Chapter 164.1: Jin Wang Dotes on His Concubine Ch 164 Pt. 1

Translated by gingercat

Edited by gingercat

The real Han Zhi’er was already dead. She had died in the coup together with her mother.

And the current Han Zhi’er was nothing but a spy inserted by the current king of Goryeo.

Ever since the times of Emperor Taizu, Goryeo was like the grass on the wall that swayed with the wind. Goryeo submitted to Dagan’s power and agreed to serve Dagan as a subsidiary country.

But the situation in that tiny region was also very complicated. Coups often occur, and due to its borders with many countries, they also had to be cautious of foreign invaders. Dagan didn’t really care about the internal strife as long as the small country continues to submit to it.

The King of Goryeo didn’t want to touch Han Zhi’er and her mother. What he never expected was that the mother died to accompany her husband and the daughter was unwilling to live alone. Only then did Lan Zhu come into the picture. He arranged for Lan Zhu to come to Dagan with the story of looking for her relatives. Taking advantage of familial ties she would try to gain a firm foothold beside Qing Wang. Everything else that followed was simply a matter of course.

Goryeo used this method quite frequently. Every few years, the group of women who arrive as tribute served this purpose. Having anyone next to a high-ranking person would benefit Goryeo greatly. Although Qing Wang was only a small prince now, who knows what will happen in the future?

Lan Zhu came to Dagan as an impostor with the intent to approach Qing Wang.

Qing Wang was tall and handsome and held power in his hand. He also treated Lan Zhu well so Lan Zhu couldn’t help but be moved. Although she was a spy, a spy like her would only be used when all else fails. She gradually forgot her identity and only indulged in competing for Qing Wang’s favour with Consort Qing.

Lan Zhu was named a side consort and gave birth to Cheng Ge’er. She felt that as long as Qing Wang and Consort Qing were divided in the heart, this manor would be her world in the future. Not only would this increase her usefulness, but she would also fulfill her master’s order to ‘establish a firm footing’. Yet, at this moment, someone suddenly handed her a letter.

Only she could understand the code used in this letter. Her master had actually told someone of her identity.

“I didn’t plan to join forces with the other party at first. The letter only said that I needed to provide assistance, but didn’t say that I was to be ordered by him. However, he used my identity to blackmail me. I could only push it back until I could no longer push it off anymore…”

“You could have told old seventh about this.” For some reason, Jin Wang said such a sentence.

Hearing this, Lan Zhu was surprised for a moment. Then she smiled and said, “You think I haven’t thought about it? But I’m an impostor… You can’t be thinking that he actually has intentions towards me, right? In fact, sometimes I pity him, when I was with him, he often wanted to listen to me talk about what my mother told me about his mother… What he doesn’t know is that these things were actually made up by me…”

Lan Zhu’s smile was so strange that Jin Wang couldn’t help but give her an extra look.

“…If he were to know that I had lied to him, he would probably be the first person to try to kill me… Men’s minds are really strange sometimes… Actually, not only men but women as well sometimes…” Lan Zhu seemed to be in a daze as if caught in a memory. Her expression was very complicated, mixed with nostalgia, anger, desolation, and even reminiscence, resentment and so on.

“You haven’t told benwang who the person that contacted you is.”

Lan Zhu returned to her senses and glanced at Jin Wang. “I don’t know.”

After a pause, she continued “I really don’t know. What I do know is that he isn’t a simple character, because Fu Xi is his person. Whenever he communicates with me, it is through Fu Xi.”

Fu Xi has been with Qing Wang ever since he was a child, and had served at Qing Wang’s side for over 20 years.

Jin Wang fell into deep thought, pondering over who could be behind Lan Zhu.

As for Lan Zhu on the ground, more and more blood gushed from her mouth, and her breathing became more and more rapid. “I have finished what I have to say. Don’t forget what you promised me.”

“I hope you can share what you have told me with others”

After saying this, Jin Wang gave the guard next to him a pointed look, then turned around to leave on his horse. This person immediately took out a pill and squeezed it into Lan Zhu’s mouth. He said, “You really don’t deserve this rare medicine. With it, even a dying person can live for another hour.”

In Qianqing Palace, Emperor Hongjing sat on the throne with a gloomy face.

Below him stood several princes led by Hui Wang. Only Jin Wang and Qing Wang were absent, and An Wang was pale, kneeling on the ground.

“Asking for Father Emperor to judge fairly! Someone deliberately framed erchen. Erchen did order Xiao Chen to take care of a few candidates, but erchen isn’t bold enough to order someone to sell the exam questions.”

Emperor Hongjing said nothing.

Hui Wang opened a pair of cloudy eyes, smiled at the one next to him and said, “Second brother, big brother isn’t trying to scold you. But even if you’re tight on money, you can always ask us brothers for a loan or two. How could you do such an ugly thing and accept money like this? Brother’s not trying to criticize you, but you really were too careless.”

In the past, An Wang wouldn’t argue with him in such a place, but today was different. Cheating in the imperial exam was a big matter. If he wasn’t careful, he would end up banned by the imperial court. An Wang looked at Hui Wang bitterly, “Big brother, don’t scold me anymore. You have also done this kind of thing quite often. Do you need me to mention how many of your people had passed the exam like this? Even the salt envoy department was completely upheaved…”

Hui Wang’s expression suddenly changed. He retorted, “You always think everyone is dirty, and only you are clean. Then…”

Emperor Hongjing turned red with anger, and cursed, “Shut up, you bastards. Immoral brothers and immoral sons…”

Emperor Hongjing’s chest heaved and Li Dequan hurriedly came over with a cup of warm tea for him to calm down.

Everyone below plopped down on their knees one after another, asking Emperor Hongjing to cease his anger.

But the problem was whether Emperor Hongjing was willing to cease his anger. He looked at his sons below. It was unknown how many of them had framed, schemed, slandered and plot against their own brothers…

Now Emperor Hongjing finally understood why his own Father Emperor had looked at his brothers and him like that.

It was through this situation that Emperor Hongjing learned how many mistakes Hui Wang had committed, how many of them were truly his fault, and how many were from others splashing dirty water on him. As for An Wang and Qing Wang’s current incident, there were also a number of people who were involved.

In the imperial family, there were no fathers and sons! In the imperial family, there were no brothers!

For some reason, such a phrase flashed in Emperor Hongjing’s mind, and his face seemed to suddenly age several decades. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Li Dequan had been trying to coax Emperor Hongjing to calm down this whole time. Emperor Hongjing suddenly felt a pain in his head, and the pain made him nauseous. He took a few deep breaths to suppress his nausea and was about to say something when a little eunuch came in and reported that Jin Wang had arrived.

“Let him come in,” said Emperor Hongjing, waving Li Dequan away and drinking the tea in front of him. After such a short time, he was able to regain his composure.

He sat on the throne, high above. His sons were right in front of him, but they also seemed far away.