The Grand Princess

TGP Chapter 18: Assassination

"Remember to go back and kowtow three times to her portrait to thank her for generously saving your life."

Li Ming's expression did not change after hearing this. He looked at Pei Wenxuan, who was kneeling on the ground, as if he had seen it coming for a while, but he still asked, "What does dear official Pei mean? You are an official of the imperial court. Why would someone want to kill you?"

"Your Majesty," Pei Wenxuan was still kneeling on the ground and looked aggrieved and indignant, "Since Your Majesty knows that this official rescued Princess Ping Le yesterday, Your Majesty might more or less know of this humble official's predicament."

"Predicament?" Li Ming found a stone nearby, dusted it off and slowly took a seat, "You don't have to be afraid. Might as well just say it."

"Yesterday, on the way back to the city, this humble official saw some soldiers on horseback galloping by. Those people vaguely talked amongst themselves about threatening and abducting the Princess. This humble official felt uneasy and asked a servant to return to the city to seek help from the Crown Prince's mansion. This humble official secretly chased after them, just in case there was an accident."

"En." Li Ming responded with a single syllable. All of these things were true. He had people look into it last night. He indifferently asked, "Then what?"

"This humble official followed them. Looking at these people, they were obviously servants of some family, but they had changed into commoner clothing, pretending to be mountain bandits. This humble official knew that this could not be good and set up some traps on the road, hoping to help the Princess at a critical moment."

"You are quite clever." Li Ming laughed, "So those stones and wooden boards, was it your doing?"

Hearing this, Pei Wenxuan knew that Li Ming had thoroughly investigated the events of that night. Perhaps the traces that were left behind had also been carefully examined.

Back in the day, Pei Wenxuan had served under Li Ming for a year and was all too familiar with Li Ming's personality. He was overly suspicious, temperamental and had to verify everything. Hence Pei Wenxuan mulled over what he would say next before continuing: "Precisely. At that time, this humble official was waiting on the road. It was not long before this one saw mountain bandits chasing after the Princess. The Princess was under the protection of her shadow guards. It was at that critical moment when this official used those traps to rescue the Princess. The Princess was unexpectedly injured in the midst of chaos and fell unconscious, so this one had no choice but to take the Princess and quickly flee. This one let the horses run off to lure those people away while hiding among the reeds and saw someone come over in pursuit, scolding his subordinates for being useless. They could not even capture the Princess time and time again. He wasn't even able to see the Princess this time, how could he win the Princess's heart?"

Li Ming heard what Pei Wenxuan said and let out a low laugh: "Young people have very perplexing thoughts of their own." Then, Li Ming brought his eyes up and looked at Pei Wenxuan, "Was it Yang Quan?"

Pei Wenxuan pursed his lips and replied in a low voice: "Yes."

"This humble official was greatly alarmed and panicked, taking the Princess away on his back and ran without a sense of direction. Once the Princess regained consciousness, this one discussed it with the Princess and said nothing more after learning that the Princess did not know anything about it. The Princess and this official were both rescued earlier this morning, and the Empress summoned this humble official into the Palace. Then, the Empress said to this humble official..."

"Said what?" Li Ming asked in a mild tone. Pei Wenxuan paused for a moment as if hesitating. After some time, he said, "The Empress wanted this humble official to hide the fact that this one had spent the night with the Princess! This official was not to tell the truth, even if Your Majesty asked, and must say that this official encountered Yang gongzi last night and went to rescue the Princess together but got separated halfway while being pursued, so it was Yang gongzi who saved the Princess."