Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

209. The Initiative and the Suspicions

Translator: Bryan

Though having given the order to enter the village, Yuxing Tianrui did not have his soldiers separate into groups to spend the night in the villagers’ houses. Instead, he instructed them to go to a spot not far away and make camp there. All they needed was a place to put up for the night.

In the black of night, Yuxing Tianrui was sitting in his tent when he heard a commotion from outside. He was just about to ask what had happened when he saw one of his deputies walk in. “Your Highness, there is a villager outside who claims one of his pigs is missing. He wants to enter our encampment to search for it.”

If it weren’t for the fact that this operation had to be kept secret, such a thing would never have happened. The soldiers didn’t know what to do. Yuxing Tianrui was the one who had knocked them into shape, and they naturally were aware that if they dealt with this matter in a peremptory manner, Yuxing Tianrui would definitely punish them severely afterward.

“Did you look into it?” Yuxing Tianrui was not worried. On the contrary, he was slightly relieved after hearing the report.

“Yes, because we are staying near the village tonight, all officers were very strict with the soldiers. Nobody has left the encampment alone,” the deputy said with absolute certainty. In his opinion, either the butcher’s pig had been eaten by a wolf or the man was a swindler.

“In that case, give the butcher some money and dismiss him.” Yuxing Tianrui nodded. This matter happened in exceptional circumstances, so it naturally should be dealt with in an exceptional way. It would be best if he could settle it with money. After all, he didn’t want to make life difficult for any of his people. No matter what, he wanted the problem to be solved as soon as possible.

“Sir! Sir! You must not do this to me! My whole family rely on that pig for survival. Even if you compensate me with money, I won’t be able to buy another pig, and all my family will freeze to death at the end of the year.” The butcher heard the deputy’s words, but he refused to accept the offer and just cried outside the encampment.

This place was not far away from the village, and it was shortly after dinnertime. Many villagers had not gone to bed yet. When they heard the man’s crying, they opened their doors and came out to see what it was about. None of them could have foreseen that the butcher would offend a military officer. Many cowardly ones immediately decided to walk away.

“You guys need to stick up for me. We’re fellow villagers. You can’t walk away and do nothing.” The butcher got anxious at the sight of the crowd clearing off. Yuxing Tianrui, naturally, overheard the man’s words clearly in the tent. He had wanted to ignore the man, but it had never occurred to him that the man would be so persistent.

He lifted the door flap and saw that his deputy was eying the butcher disgustedly. “Why are you being so unreasonable? Your missing pig has nothing to do with us. Our general is offering you money only because he pities you, and yet you have the nerve to swindle us?!”

The butcher was a shrewd man. At the sight of a handsome and sumptuously dressed man walking out of the tent, he immediately came to realize that Yuxing Tianrui was the one calling the shots. He turned to look at Yuxing Tianrui and wailed, “Sir, please help me get justice! I swear I’m not a swindler!”

Having noticed that Yuxing Tianrui was alarmed and walked out, the deputy felt quite frustrated, but as Yuxing Tianrui was standing right there, he naturally wouldn’t say anything else. He just stood on the side, smoldering. Yuxing Tianrui glanced at the butcher and asked, “You practice martial arts?” Everybody present was taken aback by his question.

His deputy was the most startled one. He almost jumped. Without hesitation, the deputy took the butcher’s hand to scrutinize it. “You’re very observant, sire. There’s no way a common butcher can have such callus. This guy sure as hell has learned to use some kind of weapon. You refuse to leave because you have a hidden agenda, right?”

Hardly had the deputy commander finished speaking than he pinned the butcher to the ground, but the butcher had quick reflexes. Having realized that he was under duress and would probably lose his freedom, he immediately broke free and yelled, “Don’t you dare bully me! Whether I have fighting skills has nothing to do with my missing pig!”

At the sight of the butcher’s reaction, Yuxing Tianrui impassively waved his hand at his deputy and said to the man, “Tell me, why did you come to my encampment to kick up a stink at this hour? Don’t tell me you don’t know intrusion into a military encampment is punishable by immediate decapitation!” He put an emphasis on his last few words. The law of Shenglan country did stipulate as such. He was not bluffing.

The butcher was taken aback by his words and his lips twitched. Unable to withstand Yuxing Tianrui’s commanding air, he slumped to his knees. “Sir, I learned some fighting skills when I was little. I’ve been meaning to join the army, but I’ve never gotten the chance.”

Yuxing Tianrui stared at the man for a long time, then turned around and said to his deputy, “Recruit him. Let him start serving as a common soldier. Have him under constant watch.”

The butcher had come on his own account, so Yuxing Tianrui naturally wouldn’t trust him completely. He suspected that this man was up to something, for apart from anything else, they had only told the outsiders that these soldiers were replacements. They had never said anything about fighting a battle. Even if the butcher joined them, he wouldn’t get a chance to render any meritorious service.

Knowing that he should never trust anybody unless they proved themself trustworthy, Yuxing Tianrui decided to find out whether the butcher had some ulterior motive or was indeed a patriot seeking to make a contribution.

Some serious incidents had happened in the court in the past few days. First there had been a fire in the East Palace, and then someone had made an attempt on the Crown Prince, wounding him grievously. Currently, the Crown Prince and his wife were nursing their injuries in another palace. Shortly after those incidents, the third prince had convinced his father to allow him to look into the attempted assassination of the Crown Prince.

By rights, it was no serious issue, but after only a few days, rumors began to circulate among some commoners, saying that the attempted assassination of the Crown Prince was related to the matter of Manlou and that Manlou was getting increasingly unruly.

Those rumors struck Yuxing Wei as frivolous, but another version of the story exasperated him. He angrily kicked his subordinate aside and snapped, “Tell me, what the heck is going on?”

All his subordinates were kneeling on the floor, trembling all over, hardly dare to breathe, fearing that Yuxing Wei might use them as punchbags. They really didn’t know who started the rumor that the third prince was the one who had orchestrated the assassination of the Crown Prince. Yuxing Wei really had nothing to do with it at all.

Yuxing Wei’s henchman’s eyes roved as he perceived the current situation. He gingerly walked over to Yuxing Wei and said, “Your Highness, actually, this is not really a bad thing for us.”

Yuxing Wei frowned. “You’ve seen how things ended up. Chances are that my father will want me in his study tomorrow, and yet you’re telling me it’s not a bad thing?”