52. Chapter 52 Secret
Pei Xiuhan stretched out his hand. His hand was white and slender. Only if you looked closely could you see the thin calluses on it. These were the marks left after his experience on the battlefield, and they had not faded to this day.
Xiaoxiao stretched out her hand and gave him the thing in her palm. After the little girl's hand left, Pei Xiuhan found that there was nothing in his palm. He couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.
The next moment, Xiaoxiao said, "Brother, I will share my happiness with you. Be happy and don't be unhappy in the future."
When Pei Xiu Han looked up, he happened to meet the little girl's serious eyes. Her pupils were very dark, her eyes were sparkling, and her expression was solemn, as if she could share everything she had with him.
Pei Xiuhan's eyes darkened, and unconsciously softened. The unhappiness he had felt all day had completely dissipated. A smile played on his lips, and his voice was slightly hoarse. "Okay, brother, I'll take it."
Xiaoxing sat in the corner, trying hard to reduce his presence, feeling that he was somewhat in the way and redundant at the moment.
He couldn't help but lift the curtain, trying to ignore the conversation inside the carriage, and cast his eyes on the scenery outside. When he found that the carriage happened to pass by Guxing Street, he hurriedly reached out and pulled Xiaoxiao's sleeve, pointing to the small courtyard not far away.
Xiaoxiao smiled and said, "Xiaoxing, do you want to go home?"
Xiaoxing nodded.
Pei Xiuhan tapped the wooden board lightly and thought that this little guy was quite sensible.
Xiaoxiao asked the driver to stop the carriage and sent Xiaoxing back to the courtyard. When she was about to go back to find Pei Xiuhan, she saw Yang Chen coming back early. He said to Xiaoxiao, "Your brother got into a conflict with someone after arriving at the military camp this afternoon. He was injured and his clothes are dirty. He is now in the clinic. Please find him some clothes."
Xiaoxiao's heart instantly rose, and she quickly asked a few more questions, "How did you get hurt? Is it serious?"
Yang Chen said, "He got into a fight, it's not serious, don't worry. Go find him some clothes first."
Pei Xiu Han also heard what Yang Chen said, and he got off the carriage directly. Yang Chen was Yang Hao's younger brother, so he naturally knew Pei Xiu Han. When he saw him, he hurriedly saluted.
Pei Xiuhan asked him to excuse himself, then looked at Xiaoxiao, "Don't panic, go get him some clothes first, I'll go to the clinic with you."
He was tall and had calm eyes, giving people a very reliable feeling. When Xiaoxiao heard this, the panic in her heart dissipated a lot. She quickly ran back to the house and found some clothes for Zhang Li.
After Pei Xiuhan found out which clinic it was, he took Xiaoxiao to the clinic. Zhang Li had been in many fights since he was a child. Xiaoxiao was very worried every time he fought, fearing that he would be like when he was ten years old, with his head broken and bleeding, which looked very scary.
After arriving at the clinic, she saw Zhang Li's condition. Compared with the previous time, his injuries this time were not serious. Judging from his appearance, only the corner of his lip was broken and there were some injuries on his face. Fortunately, there was no bleeding in his head.
Xiaoxiao was most afraid of seeing him with blood all over his head.
Seeing Xiaoxiao and Pei Xiuhan, Zhang Li greeted Pei Xiuhan indifferently, his attitude even colder than before.
Then, he looked at Yang Chen helplessly and said, "Didn't I tell you not to tell Xiaoxiao?"
Yang Chen said: "She will find out sooner or later that my clothes are not suitable for you."
Zhang Li is very tall and strong, while Yang Chen is weak and frail. Judging from his temperament, he doesn't look like someone who would be in the military.
His clothes were dirty. The place where they fought was not clean. They rolled into the mud and Zhang Li was covered in dirt.
Seeing Xiaoxiao's nervous face, Zhang Li waved at her and said a few words of comfort, "I'm fine, don't worry."
How could Xiaoxiao not be worried? The little girl pursed her tender pink lips tightly and asked, "Why did my brother get into a fight with someone?"
