Chapter 86 Chapter 86 If you want to give up, I will help you! ...
The expression in Su Shang's eyes changed slightly because of Shangguan Xu's expression, as if the depression condensed by the cold air dissipated a little, replaced by a few secret and light smiles.
He began to look at her differently, softer, but also with more interest.
Shangguan Xu came back to her senses from the shock she had been in. She slowly shifted her gaze from the red rope to the face behind it.
Su Shang waited for her to look at him with the same expression as before.
"How did you get it?" she asked softly, looking at him.
Su Shang glanced at the red string and said lightly, "I got it from whomever His Highness gave it to me."
Shangguan Xu's eyelashes trembled: "What did you do to him?"
Su Shang said: "I didn't do anything to him, but someone couldn't stand his behavior of being a lucky minister, so they killed him for the sake of justice."
"Except him?" Shangguan Xu's eyes were filled with shock.
Seeing that she still held onto unrealistic expectations, Su Shang continued, word by word, "The cliff is a hundred feet high, with dense trees growing across it and rubble strewn all over the ground below. Naturally, you'll be crushed to pieces."
"This red rope is the cleanest and most intact of them. As for the other fragments, I am afraid Your Highness would feel uncomfortable seeing them, so I will not show them to you."
Her breathing suddenly became heavier, and her eyes were red: "So you killed him!"
"I wasn't the one who killed him!" Su Shang looked at the hatred in the red eyes and suddenly threw the red rope on his finger away. "I really don't understand, how could you fall in love with him? Why do you care about him so much?!"
He trod forward, pushing the person in front of him back step by step. As he walked, he said, "Remember, I was the first person you met, the first one to spend holidays with you and exchange gifts with you? But in the end, you fell in love with someone else." He nodded, perhaps even more indignantly, and continued, "That's all. Since he was the one you liked, the one you chose, I naturally blessed him and supported him. But then he died."
"You kept guarding him for so many years after he died."
With a clang, Shangguan Xu's knees hit the couch, but he was still approaching. She had no way to retreat and could only sit down.
He looked at the fear in her eyes caused by his actions and smiled self-deprecatingly: "Young people are in love, and I understand that you want to protect him, but if you want to protect him, you have to keep protecting him. How can you suddenly give up and stop protecting him just because of someone who appeared out of nowhere?"
There was a fierce look in his eyes. He leaned over and held her in his arms with his hands.
His voice seemed to be squeezed out from his throat: "Since you can choose not to defend, then why did you choose him and not me?" He looked paranoid, "Why not choose me..."
Shangguan Xu looked up at him under his pressure. Her expression gradually calmed down, and her eyes even became a little indifferent. "You want to know why? I don't want to say much about what's going on between him and me, but between you and me, there's only one reason why we can't be together."
"What?"
"The seventh year of Xining, the night of Shangsi."
With a loud bang, the air pressure around Su Shang suddenly collapsed, and the paranoia on his face faded away in an instant, leaving only a look of astonishment. No, to be precise, underneath the astonishment was the panic after the fact that he had been avoiding for many years was directly pointed out.
However, he still insisted: "Does that matter have anything to do with me?"
Hearing this, Shangguan Xu smiled with an unexplained emotion: "It doesn't matter? Let's not talk about the rest for now. You must know who the instigator is, right? The relationship between you and him is the chasm between us that can never be bridged."
Su Shang felt a pang of pain in his heart, but he was unwilling to give up and suddenly asked, "So you can't even forgive your brother?"
Shangguan Xu was stunned for a moment, his lips opening and closing several times before he uttered, not knowing whether it was a smile or sarcasm: "Su Xubai, so even now, you're still thinking of using the people around me to pressure me? Do you really see clearly what the problem between us is all about?"
"But my fifth brother is already dead. Isn't a life for a life enough?"
"But how many lives do you owe? Can the so-called repayment of lives really bring the deceased back to this world?"
Her voice was not loud, almost indifferent, but it was so painful to his ears.
He slowly stood up, his posture dejected, and then sighed, shook his head and smiled: "Well, it's impossible to go back, isn't this just right?" He looked at her, "It's impossible to go back."
Shangguan Xu met his gaze directly, a faint smile on his face. "But I believe he's not dead, right? But how can a red string that could fall off at any moment prove he's dead?"
Su Shang: "I said, I just don't want you to feel sick when you see the broken limbs."
"I'm not afraid of being disgusting, I'm just afraid of letting those with ulterior motives succeed."
"Do you think you can recognize him just by looking at his shattered limbs? His head is broken, and his face can't even be put together properly."
"Don't you know? You can recognize the one you love even by just looking at his eyes. He's not dead, right? That's why you don't dare show me the so-called broken limbs you mentioned."
Shangguan Xu continued, "You have nothing but a red rope. No," she turned her head to look at the dark red rope he had thrown on the ground, "you don't even have a red rope."
Su Shang closed his eyes and suppressed his anger: "My people saw him fall off the cliff with their own eyes!"
