Ji Wu Jiu went to the 3 main army camps, to bid farewell to the departing armies, and said some very motivational words towards the soldiers making the tens of thousands of men feeling highly motivated. He then returned to the palace, and continued a whole day of work at Yang Xin Hall, during dinner time, he decided to go to Kun Ning Palace to eat, because he was starting to miss Ye Zhen Zhen.
Thinking about yesterday night’s sweetness, inside Ji Wu Jiu’s was very warm, and sweet. That is why he can’t wait to meet with Ye Zhen Zhen, making his steps even faster.
However, when he reached Kun Ning Palace, JI Wu Jiu found out Ye Zhen Zhen have not started dinner preparation, and this in her case was something very out of the ordinary. Feeling something was wrong, he went into her room immediately.
There was no one inside the room, Su Yue, Su Feng or Wang You Cai was not there also. Then, there was noise coming from the bed, some muffled voices could be heard, the atmosphere was very weird.
Ji Wu Jiu thought that perhaps Ye Zhen Zhen was ill, so he walked towards the bed opened the muslin cloth to take a look, but who knew he would be so shocked by what he saw.
On the bed, there was no Ye Zhen Zhen, but only Su Feng and Su Yue, both of them being tied up properly, mouth covered, and the weird muffled voices were made by them earlier. When the both of them saw Ji Wu Jiu, their eyes brightened, and tried to send message through their eyes.
Ji Wu Jiu suddenly felt something bad happened, at that moment many types of possible scenarios flew by his mind, each getting worse then the other. He took out the cloth from their mouth and asked “Where is the empress? Was she kidnapped by Wang You Cai?”
“Replying to your majesty, it was Wang You Cai who was kidnapped by the Empress!”
Hearing that Ye Zhen Zhen was not in danger, he calm down a little, untied the both of them and said “Speak, what actually happened?”
“This morning, after serving the empress her breakfast, she and Wang You Cai tied me up, and placed me on the bed. Then Su Feng was called in, tied and placed together with me. After that the empress left with Wang You Cai. Before that Wang You Cai was advising her not to go, and when he left, he does not seem to be very willing as well. But the empress threatened him, if he does not want to go, she will tie him up and throw him into Tai Ye Lake to feed the fishes. What happens after that, I do not know”
“She has never returned at all?”
“No”
Ji Wu Jiu did not understand, as the empress, Ye Zhen Zhen can do what ever she likes, why does she need to tie people up? Tying this to maid servants up, would most probably be because she was afraid the both of them will go look for her when she did not return, and if they can’t find her the entire palace will be notified.
Afraid they will go look for her?
She left the palace?!
Ji Wu Jiu was shocked by his guess. For a woman that lives in the palace to sneak out, really requires a lot of courage, but thinking that the person is Ye Zhen Zhen, he felt that it was not impossible.
Furthermore, to forcefully bring along Wang You Cai, would most probably be because he has the badge to leave the palace, something that even an Empress would not be able to obtain easily.
JI Wu Jiu immediately summoned the palace guards as well as eunuchs on duty to ask if they have seem the empress, or any stranger’s face ,he was afraid Ye Zhen Zhen will camouflage herself as an eunuch to leave the palace.
In within that group of people, there were actually a lot of them that seen her, she did not change her appearance. According to their answer, Ji Wu Jiu found her route of leaving the palace, it was towards the Shen Wu Gate.
Threrefore, Ji Wu Jiu personally rushed to Shen Wu Gate, and summoned all the eunuchs on duty, and asked if they have seen the empress.
The eunuchs that were on duty in the morning answered “Replying to your majesty, the empress left the palace with an imperial edict at around 8am.”
“Imperial edict?” Ji Wu Jiu raised his eyebrows dangerously “Which edict was she referring to!?”
“According to Niang Niang, it was from your majesty personally”
JI Wu Jiu took a deep breath and asked “Did she bring anyone else?”
“Replying to your majesty, she only brought along Wang You Cai “
“Only bringing one person, and you all dared to let her go out” Ji Wu Jiu’s face was very scary when he said those words.
The eunuchs realized that something was not right, and immediately kneeled down to beg for mercy.
“Someone, bring these group of people down, and each to be flogged 40 times, keep their heads on at the moment, if anything were to happen to the empress, I will be back for them. You, bring a few people to investigate outside the palace to look for the empress’s trace, do not let news travel out. What ever happened today, who ever speaks a single word to another person, all will be beheaded!”
After leaving his