Zhang Li paused for a moment, afraid that she would worry, and said, "It wasn't a fight, just a few gestures."
After he finished speaking, he glanced at Pei Xiu Han. The reason why he fought with someone was actually because the other party was talking about Xiao Xiao in private and he heard it.
When a group of men get together, they are bound to make dirty jokes. Xiaoxiao is beautiful and has connections with the Regent and the Emperor, so she will naturally become a topic of conversation among men.
Today, these men were very offensive to Xiaoxiao in their words. They didn't expect Zhang Li to hear it, so they naturally said whatever was stimulating.
When Zhang Li passed by, he happened to hear someone say that Xiaoxiao had been impure for a long time and had been slept with by Pei Xiuhan countless times. She might even be carrying Pei Xiuhan's child into the palace.
How could Zhang Li tolerate this and attacked him directly. They also talked about it in private and were still quite afraid of Zhang Li. What if Xiaoxiao really entered the palace? Zhang Li was the emperor's brother-in-law, so how could they dare to provoke him? This was also the reason why Zhang Li was not seriously injured despite being against five people alone.
Zhang Li changed his clothes before following Xiaoxiao out of the clinic. Before Pei Xiuhan left, he said to Xiaoxiao, "I'll take you there next time when I'm free."
Xiaoxiao nodded obediently.
After Pei Xiuhan left, Zhang Licai asked, "Where are you taking?"
Xiaoxiao shook her head. She didn't know either. Brother Pei only said it was an interesting place. Xiaoxiao was more concerned about his injury and asked, "Are you hurt?"
Zhang Li shook his head. He actually wanted Xiaoxiao to stay away from Pei Xiuhan, but looking at Xiaoxiao's worried eyes, he couldn't say it out loud after all.
In any case, when he was away, it was Pei Xiuhan who took care of Xiaoxiao. He actually took good care of Xiaoxiao. Xiaoxiao had lived in Prince Yan's Mansion for so long, so it was inevitable that there would be rumors. No matter how powerful Pei Xiuhan was, he couldn't stop everyone from talking. These people only dared to talk about her secretly behind her back.
Even if Pei Xiuhan really had other thoughts about Xiaoxiao, he had never hurt Xiaoxiao, so there was no reason for him to be on guard against him like a thief.
*
Anguo Gongfu, inside the bamboo house.
Qin Dian finally returned. Knowing that his master must be eager to know Xue Ji's whereabouts, Qin Dian did not dare to delay. After hearing the news in Dajin, he traveled day and night and returned to the capital.
He knelt down directly, his tone filled with sadness, "Master, Miss Xue Ji, she, she did not enter the palace that year."
Mo Chuan was sitting in a wheelchair, playing with a jade flute in his hand. Upon hearing this, he unconsciously exerted force with his hand, and the jade flute broke into two pieces.
"Didn't enter the palace?"
Even though he already had some guesses in his mind, when he first heard the news, a hint of shock flashed across Mo Chuan's deep eyes.
He pursed his thin lips tightly, and after a long while he said in a hoarse voice: "Where is the person?"
Qin Dian lowered his head and said with difficulty, "Miss Xue Ji died more than ten years ago. When the people of Dajin pursued her, she refused to enter the palace and jumped off a cliff."
Mo Chuan's hands couldn't help but tremble a few times. He held the armrest of the wheelchair tightly, and the blue veins on his hands bulged. His already snow-white hands were now tinged with a transparent white, which looked extremely terrifying against the blue veins.
The scenes of the past flashed through his mind again.
My brother was away from home all year round. When he returned home, he had already secretly decided to spend his life with Xue Ji. After she became pregnant, my brother wanted to bring her back home. However, when he learned that she was a woman from the Great Jin Dynasty, his mother would not allow her to set foot in the Anguo Mansion.
She was already pregnant at that time. The reason her brother returned home was actually to seek help. The emperor of the Great Jin Dynasty, Zhao Zhi, had always coveted Xue Ji's beauty and tried to abduct her to the palace several times.
