The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the Somersault Cloud, Old Zhu was so envious he cried!

Wang Defa sneered, "You're saying Prime Minister Hu is your cousin? Then how come I've never seen him here before?"

"If your Hu family is truly related to the Prime Minister, then whenever he ever visits Qingshui County, he should at least send someone to ask him a question."

"You, Hu Wan, shouldn't have fallen to this state, but all these years..." Wang Defa stared at him, "Has he even come here?"

Hu Wan's expression changed instantly.

His forced smile froze on his face, and a thin layer of sweat appeared on his forehead.

In fact, Hu Weiyong was not his cousin.

The Hu family did indeed have some degree of kinship with Hu Weiyong.

But that was a relationship that involved countless detours and spanned a vast distance.

Perhaps Prime Minister Hu doesn't even remember having such a "cousin".

This kind of relationship is useful for intimidating outsiders and fooling the public.

But if it really comes to a life-or-death situation, can he expect Hu Weiyong to back him up?

He himself knew perfectly well that he couldn't be counted on.

However, facts are facts.

In this situation, he dared not admit that Hu Weiyong had absolutely no connection with him.

He stiffened his neck and insisted, "Prime Minister Hu is my cousin, no doubt about it. If you dare lay a finger on me, your entire family here will die!"

Before he could finish speaking, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the door, approaching from afar. Judging from the noise, there were at least a hundred people.

Reinforcements have arrived.

The families of Hu Wan and Zhao An finally arrived.

Upon hearing the commotion, Hu Wan straightened up instantly, all his previous cowardice vanished, and he burst into laughter.

"Did you hear that? My men have arrived!"

"Wang Defa, if you know what's good for you, release me now! If my men burst in later, even if you want to kneel down and beg for mercy, it'll be too late!"

He became increasingly smug as he spoke, then his gaze shifted and landed on Xu Miaoyun, giving her a once-over before chuckling.

"However... this Miss Xu beside you is quite good-looking."

"I might take pity on her later and bring her back as a concubine; that would be a blessing for her..."

Before he could finish speaking...

"Whoosh—"

A flash of light appeared.

Huang Zi'an had arrived in front of him without him noticing. With a swift movement, he wielded his knife, and Hu Wan's still-smiling head flew off.

The smug smile on his face was still lingering in mid-air.

The courtyard was quiet for a moment.

Wang Defa was stunned.

He whirled around, glaring at Huang Zi'an, and roared angrily, "Huang Zi'an! Who gave you permission to lay a hand on me?! This is my son's revenge! I will avenge him with my own hands!"

Huang Zi'an wiped the blood from his face, walked up to Wang Defa, and said angrily:

"Lord Wang, do you even realize how much time you've wasted because of this trivial matter in your family?"

Huang Zi'an stretched out his finger and poked Wang Defa's chest hard, while continuing to condemn him.

"If you had resolved this matter earlier, we would have been prepared to meet the enemy long ago."

"But you, on the other hand, kept asking this and that, wasting so much of your time."

"Now look what's happened! Enemy reinforcements have surrounded us, and we're trapped in the courtyard, unable to get out!"

Wang Defa took two steps back, his face deathly pale.

He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but couldn't utter a single word.

Just now, I was so focused on revenge that I was only concerned with getting questions out of Zhao An and Hu Wan and venting my anger, I didn't have time to think about anything else.

Now that I think about it—isn't that right?

If he hadn't delayed things, the reinforcements wouldn't have arrived in time, and they wouldn't be in this predicament now.

Huang Zi'an wasn't finished, and took another step forward: "Don't forget what the Sixth Prince told us before he left!"

"If Miss Xu gets injured because of this..." He glared at Wang Defa, "I'd like to see how you explain this to the Sixth Prince!"

Now, Wang Defa's face was deathly pale.

By the time he realized what was happening...

Wang Defa immediately turned around and knelt down in front of Xu Miaoyun with a "thump".

"Miss Xu, I was confused!" He said, his head bowed low and his voice trembling. "Just now, I was so focused on avenging myself that I neglected important matters and caused my brothers to be surrounded... If you wish to punish or beat me, Miss, I, Wang Defa, will not say a word!"

Xu Miaoyun looked at him but didn't speak immediately.

After a long pause, she finally spoke, her tone not harsh, but the meaning was clear:

"Magistrate Wang, I understand your feelings. Any father would find it hard to swallow the hatred for your son."

"But..." she paused, "Your grudge is your grudge, but there are still more than twenty brothers in this courtyard, and their lives are all in your hands."

"Just now you were only concerned with settling your personal scores, putting everyone's lives aside. That's called disregarding the big picture."

"To put it mildly, it delayed things; to put it more seriously, it harmed all the brothers in this courtyard."

Wang Defa knelt on the ground, burying his head even lower.

Xu Miaoyun looked at him for a while, then said nothing more.

"Get up," she said. "I won't punish you. After things are over here, I will tell the Sixth Prince everything you did tonight, and then the Sixth Prince will decide how to deal with you."

Wang Defa raised his head, glanced at her, then lowered it again, and said in a muffled voice, "...Miss Xie."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a child's voice suddenly rang out from the night sky: "No need, I'm right here."

Everyone was taken aback and quickly looked up.

A white cloud had drifted over the courtyard and was now hovering steadily in mid-air.

The cloud was small, and a six-year-old child sat on it, his two little legs dangling over the edge of the cloud, swaying back and forth, looking down with his chin in his hands.

Under the moonlight, who else could it be but the Sixth Prince Zhu Ming?

"Sixth Prince! The Sixth Prince has returned!"

The courtyard erupted in chaos. Some people exclaimed in surprise, while others shouted. The panic caused by being surrounded by reinforcements vanished in an instant.

Zhu Ming sat on the cloud, looking down at the chaotic courtyard below, then at Xu Miaoyun standing in the middle of the crowd, grinning with a carefree smile.

It turns out, just now.

Zhu Yuanzhang was having dinner with his father and mother when, halfway through the meal, he suddenly put down his chopsticks, chuckled, and said:

"Ming'er, your mother and I have some things to discuss. After you finish eating, go sleep in the side hall tonight."

Zhu Ming understood immediately.

What "we have something to discuss"? It's clearly just that they think he's an eyesore and want to get rid of him so they can have a private chat with the Empress Dowager.

He pursed his lips, determined to stay put.

But since his father had already spoken, and his mother only smiled at him, he could only grunt in response and was kicked out.

Once outside the palace gates, the little guy grew angrier and angrier.

Hmph, if we're going to discuss something, why do we have to kick him out to sleep in the side hall?

What is Zhu Ming's identity?

The Supreme Lord Laozi's personally taught disciple, the dignified Sixth Prince, has been reduced to sleeping in a side hall?

But despite his anger, the palace at night wasn't very interesting.

He was feeling incredibly bored, but then he thought, why don't I go find Sister Miaoyun to play?

So he summoned his somersault cloud, flipped himself onto it, and with a "whoosh," flew straight towards Qingshui County.

As luck would have it, I stumbled upon tonight's big show.