The family lived in the house that Yang Yaozu had bought. Su Yue'e cried every day, Su Heng sighed constantly, and Yang's wife looked worried and distressed. At least they had a few days when they could eat their fill, and on the first day of the Lunar New Year, they even had dumplings with cabbage filling.
Yang Yaozu ran back in the middle of the day saying he was leaving. Yang's mother thought he was kicking them out and almost burst into tears.
They have nothing left now. If they are kicked out, they're doomed. They'll freeze to death on the streets in the dead of winter.
Yang Yaozu took a breath and said, "Don't take anything, get in the car with me. It's not just you guys, I have to run too."
When the family heard him speak so seriously, they all wondered if he had offended the emperor. They were so frightened that they stopped eating and followed Yang Yaozu out of the courtyard and into the carriage.
The carriage sped out of the capital, and Yang Yaozu ordered the driver to turn onto a secluded road, fearing that pursuers might come after them.
He arrived at a remote village, dismissed the coachman, and drove himself on the road until midnight. He then stopped the carriage and recounted in detail what had happened in the palace.
When the news of Emperor Kangping's death was mentioned, Lady Yang and Su Yue'e fainted on the spot, and Su Heng wet his pants and collapsed in his chair.
"We're finished, we're doomed!" Su Heng wailed. "This is regicide! Our whole family is going to die!"
"Uncle, don't cry," Yang Yaozu comforted him, "We still have a way to survive."
Su Heng continued to cry, as if she hadn't heard him. She banged her head against the carriage and shouted, "It's over! The whole family will be executed! I haven't lived enough yet!"
Yang Yaozu raised his hand and slapped Su Heng across the face, silencing him instantly.
“We have a place to go, and it’s the only place we can go,” he said. “If we kneel down and beg, I believe she will take us in.”
Su Heng's eyes and nose streamed down his face as he hastily wiped them away with his sleeve: "Who?"
He didn't believe there was anywhere left to hide. Whether Yang Yaozu had truly murdered the emperor was another matter. The world was so vast; unless he hid deep in the mountains, where else could he go? Sooner or later, he would be caught and beheaded.
Yang Yaozu said, "Su Wan."
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