Chapter 12: Beacon "I killed someone."
There were few tourists on the long street after the first rain. Although Zhu Hao was no longer tormented by the pain, he still walked slowly. Song Xieqing and Zhu Hao were far apart, but Zhu Hao always kept a distance of three meters from him.
It wasn't that Song Xieqing was trying to shake her off, but that Zhu Hao was intentionally walking slowly.
He has seen through her private wisdom.
If she had not yet arrived at Zhu's house, the magic cast by Song Xieqing would naturally not be lifted. If she walked to Zhu's house, the moment the magic was lifted, the pain in her body would come again.
Since she was so afraid of pain, she had just asked him to heal her wounds. Why should she use this opportunity to ask him to escort her home? Wouldn't it be better if she could use this opportunity to heal her wounds and then return home on her own?
Song Xieqing found it difficult to understand her, and had no intention of trying to understand her in the future, so he did not ask about Zhu Hao's matter.
The journey of two quarters of an hour took Zhu Hao nearly an hour. She and Song Xieqing only needed to turn the corner ahead to see Zhu's house.
Song Xieqing was inexplicably only three steps away from her. Zhu Hao was wondering why he was crossing the sea of crossing when his eyes were attracted by the girl who came towards him from the side.
When Zhu Hao recognized the person clearly, he was stunned. This person was Fang Xuyin, the one who had given sacrifices in the Shiqi Hall.
As the two approached each other, Zhu Hao noticed that Fang Xuyin's shoulders were bleeding from the friction of her clothes. Her face was blue, her lips were white, her hair was disheveled, and her eyes were swollen and bloodshot.
"Miss Zhu, I was hoping to find you at the Zhu residence, but I bumped into you here instead." Fang Xu's voice was hoarse and choked with sobs. "I'm so sorry, Zhu Hao, I didn't expect... you to wake up before the interrogation. I should have personally experienced the flogging and humiliation you endured. It was my mistake to implicate you in this case, and now I owe you many favors."
Zhu Haocheng could no longer see Song Xieqing, but she could no longer care about anything else. Fang Xu in front of her had lost all her former vitality, and her eyes were empty, like a walking corpse.
"Although you did conspire with You Heng to deceive me and put me in danger, I volunteered to testify against You Yan and receive the flogging. You don't need to feel so guilty." Zhu Hao suddenly changed the subject and said sharply, "Of course, I'm not trying to settle all grievances with you. I've already recorded everything that Madam Fang owes me, and I'll seek her out to settle the accounts someday."
Fang Xu finally breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, but she was actually worried that Zhu Hao would not hold the past against her, which made her unable to sleep well.
But then she thought of something else. Fang Xuyin clutched her sleeves tightly and said apologetically, "I wish you all the best. If I still have a 'future', you can always come to me to repay me. Even if it means endangering my life, I will not back down. If there is no future, I will repay you as an ox or a horse in my next life."
Zhu Hao frowned, thinking about Fang Xuyin's strangeness. She asked, "Why do you say that? Why... did you miss the trial today?"
She wanted to see how You Heng managed to hold Fang Xuyin back.
Fang Xu laughed out loud, a voice that hinted at a desperate situation. "Zhu Hao, do you know why I conspired with You Heng? Although I admire him, that doesn't mean I'm completely submissive to him. I never accepted any money he gave me for free. I have IOUs for the medical treatment You Heng paid for my mother's serious illness. I conspired with him simply to make money for my mother's medical treatment."
"But what I did was evil. I kept saying I was doing it for my mother, but I was doing dirty things with my hands and feet. I know You Heng's intentions were not pure, but what's the difference between me and him?"
"As far back as I can remember, my father has often scolded and lashed out at my mother. I have two older sisters, both of whom were sold by my father to matchmakers. I should have been like them, a prostitute in a brothel or a slave for a noble. But my father, seeing my mother's frail health, decided that a daughter should be kept at home to do menial work, and so I was spared the fate of my sisters."
"My father was a gambler. When I was ten, he was beaten to death for years of debt." Fang Xuyin didn't look grief-stricken; instead, she laughed loudly. "He wasn't completely hopeless. I saw him lying bloodied in the snow. He called me Sanniang, and I told him I hated the name. Why should my brothers be named after their generation? While my sister and I are only named after our birth order? First Lady, Second Lady, Third Lady... I named myself Xuyin in front of him."
"He was dying, begging me to save him. When my father beat and scolded my mother, I begged him the same way, but he never forgave my mother and even kicked and punched me. Even though we were near a hospital, I didn't save him. I watched my father's blood drain away bit by bit as he stared at me intently. How ridiculous that he would bind me with blood? For ten whole years, has he ever treated me like a daughter?"
"Although my brother loves gambling, he treats mother and me very well. He manages all the household affairs, big or small. Although he rarely contributes to the family, he never gambles with the family money. Because of my conspiracy with You Heng, I have no time to care for my mother, so I entrust the money I earned to my brother, asking him to seek medical treatment for my mother. The total amount is one hundred taels. This money is what Miss Zhu and I risk our lives to pay for. When I return home, I will see my mother full of life."
"Yesterday, when I said goodbye to You Heng and pushed open the door to enter, I found my mother lying on the bed, already dead. She was emaciated and had barely survived. She didn't die of a serious illness, but of starvation. My brother, with a hundred taels of silver, frequented the gambling den, gambling day and night, deceiving me with a false facade for nearly twenty years. My mother had lost the ability to care for herself, and her legs were so weak that she couldn't even walk. Because of my brother's fault, she hadn't eaten for days, and she starved to death."
