Chapter 160 [VIP]
Meow~
The cat is a scumbag cat; it no longer loves Gui Niangzi. It lies on the couch, licking its paws in a shameless manner. Suddenly, its ears tilt back and it excitedly twitches its little nose.
It jumped off the tatami mat, meowed, and ran out, overjoyed.
Lady Gui stared intently at the figure reflected on the window paper; even though she couldn't see the face, she could recognize it at a glance.
It's Brother Xian.
She tried to catch him countless times in her dreams, but each time they just missed each other.
"You can't move."
Gu Zhizhuo pressed her back down and said seriously, "You've really died once. No matter how far the knife went, it was still in your heart. No matter how effective the pills were, your heart meridian was still broken. In addition, you used up too much of your primordial spirit when you were nourishing the formation. You can't move around for at least ten days or half a month. You have to lie down."
Gu Zhizhuo rarely used the word "must" when speaking to patients.
Lady Gui is obedient.
She lay back down, but still faced the window, her gaze greedy.
She dared not blink, afraid that if she closed her eyes, he would disappear from her sight again, just like countless times in her dreams.
"You lie down first, I'll go out and take a look."
Gu Zhizhuo took her pulse, then pulled up the quilt, and also put away the blood-stained handkerchief that he had used to wipe his hands earlier.
Stepping out of the side room, I immediately spotted that fiery red figure.
Sure enough, it was Shen Xu.
Well, as soon as he arrived, the whole little courtyard was gone.
The shopkeeper was gone, Tinglian was gone, and even the rough-and-tumble old women had been scared away by him. Only Shengjiang and Qingmei stood at a distance.
Should this be called a fierce and malevolent spirit?
The cat circled around his feet, meowing affectionately, and clung to him with its front paws, wanting a hug.
Gu Zhizhuo curtsied and said, "Chief Supervisor."
She looked at him, then at the window, then back at him.
He was a good step away from the window; it would be a miracle if he could see anything.
They should at least break through the barrier!
I don't know how this awkward personality developed.
"Master Supervisor, aren't you going in?" Gu Zhizhuo couldn't help but ask.
Shen Xu didn't speak, ignoring everyone and even the kitten.
The kitten looked aggrieved and rubbed against his robes.
Gu Zhizhuo walked up to him, turned his head and suggested, "How about I go and call her out?"
"You are not allowed to go."
Shen Xu's face darkened, and he grabbed one of her shoulders, his meaning clear: If you dare to scream, I'll break your legs.
Gu Zhizhu scoffed, tilting his chin up, showing no fear of him: Go ahead and try hitting me.
This Miss Gu always preferred to fight the Grand Eunuch openly, which terrified him. Sheng Jiang silently took several steps back, pressing himself against the tree, pretending he didn't exist.
After a while, Shen Xu finally spoke first: "I lost her."
"...That day, I found my sister's footprints on the edge of the cliff, and I wanted to climb down to find her. I wanted to see her alive or dead. But then, someone stopped me."
“I recognize him. He’s my father’s good friend, Uncle Jiang. Uncle Jiang brought more than a dozen people, saying they came specifically to rescue us. He wept bitterly and confessed that they were too scared to admit that the Yin family were bandits. However, they couldn’t bear to see the entire Yin family wiped out, so they secretly ran away in the chaos.”
“I believed them. I told them my sister had fallen off a cliff and begged them to help me find her.”
Guess what happened next?
Gu Zhizhuo glanced at him sideways: "I did a divination for you, at the manor."
Shen Xu lowered his hand and laughed. His laughter gradually grew louder and more manic. His eyes were bloodthirsty red, surging with hatred and regret.
He was laughing at himself, mocking the part of himself that was willing to trust others.
"Jiang's men hit me from behind with a club. When I woke up, I was stuffed into a cloth bag."
"They said, take me back to claim your reward."
He was betrayed once again by Blackwater Fortress, the very city he had once tried so hard to save.
They're so stupid they could die a thousand times over.
