He thought the emperor was crazy.
Ren Xuan was ashamed. Whether in the past or now, Qin Shu had never thought of using Qin Huaizhang to start a plan.
This time, the dog emperor was really dragged down by him.
Ren Xuan concentrated for a moment, frowning slightly: "No matter what, we still have to find out Lu Xingchuan's attitude first."
Lu Shian's expression remained unchanged, and he simply said, "Lu Xingchuan won't see you."
Ren Xuan shook his head: "There is no need to see Lu Xingchuan, go ask Lu Xiyun."
Lu Shian nodded thoughtfully: "Then let's go to Lu Mansion tomorrow."
Seeing Lu Shian pretending to send him away, Ren Xuan was unhappy: "Hey - the night is beautiful, let's go for a drink together?"
Without even looking up, Lu Shian refused bluntly: "I haven't fed the cat yet."
Ren Xuan: “…”
So this is what it feels like to shoot yourself in the foot.
If I had known this earlier, I wouldn’t have sent it to you.
Ren Xuan swallowed his breath, his face becoming thicker instead of loosening: "That cat, I haven't seen it for a long time. Let's go and take a look."
Ren Xuan skillfully put his arm around the young man's shoulders, half hugged and half led him, and returned to Lu's Mansion along the same path they came.
Lu Shian was stunned for a moment. After meeting his uncle today, Ren Xuan felt something was wrong.
Although this guy rarely does anything serious on weekdays, today, he seems to be particularly clingy.
···
The cat was full, with its tail curled up in a circle, and it was taking a nap in the corner of the couch.
The room was very quiet.
Ren Xuan sat at the table, drumming his knuckles on the edge, his gaze fixed on the cat absentmindedly.
He asked, "Have you chosen a name?"
Lu Shian: “No.”
Ren Xuan just shook his head and smiled. The raccoon cat could sense the formation. Once the formation master's cat could sense the formation, nine lives might not be enough to waste.
He said, "If you don't have a name and die, you won't be sad?"
Lu Shi'an did not answer, but placed another Jun porcelain water dish on the table.
The cat wagged its tail and slowly came over, looking dignified as if to say, "I understand."
Ren Xuan looked at the ancestral cat and said, "Tsk!" "Shi'an, don't raise it. Raise me instead. I'm easier to raise than him."
The cat flicked its tail and meowed loudly at him, as if it understood.
Lu Shian raised his eyebrows and said, "It seems that it doesn't like you."
Ren Xuan wasn't annoyed, he just spread his hands and said, "I'm naturally cold and indifferent, who could I imitate so well?"
Lu Shian sat down and answered quickly: "It's me, Liang Bo. You can go back."
The teacup in Ren Xuan's hand didn't shake, and his eyes didn't move.
He half leaned against the backrest, squinted his eyes and smiled, his tone as nonchalant as usual:
"You've always been heartless. It's okay. I'm used to it. I'm happy to stay with you for a while longer."
Lu Shian didn't respond, just stared at him: "What's wrong with you?"
Something was not right with Ren Xuan tonight—something had been wrong since he met his uncle.
There is wind blowing in from the window.
The cat on the table moved its tail slightly and patted the back of Ren Xuan's hand.
He didn't hide, but looked down at the cat and suddenly said softly:
"Hey, Shi'an, tell me."
"What if one day this little guy runs away and never comes back?"
"Then someone tells you it's dead, somewhere you can't see."
"You don't know what happened to it. You don't know why it didn't look for you before it died."
"You just know you'll never find it again."
Ren Xuan spoke in a very soft voice, as if he was afraid of waking someone up, but also as if he was afraid of speaking too harshly and becoming a curse.
"Will you erect a monument for it?"
Lu Shian's eyes changed slightly.
After a while, he raised his hand and touched the cat's head, his tone steady:
"meeting."
He thought for a moment and said, "Let's erect a monument without any words on it."
Ren Xuan laughed and said, "You are quite open-minded."
Lu Shian looked at him in surprise. How could a person like Ren Xuan, who didn't even take his life seriously, have such a thing that he couldn't get over?
The young man spoke, as if teasing, but also as if intending to break the oppressive atmosphere: "General Ren has always prided himself on being free and easygoing. Does he ever get frustrated?"
