The small incident was temporarily pacified.
Everyone, whether unintentionally or intentionally, looked at Cui Buqu, trying their best to raise the atmosphere again once more.
Those who originally wanted to walk towards Feng Xiao's direction would stop because he was standing too near to Cui Buqu.
Feng Xiao did not raise his head. He was focused on arranging something on the table.
Under the invitation and urging of everyone, the Crown Prince smiled as he gave the first riddle.
"The character 'Two' forms its body, it has four strokes and eight heads."
Men of letters were everywhere in the hall, so very quickly someone guessed the word 'Well'. A young scholar was the first to answer, his face riddled with laughter.
Just now the host has said that a female will be rewarded with a jade hairpin, and a male would be rewarded with a sword. However, Cui Buqu's words still lingered in her ear, so Princess Leping could not help feeling uncomfortable. She turned to the scholar and said, "There is another sword in my house once belonged to Sima Hui during the time of the Three Kingdoms. Since someone questioned the origin of the other sword, I will not drag you into this matter, so let us replace it with this sword. What says you?"
Since she explained it in this way, how would the scholar dare to decline? He could only bear silent dislike at Cui Buqu for being a busybody, so he quickly said, "Many thanks to the Princess for granting me this gift!"
Yuwen Xuanzhu ordered a few men to take out the sword from the vault, before she presented it to the scholar personally.
Other people were envious of him. Some of them were not as quick as others when it came to responses, so they could not rely on their abilities to grab the chances for the next few riddles. Thus, they decided to make use of someone else for them to show off themselves instead.
The best target, naturally, was the one who spoke to offend the princess and her daughter a while ago.
Someone spoke loudly, "I heard Marquis Cui was more intelligent than most men. So here I have a riddle which I have not been able to decrypt for many years. Perhaps Marquis Cui can lend a hand?"
There it is! Everyone thought, and their gazes fell upon Cui Buqu in unison, ten out of ten wanting to watch how the show would unfold.
Cui Buqu sat there, unmoving, and said in a drawling manner, "I seldom show myself in front of others. Where did you hear of my name?"
The one currently looking for trouble wasn't just any scholar, but he was the disciple of a prestigious school in the capital. His surname was Yang, his name was Rende, and he was the nephew of the Grand Physician, he was always on good terms with Yuwen Xuanzhu.
Yang Rende smiled, "Marquis Cui set out for the Western Regions and became famed in the capital. Not only did you manage to take down Qiemo, but you even welcomed the Göktürk Khan back to the capital. How are you not more intelligent than others?"
He did not allow Cui Buqu to divert the topic, and before the other could speak, he quickly took out a jade ball from his bosom.
Under the light of a thousand lanterns, everyone could see clearly that this jade ball possessed numerous small holes on it, linking each other from one end of the ball to the opposite end. A red string was put through these small holes, then came out from the other direction, wrapping itself tightly around the entire ball.
Yan Rende introduced it to everyone, "There is only one red string here. A master strung it from beginning to end around this jade ball, so no one could determine where the string begins and where it ends. After I received this ball, I wished to separate both these things without ruining the jade ball or the red string. However, no matter how hard I try, I could not find the beginning of the string. Perhaps Marquis Cui could help solve this troublesome matter for me?"
He gave the jade ball to a servant, and allowed him to give it to Cui Buqu. As the servant brought it to Cui Buqu, the Crown Prince became curious, so he took the jade ball and looked at it for a while. Everyone else also took a look at it, and they could not find the beginning of the red string, so they could not help rumble quietly out of curiosity.
Feng Xiao was not interested in these sort of games, in fact he was disgusted at the jade ball for having been touched by so many people, so he did not take it for himself to take a look. From the beginning to the end, he never raised his head, as if he was completely addicted to playing with mandarins. On the table, there was even a bunch of mandarins that were peeled but not eaten.
When the light of those thousand lanterns fell upon the heads of people, it made their faces glow. However, when it came to Feng Xiao's face, it was like another layer of gentle light was added to it. This strayed more than just a few young maidens' hearts, for they could not help but steal a glance at him.
In the end, that jade ball reached Cui Buqu's hands.
