Chapter 153
Fan Changyu didn't remember whether she fainted or fell asleep from exhaustion. She just felt a hot and humid rain sticking to her in a daze, and she couldn't get rid of it no matter how fast she ran in her dreams.
Finally I woke up, and when I opened my eyes I saw that it was already bright outside, and I could hear voices faintly outside.
"...The Li family will definitely take desperate measures. Wei Yan's backup plan will not be so simple. Inform Gongsun that it is time to leave."
"As you command."
Then there were the sounds of leaving footsteps and the creaking sound of the door opening and closing.
When Xie Zheng returned to the inner room, he saw Fan Changyu sitting up with her quilt in her arms. Her originally cold eyebrows and eyes were now a little soft. He walked over and sat down beside the bed, tucking a strand of her hair that had been messed up in her sleep behind her ear. His movements were as natural and intimate as could be: "Are you awake? It's still early, why don't you sleep a little longer?"
The wind and snow didn't stop last night, and today the snow outside is more than two fingers thick. Although the heating is on in the house, it's not cold at all.
When Fan Changyu sat up, he found that he was wearing a shirt that didn't fit him well. The neckline was so big that it kept sliding down his shoulders.
She took a quick look and saw scars all over her shoulders and arms. It was a horrible sight...
The chaotic memory of last night came back to her mind. She silently pulled back her collar. After Xie Zheng came into the room, she looked him over and the first thing she asked was, "Are you okay?"
Xie Zheng's hand that was brushing her hair was still behind her ear, against her neck. Hearing this, his dark eyes stared at her for a few seconds, then he suddenly grabbed her by the back of her neck and brought her closer, kissing her twice on the lips before whispering, "Why are you so annoying?"
Fan Changyu looked at him calmly with his black and white eyes: "You were so depressed last night that you vomited blood..."
Xie Zheng seemed to enjoy touching her. He gently stroked her neck with his fingertips and asked, "If I hadn't vomited blood, would you still hold me like this?"
The experience of losing consciousness at the end was too embarrassing. Fan Changyu felt that it was a humiliation because he was physically inferior to others. He lowered his head in embarrassment and changed the subject: "I'm a little hungry."
Seeing her like this, Xie Zheng's eyes flashed with darkness, and he said, "The kitchen has been preparing food. I'll send someone to serve it."
Fan Changyu nodded, but Xie Zheng did not leave. Instead, he squatted in front of the bed, grabbed her hands, put them to his lips and kissed them, and said in a very serious manner: "I have let you follow me like this, and I have treated you badly. When everything is settled, I will give you a grand wedding that is unparalleled in the world."
You could say that Fan Changyu was careless, or that she didn't care that much about worldly etiquette after going through so much. She actually didn't care that much about what Xie Zheng promised her.
But even though he said it to her in such a serious tone, it was as if a small stone had been thrown into the lake of her heart, causing ripples to appear.
This feeling of being cherished and loved made her feel that even if the road ahead was full of dangers, she would not be afraid to continue walking with the person in front of her.
So she held Xie Zheng's head, leaned over and kissed him on the forehead, her face flushed, her eyes bright and clear: "You are not mean to me, I will marry Xie Zheng, but Yan Zheng was given to me as a gift."
Seeing that Xie Zheng remained silent, she glared at him with a slightly red face: "We haven't divorced yet, unless you don't want to admit it."
Xie Zheng held her wrist tightly for a while before he raised his head and asked her, "Does it still hurt?"
Fan Changyu was stunned at first, but when she realized what Xie Zheng was asking, the tips of her ears turned red. She was so angry that she punched him: "Get lost!"
Xie Zheng was not angry after being punched. He took advantage of the situation to intercept her hand, pressed her into the quilt and kissed her fiercely for a while, then he took her clenched fist and put it to his lips and kissed it, his eyes and eyebrows were full of uncontrollable smiles and joy: "After dinner, you can sleep for a while, I will go to arrange some things to speed up the end, and then I will take you back to the Jinzouyuan later."
Fan Changyu hadn't even caught his breath yet when he heard him say something about the deployment. He immediately remembered the conversation outside that he had heard when he just woke up.
She asked, "What happened to the Li family again?"
Xie Zheng smiled coldly: "I was tricked by Wei Yan."
