Chapter 132 Regret

When Liu Yueli said the word "they", her teeth chattered and her eyes flashed with deep hatred, but it was suppressed by a deeper fear.

"Those people are ruthless beasts! They're just going all out to get the last batch of silver allocated by the Ministry of Revenue!"

Liu Yueli's voice suddenly pierced, like steel scraping across iron sheets. "It was pouring rain that day, and the sky was as dark as ink! My husband noticed something was wrong with the stone convoy's movements, so he rode his horse himself, braved the rain, to track it down, to see for himself... to see..."

As she spoke of this, a painful gurgling sound came from her throat. She opened her mouth and gasped for breath, but she could no longer describe the horrific scene.

"The leader's surname is Dong... He's the nephew of Dong Zhaokang, the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works..." Liu Yueli gritted her teeth, each word etched with tears and blood. "He recognized my husband's badge... He knew the truth was about to be exposed..."

"Right at that desolate bend upstream of the dam, dozens of horses pulling empty carts, waiting to be blamed for a rocky overturn, rushed forward like crazy! They literally knocked my husband... and his horse and him, into the dozens-foot-deep riverbank!"

"That wasn't a falling rock at all..." she muttered, as if in a dream. "That was a trap to claim your life, a Shura field where people would be buried alive..."

"My husband was lucky. He was still breathing when he was fished out..." Liu Yueli's body slid softly along the cold edge of the bed and fell to the ground. She curled up, her face buried in her knees, and only intermittent sobs remained. "... His legs below the knees were completely destroyed... His bones were shattered into pieces... There was no way to retrieve him... He was dragged back here by those rotten pieces of flesh..."

When she said this, her whole body twitched violently, as if the terrible wound was on her own body.

"There's not a single piece of healthy skin on his body... That bastard named Dong... was afraid he'd survive... He tortured him in every way... That medicine wasn't even medicine! He'd found the most poisonous bone-eroding powder in the martial arts world! He was trying to keep him alive, letting him rot and die slowly... giving them enough time to do it perfectly... and blame it all on the flood, on the natural disaster! On a dead man!"

Liu Yueli suddenly raised her head, hatred burning in her bloodshot eyes. "He can't die! If he dies, those beasts will be able to blame the mess on a dead man! Silence the gossips! Use my husband's body to fill the hole where the Yongding River burst its banks and flooded seven villages! To fill the hole where hundreds of thousands of taels of silver disappeared!"

She pounded the ground so hard that her knuckles turned purple. "So I had to hide it for the life of me! I had to hide it from him! He was still alive! Even if he looked like a ghost! I could only hide in this place that was not much better than a coffin, barely surviving, using those real poisons... to counteract the more poisonous ones they sent!"

Tears mixed with sweat covered his entire face, "I just hope it can last until the dawn..."

She cried incoherently, tears and blood mixed together.

Pei Ji stood there, his dark blue official robe seemed to absorb all the darkness and foul air in the room.

The fingers hanging at his sides curled up, as if he was trying hard to suppress something.

"Enough!" Zhao Siming's roar suddenly erupted from inside the tent!

This was followed by an even more terrifying "bang bang" sound!

The sound was not from hitting the bed board, but from hitting the bricks on the wall!

Each sound was louder than the last! Each sound was more brutal than the last!

"Ah——!" Liu Yueli was frightened out of her wits by the sudden loud noise!

She rolled and crawled back to the tent, holding him tightly with both hands through the curtain.

But he got nothing! A corner of the curtain was suddenly opened from the inside!

The people inside!

It's not like banging your head against a wall at all!

"Husband, don't—!" Liu Yueli's eyes were bloodshot! She screamed, and her bony body burst out with incredible strength, and she rushed in without hesitation.

He hugged the broken body tightly.

"Please! Please don't!!"

Dim light suddenly poured into the opened curtain.

Pei Ji's eyes were as cold as ice as he swept across the hellish scene.

Zhao Siming's half-curled body, his hideous legs, and his forehead at this moment.

On his forehead, which had been covered with wounds from countless collisions, a crack with flesh torn and blood oozing out was clearly visible.

Zhao Siming stared at Pei Ji with bloodshot eyes, as if he was staring at a ghost crawling out of hell, and a strange "ho ho" sound came from his throat.

There was no pleading in those eyes, only a sense of madness and impending despair, a hopeless hopelessness that led to no return. It was as if they were silently crying out: "What am I still investigating? What am I still living for? I am the filth itself! Kill me! Please kill me!"

