The Fierce Illegitimate Miss - Chapter 159

Translator: NovelMultiverse | Editor: NovelMultiverse

Who in the capital didn’t know that Lord Xu was the most favored in front of the emperor? Even the crown prince of the country couldn’t overshadow him. Who would dare to offend him? On the seventh day, Minister Feng came to the Xu palace himself and delivered 800,000 taels of silver notes to cancel the gambling debts Feng Sihuai owed.

Yu Linglong didn’t even see him, so she only ordered Xuan Cao to take him to the counter to deliver the money, and then sent him away.

In the evening, Xuan Cao came back and talked to Minister Feng’s little servant about the Feng Mansion, who said that when Feng Sihuai was taken back from the Ruyi Gambling Shop that day, he had only recovered his life after he had hired imperial doctors. Now he was covered with bandages all over, lying on the bed unable to move.

Although he survived, the imperial doctors said that Feng Sihuai would never be able to return to his previous appearance.

Also, Feng Sihuai must be completely different after being marked by sharp iron spikes.

Speaking of Feng Sihuai’s tragic situation, Xuan Cao seemed very relieved. Who would let him dare to molest the princess of her family? It would be more convenient to keep a dog!

Different from Xuan Cao’s happy mood of revenge, Yu Linglong looked calm after hearing the news, and just smiled.

It was nothing to turn Feng Sihuai into a useless person, and it was nothing to bankrupt Feng’s family. As long as Minister Feng was still in his position in the Ministry of War, he would still have to make a comeback.

And she had always done bad things and never gave the enemy a chance.

Therefore, this matter was not over. The main event was still to come, and then, it depended on the performance of Lord Xu.

Sure enough, on the third day, there was good news outside.

At the court, Official Zuo of the Ministry of War suddenly sent a memorial to the emperor. It counted Minister Feng’s crimes of using power for personal gain over the years, such as shielding Feng Sihuai, failing to marry a lady from the Yu family, becoming angry, and sending General Yu to the Southern Xinjiang War as revenge. When the emperor saw this memorial, he was immediately furious, stripped Minister Feng of his power in the court, and handed it over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for investigation.

The Feng mansion was caught off guard by this big change. When someone was looking for someone to manage this critical event, he was suffering from empty pockets. He just sold the family property and gave it to Yu Linglong. At this moment, the Feng mansion couldn’t even get a son out. It was hard to handle affairs without money. Even if they were friends who had been close to them for many years, they would hide after seeing them, for fear of being contaminated by the Feng mansion’s misfortune.

Since it was the case that the emperor personally ordered to supervise the case, the Ministry of Criminal Justice did not dare to neglect this, and they soon collected countless pieces of evidence. Even the capital’s magistrate Master Liang personally testified and produced a lot of case files against Feng Sihuai, and explained that he was forced by Minister Feng to suppress these things, and proved Minister Feng’s crimes.

The emperor was furious, and personally criticized Minister Feng for a long time, and he would never be allowed to return to the capital for employment.

The wall fell down when everyone pushed, and the once prominent Feng Mansion was completely defeated in a short period of time.

Upon hearing the news of the complete fall of Feng Mansion, Yu Linglong finally smiled.

Who made Minister Feng dare to help the crown prince offend her, she would break him, which would be his interest.

…

The night was soft and quiet. Countless twinkling stars hung on the deep blue sky surrounded by the brilliant Milky Way that was extraordinarily bright, radiating dreamlike brilliance, as if it were a huge beautiful scroll, hanging over their heads.

In the courtyard, the petals of various colors blooming on the branches danced silently, and the flowers fell. When the night breeze came, the soft petals fell on the slim figure on the couch, adding a bit of charm to her.

Yu Linglong slowly shook the sandalwood fan in her hand, leaning languidly on the couch, with bright eyes with a faint smile, and looked at Lord Xu: “…The Minister of War, is it yours?”

The deep eyes of Lord Xu were reflected in the starlight, which looked extremely deep. He raised his hand and rubbed Yu Linglong’s head, and smiled: “What do you mean?”

Yu Linglong deliberately turned away, pretending to admire the stars in the night sky: “Maybe it’s not, maybe it’s just a coincidence…”

Before she finished her words, her soft waist had already been squeezed by a big hand, and her body immediately fell into his firm embrace.

