I want you to live

The flogging had just ended, and Ye Qian and the others who were standing to the side were about to surround him when they heard a messenger from afar shouting, "His Majesty has ordered that you all move aside."

Ye Qian paused in his step, turned around and looked at the man. The envoy was holding an imperial edict, and the timing of his speech was so coincidental that it was hard not to think it was intentional.

"Gentlemen, please follow me." The messenger gestured for them to come.

"Where is he?" Cheng Junshi asked. Tang Qi had already fallen into a coma, and if a doctor wasn't found to treat him in time, he probably wouldn't make it.

The envoy smiled: "His Majesty has not mentioned anything else, so of course we will proceed according to protocol."

Seeing that the group showed no sign of moving, the envoy urged them again: "You should hurry and come with me. If you displease His Majesty, you may face disaster."

Cheng Junshi was still holding Tang Qi's hand, his head drooping, and he was only breathing shallowly.

Ye Qian came over and pressed his shoulder down, saying to Cheng Junshi, "Let's go."

Cheng Junshi turned to look at Ye Qian, his eyes slightly red: "But—"

"If you don't leave now, he will really die," Ye Qian said calmly.

He looked at Tang Qi, who was also clenching his fist, and continued to whisper to Cheng Junshi, "Don't you understand His Majesty's meaning? The more you plead for him, the more you care, the more likely he is to die."

Cheng Junshi finally stood up and was numbly led away from Tang Qi by Ye Qian.

Yun An stood beside Shen Zhiqing until everyone caught up with the envoy, then she approached the two of them and asked, "Who is he?"

Shen Zhiqing: "An unimportant person."

Yun An glanced at Shen Zhiqing and said, "How could someone so unimportant make you and Ye Qian help him like this? Qingqing, do you still think of me as a three-year-old child?"

“I’m not helping him,” Shen Zhiqing said, looking at Yun An. “I don’t want Zhong Le to die without knowing why.”

"So what is the truth?" Yun An grabbed Shen Zhiqing's arm and pressed, "You must know, right?"

Yun An went to the main hall because she heard that the old case of Wolf Strategy had been reopened, and that someone had even publicly accused the Right Rong General. At first, she was only slightly stunned when she heard this news, after all, the case had been closed for so long, and Yun An thought it was just a farce. It wasn't until Sheng Ye was summoned that she realized something was wrong.

—Perhaps there really is a problem with the old Wolf Strategy case.

So she chose to go into the main hall.

"Hasn't the truth already been made clear? Inside the main hall, what everyone wanted to ask and say was already understood, wasn't it?" Ye Qian replied.

"But why would this person risk their life to file a lawsuit?"

She stared into Ye Qian's eyes: "Is there really another reason for Qi Qi's death?"

Shen Zhiqing looked at Yun An and remained silent for a long time, while Ye Qian continued calmly, "There is no other reason. If there really were, forty strokes of the cane would not have been levied on him."

"Don't try to fool me with that!" Yun An's voice rose. "Isn't my father...?"

Yun An naturally had her own guesses, but she didn't want to associate her father with those bad things.

"yes..."

Yun An was slightly taken aback, her pupils contracted for a moment, and then she almost subconsciously retorted, "Impossible."

Ye Qian laughed: "What's the rush? I haven't finished speaking yet."

He continued, "So what if it is, so what if it isn't? The matter is over, is there any need to dwell on it?"

"Just believe what you want to believe, that's the truth."

Shen Zhiqing also looked at Yun An and smiled gently: "Wasn't it you who strongly pushed for the investigation of the Wolf Strategy traitor? If it weren't for your help, the traitor probably wouldn't have been found out so easily."

She held Yun An's hand and said softly, "You've done your best."

“But…” Yun An turned to look at Tang Qi, who was being carried up by the executioners: “If what happened before was the truth, why would he risk his life this time?”

“Because he is Lin Zhengye,” Ye Qian replied.

"Lin Zhengye? Who is that?"

“Zhong Le has a brother named Lin Jiacuo, do you remember him?” Shen Zhiqing said.

"Is it the one in Los Angeles? I think I've seen it before?"

Shen Zhiqing nodded and then continued to reply to her: "Lin Zhengye is his younger brother."

"Was it for his brother?" Yun An asked.

Shen Zhiqing: "He did it for Wolf Strategy."

“One of the people who escaped from Langce had the previous military report. It was because of this report and this person that Lin Zhengye became suspicious of the old Langce case, which led to what happened today.” Shen Zhiqing paused and then said, “But you saw it in the main hall. It all stemmed from unwillingness. Only by risking his life can he settle down without regrets and truly accept it.”

Yun An seemed to understand but not quite, but hearing Shen Zhiqing say this made her feel more at ease.

What was said in jest was taken seriously by the listener.

Upon hearing this, Ye Jin, who had been following behind, suddenly felt a sense of fear.

From the moment she was summoned to the palace, she knew nothing. His Majesty told her to say whatever she saw, so she spoke of everything she had seen without the slightest hesitation.

But what if what you see is fake?

What if that person is right?

Ye Qian turned around and saw that Ye Jin was looking down, so he stopped and walked up to her: "What are you thinking about?"

"Brother...did I...?" Ye Jin hesitated before saying, "Was it something I shouldn't have said?"

