Chapter 353 Walking into a Trap
A heavy snowfall had just occurred in Beijing, and the sky was overcast with no sign of clearing up, like a giant lid tightly covering the city.
The people were immersed in the joy of the New Year, completely unaffected by the rain and snow, and unaware of the increasingly tense atmosphere in the capital.
Xu Jinnian went out early this morning and didn't return until midnight, smelling faintly of alcohol.
He walked around the screen wall and into the empty and quiet courtyard. A pair of lonely lanterns came into view under the opposite corridor, but the person who used to hold the child's hand was nowhere to be seen under the lanterns.
Xu Jinnian's heart suddenly felt empty, and a hint of longing appeared between her tense brows. She didn't pay attention to her feet for a moment, took a few extra steps forward, and accidentally lost her balance and fell forward.
"grown ups!"
Ah Tian nervously reached out to pull him, but only touched the hem of Xu Jinnian's clothes.
Fortunately, Xu Jinnian managed to regain her balance in time and avoided a humiliating fall to the ground.
Seeing that Ah Tian's face had turned pale with fright, Xu Jin said softly, "It's alright, don't worry."
After saying that, he slowly walked to the front hall, and soon a bowl of hangover soup was brought out from the kitchen.
Xu Jinnian was not drunk and let the hangover soup gradually cool down.
He rubbed his throbbing temples, recalling what Ning Sihan had told him in the study of the Marquis of An'nan's residence that afternoon. Under A-Tian's questioning gaze, he stood up and walked towards the study without saying a word.
Seeing this, Ah Tian hurriedly said, "Sir, it's getting late. You should rest early. You stayed up until the wee hours last night. How can you take care of your health if you keep doing this? Your wife will be heartbroken if she finds out."
Since the lady left the capital with the young lady, the master has not had a full night's sleep.
He didn't know what the adults were busy with. These days, following the adults around, he always felt that something big was about to happen in the capital, and there was a sense of oppressive tension.
"Next time you see Madam, just don't say anything."
Xu Jinnian glanced at A Tian indifferently, then walked into the study without hesitation.
Ah Tian had no choice but to go in and serve them.
Xu Jinnian picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and without pausing, wrote three secret letters, folded them up, put them in three envelopes, carefully sealed them, and put them into his sleeve.
After doing all this, he did not go back to the main room to rest. He sent Ah Tian away and rested in the study.
As soon as he closed his eyes, Xu Jinnian began to dream.
In his dream, he rushed back to Qingzhou and saw Sheng An holding Zhuozhuo's hand, standing at the gate of Shengyuan with a smile, looking at him tenderly.
Even though there were several steps between them, his feet just couldn't seem to step over them.
He heard Sheng An calling "Jin Nian" over and over again, and Zhuo Zhuo calling "Father" over and over again, their voices growing louder and more urgent, filled with a heart-wrenching despair.
The next moment, the large and small figures in front of them disappeared as if they had never existed.
Xu Jinnian suddenly woke up from her dream and found that everything was pitch black, realizing that she had been having a nightmare.
Listening to his pounding heartbeat and recalling the ominous dream, his face turned extremely pale.
Xu Jinnian couldn't sleep at all. He got up, dressed, and walked to his desk in the dark. He blew on a tinderbox to light a candle and began grinding ink to write a letter, filling five pages.
Ignoring his aching wrist, Xu Jinnian put the letter in the drawer and frowned in deep thought.
Princess Pingyuan's true colors have been revealed; the 20,000-strong private army she had secretly hidden was discovered a month ago.
Now, five thousand of these private soldiers have gone to the border, disguised as a nomadic tribe army invading the border, plundering the grain and fodder of the surrounding cities, creating the illusion that the nomadic tribes are determined to march south and occupy the Great Wei.
The other 15,000 men were scattered and lurked around the capital, waiting for an order to infiltrate the city and create chaos, in order to cooperate with Princess Pingyuan in usurping the throne.
His Majesty has now secretly made all the arrangements, just waiting for Princess Pingyuan to make her move and walk right into his trap.
This move was intended to eradicate her power completely and make the princess's residence disappear from the capital.
Xu Jinnian closed his eyes to review the countermeasures, making sure there were no oversights, before leaning back in his chair and letting out a long sigh of relief.
The turmoil in the capital had no effect on Qingzhou. While Sheng An was visiting relatives and friends with Zhuozhuo, Kong Dazhuang, who had been suffering for several days, breathed his last alone in the dead of night.
Peng Chunlan did not send her two sons to inform relatives of the death, nor did she ask villagers for help with the funeral arrangements. Instead, she took out a tattered straw mat that she had prepared in advance, rolled up Kong Dazhuang, and carried him to the mountain under cover of darkness to dig a pit and bury him.
Looking at the small mound in front of him, Liu Shitou recalled the days when he was a child, playing on his father's shoulders, and finally couldn't control his emotions and shed tears.
Liu Zhuzi rolled his eyes and cursed gruffly, "I told you not to go ask that guy surnamed Sheng for the money, and now you're pretending to cry like that? If you cry yourself to death, your father won't be able to come back to life!"
Peng Chunlan found these words too harsh and frowned, scolding, "He was Shitou's biological father. Now that he's dead, what's wrong with Shitou crying a little? When your own father died, you cried even louder than him."
Liu Zhuzi: "..."
Peng Chunlan ignored him, and looking at her still crying youngest son, she couldn't help but sigh and pat him on the shoulder:
"Don't be sad. After the New Year, take the hemp rope to the general store and sell it. Use the money to buy incense and paper money to burn for your father. That will be your way of fulfilling your filial duty as a son."
She's short on cash right now, and it's almost Chinese New Year, so she doesn't have any spare money to buy these things.
Liu Shitou felt a tightness in his chest, but dared not voice his dissatisfaction. He could only feel sorry for his biological father in his heart.
Even after his father became lame and lost his temper, he still worked like a slave for the family for the first ten years or so.
After he fell seriously ill, they didn't have the money to hire a doctor to treat him, and when he died, they didn't even give him a proper funeral; they just gave him a tattered straw mat to get rid of him.
His brother is cold-blooded, and his mother is even more so.
Thinking this, Liu Shitou's heart slowly grew cold.
Sheng An knew nothing about Kong Dazhuang's death, and after visiting relatives and friends, most of the New Year had passed.
With nothing to do in the city, she decided to clean the courtyard in the village again and then take the elderly and children back to the village for a short stay.
They were going back to live in the village, and Xu Chenglin couldn't stay in the small building alone, so he packed his bags and happily went with them.
When Sheng An built this courtyard, he was already quite wealthy. Thinking that a larger house would make living more spacious, he spent his money to buy the open space in front of and behind the house.
The layout of the courtyard is similar to other houses in the village, except that a few more rooms have been built, which can easily accommodate ten or so people.
Therefore, Xu Chenglin also had a separate room when he moved in.
Besides Aunt Niu and Hongliu, there were only two guards accompanying them this time.
In the countryside, petty theft is very common, and having guards around makes sleeping at night much safer.
When the villagers saw the family return, they all picked radishes and spinach from their own vegetable gardens and brought them over.
Some people even brought eggs, and even old hens and ducks that don't lay eggs.
Every household in the village was struggling financially, so Sheng'an accepted the radishes and spinach, and paid for the eggs, old hens, and old ducks at market price.
The family that delivered the gifts felt quite embarrassed, as if they had gotten a great deal from Sheng'an.
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