Reaching out and pinching her delicate face, Lord Xu’s voice was full of doting: “Of course the things the lady confessed must be done beautifully. That Zuo minister has long been dissatisfied with him, I just pushed him. He’s a handful.”

With the strong support of Lord Xu behind him, who would be afraid of a small military minister? Besides, if Minister Feng was defeated, the military minister Zuo will naturally be promoted to replace Minister Feng’s position.

Yu Linglong sighed: “Being an official in the court is really like walking on thin ice. If you are not careful, many years of this foundation will be over.”

Although the Feng Mansion’s downfall was planned by her alone, she was a little bit scared to see Minister Feng’s miserable situation. Perhaps this was an example of being close to the monarch is like being close to a tiger. No matter how high the official rank or how strong the wealth, it can’t match a few words of a high-ranking person.

The world was turned upside down, but only in an instant.

What if he was born in an emperor’s house? Looking at Lord Xu, although he had everything, who knew the hardships and pains behind him? And once power disputes were involved in everything, even if they were as close as father and son, they must beware of each other and cannot rely on and trust each other.

On this earth, what was there to pursue? The greatest happiness was just so momentary, like holding hands with your beloved with deep affection.

Yu Linglong leaned in his arms unconsciously. Although it was a hot summer night, his chest was very cool, with the scent of mint, which made her feel boundlessly dependent.

“Husband, if I can live in seclusion in the wild with you, and enjoy this kind of leisure all the time, I will have nothing more to ask for in this life.”

Lord Xu lightly kissed her forehead and whispered, “There will be days like this soon.”

Her fingers wrapped around the hair scattered on his chest and Yu Linglong asked, “How is the matter going?”

Lord Xu paused before saying: “You were right, the prince is indeed a little messed up now. The counselor next to him has made a lot of suggestions, but he is still hesitating.”

Wanting to force the prince to take the initiative to raise troops was not something that could be done in the short term. Just as they discussed before, it was indeed not easy for the prince to give up his current stable life and embark on a road full of difficulties and dangers.

In their plan, the first step was to let Lord Xu control the real power, arousing the prince’s vigilance and forcing him to take action, but now it seemed that the prince was not as impetuous as they thought. Obviously, he was still waiting for a reason, a reason that made him have to change his plan.

Yu Linglong lifted her head from his arms and looked at the deep blue night sky. The ancient night was so beautiful. There were so many stars in the sky, which shocked her heart.

In silence, a bright light suddenly flashed across the horizon, dragging a long tail, and falling into the sky.

The slender fingers moved, and before Yu Linglong could react, the corners of the two of them had already been tied together by Lord Xu. Yu Linglong raised her eyes to look at him and was greeted by his affectionate black eyes.[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“I heard someone say that if you tie a knot on the corner of your clothes when a meteor is falling, your wish can be fulfilled.”

He lowered his face. His forehead was against her head, his deep and shallow breathing lingering between her eyebrows, and he whispered: “My wish is to live together with Linglong every year.”

His warm thin lips fell on the corners of her lips, depicting the shape of her lips carefully, soft and loving.

Yu Linglong couldn’t help closing her eyes, savoring this moment. His tenderness made her tremble, his affection made her warm, and his love made her heart move.

In her past and present lives, she had never had such tenderness before, being able to be so dependent and accompany one person through life and death.

After a long time, the four lips parted reluctantly, and they looked at each other and smiled.

She leaned on his shoulder, watching another meteor fall. Yu Linglong’s heart suddenly moved.

Weren’t the ancients very superstitious? If……

She sat up straight from his arms, looked at him with shining eyes, and said softly: “I have an idea.”

…

In the summer of the thirty-fourth year, there was little rain and there was blistering heat. Even after May, the crops on the outskirts of the capital have entered the growth period, but because of waterless irrigation, the ground was barren and all crops were facing disaster.

The capital’s magistrate responded urgently, looking for water sources everywhere and organizing the people to irrigate the farmland, but after all, it was a drop in the bucket and could not solve the drought problem.

In June, it was reported to the emperor that the celestial phenomenon was observed in a recent night, and the brightest star closest to the Emperor Star was dim, and it seemed to be covered with a layer of black air, which was an ominous sign.

It seemed to confirm this statement. It didn’t take long before the long-dried fields ushered in the second disaster—the locust plague.

Countless locusts flew over the sky and covered the sun and landed densely on the farmland, gnawing the crops wantonly. It seemed that they were so hungry that neither smoke nor medicine could stop the spread of the locust plague. In just a dozen days, most of the farmland outside of the capital was wiped out.

