Chapter 41 Secret Planning Guan Qing and I haven't seen each other for a long time, so you...
"Let me ask him," Jiang Tong said, still tightly clutching Su Guanqing's hand. She looked up at Mao Zhang, who had approached with a sullen expression. "Guanqing has a stubborn temper, but he'll listen to me."
Mao Zhang looked at Jiang Tong. He thought he would see a panicked, tearful little girl, but that was not the case.
Betrayed by her best friend, both her lover and father fell ill, and her own life was hanging by a thread, none of these things seemed to crush her.
She tilted her little face, which still had a little baby fat, but there was no childishness in her eyes and brows.
No matter how Mao Zhang looked, he could not see any fear or helplessness in her eyes.
Under the knife and axe, she was as calm as the sea surface.
His intimidation and threats were just tiny pebbles thrown into the mix. As long as she didn't agree, he wouldn't be able to cause any waves.
"You're better than your father," Mao Zhang finally sighed. "Okay, I'll give you some time. You talk to him."
"Let's go inside and talk." After Jiang Tong said this, seeing that Mao Zhang had no objection, he helped Su Guanqing into the house.
As she walked in, she saw Mao Zhang about to follow in and raised her eyebrows: "Guan Qing and I want to have a private conversation. Uncle Mao is the elder, so I'm afraid some of the things he says may be inappropriate for you to hear."
"Is there anything inconvenient for me to hear?" Mao Zhang looked at Jiang Tong warily.
"Guan Qing and I haven't seen each other for a long time. As the saying goes, when golden wind and jade dew meet, it's inevitable that you and I will be affectionate for a while. Uncle Mao, if..."
Before Jiang Tong finished speaking, Mao Zhang's face had already turned red with embarrassment. He walked out with a flick of his sleeves and gave A Qiao a wink, indicating that she should go in and keep an eye on it.
A Qiao walked in with his head down, exchanged glances with Jiang Tong, then lowered his head and closed the door.
Although Su Guanqing still had a splitting headache, his mind was not as dizzy as before. He obviously heard what Jiang Tong had just said, and his face flushed for a moment.
When Aqiao saw Su Guanqing's expression, he couldn't help but give Jiang Tong a teasing smile.
Jiang Tong pretended not to notice. She helped Su Guanqing sit on the only bench in the room and asked hurriedly:
"Guan Qing, tell me the truth, do you really know where that illegitimate child is?"
Su Guanqing nodded and said, "After I joined the music troupe that day, the assassins my father left behind to look after the heir to the throne contacted me. It was I who ordered them to move to another place."
"If they don't get the next order for a long time, will they take the initiative to go find my father?"
Su Guanqing shook his head: "They only know how to obey the Su family. If they want to find someone, they will come to me, not your father."
After he finished speaking, no one in the room said anything for a while.
He looked up in confusion: "Tongtong?"
His hair had long been disheveled, wet and tangled, and his outer garments had been stripped off, leaving him only in a dirty undershirt. The knife wound on his neck was too shallow and had already solidified, leaving only a thumb-long blood mark.
Jiang Tong gently tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, her tone almost whispering, "You've been carrying such a big secret all these years. How did you get through it?"
Su Guanqing felt her movements and heard her gentle words, and he felt a little aggrieved. He choked with a smile and said, "It's okay, I'm used to it."
"When I first brought you home, my father had a private chat with you in the study. He should have asked you at that time, right?" Jiang Tong continued to ask softly.
Su Guanqing nodded: "At that time I told him that I knew nothing, and he believed me."
"Since this was Uncle Su's dying wish, why didn't you tell my father?"
"Because I didn't want to get involved," Su Guanqing laughed bitterly. "When my father told me what happened, it was already too late. He was already deeply mired in the quagmire. I couldn't stop him. I could only watch him get convicted, watch the Su family be ransacked, and watch everyone be thrown into prison. In the end, they all died, and I was the only one left. I... couldn't see anything."
His face was filled with pain. "So when those assassins came looking for me, I ordered them to hide somewhere else and not to contact anyone else. I did it on purpose, I did it on purpose..."
He hunched his back and buried his face in his hands. "Just for his so-called loyalty, he let his entire family be buried with him... Why didn't he ask me if I was willing? He never even asked me what I wanted!"
He worked hard for more than ten years to be the best son in his father's eyes.
But at that moment he realized that the price of being the kind of good son Su Baichuan wanted was so high. He regretted it and didn't want to do it anymore, but he no longer had the chance to choose.
Emperor Zhengtong believed that he knew something, and Mao Zhang also believed that he knew something. Everyone wanted to get the whereabouts of the royal heir from him.
When he was in the band, people often came to test him, to get him to talk, some threatened him, some bribed him. Sometimes they just spoke, sometimes they would physically assault him, leaving him with no escape, no way to avoid it. Su Baichuan's last will and test followed him like a shadow, refusing to let him go.
It wasn't until Jiang Tong rescued him that he had a chance to breathe.
He originally thought that as long as he did his best to keep this secret, he could keep Jiang Tong out of trouble, but the current situation told him that he was still too naive.
Jiang Tong noticed that Su Guanqing's spine was shaking constantly. She sat beside him, running her hands along his back, trying to comfort him, but it was all in vain.
In the silence, Aqiao's voice suddenly rang out from inside the room: "Since you don't want to help Emperor Jingtai's heir to the throne, why don't you reveal the news about the heir? If the Jinyiwei got the news, they probably wouldn't keep an eye on you anymore."