Xue Ji fled to the Great Zhou Dynasty and fell in love with her brother by accident. In order to separate him and Xue Ji, his mother lied to her brother that she had gone to the battlefield and said that she would agree to his marriage with Xue Ji when he came back.
When his brother left, he entrusted Xue Ji to him and asked him to take care of her. Mo Chuan always respected his brother, so he naturally agreed.
Unexpectedly, his mother had no intention of letting Xue Ji marry into the family from the beginning to the end. His grandfather and two uncles all died on the battlefield at the hands of the Dajin people, and his mother hated the Dajin people very much.
After she tricked her brother away, she planned to send someone to the villa to kill Xue Ji while her brother was away. At that time, Xue Ji was about to give birth, and her mother actually wanted someone to kill her twice.
After Mo Chuan learned about this, he wrote a letter to his brother and took Xue Ji away from the capital overnight. Unexpectedly, they were found by Zhao Zhi's men.
Mo Chuan fought desperately with those people and finally killed them. However, he was accidentally stabbed twice. When he was in so much pain that he wanted to bang his head against the wall, Xue Ji let him go.
She said she was fed up with the life of escape, and rather than living like a stray dog, she might as well enter the palace and be Zhao Zhi's woman. She also said that the child in her belly was not her brother's at all, and she just wanted to use his power to avoid Zhao Zhi's pursuit. Unexpectedly, her brother was a useless man who abandoned her and ran to the battlefield.
Mo Chuan was young and hot-headed, so he believed her words. He returned to the Anguo Mansion injured, feeling sorry for his brother.
After returning home, he learned that his brother was in a panic after receiving his letter and immediately returned home, but was assassinated on the way back.
Mo Chuan always felt that he was the one who harmed him. If he hadn't written to him, his brother wouldn't have suddenly returned to Beijing, and perhaps he wouldn't have encountered the assassin. He even regretted not seeing Xue Ji's true face earlier.
In order to avenge his brother, he was covered in wounds and became a disabled person. He then locked himself in a bamboo house. He never asked about Xue Ji's news until Princess Yuyang entered the palace.
More than a decade later, he wanted to know if this woman had received retribution, but to his surprise, she had never entered the palace.
It was not until this moment that Mo Chuan understood why she had lied to him. Was the child in her belly also his brother's?
Mo Chuan's eyes were very red, and at this moment, he hated himself very much.
After calming down, he asked, "When exactly did she jump off the cliff?"
Qin Dian mentioned a time. At that time, it had been a month since Mo Chuan left her. She was about to give birth. Had the baby in her belly been born?
Thinking of this possibility, Mo Chuan couldn't help but hold the armrest tightly.
*
A few days passed before Pei Xiuhan found some free time. After coming out of the palace in the afternoon, he went directly to Guxing Street.
Pei Xiuhan took Xiaoxiao to a newly opened garden.
The garden is quite large and has many interesting activities, such as playing pitching pots, archery, guessing lantern riddles, answering riddles, reciting poems, etc. There are various interesting projects and you can get rewards if you win.
It was Xiaoxiao's first time to come to such a place, and her eyes lit up unconsciously. Pei Xiuhan took her to the archery place.
Xiaoxiao had learned a lot in the past two years, but she had never learned archery. When she held the bow and arrow in her hands, she felt a little nervous, but her sparkling eyes were filled with anticipation. "I have never learned this before. Can I open it?"
"This bow has a light draw weight, suitable for girls. You can try it."
He stood beside Xiaoxiao and guided her movements. When he got closer, the faint fragrance of the girl filled his nose. Afraid that inappropriate images would pop up in his mind again, Pei Xiuhan paused. He took a step back calmly and kept some distance.
After the beast in his heart was released, his dreams became a little excessive. He dreamed of bullying people and making them cry several times.
It reminds me of the most delicate peach blossoms on the branches in March. When the breeze blows gently, they will tremble uncontrollably, and juice will be rubbed out with a light touch.
Xiaoxiao's attention was completely focused on the bow and arrow, and she didn't notice that he was distracted for a moment. She pulled the bow to its full extent as he requested, and was pleasantly surprised to see that it actually worked.