"The conspirator arranged by the Li family to accuse Wei Yan of colluding with the rebels was actually Wei Yan's man. At the final trial, he suddenly changed his testimony, saying that everything was done by the Li family, and even gave out evidence of the incriminating correspondence."
Fan Changyu's face was filled with astonishment. She knew how tight the defenses were at the Dali Temple after their last robbery.
At first, Li Taifu thought that Wei Yan wanted to kill the witnesses. Since Wei Yan's people were in the Dali Temple and the Li family only occupied the Western Ministry of Justice, Li Taifu was afraid that Wei Yan would continue to rob and kill witnesses. He also made efforts to arrange for Yu Shitai's people to be stationed in the Dali Temple and transferred heavy troops from the Five Military Camp to guard the Dali Temple.
Now that the conspirator has changed his confession, it can be said that Master Li's previous actions were like shooting himself in the foot.
She asked, "You said earlier that you were afraid that the Li family would do something desperate. Was it because of this?"
Xie Zheng nodded and said, "Last night, Xie San led his men to the Dali Temple to rob someone. They happened to see the Li family's men sending away the guards of the Five Military Camps outside the Dali Temple, intending to attack the conspirator. They accidentally broke the Li family's plan, and failed to kill the person and destroy the evidence. Now they can only fight to the death."
Fan Changyu was greatly shocked: "Wei Yan is too cunning."
She frowned and said, "He knew from the beginning that the Li family was plotting against him, and he deliberately left a 'handle' with Qi Min to lure the Li family into the trap."
Xie Zheng's brows darkened a little, his eyes drooped slightly, and his tone was cold and sarcastic: "Hasn't he always been so unscrupulous?"
Fan Changyu shook his hand and said, "Your people have also kidnapped the old steward of the Prince Changxin's mansion. We may be able to get some information from him about Wei Yan and the Prince Changxin's activities. The net of heaven is vast and nothing can escape it. We will eventually find evidence to convict him."
Xie Zheng looked at the hand she was holding tightly around his. The gloom and hostility lingering in his heart dissipated a little, and he replied lightly, "Okay."
-
After dinner, Fan Changyu was not idle either. She went to the private prison of Xie Mansion and interrogated the housekeeper of Sui Mansion with Xie Zheng.
At first, the butler was very stubborn and refused to say anything when asked. He just pretended to be crazy and stupid.
Later, Xie Zheng ordered people to bring Zhao Xun and the mother and son here. He saw that pretending to be crazy and stupid was no use, and even though he had his grandson as a soft spot, he refused to speak again.
Xie Zheng ordered his men to torture him, but the old man, who looked frail and frail, was so stubborn that he would rather bite his tongue and commit suicide than confess. His loyalty to Prince Changxin really surprised Fan Changyu.
Xie Zheng also noticed this point keenly. The old man was in poor health. If he was tortured again, he would probably die in prison. So he turned to attack his mind.
The fire in the brazier illuminated the entire dark, damp and cold dungeon. Xie Zheng sat on the armchair and took the hot tea handed to him by the personal guard. He scraped the cup lid twice slowly and said in a very casual tone: "Your son has been beaten to death in the court. I don't like to stain my hands with the blood of children, but my patience is really limited. If you continue to be so ignorant, everyone around me will be good at cutting off the flesh of your grandson piece by piece and feeding it to the dogs. I guarantee that when the internal organs are cut, he will still be alive and can cry and call you "Grandpa."
After he finished speaking, he raised his eyes and looked indifferently at the old man opposite him in the mist rising from the teacup.
The woman holding the child was so frightened that her eyes rolled back and she fainted when she heard Xie Zheng's description. Only the child beside her was still crying and calling "Mother" and "Grandpa". The cries sounded like the tender calls of a lamb about to be sent to slaughter, and one's heart and throat unconsciously tightened when hearing them.
Fan Changyu knew that in order to break the old man's psychological defenses, intimidation was inevitable, so he forced himself to sit on the armchair beside him and watch coldly.
The old man looked at his grandson lying on the ground crying while trying to shake his mother. He was so distressed that tears flowed down his face. He only said: "Grandpa is sorry for you, Grandpa is sorry for you, but Grandpa can't do anything..."
