Chapter 18 Paying the debt of love "I'm sorry"
The handwriting on the paper is beautiful, like silk flowers, with a faint fragrance.
Jia Ci, his hands hanging overhead, strained his head forward to get closer to the paper, only to be slapped sideways by a guard. He licked the blood from the edge of his lips, the rusty smell instantly invading his nose. He felt no pain, only a low, sinister laugh.
"Prince Rong'an is truly Prince Rong'an. He's really good at using his power to manipulate others!" Jia Ci lowered his head and rolled his eyes upward, staring at the young man sitting opposite him. "I don't believe that little woman from the Deng family would team up with you to arrest me. Prince Rong'an, don't think you can get me to tell the truth by forging a letter written by her own hand."
There was no lack of contempt for Deng Yesi in Jia Ci's words. It was really hateful that such a person could still get Deng Yesi's love.
"Stop slandering me," Qin Yanheng kicked the iron bars as a warning, the sound of the bars grating. "You're still abusing your power. You're just a failed juren, not worthy of my manipulation of power. Don't use new words you learned carelessly. I don't know how an uneducated and illiterate person could become a juren. Do you want me to give you a chance to reincarnate and be reborn?"
After saying this, Qin Yanheng didn't give Jia Ci a chance to speak. He just glanced at the guard holding the letter and motioned for him to read it out. Seeing this, the guard immediately unfolded the letter, glanced up and down, and was about to speak, but his face flushed and he didn't dare to say a word for a long time.
"What's the matter? Do you want me to read it myself?" Qin Yanheng was already curious about what was written on the paper. After all, after he got the letter from Deng Yesi, he just glanced at it twice and didn't read it carefully.
The guard wanted to say something but stopped himself. Qin Yanheng couldn't wait and stood up to pull the letter back.
What on earth was written? Was it so difficult to talk about? Although he had never written a love letter in the past twenty years, he had never eaten pork but had seen pigs run. Isn't a love letter just like that...
Qin Yanheng took a closer look, coughed, and stuffed the letter back into the guard's hand. He hadn't expected these two people, a scholar and a noblewoman, to play so extravagantly. Today, he had finally opened his eyes.
"Mr. Jia, the flowers are fragrant tonight, and I..."
"Hey, hey, hey, stop reading, stop reading." Qin Yanheng hurriedly stopped him. Even though the person in the letter was not him, he felt uncomfortable at the moment. These two people were so affectionate. It seemed that people who fell in love were not normal.
Jia Ci was unmoved by any persuasion or advice. One would have thought that after seeing the letter written by his sweetheart, he would be somewhat shaken. However, it turned out that Deng Yesi did not like him at all, so there was no possibility that he would be moved by the contents of the letter and tell the truth.
Qin Yanheng couldn't think of any other way to make the person confess the truth for a while. He looked up and down at the person hanging there and came up with a plan.
"Someone—" Qin Yanheng tilted his head and said loudly, "Go and get the feather duster."
"Take off his shoes and cut off the sleeves of his clothes."
The noise was so loud that it could still be clearly heard by Luo Qingling through the two tightly closed wooden doors - especially the sudden laughter, which was particularly abrupt in the dark torture chamber.
The man laughed loudly, each laugh getting louder than the last.
Luo Qingling couldn't help but feel impatient. She pushed open the door and walked to the door of the torture room. She put her ear close to listen. The sound of tables and chairs moving in the room came, but it was all drowned out by the man's laughter.
What on earth was Qin Yanheng doing? Why was Jia Ci laughing so loudly? Was he saying something funny? But from the sound of his laughter, it didn't sound like a genuine laugh.
Unable to suppress her curiosity, Luo Qingling looked at the guards standing by the door. Seeing that the two had no intention of stopping her, she raised her eyebrows and carefully pushed open the door.
In the room, where light meets darkness, Qin Yanheng squatted on the ground with his back to the door, holding something in his hand, which he gently swept towards a pair of feet. The legs, suspended in mid-air, swayed with Qin Yanheng's movements, occasionally letting out a laugh.
Qin Yanheng is tickling Jia Ci!
Luo Qingling was shocked. She never thought that the high and mighty Prince Rong'an would have such an "evil" side. The "despicable means" he just mentioned turned out to be so despicable. She had finally seen it.
"Please stop tickling me, I beg you. I'll tell you, I'll tell you--" Jia Ci pursed his lips, trying to suppress the tingling itch.
Born fearless and extremely tolerant of pain, he thought he could endure whatever Prince Rong An did, but who knew he would resort to such despicable tactics to force him to speak? How on earth did Prince Rong An know he was ticklish?
Hearing this, Qin Yanheng stood up with a smile, threw away the feather duster in his hand, crossed his arms, glanced at Jia Ci, and said, "Then tell me, or continue."
"Tell me, tell me!" Jia Ci said in one breath, not caring about the sweat on his forehead.
"When I first arrived in the capital, I heard that only with the 'recommendation' of a noble could one pass the imperial examination. So, I sent my collection of poems to the residences of various nobles. Perhaps because I had no one to recommend me, the collection was always stopped by the servants outside the residences. I was thinking of just giving up, but on the way back to the inn, I unexpectedly ran into a noblewoman."
"Is that Deng Yesi?" Qin Yanheng interrupted.
