Yang Lun stood beside the horse hitch, took the kettle and drank the water.
Li Shan came from the snowy road and greeted Yang Lun, "Master Yang, you came to the lake without even saying hello to me. I..."
He was old, and was in a hurry as he ran and talked. Before he could finish his words, he choked on the snow wind and started coughing as he staggered.
Yang Lun threw the kettle to the servant and took a few steps towards Li Shan. "Eunuch Li, you don't have to come all this way. You are serving His Majesty. I can't bother you with my affairs."
He speaks cautiously and appropriately.
Li Shan gained respect and felt more at ease. He took a deep breath and looked at the young man in front of him.
He and Deng Ying passed the imperial examination in the same year and were both classmates and friends. Although one was admitted to the Sixth Ministry and the other worked in the Ministry of Works, their official careers were not similar, they were often compared by people in the capital.
Yang Lun was 28 years old at the time, four years older than Deng Ying, and slightly taller than Deng Ying, with deep eyebrows, handsome eyes, and neat features. Today he was wearing a navy blue robe and a black sash around his waist. Under the sash hung a green jade sunflower pendant. Standing in the cold snow, he looked dignified and upright, making the eunuchs working on the slope look even more hunched.
The Yang family has always claimed to be a clean officialdom, worshipping jade and valuing literature. But in fact, almost all the older generation were law-abiding officials (1), and they did not make great achievements, but they did not do badly. Old Master Yang had retired due to old age and was cultivating himself in a mountain temple in Zhejiang. He had been a university scholar and served in the cabinet of the previous dynasty. The younger generation was not very ambitious. Apart from Yang Lun, who entered the officialdom through the imperial examination, there was only a 14-year-old boy named Yang Qing who was still in school. The rest were all playboys, doing some silk and cotton cloth business in their hometown of Zhejiang.
However, the Yang family has always produced beauties, both men and women, most of whom are outstanding in appearance, such as Yang Lun and Yang Qing. The two daughters of the Yang family, Yang Sui and Yang Wan, are the objects of competition for marriage for the noble families in the capital. Yang Sui entered the palace four years ago and was named Ning Fei after giving birth to a prince. Yang Wan was betrothed to Zhang Luo, the Northern Pacification Envoy. Originally, the marriage was to be completed at the end of last year, but at the end of the year, the major case of Deng Yi broke out, and the imperial prison of the Northern Pacification Office was filled with people. Zhang Luo was mixed in the bloody pile and could not get out for a moment. After the Deng case was settled, he was ordered to go to the south, and the marriage had to be put on hold temporarily.
What is sad at this time is that since Yang Wan disappeared in Linggu Temple, the Zhang family was anxious and asked people to look for her everywhere.
After searching for several days without success, he acted as if the marriage had not been arranged and never mentioned anything to Yang Wan again.
Half a month passed, and even the Yang family members became discouraged, but Yang Lun was the only one who refused to give up.
Usually he has to deal with the official business of the department and search around Linggu Temple. After half a month of hard work, he has become much thinner than before.
"Lord Yang, please take care of yourself."
Yang Lun did not respond to Li Shan's words, and said directly: "I am here today just to look for my younger sister. Yesterday, I heard from a seaman that it seemed that several people fell into the south slope half a month ago, so I came to take a look. I will leave when the sun sets. Li Zhangyin, go and do your own thing."
Li Shan hurriedly said, "I am here to specifically report this matter to you, sir."
Then he took out a lotus jade pendant from his sleeve and said, "Someone found it outside the warehouse today. Sir, take a look and see if it is yours."
Yang Lun recognized the jade pendant at a glance. It was made of the jade material he brought back from Luoyang last year.
He quickly took it and held it in his palm, "Where is my sister?"
"Master Yang, please be patient. We have already searched in the lake, but we haven't found it yet. I..."
Li Shan hesitated for a moment, and then he mustered up his courage to ask, "Excuse me, sir. You and Deng Ying are old friends. Does your sister know..."
"My sister has been raised by my mother since she was young, how could she possibly know Deng Ying!"
Yang Lun didn't know why Li Shan suddenly wanted Yang Wan to implicate Deng Ying. He remembered that the Northern Pacification Office had just closed down the academy in Beijing that had spoken out for Deng Ying, so he became sensitive and directly used words to pressure Li Shan, "It's fine for me, but my sister is a girl, how can she be implicated? Eunuch Li, don't make up stories. There have been many things going on in your Haizi at the beginning of the year, and it's already very unsettled. If you want to do that again..."
