Chapter 169 Sorry and Thank You
Hearing Cui Jing's question, Wei Shuyi was stunned for a moment: "You don't know?"
At that time, he and Chang Suining had just left Hezhou and met Cui Jing and Chang Kuo. After that, they traveled together. During this journey... Cui Jing must have seen the relationship between the girl dressed as a man and Chang Kuo. Even so, he never asked Chang Kuo a single question in private, or even asked him anything? Cui Jing: "I don't know."
"Cui Ling'an..." Wei Shuyi couldn't help but ask: "Are you born without curiosity?"
Cui Jing: "Why would I want to pry into other people's private affairs that have nothing to do with me?"
Wei Shuyi looked at him for a moment, then suddenly smiled: "It seems that... Madam Chang is no longer an irrelevant person to General Cui."
Cui Jing ignored his teasing: "You haven't answered me yet, why did she appear in Hezhou at that time, and what happened."
"At that time..." Wei Shuyi just started to say two words, and then suddenly hesitated: "What you said just now is very right. This is her private matter. So if I tell you rashly, what if she blames me for being nosy later?"
Wei Shuyi had an attitude that said, "I should keep it a secret for her."
Cui Jing: "If I want to find out, it's the same if I find another way to find out."
"That's true... You can ask the young master of the Chang family. They will not hide it from you." Wei Shuyi thought about it, weighed the pros and cons and suggested: "But this way, it will waste time. How about this? If Madam Chang asks about it later, you can say that you found it from somewhere else and don't expose me. Just pretend that you and I have never met tonight. How about that?"
"Yeah." Cui Jing nodded straightforwardly.
The two hit it off immediately, and Wei Shuyi finally felt at ease to speak.
"In fact, Madam Chang was abducted to Hezhou at that time."
Cui Jing was quite surprised to hear this.
It turned out that she had encountered such a thing at that time.
"At that time, I was ordered by His Majesty to go to Hezhou to secretly investigate the evidence of the former governor of Hezhou, Zhao Fu, so that I could use Zhao Fu to get rid of the Pei family..." Wei Shuyi briefly explained what happened: "At that time, Yu Gong's men had already traced the place where Madam Chang was abducted to Hezhou, so he secretly asked me to keep an eye on Madam Chang's whereabouts."
"Did you save her?" Cui Jing asked subconsciously.
Wei Shuyi smiled and shook his head: "She was not the kind of person who would sit and wait for me to rescue her. She escaped on her own... and helped me a lot, allowing me to complete my mission in Hezhou very smoothly."
He recounted how Chang Suining had severely injured and trafficked the kidnapper couple from Zhoujia Village, how he had left the evidence and confession in his car, etc.
In the dim light, Cui Jing's eyes showed unclear emotions.
He put aside other thoughts for the moment and only asked, "Why was she abducted to Hezhou? Is it related to Yao Tingwei's divorced ex-wife Pei?"
On that day at Dayun Temple, Yao Tingwei's daughter publicly stated that it was not the first time that her mother Pei had tried to kill Chang Suining - if you calculate the time, it is not difficult to come to this guess.
"General Cui's guess is correct." Wei Shuyi nodded: "Mrs. Chang fell into the hands of the kidnapper by mistake because of the conspiracy of Pei."
"Minister Wei first met her at that time..." Cui Jing hesitated for a moment, which was rare in the process of speaking. He seemed to have silently mustered up some courage before he was able to open his mouth and ask the next short sentence -
"Has she ever behaved in a way that is unusual for an ordinary person?"
Amid the sound of rain, the young man asked almost solemnly.
Wei Shuyi did not answer for a moment, but looked at Cui Jing thoughtfully for a moment.
After a moment, an inexplicable smile appeared in his eyes: "Today, the saint also asked me this question... It seems that I came to find the right person tonight to look for General Cui."
Cui Jing indeed knew a secret that he didn't.
Cui Jing said nothing for a moment after hearing this. He just clasped his ten fingers together silently, waiting for his answer.
"Madam Chang is so unusual... She is a girl who can get out of trouble by herself in such a situation. Isn't that unusual enough?" Wei Shuyi smiled and said, "To be honest, I was curious about this and tried to test Madam Chang in many ways. But Madam Chang was cautious and I failed repeatedly. But she probably didn't want to deal with me anymore, so she gave me an explanation, which stopped me from testing her further—"
Cui Jing looked at Wei Shuyi.
His intuition told him that this "explanation" might contain the answer he needed.
Wei Shuyi: "Mrs. Chang told me that when she was abducted, she was in a coma for a long time due to an overdose of drugs, which damaged her brain. She is sometimes confused and can't remember many things in the past..."
Cui Jing was stunned for a moment, and his voice was unusually gentle: "Don't you remember?"
Wei Shuyi nodded.
At this moment, Cui Jing only felt that the sound of wind and rain suddenly stopped.
There was no expression on his face, but the sound of his heartbeat in his chest was like thunder and drums, as if drowning out all other sounds between heaven and earth.
