As Li Hui looked at Li Xia walking into the room, he wondered how much Li Xia knew about this incident.
"Brother, let's have breakfast first," Li Xin brought the dishes into the room.
Li Hui invited Zhang Hu to join them for the meal. Having been busy all night without eating, Zhang Hu was also hungry and did not decline.
Taking the bowl handed to him by Li Xin, Li Hui asked Li Xin and Li Xia, "Have you two eaten?"
"We've eaten, Brother. You eat quickly," Li Xin urged Li Hui to eat breakfast, concerned that he was hungry.
Li Hui then asked, "Have those on patrol last night been arranged to have breakfast?"
"The matron has brought them breakfast," Li Xia answered from the side.
"Brother, you have dark circles under your eyes. Eat and then go back to your room to rest a bit," Li Xin was very worried about Li Hui, who had stayed up all night.
Hearing that arrangements had been made, Li Hui finally settled down to eat breakfast. With the curfew in place now, he didn't know what was happening outside, but he had to take care of himself to protect his sisters.
As they were eating, they heard a knock on the door. They looked at each other, and Li Hui put down his bowl and chopsticks, with Zhang Hu following closely behind. Li Xin couldn't help but tightly grip Li Xia's hand.
"Let's go see as well," Li Xia comforted Li Xin.
Li Hui went to the main gate and saw a young man in a security officer's uniform accompanied by a squad of soldiers standing outside. Upon seeing Li Hui approach, the man politely said, "Sir Li, we are ordered to search every household in this area."
Li Hui glanced at the house diagonally opposite, where they had barged in without a word, but this squad spoke very politely.
"May I ask your surname, sir?"
"My surname is Jiang," Chief Jiang reported his name.
"Chief Jiang, please," Li Hui stepped aside to let Chief Jiang and his squad enter.
"Search thoroughly," Chief Jiang waved to his subordinates to search the courtyard. The soldiers scattered to search, treating the women in the rear courtyard with courtesy. They found nothing inappropriate, and reported back, "Chief Jiang, nothing found."
Hearing the subordinates' report, Chief Jiang remained polite to Li Hui, "Sir Li, please excuse the disturbance."
"Chief Jiang, thank you for your hard work," Li Hui stepped forward and handed him a purse. Chief Jiang did not take the purse but looked towards Zhang Hu beside Li Hui, "Zhang Hu, we shall have a match when we have time."
Zhang Hu replied, "Certainly, I await your challenge."
Chief Jiang led his men away. Li Hui turned to Zhang Hu, "Chief Jiang is from the Beining Marquis Manor."
"Chief Jiang's name is Jiang Chen. He is the son of my master's teacher," Zhang Hu said, referring to his teacher Jiang Zhou, with a complex expression on his face.
At the beginning of the year, Li Hui had asked Old Marquis Lu to arrange for veterans to guide Zhang Hu. Old Marquis Lu arranged for Jiang Zhou, who accompanied him, to guide Zhang Hu starting from the sixth day of the new year.
If Li Xia's guidance for Zhang Hu in facing life and death could be compared to a sharp blade, then Jiang Zhou's training for Zhang Hu was like a blunt knife slicing flesh, making one wish for death.
For two consecutive days, they could not leave the manor, and the people inside were somewhat anxious. All kinds of speculations circulated privately. With people's unease affecting their work, Li Hui sternly punished them to stop the rumors.
After rebuking the servants, Li Hui himself was also anxious. Unprecedentedly, he summoned Li Xia to the study.
Li Xia entered the study and saw Li Hui's poorly concealed anxiety and exhaustion. As the backbone of the entire manor, every decision Li Hui made affected the lives of everyone, especially his two sisters.
He had to be extremely cautious in everything he did. After all, Li Hui was just a young man who had not yet come of age.