The next moment, she shot, but the arrow missed the target. It was so off target that Xiaoxiao felt that even if Brother Pei closed his eyes, he would not be able to shoot it so well. She couldn't help feeling a little frustrated, and her face fell.
Pei Xiuhan stood aside, watching. He stood straight, dressed in a black brocade robe with a swift hawk-like shape at the hem. Even standing still, his aura was quite captivating. When he spoke again, his voice was a little hoarse. "Try again."
No one knew what he wanted to do most at this moment, looking at her listless appearance. Maybe it was to hold her in his arms and coax her gently, just like in his dream, or maybe it was to kiss her lips and draw all her attention to him.
He used immense self-control to suppress the urge to do whatever he wanted, simply because the person in front of him was her, someone he didn't want to hurt no matter what.
Xiaoxiao was very obedient. After listening to him, she nodded and tried a few more times, but the results were still not very ideal. Xiaoxiao felt that she was probably not born with athletic talent.
Pei Xiuhan demonstrated it to her. When the arrow was shot out, it hit the bull's eye. Xiaoxiao looked at him with admiration in her eyes.
Pei Xiuhan had a smile in his eyes, thinking that coming here was indeed the right choice. He also did not forget to comfort her, "This is your first time touching an arrow. It's already very good that you can shoot it like this."
Xiaoxiao couldn't help but curl her lips, thinking that Brother Pei was so gentle. Thinking of the expansion of Wuya Hall, the smile on her lips unconsciously subsided a little. She couldn't help but whispered tentatively: "Brother, why did you want to expand Wuya Hall? Don't you think it's not big enough to live in?"
Pei Xiuhan nodded and looked at her with a smile. His eyes were deep, and a hint of subtle affection flashed in the depths of his eyes. "It's enough for me alone."
Xiaoxiao's heart sank unconsciously. She wanted to ask him if Gu Zhen was coming back, but she didn't dare to ask. She was afraid of hearing a positive answer. It seemed that if she didn't ask for one day, she would be able to get through another day in luck.
She could only say with surprise, "Brother finally wants to marry a princess. I wish him to marry her soon."
Pei Xiuhan also had a smile on his lips and said, "Thank you for your good wishes."
Seeing that there was really such a person in his heart, Xiaoxiao felt a little sour in her heart. At this moment, she almost couldn't control her expression. Fortunately, Pei Jing noticed the abnormality, which made her remember it, and she almost perfectly restrained her emotions.
Pei Xiuhan nonchalantly probed, "Child, when you reach marriage age, what kind of man do you want to marry?"
Xiaoxiao was a little afraid to answer this question, for fear that the answer she gave would be consistent with his image. A few days ago, she actually lied to Pei Jing. Although she had never hoped to marry Brother Pei, deep down in her heart, she really wanted to be with him.
She even dreamed that he was also attracted to her. In the vast crowd, he could see her at a glance. He would ignore the other noble ladies and walk to her side accurately.
Dreams are just dreams after all. After waking up, life must go on.
She smiled and said simply, "Just be nice to me."
Pei Xiuhan was a little surprised, "No other requests?"
If he just wanted to be nice to her, he could do it now.
Xiaoxiao thought for a moment and said, "You have to make me like you."
This is a bit difficult to deal with. Pei Xiuhan has never coaxed a little girl and doesn't know how to make her like him.
He planned to go to Hongye to learn from her after returning home. At this moment, all he could do was to be extra nice to her.
There were all kinds of snacks sold in the garden. I remembered that she liked to eat candied haws, so when she left, Pei Xiuhan bought her another string.
Seeing that he treated her like a child again, Xiaoxiao felt a little frustrated and couldn't help but tell him, "Brother, I'm grown up now. I won't eat candied haws anymore."
Pei Xiuhan had a hint of smile in his eyes, "No matter how old I am, I am still a child in my brother's eyes."
Xiaoxiao shook her head, her expression becoming more serious. "I'm not a little girl anymore."
Pei Xiuhan's eyes were a little dark. He naturally knew that she was not a little girl. He just tapped her head lightly with a smile on his lips, "Isn't it good to be a little girl who is always a big brother?"
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