Chapter 66 Revealing the Truth [But he came to see you.]...
As night deepened and all was quiet, the shadows outside cast long, dark shadows, and the starlight was sparse, leaving only a pale moon hanging on the distant mountain peak. Inside, faint lights suddenly lit up, quietly dispelling some of the gloom.
After sitting alone for a while, Xue Rongyue's legs were still weak when she stood up. She put down the lit candle in her hand, held onto the screen beside her, and slowly moved to the window to right the overturned table.
Sitting at the table, her face, which had gradually regained its composure, finally had some color in it. She raised her hand to wipe away the half-dried tears on her face and began grinding something with one hand.
After sorting out her thoughts, she picked up a calligraphy brush and began to write and draw on the paper.
According to Qin Jin and others, their elder brother was ambushed by bandits on his way back to Chang'an. While fleeing, he accidentally fell off a cliff and his body was never found.
When this news reached Chang'an, it shocked the court and the public. The emperor was furious and ordered the bandits to be suppressed. As a result, the body that the bandits had faked was taken back as his brother's body and transported back to Chang'an, where it was buried as a member of the Xue family.
In her memory, her brother was also ambushed and killed by bandits on his way back to Chang'an. Although he was seriously injured, he managed to escape and returned to Chang'an on the night of her eighth birthday. He passed away after midnight.
After her brother passed away, she followed his last wishes and renovated the Taoist temple on Qingheng Mountain. There, she enshrined his memorial tablet and longevity lamp. Not long ago, on the anniversary of her brother's death, she even saw Qin Jin, who had returned to Chang'an, at the Taoist temple on Qingheng Mountain.
After writing everything down, Xue Rongyue looked at the past events recounted by Qin Jin and others, and circled the four words "ordered the suppression of bandits".
Since the government had already ordered the suppression of the bandits back then, and even retrieved the body that had been faked as the elder brother from the bandits, why are these bandits still able to entrenched themselves in Linxian County of Cenzhou and act arrogantly?
This is the first point of contention that Xue Rongyue cannot understand.
Xue Rongyue circled the words "corpse" again.
According to Qin Jin and Jiang Huaishun, the bandits deliberately ambushed the elder brother on his way back to Chang'an. They dared to assassinate the general's son. Regardless of who instructed the bandits, such a serious crime should naturally be covered up. They should have destroyed the body immediately. Why did they instead fabricate a corpse?
Even if they needed to find someone to report to with their brother's body, wouldn't three months of bandit suppression be enough time to transport the body out and deliver the report?
When the government troops stormed the mountain, the bodies were not destroyed or taken away to be handed over; the bandits even dug an ice cellar to store the bodies.
Although the second question might be explained by the bandits later, Xue Rongyue still felt something was amiss.
Finally, Xue Rongyue wrote the three characters "Jiang Huaishun" on the paper and fell into deep thought.
When his elder brother lured away the bandits alone, he left a letter requesting that Jiang Huaishun deliver it to the Xue family in Chang'an later. Why has so many years passed and Jiang Huaishun has yet to take any action? The commander in charge of suppressing the bandits back then was Xue Xiude's subordinate; he could have easily given the letter to him.
Even if he might not trust this person, Jiang Huaishun claimed to have been to Chang'an, so why didn't he send the letter directly to the Xue residence? It wasn't until their group arrived in Lin County and he heard the servants address her as Madam Xue that he took the initiative to mention it.
This is the third mystery that Xue Rongyue cannot understand.
Qin Jin rushed back and saw candles lit inside. Through the window, he saw Xue Rongyue's hazy figure bent over her desk, writing and drawing. He knew that her emotions had calmed down, so he breathed a sigh of relief, strode forward, and knocked on the door: "It's me."
It wasn't until the second sound that Xue Rongyue snapped out of her thoughts. She paused for a moment, then quickly realized what was happening and replied, "Come in."
The roast duck should have just been taken out of the oven, and even several layers of oil paper could not stop the steam from escaping.
Xue Rongyue wasn't hungry, but she was pleasantly surprised by the aroma: "It's already this late, and this roast duck shop is still open."
Linxian County was already rife with bandits, and shops of all sizes in the town closed early. Especially these days, the people had keenly sensed the impending storm, so the shops closed even earlier. The owner of this roast duck shop was quite bold.
"Maybe even bandits like to eat it," Qin Jin said casually. "I was lucky to be there; this was the last roast duck left in the shop."
Xue Rongyue paused as she unwrapped the oil paper, then lowered her eyes, not exposing his lie.
