Chapter 56 Chapter 56 Where does such a strong love come from? ...
The day A Zheng went to see Xu Qing'an was the day she came up with the plan.
"I know Lord Xu and His Highness are worried about Su Wulang's situation lately. There's also a ship merchant whose whereabouts are unknown, and his account books that could be used as evidence are also missing. But I think I might be able to find him."
Xu Qing'an frowned.
Ah Zheng continued, "That man hasn't been seen in the city since he lured me out that night. I think, given the methods used by those who wanted to kill me, those connected to me were also 'silenced' that night. However, I was chased by them for a while, only escaping through a very complex forest. Furthermore, the lighting was poor, and they thought I was seriously injured, so they gave up temporarily."
"Recently, as I was vaguely recalling what happened that night, I remembered hearing someone in the group suddenly ask, 'Where are you?' after I escaped. I can tell they said that when they decided to give up looking for me."
"So the person they are talking about must be the ship merchant."
Xu Qing'an pondered, "So, the merchant also realized something was wrong and knew that group was going to kill him, so he went into hiding. But he hasn't shown up for so long, and his Jiangnan family hasn't made any moves either. I guess he didn't escape like you did."
Ah Zheng nodded. "The terrain there is treacherous, and visibility is poor at night. Even if someone like him, who doesn't have any martial arts skills, could escape pursuit for a while, running in such a place would easily cause him to miss a step and fall off the cliff. The terrain there is complex, with overgrown vegetation, so finding him would be difficult. Fortunately, I vaguely remember some of it. I can go back and see if I can find any trace of him."
Xu Qing'an remained noncommittal: "What about after you find it? Do you have any other plans?"
He sensed something was amiss when she arrived today. If she had been the only one to approach the ship merchant, she wouldn't have had to say this. Instead, she could have spoken to Shangguan Xu first, and then Shangguan Xu could have discussed it with him.
Sure enough, the next moment, he heard her say, "Then, I will assassinate Su Wang in the street, thereby exposing the matter of the Jiangnan ship merchants and the Su family to the public, and then lead the people of Jingzhao Prefecture to the location of the missing ship merchants."
"Are you so sure you can find that person?"
"Whether I can find him or not, I will not change my plan to assassinate Su Wang in the street. I believe that as long as I light this fire, Lord Xu will find a way to make it burn even more vigorously."
"But you know that if you do this, you will be in great danger."
Ah Zheng swallowed and turned her head away, saying, "Although I haven't fully recalled the past, judging by the fact that Su Wang wiped out my entire family and arranged for someone to kill me, he will definitely not let me go. Therefore, as long as I exist, I will be a threat to His Highness. What I need to do is die before his eyes and eliminate the threat I bring to His Highness."
Xu Qing'an said softly: "She won't agree."
Ah Zheng said anxiously, "It was precisely because I knew His Highness would not agree that I went directly to Lord Xu."
Xu Qing'an looked up at her. "Should I agree, then? I just promised her that I would take good care of her loved ones. If I agree with you and let you die, how will I deal with her when she finds out?"
Ah Zheng simply said, "In my mind, Lord Xu is someone who knows the importance of things."
After he finished speaking, the room was silent for a moment, and then Xu Qing'an's chuckle was heard.
This means that he is ruthless and is willing to sacrifice other people's lives if he fails to achieve his goal.
Xu Qingan sighed and said, "Okay, I'll help you with this."
A Zheng's eyes lit up instantly.
"But I also said I was helping you, not harming you." Before Ah Zheng could thank him, Xu Qing'an spoke first, "Since you came to me immediately after coming up with this plan, it means you trust me. I absolutely cannot let you down."
"The plan is as you said, but your life shouldn't be lost at the hands of that kind of person. Since you hate him, you should live a good life and watch him suffer the consequences of his actions."
Ah Zheng was stunned, worried that her survival would affect the plan and affect her own prince: "But..."
