Chapter 1122: Come On, Let's Go Kidnap Him!

If the war turned toward defeat, the State of Qi would face the danger of destruction.

Between the survival of the state and the lives of a group of his sons, Hao Yuntu chose the former.

If his sons died, he could father more. He had no shortage of women willing to bear him children, and in any case, he had other sons. Only the sons qualified to attend court had been poisoned.

Such thinking might be excessively cold and heartless. His children would certainly find it difficult to accept.

But in Hao Yuntu's eyes, personal feelings were not important. If the entire State of Qi fell, he would lose far more than the poisoned sons. Even the sons and daughters who had not been poisoned might not survive, and he would lose much, much more besides.

That was why he had been willing to suffer a massive loss of face and send Hao Cheng to marry into Wei. He could afford to lose one son.

...

Two groups of people hurriedly converged on the street, and the husband and wife leading them met face-to-face.

Huyan Wei came with a contingent of men. His face was covered in a thick beard. The moment he saw Hao Qingqing, he called out, "Why did you drag me here in such a rush?"

"I've been bullied. Are you going to stand by and do nothing?"

"Tch!" Huyan Wei snorted disdainfully and looked his wife up and down. "Someone bullied you? In the Qi capital, you're the one who bullies everyone else. Who would dare bully you? I'm telling you, I'm busy. I still have to finish the troop drills Father assigned me. If I don't finish, I'll get the military cane again. I don't have time to fool around with you... Though I suppose then you'd get to gloat while I get beaten."

Hao Qingqing stared at him with her lips tightly pressed together. Her eyes reddened.

"Uh..." Huyan Wei, who had been about to turn his horse and leave, froze. Something was wrong. Was she about to cry? This woman had never been willing to show weakness in front of him, much less shed tears. He cautiously asked, "Did someone really bully you?"

Hao Qingqing raised her sleeve and wiped her tears. "I'm asking you one thing. Are you helping me or not?"

Huyan Wei raised an eyebrow. "Didn't you complain that I stink of sweat and I'm filthy and throw me out to sleep in the barracks? What, you don't mind anymore?"

Large tears rolled down Hao Qingqing's cheeks. She choked out, "Huyan Wei, my second brother has been poisoned. He's going to die. Are you really not going to save him?"

"This..." Huyan Wei grimaced helplessly. The Huyan family was hardly blind and deaf in the capital. It had its own military intelligence network, and he had received the news not long ago. But... he scratched his head. "Save him? Of course I want to save him, but I don't have that ability. If you want me on a battlefield, maybe even Meng Shanming would kneel in front of me and cry, 'Grandpa, spare me!' But detoxifying poison and saving lives? I don't know a damn thing about it! You should be asking His Majesty and the three great sects. What use is it coming to me? And if you want me to save someone, then say so. What does that have to do with someone bullying you? They're two completely different things. Aren't you obviously trying to trick me again?"

Hao Qingqing put on an aggrieved expression. "If Imperial Father and the three great sects had a solution, why would I come looking for you? The only person in the capital who can save Second Brother now is Wuxin, the Ghost Doctor's disciple who's living here in seclusion. Imperial Father sent someone to invite him—Bu Xun went personally—but Wuxin refuses to save someone who's dying. He simply won't lend a hand. Second Brother is my own brother, born of the same mother. Now Wuxin refuses to save him and insists on letting him die. Tell me, isn't that bullying me?"

What kind of nonsense was that? Huyan Wei's face twitched. "Hao Qingqing, stop making trouble. We—"

Hao Qingqing abruptly cut him off, pointing her riding crop at her husband and cursing him to his face. "Huyan Wei, are you even a man? Your wife has been bullied and you don't care? You won't even stand up for your own wife? You're just going to watch while someone bullies me like this?"

Not a man? Huyan Wei instinctively puffed out his chest. A moment later his momentum collapsed again, and he did not know whether to laugh or cry. "You woman never listen to reason. What exactly do you want me to do? You can't seriously expect me to take troops over there and chop Wuxin to death. If I did that, wouldn't the Huyan family's military canes beat me to death afterward? Are you hoping I'll die early so you can remarry?"

Hao Qingqing glared at him. "Am I really that unreasonable? Who told you to chop him to death? If you kill him, what happens to my second brother? I'm telling you to invite him. Help me invite him over to save Second Brother."

"Invite him?" Huyan Wei looked back at the troops he had brought, then turned back to her and stared. "If we're inviting someone to treat an illness, why did you make me bring soldiers?"

"Idiot! If even Imperial Father couldn't invite him, do you think we can?"

This time Huyan Wei caught on quickly. He blurted, "Don't tell me you want me to kidnap him and force him to detoxify Prince Yu?"

Hao Qingqing said, "Look at that, you're clever for once. Come on. Help me invite him." She urged her horse forward.

From horseback, Huyan Wei suddenly leaned sideways, reached out, and caught her reins, forcing her to stop. He cried in alarm, "Are you insane? I'm telling you right now, there is no way I'm helping you do this."

Crack! Hao Qingqing lashed him with her riding crop. "Are you even a man? Coward! Turtle hiding in its shell! How did I go blind enough to marry an idiot like you?"

Huyan Wei grimaced from the pain. He released her reins and quickly rubbed the spot where the crop had struck him. "I'm not being a coward. Father specifically warned me that Wuxin can't be provoked casually, or there'll be trouble. Uncle Hu warned me too. Haven't you noticed? Even that imperial father of yours doesn't dare do anything to him. If we stick our necks out now, aren't we obviously volunteering to be punished? Go back. Stop making trouble."

Hao Qingqing glared. "You're going whether you want to or not. Today, you absolutely have to go!"

