Chapter 163
It's a rare day that isn't snowing, and the sun is warm.
Fan Changyu stood outside the palace gate holding a sword, looking at the dead tree branches stretching out freely outside the courtyard wall. The warm sun shone obliquely this side. There was a layer of white snow on the top of the wall and the dead branches in the distance. When the sunlight sprinkled down, it also spread out a layer of light golden color. However, the air was still very damp and cold.
Yu Qianqian walked into the inner hall carrying a soup bowl.
Qi Min seemed to know that she would come today. Because of his injuries, he could not get down, so he just sat on the couch, with a crimson purple robe with silver-grey on his shoulders. Under the bright light from the window, the silver-grey on the robe vaguely looked like auspicious clouds and auspicious patterns.
His hair seemed to have been groomed; despite being seriously injured and bedridden for many days, it did not look dirty. It was still the same black, shiny, and satin-like as before.
He had become much thinner and seemed to be unable to hold up his clothes.
Yu Qianqian only took a glance, then looked away and continued walking forward with the soup bowl in hand.
Qi Min heard footsteps but did not turn around. He looked at the two birds foraging in the snowy yard outside the window. His hand resting on the quilt was stroking the ring on his finger from time to time. His finger bones were long and slender like bamboo joints, but they were so white and thin that one was worried that if he held something with his hands with a little force, the joints would break under the weight.
No one spoke, except for the subtle movement of Yu Qianqian placing the soup bowl on the table and then filling it with soup from a small white porcelain bowl.
"I thought you wouldn't come."
Yu Qianqian turned around from the table holding a porcelain bowl of soup and found that he had looked at her at some point. His eyes were still dark and gloomy, like a vulture on a cliff or a poisonous snake coming out of its cave to look for food after hibernation.
Yu Qianqian raised her lips in a gentle arc, her eyes were clear and she looked at him without any fear: "I have to come and see you off in person."
Qi Min looked at the bowl of soup in her hand, his dark eyes filled with unidentified emotions: "Is it possible that you specially made a bowl of snow frog soup? Thank you for your trouble."
Yu Qianqian smiled and said, "The prisoners on death row in the prison are about to be executed, so they have to eat a beheading meal, right?"
She is eloquent and her smile never reaches her eyes.
Qi Min looked at her quietly: "I didn't know you had such a clever tongue."
She is afraid of pain, trouble, and death. She is the most obedient and seems to be an honest person without any opinion. But under this appearance, she hides a very wild heart, otherwise she would not have planned to escape several times.
Every time she was caught, she would not lose her temper. She would eat, drink, and sleep as usual, and would never do anything that would cause her suffering. She endured all the punishments he gave her, making people think she was well behaved, but if there was another chance, she would still run away without looking back.
He had never seen such a brilliant look before.
Yu Qianqian stirred the soup in the bowl with a spoon and said, "There are so many things you don't know."
She didn't want to waste any more words with him, so she asked directly, "You hate the Sui family so much, but the Crown Princess used a fire in the East Palace to turn you into the eldest son of the Sui family. Why?"
Qi Min looked at her without saying a word, as if he felt that she was so cold and strange.
Yu Qianqian looked at him calmly: "This kingdom belongs to your Qi family. It was your father who died in Jinzhou. Now the Sui and Wei families are being convicted. You don't want to cover up for your enemies, do you?"
Hearing the hint of sarcasm in her tone, Qi Min looked at her for a while before looking away and slowly said, "Among the shadow guards my father left me, there is one named Fu Qing. He escaped from Jinzhou City back then. When reinforcements and food and grass did not arrive for a long time, my father sent him to Chongzhou to ask for help. Sui Tuo refused to send troops and even wanted to shoot him to death with random arrows, saying that once Jinzhou was lost, the world would change to the Wei family."
There was a slight fluctuation in Yu Qianqian's expression, but she said nothing. Qi Min continued to tell the secret of that year in a calm voice.
