Chapter 203: Horse
The cold wind on the city wall blew the hem of Huo Lang's robes. He looked down at Wei Tan and the others, then slowly raised the black bow in his hand, put a black-headed feather arrow on the string, and pulled it to the extreme -
“Whoosh!”
The sharp arrow shot out with a sharp sound and went straight towards Wei Tan. Just as the family generals screamed and rushed forward to stop it, a scream was heard. The sharp arrow passed by Wei Tan and pierced Geng Guozhong's throat without warning, and a huge cloud of blood burst out in the air.
Geng Guozhong's eyes widened in shock, obviously not expecting Huo Lang to kill him to silence him. His mountain-like body slowly fell to the ground with a dull thud, and he was still a little shocked and dazed before he died.
Facing the Wei family's wary gazes, Huo Lang put away his bow and arrow without changing his expression. He was only responsible for protecting these people and ensuring that they could leave Qilin Pass safely. The next pass after Qilin Pass was Yuewang Pass. The generals defending the city were all former subordinates of the Wei family, so there should be no danger anymore.
Of course, even if there is, it has nothing to do with him.
Huo Lang thought he had completed Lu Yan's instructions and prepared to retreat with his men, but he never expected Wei Tan to suddenly push aside the guards and say, "Prince Regent, please stay!"
Huo Lang and Wei Tan were not close friends. He looked up when he heard the words, but saw Wei Tan coming up the stairs next to him. He walked quickly to him and asked in a low voice after a moment of silence:
"Did he ask you to come?"
His voice was so soft that it was almost blown away by the wind.
Huo Lang curled his lips slightly: "Could it be that this king came here voluntarily?"
He wasn't that kind, or rather, he didn't like to meddle in other people's business. Wei Tan knew this very well. He sighed and said, "Whether it's you or him, I remember the favors you two have done me. Since we happened to meet, I have something I want you to pass on."
Huo Lang raised his eyebrows slightly: "What is it?"
It’d better not be some love letter, because he would tear it to pieces on the way.
Wei Tan pulled out something wrapped in red cloth from his arms. It was a small ball, no bigger than the size of a palm, but it looked very precious, otherwise he wouldn't have kept it close to him. "I was planning to give it to him originally, but it's not easy to meet him, and I was afraid that someone else might give it to me. I happened to meet you today, so please help pass it on to him."
Huo Lang took the thing, which felt heavy in his hand. He rubbed it for a moment through the soft cloth and soon recognized that it was the half of the tiger talisman used to mobilize the Fuyuan Army. His pupils shrank and his expression changed slightly.
How could this happen?!
Didn't Wei Tan hand in the tiger talisman when he submitted the petition to return home? Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to leave Kyoto so easily. How come the other party still has one? !
Huo Lang reacted quickly and looked up at him: "The one you gave him before was a fake?!"
Wei Tan closed his eyes calmly, tacitly saying, "This is the foundation of our Wei family's survival, how can we hand it over to the emperor so easily?"
Huo Lang sneered: "Then why are you willing to hand it over to him now?"
Upon hearing this, Wei Tan opened his eyes and looked at him, saying something that Huo Lang could not understand: "This item is not given to the emperor, but to my best friend. The Wei family is gone, but the Fuyuan Army is still there. I hope that this item can help you in the future when Kyoto changes."
Huo Lang frowned, wondering what the hell Wei Tan was talking about. But before he could ask, he saw the other party suddenly take two steps back and bow to him:
"My Lord, in the future the Wei family will retreat to the mountains and forests and no longer interfere in the affairs of the court. The journey to Longchuan is long, and I don't know if we will meet again in this life. I only hope that you two will be safe and healthy, and finally get what you wish for!"
If we don't meet in this life, it's like participating in a business.
In this turbulent world where letters are difficult to send, a long journey may mean a separation of several years. When one is too old to endure the hardships of traveling, it may become a farewell forever.
The Wei family used their lives to prove that when the monarch is not virtuous, loyalty is a sharp sword that pierces the heart. Now that they are badly injured, there is nothing they can do except stay away from the court.
Huo Lang tightly grasped the military token and looked at Wei Tan intently. He felt a sense of loneliness as if he had lost his opponent. "Are you really not going to return to the imperial court?"