Judging by its color and heat, it doesn't look like it's leftover at all; it's clearly fresh out of the oven. In fact, the shopkeeper didn't even cut the duck open in the rush.
Hearing that Xue Rongyue's voice was still a little hoarse, Qin Jin said, "I'll go get you a glass of water."
"No."
Xue Rongyue called out to him, raising her eyelids: "Your Highness, do you really believe me?"
Before Qin Jin could answer, Xue Rongyue handed him a sheet of paper covered with dense writing: "If Your Highness truly believes me, would you be willing to clear up my doubts?"
When Qin Jin entered, he saw the papers on the table. After taking them, his gaze lingered on the words "Meeting Qin Jin at Qingheng Mountain Taoist Temple" for a moment, and he slowly said, "Back then, His Majesty ordered the suppression of bandits, but some still escaped and fled all the way to Cenzhou. They hid in the mountains of the neighboring county to recuperate. Several years have passed, and they have grown stronger and started to cause trouble again, harming the region."
"As for preserving the body, according to the confession of the bandits who were captured back then, someone brought several boxes of gold and hired them to assassinate Brother Huaijin, demanding to see him alive or dead. At that time, they did not know Brother Huaijin's identity."
Xue Rongyue looked at him quietly.
The dim firelight illuminated his deep-set eyes, making them appear even gentler than usual, unlike his usual cold demeanor. He stared intently at the paper, on which she had written and drawn her questions.
Now everyone would probably think what she said was a fantasy, but there was no trace of contempt or doubt on his face. He also put away his usual nonchalant expression and answered her questions word by word.
Withdrawing her gaze, Xue Rongyue slowly exhaled and got up to wash her hands.
After the roast duck cooled down a bit, she reached out and grabbed a duck leg: "Does Your Highness believe the bandits' confession?"
Qin Jin neither said he believed nor disbelieved, only saying, "These are the confessions submitted by the government after their interrogation back then. It's hard to be sure of the specifics."
"It seems the Crown Prince doesn't believe these mere words either."
Xue Rongyue understood his implied meaning and her gaze fell on the third question. Seeing this, Qin Jin asked, "Should we call Jiang Huaishun in for questioning?"
Unexpectedly, Xue Rongyue smiled, a smile that was fleeting and contained an indescribable meaning. She slowly shook her head: "No need, there's no need for that anymore. You won't get anything out of asking."
She chewed on the duck leg in her hand, lowered her head, and remained silent.
Qin Jin held the paper in his hand, but suddenly spoke: "If this is a story, then it branches out from here, eventually leading to different endings."
Xue Rongyue looked at the words he pointed to, nodded slightly, and said in a light voice, "Yes, things started to take a different turn after my brother was ambushed by the bandits."
Qin Jin stared intently at the words "died of illness past midnight": "One died right before my eyes, the other..."
Xue Rongyue picked up where he left off, a hint of gloom flashing in her eyes: "One is falling off a cliff."
Although both deaths ultimately confirmed the elder brother's demise, one death was witnessed firsthand, while the other was merely a story passed down orally, and even the body was fake.
Xue Rongyue calmly tore off a piece of duck meat, stuffed it into her mouth, and chewed it without stopping.
She stopped eating when the roast duck was almost gone, and her stomach felt so full that it was about to overflow. She looked at Qin Jin and said, "Your Highness, I'm a little sleepy."
Qin Jin understood her unspoken message and stood up: "You should rest well first. As for the bandits, don't worry about them. They are too busy taking care of themselves to attack you. I will give Jingnu a solution, and we will make a decision after you have rested."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
Xue Rongyue slightly bent her knees and raised her hand to Qin Jin in a salute: "If you weren't here today, I'm afraid I would have rushed out and caused trouble."
Qin Jin was slightly taken aback, then raised his hand in return: "Between us, there's no need to be so formal. After all, we are..."
After a moment's pause, Qin Jin lowered his eyes: "We are allies after all."
Xue Rongyue smiled gently: "Then I won't see the young master off."
"etc."
Qin Jin stopped her: "That night I went to the Qingheng Mountain Taoist Temple to find you. What did we do? Did we say anything?"
"It's all just idle gossip, it doesn't matter."
Xue Rongyue hesitated for a moment, but still spoke up: "The little wolf doll I gave to the young master had a hole in it, so I repaired it for him."
Qin Jin's fingers, hanging silently at his sides, subtly tightened for a moment. His eyes flickered slightly, and after a few breaths, he said, "Then I'll take my leave."
After saying that, he took a step away, stepped out of the courtyard, and his figure gradually disappeared into the night.
As soon as he stepped into the teahouse, Qin Jin immediately called out to Guang Sheng: "Where is my doll?"
