Chapter 31: Call Like a Cuckoo
He succinctly finished explaining the matter of needing Jun Yu to help him find the seeds.
After listening, Jun Yu asked, "Boss, do you need this urgently? When should I give it to you?"
"I need it soon. The sooner, the better."
"Then I'll give it to you tomorrow." This task was no problem for Jun Yu, just a trivial matter. If he arranged for his subordinates to handle it, it could be settled in a day. However, "Boss, should we still meet here tomorrow?"
"It's not safe here anymore, let's choose another place." Learning from the last lesson, this time Jun Ning spoke to Jun Yu in a deliberately lowered voice. When mentioning the place for their next meeting, his voice lowered even further, "I live in the Cold Palace. You can have someone help deliver the seeds to the Cold Palace."
"Got it, I'll remember." Jun Yu hesitated for a moment and asked eagerly, "Then where can I find you to hang out in the future?"
"Sure." Jun Ning moved a bit closer and whispered to Jun Yu, "There's a dog hole at the west corner of the Cold Palace. If you want to find me, don't use the front gate, quietly crawl through there and mimic the call of a cuckoo; once I hear it, I'll come to you immediately."
"Alright." Jun Yu nodded heavily, indicating he remembered.
After saying all this, Jun Ning didn't linger much longer. He handed Jun Yu a juicy, tender chicken leg and then left through another exit of the cave with Qiong Hua, who had been silently standing by his side.
Jun Yu only left after finishing the chicken leg.
Until Jun Ning completely disappeared from view, Emperor Yongning hadn't thought about how Jun Ning had disguised himself as a girl to meet Jun Yu, he was still immersed in his fondness for the little girl.
But Xiao Lizi saw clearly.
That little girl definitely had something wrong.
Especially after seeing Jun Yu wiping his mouth as he came out of the cave, he was even more certain.
"Your Majesty, the seventeenth prince has come out," reminded Xiao Lizi.
"What about him coming out?"
Xiao Lizi: "......"
Was that little girl really so enchanting?
Had the tyrant lost even his basic deductive abilities?
Xiao Lizi coughed a few times, unsure how to explain, hoping Emperor Yongning might come to realize it on his own, yet Emperor Yongning showed no signs of figuring it out.
He said, "Xiao Lizi, go find out which family's young lady the Empress found as a companion for the seventeenth prince?"
Xiao Lizi pretended not to hear Emperor Yongning and stubbornly reminded again, "Your Majesty, I felt something was off about that little girl just now."
Emperor Yongning, displeased: "…Something off?"
"Yes." Xiao Lizi was so scared he broke out in a cold sweat again, and his words weren't so smooth, "Your... Your Majesty, you see after the seventeenth prince came out of that cave, his... his face was full of brightness, no trace of any distress... therefore... it's evident... he has already met the person he was supposed to meet."
In other words, he had seen the little rascal that the Imperial Guard had been searching for so long but couldn't find.
"But just now, the only people who went into the cave were the little girl and a palace maid."
Could it be—
Previously, Emperor Yongning had been quite deceived by the disguise of that little rascal. But now that Xiao Lizi had pointed it out so explicitly, if he was still fooled by that little rascal, unable to deduce that the little rascal dressed up as a girl and boldly met with the seventeenth prince right under his nose, then he might as well have stumbled his way onto the Emperor's throne.
"Well played, you little rascal." Emperor Yongning was so furious that his chest heaved violently.