The Story of Dusk 138 SCHEME AFTER SCHEME; PLOT AND PLOY

"Do you know where can I find it!?" Xiao Wang Wei sheathed his sword right before Yu Aotian's eyes. "Talk! Or else I will shut you up for as long as you live!"

"I…" Yu Aotian frowned, the tip of the sharp sword was right before his eyes and the reflection of the blade was dazzling his sight. "I… I think I know who has the antidote." He stuttered slightly.

"Who!?"

"If all of this is fabricated by Prince Xiao Jun, then he must have the antidote." Yu Aotian said solemnly.

Xiao Wang Wei was looking at the L clan leader with cold eyes, they were narrowed dangerously, trying to put the pieces back together.

He had just known that he was being poisoned this morning, at first he thought there was someone who had betrayed him and poisoned him with the same poison that Xiao Jun had given to Yu Aotian.

However, who would have thought he was being poisoned with different type of poison?

No matter what way Xiao Jun was using, his plan to hire a group of assassin to kill him by using poison was a proof to confirm his involvement.

"You are right…" Xiao Wang Wei mumbled. "Yes, it must be him…" He snickered eerily.

"It is him." Yu Aotian said firmly, he was very sure if everything that had happened was Xiao Jun's plan all along. "He informed me about the different of a thousand venom snakes' poison and dead cherries' poison before I go. He had known about it."

Yu aotian raised his head and looked at Xiao Wang Wei who had lower his sword and was contemplating his words. Slowly, he stood up.

"But, how he is able to poison me when he was miles away?" Xiao Wang Wei gave a thought about this, but couldn't find the answer.

"He must have been planted his people among yours since the beginning." Yu Aotian walked toward the table and poured a cup of tea for him. "But, for now we need to find out how we can retrieve the antidote from his hand. Prince Xiao Jun is likely will fight back if we pressure him."

Yu Aotian strolled across the room and gave the tea to Xiao Wang Wei, the later received it and sat down, looking a bit better now, but the red blotches on his skin has started to showing.

"What is your plan?" Xiao Wang Wei glanced at Yu Aotian. "I can't wait for long for this."

Yu Aotian tilted his head and pursed his lips, contemplating. "Let's bargain with him."

"Bargain?" Xiao Wang Wei reiterated. "With what we bargain? He obviously isn't interested in money."

"No, not money." He shook his head.

Yu Aotian dismissed all the remaining guards, looking he waved his hand, all of them sighed in relief and hurriedly carried out their two comrades who had lost their head out of the room.

Meanwhile, Xiao Wang Wei was too busy with his own thought to even care about that.

"I heard Prince Xiao Jun brings his wife as well." Yu Aotian hinted the part that almost overlooked. "But, when I came to the white pearl inn, Princess Xiao is not there."

Yu Aotian was indeed had investigated about this and asked Long Tianmo and the resulted; the inn owner had not seen her for three days.

It's mean Xiao Jun had evacuated his wife to safer place, in case something was going to happen during these three days.

"Hmm, Qianru…" Xiao Wang Wei chuckled. "Even though there is a few rumors saying that both of them are not in good terms, but they are friends since childhood…"

"Yes, Princess Xiao must hold some value for Prince Xiao Jun." Yu Aotian's eyes flickered with sinister, enjoying the fact that Xiao Wang Wei accepted his idea.

But, what else the poisoned crown prince could do now when his life was in the brink of the death, time was crucial and he couldn't think a better solution.

"Go and call leader Mo, I want him to find her!"

"Will do, my prince." Yu Aotian swiftly stood up and cupped his hand in respect when he received his order.

"And investigate who is Xiao Tianyao's people who was daring enough to poison me, bring that person alive, so they will know what the meaning; living worse than death."

"Yes, my prince."

*** 

Tomorrow was the day of the golden auction would be held at night.

Initially, Xiao Jun wanted to go to Qianru's place, but he didn't want to risk exposed her whereabouts. He would meet her right before the golden auction.

He would let her see what kind of this auction was and what kind of world they were living, he liked the innocent Qianru, but her naivety wouldn't help her to survive and only brought trouble.

If all of his plan ran smoothly and one day he could claim back what belonged to him, Qianru would be his ally to rule the country and he wanted her to know what country that she would be ruled.

That thought was too far, but he didn't want to think about 'what ifs' for now. He had thought about this and planed it for years, though there were some changed because of Xiao Tianyao, most of the part was still within his control.

He was ready to go to bed when he heard Liu Wei knocked his door.

Xiao Jun frowned, Liu Wei wouldn't disturb him in the middle of the night, especially if his light had off.

"What is it?" Xiao Jun asked when the knocking sound increased.

"Master there is someone who wants to see you."

*** 

The sun had just set and left glorious shades of golden color in the sky.

Inside a room, Qianru was wearing a simple soft yellow dress with hair tight into a simple bun with one hair accessories to secure it.

She looked so simple and refreshing, but also noble.

Sheng had told her that tonight Xiao Jun would come to pick her up so they could go to the golden auction together.

Xiao Jun also thoughtfully picked this dress for her to wear.

