Chapter 35 Prince Zhang Hui
Pei Lin didn't return to the Pei family's old residence until night fell and the white light of the sun spread across the horizon.
In the misty rain of early spring in Jiangnan, he pushed open the door, his clothes damp with sweat. The flickering candlelight before him was relaxing.
Having seen the inner room clearly, he concealed all his weariness from between his sharp brows, picked up a blanket from the side, and walked toward the figure sleeping not far away.
"You're back?"
Wen Lingzheng, who was dozing off by the couch, was awakened by Pei Lin's footsteps. She rubbed her eyes, took the blanket he handed her and put it aside, then got up and took off his fogged cloak. "Has something happened again?"
Instead of answering, Pei Lin reached out and massaged his wife's temples, asking with concern, "You're so tired, why aren't you asleep yet?"
"Because I'm waiting for you!"
Wen Lingzheng paused for a moment and answered casually, but before Pei Lin could respond, she pressed him down onto the couch next to her and called Yuheng over to bring a bowl of ginger tea that had been prepared in advance. "It's warm. Lin'an is humid, unlike Shengjing. It's cool at night, so don't catch a cold."
Pei Lin has never liked ginger, but looking into Wen Lingzheng's eyes, which were overflowing with concern, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to refuse.
Sensing Pei Lin's hesitation, Wen Lingzheng couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile, her bright eyes and white teeth revealing a cunning glint in her eyes.
With a flick of her wrist, her slender fingers landed on the tip of his nose, gently pinching it, her words dripping with threat, "Drink it now!"
As if he had guessed something, Pei Lin looked at Wen Lingzheng's smiling face, helplessly brought the bowl to his lips, and drank it all in one gulp.
The pungent smell of ginger made him frown slightly. His handsome face, sharp as the frost and snow of the north, suddenly resembled that of a teased boy at a childhood banquet.
He couldn't help but sigh, put the bowl aside, quietly reached out and hooked his hand around Wen Lingzheng's little finger, shaking it slightly, and asked tentatively in a low voice, "Is this... punishment?"
Wen Lingzheng pulled her hand away from Pei Lin's grasp, picked up the bowl, glanced at him with a half-smile, then shook the remaining ginger soup at the bottom of the bowl. Just as he held his breath and looked ready to die, she chuckled and let him go, handing the bowl to Yu Heng who was waiting outside.
"They don't need anyone to serve them at night, so let them all go and rest! You and Yaoguang too. Also, it's chilly at night, so remember to make sure everyone wears an extra layer."
Yuheng took the bowl, nodded, and replied, "Understood, I will do as Madam instructs."
As Yuheng's footsteps faded into the distance, the lights in the courtyard gradually went out, leaving only a few wisps of light flickering inside Wen Lingzheng's main room.
After turning off another lamp in the inner room, Wen Lingzheng walked up to Pei Lin.
Her slender fingers brushed across his thick, dark eyebrows. In the flickering, warm light, she felt as if the person opposite her was filled with ice and snow, as radiant as the morning sun.
He reached out and took the girl's hand, his brows furrowing. His gaze was sincere, devoid of any hint of romanticism, yet enough to make Wen Lingzheng dazed. "I'm sorry, I..."
A hazy white light drifted past Wen Lingzheng's eyes; it was a series of afterimages from their past lives, writing and engraving their history.
—Those past times of mutual distrust.
"today……"
Pei Lin's voice broke the surrounding silence, but before he could finish speaking, the girl's cool fingertips were already pressed against his lips.
The atmosphere in the room seemed to freeze for a moment. Wen Lingzheng cupped Pei Lin's face in her hands and said, "Don't worry, I'm not angry. I'm just waiting for your explanation."
"Ah Lin, I am your wife. Rather than being protected by you forever, I would rather walk side by side with you."
"Could you try to believe in me too? Don't keep hiding things from me and shoulder everything on your own."
