Chapter 35: Bring Him Home
The noise in the cave, especially the prince's shrill screams, naturally alarmed the guards waiting outside.
In a moment, Wei Fengyang led his men in, surrounding the prince, with the tips of their knives pointing outwards, aiming at all four sides of the cave.
When they saw that there was no one else in the cave in front of them, and only the thin and slender figure of Lingling County Master standing alone before the gods and Buddhas, they looked at each other and looked back at the prince's desperate and collapsed face, wondering what had happened.
The prince covered his face, forcing himself to support his trembling body, and said in a hoarse and dry voice: "Get out...all of you get out!"
Everyone hesitated and looked at Wei Fengyang.
Only Wei Fengyang looked at the situation in front of him, seemed to have guessed what had happened between them, and waved his hand to signal everyone to follow him out.
"Wei Zuoshu." Qian Deng called out to him, "Don't leave yet. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has something else that you need to explain to me."
Wei Fengyang looked at the prince hesitantly. Seeing that he did not respond, he knew that everything might have been leaked, so he raised his hand to signal everyone else to leave.
When the three of them were the only ones left in the Buddhist cave, Qian Deng asked word by word, "Wei Zuoshuai, how did you steal the letter for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and murder the Lady of Qi that day at my Bai Family Manor? The Crown Prince's memory is a little hazy now, so I hope you can explain it to him."
Wei Fengyang speculated on the current situation and looked at the prince, waiting for his instructions.
At this point, the prince clutched his own neck, his head buzzing. He nodded at him with a dead heart, and squeezed out a single word from his withered lips: "Speak."
"Yes..." Wei Fengyang remembered everything that happened that day vividly, so he immediately cut to the point that Qian Deng was most concerned about. "When Madam Qi was accidentally injured by Su Yunzhong, the manor's housekeeper believed that she still had a chance of survival. After the county lady left the manor late at night to consult a famous doctor, His Highness, worried about her, went to visit her and found that Madam had unexpectedly woken up. However, she also knew that her injuries were serious. Seeing the Crown Prince beside her, she said that there was a letter in the drawer that she wanted to entrust to her. This letter was of vital importance to the county lady and might determine her future life's direction."
She was seriously injured, and after entrusting the matter to the prince, whom she considered the most trustworthy person around her, she fell into a coma again.
Seeing that she was no longer moving, the prince stood up and opened the drawer. Sure enough, he saw two envelopes of similar size inside. One was a thicker one with a blank cover, and the other was a thinner one with the word "Kucha" written on it.
The prince did not touch them, but just closed the drawer and turned away from the screen.
Wei Fengyang followed behind him and said in a low voice, "Your Highness, that is a letter from Kucha."
"Her family is over there, so it's normal for them to exchange letters," the prince said. He looked at Madam Qi, who lay motionless on her bed, and listened to the chaotic night wind blowing through the window. His heart was in turmoil. "I just don't know what important matter the letter talks about that would be so important to Lingling."
"If it were any other time, it would be fine. But Your Highness, the Tang Dynasty is in turmoil now. The Emperor and Empress have left for the capital, and you are trapped here with us. If there is any unrest in the northwest, if Kucha has any ulterior motives towards the Princess of Lingling, what will the Tang Dynasty do?"
The prince blurted out: "No, I believe Lingling. She will never betray me or the Tang Dynasty!"
"Yes, I know that's unlikely. But these are extraordinary times, especially since Your Highness is in danger. We must be on guard. No matter what, we must be prepared for any eventuality!"
The prince hesitated, and finally nodded to him silently, then turned and walked out.
When he returned to his residence, Wei Fengyang had already delivered two envelopes.
He opened the thick paper package first, and found a few children's calligraphy practice sheets inside, wrapped around an old carving knife. I guess he sealed it to prevent accidentally cutting his hand while looking for something.
The other letter from Kucha made him read it for a long time, which made his back cold and he couldn't breathe for a long time.
Wei Fengyang waited quietly beside him. Seeing his expression change drastically, he hurriedly asked in a low voice, "Your Highness, how is it?"
The prince said nothing, but he couldn't control his spasming fingers and crumpled the letter into a ball.
Obviously, Wei Fengyang's guess came true. The content of the letter was not good for him or the Tang Dynasty.
After a long while, he murmured, "Fortunately... fortunately Lingling hasn't seen this letter yet."
Although he didn't know what decision she would make after reading the letter, he didn't dare to gamble, guess, or trust anyone at the moment.
When disaster struck, his father, the emperor, his mother, and all the officials in the court abandoned him without hesitation. So, why wouldn't Lingling rush towards everything that everyone dreams of, and why would he still firmly choose him, the so-called crown prince whose position was in danger at any time?