He took the jade ball, turned it one round and said, "This really is excellent craftsmanship, how extraordinary."
Yan Rende smiled cheekily, "This time, all things will depend on Marquis Cui."
Cui Buqu shook his head, "I also could not find the beginning of the string."
Yang Rende was shocked, "You could even expose the Göktürk Khan when he was feigned by an imposter, don't tell me that you are now trying to get the favour of the Crown Prince and the Princess, so you are being humble on purpose?"
Princess Leping laughed and said, "If even someone as intelligent as Marquis Cui could not solve the riddle, then I fear no one in this world could do it."
When she was obviously praising Cui Buqu, in reality she was placing him onto a high pedestal on purpose, but even if Cui Buqu was laughed at by everyone present, it was not enough to soothe the hatred in her heart. Her jade fingers were caressing the fan in her hand, counting the minutes, before calling a maidservant and gave her a few orders. The maidservant nodded, then turned to leave, but she ran into a woman in white who was as beautiful as a goddess, only that her expression was icy-cold and cool, and as strict looking as the Judge of Hell.
The maidservant said in shock as she furrowed her brows, "Who are you? Couldn't you quickly give way?"
Qiao Xian said coldly, "Tonight, nobody can think about leaving."
She reached a hand out to the other, swinging it to her shoulders. The other then quickly fell down. She had passed out.
The maidservant was not far from the princess, so when she fell to the ground it was enough for the princess to turn her head to look. When she saw what happened, she shouted in shock, "Who are you?! Men!"
Everyone turned their heads to look, yet she saw Qiao Xian walking towards them and nodded her head at Cui Buqu.
Cui Buqu finally stood on his legs and smooth the wrinkles in his robes. He said in a proper, gentlemanly voice, "Surround the Princess' manor inside out. Without my orders, no one is allowed to leave."
Qiao Xian clasped her hands together and nodded.
With a wave of her hand, a great number of people came out from the dark and barricaded every single escape route possible.
These people were wearing black robes, their expressions were cool, and on their waist hung the badge of the Zuoyue Bureau, holding Zuoyue knives. These were uniforms of the Zuoyue Bureau.
Shocked, a deep rumbling grew surged through the crowd.
Everyone glared with widened eyes at Cui Buqu, unsure of how to respond to it.
The Crown Prince stood up in fury, "Cui Buqu! Are you trying to commit treason? Men!"
Princess Leping was so mad that her face practically turned blue. Originally, she wanted to give Cui Buqu a lesson, but who could have guessed that he even more dauntless, completely lost his mind, and dared to do something like this!
Bringing men to surround the princess' manor, withholding Prince Jin and other royalties like this. Even if it wasn't treason, it was not far from it.
Prince Jin also wanted to ask whether Cui Buqu had lost his mind, but when those words came to the tip of his tongue, he saw, from the corner of his eye, that among those men in black robes, other than the soldiers from the Zuoyue Bureau, there also seemed to be some Feathered Forest Guards among them, so he shut his mouth and watched how things would advance.
Cui Buqu ignored the loud rumbling and protests. He said coldly, "Today, there are culprits who planned to make use of the Thousand Lantern Banquet to execute a crime. Thankfully, information reached my hands prior, so I was able to show up on time to stop it. Fire oils are hidden in every corner of Qingli Garden, sealing up all escape routes. It's easy to create a fire as there are many lanterns in the banquet here tonight. However, once it is lit, it can immediately burn down the entire garden. Qiao Xian, bring the item forward."
Qiao Xian allowed some people to bring forth a pot of pomegranate flower. As everyone watched, she picked up the flowerpot and dropped it to the ground. In truth, the pomegranate plants roots had already been cut and half of the pot was actually filled with flammable fuel, then it was separated by a wooden board, covered with a layer of dirt, before placing the plant back onto it.
Doing this killed the plant, but it could still remain like this for one to two days. In order to prepare the banquet, the princess' servant practically worked day and night, so it was not difficult to sneak these sort of things inside. Since, it was easy to say they were just to lighten the mood of the princess and her daughter. After all, the banquet was only for one night, so who would pay attention to these plants?