After hearing this, Ren Xuan just smiled, but the smile did not reach his eyes.
He shook the teacup in his hand, and the water in the cup floated up and down, reflecting the dim light in his eyes.
He whispered, "...Yes."
He put the cup of tea back on the table and turned to look at the cat.
Ren Xuan looked at it and suddenly smiled.
"I'm afraid it will die and have nowhere to bury its bones."
“There’s not even a monument.”
After saying this, he didn't say anything else.
The room was suddenly so quiet that the only sounds left were the sound of water in the cup and the cat's sniffing.
But what was in his mind was not the cup of tea or the room in front of him.
It's fire, it's blood, it's a burned mass grave.
In this world, eight out of ten things don’t go as we wish.
Ren Xuan was not in favor of war. He advocated surrender and asked the imperial city to surrender.
At that time, his troops were at the gate of Taixuan City, Yue Anshan in the northwest stationed his troops at Taicang Pass, and Lu Xingchuan in the north pointed at Taixi City.
The last three barriers outside the imperial city are in danger, and the general trend of the world is clear at a glance.
In the imperial city, apart from the stubborn old man Lu Jie, there are many "smart people".
The letters of surrender that were secretly sent to Ren Xuan had already piled up on his desk. Ren Xuan could see clearly that the imperial city would surrender without a fight sooner or later.
At the headquarters of the Yunzhong Commander, in front of Qin Shu, Ren Xuan confidently spoke of things like "The best of the best conquer the enemy without fighting" and "A single misstep can lead to the destruction of countless lives."
In fact, he didn't care about these at all. He was a knife, and he would chop wherever Qin Shu pointed.
He killed for Qin Shu, regardless of faith or right or wrong. It wasn't loyalty, it wasn't idealism. It was simply service, simply following the flow.
——It’s just killing people.
But when the troops were approaching the imperial city, Ren Xuan's knife had its own ideas.
He thought of the people in the imperial city who would read the files over and over again, checking every word and sentence in order to decide a case or convict a crime.
That's just a few lives?
Ren Xuan no longer wanted to carry a knife into the imperial city.
He didn't want to make himself look like a mass murderer with blood on his hands.
Even if he is.
He saw a place in his heart that was not yet rotten.
He never imagined it was still there.
But it was there, and it suddenly lit up, and he had an idea - once he entered the imperial city, he would give up.
Anyway, he has plenty of ways and confidence to save Lu Shian.
The list of people Qin Shu wanted to kill was so long that every time he looked at it, he thought the emperor was crazy.
He was too lazy to get involved.
He was afraid that one day, Lu Shian would also think he was crazy.
Ren Xuan had made up his mind that once they entered the city, he would no longer help Qin Shu kill people.
When the time comes, let Qin Shu go crazy alone.
People tend to think positively about things.
Him too.
He thought he was a normal person, able to laugh, talk, and make a joke on the edge of a knife.
But he is not.
He thought he had a way out.
But he didn't.
In the end, he still entered the imperial city with a knife.
It was a very windy day and it was still dark.
It seemed like the rain started falling last night, and it kept falling all night, and it was also a cold night.
Ren Xuan did not walk along the Imperial Street, did not enter the Imperial Palace, and did not attend the palace banquet where all officials gathered and the music was booming.
After all, the emperor didn't go either.
Qin Shu doesn't like banquets. In the past, it was Lu Xiyun who didn't like them, and Qin Shu always had to distract himself to take care of the other person's boredom.
Later, when the emperor was subconsciously distracted, the empty corner would make him extremely upset and irritable.
Then the emperor spoke righteously, saying, "The bloody battle lasted till dusk, and the blood flowed like a river;
He said, mourning the blood of the three armies and the death of the people.
"I have no intention of feasting" - Qin Shu said it in a high-sounding way.
Qin Shu missed the palace banquet.
No one dared to ask him to attend the celebration party where even Qin Shu was not present.
Ren Xuan was like a headless fly, stuck in the mass grave.
He stepped over the anonymous graves of corpses and kicked away the rotten wooden signs.
In the past, he loved to tease that person. His three sentences were nonsensical and his five sentences were all nonsense, such as "you and I are destined to be together" and "we have a mutual understanding".
It seems really ridiculous now.