The guessing process is long.
Ever since the guessed seed sprouted, he had been feeling its growth bit by bit. It had grown from a tender green bud into a straight sapling swaying in the sunlight and rain. Now the sapling suddenly and rapidly grew taller and stretched, its branches and leaves growing luxuriantly until they blocked out the sun. In an instant it had become a towering tree that would no longer be shaken by anyone or anything.
Cui Jing turned around slightly slowly and faced outside the corridor.
The wind, mixed with raindrops, blew between his dark and deep brows, and the coolness between heaven and earth attacked him, but it seemed like a gift to him at this moment.
He was born in a high position and possessed everything that was beyond the reach of others. Although he never considered himself superior to others, his status as the eldest grandson of the Cui family made it difficult for him to look up to others. Even when faced with all kinds of praise and rewards from the saints of the day, he never felt like he was being given anything.
But at this moment, he felt very clearly that he had been given the greatest kindness by the world.
He looked far away in the direction of the Tiannu Tower.
In early spring of this year in February, the Tiannu Pagoda was struck by lightning, the formation was damaged, and cracks appeared on the statue of the Tiannu.
At that time, thousands of miles away in Hezhou, she saved herself from danger and forgot everything that happened in the past...
When the statue of the goddess was destroyed, her old friend had already returned.
Everything has already been traced.
So, the saint had the same suspicion for some reason, and therefore investigated her experience in February...
"How much does Saint know about her experience in Hezhou?" Cui Jing asked after calming down.
Wei Shuyi also turned around and looked at the rain outside the corridor: "In the Pei case, the saint only knew the general situation and never asked about it in detail. This time, he suddenly asked people to investigate Madam Chang in detail. However, it has been a long time. The couple who kidnapped Madam Chang and the few people who witnessed Madam Chang escaping from Zhoujia Village have all been executed..."
Cui Jing: "But the case file should contain the confessions of those people——"
Wei Shuyi: "Unfortunately, I was entrusted by Mr. Yu at that time. I didn't want to leave any traces of Mrs. Chang's kidnapping, so as not to damage her reputation... Therefore, when I was handling the Zhoujia Village human trafficking case, I specifically concealed the confession related to Mrs. Chang."
Cui Jingwei turned his head and looked at Wei Shuyi.
The person who knew about it was dead, and there was no record of it in the case file. All traces were erased. Therefore, the saint could only find out that she was abducted to Hezhou, but it was impossible to find out that she saved herself and escaped from the predicament, or fought back against others, etc.
Cui Jing: "So, the Saint asked Minister Wei about the details of this matter——"
That is why Wei Shuyi just said that he asked the same question as the sage.
"Yes." Wei Shuyi said, "I told the saint that I was once asked by Mr. Yu to find someone, and I brought the person with me after I found her. Because I didn't know the girl from the Chang family before, I didn't notice any unusual behavior from Madam Chang. Even if there was something a little abnormal, I thought it was just a normal reaction after being frightened."
Cui Jing looked at him.
Therefore, Wei Shuyi concealed for her those processes and details that would surely arouse the suspicion of the Emperor of the Holy Ce.
"Minister Wei, don't you plan to be a close minister to the emperor?" Cui Jing asked.
"The emperor's close ministers also have friends." Wei Shuyi said with a smile: "Besides, this is just a girl's unfortunate past, and it has nothing to do with the overall situation of the country. Apart from the major issues, if you are unwilling to consider your friends, it would be too inhumane."
Are they also friends?
Facing those smiling eyes, Cui Jing asked, "But why does Minister Wei think that this matter cannot be discussed with the sage in detail?"
"It's just the intuition of a smart person." Wei Shilang asked him with a smile: "Hasn't Grand Commander Cui ever had such an intuition?"
Cui Jing remained silent.
In his view, accurate intuition must come from many subtle clues and guesses.
But what Wei Shuyi could guess was destined to be limited. It was true that Wei Shuyi was a rare smart man in a century, but some things were far beyond the scope of ordinary people's cognition, and common sense was not easy to break through, unless one could get a glimpse of the opportunity -
If they had not known the existence and mystery of the Heavenly Maiden Tower from the beginning to the end, neither he nor the saint would have been able to come up with such clear-cut guesses.
Therefore, Wei Shuyi's intuition was probably that saying too much might be disadvantageous to her.
Cui Jing believes that this seemingly limited intuition is actually worth his careful consideration.
"I have said so much, but Commander Cui has not yet answered my original question." Wei Shuyi asked Cui Jing again: "Why did the saint suddenly care so much about Madam Chang's experience in Hezhou?"
Cui Jing was silent for a moment, then said, "Sorry, I can't talk about this."
Feel sorry?
Compared to Cui Jing's "I can't say", Wei Shuyi was more surprised by the word "sorry" which was said in a serious tone.
