In the main hall of Yang's mansion stands a jade peony carved from white jade.
Zhang Luo was dressed in mourning clothes, standing alone in front of Yu Mudan, without saying a word.
He left room for Yang Lun and did not bring the Jinyiwei in with fanfare, but even so, the maids in the main hall did not dare to treat him as a guest of the Yang Mansion, and no one came forward to ask for tea.
Since he was promoted to the Northern Pacification Commissioner, too many people have died at his hands in the past few years.
Officials in the capital were reluctant to say anything when Zhang Luo was mentioned, and avoided him if possible. Fortunately, he was not a sociable person. Although he was ruthless, he did not leave any opportunities for others to escape, which saved many people from trying to get close to him.
As time went by, local officials gave him a nickname, calling him "Youdu Official". Once you meet him in your territory, you have to be prepared to be put in shackles and chains, thrown into prison, and pass through the gates of hell naked.
However, it is said that Zhang Luo is quite filial to his mother.
Zhang Luo's mother died very early. Before she passed away, she and the Yang family arranged a marriage between Zhang Luo and Yang Wan.
Although the Zhang family had been rising rapidly in the capital in recent years, with Zhang Cong entering the cabinet and Zhang Luo in charge of half of the Jinyiwei, many aristocratic families wanted to marry into the Zhang family, and families of smaller status were willing to send their daughters to be his concubines, but Zhang Luo refused to listen to these things.
As for what his attitude towards Yang Wan is, perhaps even he himself has not thought about it.
The Yang family had a concubine in the inner court who was gentle and polite, and had a good reputation in the harem. Yang Wan was also raised in the boudoir by Chen since she was a child, and she never showed her face in front of outsiders. Zhang Luo had never seen her before.
However, he had met Concubine Ning Yang Zu in the palace, a beautiful lady with affectionate eyes.
I heard that Yang Wan looks very similar to Yang Su, so she must be a beauty.
"Master Zhang."
Zhang Luo raised his head and saw Yang Wan walking through the cave door towards the main hall.
The draft flowed into the sleeves of both of them, and the thick linen clothes on him could not be blown away at all, while the silk clothes on her body fluttered like butterflies.
I don’t know if it was a deliberate instruction, but the family members standing by stood very far away.
When she came over, she was alone.
"Yang Wan has met Master Zhang."
She bowed her head and saluted Zhang Luo. The pair of hibiscus jade pendants on her waist jingled as she moved, and the jade beads beside her ears swayed. Judging from her appearance and figure, she was indeed similar to Concubine Ning in the palace.
"Yang Wan?"
Zhang Luo crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows.
"Um."
Yang Wan stood up straight, but suddenly realized that her posture was not steady. She was hesitating whether to perform another female ceremony, but unexpectedly Zhang Luo sneered, untied the knife from his waist, turned the blade over, and put the handle against Yang Wan's chin. With just a slight lift, Yang Wan was forced to look up.
Zhang Luo looked down at Yang Wan for a while, then suddenly moved his finger to the side. Yang Wan's face suddenly turned
She had an old wound on her neck, and the pain made her almost scream out.
Zhang Luo retracted the knife and looked at her coldly, "I won't embarrass you, let Yang Lun see me."
Yang Wan endured the pain and stood up straight, "My Lord, you came here for my marriage with me. Even if my Lord has any reprimands, it can't be regarded as embarrassing me."
"What did you say?"
Zhang Luo approached Yang Wan. The white linen on his body was covered with thick Buddhist incense, which was inconsistent with the coldness around him.
"Say it again, let Yang Lun see me."
Yang Wan turned around and asked, "Since you are here to see my brother, why do you bring the Jinyiwei with you?"
"When the Northern Pacification Office interrogates court officials, there are naturally rules for the Northern Pacification Office."
Yang Wan turned around.
"What do you want to ask?"
Zhang Luo's eyes flickered, and he took another step towards her, "I want to ask about the court officials. You are a woman in the palace, so you should stay away."
"Are you asking him about the fact that he allowed me to have an affair with Deng Ying?"
Zhang Luo was startled, "Shut up."
Yang Wan smiled, "You really can't stand hearing those two words? You might as well interrogate me instead of him."
"presumptuous."
Zhang Luo lowered his voice and said, "You see that I have no shame at all. Do you think you have done nothing wrong?"
Yang Wan shook her head. "Even if I made a mistake, you shouldn't vent your anger on my brother."
