Chapter 31

(61) Conspiracy

"As the saying goes, a single move can affect the entire body. Lord City Lord, you are still too young and you don't understand anything." Su Cen's smug laughter seemed to still echo in my ears.

I originally relied on my own wit, bravery and intelligence to recapture Baihua City, but I didn't know that I had already fallen into the enemy's trap.

A huge sense of guilt engulfed me.

Wei Bai, Madam Wei, Wei Zhen, Yunniang, and the entire Wei family are either about to experience or are currently experiencing tragic stories because of my involvement.

I couldn't help but think of my wet nurse, who was once killed by me in the same way.

"It's me, it's me who killed the Wei family..." I squatted on the ground, tears slowly seeping out from between my fingers.

My body felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar.

"I have killed everyone who loves me and everyone I love..."

This horrible truth breaks my heart.

"Yunniang, I have to find Yunniang first. I have to calm down, take it step by step, slowly..." I comforted myself, wiped my tears, and then sobbed and began to think about how to find Yunniang as quickly as possible.

But at this moment my mind is in a mess and I don’t know what to do.

I thought of what Yunniang always told me: "You have to fight for your happiness yourself, Thirteen, you can do it."

I thought of what my wet nurse once said to me: "Thirteen, you have to learn to fight for what you want, so that you can live a happy life."

My mother once told me: "Happiness must be in your own hands. What you hold in your hands is the real thing."

But I fought for it.

I worked hard to obtain Baihua City, but indirectly killed the Wei family.

I held my forehead and walked unsteadily in Baihua City.

Various people's voices kept echoing in my head.

She walked over to Shang Mofeng, whose eyes were red and swollen from crying, and said to him, "Please help me find out which general's army is responsible for the exile of the Wei family's women."

When I returned to my residence, I thought again that since the emperor was determined to eradicate the Wei family, Wei Zhen was in great danger at this moment.

Although he lowered his status to train the troops, there was no way he could avoid the emperor's suspicion.

The next step would probably be to take Wei Zhen’s head.

Even Shang Mofeng, who was still young and a little silly, guessed that Wei Zhen was in a bad situation this time.

"Is my brother-in-law going to be killed?" Shang Mofeng followed me and said to me, wiping away his tears.

"No." I shook my head. "Wei Zhen is very smart. He definitely understands his situation better than we do."

Even though I said that, I still felt unsure.

"But there's a high probability that my brother-in-law will never come back." Shang Mofeng said crying.

"I heard that the place where my brother-in-law lives is beyond the Great Wall. It's scorching hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Plus, it's covered in Gobi Desert and salt-alkali land. In certain years, when the weather isn't good, people have to endure starvation. Life there is much harder than here. Besides, my brother-in-law doesn't have military power, so he's bound to suffer from some harassment and criticism from others."

Listening to Mo Feng's words, and thinking about Wei Zhen suffering in the frontier at this moment, my heart ached.

But the most urgent task at the moment is to save Yunniang.

That afternoon, news came from Mo Feng that Huang Baili's subordinates were taking the women of the Wei family to the place of exile.

I raised one thousand taels of silver and asked Mo Feng to take a few capable men to the exile team to find a way to use this silver to exchange for Yunniang.

Before Mo Feng left, I patted his horse's butt and said to him, "Be smart, brother, don't let me down."

(62) Conspiracy

What comforted me was that just a week later, Mo Feng actually returned successfully with Yunniang.

"The Wei family doesn't have many women, so it was almost impossible to secretly take Yunniang away. So I used the silver you gave me to bribe the soldiers and officers, making the people in the capital pretend that Yunniang had died on the road. Only then did I bring Yunniang back."

Mo Feng proudly showed off his cleverness to me.

Yunniang and I hugged each other and cried.

A few days after settling Yunniang down, I met Sucen again.

"It's been a long time since we last met. How is my uncle doing in the capital?" I sat on the throne of the Lord of Baihua City, looking down at Su Cen with disdain.

