Xiao Jin carried the tied-up Xiao Xiu into the house and threw her in front of Cheng Qianye.
He waved everyone away and said coldly, "This guy might know."
After hearing this, Xiao Xiu suddenly raised her head and looked at Cheng Qianye.
"You, you are not the lord?"
"Who are you? You... are Princess Chiba!"
Cheng Qianye leaned back in his chair, looked at him for a long while with his hands in his sleeves, and closed his eyelashes, which was considered as his consent.
She looked at the pink color that had always existed on Xiao Xiu's body, which instantly faded away like a tide, and was replaced by a color of sadness and despair.
"Then, what about the young master?" He lowered his head and asked softly.
In fact, he already knew the answer in his heart.
Cheng Qianye couldn't bear to see the glaring pain, so she avoided his gaze and said, "My brother has passed away a long time ago."
“Is… is that so?”
"During the Zhongmu Rebellion, my brother was poisoned to death by Master Zhang. I had no choice but to take his place. I have already killed his enemy with my own hands. I have avenged my brother." Cheng Qianye told the truth.
Xiao Xiu collapsed to the ground.
He recalled the Zhongmu Rebellion.
At that time, the lord went to a banquet but did not take him with him.
When he heard the rumor that his master had been poisoned and rushed over anxiously,
Xiao Sikou had already sealed off the lord's bedroom, allowing only the lord's mother, Madam Yang, and the pregnant Xu Ji to enter.
Fortunately, the lord showed up safely in the end. Not only did he control the situation and defeat the enemy, but what surprised him even more was that from then on, the lord rarely favored others, only kept him by his side, and was extra gentle to him.
He was secretly happy about this for a while.
It turns out that the lord was no longer around at that time.
How could I be so stupid, he said to himself.
Princess Chiba was very nice to me, but she was obviously distant. There were so many things wrong with her that I covered my eyes like a blind man and pretended not to see anything.
Xiao Xiu recalled the first time she saw her master. That young man in gorgeous clothes jumped off his horse and squatted in front of her who was starving and cold. "An unwanted child? You look pitiful. Do you want to come home with me?"
I was still immersed in happy fantasies every day, and I never imagined that the person had been dead for so long.
"Tell me, who ordered you to poison me? Your original target was me, right?"
Cheng Qianye's voice seemed to come from somewhere ethereal.
Xiao Xiu came back to his senses, moved his body a little, and knelt upright.
"The one who ordered me was Weibei Hou. He asked the slave named Afeng to give me a box of gold and a bottle of narcotics. He asked me to poison the master and promised to let me be with him after I succeeded." Xiao Xiu sneered and continued to confess, "In addition to me, they also bribed Ayou and Xu Jia who served in the hall to assist them."
"I have doubted you, Princess Qianye, for a long time, but you were so good to me that I couldn't help but want to believe that all this was true. Until Mo Qiaosheng showed up, he made me feel the crisis and made me realize more clearly that something was wrong here."
"But no matter how I tried to get close to Mo Qiaosheng, he kept your secret a secret. This time, Weibei Hou sent someone to look for me, and I saw this opportunity, so I thought of taking the opportunity to frame Qiaosheng and force him to tell me the truth. I didn't really mean to poison you, Princess."
He knocked his forehead to the ground and said, "But Xiao Xiu's crime is still unforgivable and irrefutable. Princess, please grant me death."
Cheng Qianye frowned. He confessed so frankly that he only wanted to die quickly.
"You don't want to live anymore? Do you want to be buried with your brother?"
Cheng Qianye didn't quite understand. In her memory, the original owner's elder brother was not only mediocre and inactive, with a chaotic private life, but also had a bad temper and would beat and scold the servants at will.
He is only slightly better than the pervert like Weibei Hou. I never thought that there would be someone who truly likes him, to the point of being willing to die for him.
"Do you really like your brother that much?"
Xiao Xiu smiled bitterly, "I know many people privately say that the Lord is not a good monarch. He is not as talented as the old marquis, and he is not even as smart as you, Princess Qianye. But I..."
