The Grand Ning Palace.
Wei Xianzhi and Qin Caizhen met Ning Yongnian in the Longchun Hall of the Huaguifei Palace.
These two people were also quite something, capable of summoning the Emperor from his consort’s bed in the middle of the night.
However, the more they did this, the more it highlighted the Wei family’s anger.
“……”
“What?!”
“Is this really happening?!”
In the luxurious hall filled with fragrant incense, Ning Yongnian slammed his teacup onto the table, his face filled with rage.
“I’ll send someone to investigate immediately, and we’ll definitely catch the mastermind behind this! Whoever it is, they’ll be severely punished!!”
“Oh, and love minister, you still want that cloud mother fungus, right? Send someone!”
“Yes, slave is here.” The old eunuch pushed the door open.
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“A while ago, the Tian Shan Sect sent me a cloud mother fungus, which is stored in the private treasury.”
Ning Yongnian looked at the old eunuch, waving his hand to command: “You go find it quickly! The Wei family has someone waiting for this item to save their life!”
“Yes, slave will go now!”
The old eunuch responded and quickly turned to leave, but just as he was about to step out of the Longchun Hall, he slowed down.
The little eunuch following him looked puzzled: “Father, aren’t we going to find the cloud mother fungus? Why aren’t we moving?”
“The cloud mother fungus is gone.”
“What? How do you know! We haven’t even looked for it yet!”
The little eunuch was shocked: “Father, did you…?”
“Shut up! What kind of stupid son are you!”
The old eunuch glared at the little eunuch, his voice low and menacing: “If the Emperor says it’s gone, then it’s gone!”
“But the Emperor……”
The little eunuch wanted to argue further, but when he saw the old eunuch’s gaze, he shrank back and changed his question.
“Son is foolish, please guide me, father.”
The old eunuch let out a sigh, stroking the little eunuch’s hand as he asked, “I’ll ask you, when the Emperor spoke to me earlier, did you see how he gestured with his hand from outside the door?”
“Huh?”
The little eunuch was taken aback, recalling the scene before hesitantly answering, “I only remember the Emperor indeed gestured to my father, but as for how he did it… it was like this?”
He waved his hand in the air, with the old eunuch still holding the other hand.
“You have some observational skills.”
The old eunuch nodded, explaining, “Today, I’ll tell you about the Emperor’s habit. Listen carefully.”
“When the Emperor gives orders to outsiders, waving his hand from side to side means don’t do it, and waving it back and forth means do it.”
“Did you remember?”
“Ah! I remembered.”
The little eunuch first nodded, then shook his head, puzzled, “But why didn’t the Emperor want to give the cloud-patterned jade to Lord Wei? Isn’t there someone in the Wei family waiting for this item to save their life?”
“Of course, it’s because the Emperor didn’t want to save that person’s life.”
“Why not? Isn’t this a good opportunity to curry favor with the Wei family…”
“Enough!”
The old eunuch suddenly shouted, refusing to explain further.
“Think about it yourself!”
…
…
The Suspense Bureau.
As Wei Changtian finished writing the letter, blew it dry, and put it in the envelope, which he then tucked into his chest, the mother-and-child jade at his waist began to heat up.
Indeed, just as he thought, Ning Yongnian didn’t bring out the cloud-patterned jade.
This move to intensify the conflict was quite clever.
Letting out a soft sigh, he stood up and walked out of the room, heading towards the deepest part of the Suspense Bureau along the stone path.
It was already late at night, with no one on the road except for the occasional patrol guards, but the area around a small, short tower was heavily guarded.
This tower’s architectural style was different from the others in the Suspense Bureau, with no windows or plaques, only a tightly closed black iron door… giving off a strong sense of fortification.
This door had been opened only thirteen times in the over four hundred years since the Suspense Bureau was established, with the last time being over sixty years ago, when a five-hundred-year-old demon appeared in the suburbs.
As for what was inside this mysterious building…
There was only one thing – the Ancestral Jade.
The mother-and-child jade was an item that everyone in the Suspense Bureau carried, and when the mother jade was heated, the child jade would also heat up.
This process was point-to-point, equivalent to two-way communication.
But the Ancestral Jade was different, as heating it would cause all connected child jades to react, similar to sending a group message.
As for how many messages the Ancestral Jade in this tower could send…
It was everyone in the Suspense Bureau, excluding the Imperial Guards who protected the palace.
In other words, if someone sent out this signal… all idle officials in the capital, including the Flower Guard, the Cotton Guard, the Secretariat, the Willow Leaf Office, and the Sticky Pole Office, would need to arrive at the Suspense Bureau’s gate within one quarter of an hour, awaiting deployment.
No wonder this door had only been opened thirteen times in over four hundred years.
“Lord Wei! Why are you still at the bureau?”
As Wei Changtian walked over, several night-shift guards immediately straightened up and greeted him, “Isn’t today the Double Ninth Festival? Didn’t you go to admire the chrysanthemums?”
“No.”
Wei Changtian shook his head and smiled, “Could I trouble you brothers to open the door for me?”
“Ah, sure thing! We’ll… what?!”
The guards’ eyes widened in shock, as if they had misheard, “Lord Wei, did you just say…?”
“I’m saying…”
Wei Changtian’s expression remained unchanged, with a smile still hanging at the corner of his mouth: “Open the door.”
“Sir, I dare to ask a question.”
One of the more astute guards whispered: “Do you know what’s inside this door?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then… has something big happened? Is it because Commander-in-Chief let you come?”
“This has nothing to do with my father.”
“……”
The atmosphere suddenly turned quiet.
Several guards exchanged glances, although no one spoke, but they all uniformly blocked the iron door, forming a confrontational stance with Wei Changtian.
The key to open this door had three copies, one in the hands of the current Commander-in-Chief of the Suspense Mirror Agency, one in the hands of the Emperor, and another…
“According to the Suspense Mirror Agency’s rules, if there’s an urgent situation and no time to report!”
Wei Changtian pointed to the black key embedded in the lock, his voice stern: “Anyone can open this door, Yu!”
“What are you doing, blocking the door?”
“Th…this…”
The guards looked even more foolish.
Wei Changtian was right, the Suspense Mirror Agency did have such a rule—if there was an extremely urgent situation and no time to report, anyone could come here to open the door.
The purpose of setting up this third key was to prevent the waste of time due to layer-by-layer reporting, causing the best opportunity to respond to the crisis to be missed.
However…
However, since the establishment of the Suspense Mirror Agency, there had never been a case where someone other than the Commander-in-Chief and the Emperor came to open the door!
After all, once the Yu ancestral jade was activated, it would be equivalent to triggering the highest-level city-wide alarm, which could lead to…
“Wei, young master, what are you doing…”
“You’re not qualified to know.”
“Shouldn’t we still report to the Commander-in-Chief?”
“I’ve already said, this has nothing to do with my father.”
Wei Changtian had completely lost his patience.
Autumn Cloud’s life was left with only an hour or so, and he had to get the Cloud Mother Mushroom before that.
Taking a step forward, his gaze fixed on the black iron door’s key, Wei Changtian’s tone was uncharacteristically fierce for the first time.
“If anything happens, I’ll take full responsibility, it has nothing to do with you!”
“I’ll say it one last time!”
“Open the door!!”