"Fu Qing was originally a bandit, known for his martial arts skills. He managed to escape from the hanging in the Prince Changxin's mansion, but was seriously injured. While he was dragging his wounds back to seek help and report the news, Jinzhou had already been captured. His father and Xie Linshan were both killed in the battle. He knew that the situation was over, so he hurried back to the capital to report the news. At that time, the capital was also under the control of Wei Yan. His mother in the East Palace had also heard about his affair with Concubine Shu and the bloodbath in the palace. After hearing Fu Qing's testimony, she became even more panicked."
"The loss of Jinzhou was blamed on Changshan General Meng Shuyuan. Some former members of the Meng family came to the East Palace to appeal for justice, but as soon as they entered the East Palace gate, they became corpses in a pool of blood. All of the Meng family members, from their daughters and sons-in-law to their former members, died."
Qi Min said this with a smile on his face, "Dong Gong knows Wei Yan's secret, he will not let Dong Gong go. Before Wei Yan could do anything, my mother set a fire and hid me in the Changxin Palace."
This was the past that had been weighing on his mind for more than a decade, making it hard for him to breathe.
He smiled at Yu Qianqian and said, "You see, only when a person is ruthless enough can he get everything he wants. Mother said that Wei Yan has always been ambitious. When the late emperor favored the sixteenth prince and suppressed my father everywhere, all the officials in the East Palace were planning how to help my father regain his favor and secure his position as crown prince. Only Wei Yan said, why not let the late emperor 'abdicate'."
He paused, his expression showing a moment of bewilderment: "If Wei Yan had been eliminated at that time, perhaps none of these things would have happened. My father was too indecisive, which led to his fate. What's the point of having a reputation as a wise man? I will never become a person like him."
Yu Qianqian said coldly: "Bullshit, you did such beastly things and you still want to find a high-sounding excuse for yourself!"
Qi Min was not angry either, he just stared at her and said, "You look much better when you scold people than when you were obedient before."
Yu Qianqian frowned fiercely, and felt the chilling feeling of a cold poisonous snake entangled in her skin again. She did not hide her disgust at all: "Mad man!"
Her frightened look seemed to please Qi Min, causing him to chuckle.
Yu Qianqian was upset and stood up to leave. He stopped smiling and called her in a calm voice, "The soup is ready. Feed it to me. Don't waste your kindness."
He was seriously injured and could not get out of bed. He needed someone to take care of him in his daily life. In order to avoid any accidents, Xie Zheng ordered someone to give him cartilage powder. It would not be dangerous for Yu Qianqian to see him alone.
Yu Qianqian looked back at him. He was leaning on the soft pillow with a calm expression, as if he didn't know that the soup contained poison that would kill him. His slender eyes were shattered by the sunlight, and against his pale skin that seemed to be tanned by the sun, he seemed to have a gentle and fragile look.
Seeing that Yu Qianqian didn't answer, he smiled at her again and said deliberately: "Can't you bear it?"
Yu Qianqian sat back down and scooped a spoonful of the already cold snow frog soup from the bowl with a spoon and brought it to his lips.
She looked calm and indifferent, and he showed no emotion either. When he ate the dish, he even commented, "It was cooked well, but it was a pity that it cooled down a bit."
Yu Qianqian said nothing, but just scooped another spoonful and fed him.
He looked at her and continued to drink.
The tranquility at this moment doesn't seem like someone wants to kill someone, but more like a couple in love.
When the bowl of soup was almost empty, Qi Min asked with a smile, "Anything else?"
Yu Qianqian said, "There's still half a bowl in the cup."
Qi Min said, "Feed me."
There was still a hint of smile on his lips, no longer cold and gloomy, with a hint of indifference: "You won't be able to drink it in the future."
Naturally he can’t drink anymore, what else can he do?
Yu Qianqian paused slightly while stirring the spoon, and said, "Wait."
When the remaining half bowl of soup in the soup bowl was finished, Qi Min leaned on the pillow and tilted his head to look at Yu Qianqian, and suddenly said, "I checked you."
Yu Qianqian raised her eyes and looked at him.
