Over the next few days, Qiu Chen and the other four Beta guards remained closely by Bai Heting’s side, and no further disturbances arose until the end of the hunt.
However, the celebratory banquet on the final day was not quite as peaceful.
As was customary, at the conclusion of every hunt, the king would hand out rewards according to the hunting achievements displayed by each family. Although Shao Yixiao was young, he had always been a prominent figure in the royal hunts. This time, he once again stole the spotlight, capturing and killing enough prey to fill over a dozen horse carriages.
Bai Yi naturally rewarded him generously as well. In addition to gold, silver, and treasures, he also bestowed upon him a territory located on the northwestern border.
Shao Yixiao repeatedly expressed his gratitude.
Urdan was not fertile land, half of it was grassland and the other half was deserted, and under normal circumstances, a place like that would never have caught Shao Yixiao’s attention.
However, this territory had one particular distinction: its previous lord was the late Grand Marshal of the Army, Pei Ming.
During the years Bai Yi was expanding his territory, Shao Yixiao’s father, Shao Cheng, was merely Pei Ming’s subordinate. Now that the former supreme commander of the army had his fief seized by his subordinate’s son, everyone dared not show any anomaly on their faces, though they could not help but sigh in private.
Pei Ming, a magnificent founding veteran of the nation who clearly could have enjoyed a lifetime of wealth and glory, had somehow lost his mind and developed treasonous intentions.
Back then, Bai Yi ransacked his mansion in the capital. Pei Ming himself, along with his wife, daughter, and three sons, were all hung from the city walls to be displayed to the public; the corpses of the family of six were not taken down until they were completely desiccated by the wind.
A few months later, a small-scale rebel force composed of Pei Ming’s old subordinates was also completely wiped out by the royal army on the border of Urdan.
Grand Marshal Pei died without even a handful of ashes left behind, and these old, rotten pieces of history were forgotten by everyone in the blink of an eye. However, Bai Heting’s arrival brought the banquet into an even more bizarre atmosphere.
Several horse-drawn carriages carrying massive black cypress wood coffins slowly entered the venue before finally coming to a halt in the center of the square where the prey was displayed. Bai Yi was already over fifty; although his imposing aura still lingered, he no longer carried the heroic presence of his battlefield years, and exhaustion was evident on his face. Frowning as the faint stench of decay drifted toward him, he asked Bai Heting, “What is this?”
“Your Majesty.” Bai Heting knelt on one knee and answered solemnly, “These wooden coffins are not suitable to be opened on a celebratory and grand occasion such as the hunting festival.”
“Do not play fast and loose with me.” The smell was nauseating, and Bai Yi could not help but raise his sleeve to cover his nose and mouth as he pressed, “What is inside?”
Bai Heting remained quiet for a few seconds before pronouncing a single word with crisp clarity, “People.”
“What?” Bai Yi’s voice instantly rose in pitch.
The banquet, which had been full of singing and dancing, immediately plummeted into a dead silence, and even the attendants who were pouring wine froze mid-motion.
“Your Majesty.” Bai Heting’s voice was neither rushed nor slow. “On the first day of the autumn hunt, while tracking a cheetah, this humble official was ambushed by these ten-armed Alphas. Regrettably, the other party aimed to kill with every move, leaving me no opportunity to keep any alive.” As he spoke, his gaze swept across everyone seated at the banquet. “For unidentified individuals to quietly slip into a heavily guarded royal sanctuary like the hunting grounds, while also bringing along cheetahs and hounds…” His gaze lingered for a few seconds on the face of Chief Justice Zheng Yunshang, who sat to the left of Shao Cheng, before looking back at Bai Yi. “I humbly implore Your Majesty to authorize me to investigate the origins and motives of these thugs to eliminate any future troubles. If necessary, the assistance of the Chief Justice may be required.”
Bai Yi processed this long explanation, and his fury erupted.
For unidentified armed militants to openly attack a noble in the royal hunting grounds was an outright challenge to the authority of the royal family. Among the nobles participating in the hunt, many were there just to mingle, and at the thought that this matter could threaten their own personal safety, they all began to voice their agreement in succession.
And so, the resolution for Bai Heting to lead the investigation into the matter was settled.
This incident thoroughly dampened the king’s spirit, and the banquet came to a hasty end not long after.
Qiu Chen ordered his men to transport those horse carriages back to the military camp. By the time he returned to the campsite, Bai Heting was already sitting inside his tent, idly handling a custom-made recurve bow engraved with his own coat of arms.
This was his habitual gesture when deep in thought, he would either touch his bow or toy with his sword. Qiu Chen did not dare interrupt his train of thought and waited quietly by the tent entrance, but Bai Heting suddenly spoke up, “Are that person’s words believable?”
Qiu Chen immediately replied, “His description of that person’s appearance matches that corpse with a high degree of consistency.”
Two years ago, when the chief justice was accidentally injured by a cheetah, someone had also chanced upon a large fellow with a long scar on his face within the hunting grounds. Because there were no crests or family emblems on his hunting attire, it had left a slight impression.
Bai Heting unstrung the bow and asked again, “Whose leopard was it that bit Zheng Yunshang back then?”
