Lose My Heart to the Lovely Kitten Princess - Chapter 91
Chapter 91 A battle between the princes
The sexy ghosts’ eyes lit up when they heard what Cheng Xiaoxiao said. However, they remained wary of Cheng Xiaoxiao and said skeptically, “Are you for real?”
“That goes without saying! Have I ever lied?” Cheng Xiaoxiao rolled her eyes angrily.
The sexy ghosts looked at each other.
In the end, their leader looked at Cheng Xiaoxiao timidly as she said, “We are from Qinhuai. We started learning Qinhuai music since young. Now that our bodies are long gone, and only our spirits linger on this earth, our only wish is to perform ‘Qinhuai Scenery’ together to commemorate our friendship.”
Since that was an easy request, Cheng Xiaoxiao readily agreed.
Fortunately, the sexy ghosts were not picky about their audience and didn’t care if it was a cat or a human.
After getting ready, they circled Cheng Xiaoxiao and bowed before they performed passionately.
As the pipa played, the song came to an end.
Cheng Xiaoxiao captured all their spirits immediately.
She thought in her heart, “Considering how talented these women were, they must have been famous when they were alive. The rich merchant had genuinely done a lot of wrong! By capturing these ghosts, I have inadvertently done him a favor of letting him live for at least five more years!”
The jade pendant turned yellow after it absorbed the spirit energy.
She was having such a stroke of luck today and unexpectedly captured a lot of spirits.
Cheng Xiaoxiao thought the men outside would go on drinking for a while. Surprisingly, things quietened down very quickly.
Cheng Xiaoxiao curiously wanted to check things out. A thought suddenly dawned on her when she looked at Doudou.
She was so stupid. Since Doudou was a ghost, no one else could see him, so all she had to do was send him out to check.
Doudou floated out after he heard what Cheng Xiaoxiao said and came back shortly to tell her what was going on outside.
“Is Sir Su writing to the seventh prince?” Cheng Xiaoxiao felt puzzled by what Doudou saw.
“It’s true! How could you doubt me?” Doudou was displeased with Cheng Xiaoxiao’s attitude. “Mistress taught me how to read. Otherwise, how could I help her kill people or frame them?”
Cheng Xiaoxiao and Doudou had left the restaurant and were walking on the streets. Even though the scent of delicious food was wafting in all directions, Cheng Xiaoxiao was too preoccupied.
Didn’t Su Ming and the rich merchant work for the eighth prince?
Then why would he write a letter to the seventh prince?
“Did you get a clear look at his letter?” asked Cheng Xiaoxiao.
Doudou sneered unhappily, “Why are you looking down on me? All he wrote were seven words. Of course, I managed to see it all.”
“Hurry up and tell me what he wrote.”
Cheng Xiaoxiao impatiently chased Doudou to speak up. Considering how serious she looked, Doudou swiftly said, “He wrote that the time was ripe to take action.”
If Doudou was right, then things were more serious than it seemed.
It was a story within a story.
Cheng Xiaoxiao contemplated that she had to go back and try to tell Chu Yunshen about this.
Just as Cheng Xiaoxiao was about to head home, Doudou refused to budge.
He kept telling her of the pitiful life he had led and how he neither had good food nor the chance to go out all these years.
Naturally, Cheng Xiaoxiao ignored him and went back through the dog hole.
Cheng Xiaoxiao suddenly realized that Doudou had gone quiet as she ran.
That was odd. Why wasn’t Doudou behind her?
Cheng Xiaoxiao hurriedly ran back to look for Doudou, only to see him struggling in the back alley.
A red thread was pulling Doudou, and it was coming from none other than the palace.
If Cheng Xiaoxiao wasn’t mistaken, imperial consort Zhao was performing sorcery to summon Doudou.
Doudou must have gone out for too long. Since Chu Hongyi had returned to the palace in one piece, imperial consort Zhao must be worried that something went wrong and wanted to find out.
She wasn’t going to let imperial consort Zhao use the boy anymore!
How dare imperial consort Zhao try to pull these stunts with Granny Cat Demon around!
Cheng Xiaoxiao clawed the red thread and broke it altogether.
A weight lifted, and Doudou realized he was free once more.
Just as he was about to thank Cheng Xiaoxiao sincerely, he caught sight of how cocky she looked. Instead, he swallowed all his gratitude for Cheng Xiaoxiao and quietly followed her back to Prince Jing’s residence.
He was such an unlikeable and difficult kid. Humph!
Since Cheng Xiaoxiao was a magnanimous person, she decided not to take it to heart.
After she arrived home, she realized that Chu Yunshen was still out. She couldn’t help sighing. Why were things so busy at the justice department?
Since she had nothing to do, she decided to head over to the justice department.
Cheng Xiaoxiao led Doudou out of the dog hole again and headed to the justice department in high spirits.
Before she entered, she could already hear an official begging the fourth prince to help him.
The fourth prince? Wasn’t that Chu Yunshen?
She wanted to see what was going on!
The official looked weary from travel as he spoke in tears through the door.
It was the county magistrate’s assistant from the nearby Jin City.
He heard that Prince Jing had a keen eye and had already cracked a few cases, so he wanted to file a complaint against Su Ming, the deputy minister of the ministry of revenue.
Su Ming? Wasn’t that the man she encountered at the restaurant today?
Had the seventh prince already taken action?
Before Cheng Xiaoxiao managed to wrap her mind around the situation, the guards had already let the man in.
Cheng Xiaoxiao furtively entered the room behind the man without hesitation and hid.
