"I'm happy." Zeng Xian's face was full of smiles, and his spirited look was completely different from before: "I'm happy, I just want to see him kill all the loyal and good people and make the country unstable, to see him lose the great country, to see his useless sons let wolves into the house and kill each other, I'm happy, I dream of this day."
"But you still stopped."
"I didn't!" Zeng Xian yelled, "I did everything I could. I poisoned Wu Yong, twisted those reckless men into a group, successfully planted spikes in various key locations, and negotiated terms with the grassland tribes outside the pass. But Hua Yizhen easily pulled out all the spikes. And Wu Yong, you cured Wu Yong of the poison, right? You and Hua Zhi came here together years ago. I can't think of anyone else who could save him except you."
"It's me." Gu Yanxi pointed out again calmly: "You'd better stop."
"I didn't!" Zeng Xian still refused to admit it. A gray look gradually crept up his cheeks, and his energy and spirit seemed to be drained away in an instant. He looked at his son, raised his hand to mid-air, and then stopped, landing on the armrest of the wheelchair.
"Everyone in the Ministry of Revenue is greedy, and they have to be greedy. If they are not greedy, they will be excluded and not considered as their own. So I am greedy, but I did not covet that sum of money. Everyone knows it was not me, but they all say it was me. I was convicted and sentenced to confiscation of property and exile for only two days in total. I was not given the opportunity to see anyone. When I left the city, I saw my pregnant wife tied up and waiting there."
Zeng Xian laughed like he was crying, "She was exactly three months pregnant. Because she had a miscarriage before, she believed in the custom of her hometown that one should not report the pregnancy before three months. She finally made it through three months, and we even prepared red eggs. But we didn't expect that what awaited us was a catastrophe. On the way, I begged those people to report to the higher-ups and let my wife go. Do you know what they said? They said that the higher-ups knew everything, and they were deliberately trying to wipe out the root of the problem. Hahaha, they did it on purpose!"
Zeng Xian laughed loudly towards the sky, but in the middle of his laugh he suddenly coughed heart-wrenchingly, with blood trickling from the corners of his mouth. Zeng Han looked at him, and suddenly touched it, staring blankly at the red blood on his fingertips.
"Do you think that's the end? No, they got the order to get rid of the child, but how did they do it? They raped my wife, they raped my wife in front of me, hahahaha, but my son was lucky and didn't miscarry. In order to preserve my bloodline, my wife secretly bled herself to make those people think that the baby had miscarried. They didn't touch my wife because they thought she was unclean, and that's how Han'er was saved. But they didn't let us go. When we were almost at the end of the field, they threw me outside. My legs were frozen to death. They thought I would die, but I didn't. My wife died. She died after giving birth to Han'er. She had already made up her mind to die, and she held on to give birth to the child for Han'er. Hahaha, she's dead, she's dead!"
Zeng Xian laughed until his voice became hoarse, but tears streamed down his face. His pain and despair were all in these tears.
"I've always felt that Han'er had no way out, and I'd already decided to take him with me when I die, so that he wouldn't be disgusted by this world. But Huazhi told Han'er that day that she wanted him to grow up well. She told Han'er to grow up well..."
Zeng Xian laughed so hard that he fell backwards. "I never thought that Han'er could grow up well. How could he grow up well without a father and a mother?"
So, was it Zhi'er's words "grow up well" that saved them? Hua Yi was not sure whether to lament Zeng Xian's suffering or be thankful for the Hua family's luck, thankful that the Hua family escaped a disaster, and even more thankful that he had such a granddaughter.
"Anyway, Hua Family..."
"No need." Zeng Xian interrupted him decisively. Blood continued to flow from the corner of his mouth, but he seemed to be unaware and could not feel any pain. "It's Hua Zhi who owes me."
Hua Pingyu was unwilling to do so immediately, "We will take it..."
"It's Hua Zhi! It has nothing to do with the other members of the Hua family, so Hua Zhi has the responsibility to make sure my son grows up well."
Gu Yanxi opened his mouth to reject it, but his hand suddenly moved. He quickly looked at the bed and saw that Ah Zhi had opened her eyes.
Gu Yanxi didn't care about other people anymore. She leaned over to the bed and said softly, "Are you awake? Are you feeling uncomfortable? Is there any pain?"
Hua Zhi actually felt uncomfortable all over at the moment, and her whole body felt numb from pain. But she heard a few words in a daze just now. No matter how many bad things Zeng Xian had done before, it was a fact that he asked his son to inform him and saved the Hua family from disaster. If this favor must be attributed to her, it was not unfair for her.
Unable to speak, she moved her fingers and gently hooked Yan Xi's fingers.
Gu Yanxi was helpless. He shouldn't have let Zeng Xian come here just because he didn't want to leave Azhi for a moment.
Taking the water from Hua Pingyu, he half-supported her to lean against him and fed her some water. Seeing that she was beginning to feel drowsy again, he said gently, "Go to sleep. I'm here for you."
Hua Zhi blinked again, and there was clearly a hint of a smile on her face.
Gu Yanxi felt sour in her heart, and she just wanted everything to go her way. She turned around and looked at Zeng Xian, who was holding on with only one breath left. He said, "Azhi agreed. She will let your son grow up well."
Zeng Xian's vision was already blurry and his ears were buzzing, but he still heard these words. He had vaguely guessed the identity of this man. If it was him, he should be able to make that person pay the price. That's good. Wouldn't he cooperate with him just to make him fall into eternal damnation
They thought he didn't know into whose pocket the money ended up, but he knew.
Zeng Xian opened his eyes wide and wanted to take another look at his son, but in the end he only saw a blurry image. The child looked like his mother, and he could remember what he looked like without even seeing her.
He stretched out his hand tremblingly, but was caught by a pair of cold little hands halfway. As if knowing what he wanted to do, the hands were placed on the top of the child's head, then moved down along the cheek, and then, the hands lost all strength and slid down.
The child was stunned for a moment, then grabbed his father's hand and pressed it on his face. After a moment, it slipped away again, and he picked it up again, repeating this several times.
Some people turned their heads away in dismay. Even Wu Yong, who was originally angry, sighed secretly and wiped out the past. After all, those things had nothing to do with the child.
He squatted down and said to the child, "Your father..."
"I know, he's dead." Zeng Han opened his eyes wide, without any innocence or emotion. "Dead means gone. I know where to bury my father."
Wu Yong paused for a moment, then asked, "Did your father tell you?"
Zeng Han nodded, pointed at Hua Zhi on the bed and said, "Follow her after she is buried."
Wu Yong suddenly felt that Zeng Xian's idea was very good. The child had experienced too much of the world too early. If no one disciplined him properly, he might become a scourge to others in the future. If he followed Hua Zhi, she would not let Zeng Xian's only son, who had been kind to her, become such a person.
PS: I couldn’t stop crying. Why can I make someone cry just by writing a small supporting character? There will be another update later.