Cold Year (1)
Chapter 16 Cold Years (1)
"Princess Yun'an, will you accept the decree?"
Li Qi looked up upon hearing the voice and took the bright yellow scroll that was handed to her.
She subconsciously looked at Feng Siji. He was still kneeling with his body bent very low. She couldn't see his expression and had no way of guessing.
She withdrew her gaze and stood up shakily. The others followed her. At that moment, countless eyes fell on her, some were sarcastic, some were disgusted, and most were hatred.
Li Qi had long been accustomed to all this. She clutched the scroll tightly as she entered the County Lord's Mansion. As she reached the steps, a sudden roar erupted from the silent crowd: "She doesn't deserve it! She killed Miss He and injured our Feng Qingtian, and yet she's being rewarded by His Majesty? And even Empress Yun'an? Bah! Why!"
As soon as the angry cry came out, a big snowball flew out from the crowd.
Without seeing clearly who threw it, the snowball quickly grew in size in front of his eyes. Li Qi had no time to dodge and could only quickly turn away.
With a bang, the cold snowball hit the back of his neck. The pain came suddenly and intensely. Li Qi staggered and hurriedly held onto the broken door frame.
Her fair neck muscles slowly turned red, visibly to the naked eye.
After a long while, Li Qi turned around and saw that Zhang Zhouzhu had caught the person who threw the snowball.
He placed a knife on the man's neck, looked at Li Qi and asked, "What are you going to do with him, Madam?"
She recognized the man with the knife at a glance. He was the man who scared her to death when she left the city last time.
The man looked at her indignantly, his cheeks flushed red with anger. His eyes widened, and he cursed with gritted teeth: "Witch, you bastard official! Kill me if you dare!"
Zhang Zhouzhu clicked his tongue twice, a cruel smile breaking through his gloomy face. "Do you think I wouldn't dare?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he raised his long sword and chopped at the man's head.
A cold light flashed before his eyes, and the sharp blade reflected the scarlet blood on the ground, indicating that too many people had died today. Li Qi clenched his fingers and hissed, "Stop!"
The man with the knife ignored her and continued to chop. She calmed down. Zhang Zhouzhu was no longer the illegitimate son of the Marquis's Mansion. Who would he listen to now?
She wanted to throw the dagger to fight Zhang Zhouzhu, but the knife hanging above the man's head suddenly froze and was stopped in mid-air by Feng Siji.
He grasped the knife with his bare hands.
Blood leaked out from between his fingers, flowed down his wrists and shins, and finally dyed the snow-blue cuffs dark purple.
Li Qi's heartbeat suddenly stopped, and she had an urge to get close to him, pull him away, care for him, or bandage him herself.
She bit her lip hard, the urge suppressed by the intense pain on her lips. Suddenly, the tip of her tongue tasted blood. It turned out that her lips were bleeding from biting herself.
"The county lord hasn't been conferred the title of consort yet. She's still the county lord of Yun'an." Feng Siji didn't look at her. He met Zhang Zhouzhu's gaze with neither servility nor arrogance, his stern face devoid of fear. "Prime Minister Zhang has killed enough people today. If the situation continues, I'm afraid it will be over."
He side-glanced at the man under the knife, and the man scrambled away. After he was far away, he let go of Zhang Zhouzhu's knife. He lowered his hand, the wound on the palm of his hand so deep that the bone was visible, and blood dripped from his fingertips in strings.
"Prime Minister, County Lady, goodbye." Feng Siji said in a low voice with his eyes lowered. Without even looking at Li Qi, he slowly turned around and walked away.
Every footprint was a river of blood. The sky above Kyoto seemed to be shrouded in a thin layer of blood mist.
Li Qi closed her eyes tiredly, loosened her bleeding lips, and finally looked at Zhang Zhouzhu without any sadness or joy, then walked into the county lady's mansion.
-
The county lord’s mansion, where she used to go in and out six times, no longer has the glory of the past.
The plum tree in the yard, which was originally in full bloom, was cut in half. The trunk fell in the snow-covered courtyard, and the bright red plum blossoms fell to the ground, with bits of red mixed in with the pure white snow.
The outside of the Gold and Silver House was covered with graffiti, with the same few words, such as "witch" and "poisonous woman".
The window paper was pierced, her nanmu tables and chairs were chopped into pieces and scattered on the ground, and her dressing table was also looted.
This is what it means to have your house confiscated.
The only thing that was intact was the gold and silver room.
But when you get closer, you can still see uneven pits on the walls and stone doors of the Gold and Silver House, which are obviously the marks left by someone trying to break it open.
The relief pattern on the stone gate was carved by her herself. If you look closely, you will find that it is a map of mountains and rivers of Yunzhou. Because of these pits, the entire perfect relief map has been destroyed.
Li Qi stroked the pattern on the relief stone door, feeling a little distressed.
But no matter how heartbroken she was, it was of no use. She took a deep breath and pushed the door open.
The gold and silver house was exactly the same as it was before she left. The sunlight made the dust floating in the air clearly visible. The red boxes were filled to the brim, and the gold and silver inside emitted a dazzling golden light.
A small head suddenly popped out from behind the golden light, with a butterfly tassel pinned on the head. The tassel beads gently collided with each other, making a crisp tinkling sound.
"Ye Lan? Is that you?"
Li Qi walked closer and saw Ye Lan standing up from behind the box. When she saw Li Qi, tears rolled down her eyes and she threw herself into Li Qi's arms.
"County Master, you are finally back!"
There was a cry in her voice, which made Li Qi's nose ache.
There has been a lot of noise outside these days, and everyone is shouting that the County Lady's Mansion should pay for their lives. Ye Lan hid here without food or water, and there was no light at night. He also had to listen to the riots outside from time to time. How did he survive?
