He lowered his eyes, looking at the baby in Aunt Xiao's arms...
He lost his mother at a young age, and his father was often away leading troops in battle. Zhong Ti often took him back and forth between the Qin and Luo families, eating at both families' homes and sleeping on both families' beds.
However, Luo Ling was frail and sickly as a child, and he was also the Crown Prince's study companion. The two children of the Luo family had already put the family in a difficult situation both internally and externally. Although Luo Ling was clever and insightful from a young age, and mature and composed at such a young age, Aunt Xiao Ci of the Qin family took it upon herself to move all of his belongings to the Qin residence without even consulting her father.
During his childhood, Aunt Xiao treated him like her own child, making clothes and sewing shoes and socks for him herself. When he was sick, Aunt Xiao would hold him lovingly in her arms like a mother, wiping his sweat and feeding him medicine. Then, a cry rang out, and a pink and tender little baby was born. Aunt Qin's youngest daughter, five years younger than him, was born.
Aunt Xiao smiled very gently and asked, "Aunt Xiao, is this a little brother like Brother Ashuo?"
Aunt Xiao smiled: "This is your little sister. Ye Ning, your little sister." Then she took out the handkerchief in her hand to wipe his sweat: "Poor thing, where did you go playing? Did you have breakfast? I couldn't take care of you today because of childbirth." Seeing that he was only wearing a thin set of clothes, she disregarded his weakness after childbirth and wanted to add more clothes for him.
Ah Shuo's older brother stood by with a smile on his face: "Mother, is Ye Ning your child, or is Ah Shuo your child?"
Aunt Xiao smiled gently as always: "They are all my children. You protect Ye Ning, and I will protect you. As the elder brothers, you should also protect your little sister."
He asked, "Has the little girl been given a name yet?"
Aunt Xiao said, "His Majesty bestowed the name Weixi, the little Weixi of the Qin family. His nickname is Luoluo."
He asked again, "Aunt Xiao, how far is forever?"
Aunt Xiao said, "That is eternity." She looked at the baby in the swaddling clothes with love in her eyes: "Just like Qin family's little Wei Xi, from infancy to old age. From babbling to white hair and wrinkled face."
He lowered his eyes, looking at the baby in Aunt Xiao's arms, his gaze full of smiles: "Alright, then I will definitely protect Weixi for all eternity."
Suddenly, a laugh reached my ears.
Qin Weixi took his hand, opened his palm, and then gently ran her fingertips over the two-inch-long knife scar on his palm. She looked up and smiled, "Fourth Brother, we share both good times and bad!"
His brows furrowed suddenly, and he grasped her scarred hand: "I'll send someone to find some more medicine. Didn't it fade a lot a while ago?"
In her youth, she loved fine silks and jewelry, and she and Xiaoxing would spend their days tinkering with bottles and jars. At first, he thought they were food, but Tao Qingyun burst into laughter at him: "Silly boy! Those are cosmetics for young ladies."
He suddenly remembered seeing her sharpening a hairpin in the Luo family's library that day, and with that thought, he raised his head and glanced at her temples.
He frowned slightly again: "Are you...?"
Before he could finish speaking, Qin Weixi withdrew his hand and walked leisurely towards the dirt road ahead: "It's good enough that I'm alive."
What to eat! What to wear! What to carry!
She doesn't need it anymore.
She only wished that people could be brought back to life and that they could live in peace.
Chu Yening watched her pale yellow figure disappear into the distance. The girl in front of her said again, "Didn't you say there was a teahouse up ahead? Chu Yening, I'm thirsty. I want some tea, cold tea!"
The people rested temporarily in that simple teahouse built of thatched roofs. By this time, the sun was already setting, and there was no one else around.
The old man selling tea seemed to have known Chu Yening for a long time. As soon as he sat down, he served him his favorite Gu Zhu Zi Sun tea. In their youth, he had eaten and traveled with Qin Shuoguang, and gradually their tastes had become the same.
The old man served her a cup of iced tea with a smile, but she stared at the tea in front of him without blinking.
"Fourth Brother, you really love this Gu Zhu Zi Sun tea?"