Guang Sheng was stunned for a moment before he realized what was going on: "Is Your Highness asking about the little wolf doll? Didn't Your Highness say that it would be easy to damage if carried around, so you put it in the hidden compartment for now?"
Qin Jin ordered, "Bring it here immediately."
Seeing his solemn expression, Guang Sheng dared not delay, responded, and hurriedly went upstairs to search.
"You galloped off to buy roast duck, but where's the roast duck?" Ji Dian leaned lazily against the doorframe, looking at his empty hands, and deliberately asked him.
Qin Jin sat down: "Buy it yourself if you want to eat it."
"I'm not as rich and powerful as you."
Ji Dian snorted coldly: "You galloped away on horseback to knock on the door of a roast duck shop that was closing, spending a bag of silver just to buy a roast duck. When the boss finds out tomorrow, I'll see how you explain yourself. You can't just say you were craving something in the middle of the night, can you?"
Qin Jin raised an eyebrow: "Does he still have the energy to care about me? It seems the trouble you've caused him isn't trouble enough."
“He was just betrayed by his trusted subordinate, and even his account books were stolen. He’s heartbroken and sensitive right now. With you behaving so strangely, how can he not be suspicious?” Ji Dian walked over. “Don’t let me end up getting nothing and being implicated by you.”
Qin Jin said slowly, "If you don't want to be implicated by me, then help me prepare a fake travel permit and a fake household registration certificate."
Upon hearing this, Ji Dian slammed her hand on the table in anger: "Don't go too far! You didn't think of me when you bought the roast duck, but you dumped all the dirty and tiring work on me!"
"Helping me is also helping yourself," Qin Jin said casually. "At this critical juncture, what if you really get implicated because of me?"
"Get out!"
Ji Dian spat, "I don't believe you don't have a solution. Stop trying to scare me. I'm not falling for it. You're just trying to trick me into doing your work."
He paused, then glanced at Qin Jin: "What do you need these things for?"
Qin Jin said succinctly, "She's being targeted by bandits, and she needs to use these to deceive them."
Although she didn't explicitly say who she was, Ji Dian immediately guessed, and his body, which had just sat down, suddenly sprang up: "Are you crazy? Why are you trying to deceive the bandits? Since you've been targeted, why don't you hurry up and take advantage of the bandits' predicament to send her out of the city!"
"We've already locked one up on the mountain, do you want another one?!"
Qin Jin leaned back, creating distance between himself and Ji Dian, and rubbed his ears: "Keep your voice down, aren't you afraid of being overheard in the middle of the night?"
Ji Dian frowned: "I'm not joking with you. Don't you know what kind of people those bandits are? They're audacious, ruthless, and willing to do anything. They'd rather kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free. Especially since she's a daughter of the Xue family, back then..."
"She won't leave just because she's a member of the Xue family."
Qin Jin lowered his eyes: "Jiang Huaishun has approached her."
With just a few words, Ji Dian suddenly realized, his shoulders slumped down, and he sighed helplessly, "...No wonder, why did Jiang Huaishun have to speak up at this critical moment? Isn't he just making things worse?"
Qin Jin said, "Since things have come to this, instead of letting her find a way to get up the mountain on her own, we might as well take this opportunity to let her stay legitimately."
Having once clashed with Xue Rongyue, Ji Dian naturally understood her temperament and knew that Qin Jin's suggestion was the best solution. He raised his eyelids and asked, "How exactly is it justifiable?"
Qin Jin looked at him: "In the fabricated background of my life, there are still relatives. I made a fake travel permit and household registration, and said that I came to seek refuge with me."
...family?
Ji Dian pondered for a moment, then finally remembered. She rolled her eyes, looked at Qin Jin with a reproachful expression, and said, "You're really shameless."
As soon as he finished speaking, Guang Sheng came down holding a small wolf doll, but his tone was somewhat hesitant: "Your Highness, is this the one?"
Qin Jin looked over upon hearing the sound, his gaze falling on the doll's belly, and his eyes narrowed instantly.
Guang Sheng's puzzled voice rang in his ears: "That's strange. Wasn't this doll cut by swords? When was it mended? There's an extra bamboo leaf in the wolf's mouth, and a wooden sword in its left front paw. I seem to remember it not being here before. The embroidery is so lifelike, no wonder the young master likes it so much..."
Taking the doll from Guang Sheng, Qin Jin gently stroked the spot where the doll had been cut, a memory he vividly recalled. Although the stitches were barely visible due to the skillful embroidery, he could still clearly feel each stitch as his fingers traced them.