Cui Lingan also knows how to apologize to others? And he said it to him——
Based on the way the two of them usually get along, Cui Lingan could have just replied to him indifferently, "I don't want to talk about it," or just walked away.
But Cui Jing apologized to him sincerely.
Wei Shuyi said in surprise, "It seems that I have done something good this time that pleases you, but you feel guilty about hiding the truth from me..."
As expected, no one can resist sincerity, and Cui Lingan is no exception.
He seemed to really understand it now.
Who doesn't like to be sincere and likes to be tested?
Wei Shuyi's thoughts drifted away for a moment before he said, "It doesn't matter. Your words 'can't say' have already told me a lot."
Cui Jing at least told him that this matter was not a trivial matter, but a secret that even he, a close minister of the emperor, should not know.
"In a position like yours and mine, there are always things that cannot be said. In that case, I will not ask any more questions." Wei Shuyi smiled and said with confidence, "Since it is related to her, you will definitely do your best to protect her, and you must know what is best for her. I will not worry about it for the time being."
Cui Jing nodded: "I will."
Then, he said to Wei Shuyi: "Thank you very much, Minister Wei, for this matter."
Wei Shuyi was stunned and laughed.
How lucky he was today that Cui Lingan actually apologized and thanked him.
He seemed to think for a while, then shook his head and said, "Although Commander Cui regards Madam Chang as his sweetheart, it is only one-sided at the moment, and there is no official status yet... There is no need for me to express my gratitude on her behalf."
Cui Jing didn't care about his ridicule: "I'm not thanking her on her behalf, I'm thanking myself."
Seeing that this attack was ineffective, Wei Shuyi nodded in understanding: "Wei understands."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and bowed to Cui Jing: "In that case, I would also like to express my gratitude to General Cui."
Cui Jing looked at him warily.
Wei Shuyi smiled and said, "Thank you, General Cui, for taking care of my friend."
"..." Cui Jing put his hands behind his back and looked at the rain and fog in front of him: "...You don't have to thank me. Even if I put aside my wishful thinking, she is still my friend."
After that, he added: "She said it herself."
After she finished speaking, she turned her head slightly to look at Wei Shuyi, with a hint of inquiry in her eyes - did she say in person that she wanted to be friends with Minister Wei?
Wei Shuyi, who was caught off guard and stabbed, was silent for a moment.
After a moment, he couldn't help but sigh: "Cui Ling'an, is your apology only able to last for a few words?"
Cui Jing said frankly: "I have done my best."
The implication is that the other party is too annoying.
Wei Shuyi wanted to say more, but heard Cui Jing say: "I need to go to the Tiannu Tower."
Seeing him turn around and leave, Wei Shuyi seemed to suddenly remember something, and hurriedly followed him, smiling and saying: "... Madam Chang and I are friends, and Grand Commander Cui and Madam Chang are also friends. According to this, you and I should also be considered friends?"
Perhaps there was still a spark of guilt that had not completely disappeared, Cui Jing actually said at this time: "...Maybe."
Wei Shuyi laughed and sighed, "I really made the right decision today. I gained a lot."
Cui Jing ignored him and the two of them walked out of the corridor together.
Yuanxiang and Changji temporarily ceased fighting. Yuanxiang took the initiative to hold up an umbrella for his own commander-in-chief and looked at Changji with disdain.
It took Changji a long time to finally open the old umbrella from the temple. He was so angry that he almost bit his teeth. He turned around and changed for a better umbrella to carry with him!
In the night rain, Cui Jing went to the Tiannv Tower.
The two monks guarding the outer eaves of the tower put their hands together and silently bowed to him. Cui Jing nodded and stepped into the tower.
In addition to the Holy Ce Emperor and Ming Luo who was accompanying him, Wu Jue was also in the tower.
"Cui Qing is here."
Cui Jing raised his hand and saluted: "Yes, Cui Jing pays respect to Your Majesty."
“Mr. Cui, there is no need to be so polite.” The Emperor of the Holy Ce did not look at the person who came, but only looked at the white jade statue of the goddess, and said, “I summoned Mr. Cui to come here because I have something to ask you…”
Cui Jingjing listened to what the Emperor of the Holy Ceremonies continued to say.
On the way here, he had already made up his mind about what to choose.
Wu Jue, who was standing by the jade pool, didn't know whether he had heard any speculations, and subconsciously looked at Cui Jing at this time.
When Cui Jing raised his eyes, he met Wu Jue's eyes, which contained Buddhist light and Zen even when he was silent.
Cui Jing was uncertain at the moment.
Could it be that Master Wu Jue has also noticed something, and has he said anything to the Saint? While Cui Jing was thinking and making his own judgment, the Emperor of the Holy Ce slowly spoke.
Thank you all for every monthly ticket. Thank you to book friends Qingtong Yanyu, Li Nu Jixia Toufanshu, I am a sister, s185, book friend 20230329141809296, Yu Muzi Meimei’s mommy and other book friends for their rewards.
Good night everyone!
(End of this chapter)
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