As if reading his thoughts, Wei Fengyang carefully inspected the interior and exterior, then whispered, "If Your Highness doesn't want Princess Lingling to see this letter, it's actually quite simple."
really.
As long as Lady Qi never wakes up, as long as he destroys the letter, Princess Lingling will never know the contents of the letter and will never have the chance to make a decision.
However, her husband died for the Tang Dynasty. She was Lingling's mother and her only blood relative. Only the two of them were left in the Changhua Palace, relying on each other for survival...
"Your Highness, the overall situation is more important!" He heard Wei Fengyang urging him, as if forcing him to make a decision early.
He stood in the howling night wind, watching the scattered and broken lights in front of him, which enveloped him like a ghost and seemed to invade his soul.
Finally, he found a suitable excuse for himself and slowly said, "You're right. Chang'an is already in turmoil. We must not allow any more accidents to happen in the northwest. For the sake of the overall situation, we...cannot take any risks."
He burned the letter, and Wei Fengyang sneaked into the water pavilion and drove the broken arrow into Lady Qi's chest an inch and a half deeper.
She was in a coma and her body just trembled a little, but she did not wake up, and she had no idea that her life was completely gone.
However, the candidate husbands have come to visit one after another. After all, there are etiquettes between host and guest, and they all have to visit according to the etiquette, with worries on their faces.
This is a good thing for the prince. With so many people around and eyes everywhere, mistakes may happen in the chaos, making it more likely that letters will disappear.
But because of this, Wei Fengyang originally wanted to rewrap the carving knife and put it back intact, but unexpectedly, the sharp blade cut through the paper in a hurry, and he could not wrap it up again, so he could only take it back and burn it together.
However, what they didn't expect was that Lady Qi, who had clearly suffered a heart attack, was awakened by Doctor Liao when she was on the verge of death, leaving her the opportunity to give her last words before her death.
After discovering that the letter had disappeared, she understood the prince's sinister intentions with her last bit of clarity of mind.
But at that moment, she knew that with the time she had left, she could not expose his behavior of stealing letters to his face, nor could she remind her daughter who was unaware of the truth to be on guard. What she was most helpless and afraid of was that her daughter would be deceived and manipulated by the prince, and would let a wolf into the house and ruin her life.
So she gave up everything she could say, and with her last bit of strength, she raised her hand and pointed at everyone in front of her—except the prince who was standing behind her, hiding in the shadows.
"Deng Deng, you must marry him... and then take him home!"
She believed that her daughter would listen to her and choose one of the people she pointed out and bring him home - it would be anyone, but it would never and could not be the prince.
This was the best path she had chosen for her daughter, a woman from the countryside with limited experience, using all the considerations she had accumulated throughout her life.
Whichever man she chose, she could take him back to Kucha. The man who wrote to her would naturally appear, and she would still have the opportunity to choose her own destiny, living the life she wanted freely, far away from the hustle and bustle of power.
Originally, all of this should have been buried with the death of Lady Qi. The prince even found a coffin for her as soon as possible so that all the secrets could rot and be buried.
However, because of his inner torment, the prince was trying to find salvation in the Jie Mi Yuan Pond in the Rebirth Hall of Jianfu Temple, but was caught by Shi Jingning.
How could the prince dare to let him escape with the secret? Otherwise, with Qiandeng's intelligence and sharpness, he would immediately discover the truth, so he signaled Wei Fengyang to kill him without hesitation.
But he didn't expect that the operation he thought was flawless would soon be found to have flaws during Qiandeng's investigation.
The thick sealing paper that was burned carelessly was stacked in multiple layers, so it was sandwiched between the incense ashes and not completely burned. Later, it was noticed by Uncle Fu and preserved.
Before that, they had already thought that Uncle Fu, as the only person who knew about Madam Qi's injuries, needed to be eliminated as a precaution. To leave no trace, Wei Fengyang chose the carving knife and killed him, blaming Nan Yu for the crime.
Although the county lord finally found Su Yunzhong, the man who actually shot the arrow at her mother, the task of escorting him was assigned to him with just one word from the prince.
So on the cliff of Eighteen Bends, he deliberately loosened the rope on Su Yunzhong's feet when no one was paying attention, and when he subconsciously tried to escape, he killed him and faked the illusion of falling off a cliff, thus safely eliminating all hidden dangers for the prince.
Even though they handled all traces and related people so carefully, even though they believed that all evidence and witnesses had been destroyed in time, she, who had nothing left, still saw through the truth in the end, and finally used their forged letters as bait to force the truth out.
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