Chapter 61: Don’t You Want to Recognize Us?
After Shen Changyu was abducted, Shen Tingyu sent people to search for him everywhere, but not only did he fail to find his son, but he also aroused suspicion. He was suspected of hiding the orphan of the deposed crown prince, and was suspended from his post pending investigation.
He was placed under house arrest in his mansion, and people from the Dali Temple were ordered to investigate, and naturally they did not let go of his second son who had suddenly "fallen ill".
However, when the curtains were drawn aside and the eunuchs came closer to take a look, they found that the child lying on the bed, who was feverish and dazed, was not the person they were looking for.
Only then was Shen Tingyu cleared of suspicion.
The child on the bed was indeed not the orphan of the deposed crown prince. Instead, Pei Yuanzhou had the foresight to exchange his own child for that child, and quickly took him away from the capital, settling in Quanzhou not long after.
Unable to bear the separation of father and son, Shen Tingyu sent the real Pei Huaian to Quanzhou under the pretext of "medical treatment" after the situation stabilized. Although Pei Yuanzhou had not yet recognized his son, he had been taking care of him as an "uncle" over the years.
They preserved the only bloodline of the former prince, and the real Pei Huaian also received the care of his biological father. Only Shen Tingyu lost his son.
"No wonder..." Before her father came back, Shen Youran and her sister were still speculating about why their mother was so determined to divorce her father. They thought that their mother couldn't blame their father for preserving the former prince's bloodline, but she couldn't forgive him for harming his own son for this either. So, she could only choose to leave the father who made her suffer.
"Then the story about Daddy severing his ties with Father-in-law was also a lie?" Shen Yunshu asked.
"Of course it's fake..."
Over the years, Shen Tingyu and Pei Yuanzhou have cut off their relationship on the surface, but in fact they have been in contact secretly.
Shen Tingyu's rise from a small deputy minister of the Ministry of Revenue to the current Minister of Revenue was not achieved solely by ability. The money he used to smooth the relationship and manage various places privately all came from Pei Yuanzhou.
Only if one has enough power in his hands can he have the ability to overturn the verdict of the crown prince of that year.
It is true that they did it. Over the years, several princes have been fighting for the position of crown prince. In addition, Shen Tingyu has been secretly fanning the flames. The truth about the former crown prince being wronged has gradually surfaced.
Two years ago, His Majesty occasionally missed the former Crown Prince, and later mentioned his kindness more and more frequently. Upon learning that the Crown Prince's orphan might still be alive, he secretly sent people to search for him until they found the trace of the assassins from that year...
Among the assassins who took Shen Changyu away that year were the two leaders.
Shen Changyu said that he was picked up by his eldest and second fathers. Now he thinks that it was because those two fathers could not bear to kill the child that they saved his life. After that, they took him to travel around and became bandits. He met Lu Yi in Mushroom State, and then came to the capital city again, where he committed two crimes: kidnapping a bride and holding a hostage.
One of the reasons why the Dali Temple attached so much importance to these two cases was to find the so-called "Prince's orphan".
Coincidentally, Pei Yuanzhou received a letter from home and learned that his son and daughter-in-law had been kidnapped. When the ransom was not enough, he quickly gathered a large sum of money, including silver notes, cash and gold bars. He did not rush to the capital to rescue them as soon as possible, so he had to abandon the official road and take a shortcut, where he happened to meet the gang of bandits.
Seeing him carrying gold and silver, the bandits naturally had evil intentions. Although Pei Yuanzhou was in a hurry, he was carrying a huge amount of money and was accompanied by experts. He originally wanted to confront them head-on, but he accidentally discovered a young man who looked very similar to Shen Tingyu. He pretended to be weak and was captured. He found an opportunity to speak to the young man and guessed his identity...
Afterwards, he worked together with his own people to bring the boy out.
On the way back to the capital, the boy ran away twice, which delayed his return.
"Brother Tingyu, what are your plans now?" Pei Yuanzhou asked him.
Shen Tingyu glanced at his son and said, "A few days ago, the painter from the Dali Temple drew his appearance, and I had already planned to go to His Majesty to plead my case, but this matter also concerns you and the Pei family, so I cannot make the decision on my own."
"In my opinion, we should file a petition as soon as possible. After all, our merits and demerits can be offset. If we continue to conceal it, we will be charged with deceiving the emperor, and both our families will be in great trouble..."
The crime of deceiving the emperor?
