Searching for notes: "First, defeat your grandpa, then I'll be in a better mood..."
A sudden heavy snowfall hit the capital.
Chu Yening immediately ordered Songyang to secretly meet with A Xiao, a subordinate official of the Eastern Palace. He was so angry that he laughed and said, "Bring the writings in Sun Zetian's own hand and tell him all of this to his master above!"
Inside the Eastern Palace, Crown Prince Jiang Yuanjun held the piece of paper with crooked, black-and-white writing, as well as the scrap paper his father usually left behind when he painted in his bedroom. Yesterday, in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, he had a premonition and, as if possessed, took away the scrap paper his father usually left behind when he painted in his bedroom during the intervals when the imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital were treating his father.
No… not Father. Jiang Yuanjun took out the small note that Mu Tong had hidden for ten years, the note he was determined to bring back to the capital even if it meant his own destruction. He compared it with the other scraps of paper, and soon he smiled.
But yesterday, when he begged his father to reopen the Qin family's old case in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, he clearly saw a flash of murderous intent in his father's eyes.
They were ruler and subject, and also father and son who understood each other best.
But when Ah Xiao, who had returned, received the handwritten note from Sun Shaopu, he suddenly felt his breath stop for a moment. Then, it was as if countless sharp arrows, which had pierced Ah Shuo's brother's flesh and blood years ago, had pierced through his limbs and bones in an instant.
Despite the surge of blood rushing through her body, Tao Qingyun forced herself to speak, "Back then, my grandfathers loved to write notes. Do you remember? Why was my grandfather Qin...and why was he driven to his death by the emperor? There must have been a reason. And why did the two old men have such a big argument? Those four brutes who could conquer the world couldn't have left no words behind. And what about that iron certificate that Liang Xu mentioned?" Tao Qingyun gritted her teeth and said, "If it's what he wanted, it couldn't have come out of thin air, could it?"
Qin Weixi's white knuckles gripped her clothes tightly, her face devoid of color as she stared blankly at the distant mountains behind her, trying desperately to recall those fragmented memories of her childhood.
She said in a trembling voice, "I've never seen it. I've never seen my grandfather write any notes since I was a child..."
Chu Yening pondered for a moment and said, "I only saw my grandfather paint a few pictures when I was young. After that, my grandfather never picked up a brush again." After saying that, a sharp glint flashed in his eyes as he looked at Sun Shaopu and said to Jiuqu, "Take this eunuch back."
Chen Guiyi, however, held Sun Shaopu tightly in her arms.
Chu Yening smiled slightly and stared at him: "Eunuch Chen, who do you think can protect him now?"
Chen Guiyi was taken aback upon hearing this. His elder brother was a key witness in the Dingguo case back then, and no matter what, the Marquis of Jingning would want his brother to live.
Tao Qingyun asked, "Where are you going?"
Chu Yening took off his fox fur coat and draped it over Qin Weixi's back, pulling it tighter around her: "I'll go look for it and see if the notes really exist. You go and take her back to the Luo residence; Old Zhong will be fine there."
Tao Qingyun nodded. Qin Weixi grabbed his arm and said in a hoarse voice, "I'll go take a look at the Qin family's old house too."
Chu Yening turned around and smiled at her, patting her head: "Okay, then go and call Lao Zhong and Queshe, and you and Lao Tao go and take a look. Then hurry back."
The group went their separate ways in the dense forest west of the city.
Not long after, inside the Jingning Marquis's residence.
Chu Yening, along with Jiuqu, Bitan, and Songyang who were returning to the mansion, split into four groups and turned the huge mansion upside down, even searching the study of General Chu Lanzhe, which had been sealed for many years.
Gazing at the snow falling from the sky, Jiuqu and the others fell silent, unsure of where to go next.
Chu Yening suddenly thought of the library behind her father's study, separated by a pond.
As a boy, he disliked books and only knew how to fight and kill enemies. His father gradually visited the library built by his grandfather after his death. Eventually, his father even found a lock and permanently closed the library. He devoted himself to fighting on the battlefield and killing enemies. During the ten years of exile in the Northwest, the two-zhang-high library was sealed away.
"Let's go to the library!"
Passing through the crisscrossing Qingzuan Road of the Marquis's mansion and across that desolate courtyard, Chu Yening pushed open the door that had been closed for nearly twenty years.
The library was covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs all around the beams.
Looking at the neatly arranged bookshelves, which contained hundreds of books at a glance, Bi Tan asked, "Master, where should we begin our search?"
