Chapter 81 Chapter 81 I miss you too, ten thousand points
Jiang Hexue was struck by lightning.
"...Gone?" She spoke slowly, her expression unchanged, her smile frozen numbly. "When?"
"It's been three days..." The little boy mumbled while chewing on a steamed bun. Before he could finish his words, the man next to him covered his mouth in a hurry.
"Princess, my son is not here every day. I met Your Highness yesterday. Please don't worry." He said hurriedly.
"Tell the truth." Jiang Hexue calmed his breath and looked at the dike captain. "When did you disappear? Did you say anything?"
"When we were finishing work yesterday, His Highness said he would not come this morning and would be back around noon. But now it is dusk and we still haven't seen His Highness. We, the common people, can't help but worry..." the dike master said vaguely.
"Princess, Princess, it was His Highness who ordered us servants not to inform you. Please ask us." Xue Lan pulled her sleeve and said repeatedly.
"I won't embarrass you." Jiang Hexue glanced at her, sighed, and walked away. "I'll ask Jiang Heye."
Xue Lan wanted to follow and stop her, but was stopped by her with a light-hearted reply: "Is your master me or him?"
"If it's him, don't stay with me from now on."
"...I admit my guilt." Xue Lan finally spoke softly, and her figure disappeared again. She followed beside her but never showed up again.
But Jiang Heye was very tight-lipped. No matter how Jiang Hexue asked, he remained silent, saying only this: "Brother-in-law must have a sense of propriety. He didn't ask others to make a big fuss about the search. Sister, please don't worry."
"When I was on a mission in Kurong Manor before, I didn't ask the little princess to follow me. I'm sure Your Highness would think the same." He couldn't help but comfort her.
"Don't worry," Jiang Hexue repeated, leaning back in his chair wearily. "One or two of them are like this."
"Everyone is missing, how can I not be worried?" She raised her voice a few notches, then realized she had lost her composure, lowered her voice, and closed her eyes slightly.
The last time Shen Qingchen made her disappear for a few days, he went to look for her purple-fang black collar. When they met again, there was a knife wound across most of her waist and abdomen.
At that time, he was still in Kyoto, which he was familiar with.
But now he is in Liangzhou, surrounded by wolves.
How could she not worry about this fool?
After a while, Jiang Hexue sighed softly: "Forget it."
"I just hope the disaster situation won't get worse in the next few days."
-
It was a clear moonlit night, but the riverbank had collapsed.
In more than one place, the river embankments that had been rebuilt or reinforced since they began providing disaster relief had all collapsed.
The river overflowed like a horse that had broken free from its reins, and the houses in the villages along the river bank were washed away in large numbers. The lucky ones who had not yet moved away ran away crying, while the unfortunate ones were swallowed up by the flood before they could even make a sound.
When Jiang Hexue hurried over in the middle of the night, Tian Yu was already there, holding a long bamboo tube. He was shouting at the people to flee quickly, while ordering his men to open the sluice gates to divert the flood.
"Rebuilding the dike upstream and throwing rocks and sand will only work because there are limited ponds to divert the floodwaters. This won't work." She gathered a handful of hair that was untied and flying in the wind and said urgently.
"...Princess, it's useless." Tian Yu was silent for a moment and whispered, "The dam was blown open by gunpowder."
Jiang Hexue was stunned: "Gunpowder?"
Tian Yu nodded. "I've already sent my trusted aide to check upstream. The feldspar was blown to pieces and can't be repaired anytime soon."
Without thinking, Jiang Hexue knew who was behind this.
"Then first find an iron cage and fill it with stones, or bamboo or wood. It's better than nothing." She gave the order quickly, then cursed. "You're really crazy!"
Tian Yu simply ordered the corvée to do it immediately and nodded slightly.
"How insane! The royal family is really insane!" At this moment, a roar was heard.