"Was everything you said in the palace the truth?"

Ye Jin nodded.

“Then there’s nothing to worry about. You only said what you knew; the rest is irrelevant to you,” Ye Qian said.

Ye Jin wanted to say something more, but he interrupted her: "No matter what the truth is, you are not the real culprit who caused the downfall of Langce. Don't take the blame for something you didn't do. Tang Qi has her own destiny, and you can't control her life or death."

Ye Qian spent most of his time teaching his cousin. She was very individualistic. When she joined the army as a child, she deliberately avoided Li Guang and chose the then-unknown Xuanhe Army, despite her family's objections.

The reason is that she doesn't want her achievements to be associated with the Ye family.

Ye Jin is Ye Jin. She is not a daughter of the Ye family.

It is precisely because of her personality that she is prone to getting stuck on minor details and seems unable to tolerate even the slightest mistake.

Ye Qian felt that his younger siblings were all mature beyond their years, and sometimes when he saw them, he felt that he was much younger.

I'm still so young, I still have so many days ahead of me, how come I'm already being plagued by worries?

"Okay." Ye Jin finally smiled and nodded.

The two groups of people went their separate ways.

Tang Qi, who was being supported, was still unconscious, her legs dangling on the ground, leaving two long trails of blood.

"Hiss, is he dead or not?"

"He's already been beaten forty times, how could he still be alive?"

"I don't think he'll survive. He's probably dead now."

What if someone dies?

"I don't know, otherwise... would you just throw them in the cemetery like before?"

"Okay, let's do it this way."

So the two of them dragged Tang Qi all the way to the outside cemetery. Calling it a cemetery isn't accurate; it was just a place where corpses were dumped. There were no tombstones here, only unidentified bodies, like those who had been flogged or died mysteriously. No one claimed the bodies, so they were just dumped here.

The smell of rotting flesh wafted by, and the two men, pinching their noses, tossed Tang Qi aside without a second thought, then strode away, waving goodbye.

Tang Qi lay on the ground, his face buried in the mud, his head turned to the side and his eyes tightly closed. Blood was still seeping from the flesh torn by the court flogging, yet he remained lying there quietly.

one person.

They were dumped on this deserted cemetery like trash.

A gust of wind blew by, and he looked as if he were asleep.

When the two executors returned, they encountered an almost blood-red eye.

"Where is he?!"

Both of them were terrified, but Cheng Junshi continued to shout, "Where is he?!"

“They…they were thrown into a mass grave,” one of them said fearfully.

As soon as he finished speaking, Cheng Junshi immediately let go, almost bumping into the man's shoulder. He was a little flustered and started running after only a few steps.

"Hey! The person is already dead! What's the point of you going now?"

The man shouted at Cheng Junshi's retreating figure.

Whether it was because of the distance or something else, Cheng Junshi neither looked back nor stopped, he just kept running forward, running like a madman, without caring about anything else.

"Strange. Very strange."

The two men shook their heads. They had encountered quite a few strange things today. One person complained that they hadn't beaten them enough, and the other insisted on going to find a dead person.

Has the world changed now?

Emperor Ming did not keep them for long, or rather, he never intended to keep them for long at all. As soon as the group left the Emperor's quarters, Cheng Junshi ran off without even having a chance to say a word.

Ye Qian also planned to go along. Although His Majesty clearly did not want them to get involved, Tang Qi's life or death was uncertain, and this was not the time to stand by and watch.

Before he could even run away, Yun An stopped him. She pulled Shen Zhiqing aside and whispered, "I've already notified people to rescue him. My ninth brother and Ayan will secretly take him to the princess's residence."

The three exchanged glances and, with a tacit understanding, lifted their feet and headed out.

When Ye Qian and Shen Zhiqing secretly arrived at the princess's residence after taking a long detour outside the palace, Tang Yan and Sheng Xingxing had already found Tang Qi.

In fact, they had heard the news from the palace much earlier. Since it was about seeking justice for Lang Ce, Tang Yan couldn't possibly ignore it. So after Yun An secretly sent someone to deliver the message to them, the two of them kept a close eye on Tang Qi's movements. That's why they were able to pull Tang Qi back in time when the two executioners were carrying him to the cemetery.

However, when they saw Tang Qi in person, the two of them were still greatly shocked.

—They had never seen such severe injuries before.

Even after bringing the person back to the princess's residence, the situation was not optimistic. They couldn't call the imperial physician from the palace, and it would take too much time to find one on short notice. So, while waiting, Tang Yan had to take matters into his own hands.

Seeing the several basins of bloody water brought out of the room, Shen Zhiqing quickly asked, "What's the situation inside?"

Sheng Xingxing, who was standing by, said, "He's been vomiting blood ever since we brought him back. Ayan is trying to stop the bleeding."

Shen Zhiqing turned her head and exchanged a glance with Ye Qian. Both of them chose to remain silent and did not intend to reveal Tang Qi's true identity to Tang Yan.

“However, you still have to prepare for the worst; there’s a possibility he can’t be saved.” Sheng Xingxing continued, her brow furrowed. “He’s been unconscious and hasn’t woken up since.”

The scene inside was truly shocking: blood-stained clothes, bright red bandages, and blackened blood that had been vomited out.