For a time, the price of rice and vegetables in the capital skyrocketed one after another, and the people panicked, and rumors flew all around.

Some people said that the star next to the emperor star represented the crown prince, and the black energy of the star was lingering, indicating that the crown prince’s time was approaching.

Some people said that the drought and locust plague, which had not been seen in a century, was a sign that the prince cannot be favored by heaven.

Others said that when the sky was angry and people were complaining, the country would fall, and only by establishing a new prince could the society be kept peaceful.

There are more and more remarks that are not conducive to the prince. Some people even thought of the Blue Lotus Cult’s support for the prince’s enthronement last time. They also said that such things against the sky were actually the riots secretly planned by the prince, so the prince was a failure.

In the face of natural disasters, the prince’s reputation for benevolence and filial piety that he had accumulated among the people over the years was destroyed.

What was benevolence and filial piety? If people were hungry, could benevolence and filial piety be a meal?

Watching his reputation among the people plummet, the prince finally couldn’t bear it and decided to take action.

In July, the crown prince wrote a letter asking the emperor to reform the legal system and proposed a series of reform measures. The most important of which was to cut taxes, subsidize people’s wages and recommended that the crown increase revenue and reduce expenditures. He would take the lead in setting an example, starting from the Prince’s House, cutting all unnecessary expenditures.

In these severe natural disasters, these measures were indeed measures to benefit the people, but in the eyes of Yu Linglong and Lord Xu, the prince had taken his first step towards destruction.

Perhaps because he believed that the prince’s proposal could reduce the damage caused by drought and locust plagues, the emperor agreed to the prince’s request to temporarily implement these policies for one year to see its effects.

The reform proposed by the prince temporarily saved a lot of people’s hearts. Among the people who suffered severe losses due to the disaster, many people were grateful to the prince. For a time, people praised the prince for loving the people like a son. On the surface, the prince was among the people, and his image became better in their minds.

But amidst the praises, there was a huge undercurrent one after another among the courts.

In August, when the autumn harvest came, due to the severe disaster, there was no grain to deliver in many places. However, because of the prince’s new policy measures, only a small amount of grain was collected in other places where there were harvests. This allowed them to take advantage of this. The income of the officials who slapped a lot of money in the autumn harvest had been greatly reduced.

One of the measures to reduce imperial expenditures was to reduce the salaries of officials. This led to a phenomenon: the salaries of officials were reduced, and the oil and water were gone, and the court gradually filled with complaints, and they even deliberately put on patched court clothes to “protest” the prince’s reform policy.

Another important measure to reduce expenditure was to drastically reduce the expenditure of the harem. Even the daily life of the emperor has shrunk a lot, not to mention other concubines’.

Although there was a queen supporting the prince, the harem was still full of complaints, and those concubines from noble births were even more bitter, and even deliberately mischievous, stirring up complaints inside and outside the palace.

Yes, the prince wanted a good reputation, but why should they pay the bill? These women have spent their entire lives in the harem, wanting to enter the palace and become mistresses and enjoy the blessings of the world, but the prince’s torment had greatly reduced their enjoyment. Could they be happy?

After half a year of struggling in this way, the situation became more serious. Although the crown prince gained the support of the people, what was lost was the support of the officials and nobles. For a while, the dissatisfaction with the crown prince accumulated more and more, and it was almost on the verge of an outbreak.

The crown prince was struggling with the reform this year, and he didn’t care about framing Lord Xu. Lord Xu and Yu Linglong took this opportunity to enlist the elites, cultivate their forces, and wait for the final battle.

Just when everything was going smoothly, an unexpected thing happened.

It was late autumn, and the weather was getting colder, and there was a bleak scene in the palace. Yu Linglong was reading a book under the window, and Xuan Cao walked in and said, “Princess, someone is coming from the mountain.”

From the mountain?

Yu Linglong knew that the mountain Xuan Cao referred to was the barren mountain where she sent the training slaves. For the past six months, things on the mountain have been carried out in an orderly manner according to her arrangements, and have been going smoothly. But now, how could someone suddenly come down from the mountain?

There was a faint anxiety across her heart, as if something bad was about to happen.

Closing the book in her hand, Yu Linglong said in a deep voice, “Follow me to the reception pavilion.”[Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]