Meeting the Second Prince

Fangsu followed her grandpa to an estate that covered a large majority of land, it was a quiet area with flowering trees lining the edges of the estate. The rich soil that the tree roots had buried themselves into allowed the trees to maintain their healthy state and allowing the flowering periods to lengthen for longer periods of time during the year. Her grandpa stood at the front of the house setting up the array for protection against any attacker whether it was human or not, Fangsu watched the process, memorising the formation of the array in case if she needed to set one up in the future. "Fangsu have you memorised it?" her grandpa asked Fangsu after he was finished with the array. Fangsu nodded her head in response.

Both the grandpa and Fangsu entered the estate to find it was all dusty, cobwebs covered the ceilings and a number of broken parts of the house were in need of a fix. "I had forgotten that this place is quite unkempt since our family when into seclusion." her grandpa embarrassingly scratched the back of his head.

Fangsu began changing into some old robes and began cleaning the house; sweeping the floors, clearing out the cobwebs, scrubbing the floors that were covered in mould, removing fallen parts of the house, chucking rubbish away and reorganising the entire house with furniture. By the time they were done, it was already nightfall and Fangsu was too tired to cook dinner. "Fangsu let's go out to eat, " her grandpa changed back into his clothes and went out back into the city which was much more bustling when it was during the day. Fangsu was shocked by the sheer difference of the atmosphere in the city during the day and night, the night was crowded with much more older people in their early twenties to the elderly enjoying the nightlife. Fangsu followed her grandpa to a teahouse, and Fangsu was reluctant to enter this area especially because she was a female.

Her grandpa was sure this would have expected this reaction most girls had when coming to an area that is filled with brothels which were more catered for men, "Child this teahouse is safe, " her grandpa reassured her but Fangsu was still apprehensive and her grandpa sighed, "Our family owns this teahouse." confirming that this was a safe place. Fangsu was shocked that the family had own such a place, as she entered the teahouse. Fangsu looked over at the brothel next door, it was covered in red lights and curtains, women dressed up in revealing clothes to showcase their bodies to potential customers and men and women display intimate behaviour with each other. Fangsu stuck close by to her grandpa, however, due to the mass of people entering the tea house she was separated from her grandpa.

Fangsu began to feel anxious in such an unfamiliar environment, a hand grabbed Fangsu's arm belonging to a drunk man who was a bulbous man with oily skin, warts covered his skin, his face was red and his breath stunk heavily of alcohol. "Pretty girl~ come with me~" the bulbous man tugged at Fangsu's hand, dragging her somewhere. An unnerving feeling sank at the pits of her stomach, Fangsu struggled against the man trying to pry the man's thick finger off her arm but that seemed to anger the man, "Hey! Stop frailing about! You should be grateful that you been picked by me!" the drunk man slurred and then he burped. The burp reached Fangsu's sensitive nose, causing her to near gag from the atrocious smell that had alcohol mixed together with a sourly off smell.

Another hand, much younger and stronger hand that had calluses embedded into his palms, gripped the hand that held Fangsu captive, "The lady doesn't seem to want to go with you, " the throaty voice belonged to a young man. The young man was outfitted like any typical young distinguished nobleman, a white robe dressed in a black outer robe made from high-quality fabric.

"Hey mind your own business kid!" the drunk man slightly sobered up, released Fangsu to ease the pain that radiated in his wrist. Fangsu held her hand which turned red from the pressure but it quickly vanished. The person was saved her from the dangerous predicament hid Fangsu out of the sight of the drunkard using his body. The drunkard attempted to throw a punch but was quickly countered by the man who put the drunkard into a hold, pushing him into the ground.

"Guards!" a loud voice bellowed throughout the tea house alerting all the guest. The loud voice belonged to Fangsu's grandpa, who quickly hid Fangsu behind his back, "Put this man on the blacklist, " the guards obeyed the command and seized the drunkard, sending him off to the magistrate office.

"Child, were you hurt anywhere?" Fangsu's grandpa looked up and down Fangsu's body checking for any injuries. Her grandpa stared at the young man who saved and bowed to him, "Thank you for saving my granddaughter, you have my gratitude. I would like to know my granddaughter saviour's name." Fangsu's grandpa asked.

The young man took the elderly by his shoulder and nodded his head, "Hsu Li Qiang, " whispered his name.

