Chapter 74 Chapter 74 So that’s how it is…
After the passionate kiss, Shangguan Xu relaxed for a long time, not only because of the difficulty in breathing after the deep kiss, but also because of the confused feeling of failure.
Those feelings lingered for so long that she let the hand covering her eyes stay there.
After a long time, the candlelight in the bedroom shone on her face again. Shangguan Xu was so shocked that she closed her eyes and came back to her senses.
She opened her eyes, and the vision slowly focused, and the face leaning over her came into clear view.
He smiled slowly, as always.
"My lady, go to sleep."
His coaxing voice was very gentle, but the look in her eyes when she looked at him became more and more reluctant.
It turns out that the failure of one's fantasy can be so painful. She didn't even ask that question. Just the shattering of that even unrealistic hope made her heart ache.
Shangguan Xu left his arms and slowly sat up.
Her expression returned to normal, and she smiled slightly, "I was a little sleepy just now, but now I'm not sleepy anymore."
"Then I will talk to your Majesty again."
"No need." Shangguan Xu lowered his eyes. "You're already tired enough taking care of Mr. Zhang every day. Why bother with me anymore? Just go and rest early."
Xu Qing'an looked at her and was silent for a moment.
"Okay." He replied slowly, "I will obey your Majesty."
He stood up and prepared to go out, but just after he took a few steps, he heard Qinghe's shouting coming from the front hall.
"Empress, urgent news from Jiangnan!"
Xu Qing'an stopped and looked back.
Shangguan Xu glanced at him, got off the bed, put on his shoes, and then went to the clothes rack and casually picked up a gauze dress and put it on.
She called Qinghe in.
"What's up?"
Qing He brought something to her and said, "According to the Empress's plan, the new forces of several aristocratic families in Jiangnan have joined forces with us internally and externally. We have used the leverage we have over the old forces to disintegrate their power and then replace them. Jiangnan just received a letter saying that the former heads of those families have admitted defeat."
Up to this point, everything was good news, but Shangguan Xu frowned when she saw Qinghe was worried. She did not feel the joy she had felt when she heard the previous news, but instead felt inexplicably uneasy.
Sure enough, after the news was finished, Qing He immediately continued, "But one of the family heads confessed his guilt and, in an attempt to mitigate his guilt, wrote a letter to the local authorities detailing many hidden secrets. And that letter was related to... Da Langjun..."
——
The night was pitch black, perhaps because it was cloudy tonight, not even a few stars could be seen in the night sky.
In Chang'an City, outside the Shangguan Mansion, flames were blazing. The empress dowager's carriage stopped in front of the mansion gate under the escort of a group of Yulin Guards.
Shangguan Xu got out of the car in a hurry.
"Your Majesty..."
Xu Qing'an, who was following behind her, grabbed her wrist, and Shangguan Xu stopped and looked at him.
Xu Qing'an: "Why not let me go?"
Shangguan Xu's eyes were slightly red, and he stared at him for a few breaths.
"No, this has nothing to do with you."
She pulled her hand away and went straight into the mansion.
Xu Qing'an couldn't stop him and could only quickly catch up.
——
Outside Shangguan Mansion, the Yulin Guards surged, with the sounds of footsteps and armor clashing one after another, but inside the mansion it was so quiet that even the chirping of insects could be heard, as if it were completely two different worlds from the outside world.
Now, Shangguan Li, the head of the family, was neither in the bedroom nor in the front hall to welcome the arrival of the empress dowager. Instead, he knelt alone in the ancestral hall.
The door of the ancestral hall was not closed, the wind blew the flags, and the candlelight swayed gently.
But the surroundings were still quiet until...
"You're here."
Hearing the footsteps behind him stop at the door, Shangguan Li then spoke. The corners of his lips raised in a smile as he spoke, but the next moment his eyes became moist and his vision blurred in an instant.
Shangguan Xu stepped through the door, but did not walk up to him. Instead, he stopped a few steps behind him.
"Brother..."
She asked again in a trembling voice, "Are you... still my brother?"
Shangguan Li's nose was blocked and his voice was hoarse: "Of course."
"Then tell me, what exactly happened back then? Why did the patriarch say in his confession that it was you who ordered him to join Su Wang? And why, in the first year after he joined Su Wang, were you involved in many of the things he did with the Su family? And why! All of this! happened after the third day of the third month of the seventh year of Xining? What kind of deals did you make with Su Wang back then?"
With a bang, Shangguan Li closed his eyes tightly.
Shangguan Xu also felt like his heart was bleeding.
Today, when she received the letter of apology, she nearly fainted after reading it for the first time. The head of the family detailed in the letter the contact between him and Shangguan Li over the past few years. He simply wanted to ask why all his affairs had clearly begun because he listened to the words of the Queen Mother's brother, but now he was being held accountable by the Queen Mother?