"If your wife doesn't want to be your wife, you want to be your prisoner?"
After he finished speaking, he grabbed Yang Wan's throat, pushed his arm forward, and pushed Yang Wan against the jade screen. However, what he didn't expect was that at the moment when Yang Wan's head hit the jade screen, a sharp object suddenly pierced his chest. He looked down and saw that it was a silver hairpin. This was the first time that someone counterattacked him at the same time as he attacked.
"There's no need to threaten me like this. I don't deserve to be in prison, and you don't dare to kill me."
Yang Wan tilted her neck back, and although her voice was suppressed, there was no trace of fear in her eyes.
"let go… "
After she finished speaking, she even pushed the silver hairpin in her hand half an inch further into his chest.
"If you don't let go, I will kill you..."
Zhang Luo looked into Yang Wan's eyes, but could not describe her expression.
She didn't seem like a strong-willed woman, risking her life with her fierceness. She had her own cruelty, but also a sense of propriety that puzzled him.
Just like that silver hairpin, it pierced the vital point two inches away from it.
"You are such a person."
After he finished speaking, he let go of Yang Wan's neck and looked down at his chest.
Although the wound was not deep, blood had already seeped out.
"Don't move."
Yang Wan pulled out the hairpin as she spoke. Zhang Luo's blood flowed down her arm. She wiped it twice with her sleeve without any care, then turned around and said to Yin'er who was stunned behind the screen, "Go get some medicine."
After saying that, he deliberately coughed a few times to calm his breath that was strangled by Zhang Luo.
"I'm sorry. I know that what I did to you was very unfair. I also know that because of me, you and the Zhang family have suffered a lot of unnecessary shame. So..."
As she spoke, she threw away the silver hairpin, lifted her skirt, and knelt down in front of Zhang Luo: "I admit my fault and apologize to Master Zhang, and I beg you to let my brother go."
Zhang Luo looked at the blood dripping on the ground, then looked at Yang Wan.
She was lightly wrapped in lotus-colored silk, her fingers pressed on the cold ground, slender and fair, looking even a little pitiful.
It was hard to imagine that the general was holding a silver hairpin and stabbing him.
Zhang Luo crushed the general's silver hairpin with his foot. The sharp friction sound between the metal and the ground made Yang Wan clench her teeth unconsciously.
Zhang Luo suddenly kicked Yin away, lifted his robe, squatted down, grabbed Yang Wan's chin and forced her to look up.
"You are such a strong-willed woman, why would you do such a shameless thing? If you have no interest in me, just tell me. I am not a shameless person who will force you to be my wife."
Yang Wan raised her head and asked, "Your Excellency, if you say so, you have convicted me?"
Zhang Luo felt very uncomfortable with the look in her eyes, but she refused to look away.
"If our Yang family is unwilling to cancel the engagement and insists on marrying into your Zhang family, what will you do?"
"I can't allow people who humiliate me to live around me."
After listening to this, Yang Wan smiled and said, "If you don't marry into the Zhang family, what can you do to eliminate the hatred in your heart?"
Zhang Luo didn't say anything, but the strength in his hands became stronger and stronger. Yang Wan felt pain and her eyes turned red unconsciously.
"Or... you want me to commit suicide, right?"
After she finished speaking, although there were tears in her eyes, she was smiling. "Don't you find it funny? You are the Northern Pacification Commissioner, in charge of the Imperial Prison. Officials in and outside the capital are afraid of you. Do you need a woman like me to protect your reputation? Are your achievements in the court and your reputation outside all false?"
"presumptuous!"
"I did not do anything shady with Deng Ying."
She met Zhang Luo's gaze, "My brother is not at fault. The ones who are at fault are those who use my chastity to try to please you and to defend you, but in fact they just want to see the fun between your two families. Sir Zhang, you are indeed a well-known figure in the capital, but you have never been married. They know that you cannot be as decisive as you were in the imperial prison, so they deliberately look down on you and make fun of you. Yang Wan understands that it is indeed presumptuous to talk to you like this. But taking my brother away for questioning or forcing me to commit suicide just to spread rumors is not what someone like you should do."
After listening to this, Zhang Luo pinched Yang Wan's knuckles and made a crackling sound.
"Did Yang Lun teach you these words?"
Yang Wan was forced to look up, "Why do you think this way? Can't you hear that I have no choice but to say this?"
Zhang Luo picked her up from the ground by her chin and threw her aside.
