For the next few days, Shen Nuo spent his days enjoying the bliss of a consort to the extreme. He was either to be seen lying down the fragrant lemon grass in the back yards, nibbling candied haws or on the roof, drinking wine or flattened leisurely on his couch, thinking and thinking...
Shamelessly taking his temporal memory loss that would strangely act up at moments as a high sounding excuse, he learned many things about his current life and even those of his family, friends and enemies.
So of the Palace matters from one end to the furthest corner, everything was carefully studied by him.
Shen Nuo's Mingyue Palace was situated half a mile away to the north from the Main Palace. It was the only Palace that was situated afar. Of course, who cares? Without the Dog Emperor around, Shen Nuo felt over the moon.
It was just that the completely deserted Mingyue Palace which previously had a ghost named Shen Nuo haunting it, accompanied by the spirits named Jinyu and Liyi, now had an extra ghost frequently visiting it and that ghost was a baby ghost named Minghe.
Luckily, after the Emperor saw Shen Nuo wink at Zhanhua at the court, the Emperor did not summon him or visit him. It was as if a male consort named Shen Nuo didn't even exist.
It looked as though the Emperor had suddenly become an ascetic. He was rarely seen during the morning and it was only during the court sessions. But his mood was not very good and reachable. All other hours, he locked himself inside his chamber. He never flipped the tablets or spent the night in any of his consort's chamber during the next few days.
News spreaded far and wide that even the pitiful lovey dovey white lotus was also ignored just like that. When Liyi brought the news to Shen Nuo, he had simply said that the Dog Emperor was probably going to attain Buddhahood.
But for Shen Nuo's mere surprise, the Dog Emperor hadn't refused when little Minghe had asked him for Shen Nuo's company.
Thus, within few days, one awe inspiring respectable cabbage raised by a Dog Emperor became spoiled and shameless under the skillful guidance of Shen Nuo. Minghe became daring to the point of burrowing the Imperial Jade Seal right under the Dog Emperor's nose - to crack chestnuts for Shen Nuo...
Shen Nuo taught him to call him not mother, but father. So Minghe obediently did. The little kid obviously had not met such a lively and an interesting mother, no, father before.
And Shen Nuo suited himself when Minghe visited him to have breakfast and lunch and to play every day.
But there were also some serious problems that Shen Nuo came across in his daily life that he couldn't suit himself to no matter what.
For example - using the toilet. The process was purfect! Put aside martial artists who had practiced aiming a destination properly for years and years, Shen Nuo possibly cannot believe even the ordinary people like maids and servants in this era could shit properly, no, he means ... aim properly.
The toilet was a considerably large barrel like basin with a little hole in the middle. But how can possibly one aim to the exact spot, specially when you want to go to the toilet for the big work? It's not like you're comfortably sitting on a commod. Shen Nuo pitied all those who runs to the toilet in a hurry.
Why did Shen Nuo bath more than three times a day? Shen Nuo smiled to himself wearily. Merely because he wants himself overly clean? Guess even Liyi doesn't know!
Oh yeah, Liyi can sometimes hear a loud thud followed by her master's disgusted scream when ever he goes to the toilet. But can she open the door, go inside and have a look if everything was fine? Could she? Could she? Hahaha!
Shen Nuo had considered several times about disappearing into the backyard thicket with a water bucket in an emergence. But Jinyu was the ghost that haunted the thicket and the backyard. Shen Nuo was once caught on the spot pissing under a tree and he did not know that from above a high branch of that same tree, a goldfish was watching... Jinyu laughed into hysterics that day. So Shen Nuo completely gave up the idea on visiting the thicket.
He could only smile bitterly. He did not know what kind of sins he had committed to warrant this kind of a life in which one cannot even shit properly.
"Father." Minghe looked at him with big and glassy eyes. "Why are you eating the chopsticks?"
"Huh?" Shen Nuo looked at Minghe blankly and found himself to have almost swallowed half of the chopsticks...
He choked in his breath and coughed like crazy before Liyi hurried back from the kitchen with the kitchen broom, looking horrified. "Master!"
Jinyu entered with an excited smile. "Master! Oh, little prince..."
Shen Nuo wiped away his lips with the back of his sleeve. "Jinyu? What's it?"
"Spring Hunt!" Jinyu said delightedly. "His Majesty just announced this in the morning court. The Spring Hunt's next month!"
Shen Nuo thought for a while. The novel indeed mentioned about the so called annually held occasion. Even the Emperor personally participated in it along with the Imperials.
