Fan Changyu couldn't remember if she had fainted or fallen asleep from exhaustion in the end. All she knew was that in her daze, she felt a hot, humid rain clinging to her, impossible to shake off no matter how she ran in her dreams.
When she finally awoke, she opened her eyes to find the sky had brightened considerably, and she could faintly hear voices from the outer room.
"...The Li family is bound to get desperate. Wei Yan's backup plan won't be this simple. Notify Gongsun's side that they can make their move."
"As you command."
This was followed by the sound of departing footsteps and the creak of a door opening and closing.
When Xie Zheng returned to the inner chamber, he saw Fan Changyu already sitting up, wrapped in the quilt. The coldness in his eyes melted into a few threads of softness. He walked over to sit on the edge of the bed, tucking a stray strand of her messy hair behind her ear with an action that could not have been more intimate or natural. "You're awake? It's still early, why not sleep a little longer?"
The snowstorm from last night had not stopped, and a layer of snow more than two fingers thick had accumulated outside. The underfloor heating was lit in the room, so it wasn't the least bit cold.
As she sat up, Fan Changyu had noticed she was wearing an ill-fitting inner garment. The collar was so large that it kept sliding off her shoulders.
She glanced down. From her shoulders to her arms, the marks were a tragic sight...
The chaotic memories of last night flooded back. She silently pulled the collar back up. After Xie Zheng entered the room, she sized him up and the first thing she asked was, "Are you all right now?"
Xie Zheng's hand, which had just brushed her hair back, was still resting behind her ear against her snowy neck. Hearing her question, his dark eyes watched her quietly for a moment. He suddenly cupped the back of her neck, drew her closer, and kissed her lips twice before saying in a low voice, "Why are you so endearing?"
Fan Changyu's clear, dark eyes gazed at him candidly. "You held back so much last night you coughed up blood..."
Xie Zheng seemed to adore touching her. His thumb gently caressed the back of her neck as he asked, "What if I hadn't coughed up blood? Would you still have indulged me like that?"
The experience of losing consciousness at the end was too humiliating. Fan Changyu felt it was a disgrace born of her inferior stamina. She awkwardly lowered her head and changed the subject, "I'm a little hungry."
Seeing her like this, a dark glint flashed through Xie Zheng's phoenix eyes. He said, "The kitchen has kept food ready. I'll have someone bring it."
Fan Changyu nodded, but Xie Zheng didn't leave. Instead, he knelt before the bed, took both her hands, and kissed them. His expression was extremely earnest as he said, "For you to be with me just like this, I have ultimately wronged you. Once everything is settled, I will make it up to you with a wedding grander than any the world has ever seen."
Whether one called Fan Changyu broad-minded or said she no longer cared for secular rites after all she had been through, she wasn't actually that concerned about the things Xie Zheng was promising her.
But his solemn words still caused ripples to spread across the lake of her heart, as if a small pebble had been tossed in.
This feeling of being cherished and deeply loved made her feel that even if the road ahead was a mountain of knives and a sea of fire, she would walk it with the man before her without fear.
So she cupped Xie Zheng's head, leaned over, and planted a loud kiss on his forehead. Her face was red, but her eyes were sparkling and clear. "You haven't wronged me. I will marry Xie Zheng, but Yan Zheng married into my family."
Seeing Xie Zheng remain silent, she glared at him, her face flushing. "We haven't divorced yet, unless you plan to go back on your word."
Xie Zheng held her wrist tightly. After a long moment, he looked up and asked her, "Does it still hurt?"
Fan Changyu froze at first. When she realized what Xie Zheng was asking, the tips of her ears turned completely red. Mortified, she threw a punch straight at him with a thud. "Get lost!"
Xie Zheng didn't get angry after taking the punch. He smoothly intercepted her hand, pressed her back into the bedding, and kissed her fiercely for a while. Then he brought her clenched fist to his lips and kissed it, the corners of his eyes and brows filled with an irrepressible mirth and joy. "After you eat, sleep a little more. I'm going to make some arrangements to wrap things up faster. I'll send you back to the Office of Presentations later."
Fan Changyu hadn't even caught her breath yet. Hearing him talk about arrangements, she immediately recalled the conversation she had overheard from the outer room when she first woke up.
She asked, "Did something happen with the Li family again?"
