Chapter 1627: Shock! News on Eunuch Gao!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Thwishthwishthwis.h.!.+
Following w.a.n.g Chong’s order, his subordinates swiftly took flight. After returning from the northwest, w.a.n.g Chong now had many martial artists under his command. When it came to strength, few in the capital could compare to them.
Once all this was handled, w.a.n.g Chong looked toward his destination.
At night, the alley was pitch-black. The residents of the surrounding homes had apparently sensed that something was going on, and had extinguished their lights and fallen silent. The only light was that of a single dim lamp several hundred feet away.
w.a.n.g Chong’s eyes gleamed as he walked forward.
“Your Highness!”
The door opened with a creak, and w.a.n.g Chong went inside. Within, several men from the King of Foreign Lands Residence were already waiting, and they immediately bowed upon seeing w.a.n.g Chong.
“Your Highness, everything has been handled. Little Li is inside,” one of the guards said.
w.a.n.g Chong only gave a slight nod.
Pa.s.sing through a curtain, he entered a dimly lit room furnished with a crude table. Several figures were standing next to the table, and their leader was a lean youth of eighteen or nineteen, but he had a straight back and a proud demeanor.
Even when surrounded by all these guards, he was fearless.
He had no beard or mustache, and he exuded the same aura as the other eunuchs of the palace. This was clearly the man w.a.n.g Chong had been looking for.
w.a.n.g Chong examined the young eunuch and asked, “You are Little Li?”
“Yes!”
Little Li’s response was proud and resolved. He didn’t even glance at w.a.n.g Chong, and his words held no trace of politeness.
“Your Highness, what offense have we committed that would cause the King of Foreign Lands to come and seize us? For Your Highness to not concern yourself with affairs of state but to go and arrest minor characters, is this not putting the cart before the horse? If this matter got out, would it not harm Your Highness’s reputation?”
“Ha!”
w.a.n.g Chong chuckled and refused to take the eunuch’s bait.
“Might I ask how Eunuch Gao is doing?”
Buzz!
The eunuch trembled and his face paled. But he so quickly regained his composure that his anxiety seemed like it had been an illusion.
The eunuch shook his head and sternly replied, “What are you asking? I’m just a minor eunuch who holds lamps in the palace, and I only came out this time to buy some lamp oil. How could I have ever met Eunuch Gao? If Your Highness wishes to see Eunuch Gao, it would be better to go to the palace and ask.”
“Heh, is that so?”
w.a.n.g Chong glanced at the eunuch and smiled.
“There’s no need to be nervous. I don’t mean any harm. I only wish to know about Eunuch Gao’s condition lately. And besides, aren’t you the true Little Li?”
While he was initially speaking to the eunuch at the front, his last question was directed toward an honest-faced young follower wearing cloth robes standing behind him.
This simple question instantly had the two of them shuddering in shock.
“King of Foreign Lands, what are you asking about? There is only one Little Li here. Please, take your leave!”
‘Little Li’ straightened his back and spoke in a forceful tone.
w.a.n.g Chong refused to argue with this eunuch, his indifferent gaze remaining fixed on the cloth-robed youth in the back. Li Gui or Li Kui1, he already knew who the real one was.
“The First Prince’s men are already making their way to this alley and will be here soon. If I were the First Prince’s man or meant you ill, would I still be standing in front of you and talking with you? I merely wish to know how Eunuch Gao has been doing lately. You should know that I received my t.i.tle from the Sage Emperor himself, and that I was on friendly terms with Eunuch Gao. I have no need to deceive you.”
The young follower in the back had a complicated expression, a look of hesitation and struggle in his eyes. w.a.n.g Chong said no more and revealed the King of Foreign Lands token that was uniquely his.
The royal token w.a.n.g Chong possessed was crimson in gold, a dragon of blood that no other King possessed. The meaning of this was that w.a.n.g Chong was the empire’s protector, the Great Tang War G.o.d who had battled through a sea of blood and a mountain of corpses. There was no other token like it in the empire.
Thud!
Finally, the young cloth-robed man dropped to his knees.
“Paying respects to Your Highness! Please forgive this Little Li for his offense!”
Upon saying this, Little Li breathed a long sigh like he had been relieved of a great burden. His body instantly broke out in a cold sweat that drenched his clothes.
Cheng Sanyuan and Zhang Que exchanged speechless glances.
This minor eunuch was far too strange. He had escaped the palace without telling anyone, and then he acted so cautiously that it seemed like he was hiding some enormous secret.
“Everyone except Cheng Sanyuan and Zhang Que, withdraw!”
w.a.n.g Chong had clearly noticed something, and he gravely ordered his men to leave.
Whoos.h.!.+
Everyone immediately withdrew, even the eunuch who had pretended to be Little Li. The only ones left in the room were w.a.n.g Chong, Cheng Sanyuan, Zhang Que, and the true ‘Little Li’.
