Mountain and River Festival

Chapter 362: Starting to Take Charge of the Harem

The main reason I can't stop is that I also want to lick it.

Just like when Lu Xingzhou saw jade feet... no, I misspoke, when he saw a bear, he wanted to lick them on his own; he didn't need anyone to force or coerce him.

Long Qinghuang felt that she was playing with the little beauty, which at least made her proud mind a little more comfortable. Especially with the arrival of the little palace maid, Long Qinghuang had a way to maintain her composure. Her eyebrows furrowed and her dragon eyes were stern: "You have barged in without being summoned. Do you want to watch me favor my beloved concubine?"

I don't know if this is an insult or an opportunity to deliberately emphasize that I am "favoring" someone rather than serving them.

Unfortunately, the young palace maid didn't understand and hurriedly knelt down in fright: "Your Majesty, Prime Minister Long Yan and others are outside the palace, asking if Your Majesty will attend court..."

Uh, attending court?

Is that true?

Long Qinghuang almost forgot.

It took a moment for my mind to register what was happening. Oh, and I mentioned it yesterday when I was "briefly explaining" things to them outside the palace. I said that any important matters would be discussed at court tomorrow morning, and that I had just returned to the capital after a long journey and needed to rest first.

Is it already tomorrow morning?
It's easy to imagine how many things the high-ranking officials had accumulated to report, a whole basketful of reports in hand, only to find that His Majesty was gone when they arrived at the court.

Lu Xingzhou, who was looking down at the documents but actually listening intently, felt it would be difficult to keep up even if he put himself in Long Qinghuang's shoes. But then he heard Long Qinghuang say confidently, "So what if it's a little late? I was tired from traveling yesterday and overslept."

The young palace maid lowered her head and said, "Mmm."

His Majesty is usually absolute in his word, and is both stern and ruthless. Even if Prime Minister Longyan had been outburstful and loud just now, if His Majesty were actually standing in front of those people, most of them would have cowered and dared not utter a sound, let alone a mere palace maid like her.

Long Qinghuang stretched and nonchalantly got out of bed: "Go out and talk to them. Let's go discuss things first. I'll change my clothes and come back later."

The young palace maid was about to rise after receiving the order when Long Qinghuang continued, "Xiao Kui..."

The palace maid was so frightened that she knelt down again.

"?" Long Qinghuang was puzzled: "Why are you so nervous? I asked you to prepare breakfast for Mr. Lu and his apprentice. Remember, it should be a specialty of our Demon Realm. Mr. Lu likes it."

Xiao Kui: “…”

I know you dote on Mr. Lu. The problem now is that Xiao Kui doesn't know what the special delicacies of the demon realm are, since she doesn't know which foods don't exist in the human world.

Xiao Kui didn't dare to ask, and went out to deliver the message while sniffling, secretly asking the guards if they should know.

Upon receiving Xiao Kui's message, the Prime Minister and his entourage left, their faces beaming with joy. They secretly thought, "His Majesty isn't completely senile; at least he's still willing to attend court. That's good, that's good. Later, when everyone in court rises up in remonstrance, let's see if we can bring His Majesty back to his senses..."

"Special delicacies of the demon realm?" The guards were completely baffled by Xiao Kui's words. How would they know anything about this? Even if they knew about human affairs, it wouldn't be related to food. Who would be so bored as to collect such information?

Last night I saw them strolling around eating snacks, and I do remember what they ate.

The guards exchanged glances, quickly figured it out, and disappeared in a flash.

When they reappeared, they had already captured more than ten of yesterday's shop owners and stallholders: "His Majesty wants you to make something to eat."

Lu Xingzhou carried A Nuo outside to stretch her muscles, and was stunned when she saw the scene.

Isn't this case of a wicked concubine who brought ruin to the country now a proven fact? She's not only being criticized in the imperial court, but the common people are probably going to be disgusted by her for miles around.