He said, "Your name is not Qianqian. Your family is poor. You have an older brother and three younger siblings. Your parents didn't give you a name, and always called you Erya. You have never worked in a wine shop. Your family sold you to a human trafficker in order to find a wife for your brother. You were bought by the Zhao family and sent to me."
Yu Qianqian said nothing.
Perhaps the effect of the drug had taken effect, as a layer of dark purple had appeared on Qi Min's lips. However, he stared at Yu Qianqian stubbornly, and said with some difficulty: "I want to know who you are."
Yu Qianqian still didn't answer.
He said to himself: "A lonely ghost? Or... a spirit that has gained some spiritual power?"
When his black eyelashes drooped, his dead eyes finally showed some emotion: "Let me... go with a clear mind."
Yu Qianqian was calm and said, "Your poison has come up and your memory is wrong. I am Yu Erya. I worked in a restaurant before my family sold me to a trafficker. Qianqian is the name I gave myself."
She stood up from the stool and even tucked the corner of the quilt for him: "You are tired, go to sleep. This poison is mild and won't be too painful. Once you fall asleep, you won't know anything."
When she was about to leave, the pale and thin hand suddenly grabbed her wrist, causing the unprepared Yu Qianqian to stagger and fall on him.
Just as Yu Qianqian was about to open her mouth to call for help, he grabbed her neck tightly. The dying man didn't know where he got the strength from, but he immediately pinched her so hard that she couldn't make any sound. She tried to pry his arm away, but it didn't work. Her fingertips dug deep into the back of his hand, but he didn't seem to feel any pain at all. His eyes suddenly turned red and fierce, with hatred and unwillingness in them: "I am conceited and cruel, but I am not even half as good as you! You have never liked me, right?"
Yu Qianqian was still struggling, but her whole face had turned red due to lack of oxygen. She couldn't break free from his hand, so she tried to dig at the arrow hole in his chest.
Warm blood wrapped around Yu Qianqian's fingers. Qi Min also groaned and loosened his grip on Yu Qianqian.
Yu Qianqian fell to the ground, holding her neck and gasping for breath. The door was kicked open at this moment. Fan Changyu, who heard the noise outside, rushed in: "Qianqian!"
She helped Yu Qianqian up, her eyes piercing straight at Qi Min like a blade.
Yu Qianqian grabbed Fan Changyu's hand immediately and just said, "I'm fine."
Qi Min covered his chest and leaned against the pillow. His thin face had turned a bluish-gray due to the poison. He clenched his teeth tightly and stared at Yu Qianqian with his scarlet eyes. He seemed to feel a little aggrieved: "Why... do you treat me like this!"
Blood oozed out from the corner of his mouth and soon flowed out in large streams, staining a large area of his clothes and bedding red.
Yu Qianqian sat down beside the couch and looked at Qi Min quietly. Her hair was torn apart when she struggled just now. The faint blush on her face from suffocation had not yet subsided. She looked very wolfish, but her expression was extremely cold: "Why can't I do this to you?"
"Does someone like you deserve to be liked by others?"
"You are selfish, cruel, vicious, and moody. Everyone has to serve you carefully. If they are not careful, they will die. And as long as you give a little charity, you want others to be heartfelt and grateful. How can such a good thing exist in the world?"
Qi Min's mouth was full of blood, and his eyes were still fixed on Yu Qianqian, but he could no longer speak.
Yu Qianqian said calmly: "Are there not enough people who died for you? What have you done for them besides suspicion? You just got a good birth."
Qi Min continued to stare at him without blinking, his eyes stubborn and filled with sadness.
Yu Qianqian stopped looking at him, stood up, and said to Fan Changyu, "Let's go."
Fan Changyu followed Yu Qianqian out of the store. Just as he was about to talk to her, Yu Qianqian's legs suddenly went weak. Fortunately, Fan Changyu supported her in time: "Qianqian, what's wrong with you?"
Yu Qianqian's face turned pale, and she no longer had the calmness she had in front of Qi Min. She said, "It's okay. I'll be fine."
