The Empress’ Livestream

After sitting in the wagon for a long time, Liu She finally had a chance to take a deep breath, ride on a horse, and relax his stiff and sore limbs. If he had not done so, he would not have been able to move any more. “It will be just another half day before we enter town… It has been quite a few years since last time I was here, but the Capital is as prosperous as usual.”

Even though turmoil was knocking on the door, the lofty Capital was sheer fantasy still. The thriving view made Liu She, who had been used to depression and dreadful scenes, feel uncomfortable.

The royal family of Dongqing Dynasty didn’t make much contribution, but they presented a false appearance of peace and prosperity. The incompetent and frail royal family wasn’t able to keep their Shangyang Palace; instead, they let them burn it in a fire.

Liu She had a headache the moment he remembered who the ringleader was––the one who set the fire and caused the massacre of the Dongqing royal family. It was no one else but the advisor of Prince Changshou, Qiguan Rang.

That was right––the same Qiguan Rang.

A counselor who was from a poor family, vicious, acted atrociously towards his enemies, and had no loyalty to anyone.

Gu Min was not good at history––most of the storylines she obtained were from television shows––but there were only three things in which Qiguan Rang left her with a deep impression about. First, he set the Shangyang Palace on fire and slaughtered the male members of Dongqing royal family. Second, he used ruses to defeat the Empress three times. Third, he set his old master up while he was in the jail and his trap made his old master’s advantage collapse, which led to his old master’s defeat. The day the Empress conquered the Capital was the same day he surrendered to the Empress.

Everyone was asking for mercy for their old master’s life, Prince Changshou, from the Empress. They all advocated to the Empress to lock the Prince Changshou up to build a good reputation for herself. The Empress asked for Qiguan Rang’s opinion and he turned on his old master. He proposed to kill Prince Changshou for good to pluck up the evil by the roots.

There was a motto from him in that incident: “A wise bird selects its tree; a sagacious staff selects his master. Why do I have to remember our old bond after he betrayed me?” What he said was as if Prince Changshou had cheated on him.

Most people would weep and wail after they were cheated, but Qiguan Rang asked his whole family to pay for it with their lives.

Liu She didn’t know why, but he had a hunch that Qiguan Rang meeting his baby girl so early wasn’t bad at all. Without Qiguan Rang’s assistance, that spineless, irresolute Prince Changshou wouldn’t be competent to do much of anything.

When the sun was just above their heads; they finally saw the shape of the towering thirty-foot-tall city wall.

Liu She was sinking into his own thoughts. At the same time, Cheng Cheng, who rode the horse parallel to Liu She, shaded his eyes. He made a sound and there was a light grin on his face.

“Do you see someone you know?” Liu She looked in the direction that Cheng Cheng’s vision was aiming at. He saw a splendidly decorated wagon. The chiffon-made curtains flapped down and there was an obscure shadow in the wagon. There were hundreds of soldiers armed with long spikes and armor standing around the wagon.

There were a couple more young men dressed in scholarly shirts with their hair tied up on top of their heads riding on the horses. It wasn’t hard to guess what they were up to, judging from the bows and arrows strapped to their backs. It was very likely that some aristocrats were planning to go hunting so they could make connections with one another.

That scenario had been rather frequent before the evaluation.

“It seems that they are going for an outing, or they are going to attend some parties for scholars. Do you want to go over and say hi?”

Cheng Cheng thought about it and shook his head. “Not in a rush. We should get in town first.”

Liu She gave orders to the wagoner to drive along the side of the road, considering the intensive situation in the Capital. He wanted to avoid trouble and hitting any pedestrians.

However, even though they weren’t looking for trouble, that didn’t mean that trouble was not looking for them.

Jiang Pengji turned the stream on early in the morning. The viewers rushed to the streaming room and they packed the room as soon as they received the message.

Shangjing was the real ancient capital. The prosperity and extravagant style was nothing that Hejian County could even compare with.

Jiang Pengji was mounted on White and it sauntered along slowly. It seemed like she was sightseeing, but she was actually chatting with her viewers.

Bingtang Ningmeng: “#Chin Rest Emoji. The moment I saw the wide paved brick road, I knew that our host was almost in Shangjing.”

Most roads in the ancient time were either dirt or gravel. The former became muddy and sticky after it rained and the latter one was always bumpy. A paved road like the one they were on with stone bricks of the same size would be a huge project; it would be costly, as well. If it wasn’t the capital of a nation, like Shangjing, or a metropolitan city, it wouldn’t be able to afford spacious roads like that.

Koujiao Chifan: “I want her to get in town as soon as possible so I can see the Lingxiao Palace in heaven, and the Shangyang Palace in the human life. I wonder how flourished it is, and if the scale of the palace could compare with our Forbidden City… It is the original ancient palace.”

Laosiji Lianmeng: “Come on, the Shangyang Palace is the place for the royal family. An ordinary person wouldn’t even be able to get close to it, all right?”

They would, at most, take a look at the prosperity of Shangjing. There was very little chance that they could see the whole appearance of Shangyang Palace.

Host V: “When I take the realm of the nation, I will let you see whatever you want to see.”

The whole streaming room almost exploded when she said that.

Zhubo Zhengmian Shangwo: “Wow, do you get the sense that we are being spoiled infinitely by our host?”

Yinyuejia Zhuge Qinmo: “Absolutely!”

Chun Lie: “I almost fainted from being spoiled by her, okay?”

One Chestnut: “I already fainted and I’m so happy that I don’t want to get up. I will need our host’s kiss to wake me up.”

Dawang Paiwo Laixunshan: “That was really cheesy. Do you need someone who is obsessed with you to warm up your bed before you come in, host?”

Nide Yida: “Piss off, you little goblins. Host was saying that to me, you evil people.”

The trip was no longer boring with the viewers teasing each other back and forth. It was interesting to have them tagging along.

Jiang Pengji never was fond of the idea of streaming, but she was very fond of some of the angels in her streaming room.

She lifted her lips into a slight smile but all of a sudden, she had a feeling that she was being watched by someone else. She quickly schooled her smile.

Out of instinct, she reached for the bow that she had mounted on the side of the horse, notched an arrow on the bow rapidly, and fully drew the bow back.

Bang!

Liu She snapped to attention by the sudden motion. He turned quickly to see an arrow broken into pieces in the air; he watched it drop on the ground. His baby girl still kept her archery posture, and her face was chillingly sharp and her eyes darkened with malice.

Liu She started to speak, “Lan…” Before he could say anything else, she quickly––quicker than before––drew another arrow back and let it streak out from her bow like lightning.

“Piece of trash!” Jiang Pengji stared at the guy who panicked after his hat was shot from his head by her arrow.

He didn’t mean to take her life, but he definitely had the intent to shame her. If it was so, she would pay somebody back with his own coin. It was absolutely his own fault for doing something unnecessary.

There was a loud “thwack” as an arrow slammed into the frame of one of the wheels of the wagon.

It alerted the guards and they were all terrified, as if they were confronted with a formidable enemy.

Liu She was surprised at first until he saw the arrow break into pieces in the air. He felt fear afterwards and he almost couldn’t control his anger.

Cheng Cheng reacted a bit slower than the other two, but his face went dark as soon as he realized what just happened.

They had no idea about the intended object of the arrow––what they saw was that the arrow was aimed towards Jiang Pengji. They immediately jumped to the conclusion that someone had attempted to murder her.

They both tacitly chose to ignore the arrow that Jiang Pengji shot.