Therefore, it is easy to be a tyrant. With just a word, your subordinates can make things so complicated that even you can't understand them.

Lu Xingzhou immediately spoke up: "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding. His Majesty was just praising you all for doing a good job and wanted the imperial chef to learn how to make these snacks. Hmm, here's a reward, take it first. If you teach the imperial chef, there will be a generous reward."

The shop owners and stallholders who had been glaring at the demon concubine with murderous intent instantly beamed with joy: "Your Majesty, rest assured, we will do our utmost to satisfy you."

Lu Xingzhou's smile froze on his face as he carried A Nuo away.

Ah Nu laughed until her stomach hurt.

"Hey, Your Majesty." The guards reached out to stop her, smiling obsequiously, "His Majesty has decreed that Your Majesty may wander freely anywhere in the palace, except for leaving the palace."

Lu Xingzhou gritted his teeth and angrily went to the Imperial Garden.

Upon arriving at the Imperial Garden, they discovered that the flowers and plants were quite ordinary, lacking the splendor they had imagined for a demon clan's imperial garden. Lu Xingzhou turned around, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "What's wrong with the flowers and plants here? Doesn't His Majesty enjoy the flowers and plants in his leisure time?"

In fact, let alone flowers and plants, there were very few people serving in the palace. I didn't see any eunuchs, and there were only a few palace maids. The guards stayed outside the palace gates and didn't come in to patrol. As a result, the entire palace looked very empty and desolate, and walking to the Imperial Garden felt like having the whole place to yourself.

Xiao Kui, who had been following behind and serving him, smiled obsequiously upon hearing this: "His Majesty usually doesn't have the time to take care of these things, and our harem is without a master. We don't even really need servants; His Majesty only has a few people around him on a daily basis. I'm the one who takes care of the flowers and plants here more..."

Lu Xingzhou said, "You're not a sunflower, are you?"

Xiao Kui said, "I am a sunflower."

"Uh...no wonder your face is like a big plate."

"?"

How many people are there in the entire palace?

Xiao Kui counted on her fingers: "About a dozen."

Even Ah Nuo couldn't help but ask, "With such a huge palace, can you manage to clean it with just a few people?"

"...Do we need a lot of people to clean up?" Xiao Kui looked at A Nuo as if she were a fool: "We have magic."

Ah Nuo: "...Wait a minute."

Xiao Kui: "What?"

"Are you thinking to yourself, 'This adopted daughter will just dump me in the mountains once the little dragon man comes out? What's there to be so smug about?'" Xiao Kui exclaimed in surprise, "How could you..."

Before he could finish speaking, he quickly covered his mouth, his expression one of utter terror.

Ah Nuo: “…”

The master and apprentice exchanged a glance and remained silent.

Ah Nuo's talent for communicating with plants has surprisingly found a powerful application here, allowing plant-type demons to have their thoughts heard... However, Xiao Kui has just transformed and is very weak, so it's unclear whether this effect will still apply when facing stronger plant demons.

That said, plants naturally felt close to Anuo, but after she became a demon and gained independent thought, that closeness actually diminished? At least it couldn't compare to Xiaokui's loyalty to His Majesty the Dragon Emperor. She even had Anuo, a cricket inside her belly, already vying for the position of crown prince.

Lu Xingzhou found it amusing and asked, "The palace is filled with such a strong demonic aura, why don't the flowers and plants become demonic?"

Xiao Kui said, "Of course, not everything can be transformed into a demon; you need talent! At least it's very difficult for these ordinary flowers and plants to become demons! I am a sunflower that grows on a sacred mountain."

Lu Xingzhou said, "Since you say the harem is without a mistress and no one is taking care of the flowers and plants here, how about I give you some special crop seeds and you take charge of planting them?"

Xiao Kui clearly loved the job and exclaimed excitedly, "Great! I'll make sure Your Majesty is beautiful, just like you are!"

"...If you can't chat, you can saw your mouth off." As an alchemist, Lu Xingzhou had many kinds of medicinal herb seeds. He gave some to Xiao Kui and then lost interest in continuing to explore the palace.

