The Divorcee Is A Wicked Black Belly

An Ning forcibly dragged Kang Jun in the center of attention, literally putting him under a microscope so that his body quaked and his face started to sweat bullets.

Everybody in the room: "...."

Du Lu coughed.

"An Ning, this is not a courtroom. Let go of the child and let him speak."

An Ning"s eyes though continued to bore down on the quaking Kang Jun as if she was daring him to lie to her so that she would have a good reason to gobble him up. After a while, the killing intent that paralyzed Kang Jun on the spot eased up. Everybody released their breath then waited as An Ning calmed down and again resumed her seat on the table.

"What do you know about this witch?" An Ning"s voice was flat and monotonous as if the previous show of startling emotion didn"t happen.

"I don"t know anything about her, your Grace," Kang Jun said, swallowing hard. "I heard it from somebody, an old man, who once took shelter in our house during a rainstorm. The two of us talked to while away the time and during that conversation I told him that my mother"s illness prevented me from taking the civil exam that year. She needed medicines, you see, so I used the tuition money to get them for her.

"The old man was sincerely sorry to hear my predicament so he advised me to find help. He then told me about a witch who lives in the Sierra Mountains. He said that this witch knows a lot about potions that could cure all kinds of ailments. I didn"t believe him though," Kang Jun said looking up at An Ning.

"Why?"

"Because I"ve already consulted with several doctors in the city and all of them told me they had no idea what really ails my mother. Almost all of them said it was old age but I don"t believe that since my mother isn"t even forty. She became ill over a year and a half ago after my father died. Anyway, I told the old man that I didn"t believe what he said about this witch because if even the doctors don"t know what"s wrong with my mother then who can?"

"What happened after that?"

"He told me that it wasn"t hearsay but that he actually met this witch in person."

"What?" An Ning was surprised.

"He didn"t say anything about where or how he met her except that he didn"t believe it was really her when they met."

An Ning frowned.

"Your grace," Kang Jun"s voice broke when he saw the displeased expression on An Ning"s face. "The old man said that he believed that the person he met was not the witch since she was known to wear disguises to hide her true ident.i.ty. And yet he also believed that it could be none other than her because the person he met was very young and there seemed to be a fierce black dog guarding her."

"A disguise and a young girl," An Ning murmured, as if to herself. "Perhaps a decoy? Anything else?" she asked, looking at Kang Jun with a pair of bright eyes.

"Yes. After he said all those things, we did not anymore speak of the matter. But then after a while, he again spoke, while staring at the rain outside, that he once knew a guy who was poisoned. The poison was sprinkled on his clothing. He said that the man died in excruciating agony, with his flesh and his bones burned to nothing."

The silence became deafening. Gu Sheng glanced at An Ning and wished he hadn"t. An Ning"s face drained of all color, leaving a deathly pallor that almost turned that arresting beautiful face into an unrecognizable mask. The pallor on her skin, however, merely reinforced the dark red of murderous hatred that swept over the black almond-shaped eyes. An Ning"s entire body was trembling. Her fists were so tightly clenched her nails tore into the thin flesh of her palms and drew blood.

No one spoke. No one even breathed. All of them stood rooted on their spots and watched as the sixteen year old empress dowager tried to contain a hair-trigger anger that could scorched the heavens if allowed to fully express itself in unbridled l.u.s.t.

An Ning wasn"t seeing them anymore. She was back in that magnificent room, watching thru the stricken eyes of that old version of herself as Gu Fang writhed in unbearable agony in front of her. She remembered his eyes, the desperate plea in them. From somewhere the pain burst out of her body like a suppressed tide finally allowed to follow its true course.

She screamed and went on screaming until she became hoa.r.s.e and her frail body could no longer stand the pressure and she fainted. The people around her were stunned. When they recovered their senses, they surged as one body towards her but Du Lu was faster. He caught An Ning as her body slowly folded to the ground.

She felt weightless and suddenly so frail that he panicked and threw Min Song a command, "Find that witch and kill her!"

