Let Me Shoulder this Blame! 171

Chapter 171 – Historically Memorable Villainy Arc

Su Shi closed his eyes tiredly. He wanted to lie down again, but then he realized that Song Rong had yet to loosen his hold on him. Su Shi frowned slightly and looked over at the other man with a bit of uncertainty on his face.

Song Rong froze. Then he quickly let go of Su Shi and stepped back.

“My apologies, Prime Minister…”

“I’m not the prime minister anymore. Wangye does not need to address me as such.” Su Shi responded calmly. He looked at the other party’s increasingly helpless gaze. After a long silence, Su Shi couldn’t help being softhearted and he said slowly: “Qing Guang.”

“What?”

Song Rong looked up in a daze, obviously not knowing how to react.

Feeling helpless, Su Shi took Song Rong by the hand and used his finger to write the two characters on Song Rong’s palm. “Qing Guang. When I reached the age of majority, this is the courtesy name that my father gave me. It’s just that no one has called me by that name in a long time.”

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This was obviously the hand of a scholar. The fingertips only had a thin layer of calluses from holding a brush all the time. The cool fingertip passed across the broad and warm palm. The regent’s breath stuttered and he subconsciously repeated after the prime minister, “Qing Guang…”

Lu Li’s eyes fell on him, as if this particular name evoked some very distant memories. He nodded slightly for a moment, closed his eyes as if he was extremely tired, and lay down without another word.

Lu Li had stood in the courtroom for a long time and was suffering from a high fever, so it was inevitable that he would be weak and tired now. Song Rong carefully covered him with a brocade quilt and straightened out the corners of the quilt. He spoke softly, “Do you normally like reading?”

Su Shi wasn’t particularly sleepy, but he felt tired and indolent, so he just let the other man do what he wanted and answered in a low voice.

“I just flip through a few things during my free time.”

The continuous high fever has caused his throat to go a little dry and he couldn’t help coughing twice. Song Rong had already brought him some water. He wrapped his arm around Su Shi’s shoulders and neck in a very natural manner and pressed the edge of the cup against his lip.

Lu Li seemed unmoved by his actions. Song Rong maintained a calm expression but his heart was already pounding violently.

This morning, he went over to look and saw that Lu Li had not touched last night’s meal at all. Then he remembered that the other person’s wrists must be hurting so badly that he couldn’t even hold the chopsticks properly, and he couldn’t help feeling annoyed at his own carelessness.

In his mind, Song Rong had practiced taking care of Lu Li hundreds of times. He only hoped that the other man would not feel humiliated by the act, so that he could drink some water and eat some food to aid in his recovery.

After a moment of stalemate, Lu Li finally thanked him softly, lowered his head slightly, and wrapped a hand around the cup to take two sips of water.

Song Rong’s eyes brightly slightly. He helped Lu Li lean back down and slowly removed his arm. Lu Li’s body still seemed to burn from the stubborn high fever.

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Song Rong felt a little reluctant to do what he had in mind, but he still forced himself to be ruthless. He squatted beside the couch and looked into those clear, glass-like eyes.

“Does Qing Guang also read An Examination of a Good Monarch in his free time?”

A sharp sense of alertness struck Su Shi’s heart. His soft, feverish gaze became cold in an instant and pierced through Song Rong like lightning.

Song Rong remained motionless. He kept looking steadily at Su Shi with his dark eyes. His current demeanor was completely different from his awkward and clumsy actions prior.

“The regent is being too nosey.”

The prime minister’s voice was cold when he spoke, and indifference once again masked any emotions in his eyes. It was as if all of Song Rong’s previous efforts had been ruined in a single instant, but he didn’t dare to retreat.

Song Rong actually didn’t like to read. Except for The Art of War, he didn’t know many other titles. But this book – An Examination of a Good Monarch – he knew better than most others what it meant.

An Examination of a Good Monarch was a book for the emperor. The founding emperor of the Xuan Dynasty wrote it. It detailed the policy of governing the country and the way of the emperor. Except for the crown prince, the other princes couldn’t even look at the book.

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That day, when Song Rong was in the prime minister’s manor, he saw An Examination of a Good Monarch, and it looked like Lu Li had read it often and made detailed notes. Song Rong hadn’t thought much about it at the time. After all, the imperial edict had stated that Lu Li had traitorous intentions, and for a man who wanted to rebel it was quite normal for him to have such a book in his collection.

However, it was not until today when he personally attended the court meeting and heard the accusations made by the ministers against Lu Li that he suddenly realized a fact that could not be ignored but no one mentioned it.

Lu Li was able to force the emperor to abdicate by sword point. He was able to kill the late emperor’s imperial consort right before his eyes. And he was able to easily eliminate the left prime minister’s entire clan.

If he wanted to rebel, he should have rebelled long ago.

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