“Your Imperial Highness,” Liu Shuang s.h.i.+ tugged at Long Xuan's sleeve gently, reminding him to calm down as each of his steps grew quicker than the last.

Long Xuang slowed his steps. His imperial father was a man with a temper like fire. If he knew that Long Xuan was a part of what happened in Yu Zhou, there was no way that he'd let him go. His current state of relative safety was on his mind constantly these days. Was he still safe because the emperor had not yet linked him to it?

Liu Shuang s.h.i.+ was thinking about Yu Zhou as well, but his thoughts were different from Long Xuan. The list of replacements for the officials in Yu Zhou had been announced, basically all people chosen by Luo Zhi Qiu. He's spent a lot of energy managing Yu Zhou these last few years, but he didn't think that it would fall in a single night due to the rage of the emperor. Yu Zhou has become a piece of prime meat in Luo Zhi Qiu's hands. Liu Shuang s.h.i.+ didn't want to take it lying down, but he couldn't think of anything else to do at this time. This wasn't something that Luo Zhi Qiu won, it was gifted to him by the emperor, and Liu Shuang s.h.i.+ had no way of sticking his hand back in there.

Luo Wei returned home late. It's already been a while since dinnertime, but Luo Zhi Qiu hadn't come back yet. In fact, it was the second young master, Luo Ze, who somehow got home earlier than Luo Wei.

“Xiao Wei,” Luo Ze saw Luo Wei arriving, and gave him a little punch in the shoulder, “Not too shabby!”

Luo Wei only smiled back, he didn't want to bring up what happened in Yu Zhou again.

“Right,” Luo Ze told Luo Wei, “That Ning Fei guy you told me about, he's under my capture right now.”

On the way back, Luo Wei had already gotten news from the Qi Lin villa. They informed him that they'd tried to a.s.sa.s.sinate Ning Fei on the way, but only managed to injure him before he escaped. Back at the palace, Luo Wei had taken a look at the list of names on the spring examinations. His mind was only set at rest when he saw that Ning Fei, Ning Zi Zhou was not among them. The fact that he had fallen into Luo Ze's hands was unexpected, but welcomed.

Luo Ze kept going, “This kid's pretty injured, but he still wanted to get into the city. A couple of guys under my command captured him and I've locked him in a hidden room of the estate ever since.”

Luo Wei quickly asked, “Does anyone else know about him?”

Luo Ze answered, “A bunch of people saw when we caught him, but I'd already told them that he was an escaped slave from our estate, so no one's given me any trouble about it.”

“Does father know?”

“He knows. He said so long as it's something you told me to do, then I should just do it,” Luo Ze replied, “Xiao Wei, do you want to go see him now?”

Luo Wei answered, “There's no hurry. Big brother, why don't you come with me to see mother? I got my sister-in-law and my nephew some little trinkets on the trip too. After we go pay respects to mother, I'll come over.”

Luo Ze agreed enthusiastically. Luo Wei's change made him overjoyed. A good conscientious little brother is a h.e.l.l of a lot better than a little brother who always made him sick with worry. He even wrote a few letters to Luo Qi, their big brother stationed at Yun Guan. Since the person he described in the letters was so different from Luo Wei, the response from Luo Qi was that he'll believe it when he sees it. Luo Ze looked at Luo Wei walking beside him, and thought to himself that even if their elder brother came back, he'd never recognize that this was their little brother even if they ran headfirst into each other in the streets.

Luo Wei was busy planning on what to do with Ning Fei now that he had him. He didn't manage to kill him the first time, but since there's no way of escape this time, he could try to kill him again. And yet, Luo Wei thought about Ning Fei in his previous life, how he became the youngest Grand General in Greater Zhou. He battled and won against thousands, his martial prowess had impressed neighboring nations. Would Luo Wei really have to kill a man like this?

“Come on,” Luo Ze hurried him to keep walking, “Thinking about something else again?”

“It's nothing,” Luo Wei quickened his steps. Ning Fei. Luo Wei repeated the name to himself. In the past life, Long Xuan didn't show an interest in men and had a harem of three thousand in the Back Palace. However, Ning Fei had been intimate with Long Xuan. Perhaps it was just a way of tying down his Grand General to Long Xuan, but Ning Fei had been in love. Luo Wei hesitated between putting Ning Fei to death or letting him live. Is it possible to find a way to stop Ning Fei from falling in love with Long Xuan this time? What could he do to ingratiate himself to a man of such promise?

TRANSLATOR'S NOTES:
Sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long! It's been a very difficult week for me in terms of work, but I have some time on the weekend and will make some more updates. : )