Xu Qing'an knew her concerns and said reassuringly, "Don't worry, it won't affect the plan. I'll call Doctor Xun over later, and we'll discuss the details together. I'm afraid you'll still have to endure some hardship during this process."
"I was prepared to die from the beginning. Whether it was painful or not was of little importance." Ah Zheng bowed and performed a martial arts salute. "I am deeply grateful for Lord Xu's help."
——
After the sound of the iron chain being pulled apart, the wooden door of the cell where Su Ran was was opened. Su Ran, who had been sitting cross-legged on the mat with his head down, raised his head and looked towards the door.
The man was wearing a wide, cloud-blue brocade robe and had a jade pendant and sachet around his waist.
Xu Qing'an held a dagger in his hand, with a slight smile on his lips.
Su Ran glanced at him, curled her lips weakly, then lowered her eyes and said, "Are you here to kill me?"
"You have already prepared everything yourself, so why do I have to kill you?" His voice was cold and ruthless, yet revealed a hint of triumph.
Su Ran's eyes fell on the small bottle in front of him and he smiled at himself.
The person in the room also added fuel to the fire, saying, "What? Are you still afraid even when death is imminent? Are you afraid to take action?"
Xu Qing'an knew that the bottle contained the poison that Su Ran had brought with him.
Su Ran raised her head and looked at him with dissatisfaction because of Xu Qing'an's words.
However, I can only feel unwilling.
He turned his head again and looked at the only small ventilation window in the cell - if it were daytime, bright sunlight would be shining in.
But it's late at night.
Su Ran said, "Why are you so anxious now? I have no way to survive anyway."
Xu Qing'an sneered and said sarcastically, "Of course I'm anxious. If you don't die, how can I go back to sleep peacefully? If you die too late, won't I miss out on a good night's sleep today?"
Su Ran turned around and said, "Do you hate me so much? Just because of the Liu Chang incident?"
Xu Qing'an lowered his voice and laughed a few times, his chest trembling. "So, Su Zhongcheng and I were just pretending to be confused. I thought you thought the Liu Chang incident was over with me."
"So it really was because of me using Liu Chang to frame you."
"Of course not! Do you really think that you deserve to die just because of one thing? How many lives have you taken? Have you ever counted them?"
Su Ran was stunned.
Xu Qing'an couldn't help but sneer at this. "You are truly hateful and pathetic. I'm here today to seek an explanation for the innocent souls who died at your hands."
He took a few steps closer, half-knelt in front of Su Ran, looked him straight in the eye, and said, "Your name is Xingzheng, but do you remember who gave it to you? Lord Yuhua gave you this name as a gift, but have you lived up to his expectations of you? Can what you have done truly be called justice?!"
Su Ran's eyes suddenly became stern, and his voice began to tremble: "Uncle..."
Xu Qing'an shifted his gaze to the medicine bottle on the ground. "It's a shame. You've always revered your Third Uncle. You treated him as a guide, but he never truly treated you. Now you're dying, and he won't let you die with a clear conscience. When you're in the afterlife, what will you do when your Fourth Brother asks you for an explanation?"
Su Ran: "What do you mean? Do you know my fourth brother?"
Xu Qing'an curled his lips: "It can be considered as a friendship from our childhood."
He picked up the medicine bottle from the ground. Su Ran watched him all the way and saw him place the medicine bottle on the palm of his hand, and then stopped in front of the two of them.
"When will you eat?"
Su Ran's breathing was obvious: "If I eat it, will you tell me about my fourth brother?"
Xu Qing'an remained indifferent: "Is this even a deal? You were going to die tonight anyway."
Su Ran stopped talking and directly snatched the medicine bottle from his palm, opened the stopper, and poured the contents into his throat.
He coughed twice and said, "I understand your concerns. Now that I've taken the medicine, our conversation won't be heard outside this cell."
Xu Qing'an looked at him with a smile.
Xu Qing'an asked, "Do you feel choked? Do you need some water?"
"I don't have time!" Su Ran stared blankly, grabbing Xu Qing'an's sleeves that were hanging on the ground. "Tell me quickly, what's going on with my fourth brother?"
