Chapter 106: He is the one you thought was the only one who had experienced the pain of losing a loved one...
Du Rupan's voice was heard from far and near. He snatched the memorial from Ying's hand and read it quickly.
This is the Ministry of War's account of the Xizhou military rebellion: First, according to Wang Zhaoshen's memorial, Xie Xuanlan was killed in a night raid by Western Tatar cavalry, and Xuan Zhiyuan was nowhere to be found, apparently fleeing fear of punishment. Two days later, an urgent dispatch arrived in Beijing from the prefect of Zhanzhou, reporting that Wang Zhaoshen had killed the Western Tatar general Guzha at Chunfeng Tower in Zhanzhou, only to be counterattacked by an assassin. The assassin, a skilled warrior, slaughtered hundreds of people. The prefect, after strenuous efforts to corral the assassin, attempted to eliminate him, but was intercepted by the Prince of Jin's personal guards, armed with a jade token, and requested the court's clarification.
Ying's heart was in turmoil as if it were being hacked at by swords and spears, and she was stunned and speechless for a moment.
Du Rupan said, "Tomorrow morning, the Ministry of War will submit this memorial impeaching Third Master Xie and Prince Jin. This matter is of grave importance. Fourth Lady, you must immediately sever all ties with these two!"
The King of Jin was also involved.
Cong Ying stuffed the letter back to Du Rupan and said, "Thank you for your advice, Brother Du. I won't send you off."
She turned around and went to the stable to get her horse, and at the same time called a servant to ask for leave on her behalf. She went out of the Taiyi side door and hurried to the Prince of Jin's Mansion.
The Prince of Jin was taking medicine. He seemed to have lost weight in the past few days. As he swallowed, he could see the blue veins moving in his neck. His face was as white as snow, making his hair and eyebrows look even darker. A hint of life remained in the corners of his eyes, and when he saw her, tenderness flowed from them.
"I heard that Taiyi-ri is very busy recently..."
"Your Highness..." Cong Ying's voice choked with sobs. Tears welled up in her eyes the moment she saw him. "Wang Zhaoshen said in his memorial that Sanlang was dead. Sanlang...he...is this true?"
It turned out to be about this matter.
The King of Jin was silent for a moment, then stood up and walked towards her: "Don't worry, this is a long story-"
Cong Ying took a step back, avoiding his outstretched hand. She seemed extremely sad, and her heartbroken eyes looked at him through her tears, as if she was anxious and pleading. She didn't know whether she regarded him as a god who could bring the dead back to life, or the culprit.
Prince Jin tried to comfort her: "Don't worry, Aying, Xie San is not dead."
Hearing this, Cong Ying held her breath for a moment and then said, "Your Highness, have you received any news from Saburo?"
The King of Jin said, "Not yet."
Cong Ying asked: "Then how did Your Highness know he was still alive?"
Prince Jin didn't know how to explain this matter for a moment. If he told her about his relationship with Xie San and told her that he could only live if Xie San was alive, she might find it difficult to accept and believe it.
His silence was taken as speechlessness by Cong Ying, and she felt even more sad because of her disappointment: "Your Highness, I don't need false comfort."
The King of Jin asked her, "What do you want?"
Cong Ying said, "I am going to Xizhou and come to bid farewell to Your Highness."
"No!" The King of Jin was adamant. "That's nonsense! War is about to break out in Xizhou, and everyone is fleeing inland. What are you going to do now?"
Cong Ying said, "Go collect Saburo's body. He suffered so much in his life. As his wife, I should take him home."
King Jin said, "I've already said Xie San is not dead, Ah Ying, please believe me this time."
Cong Ying's voice trembled: "How can I believe it... Your Highness, I dare not believe it..."
The news of Xie Xuanlan's death was like a sharp, thin needle, piercing her brain all the way to her heart. No matter whether she was thinking or her heart was beating, she would feel a burst of panic and pain.
She didn't dare to think too deeply, nor did she dare to be too sad. Now she was running around just hanging on by a thread.