Yang Wan's waist suddenly hit the sharp corner of the rosewood plan. The pain was so unbearable that she couldn't bear it for a moment and squatted down, holding her waist.
Zhang Luo glanced at Yang Wan.
"Bitch."
Although there are hundreds of years of civilization progress between us, vicious words always have something in common.
Yang Wan understood the desire to strip her clothes and destroy her body.
"What did you say."
Zhang Luo said coldly, "I am not taking Yang Lun with me today, but that doesn't mean I can tolerate you and that criminal slave from the Imperial Household Department living together. I walk in and out of the court and I don't tolerate any injustice. As long as you are in the capital, your lives are always under my blade."
After saying this, he pressed down the hilt of the knife, turned around and walked out of the main hall.
When he was going down the stairs, he bumped into a servant who was bringing medicine. The servant accidentally dropped the tray, breaking the medicine bottle and the grayish-white medicine powder scattered all over the floor like paper ashes.
Yang Wan sat on the ground, trying hard to force the word "bitch" out of her mind.
But it kept getting louder and louder.
Yin'er came over to support her and helped her sit down on an armchair.
"Miss, where are you hurt? Why is your face so pale?"
Yang Wan coughed violently a few times, "That rubbish person just called me a bitch!"
"Hush... How can you still say that..."
Yang Wan was so angry that she had talked too much. Now her throat was itchy and she coughed more and more violently.
Seeing that she was pressing her neck again, Yin'er hurriedly asked, "Should we tell Madam to ask Imperial Doctor Liu to come and take another look? I just saw Lord Zhang pinching Miss's neck, and Yin'er was really scared to death."
Yang Wan waved her hands. "Forget it, it's okay. He didn't use much force. I'm thirsty and want to go... go get a glass of water."
As she spoke, she consciously took the kettle to pour herself some water.
"Miss, Yin'er will serve you." After saying that, she took Yang Wan's hand.
Yang Wan withdrew her hand angrily and watched Yin'er busy herself.
The daughters of officials in this era were indeed pampered and never had to do any housework, but their lives were also as fragile as paper.
After a confrontation with Zhang Luo, although Yang Wan had a 70% grasp of the academic and theoretical aspects, she was still a little scared.
Even though she could control the overall situation in the twelve years of Zhenning, even though she had some understanding of Zhang Luo's temperament, even though she had the advantage in the game of people's hearts, the oppression that Zhang Luo brought to her in terms of her male and female identity was very terrifying.
Especially when Zhang Luo stared at her and called her a "bitch", if it were in modern society, she should have rushed forward with her teeth bared. Even if she couldn't beat him, there would be the police to clean up the mess. But here, facing Zhang Luo, she could only be angry and unable to say a word.
Yang Wan thought about it and sighed, trying to calm down the anger in her heart. She raised her hand to tuck the loose hair around her ears.
"Why am I a soul instead of a body? In this situation, it is really difficult to be an independent female researcher in the Ming Dynasty."
She muttered this to herself, then thought of Deng Ying and suddenly felt something was wrong.
If he were to wear it, he wouldn't even have a household registration in the Ming Dynasty, let alone follow Deng Ying. He would be unable to take a single step. Thinking of this, he quickly shook his head.
"Go to the palace with your sister-in-law tomorrow."
Yang Lun's voice came from above his head.
Yang Wan hurriedly straightened her skirt and stood up.
Yang Lun looked at her embarrassed appearance, then looked at the finger marks on her neck and chin, and asked her softly, "Are you okay?"
"fine."
Yang Wan held the back of her head and didn't dare to look at him.
Yang Lun bent down and gently lifted her hair.
"It's nothing..."
"Don't move, let me take a look."
Yang Wan pursed her lips but didn't move.
"Wan'er."
Yang Wan was stunned. This voice was so rare.
Looking back, this was the first time Yang Lun called her Wan'er after he brought her back.
"ah?"
"You saved me today, but I never thought that the way you acted when you were with my brother for the past 18 years was just an act."
Yang Wan felt that Yang Lun's words sounded a bit lonely, so she pursed her lips and lowered her head, not answering.
Yang Lun's sister is already dead, and the Yang family treated her well unilaterally out of blood ties, but she couldn't return the same blood ties, which was... quite cruel.
"Why don't you speak?"
"Um... No, I was just thinking, doesn't my brother like me like this?"
Yang Lun coughed and gently let go of her hair.
"No, I scolded you for so many days because I was really angry with you. But when I think about it, you are still alive, it is already a favor from God to me."