A century-old emperor, a thousand-year-old family, no one wants his family to be famous. After the Wei family retreats, no one knows when they will be able to emerge again. Maybe they will soon disappear in the history books.
Wei Tan had already turned around and walked down the stairs. He waved his hand with his back to Huo Lang, and his voice came from afar: "Wait until the sun and the moon change, the sky is clear and the water is clear, then it will be time for the Wei family to come out again!"
This statement is so outrageous that people dare not think too deeply about it.
They couldn't stay at Qilin Pass for long, so Wei Tan ordered his family to pack up and continue on their journey. The group gradually disappeared from sight. Next to Huo Lang stood a black-clad archer, who raised his hand and took off his mask, revealing a face covered in scars. It was Wei Hong.
Huo Lang looked at the receding figures of the Wei family and asked, "Are you really not going with them?"
Wei Hong's eyes were complicated, and he slowly exhaled: "People outside say that I'm dead. I think my mother and the others think so too. No matter how sad we are, it's over. Someone has to settle the blood debt of Guiyan Pass, and someone has to avenge the hatred of the Wei family. I can bear it alone. There's no need to drag them into it."
Huo Lang laughed: "Why, do you still want to kill the king?"
As he finished speaking, he tightened his grip on the dagger at his waist. His calm appearance revealed murderous intent, as if he would immediately wipe out the enemy if Wei Hong said "yes".
Wei Hong looked at him deeply and said, "Huo Lang, are you really stupid or are you just pretending to be stupid? I don't believe you didn't notice anything. My brother reminded you so clearly, don't you understand?"
Wei Tan's words just now have revealed a lot of information.
He said that the tiger talisman was not for the emperor, but for his best friend.
It was the emperor who sent Geng Guozhong to assassinate Wei Jia.
It was the emperor who sent Huo Lang to rescue the Wei family.
But how could such a ridiculous thing happen in the world? Either the emperor is crazy, or...
The one who kills and the one who saves are two different people!
At that moment, Huo Lang only felt that the window paper covering his eyes was suddenly pierced by Wei Hong, and the cold wind rushed in. It was no exaggeration to say that he felt chilled to the bone. He turned his sinister eyes with difficulty, and could not believe that such a ridiculous thing would happen in the world. However, the clues from the past made him believe in one fact -
Beishu, there really are two emperors!!
"Don't look at me with such murderous eyes. Do you think I didn't say anything just now?"
Wei Hong put on the beast mask again and uttered three words to himself: "No wonder..."
No wonder Lu Yan saved him during the assassination attempt that day. Now that he thinks about it, he is still the same person and has never changed. He just became a puppet due to some unavoidable reasons.
Fortunately, the assassination failed, otherwise he would have died for his crime.
On the way back to the capital, Huo Lang's face looked frighteningly gloomy. He had heard that the prince was often ill during the reign of the previous emperor, causing unrest in the court and the country. Later, he sought treatment from famous doctors and finally recovered. He often walked around the palace. Now it seems that it was clearly a trick used by the previous emperor to find an identical substitute to keep all the court officials in the dark!
No wonder he sometimes felt so strange when he saw the emperor being so timid. He thought it was because of the sickly Zhao Kang. What about the other fake emperor...
Why doesn't he tell himself the truth and be willing to be a puppet?
As Huo Lang thought of this, his face became increasingly gloomy. He whipped his horse hard, and the whistle sounded crisp. He just wanted to hurry back to the capital to get things done. The group rode their horses in a mighty manner across the muddy fields, scaring the few birds in winter away.
"Hey, hey, hey, fellow soldiers, help! Help!"
Suddenly, a young man climbed out from the ridge of the field nearby and waved excitedly to the team. On his back was a long-haired woman in a red shirt, with her head lowered as if she had fainted. She was particularly dazzling in the bleak wilderness, and even a little weird.
The young man suddenly rushed out and scared the team, and happened to block the road. Seeing this, Huo Lang tightened the reins in time to prevent the man from being caught under his hooves. His voice was cold and his eyes were like two cold swords that wanted to pierce people:
"Who dares to block the road here?"
The man seemed like a fool, not afraid at all, and even quite calm: "Sir, my name is Gongsun Mo, I am from Luzhou, I accidentally lost my money on the way to Beijing, so I can only walk. There are still eight days of journey, I really can't delay, please help me, sir."