She hoped that this was a false alarm, but was also cautious and didn't dare to believe it, fearing that it was an empty hoax. She was afraid that as soon as her heart was at ease, it would be crushed by the cruel truth again. She was even more afraid that if she stayed in Yunjing for too long, even Sanlang's body would not be found.
She was so heartbroken that she could hardly think calmly. She blurted out in front of the King of Jin, "He was my husband. He was exiled to Xizhou and lost his life because of me... I never dared to think that I would really lose him, and now I can't accept it. I am so sad... Now I just want to find him and be with him..."
At the end of his words, there was a hint of suicidal intent.
Prince Jin's expression suddenly changed. He pulled her in front of him and said coldly, "What are you thinking? Are you crazy?!"
Cong Ying closed her eyes and burst into tears: "Yes, I'm going crazy."
There was a certain hatred in the eyes of the King of Jin as he looked at her. He wished he could gnash her bones with his teeth and crush her shoulder bones. His tone was also cold and paranoid.
"Why, now you feel the pain of being abandoned? Do you think you're the only one who's tasted the pain of losing a loved one, huh? Do you know how I've endured all these years... Jiang Congying, let me tell you, not to mention that Xie San is not dead yet, even if he is really dead, you are not allowed to belittle yourself for him. You must live well, live a life of pride and glory, live a life where no one dares to mention him in front of you, live a life where you can't sleep all night, afraid to dream about him but also afraid not to dream about him... Jiang Congying, do you know how cruel and unbearable this is? You have to live like this for a full fifteen years... No, you have to live like this for fifty years, until you are old and gray, with your children and grandchildren around you, and you can occasionally close your eyes and still remember what he looked like before he left."
His tone was filled with despair, and by the end, almost every word he said was stained with blood.
Looking into his red, bloodshot eyes through Ying, I saw my own appearance in his gloomy pupils. It seemed that it was exactly the same as myself in my dream. For a moment, I was a little dazed.
Was that her…was that a dream?
She was shocked by the King of Jin's mixed expression of love and hate, pain and restraint, and her head was buzzing for a moment, as if thousands of golden bells were ringing at the same time.
There was something in her mind, white and rolling like flying catkins. She was wrapped in it, as if she was in a thick fog. She groped forward doubtfully, and had a gut feeling that she was about to touch something forgotten and extremely important.
She stared blankly into the eyes of the King of Jin, her lips and teeth trembling as she uttered a weak, hoarse voice: "You are...you are..."
But...how is that possible? How is that possible?
She was simply fanciful and out of her mind.
Prince Jin held up her face, his dark pupils like the purest jade, polished to be as deep as the night and as smooth as the abyss. Without any color, he reflected only her, clearly, as if he wanted to lock her inside.
He asked Congying, his tone as if guiding her: "Who am I?"
Cong Ying felt a little suffocated because she had to bear too much at once. Her heart was beating as if it was about to break, and her chest was in pain one after another.
She clutched Prince Jin's sleeve tightly, unable to utter a word.
Just as the situation was at a stalemate, there was a knock on the door. Chen Cheng came in and reported, "Your Highness, Chen Zhang has returned from Xizhou and said he has something urgent to report to Your Highness immediately."
Zong Ying suddenly came back to her senses, raised her eyelashes and looked at King Jin.
Prince Jin let her go, turned around and walked to the screen, silently calming himself down.
The wind blew in from the window, blowing his sleeves across the words on the embroidered screen, making Cong Ying notice the prophetic poem embroidered on the screen again.
"Zhuangzi dreamt of being a butterfly for fifteen years, and when I met you in my phantom body, I did not recognize you."
What is the meeting of illusory bodies?
Perhaps it was because of the momentary blankness caused by the extreme emotional breakdown that Cong Ying actually began to seriously think about this problem that had nothing to do with the people and things at the moment.
After a while, she heard the King of Jin cough a few times, and then he said, "Since you don't believe what I say, then stay and listen to what Chen Zhang has to say."
Cong Ying responded with a "good" and went to take shelter behind the green gauze cabinet. Prince Jin sat down in the rose armchair.