Just like the melting ice and falling snow at the turn of winter and the arrival of spring, Pei Lin looked up at Wen Lingzheng for a long time.
The girl's eyes were complex yet sincere, making him feel ashamed of himself for a moment.
Pei Lin: "It's too dangerous. I'm afraid you'll be scared."
Turning her head to look out the window, Wen Lingzheng asked, "Is someone watching the old house?"
Nodding silently, Pei Lin held Wen Lingzheng's hand tightly, making no attempt to hide anything.
"Yes, and they are all seasoned veterans skilled in concealment. They must have been there since the day my third brother arrived in Lin'an, and most likely they followed him all the way from Shengjing."
“Even Jing’er’s wet nurse…the suffering he endured here was probably orchestrated by those people.”
His tone was very calm, so calm that it seemed as if he were narrating something completely unrelated to him. Only his slightly trembling hands could clearly convey the surging hatred in his heart.
Turning around and sitting on the edge of the couch, Wen Lingzheng turned Pei Lin's head so that he could lean on her shoulder.
“Before you came back, I sent Yuheng to the ancestral hall to look for Xingzhou, but only Xingyun was there watching over our third brother…”
After half a day of anxiety, Wen Lingzheng's voice gradually calmed down. Her voice was very slow, but her tone trembled uncontrollably.
She clearly remembered the indescribable sense of loss and panic she felt when Yuheng hurriedly returned and told her that Xingzhou was not at the ancestral hall.
I still remember the unspoken words hidden in Xingyun's flustered expression.
She was stunned for a long time.
Perhaps the joy and trust of these years have blurred her memory; she has almost forgotten that the person in front of her is actually someone who always likes to shoulder all the hardships and pressures.
Even when things don't go as planned, even when he's on the verge of despair, he always makes sure to protect his family behind him, refusing to let them suffer even the slightest hardship.
But she didn't want to do that.
She never had the chance to tell him before; now, she's going to seize the opportunity.
Pei Lin was taken aback, and only then did he realize the mistake.
He straightened up, raised his hand to stroke his wife's hair, his brows furrowed with worry and tension. "Ah Zheng, are you alright?"
With a slight smile, Wen Lingzheng grasped Pei Lin's hand and gently patted his palm twice. "Since you sent Xing Zhou to do this, don't you know his skills?"
“Then you…” A hint of doubt appeared in Pei Lin’s eyes.
Wen Lingzheng couldn't help but let out a soft snort, her lively and vivid eyes full of arrogance, "What? Can't I even guess it myself?"
"Have you captured any survivors?"
"No."
Pei Lin rubbed his tired brow. "Those people were obviously carefully trained. They all had poison hidden under their tongues, so they could commit suicide without being caught."
Looking at Pei Lin, Wen Lingzheng stopped being playful, sighed softly, and changed the subject, saying, "The Lin family is gone."
Hearing the news from Wen Lingzheng again, Pei Lin was stunned for a moment. He looked over her shoulder at the dying candle behind him and murmured, "Yes, Xingyun has already told me."
Wen Lingzheng: "Her funeral arrangements..."
Pei Lin's eyes seemed to show desolation and weariness. "We can only keep it a secret for now and send him back to the capital to await the Emperor's decision."
"And the third brother, too."
The mind of an emperor is unfathomable.
From the day the news reached Shengjing and Pei Lin returned to his residence from the Forbidden City, Wen Lingzheng had already guessed that this day would come.
“Okay.” Wen Lingzheng replied with a heavy heart, and then said, “By the way, before Lin died, she mentioned the words ‘Floating Life Tower’. That was probably where those people trained her.”
"Floating Life Pavilion?"
The unfamiliar name reached his ears, and Pei Lin's relaxed brows suddenly furrowed and trembled. He felt that the word was strangely familiar, but he just couldn't remember it.
Noticing Pei Lin's hesitation, Wen Lingzheng pressed on, "Do you remember?"