Xu Qing'an spoke slowly, "You know your fourth brother didn't die voluntarily, right? Then do you know that he didn't actually kill that servant?"
"Have you ever thought about this? Although your fourth brother may be mediocre in intelligence, he has always been a stable person. Although he has not made any achievements, he has also not made any mistakes. Why would he lose his composure and kill someone just because a servant committed a crime?"
Su Ran said weakly: "He drank alcohol that day..."
Xu Qing'an laughed: "That was his first time drinking? Has he ever beaten or killed people after drinking in the past?"
No...Su Ran understood his fourth brother. Although his fourth brother's temperament was not gentle, he was weak in nature because he was strictly required by the elders in the family since he was a child. Therefore, he was timid in his attitude towards many things. That cowardice was not pretended, but was ingrained in his bones.
Seeing that Su Ran had taken his words to heart, Xu Qing'an continued, "I know you might say my words are unfounded, but it's been so long that many of the evidence is indeed hard to find. But think carefully, who is the biggest beneficiary of your fourth brother's unusual behavior? It's your third uncle..."
"You're talking nonsense!" Su Ran couldn't help but refute, "My fourth brother and my third uncle are cousins, blood is thicker than water, how could my third uncle harm him!"
"Is that so?" Xu Qing'an continued to whisper. "But it was he who forced your fourth brother to his death. It was also he who became famous after your fourth brother's death. It was also at that time that he confirmed his position as Prime Minister. Don't you think this is all too coincidental? Have you seen the body of that servant? Didn't you know that he had been suffering from a serious illness for a long time and couldn't withstand the slightest wind and rain? How could such a servant be allowed to stay in your fourth brother's courtyard if he wasn't expelled from the mansion? You have to know that your fourth brother was the oldest man of your generation in the Su family at that time. He should have been treated like the future head of the family."
“You, you…”
Xu Qing'an ignored Su Ran's confusion and continued, "As I said earlier, so much time has passed, and it's hard for me to have any proof, but I think there are some things you should remember. Throughout the Jin Dynasty, especially in the officialdom, the popular calligraphy is Hongyou Regular Script. Its majestic and imposing form is favored by many officials, but your fourth brother's favorite calligraphy is Zanhua Small Script."
"Of course he wouldn't use this kind of writing in documents, but in his own letters, he would use the hairpin flower small regular script. At the beginning, he wrote a letter like this an hour before he was forced to death."
Su Ran: "What did he write?"
Xu Qing'an: "Of course he was trying to plead guilty to not killing anyone. The man was already covered in wounds before he met him, and taking advantage of his alcohol-induced instability, he collided with him, hitting his head on the lamppost in the courtyard and dying instantly."
Su Ran didn't want to believe it: "You are lying to me. If he has grievances, why doesn't he come to my uncle? If he has grievances, why does he come to me? Even if he wrote a letter, how would you know the content of the letter? You are trying to alienate me and my uncle!"
"You're about to die, so why would I want to sow discord?" Xu Qing'an retorted bluntly, "Although the events of that year were widely publicized, they were ultimately your Su family's affairs, with no official involvement. Aside from your Su family, no one else knows the specific circumstances of the deceased. But think carefully, do the details I've described align with the circumstances at the time?"
"Why didn't he go find your uncle? He obviously knew that his uncle had set him up, and the one who wanted him dead the most was your most respected third uncle! Why didn't he tell you? Because you are his biological brother. If he told you, would you help him? Would you be able to fight your third uncle together?! He didn't want to involve you, he was protecting you!"
"But you! For all these years, not only did you not investigate the cause of his death, you even assisted his murderer in committing such evil deeds. How pitiful! Not only did you help that man do so many filthy things, but now you're actually willing to die just to let him get away with it. Hahahaha, Su Xingzheng, ah Su Xingzheng, how could there be such a fool as you in this world? Not only did you exhaust yourself for the man who killed your brother, but you're also going to die for him!"
