Chapter 217: Never Leave, Grow Old Together (Two in One)
Liang Yixin was pregnant, so she could no longer live outside. That same day, the emperor brought her into the palace. Thus, Liang Yixin, who had disappeared for many days, finally appeared in the public eye.
When the news was heard, almost the entire Xin Guo Mansion celebrated.
"God is truly helping the Duke!" an aide said, "Shen Mingchang's life or death is uncertain, and Miss Liang is two months pregnant. Even if Shen Mingchang survives, the Emperor won't touch the Duke."
"Who knows, it won't be long before the Duke becomes Dazhao's father-in-law! Congratulations, Duke! Congratulations, Duke!"
Duke Xin was sitting at the top, and for once, a smile appeared on his face.
"God bless my Liang family!" he said.
"It seems that the Duke needs to prepare for the wedding banquet as soon as possible." Marquis Cheng'en also congratulated.
Liang Yixin's entry into the palace was imperative, and it had to be done as soon as possible. She couldn't allow the mother of a nation to enter the palace with a large belly and be criticized by the world. Although Liang Yixin's pregnancy was not known to others for the time being, if things dragged on for too long, the fact that she was pregnant would become untraceable.
The Duke nodded: "We must start preparing as soon as possible."
"But...besides the wedding banquet, there are other things we need to prepare."
"Other? What else?" asked Marquis Cheng'en.
Duke Xin sneered: "Don't forget, Shen Mingchang is not dead yet."
"But isn't Miss Liang going to enter the palace soon?"
"You don't understand. I watched the emperor grow up. Our emperor..." He looked towards the palace: "He has already grown into a lion."
The Emperor wouldn't touch him for now, but what about the future? The assassination of Shen Mingchang at the foot of the capital had already touched his innermost being; he could hide from it for a while, but not forever.
He still couldn't take it lightly.
.
Just as Marquis Cheng'en had expected, the Emperor would not allow Liang Yixin to enter the palace with a big belly. He summoned the Imperial Astronomical Observatory to calculate the date that day, and announced at the morning court the next day that the wedding would be held in March.
It is now mid-February, and March is less than a month away.
The emperor's sudden and hasty wedding sparked considerable speculation both inside and outside the court. Some said the Imperial Astronomical Observatory had found a more auspicious date, others that the emperor was afraid of further misfortunes. However, a small number of people suspected a glimmer of truth.
But no matter what, Emperor Da Zhao had already decided to marry in March. The emperor's wedding was a time of great celebration for the whole country, and it kept everyone in the court busy.
Especially the Ministry of Rites. The offices of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Justice are next to each other, and people from the two ministries often make plans to have meals together. Therefore, the relationship between them is as strong as it can be and as close as it can be.
At this moment, the Ministry of Rites was so busy hosting the emperor's wedding ceremony that it had to borrow people from the Ministry of Justice because it did not have enough people.
The Minister of Rites came in with two kilograms of tea leaves, smiling: "Master Pei, I heard you like Longjing tea. Here, this is early spring tea, try it."
Pei Xingju was reading official documents and glanced at the two packets of tea, unmoved.
"I really have no choice." The Minister of Rites leaned his chubby body against the table. "Didn't the emperor's wedding take three to five years to prepare in every dynasty? You want me to prepare it in just one month? Even if I had ten hands and feet, I wouldn't be able to handle it."
"Alas!" He sighed, "I'm old enough to be your father..."
Pei Xingju raised his eyes, and the Minister of Rites chuckled, "Metaphor, metaphor. I've been the Minister of Rites my entire life, and I know that this position has reached its limit. Before retiring, I don't seek to achieve any merit, but I only hope to avoid any mistakes. I'll consider it a blessing from the Buddha if I can live out my retirement in peace and security."
"Unlike you, Master Pei, you young people have a bright future. If I had a son like you..."
Pei Xingju raised his eyes and glanced at him again.
The Minister of Rites said, "I can't even think about it? It's fine if you don't want to be my son-in-law, but you can't even let me think about it?"
"You want to borrow someone again?" Pei Xingju simply put down the official document and helped him get to the point.
"Ah! That's right! The Ministry of Rites is so busy that even the guard dogs have been recruited to patrol the warehouses. Do you think I'm anxious?"
Pei Xingju said, "Borrowing people is easy to discuss, but you can't just grab the Ministry of Justice. You know my Ministry of Justice is extremely busy after the New Year. Cases that were put on hold before the New Year haven't been closed yet, and many new cases have arisen during the New Year. The Emperor's wedding is in a month, and these cases need to be resolved before the Emperor's wedding. We simply don't have that much manpower. At most, I can lend one person over, and you can ask other departments for the rest."