"Big brother, if the sky falls, there are tall people to support it. You don't have to worry so much," Li Xia said calmly. Although she had not gone out to investigate, many things did not reach Li Hui, who held no official position. Instead of being anxious, it would be better for him to read more books. After all, the imperial examination was not far away.
Li Xia's calm demeanor soothed Li Hui's mind. He realized that he was just a scholar, and any major events would naturally be handled by the emperor and officials. Instead of worrying about unnecessary things, he should read books calmly. For Li Hui, the most important thing at present was the imperial examination.
After realizing this, Li Hui calmed down.
On the fifth day, Zhang Hu, who had been keeping an eye on the alley entrance, returned and reported that the officials and soldiers had withdrawn. Some people had already gone out to the main street. There were still officials and soldiers patrolling the main street.
Upon hearing this, Li Hui did not send anyone to find out what had happened specifically. He only instructed the kitchen staff that when they went out to buy groceries, they could not go alone but must go in pairs of at least two. After buying groceries, they must return to the manor without delay.
The Beining Marquis Manor immediately sent someone to advise Li Hui to stay at home and focus on his studies. The Gongshun Marquis also sent someone asking them not to go out at will.
Cao Fugui brought a lot of food and supplies to Osmanthus Alley. After greeting Li Hui, he sat down and told Li Hui about the events of the past few days. Apparently, on the night of the Lantern Festival, someone had shockingly used gunpowder to blow up the city wall in an attempt to rescue Prince YongKang, who was imprisoned in the Forbidden Palace.
After Prince YongKang's rebellion was suppressed and he was captured, the Emperor had intended to execute Prince YongKang and his entire family. However, the imperial kinsmen and senior officials repeatedly pleaded, arguing that the Emperor and Prince YongKang were of the same bloodline, and there should be no such fratricide.
"Prince YongKang committed the grave crime of treason. Countless people lost their families and were separated from their loved ones because of Prince YongKang's actions," Li Hui could not help but interject upon hearing this.
Not to mention others, just the officials who were slandered and killed for refusing to cooperate with Prince YongKang, as revealed by The Righteous Hero's posters during the new year, numbered in the hundreds. As for the commoners who were not officials, the number was countless.
"Who says it's not?" Cao Fugui's teeth itched with anger as he spoke, but there was nothing he could do since those imperial kinsmen and officials had pressured the Emperor together. Even the supreme ruler was helpless and could only compromise by imprisoning Prince YongKang in the Forbidden Palace for life, never to be pardoned or allowed to take a single step outside.
The two sides temporarily reached a settlement.
Previously, Li Hui had informed Cao Fugui about the people involved in the assassination attempt on Lu XuanNing coming to the Capital City. They had been tracking them and discovered that they were investigating Prince YongKang and purchasing gunpowder.
The Emperor had sent his secret guards to investigate, and the facts were indeed as reported. Some perpetrators had been secretly dealt with. However, Prince YongKang's forces had split into multiple routes, and the ones discovered were only one route. Prince YongKang's deeper forces had bribed some imperial kinsmen and officials.
Taking advantage of the Emperor's outing to celebrate with the people, they split into three groups. One group blew up the city wall to create a disturbance and attract most of the attention. Another group raided the prison and released serious criminals to cause further chaos. The final group went to the Forbidden Palace to rescue Prince YongKang and his sons. Amidst the chaos, they fled through the city gate, their whereabouts unknown.
"Speaking of which, we should still thank The Righteous Hero," Cao Fugui changed the subject.
Hearing the mention of "The Righteous Hero," Li Hui's heart tightened, but his expression remained one of ignorance. "How so?"
When Prince YongKang released those death row inmates and serious criminals from the prison, the others all escaped. But those dangerous individuals captured by The Righteous Hero remained obediently. These people had high combat abilities, and if they had escaped, the casualties would have been even greater.
Although Cao Fugui said so, the escaped criminals had also injured many people. Combined with those killed by Prince YongKang, the Capital City was a river of blood that night.
