"Where did you and Teacher Song go today?" Xu Silin lowered his eyes, looking into Qingchen's eyes. His short, thick, straight eyelashes blinked, and his tone was slightly stiff.
His stiffness surprised even himself. In the past, when he teased and bullied her, even the most flirtatious and offensive words would come out naturally, but now he couldn't even ask a question. He couldn't help but frown.
Qingchen was still tidying up her books, avoiding his gaze, and said, "I didn't go anywhere, I just asked about some academic matters."
Mingxiang's matter involved the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and she didn't want too many people to know, fearing that she wouldn't be able to explain it clearly and would only make things more complicated. Besides, Lu Shenyun was mostly putting on an act for Xu's faction, so she couldn't say anything to Xu Silin.
I don't believe it.
He suddenly bent down and looked closely at her, his eyes unblinking. "Just ask about your studies. How could you have been gone for so long?"
Qingchen was startled, feeling as if his nose was almost touching hers, and could vaguely sense a warm breath. She leaned back involuntarily, "Can you... speak properly? Don't be... so close to me."
Before arriving at the North Office today, he had even lifted her chin. Now, thinking back, Qingchen felt that he had been too close to her, making her a little nervous. He had teased her before, tripping her and tugging at her sleeves, but she had only felt annoyed and annoyed. Today, his actions seemed a little different from usual.
Looking at Qingchen's reaction, Xu Silin felt inexplicably uncomfortable. He pursed his lips, sat down with a cold face, and said, "Then tell me the truth, what did you all say?"
Maintaining a certain distance, Qingchen let out a soft sigh of relief. She neither understood nor felt helpless about his persistent questioning, thinking to herself that he truly was the beloved son of Grand Secretary Xu Yan, believing that everything he did was perfectly justified, requiring no explanation and disregarding what others thought.
The setting sun shone through the lattice window, illuminating half of his handsome face and gently sweeping over his high, straight nose, while the other half of his face was shrouded in shadow.
After thinking for a moment, Qingchen had no choice but to say, "My teacher called me out and asked me about that poem."
He frowned. "The seven days haven't even been up yet, and he's already trying to force you to confess and punish you?"
"No," Qingchen quickly shook his head, "I was just asking."
"Are you having second thoughts? Return the visiting card to Lin Mo." His gaze remained fixed on her eyes. "The seven days aren't over yet. If you..."
"I don't regret it." She said calmly and softly, "I already told Lin Mo my thoughts that day. You can just tell Lin Mo not to worry. These past two days, when he saw me, he seemed to have something he wanted to say but couldn't. I guess he's still worried."
“I don’t care what he did, he just wrote a poem, he won’t die…” he blurted out, then suddenly stopped.
Qingchen looked up at him. That day, hadn't he clearly said that Lin Mo was his friend, and that he would definitely stand up for him if he was wronged? He even threatened her not to make a mistake. Besides boasting about his intelligence, he had always touted himself as loyal; was it all just talk?
As a pampered son of an official, he probably only had himself on his mind.
"Teacher Song told you today what your punishment will be if no one comes forward to identify you?" He paused for a moment, then asked, "Will you be flogged?"
After he finished speaking, he couldn't help but scrutinize her. She was so slender, even her neck looked delicate and graceful. The golden rays of the setting sun bathed her thin shoulders, and she appeared frail and delicate. Could such a body withstand flogging?
Qingchen shook his head. "The teacher didn't say."
She had packed all the books and pens into her bundle. The table was now empty except for Xu Silin's arm resting on it.
Qingchen hesitated for a moment, just about to end the conversation, when Xu Silin suddenly stood up.
"I understand," he said.
After saying that, he turned and walked towards the door. As he passed his desk, he casually swept away the copy of "Cai Gen Tan". His back view was as carefree and unrestrained as ever.
The dust motes floating in the air were startled and began to scatter.
Shen Qingchen paused for a moment, then lowered his head and let out a sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, after seeing Song Yue and Shen Qingchen off, Huang Yu returned to Lu Shenyun's room, sat down, and glanced at him.
"Wake up, they've been gone for a while now."
Lu Shenyun didn't open his eyes, but said calmly, "When will you stop eavesdropping on my conversation?"
Huang Yu chuckled twice and immediately picked up the teapot to pour him tea, saying, "I've been listening to this for over ten years, one more time won't make a difference."
Seeing that Lu Shenyun remained silent, he continued, "Your savior is no ordinary person. Look at him, so frail, yet he's quite learned. Facing a cold-faced devil like you, he didn't panic at all, and his answers to such sharp questions were truly brilliant. Anyway, based on my understanding of you, those words hit the nail on the head, and landed right where you felt right."
Huang Yu, with an air of knowing Shen Qingchen better than anyone else, couldn't help but click her tongue twice as she recalled Shen Qingchen's words and actions.
Lu Shenyun raised his eyelids, his long, narrow, handsome eyes glancing at him. "Why are you so free today? Is the Ming Dynasty at peace?"
"I care about you!" Huang Yu said matter-of-factly. "With a living iceberg like you, only I, Huang Yu, dare to get within three feet of you. Sigh, but this time, I really do feel sorry for you. Not only did you deliberately get injured, but you were also poisoned and almost died. You're clearly not an ungrateful person, yet you've left such a bad impression... Poor thing, so pitiful..."
"It's none of your business."
Huang Yu curled her lip, "I may be able to ignore you, but the Xu Party won't. You've been back in the capital for a while now, so Chief Minister Xu should have sent someone to look for you, right?"
