sinusitis
"Chen Yunqiu, please stop crying. When you cry, I want to cry too."
Su Xi said, suppressing the soreness in the corners of his eyes, he took out a handkerchief from his bosom and handed it to Shen Yunqiu.
"How about this, I'll buy you some hibiscus ice cream? Something sweet will make you feel better."
“No.”
Chen Yunqiu refused decisively in a deep voice. Su Xi didn't get angry, but tilted his head to look over and said, "What about the pork elbow? The pork elbow at Fu Yu Lou is also delicious..."
“No.”
"What about candied haws? Sesame cakes? Pan-fried buns? Beef balls? Roujiamo (Chinese roujiamo) or sweet and sour fish?"
"I won't eat anything."
"So what do you want to eat?" Su Xi whispered softly, as if coaxing a child. "Whatever you want today, just ask. Even if you want the stars in the sky, I'll fly up and pick them for you."
After he finished speaking, the young man finally turned around and raised the corners of his mouth, but the smile looked extremely bitter, even uglier than crying.
"Xiaoxi, I don't want you to pick the stars for me." Shen Yunqiu couldn't help but choked up as he spoke, "Xiaoxi, I don't want to stay in the Shen family anymore. Can you take me away? Take me away, anywhere is fine, okay? Can you please not leave me here alone?"
Listening to the boy's increasingly unclear words drowned out by his crying, Su Xi finally couldn't hold back the tears that were about to fall from his eyes anymore. He stood up and hugged the crying Shen Yunqiu into his arms, gently stroking the boy's head as he had done many times before.
But this time, she hugged him extra tightly, almost embedding him into her body.
"Chen Yunqiu, don't worry. The day after tomorrow is October 30th. After I go find Uncle Dou, we'll leave and go to the capital. We'll beat the drum to protest our grievances and make those who hurt you and the Su family pay the price. We won't come back after that. We'll go see all the mountains and rivers. I'll be with you all the time. Wherever you want to go, I'll go with you, okay?"
Shen Yunqiu didn't want to talk. Being treated like a child, and feeling so embarrassed in front of her, he felt utterly humiliated and wanted to find a hole to crawl into. But surprisingly, the girl's warm embrace seemed to bring him extraordinary comfort. Before long, the suppressed sadness and pain in his heart disappeared. He was left with only extreme sleepiness, so sleepy that his eyelids trembled and he could hardly open them.
Shen Yunqiu didn't know if this was the effect of the pill, but he tried his best to maintain his consciousness. While he was still awake, he said, "Okay."
-
At noon the next day, the sun was scorching, but the air was extremely dry and cold. Even the charcoal fire in the house seemed to be swallowed up by the cold air, and there was no warmth at all.
After having lunch with Shen Yunqiu and Yinzhen, Suxi took the lunch box he had prepared in the morning, opened the door and walked in front, with Yinzhen following closely behind. Seeing Suxi stop at the gate of Xiyuan, Yinzhen also stopped, folded her arms and shivered from the cold.
"Xiaoxi, where are you going at noon? The young master insisted that I follow him, and I haven't even put away the dishes yet."
"It's urgent. I'm going to Qingzhou Prison to visit an old friend. You don't have to go in then, just wait outside."
"Qingzhou Prison!" Yinzhen exclaimed, and couldn't help but gasp, "Then... then I'd better not go in. My mother said that I'm too weak and would have nightmares if I went to that kind of place."
Hearing this, Suxi couldn't help but want to laugh. When he raised his eyes, he saw Xihe jogging over from the other end of the wild bamboo forest. There was a layer of sweat on his forehead, and he looked white and rosy, like a porcelain doll.
"Xiaoxi, I'm here. Let's hurry up. I sneaked out during lunch break!"
Xihe stopped and panted. When she turned around, she saw the tall and thin man next to her staring at her face without blinking. His dark cheeks were instantly dyed with an abnormal highland red.
"Xiaoxi, this is..."
"Oh, it's not important, let's just go."
Xihe pointed at the silver needle, but Suxi took Xihe's arm, walked quickly into the West Garden, opened the corner door and left the Chen Mansion.
"Why is it not important anymore!" Yinzhen hurriedly caught up, "Xiaoxi, please introduce them to someone. If that doesn't work, I'll introduce myself. My name is Yinzhen, and I'm the young master's cook, oh no, a guard..."
The West Garden of the Shen Mansion was not far from Qingzhou Prison. This was the reason why Shen Pingchang chose the location to build his mansion. Suxi and Xihe hurried there and arrived in front of Qingzhou Prison in less than half an hour.
Qingzhou Prison has been built for decades and has served several governors. It looks like just a stone gate stuck in the woods on both sides, but it is cold and gloomy. The surrounding shops are all dozens of meters away for fear of being contaminated by the ominous aura.
In front of the gate, Yinzhen had already hidden behind the trees and dared not come closer. After Suxi and Xihe explained their purpose to the two guards at the prison gate, they symbolically stuffed some silver into their pockets, and the jailer reluctantly allowed them in.
Following a short and sturdy jailer, they turned through the corridor and entered the stairs leading to the underground. Su Xi noticed that Xihe's arm, which was holding his arm, was trembling slightly, and even her face was pale with nervousness. So he patted the back of her cold hand soothingly and began to carefully look at the environment in the prison.
The Qingzhou Prison and the Qingzhou government office were not far from each other, but they each had its own function. Suspects were interrogated at the government office and then transferred to the Qingzhou Prison, where they could receive visits from their families. Therefore, although the prison was dark and damp, it didn't employ any appalling torture methods. The only exception was when someone passed by, some inmates would cling to the iron bars to check if it was time for lunch.