Su Guanqing suddenly stopped and looked up in surprise: "Miss Qiao? You, you are in the room too?"
He was so embarrassed that he felt ashamed. If he knew there was someone else in the room, he would not be so frank and would not admit that he knew.
"It's okay, A Qiao is one of us. Just tell me whatever you want to say, no need to avoid her." Jiang Tong patted him gently.
"Our own people? Then just now..." Su Guanqing reacted, "Did you discuss this beforehand?"
"That's not the case. It happened suddenly and we didn't have time to discuss it," Jiang Tong turned to look at A Qiao, and they exchanged a knowing look.
That was the tacit understanding between the sisters.
Su Guanqing naturally believed everything Jiang Tong said, so he continued, "Although I don't want to do anything for the Jingtai Emperor's bloodline, I also don't want to let the Zhengtong Emperor fulfill his wish. I would rather be monitored by the Jinyiwei than let him worry about this."
As he spoke, he suddenly felt uneasy. He had always been gentle and easy-going, but he didn't expect that today he would show such hatred and resentment in front of Jiang Tong.
Since ancient times, loyalty to the emperor and death for one's country have been the foundation of human beings. Does Tongtong think that he is a coward who is afraid of death?
Just as he was feeling uneasy, he heard Jiang Tong's indignant voice: "Guan Qing, you did a good job. Why should they be loyal to the emperor? They want to seize the throne and we should be buried with them!"
Ah Qiao walked to the window at some point, his voice filled with sorrow, "I only just now learned that my brothers died at the dock for this very reason."
"We can't let them continue to mess around. Otherwise, we will be killed by them sooner or later." Jiang Tong said.
She squatted down, grabbed Su Guanqing's arm, and ordered: "Guanqing, where is the royal heir? Don't tell them."
"I will never tell them," Su Guanqing nodded solemnly, but the worry on his brows did not diminish in the slightest. "But even if I don't tell them, they are keeping these assassins, and sooner or later something bad will happen."
Jiang Tong's brows also furrowed. She pressed her solar plexus with both hands and thought of a solution rapidly in her mind, but no matter how she thought about it, there was no solution to this problem.
Ah Qiao was also pacing around the room, and suddenly muttered, "I heard that Mao Zhang has thousands of assassins at his disposal. How enviable! If these people were mine..."
The speaker may not mean it, but the listener may take it seriously. Jiang Tong was stunned for a moment, then suddenly stood up as if the clouds had cleared and the sky had opened. "I have a plan. I think we can give it a try!"
…
"Are you the descendant of Lord Shang?!" Mao Zhang stared at Aqiao in shock.
Aqiao nodded solemnly.
After Jiang Huaishan regained consciousness, his face was still pale. He sat on the armchair that Mao Zhang had ordered brought over and looked at his daughter: "Did you know this earlier?"
"I didn't know it before," Jiang Tong said, "but when A Qiao restored the Shang Gong painting for me, I started to get some clues."
"Can a painting prove it?" Jiang Huaishan asked.
Su Guanqing explained, "Mr. Shang's paintings are only for imperial use. No common people would dare to collect the paintings presented to them. Even when I asked Mr. Shang for a painting, he refused to give it to me."
Jiang Huaishan and Mao Zhang were both unsophisticated men, so they had no idea what was going on. However, Su Guanqing was a renowned painter, and the Su and Shang families were close friends, so he must have been very knowledgeable about this. They both believed that the painting in Aqiao's hand was indeed Shang Xi's.
"But the entire Shang family was executed. If you are a descendant of Shang Gong, how could you escape this disaster?" Mao Zhang asked.
Ah Qiao smiled bitterly: "Because I'm not in the Shang family tree. My mother and I have always been raised outside by my father."
Jiang Huaishan and Mao Zhang understood clearly that she was actually a concubine's daughter, no wonder.
If this matter is true, it is not difficult to verify. Mao Zhang did not ask any further questions at the moment, but decided to send someone to investigate the authenticity later.
"I didn't expect that Aqiao is also the descendant of a loyal and righteous person." Jiang Huaishan sighed.
A Qiaofeng's eyes were filled with tears: "My grandfather was devoted to serving his country, but I never thought he would end up like this. I only regret that I couldn't fulfill his long-cherished wish."
Mao Zhang patted her shoulder and said, "Good girl! Come with us and we will definitely help your grandfather fulfill his long-cherished wish!"
Aqiao was choking with sobs and unable to speak, he just nodded.
"That's right. We are all working for the public good and are united in this. Why make a fuss?" Jiang Tong scolded in a condescending tone.
Mao Zhang snorted, "If Su Guanqing had told us the whereabouts of the heir earlier, we wouldn't have come to this point today!"
"The matter of the royal heir is of great importance. Over the years, people have been using threats and bribes to try to get the whereabouts of the royal heir from me. Some of them are under the pretext of restoring the royal heir. I can't be sure of Mr. Mao's sincerity, so how dare I, your nephew, tell you easily? I would rather die than let the royal heir fall into the hands of evil people." Su Guanqing looked awe-inspiring.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, his expression became blank, and then he sneezed several times in succession, and could not help but hug his arms tightly. He had not felt it before because of his excitement, but now that he had calmed down a little, he felt the autumn chill.
Jiang Tong angrily said, "Where are Guan Qing's clothes? Return them to him!"
Mao Zhang hurriedly ordered someone to fetch his clothes and stuffed them into his arms. He couldn't help but ask, "How can you trust me now?"
"I don't believe you. So I won't tell you where the heir is..."
Mao Zhang choked and then his face changed drastically.
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