I Hope The Gods Are Not That Bored...

Bai Jingfei looked into Heavenly doctor Ming's eyes, making sure to maintain eye contact so she wouldn't come off as suspicious.

In the eyes of all the other ministers, Bai Jingfei looked like a curious little girl who was staring at a man she had never seen before.

Plus heavenly doctor Ming looked a bit... odd, so it was normal for a child to stare at him.

What none of them had realised was that Bai Jingfei wasn't 13 or 14 like she looked, she was a fully grown adult in the body of a premature, undernourished 16 year old.

She stared at Heavenly doctor Ming for a few more minutes, admiring his incredibly fake looking beard, and his wrinkles that looked like they were drawn on.

Suddenly Bai Jingfei felt a wave of shame wash over her. How could she have possibly thought her disguise was good when it looked that suspicious from an outsider's point of view.

She thanked the heavens that there was someone who matched her incredibly terrible disguise.

Then she went back to cursing the heavens. There was a good probability that she was going to get into trouble for this disguise.

The emperor glanced at minister Shu and minister Cao who both nodded, confirming that there had indeed been someone impersonating the heavenly doctor.

The emperor felt a headache coming along. The Jade medicine hall which was owned by heavenly doctor Ming was the sole provider of high end tonics to nobles in the capital. This made the heavenly doctor a heavy weight figure that he had to placate well.

"Emperor! Do something! I am losing business and this fraud could harm my patients!" whined the Heavenly doctor quite brazenly.

Bai Jingfei felt the urge to laugh but tried to hold it back.

Unfortunately she had never been good at holding things back.

A small giggle escaped her mouth and almost instantly, every single aged man in the hall was staring at her.

"FeiFei! What happened!" whispered prime minister Bai trying to hush her and cut through the strange silence in the hall.

From the other end of the room, another laugh was heard and soon the room was filled with hushed giggles.

The emperor frowned and almost instantly the giggles died out. He then turned to Bai Jingfei and looked her dead in the eye.

"Bai Jingfei, was it? What is so funny"

To Bai Jingfei the emperor's tone was much like a professor of hers she had been terrified of, when scolding people, and Bai Jingfei felt shivers down her back.

She composed herself and decided to play innocent.

"Your Majesty, wouldn't someone impersonating the heavenly doctor have to be a child or a midget?" she giggled.

The heavenly doctor instantly turned red, either of embarrassment or anger.

Likely both.

"That is a legitimate concern, we should check how many people on the shorter side entered the market that day" said prime minister Bai desperately trying to save the situation.

The heavenly doctor looked slightly more placated by these words and urged the emperor to investigate the market entrance and check the logs for who had entered the side of the market meant for nobility.

The emperor sighed and promised the heavenly doctor that a thorough investigation would be conducted.

Giving one last glare in Bai Jingfei's direction the heavenly doctor stormed out of the hall like a whirlwind. The same way he had come.

Prime minister Bai turned and patted Bai Jingfei's head again in an effort to comfort her.

Of course Bai Jingfei wasn't affected in the least. On the contrary she was relieved. She simply hadn't entered the market that day, there were no logs of her that day.

She suddenly realised the benefits of sneaking into the marketplace that other people couldn't enter without the knowledge of the guards.

The Bai family sure had a nice mansion.

Right next to the nobles' market, very convenient for when she had to sneak in and out without anyone noticing.

The emperor suddenly started talking again after that brief moment of silence.

"My concern isn't only who caused the fire, but also how it was caused" said the emperor, "Did you see the flames? They rose to the sky even when there was nothing for them to burn on."

There were some hushed murmurs in the hall and Bai Jingfei was beginning to get bored. She was slightly sleepy and was starting to doze off as the conversation progressed.

A minister stood up and began reading out a report based on what they had discovered.

But of course they hadn't discovered much.

"Upon investigation we could not find anything special about the method the fire was caused by. We found traces of oil but oil could not have caused such a fire."

The conversation about how unique the fire was went on and on for a whole thirty minutes before the conversation turned to the prisoners in it.

"There was no trace of any prisoner in the prison. They must have burnt to ashes, there was no chance of survival in that fire…"

The emperor took a deep sigh of relief before composing himself.

He had been worried that the prisoners had escaped and hadn't been able to sleep because of how paranoid he was. Every single one of those prisoners was a risk to him. A liability. A weakness.

"So what caused it!" yelled the general from the side.

It was obvious that his son had returned and told his father exactly what had happened. Obvious to Bai Jingfei, that is, not the emperor.

Bai Jingfei snapped awake because of the ruckus and looked up, yawning.

Soon every eye in the room was on her, as if awaiting her response. There was no chance that Bai Jingfei was going to give away any useful information though. She instantly came up with an answer that would probably satisfy only fools.

"Your Majesty, what if the fire was a punishment from the gods?"