The hand she was holding onto Fan Changyu was icy cold: "Poisoning a person is different from killing chickens and fish after all."
Fan Changyu helped her sit down on the steps and said soothingly, "This is my first time killing someone, and I was so scared that I couldn't sleep all night. I'll bring Ning Niang over to accompany you tonight. My hands are stained with blood and evil spirits. Even if he is the grandson of the emperor, he won't dare to get close to me even if he becomes a wandering ghost."
These words were spoken like coaxing a child, and the haze in Yu Qianqian's heart dissipated a little. She laughed out loud and said, "Yes, Changyu, you are a general now."
Fan Changyu shook his head and smiled awkwardly.
The sun was warming her body, and Yu Qianqian's cold hands and feet gradually warmed up. She turned her head to look at the heroic female general beside her. Perhaps Qi Min's last question still made her feel a little strange. She suddenly said, "Changyu, I have a secret."
"Hmm?" Fan Changyu turned her head, the sunlight fell all over her body, her eyes and eyebrows were full of brilliance, which inexplicably made people feel trust and friendliness.
Yu Qianqian said: "I will only tell you one person."
Fan Changyu was slightly stunned for a moment, then said very seriously: "I will keep it a secret for you."
Yu Qianqian looked at the sparrows flying high and low in the sunset, her eyes became distant and a little sad: "I came here from a very far place, and I can never go back."
"How far?"
"It will take thousands of years to get back there if we start walking now."
Fan Changyu was shocked: "Then how did you get to Dayin Dynasty?"
Yu Qianqian said: "I took a nap and opened my eyes here."
Fan Changyu looked a little strange, staring at Yu Qianqian for a while, and suddenly said, "Qianqian, are you a god?"
Yu Qianqian laughed again: "Is there a god as useless as me in this world?"
She looked at Fan Changyu and said, "You are more like a god than me."
Being suddenly praised, Fan Changyu was a little shy and didn't know how to respond for a moment.
Yu Qianqian said: "Where I come from, there was also a very powerful female general in history, named Liangyu."
She turned her head to look at Fan Changyu: "Nothing is good here, but with you and Baoer, it's not bad."
She smiled and said, "Thousands of years later, Changyu will surely be a female general who will go down in history."
-
In the winter of the 17th year of Yongping, Grand Tutor Li Xing and Prime Minister Wei Yan conspired to rebel. Li Xing was defeated and killed by arrows, and Wei Yan was captured alive.
One month later, Emperor Qi Sheng died of illness due to the shock of the palace coup. The descendants of Prince Chengde who had been living among the people were found. Although the coronation ceremony had not yet been held, they had already entered the palace with their biological mother Yu.
-
Sky prison.
The dim candlelight cast two towering shadows on the wall. In the brazier in the cell corridor, there was a fire burning and the firewood was crackling.
Master Tao sighed quietly as he was about to finish his move: "That brat's father died in Jinzhou. He needs an answer for what happened back then, no matter what."
With his old but bright eyes, he looked at the man who was a generation younger than himself, and asked with a sigh like an elder: "Yigui, what do you want to do by being cursed in this life?"
Qi Min died, and only a few of his shadow guards were left, including Fu Qing.
After Xie Zheng's review, the answer he obtained was consistent with the one asked by Yu Qianqian.
In this way, the three tiger talismans found in Sui's house seemed to make sense.
——The tiger talisman is real, and the order to mobilize troops is also real. The Sui family obeyed Wei Yan’s orders and did not send troops to transport supplies to support Jinzhou.
But a new problem looms: The Sui family was in cahoots with Wei Yan, so why did they only spread rumors about the fall of Jinzhou and Wei Yan when they rebelled, instead of directly exposing Wei Yan?
No matter what others said, Master Tao did not believe that Wei Yan had personally designed the Jinzhou case. However, after Wei Yan was forced to abdicate and was defeated, he seemed to be indifferent to life and death. He admitted all the crimes, but never talked about what happened that year again.
"I am responsible for the death of the crown prince and Linshan. I will not bear this blame for anyone else."
