The Cannon Fodder Awakens, Training the Cold and Proud Protagonist into a Submissive Dog - Chapter 3

Xiao Huaiyan’s body trembled slightly, every breath carrying tiny bubbles of blood. Gathering his very last ounce of strength, he spat out two words: “…Nothing.”

Shen Chaoqing stared at him for a moment, then suddenly furrowed his brow and turned toward the blood-drained Wuhuo. “What should we do? He looks as though he truly doesn’t know anything at all.”

Taken aback by the emperor’s abrupt shift in attitude, Wuhuo was momentarily stunned before surging with wild delight. Assuming the emperor had believed his words, he immediately seized the momentum to press the point, shrieking, “Your Majesty, you must never be deceived by this Liao slave! He is exceedingly cunning and deceitful, and he must be faking it! He is simply trying to win Your Majesty’s pity! This servant even witnessed him wandering alone in the courtyard late at night with suspicious behavior, likely passing messages to the outside! Such a harboring of malicious intent means keeping him around will surely spell future trouble. It would be better… it would be better…”

Better to beat him to death right then and there to provoke a dispute between Liao and Jin, allowing the Empress Dowager to sit back and reap the spoils. Naturally, he did not dare voice these words aloud, but the urgent instigation was glaringly obvious.

Finding it impossible to watch any longer, Fu An dropped to his knees and kowtowed: “I beg Your Majesty to reconsider! If you continue beating him, he will truly not survive! As for the state of Liao…”

As if just being reminded, Shen Chaoqing let his gaze fall upon Wuhuo’s face distorted by a mixture of excitement and terror and nodded in sudden realization. “That’s right, if we beat him anymore, he’ll die. I am benevolent and despise bloodshed above all else; how could I bear to take a life with my own hands?”

Wuhuo swallowed hard. These words would normally have been quite humorous, but he found himself utterly unable to laugh as cold sweat poured down in torrents.

Shen Chaoqing wore a cruel smile. “Since you are responsible for ‘serving’ Prince Xiao and failed in your discipline, my heart is deeply pained. Why don’t you take his punishment in his stead?”

All the color instantly drained completely from Wuhuo’s face. Collapsing limply onto the ground with a thud, he began to howl like a butchered pig: “Spare my life, Your Majesty! Spare my life! This servant… this servant is wronged!”

Two expressionless guards stepped forward and, without a word of discussion, dragged the mud-like, limp Wuhuo to the center of the hall, pinning him face-down to the floor.

The heavy wooden boards fell unmercifully, striking flesh with a dull, terrifying thud. Accompanied by Wuhuo’s shrill screams and pleas for mercy, the sounds instantly filled the entire palace.

“Spare my life, Your Majesty! Spare my life, Your Majesty!!”

Shen Chaoqing seated himself back upon the soft couch, propping up his chin as though enjoying an entertaining theatrical performance.

Xiao Huaiyan stared with cold detachment at this farce sparked entirely on his account. Yet, no look of humiliation touched his face only utter indifference, as if everything had nothing to do with him.

Barely had the heavy boards landed a few times when a eunuch’s shrill, urgent announcement rang out from outside the hall: “The Empress Dowager arrives”

Shen Chaoqing lifted his gaze slightly. The reaper had arrived.

Surrounded by a throng of palace attendants, Li Miaorong hurried into the hall. Though past thirty, she was well-preserved and gorgeously featured. Her magnificent and luxurious imperial gown made her bearing appear all the more graceful and poised.

Behind her, Senior Attendant Qiu held an exquisite food box, presumably containing ginseng soup or something similar.

Upon entering the hall, the rich stench of blood and the scene before her caused Li Miaorong’s footsteps to falter. The perfectly composed expression of concern on her face instantly froze, her vision darkening until Senior Attendant Qiu timely supported her, preventing her from losing her composure.

“What, what is the meaning of this?!” Regaining her breath, Li Miaorong pointed at the bloody mess of Wuhuo on the floor, then toward the on-the-verge-of-death Xiao Huaiyan. “Your Majesty, why harbor such immense wrath? Stop immediately! Cease the beating!”

Shen Chaoqing raised a hand, and the executing guards stopped instantly. He sneered inwardly in his heart: wasn’t this clumsy assassination farce arranged by this good mother of his?

“Mother, please calm your wrath. I was ambushed today, and these servants handled matters poorly, allowing petty individuals to slip into the palace and disturb the imperial carriage. I am merely administering a minor disciplinary lesson to serve as a warning to others.”

Acting as though he had grabbed onto a life-saving straw, Wuhuo disregarded his excruciating pain and shrieked in wailing cries: “Empress Dowager! Save this servant, Empress Dowager! It is this servant’s incompetence for failing to watch over Prince Xiao properly, allowing him… allowing him to actually dare collude with outsiders to assassinate His Majesty! That is why His Majesty has descended this punishment!”

