sbdcsierra Chapter 268 Reencounter with Lu Beizhou
Chapter 268 Reencounter with Lu Beizhou
As Long Chuqing passed by Zhou Meiren, she smiled slightly and nodded gently to her, as if to thank her for her timely appearance.
“Consort Zhou,” Eunuch Xue’s voice rang out, “His Majesty has ordered me to summon you in.”
"Sigh..." Zhou Meiren came back to her senses: "Okay."
Previously, Zhou Meiren was quite confident in herself, but when she saw Long Chuqing walk out of the pavilion, she instantly lost her confidence.
His Majesty just met a woman of such beauty. If His Majesty were to compare her to that woman, she would certainly be at a disadvantage if she went in now.
Oh no, what if His Majesty is disappointed in me after I go in? It seems today is not a good time.
"My beauty." Seeing her walking in a daze, Eunuch Xue urged, "Hurry up, His Majesty is waiting!"
So be it, let me die! Anyway, life in the palace is just so-so when I can't see His Majesty, how much worse can it get?
She raised her drooping head, straightened her back, and put on a bright smile, trying her best to meet His Majesty in the best possible manner and leave a good impression.
Xiao Fuzi led Long Chuqing along the palace path when a man approached them.
The man felt that Long Chuqing looked familiar, and took a few more glances, but he just couldn't remember where he had seen her before.
Long Chuqing recognized him at first glance: this Lu Beizhou...
However, Long Chuqing did not greet him and walked straight past him.
Lu Beizhou had some doubts, but he wasn't quite sure yet.
He stopped, turned around, looked at Long Chuqing's back, and carefully compared them in his mind.
"Wait..." Lu Beizhou walked quickly toward the two of them.
The two stopped in response, and Xiao Fuzi bowed. "Greetings, Lord Lu."
Lu Beizhou waved his hand in acknowledgment, then looked at Long Chuqing.
“Miss, are you perhaps the Miss Long that I met in the west of the city?” Lu Beizhou asked.
Long Chuqing smiled and nodded: "Greetings, Lord Lu."
"It really is you!" Lu Beizhou smiled knowingly. "I thought I had mistaken you for someone else! I didn't dare to come up and say hello right away."
"By the way, what are you doing in the palace?"
Lu Beizhou served as the Minister of the Imperial Guard, whose duties included protecting the imperial palace and ensuring the emperor's safety.
The Commandant of the Guards was also responsible for managing the various city gates, walls, and towers of the capital, as well as daily patrols and defenses, and combating and preventing illegal activities such as robbery, theft, and arson.
Last time, we discovered the thieves' trail during a patrol and tracked them down to the west of the city.
"I entered the palace today because His Majesty summoned me," Long Chuqing answered truthfully.
His Majesty summoned him? Lu Beizhou was somewhat surprised.
Whose daughter is this? But upon closer inspection, it turns out that this young lady, after washing off the dark makeup, possesses such ethereal beauty.
No wonder.
Long Chuqing felt that Lu Beizhou must have misunderstood something.
"Don't overthink it. His Majesty simply invited me to play chess with him."
"Oh...hehe, is that so? But I didn't misunderstand just now!" Lu Beizhou denied with a dry laugh.
"But what about you? Have you caught the thief who fell off the cliff that day?"
At this point, Lu Beizhou sighed.
"No, by the time I organized people to search around to the bottom of the cliff, he had already run away. We did find bloodstains left by the severed arm at the bottom of the cliff."
"However, I later sent people to conduct a thorough search of the nearby mountains and forests, and recovered most of the money and jewelry he had stolen from some caves. That was a pretty good haul."
Long Chuqing nodded: "Indeed, at least the losses have been minimized."
"Yes, we owe it all to you, Miss Long. If you hadn't led us to the cave, we wouldn't have found our lost money so quickly."
"You've already thanked me; it was nothing, no need to thank me again."
"Alright, I'm leaving the palace now. Goodbye."
"Hey, please wait a moment." Lu Beizhou called out to Long Chuqing, took out two hundred-tael silver notes from his pocket, and handed them to her.
“Miss Long, here you go. Last time we were poisoned by miasma in the mass grave, and we were fortunate to be saved by you. However, I did not have enough money with me that day and could not pay the consultation fee.”
"I've been thinking about this ever since I got back, so I've kept the banknotes with me, hoping that one day I'll run into you again and pay for the consultation."
“Lord Lu is truly honest,” Long Chuqing said with a smile. “Didn’t I charge you five taels for your consultation last time? You’ve already paid that.”
“I know that five taels of silver is certainly not enough to save our lives,” Lu Beizhou pushed the silver note in front of Long Chuqing again: “Just take it! Otherwise I’ll keep thinking about this matter.”
If Long Chuqing didn't accept the money, Lu Beizhou would feel like he owed someone money, and he would feel extremely uncomfortable if he didn't pay it back.
If all people in this world who owe money were as conscientious as Lu Beizhou, that would be wonderful.
"I just said it casually at the time, and the consultation fee doesn't actually need to be that much."
Long Chuqing took out a hundred-tael note from Lu Beizhou's hand.
"To put your mind at ease, I'll accept one copy. Thanks."
"Take them all!"
"No need, one hundred taels is more than enough. I've already made a profit. You can keep the rest." Long Chuqing refused.
Lu Beizhou looked down at the hundred taels in his hand, then raised his eyes to look at Long Chuqing.
"Alright! Then I won't refuse anymore."
"Well then, I'll take my leave now." Long Chuqing clasped his hands in a traditional martial arts salute.
Lu Beizhou returned the greeting with clasped hands: "Miss Long, please take care. I have other important matters to attend to, so I will not see you off at the palace."
Long Chuqing followed Xiao Fuzi toward the place where the carriages were parked inside the palace.
Xiao Han spotted Long Chuqing's figure from afar, and a smile immediately appeared on his face, which was stiff from the cold.
"Hey, is that him?" King Xuan pointed to the distance and shouted, "He's coming out."
King Xuan kept chatting with Qingying, so he didn't leave.
Seeing that King Xuan enjoyed listening, Qingying became more and more enthusiastic, and even told him about their previous encounter with the cat demon and wolf demon.
The story vividly portrays their heroic battles against packs of wildcats and wolves.
King Xuan listened with great interest. He felt that he had missed out on a lot, and compared to the seventh prince, he felt that his life was too bland.
Xiao Han was also helpless about the two of them.
“Chu Qing…” Xiao Han stepped forward a few paces.
"This servant greets Your Highness, the King of Qin." Xiao Fuzi bowed.
"No need for formalities, you may go back now!"
Xiao Fuzi looked at Long Chuqing, who nodded at him.
"Yes, Your Majesty, this servant takes his leave."
Xiao Fuzi gave her farewell bow and turned to leave.
"What are you doing here?" Long Chuqing asked.
"Wait for you......."
"Wait for me? It's so cold here!"
This idiot, it's so cold outside and the wind is so strong here. Judging from his slightly purple lips, he must have been standing here for quite a while.
Sigh, it's not like she doesn't know the way back to the manor, and the palace will send a carriage to take her back.
"Are you cold?" Long Chuqing asked with concern.
Xiao Han just smiled faintly, "It's alright, let's go, let's go first."
"Um......"