Fang Mingfeng immediately denied it and raised his hand to rub his forehead.
He was really crazy, how could he believe Gu Yanfei's nonsense!
and……
There was a hint of bitterness at the corner of Fang Mingfeng's mouth, but his eyes were burning as he recalled how Gu Yunmeng had risked her life to stand in front of him.
For her, even if I'm unlucky, I'll gladly accept it!
Fang Mingfeng lay on the ground, looking up at the round silver moon in the night sky above.
Gu Yanfei's words echoed in his ears again like the whispers of a ghost: "The closer you get to her, the more unlucky you will be..."
No! Fang Mingfeng tried hard to shake off the words in his mind, repeatedly telling himself that this was nothing.
He has figured it out these days.
Even if the person Mengmeng likes is not him, he can silently protect her for her whole life! It was quiet all around, the night was quiet and deep, and there was no one on the road.
Only Fang Mingfeng was lying there alone.
The cold wind was biting, but his heart was burning and beating strongly.
Suddenly, I heard a burst of hurried footsteps approaching this side.
My dear!
Gu Yunmeng's beautiful face appeared in Fang Mingfeng's mind. His eyes lit up and his heart was filled with joy.
He raised his head with difficulty and looked in the direction of the footsteps, only to see a pair of old and dirty straw sandals. Then, another pair of cloth shoes with patches of different sizes came over.
Fang Mingfeng's heart sank.
The owners of the two pairs of shoes all squatted down, and one of them said in a gruff voice: "This man fell off his horse. It seems that he was seriously injured."
"Hurry, take away all the valuables on him." The other person urged impatiently.
"How dare you!" Fang Mingfeng shouted with gnashing teeth. How dare two beggars and vagrants be so rude to him! Seeing that he couldn't move at all, the two beggars didn't care about being rude or not, and just did it. They searched Fang Mingfeng inside and out, emptied his purse, sleeve pockets, belt, and even short boots, and took away all the valuables, including the jade hairpin on Fang Mingfeng's bun.
Fang Mingfeng's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, veins on his forehead were throbbing, and he wished he could kill these two untouchables with one knife.
He had lived a smooth life. Apart from the setback in Gu Yunmeng's matter, he had never felt so powerless as he did at that moment... not even when he was stabbed by King Kang that day.
"The closer you get to her, the more unlucky you will be..."
"First you get hurt, then you lose money, then your family is destroyed, until you are left with nothing."
"By then, you will have been stuck in the quagmire and will not have a good ending!"
Gu Yanfei's words echoed in his ears over and over again. This time, he couldn't get rid of them or forget them.
From the distance came the flamboyant cry of a wild cat, as if mocking someone.
The night was getting deeper and deeper, and it was getting colder and colder.
Icicles hung from the eaves, and the dew on the ground gradually condensed into frost.
The sky gradually brightened and the sun rose slowly.
The Prince of England was found unconscious in an alley by patrolling soldiers from the Five Cities. His hair and clothes were soaked with dew, and it was obvious that he had been frozen all night.
When the British Duke Fang Huairui was notified by the Five Cities Army to come and pick up someone, his face turned extremely dark.
He didn't even ask what had happened to the prince. He just ordered his servants viciously to throw him back to the mansion and keep him under guard.
Afterwards, Fang Huairui hurried into the palace again.
The emperor had not held any morning court since the ninth day of the first lunar month. Whenever his ministers asked about it, the chief eunuch Zhao Rang would worryfully say that the emperor had caught a cold during the trial at Chengtian Gate on the ninth day of the first lunar month and was feeling unwell.
The emperor did not attend court, and all the memorials submitted by the court officials were suppressed. No matter how much noise and fuss those noble families made, without the opportunity to see the emperor, it was like punching into cotton, with nowhere to put their strength.
There was a long queue outside the Qianqing Gate, and many officials were waiting there in the cold wind.
They all knew Fang Huairui and nodded to each other, thinking that Fang Huairui had also come specifically to see the emperor.
But Fang Huairui did not go to the Qianqing Palace. Instead, he went to the Yangxin Palace from the Yuehua Gate and politely asked Eunuch He to help pass on the message: "Eunuch He, I want to see His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
Eunuch He went in to report, and soon came out to lead Fang Huairui in, through a series of door curtains, all the way to the east warm room.
In the past, the East Warm Pavilion was always filled with a strong smell of medicine. Ever since the emperor gave this place to Chu Yi, it was replaced by another kind of clear and crisp incense fragrance. There was no more sound of parrots, and the surroundings were unusually quiet.
At this time, Chu Yi, dressed in white, was sitting in front of a ginkgo wood chessboard by the window, playing chess with himself. The black and white chess pieces had already occupied half of the board.
The sound of each move was crisp and clear, and he made each move slowly, appearing calm and composed.
The young man's every move was elegant and relaxed, with the corners of his lips slightly raised.
"Your Highness." Fang Huairui stopped three steps away and saluted respectfully with his fists clasped.
After the incident at the Yu family, Fang Huairui had been to the Qianqing Palace and the Yangxin Palace several times in the past few days, but he had neither seen the emperor nor Chu Yi. Today, Chu Yi was willing to see him, which gave him a glimmer of hope.
Fang Huairui quickly glanced at Chu Yi and felt that the eldest prince seemed to be in a very good mood, so he said with a stiff upper lip: "I wonder if you can let me take my concubine back?"
While speaking, Fang Huairui cursed Yu a hundred times in his heart.
