Chapter 118: Mister Yin Shan! (1/2)

Even though King Song left early in the morning, he returned extremely late.

“Your Highness, how is it?”

Alighting from the carriage, Lu Ting hurriedly stepped forward to welcome him. In reality, ever since King Song left, he had been waiting at the same spot anxiously for his return.

But for some reason, Lu Ting could sense that King Song’s mind was discomposed. On top of that, he seemed extremely exhausted, as though he had just undergone several large battles.

With a lowered head, King Song didn’t say anything at all. Deep creases sat on his forehead. Despite having followed King Song for so many years, this was the first time Lu Ting was seeing him in such a state.

All of the guards, servants, and maids had already been ordered to evacuate this area long ago.

The matter regarding King Shou was a huge affair. Thus, Lu Ting had told the old butler to ensure that no one was eavesdropping into their conversation.

“I have no way of explaining the matter to you easily. ——Let’s go in first!”

Cautiousness leaked from King Song’s voice. This was the first time Lu Ting saw King Song act so warily.

Lu Ting thought that it was sufficient to send away the guards and maids in the area, but from the looks of it, the matter with King Shou was much graver than he had expected.

Sealing the main hall, experts were stationed in the perimeter of the hall while the old butler stood at the entrance. With such security, even a fly would find it hard to infiltrate the hall.

“Mao-er has spoken!”

After ensuring that there was no outsider, King Song tensed expression visibly loosened:

“Initially, when I asked him about the matter, he kept avoiding the topic. If not for the fact that I had watched him grow up and His Majesty’s imperial edicts, he would have probably kept mum about the matter until the end of time.”

“What did King Shou say?”

Shocked, Lu Ting asked almost instantaneously.

The furrow on King Song’s forehead tightened.

“He didn’t reply my questions directly. He only kept hinting me to not oppose to Consort Taizhen!”

“Ah!”

Lu Ting exclaimed in shock. However, he swiftly recovered and continued asking:

“Could it be that King Shou is unwilling to go against His Majesty’s will?”

King Shou was the victim of the Consort Taizhen incident. The pain of having one’s father steal one’s wife wasn’t something that anyone could understand.

But King Shou was a filial son. It didn’t come as a huge shock for him to advise King Song to not oppose Consort Taizhen.

“That’s not it!”

King Song shook his head grimly, refuting Lu Ting’s conjecture:

“That’s what I thought so too, but the truth isn’t like that. Mao-er didn’t say it directly, but he kept hinting me that the matter isn’t as bad as others put it out to be, and he isn’t as wronged as others thought!”

“Ah!”

Lu Ting gasped. This time, he was truly shocked. The Consort Taizhen incident was clearly an act of the emperor stealing his son’s wife, and this was a fact known by all of the officials.

It was also a well-known fact that King Shou and Consort Taizhen had been together for several years, and they were deeply in love. This was precisely the reason why so many officials were against the Sage Emperor’s decision of inducting Consort Taizhen into the palace.

On this matter, everyone was sided with King Shou!

“What does King Shou mean? Is there some hidden secret to this matter?”

Lu Ting asked in astonishment.

This storm in the royal court had pulled all of the officials in Great Tang into it, and this included even the minor officials and governors.

Many people angrily criticized Consort Taizhen, as well as King Qi and the Yao Clan who supported Consort Taizhen, and they sent innumerable letters to the emperor in hopes that he would reconsider the matter as well.

However, no one considered King Shou’s view for this matter.

And no one tried to ask King Shou about it either.

Everyone thought that King Shou was the greatest victim of the incident. No matter how heartless one could be, it would be impossible for anyone to disregard the condemnation of the world to ‘rub salt on King Shou’s wound’ and consult him on this matter.

If not for the five imperial edicts which had effectively expelled King Song from the royal court, he would have never considered visiting King Shou.

“I couldn’t have imagined that it would be like that.”

Perplexed, King Song shook his head.

“The Consort Taizhen incident should be extremely straightforward. I even went to Mao-er’s marriage banquet and gave him a pair of jade lions. I really can’t fathom what kind of hidden secrets there was to this matter.”

King Shou’s attitude, as well as his obscure words, seemed to have pulled a layer of mist on this matter.

“Your Highness, can you tell me about your meeting with King Shou in detail?”

Lu Ting suddenly asked.

King Song nodded. Lu Ting was his aide, and if he couldn’t even trust Lu Ting, then there was truly no one he could trust. There were too many strange bits to the matter, and King Song needed to borrow the wisdom of others to make sense of it.

Thus, King Song explained the happenings during the visit in detail. In the midst, Lu Ting would occasionally interject to raise his doubts, and most of them were about King Shou’s expression and attitude while he was speaking.

When King Song was finally done recounting the affair, Lu Ting fell into a long silence.

“Your Highness, we have truly overlooked many details of the Consort Taizhen incident. Even though I don’t know what kind of secret is hidden within, King Shou clearly isn’t as upset as we thought he would be.”

“That’s right!”