The guard on the side shouted: "Where did you come from, you lunatic? Get out of here right now, or I'll kill you!"
Huo Lang, however, called back his guards. He narrowed his eyes and looked at the man in front of him named Gongsun Mo, and asked dangerously: "How do you know we are marching?"
They were all dressed in plain clothes, and this person suddenly appeared out of nowhere, which was really suspicious.
Gongsun Mo weighed the woman who was about to fall off his back and said with a smile, "You all wear lion swords on your waists and use octagonal golden unicorn bows. You are obviously from the Beishu Army Camp. Maybe you are from the Qianji Camp under the Regent King. I heard that all his men are archers. I think you are extraordinary and heroic, and you have style."
His flattery made the people feel comfortable, and even the fierce guards softened their eyes: "You are a sharp-eyed kid. I'll give you a dime. Go hire a carriage yourself. The army won't allow you to act so recklessly!"
He was about to take out the money when he heard Gongsun Mo say, "Sir, please be merciful and give me a ride. Someone is chasing me. If I go alone, I'm afraid I'll become a wild ghost in the fields tomorrow."
"Who is chasing you?"
A deep male voice sounded, and it was Huo Lang who asked the question.
Gongsun Mo, however, uttered a piece of news that made his face turn pale: "Master Huijun is the servant of Zhao Tai, the Prince of Lin'an."
Prince of Lin'an? Isn't that the cousin of the current emperor?
Huo Lang became a little interested: "Oh? Why did he want to hunt you down?"
Gongsun Mo smiled and pointed at the woman on his shoulder: "Maybe it's because his little wife is on me."
Everyone was shocked again, and then they looked closely at the woman on Gongsun Mo's body. They saw that the woman had three thousand black hair falling down, and was wearing a blood-red dress. It was really weird. If you smelled it carefully, you could smell a strong smell of blood and corpse.
This woman turned out to be a corpse that had been dead for a long time!
The guard was shocked and drew his sword: "Boy! You killed the concubine of Prince Lin'an?!"
Gongsun Mo took two steps back and said, "Hey, how can you say I killed her? He killed her himself. The Prince of Lin'an chopped the girl into seven or eight pieces, and it took me several days to sew the body together in the suburbs. Don't wrongly accuse a good person."
He was smiling when he spoke, but for some reason he sent a chill down one's spine. The guard touched his neck and swallowed hard, "My Lord, it's broad daylight, we won't run into a ghost, will we?"
Unlike the others who were frightened and uneasy, Huo Lang remained calm. The Prince of Lin'an? He was just worrying about not having a chance to deal with that bastard emperor, and now he had the upper hand. He ordered, "Give him two horses and take him back to the capital!"
Before the guards could say anything, Gongsun Mo smiled and said, "Thank you, military officer! Thank you, military officer!"
This man had successfully infiltrated the army, riding a horse himself and holding another horse in his hand to carry the concubine's body. He kept talking nonstop, his tongue never stopped:
"You all may not know that this Lin'an County Prince is the cousin of the current emperor, and his status is extremely noble. Unfortunately, his father, Lin'an Prince, died early, and he himself was not ambitious, and his family could not stand up, so he could only marry Huo Yan, a famous tigress in the capital. You know Huo Yan, right? She is the cousin of the current Regent Prince! She is the one who has the final say. After marriage, she is not allowed to take concubines or maids. The rules are very strict!"
"Yes, yes."
Everyone hesitated and glanced at the Regent secretly. Seeing that he was not angry, they continued to listen to the gossip. They even did not mind the stench of Gongsun Mo's corpse and urged him secretly: "Then what? Tell me quickly."
Gongsun Mo held a folding fan in his hand, which he opened with a bang, fanning himself vigorously, regardless of the winter weather: "But Miss Huo has been childless for many years after her marriage, and the Prince of Lin'an was really at a loss, so he kept a concubine outside. Within two years, the concubine became pregnant, and he was so happy that he even gave away the family heirloom, the Jade Pearl. But who knew..."
He was talking in a very anxious way, and the people around him asked him immediately, "What's wrong? What's wrong?"
