In prison, Xu Jingfu sat quietly.

When he first came in, the jailers were very respectful to him and did not dare to neglect him at all. Although he was shocked by Xiao Huaijin's ruthless methods, he was not in a hurry. Chu Zhao was outside, and Emperor Wenxuan was a gentle person. It would not be long before he could at least slowly turn the tables, even if he could not get out of this situation unscathed.

But recently, the jailers' attitude towards him has gradually changed.

Xu Jingfu was a man who had worked in the court for so many years. Sometimes he could tell that things had changed just by looking at someone. No one had come to monitor him these days, so he had no way of knowing what was going on outside. Xu Jingfu himself was alone, and he didn't know how Xu Pingting and Madam Xu were doing now. Xu Pingting had been raised by Jiaosi since she was born, and had never experienced any storms. Now he didn't know how Emperor Wenxuan would deal with them.

Xu Jingfu didn't show it on his face, but he was already getting anxious in his heart.

Crown Prince Guangyan is not worthy of great use, and he and Xu Jingfu had a rift because of the Wutu incident. I am afraid he dares not speak out now. Thinking of this, Xu Jingfu secretly disdains in his heart. If there is no one in the court now, he will not support Guangyan, this fool. But after so long, has Chu Zhao not thought of a solution? Or is Chu Zhao also in trouble now?

Xu Jingfu became a little irritated. The longer he stayed in prison, the worse it was. He didn't know how far Xiao Jue had gone, and Emperor Wenxuan... no matter how kind he was, he was still an emperor. When he was not around, other ministers would teach the emperor what to do.

There are always people who want to drag him down, so he has to think of other ways, but the most urgent thing is to meet his people first.

As Xu Jingfu was thinking, his eyes blurred and he seemed to see someone flashing through the darkness of the cell. He looked again and there was nothing there.

It was snowing outside. The jailers were drinking at the prison gate. The alcohol temporarily dispelled the cold, and the noise of their laughter gradually faded. The torches burning on the wall quietly emitted a faint flame. In the flames, there seemed to be a tiny "crackling" sound, like the sound of burning miscellaneous objects. Gradually, the sound became blurred. After a long time, I don't know when, a scream broke the night sky.

"There's a fire! There's a fire! There's a fire in the prison!"

"Hurry, put out the fire!"

The smoke made people's throats itch. A raging fire broke out in an instant. There were voices of people rushing to get basins of water to put out the fire. Other voices were heard, along with the sounds of swords fighting: "Help! Someone is robbing the prison!"

"Xu Xiang was kidnapped!"

…

It was unknown when the carriage stopped, and Xu Jingfu was pushed into a courtyard. This place looked like a farm in the wilderness, and there were no other houses around. As soon as he entered, Xu Jingfu started coughing.

He was old and could not stand such torture. Half of his beard was burned off by the fire, and his clothes were all blackened by the fire, looking particularly shabby. There was no one else in the room. There was tea and food on the table, which looked quite exquisite. He did not move.

At any time, it is always better to be cautious.

When he came here, he had already asked the people around him who had rescued him from prison, but no one answered his question. Xu Jingfu was also feeling uneasy, and after sitting for a while, he heard a noise at the door and someone walked in.

Xu Jingfu looked up and saw the man wearing a light blue gown, as gentle as an orchid. When he saw him, he called softly, "Teacher."

"Zilan?" Xu Jingfu was delighted at first, then his brows furrowed. "What's going on?"

Chu Zilan closed the door.

"Teacher, you may not know that Xiao Huaijin has found the witness in the Mingshui case."

Xu Jingfu's heart skipped a beat, but he was not surprised. His people had been looking for the whereabouts of the Luo brothers, and they had already found clues, but they suddenly disappeared from the world. At that time, Xu Jingfu began to suspect that it was Xiao Jue who was behind it. It was just that Xiao Jue was secretive, so he had never been able to catch any evidence. Now that he was in jail because of the He Rufei incident, Xiao Huaijin would definitely not let go of this opportunity. Xiao Jue had never forgotten the Mingshui case, and it would be dug up and re-examined sooner or later.