Liu Yueli used all her strength to desperately cling to his neck and arms, the only part of his body that was still intact. Her face pressed against his cold cheek, tears streaming down her face as she spoke incoherently, "It's me! I'm useless! It's me who can't find good medicine! It's me who can't protect you! Hit me! Hit me to death! Hit me to death! Husband! Husband, look at me! Look at Yueli!"

She cried out, her voice so shrill that it could pierce the cold night.

Pei Ji's gaze was fixed for a moment on the hideous forehead wound and Zhao Siming's eyes, which were filled with only madness and death.

The dead and desperate look under Zhao Siming's bloodstained forehead was deeply imprinted in his eyes.

…

There is actually more than one private room on the second floor of Taoyuan Restaurant, namely the "Linbo Pavilion" where Prince Guangling stayed.

Not far from it, separated by several carved wooden screens, there is a smaller "Tingsong Pavilion" with a small gap in the window, which is enough to see clearly what is happening on the street below.

Pei Ji and his betrothed fiancée, Luo Zhaohan, the daughter of a military family, happened to be staying in Tingsong Pavilion today.

The big show downstairs just now was very exciting, scene after scene.

Luo Zhaohan is the daughter of a military general. She has been wild since she was a child, without many taboos, and her curiosity is even greater than that of a cat.

From the moment the first sound came from the window, she leaned half of her body out, stood on tiptoe, grabbed the window sill, and squeezed her head to the edge of the crack, watching with great interest.

Seeing Mu Mingshu's maid named Tinglan knock over the snacks, Luo Zhaohan almost laughed out loud and quickly covered his mouth with his hands; seeing Wei Wenqin being blocked back with a stiff face, Luo Zhaohan curled his lips and uttered a low "tsk".

Finally, when she saw Mu Mingshu and the sickly young lady of the Xu family walking into the restaurant without stopping, she retracted her head with a look of unsatisfied satisfaction, her big eyes still flashing with excitement, and she was obviously still immersed in the wonderful drama just now.

"Hey, look, look!" She turned around and wanted to call Pei Ji over to share the latest developments with him - Mu Mingshu and the others had entered the restaurant! There must be more activity inside!

But just as the words were about to slip out of her lips, there was a "slap" on the back of the hand, fast and crisp, not heavy, but definitely not holding back, which made her skin numb slightly.

Luo Zhaohan shuddered all over, like a cat being fished out of the water, and jumped up in fright.

She screamed "Ah!" and her hair exploded. She turned her head abruptly, staring at Pei Ji beside her with wide eyes. That look could kill: "Pei Ji! What are you doing? It hurts so much, don't you know!"

She also rubbed the back of her hand, where she vaguely felt a small red spot, burning.

Pei Ji's expression didn't show any sign of relaxation. His face, which usually showed the elegance of a young man from an aristocratic family, was now as gloomy as a piece of iron soaked in water, and his brows were knitted so tightly that they were almost knotted.

Especially when he heard the faint sobbing voice of Xu Lanxi coming from downstairs, and Mu Mingshu's frighteningly calm "Check out", the light in his eyes seemed to be poured with cold water, dimming frighteningly.

"Look at you, you're such a loser!" He lowered his voice, rolling out from the depths of his throat, with a spark of exasperation, and then stiffly said: "Don't look! You're covered in that stench of the window, and you think that's not bad luck enough? Do you think your life is too long?"

Luo Zhaohan was baffled by his ferocious look and also got angry. He stiffened his neck and was about to retort: ​​"Hey, Pei Ji, are you sick? Did I provoke you by watching the fun? Is that your lover or your creditor downstairs? You are here..."

"Tsk!" Pei Ji interrupted her impatiently, not wanting to argue with her at all.

He moved faster than she could talk back, and didn't care about the empty talk about the differences between men and women. He grabbed her wrist, which had been slapped red, with quite a bit of force.

Luo Zhaohan staggered as he was pulled by him, and before he could resist, he was dragged backwards by a huge force.

Pei Ji pulled her, ignoring Luo Zhaohan's protests and the stool at his feet, and just backed away until he reached the innermost and darkest corner of the private room before letting go.

This place is far from the window, and the noisy voices downstairs are blocked out by thick wooden boards and screens, becoming distant and vague. Only a few wisps of light green smoke from the incense burner in the corner are still lingering quietly.

The little afternoon light that came through the window struggled to reach the edge of the screen and then had no strength to move forward, like a layer of dull gray gauze covering Pei Ji.

He was completely immersed in a thick and indissoluble shadow, his face looked even gloomier in the dim light, and his thin lips were pressed into a tight straight line.