"My home is remote. I tied my mother on my back with a rope and carried her on my back for many long journeys. Her body temperature gradually dissipated. All I could do was wipe away my tears and keep my head down on the journey."
"I ran into my brother returning home. He had no shame on his face. I thought of my father, and he was just like him, not worthy of being called a blood relative."
"I couldn't start an argument with him, so I resorted to provoking him with words. As expected, neither he nor my father could tolerate even a single insult, and my brother started the fight. This gave me a reason to resist, and I drew the sickle I'd prepared at my waist..."
The mountain holds the falling sun in its mouth, and the surrounding peaks look like the fangs of a glutton, swallowing the sunlight into its belly.
Huaicheng fell in the dark night.
"I've killed someone," Fang Xuyin said, dragging her empty body along the road. Her figure almost melted into the darkness. "I was born into an ordinary family and have never been subject to the law. How can there be absolute justice in this world? Even scum like Fang Lian Youyan is at large. The law is meaningless in the face of power. Therefore, I don't believe in it."
"But this time, I want to believe it."
Lanterns gradually lit up along the long street. The rising moon and moving stars shone dimly, but it lengthened Fang Xuyin's silhouette.
Zhu Hao picked up a lantern painted with plum blossoms from a vendor on Chang Street. She had no money, so she begged the vendor, "Can I buy it on credit? I'll pay you back later."
The vendor looked Zhu Hao up and down. He looked a little strange, but in the end he just waved his hand and said, "Okay, don't forget to send it over."
Zhu Hao chased Fang Xuyin into the dark alley with a lantern painted with plum blossoms in her hand. She pressed the lantern into Fang Xuyin's hand, letting the candlelight illuminate the narrow alley as if it were daytime. "The road ahead is dark, may the bright lantern illuminate your journey."
Although Fang Xuyin did not respond, she took the plum blossom lantern handed to her by Zhu Hao. The light of the fire cast a shadow on the wall, and Zhu Hao vaguely saw a tear falling from her eyes.
Fang Xuyin walked alone towards the alley with a lamp.
"Come here."
The tone of the person behind him was as flat as stagnant water, but Zhu Hao felt that his words were subtly cold.
Zhu Hao turned around slowly, with a flattering smile on his face, "Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long?"
Song Xieqing stood in front of a street stall selling lanterns, enveloped by the radiance of the lights, appearing exceptionally dazzling. "Since you know you've kept me waiting, Madam Zhu, why don't you follow?"
I wish you all the best and take three steps at once. "Hey, come on."
She saw Song Xieqing stack a heavy silver ingot and place it in front of the lamp vendor's counter. "No need to change the silver."
After Song Xieqing finished speaking, he saw that Zhu Hao had not followed him, so he turned sideways and glanced at her indifferently, "...Come here."
This time, it wasn't that Zhu Hao was deliberately delaying the time, but rather that the vendor at the lantern stall had inexplicably stopped her. Didn't Song Xieqing just pay back the money she owed? Why was the vendor blocking her?
The vendor didn't offer any difficulty. Instead, he took down a patterned glass lamp from the top of a wooden stand and handed it to Zhu Hao. "This lamp will be the change for that young man." The vendor, hunched over, said, "Miss Zhu, you must win the trial in three days."
Gotta win.
As they walked, Zhu Hao kept repeating these words in her mind. She was holding a finely crafted glass lamp, which illuminated the way ahead for her and Song Xieqing. The two of them walked together in silence all the way to Zhu's house. It was not yet 10:00 p.m., but the gatekeeper was gone and the gate was not locked. Apparently, someone was waiting for her in the front yard.
Zhu Hao climbed the stairs, and Song Xieqing behind him said, "I will come to propose marriage soon."
Zhu Hao stopped and turned to look at him.
She nodded silently, indicating that she knew about it.
It was strange, considering Song Xieqing had clearly warned her that if she stayed more than three feet away from him, the spell she cast on her would be ineffective. However, Zhu Hao had been delayed for quite a while by Fang Xuyin. If Song Xieqing hadn't intentionally stopped to wait for her from the beginning, why didn't the lashes on her body hurt?
Or...the self-explanation of the magic from three feet away was just a lie made up by Song Xieqing to deceive her.
Zhu Hao thought again and bowed deeply towards where Song Xieqing was standing. "Today, I would like to thank you for your help."
After saying this, Zhu Hao pushed the door open and went inside. Just as Song Xieqing was about to leave, a flash of gold passed by, and Chi Xing appeared and said, "Hiss, didn't you say you wouldn't interfere in Madam Zhu's affairs? Mr. Xieqing..." Chi Xing smiled and said frivolously, "If... you hadn't intervened and had the news spread to Qizhou Prefecture immediately, Madam Zhu would have been assassinated by You Yan in the near future."
"Chi Xing, if I hadn't spread the news to Qizhou quickly and brought the officials from the capital earlier, this trial..." Song Xieqing paused slightly, recalling the young lady's resolute determination to brave danger and go for justice. He chuckled and said, "The winner will definitely be blessed. I just brought this game to an end early. If I had to stay in the mortal world for several days because of her affairs, I would not be able to endure it."
…
That night, two or three yamen runners were stationed outside the yamen. They were already drowsy when they caught a glimpse of a young lady approaching with a lantern.
"Go, go, go! Come back tomorrow morning for any trivial matters you may have!"
Fang Xuyin put down the painted plum lantern for a moment, gathered her clothes and bent down, "I am Fang Xuyin, a commoner. I am not here to complain about my grievances, but to confess my guilt."
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Thank you so much for the comments, the votes for nutrient solution and the tyrant votes, I’m so touched T_T I hope I can write better and better T^T and not let you down
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