The reason she insisted on dragging Huyan Wei into it was her mother's idea, meaning the current Empress's idea.

The Empress was no fool. She knew Wuxin could not be offended lightly. But she could not simply watch her son die. Even if she had to force herself through it, she had to try to save him.

Yet if Wuxin were offended too casually, she feared provoking the emperor's fury. And so the Empress had thought of her son-in-law: Huyan Wuhen's son.

Huyan Wuhen held great military authority and was currently at the front commanding troops and directing the war. If Huyan Wuhen's son caused trouble, then even if the emperor wanted to punish him, he could only raise the rod high and bring it down lightly.

As long as Huyan Wei was pushed to the front to take responsibility, even kidnapping the Ghost Doctor's disciple would probably not cause any serious consequences.

Huyan Wei sighed again and again. "I already told you, Father warned me not to provoke that man. Uncle Hu warned me too. That man is trouble. Hao Qingqing, this isn't that I don't want to help you. I can't help you. Stop fooling around and go back. I still have things to do. I'm leaving."

With that, he started to turn his horse away.

"Stop right there!" Hao Qingqing shouted angrily. Huyan Wei ignored her. She immediately cried out again, "I'll stop fighting with you! I'll bear you a son, all right?"

"Uh..." Huyan Wei pulled on the reins and looked back. "Are you sick in the head? You're trying to threaten me with that? How is that supposed to threaten me?"

Hao Qingqing rode closer and reminded him, "Aren't you afraid your father will punish you? By the time the Supreme General comes back, my belly will already be big. For the sake of the grandson I'm giving him, for the sake of you carrying on the Huyan family line, he'll have to forgive you this once, won't he?"

Huyan Wei scratched his chin with one finger. Suspicion filled his face. "Would that actually work?"

Truthfully, he was wavering too. Prince Yu Hao Hong was his wife's own brother, after all. If he stood by and did nothing, Huyan Wei was also afraid his pack of dubious friends would look down on him. But reality was reality. The Ghost Doctor's disciple truly was not someone to provoke casually. If he could find a suitable excuse for what he did, Huyan Wei was actually willing to help.

"Why wouldn't it work?" Hao Qingqing said. "You're the one who's supposed to inherit the Huyan family in the future. How can you do that without descendants? Doesn't the Supreme General constantly hint that you and I should have children sooner? He's waiting to hold a grandson."

In truth, it was not only Huyan Wuhen. Even the emperor and Empress had repeatedly reminded her to bear children for the Huyan family as soon as possible. It would help Huyan Wei inherit the Huyan family's power. She had simply been locked in a contest of wills with Huyan Wei all this time.

Huyan Wei mulled it over as though calculating an account and muttered, "Hold a grandson... What if it's a daughter?"

Hao Qingqing glared. "Then I'll keep having them until I bear you a son. No—son or daughter, from now on I'll keep bearing children for you. Is that enough?"

"Oh!" Huyan Wei brightened, then immediately darkened his face again. "As if this would be the first time you've gone back on your word."

"This time I absolutely won't!" Hao Qingqing declared. "All these people are here watching. I swear to Heaven, I'll keep bearing your children. If I don't give you five sons and daughters within ten years, then I'm a turtle-bastard!"

To save her brother this time, she was truly throwing caution to the wind.

"Heh-heh!" Huyan Wei immediately rubbed his hands together. He knew Hao Qingqing cared about face too. There was no chance she would willingly become a "turtle-bastard" in everyone else's eyes. Delighted, he suddenly jerked the reins and wheeled his mount around. He shouted to the men under him, "Move! Come on, let's go kidnap him! Hyah!"

He charged off first. Hao Qingqing excitedly urged her horse after him, and the whole group thundered along behind them.

But just as they were approaching the alley where Wuxin lived, several people dropped from the sky and blocked the road. At the same time, a shout rang out. "An imperial decree!"

The people Bu Xun had sent arrived in time, and Hao Qingqing's scheme collapsed.

"Imperial Father!" Hao Qingqing threw back her head and wailed. Her father was really going to stand by and watch her brother die!

Yet she was powerless. Once the emperor's decree arrived, Huyan Wei no longer dared make another move, and neither did anyone else.

Hao Qingqing sobbed so bitterly that she crouched down right there in the street. Huyan Wei felt an inexplicable ache in his heart. He walked over, helped her up, and pulled her into his arms.

Hao Qingqing buried herself against his chest and wept without restraint.

Just then, a line of carriages and horses arrived and stopped at the entrance to the alley outside the Ghost Doctor's disciple's residence. A dignified, richly dressed woman stepped down from one of the carriages. It was Princess Consort Ying, Shao Liuer.

The commotion on the other side drew a few extra glances from Shao Liuer's party.

Shao Liuer had been in the capital long enough that she naturally recognized Hao Qingqing and the others. But her face was haggard now, and she had no heart for greetings or polite conversation that would waste time. Under the protection of her escort, she headed straight into the alley.

Huyan Wei recognized Shao Liuer too. He quickly nudged Hao Qingqing, who was still crying in his arms, and told her.

Hao Qingqing raised her head, looked back, and saw Shao Liuer. She immediately called out, "Third Sister-in-law! Third Sister-in-law!"

Her Third Sister-in-law's heart was unbearably heavy. Shao Liuer gave no response.

Instead, one of the cultivators who had stopped Hao Qingqing's party flashed over and blocked Shao Liuer and the others at the alley entrance. "Princess Consort, please stop!" He then cupped his hands toward Che Buchi, who accompanied her. "Senior Brother Che, His Majesty has issued a decree. No one is permitted to offend Mr. Wuxin without authorization!"

[End of Chapter 1122]