Aside from learning about some matters of the imperial court, Zhu Yunwen lived an ordinary life with Zhao Qingzhu every day.
On the imperial side, besides constantly trying to find evidence to prove that Zhu Yunwen was killed by Chechi State, and then taking revenge on Chechi State.
Prince Zhu Gang of Jin also began to extensively win over some officials in the court.
Ultimately, power is always tempting, so it's not surprising that Prince Zhu Gang of Jin would do such a thing.
Many officials in the imperial court have begun to waver, as they seem to have no other choice in the face of the current situation.
What else could be done besides supporting Prince Jing, Zhu Gang? After all, such a vast dynasty needs a successor.
It's impossible that this vast dynasty would simply decline after Zhu Yuanzhang's death.
Of course, among these officials who chose to support this, there were certain differences.
Some officials have no choice but to compromise.
However, there were some who had already been bribed by Zhu Gang and had to provide him with full support.
As for Zhu Yuanzhang, he seemed to turn a blind eye to this matter.
He usually stayed in the Imperial Study and rarely dealt with matters of the court.
Yang Rong, Yang Shiqi, and Yang Pu were the ones who handled matters within the imperial court.
Zhu Yuanzhang only made decisions occasionally; he seemed to still be grieving over Zhu Yunwen's passing.
So the matter of succession was hotly debated in the court, but Zhu Yuanzhang turned a blind eye to it.
This resulted in the court appearing outwardly calm and normal, but inwardly becoming increasingly chaotic.
Although Zhu Yunwen had guessed all of this, he didn't worry about it too much.
That day, after returning from buying groceries in town, Zhu Yunwen was preparing to cook some delicious food for Zhao Qingzhu.
But then he saw two more figures in the valley. The two figures were wearing black robes. Zhu Yuntong judged from their physique that the two were the assassins from before, who were using the aliases Zhang San and Li Si.
So Zhu Yunwen quickly stepped forward and said:
"You're back? How are you? Are your families alright? Have you brought them to the Ming Dynasty?"
The two burly men slowly turned their heads to look at Zhu Yunwen. Their expressions were calm, but their eyes revealed a deep sorrow.
They didn't speak, but just looked at Zhu Yunwen, who seemed to understand something.
After a moment, Zhu Yunwen spoke again:
"What exactly happened?"
The burly assassin Zhang Shan gritted his teeth and said:
“Our families, including the families of those killers, are all dead… not one of them is alive.”
Upon hearing this, Zhu Yunwen froze on the spot. They were all dead?
This was indeed unexpected. He frowned and said, somewhat incredulously:
"Why? Was it that father and son from Chechi Kingdom who killed them?"
Both burly men nodded, and Zhu Yunwen, even more puzzled, said:
"But everyone in the world thinks you killed me, and the people of Chechi Kingdom shouldn't have noticed any flaws, so why did they still kill your family members?"
The two assassins' eyes were filled with intense hatred, which alerted Zhao Qingzhu, who unconsciously stepped in front of Zhu Yunzhu.
A moment later, the two assassins suddenly knelt on the ground. Zhu Yunwen was even more confused. Then, the burly assassin spoke:
"They broke their promise. They thought we were all dead. They thought we killed you. But they didn't keep their promise and they didn't spare our families."
Instead, they killed them all to silence them. How hateful, how pathetic, how lamentable... Why should I have believed them?
I now understand that from the moment we became killers, our families were, in reality, just like us, dead in name only.
They couldn't possibly still be alive... Yes, we were so naive. How could they possibly let our families go?
We are assassins, we live in the shadows, we do dangerous things all day long, risking our lives for them.
But the things we did cannot be exposed, not even our identities can be revealed, so our fate is destined to be death.
Our family members are also doomed to die, because they fear that someone will obtain information about us from our family.
Zhu Yunwen stood there stunned for a moment, then took a deep breath and said:
"So that's how it is. They're so ruthless, using your families as an excuse to control you and make you work for them."
But ultimately they have to kill your family members to ensure that any secrets your family might know will never be revealed.
It's such a pity that you've been working so hard for them because of a promise that can never be fulfilled.
It's lamentable that your families were never able to receive your protection. Is this the power game controlled by those with immense power? It's utterly cruel.
Zhu Yunwen sighed, realizing that he was ultimately a time traveler, a person from a later, modern era.
His thinking will never be as ruthless as that of people in ancient times.
He could hardly imagine wiping out the entire family of the person who worked for him in order to ensure that the secret would not be leaked.
The two Chechi Kingdom assassins kneeling on the ground looked at Zhu Yunwen.
They saw Zhu Yuntong's sigh and naturally believed that if they were Zhu Yuntong's subordinates, even if they did something dangerous for him, Zhu Yuntong would never threaten them.
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