The oil lamp on the alcove emitted a dim light, and the chessboard was cut into two parts, one light and one dark, by the shadow cast by the person in front of it.
Wei Yan's index and middle fingers held a black piece and dropped it on the intersection of the chessboard. His voice was hoarse and seemed heavy, and no emotion could be heard.
Master Tao sensed something in his words and raised his wrinkled eyelids: "Because of what happened between you and Miss Qi?"
Wei Yan looked at Master Tao.
Master Tao knew that this was the reason, and sighed, "Both children asked Concubine An. You retired from the battlefield and stayed in the capital. Do you really think that an old man can't see anything?"
Wei Yan was silent for two breaths, and only said: "She was implicated because of me."
Tao Taifu had been to the Tianlao many times, but each time he could not get anything out of Wei Yan. Today, he wanted to talk more, so he immediately asked, "What do you mean?"
The charcoal fire in the clay stove was burning brightly, the water in the teapot was bubbling, and white mist was rolling at the spout of the pot. The rising mist blurred Wei Yan's face.
Suddenly, the powerful prime minister sitting opposite Master Tao turned into the cold and ruthless young man who became famous in Jinyang just by writing a poem.
He closed his eyes and said, "I was young and cunning, and left myself open to gossip."
Tao Taifu's eyes were stern, but his heart was slightly heavy.
He had previously told Fan Changyu that Xie Zheng had a similar temperament to Wei Yan when he was young. In fact, this was not entirely true. Because Xie Zheng lost his father at a young age and was strictly disciplined by Wei Yan, his temperament was actually more stable.
When Wei Yan was young, he was not only hot-tempered, but almost rebellious.
The Wei family of Jinyang is a wealthy family with a history of one hundred years. The children in the family are more arrogant than ordinary people. As the best of that generation, he is even more arrogant.
At the age of seventeen, he passed the imperial examination and became a top scholar, but he was unwilling to enter the court as an official so early. Instead, he traveled around famous mountains and rivers, saying that he wanted to continue his studies and learn the knowledge of asceticism. This made the old man of the Wei family so angry that he kidnapped him to the Qi family military camp in order to temper his temper, and asked General Qi to discipline him. Only then did he become close friends with Xie Linshan in the army.
Master Tao temporarily suppressed the complicated feeling in his heart, stroked his beard and asked slowly, "What's the problem?"
"In the fifteenth year of Qishun, there was a flood in the south of the Yangtze River. The Crown Prince went to provide disaster relief, but the Jia family obstructed him at every turn and delayed the allocation of grain and money, causing more than half of the victims to die or be injured. The late emperor was furious. Instead of holding the sixteenth prince and the Jia family responsible, he blamed the Crown Prince for not providing disaster relief effectively and ordered him to reflect on his mistakes for three months. All his ministers were punished. The Emperor's bias became more and more serious. There were rumors in the court that the late emperor wanted to replace the sixteenth prince as the crown prince. The Crown Prince's guests plotted for the Crown Prince, and I said that the late emperor should 'abdicate'."
Even though it was many years later when he heard these words again, Master Tao still changed color. He pointed at Wei Yan and wanted to say something, but in the end he just sighed: "You... are confused!"
If these words were to reach the ears of the late emperor, the crown prince and the entire Wei family would be doomed.
Wei Yan said, "It's not that I'm confused, it's that the prince is indecisive."
His eyes were as stern as a steel knife, and his aura of having been in a high position for a long time came out. He was intimidating without being angry, and said in a cold voice: "If he had the courage to fight for it back then, with the power of the Qi family and the Xie and Wei families, why couldn't they push him onto the throne?"
Master Tao shook his head: "You have to think from the perspective of the Crown Prince. No matter how much the late Emperor favored the Sixteenth Prince, as long as he is still the Crown Prince, the position will eventually be his. If the late Emperor fails to 'abdicate', then everything will be lost."
Wei Yan asked: "What did he finally wait for?"
After saying this, he suddenly sneered: "It's just as he wished, he will be known as a sage and his reputation will last forever!"