The head of the family did have a long history of bad deeds. After the Xining Rebellion, he united with the Jiangnan families to attack the poor families both inside and outside the court. However, all of this was done under the orders of Shangguan Li, so he could only tell all those things and try his best to survive.
Shangguan Xu still remembered the changes in the court that year. The shipwreck on the night of Shangsi was witnessed by all officials and common people, so there must be an explanation. However, in the end, all those implicated were from humble backgrounds. The first to be implicated were the Shangshu and Shilang of the Ministry of Works. Those implicated also had one thing in common - they were all people he valued and were promoted by him.
Su Wang not only wanted to take his life, but also wanted to eliminate all his remaining power in the court.
Therefore, after Shangguan Xu knew that Shangguan Li was also involved in those things, how could he not think of the worst possible situation and how could he not feel heartbroken?
It turns out that the brother she now loves the most, her only blood relative in this world, is also the culprit who harmed him back then?
Shangguan Li knelt on the ground with his head hung, his upper body shaking with sobs.
This day has finally come.
"It's just as you think," he said softly, "Just as you suspected. I was indeed involved in the shipwreck on Shangsi Night."
Outside the door, Xu Qing'an tilted his head and his eyes instantly fell on the person kneeling on the ground.
Inside the room, Shangguan Xu frowned when she heard the voice, as if at that moment she could only hear the voice but could not understand what the words meant.
She didn't know why she was smiling so hard. After a long while, she seemed to slowly come back to her senses and asked, "Why? Why did you do this? Even if I put aside my reasons, haven't you always admired him and wanted to help him become a wise leader?"
"Yes, that's why I got involved in that."
Shangguan Xu suddenly burst into laughter. Her mind was in a turmoil, and she was increasingly unable to comprehend the meaning of the words she had heard. So she forced herself to understand: "What's the logic behind this? Do you want to kill him because you admire him? Do you want to kill him because you want to help him become a wise leader? What about me, what about us? Have you ever thought about killing me because of this?"
Shangguan Li was shocked: "Ah Xu, sister!" He turned to look at her sideways, "You have to believe that I never intended to hurt you."
"But you and Su Wang killed him together..." She emphasized, "Killed the person I love, killed the person who loves me."
How is this not hurtful?
Shangguan Li opened his mouth, trying to say something, but he finally lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry... I'm sorry, brother."
He slowly continued, "Back then, when my father passed away, I resigned from my official position to observe three years of mourning. During that time, I didn't participate in any political affairs, and I had no idea what was happening in the outside world. So, after I returned to the court, the first thing I had to do was to understand what had happened in the past three years."
"He was my father-in-law and the current prime minister. Because of these two relationships, I learned a lot from him. However, this also limited the information I could get. He could easily control what he wanted me to know and what he didn't want me to know. So during that time, the most I learned was the reforms the late emperor had implemented in those three years, and how many of them had failed."
"He told me that the late emperor was too young and too naive about many things. He believed that everything would develop for the good and could be controlled by the court. That's why the late emperor implemented drastic reforms. However, he didn't realize that those reforms were a drain on national strength and had no benefit for the people and the country. But the late emperor was the Son of Heaven, the ruler of a country, and possessed supreme power. If others wanted to stop him, they had to change his mindset."
"He said that, fundamentally, it was simply because the late emperor had lived a life that was too easy, and he was unaware of the sufferings of the world, nor of the wickedness of human nature."
"So, you and Su Wang planned the shipwreck together?" Shangguan Xu asked in a trembling voice.
"Yeah." Shangguan Li responded.
Shangguan Xu's heart ached, her head felt stuffy and swollen, but she still felt something was wrong. She said, "I don't know what happened during the three years we were in mourning after my father passed away. But I do know roughly what he did in the nearly two years since I married him. He's never been one to act rashly. He knows that reforms affect the interests of many parties and shouldn't be implemented lightly. Even if a reform decree was issued, it would only be after he had researched it for a long time and confirmed that it was feasible. How could it be like what you said, with so much done and so many failures?"
"Besides, you said your purpose was simply to let him know the sufferings of the world and the evil nature of human hearts. So why did you kill him?"
"Because I was cheated." Shangguan Li felt hopeless.
"As you said, what happened in those three years wasn't what I knew, and what happened in the next two years wasn't what I knew either. But what was presented to me was exactly what that person told me."
"I never intended to kill the late emperor, but I didn't know he had assassins on the ship, nor did I know he and Xue Hong had other plans."
"By the time I realized his true intentions, it was already too late. The emperor had disappeared, and the entire city was under martial law. He took me to the Qujiang River."
Shangguan Li's voice became weaker and weaker, so weak that one had to get closer to hear it clearly.
Shangguan Xu finally walked up to him, squatted in front of him, and looked at him with red eyes.
Her voice was equally weak: "What are you doing by the Qujiang River?"
Shangguan Li slowly raised his eyes to look at her and said, "Look... the corpse of the late emperor."