Pei Lin shook his head and said in a deep voice, "No, it just feels a bit familiar, but I can't remember."
"Hmm." Wen Lingzheng nodded slightly, and just as she was about to get up, she suddenly heard the sound of a baby crying from next door.
"What is that?"
"Don't worry about my third brother's daughter, Yaoguang and her wet nurse are taking care of her!"
The baby's cries gradually subsided, and the night returned to tranquility. Pei Lin sighed for no apparent reason.
Wen Lingzheng leaned into his arms, her fingers tracing the silver threads interwoven into the embroidery on his clothes. "Thinking about where that child is?"
Pei Lin shook his head helplessly, "Although my third brother is not good at taking responsibility, he has always been kind-hearted. However, the Lin family matter ultimately involves the previous dynasty. I'm afraid that even if the Emperor relents, the Empress Dowager will..."
Empress Dowager Yang ruled from behind the curtain for many years until the emperor's wedding, at which point she returned power to him.
Furthermore, given his noble birth and the deep-rooted influence of his cronies in the court, he could not be completely eradicated overnight.
Even the government officials are inevitably subject to her control.
Wen Lingzheng: "The Lin family deliberately let the child be born in the old house."
“I knew it, I knew it from the moment Yaoguang came to report it.”
Reaching out to embrace Wen Lingzheng, Pei Lin whispered, "Now that I've discovered her relationship with those people, she's become a useless pawn in their eyes... Even I was partly responsible for scheming against her."
Pei Lin's words concealed a hidden sense of guilt.
From the moment he tacitly allowed Yaoguang and Xingyun to send Lin back to the outer residence for supervision, he harbored the intention of using Lin to lure out those people.
—He just didn’t expect that Lin would be so decisive, willing to risk her own life to fight for her child’s survival.
Wen Lingzheng involuntarily wrapped her arms around Pei Lin's waist, feeling that his body seemed a little colder than usual.
In the hazy light, she seemed to glimpse a side of him that he never showed to others.
Wen Lingzheng: "Do you want to see that child? He's chubby and looks a lot like my third brother."
Pei Lin remained silent, only tightening his arms around Wen Lingzheng.
It took almost the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before Wen Lingzheng heard him say, "Ah Zheng, I feel guilty."
Stunned, Wen Lingzheng looked up at Pei Lin in surprise.
And he was looking down at her.
—A scene of utter devastation.
Meeting Wen Lingzheng's gaze, Pei Lin frankly said, "In the Lin family embezzlement case of the twentieth year of Jianzhao, besides the Lin family, there were other survivors."
For a moment, her mind went blank. Wen Lingzheng released her grip on Pei Lin and straightened up. "Where?"
"In the hands of the government."
Pei Lin hesitated for a moment, but remembering Wen Lingzheng's words, he finally decided to explain the inside story to her, "Emperor Taizong had three sons, the current emperor and the deceased Crown Prince Zhang Hui were both born to the Empress Dowager..."
Sensing the hidden meaning in Pei Lin's words, Wen Lingzheng frowned slightly, "You mean..."
Pei Lin stopped Wen Lingzheng from speaking, and simply nodded slightly, "Crown Prince Zhang Hui is naturally intelligent, especially skilled in riding and archery, and is always accompanied by guards when he travels. How could he possibly fall from his horse and die?"
"Furthermore, the Lin family was responsible for building the hunting grounds in the royal garden back then, but as soon as Crown Prince Zhang Hui had his incident, the Lin family was exposed for embezzlement. Is it really just... such a coincidence?"
Pei Lin didn't continue, but Wen Lingzheng could guess what was going on.
"This return to the capital will likely stir up trouble."
Wen Lingzheng sighed, leaning quietly against Pei Lin's chest, pondering a countermeasure.
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Author's Note: I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting! I just got a new job on Friday and was busy preparing for my start date, which is why I neglected to update. Thank you for waiting!
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