"Yes!" Hu Lingxian quickly led his men out and stood guard at the courtyard gate.
Zhang Caixing pulled him into the room.
Zhang Yun was unwilling, but she wasn't as strong as her and was forcibly dragged into the room.
“During the time you left home for Luoyan Pass, something happened in the manor,” Zhang Caixing said slowly.
Zhang Yun raised an eyebrow slightly.
"There's a rumor that came out of nowhere, saying you're a womanizer, that you fool around with your servants, indulging in debauchery by day and night, especially with that servant named Qin Zheng..."
"The rumor spread like wildfire, and it spread extremely fast. In just a few days, it reached every corner of the city. My mother was furious and punished many of the servants in the mansion for gossiping."
“Zhao Xu… Zhao Xu refused to confess about your affair, and was beaten with sixty strokes of the cane by the Consort and driven out of the Prince’s mansion. But the other servants in your courtyard and a doctor named Wu Yi, who was found from somewhere, told you everything about your affair.”
"How is Zhao Xu?" Zhang Yun couldn't help but ask.
Zhang Caixing rolled her eyes at him. "Don't worry, I know he's one of your trusted men. I secretly arranged for a doctor to be called and also sent medicine and money to his sister so he can focus on recovering. We'll talk about it when you get back."
Zhang Yun was relieved and said, "Thank you, Third Sister."
"Later, you got into trouble and went missing, which prevented this matter from involving more people. Otherwise, Mother would have punished more than just Zhao Xu."
Zhang Caixing looked at her younger brother, who was listening intently to her, and was both annoyed and amused. "I've said so much, have you understood it?"
Zhang Yun nodded, "I understand. Someone set a trap at home to kill Qin Zheng."
Zhang Caixing was surprised to hear that her younger brother had understood her unspoken meaning without her prompting.
I thought to myself that what my older sister said in her letter was indeed true; my younger brother has grown so much in the six months since he left home.
"Since you know this, you should understand that the most important thing to do now is to keep your distance from him."
“You are the eldest son of the family, the only son of your father and mother, and the future King of the Northwest. Your mother has been busy with external affairs and has not paid attention to the family in recent years. This does not mean that she will tolerate you having an ambiguous affair with a stable boy of unknown origin.”
"Third Sister, do you believe those rumors they spread?" Zhang Yun asked with a sneer.
Zhang Caixing said, "Of course I don't believe it. It's not just me; my eldest sister and mother don't believe it either. But what's the use? You've been mischievous since you were little. Once this gets out, the whole of Xuantong City will believe it..."
"And now that I've met you, I'm starting to believe part of it."
"Do you dare to swear that you and he have no affair whatsoever?"
"I wouldn't dare."
Even if you dare to post it...
Zhang Caixing paused halfway through her sentence, then stared wide-eyed at Zhang Yun, "What...did you just say?"
Zhang Yun met her gaze and said frankly, "I dare not swear, because I like him and want to be with him for the rest of my life."
"Are you crazy?"
Zhang Caixing slammed her hand on the table and stood up. "Do you know that if Father and Mother find out what you've said, Qin Zheng will surely die even if he lives?"
“If he dies, I won’t live either. Third Sister, you wouldn’t want Father and Mother to outlive their son, would you?” Zhang Yun said.
"Are you trying to threaten me?" Zhang Caixing was truly annoyed.
Zhang Yun shook his head and said, "I'm just telling the truth."
His fate was already tied to Qin Zheng's. If Qin Zheng died, the world would be doomed, let alone a bootlicker sent from abroad.
Even without the system's requirements, he was willing to live and die with Qin Zheng now.
Zhang Caixing thought Zhang Yun was just being stubborn like a child and deliberately going against people.
She softened her tone and said, "Stop making a scene. Given Qin Zheng's current situation, it would be better if he just disappeared like this. If he goes back to the manor with you, he will surely die. Do you think someone like my mother would be threatened by you?"
"..."
Zhang Yun didn't say anything. He was very sad, heartbroken, and angry.
He felt saddened by his own weakness and powerlessness in being unable to protect Qin Zheng, heartbroken by Qin Zheng's plight, and angry at the fate that had arranged all of this.
Why?
Fate seemed determined to torment Qin Zheng, plunging him into misery, slander, and framing, leaving him to suffer endless torment and pain, yet he had no one he could trust or rely on.
Why must those chosen by fate suffer such hardship and injustice? Why?
"Host, calm down. This is not something that Heaven deliberately arranged. It is all a debt that the protagonist should repay. He owes this world. Besides, doesn't the protagonist still have you now?"
Noticing something was wrong with him, the system, which had been absent for a long time, suddenly reappeared.
Debt?
