half-covered and half-hidden delicate body, the status of being an Empress...
At this moment, Ding Zhong had completely forgotten his situation, panting heavily as he swept Yu Pingjun up into his arms and strode towards the large phoenix bed.
“Thump!”
Amidst soft gasps, Yu Pingjun was thrown roughly onto the bed, and the general's armor on Ding Zhong's body also clattered to the ground.
The two didn't even lower the curtains, and the next moment they were “entangled” together like this.
And then...
“Who, who is it?!”
“Ah!!!”
“Bang!!!!”
Along with the sudden scream that rang out outside the house, the bedroom door was kicked open violently in the blink of an eye.
The naked Ding Zhong turned his head in panic, and even Yu Pingjun finally showed a trace of panic on her face at this moment.
And besides a few experts from the Great Feng imperial family, there were also three men standing in their sight.
Wei Changtian, Chu Xianping...
Li Qi.
