As evening approached, more and more people appeared on the streets of Songxiu Prefecture.
Worried that Xie Bufeng might get separated from him, Wen Qingci gently pulled the boy's sleeve.
The eyes of the "drunk" Xie Bufeng were not as sharp as before.
Pedestrians no longer have any scruples and no longer try to avoid them.
In a trance, the two of them were like fallen leaves on the river, gently swaying and colliding with the waves.
The lights come on, illuminating the green bricks and black tiles.
Spots of warm light reflected on the riverbed facing the street made the street market look as ethereal as the fairy palace in the legend.
The warm light illuminated Wen Qingci's profile.
There was a little more warmth in the dark eyes.
Xie Bufeng's heart began to tremble like ripples.
Maybe it was really the alcohol that was causing the problem.
Just at the corner, Xie Bufeng suddenly held his breath, slowly reached out and held Wen Qingci's thin wrist.
Cold, thin, and jade-like.
The imperial physician's moon-white figure swayed slightly.
A scar can be faintly felt on Wen Qingci's wrist.
The boy's eyes darkened... That was the scratch he got with his bone ring on the day they first met.
The delayed regret was like a wave that swallowed Xie Bufeng, and he couldn't help but gently rub Wen Qingci's wrist with his fingertips.
Xie Bufeng's hands were covered with tiny scars.
The fingertips are no exception.
At this moment, this unconscious rubbing was like an animal licking his wrist carelessly.
Tender and dangerous at the same time.
Xie Bufeng took advantage of the situation and pretended to be tipsy and returned to the mansion where he lived with Wen Qingci.
In late spring, Wen Qingci collected a lot of magnolia petals, dried them and preserved them. He also put some of them into his medicine box.
Worried that Xie Bufeng might have a hangover and feel dizzy, Wen Qingci took out some magnolia from his medicine box, brewed it into a hangover-relieving tea, and gave it to the young man.
The scented tea is sweet and refreshing, with a subtle fragrance that comes out the moment you take a sip.
It instantly brings people back to the early spring when the sky is as white as frost and the air is filled with the fragrance of flowers.
All the Convolvulus Pills were used up.
Fortunately, Songxiu Prefecture is a famous medicine capital, and almost all rare medicinal materials can be found here.
The emperor's condition was visibly deteriorating. He was tormented by the worries of his southern tour, important border issues and headaches.
His emotions finally broke out uncontrollably several times in front of the court officials.
Seeing this, the emperor no longer dared to show off his strength.
After two days of hard work, he even sent people to ride at full speed to pick lotus flowers from the foot of Eryan Mountain not far away, and brought them to Wen Qingci to make pills.
At the moment of handing over the medicine, Wen Qingci saw that the emperor's hands were shaking uncontrollably.
His heart sank slightly.
After several days of observation, Wen Qingci has determined that the addictiveness of the Fuxuanhua Pill is much greater than he expected.
At the same time, it continues to magnify mental problems.
In just a few days, the emperor seemed like a different person.
Even the friendly disguise that had already grown on his face was difficult to maintain.
The emperor temporarily lived in the residence of prefect Songxiu.
The once powerful Concubine Hui and the Second Prince fell from power, and Concubine Lan was replaced by him to live in the mansion.
According to custom, Xie Bufeng was also arranged to live here with his mother.
Every inch of land in Songxiu Prefecture is valuable, and each of the buildings is small and exquisite.
The dining hall was also a bit crowded, with tables placed close to each other.
For the first time, the royal dinner felt like a family dinner.
As the accompanying imperial physician, Wen Qingci was also invited up.
He and Xie Bufeng sat next to each other near the door.
The prefect of Songxiu Prefecture heard that the emperor was in a bad mood recently, so he did not arrange drums and music at the banquet. Instead, he invited several famous musicians from the public.
In just a moment, the quiet melody filled the hall, and the emperor's frown slowly relaxed.
After a while, the emperor raised his eyelids and glanced at the person sitting down and playing the piano.