What's the point of visiting such a desolate palace? Everywhere feels like a cold palace. So, he carried Anuo back to the Empress's palace.

Out of boredom, he also wrote a plaque and hung it up: "Palace of Rebellion".

Xiao Kui was startled: "No, Your Majesty!"

"Weren't you supposed to be planting flowers? How come you've suddenly reappeared?"

"The Empress didn't say I should plant it now."

"Then plant it now."

“But this plaque cannot be hung up; it is rebellious and treasonous.”

"I mean the reversal of yin and yang."

"No matter what it means, it won't work."

Lu Xingzhou laughed in exasperation: "I bet your emperor would argue with me about who put it on if he saw this plaque. You all have so many thoughts. If someone else wrote a book about a chaotic world, would you ban it?"

Little Sunflower couldn't resist the Empress's pleas and was sent off to plant flowers with a whimper.

Lu Xingzhou sat back comfortably in his soft chair and continued reading the documents.

Ah Nu laughed from the side: "Aren't you helping Sister Long find the traitor? Why are you being so careless?"

"I scanned it with my divine sense and finished reading it long ago."

"So all that pretense of watching before was just a ploy to trick Sister Long into kissing you."

"See through it but don't say it out loud."

"what about now?"

"I watched it a second time just because I was bored."

Ah Nuo was both amused and exasperated: "So, did you find the traitor?"

Lu Xingzhou gently patted the documents, lost in thought.

Originally, I thought that if there was a problem with their ideology, we could see some clues from their background and daily behavior. Long Qinghuang knew what Lu Xingzhou meant, and she had also thought it through herself. The information she provided also focused on this aspect.

However, based on the current information, it is not clear who has a significant difference in ideology.

Of course, expecting to find this kind of thing from the information Long Qinghuang herself provided was unreliable. If she could sense a clear difference, Lu Xingzhou wouldn't have had to rack his brains. Naturally, nothing obvious could be gleaned from the information she provided… Lu Xingzhou had hoped to discover some blind spots hidden beneath seemingly unrelated content, but unfortunately, he didn't.

Long Qinghuang might not have put that much effort into writing the materials; who knows what she was thinking when she did.

But Lu Xingzhou still noticed something else.

Long Qinghuang is a narcissistic dragon; in her eyes, everyone has a bit of a crush on her. But in this file, only two people are vaguely mentioned as having feelings for her: one is Long Lie, who was responsible for restraining Hai Ruyuan during Long Qinghuang's duel with Gu Zhanting, and the other is Long Yun, who was assigned to control the city's formation at the time.

Long Qinghuang's arrangement was intentional; she had a backup plan. However, the other party didn't make a move, and she wasn't forced to use it. This suggests that Long Qinghuang herself suspected these two individuals, suspecting it was related to relationship issues—being rejected, hence the outburst.

For a major event involving both countries, this line of suspicion is a bit... well, it does have a certain possibility of being the truth.

If the truth is to be uncovered from this angle, then the "obsession with male beauty" of the past two days is unexpectedly the best way to break the deadlock. As long as the provocation continues, the other party will definitely take some action.

No man can tolerate being cuckolded, not even a dragon.

There's something else... According to the information, there aren't many pure-blooded dragons left.

During the Dragon-Phoenix War, the court was already heavily reliant on foreign confidants like Lion Madman, and there were hardly any dragons left in the court. Those like Long Zheng, whom they had previously known, were merely sub-dragons to begin with.

Isn't there still a problem here? Long Qinghuang herself doesn't get married or have dragons, but what about the other dragons? Are they also childless?

Or is it that we've encountered the traditional problem again, where it's even more difficult for a powerful race to reproduce? Is the reason why dragons breed various sub-dragons not just because dragons are inherently promiscuous and amorous, but because pure-blooded races can't reproduce, so hybrids are an option?

(End of this chapter)