However, his memory was exactly the same as Guang Sheng's, and he did not remember having it repaired.
Qin Jin lowered his head, slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, and the fingertips holding the doll turned white.
really......
What Xue Rongyue said is true.
***
"My brother isn't dead, is he?"
Xue Rongyue asked the question calmly.
After a silence so deep you could hear a pin drop, the system, which had been silent for a long time, finally spoke.
[I'm sorry, host, I cannot answer your question.]
Xue Rongyue didn't expect it to answer, although its words already counted as an answer: "My memory is not wrong. The reason why Jingnu and the others can speak with one voice is because you have altered their memories, right?"
[Host, I must tell you, although I am a system, I do not possess this ability.]
Upon hearing the system's denial, Xue Rongyue laughed instead, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. A dark and unfathomable cold light flashed in her eyes: "Since you don't have this ability, then it must be the original work. The original work replaced and modified the story about my brother's death, which is why my memories differ from their accounts."
This time, Xue Rongyue spoke in a flat tone, without any hint of questioning, indicating that she had already made up her mind.
After a brief silence, the system voice sounded again.
Why were there replacements and modifications to the original plot?
"Because my elder brother did not die in this life."
Xue Rongyue took a deep breath and suppressed the turmoil in her heart: "On my eighth birthday, my brother was ambushed by bandits and returned to Chang'an with serious injuries. This should be the plot that was written before the original work was revised. In this life and the next, it did indeed play out according to the original plot."
"Until the original story revealed that the elder brother in this life did not die at all, a plot hole appeared!"
Why is the host so certain?
The memories in her mind were so vivid that Xue Rongyue simply couldn't believe they were mere figments of her imagination, let alone...
Xue Rongyue took the purse from her waist, opened it, and revealed a piece of broken gray tile covered in mud: "Moreover, this hasn't disappeared yet."
She picked it up when she heard a strange noise coming from the eaves of the Taoist temple on Qingheng Mountain. Although the person who was eavesdropping had already fled, they had left a trace, which she kept in her purse.
"If my memory is false or wrong, then where did this thing come from?"
Xue Rongyue took out a tiny gold bead that had fallen onto the soil: "This is something that I once gave to my brother, hanging from the jade pendant. Back then, the person on the roof was my brother. It was at this time that the original story discovered that my brother was not dead."
"How could someone who died right before my eyes, in front of so many people, not be dead?! The original story can't explain this, so to fix the loophole that my brother didn't die, it had to change the way he died!"
Falling off a cliff may seem like a complete loss of life, but in reality, there is still a chance of survival. Only in this way can the loophole of the brother's survival be explained.
Her memory was accurate; everything in her mind had truly happened. However, on that day on Qingheng Mountain, she found the gold bead left behind by her brother. Although she didn't realize it, the original story couldn't allow this loophole to surface one day, so the method of her brother's death was changed.
The replacement brother died by falling off a cliff, so he could not leave a will on his deathbed. Naturally, she could not repair the Taoist temple on Qingheng Mountain according to the will left by her brother. Therefore, in the memories of Jingnu and others, there was no Taoist temple on Qingheng Mountain.
Therefore, Qin Jin would not remember that after returning to Chang'an, he had visited the Qingheng Mountain Taoist Temple and talked with her on the eaves.
After a long silence, the system seemed to sigh.
[Host, you are truly perceptive and intelligent.]
Even though Xue Rongyue firmly believed in her deduction, she still couldn't help but breathe rapidly after hearing the system's affirmation. Her fingertips, which were holding the golden bead, trembled uncontrollably, and the golden bead fell from her fingertips.
Xue Rongyue bent down to pick it up, but tears fell to the ground before her hands could touch the ground: "Brother... how have you been all these years? Why, why has he never come to acknowledge me?"
[How do you know, host, that he hasn't come to acknowledge you?]
[Since the character [Xue Huaijin] has already died in the original story, before the original plot is modified, he cannot openly claim the identity of [Xue Huaijin] to acknowledge you.]
However, he did come to see you.
Xue Rongyue's pupils dilated for a moment, and the gold bead she had just bent down to pick up slipped from her fingertips again. Her brows furrowed suddenly, and she said incredulously, "Brother, have you come to see me?"
Yes, the character [Xue Huaijin] not only visited you, but also had a conversation with you.
She collapsed onto the bed, her expression one of shock, her fingertips trembling. Countless familiar and unfamiliar figures flooded her mind, and she desperately wanted to find her brother among them.
-----------------------
Author's note: I'm late, I'm so sorry everyone [crying emoji]
Quiz: Who is the older brother's true identity after faking his death?
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