Chapter 93 Playing with fire will get you burned
There are countless ways to describe He Zheng; the only words to describe him are "both teacher and friend."
Liang Yuanyi laughed self-deprecatingly and said "good" three times in a row.
Unsure of his current temper, Yu Mingshu lowered his head and remained silent after saying these words, until he slammed his hand on the table, stood up, and stormed off.
She breathed a sigh of relief the moment the door slammed shut.
When the King of Qin left, he looked terrible; anyone could tell he was in a bad mood.
Chen Qingyue happened to witness this scene. Her face turned pale as if she had seen a ghost. She entered with several steps back, gently closed the door, and sat down in the place where Liang Yuanyi had just sat. She asked in a low voice, "What is Your Highness Prince Qin doing at the Court of Imperial Sacrifices? Did you offend him?"
"Who knows what's wrong with him?" Yu Mingshu replied absentmindedly.
Chen Qingyue clicked her tongue. "He's currently enjoying the Emperor's favor. Aren't you afraid of retaliation?"
“I am utterly loyal to His Highness the Crown Prince, so why should I fear offending the King of Qin?”
"That's not how it works..."
Seeing Chen Qingyue's worried expression, Yu Mingshu finally gave her a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about me, the Prince of Qin is about to be in trouble."
Chen Qingyue asked curiously, "What do you mean?"
Yu Mingshu said, "Would you believe me if I said it was divined?"
Chen Qingyue was speechless. "I believe you. I believe you were drunk today."
…
The fifteenth day of the first lunar month is the Lantern Festival.
In a dilapidated house in the south of Chang'an, a woman who had been unconscious on the kang (a heated brick bed) for two days, covered in dust and dirt, suddenly coughed violently a few times. The coughing became more and more violent, and then at a certain moment she suddenly sat up, her eyes wide open, breathing rapidly.
Hearing the noise inside, the wooden door not far away was pushed open from the outside, and sunlight shone into the room. Yunying subconsciously squinted and looked towards the door.
The visitor was a simply dressed woman. She carried a bowl of medicine as she entered, and she exuded an unpleasant medicinal smell mixed with a odor similar to chicken manure.
Yunying frowned, raised her hand to cover her mouth and nose, then pressed it against the burns on her arm that were oozing pus.
A sharp pain struck her, and she realized what she had been through.
Her action was so sudden that the woman had no time to stop her. She quickly put down the medicine and pressed down on the girl's arm, saying, "Young lady, this injury must not be touched!"
Yunying frowned. After the sharp pain subsided, she warily examined the woman before her. "Who are you? Why am I here?"
The woman patiently explained, “This is the left alley of the third street of Tongjifang. The day before yesterday, my husband was working at Ruyi Inn. When he was carrying goods to the back, he found that the guest room was on fire. At that time, you broke down the door and fell under the eaves. Everyone in the inn ran away. It was my husband who kindly rescued you.”
Yunying recalled what had happened before she lost consciousness, and soon felt a splitting headache, painfully closing her eyes.
Oh, right, she wanted to make a deal with He Zheng. He Zheng agreed to send her to Jiangnan and give her a thousand strings of cash!
"What day of the first month is it today? How long have I been unconscious? Is anyone in the capital looking for me?"
"Today? Today is the Lantern Festival. You've been asleep the whole time. We don't even know your name. Where can we ask if anyone is looking for you?"
As the woman spoke, a shrewd calculation flashed in her eyes. She said seriously, "Miss, you've been lying in our house for two days. Now that you're awake, send a letter home and go back as soon as possible. We paid five hundred coins for your medicine these past two days to take care of you. My husband and I each missed a day of work. According to the market rate, you still owe us six hundred coins."
"I've been lying here for two days, and you want 1,100 coins from me?" Yunying jumped up from the kang (a heated brick bed) upon hearing this. "Are you rescuing someone or robbing them?!"
“Young lady, that’s not how it works.” The woman chuckled, her eyes no longer kind. “They say that money is just an external thing in the face of life and death. You are young and beautiful, and you have a bright future ahead of you as long as you survive. My husband saved your life, isn’t he worth a string of cash?”