"Enough!" Su Ran leaned forward and wanted to push away the heartbreaking man in front of him, but he suddenly lost his strength and a pool of black blood flowed out of his mouth.
Xu Qing'an calmly dodged his movements, slowed down his voice, and said softly, "I know. Even without seeing any evidence, you always have reasons to convince yourself that your choices over the years were correct. Now take a look at this. Do you recognize it?"
Xu Qing'an took out a flower knot woven from silk thread from his sleeve.
With just that one glance, all of Su Ran's beliefs collapsed.
Because he remembered that it was the seal of brothers agreed upon by his fourth brother and him. Only the two brothers knew about it, and they would only use it as proof when there was an extremely urgent matter.
Xu Qing'an: "Although this flower knot isn't the same one from back then, it's based on the one he carried when he sent the letter. He knew his chances of escaping danger were slim, so he included a plea for your well-being in the letter. You should understand what this flower knot means, right?"
"Fourth Brother...Fourth Brother!" Su Ran leaned back against the wall after exhausting all his strength. After a moment, his lips moved slightly, "You are truly cruel. Paying with my life is not enough, you also want to... destroy my heart..."
Xu Qing'an stood up and squinted his eyes. "The price you paid was already very small. You must know that the dead cannot be resurrected. The so-called compensation for a life is never compensation. It is just a consolation to the living and an explanation to the deceased."
"What good will it do to kill you? Those who died because of you can never come back."
Su Ran gradually lost her strength. "What is your relationship with them? Why do you hold such a deep grudge against me because of them? How did you know the contents of my fourth brother's letter? Who are you?"
"Who am I?" Xu Qing'an lowered his eyes and chuckled, "I wonder how much of your past you still remember."
He raised his eyes again to look at the man slumped against the wall, his pupils gradually blurring out, and each word was clear: "In the seventh year of Xining, the wronged ghost of Qujiang. The man who should be lying in Pingling now."
Pingling is the imperial tomb of Emperor Zhao.
Su Ran suddenly opened his mouth and took a long, painful breath.
He squeezed out his last breath and said, "No wonder! No wonder you chose her... So you're a couple... So you're a couple!"
However, before he could finish his words, Su Ran's head tilted, and he died with his eyes open and blood gushing from all seven orifices.
Xu Qing'an looked at it and couldn't help but glanced at it, frowning slightly.
He lowered his head, moved and squatted in front of Su Ran. When he raised his eyes again, the coldness in his eyes was gone. He raised his hand to cover the eyes of the person in front of him and closed his mouth.
"No wonder?" He muttered to himself, remembering what Su Ran hadn't said just now. "Since you two are accomplices, does that mean I'm better off choosing her than you?"
——
Shangguan Xu was still standing in the same place. About a quarter of an hour later, she saw Xu Qing'an walking out from the depths of the prison.
She thought of what he had just said.
He loves her?
What was different from before was that she really felt more affection in that sentence than in his previous words.
But where does he get such strong love?
Xu Qing'an had already walked closer, and shortly after he went to Su Ran's cell, Shangguan Xu called the Shao Yin of Jingzhao Prefecture.
Xu Qing'an stopped and saluted her, then spoke to both of them simultaneously, "The suspect, Su Xingzheng, has just committed suicide by taking poison. This is the medicine bottle he brought into the cell."
After saying that, Xu Qing'an handed the thing over.
After receiving Shangguan Xu's signal, the Junior Inspector of Jingzhao Prefecture took the medicine bottle and examined it carefully. "Your Majesty, this belongs to the Su family."
In fact, why bother with this? Everyone in the government and the country knows that Su Jiawulang will not survive tonight.
Shangguan Xu turned and walked out: "Since that's the case, let's close it. Don't forget the Su family's dignity."
The Shaoyin of Jingzhao Prefecture should be it.
Shangguan Xu and Xu Qing'an were released from prison together. As soon as they came out of the prison and stood on the high steps outside the prison gate, they saw Su Shang standing below with a group of Su family servants.