Tao Taifu heard the hatred and sarcasm in Wei Yan's words, and sighed helplessly in his heart. The previous emperor was in a weak position when he was still a prince, and he married Empress Qi and relied on General Qi to sit on the throne.
However, General Qi's prestige in the army was too high, and he sat firmly on the throne. The late emperor was jealous of the Qi family, but the Qi family had been loyal for generations, and the children in the family were not playboys. As an emperor, he could not find a reason to move against the Qi family, so he favored the imperial concubine and allowed the Jia family to suppress the Qi family.
But how could the people involved in the situation at that time foresee what would happen later?
Tao Taifu's eyes were filled with sorrow: "Now that things have come to this, you don't have to play dumb with me. What exactly happened back then?"
A cold wind blew by, and the light in the alcove flickered. Wei Yan's shadow on the cell wall was tall and majestic, cold and hard, with an indescribable desolation, like a solid rock on a cliff.
He was silent for a long time before he said, "I didn't know the master clearly, and I kept the rumors alive. I was also naive and gullible, and I didn't make a perfect plan. As a result, the words were passed on by the prince's guest to the ears of the late emperor and the Jia family, and they were still unaware of it."
Upon hearing this, Master Tao's heart skipped a beat. Behind Wei Yan was the entire Jinyang Wei family. Even if the late emperor knew what Wei Yan said, he would not lose his temper on the spot. He would only become more jealous and make plans in secret.
Sure enough, the next moment Wei Yan sneered and asked Master Tao, "I am descended from the Jinyang Wei family. How can you accuse me of a crime that would exterminate all nine generations of my clan?"
Master Tao was stunned and said nothing.
Wei Yan paused for a word, as if filled with great hatred: "Of course it is to cause chaos in the palace."
The beard on Master Tao's chin trembled slightly. It was unclear whether he was suppressing anger or thinking that this matter was ridiculous. There was regret and complexity in his eyes.
Since he was to be convicted of the crime of causing chaos in the imperial palace, the people that the emperor and his ministers saw at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet in the 16th year of Qishun should not have been him and an ordinary palace maid...
I'm afraid the original plan was for him and Concubine Shu!
Master Tao's lips trembled slightly, and he finally said in a hoarse voice: "Ridiculous! Ridiculous!"
He finally understood where Wei Yan's resentment towards the prince came from. Wei Yan had made a mistake in his words, but since the prince was lenient and did not adopt this plan, he should have kept everyone who heard his words that day firmly in his hands. Since this word had spread from the mouth of the guest official in the East Palace, it meant that the prince was not governing effectively.
Tao Taifu had almost guessed the cause of the incident and asked sadly, "Later, Jinzhou fell... Was it the late emperor?"
Wei Yan closed his eyes and nodded: "I originally thought that the disaster at the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet was just because the late emperor had a grudge against Rong Yin and I, and I didn't know it was caused by the words of the 'Zen position'."
"The late emperor suppressed the prince in every way. The prince did not dare to compete with his father, so he tried to gain a reputation as a virtuous man among the people and recruited talented people. Little did he know that this move only made the late emperor more jealous. Seeing that the prince's reputation among the people was getting better day by day, the Jia family came up with a plan and urged the people to build a shrine for the prince."
Taifu Tao knew about this. At that time, the late emperor was furious in the court and even openly threw the memorials written by the crown prince, angrily accusing the crown prince of having the intention of replacing him.
The plan of the Sixteenth Prince and Concubine Jia was truly vicious. After this incident, the Crown Prince was directly stripped of his power as regent.
His sparse hair, pinned with a wooden hairpin, was illuminated by the dim yellow oil lamp on the prison wall. In a blink of an eye, it was already gray. He sighed, "There was the talk of 'Zen throne' before, and the prince was also trying to recruit talented people. Even though the Sixteenth Prince's faction was the one who interfered in the ancestral temple, the late emperor was probably completely unable to tolerate the prince. No wonder the late emperor used this incident to severely punish all the prince's faction members that year, forcing the prince to seek a way out and ask to go to Jinzhou on his own initiative, hoping to regain his favor with this military achievement."