If it had been other than the level-headed Min Song, soldiers would have stormed the mountains and combed the trees to find an evil witch who killed the previous emperor and tried to harm his young widow but Min Song was made of sterner stuff. He merely glanced at Du Lu, gave an order to Yi Ying and his wife to leave then have Yi Hai stand guard by the door.

Du Lu watched him in gathering wrath and would have torn into him with a few well-chosen words but the girl in his arms suddenly groaned.

An Ning"s eyes opened then gazed with deep perplexity at the concerned face above her.

"What happened?"

"You fainted."

An Ning"s eyes opened in surprise then turned a stormy gray when she remembered what had happened before. She stood up, Du Lu standing quietly by her side. An Ning"s eyes speared the entire room with a cool glance before settling on the silent and timid figure of Kang Jun.

"Thank you for clarifying things for me. You did well."

Kang Jun stammered then blushed.

"We should send out some people to find this witch and kill her," Du Lu said quietly.

Min Song cleared his throat but stopped when he encountered the general"s frigid eyes.

An Ning looked at him then at Du Lu.

"I would be very much interested to hear your opinion about this matter," she said, turning to Min Song. "Speak."

Min Song gave Du Lu a nervous smile before speaking.

"I think we should wait for Sei Sei and Min Ling to come back before making any decision, your grace," Min Song said. "I totally get the general"s opinion of punishing first before employing diplomacy but we have to take several things into account before pursuing vengeance. First, we need more information about this person. Who is she? If she was really the one who harmed the late emperor then it is obvious that somebody paid her to do it. But then again, her grace already punished a lot of these people and some she put to death but no one has yet to mention this person even when asked under torture. Which means, that this person is far from ordinary and must be scheming with someone we don"t know as yet against the emperor and his young mother."

There was silence when Min Song finished. He didn"t dare look at the general whose face remained wooden as he listened to him speak. This was the first time that Min Song directly disobeyed a military order from Du Lu yet he didn"t feel scared. He was a military strategist renowned for his cool head and ability to accurately read a situation and Du Lu"s order sprung from panic and not common sense.

"What he said is true," the emperor"s voice suddenly broke the tense silence. "Everybody connected to my father is already dead. n.o.body is left but none of them, those traitors who schemed against the emperor and killed him, was willing to speak about the person who actually poisoned him. We still don"t know who it was behind this plot, do we, empress mother?"

Everybody turned to him as if they have just been woken from a bad dream. The emperor"s young face was tight with grief, his eyes dark pools of shock and pain. An Ning"s arm stretched out as if to offer him comfort but Gu Sheng had used the formal t.i.tle of her name instead of the one he usually calls her so her hand dropped to her side. The question came from a monarch to his subject and the empress dowager answered him in the same vein.

"No, my lord. Not even the late prime minister could tell us who it was who concocted the poison."

"What do you suggest we do then?" This time, the emperor looked directly at Du Lu.

"Master Min is right, your majesty, and I was wrong. It is foolish to rush headlong into this without first following the basic step which is to gather information. My two subordinates Sei Sei and Master Min Lang are already dispatched to gather information. We should wait for their report before making any moves."

"And what move is that?"

"I"m going to take some men with me and personally hunt and kill this witch."

"I"m going with you," An Ning said to the surprise of everyone.

"You can"t," Du Lu brusquely contradicted. "You are needed here. It should be easy to hunt and kill a witch. I don"t need you there."

An Ning let out a mocking laugh.

"Precisely why you need me to go with you. I know you. You don"t believe in anything other than what you see with your own eyes. You don"t believe in magic. You sneer at phantoms and laugh at bogeymen. The devil himself appears before your eyes and tells you he"s the devil and you think he should be put behind bars. You don"t have the temperament needed for this kind of a.s.signment, Du Lu. You"re too f.u.c.king sane to fight monsters like this witch."

"And you"re not, I presume?" Du Lu mocked.

"Oh, I believe in anything," An Ning shrugged. "Even G.o.d and the devil. Especially in supernatural creatures that go b.u.mp in the night. You will only get yourself killed without me there to save you."

"And here I am, having survived twenty years of life without you or your help. You"re still not going," Du Lu said and there was finality to his voice.