Yunying gritted her teeth, thinking of her agreement with He Zheng, and stopped arguing with her. She changed the subject, took her hand and asked, "Auntie, we can talk about this money later. Tell me, is there any news about Marquis Pingyan? Has he been searching the city for people these past two days?"
The woman looked at her strangely, then said while thinking, "Lord Pingyan, you mean Young Master He? The whole of Chang'an is saying that he started a relationship and then abandoned her, and then set fire to silence her. He should be on trial at the Dali Temple right now! Oh, by the way, who is that Miss Yun who was abandoned by Lord Pingyan to you?"
Anger surged in Yunying's eyes; no one knew better than her who had started the fire.
The King of Qin used her to attack He Zheng. Now that his scheme has succeeded, he wants to break his promise and deny the conditions he agreed to, kill her to silence her, and then frame He Zheng. What a vicious plan to kill two birds with one stone!
Suddenly remembering something, she began fumbling with her clothes, asking anxiously, "Where are my things? You changed my clothes, are the things inside still there?"
The woman pointed to a pile of clothes crumpled up on the ground beside her, with burn marks, and said, "You still want this tattered cloth?"
Yunying practically pounced on it to pick it up, quickly rummaging through it until she finally found two crumpled pages in a tattered rag.
Fortunately, the evidence is still there.
Both pieces of paper were wet and scorched by flames, but she hid them on her person and protected them with her body. The writing on the papers was slightly blurred, but at least they were not completely burned.
She suddenly turned around and said to the woman, "Do you have paper and pen at home? I'll write to my family right now and ask for money."
The woman said, “We are illiterate and don’t have such things at home. You wait here, I’ll borrow it from Brother Lin on the back street. He’s the most promising tutor around here.”
Yunying readily agreed and pretended to be weak as she returned to the kang (a heated brick bed).
As soon as the woman left, she grabbed a coat from the family's wardrobe, put it on, tucked the most important piece of evidence into her pocket, pushed open the door, glanced around, and ran away.
The courtyard gate opened and closed, and the woman leisurely returned to the courtyard, nodding her chin at the man on the roof.
"It's done."
…
On the night of the Lantern Festival, Chen Qu, who should have been enjoying a feast with his family at home, was disturbed.
A woman claiming to be the orphaned daughter of the magistrate of Yun County, carrying a blood-written letter half her height, stormed into the Chen family's gate and loudly appealed for justice.
This time, Yunying accused Prince Liang Yuanyi of instigating her to falsely accuse He Zheng, and then setting fire to silence him.
Chen Qu, who had just raised his glass to clink with a girl at the round table in the flower hall, froze.
Upon hearing the servant's report, his first reaction was, "Why didn't she report this to the Dali Temple? What does she want from me!"
The gatekeeper said with a worried look, "Miss Yun said that the Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review is a henchman of the King of Qin, and it was he who orchestrated this matter. If she goes to the Court of Judicial Review, it will be like a lamb entering a tiger's den!"
Upon hearing this, Chen Qingyue immediately recalled Yu Mingshu's joking remark—"The King of Qin is about to be in trouble."
Chen Qu grumbled as he put down his wine glass, rubbing his forehead, still unsure how to deal with Yunying outside his door.
Chen Qingyue, however, understood and said in a low voice, "Brother, His Majesty attaches great importance to this case and has ordered a thorough investigation in court. Since this Miss Yun claims to have relevant evidence, we might as well inform the Jingzhao Prefecture. If the situation is true, we will have made a contribution."
“Don’t you even listen to who she’s suing!” Chen Qu said.
The emperor ordered a thorough investigation into He Zheng, the Marquis of Pingyan, a close confidant of the crown prince. If the suspect were replaced with his own son, whom he had recently recovered, do you think he would still be willing to investigate?
Chen Qingyue added, "Brother, you previously strongly opposed the King of Qin recognizing his ancestors, and this grudge has already been formed. Even if we suppress the scandal for him today, the King of Qin may not appreciate your kindness."
Chen Qu suddenly lowered his hand, met the girl's smiling eyes, and immediately understood her implication.
With the King of Qin gaining power, the Chen family will inevitably meet a bad end. Anything that is detrimental to the King of Qin will be beneficial to the Chen family.
He said with some regret, "I shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place."