Looking at it now, the prince's move to Jinzhou was like adding fuel to the fire!
After all, in the eyes of the late emperor, the prince was about to get involved in military power. His reputation among the people was almost surpassing that of the emperor. If he could obtain... "Zen throne" in the army, his words would come true.
Wei Yan's eyes showed a hint of mockery: "The Jia family is ambitious, how could the late emperor not know? But he promoted them all by himself, and they are a lackey to balance the power of the Qi family. The crown prince died in Jinzhou, so the sixteenth prince will naturally not survive."
Master Tao's pupils shrank as he was shocked by these words.
Meaning... the Sixteenth Prince being trapped in Luocheng was actually arranged by the late emperor?
Wei Yan looked at Master Tao and said, "The late emperor only wanted an obedient son."
Master Tao has sighed countless times in this prison today. It is not known whether he was suppressing his anger or thinking that this matter was ridiculous. There was regret and complexity in his eyes.
The imperial family has always been the most ruthless family since ancient times!
In fact, Prince Chengde may have understood the emperor's intentions too well, which is why he has always been an obedient son.
But the emperor was suspicious, and he was not incompetent, so no matter how obedient he was, it was useless...
Master Tao felt a heaviness in his heart.
It seemed to be snowing outside again, with a few flakes of snow drifting in through the skylight.
Wei Yan placed another piece on the chessboard. "When the Crown Prince went to Jinzhou and the Sixteenth Prince followed the advice and went to Luocheng, it was already a dead end."
"The late emperor used Rong Yin as a bargaining chip to force me to return to the capital midway. The final blame for the defeat of Jinzhou can be placed entirely on my head. General Qi has passed away. Xie Linshan, who took over the Qi family's military power, has died. The Jinyang Wei family has become the traitor who framed the prince and caused chaos in the palace. Can everyone kill them?"
"The Jia family, who have been dominating for many years because of his indulgence, is the only one left. What is there to be afraid of? If any of the crimes that the historian has accused the Jia family of in those years is picked out and punished severely, the good days of the Jia family will be over."
Master Tao's face was filled with sorrow and he could not utter another word.
A snowflake was blown very far by the wind, slowly drifting into the cup beside Wei Yan's hand, and melted in an instant.
The water waves reflected his cold and silent eyes: "Rongyin's pregnancy pulse was fake. It was just a trap to lure me into a trap and make me guilty of disturbing the harem. She burned Qingyuan Palace to help me escape, saying that as long as the prince was still alive and Qi Shi was not overthrown, the late emperor would not do anything to her."
The corners of his mouth, which were engraved with traces of time, showed a bit of bitterness: "But I didn't know at that time that the late emperor had already made a perfect plan to let the prince die in Jinzhou. He wanted to execute her for the crime of adultery and force me to come back. This was the last step of the plan."
"The Master knows everything that happened afterwards."
"I was the one who cleansed the palace with blood. I was also the one who gave Meng Shuyuan the bad name. The plan of the late emperor was really thorough. After the Jinzhou incident, all the evidence pointed to me. The first people who wanted to sentence me to death were my old subordinates in Linshan."
Tao Taifu's mouth was full of bitterness. He finally understood why Wei Yan didn't mention what happened in the past. This was... indefensible.
Prince Chengde and Xie Linshan died in Jinzhou. He went to mobilize troops but returned to the capital halfway and then massacred the palace. No matter who heard it, they would not think that Wei Yan was innocent.
Moreover... given his personality, he would never make the reason for his return to Beijing public.
It was because he felt guilty that he plunged headfirst into the trap set by the late emperor using Concubine Shu to plot against him.
Tao Taifu seemed to be a little sluggish. Looking at the snowflakes slowly falling from the sky, he sighed deeply, "What a national scourge..."
The word "Zen throne" sowed the seeds of disaster. The prince was kind-hearted and did not accept it. Then, because he was not strict in governing his people, the news reached the ears of the previous emperor, and thus the disaster arose.