"Your majesty?" An Ning asked without even turning her head.

"The empress dowager will go a.s.sist the General Chen in this a.s.signment," the emperor said, ignoring Du Lu"s frown. "In the meantime, a council will be formed to manage the day to day operations of the kingdom while we"re gone. We don"t need an entire troop to do this anyway. Just a handful of reliable and excellent people will do."

Du Lu and An Ning gaped at him, stunned.

"We?" The word spouted out of their surprised mouths at the same time.

"Of course I"m going with you. Isn"t that clear enough?"

"You can"t!" Now, it was An Ning"s turn to protest and dissuade. "What if something happened and you"re not here? You"re needed here, your majesty. This servant is not afraid to do her job and avenge the late emperor"s death. You can"t go!"

The emperor"s eyes narrowed.

"Are you trying to say no to Benggong?" he said, his words dripping with ice.

"Yes, your majesty," An Ning met his furious eyes calmly. "This servant is afraid something will happen to his majesty. We do not know what is waiting for us when we finally meet this poisoner a.s.sa.s.sin. Frankly, this servant is afraid that she will not be able to protect his majesty"s safety. On his deathbed, I"ve promised your father..." An Ning"s voice broke. "I don"t know what I"m going to say to him if...please, your majesty. Just stay here and be safe. I promise to avenge my husband and your father"s death. In this one, I will not fail you."

The emperor sighed and a sad smile split his face for an instant.

"An Ning, I"m afraid, this is the one time that you cannot protect me," he said softly, his gaze tender as he gazed upon his stepmother"s stricken face. "I have to go. You understand, don"t you?"

An Ning turned away jerkily, as if she was suddenly too racked up with emotion to continue. The emperor looked at her sadly then turned to Du Lu.

"What do you have in mind?"

"While we"re waiting, I"ll send out some scouts to draw a working map of the area around the Sierra mountains. If I remember correctly, those mountains border a small fishing village to the east so it might be better to start our search from there. I will send some men to scout the area out. We don"t want to spook the target and let her escape."

"We"re also going to need maps," An Ning rejoined the conversation which made everyone gave a sigh of relief. Du Lu"s eyes softened with approval. "I"m going to check the archives." She stopped then frowned in sudden thought. "Wait. You said those mountains border a fishing village?"

"Yes. To the east, which is farther north of Yuqui."

"Have you ever been to this village?"

"No, but Sei Sei"s family lives there."

Du Lu stopped as he locked eyes with An Ning.

"What is this about, An Ning?"

"Maybe we are looking at this from a wrong point of view."

"What do you mean?" the emperor asked.

"We"re all a.s.suming that since the old man said that the witch lived in the forest then the poison must be extracted from some plants or animals with toxins strong enough to kill. But some fish are also poisonous like the sting ray or the lion fish whose poison can cause severe pain and cardiac arrest that leads to immediate death.

"If this poisoner is good at disguises then what"s stopping her from sourcing the fish ingredients of this poison outside the jungle? It"s easy enough to leave the mountain, go to the village and buy provisions such as meat and fish. n.o.body would think it suspicious if she did so. In fact, what"s so suspicious about buying fish anyway?"

They all looked at her stunned at the implications of her words.

"Or somebody who is actually a spy for another country could enter Yuqui"s army and pretend to be a faithful citizen but in fact is working to undermine the monarchy." An Ning continued thoughtfully.

"Are you telling me that Sei Sei, my second in command, is an enemy spy?" Du Lu"s voice was indignant. "That"s preposterous. Sei Sei has been with me for many years. She"s saved my life once or twice. And that goes for Min Song ang Min Ling."

This last sentence was directed at Min Song but Min Song seemed to have not heard because he was frowning, his thoughts kept close to his chest.

Du Lu laughed bitterly. If even his close adviser doubted Sei Sei then it"s up to him to stand up and defend her honor. He couldn"t believe Sei Sei was a spy. He just couldn"t.

"Your majesty," he began.

"Yi Hai," An Ning said, cutting off the rest of his sentence.