Fangsu's grandpa nodded, "Esteemed guest, please try out the dishes that our Blossoming Fragrance serves, " guiding the way towards the upper levels of the tea house, where only the employees and esteemed guests are allowed to enter. But, they went to the uppermost levels of the building where only the top consorts and Chen family were allowed to enter. The study room was beautifully decorated with paintings, drawers filled with dry plants were perfectly lined the entire wall, chairs and tables were assembled at the centre of the room, there was also a big open window which overlooks the city life. Foreign plant life sat at the windowsill to absorb sunlight. Hsu Li Qiang sat on a chair and an array of dishes come into the room and they were placed on the table. Fangsu's grandpa bowed and Fangsu followed suit, towards Hsu Li Qiang, "Your Highness, "

"Elder seems to know who I am, " Hsu Li Qiang stared at the two individual who had their head bowed towards him, allowing them to raise up.

Fangsu's grandpa nodded his head, "I do." ambiguously confirming Li Qiang's suspicion.

While Li Qiang was staring down Fangsu's grandpa. The clanking of tableware alerted the two men as Fangsu was preparing bowls and chopsticks, "The food is going get cold if you two are going to keep staring at each other, " the two men were shocked by Fangsu's words, "If you two aren't eating then I'm not waiting." Fangsu began eating the food that was served on the table, eating the meal delight. Eventually, the two men went to sit down and silently eating the food on the dishes.

After the meal was finished the servants cleared the table, "Your Highness would you like some tea before you leave?" Fangsu offered politely and Hsu Li Qiang nodded.

Fangsu went to the drawer that was connected to the wall, sniffing the drawers. Reaching for the top drawer, she could only reach the drawer beneath the top drawer, no matter she took the tea leaves from the drawer she could reach, pulling out a sachet. A servant had already set up a teapot with boiling water with serving cups, Fangsu thanked the servant and proceed to pour the contents of the sachet into the teapot and discarded the water. Li Qiang was confused to why Fangsu had poured out perfectly good tea.

Fangsu requested for more boiling water, a servant hurriedly bought in hot water however they tripped and spilled the boiling water on Fangsu's feet. When the scalding hot water made contact with Fangsu's feet, she flinched in pain. The servant immediately kowtows asking for mercy. Fangsu's grandpa immediately rushed to her side, checking the burn site, "Fangsu! Are you alright?" Removing her shoe, the pale skin was blistered red from the boiling water, however, her grandpa quickly hid her feet with her dress.

Li Qiang hurriedly told his personal servant to call for a doctor, "Get a doctor!" The servant bowed and rush to get out of the room but was stopped by the brothel's servant.

"Your Highness there is no need to call for a doctor," Fangsu's grandpa reject the offer for the doctor, fetching a container filled with a green paste, smearing the green paste on the affected area which reduced the swelling and redness of the burn. A teahouses servant was called to get ice from the storage area. The ice that was requested was wrapped in a cloth and placed on the area, cooling the burn. After Fangsu's wound was treated, her grandpa bowed to the Li Qiang, "I'm sorry Your Highness for causing trouble for you,"

Li Qiang shook his head, "No need to worry about today, " relieving the elder by dismissing the trouble that was caused today. "Let today incident be as if it hadn't existed, anyway it is late and I must get going." Li Qiang left the teahouse with his personal servant, leaving Fangsu and her Grandpa in the room.

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As Li Qiang was descending down the stairs, he met up with Gang Hai who also came out of his room, with a face filled with satisfaction. Gang Hai wrapped his arm around Li Qiang's neck, "Qiang-Di how to do like the nightlife?" Grinning widely with a smile that looks like it would hurt a lot, "All the beauties here are of top quality and the people working the Blossoming Fragrance teahouse specialises in intel, " whispering the last part into Li Qiang's ear.

Li Qiang silently stared at Gang Hai, "I don't think I will be coming here especially with you, " he brushed off Gang Hai's arm and walked out of the brothel where all the girls were waving their silk cloth at the men leaving the brothel. All the prostitutes were calling out to Gan Hai and Li Qiang from the windows.

"Handsome come back here again~"

"Why are you leaving so early? The night is still young!"

"Come back handsome~"

Gang Hai shouted to all the prostitutes yelling that he would come back if he had the time, Li Qiang was already ahead of him walking back home. Gang Hai unhurriedly went to Li Qiang's side, walking toward the path of the Palace where the royal guards immediately recognised Li Qiang. They clear the way for Li Qiang who walked past them, giving them a nod of acknowledgement of their hard work. As they walked among the numerous corridors, their steps echoed loudly against the quietness of the Palace, "It's so quiet today, " Gang Hai stretched his neck, "It's almost unnerving disturbing how quiet it is." Gang Hai whispered afraid to suffer to the repercussions of being too loud and disturbing the other residents of the palace. Li Qiang gave no input and continued to walk towards his own resting chambers where it was lavishly decorated with golden ornaments, jade artifacts and other rare treasures emphasising the wealth of the royal family.