He walked for a long time in the winding prison corridors, until it became increasingly darker and damper. The occasional rustling of chains and conversations were almost inaudible, leaving only dead silence and a cell in front of him with extremely dense and heavy iron bars.
The jailer paused, standing before the cell door, searching for the key hanging from his waistband. Meanwhile, Suxi and Xihe had already peered through the iron locks to see a middle-aged man sprawled on a straw couch on the ground. He looked like a man of advanced years, with graying hair and a short stature. It was the dead of winter, yet he wore only a thin prison uniform, his blanket a mere layer of cotton. Huddled on the cold, damp ground, shivering, he looked even more shabby and aged.
A bitter feeling welled up in his heart. Suxi tightly grasped Xihe's fingers, which were trembling with excitement and anger. He turned to the jailer and asked, "Hey, it's so cold today. Why don't you provide winter clothes for the prisoners? I see that the cells outside have quilts."
"Well, what do death row prisoners need winter clothes and quilts? They're all dying anyway." The jailer pulled out a slender key from his waistband and inserted it into the door lock. He suddenly sneered, "But you didn't know. Otherwise, you could have brought a couple of winter clothes with you."
"What, death row?"
Suxi and Xihe exclaimed almost at the same time.
"Impossible! My father is just a shop owner. How could he be sentenced to death? Brother Jailer, are you mistaken..."
Xi He's voice trembled violently, she couldn't believe it at all, but the jailer nodded with great certainty, "It's the death row prisoner, no doubt. This Dou is the owner of the Su family's main store, personally handling the tax money. I heard he was also the Su family's steward, and he came to Qingzhou with the Su family's head. With such a close relationship, the higher-ups personally ordered his execution next autumn. Because the case was closed after autumn, all the death row prisoners were killed, leaving only him. He will be beheaded along with the new prisoners who are shoved in next year."
"Then...what about the other shop owners? Why was only my dad arrested?"
Xihe asked in a trembling voice.
"The others who committed crimes weren't implicated seriously. Those with money were fined, and those without were beaten and crippled, then released. This matter is settled, and there's no point in you crying. If you have time, come and see me more often. You won't see me again after next autumn."
The jailer sighed, opened the door and walked away with the key chain. Xihe finally couldn't hold back her tears and stumbled to the side of the straw couch, almost fainting.
"Dad... Dad... Your daughter is here to see you..."
Hearing the sound, the person sleeping on the couch half opened his eyes in a daze, and then suddenly sat up, looking at the crying little girl in front of him with some disbelief.
"Xihe? You... why are you here? Didn't Dad ask that Liu to get you into the Shen Mansion as a maid?" Dou Feng was stunned for a moment, and his expression suddenly became stern: "Did you sneak out? Go back quickly, this is not the place for you!"
"Uncle Dou, don't blame her. I was the one who brought Xihe here."
Hearing the voice, Dou Feng turned around and carefully looked at the little girl with a long scar on her face standing in front of the door. Suddenly, he exclaimed, "Are you Miss...? Miss, are you still alive?"
For a moment, Su Xi looked at Dou Feng's astonished expression and was a little surprised.
"Uncle Dou, why do you ask this? Don't you know that I was sent to Youyang?"
Hearing this, Dou Feng's expression froze for a moment, then turned a bit miserable: "Of course I know, but I heard from the jailers that all the old and young in the Su family died in an accident, and the Youyang area was also raided by the soldiers. I thought that Miss... you were lucky, fortunately, Miss was lucky enough to survive the disaster..."
As he spoke, Dou Feng couldn't help but lose his voice, rolled up his sleeves, turned his back and wiped his tears.
"To be honest, Uncle Dou, the mansion and shop in my hometown in Youyang were indeed raided, and the servants were all arrested. I happened to be out of the house that day and escaped during the chaos. I disfigured myself, and that's how I was able to return to Qingzhou and sneak into the Shen family."
Recalling this incident, Suxi's eyes welled up. He saw the old, hunched middle-aged man approaching with heavy steps, his thin straw sandals creaking against the gravel on the ground. In a moment, the middle-aged man raised his hand, his rough, calloused hand stroking the hideous, raised scar on the girl's face. Tears welled up in his old, cloudy eyes.
At this moment, Suxi suddenly thought of her father. If her father were still alive, he would definitely feel sad like Uncle Dou that such a horrible scar was left on her beautiful face.
"Miss, you've suffered so much... It's all my fault. The master and the mistress are gone, and I couldn't protect you. Even my own daughter..."
"It's okay, Uncle Dou. I don't blame you, and Xihe won't blame you either. This was all the work of that villain Shen Pingchang. He was ambitious and shameless, and he caused the entire Su family to be slaughtered. I came here today to ask if you know the ins and outs of this case. After all, my father trusted you the most when he was alive, and you have always been the one handling the tax and silver matters."
Hearing this, Xihe finally stopped crying and stood up.
"Yes, Daddy. Xiaoxi and I have gathered all the evidence at the Shen family. If we can overturn the case for the Su family, you won't be beheaded!"
"What did you say?" Dou Feng suddenly turned to Xihe, then looked at what Suxi was wearing, and immediately understood.
"Miss, have you been at the Shen family all these days? Are you trying to overturn the case for the Su family?"
"Of course, if we don't overturn the verdict, can we let bad guys like Shen Pingchang go unpunished? Woo woo..."
Dou Feng suddenly made a "tut" sound and covered Xihe's mouth with his hand. He looked around and saw no one. Then he pulled Suxi and Xihe into the cell and slammed the door.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
