In the lobby of the Prime Minister's Mansion, the much-anticipated wedding ceremony was about to enter the climax: the wedding ceremony.
The old man in charge announced that everyone should be patient and wait for a while, and then continue the worship ceremony at an auspicious time.
Everyone went back to their seats first, drinking and chatting in groups of three or four while waiting.
After Pei Zheng and the other crowds dispersed for the time being, with a sneer still on his face, he took Hong Ling and Qi Bingzhi and walked behind the screen in the inner room.
Those curious people saw this scene but smiled and said nothing.
As soon as he walked in, Pei Zheng tore off the red silk wrapped around his body, stepped on it mercilessly, then lifted the veil on Qi Bingzhi's head to the ground, and pinched her neck with his slightly cold fingers.
"You asked the Emperor to let the Third Princess go?"
Qi Bingzhi trembled twice in fear and said softly, "Yes..."
Pei Zheng looked at her evasive gaze and narrowed his eyes. "Don't rush to act out the deep sisterly love. I know that the Second Princess is very smart."
Qi Yirou's eyes immediately turned red, "Sir, I, I don't understand what you are saying..."
Pei Zheng tightened his fingers a little and stared at Qi Bingzhi coldly without saying a word.
At this moment, Chengfeng suddenly flashed in without any notice, with an anxious look on his face.
"Master, something happened..."
Pei Zheng let go of Qi Bingzhi. Qi Bingzhi was very tactful. He raised his sleeve to wipe the corners of his eyes, then silently picked up the red veil, turned around and walked out.
Cheng Feng said, "Master, when our subordinates were patrolling just now, they found the injured and unconscious Third Princess in the garden. The only person present was Li Yu, who was also injured, but refused to say anything."
Pei Zheng's expression changed.
Cheng Feng continued, "I immediately sent someone to check the small building, but His Highness was not there."
Pei Zheng's eyes suddenly became gloomy, and he turned and walked out of the lobby. Ignoring everyone's surprised looks, he quickly went to the back garden.
He had been feeling uneasy tonight, so he went to the small building before the ceremony. Only when he held the little guy tightly in his arms could he feel a little more at ease.
When we entered the back garden, the lanterns all over the garden were still on, but the small building was completely dark.
In the past, whenever he wanted, there would always be a little person waiting for him day and night, spring, summer, autumn and winter, year after year, and it has been five years.
Five years, nearly two thousand days and nights.
Pei Zheng's heart skipped a beat, and a nameless uneasiness instantly surged into his heart. Tonight was different from the past, and he had a strong bad premonition.
His breathing became erratic, and he called for Chengfeng.
"Send someone to look for him, now, immediately!"
Cheng Feng reminded, "Master, the people in the hall... After all, tonight is your wedding day..."
Pei Zheng's eyes were frighteningly cold, his fingers were clenched under his sleeves, and veins on the back of his hands bulged slightly.
Chengfeng said nothing more, received the order and left in a hurry.
Pei Zheng stood alone in the red light of the back garden, facing the dark void.
The wind was very strong on the cliff, and the moonlight was covered by dark clouds. The sky was not clear, and it seemed that the weather was about to change.
Qi Changyi was so cold that he had lost feeling in his fingers and his cloak was torn by the stones on the ground.
He moved his body with difficulty and felt a little pain in his knee. He lowered his head and found that his kneecap was twisted from the fall. However, because his legs were frozen, he did not feel much pain.
Maybe there are other places that hurt more.
Qi Changyi propped himself up and slowly stood up. He didn't dare to use any strength on his legs, and limped slowly to the edge of the cliff.
The cold wind from the bottom of the cliff blew up, blowing the black hair behind him all over the place.
Qi Changyi touched the corners of his eyes, which were a little wet. Maybe some tears were blown out because he couldn't cry anymore. He had shed too many tears and they were all gone.
The last time he came to this cliff, the wind was not so cold. Brother Pei was with him and asked him to stand far away from the cliff.
What did they all say
Some of them couldn't remember clearly, as they hadn't had a good talk for a long time.
And now, he should start the wedding ceremony.
They are a perfect match made in heaven.
What about myself? Who am I
Maybe it doesn’t matter. Brother Pei doesn’t care about me anyway, right
I don’t care about his feelings, I don’t care about his likes, and now I probably don’t even care whether he exists or not.
After getting married, someone will be able to call him husband with full legitimacy, and he will also have a smooth career and great power.
After that, he had many children and grandchildren and achieved great success.
And I have nothing, with nothing but empty space behind me.
Qi Changyi sat down slowly, with his calves hanging in the air over the edge of the cliff. He didn't feel scared at all. He just sat there staring at the night sky.
Unfortunately, I can’t see the stars tonight.