Chu Yening did not answer, but instead glanced at the calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls, the two small windows, and even the jade flute on the desk.
Finally, his gaze settled on a broken, chipped wine jar.
liquor……
A fleeting image flashed through my mind: Zhuang Shijun recounting the scene before Qin's grandfather's death, the Taizu Emperor going to the backyard to fetch sake. None of the four swordsmen of yesteryear were averse to drinking.
Chu Yening slowly walked over, and then her gaze settled on the dusty wine jar in front of the window.
Inside, besides an iron tile inscribed with cinnabar, there was also a yellowed notebook.
The iron plate recorded the merits of the Chu family and the great achievements of his seven uncles during their lifetimes.
This is the iron certificate personally bestowed by the founding emperor of the Great Xia Dynasty...
Oh.
Then Chu Yening opened the tattered and fragile tattered paper.
There are his grandfather's insights from each battle when he followed Emperor Taizu Jiang Zhongting in his struggle for supremacy, as well as his casual notes written on a whim when he gathered with the other three generations of his family for drinks in his spare time.
Chu Yening turned the pages one by one, and then wrote in the notes: It is the winter of the twenty-fourth year of Wantai. Snow is falling heavily outside the window. Emperor Zhongting came to visit. I, Boling, am overjoyed and took some wine to drink with the Emperor.
Then came another page, but several months had passed.
It is spring of the twenty-fifth year of Wantai. The garden is full of spring colors. My friend Le Jin came to visit, and I, Bo Ling, was fishing with him at the Spring Light Pond. Le Jin frankly said that Zhong Tingzi might harbor evil intentions. He said that the three families of Chu, Qin, and Luo might one day be implicated by the future ruler's jealousy and bring disaster upon themselves, their achievements surpassing those of the sovereign.
Le Jin and I are both in our seventies, our old bodies soon to be buried deep in the earth. Only our descendants will remain in the world. Le Jin and I opened our hearts to each other, speaking frankly about everything, and together we decided to bring up the Battle of Fengchi from back then, so that our descendants could escape from it, and those who harbor resentment might be spared.
But the bond between Bo Ling and Le Jin transcends blood ties; they shared life and death, and endured hardships together. Bo Ling and Le Jin's friendship will live on forever, eternally.
*
Qin Weixi and Tao Qingyun arrived at Gulou Street. Before they could turn around the long street and reach Chui Liu Hutong, Fa Cai suddenly rushed around the market in a panic, looking around frantically in the carriage of the Marquis of Chengyi.
Because they feared that members of the royal family might follow them when they left the mansion today, they all left through the side gate of the residence and did not take the carriages with their names displayed at the mansion as usual.
Upon seeing this, Tao Qingyun ordered the guards driving the carriage in the Luo residence to stop the carriage in a secluded spot and then pulled Fa Cai away.
Upon recognizing that it was one of his own, Fa Cai finally breathed a sigh of relief. After catching his breath, he slowly said, "Young Master... it's Liang Xu. You instructed me to keep an eye on the Liang family these past few days. Just now, he left the mansion and went to the Qin family. Later, I watched outside the Qin residence for a while and then saw him leave again. Perhaps an abandoned house poses no threat to those above, because I saw that there was only one person guarding outside."
"What is he going there for?" Tao Qingyun asked subconsciously, her face composed.
“Find what he wants,” Qin Weixi said.
She then asked Fa Cai, "Did he have anything in his hand when he left? Or was there anything else unusual?"
After pondering for a moment, Fa Cai shook his head.
Qin Weixi hurriedly said, "Third Brother, let's go back to the old house. Then let Facai go back to the Luo residence and call Uncle Zhong and Queshe."
Tao Qingyun nodded, and when he looked up, he met a bloodless face. Suddenly, he was reminded of the little girl who had been unconscious in the cave years ago, still clinging to his sleeve and begging him to leave.
"Third Brother... hurry, hurry!"
Just like before, he smiled and comforted her, saying, "It's alright, Third Brother is here!"
But at this moment, my mind is also in turmoil.
How could his aunt and uncle, who had treated him like their own child since childhood, possibly...?
The three of them split into two groups, and when they arrived at the Qin family's old residence, they indeed saw a white-bearded, agile eunuch keeping watch outside.
Tao Qingyun gave a cold laugh and stepped forward to pat the eunuch on the shoulder: "I'm here!"