After a moment of silence, Lu Shenyun said, "I've found it."
The night after he woke up, Xu Yan sent a trusted aide to the Lu residence to find him. When the man arrived, he was still lying in bed, somewhat drowsy, having just had a dream. In the dream, Shen Qingchen was trembling with fear as he held a knife, his face, which was on the verge of collapse due to tension, slowly becoming focused, calm, and meticulous, and his eyes, filled with a gentle and comforting look as if he were afraid of hurting him.
"They asked you for that letter? Given your situation, they should believe it by now, right?"
The letter that Lu Shenyun asked Shen Qingchen for was not fabricated; it was simply something that was on Shen Qingchen's own person.
Xu Yan had a distant relative who served as a minor official in the Ministry of War's Bureau of Censors, yet he had illegally seized 100 hectares of farmland in Baoding Prefecture. A censor learned of this and submitted three memorials, all of which were intercepted by Xu Yan. Undeterred by the risk of offending Xu Yan, the censor risked his life to present his case to the emperor. Upon learning of this, the emperor ordered the Ministry of Revenue to investigate. However, due to collusion among Xu's faction, the investigation revealed no wrongdoing.
The censor was dissatisfied and prepared a coffin at home before submitting another memorial. This time, the emperor finally sent the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate together with the Ministry of Revenue.
The people's land was seized, but those who seized it did not pay taxes, so the tax burden still fell on the people. By the time Lu Shenyun arrived, the farmers had been forced into becoming refugees and mobs, fighting against the imperial court for survival.
Having become refugees and mobs, they were exactly what Xu Yan wanted. The governor's office, acting on orders, sent troops to suppress them, and many were beaten to death. Those who escaped harbored resentment and set up ambushes on the road to attack the imperial guards. Seeing that Lu Shenyun's attire clearly indicated that he was a high-ranking official, they attacked him with all sorts of iron weapons, stones, and arrows.
Lu Shenyun came from a family of commanders of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He himself was already a martial arts champion at the age of eighteen. He could have easily avoided these sneak attacks. It was because of that so-called fabricated letter that he deliberately injured himself. An arrow pierced his thigh, the arrowhead penetrating more than three inches into the groin. To make matters worse, it was poisoned.
The letter was written by a scholar whose land had been seized. It detailed the process of how his 100 hectares of land had been occupied over the past three years, including who the original owner of the land was, who the local officials involved were, and how the imperial court forced them to pay taxes. There were also the handprints of dozens of people whose land had been seized.
So many people dared to encroach on land not because others didn't know, but because those whose land was encroached upon had no recourse. This letter was slipped into Lu Shenyun's hands before the scholar died. The official from the Ministry of Revenue who accompanied him panicked upon seeing it. Firstly, he hadn't handled the matter entrusted to him by Grand Secretary Xu properly; secondly, he himself had benefited from it. Therefore, he immediately sent the news to Xu Yan by fast horse. Lu Shenyun and the letter in his hand became the targets of Xu Yan's covetous eyes.
"In that situation, only you could grit your teeth and let yourself be ambushed, and carry out the self-inflicted injury ruse decisively and thoroughly, almost losing your life in the process." Huang Yu took a sip of tea and added some more to Lu Shenyun's cup. "I'm afraid I couldn't do it. I'm afraid of pain. I still have a wife and children, and three concubines and two maids."
Lu Shenyun glanced at him, said nothing, and picked up the tea to moisten his dry lips.
He was a military general, trained in martial arts from a young age, and not very well-educated. He didn't have much of a strong sense of right and wrong, believing that certain things could change under specific circumstances. However, over the years, seeing the emperor neglect state affairs day by day, the Xu faction growing stronger, and more and more officials being persecuted, his mind was no longer at peace. He didn't know when this situation would end, or just how far the Xu faction had gone, that even a cold-blooded person like him had to watch closely.
Therefore, he didn't want to give the letter to Xu Dang, so at that time he could only resort to a self-inflicted injury, deliberately injuring himself so that he could claim that he was too busy on his way back to the capital to take care of the letter and that it had been lost. Although this was not a good idea, it was the only option under those circumstances.
Upon returning to the capital wounded, Lu Shenyun encountered Shen Qingchen. Xu Yan's faction had spies throughout the court, and to make the performance convincing, he repeatedly demanded letters from Qingchen, even going so far as to capture her entourage to threaten her—all for the benefit of Xu Yan's spies.
Whether Xu Yan believed it or not, he, a dignified third-rank commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had already achieved so much, so the old fox couldn't afford to pester him any further.
As for the letter, he didn't plan to expose it for the time being, because it alone wouldn't do anything to Xu Yan. He would keep it, hoping it might come in handy someday.
"If you ask me, you're just born to be awkward," Huang Yu said again. "There are so many stories behind this, but you can't tell them. You feel guilty towards your savior, but you have to pretend to be indifferent. Sigh, it's really pitiful."
Lu Shenyun's gaze drifted towards the door, as if he could still see Shen Qingchen's silhouette in the setting sun. They had met by chance, yet she had saved his life; their meeting was far more than just a chance encounter…
“You repay kindness with kindness and revenge with revenge. Lord Lu is a man of principle, and you will certainly repay this life-saving grace. I just want to know, how will you repay the kindness of the young attendant?” Huang Yu leaned closer with a curious look.
"It's none of your business."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
