That night, the wind and snow were strong again.
The cemetery in the north of the capital was also called "Zhongguaner" (1) because most of the eunuchs in the palace were buried there.
Deng Ying stood quietly at the grave holding an umbrella, shielding the snow from Li Yu who was lying in the coffin.
Li Yu's coffin had not been sealed yet. Qin Wende stood beside the coffin, looking at the head that was barely stuck together with the neck. He opened his mouth two or three times and finally uttered a word after a long time.
"How old is the child?"
Deng Ying looked down at the coffin: "Fifteen years old."
Qin Wende choked up and looked at the shroud he was wearing. In the Ming Dynasty funeral, everyone, whether commoners or kings, wore 13-year-old clothes, but Li Yu was only wearing a white silk dress that was obviously ill-fitting, and his feet were bare, covering his long trouser legs. Qin Wende couldn't help but hold the coffin and sighed: "He was only 15 years old, how miserable."
Just as the voice fell, a loud voice suddenly came from behind, accompanied by Bai Fanzi's voice: "The funeral scribe of the Ministry of Rites—"
Deng Ying held the umbrella steady in his hand without looking back. After a while, two white lanterns passed by, followed by four people carrying coffins. Hu Xiang walked to the back, "Director Deng, please make way. We are passing the grave over there."
Deng Ying stood up and asked, "How did Li Bingbi die?"
"oh."
Hu Xiang put his hands into his sleeves and said, "He got seriously ill and died suddenly this morning."
After he finished speaking, he looked at Li Yu lying in the coffin and said, "This child is really pitiful. He died with his mother like this."
"Why cut off his head if he died a martyr?"
Hu Xiang said: "You have to ask the ancestor. He always said something unpleasant before he died, which angered the ancestor. The ancestor originally wanted him to be buried in the land of 'Emperor Zhongguan'. However, since Director Deng wants to show him this favor, the Imperial Household Department has nothing to say. They are just afraid that he will suffer too much and will not be able to rest in peace in the underworld."
"shut up."
The word "shut up" was not too harsh, but it made Qin Wende and others stunned.
However, he only said this sentence and did not speak again.
Hu Xiang and Deng Ying fell silent for a while, then spoke again: "Director Deng, the old ancestor asked me to tell you something. You have been a factory official for too long, and some temper is a bad thing. After the funeral, the Imperial Household Department will also settle your mistakes over the years. At that time, a hundred or so strokes of the cane and being sent to the northern camp as a slave will be light punishments. However, the old ancestor is still willing to love you again, so you should think about the current situation for a while."
After saying that, he raised his hand and called for the coffin to be lifted up, "Let's go over there."
"Oh shit… "
After hearing this, Qin Wende followed her and was about to go and scold her.
"Tan Wende."
Qin Wende turned around and found that he had stepped on the shroud of Li Yu outside the coffin. He quickly stepped back and said, "This..."
"Seal the coffin."
***
After the hour of Xu, Deng Ying walked into Donghua Gate alone with an umbrella, and Yang Lun waited for him behind Donghua Gate.
"What happened? Why did the 'Emperor' bury someone?"
Deng Ying stopped and was silent for a moment before saying, "Li Bingbi and Li Yu are dead, Zixi."
He raised his head and said, "The will is fake."
Yang Lun choked, "It's too late, isn't it?"
"Yes, it's late."
Yang Lun threw a punch at Xueli. "If we can save Li Bingbi and prove that the imperial edict presented by the Imperial Household Department is a fake, the new imperial edict from the Cabinet can be presented directly to the Empress!"
"Zi Xi, you are wrong. Forging a will is a capital crime. No one in the Imperial Household Department can escape. Even if you save Li Bingbi, he will tell."
Yang Lun clenched his fist and turned his back. "Forget it. I was just a lackey, so I can trust you. The will has not been issued yet, but the cabinet has drafted a new one. We will try our best to persuade the queen to abandon the old one and start with the new one. If the queen agrees, then when the will is issued, the cabinet will refute it."
Deng Ying walked up to Yang Lun and said, "Refuting the will is as bad as disobeying the emperor. Even if you did something wrong, you will be convicted and your whole family will be in trouble. Have you taken care of anyone around you?"
"What can I do?"
After he finished speaking, he shouted in a snowy voice: "If the late emperor had listened to our earnest advice and appointed a crown prince earlier, I, Yang Lun, would not have resorted to this path and become a sinner of the Yang family with my heart full of revenge!"
"You will be a sinner."
Deng Ying raised her head and said, "Zi Xi, when His Majesty was seriously ill, Yang Wan helped the East Factory to pry open a hole in the Yangxin Palace. When His Majesty was dying, only the people from the Imperial Household Department served him..."
He said with a lump in his throat, "And I, the eunuch commander of the East Factory, also know whether the will is real or not."
After hearing this, Yang Lun's back suddenly straightened.
"What do you mean, what do you do!"
"I… "
"You must do it!"
Deng Ying stepped forward and said, "Yang Zixi, I am a servant. After the incident, if His Highness shows mercy and reduces my sentence, you can plead for me. The officials in the cabinet may not be able to spare my life, but if you go to gamble, you, the teacher, and Yang Wan, no one will stay. Yang Zixi, weigh the pros and cons, and trust me!"