I rubbed my eyes, but still couldn't see anything. I reached out to touch the illusory moon, but it was too far away and impossible to touch.
My eyes seemed to be a little unclear. How could I see that full of joy again, bright red and lingering before my eyes
Qi Changyi really stretched out his hands and waved them randomly in front of his eyes a few times. He was so tired that he was panting. There was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead. His clothes were loose, allowing the cold wind to blow in.
He didn't seem to feel the cold at all, as his body had already been completely frozen.
He had the urge to cough again, with a bloody smell surging in his throat. Qi Changyi covered his chest and tried his best to suppress it.
He suddenly had a feeling that his body would not survive the night.
"Brother Pei"
Qi Changyi shouted.
Only in this deserted wilderness on the cliff did he dare to shout out what was in his mind.
How long had he been imprisoned in that small building? He was bored and wanted to leave there, to go out.
But there was no one to relieve the depression in my heart, and I was powerless to resist, and it became more and more serious day and night...
"Brother Pei"
You said, I will always believe in you, stand by you, and never leave you...
I did it, but this time you were the one who left me first. You chose someone else and became someone else's husband. I am nothing, so I will leave on my own.
Just this time, I didn't listen to you and didn't wait for you to come back...
If I leave and stop bothering you, will you be happy
"Brother Pei"
I still remember the first time we met, the white snow and red plum blossoms, it was such a beautiful scene. Unfortunately, I have never seen such heavy snow again.
It hasn’t snowed this year yet, I wonder if it will snow more heavily.
I don't know if I will have the chance to see you again in the future...
"Pei, Brother Pei..."
Regarding the matter of my mother, I have blamed you and hated you, but, but...
All the complex emotions are not as good as I love you...
I love you and I am in pain.
My mother said that we should not hate others easily because hatred will make people suffer, but why does love also make me so painful
I am dying of pain...
I want to die in pain...
The small figure on the edge of the cliff curled up with its head buried in its arms. It looked cold and lonely, and its breathing was so shallow that it seemed like it would disappear with the cold wind in the next moment.
I don’t know how long I sat there, but the night was getting darker and darker.
Qi Changyi moved his stiff and cold body and pulled the fiery red cloak behind him tighter.
Suddenly, the light of torches flashed at the foot of the mountain. At first, there were only a few spots, but later, they became more and more, moving towards the mountain at an extremely fast speed.
Qi Changyi looked at the torches that were getting closer and closer and couldn't help but get nervous. He tried to stand up, but his legs were out of control and he felt very unfamiliar.
From the woods behind him came the sound of dense horse hooves, clattering, like a cage gradually closing in, heading towards the edge of the cliff.
—A horse rushed out of the woods first. Pei Zheng on the horse was wearing a bright red dress and had no time to change it.
He saw the little man sitting on the edge of the cliff and jumped off his horse.
The people following behind also arrived, and the torches illuminated the cliff.
The crowd did not dare to act rashly and quietly surrounded the cliff.
"Your Highness," Pei Zheng took a step forward, "It's windy there, come over here."
Qi Changyi heard Pei Zheng's voice, turned around, saw the red color on his body, was startled, and moved two inches towards the edge of the cliff.
"Don't come over here..."
Pei Zheng stopped where he was. "Okay, I won't go over there. Come over here, okay?"
Qi Changyi shook his head and stared ahead.
"Brother Pei"
"Um."
"Just go..."
Pei Zheng's body stiffened and his fingers clenched, "What?"
Qi Changyi lowered his head and found that his newly grown nail had cracked again without him knowing when, and the blood had already solidified.
"Go away. I don't want to go back. I don't want to go back with you..."
Pei Zheng did not move. The firelight reflected in his eyes, which were eerie and darker than the night. He stared closely at the small figure shivering in the cold wind, suppressing the urge to rush over and pull him back.
Qi Changyi clenched his little fist. The broken nail dug into the tender palm of his hand, causing some blood to flow out. The warmth helped the little guy regain some sense of touch.
He bit his lips tightly, stood up tremblingly, and turned around to face everyone.
Behind him was a pitch-black abyss, and in front of him was an impenetrable wall of torches.
Qi Changyi's fiery red cloak rustled in the wind and fluttered in the air. His black hair also spread out in the wind, revealing a bit of his white collarbone at the neckline, through which one could see the extremely enchanting red lotus petals.
And this little man standing in the wind is like a fiery red lotus blooming in the cold winter.
However, although this red lotus looks charming and attractive on the outside, it is actually dilapidated and filled with ashes on the inside.
"Brother Pei, I want to tell you that I was very happy in the past. Although you were sometimes very mean to me, I was still very happy... It is my blessing to know you, but my blessing seems to have run out..."