After Cheng Xiaoxiao found a hiding spot behind a vase, the county magistrate’s assistant started to tell Chu Yunshen what happened.
“Your Highness, I know how brave and smart you are. You simply have to help serve justice!” The official knelt on the ground with a thud and kowtowed loudly.
“Stop! Tell me what happened first.” Chu Yunshen was unmoved by his praise. He frowned as he told the official to tell him what happened.
“I am Jin City’s county magistrate’s assistant. I want to file a complaint against Su Ming, the deputy minister of the ministry of revenue.”
“Do you know that Su Ming is a third-grade official, and that His Majesty personally gave him the post?” asked Chu Yunshen sternly.
“Yes, I do. But for the sake of our city and the rest of the country, I have to file a complaint against him!”
Even though the county magistrate’s assistant shivered when Chu Yunshen looked at him intently, he continued to speak.
“Jin City has always been considered rich, but the local rich merchants unexpectedly kept raising the price of salt madly. Now the price of salt is even higher than sugar. Our citizens are suffering incredibly from this. If this goes on, how are they going to survive? As I understand, Su Ming was behind it.” The official started to cry as he spoke.
“Calm down.” Chu Yunshen looked at the official calmly as he cried before he waved Xiaowu over.
Xiaowu leaned closer to Chu Yunshen and softly reported his findings, “Master, he speaks the truth. Also, he kept spreading the news before he came to the justice department. He went around saying that the rich merchants in Jin City were reselling the country’s salt at a profit and causing their prices to be higher than other regions. I heard that the people of Jin City were well off, so they didn’t catch it when it first happened. By the time they took notice, the prices of salt had already soared, and the situation was out of control.”
“Doesn’t the magistrate know about this?”
“The magistrate refused to see the people who reported this and looked like he was going to stand by and let it happen.”
Before Xiaowu finished his sentence, the county magistrate’s assistant quickly continued, “All the officials are in cahoots and breaking the law!”
Chu Yunshen frowned with a solemn look on his face.
“Really?”
His voice sounded as cold as a blade as it cut right across the county magistrate’s assistant.
“Investigate further!”
Xiaowu hurriedly left to investigate the matter while the county magistrate’s assistant broke out in cold sweat.
The county magistrate’s assistant had already heard about how decisive the fourth prince was. Judging from what he saw, it was true.
He wondered if he made any mistakes when he spoke. The seventh prince had come up with a flawless plan, so he couldn’t botch it.
……
The seventh prince, Chu Yelin, was quietly talking to the man beside him in an unknown residence in the capital.
It was none other than Su Ming who had been at the tip of everyone’s tongue today.
“How are things going with the county magistrate’s assistant?”
“Your Highness, everything is going just as you planned.” Su Ming lost all the sternness he had during the banquet. He was genuinely trying to help Chu Yelin.
“If things pan out, it’s all thanks to you.” Chu Yelin was very pleased with Su Ming’s attitude.
“I can’t take all credit. It’s all thanks to this well-thought out master plan of yours.” Su Ming stood beside Chu Yelin submissively.
“The credit really goes to you, but it’s not time for you to appear yet.” Chu Yelin waved his hand. “Things aren’t ripe yet, so this isn’t enough for my father to punish my eighth brother. My brother is a smart man after all.”
Su Ming nodded reverently and said nothing.
Chu Yelin blew on the freshly brewed cup of tea in his hands before he continued telling him, “Sir Su, now we just have to wait for things to blow up. When my father catches wind of this, we can pick off my eighth brother’s men in one fell swoop. I’ll have to trouble you to live on my property until that happens.”
Su Ming hurriedly said, “Your Highness, trust me. I will do my utmost to make sure everything goes smoothly.”
Chu Yelin was overconfident, so he couldn’t help being careless.
He failed to detect Su Ming clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles had gone white.
Su Ming came from a poor family. His father died a long time ago, so his mother singlehandedly brought him up.
His mother lost her sight from spending so much time working in the dark. In recent years, her health had been declining increasingly fast.
After Su Ming studied for years, he finally passed the exam and became a government official. His talent was recognized thanks to the seventh prince’s recommendation to the emperor.
If it hadn’t been for the seventh prince, Su Ming would never have succeeded in life.
Just as Chu Yelin was about to say that they just had to wait and see, Su Ming’s eyes were filled with sadness and anger as he recalled six months ago when Chu Yelin asked to see him at the Su residence.
“Mother! Mother!” After Su Ming came back from court, he couldn’t find his mother in her room.
Just as he was about to ask a maid where she was, a servant told him that the eighth prince was here.
Prince Qing?
He had only just sent secret correspondence yesterday, but Prince Qing was already here today.
Although Su Ming felt puzzled, he went to the main hall to see Chu Jinshuo.
“I had no idea that Your Highness was coming and was unprepared. Please forgive me!” said Su Ming as he paid respects to him.
“You may rise!” Chu Jinshuo adjusted his clothes and sat in front of the table nonchalantly. “I have received your letter. Good job.”
“I don’t deserve such praise. I was just doing my job,” said Su Ming carefully without daring to let his guard down the slightest.
Chu Jinshuo looked happy to hear what he said. He suddenly applauded. “Well-said! When the deed is done, I will make your wishes come true.”
Su Ming lowered his head humbly.
“You’re too kind. I have no other wish but to stay beside you and serve you.”
“You can speak your mind since we aren’t outsiders here.” Chu Jinshuo asked Su Ming thoughtfully, “How’s your mother doing lately?”
Su Ming was at a loss, but he replied forcibly, “Your Highness, my mother is doing a lot better thanks to all your help.”
