Chapter Ninety-Four: Confronting the Wang Clan

“Where are you going, Kong?”

In the side manor, Li Kong had only just settled Cui Zhu in before stepping back outside. This time, he came armed with his armor and spear, his whole body radiating murderous intent. Li Yue’e stared at him in stunned silence, then hurriedly called out.

Without turning his head, Li Kong said, “Someone has already come banging openly at our door. If I keep swallowing this down, I’ll truly be nothing but a coward. Mother, don’t worry—I know what I’m doing.”

The words had barely fallen before he was already out the door.

Li Yue’e’s heart tightened. Because of Cui Zhu, she had clashed with Lady Wang more than once. In the past, Cui Zhu had been Lady Wang’s maid, but she had now lived in the side manor for nearly four years. Not only Li Kong, even she had grown especially fond of that cute, dazed little girl. But because Cui Zhu had once been a servant, and because after marrying Li Ji she had never truly been taught the bearing and presence of a noble lady, every confrontation had ended in defeat.

Back then, she had wondered what would happen if Li Kong ever returned. But at the time, she had assumed Cui Zhu would already have left the family home, and that even if Li Kong were angry, he would not say much. After all, once the attachment was gone, what was left to brood over?

But now it was obvious: Li Kong was going to kill someone.

As his mother, what worried her was not whether he could kill Lady Wang, but what would happen afterward. The great noble houses had endured for a thousand years; which of them did not have deep roots? Li Kong was only an illegitimate son of a ducal family. Would Li Shimin and Li Ji cast him aside in order to appease the aristocracy?

With fury burning in his chest, Li Kong strode toward the rear of the main residence. At this moment, his hatred was not directed at Lady Wang alone; even the goodwill he had once felt toward Li Ji had vanished without a trace. Before he had been driven down in status, Li Ji had promised him that Li Yue’e would be granted the standing of a wife of equal rank, yet nearly three years had passed and nothing had come of it.

This time, he would make Li Ji see clearly that Li Kong was not someone who would indulge him forever. Trying to deceive him? Fine. Then Li Ji would have to see whether he had the heart to endure Li Kong’s rage.

“Master Li Kong, what are you doing?” At the rear gate, two gatekeepers saw Li Kong storming over in anger and were thoroughly startled, hurriedly speaking up.

The gatekeepers here were basically all Lady Wang’s people. In the past, they had not been shy about sneering at the people of the side manor. If Li Kong had not been bristling with killing intent now, they probably would not even have addressed him as master.

Li Kong knew this all too well. With a cold snort, he said, “Get out of the way. Otherwise... die.”

“Master Li Kong, please do not make things difficult for this servant. I am only a lowly hand, and you...” One gatekeeper gathered his courage to speak, secretly hoping Li Kong was only bluffing. After all, this was the duke’s residence. The one in charge was the Duke of England, Li Ji. Since Li Ji was not here, the Duchess of England was the highest authority in the household. What right did Li Kong, a bastard son from a side branch, have to act recklessly?

Their thinking was not entirely wrong. But what they could never have imagined was that the Li Kong before them and the one they had bullied in the past were now two utterly different men.

So the instant that gatekeeper finished speaking, he felt a stabbing pain in his chest. Then his whole body flew backward, slamming hard into the wall. He spat out a mouthful of blood and crashed to the ground.

“And you?” Li Kong gave his spear a sharp shake and pointed it at the remaining gatekeeper. “Will you roll away yourself, or should I send you rolling?”

The gatekeeper went cold all over and hurriedly said, “Master Li Kong, I...”

At that moment, a furious shout suddenly rang out from afar. “Li Kong, what do you think you are doing?”

As the voice rang out, more than a dozen armed guards rushed out from inside, each one staring at Li Kong with grave expressions. In the middle of them stood Lady Wang, her hands clasped tightly together, her face dark and her eyes blazing with unmistakable fury.

With a loud clang, Li Kong drove the butt of his spear into the ground and sneered. “What am I doing? Does the Duchess of England not understand?”

“You... what insolence. I really do not understand. You will have to teach this little brat a lesson.” Lady Wang was so angry her chest heaved. If she had not needed to preserve her image, she might already have turned into a shrew of the streets.

Li Kong laughed coldly and said, “Little brat, is it? In that case, I’ll stop being polite. Tell me, what exactly happened with Cui Zhu? Don’t say I didn’t give you a chance. If this matter is not explained today, do you believe I will wipe out your entire Wang family?”

“You... you are behaving like a child speaking to an elder!”

“Against people like you, I have never cared about respect for rank. There is less than an hour until nightfall. I’ll wait right here. If not...” He let out a soft, chilling laugh.

Then Li Kong kicked out. A slab of stone shot forward more than ten paces and landed squarely at the main entrance to the rear courtyard. He sat down on it with a thump and said, “Until this is settled, none of you had better think about leaving this courtyard!”

“Seize him!” Lady Wang could no longer suppress the flames in her heart. Her voice sharpened into a shriek.

The dozen or so guards had long since been on full alert. At her command, they howled and charged at Li Kong.

“Overestimating yourselves.” Li Kong sneered. In a flash, he leapt into the air, his spear trembling in his hands. Before the guards could even close in on him, all of them were sent flying backward at once. One of them, by terrible bad luck, smashed into the sly, rat-eyed steward, knocking him to the ground and making him spurt blood on the spot. Whether or not Li Kong had done that on purpose, no one could tell.

“Good, good, good! The brat from back then has grown up. His wings have hardened. Do you really think the Li family’s law is just for show? Let me see just how capable you truly are.” Lady Wang felt a stabbing pain in her heart. With a cold snort, she turned and left the place.

Li Kong did not care. He could not be bothered to keep watch over that shrew. There was still not much time left before nightfall. If he did not get the answer he wanted by then, he would not mind making the Duke of England’s residence the laughingstock of all Chang’an.

What Li Kong did not know was that after he left the side manor, Lai Fu also departed the ducal residence and headed straight for the Imperial Palace. After all, everyone in the house knew that among all the people in the world, only the one in the Imperial Palace could restrain the enraged Li Kong.

Half an hour later, in Sweet Dew Hall of the Imperial Palace, Li Shimin personally received Lai Fu. After listening to his account, he looked down at Lai Fu, who knelt on the floor and did not dare raise his head, and the fire in Li Shimin’s heart surged higher and higher.

He was not blaming Lai Fu, and he did not think Li Kong was in the wrong. He only felt that someone was testing the limits of his patience.

He had seen Cui Zhu several times himself, and he knew exactly what role she played in Li Kong’s vast commercial empire. If Lai Fu was the chief of marketing, then Cui Zhu was the chief strategist. Even the current operations aimed at the great noble houses were under Cui Zhu’s direction. In less than a year, she had wrested more than three hundred thousand mu of land from those aristocratic clans and handed it over to the imperial family without asking for anything in return.

This was talent no less remarkable than a great general who conquers new territory. In Li Shimin’s eyes, Cui Zhu was no longer merely a servant from Li Ji’s household, but a truly capable ministerial talent. Her future was absolutely not something Lady Wang could decide as she pleased.

Of course, if Cui Zhu had not been so deeply in love with Li Kong, Li Shimin might already have taken that clever, endearing girl into the harem.

But what was he supposed to do now? For once, Li Shimin was at a loss.

After a long silence, he drew a deep breath and rose to his feet. “Come. I will go and see for myself.”