"Yes, she is Lord Deng's daughter, Deng Yesi," Jia Ci's face regained its composure, his eyes filled with memories. "At the time, I was already disheartened and gave her the collection of poems without hesitation. But two days later, a woman claiming to be a maid from the Deng residence came to me and said that the lady of the Deng family was willing to recommend me, on the condition that I write her a poem every day, and she would choose the topic."
"After this back-and-forth, Madam Deng and I gradually became familiar with each other, and then what happened later happened..."
"Then why did you kill Du Yubai?" Qin Yanheng asked.
Hearing this name, Jia Ci suddenly looked up at Qin Yanheng, jealousy creeping into his eyes. He gritted his teeth and said, "Du Yubai and I both come from humble backgrounds. How come he can become the top scholar while I fail?"
Everyone knew the answer to the question. This year's imperial examination was presided over by Qin Yanheng himself. No one was allowed to "recommend" candidates. The results were based entirely on real talent and knowledge. Therefore, Du Yubai, who came from a poor family, was able to stand out and become the top scorer in the imperial examination. Those who only thought that they could rest easy by relying on the recommendation of noble people, naturally all failed without exception.
"I should have been the top scholar, and I should have been the one marrying the daughter of an official family. Why didn't it go my way?" Jia Ci raised his voice, questioning the heavens. "That damned Minister of Personnel actually wanted Du Yubai to marry Deng Yesi. You know, Deng Yesi was the one I fell in love with first, and she's pregnant with my child—"
A basin of cold water was suddenly poured on Jia Ci's face. It was Qin Yanheng's order.
"So you killed Du Yubai?" Qin Yanheng's face turned cold and he stared at the crazy man in front of him.
"Yes, I killed Du Yubai. I took advantage of the dark and windy night and waited in ambush on Du Yubai's way back to the inn. I grabbed the horse rope and strangled him to death," Jia Ci said arrogantly, completely unaware of his mistake. His eyes were red as if blood was rushing to his head. He laughed heartily, "That nerd had no strength at all. I just pulled him and he died."
Upon hearing this, everyone in the room fell silent. The human heart is unpredictable. Such a proud and successful top scholar from a humble family actually died in the cold winter of March. It was truly a pity!
Qin Yanheng slowly raised his eyes and looked at Jia Ci who was still breathing rapidly in front of him. His thin lips opened and closed, and in the blink of an eye, he decided Jia Ci's life or death.
"Jia Ci, a scholar, plotted to murder an imperial official. He fled for several days, refusing to repent and remaining stubborn, and will be executed on a chosen day."
*
March 22nd, cloudy.
A new academy had been built in the east of the city. Its courtyard was small, but it was filled with spring flowers. The couplets on the door were written in elegant calligraphy, apparently by the academy's principal. Every morning, the sound of reading could be heard from within: children's voices were sweet and clear, and from time to time, a gentle female voice would correct the children word by word.
"President Deng——"
A girl with twin buns ran over and held a bouquet of flowers in front of Deng Yesi. She was dressed in white, her hair tied up with a wooden hairpin, and her expression was gentle. Deng Yesi smiled and took the bouquet. She half-knelt down and wiped the sweat from the girl's forehead with her sleeve. She said softly, "Slow down, don't fall."
"Dean Deng, can Tongtong play for a while longer? Tongtong has finished the homework assigned by the dean today..." The girl hugged Deng Yesi's neck with both hands, rubbed her face against her, and said very intimately.
"Of course, Tongtong is awesome."
"Very good--"
Tongtong jumped and ran away, and the yard was full of laughter. Deng Yesi slowly stood up, holding the bouquet of flowers given by Tongtong in his hand, and looked at the group of playful girls not far away.
Half a month had passed since Jia Ci was imprisoned. She had rejected the several Jinshi candidates her father had brought her, deciding instead to build a college in the east of the city to personally teach girls from humble backgrounds. She had personally persuaded several students, going through immense painstaking efforts to get girls who were about to be married off to be admitted to the college. A few years of education was always better than marrying off without any prior knowledge.
In the street outside the red walls, horns sounded.
Deng Yesi pushed open the door, and the wheels rolled across the street. In the prison cart, Jia Ci, with his long hair draped over his shoulders and his head slightly lowered, seemed to sense something. Suddenly, Jia Ci raised his eyes and saw the beautiful figure against the red wall. His eyes suddenly reddened.
sorry.
Jia Ci moved his lips and spoke silently to Deng Yesi.
The horses' hooves galloped so fast that in the blink of an eye the prison van had reached the corner of the street. That was the last time the two men met in their lives.
Deng Yesi let out a relieved smile as she gazed at the large tree on the street, which looked exactly like the one beneath her room in the Deng Mansion. Suddenly, she seemed to see Jia Ci standing beneath the tree.
In the torture chamber, Jia Ci lied to Prince Rong'an.
That day was a cloudy day just like today. She saw Jia Ci standing under a tree in a daze at the window, holding a stack of poems that had been thrown out. She knew at a glance that he was an examinee who was looking for a nobleman to "recommend" him.
She immediately felt compassion and sent her maid to ask Jia Ci for a collection of poems. It wasn't that Jia Ci offered the collection to her, as he had said, but she herself had asked for it. She had never been interested in poetry, but for some reason she had taken a particular liking to Jia Ci's poem that day.
Now that I think about it, maybe she didn't just like his poems, but she was the one who provoked Jia Ci first, so she should repay this debt of love.
A warm breeze blew on her face. Deng Yesi withdrew her gaze, turned around and walked into the academy, welcoming her new life.
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