Forensic Imperial Concubine by Erika Black

.

While they were on their way to the prison, Rufus was rescued and taken away by somebody. When he was informed of Rufus'
escape, Francis merely smiled and didn't say a single word, nor did he order Ken to chase Rufus at once. Ken assumed that
Francis didn't really care about it, but he couldn't just let 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 instantly flew off the handle. "Howard
Chu, you bastard! You said you were going to rescue me when I could not fend 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 save you, 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 easily admit that he had done him
wrong. "Why didn't you jump out and rescue me when I was being chased?" 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 thought about 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 he was 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 he had 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 that moment.

Rufus' face froze. He hastily tried to explain himself, "I just wanted to distract him so that he wouldn't suspect 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 endure being 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 hear their 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 no less sinister and ruthless than Harper. Although Harper was ruthless, she would not attack others for no reason, unless
they had done her wrong first. Apart from that, she had a
line she wouldn't cross and had principles when doing things. But Howard wouldn't hesitate to cross the line and didn't have any
principle. 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 said that because I knew that Francis would never hurt Harper. I wouldn't have said
such a thing if I was unsure whether he would actually harm her or not," Rufus hastily said in a humble tone. "Thank you so
much 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." Rufus delivered 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 she meant by that.
Howard understood right away what Harper wanted him to do. She wanted him to find Felton. Perhaps the members of the Qin
Clan would take action themselves, or it could also be that the members of the Qin Clan would be targeted by someone. Either
way, he would have to guard Felton's house just in case.

"Got it," Howard said. In an instant, he ran away, not caring anymore whether Rufus was going to make it 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 to deliver a message to him?" That night, Harper had
a good night's sleep. Cynthia, however, wasn't able to sleep well on the soft bed. Although she was a petite girl, she still felt very
uncomfortable lying on the narrow soft bed for the entire night.

After the imperial court session in the morning was adjourned, Francis went directly to the Sleek Palace to have breakfast with
Harper. In the meantime, Harper looked spirited as usual and didn't show any sign of being aware of what had happened last
night. On the other hand, Francis noticed that Cynthia had 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 came to 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 the Sleek Palace last night?"
"Yes, he did. Didn't you know that?" From the corner of his eyes, Francis was carefully observing Harper's reaction. She had
been quietly eating her food from the beginning till the end. The look on her face 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 be quite hard for you not to
notice that," Francis said as he served the food to Harper. "Eat more. You've been losing a lot of weight lately."
With her eyebrows raised, Harper shot Francis a glance. It wasn't until she was done chewing the food in 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 eat without saying anything
else.
Cynthia's eyes constantly shifted between Francis and Harper. The way she saw it, the atmosphere between them was quite
subtle, so that even she, an outsider and a perfect stranger, could clearly see that there was something wrong between the two.
Simply put, Francis seemed to be spoiling Harper too much.