Chen Zhang, exhausted, pushed the door open and entered, kneeling before the King of Jin. He then unpacked everything that had happened in Xizhou:
"Your Highness is as foresighted as ever. Wang Zhaoshen is indeed harboring evil intentions, intent on replacing Xuan Zhiyuan. You sent your subordinates to Xizhou to protect the safety of Third Master Xie. Unfortunately, they were incompetent and delayed. The Xizhou military camp was attacked by the Tartars at night, and Third Master Xie and Commander Xuan are nowhere to be found. Through investigations, we captured one of Wang Si's followers who had fled. He reported that Third Master Xie was on a killing spree at Chunfeng Tower in Zhanzhou..."
Chen Zhang was a secret guard and assassin, and had seen countless dead people, but when he recalled the horrific scene of corpses and blood in Chunfeng Tower, he still felt terrified.
He briefly recounted how he had snatched Xie Xuanlan from Kang Zhizhou and how he had arranged for him to recuperate in a secret place. Then he took out a letter from his bosom and respectfully presented it to King Jin.
"This is the 'Statement of Events' written by Third Young Master Xie despite his serious injuries. Please read it yourself, Your Highness."
Just as Prince Jin reached out to take it, he heard the sound of a chair falling over from behind the green gauze cabinet. He turned around and saw Cong Ying anxiously leaning against the door, looking over awkwardly: "Your Highness..."
Jin Wang nodded at her: "Come over, let's watch together."
Xie Xuanlan's handwriting was dense and sloppy. Standing behind Prince Jin's armchair, Cong Ying had to lean forward slightly to make out the characters.
The ends of her hair brushed against the widow's peak on Prince Jin's forehead, and her heartbeat was so rapid that her chest was almost touching Prince Jin's ear. She was so engrossed in it that she was unaware of it. However, Prince Jin was distracted and subconsciously turned his head towards her, his gaze shifting from the letter to her slender fingers clutching a bit of fabric on the edge of her sleeve.
My thoughts are like waves on a calm lake, and I suddenly recall many moments from my past life.
When he took her on horseback riding on the outskirts of the city, deliberately whipping the whip to speed up.
At the Lantern Festival, a foolish drunkard blocked the road and started a conversation, and he was kicked into the lake by him.
And... between the bed curtains, when the overwhelming desire was stirred up.
Whenever she was nervous, she would unconsciously grab something she thought she could rely on, which was usually the corner of his sleeve.
Although you don't say it, the body's reaction at the moment of the incident is difficult to conceal.
The Prince of Jin was lost in thought, with a gentle expression in the corners of his eyes and eyebrows. To Chen Zhang, who was kneeling below him, this gentleness was nothing less than a sense of pride in having won the beauty of spring.
His master, together with Xie San's wife, read the letter that Xie San asked him to bring back.
Still laughing.
What a chaotic and sinister relationship this was... As expected, His Royal Highness the Prince of Jin was unfathomable, beyond the comprehension of a mere minion like him. Chen Zhang lowered his head in awe, not daring to glance around.
Xie Xuanlan's handwritten memorial, "Chen Shi Biao," recounted his arrival in Xizhou, including how he discovered Wang Zhaoshen's evil intentions, how he and Xuan Zhiyuan survived a near-death experience, and how he waited for an opportunity to return to Chunfeng Tower. These events largely matched Chen Zhang's account, but they distorted the facts in the memorials sent by Wang Zhaoshen before his death, as well as in the memorials from the prefect of Zhanzhou.
"Great, Saburo is still alive..."
Cong Ying was almost crying with joy, she breathed a long sigh of relief, and then other worries began to arise.
She said, "But right now, the court is leaning against Sanlang. With just this one letter, it's hard to compete with the memorials from Wang Zhaoshen and Kang Zhizhou. Especially since Kang Zhizhou is a student of Prime Minister Xie, and even he has accused Sanlang of collaborating with the enemy. This is a very difficult matter, unless... unless Commander Xuan can come forward to testify on Sanlang's behalf."
But Xuan Tongling's whereabouts are unknown and no one knows where he is.
