The System Make Me Near With The Emperor
Chapter 37

The arrow is still being fired. Xie Hongyi swam to get away from him. But the arrows were glued in various directions and Xie Hongyi had trouble escaping.

Unfortunately, the oxygen tank he was using had run out of air. Wanting to reduce the load while swimming, Xie Hongyi removed the oxygen tube and threw it to the surface to distract.

Investigations succeeded. The arrow finally stopped. Xie Hongyi then swam silently to the dark side of the lake.

As he arrived at the surface, Xie Hongyi was breathing rapidly to hunt for oxygen. If only he was in the lake for another second, then Xie would die from suffocation! Xie could not imagine his death for the third time.

The lake became bright and crowded because dozens of soldiers were walking along the edge while carrying a lantern. Some carried weapons such as swords and bows and arrows.

One of the soldiers looked at Xie Hongyi's movement that was rising to the edge of the lake. The soldier shouted. "The intruder's right there!" And then Xie Hongyi shot out like a fired cannon, running as fast as he could.

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit damnit!

Xie Hongyi could not bear to curse as long as he ran without direction. The number of soldiers was increasing, and he was almost out of breath again.

Without a second thought, he climbed onto the roof of a building, and tried as much as possible to hide himself there. But unfortunate luck approached him again, the roof collapsed and made Xie Hongyi fall.

The soldiers who heard the sound then rushed to the source of the sound. The sound felt from the kitchen. There was a large hole above the room, and underneath it were some objects lying like broken pieces of precarious and cooking utensils. But, there was no one they were looking for there. "Quick search around here! The intruder must be hiding." One of the soldiers who was the leader of them gave the order.

Some of his men then checked the entire kitchen. But there is no result they want. The soldier said to his leader. "It looks like the intruder managed to escape."

The leader clucked. He then ordered the soldiers to search for the intruder elsewhere.

After everyone left, Xie Hongyi who was hiding in the kitchen ceiling heaved a sigh of relief. He held the ceiling support wood to hold his weight. His feet were also hooked to one of the woods.

No one sees himself on the ceiling because all parts of his body are black, in line with the color of the kitchen ceiling. At the moment he fell, his body hit the fire furnace and made the charcoal from the furnace fill his entire body so that his body was black. The blow also caused some objects to be thrown. Fortunately, the fire was cold. His thinking speed was extremely fast, utilizing the color of his body, Xie Hongyi leaped up then hung himself above the sky. The moment those soldiers came, he quickly closed his eyes and listened to every movement of the soldiers, and as they left, Xie Hongyi quietly sighed in relief.

Xie Hongyi then jumped down and immediately left from there. By the time he arrived at the Lotus residence, he slowly opened the gate. When the gate opened, Ling'er who was carrying the lantern was startled and almost shouted if only Xie Hongyi did not keep her mouth shut. "It's me."

Ling'er slowly calmed down to hear a familiar voice in her ears. He then asked doubtfully. "Mistress?"

"Yes, it's me."

"But why are you..." Ling'er did not continue his words. Looking at Xie Hongyi's body which was entirely black and left only a pair of eyes open, anyone would definitely be scared when they saw it. When he heard Ling'er speak, behind his black face, there was a red hue on Xie Hongyi's cheeks. It was fortunate that his face was covered in charcoal, so Ling'er could not see it. "Umm, well this is hard to explain."

Ling'er then offered to make water for Xie Hongyi to take a bath. "Then I'll heat the water."

Xie Hongyi felt he needed a bath to clean his body full of charcoal. With that he did not reject Ling'er's offer. "Go away. Don't tell anyone about this."

"I understand." After that Ling'er finally left.

Xie Hongyi sat in a warm bathtub. Behind him, Ling'er rubbed Xie Hongyi's body. "Mrs, are you okay? Your wounds seem deep enough."

Xie Hongyi glanced at the scar on his hand. The wound was a little painful. It may also cause scars later. "You don't have to worry. I'll treat him later."

