After Fu Zhiyu delivered the Ming Dao, it was already very late.
On the way back, he deliberately made himself look a little messy, and saw someone looking for him in the woods, so he found a place to lie down, and "coincidentally" was found by them and sent back to the tent.
Princess Miaotang was found, but the child brought by Prince Zhao was not found. Two nights had passed, and everyone knew that there was little hope of finding the child.
This is a hunting ground after all. A child this young might have been eaten by wolves until not even a bone is left.
King Zhao probably couldn't accept this fact. He had always doted on that child, but after he went missing, he didn't even care about his own health and ran out alone to look for him. But the result was still the same. When he woke up the next day, he was a little dazed. He was in poor health to begin with, and now he looked even worse.
Emperor Qingyuan originally wanted to use this hunting trip to bring this well-matched young couple together, but who could have known that such a big accident would happen? The princess had a high fever and was still unconscious, and Prince Zhao looked sick. How could these two good people suddenly become like this
Later, rumors spread that Prince Zhao and the princess were incompatible, and forcing them to be together would only hurt each other, and that they were not a good match.
Fu Zhiyu also heard it. This so-called rumor might have been spread by Xie Ke, or he might just be adding fuel to the fire.
However, he and the princess have not yet settled down, so there is still room for refusal at this time. Using this reason as an excuse has already ensured the dignity of both parties to the greatest extent. After all, it is just not suitable, and it is not the fault of either party.
When Emperor Qingyuan came to see him, Fu Zhiyu told him weakly that he wanted to return to the capital to recuperate, as he felt uncomfortable seeing his mother here, and Emperor Qingyuan agreed.
"Go ahead," Emperor Qingyuan sighed, "Don't worry about Princess Miaotang. Father will find you a good girl."
Fu Zhiyu agreed on the surface, but in his heart he thought that the emperor probably wouldn't last until that time.
Fu Zhiyu was not afraid of being targeted by the Xue and Lin families on his way back. Firstly, they had no idea that he had met Mingdao and knew these things, so there was no need to attack him. Secondly, they were chasing Mingdao because they were afraid that he would leak the secret. If something happened to him, the prince, on his way back to Beijing, it would be like alerting the enemy. Emperor Qingyuan would definitely be alert, which would affect their plans.
But what he didn't expect was that the person responsible for escorting him back was Shen Yang.
Xie Ke really wanted to see him off, but Emperor Qing Yuan would never let him leave now, even if his elbow was dislocated. He now highly trusted Xie Ke and Xie Lin, but no one else.
As expected, it was not enough to guard against this one. Fu Zhiyu did not expect that when he opened the curtain of the carriage, he would see Shen Yang with a smile on his face inside.
"The Ministry of Justice sent a message saying that there was an urgent matter that needed to be dealt with by me, so I had to ask for leave from the emperor," Shen Yang bowed to him and said, "It just so happened that the prince also returned to the capital. The emperor also specifically told me that Prince Zhao was ill and I should take good care of him."
Fu Zhiyu: “…”
He intuitively felt that Shen Yang's words about the urgent matter in the Ministry of Justice were an excuse, but he couldn't not go back just because of Shen Yang's sudden situation. Fu Zhiyu stood outside the carriage for a while, then got in and lowered the curtain of the carriage.
The carriage was moving carefully. It had a device for making tea and medicine. Shen Yang lowered his head and was making medicine for Fu Zhiyu to cure her cold. As soon as he opened the lid, a bitter smell filled the whole carriage.
"It's ready." He looked at the quality of the medicine and carefully poured out a bowl. "Prince Zhao, drink some first. It's cool in autumn, so you should take care of your health."
Fu Zhiyu took it reluctantly, but did not drink it. He put it on the table. At this time, the carriage happened to turn a corner, and the wheel hit a stone. The whole carriage shook, and most of the bowl of medicine spilled.
"Your Highness, did you get burned?" Shen Yang was concerned about him. He put away the bowl, picked up a towel and wiped the table clean. He said, "It's my fault. The freshly brewed medicine was too hot and hard to swallow. I should have let it cool down for a while before giving it to the master."
He spoke so softly and served so attentively that people outside would be scared to death. Fu Zhiyu narrowed his eyes, but his heart skipped a beat.
Shen Yang just used the term "Master" instead of "King Zhao".
He is an important official in the Ministry of Justice. In the entire Jilin, there should be only one person whom he can call "Master", and that is the emperor on the dragon throne.
Shen Yang didn't think anything was wrong. He added water to the medicine pot and carefully boiled the medicine for Fu Zhiyu again. He stared at the gurgling medicine pot and suddenly said, "I still remember that in the last life, my master was poisoned by Xie Ke and his life or death was unknown. I did the same thing. I boiled a bowl of medicine for you and watched you fall asleep, and then..."
Then you ran away with the imperial seal.
Shen Yang didn't say this, but Fu Zhiyu remembered it clearly and continued this sentence in his heart.
He was not actually too surprised. First of all, he felt that Shen Yang was a little abnormal today. Moreover, he had guessed a little about his rebirth from the fraud case.
As for the betrayal he suddenly mentioned, Fu Zhiyu didn't feel any ripples in his heart. He had long been immune to things from his previous life.