Boom! Shangguan Xu's mind suddenly went blank for a moment, and tears rolled down his eyes completely uncontrollably.
Shangguan Li felt increasingly distressed by her expression, but he couldn't help but say, "Actually, they had already found the late emperor three days before his body was returned to the palace. However, the sword and knife wounds on his body and face were still obvious. So, to cover them up, they kept him in the Qujiang River for another three days, waiting for the water to completely swell the body and conceal the true source of the wounds."
Shangguan Xu opened his mouth wide, unable to utter a word for a long time: "You guys are really, so vicious!"
All the regret, pain, and torture erupted from Shangguan Li's heart along with Shangguan Xu's words. He raised his voice, "So after that, I won't let you leave Lizheng Palace, and I won't let you spread the news that you saw assassins on the ship. I can't let you get hurt again. I know their methods, and I must protect you!"
"That's why I had no choice but to cooperate with them, even using your imperial seal, just to let them know I was tied to them. To make them feel like you and I wouldn't pose a threat, I had the aristocratic families I was friendly with switch sides with them, and I resigned from my position in the Ministry of Justice."
The sound reached outside the door, and Xu Qing'an loosened his fist in his sleeve powerlessly.
I see……
It turns out that this is the reason why he couldn't solve the problem before.
Shangguan Li slowly extended his hand to Shangguan Li, but stopped halfway, wanting to touch but not daring to: "But Ah Xu, I know that no matter what I do, I can't make up for the mistakes I made. I am sorry for you..."
Shangguan Xu ignored his trembling hands and lamented, "Brother, you are my only relative in this world. How could you, how could you..." She couldn't control her sobs and choked, "What should I do?"
——
Shangguan Xu didn't know how she left the ancestral hall. The road seemed very long, but she couldn't remember how she got there at all.
She stepped over the door in a daze, and her clothes brushed against the arm of the man who had been guarding outside the door.
Xu Qing'an watched her walk along with caution and worry. When their clothes brushed against each other, he watched her silently as she walked down the stairs and into the yard.
She felt like she had lost her soul, and he couldn't help but pull her wrist.
"Your Majesty, I will take you out."
Shangguan Xu turned her head to look at him, and it seemed that she used a lot of effort to focus her eyes.
But she said, "Isn't it disgusting?"
Xu Qing'an hesitated.
She then asked, "It feels disgusting to be betrayed by someone close to you, right?"
He was speechless for a moment.
After a moment, he looked up at her and said comfortingly, "Shangguan's original intention was not as the Empress said. He has always been thinking about protecting the Empress."
She forced a smile: "So I should forgive him?"
"But what about him?" she asked, and he pointed at another person. "The water in Qujiang River was very cold that year."
"Mother! Mother!"
But in a moment, Shangguan Xu fainted as if without bones. Xu Qing'an hurriedly took him into his arms, and then without caring too much, he just picked him up and walked out quickly.
Sushant came from another direction.
"Stop!" Su Shang raised his hand to block the way.
"Get out of the way." Xu Qing'an said coldly, without looking away.
"What is Lord Xu doing?"
"I say again, get out of the way!"
Su Shang was no less sceptical: "Let me remind you, you are an outsider! It's already late at night. Have you considered His Highness before doing this?"
"Have you ever considered stopping me now? Can't you see that His Highness needs a doctor now?"
Su Shang glanced at the girl with her eyes closed in Xu Qing'an's arms, then shifted his gaze and glared at Xu Qing'an fiercely: "You're the one who made her like this. I've always said that you were harming her!"
"So you already knew the truth of that year, right?" Xu Qing'an chuckled and asked back.
Su Shang gritted his teeth: "I didn't participate!"
Xu Qingan sneered again: "What kind of official is this? What book are you studying? What's the meaning of your words?"
After saying this, Xu Qing'an ignored Su Shang's expression and his face darkened again. He said again, "Move aside. I don't care what you did before. Now that you keep saying you want to do this for the Empress, you must move aside."
Su Shang took a few deep breaths, clenched his fists, and stepped aside to make way.
Xu Qing'an ran straight to the gate of the mansion, but stopped when he reached the door.
He recalled what Sushan had said just now.
Xu Qing'an called out to Qinghe, who had been following him all the way, "Qinghe, you should take the Empress on this leg of the journey. There are so many people out there, it's not convenient for me to do this."
Qinghe understood, took Shangguan Xu from his arms, and prepared to carry him out.
"Is there a royal physician accompanying you?" he asked.
Qinghe nodded: "Yes."
"Then let the imperial physician get on the carriage and treat the patient first."
"good."
Qinghe responded and turned around and headed towards Shangguan Xu's carriage.
Xu Qing'an stayed where he was.
He watched her being taken into the carriage, and waited there until the imperial physician hurried over.
Then he turned around and headed towards the ancestral hall of Shangguan Mansion.
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