He waved his hand and said to Eunuch Xian: "The immortal music is pleasant to the ears. Go and give him the zither that Dengcheng Mansion sent a while ago."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The virtuous eunuch hurriedly took the order and walked back, while silently pursing his lips.
The emperor has always been clear and careful in rewarding and punishing.
In the past, no matter how well a musician played, he would not receive any reward.
However, today, he not only gave a reward, but also gave a high reward.
Suffering from headaches, the emperor became increasingly unrestrained in his behavior.
Not only did Eunuch Xian feel strange, but the musician was even more shocked.
He quickly put down the zither in his hand, knelt on the ground and thanked the person on the throne in his heart.
Several other musicians also knelt down before the emperor.
The atmosphere became very heated.
But at this moment, a voice suddenly rang in Xie Bufeng's ears—
"There are so many wronged souls in Songxiu Prefecture watching from under the Yinchuan Grand Canal, how dare you come?!"
"A tyrant king will not die well—"
There was a hint of Songxiu Prefecture accent in the curse.
Xie Bufeng subconsciously looked up at the group of musicians.
The next second, the boy saw that the last musician in the line, who was holding a clay flute, had hatred in his eyes that he could not hide.
His hair was already grey and he looked to be in his fifties or sixties.
interesting.
The young man couldn't help but pick up the teacup to hide the smile on his lips.
Before, when he and Wen Qingci were walking on the streets of Songxiu Prefecture, he had vaguely noticed that the people here did not respect the emperor as much as those in Dengcheng Prefecture.
There was not much enthusiasm for the royal southern tour.
Even Xie Bufeng heard a lot of cursing that day.
The streets were noisy and he couldn't hear the specific sentences.
However, the words "accident", "dam breach" and "construction period" appear too frequently.
After listening to them several times, Xie Bufeng also memorized them in his heart...
Concubine Lan once told Wen Qingci that many people died in Songxiu Prefecture in the past few years, and now two to three tenths of the people here came from other prefectures.
The musicians continued to curse.
Combined with what he just said, the story of that year gradually became clearer in Xie Bufeng's mind...
He finally knew what had happened here that year.
I also know what the person on the throne is feeling guilty about.
The boy narrowed his eyes slowly.
The blood debt owed by "Father" seemed to be much greater than he had originally thought.
Even though Xie Bufeng had been able to hear people's thoughts and knew a lot of secrets since he was a child, he was still extremely surprised.
The musician's expression was somewhat obvious, but fortunately he was standing in a hidden place, and only a few people in the entire hall could see him.
Coincidentally, Wen Qingci is one of them.
He couldn't help but frown and looked over there with a little confusion.
For some reason, my heart suddenly became nervous.
As if he had guessed what he was curious about, the young man sitting next to Wen Qingci suddenly came closer.
Xie Bufeng twirled the teacup in his hand and said in a low voice, "The Yinchuan Grand Canal began to be built since the first year of Tianchu, when he ascended the throne."
Wen Qingci was stunned for a moment before realizing that the "he" Xie Bufeng was talking about was the current emperor.
“Hmm…” Wen Qingci clenched the teacup in his hand and nodded slowly.
The sound of the piano rang out again, and the emperor's expression seemed to relax a little, but his lips were still tightly pursed.
Xie Bufeng glanced at the bright yellow figure and continued in a deep voice, "The river channel in Songxiu Prefecture is complicated and the soil is loose, so it takes a long time to build. The Yinchuan Canal was originally scheduled to be completed ten years after he took the throne as a gift. In order to catch up with the deadline, the river workers had to work day and night, but they didn't expect an accident to happen and the dam collapsed and he was drowned here."
"Looking at the age of this musician, he must have experienced this incident personally."
I don’t know how the emperor dared to come here again.
Xie Bufeng's tone was extremely calm.
But Wen Qingci's breathing almost stagnated.
The river workers who built the Yinchuan Grand Canal were basically young and middle-aged men recruited from nearby towns.