Xie Zheng narrowed his eyes impatiently and called out, "Eleven."
Xie Shiyi gestured to the outside, and soon servants came in with several ferocious wolfhounds with saliva dripping from their throats. When the wolfhounds saw the child inside, they began to bark non-stop, scaring the child to scream and cry.
The old man, whose body was covered in blood after being tortured, had tears in his eyes and kept kowtowing to Xie Zheng: "The child is innocent, let the child die quickly. The prince has been very kind to me. Without the prince, I would have no family. I have borrowed these decades from Prince Yan. I swore that I would not betray the prince!"
The wolfhound held by the guard was about to bite the child, but the old man refused to give in except crying and kowtowing and asking for a quick death for the child.
Fan Changyu looked at Xie Zheng, and Xie Zheng made a gesture, and the guard pulled the wolfhound that had been trying to pounce forward and retreated.
Fan Changyu said to the old man, "You are loyal to Sui Tuo? But the one you are loyal to now is not Sui Tuo's descendant? You don't have to play crazy with me. The one who died in Jizhou was not the real Sui Yuanhuai. Otherwise, you would not let your daughter-in-law and grandson pretend to be his concubine and mother and son."
The old man paused in his crying and stared at Fan Changyu: "What did you mean by your previous sentence?"
Fan Changyu glanced at Xie Zheng, then said to the old man, "It means a cat replacing a prince. Seventeen years ago, there was a fire in the East Palace, and Princess Changxin and her son were also invited to the East Palace. The one who died in the fire was Sui Yuanhuai, and the one whose face was burned was the emperor's eldest grandson. This was originally a scheme for the golden cicada to escape from its shell."
The old man looked panicked and seemed to be unable to believe it. He kept repeating over and over again: "How is it possible... How is it possible..."
Fan Changyu continued, "The young Princess Changxin and Sui Yuanqing also died at his hands."
The old man hunched over, but a fierce light suddenly appeared in his eyes: "Didn't the princess commit suicide to protect the eldest son? As for the prince, he died in your hands! Don't even think about making up such a lie to deceive me, I won't be fooled!"
Zhao Wen spoke up at the right time: "I can testify that the man is indeed not the eldest son of your Changxin Palace."
The old man spat at him fiercely: "The words of a traitor cannot be trusted!"
The old man's stubbornness really gave Fan Changyu a headache.
Having been in the dungeon for so long, Fan Changyu felt bored. When he and Xie Zheng went out to get some fresh air, he kicked the snow on the ground and sighed, "He's a tough guy. What if we can't pry open his mouth?"
At first he was puzzled as to why Xie Zheng didn't tell the old man that Sui Yuanhuai was a fake, and instead started threatening him with the child.
After this, I realized that for such a stubborn person who won't cry until he sees the coffin, it is impossible to convince him without solid evidence.
A light snow fell from the sky again, and the sky was filled with gloomy clouds.
The broken snow fell into Fan Changyu's hair. When Xie Zheng raised his hand to brush it away for her, he looked at her with his eyes slightly lowered and said, "I want to borrow the grandson of the emperor to perform a play. Are you willing?"
Fan Changyu hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "As long as Baoer won't be hurt, I'll ask Baoer to cooperate."
Out of loyalty to the Sui family, the old man could disregard the life of his own grandson, but he would never ignore Yu Baoer's safety.
If I want to pry open his mouth, it seems that I can only rely on Baoer.
-
That afternoon, Fan Changyu secretly went back to Jinzouyuan to pick up Yu Baoer. Changning hadn't seen her all day. When she came back and only took Yu Baoer out but not herself, she felt so aggrieved that she started to cry.
Fan Changyu was helpless. No matter how he tried to persuade Changning, he could not. He thought that Xie Zheng's house was safe and there shouldn't be any problem if he took Changning with him. After informing Aunt Zhao, he used the excuse of taking the two children out to play and took them out of the Jinzouyuan.
Little did they know that it was this accidental act that saved the two children from a disaster.
The author has something to say:
A certain author (frowning while typing): Should this character who gets beaten every time he kisses be changed to being beaten every time he does something in the future?
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I've been a bit busy these past two days during the Chinese New Year, and it's getting late. Good night, my dears~
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