Chapter 51 Chapter 51 She Pities Mr. Pei

"You've always known...Mrs. Pei was poisoning you."

When he said this extremely cruel sentence, Lu Suizhu did not dare to look into his eyes.

Even if Pei Zhiji is not her biological son, he is still her nephew. Blood is thicker than water, so how could she be so cruel to him?

She looked at Pei Zhiji and tried hard to test the terrible guess in her heart: "Your body is not the same..."

Pei Zhiji nodded. Since she already knew, she felt tired of hiding it from him.

His cold fingers were still held in her palm, and he tried to withdraw them but she held them tighter.

Just now, Lu Suizhu thought Pei Zhiji was going to die. She cried so hard that her tension finally relaxed. However, she still sobbed intermittently when she spoke. She couldn't help but blurt out: "Pei Zhiji, why are you so pitiful?"

Heartfelt compassion.

Lord Pei, why are you so pitiful?

She said this twice in total. The last time, Pei Zhiji still had the energy to refute her. This time, he heard it clearly, but when he opened his mouth to speak, he seemed so powerless, as if all the words were choked in his throat.

She cried so sadly, was she worried about his pain?

Pei Zhiji wiped her tears with his fingertips and spoke slowly.

"My mother was given a chronic poison when she was pregnant with me. The cumulative effects of this poison have caused me to be weak and sickly since childhood. My mother also passed away early. I've been playing along with Jiang Manrui for so many years, I'm used to it. So don't feel sad for me."

His indifferent attitude seemed as casual as answering a maid's question about whether she wanted to have a midnight snack in the evening. Lu Suizhu's heart was filled with ripples. At this moment, she felt like a cat with its fur standing on end, feeling uncomfortable and aggrieved.

"How can you get used to this? Why are you so calm? Don't you feel uncomfortable with so many emotions weighing down your heart?"

Pei Zhiji silently interrupted her before continuing. "That's enough."

She insisted on speaking even though she was not allowed to.

She took a step forward and stood in front of him. Although she was more than half a head shorter than him, Lu Suizhu stared at him with more imposingness than anyone else. Just as she was about to speak, a tear slid down her rosy cheek and landed on the back of Pei Zhiji's hand.

She wiped her eyelashes that were covered with raindrops in annoyance. These tears were so annoying!

"Jiang Manrui is my mother's most beloved sister. Even in her dying moments, she didn't want to hurt her in the slightest. If the Longyuan Jiang family hadn't had this marriage with the Pei family, they would have fallen even faster. They are my mother's most beloved sisters and the maternal family she holds most dear. What can I do?"

Pei Zhiji felt a sense of relief he had never felt before when he finally said out loud the words that had been hidden in his heart for more than twenty years.

The orchid by the window drooped even more, as if a gentle breeze would blow its petals away.

"What about you? Pei Shou, what about you?"

A faint, small voice passed through Pei Zhiji's ears, as if it had crossed thousands of mountains and rivers with grievances. When it reached his ears, he even suspected that he had heard it wrongly. "What..."

"I say, don't you hate it, Pei Shou?" Lu Suizhu repeated firmly.

The flat and solid part of her heart seemed to be crackling with firecrackers, and like many huge beads rolling and dancing. She always thought that the unparalleled little Lord Pei in the world's mouths had been like this from the beginning. She thought he had always lived a good life. She thought he had been a handsome young man from a noble family since he was a child, a dragon and phoenix among men praised by everyone.

She sniffed and muttered to herself, "Madame Zhao once said that you had been studying in a mountain academy since you were sixteen. At that time, I thought you were mentally ill and liked to squat in the mountains to feed mosquitoes. Now it seems that is not the case at all. You must have been sent there by your vicious stepmother. Did you not have enough food to eat there? Did your master scold and beat you every day..."

Seeing her words becoming more and more absurd, Pei Zhiji didn't know whether to cry or laugh. He just watched her thin lips open and close, but he couldn't get a word in. She spoke these words with a distressed tone... His experience, his past, his feelings, in fact, were not that serious, but she was so sad.

"For the sake of the Jiang family's status, for the reputation of the Pei family, and to avoid your mother's resentment, you forced yourself into this state..." Lu Suizhu was a little speechless when she said this. She had never seen such a complicated person, never seen such a person who was in a high position but could not do whatever he wanted.