The King of Jin said, "I will handle this matter. Just wait for the news."
Cong Ying looked at him, hesitant to speak.
Prince Jin raised his lip coldly: "Why, are you afraid that I will take this opportunity to crush Xie San to death, so that he will be punished and unable to turn over?"
Cong Ying quickly shook her head: "No."
She only learned today that Chen Zhang went to Xizhou to protect Sanlang instead of killing him. She had a vague guess about the motive of King Jin for doing this and knew that she had wronged him in the past.
She whispered to the Prince of Jin, "This isn't just about the Xie and Wang families, it also involves the Xuan family and the imperial family. The Emperor is definitely trying to use this to suppress the Xie family. Your Highness is the Emperor's nephew. If you help the Xie family too obviously, you might anger the Emperor... Please proceed with caution."
"I understand." Prince Jin nodded slightly. "And it's not the Xie family I want to help, it's just Xie Xuanlan."
＊
Cong Ying braved the rain and went to Xie's house. Prime Minister Xie was not there, so she told Madam Xie the news that Xie San was still alive.
Mrs. Xie breathed a sigh of relief and almost fell down, but fortunately Xie Miaozhu held her steadily. The mother and daughter hugged each other and cried.
Although Xie Miaozhu and Xie Xuanlan often quarreled, the brother and sister still cared about each other at critical moments. When the news of Xie Xuanlan's death came back, Xie Miaozhu was so anxious that he vomited blood and almost drew his sword to kill the Wang family, but was tripped for a while because Mrs. Xie fainted.
After the two of them calmed down, Cong Ying told them about the situation in the court and asked Madam Xie if she knew Kang Huayu, the governor of Kang Prefecture.
Madam Xie nodded. "When this man first became a disciple of the Prime Minister, he was very humble. He had a younger sister, and initially wanted to give her to the Prime Minister as a concubine, but the Prime Minister rebuked him, and the matter was dropped. I heard that she was later sent to the Prince of Ying's palace."
Zong Ying's eyelids jumped: "Is Kang Huayu colluding with the King of England?"
"I don't quite understand the affairs of state."
Despite this, Mrs. Xie still had her own opinion: "But I know Xizhou is a hard place. When the Ministry of Personnel was selecting officials, the Prime Minister wanted to send him to a wealthy place to manage the salt administration, which was an excellent place. But the King of Ying recommended Kang Huayu to be the prefect of Zhanzhou. I didn't expect that he, who was afraid of heavy work and loved to scheme, would choose Xizhou in the end. He has been there for nearly ten years without any complaints."
After a moment's hesitation, Cong Ying said, "It seems the King of England has promised him a greater benefit."
Madam Xie: "Maybe. At that time, the Xie family and the Ying Palace were as close as one family, so the Prime Minister didn't make a fuss."
She suddenly thought of something and said to Congying, "Come with me. Some of the things I have might be useful."
The two of them went towards Xie Xiang's study, but Xie Miaozhu did not follow them.
Ever since the Prince of Huai was killed and Xie Xuanlan was exiled to Xizhou, she no longer actively socialized and became much quieter.
After she realized that she would never be able to become the queen, she realized that she should learn more about the real court instead of indulging in fantasies of empty positions and titles.
She didn't understand what her mother and Jiang Congying had just discussed, but she was too embarrassed to ask.
So what can she do for her third brother?
Suddenly, she thought of someone, so she turned around, picked up the oil-paper umbrella, put it in her arms, and went out in a carriage in the rain.
The place she went to was Qingfengqu in the southwest of the imperial palace, which was the only way for officials from the Censorate to report for duty or go off duty.
She waited in the oil-painted carriage for a long time, until the night and fog enveloped her. Finally, she waited for the person she was looking for. The man held an umbrella in one hand and controlled the horse with the other, walking slowly towards her, avoiding puddles.
Xie Miaozhu laughed coldly and said, "Imperial Censor Wei, Horseman Wei, long time no see."
When Wei Ji saw that it was her, he was stunned at first, and then his face suddenly became angry.
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