Looking back at the situation back then, who should we blame?
Should we blame Wei Yan for his bad words? Should we blame the crown prince for his incompetent rule? Should we blame the Jia family for setting up the ancestral temple? Or should we blame the late emperor for his cruelty and viciousness?
In the end, all of these things were linked together, which ultimately led to the bloody incident in Jinzhou.
People later tried hard to find the truth, but the truth... was so devastating and bleak.
Compared to the sadness of Master Tao, Wei Yan's expression was as cold and hard as before: "I am not the crown prince. If someone wants to kill me, I will kill him first and then be quick."
"The Sui family has been keeping their tail between our legs for so many years, and I didn't touch them. It was only because Jinzhou was destroyed and there was no one in the north, that we had to send troops to resist the northern people heading south. In the 15th year of Yongping, the Sui family was forced to rebel. I wanted to send someone else to suppress the rebellion, but the Sui family first let Xie Zheng hear about the inside story of the Jinzhou bloodbath. If he had been quiet and didn't investigate what happened, I would have followed Sister Wan's will and spared his life. But since he wanted to investigate, I have killed countless members of the Xie family who investigated what happened, and he is not the only one left."
Master Tao was so sad that he didn't know what to say.
Wei Yan's eyes became increasingly stern. "On the day of the coup, if he hadn't had a backup plan, blood would have been spilled in the Meridian Gate. Now that I've fallen into his hands, I'm a king and a loser, so I'm willing to accept defeat."
He closed his eyes after he finished speaking. Even though he was sitting in a piece of dry grass, he still looked lonely and majestic like a rock.
Master Li sat alone for a long while, and after he placed the last move on the chessboard in front of the two of them, he stood up and said, "This game of chess is finally over..."
The broken snow from the patio fell into his hair, and before he knew it, his hair was already full of black hair.
When he reached the corner, he paused with his trembling steps and said hoarsely to the young man who had been standing on the other side of the wall, "Did you hear everything?"
It was freezing cold, and there was a piece of ice on the eaves outside the prison. The light was dim, and a lone figure stood in front of the window, silent and speechless.
The firelight from the aisle only illuminated half of his pale and cold jaw.
The past wrapped in blood clots was finally uncovered, and the truth dragged out was still bloody.
However, the little child who was fostered in the Xie family and often cried in the bloody nightmares at midnight has come all the way through the mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and now has a heart as hard as iron. No matter how tragic the past is, it cannot shake the indifference in his eyes.
The fine snow that drifted in through the skylight of the cell accumulated into a thin layer on the cold blue bricks at the corner of the wall. The cold wind blew through the passage. The thin brocade robe showed off the young man's solid and upright body. It was no longer thin, but could support the world.
"Thank you, teacher." The voice was cold and hoarse.
After Xie Zheng bowed to Master Tao, he walked towards the exit of the prison, step by step, neither hurried nor slow, but steady and resolute.
Master Tao looked at his cold and lonely back, then turned his head to look in the direction of Wei Yan's cell, his eyes filled with desolation and he sighed again.
It was obvious that the old man said those words on purpose at the end.
After seventeen years, he used himself as a whetstone and finally forged the sharpest knife in the Dayin Dynasty.
Time flies, heroes are gone, and looking back at the bloody Jinzhou case now, it is nothing more than a chess game during the Qishun period. Generals, court officials, emperors, princes...all the people at that time were chess pieces on this chess board, each with their own agenda, and the fighting resulted in a ruined country.
The last time Master Tao felt so sad was when he was supervising a battle on the front line, where his wife and children died tragically at the hands of foreigners. Today, more than a decade later, he feels even sadder.
He staggered slowly towards the exit of the prison. At the stone window at the corner, he saw a girl as bright as a sun climbing down from the horse's back. She stopped with a smile and said something to the young man who walked out of the prison in a miserable state. The frost on the young man's body seemed to melt away slowly. He took the reins from the girl, and the two left side by side in the falling snow.
A hint of smile finally appeared in Master Tao's sad eyes.
Fortunately, the knife found its sheath.
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