Chapter 26
(Fifty-one) Recapture Baihua City (V)
On the third day of my detention, I didn’t have a proper meal.
At this moment, I was starving to death.
Because Su Cen kept ordering people to bring me some leftovers and mocked me, "The stray daughter of the Hundred Flowers City Lord is just eating dog food. Come on, eat it! Your grandfather even made some rice soup for you with his own leftovers."
I curled up in a dark and damp underground cell, surrounded by sticky and cold air, dog food at my feet, the yamen runners taking turns mocking me, and I was half-starved to death.
I'm really going to die.
After learning this horrible truth, I couldn't control my mind from racing.
I recalled my childhood, the wet nurse who raised me but died tragically for me, the complicated and tangled events in our family, my cowardly father and my strict but wise mother, and the various scenes in Baihua City.
I thought of Sansong again, of the scene in Songyang City where Sansong lived, of the promises Sansong made to me when we got engaged, of the time when Sansong broke off the engagement and married someone else just a few days later, and of the red lanterns hung outside Songyang City to celebrate Sansong's wedding.
I thought of the young marquis again, of the time we spent together fighting crickets, and of his crimson eyes on the night of my wedding.
Then, I thought of the damn Wei Zhen and how hateful and domineering he was, but then I thought again and felt that he was not that hateful after all.
Although Wei Zhen is the son of Wei Bai, the most powerful relative of the dynasty, and the King of Pingnan, I truly feel that he treats me equally and loves me.
The next moment, I began to fall into a new confusion, as if I was back to the day when I learned that my wet nurse was beaten to death for protecting me. I lay on the window of my wet nurse's empty room, looking at the falling peach blossoms in the yard, feeling a little lost about the future.
This world is so big, but there is no place for me to stand.
"The peach blossoms have fallen, and the pavilion is deserted. Although the oath of love remains, it is difficult to entrust a letter."
At this moment, all the experiences of the past appeared in front of me again and again. I covered my face and squatted on the ground crying bitterly.
Everything around me disgusts me so much.
I'm hanging on by a thread.
I am the daughter of the Lord of Baihua City, I cannot eat dog food.
If I eat this meal, my family will become the laughing stock of the whole city.
This thought kept appearing in my mind, controlling me from touching the leftover soup and rice soaked in water even though I was starving.
I was in a daze and didn't know how long it took. Later, because I was too hungry, my consciousness became very blurry.
Suddenly, there was a commotion in the small cell.
I felt like someone was holding me up sideways, and then I lost consciousness.
When I woke up again, a maid was feeding some rice porridge into my mouth with a small spoon.
I pushed her away weakly with my hands, and the rice porridge spilled onto the bed.
"Get out, I don't want to eat dog food, get out!" When I weakly struggled to get up, I found myself lying on a soft and comfortable big bed.
There was a very familiar smell of incense in my bed.
It's the smell of Wei Zhen.
The smell of the incense made me feel a little relieved, but then I thought about it and felt extremely sad.
"Call Wei Zhen to me." I lay on the bed hysterically.
Then, the little maid who fed me rushed out of the room, crawling and rolling.
This time, Wei Zhen entered the house immediately.
"Do you have any strength now?" Wei Zhen asked me as soon as he entered the door.
This time, there was no ridicule, sarcasm or sneer on his face, only concern.
I looked at Wei Zhen's face and tears started flowing before I could say a word.
"Let's break up, Wei Zhen." I thought about it, but felt that my words were not strong enough, so I said, "I want to divorce you, Wei Zhen."
Wei Zhen stood by the bed, picked up the rice porridge and brought it to my mouth with a spoon again.
"You eat first."
I pushed him away and said, "You're so hypocritical! Get out of here! I'm going to divorce you today!"
Wei Zhen stopped moving, looked at me, and said slowly, "Why? Because I put you in jail?"
I suddenly felt a sense of sadness.
I thought of what my wet nurse once said to me: "When our thirteen-year-old daughter gets married and finds someone to rely on, I will feel at ease."
Wet nurse, I finally got married, but no one approves of my marriage.
I lay on Wei Zhen's quilt and cried bitterly.
This time, Wei Zhen just looked at me sadly quietly.