Xu Qing'an went down the stairs first, walked up to him and asked, "Lord Su, why are you here at this time...?"
Su Shang said coldly, "Come and pick up my fifth brother, take him home."
Xu Qing'an glanced at the stretcher carried by the servants behind him, raised his eyebrows and nodded, then stepped aside to make room. "Please come in, Lord Su."
Su Shang didn't look at him, but raised his eyes to look at Shangguan Xu who was still on the high steps and also looking at him. After a while, he picked up his robe and walked up from behind.
When passing by Shangguan Xu, he paused for a moment, but continued to lead people in without saying a word.
Shangguan Xu remained calm from beginning to end. After the person next to her left, she lowered her gaze to the person at the top of the ladder.
Outside the prison, the firelight flickered dimly, falling on people's faces, layer upon layer of light and shadow, but she could still feel the tenderness and smile at the corners of his eyes.
She looked at that person and called Qinghe: "Go back to the palace."
——
After leaving the prison, Xu Qing'an no longer traveled with Shangguan Xu. He went straight back to his own house.
When he reached the backyard, he happened to meet Xun Yang who had just gone out.
He glanced into the room through the window and asked, "What's going on?"
Xun Yang nodded: "He's definitely alive, but the wound to his abdomen is too deep, so he needs to recuperate for a while."
Xu Qing'an sighed softly, "Compared to my life, these are all trivial matters. I'll be grateful for your continued care during this period."
Xun Yang raised his lips and smiled: "It's a small matter."
"Oh, right," he said, and then he remembered something else. "Can you think of a way to get that person in the palace to arrange for someone to serve us?"
Xun Yang glanced into the room and said, "From what she was saying while unconscious, she seems to be very concerned about the people in the palace. Having someone familiar around her will also help her recover."
"You miss me very much?" Xu Qing'an pondered. "Did you mention anyone's name specifically?"
Xun Yang pursed his lips and recalled, "I think there are all of them, but the one with the most is probably your empress. She seems to be really loyal and they really have a good relationship."
Although what he said was correct, Xun Yang deliberately added a joking tone to it. However, after he said this, Xu Qing'an did not glare at him as usual. Instead, he frowned and fell into deep thought.
Then, Xu Qing'an suddenly raised his eyes and agreed straightforwardly: "Okay, I'll figure this out later. It's getting late, so I'll go back to my room first."
Xun Yang looked at him strangely as he left.
On the other side, Xu Qing'an spread out the letter paper on the desk and dipped the pen in ink as soon as he entered the bedroom.
He remembered what Su Ran said to him in prison today...
No wonder he chose her, it turns out they are a couple...
When Su Ran said that, she didn't seem surprised at all that he chose Shangguan Xu, but only looked like it was natural. But logically speaking, she had planned the incident with them that year, so Su Ran would always look a little surprised by his choice.
However, there is indeed solid evidence of what happened back then.
How could this be?
Looking closely at what had happened recently, she was first worried about her brother and even made a deal with him, then she came to him to find a doctor for Zheng, and then today he was in prison trying to avenge her.
Even if we can't say how much she cares about A Zheng from this, but judging from the fact that A Zheng was willing to die to eliminate the threat to her, A Zheng does have deep feelings for her, and since emotions are mutual, her feelings for A Zheng will not be weak.
Thinking back to the past, the little moments they had known each other since childhood, she could have feelings for others, so could it be that she really had no sincerity towards him at all? Even if her heart changed later, but they had known each other for so many years, when she was naive, her feelings must have always been true, right?
Just as she had said to him in the hunting grounds and flower garden that day - "Although I was ignorant in my actions when I was young, I was also pure because of my youthful spirit." Since these words came from her mouth, how could they not be her affirmation of her past feelings for him?
However, all this suddenly changed on the night of Shangsi that year.
If her character is really so bad that she would do anything to achieve her goals, then has she given too much to Zheng and her brother tonight?
Xu Qing'an closed his eyes.
He must review what happened back then.
Even if she did those things, she must have had her own reasons.
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