Shangguan Xu scoffed: "How did he become your man? Didn't you just say that someone else was doing justice for the people? Did someone else kill him?"
Seeing him looking at her with hatred, she said firmly, "I still say the same thing. I won't see anyone else. I won't believe anything I hear now."
"Okay," Su Shang clenched his fists, "If you want to see him, then I'll bring him to see you. Even if his face is completely disfigured, I'll have someone sew him up before I bring him back to see you! If you want to give up, I'll grant your wish!"
"But don't forget, you don't just have him around you. If you want the well-being of those close to you, don't do stupid things again. For some things, just trying once is enough."
What is it? Revenge for Emperor Zhao?
Shangguan Xu shook his head and sneered.
Su Shang took in her expression, but turned his head away and said, "Some people can beat you once and then beat you twice. But winning in a fight is not about luck, but strength."
"From today on, the Jinwu Guard will be fully responsible for guarding the Taiji Palace. The Yulin Guard will also be dispatched to assist in the guard. Your Highness, if you are unwell, please rest in Lizheng Palace."
After saying that, he strode away without looking back.
——
On the official road heading north, horses' hooves trampled through the mud, splashing up a cloud of mud.
Zhou Jingzhi was riding in the front, he had already changed into a straw raincoat, with the brim of his hat pulled down, and he rode his horse non-stop. It was raining heavily between heaven and earth, but their group was no longer just three people and three horses.
The hand holding the reins rose and fell with the movement while riding the horse, and Zhou Jingzhi looked at his wrist from time to time.
The red color became even brighter in the dim sky and after being washed by the rain.
Thinking back to the old red rope he threw to the group of people, he smiled softly but felt a little indignant. People are so strange. It was clearly his idea to throw it away, and he had discussed the process with Shangguan Xu, but when he really threw it away, he couldn't bear to do it -
That was the first red rope she gave him.
Zhou Jingzhi felt heartbroken, and while driving the horse, he looked at the red rope on his wrist a few more times.
——
In the Lizheng Hall, Shangguan Xu breathed a sigh of relief after Su Shang left. It really took a lot of effort to confront him for so long just now.
Long before Zhou Jingzhi left the capital this time, Shangguan Xu and he had anticipated that the Su family would make some moves along the way, so they created a cloud of smoke for Su's people at the very beginning.
On the surface, Zhou Jingzhi was going to Jiangnan to take over the affairs of the Jiangnan family, but in fact he just wanted to lead the Su family's people to the road to Jiangnan. His real direction was to go north.
Pingzhou, Yingzhou, and Anbei Protectorate are all in the north, and he needs to go there to prepare for the next plan.
Shangguan Xu stayed in the palace to protect him.
When Su Shang took out a red rope that had already darkened in color, she knew that his first step of "escaping from the shell" was successful.
But she had to admit that when the red rope was actually handed to her, her heart couldn't help but tighten. If it weren't for the dark color and the slightly different details of the knot weaving, she really thought she was experiencing the incident of the seventh year of Xining all over again.
So her behavior towards Su Shang at that time was not entirely fake.
Outside the window, the rain and wind kept hitting, and the cold air was blown into the hall. Shangguan Xu looked at the red rope on the ground for a long time.
Then he slowly walked over and bent down to pick it up.
She sat back on the Arhat couch and placed the things she had picked up on it. After pondering for a moment, she took out the paper she had just hidden under the cushion.
She opened it and read the contents listed again.
She recalled the arguments she had had with Su Shan just now.
Many of those words were said based on her true thoughts, but her main purpose was to anger Su Shang.
She wanted Su Shang to focus all his attention on the route to Jiangnan so that Zhou Jingzhi could go north more smoothly. At the same time, she also wanted to make Su Shang unable to bear it anymore and completely expose his true thoughts.
For example, he wanted to control the palace.
Although the Jinwu Guard has been led by the neutral Yuhua Lord's son-in-law Xie Qian as the general since Xue Hong's death, Xie Qian has been ill at home for many days in recent times. Shangguan Xu thinks that the Su family may have already controlled him.
As for Xue Hong's former subordinates, although they were initially resistant to Prime Minister Su, they all had their own agendas. Once the conditions were raised, they would turn against him.
Sure enough, just as Shangguan Xu and the others had guessed before, the Jinwu Guard was already under Su Shang's control.
However, in addition to the Jinwu Guards, Shangguan Xu also wanted to verify one thing - who among the Yulin Guards were Su's followers.
She remembered that when the assassination attempt happened that year, the Yulin Guards on the ship pretended not to see the assassin. Since then, Shangguan Xu knew that the people in the Yulin Guards were not clean. Although she had been cleaning them up in recent years, the Yulin Guards were so numerous that it was difficult to guarantee that there would be no one who slipped through the net.
We can only let the person behind the scenes fish the fish out of the pond ourselves.
Shangguan Xu looked at the paper filled with the names of generals at all levels of the Yulin Guard, raised his eyes, and looked through the window at the heavy rain outside the house.
She thought to herself that she would be able to completely clean up the person soon.
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