"Evidence alone is not enough to convict a person."

Chu Zilan sighed: "There are quite a few court officials who would take advantage of someone's misfortune."

Xu Jingfu could only sneer.

Having been in this position for so many years, he certainly knew that sometimes winning or losing was just a matter of seconds. In the past, when he suppressed Xiao Zhongwu's old subordinates, he also took advantage of the Mingshui case. Now that he was in trouble, his opponents would certainly not be merciful.

"You mean, you think the Xu family can't turn things around?" Xu Jingfu looked at Chu Zhao, his tone a little unhappy, "During my time in prison, is this the method you came up with? Taking advantage of the situation?" At this point, Xu Jingfu was a little annoyed, "Do you know that after this move, the emperor will only be more biased towards Xiao Huaijin, you are not helping at all."

"Teacher," Chu Zilan stood beside him and shook her head, "Students have no other choice."

Xu Jingfu took a deep breath. "You have always been smart, but why did you choose such a stupid method this time? Why did you rescue me from prison? To save my life? My life is saved, but the Xu family is not. And Pingting and Madam...you..."

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. But he couldn't go back by himself now. If he stayed here, people outside would just say that he, Xu Jingfu, had fled for fear of punishment.

"Teacher," Chu Zilan said gently, "Even if we don't rob the prison, the Xu family can't be saved. Xiao Huaijin will not let the Xu family have a chance to turn things around, and the Fourth Prince has already taken action."

"But you made a bad move! Can you protect me for a while, but can you protect me forever?" Xu Jingfu stared at the young man in front of him angrily, "You have always done things steadily, and I have never been worried about you. Why this time..." His words suddenly stopped.

The man in front of him was his future son-in-law, his student, the man he had watched grow up, who had always been by his side, studying and entering officialdom. He was smart, gentle and polite, a truly talented person. Xu Jingfu admired him very much in his heart. He himself had no son, so he was training Chu Zhao as his successor.

The room was silent for a moment.

"Did you do this on purpose?" Xu Jingfu asked slowly, his eyes as vicious as a snake.

Chu Zhao smiled slightly: "Teacher, it has come to this. This is the best way to do it."

Xu Jingfu's hands were shaking a little.

"I know the teacher is unwilling to give up and still wants to make a comeback, but the teacher is in prison and doesn't know that the situation outside has changed." Chu Zhao's voice was still gentle, and he continued slowly: "The student has seen His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and this is also His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's intention."

"Guangyan, that idiot," Xu Jingfu sneered, "how could he possibly think of abandoning the car bodyguard? I think it was you," he stared at Chu Zhao's face, "you proposed it, right? Well, Chu Zilan, you've been with me for so long, and I didn't even realize that I had a poisonous snake by my side."

"I learned all this from my teacher," Chu Zhao said calmly without getting angry, "My teacher taught me well."

Xu Jingfu had been in the political arena for many years, and for the first time he experienced the feeling of being angry to the point of vomiting blood. When he was at loggerheads with Xiao Zhongwu, he was not as angry as he was now.

Xu Jingfu understood Chu Zhao's intention. He was afraid that the jailbreak was fake, and he wanted to make it look like he was secretly colluding with others and was on the run. Then, as a student, he took action and killed his relative for the sake of justice. This not only showed Chu Zhao's loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, cleared the possibility of collusion with him, but also eliminated his biggest worry. Xu Jingfu still had a lot of evidence left by Chu Zhao that was enough to destroy him.

More importantly, after Xu Jingfu's death, those who were originally in Xu's party wanted to seek protection. If Chu Zhao could get away from this case, all the connections he had left behind would belong to Chu Zhao.

He has no son, and he was attracted by Chu Zhao's character and talent and wanted to train him to be his own. However, he didn't expect Chu Zhao to be so secretive, as if... he was trying to make the whole family eat him?

Xu Jingfu suddenly felt disgusted.