Qi Changyi's body was slowly moving backwards, as if he was thinking of something from the past, his eyes filled with pain.
"Chang Yi means long-term remembrance. If love is exhausted, fill it with hatred. No matter it is love or hate, you must always remember me."
Qi Changyi's foot was half hanging in the air. "Brother Pei, it's hard to hate someone, but it's even harder to love someone... I'm so stupid, I can't hate or love well... So, I don't want to do it anymore..."
He sighed softly, and a smile suddenly appeared on the corner of his mouth. "If there is a next life, I must become smarter, and we must not become like we are now.
Like this…”
His cheek suddenly felt cold, and Qi Changyi reached out to wipe it, leaving some slight water stains.
Then more coolness fell on my hands, one after another, becoming more and more intense.
Qi Changyi raised his head and saw pieces of crystal clear white falling in front of him. When blown by the wind, they were flying all over the sky, like silver butterflies chasing and playing, which was a beautiful sight.
It's snow.
It's snowing.
After such a long period of cold weather, the first snow finally fell tonight.
Qi Changyi's gray eyes flashed, and he reached out to catch a few snowflakes. His palms were too cold, and the snowflakes took a long time to melt, turning into small puddles of water.
The people holding torches couldn't help but be distracted for a moment, looking up at the white dots falling from the sky, which were piling up at their feet. Pei Zheng kept staring at the little man, watching him teeter on the edge of the cliff, and his heart seemed to be pulled out and placed on the edge of the cliff. Thousands of words were stuck in his throat, and he couldn't say a word anymore, his chest felt heavy.
Come back with me, I have a lot to say to you. I thought it would not be too late to say it later, and I thought it was not the right time to say it yet.
But there is no future, no exact time...
Your Highness, come here first and follow me back, okay
Suddenly, the person on the cliff looked at Pei Zheng, moved his lips slightly, said something silently, then closed his eyes, and fell back limply.
Pei Zheng almost rushed directly to the edge of the cliff and stretched out his hand into the void, originally hoping to catch a warm and soft little body, but what he grabbed was only a torn cloak fluttering in the wind.
Before the guards holding torches could react, they saw two figures falling off the cliff one after another.
Chengfeng was so frightened that his face turned pale. He immediately rushed to the edge of the cliff and shouted, "Master!"
But it was pitch black below the cliff, with only the sound of the wind whistling and swirling upwards; nothing else could be heard or seen.
"Go down and look for it!"
"yes!"
The guards retreated into the forest in an orderly and rapid manner, heading down the mountain at the fastest speed.
—Under the gray moonlight, heavy snow fell.
I searched at the foot of the mountain for a whole night but found nothing.
It was almost dawn when someone found Pei Zheng's jade token by the stream and hurried to report it to Chengfeng.
Chengfeng immediately led people to continue searching along the stream and discovered a large ancient pond.
The weather was so cold, but the water in the ancient pond did not freeze, and Pei Zheng was lying on the shore of the ancient pond, covered in blood.
Chengfeng went over to check and found that Pei Zheng's breathing was very weak. It seemed that he was seriously injured and unconscious. He immediately sent someone to send Pei Zheng back, and he stayed to continue.
Follow to find the prince.
He knew that if his master woke up, he would let him continue searching here.
After Pei Zheng was sent away, the group circled the ancient pond many times but found no trace of the prince.
Not even a trace of other blood was found.
Could it be that His Highness fell somewhere else
I searched for another whole day, but the area at the foot of the mountain was so large that I didn't know how long it would take to find it all.
Chengfeng returned to the Prime Minister's Mansion first. The officials who had come to the mansion to attend the wedding had already been sent away.
He took Pei Zheng's token and mobilized the Royal Guards on his own initiative, along with all the guards in the mansion, to search the foot of the mountain as quickly as possible.
When they arrived at the Imperial Hospital, Jiang Yubai had just returned from taking the emperor's pulse. Before he could even put down his medicine box, he was abducted by Chengfeng.
Arriving at the Prime Minister's Residence, Jiang Yubai didn't know what had happened yet, but he saw Pei Zheng lying motionless on the bed, breathing weakly, and looking like he was on the verge of death.
He realized the seriousness of the situation and hurried over to take Pei Zheng's pulse.
"The pulse is weak, the body has suffered severe damage, the internal energy is very disordered, the five internal organs have been greatly shaken, and the internal bleeding is severe..."
He took out his silver needle and asked Chengfeng to take off Pei Zheng's clothes to make it easier to give him the needle.
The red wedding dress had been torn into pieces by countless willow branches, with streaks of flesh and blood standing on the wounds. Because of the cold weather, the blood had already cooled and dried.