Countless people died in the river overnight, causing the population of Songxiu Prefecture to drop by 10% to 20%.
The upper classes had no choice but to move people from other surrounding towns to Xinmin.
That’s why there are so many different accents on the streets of Songxiu Prefecture today.
“… This matter has never been mentioned in any book.” Wen Qingci murmured.
There is not even any record of it in "Fu Ming Tang".
As soon as he finished saying this, Wen Qingci understood the significance of the emperor's actions.
In this era, transportation is inconvenient and the speed of information transmission is extremely slow.
Just suppress it and don't record it in history.
Then in just a few years, it will become a taboo topic among people.
After a few years, as the eyewitnesses grow old and die, it will become just a "rumor" and disappear or become a piece of unofficial history that is difficult to verify.
In short, everything has nothing to do with the emperor who is high above everyone in Yongdu.
When Wen Qingci thought about the fact that there were so many wronged souls hiding under the Yinchuan Grand Canal where he was sailing, his body instantly lost temperature.
No wonder the emperor seemed particularly nervous when he arrived here.
It turned out that in addition to the accidental shortage of the Fuxuanhuadan, it was also because he felt guilty.
Wen Qingci's heart was instantly in a mess.
Before he could sort out his confused emotions, a maid slowly came up with a long tray.
The voice of the prefect of Songxiu Prefecture suddenly rang out:
"Your Majesty, Lady Concubine Lan, this clear-boiled catfish is a famous dish of Songxiu Mansion."
"The fish in front of me are all caught from the Yinchuan Grand Canal. They are extremely plump, fresh and sweet..."
He was introducing things with great enthusiasm and did not notice the emperor's expression, which suddenly became extremely ugly.
Xie Zhaolin clenched the white jade ring in his hand, his eyes shaking and falling aimlessly, just in time to meet Xie Bufeng's cold, mocking and contemptuous gaze.
His scalp suddenly felt tingling and he stood up from his seat.
As he stood up, the table in front of his knees fell heavily to the ground.
A loud bang startled everyone present.
Prefect Songxiu, who had been smiling and chattering just now, suddenly knelt on the ground with a pale face and kowtowed while trembling.
The music also stopped.
The incense is still burning.
The emperor stared at the dishes in front of him as if he had seen a ghost, then took out the Convolvulus Pill and poured it into his mouth.
He kicked the table hard, and the steaming fish meat instantly scattered all over the floor.
Heat and a slight fishy smell spread throughout the small room.
This delicious taste made his face look even uglier, and he even felt nauseous.
"Withdraw—"
"Everyone, get out!!!"
The emperor completely lost his composure.
The maids standing by hurriedly came forward and took away the plates of fish.
Then he knelt on the ground and cleaned up the fish meat that had just been spilled here.
But the fishy smell in the air could not be dissipated.
The emperor's face was pale and his body was shaking constantly, which even scared the little princess who was held in the arms of her wet nurse not far away and made her cry.
If Xie Bufeng hadn't said that just now, Wen Qingci might still be wondering what was going on with the emperor.
But after hearing what he just said, Wen Qingci understood everything -
Catfish feed on meat. Those that are artificially farmed may eat feed made from shrimps and crabs, but the wild catfish in the Yinchuan Grand Canal will eat whatever is available.
There are even legends among the people that it eats people.
The emperor was reminded of the countless river workers who died at the bottom of the river because of the words of the prefect of Songxiu Prefecture.
The prefect of Songxiu Prefecture is not very old. He was transferred from another place a few months ago.
Not knowing the history of that year, he originally just wanted to present the most famous river seafood of Songxiu Prefecture and flatter the emperor by claiming that it was "originally produced from the Yinchuan Grand Canal."
Unexpectedly, the blow hit the horse's leg directly, hitting the point that the emperor feared the most.
Regardless of his image, he quickly walked to the incense burner by the window, using the strong fragrance to dispel the fishy smell lingering at his nose.