She patted Ye Lan's shoulder gently to comfort him: "It's okay, I'm back. I'm sorry for making you suffer these days."
Ye Lan buried his head in her chest, and the hot air sprayed into the crook of her neck. She instantly felt that the place where she was hit by the snowball was hot, and it didn't seem to hurt anymore.
She was hugged very tightly by Ye Lan, and not only did she not feel uncomfortable, but her heart, which had been hanging in the air for a long time, actually settled down, and she felt inexplicably at peace.
She heard Ye Lan crying muffledly: "I heard some noise that day, so I ran inside to hide. I didn't know what happened. I only heard the group of people smashing and cursing, and some people banging on the door and walls of the gold and silver house, bang, bang, bang... I was really worried that if they really broke it open and found me, they would kill me.
"It's cold in here, there's no light, and there's not even a toilet. The county lady doesn't know, but I've been holding it in for a long, long time. I had to wait until the middle of the night to make sure no one was around before I dared to quietly go out and take care of it."
As she spoke, her sobs grew louder. Li Qi felt her heart clenched. She hugged Ye Lan distressedly, her voice choked with sobs: "I'm sorry for you. You've suffered with me."
Ye Lan shook her head, wiped her tears, and smiled broadly: "Everything will be fine once the county lady comes back. Look, I've forgotten all those things."
Li Qi touched her smiling face, which was cold.
Ye Lan continued, "I have already taken care of the five boxes of gold that the county lady ordered. I personally supervised the sisters from Ping'an Village who robbed them along the way and handed them over to Eunuch Li Ke, who distributed them to the people in the name of Feng Anshi."
Li Qi nodded: "Thank you for your hard work."
She had already thought that the silver given to Emperor Liang would definitely not be distributed to the people, so she sent Ye Lan and his men to "rob" the silver, and then Li Ke would appease Emperor Liang.
As for how to appease them, it was nothing more than that the silver was robbed, and Zhang Zhouzhu could only let it go since he couldn't find out what had happened. He would not continue to rob the national treasury.
The best way to distribute it was to use Feng Anshi's name. He was very popular among the people, and although his family had fallen on hard times, a lean camel was still bigger than a horse. He had a good fortune, so few people would be suspicious.
Li Qi pulled Ye Lan to sit next to her, took out a gold leaf from the box, and handed it to Ye Lan: "Go to Kyoto and buy a smaller house. We can't live in this county lady's mansion anymore."
Ye Lan exclaimed, "Why? We've lived here for many years, and we're reluctant to leave."
Li Qi frowned and thought, "It's too dangerous. Public anger is the hardest thing to appease. Today, Zhang Zhouzhu once again used my name to massacre innocent people. Although I don't know what his purpose is, I'm sure more and more people will hate me. The Golden and Silver House is not indestructible. If something like this happens again, we may not be able to escape."
Ye Lan was stunned when he heard this, as if he had not expected this: "But even a small house doesn't need a single gold leaf."
"The rest will be used to buy food and clothes for the sisters in Ping'an Village."
Li Qi looked out the window at the chopped-down plum tree, pondered for a moment, and said, "I don't know when this year's snowstorm will end. Besides, the New Year is almost here, so let's have a good New Year. Maybe this will be our last New Year here."
"Will you be with us for the New Year this year?"
Li Qi smiled and said, "Don't we get together every year? This year will be no exception."
"Then I'll go find Sister Shengxiang to accompany me. After she came back from Qingqi Temple, she was sent to Ping'an Village by Eunuch Li Ke."
Ye Lan counted on his fingers, "After buying food, clothes and other daily necessities for the sisters in Ping'an Village, there's still a lot left."
She looked up at Li Qi and asked, "Can I take some out so that Shengxiang and I can buy some beautiful clothes and jewelry? I will return the rest to the county lady."
Her sparkling eyes were filled with anticipation. Li Qi looked at her with a warm smile. She pinched Ye Lan's cheek and said, "Of course you can. Dress up beautifully and let's have a happy New Year together."
Ye Lan laughed happily.
-
After Ye Lan left, Li Qi went to search in the messy boudoir, hoping to find the Duobao necklace she had taken off earlier.
But she searched for a long time and her fingers were sore but she still couldn't find it.
All the valuable items in the house were looted, even her step-out bed was taken away, and the multi-treasure necklace inlaid with gold beads was undoubtedly also lost.
She looked at the nearly empty house and let out a long sigh. Perhaps she and that benefactor were truly not meant to be together. Not only did he not show up, but now his only token of their love was lost.
Perhaps because she had been disappointed before, she was not that sad about losing the thing. Instead, she felt a sense of relief, as if the hand that had been holding her heartstrings had loosened.
She didn't dwell on it anymore and left the county lord's mansion.
-
Feng Mansion.
Perhaps Feng Siji had specifically reminded him of this, as Li Qi was not stopped on the way to Feng Mansion.
There were not many lights on in the small mansion. In the deep night, only the window of the main room where Feng Siji lived was still dimly lit.
Li Qi walked up the stairs and knocked on the door with her fingers bent.
The sound lingered in the darkness. After a moment's wait, Feng Siji's weak voice came from behind the door: "Come in."
With a creak, Li Qi carefully pushed the door open and walked in.
In the huge room, only a lamp beside the desk was lit. The light was pitifully dim, and in the dim light, a figure could be vaguely seen leaning against the bed curtain.
Li Qi walked closer slowly. The closer she got, the more clearly she could smell the sweet smell of blood.
Without Feng Siji's permission, she didn't dare to hang the curtains, so she stopped by the bed.
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