ENTER THE EPICENTER AREA 1

Hu Nayin laughed. "I always believe in sincere love. I do everything based on my sincere love for His Highness, and not to compete and gain the most dominant person in this palace. After all, Zhou Wang's relationship with his daughters is the relationship between father and daughters, while his relationship with me is the relationship between husband and wife, that is a totally incomparable case. If I fight over with them about his love, then will it be very ridiculous?"

"You are too naïve. The palace life is far from the matter of sincerity. A royal family is a group of political people, so their household is also full of political intrigue. Yes, it is a damn bitter fact, but you must accept that fact." Liu Ku's face hardened when he said so.

Hu Nayin replied to those serious words with a serious face. "Then, is what I am doing now in accordance with the political law of winning over His Highness' love?"

Not expecting Hu Nayin to ask such a question, Liu Ku could not immediately give his answer.

"If I want to get into politics, I will refuse to do this. I will be a sweet Wang Fei, caressing His Highness and complying with all of his desires, because what I want is merely wealth and power." Hu Nayin smiled - a thin and satirical smile. "You and I are the same. We dare to do something others dare not do, as long as we believe it to be the best way to achieve our goals. And, I'm sure you're the same as me, you are not interested in political intrigue and all damn things about it, are you?"

Candlelight swayed, blown by the strong wind it almost went out. But fortunately, it did not. The candle that had shrunk was back to normal.

"It seems that you aren't as naïve as I thought... Okay! I won't worry about you anymore!" Liu Ku smiled.

No, Liu Ku, I am very naïve. I'm just focused on helping His Highness. So naïve I am that I can spontaneously utter those words. But that is, the power of sincerity.

The potion they concocted had been finished. Liu Ku said cheerfully, "We have finished off Shuizhen District. Tomorrow we will go to the next district - Shuanghu District."

"We will finish whoever submits to Huan Shikang and Rumilie." Hu Nayin climbed the steps that led them out of this narrow space. "Let all the rebels pay the retribution. I'll let them know, what awaits them by their insolence against His Highness." Hu Nayin clenched her fists. "It'll be better, before we catch them, Rumilie will have already died!"

***

Besides Shuizhen District, Shuanghu District was one of the districts where Huan Shikang's group possessed a very dominant power, even the Kaifeng government encountered difficulty in oppressing their anarchism. Huan Shikang's remaining bases of resistance were only in these two areas. Because the money subsidies to pay for the masses had run out, even in the areas that were once wealthy, their abundant assets were also used up to finance the army, hence the areas changed their minds and chose to support Zhu Su. And only these two districts supported Huan Shikang at no cost. Because their residences were mostly the lowest class poor people who, let alone gained an advantage from government policies, they usually became the most oppressed ones whenever disaster existed, moreover, the emperor ordered the people to do forced labor to build New Palace and Grand Canal. Sentiment against the government was easy to burn because the evidence existed. And Zhu Su's propaganda about his new research project had not reached those areas as the officials forbade Zhu Su to go there.

"There is a concern, even if you haven't started your speech, they will immediately riot against you. Too dangerous," Wu Qi said.

Zhu Su soon gasped. "How can it be so dangerous to that point?!"

Wu Qi nodded. "Everything is in process, each has its moment. At least you have to wait patiently until your research project has been completed and proves to be useful. Then you may consider to carry out the mediation there."

Hence, still thinking the Shuanghu District was still in its high tension, Zhu Su was immediately shocked as he heard that many people died suddenly there.

"The cause of their death is a contagious disease," Qu You reported.

"Contagious diseases?! That means we must immediately prevent it from spreading to other places!"

"Surprisingly, Your Highness, this disease only affects Shuanghu District. Oh, and also Shuizhen District."

"Hoo? A deadly outbreak only strikes two of the most pro-rebel districts? It turns out that karma does exist!" An official cursed.

The official might think that his sentence was no more than a curse and had no significant meaning, but the members of the Team of Wellbeing soon "realized something" due to his word. Shock crossed their faces, and then they looked at each other in silence. But even though their glances were in short time duration, their oddity had been caught by Zhu Su.

"Even though the district is filled with pro-rebels people, but there must be good people who are not involved with them. We still have to save them." Zhu Su said again. "We have failed in Shuizhen District, so we mustn't fail again in Shuanghu District. I heard that the outbreak attacking Shuizhen District is really serious, in just a day when I lost consciousness, half of the community have died. But before we solved the problem, now the outbreak occurs in Shuanghu District. From my perspective, the disease must be very vicious but the way to save them is not yet known. Therefore. I want to go directly to Shuanghu District, to find out the cause of this contagious disease, after we go there, I believe we will be able to find a way to overcome it."

Stunned, all members of the Team of Wellbeing immediately shouted aloud, "You can't, Your Highness!"

Zhu Su sighed. "Alright, don't say that it is too dangerous, that it will threaten my life, that I can be attacked by rebels or other reasons like that, because I am determined to do it!"

"That's not the problem, Your Highness! But there's no cure to vanish the disease in Shuanghu District, so your effort will end in vain!..."

Zhu Su looked at Qing who just spoke out. "There is no cure for it and my effort will end in vain? Actually, how terrible is the outbreak, to the extent that there is no cure for it? How do you know?"