This dress didn't look very expensive and eyes catching, but Qianru like it, it made her looked humble and the most important part was; it wouldn't draw unnecessary attention on her. Qianru thought, that was the main reason why Xiao Jun had picked this dress for her.

"Princess Xiao are you there?" Voice of a young man behind the door traveled into the room.

Qianru had never heard this voice before, most of the time it was always Sheng or Xun who informed her about something, but knowing the rotating of shift of the guards who were protecting her, probably it was only another guard.

"Yes." Qianru didn't think about this further.

"Prince Xiao Jun had been waiting for you inside the carriage outside of the inn, if Princess Xiao has done with her preparation, you might come with me." The voice sounded calm and didn't urge her.

A while later Qianru opened the door and found a young guard dressed in black, the same black dress that Xiao Jun's people always wearing, was standing outside of her door, smiling.

"Where are Xun and Sheng?" Qianru looked around her surrounding and found there was no another guards except the one in front of her.

Still smiling, the young guard explained. "Sheng and Xun are currently running some errands for Prince Xiao Jun." He stepped aside and gestured Qianru to follow him. "Princess Xiao, please."

Qianru was squinted her eyes, she felt something wrong, but couldn't put her fingers on it.

The inn where Qianru occupied was a cheap brothel in three storey, because Qianru was residing in third floor, she needed to go down the stairs and passed many people and courtesans along the way.

However, the odd thing was starting from here.

Mostly, Xiao Jun's people wouldn't bring her to walk pass this hallway and exposed herself to others guest, they would bring her through a private way in the southern inn. Qianru was quite impressed when she knew a place like this had a secret passage.

But this time this guard didn't bring through that passage, purposely exposed her to the public.

Qianru frowned when smell of alcohol hit her nose and made her scrunched. She didn't like it.

"What is your name?" Qianru asked the young guard when they had arrived at the lobby of the inn.

"Su Cheng, Princess." Su Cheng answered her politely.

"Where are we going?" Qianru looked to their direction and realized Su Cheng would bring her toward backyard.

"Prince Xiao Jun is waiting for Princess at the backyard."

The gate at the backyard was only a few meters away from Qianru when she suddenly stopped walking.

"Princess Xiao?" Su Cheng stopped as well when he saw Qianru stood while looking at him. "We must hurry, Prince Xiao Jun is waiting for you inside the carriage."

After a while, Qianru looked at him scrunched her brows tightly. "Why we don't use the secret passage in northern inn? It's more convenient."

There was a fleeting confusion past Su Cheng's eyes, but he remained calm in the next second. This little fact didn't go unnoticed.

"Because, this way is faster." Su Cheng answered her firmly. There was silence that follow after his answer.

Qianru was still looking at him impassively, but a bright smile bloomed on her face while she shaking her head. "I have become overly unreasonable with all of this…"

"Everything is fine Princess Xiao. Prince Xiao Jun is waiting for you outside."

"Lead the way."

And both of them walked toward the gates. Qianru was walking behind Su Cheng, however before the guard could reach the gate and pushed it open, something sharp stabbed his back.

Caught out of guard, Su Cheng jumped aside and looked at Qianru who was holding her bleeding hair accessories. She looked petrified as well as she became pale when she realized what she had done.

"Princess Xiao, what are you doing!?" The place where Qianru had stabbed was between his shoulder blades that he couldn't reach, therefore he wasn't able to prevent his blood loss.

"You are not Xiao Jun's guard. His guard will not call him prince." Exactly! His guards would call him Master instead of Prince. "And the passageway is not in the north side." It was in south side!

After saying that, Qianru lifted her dress and ran toward the direction she was coming from. Behind her, she could hear Su Cheng groaned and shouted to his comrade.

"She is running away!!!"

Qianru didn't have time to look back, she kept running toward the brothel direction. But, no matter how fast she was running the sound of footsteps behind her were getting closer.

In the midst of panic Qianru cupped her hand in front of her mouth and there was a howl coming out, a secret call that only three people knew about it.

She let out an ears- piercing screamed when someone grabbed her shoulder.

*** 

The golden auction was held in an underground place, it was a round place with a basin shape in the middle, two tiers of benches surrounding it, and one storey above the benches that consist twenty rooms for very important people who would bet most of them were someone who was holding jade token as insignia of imperial family or silver token from military.

Xiao Jun got one of the rooms for himself with a better view to the items that would be auctioned latter. He entered the room with Liu Wei beside him and two more guards.

The rule was; every guest who occupied the rooms should only bring three other people with them and not allowed more than that.

Every room has their own entrance, thus no one would know the identity of the person next of their room. Everything was designed very secretive and organized.

People who were sitting on the benches on the second tier mostly a successful merchant or third rank in military while the lowest tier was occupied by those people who was running an underground organization such as mercenary.

The auction would start ten minutes later when he entered the room. He sat on the luxurious sofa while Liu Wei was standing beside him and the two guards were standing near the door.

"Is everything alright?" Xiao Jun asked Liu Wei.

"Yes Master, everything is still under our control." Liu Wei reassured him. "They are moving according to what we had predicted." There was a faint proud smile on Liu Wei's lips to actually manage to execute his master plan smoothly.