The emperor's chest kept rising and falling, and his whole body was wet with sweat, as if he had just been pulled out of the water.
Seeing this, Eunuch Xian hurriedly took a few young eunuchs and helped the emperor to the back hall, and at the same time sent someone to call the imperial physician.
Wen Qingci looked back at Xie Fuyin who was still crying not far away and said, "Your Highness, please go see the little princess first. I will come back to see you in a moment."
After saying this, he quickly followed the young eunuch, left the chaotic front hall, and walked towards the back hall.
As soon as Wen Qingci entered the door, he heard a crisp sound under his feet.
The emperor kicked over a copper incense burner with a bamboo handle. It rolled on the ground for a few times and landed right at Wen Qingci's feet.
In an instant, the smoke billowed up, choking Wen Qingci and causing him to cough continuously.
He held his breath and walked forward slowly.
At this time, a young eunuch took Wen Qingci's medicine box and handed it to him.
The emperor also forced himself to sit on the couch.
Wen Qingci saw from the corner of his eye that the room was full of porcelain fragments, and the eunuch who handed him the medicine box was covered in blood.
It looked like he was accidentally hit by something.
In order to prevent these innocent people from being hurt again, Wen Qingci must calm the emperor down as soon as possible.
At this point, the medicine is no longer very effective.
Wen Qingci was just about to take out the silver needle when he suddenly saw the emperor looking at him with his eyes wide open.
After a few seconds of pause, he slowly shook his head and said through gritted teeth: "... I should have killed him long ago."
"I should have killed him earlier... I shouldn't have listened to the Queen Mother and let him go..."
The emperor's gaze passed Wen Qingci and fell into a misty smoke.
Although it was not stated who this "he" was, the three words "Xie Bufeng" subconsciously appeared in Wen Qingci's mind.
Wen Qingci's ears suddenly became quiet.
He clenched the silver needle in his hand and instinctively asked the unconscious emperor: "Why?"
"Grudge ghost...Grudge ghost reincarnates..."
The emperor's eyes were confused and filled with fear as he spoke.
—Xie Bufeng was born on a boat on the Yinchuan Grand Canal during the emperor’s first southern tour more than ten years ago.
Since he was born, he had no sense of pain. No matter how the midwife beat him, he refused to shed a single tear. He was so calm that he was unlike any other baby.
This is unprecedented and has never been heard of before.
The emperor was already feeling guilty and fearful.
Xie Bufeng's abnormal behavior instantly reminded him of the countless river workers who died at the bottom of the Yinchuan Grand Canal.
He subconsciously regarded Xie Bufeng as a vengeful ghost who was reincarnated into the royal family and came to seek revenge on him.
No wonder he hated and even feared Xie Bufeng so much.
No wonder he, as a "benevolent king", regardless of his reputation, was determined to send the three-year-old Xie Bufeng away from him.
Thinking of this, Wen Qingci's heart suddenly ached.
Xie Bufeng did nothing after he was born, but because of his congenital disease and his father's fear, he suffered unnecessary punishment.
Even his fate was determined at the moment of his birth.
Everything is due to other people’s ignorance and guilty conscience.
Wen Qingci quickly inserted the needle into the acupuncture points that calm the mind.
The emperor's eyelids finally drooped.
Just before he fell asleep, he kept muttering "I should have killed him earlier".
The back hall became quiet again.
The only sound in Wen Qingci's ears was the sound of the eunuchs and palace maids cleaning the vase residue from beneath their feet.
He silently put the silver needle back into the medicine box.
At this moment, Wen Qingci clearly realized that unlike his fear and vigilance towards Xie Guanzhi, the emperor really wanted to kill Xie Bufeng.
The night wind brought the faint smell of fish from the Yinchuan Grand Canal to Wen Qingci's nose.
At this moment, he inevitably thought of the next plot in the original novel—
Xie Bufeng was sent to the battlefield by the emperor to fend for himself.
Wen Qingci's heart sank heavily.
(End of this chapter)