She had seen her brother drink tea with him at home before, but she always thought that he was somewhat restrained because he lived in the Qin Mansion most of the time. Therefore, he ate whatever his brother liked to eat.
Chu Yening said, "A-Shuo is your brother, and therefore also my brother. We've spent a lot of time together, so naturally we share the same interests."
Qin Weixi smiled, seemingly having completely forgotten the many unpleasant things that had happened in the palace, and drank the cold tea in one gulp.
The countryside was quiet and peaceful, and the wind carried the scent of grass. She squinted her eyes, looking content, but in her heart she was thinking that this place should have been a wasteland ten years ago, but now a simple teahouse had appeared out of nowhere, and the old man selling tea seemed to have known Chu Yening for a long time.
Therefore, this old man must be one of Chu Yening's men. Ten years ago, before he went to the border, he had already planned and settled everything in the capital.
Seeing that her cup was empty, Chu Yening silently poured her another cup of tea.
Qin Weixi whispered, "Fourth Brother, don't you think that Empress Tao in the inner palace is a little different from before?"
Chu Yening raised an eyebrow: "What do you mean?"
She opened her eyes and said, "She is in charge of the inner palace, and she will know immediately if there is any movement in the Imperial Garden. So Qingpai, the head maid of Kunning Palace, came quickly after hearing the news. But the commotion in the Imperial Garden just now was quite loud, and I think she seemed to be watching us make a scene."
Chu Yening smiled upon hearing this but remained silent.
After a moment, he took a sip of tea: "Qin Luo, people have many facets. A kind exterior doesn't necessarily mean a rotten heart."
Not far away, Jiuqu and Songyang rode their horses.
Dismounting and bowing respectfully, Jiuqu made no attempt to avoid Qin Weixi. With a serious expression, he reported, "My lord, it was Liang Xu. Yesterday, he secretly went to the Prince Jing's residence to meet with the Prince Jing's son."
"I followed Liang Xu the whole time and saw him leave the Prince Jing’s mansion and go to Shuiyun Tower to order a lot of wine and food. Then he changed three carriages and went to Zhuyu Lane to meet someone. Zhuyu Lane was built by the late emperor to take in the poor. Liang Xu is a man who has always been good at currying favor with the rich and powerful. Why would he be in Zhuyu Lane? However, I did not go close to avoid alerting him."
"Later, my subordinates discovered that Young Master Tao and his servant had tricked the person inside the house into coming out. It turned out to be the mistress of Prince Jing's son."
Third brother?
Qin Weixi, who was standing nearby, was taken aback upon hearing this.
Chu Yening suddenly smiled and said, "Interesting. Keep an eye on it."
Songyang reported, "It was the Woxue Pavilion. Today, I saw that Third Master Fang personally went out of the manor to purchase a lot of goods. I gave some money and bumped into the carriage of a beggar in the city. I found that what fell off was a large amount of incense and candles."
"Incense and candles?" Chu Yening seemed somewhat surprised.
Jiuqu asked doubtfully, "What do they need so many incense sticks and candles for?"
Upon hearing this, Qin Weixi tightened her grip on the cup. Chu Yening quickly noticed, seeing her brows furrowed in thought.
Then she said, "Years ago, I sought out a traveling doctor in Jiangnan. He showed me some of his travel notes from those years. He once encountered a powerful and tyrannical family on his travels. They were notorious bullies who oppressed the common people. The tyrant accidentally killed a villager and went mad. A passing Taoist priest performed a ritual for them, saying that the villager he had accidentally killed was too malevolent and his spirit was unwilling to leave, haunting him day and night. Later, the family rented a house and moved elsewhere. They kept burning incense and candles in front of their door, in their yard, and even in their house, day and night."
"As recorded in his travelogue, the itinerant doctor had seen many sordid things in this grand mansion. He could wash away the stench of blood from his body, but he couldn't get over it in his heart. Over time, some people couldn't bear it and developed mental problems, needing the comfort and protection of the gods."
Qin Weixi recalled her early days in Jiangnan, weeping uncontrollably day and night before the memorial tablets of her parents and brother, and the incense and candles burning day and night in the room…
She forced a smile: "Another way is to worship ancestors or to be close to the deceased."