However, Yu was the legitimate wife of the Duke of Yingzhou, and even if Fang Huairui disliked his wife's behavior, he still had to consider the reputation of the Duke of Yingzhou's mansion.
The Yu family had been imprisoned all this time, which inevitably caused a lot of speculation from outsiders and was also embarrassing for herself.
"sit."
A young eunuch brought an armchair over and Fang Huairui sat down beside it. Another eunuch served him tea.
The fragrance of Biluochun tea diffuses faintly.
Fang Huairui drank a sip of tea, and felt a little more confident. He continued, "Emperor Taizu once said that the crime should not be committed against married women."
As he spoke, he carefully observed Chu Yi's expression.
"Emperor Taizu did say this, but..." Chu Yi didn't look at Fang Huairui. His slender fingers moved around in the black chess box, making a slight thumping sound.
Finally, he picked up a black piece and spoke in a gentle voice as usual: "Except for treason."
The sound of the pieces falling suddenly became sharper and released a murderous aura.
Fang Huairui's heart suddenly contracted, his hands trembled violently, and he managed to keep a straight face.
The Yu family was so bold that they poisoned the eldest princess with a blood poison and murdered her. They also kidnapped hundreds of children in an attempt to frame the emperor. Every one of their actions was outrageous.
This is no different from treason! Not to mention, the eldest prince still has the "previous queen" as evidence.
Fang Huairui felt heavy in his heart, as if a mountain was pressing on him.
Fang Huairui is a warrior, but that doesn’t mean he is stupid. As a commander, marching and fighting depends not on physical strength but on brains.
Fang Huairui calmed down and pretended not to understand, then said evasively: "Your Highness, the Yu family is unkind, unjust, disloyal, and unfilial, and they are ambitious. For their own selfish interests, they have committed heinous crimes, but they would never dare to have the intention of treason."
"If the queen of the previous dynasty had a posthumous child who is still alive, he should be fifty years old now. The Yu family has been relatively peaceful in the past fifty years. Besides, the child may have already passed away."
"This child is most likely to die young."
A sneer appeared on his rough face.
Chu Yi picked up the enamel teacup with the Three Gentlemen of Plum, Orchid and Bamboo at hand and drank the tea slowly without making any comment.
Fang Huairui looked at Chu Yiqingjun's profile, his heart began to lift a little, and cold sweat oozed out of his forehead.
After taking two sips of tea, Chu Yi put down the teacup, then turned to look at Fang Huairui and smiled.
"Does the Duke of England really think so?"
His smile was still so gentle, and under the sunlight shining through the window, it made people feel bright.
Seeing this made Fang Huairui feel cold in his heart.
Fang Huairui was so upset that he wanted to cry but had no tears. What the eldest prince said...
In his heart he cursed Mrs. Yu for the hundred and first time: Marrying an unvirtuous wife will bring disaster to three generations; the ancients were right!
At this moment, he was like walking on a tightrope with a deep abyss below. If he took a wrong step, even the Duke of England's mansion would fall into the abyss and be completely destroyed.
Chu Yi did not wait for Fang Huairui to answer, and said calmly: "The posthumous child left by the previous emperor Hongwu is indeed dead."
"Died more than 20 years ago."
Fang Huairui's eyes suddenly lit up, and he felt relieved instantly as if he had been pardoned.
Great! He tried hard not to laugh, picked up the teacup with a strange expression and drank a sip of tea to calm himself down.
Chu Yi withdrew his gaze from Fang Huairui and looked at the clumps of green bamboo in the courtyard outside the window. He then said, "However, this former prince left behind a son."
"Over the years, the Yu family has secretly recruited remnants of the previous dynasty in his name, recruited soldiers and horses in Yuzhou, forged weapons, and secretly colluded with Nanyue to smuggle firearms and iron ore to Nanyue."
"Duke Ying, where did the Yu family get this iron ore?"
"..." Fang Huairui's eyes twitched and he was speechless.
The eldest prince had long known that the Yu family had privately occupied the iron mine in the name of the Duke of Yingguo's Mansion.
Still asking! Still asking! Chu Yi continued to speak slowly: "This time, the Yu family used the blood of two hundred children to plan for a hundred years of luck."
"Prince of England, tell me, what is this 'hundred years of luck' for?"
Chu Yi was still looking at the green bamboos outside the window, tapping the knuckles of his right hand rhythmically on the edge of the chessboard.
Fang Huairui's heart beat violently several times at Chu Yi's few words, and he felt like he was about to have a heart attack.
He quickly swallowed the tea, but accidentally choked on it. He lowered his head and coughed violently: "Cough cough cough..."
It took Fang Huairui a while to calm down a little. When he raised his head again, he met Chu Yi's eyes, which were calm and deep like the sea.
"Does the Duke of England want to see the evidence?" Chu Yi asked with a smile, and picked up another black piece from the chess box. He played with it flexibly, flipping it from the index finger to the little finger, and then from the little finger back to the index finger.
His slender fingers were nimble and deft, as if the tiny black spot was a part of him and could not escape his palm.
It was as warm as spring in the East Warm Pavilion, but Fang Huairui felt a bone-chilling cold.
"..." Fang Huairui felt a burning sensation in his throat and a bitter taste filled his mouth, with a large amount of cold sweat oozing out of the back of his neck.
He felt as if he was the chess piece held in Chu Yi's palm.
Things have come to this point, and if he continues to struggle, it will only displease the eldest prince.
Fang Huairui suddenly stood up from the armchair, took out the tiger talisman from his sleeve, lifted his robe and knelt down, holding the tiger talisman high with both hands and lowered his head.
(End of this chapter)
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