Although w.a.n.g Chong was still not sure if this Little Li was the same as the one in his memories, he believed that the chances were extremely high.
Hiss! Pop!
The room was quiet, the only source of sound the occasional crackling of the flame in the simple rusted lamp on the table. The shadows of the four swayed and s.h.i.+fted along with the flame.
No one said a word in the somber air.
“…Was it Eunuch Gao who mentioned me to Your Highness?”
In the end, it was still Little Li who broke the silence. It was obvious that he thought that w.a.n.g Chong only knew who he was because Eunuch Gao had mentioned him before.
“Why did you have to escape the Imperial Palace? Are you the one the First Prince’s men are after?”
w.a.n.g Chong didn’t answer the question, instead asking questions of his own.
The room was silent as everyone waited for an answer.
Little Li kneeled on the floor and said, “This lowly one didn’t want to leave, but was forced to. It was Eunuch Gao who had this lowly one escape!”
Boom!
w.a.n.g Chong instantly grimaced, as did Cheng Sanyuan and Zhang Que. The air became even more rife with tension.
Just who was Eunuch Gao?
The Eunuch Director of the Inner Court, the Sage Emperor’s number one aide! In the Imperial Palace, Eunuch Gao represented the Sage Emperor, and all the officials and all the consorts and concubines regarded him with respect, let alone anyone else.
When Eunuch Gao spoke, no one dared to defy him. But Little Li was now saying that Eunuch Gao had told him to flee the Imperial Palace!
What sort of problem could it be, that not even Eunuch Gao could handle it?
“This lowly one originally belonged to the Menial Service Department as a eunuch in charge of several miscellaneous affairs. But later on, I would occasionally be summoned by Eunuch Gao to hold the lamp for him while he read books when on break from his duties to the Sage Emperor. This would only happen six times every month, with each session lasting for an hour. This lowly one has held the lamps for Eunuch Gao for several years now.”
Before w.a.n.g Chong could ask anything, Little Li began to give the whole story.
“But several months ago, when this lowly one went to Taihe Palace as usual to hold the lamp, this lowly one was questioned many times. This lowly one asked Eunuch Gao what was happening, but Eunuch Gao said that it was nothing. Later on, when this lowly one went to Taihe Palace again, Eunuch Gao said that there was no need for my service. Although this lowly one was confused, this lowly one did not think too much of it and stopped going, believing it to simply be Eunuch Gao’s will.
“Around a month ago, this lowly one was a.s.signed to the Palace Larder. In there, this lowly one discovered several sweets that Eunuch Gao enjoyed eating. No one in the palace besides Eunuch Gao enjoys these sweets, and they were even molded in the shape he liked. In addition, this lowly one remembered that when he asked Eunuch Gao about this, Eunuch Gao mentioned that they were snacks that he ate at the Sage Emperor’s residence, and the palace did not normally make them. But this lowly one discovered that these sweets were not being sent to Taihe Palace,” Little Li said.
Buzz!
w.a.n.g Chong’s eyes widened and his face paled.
Eunuch Gao was the Sage Emperor’s personal eunuch and had followed him since he was ‘King Chu’. The two were inseparable, and he had the Sage Emperor’s eternal trust.
w.a.n.g Chong had believed that he would only need to find Eunuch Gao to learn the Sage Emperor’s condition. But… if Eunuch Gao wasn’t at the Sage Emperor’s side, then who was the person inside Taihe Palace?
Moreover, Eunuch Gao was devoted to the Sage Emperor and would not willingly leave him, not even if the sky was falling. How could such a thing have occurred?
w.a.n.g Chong instantly felt his heart sink to rock bottom.
Although he didn’t know the exact situation in the palace, there was one thing that he was sure about: something had happened to Eunuch Gao.
Meanwhile, Little Li was continuing.
“This lowly one began to keep an eye out from that point onward. But no matter who this lowly one asked, none of them knew where the box of sweets was being sent. Apparently, someone would appear after the box left the Palace Larder to promptly take it away. But not long ago, this lowly one found a pool of blood inside the returned box! And there was a b.l.o.o.d.y silk scarf belonging to Eunuch Gao!”
Boom!
w.a.n.g Chong shuddered, his eyes flying open.
“What?!”
His mind immediately began to toss and turn with ma.s.sive waves, and he found it impossible to keep himself calm. He had thought of many possibilities, but none of them had included Eunuch Gao being injured.
As the Sage Emperor’s number one aide, Eunuch Gao was even stronger than an Imperial Great General. w.a.n.g Chong sensed that the number of people who could compare to Eunuch Gao in martial arts could be counted with one’s fingers.
w.a.n.g Chong had never imagined that someone of Eunuch Gao’s strength could be injured!!!
______________
1. This is another reference to the story of Li Gui and Li Kui. Please see the note in Chapter 1096 for more details.↩