Chapter 117
Fortunately, the surrounding vendors selling vegetables and setting off firecrackers drowned out her voice, preventing the crowd from paying attention to her.
Zhou Yanqing looked in the direction she was pointing and sure enough, he spotted the familiar figure on the high platform of the Digu Temple. There seemed to be someone else beside him.
The two exchanged a glance, both feeling a sense of foreboding, and hurriedly got off the carriage and squeezed into the crowd.
On the high platform, Chen Tingyu had a dagger held to his throat by Tan Muhe. If he took another step forward, he would fall off the platform and be crippled, if not killed.
He trembled and dared not move at all. If it weren't for his robe covering him, someone would probably have discovered that he had wet his pants.
"Young hero, let's talk this out. What do you want? If you want money, I... I'll give you anything, okay?"
Tan Muhe sneered, "Chen Tingyu, you really can't tell who I am?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Tingyu stiffly turned his head slightly to look closely at the man's features.
This person looks somewhat familiar...
A string of firecrackers exploded in his mind in an instant, "You...you are Tan...Tan Yin's son?"
"So you still remember?"
At this moment, Tan Muhe also caught sight of Si Yanmo and the other person in the crowd. He shook his head slightly, as if reminding them not to make any moves.
The next second, he tightened the dagger pressed against Chen Tingyu's neck. "In that case, you should know why I've come."
"Chen Tingyu," he raised his voice, wanting everyone present to hear him clearly, "Look, right across from us is the statue of Emperor Gu. Do you dare to tell Emperor Gu, and all the people of Jinwu City, what you did to my father and the thousands of lives of my Tan family back then?"
Upon hearing this, Chen Tingyu connected the inexplicable experiences of the past few days in his mind.
It really was a case of "vengeful spirits seeking revenge"!
He clenched his fist, trying to sound tough: "I...I just calculated..."
Before he could finish speaking, Tan Muhe pulled out another dagger and stabbed him hard in the thigh. He immediately cried out in pain, and blood flowed down his robe, but he dared not move.
"Aren't you going to tell the truth?" The man's sinister voice rang out, sounding just like his father's.
Chen Tingyu responded repeatedly, sweating profusely from the pain, "I'll talk, I'll talk..."
He honestly confessed how he forged the divine oracle and how he spared no one in the Tan family for the sake of that zither.
The audience below the stage was filled with anger, especially some of them who had met Tan Yin once before.
Back then, many people in Jinwu City knew that Grand Commandant Tan was an exceptionally good person.
Even during wartime conscription, he would not make things difficult for families. If a child from a family died on the battlefield, he would personally deliver a substantial amount of compensation, enough to support the entire family.
Anyone who had seen him at that time dared not believe any ominous or evil tales, but because it was a divine decree, no one dared to say a word on his behalf.
Now, this fortune teller they trusted, the only man they thought could communicate with the gods, is telling them that everything is a lie.
Thousands of lives were lost just because of one sentence he uttered.
Where is justice?
"You bastard! Apologize to Grand Commandant Tan!"
"Apologize to Grand Commandant Tan!"
In an instant, voices condemning him rose and fell, and along with it, vegetable leaves, which no one knew who threw them at, hit Chen Tingyu in the face.
Si Yanmo and Zhou Yanqing, sitting in the audience, were not happy at all.
"Is he crazy?" Si Yanmo really wanted to rush up and pull Tan Muhe down, but with everyone watching, if she really went up, it would confirm the relationship between the several people, and then it wouldn't just implicate her alone.
Zhou Yanqing shielded her with one hand, while his mind raced, trying to come up with a solution.
Now that Chen Tingyu has confessed, all they need to do is find a way to protect Tan Muhe.
What he didn't know was that Tan Muhe had never considered surviving.
He spoke again, and this time what he said was even more astonishing.
"Chen Tingyu, do you want to hear something you don't know now?"
Chen Tingyu was stunned, while Si Yanmo and Zhou Yanqing's hearts were in their throats.
They knew all too well what he was going to say; once those words were spoken, he would truly not survive.
Si Yanmo disregarded everything else and shouted his name: "Tan Muhe!"
Suddenly, everyone's attention was drawn to her, and no one noticed that a group of people had appeared on the opposite high-rise building.
Tan Muhe gave her a mocking smile: "Princess Qin, what? Haven't you realized yet that you've all been deceived by me? When I said I wanted to become a musician and present a zither to His Majesty, did you really think I wanted to present a zither?"
He fabricated a story that didn't exist in order to exonerate Zhou Yanqing and Si Yanmo.
"If that bastard hadn't discovered the zither first and snatched it away, my real target wouldn't just be him, but that aloof and hypocritical Southern Emperor!"
As he spoke, he looked at Chen Tingyu and said, "You didn't know either, did you? Your master has been keeping it from you all along. He's also using others to do his dirty work."