A small rolled piece of paper laid on top of his desk, the small rolled paper contained classified information about the situation of the Chen and Su family. The mistake that befell the Chen family was the fault of Li Qiang and he felt it was his duty to atone for it, something like the annihilation of the last few members of Gardner's clan would have a disastrous outcome in the future. However, by pure luck, there was one surviving member of that clan, but Li Qiang wasn't able to find them. "Gang Hai, Yi Fang and you were the only people who saw the girl's face right?"

"Yes that is correct, " Gang Hai affirmed Li Qiang's question.

"When Yi Fang returns from his errand, gather the group and we will discuss about the plan, however, we will need to deal with the mole first." Li Qiang wrote on a piece of paper and wrapped it around the hawk's feet, sending it to Lan He who was the main person for communication, "Judging how it was the information was incorrect it must be someone that is working with Jingyi who could have sent false information to us." Li Qiang concluded without a doubt. Their group consisted of Li Qiang who was in charge of the group's operations, Lan He who was in charge of communication, Jingyi who was in of gathering intel, Yi Fang and Gang Hai were in charge of their fighting forces which is only known by the royal family; dressed in black and white were the Hidden Ghost Pillars who are the pinnacle of power and merciless.

Another person arrived in the room, a male who had a distinct red mole in between his eyebrows, "Qiang-Ge you're back!" the male ran up to Li Qiang, showing him a pile of paperwork. "Can you check this for me?" gesturing to a drought relief plan that was laid out in front of them. Li Qiang stared at the plan, there were a few mistakes but besides those mistakes, the plan was pretty foolproof.

"Li Hui, in the future I will not be always there to support you forever, " Li Qiang lectured his younger brother, Li Hui who was benevolent and wise but he wasn't the best at politics, "You will need to be able to trust your our intuition but that aside this plan, other than these mistakes, it's pretty solid." Li Qiang circled the mistakes in red ink so that Li Hui could revise the relief plan.

Li Hui discussed court matters with Li Qiang who was listening while during his own duties to help his brother behind the scenes. After their discussion, Li Hui left to retire to his own resting chambers leaving Li Qiang to continue his own work which went into the early hours of the day. His eyes stung from the sudden change of time, he scrunched his eyes to relieve the stinging. Gang Hai entered the room to see that Li Qiang was still awake and hadn't a single wink of sleep, "Qiang-Di you stay up last night again." Gang Hai tidied up the papers into stacks and leaving them aside. Taking Li Qiang by the arm, Gang Hai took Li Qiang to his bed, "Li Qiang you don't need to work so hard, leave it to us."

Li Qiang clenched his fist, "I can't, " Li Qiang turned to look out of the window, "Not after what I have done to the Chen family, " A painfully strained expression was etched on Li Qiang's face. Gang Hai could only worry about Li Qiang who even though doesn't have the Crown Prince position already has much more responsibility to support his brother Li Hui who is the Crown Prince and operate the group's activity to ensure Li Hui's position.

Gang Hai sighed, "Sometimes things don't go as planned, " Gang Hai tried to ease some of the stress off Li Qiang, he placed his hand on Li Qiang's forehead pushed Li Qiang onto the pillow, "Get some rest, I will wake you up when your Grandma calls for you." Seeing that Li Qiang's eyes close to rest, Gang Hai stood guard outside of the room to ensure no one would disturb Li Qiang's sleep. Eventually, the sun rose to its full glory, the morning had officially started.

An eunuch arrived at the door of Li Qiang, requesting the presence of Li Qiang at the Empress Dowager's pavilion. Gang Hai dismissed the eunuch, saying that Li Qiang would arrive at the Empress Dowager's pavilion soon. Gang Hai entered Li Qiang's resting chambers, waking the tired man up to visit the Empress Dowager while helping Li Qiang change into new robes. They walked together to the Empress Dowager's pavilion which was decorated with the finest the world could offer, but the Li Qiang it was like a glorified cage. Upon entering the pavilion there were people already present with the Empress Dowager, chatting. It was the same elder and young girl he met at the teahouse last night.

Gang Hai visibly flinched at the sight of the girl, but the girl didn't seem to have seen him before. This was an unexpected and unfortunate turn of events, where he would meet the girl.

The empress dowager who usually had an unexpressive face had a luminously happy expression on her face, "Li Qiang! You're here!" Li Qiang turned to his grandmother who he had never seen such a happy expression introduce him to the elder, "Meet the Gardener, Chen Hong and his granddaughter Chen Fangsu."

Once the empress dowager finished the introduction of the two people, Li Qiang unconsciously paled upon hearing the names of those two individuals.