Chapter 26: The Affair Exposed
Shen Xiunian sighed, and probably figured out why he was asked to investigate the matter.
If the incense thing is true.
Pei Zhouwu was imprisoned, so he certainly couldn't get such a thing.
And who is the guard using the knockout incense for? Is it for dealing with Pei Zhouwu?
We can't just send anyone to investigate this matter. The Queen and the Pei family will not agree to it, for fear that they are in cahoots with those people on the mountain and are in cahoots with each other to conceal the truth.
It must be someone who does not participate in court struggles in Beijing, but who is in a high position of power and is not easily bribed or deceived.
Although he held the second-rank official rank and commanded an army of hundreds of thousands, he was often away on military campaigns and had little contact with the court in Beijing, and did not belong to any faction.
It would be fairest to let him investigate.
After returning home, he changed his clothes, put on his armor, and led his troops out of the city to Xiangshan.
Pei Zhouwu's prison was extremely remote, located in a deep forest halfway up a mountain, and was extremely difficult to find. Finally, he saw the huge pendulum on the edge of a cliff. The prison was surrounded by cliffs, with no top to the top and no bottom to the bottom. The location was great.
Seeing the neatly-organized army approaching, the guards on the mountain were thrown into disarray.
"General, are you here to detain the traitor Pei Zhouwu?"
"Traitor?" Shen Xiunian looked him up and down, and said with interest: "Your Majesty has not yet made a decision on whether Pei Zhouwu is a traitor, but you are so sure?"
"This, this, that Pei Zhouwu has killed people, how can he not be a traitor?"
"Why did he kill people?"
"It's not for the purpose of defecting."
"If I remember correctly, he has been imprisoned here for half a year. Why didn't he defect before, but chose to defect last night? Your new leader took office yesterday, and he defected at night. Could it be that your leader deliberately gave him the opportunity to defect?"
"How could this happen? This..."
Shen Xiunian was too lazy to say more to him and went straight inside.
When the second room inside was pushed open, the strong smell of blood made him wrinkle his nose.
The person on the bed had his eyes closed, his lips were pale, and the blood-red on his body was eye-scorching.
They were all people in the court. Although Shen Xiunian and Pei Zhouwu had never had much interaction, they had met each other.
In the past, Pei Zhouwu was a person as dazzling as the sun.
It is really sad that it has fallen to such a state.
Chen Xiunian stretched out two fingers and probed Pei Zhouwu's nose. This was because Pei Zhouwu's condition looked too much like he had lost his breath, and there was no sign of his chest rising or falling.
“Su…”
Hearing Pei Zhouwu's murmur, he was startled and quickly withdrew his hand.
"...Moon Firefly."
The voice was too weak, and Shen Xiunian couldn't hear it clearly.
He just didn't want to miss any clues in order to investigate the case, and thought it would be good if he could get something useful from Pei Zhouwu's mumbling while he was unconscious.
So, he bowed his head and lowered his body.
After waiting for a while, Pei Zhouwu spoke again, muttering two words, "A Ying."
Firefly.
"Ah Ying." Shen Xiunian repeated the two words with the same pronunciation.
A Ying?
Shen Xiunian stood up suddenly, his back straight.
It’s no wonder that he opened his mouth with the name “Aying”, because among all the people he knew, only Liu Fuying had this pronunciation.
And Pei Zhouwu was so obsessed with it and called it so intimately, so it must be a woman's name.
In an instant, an absurd idea came to Shen Xiunian's mind.
Could it be that he discovered Liu Fuying's affair?
He knew that Liu Fuying had someone outside, and she often went to Changming Temple in Xiangshan, so he thought that Liu Fuying had arranged a secret meeting with someone in the temple. Could it be that he guessed wrong, and the person who was meeting was not in Changming Temple, but...
No, how is that possible.
There are cliffs thousands of feet high in front and behind, and there are soldiers guarding outside. How can Liu Fuying get in?
Suddenly.
He remembered something again, frowned and took a step back.
He remembered that Liu Fuying once fell off a cliff in Xiangshan and did not return home until the next day.
Since then, she began to go to Xiangshan frequently, saying that she went to the temple to burn incense and pray for a child, but in reality...
Xiangshan, Aying.
How could such a coincidence happen?
Or maybe it's just a coincidence!
The person Pei Zhouwu mentioned simply had a homonymous character in his name with Liu Fuying. He was overthinking it.
Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to get past the guard at the door.
It was good enough that they didn't kill her on the spot as a traitor's accomplice, so how could they allow her to come in again and again to have secret meetings with Pei Zhouwu.
"Hina."
Pei Zhouwu's murmurs continued.
The more he listened, the faster Shen Xiunian's heart beat.
He was not jealous of the affair between Liu Fuying and Pei Zhouwu, but Pei Zhouwu's identity was too complicated. If there was any mistake, the Shen family would be destroyed.
"Hairpin...hairpin."
Pei Zhouwu's uneasily murmured, and every sound affected Shen Xiunian's emotions.
He bravely took a few steps forward, still wanting to listen more and clarify things.
"hairpin……"
Pei Zhouwu's voice sounded a little anxious, and Shen Xiunian also frowned and focused his attention, wanting to hear more clearly.
"Moonfirefly."
"Su Yueying."
Su...
Shen Xiunian heard it clearly now, and heard it very clearly that the surname of the person Pei Zhouwu was thinking of was Su, not Liu.
He breathed a sigh of relief, his brows relaxed in relief.
It’s good that it’s not Liu Fuying.
That's good!
As he moved, he suddenly stepped on something. He lowered his head and moved away, and found a wooden hairpin on the ground in front of the bed. He half squatted down to pick it up, and understood what Pei Zhouwu meant by the hairpin just now.
Just as her fingers touched the hairpin, she suddenly saw something under the bed out of the corner of her eye.
He had sharp eyes and immediately recalled the incense that his subordinates had mentioned to him before.
He reached out and pulled out what turned out to be a burnt incense stick.
He was suddenly startled, and when he looked up again, he met Pei Zhouwu's eyes on the bed, which had opened at some point.
He stood up suddenly, and Pei Zhouwu also forced himself to sit up.
Although his body was extremely weak, his eyes were exceptionally sharp. The gaze he stared at Shen Xiunian was like a sharp blade, emitting cold light and murderous intent, as if it was Shen Xiunian who was covered in blood and in a weak position.
Pei Zhouwu said nothing, but just stretched out his hand.
The silent confrontation spread endlessly in the bloody smell of the room.
Shen Xiunian understood what he meant. What he wanted was the wooden hairpin in his hand.
Even when he was asleep, he was still thinking about it, which showed how important it was to Pei Zhouwu. Shen Xiunian understood this feeling and this unforgettable emotion very well. He was just a person trapped in love.
Shen Xiunian did not embarrass him and handed over the wooden hairpin in his hand.
He also noticed that there were two fireflies carved on the wooden hairpin, and he immediately understood that the "A Ying" that Pei Zhouwu had just mentioned was actually the "Ying" in "firefly".
Sure enough, he was just overthinking it all.
Liu Fuying and Pei Zhouwu, how is that possible.
Thinking back to what Liu Fuying said in the morning about looking down on him, it was true. Liu Fuying didn't even look down on him, so how could she look down on a prisoner like Pei Zhouwu.
"General Shen." Pei Zhouwu spoke hoarsely.
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