When he was struck on the head, Shen Xu used his last bit of consciousness to smash his jade pendant to the ground, then clutched a shard tightly in his palm. With this shard, he slowly cut the ropes binding his hands and feet.
The cloth bag was cut open.
They also slit the throats of those people.
This was his first murder.
"Later, when I went to look for my sister again, I couldn't find her."
At the bottom of the cliff, there was only blood and tattered clothes.
If he hadn't trusted others so easily, he would definitely have been able to find her.
"I lost her."
He clenched his fists.
He was incredibly foolish, trusting others like a idiot, and ended up paying a bloody price.
After Shen Xu finished speaking, he turned and left.
Knowing that she is still alive is enough.
Now he is utterly filthy and no longer deserves to see her.
Gu Zhizhuo called out from behind him, "But are you really not going to see Sister Yin one last time?"
Shen Xu turned around: "What do you mean?"
"Why."
Gu Zhizhuo's hand trembled, and he "accidentally" dropped a blood-stained handkerchief on the ground.
Shen Xu subconsciously lowered his head, his eyes reflecting a deep, bloodshot hue.
“Master, do you think the Heavenly Dao is so easily fooled?” Gu Zhizhuo gestured with the length of the dagger, exaggerating it by at least twice. “Such a long dagger, if stabbed into the heart, would almost kill her. Even now, I can’t say for sure she’ll survive.”
"Didn't you mean Da'an?"
“Sigh,” Gu Zhizhuo sighed, and said with feigned difficulty, “You should know that Sister Yin is being used as the core of the formation.”
The core of the formation?
Shen Xu had heard this word several times from Chang Feng and the Prince of Jin.
"The array's core, that's something that's integrated with the array itself. If the luck-changing array is broken, how could the core be unharmed? Especially since she's already so badly injured."
“Master, if she weren’t completely unable to move, why would Sister Yin have chased after us?”
“If I could recognize you standing here, how could she not recognize you?”
In just a few words, a host of uneasy feelings brewed and amplified in Shen Xu's heart. The more she talked, the more flustered he became, and he could hardly think straight, turning around and rushing inside.
Just as she was about to push the door open, Shen Xu realized what was happening, squinted, and turned to look at her.
She almost fooled me!
The more exaggerated her statements, the more she implied that the person was alright.
Their eyes met, and Gu Zhizhu shrugged, seemingly unconcerned that her lie had been exposed. She took a hair tie from her purse and handed it over, saying, "Here you go."
Shen Xu stared at the hair tie for a while.
"New!"
This person's temper is really unpleasant.
Tsk. Finally, Shen Xu generously accepted it, removing his hair crown, his black hair falling over his shoulders.
Shen Xu tied his hair into a ponytail with a hairband, then took off his red kylin robe and threw it away along with his jade pendant and purse.
Sheng Jiang:?
I don't understand, but the supervisor must have his reasons for doing things!
He picked it up meekly.
Shen Xu simply threw the jade finger ring to him as well. Without all that, he seemed to still be the same Yin family youth he was ten years ago, as bright as the moon.
Instead of the current head of the Eastern Depot, whose hands are stained with human lives and blood, and who rose through the ranks by being ruthless and unscrupulous.
Shen Xu took a deep breath, finally making up his mind. He placed his hand on the door and remained motionless.
It was a kind of panic, like the fear of returning home.
Gu Zhizhuo felt exhausted just looking at him.
She opened the door and shoved him from behind with quick, agile movements.
Sheng Jiang:!
Shen Xu was caught off guard and stumbled inside. Gu Zhizhuo then closed the door behind him.
When she turned around again, Sheng Jiang looked at her with an expression as if he had seen a ghost.
"You, you..."
"Don't point randomly. Your master usually seems very decisive and ruthless, but he's actually quite indecisive. Why can't he understand such a small matter?"
Shen Xu was pushed inside, and even through the door, he could clearly hear what she was saying.
I laughed in exasperation.