Bullshit, he can neither recognize nor distinguish the telepathy.
The person is dead, what's the point of talking about it?
The village head standing by was very cautious.
"Most of the things brought in these past few months were burned in piles..."
"The person the general is looking for, I... honestly have no impression of him."
Ren Xuan couldn't remember whether he said anything at the time. He only remembered that the wind was strong and the rain was heavy that night. The raindrops hit his cloak, making him so cold that he couldn't recover the whole night.
He asked people to search and search one place after another. There were too many recognizable items on Lu Shi'an, including the token he gave him and the jade pendant of the Lu family. As long as one of them was left behind, he would be able to find it.
He dug away the dust, picked up a piece of half-broken jade, and looked at it for a long time.
It doesn't seem like it, but it could be, he's not sure.
His eyes hurt so much, as if sand had gotten into them.
In the end, he gained nothing that night.
He didn't believe in fate or heaven, but he broke new ground and burned a stick of incense.
There was no name written on it, no earthen mound built, only a short incense stick stuck in the black ash.
The wind blew out the incense.
He said:...Forget it.
"If you are still here, come back to me someday."
"If he's really dead, forget it."
He said: No one knows anyway.
He said this and turned around.
"Jiang En, go to the Ministry of Justice and check if anyone has taken anything belonging to a dead person."
Jiang En paused: "Want to ask for details?"
He took out the talisman from his bosom and said, "Look for it according to this and say that my talisman, Ren Xuan's, is lost."
"This is a military token. Anyone who keeps it privately will be charged with treason."
"Tell them that anyone who provides information will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver. Anyone willing to testify will be rewarded with 1,000 taels of silver. Anyone who knows but doesn't report will have their entire family exterminated."
His voice was so low that it seemed to be squeezed out from his throat.
He said: "I am Ren Xuan, and I do what I say."
···
After all, Ren Xuan was still killing people for the emperor.
Qin Shu established the "Secret News Guard" to kill censors, punish dissidents, report rumors, and massacre the court.
In the name of General Zhenbei, he wields the sharpest and most secretive sword of this dynasty.
All the civil and military officials in the court called him a lackey, but they turned pale when talking about him.
Without Lu Jie in the court, those civil servants seemed to have lost their last bit of backbone.
On his desk, the secret letters piled higher than the original letters of surrender.
He couldn't even find the murderer.
The entire Lu family was wiped out, and all the officials attacked and interrogated each other.
Everyone is crying out for injustice and everyone is pointing fingers at others.
Perhaps to appease him, or perhaps to win over the people, Qin Shu issued an order to rebury Lu Jie.
The ceremony was grand and ceremonial.
This is the emperor. If Lu Jie is alive, Qin Shu will kill him. If Lu Jie is dead, Qin Shu can use the dead without any burden.
At the funeral, those people cried more sadly than if their own father had died.
Ren Xuan thought that perhaps everyone present was the murderer, but he was just wearing linen clothes again.
Ren Xuan thought, why not just kill them all.
He began to think that Qin Shu's long list was... not bad.
The emperor had so many people he wanted to kill that all of them were on Qin Shu's list.
Files were sent to him by the emperor one after another, but he was too lazy to read them. It didn't matter whether the case was tried or not, because in the end - he would be killed anyway.
If Qin Shu wanted to kill him, he would kill him too, without asking whether it was true or false, or whether he was wrong.
He moves what others cannot move, and rushes to move what others dare not move.
There are few clean people in the whole court. As long as he wants, he can dig up old accounts with just a flick of his finger.
They all have reasons, they are all blood debts.
Collecting evidence, killing people and destroying families, Ren Xuan becomes more and more adept at it.
When secret letters came one after another, he would only pick out one sentence to read - whether the crime was serious enough and whether the name was familiar.
In the past, he killed people to eliminate troubles for the emperor. Later, he killed people to collect debts for the dead.
He investigated everything he could, interrogated everything he could, driving people crazy, forcing them to commit suicide, and forcing them to destroy their families and clans.
But still - no one could tell him who was the one who did it in the Ministry of Justice prison that day.
Sometimes, Ren Xuan would draw his sword for no reason, and his own shadow would be reflected on the blade.
The shadow was cold, as if it didn't recognize him.
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