"You think your forged oracle can wipe out the entire Tan family? You're wrong!" He laughed. "It's because he's afraid of my father. He's a coward, afraid that anyone will take away the throne he earned through so much."
“Chen Xiangbu, you know best how difficult it was for him to seize the throne, right?” He used a dagger to lift Chen Tingyu’s chin, and said with a playful tone, “Come on, tell them.”
Chen Tingyu dared not say it; if he did, he would be doomed.
Tan Muhe gave him no chance to hesitate and stabbed him in the other thigh, causing his legs to buckle and he to kneel down.
"Say it louder, tell them all!"
Today is the Lantern Festival, and he wants to let everyone know how hypocritical His Majesty the Southern Emperor is, who always seems to care about the people's plight when he holds palace banquets.
Chen Tingyu was in so much pain that he saw stars. He knew that whether he spoke or not, he would die anyway, so it was better than being tortured like this by Tan Muhe.
He obediently began to speak, shouting, "He...he killed the late emperor...and also his own elder brother...he wanted the throne...he fabricated that the late emperor died of old age...in fact...it was him..."
That was enough. Tan Muhe plunged a dagger into his heart and whispered in his ear, "Go and atone for your sins!"
After saying that, he pushed him off the platform, and the crowd quickly dispersed.
With a thud, the man's body fell to the ground, and blood spread everywhere.
Everyone stared intently at the scene before them, some cheering, some terrified, but no one noticed an arrow being shot from the opposite high platform...
——
Today is the Lantern Festival, and Zhong Zihe thought it was a day for family reunion. He couldn't let Tan Muhe spend it alone, so he bought some of her favorite pastries, hoping to coax her to come home with him to celebrate the festival.
He was lucky, as Shuluofang usually doesn't open during the Lantern Festival, but the chef happened to want to make some snacks for his daughter-in-law who had just given birth, so he came to the shop.
He took the opportunity to ask for a share as well.
He took the snacks and was walking back when he noticed a crowd gathered around the Digu Temple.
He always liked to join in the fun, and thinking that there was still plenty of time, he squeezed in.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he entered, a slender figure fell to the ground with a thud, like a broken butterfly. Blood flowed from his chest, where an arrow was still stuck.
After seeing the person's features clearly, his hand holding the pastries lost its strength, and the bag of pastries fell to the ground, just like the person in front of him.
Zhong Zihe ran over like a madman, picked the person up, and his hands were inevitably stained with blood.
He didn't care at all, stroking the man's pale face with his blood-stained hand, his voice trembling: "Mu He..."
The person in his arms still had a sliver of strength. He forced a weak smile and whispered, "Spring Comes and Goes... You haven't learned it yet... Then... I won't go home with you..."
After saying that, his last bit of strength completely dissipated.
The beauty tilted his head to the side and remained motionless. If one did not see the blood all over his body, one would surely think he was just asleep.
Unfortunately, no, he stopped breathing completely.
Si Yanmo also wanted to step forward, but Zhou Yanqing held her back tightly.
Before Tan Muhe died, she insisted on severing all ties with him, because she was certain that the Southern Emperor would not let her go, nor would he let go of anyone connected to him.
“He came here seeking death.” Zhou Yanqing’s voice was unusually choked with emotion.
They were always trying to help him, but they were all just bystanders. They didn't know how desperate the person who had truly experienced the tragic deaths of his parents and had nowhere to seek redress must have felt.
That day, he was clearly smiling, as if he was still full of hope for the future.
But no one knew that he would choose such a day, a day for family reunion, to go to see his parents.
At that moment, everyone's attention was focused on Chen Tingyu, and no one heard him mutter to himself, "Father, Mother... you can rest in peace now..."
A flock of Jiwu appeared out of nowhere, hovering above the Digu Temple. One of them flew down and landed on the butterfly-like corpse, pecking at its forehead as if to comfort the departed soul.
At that moment, on the high platform, a few weak coughs were heard. The man raised his hand, "Go back and report."
His gaze met a crimson stare from below.
That gaze seemed to be questioning him, asking why he did this?
Zhou Junsong's eyes darted away, a rare occurrence, as he dared not look at the woman below. He turned and left with the archer beside him.
Si Yanmo stared intently at him, her eyes filled with resentment and confusion.
Of course, there were also countless disappointments.
When Zhou Junsong appeared at Hechunlou to give them advice, she thought they were friends.
But now, he's so heartless, ordering the archers to fire arrows, letting an innocent person die just like that.
She seemed to see the same shadow of the Southern Emperor in that person.
She suddenly spoke up: "Zhou Yanqing, can we really remain indifferent to this?"
The man holding her stiffened slightly, followed her gaze, took a deep breath, as if making a decision, and said, "Let's think about this carefully..."
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