Gongsun Mo put away his fan and then said slowly, "But who would have thought that Miss Huo had invited a doctor to check her pulse one day, and found that the Prince of Lin'an was born weak and it was difficult for him to have an heir. The reason for the childlessness for so many years was not the woman's, but the man's. In other words, we don't even know whose child the concubine's belly is!"
"The Prince of Lin'an was immediately furious. He rushed to the concubine's residence and not only wanted to take back the family heirloom, but also wanted her to hang herself with a white silk. The concubine also broke up with him and said she would take the Bi Liuzhu as evidence to confront Miss Huo. As a result, the Prince of Lin'an ordered his servants to chop her into seven or eight pieces with a big knife, and she died!"
Gongsun Mo waved his folding fan and said, "What a coincidence! The place where he dumped the body happened to be my land. This girl died with a baby in her arms. Her ghost has been haunting her and disturbing the neighbors. I really have no choice but to take her to the capital to file a complaint."
He said it lightly, but he didn't know that everyone broke out in a cold sweat in broad daylight. They all secretly stole their money and moved farther and farther away from the female corpse: "Is what you said true or false? You are not related to me, but you are willing to bring a corpse all the way to the capital to file a complaint. You are suing an official as a commoner, and you are suing a royal relative. This is a capital crime!"
Gongsun Mo chuckled and said, "Who said I was a commoner? I am not an official either."
As he finished speaking, he gently shook the folding fan in his hand. On the edge of the fan bone were engraved three large characters - "Fan of Injustice", and below it was a jade seal. It turned out to be a gift from the emperor!
Huo Lang's eyes sparkled when he saw this, as if he had thought of something: "Are you from the Gongsun clan of Luzhou?!"
The art of judging prisons in the world all has its own strengths, but there is only one person named Yang Beishu who is good at autopsy. His ancestor traveled around the world and judged countless injustices. He was personally awarded the "Fan of Removing Injustices" by the royal family. Even if they did not take the imperial examination, as long as there was a case to be overturned, officials from all over the country had to come in respectfully. However, he retired with his family more than ten years ago and there has been no news about him since then. Unexpectedly, a descendant would appear today.
Gongsun Mo was like a proud peacock, cupping his hands proudly: "Okay, okay, I've been in Luzhou for too long, so I came out today to see what's going on..."
Before he finished speaking, his hand suddenly felt empty as Huo Lang took away his folding fan. The fan opened with a swish and a poem was written on it. Huo Lang read it carefully and a cold smile appeared on the corner of his lips:
"Watching the excitement? I'm afraid your purpose is not as simple as just watching the excitement."
Gongsun Mo pulled the fan back without leaving a trace and gave Huo Lang a flattering smile: "My father wrote this crooked poem casually. I'm sorry to make you laugh."
The fan is quite old, but it is well preserved. When it is shaken, one can still see the elegant ink writing on it:
The king is not a king, the king is not a king,
Fishes and dragons take turns sitting in the hall.
Fish leapt from the Dragon Gate and turned over the sea.
The dragon was trapped in the shallows and became a bug.
I only heard the birds singing in pairs.
Why do we see the golden crow in the sky?
Stealing the sky and covering your eyes,
How can we clearly see the two divisions of the world?
Huo Lang rode slowly with an expressionless face. He didn't know if it was an illusion, but the smell of blood and corpses in the air became stronger. He closed his eyes and asked calmly, "Was this poem written by your father?"
Gongsun Mo: "It was his great concern. My father lived to be fifty-two years old, and he overturned 476 cases, but there was only one case that was very important. In order to protect the lives of the whole family, he dared not act rashly. Before he died, he felt guilty and died with hatred. As a son, I naturally have to relieve his worries for him."
Huo Lang asked in a deep voice: "What case?"
Gongsun Mo shook his head and said, "An old case from more than ten years ago has been closed."
Huo Lang tightened his grip on the reins without leaving any trace: "Which family?"
Gongsun Mo slowly uttered: "In Qingfeng County, Ruzhou, in Zhiweishan Manor, there is the family of the miraculous doctor Lu."
“Blah——!”
Suddenly, flocks of birds started flying in the originally desolate forest. As if frightened by something, they scattered in all directions with a flyaway sound and flew straight into the sky, dimming the scorching sun.
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