Chapter 16: 16

Then, more than a dozen of courtiers stood up as if prearranged and opposed to the Prince of Qin succeeding the throne. They proclaimed that the Crown Prince was the rightful successor.

At this moment, the officials were evenly split in between supporting the Prince of Qin or the Crown Prince. Both sides insisted on their stance. They broke out into vicious arguments.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crowd looked on in trepidation. They glanced at the expressionless Crown Prince and the Prince of Qin, whom they could only see his back and were unable to discern his thoughts.

Qimu’s vein throbbed as he argued with Wei Fujing. He glanced at Xiao Kezhi every now and then to ascertain his reaction and to see his response.

He remembered that although the Prince of Qin was a prince, he remained with his army all year round. He believed that he had never experienced a palace strife such as this, so he expected that he would be flustered into arguing.

Qimu waited for some time and was becoming impatient. However, Xiao Kezhi continued to stand with his hands behind his back, and he still had not turned around.

After a series of intense arguments, both sides were a little confused.

The two subjects of their arguments, the Prince of Qin and the Crown Prince, both remained silent. 

At least the Crown Prince could be excused due to his precarious position, so he could not speak openly. They all wondered why the Prince of Qin did not say anything. 

As the confusion grew, the arguments also gradually died down.

Only then did Xiao Kezhi turn around to face the crowd.

His expression was emotionless, and his gaze was sharp. He scanned the crowd before looking at Qimu and Wei Fujing, “Are you done talking?”

Both of them were stunned into silence. After a moment of silence, they made an obeisance and said, “We await Your Majesty’s decision.”

Xiao Kezhi did not reply but looked up at the sky and said, “It’s getting late. Weimo must be hungry.”

The crowd exchanged glances in confusion and suddenly remembered that Weimo was the Prince of Qin’s pet wolf.

“Your Majesty?”

Qimu couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows in warning, and his tone contained a hint of anger. He had put himself against the Crown Prince for the sake of securing the throne for the Prince of Qin, yet the Prince of Qin reacted indifferently in return.

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Xiao Kezhi ignored him and signaled his guards with a hand gesture.

The guards immediately understood him. They went to the back of the palace and came back a while later, leading in a large wolf with sharp teeth and a ferocious gaze.

“Ah…”

There was a stifled scream from amongst the crowd, and all eyes widened from fright. A few elderly royal family members fell down and fainted.

Weimo seemed nervous being in the presence of so many people. It kept running around Xiao Kezhi and snarled at the crowd every now and then.

“Don’t worry, you will be fed soon,” Xiao Kezhi reached down and patted Weimo’s head. Then he took a couple of steps forward to the edge of the stage and looked down at Wei Fujing.

“Who is the Assistant Director of the Ministry of Works?” he asked.

Everyone turned their gaze to somewhere behind Wei Fujing. Even Xiao Yu couldn’t help raising his eyebrows slightly as he gazed over suspiciously.

The Assistant Director of the Ministry of Works was completely stunned at being called. He hesitated for a moment before taking a couple of steps forward and said, “Your servant is here.”

“Hmm.” Xiao Kezhi looked at him and asked calmly, “Just now, you said that the testamentary edict is fake, so the Crown Prince should take the throne instead of me, am I right?”

Even though they were separated by a stage, the Assistant Director was still shaking from fear because of Weimo. He desperately wanted to run away.

However, he could not refuse to answer the Prince of Qin. Just now, everyone witnessed him arguing in support of Wei Fujing. There was no way he could deny it. Furthermore, if he denied and tried to be vague, he could never hope to have any standing in the royal court in the future.

He did not know what Xiao Kezhi was planning, so he had no choice but to pay obeisance and said, “I, I did say that.”

Xiao Kezhi did not reply but looked down and gestured at Weimo.

All of a sudden, before anyone could react, a grey shadow jumped up and pounced on the Assistant Director.

The Assistant Director was wide eyed and screaming in terror as he tried to escape. However, all his limbs were trapped by the large grey wolf, and he could not move at all.

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