Chen Qingyue gently shook her head. "Behind the Prince of Qin is the Zhang family, and perhaps the remnants of the Xie family. Regardless of whether my brother has a stance or whose stance he takes, once the aristocratic families rise again, we will all be subject to purges."
Chen Qu remained silent for a moment, then gripped his wine glass tightly again, downed the wine in one gulp, shook his sleeves, and resolutely stood up.
"Handling official business on the Lantern Festival night, what a miserable fate!"
…
The court assembly the day after the Lantern Festival was extremely lively. The Imperial Censor personally impeached Prince Liang Yuanyi of Qin. Officials who had recently pledged allegiance to Prince Liang Yuanyi and a group of the Crown Prince's confidants began a debate in the Taiji Hall. When the argument got heated, they almost came to blows.
Inside the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, Chen Qingyue vividly recounted events from the previous dynasty. Yu Mingshu had anticipated this, so he was not surprised.
"What did His Majesty say in the end?"
"His Majesty was so annoyed by their noise that he claimed to be ill in court and hurriedly returned to the West Garden to summon the imperial physician."
Upon hearing this, Yu Mingshu couldn't help but sneer, thinking that the illness was most likely feigned.
Chen Qingyue sighed, "In this way, Marquis Pingyan has finally been exonerated, and those who previously cursed him should finally shut up."
This time, not only did He Zheng's reputation take a turn for the better, but Yun Ying also established a new persona for herself.
She overturned all her previous testimonies, claiming that she was coerced by the King of Qin into framing He Zheng. She asserted that she and He Zheng were completely innocent, with only mutual gratitude and no romantic feelings whatsoever.
Some people questioned the stark contrast between her two statements to the authorities, to which Yunying proposed hiring a female doctor as an intermediary to examine her body in order to prove that she and He Zheng were innocent and that she was still a virgin.
After discussing it, several judicial officials granted her request.
Yunying is now innocent, Hezheng is now innocent, and the Qin King's faction is about to be drowned out by scorn.
He Zheng was extremely gloating about this, which is what is called playing with fire and getting burned.
…
On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, Yu Mingshu finished dinner with her family in Yongningfang. He Zheng used every trick in the book to coax her back to the official residence in Chongrenfang.
As soon as they entered the room, He Zheng closed the door tightly, put his arm around her waist from behind, and magically produced a brocade box. He gently nuzzled her shoulder with his chin and said, "Open it and take a look."
What is this thing?
"A birthday gift for you."
Yu Mingshu still remembers that when she was investigated by the Censorate, the birthday gifts He Zheng had given her two years ago were singled out for questioning. She was traumatized by this incident.
She pressed the lid of the brocade box and said, "Tell me how much this is worth first."
He Zheng said sincerely, "This is really a small item, but it is the sincerity of my heart that makes it valuable."
Yu Mingshu believed him and breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she carefully opened the lid, and a jade pendant lay quietly inside the box.
At first glance, it seems like a fine piece of jade, and should be quite valuable. But upon closer inspection, while the patterns on the jade pendant are elegant, the details are somewhat rough, not like the work of a professional craftsman.
Remembering what he had just said, "The most valuable thing is sincerity," Yu Mingshu realized, "Did you carve this yourself?"
"Yes." He Zheng knew his skills were limited, and since he couldn't see her expression, he couldn't tell if she was happy or unhappy, and he couldn't help but feel uneasy.
Yu Mingshu grabbed his hand and examined it back and forth. He Zheng knew what she was worried about and quickly said, "Your hand isn't hurt. Take a closer look at this jade pendant."
“I see it, it’s carved with a rabbit.” Yu Mingshu took out the jade pendant, carefully hung it around her waist, and turned around to hug his neck.
"I never expected that a brute like you would have such exquisite skills." Her voice was soft, and the slight upturn of her lips added an unusual meaning to her words.
He Zheng's breath hitched, and when their eyes met, he felt as if he had received some kind of encouragement. Because of Yun Ying's matter, she had deliberately ignored him for quite some time; was she finally showing mercy and letting him go completely today?
His blood rushed to his head, and he lifted her up in his arms. Seeing that she clung tightly to his neck without resisting, he carried her into the inner room.
Beneath the curtains, He Zheng whispered in her soft ear, "A brute like me knows a lot."
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