“That leopard was shot and killed on the spot, and in the end, they never found out who its owner actually was,” Qiu Chen said. “But everyone suspected it was related to the Church.”
The chief justice was the only high-ranking official post in the country that a commoner could hold. Zheng Yunshang had once been a staunch religious reformist, but after the accident, he suddenly shifted his stance and became moderate.
This was precisely what Bai Heting found strange.
Unlike Zheng Yunshang, he was a military officer who had been sidelined by the king. In the absence of war, Bai Yi would never summon him to attend imperial council meetings, meaning he had absolutely no opportunity to interfere in political matters related to religion. Although he despised the Church’s unscrupulous, wealth-amassing behavior, he had never posed any substantive threat to them either.
Bai Heting wound the string around the bow’s shaft and gave a slight nod. “Understood. Go and rest.”
Having dismissed Qiu Chen, he went out himself while the night was still young.
The campsite where the crown prince was stationed was not far from the king’s temporary pavilion. Standing at the entrance of the camp, Bai Heting could hear the decadent, indulgent music drifting over from the distance.
It seemed the king had regained his appetite for pleasure.
The guard who went to report did not keep him waiting outside for too long. By the time he stepped into the tent, Bai Jiashu was drinking alone in a melancholy mood, though his spirits visibly brightened upon seeing him arrive.
“What brings you here? I was actually planning to summon you to see me tomorrow.” Bai Jiashu called for someone to bring a new set of wine vessels. Seeing Bai Heting standing silently in the distance, he urged, “What are you standing there for? Come, sit down.”
The offensive scent of tobacco pheromones still lingered in the tent. Bai Heting took a few steps forward and sat down opposite Bai Jiashu in silence.
“Why did you wait until now to mention the ambush? You aren’t hurt, are you?” Bai Jiashu scrutinized him carefully. Seeing no physical issues, he offered a gentle smile. “Then again, a mere ten people probably couldn’t do anything to you anyway.”
He filled a cup with wine for Bai Heting and lifted it toward him.
But Bai Heting did not take it.
Though he was usually a man of few words, he was rarely ever this taciturn. Bai Jiashu set the wine cup back on the table and asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”
Bai Heting said flatly, “On the day I encountered those people, I was drugged.”
“Drugged? With what?”
“A drug that induces estrus heat.”
As if failing to comprehend, Bai Jiashu murmured a repetition, “Heat…” After a long, blank daze, his eyes suddenly widened. “You…” His head buzzed, yet he couldn’t bring himself to utter the question stuck in his throat, “They didn’t…”
Bai Heting’s expression remained perfectly calm. “That day, I only ate a bit of food and drank a few cups of wine at your place.”
Bai Jiashu followed his gaze down to the engraved silver cup filled with wine right by his hand, finally understanding the profound implication hidden beneath Bai Heting’s words.
“What do you mean by that?” He shifted his gaze back to Bai Heting’s calm and tranquil face, while his own face flushed red and turned pale in turns. “I drank that wine right along with you!”
Bai Heting continued to question him, “Where were you that afternoon?”
“I…”
Bai Jiashu had drunk a bit too much that afternoon, sleeping the entire way in his carriage, and had continued sleeping after returning to the campsite until he was awakened by the torrential rain late at night. He took a deep breath, then gritted his teeth fiercely. “Bai Heting, do you really think it’s necessary for me to use such underhanded, vile tactics on you?”
Bai Heting gave no reply, only slightly tilting his head back, revealing the faint knife scar along his neck.
“I…” Bai Jiashu’s throat instantly choked up, and his face flushed a violent crimson. “I told you, that was just an accident!”
Over the past six months, Bai Heting’s pheromones had been somewhat unstable, occasionally leaving him bedridden for days. Bai Jiashu had gone to the General’s Mansion to visit him once but had inadvertently lost his sanity amidst the fir pheromones of Bai Heting’s heat. As a prince of noble status, none of the attendants present dared to stop him, and that farce had ultimately come to a tragic end when Bai Heting slashed his own neck with a blade.
The amber-toned pheromones in the air grew increasingly dense, while the Alpha’s chest rose and fell violently under the strain of his overwhelming emotions.
With a sudden sweep of his hand, he overturned the leftover food on the table, sending the silverware clattering and rolling across the ground in a chaotic racket.
“You’re just like Royal Father; you look down on me from the bottom of your heart.” Bai Jiashu glared with bloodshot eyes, demanding repeatedly, “Just because my rank is ordinary, right? Just because I’m not outstanding enough, so every single one of you thinks I can only achieve my goals through disgraceful means, right?”
His reaction was far too intense, looking completely unfeigned, which caused Bai Heting to furrow his brows. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
Bai Jiashu suddenly laughed.
Once he had laughed his fill, he enunciated his next words, pausing after each one, “If he hadn’t been injured on the battlefield back then and rendered incapable of fathering any more sons, he would never have made me the Crown Prince.”
There were still several of Bai Jiashu’s personal attendants inside the tent. Bai Heting had not expected him to be so reckless with his words and quickly cautioned him in a low voice, “Your Highness has drunk too much today.”
Bai Jiashu shook his head, glanced up at the guards by the entrance, and said in a cold tone, “It is getting late. See General Bai back to his quarters to rest.”