The smile on Xie Zheng's lips was ice-cold. "They were simply played by Wei Yan."
"The strategist the Li family arranged to identify Wei Yan as a collaborator with the rebels was Wei Yan's man all along. During the final trial, he suddenly recanted his testimony, saying the Li family had instructed him to do everything. He even produced incriminating evidence in the form of correspondence."
Fan Changyu was astonished. She certainly knew how tight the security at the Court of Revision was now, after their prison break.
Grand Tutor Li had initially thought Wei Yan wanted to kill the witness. Since Wei Yan had men in the Court of Revision while the Li family only controlled the Western Ministry of Justice, Grand Tutor Li feared Wei Yan would continue to try and assassinate the witness. He had pushed for the Censorate's men to also be stationed at the Court of Revision and had even transferred heavy troops from the Five Armies Garrison to guard it.
Now that the strategist had recanted, one could say that Grand Tutor Li's previous actions were a case of lifting a rock only to drop it on his own foot.
She said, "You said earlier you were afraid the Li family would get desperate. Was it because of this?"
Xie Zheng nodded. "Last night, Xie San led men to the Court of Revision to break someone out and happened to run into the Li family's men luring away the Five Armies Garrison guards outside. They were intending to move against that strategist. They unwittingly foiled the Li family's plan. With their plot to kill the witness and destroy evidence having failed, their only option now is to fight to the bitter end."
Fan Changyu, however, was greatly shocked. "Wei Yan's cunning is far too deep."
She frowned. "He knew from the very beginning that the Li family was plotting against him, and he deliberately left a 'handle' for Qi Min to find, luring the Li family into his trap."
Xie Zheng's brow grew a few shades gloomier. His long eyes lowered slightly, his tone cool and sarcastic. "Hasn't he always been this unscrupulous?"
Fan Changyu squeezed his hand and said, "Your men have already rescued the old steward from the Changxin Prince Manor. We might be able to learn about Wei Yan and the Prince of Changxin's schemes from him. Heaven's net is vast; though its mesh is wide, nothing escapes it. We will eventually find the evidence to convict him."
Xie Zheng looked at the hand she was using to grip his own. The gloom and hostility coiling in his heart dissipated somewhat. He gave a soft "Alright."
After the meal, Fan Changyu did not rest. She went with Xie Zheng to the Xie Manor's private prison to interrogate the steward from the Sui residence.
At first, the steward was extremely tight-lipped. He refused to say anything no matter what they asked, only feigning madness and idiocy.
Later, Xie Zheng had someone bring Zhao Xun and the mother-son pair over. Seeing that his act was useless, the steward refused to speak a word, even with his grandson as a weakness.
Xie Zheng ordered the use of torture. The old man, who looked to be in his declining years, was surprisingly tough. He would rather bite his own tongue and commit suicide than confess, and his degree of loyalty to the Prince of Changxin truly astonished Fan Changyu.
Xie Zheng also keenly noticed this. The old man was in poor health; any more torture and he would likely die in this prison. He switched to a psychological attack.
The fire in the brazier illuminated the entire dark, damp dungeon. Xie Zheng sat in a Grand Tutor chair, took the hot tea a personal guard handed him, and unhurriedly scraped the lid against the cup twice. In a very casual tone, he said, "Your son has already been beaten to death in court. This Marquis does not like to stain his hands with the blood of a child, but my patience is truly limited. If you continue to be so unappreciative, the men by my side are all experts at death by a thousand cuts. They will slice the flesh from your grandson's body piece by piece to feed the dogs. I guarantee that when they cut to his organs, he will still be alive, able to cry out for you, 'Grandpa'."
After he finished speaking, he raised his eyes and looked at the old man opposite him indifferently through the steam rising from the teacup.
The woman holding the child had already fainted from fright upon hearing Xie Zheng's description. Only the child beside her was left, crying for his "Mama" and "Grandpa." His tender cries were like those of a lamb about to be sent to slaughter, making one's heart clench involuntarily.
Fan Changyu knew that this threat was necessary to break the old man's psychological defenses, so she forced herself to sit in the Grand Tutor chair beside him and watch coldly.
The old man watched his grandson cry on the ground as he tried to shake his mother awake. His own old face was streaked with tears of anguish, but he only said, "Grandpa has let you down. Grandpa has let you down, but Grandpa has no choice..."