Upon hearing this, the Minister of Rites held up three short, fat fingers and said, "Three, how about three? Minister Yang, Doctor Cao, and Doctor Zhou, just these three. I won't lend more than that."
Pei Xingju thought silently.
"Master Pei, please consider that I am almost your father at my age..."
"Never mind. I'll just lend you these three people. I'll send someone to notify them later."
"Hey!" The Minister of Rites laughed, "Master Pei is truly righteous!"
After sending the Minister of Rites away, not long after, Guard Lu came in with a eunuch.
"Sir, Eunuch Wei from the palace has arrived."
Eunuch Wei clasped his hands and bowed: "Sir Pei, the Emperor has issued an edict, summoning you to the palace."
Hearing this, Pei Xingju's heart sank.
.
At the hour of You, Chen Yi was waiting at Pei's house. Seeing him coming back from the palace, he hurried forward to ask.
"What's going on? What did the Emperor say when he summoned you?" Seeing that he was preoccupied, she asked quietly, "Is it about the Duke?"
"Yeah." Pei Xingju nodded.
"I knew it." Chen Yi followed him into the study. "The Emperor suddenly announced his wedding to the world. I guess the Duke's matter has been put on hold. What does this mean? Is he not planning to investigate Minzhou anymore?"
Pei Xing remained silent.
He stopped in front of the bookshelf, his fingers aimlessly searching for a book, but his mind was thinking about what the emperor had said.
"Lord Pei, I will not hide it from you. The reason I am getting married next month is because she is pregnant with a dragon seed."
"I know you've been secretly investigating the Minzhou matter, but whatever you've discovered, let's put it to rest."
"Duke Xin cannot be moved for the time being. He is the future father-in-law of the emperor and the empress's family. If I marry her into the palace and then abolish Duke Xin's mansion, how will the world view her? I cannot let her be ridiculed by the world."
"I hope that Lord Pei can understand my painstaking efforts."
Behind him, Chen Yi was still chattering away. Pei Xingju's brows were cold, and he stared at the bookshelf in silence for a long while.
He said, "The Emperor does not wish to investigate the matter of Duke Xin any further."
Shen Yi paused: "Why?"
"Miss Liang is pregnant, and the Emperor must consider the dignity of the mother of a nation."
"Are you sure?" Chen Yi opened his mouth, surprised by the explosive news that Liang Yixin was pregnant. He murmured, "That's good. Duke Xin has a golden ticket to avoid death, so he can rest easy."
"Then all our planning for so long would be in vain? And..." Chen Yi looked at him: "And your revenge? Did dozens of innocent lives of your Pei family die tragically back then?"
Pei Xingju covered her long eyelashes, and her dark eyes were filled with thick clouds.
After a moment, when he looked up again, his emotions had already been suppressed in his heart.
"I've fixed it," he said. "Just walk out this door and pretend you didn't hear any of this. We should be as careful and cautious as possible to avoid being used against us at this moment."
"Are you willing to accept this?"
Willing? How could I be willing?
Ten years of planning, ten years of hard work, all for this day. But the emperor's words "I can't touch Duke Xin yet" put all these years of hard work on hold, and he was helpless.
Pei Xingju raised a sarcastic smile at the corner of his lips, his eyes and eyebrows looking a little sinister in the dim light.
"Anyway, I won't give up." Chen Yi said, "We've waited for so long, spent so much manpower and energy, just waiting for now. If Duke Xin escapes now, who knows when the next opportunity will be. Maybe three years, maybe five years, maybe ten years. But all these years, I have watched him get away with it. How can I be willing to do that?"
.
In the evening, Zhuang Wan returned from the shop and didn't see Pei Xingju. She stopped the study boy and asked, "Where's your master? Hasn't he left his post yet?"
"The master has already left his post," the servant replied, "he stayed in the study for a while and then returned to his bedroom."
"Go back to the bedroom?" Zhuang Wan glanced at the sky. "Is he...sick?"
"It doesn't look like it to me, but the adult looks a little tired. He must have gone back to rest."
"oh."
After thinking for a while, Zhuang Wan walked towards Pei Xingju's bedroom. When she arrived at the courtyard, she found that the bedroom door was closed and there was no one at the door.
She tapped it lightly: "Pei Xingju?"
No one responded.
I knocked again, but it was still the same.
Zhuang Wan simply reached out and pushed the door. It was not locked, so it opened with a gentle push and she walked in.
Pei Xingju was still nowhere to be seen in the room, and even the bed was empty, with only the bedding neatly laid out.
"Pei Xingju?" She called again softly, turned her head, and saw that the painting on one wall was crooked.
She felt strange and walked over to straighten it, but she bumped into something and the wall suddenly moved away from the middle to both sides, revealing a passage inside.
The passage was not deep and there was a faint light inside.
"Pei Xingju?" She tried to walk in.