Following the sound, I saw an old woman with white hair and beard running out of the refugee tent, crying and shouting in despair: "Give me back my son! Pay for my son's life!"
"Calm down, calm down." Tian Yu quickly stopped the old woman. "The embankment collapse was not the princess's fault."
"Who's that? Prefect, who's that?" He stopped the old woman, still glaring at Jiang Hexue fiercely. "Liangzhou suffers floods every summer, but the riverbanks never collapse. But when this Beixuan person arrived, the riverbank collapsed, and the son I've worked so hard to raise for half my life is gone..."
"Didn't the imperial court allocate funds? Why? Why don't you repair it? Why don't you use good materials? Why don't you take our lives for granted?"
She cried so hard that Jiang Hexue was heartbroken, but she remained calm and said, "The court allocated two thousand taels, and we didn't take a single cent. The rescue supplies were all in good condition, but the dam was blown up by someone, which was beyond our expectations. I'm so sorry."
"Yes, I'm sorry." Tian Yu also tried to persuade him. "Natural disasters and man-made disasters are beyond the prediction of us mortals..."
"The dam was blown up? By whom? If it wasn't you, a Beixuan spy, then was it the Liang family, who have defended Liangzhou for decades? Or the Marquis of Zhenbei, a man passed down from generation to generation? Or the kindly Magistrate Tian?" The old woman roared, unmoved. "If they wanted to harm us, why would they wait until now? But now that you've come, my son is dead! Pay with blood!"
She didn't know where she got the strength from, she broke free from Tian Yu, and her withered hands rushed straight towards Jiang Hexue's neck: "I will kill you!"
A fierce palm wind was faster than Xue Lan's movement.
Someone hugged her waist and she took a half step back. The young man pressed his folding fan against the old woman's wrist and said coldly, "You attempted to assassinate the princess. You deserve the death penalty."
Jiang Hexue stared blankly at Shen Qingchen who had "fallen from the sky".
But she only had time to take a quick glance before she heard the old woman roar in grief and anger: "Well, well, you killed my son, and now you want to kill me!"
"I am an old woman with only a worthless life. You don't need to do it yourself!"
"We, the people of Liangzhou, will be slaughtered by you, the Heavenly Family!"
Before anyone could stop her, she turned around and threw herself into the surging river. Without even a cry, she disappeared in the blink of an eye.
"It's over." Tian Yu sighed softly during a long silence.
Shen Qingchen glanced at him sideways, without saying much, and only ordered: "Send the princess back to the inn."
"Wait for me, at most an hour." After saying that, he gently rubbed her fingertips. "Don't be afraid."
-
For an hour, Jiang Hexue was in a daze.
She thought about a lot of things, including the several dams that were blown up by Tian Yu, the old woman's tearful howling, and Chen Qingchen.
This matter is more difficult than the death of Liang's branch of the family by hitting the pillar.
As she had expected, the Marquis of Zhenbei and the Liang family had been entrenched in Liangzhou for many years. The people of Liangzhou might not love them very much, but their trust in them was definitely deeper than that for them, a group of newcomers.
Just as the old woman's last words said, "If we were going to take action, we would have done it long ago." Perhaps this is what most people think.
Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. Now, in disaster relief efforts, the public's support is crucial, so they naturally cannot let public opinion ferment.
But how can we control it in Liangzhou where we are unfamiliar with the place?
Jiang Hexue's head ached terribly, and he lay powerlessly on the table, fiddling with the tortoise shells that Shen Qingchen often used for divination, hoping to find some answers.
At this moment, there were three knocks on the door. The young man who had not been seen for many days strode in, took off his mud-stained coat, and hugged her in his arms.
"Don't be afraid, Qingqing." Shen Qingchen patted her back gently and soothed her in a gentle voice. "I'm here."
"Where have you been?" After being hugged tightly by him for a long time, Jiang Hexue's chaotic mood gradually calmed down. She looked up and asked.