The hunting grounds happened to be Liushan Forests which spread wide for miles and miles, a mountainous territory densely packed with trees and numerous wild beasts. The forest was situated thirty leagues away from the Capital and required a horse or a carriage ride of four days to reach. This Spring Hunt was a tradition which had been carried out by Li Yang imperials since centuries...
A cold shudder ran down Shen Nuo's back. The assassination of Crown Prince Minghe happened right after the Spring Hunt...
Shen Nuo sighed at the cute little kid with fluffy hair who was calmly eating the noon meals. He felt his heart ache when it occured to him that this kid only had just one more month to live...
He had spent the past few days thinking about this matter. With the knowledge he had from reading the book, he had already come to some final conclusions.
According to the novel, the murderer was an extremely skilled assassin who worked for Consort Lian and his name was Chen Gu.
Shen Nuo pulled Minghe onto his lap and signed Jinyu to take a seat forth him.
"Jinyu, is there any personal bodyguard with Lian?"
Jinyu looked thoughtful for a moment. He sat down opposite to Shen Nuo, cross legged and poured himself some tea. "No way. If there is any, I can indeed detect it. But I've never seen her use any bodyguards though..."
Shen Nuo furrowed his brows. He knew about Jinyu well because of the novel. Jinyu grew up in the Northern Fortress at the borders under Shen Nuo's third elder brother who was the current Grand Martial of Li Yang.
He was an excellent shadow guard. He had a vast knowledge in untraced assassination, silent killing and was also resourceful about existing assassin organizations...
Despite Jinyu's young age, which was barely twenty, Shen Nuo's brother sent him to Shen Nuo as a wedding dowry when Shen Nuo married the Emperor hoping he would protect Shen Nuo. Though Jinyu was not yet fully familiar with the Palace, he was still very alert about the things around his quarters.
Such being the case, he still didn't detect the presence of that person around Lian who appears and disappears like a shadow. Shen Nuo sighed. Whoever that person is, he cannot be underestimated.
If Shen Nuo remembered it rightly, the novel also mentioned that original Shen Nuo was there when the Crown Prince was murdered. He had seen a strange black tattoo in shape of a wolf head upon his left cheek.
"Jinyu." Shen Nuo said. "Then have you seen a strange black tattoo like a wolf head?"
Jinyu looked at Shen Nuo with with an expression hard to read. "Master?"
"Just asking." Shen Nuo lied. "I happened to hear about it somewhere."
Jinyu however had a strange expression on his face. "It's a deadly organization of assassins. Wolf Head Organization, we call it. Even we shadow guards don't mess up with them easily."
Shen Nuo did not know what to feel. So that lovey dovey white lotus was in cahoots with the Wolf Heads... And Chen Gu was a member of that organization as well. "Jinyu. Tell me more."
Jinyu sensed how apprehensive his master's voice was. He was confused. "They are masters in poisoning and in killing untracked and untraced. As for further information like it's origin and where it's situated, it's all unknown."
Shen Nuo felt more and more troubled.
"But there's just one place if the information is possible and might contain in scrolls."
Shen Nuo's eyes brightened. "Where?"
"Imperial Library."
So that night, Shen Nuo entered into the completely deserted library premises alone. As long as he can stop the assassination from happening nothing else matters for the moment. He can find plenty of opportunities to strangle that white lotus to silt.
The Imperial Library was an enormous hall that was more than hundred meters long, with seven storeys and many sub halls. Shen Nuo was amazed. If one was to read this much scrolls and books, he probably won't be able to finish them in one lifetime.
There was a famous saying in Li Yang which said that every Imperial Prince must by heart each and every scroll in this library. Damn it! If he was born as a prince, he would've probably died of mental instability or Qi Deviation. Perhaps it's better for Minghe to die..
The next problem was, where to start. Luckily, the halls were divided into sections. He entered into the hall with scrolls regarding murders in the history of Li Yang. Perhaps he would be able to find something...
The tall racks were out of polished black wood. Scrolls were placed with care upon them. Shen Nuo passed his slender fingertips upon the scrolls before they randomly paused upon a dusty scroll that seemed to have been left untouched for many years.
He was not aware of the extremely light footsteps that drew nearer and nearer with every second that passed.
He pulled out the scroll. It was very old and even the characters that had been carved upon the thin wooden pieces seemed to have faded away with time.
While flipping through the scroll, suddenly his back got pressed into a warm chest. Shen Nuo was stunned. A pair of strong arms with wide golden sleeves wrapped around his waist and a scorching breath grazed his neck, mingled with the alluring smell of Sandalwood.
"What is my consort doing here in the middle of the night? Hmm?" An icy cold and unfriendly voice spoke softly in his ear.
🌸. 🌸. 🌸. 🌸. 🌸.