"Yes, I know."
Li Shan bowed to interrupt him and did not dare to mention what he had learned in the warehouse, that Yang Wan had visited Deng Ying several times.
"Sir, we servants are also anxious when we see this jade pendant. We are afraid that when Lord Zhang Luo returns to the capital, he will find out that we were blind and did not recognize Miss Yang, causing her to suffer in our place for these days. He will bring the old men of the Imperial Guard to peel off our skins. At this moment, the people below are already stirring up trouble. Lord Yang might as well wait a little longer. Maybe they will find her tonight."
After hearing this, Yang Lun finally understood what he meant.
But thinking back on what General Li Shan had just said, it was terrifying.
"Why did you ask about Deng Ying just now?"
Li Shan didn't dare to look at Yang Lun.
Yang Lun calmed his tone and said, "I spoke too hastily just now, please don't mind, Eunuch Li."
Li Shan sighed, still staring at his toes, "Hey, I don't know if it's these weaklings from Haizi who are talking nonsense, saying that in the past ten days, a girl has been secretly taking care of Deng Ying. Recently, a lot of the medicines drying in my yard have been moved to the place where Deng Ying is imprisoned. After checking, I found that they are all medicines for treating skin injuries. Lord Yang, I know that your sister is engaged to the Zhang family. These things are related to her reputation. It will be bad for the girl if they are told to others, so I have already beaten the people who should be beaten."
After Li Shan finished speaking, the person in front of him didn't respond for a long time. He couldn't help but look up, only to see that Yang Lun had a tense face and his knuckles were white from being clenched.
"grown ups… "
"I understand. Thank you, Eunuch Li."
The words were so sharp that Li Shan felt a chill down his spine and said "I dare not" repeatedly.
"Sir, we are guilty. When Eunuch Zheng from the Imperial Household Department came and asked about this matter, we realized that we had caused trouble. We dare not ignore the responsibility. If you need anything, just tell me."
Yang Lun barely suppressed the shame and anger in his heart and glanced behind Li Shan.
After the first snow, the ground was covered with white and nothing could be seen clearly.
"Is Deng Ying still in the lake?"
“Still.”
"When will the torture be used?"
When he said this, he unconsciously grasped the jade necklace.
Li Shan also glanced behind him, "Zhang Huzi has already gone. Judging from the time... it should be now."
"Um."
He paused, as if he was hesitating about how to ask next so as not to sound too involved.
"And then?"
"He will be kept here for a few days, and then he will be taken to the Imperial Household Department by the Ministry of Rites."
"OK."
He stopped talking about the current topic, jumped on his horse, and said, "I will go into the lake with you to search now."
**
At this moment, the torture chamber was in deathly silence.
The unbearable pain had begun to subside. Deng Ying lay on the couch with his back facing up. Zhang Huzi stood at his feet, untying the ropes that bound him. He said as he pulled, "I've been a knife maker for so many years, and you're the most unlucky one. To put it nicely, you work for the court, but to put it bluntly, you don't get paid at all. That's fine. Normally, when I give treasures to those people, they have to give me a written agreement that they won't blame me for anything, but you don't have to write one. So I have to say this here. In three days, if you're not well, you'll be taken to the underworld by the Black and White Impermanence. You can't hold me back in front of the King of Hell."
Deng Ying wanted to open her mouth, but coughed instead.
Zhang Huzi pulled off the rope tied around his ankles and said, "Don't cough. Hold it in. The more you cough, the more it hurts."
Deng Ying seemed to have heard what he said and forced herself to hold back her cough.
Zhang Huzi wiped the sweat from his forehead and laughed a few times. "But you, young man, are really patient. There were many people taller and stronger than you before, and none of them didn't scream and bared their teeth. You didn't say anything at the time, and I was so scared that I thought you were going to die here."
After he finished speaking, he reached out and untied the rope tied around his wrist, slung it over his shoulder and said to him, "Alright, just bear with it. These three days are a fine line between life and death. If you can make it through, you'll be able to cross the gates of hell and become a new person."
After three days, you can become a different person.
But these three days were too hard to endure. Deng Ying could only endure the pain and sleep in a daze.
When I woke up I thought a lot of time had passed, but when I opened my eyes, it was daylight outside.
It was still the same day, but as dusk approached, everything was silent.
