"Well, if that's the case, then wait a minute. I'll chat with you guys. It's not that I don't want to come back for the New Year, but something happened and I can't come back..."
When the old lady saw him walk into the pavilion, her eyes turned red and she said lovingly, "San'er, why did you take so long to go out this time? Did something happen to you outside? Are you injured?"
Jiang Sheng waved his hands and laughed heartily: "I'm not injured, I'm just trapped. There's no way to write letters in that place, so we lost contact."
"I had someone bring the letter back in advance. Isn't it? It shouldn't be like that. I had someone deliver it directly to your house."
"when?"
"About ten days ago, I was a little slow on the road, so I wanted to let you know I was safe, so I wrote a letter in advance in this small town and had someone deliver it to Beihuang City."
Yun Shu frowned slightly, carefully recalled the recent letters, and shook his head: "No, we haven't received any letters. I'll ask someone to check later."
Jiang Sheng nodded and didn't take it to heart.
Several people sat in the pavilion and chatted. Jiang Sheng concealed what happened in the temple and simply explained that he had gone to a place and was not convenient to come out.
Before noon, the father and his two sons returned from the martial arts training ground. Before they even entered the gate, they saw Uncle Fu running towards them excitedly, saying, "Marshal, Major General, the Third Young Master is back."
"What? The third brother is back. When did it happen?"
"I came back this morning and am chatting with the old lady in the backyard. I will take you there right away."
Jiang Baichuan looked at his eldest son beside him and asked doubtfully, "The third son didn't write to you before he came back. That's impossible. The third son has always relied on you. He would definitely write to you before he came back."
Jiang Ling shook her head: "No, I haven't received any letters from the third brother. Dad, let's go check it out first."
"Yeah, that's right. Once you see the person, you'll know whether it's real... or fake."
What has been making them extremely anxious recently is that some puppet-like people have started to appear, able to change into other people's faces. They have captured and killed several of them.
Once, he was careless and was almost assassinated by a puppet.
When the father and his two sons thought of this, their expressions became more solemn and their pace quickened. When they arrived at the back house, they heard laughter from inside.
Jiang Sheng noticed the strange gaze, turned his head and looked over, his eyes lit up, and he hurried over and shouted: "Brother, I'm back, it's a pity that I missed the New Year."
"... Third brother, your father is still here, haven't you seen it?"
He pulled the corner of his mouth and said coldly: "Oh, Dad is here too. I'm hungry. When are we going to eat?"
"After dinner, come with me to the study. I have something to ask you."
"OK."
As the group arrived at the front hall and sat down, they heard a servant trotting in. He looked at Jiang Sheng with fear in his eyes: "Marshal, there's someone outside... outside who looks exactly like the Third Young Master."
"I was stopped by Uncle Fu. Please let him in."
The father and his two sons narrowed their eyes. Sure enough, he had come. Since they had seen this one and confirmed it was real, the one outside the door must be fake. Why would a fake dare to come here?
Jiang Ling looked at his bewildered brother and said softly, "San'er, why don't you hide first? Let's deal with the fake thing."
"Fake? You mean someone is pretending to be me and coming to the General's Mansion? Fine, I'll see what's going on."
Soon, I heard footsteps approaching.
"Jiang Sheng" walked over step by step, his eyes red: "Dad, big brother, second brother, I'm back."
The three of them looked at each other and knew what was going on. They knew it was a fake the moment the man opened his mouth. If he was really the third son, he would only see the eldest son and would never call him dad first.
"Well, Third Brother, why did you come back suddenly? Where did you go before?"
Upon hearing this, Jiang Sheng fell to his knees and said aggrievedly, "Dad, please help me. I was captured by His Majesty's shadow guards. They want to use me to restrain you."
"If I hadn't been smart, I would never have been able to come back. Dad, you must avenge me. Why did His Majesty treat our Jiang family like this?"
Jiang Baichuan pretended to be angry and slammed the table. "How can this be absurd? Your Majesty, do you think that there is no one left in our Jiang family? How dare you humiliate us like this?"
"Don't be afraid, Third Master. Just stay at the mansion from now on to avoid any further trouble. Come, take the Third Master away and let him have a good rest."
"Let's go to the Red Maple Courtyard. It's a new courtyard. Your previous courtyard was a bit shabby. Dad will renovate it for you."
"Jiang Sheng" pretended to be touched and followed the servant obediently. After they were far away and out of sight, Jiang Baichuan's face turned cold: "What a fake! Who sent this person?"
"Yan State, or Donglin?"
Jiang Ling whispered, "It's just these two countries. Beixia has always been a closed-door country and has no dealings with other countries. It's impossible for them to send someone pretending to be San'er to come to your house. So their purpose is probably..."
"They might try to stir up trouble between the Jiang family and His Majesty, or even take our lives. They might even try to disguise themselves as us. There are more and more puppets these days."
"San'er, come here. We have something to tell you. You need to be more careful in the future. For now, don't show up in the mansion with this face. Change your appearance."
Jiang Sheng touched his face and said helplessly: "What are they going to do? They even want to take advantage of my face. Okay, I get it. Those who have seen me in the mansion should be told not to say anything."
"Well, your brother will take care of these. Come and have your meal first, and then we'll go to the study to discuss things."
"I see. That imposter looks a bit stiff. And what about the puppet you mentioned? What does that even mean?"
Jiang Ling sighed and lowered his voice: "Half a month after you left, something was amiss with Deputy General Wang in the barracks. We didn't suspect anything at first."
"Later, during a sparring match, Vice General Wang suddenly attacked with a killing move. After I subdued him, I realized... something was wrong with him. His skin was pale and blue, like a corpse."
"It's just that the head is Lieutenant General Wang's face, and there are suture marks on the neck. It's very strange. Later, we found out that something was wrong and that Lieutenant General Liu's entire family had died tragically."
"The rest of the story is basically, if you find something wrong, you catch and kill them. Notices have been posted in the city. If you find someone around you acting strangely, you must report it. Each person will be rewarded with ten taels of silver."
Jiang Sheng understood. It seemed that before he came, there was a puppeteer in the Central Plains doing something and what was his purpose? Was it to stir up hatred between the Jiang family and the emperor?
"Well, the purpose of the person behind this is to cause chaos in the Jiang family and make them quarrel with the emperor so that they can reap the benefits."
Jiang Ling's expression was calm: "This matter is still under investigation!"
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