Every word Lu Suizhu said, good or bad, was eating away at his heart, eating away at the heart he had painstakingly cultivated, which was now devoured by a frame with no flesh and blood left.

He could still chat and laugh in good spirits and maintain a good balance when dealing with the Emperor and the Empress Dowager, but now he has difficulty finding his composure and even wants the simplest thing... to just leave.

The sky is too bright, and she is too sincere.

His disguise was exposed.

"I……"

"If I were you, I would rather risk everything to make Madam Pei pay with her life. Killing someone means paying with one's life. She doesn't deserve such a carefree life. If not for anything else, then just for my own pleasure." Although Lu Suizhu couldn't do what she said, she could still persuade others. She just wanted Pei Zhiji to feel relieved, even if it was just a little bit.

But it seemed that the man opposite was completely stunned by the words of this bandit.

Immediately, a pair of eyes came towards him, staring at Pei Zhiji's waist. Lu Suizhu changed the subject and said coldly.

"Mrs. Pei is dead, so why don't you just marry another daughter of the Jiang family? You're going to marry Jiang Xiu Luo anyway, and this way you can marry her faster. Isn't that the best of both worlds?"

He hadn't said a word from beginning to end, but now he finally found a sentence he could answer.

"I won't marry Jiang Xiu.

Suddenly, a dark shadow passed by the door.

Pei Renlai invited his elder brother to the main hall to discuss matters, but he never expected to hear such a shocking secret. He covered his mouth and almost bit a stone, and ran away in fear.

I couldn’t stop thinking: My eldest brother’s biological mother was actually killed by my aunt, oh my god!

He was so excited that he bumped his head against the door frame, making quite a noise.

The long sword came through the air, less than two inches away from his eyes, and crossed in front of him and flicked a few times, Xiao Feng blocked his way.

"How dare you commit treason." The young man stammered, frightened by the sword.

"Let him go." Pei Zhiji called softly, his voice tired.

The sword was sheathed and Xiao Feng dodged sideways.

Pei Ren glanced towards the inner room and left in a hurry.

"What if he goes out and talks nonsense?" Lu Suizhu was a little worried.

"He doesn't dare." Pei Zhiji was also certain.

Lu Suizhu recalled Lan Ying's words about Pei Ren being afraid of him. It seemed to be true. Luckily, her own brother wasn't as intimidating to his younger siblings. Her hand, still clenched around Pei Zhiji's base, hurriedly withdrew. Her face flushed red as she saw the mark of her nails. "...Your hands seem unusually cold today."

"It's okay, just a cold."

Seeing that she suddenly changed the subject, Pei Zhiji said again very seriously: "I was serious about what I said just now. I will not marry Jiang Xiuluo."

"Okay, I understand..."

On the small path leading to Lizhuxuan, Pei Ren walked hurriedly with his head down. When he saw Madam Pei and Chunmei coming towards him, he even forgot to say hello.

My mind is full of my aunt-in-law who is so gentle and kind, how could she do such a thing?

Madam Pei called him over and personally turned out the scarlet-patterned collar he had tucked in. "Aren, you should behave yourself. Stop being so impulsive and playing around all day. Your elder brother won the third place in the imperial examination when he was your age."

Pei Ren's heart was beating fast, but he nodded naturally.

*

It has been more than two months since Pei Zhiji returned from Fanxi, and news finally came from there.

Shenzhuo personally led people to confiscate the weapons, and all the weapons were hidden in an inconspicuous farmer's yard.

The people from the county government took him back and tortured him severely, but the farmer was a man of iron will and courage, and he refused to say a word.

When Shen Zhuo saw a pair of red tiger-head boots worn by a child, his eyes suddenly lit up. "If I tell the truth, can it keep my wife and children safe?"

Li Zhubu took a pen and paper and wrote down the whole story:

Southeast Inspector Fan Jingjiang sent his subordinate Xu Wenbin to transfer all weapons to the yard of farmer Lin Sheng and abduct his wife and children as a threat an hour before Xiaofeng Mountain was destroyed. His behavior was extremely bad.