"Not bad." Su Cen said to me with a smile, holding the armrest of the red sandalwood chair.

"Then why did my uncle come back to Baihua City this time?"

Su Cen heard my question but did not answer me directly.

He stood up and went straight out to greet the young marquis.

The young marquis has lost some weight.

Perhaps because Princess Chunyang gave birth to a prince for him, some of the childishness and baby fat on his face faded, and his overall temperament became more mature.

"Thirteen." The young marquis called me with an ambiguous tone as he entered the room.

I looked at the young marquis, but inexplicably thought of Wei Zhen.

I don’t know if Wei Zhen is feeling miserable now, whether he can have enough food to eat, whether he will still be ostracized, and whether the people from the Marquis’ family will bully him.

I have a lot of things I want to say to Wei Zhen.

"First of all, congratulations to the Marquis on the birth of his baby boy." I said to the young Marquis with a smile.

"My Lord Marquis, you have just given birth to a prince, and you have come all the way back to Baihua City. I wonder what you are doing here?" I said to the young Marquis in a steady tone.

The young marquis' eyes were a little red.

He walked into the house and said to me, "Although my father-in-law is here today, I still have to say that it was you, Thirteen, who I came to Baihua City to marry that day."

I pursed my lips and smiled, "There's no need to bring up those old things."

The young marquis was obviously displeased. "You're not even interested in knowing anymore, are you?"

At this moment, I am indeed very impatient.

My heart is filled with Wei Zhen, Shang Mofeng, Yunniang, Baihua City, and the turbulent situation in the court.

Now the young marquis is actually blaming me for not taking into account the already shallow relationship between him and me.

"Since the young marquis wanted to marry me so much that day, why did he end up marrying my sister and even let her give birth to your son?"

"Thirteen, you look so strange now." The young marquis wiped his tears and said, "I was indeed different from Wei Zhen, the man who would not give up until he achieved his goal. Putting aside other things, now that I have married Princess Chunyang, how do you want me to treat her? Do you want me to abandon her?"

I laughed when I heard his words, "When did I ever tell you to abandon Princess Chunyang?"

The young marquis lowered his head slightly as if to think for a moment, then said to me, "The Wei family has already fallen apart, and there will be no chance for them to rise again in the future. You don't need to wait for Wei Zhen to come back."

"And then?" I secretly tightened my sleeves, waiting for the young marquis' next words.

"Follow me, Thirteen, I will treat you well." The young marquis looked me straight in the eye and said.

I stood up and walked slowly to the young marquis. "Are you serious about what you said, Marquis?"

"Seriously, I've always been sincere to you. Didn't I want to take you away on the day we got married? Have you forgotten?"

I smiled slightly and slapped the young marquis in the face with my backhand.

"Gu Shaolian, we did have some friendship when we were young, and I admit that you sincerely wanted to take me away on my wedding day. But in reality, you didn't take me with you. From the results, it can be seen that you did nothing to protect me. You were originally a cowardly person, but now that your Gu family is in power, you have become a villain. Take off that brocade robe of yours, how can you think you are qualified to be compared with Wei Zhen?"

The young marquis was not angry even though I slapped him.

He looked at me sideways and said, "What is so great about Wei Zhen? Tell me one or two things today."

"Wei Zhen was already out there defending Canglan Nation at the age of sixteen, fighting all over the world. You're only one year younger than him. What were you doing back then?"

Seeing that he didn't answer, I smiled and said, "Our young marquis is playing cricket fighting."

"At the age of eighteen, Wei Zhen began garrisoning troops near Diaoyucheng and Poyangcheng in the south. He endured for five full years before finally conquering the entire, easily defended, and difficult-to-attack southern city. He also recaptured Lier City, the Lier Pass, which we had lost for twelve years. Meanwhile, what was our young marquis doing?"

I laughed disdainfully, "Still fighting crickets."