He walked in by the light of candlelight, but the next moment he was so scared that he collapsed on the ground.
"ah--"
Zhuang Wan couldn't help but scream and stepped back repeatedly.
Before her eyes, the room full of tablets was dark and quiet. In the flickering candlelight, it seemed as if countless faces were looking at her, the reckless intruder.
"Did it scare you?"
At this time, a man walked out from the corner of the tablet, holding an incense stick in his hand, with sparks coming out of it.
This is Pei Xing’s residence.
Zhuang Wan stared at him blankly, gasping for breath, completely unable to recover.
Pei Xingju looked very different at this moment, like a completely different person. He was shrouded in a deep sense of sadness, and even a strange and distant aura. When he saw Zhuang Wan, his eyes were calm, as if he had already anticipated this.
Soon, he came over and helped her up with one hand.
"I'm sorry I scared you," he said.
Zhuang Wan paused for a moment before speaking, "What is this?"
"As you can see, these are the tablets for the twenty-three members of the Pei family."
Zhuang Wan was shocked upon hearing this, and she also guessed who these tablets belonged to. She looked at Pei Xingju again. He had done his best to calm down, and the sadness around him had faded a little. He smiled gently at her.
"Maybe..." he said, "There's something I should tell you."
He held the incense stick in his hand and slowly walked forward. He first knelt on the cushion and kowtowed before inserting the incense stick into the incense burner.
"You should have heard of the illustrious General Guarding the Nation." He suddenly spoke, "The General's surname was Pei, and his given name was Zhang. He led his troops into battle and killed countless enemies throughout his life, bringing glory to his family."
"But sixteen years ago... the General's mansion was ransacked overnight, and General Pei was killed in battle. His wife, eldest son, and second son were all beheaded with a tiger-head knife, and the entire family was also sent to the guillotine."
"That day..." He spoke slowly, his expression calm, as if he were telling someone else's story: "I heard that the streets of Caishikou were stained red with blood, and the smell of blood almost filled the air above the entire capital."
"Overnight, the Pei family collapsed, and the General's Mansion became a haunted house. After the Pei family was ransacked, news also reached us of their frail youngest son's sudden death in Tanzhou."
He lowered his eyes, his gaze settling on the incense and candles. "But few in this world know that the child is still alive. The general's last expedition was to attack Chang State, and for that purpose, he sent his youngest son to Tanzhou with his maternal grandparents. After the Pei family encountered trouble, his maternal grandparents lied and claimed that the general's youngest son had died suddenly. This way, the child was able to secretly survive."
"He's filled with hatred, enduring humiliation. He hides his identity, and although he's alive, he can't see the light of day. He's the son of a criminal, a murderous demon in the shadows. Such a person..." Pei Xingju turned his head suddenly: "Zhuang Wan, do you still dare to like him?"
Zhuang Wan leaned against the wall, the dim candlelight illuminating her body and her face, which was already filled with tears.
Pei Xingju's sorrow flowed like a river, flowing smoothly through her heart, making it swell.
She actually knew about his past, but it was just a few words in a book, cold and without any emotion.
In Zhuang Wan's impression, he is the male protagonist, the omnipotent and invincible Pei Xingju, the cunning, clever and wise Pei Xingju, and the arrogant, rebellious and tenacious Pei Xingju.
But today, she seemed to have a new understanding of the fragile and inferior Pei Xingju.
At the age of six, he lost everything: his father died in battle, and his mother and brother were beheaded. He was still recuperating at his maternal grandmother's home when he heard the news of the raid. Fortunately, his grandmother was wise enough to promptly announce his sudden death. The general, known for his frail health, was not suspicious of his sudden death, and he escaped unscathed.
Losing his parents and family, and not even being able to recognize his grandparents, was such a cruel thing for a six-year-old child.
She couldn't imagine a six-year-old child living in hiding, nor could she imagine a six-year-old child's days of grief and devastation.
A life full of twists and turns, sixteen years of hardship had already eroded and numbed him. The memories of his youth, though beautiful, were like poison, and every recollection was filled with heart-wrenching pain.
He asked her if she still dared to like him?
Zhuang Wan smiled, stepped forward and lit a stick of incense, then knelt down in Pei Xingju's surprised gaze.
"Uncle and Aunt, I'm Zhuang Wan." She said slowly and firmly, "I haven't been able to recognize your son Pei Yan for the past twenty years, but I'm fortunate to have him by my side for the rest of my life."
"He's very good," Zhuang Wan continued, "He's the best man in the world. I will marry him and become the daughter-in-law of your Pei family."
"Don't worry, I will take good care of your son, protect him, love him, and never leave him. I will be with you till the end of my life."
After saying this, Zhuang Wan kowtowed three times solemnly, then stood up and inserted the incense stick into the incense burner.
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