Upon hearing this, Li Miaorong immediately covered her mouth with a handkerchief, putting on a look of shock before shifting her gaze toward Shen Chaoqing with a hint of disapproving reproach: “Your Majesty, this is where you are in the wrong. Since Prince Xiao is suspected of assassination, he should have been interrogated instead. Why vent your anger onto an innocent servant? Such a punishment will surely chill the hearts of all the palace attendants.”

Wuhuo was her man; even if he was somewhat foolish, it was not the emperor’s place to discipline him. Indeed, his wings had hardened; he was no longer as obedient as he had been in earlier years.

A fresh surge of murderous intent blossomed within Li Miaorong’s heart.

Observing her exquisite performance, Shen Chaoqing followed along with her words: “Then, in Mother’s view, how should this matter be handled?”

Li Miaorong knitted her slender brows slightly, her tone light and casual yet venomous in every syllable: “How difficult could this be? Since the evidence is conclusive and Prince Xiao dared to assassinate the Son of Heaven, it is a capital offense. Drag him out and execute him on the spot, so that the state of Liao knows the rules.”

Before her voice could fade, a bone-chilling intent to kill suddenly diffused outward from Xiao Huaiyan’s direction. Though he kept his head lowered, the instantaneously tensed ridge of his spine and his nearly stagnant breathing still betrayed his monstrous hatred.

Yet, when Li Miaorong’s probing gaze swept across him, he managed with great difficulty to raise his head at that exact moment. Those bottomless eyes actually looked directly toward Shen Chaoqing upon the imperial throne, as though all his attention rested entirely upon the emperor’s upcoming verdict.

Li Miaorong felt an inexplicable chill strike her heart from that single glance. Composing herself, she continued to urge: “Your Majesty, he who hesitates is lost!”

Fu An hurriedly knelt and kowtowed: “Your Majesty, Empress Dowager, you must never do this! This matter has not yet been thoroughly investigated; how can the Prince of Liao be executed so lightly? I fear this will spark a war between our two nations!”

He cared nothing for Xiao Huaiyan’s life, but if Xiao Huaiyan died, the consequences would be unthinkable.

Fu An genuinely wished to avert this war, but unfortunately, how could a single mouth ever rival two?

Though facing his own ruin, Wuhuo did not forget to bark on behalf of his master: “Impudent! When the Empress Dowager and His Majesty are speaking, how is it your place as a slave to interrupt!”

Thoughtfully, Shen Chaoqing nodded. “I feel Fu An makes a great deal of sense. Mother, let us investigate it thoroughly first, lest we mistakenly execute the innocent and chill the hearts of our friendly neighbors.” He deliberately placed a slightly heavier emphasis on the word “friendly neighbors.”

Friendly neighbors? If you truly cared about friendly neighbors, would you have beaten Xiao Huaiyan to such a state? What a joke!

The smile on Li Miaorong’s face turned somewhat forced. How could she possibly tolerate Xiao Huaiyan continuing to live? She immediately spoke up again: “Your Majesty’s words are entirely correct. Then, prior to clarifying the matter, let us temporarily house Prince Xiao in the side hall of my Changle Palace. I will certainly dispatch people to keep strict watch over him, ensuring he stirs up no further trouble.”

She calculated that once the person was in her hands, whether he lived or died would merely be a matter of a bowl of poison or a strip of white silk.

How could Shen Chaoqing fail to grasp her intentions?

So many plot points had already been verified; the credibility of that dream was exceedingly high.

Xiao Huaiyan was the male protagonist. If he died, this world might collapse, and he had not finished playing yet.

His gaze shifted down to Xiao Huaiyan on the ground. “I wouldn’t dare trouble Mother with this. I find he still possesses a shred of backbone; keeping him in the Zijin Palace to serve the ink brush will make for a novel change. Xiao Huaiyan, are you willing?”

Instantly, every single gaze focused upon the breath-tearing, lingering-on-the-verge-of-death Xiao Huaiyan.

The Empress Dowager’s gaze carried concealed murderous intent, while the emperor’s gaze was brimming with interest and unyielding pressure.

Coughing violently a few times, Xiao Huaiyan vomited a small amount of blood froth. He lowered his eyelids and articulated five crystal-clear words: “I am willing to follow Your Majesty.”

The smile on Li Miaorong’s face completely failed to hold up as a wisp of vicious gloom flashed across the depths of her eyes.

The elaborate trap she had painstakingly laid not only failed to use a borrowed knife to kill, but instead brought this disaster even closer to the emperor’s side!

The muscles on her face twitched slightly, but she quickly piled on a magnificent, luxurious smile once more. Shifting her gaze back to Xiao Huaiyan on the ground, her tone grew gentle yet brooked no refusal: “Prince Xiao, His Majesty is burdened with a myriad of responsibilities and busy with state affairs. The Zijin Palace is a place for handling major affairs of state and military affairs; with your injuries and suffering, staying here is likely to cause much inconvenience and disturb His Majesty’s tranquility. My Changle Palace, on the other hand, is tranquil and better suited for your recuperation. You should come with me instead; I certainly will not treat you poorly.”

This sounded as though it were spoken out of consideration for both the emperor and Xiao Huaiyan, but in reality, it was step-by-step pressure, determined to achieve her goal.