Female Novel
Chapter 698 Make You The Empress (Part One)
While they were on their way to the prison, Rufus was rescued and taken away by somebody. When hewas informed of Rufus' escape, Francis merely smiled and didn't say a single word, nor did he orderKen to chase Rufus at once. Ken assumed that Francis didn't really care about it, but he couldn't justlet something like this slip. So, he issued an order for Rufus' arrest.
When Rufus finally realized that the person who had rescued him was actually Howard, he instantlyflew off the handle. "Howard Chu, you bastard! You said you were going to rescue me when I could notfend for myself, but you just let so many people hunt me down without even lending a hand."
Hearing this, Howard looked at Rufus as though he was looking at an idiot. "If I didn't come to saveyou, you would have been playing with mice and cockroaches inside the prison right now!"
After thinking about it for a while, Rufus had to agree with Howard deep inside, but he couldn't easilyadmit that he had done him wrong. "Why didn't you jump out and rescue me when I was beingchased?" he asked.
"If I had jumped out to rescue you back then, both of us would have ended up being put into prison,"Howard replied. Howard and Rufus had never seen eye to eye when it came to the way Rufus thoughtabout things. In fact, he was wondering why Matthew had such a stupid follower by his side. Obviously,Rufus was different from the other people on Matthew's side. Barry might seem dull and honest, but hewas in fact quite insidious; Fred was scheming and evil; and Noah, the steward of Matthew's mansion,was as cunning as a smiling tiger.
Rufus suddenly remembered what had happened moments earlier and decided to hide the fact that hehad sold him out. After all, Howard probably would never find out what he had told Francis.
"But you didn't seem to hesitate when you betrayed me in front of Francis," Howard said at thatmoment.
Rufus' face froze. He hastily tried to explain himself, "I just wanted to distract him so that he wouldn'tsuspect your sister."
"Who was it that urged Francis to throw my sister into prison and interrogate her through torture,insisting that she would confess soon enough because she was so fragile that she couldn't endurebeing tortured?" Howard asked in a calm and cold tone.
Beads of cold sweat dripped from Rufus' forehead. He began to wonder how Howard was able to heartheir conversation. "You were there when I said those things?" he asked in surprise.
"You're probably hoping that I wasn't," Howard replied. His voice was low but seemed rather menacing,which made every fiber of Rufus' being feel so uneasy. It was a well-known fact that Howard was noless sinister and ruthless than Harper. Although Harper was ruthless, she would not attack others for noreason, unless they had done her wrong first. Apart from that, she had a line she wouldn't cross andhad principles when doing things. But Howard wouldn't hesitate to cross the line and didn't have anyprinciple. He was free to fight for whatever he wanted by all means.
"That was merely an expedient. You don't have to take it seriously, much less care about it. I only saidthat because I knew that Francis would never hurt Harper. I wouldn't have said such a thing if I wasunsure whether he would actually harm her or not," Rufus hastily said in a humble tone. "Thank you somuch for rescuing me today. Without you, I would've ended up being tormented in the prison."
"Humph!"
"By the way, Harper asked me to pass a message to you."
"What did she say?"
"She wants you to meet with the master of another house and not to take action arbitrarily." Rufusdelivered Harper's message to Howard word for word. Of course, he had no idea which house Harper
was referring to or where the house even was. But, he believed that Howard would know what shemeant by that.
Howard understood right away what Harper wanted him to do. She wanted him to find Felton. Perhapsthe members of the Qin Clan would take action themselves, or it could also be that the members of theQin Clan would be targeted by someone. Either way, he would have to guard Felton's house just incase.
"Got it," Howard said. In an instant, he ran away, not caring anymore whether Rufus was going to makeit through by himself or not.
Seeing that Howard disappeared in the blink of an eye, Rufus couldn't help but click his tongue. Then,he whispered under his breath, "Did he only rescue me because he knew that Harper asked me todeliver a message to him?"
That night, Harper had a good night's sleep. Cynthia, however, wasn't able to sleep well on the softbed. Although she was a petite girl, she still felt very uncomfortable lying on the narrow soft bed for theentire night.
After the imperial court session in the morning was adjourned, Francis went directly to the Sleek Palaceto have breakfast with Harper. In the meantime, Harper looked spirited as usual and didn't show anysign of being aware of what had happened last night. On the other hand, Francis noticed that Cynthiahad dark circles around her eyes and didn't seem to have had slept well.
"Cynthia, weren't you able to sleep well last night?" Francis asked slowly. "Was it because Rufus cameto the Sleek Palace and disturbed you in the middle of the night?"
Hearing this, Cynthia raised her head, looked at him in surprise and asked, "My brother came to theSleek Palace last night?"novelbin
"Yes, he did. Didn't you know that?" From the corner of his eyes, Francis was carefully observingHarper's reaction. She had been quietly eating her food from the beginning till the end. The look on herface as well as the way she moved were a sight for sore eyes.
"I had no idea."
"There was a bit of a racket in the Imperial Palace last night, and it was all thanks to him. It should bequite hard for you not to notice that," Francis said as he served the food to Harper. "Eat more. You'vebeen losing a lot of weight lately."
With her eyebrows raised, Harper shot Francis a glance. It wasn't until she was done chewing the foodin her mouth that she replied in a graceful manner, "Francis, you shouldn't be talking while eating."
As a bitter smile crept onto his face, Francis asked, "What did I do to make you angry?"
"You let people break into my room," Harper blurted out. After saying that, she simply continued to eatwithout saying anything else.
Cynthia's eyes constantly shifted between Francis and Harper. The way she saw it, the atmospherebetween them was quite subtle, so that even she, an outsider and a perfect stranger, could clearly seethat there was something wrong between the two. Simply put, Francis seemed to be spoiling Harpertoo much.