Shen Changyu did not understand the crime of deceiving the emperor, but the two sisters did, and they could not help but show some horror when they heard it.
Shen Tingyu glanced at the three children, afraid of scaring them, so he didn't continue discussing the matter in front of them: "Shu'er, take your brother to settle down first, and don't let the servants know his identity for the time being."
"Yes, Daddy."
Shen Yunshu motioned for her brother to follow her, and then took her sister's hand: "Let's go."
"Sister, why do I feel like I'm dreaming?" After leaving the flower hall, Shen Youran held her dizzy head and said in disbelief, "This matter is really too horrifying? My second brother is actually a bandit, and your husband is actually the orphan of the prince? Oh my God, I haven't seen such a shocking story in even the storybooks..."
Shen Yunshu was also a little confused at this time. The person beside her pillow suddenly turned into a royal blood. And from what her father and father-in-law said just now, they must want to send him back to the palace as soon as possible. Then, as his wife, would she have to go into the palace with him?
After she left, the third sister was alone in Pei Mansion. Could she handle all those people and things?
All these things made her feel heavy in her heart, as if a stone had fallen.
But now her father asked her to settle her second brother first. Shen Yunshu could only cheer up and place him in the yard where she used to live. She asked the servants to prepare hot water and then go to her father's room to get a set of clean clothes.
The second younger brother looks about the same height as his father. There is no young man of the same age in the mansion, so he can only wear his father's clothes for now.
"Second brother, I have quite a complete range of things in this courtyard. You can just spend the night here. Tomorrow morning, I'll have someone go out and buy you all the necessary things. I'll also make you a few new sets of clothes..."
He didn't feel compromising at all. He looked around curiously and said with a smile, "Sister, there's no need to bother. I used to be used to sleeping in a grass nest. This is fine."
The young man in front of me was wearing a short coarse cloth jacket and a wolfskin coat on half his back. He had handsome features but they were hidden by his dark and rough skin. If it weren't for that accident, he would have grown into a handsome young man by now.
The more she looked at him, the more sad she felt: "Brother Changyu, Youran and I didn't know you'd been wandering around all these years. You've suffered..."
"I didn't suffer that much, actually. They treated me very well." Compared to his father's excitement when he saw him, the boy seemed calmer. "Sister, Youran, I need to rest for a while. You can go back first."
"Okay." Shen Yunshu left her maid Tinglan behind, and assigned two calm and quiet guards to guard the place, then left with her sister.
"Sister, it's getting late, are you going back?"
"I'm a little confused right now," Shen Yunshu said, "I don't know how to face Pei Huaian when I go back."
He will soon no longer be Pei Huaian.
"If he is really recognized and brought back to the palace, his status will naturally be indescribable. You are his wife, isn't this a good thing?"
"Think about it, Dad and Father-in-law have always known Pei Huaian's true identity. Although I brought you and Pei Huaian together without knowing it, the end result was that the Shen family's daughter married the prince's orphan. Do you think that once His Majesty recognizes his grandson, will he suspect that the Shen family deliberately married their daughter to the emperor's grandson?"
Ever since Shen Youran learned of Pei Huaian's true identity, she was shocked, but also inevitably a little happy. She thought that it was fortunate that her sister, who was both talented and beautiful, married him. When the time came, she would enter the palace with him. With her sister's talent and temperament, she would definitely be liked by the royal family.
But after hearing my sister's in-depth analysis, my heart skipped a beat: If the emperor really suspected that the Shen family knowingly married their daughter to the emperor's grandson, how would he view the Shen family? And how would he treat my sister?
In this case, it would not be a good thing if my sister entered the palace with Pei Huaian.
“Sister…” Shen Youran was not happy at all at this moment, and looked at her sister worriedly.
Seeing her sister become depressed, Shen Yunshu comforted her: "Don't worry, Daddy and father-in-law should be able to handle it. If they can't handle it, the worst that can happen is..."
"What's the big deal?"
"Nothing." Shen Yunshu rubbed her head and smiled. "Anyway, we will find a way to deal with it."
Pei Yuanzhou stayed at the Shen Mansion until very late before leaving. Before leaving, he wanted to ask Shen Yunshu to go back to the Pei Mansion together, but Shen Yunshu said that her second brother had just returned today and she wanted to spend more time with him.
Pei Yuanzhou did not force him and went back first.