Then, he said softly, "I'm sorry, Thirteen. I just wanted to play a joke on you, but I didn't expect Su Cen to really humiliate you like that."
This is the first time I have heard Wei Zhen apologize since I married him for so long.
I sobbed and looked up at Wei Zhen, and he was looking at me.
I looked at Wei Zhen's face and began to feel extremely wronged again.
"Since you don't love me, why do you have to force me to marry you, Wei Zhen? I have no grudge against you, why do you want to play with me and humiliate me like this?"
Wei Zhen was stunned again, and after a long while, she slowly said, "I'm not playing around with you, Madam. I'm taking you seriously. Can't you feel it?"
"But everyone in the world says that you were just playing around and forcing me to marry you, saying that you would marry another noble lady."
(Fifty-Two) Recapture Baihua City (VI)
"Gossip is always like this, the more explosive it is, the better. Don't you know a lot about this?" Wei Zhen said to me helplessly.
Under Wei Zhen's coaxing, I drank the whole bowl of millet porridge. Leaning against Wei Zhen's soft bedding, I felt a little more comfortable.
But the thought of divorcing Wei Zhen never disappeared.
"What do you want me to do in order to forgive me?" Wei Zhen said to me helplessly, "I really just wanted to play a joke on you. I didn't know it would get so serious this time."
"Wuwu, I don't care, I'm going to divorce you, Wei Zhen!" I sat on the bed with a thick mattress and cried and yelled to the sky.
Because I was still a little weak, I stayed in bed and didn't get out.
In the afternoon, Shui Ling suddenly entered the room.
"Madam, you're okay. That's great. Woohoo." Shui Ling started wiping her tears as soon as she entered the room. "I heard people said you were thrown into a cell..."
I looked at Shui Ling in surprise, "Aren't you in the Wei Mansion? Why are you here?"
"The prince took me here and said that you were emotionally unstable and wanted me to take care of you." Shui Ling wiped her tears again.
Speaking of Wei Zhen, I get angry.
Seeing that I was silent, Shui Ling said again: "Princess, you should be happy."
"What are you happy about?" I asked puzzled.
"The young prince was angered by the princess's humiliation. During the military training today, the young prince rejected the general assigned to him by Su Cen and appointed your brother Shang Mofeng as the general to lead the troops."
My original anger and dissatisfaction finally subsided a little.
"Does Su Cen have any objection to this?" I asked.
Shui Ling immediately raised her head, "Even if he's dissatisfied, what can he do to the young prince? Just let him bear it."
"The young prince is obviously trying to support our merchants in Baihua City and attack the Su family. Over time, those soldiers will follow Young Master Mo to fight and will be his loyal soldiers. Besides, Young Master Mo Feng is still young, and the young prince is trying to help him accumulate military merits."
Shui Ling walked over to me with a coquettish look, combed my hair, and continued to say to me, "Madam, the young prince finally supports your family. You should be happy. But you can't break with the young prince at this time. If you do, the opportunity your family has worked so hard to win will be lost."
At this moment, I was completely quiet.
Shui Ling is right. I still can't act on impulse. I need to calmly think of a way to take back Baihua City, which belongs to our family.
Then, I thought of something.
I immediately called Xiaochuan and Shuiling and asked them to help me spread some gossip.
The two nodded and hurried out of the house.
Overnight, everyone in the martial arts world knew that adult men could not easily set foot in Baihua City.
Because Baihua City, which is now under the control of Su Cen, will capture them and send them into exile.
It turned out that after Su Cen took control of Baihua City, some soldiers who were loyal to my parents would rather die than surrender. In order to better exercise his power, Su Cen disbanded those soldiers on the spot.
However, the capital was very dissatisfied with this and doubted whether Su Cen had the ability to lead Baihua City. In order to satisfy the capital, Su Cen had no choice but to capture a large number of young and middle-aged men in Baihua City and force them to join the army.
This action made a large number of civilians in Baihua City very dissatisfied, but because they had little influence, no one cared about their suffering.
This gave me the opportunity to show my strength. I immediately ordered Xiaochuan and Shuiling to spread the scandal of Baihua City everywhere, so that almost everyone knew about it.
For a time, Baihua City became the core topic of controversy in the martial arts world, and almost everyone wanted to comment on the tyranny of Su Cen in Baihua City.
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