With that smile, his previous hesitation seemed to fade away. Shen Xu took a deep breath and walked forward step by step.
This is just a small side room, simply furnished, without any unnecessary decorations, and it cannot be compared with my sister's elegant boudoir back then.
It's only a few steps from the front to the inside of the house.
Forehead?
Shen Xu thought there would at least be a door blocking his way, giving him more time to think it over. But as soon as he turned his foot, he found himself staring straight into the eyes of the person leaning against the couch.
It's over.
It's too late to run anymore.
Shen Xu moved backward with his feet, his eyes darting around.
"stop!"
Shen Xu's steps froze.
Gui Niangzi Yin Xiyan sat up straight, looked at the young man in front of her, and traced his eyebrows and eyes with her gaze.
He was very different from when he was young, but she recognized him at a glance as the same boy who liked to follow her around, learning abacus, horse judging, and accounting with her.
Yin Xiyan's eyes sparkled with joy and delight.
"come over."
Shen Xu walked slowly forward until he reached her bedside.
Her frailty, the scars on her face, and the blood remaining in her chest all caused Shen Xu a sharp, painful ache in his heart.
“Xian-ge’er”.
Yin Xiyan smiled, her smile as radiant as blooming flowers: "You've grown taller."
Shen Xu: "..."
He looked at the hand reaching out to him, and countless nightmares and regrets from the past few nights overlapped at that moment.
Shen Xu grasped it, just as he had done in his dream, holding it tightly. Only in this moment did they never part.
"elder sister……"
"Why."
"elder sister."
"I'm here!"
In the very end, the nightmare finally changed.
It turns out that even someone like him, who crawled out of the abyss of hell, was able to see the sunlight.
Gu Zhizhuo waited outside for a while, and seeing that there was no movement, he felt relieved.
She said to Sheng Jiang, "I'll write a prescription for that Miss Yin inside. Lord Sheng, have someone get three doses, and she can drink it once it's decocted."
Sheng Jiang: "...Yes."
I need to hurry up and do it before my master gives the order. If my master finds out, he will definitely praise me for being observant.
Gu Zhizhuo wrote the prescription on a piece of yellow paper with a charcoal pencil and handed it to him. She also explained everything that needed to be explained. Sheng Jiang wished he could borrow her charcoal pencil to copy it down.
After saying this, she called out to Qingmei and left first.
I also brought along the "lonely and helpless" cat.
"Tell me, what's going on?" Gu Zhizhuo asked with great interest.
Qingmei recounted everything exactly as she saw it, as well as what she specifically asked Shengjiang on the way to Tianxi Tower. Gu Zhizhuo basically pieced together a complete account.
"That's fun!" Gu Zhizhuo exclaimed, his face lighting up with excitement.
“Miss,” Qingmei asked curiously, “Why are Prince Jin and the sorcerer so different? When the sorcerer was taken away, I saw him. He looked exactly like someone who had been dead for two days and then dug up. People would believe he was dead. But Prince Jin seems quite normal.”
"Changfeng is the spellcaster."
"The others are just a little later, and none of them will escape."
His backlash will come the fastest, but as Sister Yin said, everyone who has benefited from this fortune-changing array will face retribution and bear the consequences.
"Meow," the cat chimed in at just the right moment.
Hearing this, Qingmei was delighted: "Miss, where are we going now?"
Gu Zhizhu pondered for a moment and then said, "Let's go back to the manor first."
She rushed out and only instructed someone to summon her third uncle to entertain Prince Li. Her third uncle might still be looking for her, and if she went back now, he would definitely nag her to death.
Oh dear.
"Let's go back to the manor first and let Third Uncle finish his lecture, then we'll go to the Meridian Gate to check on Changfeng. I heard that the students at the Meridian Gate haven't dispersed yet."
It must be said, these students are incredibly stubborn. According to the young master, they not only send three letters of advice to the emperor every day without fail, but they have also written numerous articles and policy essays on the Qingzhou disaster. Xie Yingchen has already promoted three of them exceptionally, exempting them from the imperial examinations, granting them official titles, and sending them to Qingzhou to serve as officials. This precedent has caused quite a stir among the students.