Jiuqu said, "So perhaps this Third Master Fang has killed many people in his daily life. At first, he didn't find it strange, but over time, he developed a problem with it and needed the protection of this deity? This doesn't match what the neighbors said about Third Master Fang being a kind-hearted person!" Jiuqu was silent for a long time, then suddenly his eyes showed a sneer: "Could it be that the incense and candles are to commemorate those pitiful people who were burned to death back then?"
Pity people...
Qin Weixi pondered for a moment. After Gao Jian's death, his elder brother had mentioned that Jiang Yuanjun had sent people to infiltrate Woxue Pavilion and that several pitiful people had died in a fire at the theater many years ago.
Chu Yening suddenly chuckled and looked at her: "Seventh Sister, what do you think of this pitiful matter?"
Qin Weixi pondered for a moment, and she had suspected something about it at the time: "That Lianren always waits until the curtain is raised before appearing first, perhaps she is hiding something, or afraid that the audience will find out."
Chu Yening smiled again: "Seventh Sister is indeed clever."
Jiuqu opened his mouth: "My lord, what do you mean?"
"The first one to appear was the lame man that Gao Jian saw meeting Li Mou outside the Woxue Pavilion that day."
Jiuqu's eyes widened: "...Weren't those pitiful people burned to death?"
Songyang smacked him on the head: "Idiot, don't you understand the concept of 'shedding one's skin like a cicada'?"
Jiuqu glanced at him sideways and snorted, "I get it, I get it. This Northwest sky has really confused me."
Songyang suddenly spoke to himself, "There's also a possibility that this Third Master Fang, or someone behind him, is paying homage to someone. If that Lianren used the 'golden cicada shedding its shell' technique back then, perhaps she's been using Third Master Fang's identity as a cover all along, hiding behind him. So who exactly is he?"
Chu Yening and Qin Weixi looked towards the capital city together and said in unison, "Or perhaps the inner court, the outer court, the imperial prison, or the Eastern Depot."
Or perhaps, anyone in this dazzlingly wealthy imperial capital could be one of them.
Songyang and Jiuququ were shocked.
Thinking of the imperial prison and the Eastern Depot, Chu Yening recalled what Gao Jian had said that day: since he was a lame young man, was there any possibility...?
Chu Yening: "Go and check if there are any people with limps in these places from ten years ago to now, and their ages should be limited to between thirteen or fourteen and twenty-five years old."
Qin Weixi said, "No, we need to investigate not only this lame man, but also the fact that he might try to hide his leg ailment out of embarrassment and pretend to be normal. Perhaps a famous doctor he once met cured his leg ailment. We also need to investigate whether anyone from the Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic came to buy medicine on a regular basis ten years ago, or whether any men from the capital had clothes specially made at clothing shops or fabric stores. If he is ashamed of his leg ailment, he might have made long clothes to cover his limp."
Qin Weixi laughed: "You should know that clothing shops in the capital are mostly places where women go. Men have never paid attention to these things. If it is a high-ranking official in the capital, he will have servants and maids in his mansion to take care of this matter, or the clothing shop will send someone to his mansion."
Songyang and Jiuqu immediately said, "What you say is absolutely right, young lady."
Qin Weixi said, "I'm just guessing." She stood up and curtsied to the two of them.
The two quickly moved aside.
She smiled and said, "You two brothers have worked so hard for Uncle Chu and the Qin family, you should accept my greeting."
Upon hearing this, the two quickly looked up at Chu Yening.
Chu Yening stared intently at her, his eyes filled with unreserved amusement. He said to the two of them, "Her meaning is my meaning."
The man hurriedly acknowledged and withdrew. Songyang then returned and said, "My lord, after you left the palace today, a family from Anping Lane lingered outside the manor. A gatekeeper, whose subordinate happened to be leaving the manor, said that the family was carrying something in their hand and that they had been unable to visit for many years after you left. Now they want to come in person to thank you for the old man's help back then."
Chu Yening nodded slightly after hearing this, and Song Yang then withdrew.
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Author's Note: The childhood sweethearts are about to join forces with their little darling to break through the impasse! [Dog head with rose in hand]
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