Upon hearing this, Zhang Yun's emotions indeed calmed down. "What does he owe the world?"
"This is related to the protagonist's past life. Your authority is too low, so you don't have the right to know for now. You only need to know that he reincarnated in the mortal realm to pay off a debt," the system said.
Seeing that he hadn't spoken to her for a while, Zhang Caixing assumed he had taken her words to heart and said, "Even if you recklessly went to save him, he certainly wouldn't survive!"
“You, a prince, abandoned your family to go to Qingshan Village to save a man. This is a grave taboo. Your father will never tolerate it. Don’t you know what kind of temper your father has? When he gets angry, he can kill anyone he wants. Even if Qin Zheng hides at the ends of the earth, your father can still kill him.”
But he saved my life!
Zhang Yun cried out, "He was captured to save me! He could have left on his own! He held off a whole group of men all by himself to draw away the pursuers for me..."
Zhang Yun could never forget that day when Qin Zheng tied him to a horse and bid him farewell.
Qin Zheng jumped down with the determination to die, to intercept the pursuers for him.
Since arriving here, he has always worn a mask, playing the role of a well-behaved and reasonable prince of the Northwest in front of others.
He has always viewed the world rationally from the perspective of an observer.
The only person he was willing to invest his feelings in was Qin Zheng, but his feelings for Qin Zheng were only those of a modern-day romantic relationship.
He likes Qin Zheng, wants to date him, and is willing to do all the things lovers do together, but he doesn't love him to the point that he can't live without him and is willing to give his life for him.
He thought Qin Zheng was the same way.
But he was wrong.
Who doesn't say sweet words and make vows of eternal love during lovemaking?
Zhang Yun could recite ten thousand words of touching love quotes with his eyes closed.
Qin Zheng wouldn't.
He said, "Ah Yun, I'll give you my life."
It turns out that I really could die for him.
Zhang Yun was terrified of death.
Life is so precious, so why did these ancient people die so easily for one reason or another?
In his past life, Zhang Yun was immersed in the entertainment industry, a veritable melting pot. There were countless hypocrites around him. There might have been some genuine people at the beginning, but as he climbed higher and higher, they gradually disappeared.
Even his parents, who had both started their own families, only treated him as a responsibility, providing him with resources to help him become famous, but never giving him any affection.
No one had ever treated him like that before.
He had played the male lead and supporting male character who sacrificed their lives for the naive and innocent female lead in countless prime-time melodramas in his past life, and he had also complained about them countless times, but he never thought that such a fool actually existed, and that he would actually encounter one.
Like a child who doesn't know the value of things, he thought the doll he liked was just made of cloth and cotton. Only after losing it did he realize that the doll was made of 24k pure gold and inlaid with precious Heart of the Ocean.
He lost such a precious doll.
Zhang Yun sobbed, “...Third Sister, without him, even if I didn’t die, I would have been used to threaten the Prince’s Mansion. Even if we didn’t have that kind of relationship, he was still my savior and the benefactor of the Northwest Prince’s Mansion.”
“I know he was bought by the Northwest Prince’s Mansion. In your eyes, it is only right that he would risk his life to protect his master.”
"But now I'm the only one who can save him, he only has me..."
And he's all I have.
Zhang Yun was always very clear-headed. He knew that the people of the Northwest Prince's Mansion were kind to him because he was now playing the role of the Northwest Prince's heir.
Without this role, he's nothing.
Qin Zheng is the only one who isn't like that; he wasn't from the beginning.
His gratitude, his love, and his promises were all for himself as a person, not for some symbol bearing the title of Crown Prince of the Northwest.
Looking at her younger brother, Zhang Caixing felt as if she were meeting him for the first time.
My brother has really changed a lot.
“I understand,” Zhang Caixing said.
Zhang Yun looked at her with hope in his eyes.
“I’m going to rescue Qin Zheng,” Zhang Caixing said.
"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. You say you're going to Qingshan Village to rescue Qin Zheng, but with your pathetic skills, who in Qingshan Village can you possibly beat?"
"You just want to get trapped in the bandits' den with him so that your family can send troops to suppress the bandits in order to save you."
The Northwest King would never send troops to Qingshan Village to suppress bandits for Qin Zheng, a servant who had ruined his son's reputation, but he would for his son Zhang Yun.
Zhang Yun, having had his thoughts exposed, remained silent.
"If we hadn't been stuck in Deer Town, would you have planned to stay missing forever and become a pair of wandering lovers with him?"
Zhang Yun: "..."
"You have two choices now: either go home obediently, or I'll have someone tie you up and send you back. As for Qin Zheng, he saved your life, and the Northwest Prince's Mansion owes him a debt of gratitude, which we accept. I will personally go to save him, and if I can't save him, I'll stay with him in Qingshan Village!"