"Chu Zilan," Xu Jingfu called Chu Zhao by name, "I have done nothing wrong in my treatment of you. If I hadn't saved you, you would have died in some courtyard of Shi Jinbo's mansion. For so many years, I have protected you, helped you enter the government, and arranged everything for you. Yet you turned your kindness into enmity. You... are a traitor who has forgotten your roots and repays kindness with enmity!"

"Forget your roots and betray your loyalty? Repay kindness with grievances?" Chu Zhao smiled. He looked at Xu Jingfu and spoke in a gentle voice, "The teacher is indeed very kind to the students, but the teacher knows in his heart how much sincerity and how much exploitation there is in this kindness. There is no need to be too sincere, otherwise if you say it for too long, I am afraid that even I will believe it."

Back then at the Xu residence, Xu Jingfu gave him a pair of boots and saved Chu Zhao from Madam Chu's clutches. After that, at least on the surface, the three brothers and Madam Chu did not dare to be too presumptuous, and he was able to save his life. For a while, Chu Zhao was really grateful to Xu Jingfu.

Later, when he grew up, Xu Jingfu arranged for him to become an official. This seemed to be a good thing. There are not many people in the world who can make such careful arrangements for their students' future.

But from the first day he took office, he truly became a pawn of Xu Jingfu.

Xu Jingfu's disciples were all over Wei, and every disciple who became an official was his chess piece. Chu Zhao was no different from other chess pieces. He killed people, wrongly accused people, and won people's hearts for Xu Jingfu... He did everything. Xu Jingfu was behind the scenes, in front of people, and the target in front of people always encountered many hidden arrows.

He once accidentally overheard Xu Jingfu talking to a servant.

"It may be dangerous for the Fourth Master Chu to attend the banquet. Your Excellency, how about..."

"Young people need to grow up in danger," his teacher said with a smile, "If he is not willing to sacrifice his life, what is the point of me raising him for so long?"

Chu Zhao later understood that he was just a dog raised by Xu Jingfu. He would bite whoever Xu Jingfu told him to bite. The person who was bitten hated the dog, not the person who raised the dog.

Didn't Xu Jingfu know that going to Jiyang would be dangerous? Of course he knew. When he was in Rundu, Xu Jingfu was still wary of him. When Xu Pingting fell in love with him, Xu Jingfu could arrange his marriage on his own. Chu Zhao knew in his heart that if Xu Pingting didn't like him anymore, or even hated him, Xu Jingfu would abandon him without hesitation.

"You play the role of mentor, and I play the role of student. After playing these roles for so long, the teacher has forgotten why he chose me as his student."

Xu Jingfu stared at him and said angrily: "...It was because I felt sorry for you at that time!"

"Is that really the case?" The young man laughed. "Didn't the teacher take me in because he saw that I had nothing and was easy to control?"

A poor person who is bullied by his stepmother and stepbrother at home and doesn't know when he will die, a person who has nothing and no one to rely on, once he receives a little favor, he will repay it a hundredfold, and once he gets a chance, he will try his best to climb up.

It's really suitable to be a chess piece.

It is also very easy to be exploited because there is no other choice.

That kind and gentle teacher was just an illusion he pretended to be. His calculations and plots were hidden in those soft boots. He was just waiting for time to pass slowly, and the nails would slowly emerge from the boots, piercing people and making them bleed unknowingly.

But at that time, didn't he have any plan?

He knew clearly that he was going to attend a banquet at Prime Minister Xu's residence, and he knew clearly that the clothes Madam Chu made for him were as thin as paper, but he still went there wearing that clothes.

Chu Linfeng took him to social events, so he really couldn't find a moment to change his boots, or at least pull out the nails inside?

The Xu Mansion is so big, how come he happened to meet Xu Jingfu?

He grew up in a brothel and had seen women use all sorts of tricks to win the favor of men. Sympathy is the instinct of all strong men, and taking advantage of people's sympathy and compassion is the skill he learned to protect himself during those years.

Every opportunity is hard-earned, and every opportunity must be seized firmly.

He caught it and finally changed his destiny. Although the destination of this destiny was not very bright, it at least allowed him to linger on for so many years.

