"Returning to Before Husband's Castration" 《回到老公自宫前》Chapter 47

 “But—” Wang Da Xia bit his lip, he didn’t dare to look at Wei Cai Wei, “I was the one who insisted Ding Wu came to the dragon boat race, it’s my fault. I have to find him and return him to doctor Wei.”

If something happened to Ding Wu, most likely she will never forgive me.

Lu Ying said: “You’re usually so smart, why are you so slow today? We can’t alert the enemy right now and let them know of our plan, if not how would we get the messenger to lure the enemy out? I also won’t return for the time being, I’ll only send a pigeon to the guard at the imperial prison, telling them to be vigilant, I’ll pretend to not have figured it out and continue searching for him at the moat, looking at each barrel of the ice bowl sellers to mislead the public. You just need to do well, win the dragon boat race, do you understand?”

Wang Da Xia nodded.

He thought this superior of his was usually quite harsh, but at crucial moments he would protect me, I need to work hard.

Lu Ying secretly sent a carrier pigeon, then she searched for him with great fanfare in each barrel, even the lids over the mung bean soups were lifted and inspected to see if someone was hiding inside, people wanted to stand around and watch but were chased away by Lu Ying’s “The embroidered uniform guards are investigating a case! Bystanders should get away quickly or will be dealt with as a conspirator”.

The embroidered uniform guards caused a racket on both sides of the moat, drawing the attention of the twenty four commanders on the viewing platform.

The third round of the preliminary races had already begun on the moat, the clamour on the shore affected the mood of the race on the moat, they were even more anxious.

Wang Da Xia returned to prepare for the race, Lu Bing sent a subordinate to ask him what happened.

Wang Da Xia wrote a brief note, passing it over to Lu Bing, Lu Bing read it and said to the other commanders: “We’ve received some information that a spy from an enemy country has come to the dragon boat race, we’ve caught him so don’t worry, with the embroidered uniform guards here they’re nothing, they won’t cause a disturbance.”

Lu Ying deliberately ordered her subordinates to create noise on both shores, it was actually a way to attack the enemy indirectly, the actual large net had already been cast over the embroidered uniform guard’s prison.

Jiangmi lane, the embroidered uniform guard’s yamen.

It was the dragon boat festival today, the yamen were on holiday, only those taken turns to stand guard on duty remained, it was too hot, the hounds were sprawled under the shade of trees, sticking out their tongues and panting.

The underground prison was also engulfed by the heat, Ding Ru Kui felt so hot he couldn’t even read, he sat meditating on the summer sleeping mat, a calm heart keeps you cool.

When it was time for lunch, other prisoners would only have two meals a day, once in the morning and at night, Ding Ru Kui had preferential treatment, he had three meals a day, morning, lunch and dinner.

Today’s lunch was seasonal, zongzi and rice wine.

The cook in the canteen placed the heated zongzi into the food box, the jailor came to pick it up.

The jailor saw masked Wu who looked after the firearms eating his lunch at the canteen, holding the wicker cricket cage he said to the jailor: “I bought a steel tooth cricket from a Shandong person, come take a look?”

Half of mask Wu’s face had been blown away from gunpowder, he wore a mask all the time, when he ate he found a corner and turned his back to everyone, facing the wall as he ate, after he finished he would put the mask on again, after a time, everyone called him mask Wu.

In the Ming dynasty steel tooth crickets were the trend, even the imperial family down to the commoners liked steel tooth crickets, the cricket’s sound resonated through the canteen immediately catching the attention of the jailor, he put the food box down, rushing to the cricket cage.

While the jailor’s attention was on the steel tooth cricket, mask Wu secretly opened the food box and switched the zhongzi inside.

Lunch was a little later than usual today, the jailor carried the food box in, taking out the zhongzi and rice wine, then took away the leftovers from this morning.

Ding Ru Kui expressed his thanks gratefully as always, the jailor was a little embarrassed, “You must be hungry, I’m a little late but I was held up by something.”

Ding Ru Kui hurriedly said: “It’s nothing, it’s hot so I don’t feel hungry.”

The jailor waved the palm fan to create some breeze, “It really is unusual this year for the dragon boat festival to be so hot, it’s as if we’ve reached the three annual periods of hot weather.”

The jailor left with the food box, passing through three sets of iron gates, each time he passed through one, he would lock one, apart from Lu Bing’s trusted aide, no one could get near here.

Ding Ru Kui sat in prison for ten years but maintained the habit of washing his hands before eating, today’s meal was three large zongzi, Ding Ru Kui peeled the first zongzi, it was a red bean zongzi, a small slip of paper was on the red beans, it said: “Ding Wu is in my hands, you die or he does.”

Ding Ru Kui trembled, he looked around immediately, he saw the jailor had ate his fill of watermelon and was about to lie down for his afternoon nap, he didn’t want to move at all, as soon as he did sweat would break out, he didn’t seem to notice his abnormal behaviour at all.

Just as a precaution, Ding Ru Kui shifted his chair to the other side, his back to the jailor, he opened the second zongzi, the second slip of paper said “swallow it”.

Ding Ru Kui found a thumb sized gold stamp inside the egg yolk in the zongzi, the word Wu was carved on it, it was precisely the stamp he had personally made for his son Ding Wu, his son had used a string to hang it around his neck, keeping it close to him and never taking it off.

Something had happened to his son.

Someone was using his son to threaten him, forcing him to commit suicide by swallowing gold.