He seemed to be lost in his memories and muttered:
"When I was a child, my family was very poor and we often didn't have enough to eat. I was thin and easily sick, and was a burden to my parents."
"One day, my father suddenly stopped beating and scolding me. He took me to Jiangcheng and watched acrobatics with me. We played for a whole day. He bought me a candy man, which was something he had never done before. At the end, he touched my head and told me to wait for him at a street corner."
"I waited for a very long time, not daring to leave, but my father never came back. It was the young master who picked me up from the roadside when I was almost starving to death."
Xiao Xiu raised his head, his eyes lit up, and he stared at Cheng Qianye's face, as if he wanted to see the person he longed for through this face.
"Young Master is actually a gentle person. He never forces others and rarely hits me. If he gets angry, he will forgive me as long as I beg him."
"He often told me that he was like me, a child who was not loved by his parents. He wanted to be a good lord and govern the country well. But no matter how hard he tried, everyone looked down on him and thought he had a bad character and was not smart enough, so he became more and more anxious and impatient."
"But in my heart, he is the best lord. I really want to serve him all my life."
After saying this, the light in his eyes slowly disappeared.
He lowered his head with a gloomy expression, waiting for Cheng Qianye to announce his death.
Cheng Qianye did have the intention to kill him, but at this moment, she found that she couldn't do it.
Xiao Jin bowed and said, "My lord, please don't be too soft-hearted. This person cannot be kept."
"Brother Xiao," Cheng Qianye looked at him, "Killing is not the only way to solve the problem. Today I can kill him to keep a secret. Aren't you afraid that one day I will kill you to keep a secret?"
She raised her hand to stop Xiao Jin from speaking, "I have made up my mind, you can't interfere."
"Xiao Xiu," she came to Xiao Xiu and squatted in front of him, "Although my brother is gone, we still have to live. I have inherited his position and his wishes."
Xiao Xiu raised her head blankly and looked at the familiar face.
"I want our Jin State to become a better place, at least so that no parents abandon or sell their children because of hunger. I believe my brother would be very happy if he saw Jin State gradually become stronger and Jin Yuehou become a monarch praised by everyone."
That familiar yet strange face extended his hand to him, "This wish is not easy to realize, do you want to come with me?"
"I..." Xiao Xiu opened her mouth unconsciously.
"I can give you two choices. First, I will forgive your sins, give you travel expenses, and let you return home. Second, you will receive the punishment you deserve, and stay by my side from now on and help me."
Xiao Xiu lowered her head, closed her eyes deeply, and raised her head, "I am willing to accept the punishment."
Cheng Qianye summoned Mo Qiaosheng in.
"Qiao Sheng," she pointed at Xiao Xiu and said, "Xiao Xiu made a mistake. I will punish him with one hundred... no, fifty military sticks. You will carry out the punishment yourself."
Mo Qiaosheng was about to follow the order and leave, but he saw the master raise a hand to his mouth and whisper in his ear: "If you are not very angry, then hit me lightly."
Mo Qiaosheng showed a hint of smile in his eyes. He bowed his head and led the person out.
After the two of them left the house, Cheng Qianye put down his face, slapped the table and said, "It was indeed that old bastard Hua Yuzhi who did this. I'm going to settle the score with him!"
Xiao Jin frowned and said, "Marquis Weibei's troops set out last night. I'm afraid they are already more than 20 miles out of the city."
"This old fox must have felt guilty and cowardly after seeing that he failed to poison me to death yesterday, so he ran away in a hurry. Does he want to become enemies with our Great Jin now?" Cheng Qianye was indignant.
Zhang Fu walked in and reported, "My lord, before leaving, the Marquis of Weibei sent a man here, saying that he noticed the poisoning last night, and that it was all caused by this person out of jealousy and hatred. He was afraid that my lord would misunderstand him, so he punished this man and sent him here for the master to deal with. There was also a letter attached."
Cheng Qianye took the letter and saw the words at the beginning: From Brother Yu himself. He felt sick and wanted to vomit. He flipped through it briefly and threw it aside, saying impatiently, "Who is it? Bring it up and let me see."