The commander of the guards silently approached the group. He had been sitting and pondering, turning over the meanings of the various conversations he had been allowed to hear tonight. He knew it wasn"t coincidence that n.o.body asked him to leave even when the general"s adviser shooed everyone out. This small group of people, including the quiet yet obviously nervous Kang Jun, now forms the core of the emperor"s circle. He met the empress dowager"s eyes and bowed deeply.

"Have you ever been to this fishing village before?"

"If her majesty means the Laniang village to the north then yes, I have been there before, your grace."

"Tell me about it."

"It is free land, your grace. Meaning the village pays a yearly t.i.the to the kingdom but is basically left on its own. We don"t even have an outpost in there or a government office."

An Ning frowned.

"Since when?"

"Since the time of his late majesty"s father, your grace. I think the village was left alone because it was part of his majesty"s late grandmother"s dowry when she married into the family. Part of the agreement was that Laniang was to be part of the imperial dowry but control of it will remain with the late empress dowager"s family."

An Ning turned to the frowning emperor.

"Did you know about this?"

"Emperor father never spoke of it to me. All Benggong knows is that his grandmother"s family were fierce hunters and that father lived with them since childhood. The harem was getting messy and grandmother feared for emperor father"s life so she asked permission from emperor grandfather to move him out of the palace."

"Hunters...or a.s.sa.s.sins?"

The emperor looked at her in dawning horror.

"And since Laniang is a free land and never misses to pay the t.i.the every year, everybody left them alone and never asked questions. What does a small fishing village mean to a kingdom as large as Yuqui anyway?" Du Lu filled in the rest.

"You mean, somebody from my grandmother"s family plotted to poison and kill my father? I refuse to believe that," the emperor"s face was red with anger. He shot a look at Du Lu who pretended not to see it. "They were my father"s people. They protected and took care of him when he was a child. If they wanted him dead, they could have done it when he was still living with them."

"Free land," An Ning said, looking at the emperor. "Laniang is free land. It pays t.i.the every year, yes, but there"s no government presence, no government supervision. Which means, the people of Laniang practically rule themselves as a free state. As such, everybody could come in and take over, just like that. And after taking over a small insignificant village that n.o.body"s even heard of what else is left than to plot to take over a kingdom ruled by a child with no parents, no backing from the ruling cla.s.s. And since n.o.body is expecting it, the plot is carried out in full view of the world. And the first to die is, of course, the emperor, the empress dowager, then his new bride."

"Why kill the new bride?" the emperor asked, the full horror of what his stepmother was saying clear on his young face.

"What if she gets pregnant with the new heir?" An Ning"s smile was ugly. Her blood went cold at the extent of this ma.s.sive conspiracy. Gu Fang and his mother died because somebody wanted to take over and control Yuqui. Meanwhile, she had her sights focused on exterminating the entire aristocracy, never once suspecting the presence of an enemy that still hides in the dark with his face hidden from sight.

"Are you telling me that somebody other than my grandmother"s family now controls Laniang?" the emperor"s horror-stricken voice intruded into An Ning"s private thoughts with a jarring sound.

"Seems like it, your majesty," Du Lu said with an angry sigh.

"And vice commander Sei Sei is part of it?" Min Song"s voice was equally incredulous.

"We don"t know that yet," Du Lu said with a frown. "It could be just a coincidence that her family hails from there. It"s not conclusive proof yet."

"I don"t believe in coincidences," An Ning scoffed. "Yi Hai, how long would it take you to form a small group and take a little trip to visit Laniang?"

"Give or take two or three days, your grace."

An Ning nodded.

"It might be difficult to blend in though," she said, frowning. "Everybody will be suspicious of the presence of the imperial guards. The same is true if you just go there and pretend you"re an ordinary visitor or something. You"ll stand out like a sore thumb either way."

An Ning"s frown deepened. Yi Hai didn"t say anything, merely waited for her next instruction. Du Lu and the rest of the group went back to discussing Sei Sei"s place in the army and what role, if ever, she had in this ma.s.sive takeover plot.

"I got it!" An Ning"s excited voice broke the uneasy conversation. "I should have thought of this sooner. Drones!"