Someone watched over the three gates in the prison at all times, it was impossible to commit suicide by hanging or by running into a wall.

All the cutleries he had were made of wood or bamboo, nothing was sharp.

The day before yesterday his son Ding Wu had come to see him through the metal gates, the father and son had held each other’s hands tightly, they had the opportunity to exchange items.

So if Ding Ru Kui committed suicide by swallowing gold, others would think he had obtained the small stamp from when his son had come to see him, no one would suspect someone had done something to the zongzis.

Such a cruel method! It must be the genius Yan Shi Bo! Did he see through his dying act the other day?

Ding Ru Kui hid the small gold stamp in his pillow, he slowly ate the zongzi, swallowing the pieces of paper as well, he then washed it down with the rice wine, he finished all three of the zongzis, only the yellow green leaves used to wrap the zongzi were left behind.

Ding Wu, his son, was the only family he had in this world.

Without a doubt he would sacrifice himself for his son, he had dragged his son into this, his son was supposed to have a bright future but now he couldn’t even take the imperial exam, acting only as a minor government official in Tieling.

Now his son’s life was at risk.

However, Ding Ru Kui had been ruined by Yan Shi Bo ten years ago, it made him cynical and not able to trust anyone.

Even when Wei Cai Wei greeted him under the moon, even when she wanted him to swallow the flamingo stamen to act close to death to lie to Yan Shi Bo, then spent all her efforts to nurture him back to health, he still didn’t believe Wei Cai Wei was Wei Nan Shan’s adopted daughter until Ding Wu verified it himself.

This little stamp did indeed belong to Ding Wu but how am I supposed to know for sure Ding Wu was in Yan Shi Bo’s hands, maybe Ding Wu has already been in an accident? If his son was already dead and he committed suicide by swallowing gold, who would take revenge for his son in the future?

But, if, just in case, Ding Wu was in the hands of Yan Shi Bo, if I don’t die my son would be in great danger.

What should I do?

Ding Ru Kui fell into conflict…

At the same time, on the moat, the race had reached the final round, Wang Da Xia still sat in the first row of the boat, the iconic red cloth still tied around his forehead, he was still that dot of red amongst the men.

A young man showing off without restraint, dazzlingly handsome, an unbridled arrogance, this kind of behaviour made the opponents want to spank him, but it drummed up morale with his own team.

However Wang Da Xia wasn’t as carefree as he was at the preliminary race, he seemed more earnest, he held the oar like he was a soldier holding a weapon about to rush into the battlefield.

The commander of qishou guards who had already lost the right to participate in the finals said bitterly: “Oh, isn’t that the northern city’s four pest Wang Ya Nei? Lord Lu is great at training people, in only just a month you made that rotten block of wood into something.”

It seems Wang Da Xia’s dandy reputation had spread far and wide, even the commander of qishou guards knew of his name as a pest.

Lu Bing’s mind was in a mess, he was thinking about what was happening to Ding Wu right now, who the traitor was in the embroidered uniform guards and so on, his face however was as calm as an old dog, he modestly said: “An orange grown in Huainan is an orange, an orange grown in Huaibei is also an orange. He was already an unpolished jade, it just hadn’t been carved.”

With the sound of a gong, the participating six boats shot out like sharp swords.

Wei Cai Wei didn’t watch the race, in order to play her part she acted like a rabbit caught in the headlights, weaving back and forth through the crowd, looking futilely for the figure of Ding Wu until she was exhausted and “fainted”.

Lu Ying picked up the “unconscious” Wei Cai Wei, and extravagantly bought all the ice bowl seller’s barrels, carrying each barrel of ice into the temporary tent to cool down Wei Cai Wei who had fainted from “heat exhaustion”.

The grave and dashing leader Lu had carried a weak beautiful woman dressed as a widow in front of everyone and into the tent, this scene caused even more chaos!

Even though the embroidered uniform guards prohibited people from standing and observing, but they couldn’t stop the masses from talking, all of them watched out of the corner of their eyes as barrels after barrels of ice were carried into the tent, they really wanted to drill a hole in the tent with their eyes to see what was happening inside.

Gossip spilled over like waves: Lord Lu’s illegitimate child and the widow has an unspeakable story.

An illegitimate child is an illegitimate child, reckless!

The widow fainted maybe not from the heat, most likely she has an illegitimate child in her belly.

See how leader Lu is so concerned for her, it must be his child!

Leader Lu carried the young widow into the tent in front of commander Lu to force his father to allow him to marry the young widow!

The gossip became more and more intense as they were passed along, from heatstroke to a secret pregnancy, of course this also reached the ears of the twenty-four commanders on the platform, everyone watched Lu Bing with a smile, rejoicing from his misfortune: You embroidered uniform guards always win every year, even if you do win today, your reputation would be ruined!

Lu Bing: We’re almost there, you are too good at acting!

With the sound of a gong, the embroidered uniform guards passed the second boat and won by two head spaces, they were first again!

The crowd roared like thunder, of course, most people were jeering.

The twenty-three commanders all took their turn to stand up and congratulate Lu Bing, “Congratulations, congratulations! First again!”

They congratulated Lu Bing every year, but this time their smiles were genuine, their congratulations were also from the heart— congratulations to lord Lu and his grandson!

At dusk, mask Wu handed over the storehouse key and returned home, Lu Ying and the others in disguise quietly followed him…