Xie Zheng's long eyes narrowed with impatience. He called out, "Shiyi."
Xie Shiyi gestured to the outside. Soon, a servant led in several vicious wolfhounds, drool dripping from their mouths. Upon seeing the small child inside, the hounds began to bark wildly, scaring the child into screaming and crying.
The old man, covered in blood from the torture, had eyes filled with turbid tears. He kowtowed ceaselessly toward Xie Zheng. "The child is innocent! Please give the boy a quick death! His Highness's grace to me is as heavy as a mountain. Without His Highness, my family would have long ceased to exist. These past decades of my life were borrowed from the King of Hell. This old servant swore an oath never to betray His Highness!"
The wolfhounds, held back by the guards, were almost upon the child, yet the old man, apart from weeping and kowtowing for a quick death for the boy, still wouldn't relent in the slightest.
Fan Changyu looked at Xie Zheng. Xie Zheng made a gesture, and the guard pulled back the wolfhounds that were straining to lunge forward, then retreated.
Fan Changyu said to the old man, "You are utterly loyal to Sui Tuo? But what if the one you are loyal to now is not Sui Tuo's descendant? You don't have to feign madness with me. The one who died in Jizhou was not the real Sui Yuanhuai. Otherwise, you wouldn't have had your daughter-in-law and grandson pretend to be his concubine and child."
The old man's crying stopped short. He stared at Fan Changyu. "What did you mean by that first sentence?"
Fan Changyu glanced at Xie Zheng, then said to the old man, "I mean it was a case of swapping the prince for a leopard cat. Seventeen years ago, during the fire in the Eastern Palace, the Princess of Changxin and her son were also invited to the Eastern Palace. The one who died in the fire was the real Sui Yuanhuai. The one whose face was burned was the imperial eldest grandson. This was a scheme of a golden cicada shedding its shell from the very beginning."
The old man's expression was one of terrified disbelief. He repeated over and over, "How is that possible... How is that possible..."
Fan Changyu continued, "The young Princess of Changxin and Sui Yuanqing also died at his hands."
The old man's body slumped, but a fierce light suddenly erupted in his eyes. "Didn't the Princess Consort commit suicide to cover for the Eldest Young Master? As for the Heir Apparent, he died at your hands! Don't you dare try to trick this old servant with such lies! I won't fall for it!"
Zhao Xun spoke up at the right moment. "I can testify that that person is indeed not the Eldest Young Master of your Changxin Prince Manor."
The old man spat at him viciously. "The words of a traitor cannot be trusted!"
The old man's stubbornness was giving Fan Changyu a headache.
Staying in the dungeon for too long was stifling. When Fan Changyu went outside with Xie Zheng for some fresh air, she kicked at the snow on the ground and sighed, "He's a tough one. What if we can't pry his mouth open?"
She had initially wondered why Xie Zheng hadn't told the old man that Sui Yuanhuai was an imposter and had instead started by threatening him with the child.
After this, she understood. For someone so stubborn, who wouldn't shed a tear until he saw his own coffin, you couldn't convince him without concrete, irrefutable proof.
Fine snow began to drift from the sky again, under a bleak and gloomy overcast.
Snowflakes landed in Fan Changyu's hair. As Xie Zheng reached up to brush them away, he looked down at her and said, "I want to stage a play using the imperial great-grandson. Are you willing?"
Fan Changyu hesitated for a second, then nodded. "As long as Bao'er won't be harmed, I'll go get Bao'er to cooperate."
The old man could disregard his own grandson's life for his loyalty to the Sui family, but he would certainly not ignore Yu Bao'er's safety.
It seemed that using Bao'er was the only way to pry his mouth open.
That afternoon, Fan Changyu secretly returned to the Office of Presentations to pick up Yu Bao'er. Changning hadn't seen her all day, and when she saw her return only to take Yu Bao'er out and not her, she immediately grew so upset that she started shedding tears like pearls.
Helpless, Fan Changyu couldn't persuade Changning no matter what she said. Thinking that Xie Zheng's manor was also safe and that taking Changning along probably wouldn't cause any problems, she informed Aunt Zhao and then, under the pretext of taking the two children out to play, led them out of the Office of Presentations.
Little did she know, it was precisely this twist of fate that allowed both children to avoid a disaster.
OpenNovel