After seeing his friends off, Shen Tingyu went to his eldest daughter's yard to visit his lost son who had been found.
The father and son talked in the room for a while. Seeing that the son kept yawning, he didn't stay too long and told him to go to bed early.
As the night deepened, everything was silent. Occasionally, a dead leaf would fall to the ground in the courtyard, making a crisp and light sound.
Shen Yunshu couldn't sleep. Her mind was full of thoughts and she always felt as if she had missed something important.
The copper bell in the corridor was shaken by the night wind, and the faint trembling sound came over. Shen Yunshu suddenly remembered: her second brother who came home today did not react properly.
After reuniting with his family after a long separation, his reaction seemed a little too calm.
Shen Yunshu remembered what her father-in-law said: he ran away twice on the way back...
Could it be that he doesn't want to recognize this home?
Shen Yunshu got up and got out of bed carefully to avoid waking her sister, then quickly put on her clothes and left the room.
The moon was dim and the stars were dim, the ground was as white as water, and Shen Yunshu walked towards the yard where her second brother was, stepping on the cold air on the ground.
It was just a coincidence that I met him as he just leaned out of the gate when I arrived at the courtyard.
He was not wearing the clothes she had prepared for him. He was still wearing his own wolfskin half-back and a fur hat. He was looking around and when he saw her, he was so scared that he wanted to run away.
"Second brother!" Shen Yunshu grabbed his hand, "Where are you going?"
The other party was quite honest: "Sister, I want to go find my eldest and second dads."
As she had guessed, "But we are your family. Don't you want to recognize us?"
"I do, but I don't know how my dad and the others are doing now. I'm very worried about them."
"If you're worried about them, just ask Dad to send someone to investigate. Why did you sneak out?" Shen Yunshu pulled him back and saw two guards lying on the ground. They must have been knocked unconscious by him. "Where's Tinglan?"
"That little girl, I knocked her out and put her in the house. It's very cold outside." The boy followed her for a few steps and then stopped.
He was tall and strong, so if he didn't want to be pulled by her, she wouldn't be able to pull him away.
The two had no choice but to stand in the yard and talk.
"Tell me the truth, did you sneak out with any other intentions besides wanting to see your two adoptive fathers?"
The other person lowered his head for a long moment before saying, "Sister, it's enough for me to know my life story. My life is already like this. I can't read a single word, and I'm used to being rough. I really can't live such a noble life. Please let me go."
Shen Yunshu immediately understood his thoughts: "Are you afraid that we will look down on you?"
The other person raised his eyelids to look at her, then lowered them again: "No, I know you are all very good people..."
That's it.
No wonder he was so dull and silent from the moment he saw his father in the flower hall. He must have felt lost and at a loss as to what to do.
"We won't look down on you," Shen Yunshu said gently, her tone filled with confidence and cherishment. "It doesn't matter if you can't read. We'll learn slowly. Youran only started studying and practicing calligraphy seriously in the past two years. It's not too late. It's okay to be a little rough, as long as you have a kind heart. I know you're not a bad person. When Youran was kidnapped by you, if it weren't for you, she wouldn't have returned unharmed."
Mentioning Youran, the young man felt even more ashamed. "I'm so sorry, Sister Youran. Back then, I even said I would take her away and make her my wife in the future. How could I say such things to my own sister?"
"Ignorance is not a crime," Shen Yunshu saw him lower his head more and more, the furry hat was right in front of her, just like the head Pei Huaian offered her every time to please her, making her unable to help but raise her hand to touch it. "You Ran didn't blame you either. After she came back, she told me that it was thanks to your kindness that she was able to keep her innocence. I guess this is the fate between you two siblings..."
The young man then raised his head, and under the moonlight, a pair of eyes as black as obsidian were covered with a thin layer of mist.
"Sister..." This call of "sister" was more affectionate than before.
Shen Yunshu's hand accidentally brushed against his cheek, which felt rough. She paused, feeling even more distressed. "I asked someone to prepare some facial cream for you, which will moisturize your skin. Didn't you use it?"
The boy grinned sheepishly, "I've never used that kind of thing before. I don't know how to use it."
"Then sister will teach you..."
"Um."
Shen Yunshu was relieved when she saw a smile on his face. She was about to take him into the house when she suddenly saw a figure running towards him angrily from the gate behind him.
"Madam, who is this wild man?"
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The author has something to say: The plot is finally almost over, I’ll be eating dog food in the next two chapters!
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