Only those eyes, deep in the shadows, were unusually bright, churning with complex emotions, like a kettle of boiling water, holding back a lot of anger.

Luo Zhaohan rubbed her wrist, which had been gripped so hard that it hurt, and the grievance and anger in her heart rose up. Her parents had never treated her so rudely since she was a child!

She opened her mouth and was about to curse without caring about anything - "Pei Ji, you bastard, you hurt me!"

But as soon as the word "Pei" came out of his mouth, Pei Ji's gloomy gaze suddenly nailed him in the throat.

He didn't yell at her, but the look in his eyes made her heart skip a beat more than yelling.

He no longer cared whether she was in pain or not. He raised his chin and could still peek at the window outside through the gap between his fingers. His voice was extremely low, and every word fell like hailstones:

"Did you see those buzzing people downstairs who haven't dispersed yet?"

Luo Zhaohan subconsciously followed the direction he pointed and glanced outside through the gap in the screen.

That's right. Downstairs on the street, Wei Wenqin, Gu Lingjia and the others, as well as their maids and servants, had not dispersed completely yet. They were gathered in groups of three or four, talking in low voices. Most of them still had lingering fear on their faces, the interest of watching the fun, or like Gu Lingjia, the disappointment of not getting the desired result.

Anyway, no one really took it to heart, as if they had just watched a street circus that had nothing to do with them.

Pei Ji let out an extremely short and heavy "huh" from his throat, like a muffled groan from being extremely angry and having nowhere to vent.

He suddenly turned his head, his scorching eyes fixed on Luo Zhaohan's face, the surging emotions in them almost burning him.

"Back then..." He uttered these two words, his voice hoarse. "Back then, your father got into trouble and was locked up in prison. The entire court, the civil and military officials, the entire capital, who wasn't watching? Who wasn't craning their necks, their ears perked up, afraid to miss a single word?"

The anger and grievance on Luo Zhaohan's face froze in an instant, and the blood color faded away little by little, leaving only paleness.

Pei Ji seemed to have not noticed her change at all. He continued to talk to himself, his tone hurried and fast: "What about me at that time? What was I, Pei Ji, doing?"

He smiled miserably, a smile uglier than crying. He pointed at Luo Zhaohan and himself, his fingertips trembling uncontrollably. "I'm just like those young ladies downstairs who were watching the show today! Standing far away, watching the fire from the other side of the river! They're probably wondering, 'Oh, who did General Luo offend?' 'It's over, the Luo family may never recover this time!' 'Will that girl from the Luo family ever get married after this? Tsk tsk...' Just like how they were watching the Mu sisters' jokes downstairs today, enjoying it so much!"

Every word was like a blunt knife dipped in salt, cutting Pei Ji's heart fiercely, and also cutting Luo Zhaohan's heart whose old scars were suddenly revealed.

The veins on Pei Ji's forehead bulged with regret and anger at his cowardice back then.

His voice was suppressed, like the growl of a wild animal: "I just watched! Watched your father being imprisoned, watched your mother fall ill, watched you..."

He choked up, not saying the rest. "If I had stood up and said a word! If I had walked around and asked a question! Even if I had walked like a fool to the prison gate and shouted 'The General is innocent,' I would have felt like a human being when I think about it today! But I didn't! I didn't do anything! I'm just like those innocent people down there now, just watching other people's fun and feeling like I was innocent! I feel like it has nothing to do with me!"

Luo Zhaohan's face was as pale as paper, his lips were trembling slightly, and his eyes were full of astonishment, followed by pain that quickly emerged.

The days when her whole family was destroyed and she fell from the clouds to the dust are the deepest scar in her heart and cannot be touched easily.

Pei Ji looked at her face which instantly turned pale, and the anger of self-loathing in his heart burned even more fiercely, almost burning his lungs.

He even took a step forward more violently, his shadow almost completely covering Luo Zhaohan: "Regret now? It's too late! I only now realize that I was just like those onlookers downstairs! Just as disgusting! Just as cowardly! Just as..."

He was almost losing control, his hands suddenly raised up, not knowing whether he wanted to smash something or hit himself.

Just then!

In the Linbo Pavilion next door, a loud "clang!" suddenly erupted! The sound was sharp and penetrating, like the sound of a heavy wooden stool or flower stand being flipped over and smashed to the ground.

Then came the recognizable growl of Ling Zhaohong, the Prince of Guangling, which went off like a firecracker in his head:

"Shut up! Ling Zhaoyang, shut up right there! If you keep making noise, I'll take you back to the mansion and put you under house arrest!"

This earth-shaking shout was like a bolt of thunder.

Time seemed to stand still for a moment.