"I went to check on the dikes with the prefectural governor, and all the emergency measures have been ordered. The disaster situation will be largely stabilized by tomorrow," Shen Qingchen said, reassuringly. "When Kyoto was hit by disasters before, I went back to the capital every time. Although I led the worship of the gods, I was always sensible. Don't worry."
Jiang Hexue nodded gently and asked, "Where have you been these days? Why didn't you let me know?"
Shen Qingchen's arms stiffened slightly, and he straightened up in an instant, looked into her eyes, and said softly: "I'm afraid you'll worry."
Jiang Hexue looked at him without saying a word, her eyes misty.
“Zhenbei Marquis Mansion.” After a moment, Shen Qingchen explained in a low voice.
He was worried that Liang was conspiring with the Marquis of Zhenbei, so he took the initiative and went to the Marquis of Zhenbei's mansion to look for the so-called "evidence" using the embroidery map left by the Marquis' wife.
The southeast corner of the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion is Jiang Tao's study. The "South Three and East Eight" left on the embroidery map refers to the floor tiles. If you press your heels against them and rotate them once, you can enter the secret room of the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion.
Detailed physical evidence of the Marquis of Zhenbei's many crimes are hidden here, as well as many letters exchanged with the King of Beixuan, which are a sure proof of his crime of treason and collaboration with the enemy.
Shen Qingchen picked out the most important things to take away, and followed the remaining half of the sentence "North Eight West Nine" to find the exit of the secret room.
But no matter how hard he tried to hide, he was still discovered by the guards of the marquis' mansion.
With a large number of people, he wandered around the outskirts of the city for a long time, and finally killed them all, and was able to escape and return safely.
He originally wanted to return to Kyoto and hand it over to Emperor Hengshun in person. He was better at dealing with this emperor.
But the riverbank collapsed, and he must be more familiar with the matter than Jiang Heye, who was doing disaster relief for the first time, so he handed it over and ordered him to rush back to Kyoto and deliver it personally to Emperor Hengshun to ensure that there would be no problems.
They also asked him to bring back the ancient northern mysterious language on the embroidery that they could not understand and pass it on to Shen Chutang.
"At least he will be convicted." Shen Qingchen was not sure whether Emperor Hengshun would send troops to support him, so he just comforted her. "Once he is convicted, we can mobilize the troops. After the traitor is executed, I will accompany you to Jiangzhou."
His words were so light that it seemed like the matter would subside in three to five days.
Jiang Hexue also reluctantly curved her lips in response to his words and asked, "Are you hurt?"
She looked at him straight like this, and Shen Qingchen couldn't tell any lies, let alone if he did, she would definitely not believe it.
"It's nothing serious." He then whispered, guiding her hands to untie the laces of her tunic. "It won't hurt either."
The moon-white clothes fell to the ground, revealing the skin, with dark red scars scattered all over the body, shallow but numerous.
Jiang Hexue took the ointment, melted it on her fingertips, and applied it carefully to him.
Her red lips, which always kept mumbling, were now pressed into a straight line. Shen Qingchen lowered her eyes and looked at her, her heart tightening.
"Qiong Qiong." He lowered his voice and softened it.
Jiang Hexue said "hmm" with a noticeable nasal tone.
Shen Qingchen then reached out, gently held her hand, pulled her into his arms and hugged her.
"Ointment..." Jiang Hexue muttered, but before he finished speaking, his shoulders felt heavy.
Shen Qingchen rested his forehead on the crook of her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he said, his tone awkward as he admitted his mistake. "I shouldn't have kept it from you, Qingqing."
The tears that Jiang Hexue had tried hard to hold back suddenly fell.
"Do you know how worried I am?" She hugged him back, complaining softly, and finally said aggrievedly, "I missed you so much."
Shen Qingchen rubbed her shoulder and raised his face to look at her.
"I miss you, too." His ears were red as he whispered, imitating what she had said before. "Ten thousand points."
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