"Good job." Xiao Jun praised his subordinate. "I will reward you once we returned to Rockstone Kingdom."

"You are very generous Master." Liu Wei stepped aside with smile on his lips.

When the auction was about to start, there was a faint knock. The two guards were looking at each other, there was supposed to be no one would come at this time, but the knocking sound didn't chase down as if whoever it was, they were insisting to come inside.

Xiao Jun frowned, but eventually waved his hand to gesture for the two guards to open the door when the sound was starting to become annoying.  

When the two guards opened the door, a young woman was standing behind it. She smiled and made the two guards dumbstruck.

She was wearing red provocative dress that showing her every curve as her plump breast peek, her sexy red lips slightly apart that could boil every men blood.

They had never seen a woman with such beauty before. Even those princess in the palace couldn't compare with this woman.

A big gulp from the two guards and Liu Wei were visible as they tried to focus at the matter at hand. When she opened her mouth and talked, her sultry voice traveled inside the room and lit up every eyes.

"I am here to meet with Prince Xiao Jun." Her phoenix eyes caught a sight of a noble man who was sitting on the luxurious seat, looking at her direction with impassive eyes.

Xiao Jun's coldness somehow attracted her. A fine man with aloofness was totally her type.

"What do you want?" It was Liu Wei who was asking, though he was slightly charmed by this woman allures, he still remembered his position and place and regained his bearing, while the two guards still rooted to the ground.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

"I am here to deliver a present for Prince Xiao Jun from Mr. Long Tianmo upon the deal between them." She said clearly word for word.

"Just give it to the guards." Liu Wei snapped.

"I can't, I need to give it personally to Prince Xiao Jun." The beautiful lady shook her pretty head lightly.

Liu Wei and the other two guards knew the meaning behind those words very well, added that to the way she dressed herself and coquettish way she talked. She was a courtesan!

Apparently the expensive one.

Upon hearing that, Xiao Jun's eyes darkened as he narrowed them, but the woman got the wrong meaning from it.

She thought Xiao Jun was assessing her, thus she swayed her waist as she sashayed into the room.

"No, wait." One of the guards broke the spell and out of reflex held her elbow, preventing the beautiful courtesan to come inside the room.

The woman whimpered as she looked at Xiao Jun with her pleading eyes. "Prince Xiao Jun…" She called out for him, her voice was laced with honey.

Liu Wei has been following Xiao Jun for years and he knew Xiao Jun would be very mad if there was a woman wanted to take advantage on him.

Despite his Master cold treatment toward their Mistress for these two years, but he wouldn't treat any woman better either. Moreover, both of them seemingly started to make up with each other recently.

"Bring her outside." Liu said in low voice.

However, to their surprised Xiao Jun opened his mouth and talked the otherwise. "No. Bring her inside."

Puzzled, the three of them were looking at Xiao Jun with disbelief.

"Prince Xiao Jun… this is…" Liu Wei stuttered, didn't believe with what he had heard and sought for confirmation.

"You heard me." Xiao Jun said curtly while he extended his arm as if inviting the woman to sit next to him. "Come here." He said.

Xiao Jun's face remained callous, nothing could be read from that expression.

Triumphantly the courtesan shook her arm to wriggle free from the guard. Seeing Xiao Jun's extended hand, the guard released his grip hesitantly.

Liu Wei didn't believe this. He knew almost all the princes that he had met tended to have an affair even after their marriage and this thing would be more common to happen among the officials.

But, never in million times this would have crossed his mind as it happened to his master who he served.

Liu Wei took a step back when the courtesan strolled closer toward Xiao Jun with jaw dropped open, his became wider when he watched Xiao Jun took her hand and helped her to sit beside him.

Happily, with her charming smile, she sat down beside Xiao Jun, very very very close.

"Prince Xiao Jun, what would you like to drink?" She asked in sexy voice to Xiao Jun's ears, blowing some wind as she spoke.

Xiao Jun's eyes darkened.

She was literally rubbing her plump breast against Xiao Jun's upper arm while the later stared at her deeply, he raised his hand to her face as if he was going to caress her beautiful face.

The woman blinked her phoenix eyes seductively as she leaned her face to his touch.

Liu Wei slightly disappointed with Xiao Jun's behavior in front of him, he was very proud that his master was one among the rarest princes who would play with another woman behind their wife's back. Looking at his master right now, he couldn't find the difference.

Their Mistress would be very hurt if she knew about this.

What is actually happening inside his Master's mind right now? Aren't they here for reason?

However, Xiao Jun moved his hand toward her slender neck and abruptly pushed her down the floor. With a loud thud sound the woman had sprawled on the floor and Xiao Jun was above her, trying to choke her to death.

Her screaming was muffled by Xiao Jun's other hand, so it was only her eyes that could show her shock, they were opened wide with fear before it closed and she stopped struggled completely.

This happened within a matter of second and no one saw this coming, thus after they saw Xiao Jun was wiping his hand after he had 'shut' the woman, they were still standing on the spot, flabbergasted.

Did their Master just kill her?

Chapter end