Xu Jingfu used him, and he also used Xu Jingfu. In the final analysis, he and Xu Jingfu were the same kind of people from the beginning.

It's just a pity about the pair of boots, he thought with regret, they had really brought warmth to him for many years.

The light in the room flickered slowly. The wind outside was blowing hard, and the windows blocked the wind, like the howling of ghosts. The warm candlelight seemed to only make the room colder.

Xu Jingfu looked at him, and suddenly laughed softly. He said, "Chu Zilan... Great... You are really amazing..."

"Teacher," Chu Zilan looked at him, her eyes still gentle, "Like you, you really sympathize with me and really want to use me. I really appreciate you and really want to kill you." He took a step back, his features became clear in the light, a gentle, handsome face that was not worldly, yet seemed to have experienced all the evils in the secular world, with a kind of cold compassion, "All the methods used by the students were learned from the teacher. It's just... the student is better than the teacher."

"What a student who surpasses his teacher." Xu Jingfu laughed, but his smile was particularly miserable. He asked, "All the people outside are your people... When are you going to kill me?"

Chu Zhao said nothing.

"You are so decisive and ruthless, you are worthy of being my student!" He suddenly said, "What about Pingting? What are you going to do with her?"

This old official who had been ruthless in the officialdom for his entire life finally revealed a kind of fragility that belonged to an old man at this moment. He looked at Chu Zhao with a pleading look in his eyes, "She really likes you... If you still have any conscience, don't hurt her!"

"I won't hurt her." After a long while, Chu Zhao finally spoke, "As long as she listens to me."

The lights in the room were bright, and someone's voice came from outside, "Fourth Master! The pursuers are coming!"

Chu Zhao looked at Xu Jingfu.

Xu Jingfu stared back at him quietly, his eyes filled with resentment, anger, and hatred, which eventually sank into powerlessness.

He is already old. When he fought against Xiao Zhongwu in Mingshui, he should have expected this day to come.

Chu Zhao slowly knelt down in front of Xu Jingfu and bowed deeply to him.

"The students will carry on the teacher's legacy. Rest in peace, teacher."

He stood up and walked out the door without looking back. Several people who looked like guards rushed in. The room was filled with the sound of tables and chairs falling down, accompanied by low screams.

Chu Zhao stood quietly, the wind blew up the corners of his robe, making his figure look particularly thin, as if he was going to fly away in the wind at the next moment. In an instant, he thought of many years ago, when he was about eleven or twelve years old, and went to Xu Jingfu's house to celebrate his birthday. Xu Jingfu's students were older than him, and many of them had become officials. The gifts they sent were all gold, jade, and jewels, but he was the only one who hesitated for a long time, and finally shyly took out a painting from his back.

The painting was of a pine tree, which took him several days and nights to complete. He had no money and was unwilling to ask Chu Linfeng for money, so he thought about it for a long time and decided that this was the only thing he could come up with.

The crane's bones are loose and its muscles are relaxed, the pines and cypresses are verdant, and at that moment, that is exactly what he thought.

But that was a long, long time ago.

Soon, two guards came out. The knife on one of them's waist had already been stained with blood, which was dripping into the snow at their feet, like a blooming plum blossom.

Chu Zhao took the knife from his hand. The knife was heavy and the man felt strenuous in lifting it. He wondered how the thin and short-looking girl could wield it so skillfully.

He looked at the knife, grasped the handle with his backhand, and suddenly stabbed himself in the chest.

“Puff——”

The tip of the knife sank into the flesh, causing a clear pain, which seemed to wake him up a little from his daze. The guard beside him was shocked: "Fourth Young Master!"

He waved his hands with difficulty, pulled out the knife again, threw it to the ground, and covered his wound with one hand. The blood instantly stained his palm and dyed his robe red.

The next moment, there was a sound of soldiers coming from outside. He took two steps forward, but finally ran out of strength and fell to his knees.

"Fourth Young Master! Fourth Young Master!"

The last thing that was seen was the bright torches and a large number of soldiers and horses approaching.