Princess, Spare My Life - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Escape Plan Underway (First Part)

After successfully sending the princess away, she watched the princess figure as she departed and suddenly had a bad feeling in her heart. It was as if she had done something extremely dangerous and the origin of this feeling was the princess.

How strange! How could this be? Even if the princess discovered the drugs, can’t she wouldn’t she have no way of locating the source and exacting vengeance?

Yuan Shang wiped the sweat off herself and tried to dispel this bad feeling. Perhaps because her sense of crisis as a hired killer was too strong, her current state didn’t improve. In desperation, she decided to locate the assassin to divert her attention from her strange feelings.

Yuan Shang originally thought that the assassin was among the group of dancers, but after careful observation, she discovered that the dancers were ordinary people. Yuan Shang’s insight as a professional killer could be considered more accurate than anyone else in the world. If there was an assassin she could not see through, then that assassin would be a really dangerous one!

On the woman who was strumming a zither, there was callus between her thumb and forefinger—playing the zither could create calluses on one’s fingertips, but wouldn’t it be impossible for those calluses to become so long? And as for the one who was playing the bamboo flute, that person had yet to inhale more air after playing for so long. Was the lung capacity of the people of olden times this great? Their few techniques were flimsy, the performance was imperfect, and there was no such murderous intent flowing out of them. They were just some subordinates and nothing more. The real assassin should be from the owner of that murderous intent she sensed when she first got on the boat.

On the contrary to what one would expect, this old assassin kept his composure, yet unexpectedly still didn’t make his move!

No matter who he was planning to assassinate, he wouldn’t be able to escape from the princess, General Murong, Feng Che, Lu Wenfeng, or even herself.

Among the group, Lu Wenfeng had the least possibility of being the target. He was only the second son of a high official in the Ministry of Appointments, so wouldn’t it be counterproductive to attempt an assassination on him while the princess was present? There were some possibilities for Feng Che and Murong to be the target, but this possibility was also extremely unlikely. For the same reason, one would normally wait for them to be alone before trying to kill them to spend less effort in dealing with the repercussions. Regardless, the possibility of Murong Qinghua being the target was higher. Perhaps the Xiongnu people were attacking him due to his meritorious deeds and for other political reasons.

The most likely targets were the princess and herself. When the princess normally went out for a stroll, countless guards would follow her around. If an assassin tried to attack her, then the army would soon come. Furthermore, there were many soldiers who were patrolling in the Imperial City, so those in the vicinity would save her immediately. the nearby ones would be saved immediately. Today, since they were at the center of the lake, it would be much more isolated. In regards to herself, the prince consort apparently never stepped out of her house in the past few months until now since she had to visit the lake. Therefore, the possibility of her being the assassination target was the highest.

Yuan Shang continued planning. If she was the target of the assassination, then Su Yin would quickly charge out while General Murong would assist him. Furthermore, Feng Che, Lu Wenfeng, and others wouldn’t try to save her, leaving her to die on her own. The four scholars could be completely ignored. Right now was the best time for her to run away.

Yuan Shang had been a hired killer for a long time. As a modern assassin, she was probably more professional than anyone in this era in terms of experience, wisdom, tools, and knowledge on how to exploit terrains. In this era, she was an expert in this field. Before her last operation, she did not make any mistakes. Therefore, Yuan Shang had faith in her exceptional capabilities in planning and implementing her strategies.

After the princess left, beside Murong Qinghua who was lecherously glancing at beauties, the other people were talking amongst each other.

Yuan Shang was proficient in the six languages, and each language included the most commonly used dialects. For example, for Chinese, Yuan Shang knew both simplified and traditional, as well as a small amount of oracle script. She could also understand Cantonese, Sichuan, and Shanghai dialects.

But in fact, in addition to these six languages, she also had two special languages she could understand—sign language and lip-reading.

Sign language was a relatively important language in the world, so she naturally had to learn it. Furthermore, lip-reading was just as important. Sometimes, the information that one could obtain from lip-reading could even save one’s life.

At this moment, Lu Wenfeng and Feng Che were whispering to each other right in front of Yuan Shang while their lips were in clear view.

Yuan Shang saw that Lu Wenfeng moved closer to Feng Che and said, “Brother Feng, have you seen the princess today…? She invited Murong Qinghua, the infamous buffoon, and us, but what are her true intentions?”

—This princess was indeed not simple at all!

Yuan Shang slowly took a sip of wine and watched Feng Che attentively.

Feng Che shot a glance at Murong Qinghua as the corner of his mouth disdainfully curled. He replied, “Why are you still asking? It could only be that she wanted to exploit the Su family’s people!”

Lu Wenfeng said, “Murong Qinghua is a fool… I heard that this time, he murdered a thousand Xiongnu soldiers. Yesterday morning, Imperial Censor Cao impeached him for violently and brutally killing prisoners to the point that even the arrested military officers pleaded with him for leniency. Even the emperor wanted to fool to go away, and the result…heh. He almost repeated Imperial Censor Cao’s bloodshed incident in the palace halls. In the end, the emperor had to give in and order Murong Qinghua to reflect on his actions for half a month at home. What use does such a person have for the princess? In order to win him over, she would aim towards the Su family’s kid…to earn the Su family’s favor!”

“Murong Qinghua is the proud student of Su Ce, representing the Su clan for being a young general in the army. Although he killed the prisoners, his merits could not be concealed. During that time, he used ruthless methods to accomplish his job. However, he still has a good reputation across all generations. Since the emperor loves talent, he will still use him. Since the princess wants to win over that old fox, the Duke of Zhao, she could only start by putting her hands on Su Ce’s people!” After he said that, Feng Che’s revealed an unreconciled expression. “I—Not only is he the eldest grandson, but he is also the grandson of the Duke of Zhao. Why did the princess choose him instead of me? If I married the princess, then I would fully support the crown prince…”

Across from them, Murong Qinghua seemed to have noticed their gaze, raised his head and looked at them, and then removed his gaze without any indication. Then, he continued to devote himself to the singing and dancing in front of him. However, he did not seem to be admiring the singing and dancing, but rather, he was observing people around him. As his eyes narrowed, they occasionally flickered with a bright light, like a bloodthirsty beast. Even Yuan Shang, a hired killer, could not help but feel chilly—sure enough, the difference between the murderous aura from killing dozens of people and killing tens of thousands of people was different.

When Lu Wenfeng saw that Feng Che mentioned the princess, he noticed that his tone was off. He quickly said, “Indeed! When I looked at Su Qi, I noticed that he looked as if a gust of wind could blow him away. I did not expect him to live longer than a few days!”

Feng Che said maliciously, “We know that Su Qi is from an influential family, but he is rubbish who was poison to his mother’s womb. How did he marry the princess? Throughout the Imperial City, it was rumored that he was a master of martial arts. Could it be that Su Ce was afraid of losing face, so he deliberately spread the rumors?”

“Wasn’t Brother Feng a former imperial bodyguard? Brother Feng often accompanied the emperor at his side. Did you see how the emperor views this Su Qi?”

“What do you think?” Feng Che paused, seemingly thinking about the emperor’s appearance. He shook his head and sighed. “His Majesty had also heard about the rumors circulating in the city. I heard that the commoners saw the Su Qi we regarded as dirt as a young expert. The moment I heard this, I laughed on the spot; it’s truly ‘fascinating.’ Heh, since His Majesty had already heard all of those rumors, so we can’t refute them. But maybe His Majesty was the one who spread the rumors! His Majesty favors the Duke of Zhao due to his glory…” After he said that, he felt somewhat dismayed.