He just asked: "When did you find out? I haven't said a word to you in the past two days."
After hearing Fu Zhiyu's question, Shen Yang paused while tending to the medicine pot. He seemed to have confirmed something, took a deep breath, and replied after a while: "The night before yesterday. I heard that Yuan Mingdao was missing, and I was afraid that you would worry and run around, so I went to the tent to look for you. You should not have seen me, or you didn't notice me at all."
Fu Zhiyu was holding up a bonfire. He was in the bright light. Shen Yang watched carefully and felt that the expression on Zhiyu's face was different from when he had seen him before. He was no longer lazy and sloppy. His face was gloomy for the first time in a long time. This expression was similar to his in his previous life.
Shen Yang followed them secretly, and he also saw Xie Ke, but the two of them walked very fast, the forest was dense with grass and leaves, and the noise of footsteps was very loud, so he didn't dare to walk too close, and soon lost them.
Because they were far away, he did not hear the conversation between Xie Ke and Fu Zhiyu, but he clearly saw that Fu Zhiyu was walking in front and Xie Ke was following him behind.
It was clearly Zhiyu's first time at the hunting ground, but he looked very familiar with the place. He even avoided some difficult roads in time. It was not like he was here for the first time. Even though Shen Yang lost him, he could see this clearly.
Coupled with Xie Ke's attitude towards him, he was suddenly shocked by his own guess and broke out in a sweat. After returning to the tent, he did not sleep all night.
After Shen Yang was reborn, he spent very little time with Fu Zhiyu. To be exact, they hardly spoke to each other. Perhaps because of this, he was misled by Xie Ke intentionally or unintentionally. For such a long time, he always felt that only he and Xie Ke were reborn.
But after discovering this something was wrong, Shen Yang realized that he had actually been influenced by stereotyped thinking. There were obviously many doubts, and he could see them without talking to Zhiyu.
In his previous life, Yuan Mingdao stayed in Yuan Mansion for several years before becoming Fu Zhiyu's bodyguard. Why did he go straight into the palace in this life
With his memories, Shen Yang had habitually and naturally accepted the setting that Fu Zhiyu and Yuan Mingdao had a good relationship. They just met again in this life. It was not until now that he realized that there was something strange about it.
"Then what do you want to say to me now, Lord Shen?" After listening to his explanation, Fu Zhiyu's expression did not change at all. "Lord Shen has been a successful person with smooth sailing in his two lives. Now, can you let me, a loser, go?"
Shen Yang lowered his head and gave a bitter smile. Fu Zhiyu saw him raise his sleeves and wipe the corners of his eyes.
"Zhi Yu, you and I have been kept in the dark for too long. A few days ago, I was confident that I knew everything because I had died once, but now I find out that it is not the case," Shen Yang looked at him and said, "Can you believe it? In my previous life, I didn't know you were dead until I was in my fifties and half of my body was about to be buried. I thought... I thought everything was just as Xie Ke said, that he would let you go after he took the throne. He told me that you were doing well, but you just didn't want to see me and I didn't need to worry about you. I..."
Shen Yang choked up and suddenly couldn't continue.
When he took the imperial seal, he felt that he had no face to see Fu Zhiyu again. He just had thoughts and comfort in his heart, thinking that he had left this cannibalistic court and Xie Ke. He even wrote unsigned letters to Fu Zhiyu one by one to make up for the guilt that could not be dispelled in his heart.
But when Shen Yang found out that Zhiyu had died at the age of 26, his guilt over the loss of his youth became a complete joke, as if it was just a self-deception to forgive himself for betraying his benefactor.
In such an extremely sad and angry mood, he attacked Xie Ke with a dagger, intending to die together with him, but he did not die at that time, and Xie Ke dodged it, but was pierced by the dagger in the palm, and blood was all over the floor.
After listening to Shen Yang's reason, Xie Ke looked at him, frowned, lowered his head and said something, which Shen Yang still remembers vividly.
"You've gone crazy, never mind. It's the last minute now. I won't argue with you about this," Xie Ke said. "I didn't lie to you about Zhiyu. It's just that you don't have the ability to see him. He won't disappear."
"I thought he was lying to me again," Shen Yang said, "but I really... I was unwilling to die. When I opened my eyes, the whole world came back to me. I saw you again. Everything was like a dream."
Shen Yang couldn't control his tears probably because of what happened before, but Fu Zhiyu listened to him talking about it. Except for frowning when hearing certain parts, she had no expression at other times.
What he didn't understand was that he, the one who was hurt and betrayed, didn't shed a single tear, so why did Shen Yang and Xie Ke cry like this
"You don't have to tell me all this," Fu Zhiyu said. He felt a little tired. After thinking for a while, he added, "I have let it go a long time ago. You can also understand it as forgiveness. From now on, we will go our separate ways. No one owes anyone anything."
Shen Yang didn't feel comforted at all after hearing these words. He cried even harder, unable to hold back his tears. No one could persuade him to stop.
"Master, Zhiyu, I'm sorry..." Shen Yang said intermittently, "I know that our relationship will never go back to the way it was before, but I just want to make it up to you..."