The snow outside the window had almost stopped, and the outline of the setting sun was faintly visible in the clear western sky.
Deng Ying felt that except for the wound on her body which felt as if it was burning, the rest of her body was as cold as ice.
The room was stuffy and my nose was filled with the smell of blood.
He wanted to push the window open, but his arms were too weak, so he could only climb onto the windowsill and try to push open the window latch.
"There's no wind at the moment."
The sound came from the head of the bed, accompanied by the sound of splashing water, and then the sound of clothes rustling when walking.
Deng Ying barely raised her neck and looked towards the head of the bed.
A lamp was lit on the wooden loom beside the bed, and someone was bending over, washing a handkerchief in a basin of water.
"Yang... Wan?"
The person under the lamp was startled and quickly raised his head.
This was the first time Deng Ying spoke to her.
"Yeah, it's me again."
She pushed aside the messy hair in front of her forehead and smiled at herself.
"Are you uncomfortable seeing me?"
As he said this, he wiped the water splashed on his face, folded the wrung-out towel, and walked towards Deng Ying.
"Don't come over here."
As he spoke, his body suddenly tensed up, the veins on his neck bulged, and he didn't know if it was because of the pain or the heat, but sweat seeped out of his whole body.
If he could calmly avoid Yang Wan in the warehouse before, now he doesn't even have the qualifications to avoid her.
"That's not what I meant." She said, placing the handkerchief over his forehead.
Then he crouched down and sat with his back to Deng Ying, using a shovel to stir the charcoal stove. "I don't mean to offend you. I won't turn around if I'm sitting like this."
Deng Ying propped himself up and took a look at his lower body. His wounds were covered with a piece of white cotton cloth, and other than that, there was no covering on his body. The despair brought by the broken body and the exposure made a hole in his flexible mental barrier, which seemed to be overturned. For a moment, the word "death" actually flashed through his mind.
Then at this moment, Yang Wan suddenly spoke again.
"Are you still cold? There's a lot of charcoal piled outside. How about I bring some more in?"
Her hands were stretched out in front of the fire, slender and pretty.
Her hair was messy and fluffy from the flames, and it was piled loosely on her shoulders, and the exposed skin on her shoulders was white and flawless. Seeing the woman's skin at this moment, Deng Ying suddenly felt that the physical contact she wanted before the execution was so despicable now.
"go out."
He could only say these two words, but he had the self-cultivation he insisted on. Even in a situation full of shame and hatred, his voice was not cold or even distant. He just wanted to separate the woman in front of him from his own embarrassment.
Yang Wan was not surprised. She raised one hand to support her chin, looked at the shadow on the ground and said with a smile:
"Don't chase me away. I had already decided not to come to see you at this time, but I couldn't help but come over to take a look. You..."
She wanted to say that Deng Ying was too miserable, but she felt that to show her sympathy to him at this time would be an insult to him, so she cleared her throat to cover it up, "I am too cold myself, and I saw that you have a charcoal stove here, so I came in to warm myself up."
"… "
The bed board made a sound, and Deng Ying's palm suddenly lost its support and fell to the ground, touching Yang Wan's back.
Yang Wan just glanced to the side without looking back. She held his wrist with her backhand and pulled his arm up from behind. "Don't push yourself up and look. You are not a prisoner in the Ministry of Justice now. The door is not locked. They just don't dare to come in and check on you."
Deng Ying held the wrist that he had pinched and looked at Yang Wan's back from the side.
"How do you know?"
Yang Wan smiled, "Hey, it's the twelfth year of Zhenning. It's a crime to have the surname Deng. If you are involved, you will have to see the Jinyiwei. Even Yang Lun knows to avoid it, so who wouldn't know how to hide?"
This is more thorough than many others.
"Aren't you afraid?"
"I?"
She smiled as she spoke, rubbed her shoulders with her hands, and then continued to turn the charcoal fire at her feet, sniffing occasionally, and her shoulders shrugged. Her manners were definitely not elegant, but very natural, so natural that one almost forgot that she was sitting in a eunuch's torture chamber.
"Don't think too much."
She said this, and it didn't sound like there was any deliberate emotion in it, but Deng Ying actually wanted to hear it again.
"What did you say."
He asked deliberately.
"I say, don't think too much. Although monkeys scatter when a tree falls and everyone pushes down a wall when it falls, not everyone wants to take advantage of you when you are in trouble. You are too gentle, I can't do it to you."