Yang Lun shook his head involuntarily, his teeth gnashing as he said, "Deng Fuling, I really don't understand, I really don't understand, how could you do this..."
Deng Ying smiled and said from the side: "Because I don't want to be a eunuch. I want to die for the country, not for a man. I have always had my dignity as a human being, even if I have to bow down in front of you. I haven't changed in more than 20 years. As the supervisor of the East Factory, Zixi, I want to live longer."
After saying this, Yang Lun was speechless.
"Zi Xi..."
"Stop talking!"
Yang Lun avoided Deng Ying's gaze, clenched his fist and took a few steps to the side. "I can't make a unilateral decision on this matter. I need to discuss it with the teacher."
"Yes."
Deng Ying followed him and lowered her voice, "Let me go to the teacher and I will tell him in person."
Yang Lun turned around and asked, "Where are you going now?"
"Go back to the moat duty room and get some sleep."
"Did you sleep well?"
"Sleep well."
But so what.
The two of them said goodbye in silence at Donghua Gate.
Beside the moat, the wind brought heavy snow, which flowed under the umbrella and rushed towards Deng Ying's chest and abdomen in waves.
He felt very cold, but he was unwilling to walk in a hunched manner like the eunuchs.
In the three years since his execution, he has never lost his obsession with his manners and clothes, but his soul trapped in his broken body has become more and more angular. He has never said goodbye to anyone. All his emotions and pains are internalized, accumulating day by day and tending to self-destruction. He has thought about the word "end" more than once. He has also witnessed Zheng Yuejia's tragic death, and today he has personally cleaned up Li Yu's body. This huge "terror" that transcends the body of a person who has been tortured is like a chain that has locked his wrists since he entered the palace.
He never thought of breaking free, but just kept wearing it and tried his best to move forward until Yang Wan said to him, "Deng Ying, put your hand over me."
"Are you back?"
Such a voice was heard from the door of the duty room. Deng Ying raised her head and saw Yang Wan squatting in the snow with her knees hugged. There was a pile of snow on her head, and most of the snow on her face had melted and touched her skin, making it look crystal clear.
"Yes, I'm back."
Yang Wan stood up and lowered her head to brush off the snow on her head.
"I cooked noodles, but they all clumped up."
"It's okay Wanwan."
He said, looking at her face, "I want to eat."
"You want to eat."
Yang Wan repeated his words, lowered her head and smiled, "Deng Xiaoying, you told me that you have always been so bad-tempered."
"Wanwan, I am the one under your control. I am extremely terrified. I don't know how to treat you so that you will let me go."
“I never thought about letting go.”
After she finished speaking, she walked a few steps towards Deng Ying on the snow.
"Deng Ying. Put your hand over here."
Sometimes, Deng Ying felt that Yang Wan always knew what he was going to do, and whenever he tried to give up on her, she would always let him reach out. But she didn't hold Deng Ying just to hold him. She seemed to just want to quietly accompany him for a while. Like someone who had read through his life and death records, she understood the cause and effect, and knew more clearly than him that his road ahead was into the sea and he couldn't turn back, so she was more determined and calm than him.
"Deng Ying, I am now gradually understanding what we can do to make our lives more comfortable."
As she spoke, she put Deng Ying's raised wrists together, gently held them in her palms, and led him into the main room.
"Eat noodles."
"."
After listening to this, he lowered his head to eat noodles. The noodles were so clumpy that they choked his throat, and he couldn't help choking.
"It's okay. I'm fine."
As she spoke, she stood up, took the rag that Deng Ying had placed on the basin, and carefully wiped the remaining soup on the table, saying, "Deng Ying, I have roughly guessed how you are going to break the plan set by the Imperial Household Department and the Cabinet."
The noodles that Deng Ying had bitten off fell into the soup, and the soup splashed on his face. Yang Wan smiled, raised her sleeves, and wiped it for him.
"You must plead guilty to forging a will."
Deng Ying held the chopsticks and nodded after a long time.
"Have you told your brother?"
"Yes, I'm sorry, Wanwan, I..."
"fine."
Yang Wan took back her hand and lowered her eyes, "I just didn't expect that I was the one who opened your mouth. If I had asked Empress Chen to look for the Queen Mother, you would have entered the Yangxin Palace."
She pursed her lips and said, "Deng Ying, if it were me three years ago, I would definitely hate myself to death, but now..."
She touched Deng Ying's nose and said, "It's okay."
After she said this, her eyes softened. "I know that what you have been guarding all your life is your 'literary heart'. The only person you have let go of is me. So what can I do?"
She looked up at Deng Ying and said, "I can only lead you by the hand, take you to live the life you want, and be the person you want to be."
Speaking of this, Yang Wan choked up for unknown reasons.
Deng Ying's historical inevitability is not just the law of the feudal era, but also the inner cultivation of this person and the contradiction in his cognition about "identity". She can bravely prove it for him in the academic world of the 21st century, but she must respect his only choice in the Ming Dynasty 600 years ago.
"I am really awesome..."
She choked up: "I am not ashamed to be Yang Wan."
"Yes, you are ashamed to be Yang Wan."
“But I want to do a little more.”
After she finished speaking, she held Deng Ying's wrist and said, "People hundreds of years later will do it to make friends after their death. They will do it very well. Deng Ying, I..."
She paused, "I may not be able to be your famous name before death."