Even if one passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi (a successful candidate in the highest level of the imperial examinations), aside from the palace examination and the Flower-Wearing Banquet, most people would probably never see the emperor in their lifetime. But now, their essays have reached the emperor's ears, and perhaps they will catch the eye of Prince Chen.
Qingmei responded repeatedly, following Gu Zhizhuo and saying, "Miss, what will happen when the demonic cultivator Changfeng is covered in corpse spots?"
have no idea.
She had never seen such a severe backlash in either of her two lifetimes.
However, Gu Zhizhuo had once read about some similar backlashes in an old Taoist book. Just as he was about to tell her about it, the shopkeeper ran over, slightly flustered, and said, "Miss, the Imperial Guards have surrounded our Tianxi Tower."
"Imperial Guards?"
Like the Golden Guard, the Imperial Guard was subordinate to the Twenty-Six Guards of the Capital and served as the emperor's personal guard.
The three major camps and twenty-six guards protected the capital. Among them, the Imperial Guards were the top twelve guards.
Gu Zhizhuo remembered that, apart from the Jinwu Guard and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the Imperial Guard, the Imperial Guard, and the Flag Guard were the three guards that the emperor had entrusted to Prince Jin.
The Imperial Guards' sudden mobilization must be related to the fact that Prince Jin has been placed under house arrest by Shen Xu.
The Shen Xu of today is far from the powerful Shen Xu who will wield immense influence in the court ten years from now.
In his previous life, Shen Xu formed cliques and eliminated dissidents until he eventually consolidated control over the Imperial Horse Administration and its four guards, gaining military power. From then on, he rose above all officials and held absolute power.
At present, Prince Jin is still a powerful prince in the Great Qi Dynasty, one of the three major factions in the court, with both military power and connections.
"I'll go take a look."
Gu Zhizhuo's nonchalant attitude calmed the shopkeeper down as well. He followed behind her and continued to report, "The Imperial Guards first came to ask if the Chief Supervisor was there. I didn't answer, so they surrounded him, drove away everyone nearby, and demanded that I hand over the Chief Supervisor."
Gu Zhizhu sneered repeatedly. This guy wanted to imitate the Eastern Depot, but he did it in a completely incongruous way.
If it were the Eastern Depot, they would have stormed in long ago; why would they need to block the outside and threaten them?
Gu Zhizhuo walked out.
Qingmei gestured for the shopkeeper to go in first and tell Sheng Jiang, while she followed closely behind Gu Zhizhuo, her hand resting on the short knife at her waist.
Although she looks like a maid, she doesn't seem to be doing any other chores lately.
However, she was also trained by Wu Qianhu.
Bang.
Gu Zhizhuo pushed open the door of Tianxi Tower.
Nearly a hundred Imperial Guards arrived and, led by a deputy commander, sealed off the entire street where Tianxi Tower was located.
Tianxi Lou refused to leave and ignored their attitude, which greatly displeased Deputy Commander Yang. Just as he was about to have someone knock on the door, the door opened by itself.
A young girl in a purple dress and skirt, accompanied only by a maid, strolled out leisurely.
She swept her gaze across the crowd and arrogantly rebuked, "You dare to cause trouble even in my restaurant? Do you think our Zhenbei Prince's Mansion is too easy to bully?"
Gu Zhizhuo lifted her skirt and stepped over the threshold.
She looked down at everyone with an air of superiority, a faint smile playing on her lips: "Step back, don't make me say it a second time."
"Meow!"
The cat, feigning tigerish power, sticks its claws out from its paw pads.
"The Prince of Zhenbei's Mansion?"
Commander Yang, who was leading the troops, snorted, "Never heard of it. Miss Gu, aren't you from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion? How come you've actually added a title to your Gu family?"
"The Prince's mansion? That's quite impressive."
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