The eunuch suddenly turned around and drew his dagger, swinging it at the man. Tao Qingyun, however, had already gripped his neck with both hands. With a slight exertion, Qin Weixi, standing behind them, heard a cracking sound as the man who had just been glaring fiercely suddenly collapsed to the ground, lifeless.
Inside the mansion, she and Tao Qingyun searched several courtyards but found nothing, until they remembered the wine that Zhuang Shijun had mentioned in his words yesterday, just like Chu Yening.
Her grandfather also loved to drink. He would often go to Penglai with the Taizu Emperor, who was disguised as one of the common people, and his old friends, the grandfathers of the Chu and Luo families. While dancing with swords, they would sip wine while looking at the magnolia tree in full bloom overhead.
My grandfather said that was their paradise.
When her grandfather passed away, she moved all the empty wine jars to her Qingliang Garden, and many of them were stored in her small storeroom. Whenever she saw those wine jars, she would see her grandfather, who had once commanded respect without anger, quietly transform into a drunken old man, telling her about his amusing stories with his old friends.
But over the long years, she had gradually buried these memories deep in her heart, and she dared not and could not touch those beautiful childhood memories.
She feared she would be unable to resist recalling those shadows that had long since left her, those lights and shadows that only lingered briefly in her midnight dreams.
The courtyards of my father and mother, and even those of my brother and grandfather, all showed signs of having been ransacked.
Only her Qingliang Garden.
Because in Liang Xu's heart she was just a weak woman who couldn't even kill a chicken.
Qin Weixi scoffed.
In that dusty, moldy little storeroom, there were empty wine jars piled up like a small mountain. She and Tao Qingyun moved them out one by one but still found nothing. It wasn't until they found a thick piece of iron, as long as several books joined together, in an empty Dongyang wine jar with a red seal on it.
"A certificate of merit!" the two exclaimed in unison.
Just then, a chilling laugh rang out from behind.
Liang Xu carried a long sword that gleamed coldly, its tip gliding across the ground and leaving a long trail of swirling dust as he strode toward the two women.
Tao Qingyun's eyes flashed, and in an instant she pulled Qin Weixi behind her, saying sternly, "Liang Xu!"
"I haven't even come to the gates of your Liang family yet, and you've come looking for your grandfather!" Tao Qingyun drew her sword and pointed it at Liang Xu, then swung the sword again and thrust it at him.
Liang Xu roared and said with a sinister smile, "Today I will make you all be buried with my unborn second brother!"
Tao Qingyun used one hand to shield Qin Weixi behind her, then leaped towards Liang Xu's eyes: "Don't look at your grandpa like that, today I'll make sure your dog's head falls to the ground!"
Liang Xu bent backward and staggered backward, barely managing to regain his footing before being met with another sword strike from Tao Qingyun.
The sword tip pierced his shoulder blade, instantly staining it with blood. Liang Xu smiled faintly: "Tao Laosan, every day you helped the Qin family overturn their case, I, Liang Xu, also diligently practiced my swordsmanship, all for the purpose of cutting you all down under my sword. Today, I ask you one question: who exactly killed my second brother back then?"
Tao Qingyun scoffed and charged forward again, sword in hand: "Defeat your grandpa first, and I'll talk to you when I'm in a better mood."
But this time, Liang Xu dodged aside and thrust the sharp sword straight at Qin Weixi behind him.
Seeing this, Qin Weixi suddenly raised her right arm, and a small, sharp arrow flew out from her sleeve with a whoosh. Liang Xu was completely unprepared but subconsciously turned his body, but the arrow still pierced through his left ear, leaving a bloody hole.
Tao Qingyun smiled lightly, and suddenly pointed her sword at his neck. In the same instant, Liang Xu abandoned his sword, took the short dagger hanging from his waist, and pointed it directly at Qin Weixi's neck.
Liang Xu touched his bloodied left ear and gave her a sinister smile, then said to Tao Qingyun, "Third Brother Tao, the Tian family members are all indeed wicked, including your good aunt!"
Tao Qingyun stared intently at him, gritting her teeth as she said, "Let her go, or I'll stab you through the throat with my sword."
Liang Xu smiled dismissively: "In short, I, Liang, don't care about one's own life. Tao Laosan, if you dare to point your sword at me again, I won't care about ending the only surviving bloodline of the Duke of Dingguo right here."
Upon hearing this, Qin Weixi suddenly smiled.
Liang Xu was taken aback: "What are you laughing at?"
"I laugh at your stupidity, I laugh at your arrogance, I laugh at your clownish behavior."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
