The court lackeys of the eight-hour workday

Chapter 221 Persuasion
After Li Miao left, Zhu Zai did not sleep all night.

Since returning to Shuntian Prefecture with Li Miao, all these things have happened too fast and too hard. Li Miao can look down on all this with a detached mentality, but Zhu Zai, a native member of the royal family, cannot do that.

Just what happened tonight - Li Miao admitted that he was the reincarnation of a god, and the emperor wanted to fight a life-and-death battle with Emperor Jianwen today, was enough to make Zhu Zai's old heart pound.

So, Zhu Zai was suddenly awakened until someone knocked on his door.

He let out a long breath, drank the tea in his hand that had already gone cold, stood up and opened the door.

The young eunuch bowed and presented a meal.

"Master Zhu, His Majesty has ordered that we set out to Tianshou Mountain to worship our ancestors at noon today. Please have some breakfast first."

"When you have finished eating, let me know and I will take you to bathe and change clothes. Your Majesty is very concerned about this matter, so you must not miss the time."

Although the eunuch's actions and tone were respectful, his words were not very appropriate, and could even be said to be a little impolite. "Don't delay the time" was a kind of urging phrase that a eunuch was not qualified to say to the commander of the Imperial Guard.

Zhu Zai glanced around.

Sure enough, there were many soldiers standing in the corners.

And in places where he couldn't observe, there must be celestial beings staring at him sinisterly, and as long as he showed the slightest abnormality, they would immediately take action.

"understood."

Zhu Zai looked calm. After taking the meal, he closed the door, gently tapped the bowl and chopsticks together, and picked up a few pieces of food with his chopsticks, chewing them, making noises.

The footsteps outside the door slowly faded away.

"saliva."

Zhu Zai spat everything in his mouth into the bowl, turned around, found a floor tile in the corner, turned it over, poured all the food in, and covered the floor tile again, restoring it to its original state.

Since he already knew that the emperor had ill intentions towards the royal family, Zhu Zai would not carelessly swallow the food he sent. He circulated his Qi again and carefully examined his body. As expected, he found something strange, and it was extremely stubborn.

Zhu Zai's face darkened.

You have to know that this thing only passed through his mouth once, and at most he swallowed a little bit with his saliva. Even with his top-level skills, it was difficult to get rid of it for a while.

Zhu Zai concentrated on getting rid of the pain for a long while before he tore off a piece of bed sheet, slowly opened his mouth, spat a mouthful of blood on it, and held it in front of him to look at it carefully.

After a while, the blood clot moved.

A few red threads as thick as hair slowly emerged from inside, winding for about an inch and then there was no movement.

"Insect."

Zhu Zai frowned.

After the discussion with Li Miao last night, he had completely given up his fantasy about the emperor. Whether the emperor was himself or Ji Tianrui, he would not show mercy.

But when he saw with his own eyes that the emperor used poison to harm the royal family, he couldn't help but feel a surge of sadness from the bottom of his heart.

"Emperor, Son of Heaven, huh."

"Taizu, Chengzu... How did our Zhu family fall to this state..."

"Ugh……"

With a long sigh, Zhu Zai sat for a while, picked up the chopsticks and smeared some oil on the corners of his mouth, then stood up and opened the door.

The young eunuch had already been waiting outside the door, offering clothes for ancestor worship.

"Master Zhu, please change your clothes."

After handing over the clothes, the young eunuch went into the room to get the dinner plate. When Zhu Zai closed the door, his eyes suddenly turned cold.

He first lowered his head and looked at the plate carefully, then wiped the bottom of the bowl, twisted his fingers to feel the temperature, then nodded, handed the plate to a guard, and stood at the door waiting.

After Zhu Zai changed his clothes, the young eunuch took him to a side hall.

As soon as Zhu Zai entered the room, Princess Gongyi came over quickly with her younger sister in her arms and spoke to Zhu Zai in a low voice.

"Master Zhu."

Zhu Zai nodded and whispered.

"Did you eat the meal His Majesty sent this morning?"

"No."

Princess Gongyi shook her head.

"Li Miao came last night and gave me some instructions. Not only the food, but I didn't even drink a sip of water."

"That's good."

Zhu Zai looked around. In this side hall, clan members were standing in groups of three or five, and more clan members were constantly being led here by eunuchs.

Some of the younger members of the royal family had excited expressions, and were gesticulating and talking loudly. It was obvious that after what happened last night, they thought that the emperor was finally going to make use of members of the royal family, and they were very proud of themselves.

But the complexions of some older members of the royal family did not look so good.

After the "Jingnan" campaign by Emperor Chengzu, Dashuo imposed extremely strict restrictions on close relatives of the royal family. Only those who were very distantly related and could not threaten the throne could be reused.

Zhu Zai was like this, and so were the older members of the royal family. They were powerful, knowledgeable, and well-connected, so they could naturally sense something was wrong from what happened last night.

But they did not have a subordinate like Li Miao to tell them "your ancestral tomb exploded", and they had no idea that they had already stepped onto the Naihe Bridge.

Zhu Zai looked around and spoke to Princess Gongyi in a low voice.

"Do you have anyone you know well and with whom you can talk and get things done?"

"Have."

Princess Gongyi nodded.

"Go and remind them. You don't need to say too much. Just leave a button in their mind. Maybe it will be useful when we get to the imperial mausoleum."

"it is good."

Princess Gongyi turned and left.

Zhu Zai also went to find a few older members of the royal family and talked to them in a vague manner.

After he finished speaking, everyone looked at each other.

"Brother, aren't you exaggerating too much?"

A middle-aged royal family member frowned and said.

"Although the situation last night was a little strange, this is where most of the royal family of Dashuo live. Is there anything that would be worthy of Your Majesty harming all of them?"

An old member of the royal family stroked his beard and spoke slowly.

"Yes, it's not that we are stubborn. You have been in charge of the Jinyiwei for more than 20 years, so it is normal for you to know some secret information. But if you want us to stand up, you must give us a reasonable reason."

"If there is no evidence, we dare not move."

Zhu Zai took a few steps back and shook his head.

"I can't explain this matter clearly now, and I can't say it."

"But I never lied."

"Brother."

Zhu Zai said to the elderly royal family members.

"If you don't believe me, you can try and see if you can walk out of this side hall."

After these words were spoken, several people looked at each other and their expressions suddenly changed.

The old royal family member's face turned cold, he nodded, turned around and walked towards the palace gate.

Before he reached the door, the young eunuch who was watching Zhu Zai flashed in front of him and bowed, "Grand Master, the time for the great sacrifice is approaching. Please wait a moment, so as not to miss the auspicious time for departure."

The old member of the royal family glanced at him coldly.

"I have some official business to attend to. I'll be back soon."

"Please wait a moment."

"presumptuous!"

"Don't dare."

"Go away!"

The young eunuch bowed to the ground, then stood up, looked at him coldly and waved his hand.

The guard at the door stepped forward and bowed.

"Eunuch Liu."

"Please advise the Grand Master."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)