"I'd better treat it."

Unable to resist one's goodwill, Xie Hongyi agreed. "As far as you go."

After Xie Hongyi finished being treated by Ling'er, he went to the dimensional space. Inside the dimensional space, he sat on a bench while laying out a human bone part of his arm. On the table were some modern medical equipment used to determine the identity of the bone, such as for DNA tests. All that equipment included a diving set, Xie Hongyi paid using the points he borrowed from the points bank.

Looking at the system watching from the side, Xie Hongyi became reminded of his debt. While pouting, he said to the system. "Little fox, once this mission is over, you'll have to give me a lot of points. You know I'm so poor?"

Xie Hongyi finally began to identify the bone.

***

Last night's events quickly spread throughout the Palace. This morning, people started gossiping about last night. "The intruder went into the lake. He's dressed in black. By the time the intruder finally came out of the lake, the soldiers were chasing after him, but he was not captured."

One of the servants answered with a question. "Who are the intruders?"

The waiter who spoke then replied. "Where do I know!" The discussion continues.

Xie Hongyi, who was the perpetrator of the scene last night, pretended not to know anything. He casually went to the Phoenix residence.

Today is a routine meeting of concubines led by the Empress. Usually every time there is a meeting like this, Consort Xie is always absent. But that was the old Xie Hongyi.

Not long after, Xie Hongyi finally reached the Phoenix residence. It turned out that there was also another Consort Huang Long present. A look of shock flashed across the faces of the concubines when they saw Xie Hongyi coming. But they quickly changed his face. Xie Hongyi did not care much. After he saluted Empress Shi, he sat down beside Consort Hu.

Huang Long had one Empress and four concubines, if counted with Consort Li. The Empress was chosen through the selection of officials. The other concubines were given voluntarily by her family, except for Consort Chen who was chosen by the Queen Mother.

The highest rank was of course held by Empress Shi Mian. Consort Chen had the rank of Supreme Concubine, Consort Hu with the rank of Grand Concubine, Consort Li Wei the rank of Second Level Consort, and used to be Consort Xie did not have a high rank.

It was fortunate that Xie Hongyi had now been given the title, otherwise he might forever be branded as a mistress.

At the age of the Emperor who stepped on 22 years, Huang Long should have more wives than now. Maybe some time later, the number will increase.

"At this meeting, I got a message from the Emperor. A few days ago, the Emperor gave me an order to raise your monthly salary."

"After deliberating with the Emperor, we decided to give a monthly salary of 50 taels per person."

Xie Hongyi had no idea what the monthly salary of the previous Consort was, by the time he saw the other two people opening their mouths in shock, Xie Hongyi knew that the amount of money was huge.

Then the wives of Huang Long were chatting on various topics. Xie Hongyi passively listened to their conversation. As the conversation rolled about last night's events, Xie Hongyi pretended to be calm while sipping his tea. He then heard Consort Hu beside him speak. "I worry about a lot of things. Hopefully the intruder will be arrested soon."

I plead with God, may he not grant your prayers! Xie Hongyi said he was in his heart.

"We leave it to the ones on duty. I also hope that the intruder is arrested so that things can be safe." This time, Consort Chen spoke.

By noon, the meeting was finally over. When the other two left, Xie remained where he was. Empress Shi who realized Xie Hongyi was motionless, she then asked. "Concubine Xie, aren't you back?"

Xie Hongyi then looked at Empress Shi seriously. "I want to ask the Empress something."

"Say."

"Sir, you know that I entered the Palace not long ago. So I don't know the things that happened before. For that I want to ask, was there a person in the Palace who was missing?"

Empress Shi's beautiful eyebrows fused together. Then he thought. "I don't think there is."

"Try thinking again."

The queen then kept quiet to think again. "Nothing." He said it with a heavy tone. "If I may know, why did Consort Xie ask this?"