Emperor's Cunning Wife

"You b*tch!"

The paper screen of the wall seemed to tremble a bit. The person's ferocious shout pierced her eardrums. Ning Lou checked her ears for damages. No wonder Mother Shen assigned him on composing music. He has affinity for disturbing people's mind with his voice. She shook off the aftereffect of the ear splitting yell from her mind. With a little bit of clarity, Ning Lou turned around and focused her attention on the unconscious person on the bed.

The room was serene, yet there were presence of other people in the room watching her every movements from the shadows. They were Brother Long's guards as she remembered what Mother Shen said the morning after the incident.

She pulled a chair over and sat near the bed. Placing two fingers on Brother Long's pulse, she checked the rate and was glad that it was not chaotic anymore. Compared to that night, his face of death pallor had now regained a shade of healthy color, his lips was no longer purple and the brows that would constantly wrinkled in pain showed no more signs of suffering.

"How about the poison? Did they already detoxify it?" She said to no one in particular.

However, a silhouette in the shadows emerged and answered her questions. "The master is saved, Miss shouldn't worry." His voice was taciturn and awkward. He clearly had no experience in comforting a person and thus could only utter a short speech before disappearing again.

"That's good." Ning Lou nodded and leaned back on her chair to close her eyes. In the midst, she wasn't able to see the person's hand move. The shadows in the dark twitched their lips and looked elsewhere.

"Hey, what's your master's name?" Ning Lou suddenly opened her eyes again and looked at the corner where the previous outline of a shadow appeared. They could clearly detect the eagerness from her voice.

"It's…Long…"

"Long Huangtian?" The shadow wasn't able to finish its answer before Ning Lou interrupted. Her heart beat fast from excitement.

"It's…Long…Yes…Long Huangtian!" The shadow wiped the sweat inside his black bandana. On the corner of his eyes, he saw his Master's thumb raised and immediately agreed to what she said.

Ning Lou had widened her eyes, both twinkling with longing. She immediately hugged him, her voice contained a little bit of complains and truthfulness, "Brother Long, when I first came here, I didn't know anybody. My life in the palace was hanging on a thin rope. On the first day I drown nearly died from loss of air, just a few hours later I got poisoned, and the next day I was pushed into the pond. It's a good thing that Old Zhang found me in the lake and provided me shelter. You don't how much anxious I was, but thank the heavens for letting us meet again otherwise I might consider taking my life." Ning Lou sniffled and hot tears landed on the robe of Long Huangtian. Soon after, a wet stain had formed and Brother Long's clothes, Ning Lou grabbed the hem and blew her nose.

The shadows who were watching her crying was trembling all over. They could see their Master's brows had wrinkled from the sudden contact and thus prepared themselves for the possible outcome. Master Long had aversion towards women, despite the Miss had save him before, the master still ordered them to keep an eye on her in case she might be an assassin. But after two days of observing they didn't discover any unusual activities and thus their Master thought of this plan.

The person on the bed didn't make any additional movements besides from furrowing his brows. The shadows felt the genuine despair from her cries, the reliance in her complains and the joy in finding a companion. No one could detect any falsehood, as her emotions were revealed to them in b.a.r.e. The shadows soon found out that their Master had remained still despite the Miss' rude actions, so they kept silent and only waited for any instructions.

Ning Lou cried and cried until she felt that she had no more tears to cry. Her voice was hoarse and eyes were red. She was in a daze for a bit till she realized that she just revealed her circ.u.mstances to the people in the room. 'F*cking sh*t! Did I just cry pathetically in front of these full-grown men?'

"I'll be leaving now." Ning Lou hurriedly left the room. She even forgot to wipe of the remaining tears in her face. By the time she bumped into the person who called her 'b*tch', her state of mind was in disarray.

"Hey…"

"Shut up! I'll play words with you next time." Ning Lou run fast as she could and exited the door. Her face was filled with embarrassment.

The person swallowed the words he was going to say and went to open Long's room. "She's gone." His voice tinged with confusion at the results of their morning's charade. He expected that there would be a brawl or that girl would be kicked to the wall by Long but none of it happened, he could only picked up a feminine voice wailing and nothing else.

Long opened his eyes and immediately sat upright. He gazed intensely at the incense burner in the room that was procured from a night merchant. He had used this incense a multiple times when conducting interrogations and background checks, so he knew its efficacy. That girl without any ounce of mental strength would not be able to withstand the incense' effects and therefore should tell the truth, but the supposed 'truth' was further confusing. He possessed a photographic memory and remembered her words, but what she said about being acquainted in the past sounded so ridiculous. He didn't find her face familiar nor heard her voice in the past. This was bit baffling.

"Master, I want to eat chicken tonight."

"Master, I have a crush on one of the courtesans."

"Master…"

The shadows soon emerged, five in total and each knelt on one knee.

"Stop!" A vein popped on his head. Long noticed their eyes were a bit foggy and took out a small porcelain container from his clothes. He tossed the porcelain to the nearest shadow and instructed, "Have them take one more pill to wipe the effects of the drugs. I thought that there was a problem in the dose but watching them still affected by it, she must've said the truth." He rubbed his chin contemplating.

"I was expecting some drama. Just what on earth happened?" The person near the door finally opened his mouth.

Long looked at him for a second before ignoring him completely.

After distributing the antidote, one of his guards was curious about Ning Lou's words and mustered up some courage to ask, "Master, did you know Miss in the past? Is she your lover?"

"Do you want to die?" Long looked at him, storm brewing inside his eyes.

The person felt that he discovered something so shocking and looked at Long with disbelief.

The subordinate held his tongue and stepped back immediately.

"Master, how about ordering this subordinate to investigate her background? Since we got some leads now, we can start in the palace and find that 'Old Zhang' she was talking about."

The person furrowed his brows and decided to eavesdrop on their conversation instead. The plot had gone beyond the script he had in his mind. That girl was actually from the palace?

"No, the one on the throne is already wary of me. Let's postponed the investigation first and kept an eye on her for the following days." Long refused his subordinate' suggestion.

Since Master Long had decided, no one rebutted. "Yes, this subordinate will keep an eye on her."

The shadows one by one disappeared from where they stood.

"What are your plans for the meantime?" The person on the door asked.

Long heard his question and stared at the incense burner. "We need to retrieve the thing."

"You didn't even know who took it. How could we trace its whereabouts?"

"There might be news in the following weeks." Long spoke with vague certainty, his mind was occupied by the faint cries of that girl that he couldn't focus on the topic very well and soon felt a headache coming. He seemed to be under the incense side effects. He told himself and rubbed his head to pry off the burdensome thoughts.