"There's absolutely no possibility between you two. Forget about it!"
Zhang Yun breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
He nodded and said, "As long as Third Sister is willing to help me rescue Qin Zheng, I will go back and be a proper prince of the Northwest, and will no longer have anything to do with Qin Zheng."
As he spoke, he took out a ring from his pocket and handed it to Zhang Caixing.
"This was a gift from Qin Zheng. Please return it to him on my behalf, and tell him that in the future, whether he is in good times or bad, rich or poor, healthy or sick, happy or sad, it will never have anything to do with me."
"Oh, he has one of mine too. Please help me get it back, Third Sister."
Looking at her younger brother, who had just been heartbroken and crying for Qin Zheng, but then suddenly agreed to sever ties with Qin Zheng with a cold expression, Zhang Caixing couldn't help but have three question marks pop up on her forehead.
"Saving lives is urgent! Third Sister, you must set off quickly!"
Seeing that she was standing still, Zhang Yun chased her away.
Zhang Caixing left, feeling rather uncomfortable, with the ring in her hand.
The siblings went out together, and then went their separate ways.
Zhang Caixing rode alone to Qingshan Village in the east, while Zhang Yun left Luming Town under the escort of the army.
When the people of Luming Town heard that Zhang Yun was leaving, they all spontaneously came to see him off.
Zhang Yun was slightly surprised.
He initially ordered people to quickly support Luming Town, and later stayed in Luming Town to clean up the mess, all for Qin Zheng's sake. He never expected that he would gain the gratitude of the people for this.
Feeling somewhat guilty for being seen off by the people, Zhang Yun hurriedly instructed Hu Ling to return to Ziyan City and send more supplies to support the reconstruction of Luming Town.
Hu Lingxian readily agreed.
As long as the little ancestor is willing to return to his position, I'll make him do anything!
After arriving in Ziyan City, Zhang Yun rested for a day and then, escorted by three thousand Northwest Iron Cavalry, rode swiftly back to the palace.
The journey was smooth and uneventful.
Now that he has truly returned from a great ordeal, no one finds his changed personality unreasonable. He no longer needs to maintain his original persona as a spoiled young master.
After returning to the manor, Zhang Yun first denied the rumors about him and Qin Zheng, and then exaggeratedly told the princess about how Qin Zheng had risked his life to save him and how his fate was still unknown.
The servants who set up a scheme in the mansion to falsely accuse Qin Zheng of having an affair with him were quickly investigated and dealt with by the princess.
The princess had no interest in the grudges between Qin Zheng and the servants, nor did she intend to uphold justice. All she cared about was her son, Zhang Yun.
As Zhang Caixing said, even if she knew that Zhang Yun and Qin Zheng were innocent and that everything was just a rumor spread maliciously by others, the princess would still find a reason to get rid of Qin Zheng.
Just like Zhang Yun's former head maid, Yu Tao. (Yu Tao: What goes around comes around; no one escapes the princess's wrath!)
Now that Qin Zheng has disappeared because he risked his life to protect his master, this is actually the most satisfactory result for the princess.
She was naturally happy to be a good mother and dealt with those who framed Qin Zheng and spread rumors, helping her son vent his anger.
Not long after this incident, Zhang Yun went to the princess and told her with an embarrassed expression that he had discovered he had a sexual dysfunction.
The princess was planning to arrange marriages and concubines for her son to dispel the rumors that he had homosexual tendencies, so she naturally did not believe this statement.
Zhang Yun then said he would prove it to her.
He took the most potent aphrodisiac that the princess had found, and then had a mute girl stay with him in his room for the night.
The next day, the nanny checked and found that the mute girl was still a virgin, and only then did the princess believe her son's words.
The princess panicked and secretly began sending people to find various ways to treat her hidden ailment.
After finding something for the princess to do so that she wouldn't keep thinking about finding him a wife, Zhang Yun brought back Zhao Xu and some of the confidants who had been punished by the princess. He also contacted the brothers he had met during military training at Luoyan Pass, who were all capable and of good character, and wrote to Zhang Caiyue asking her to send them to him as his personal guards.
Zhang Caiyue readily agreed and even had someone bring back the deer-string bow for him.
On his way back to the Prince's residence, Zhang Yun had already planned out his route—
He wants to become stronger!
Love without the support of strength is nothing but a mirage.
He wanted to be with Qin Zheng, but crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide wouldn't work. Only by becoming powerful enough that no one could control him could he do whatever he wanted!
Completing this task was not difficult for him.
He has too many good cards to play. Even if he does nothing, the Northwest King will hand over the power of the Northwest to him in ten or twenty years.
Now, he just wants to move this time forward a little bit.
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