Fan Jingjiang had been threatening Lin Sheng with the lives of his wife and children to help him hide and not report to the police, but he didn't know that his wife had escaped when he was abducted and fell off a cliff and died while holding their five-year-old son.

Suo Ye followed the clues all the way to the edge of the cliff, but only picked up the dirty red tiger-head boots.

Last time, Suo Ye accompanied Pei Zhiji back to Shangjing, but he returned not long after and has been helping Chen Zhuo track down the case.

Chen Zhuo took Lin Sheng's testimony to Fan Jing for a counter-explanation. Fan Jing confessed everything and insisted that he was possessed by evil spirits, dissatisfied with the court's rule, and intended to usurp the throne and rebel.

The interrogation could not proceed, and when he came out calmly, he looked at Suo Ye standing outside the door, dismissed all the guards, and said nothing, only asking him to spare his life, and Fan Jingjiang had to wait for the judgment of the law.

The flames crackled and danced, like will-o'-the-wisp fire roaring and baring its fangs.

"The mastermind behind this is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." Suo Ye expressionlessly burned the iron tongs, and when the iron tongs turned bright red, he hooked them around Fan Jingjiang's skin.

Covered in blood and occasionally screaming, Fan Jingjiang hung his head, weak and powerless, biting a mouthful of blood foam, and raised his head with great effort. "Who are you? Who is your master in the court?"

After saying this, he seemed to feel ridiculous, and put on a desperate expression, gritting his teeth and squeezing out each word: "Even if it's him, so what? Can your master's power be greater than that of the crown prince?"

After being tortured several times, Fan Jingjiang's eyes were bloodshot and he listened in a daze.

"Keep your life, it will be useful in the future."

Then someone pulled my fingers over and forced me to make a fingerprint.

Save your life, he heard it right, Fan Jingjiang's execution date was changed from tomorrow to awaiting trial in Beijing, and upon hearing the news, he laughed wildly in prison.

Hahahaha, he has completely become the prince's abandoned son, but now someone else is saving his life. How ridiculous, how ridiculous, how ridiculous, he banged his head against the pillar and endured it.

He cried bitterly, but then burst into laughter.

The emperor was reviewing memorials in his study when he saw the calm memorial and became furious. He immediately ordered him to personally escort the surrendered weapons and the guilty minister Fan Jingjiang to the capital.

He wanted to see with his own eyes what this man who was so bold as to challenge the imperial power on his own was going to do!

Boxes of ironware filled 52 carts, and Shenzhu personally led his men to escort them to Shangjing.

Fan Jingjiang was put into a special iron cage, which was invulnerable to swords and guns and could not be soaked by water. Suo Ye and Ying Ta were watching him closely day and night.

Pei Zhiji had issued a death order and no one could be allowed to die halfway.

The team encountered robbers frequently along the way, but fortunately they were on guard. Although Fan Jingjiang suffered many hardships, he survived.

After a long journey through mountains and rivers, Shenzhu finally arrived in Shangjing smoothly.

After coming out of Shoukang Palace, Lu Suizhu waited for her father at the palace gate early in the morning.

Wearing an old and faded black cloak over his official uniform, which was already wrinkled from days of traveling, he got off his horse and walked towards his daughter.

"Daddy, come home with me and have some hot tea."

He shook his head calmly. This time he had made the greatest contribution and had taken over Fan Jingjiang's position, responsible for inspecting the five southeastern counties. He would have to come to Beijing to report on his work every once in a while, and his life would only be busier than before.

"No, Dad will go straight back to Fanxi after meeting His Majesty and the Queen Mother."

During his reign, Fan Jingjiang was corrupt for silver and grain, which led to accumulated problems in the five southeastern counties, political corruption and chaos. He was anxious to go back and take over, so it was inconvenient for him to stay in Shangjing.

He looked carefully at his daughter's clean clothes and neatly combed hair, and he felt relieved that she was living a good life.

He wanted to reach out and touch the top of her head, but watching the people coming in and out, he couldn't lift his hand. "Dad has heard people say this all along the way, Dad didn't know Wen Jia played the piano so well."

The eunuch urged her several times, and finally his hand calmly dropped to Lu Suizhu's shoulder and patted her twice. The north wind made his eyes sore.

"When you have time... play it for Dad too."