As for plants filled with flammable fuel, this was a whole different set of matter.
Cui Buqu, "Behind this observation deck, there was originally a small lotus pond, but now the water has been drawn, and only soil remains. If a fire does break out, you people could not even save yourselves by jumping into it."
Yuwen Xuanzhu said, "I know about this. They all said that I loved carnations, so they wanted to refurnish the lotus lake into carnations. But because they could not refurnish it on time, it was just temporarily in construction."
No one could hear her words, because they were all shocked by Cui Buqu's.
Cui Buqu, "This place was situated higher than other places in the garden, so one can watch clearly from above here, how the fire lights flickered down below. It wasn't not a bad sight. However, because of this, when one looked down at the other routes, they are all places that will be burned. When that time comes, even if you break all your hands and legs from jumping off this place, you still cannot escape, because below, there are assassins lying in wait. Tomorrow, everyone in the capital would receive news of Qingli Garden's burning, along with the news that all the princes and princesses have died in the incident."
His eyes scanned the crowd once, and added slowly, "Everyone present here, not one of you will survive."
Everyone glared at Cui Buqu blankly, still submerged in the shock. For a few moments, they could not digest his words.
The Crown Prince was the first to speak, "Who! Who dare commit this horrendous deed?!"
Prince Jin said sullenly, "Of this matter…does his Majesty already know of this?"
Cui Buqu looked at him and nodded, "Just in case, I have already borrowed two hundred Feathered Forest Guards from his Majesty. The mission has already been accomplished and all the assassins have been captured, even the one behind all of them, they are twenty people in total!"
Prince Jin let out a long breath of relief, "Marquis Cui knew of the enemy's moves in advance, and turned danger into merely fear. You have saved all of our lives. However, who is the one behind all of this? If he can scheme such a huge plan, certainly it is impossible for him to achieve it if there was no insider to assist him?"
Cui Buqu smiled, but his smile told everyone that it wasn't as gentle as it looked, in fact, there was a sort of dangerous feel to it.
"Bring him here."
Qiao Xian waved her hand, and not long later, two people brought forth a young man and pushed him into the centre.
The man was tied up, so he could not move. Qiao Xian removed the cotton that they had used to gag him and the man shouted, "Princess, save me! Princess, save me!"
Princess Leping's face changed.
Yuwen Xuanzhu let out a small 'aah'.
Cui Buqu, "Does your Highness recognize this man?"
Princess Leping's face turned metallic green, but she remained silent.
Cui Buqu changed his target, "If the princess does not recognize him, surely Xuanzhu could recognize him?"
"Is he not the princess manor's man, Ren Yue?" Yuwen Xuanzhu confessed weakly.
Cui Buqu, "That is right. Ren Yue hailed from the Ren family of the Jing Hong Sword Sect, and inherited the Ren family's Jing Hong Sword technique. He was famed in the Jianghu province, no wonder Ren Yue is a well-learned man who was excellent in both academics and combat, young and strong and ambitious. Ever since last year, when he received Princess Leping's promotion, he entered the princess's manor as a subject and obtained the princess's absolute trust."
In the last few words, he purposely put emphasis on them, as if there was an underlying meaning to it.
And the colour of Princess Leping's face only got uglier with every time he paused.
Everyone present was shocked and shaken by the news, all but Feng Xiao, who remained impassive and unaffected.
He finally relented and looked upon the table, sweeping his hands together satisfyingly, peeling off the leftover mandarin shred that clung to his fingers.
On the table, white shreds of mandarin oranges were arranged neatly into the picture of a fox.
That fox was sitting on top of its tail, trying its best to spread its ears, giving all it could to behave like a quail.
Feathered Forest Guards: The raw text are Yu Lin Jun Jin Wei (羽林军禁卫). They are considered a faction of armies are closely belonged to the Emperor. In different dynasties, they served different purposes. They are also called the 'Yulin Wei' – 'Yu' meaning 'Feather', 'Lin' meaning 'Forest', and 'Wei' meaning 'Guards'. Their name came from a proverb: 为国羽翼,如林之盛 (To serve as wings of the country, like the prosperity of a forest'.