"Take it off quickly!"
Chengfeng quickly took off his clothes with great force, and the flesh on the wounds was immediately torn apart. Blood gushed out in an instant, soaking the bed under Pei Zheng.
These wounds are not the most important thing; the key is the damaged internal organs.
Jiang Yubai quickly gave the man an injection to temporarily stabilize his weak breathing.
"Make the fire burn brighter. He has caught a cold and will soon be completely frozen if he is not warmed up."
Jiang Yubai quickly wrote out another prescription and ordered someone to prepare the medicine and boil it, while he continued to check for any signs of the ** patient.
At this time, a guard in black clothes ran in hurriedly from outside, his body covered with white snowflakes.
"Reporting to the commander-in-chief, we have searched three times with all our strength, but still have not found any trace of the prince. The mountain is closed due to snow, which will cover all traces. Searching in the snow is even more difficult..."
Jiang Yubai's hand, which was giving the acupuncture, suddenly froze.
Chengfeng strode over and grabbed the guard's collar, "What do you mean?"
The guard said in a very low voice, "What I mean is that this matter is too strange. The prince seems to have disappeared out of thin air and we can't find him anymore..."
"Keep searching! We must find the person alive or dead. If we still can't find him after the master wakes up, all of you will be buried with him!"
The guard responded hastily with a "yes", then hurriedly opened the door and rushed into the snow.
Chengfeng turned around and saw Jiang Yubai standing in front of him.
"What did he say just now? The prince disappeared?" Jiang Yubai stared at Chengfeng, "What on earth is going on! How could Pei Zheng be so badly injured? Where did His Highness go?"
Cheng Feng lowered his eyes and said, "I'll tell you when the master wakes up."
Jiang Yubai glared at him angrily, clenching his fists tightly, and tried hard to regain his sanity.
Pei Zheng’s condition is very bad now. This is not the time to act on impulse. He should really treat Pei Zheng first.
"I need to go back to the Imperial Hospital."
Chengfeng grabbed his wrist tightly and said, "No."
Jiang Yubai was so angry that he yelled, "No, what's the no? I'll go back and get the medicine to save your master! Otherwise, do you want to watch him die first?"
Chengfeng was stunned, slowly loosened his hand, moved away, and said nothing.
Jiang Yubai pushed the door open and walked out, leaving only a gust of wind and snow that blew into the room.
After retrieving the life-saving pill, he fed it to Pei Zheng.
Jiang Yubai was just fulfilling his duty to cure diseases and save lives, and he didn't even glance at Chengfeng.
The emperor sent someone to inquire about the matter and learned that Pei Zheng fell off the cliff in order to save the prince. He did not blame him too much and only sent some precious medicinal herbs.
After returning to the palace, the eunuch who visited the prince reported to the emperor that the prince's whereabouts were still unknown.
The fifth supreme emperor's eyes suddenly became red, and he stood by the window looking at the heavy snow outside.
After a long time, he raised his hand and wiped the corners of his eyes, and the father-in-law behind him immediately handed him a gold handkerchief.
"Your Majesty, please don't be too sad. Take care of yourself..."
"Tell me, have I gone too far?" The emperor did not take the handkerchief.
"I cannot be good to my son. I can only keep him safe by ignoring him, neglecting him, or even being hostile to him... I am not a good father. I am speechless in front of Ning'er..."
The eunuch consoled him, "Your Majesty, this is not your fault. When Concubine Ning had that incident, the Fourth Prince knew how to protect himself, but the ministers asked the prince to be executed together with him. If you hadn't tried your best to stop him, I'm afraid the prince would have... Alas..."
The emperor walked out of the palace gate alone, "I know that he and Pei Zheng... But the world does not allow such rebellious things. I handed him over to Pei Zheng because I thought he would be happier outside than in the palace. But the court was in turmoil, and I had to issue some orders..."
The emperor reached out to catch a snowflake, his eyes moistened again, "That child must have been heartbroken a long time ago..."
Everyone thought it wouldn't snow this year, but it snowed so heavily and didn't stop for several days.
Everything in the world was covered in this pure white snow, stretching for thousands of miles with no end in sight.
The plum garden in the backyard of the Prime Minister's Mansion was a sea of fiery red, and the flowers bloomed exceptionally seductively under the white sky. There were still some tattered lanterns hanging in the garden, all of which had been blown to pieces by the cold wind, but no one took them down.
Pei Zheng was in a coma for five whole days.
His consciousness was in and out, his eyes were too tired to open, and every part of his body seemed to be tightly restrained and he could not move.
He could only be trapped deeply in a chaotic darkness, sinking and struggling, without seeing a ray of light.
What is that warm and soft thing in his arms, that bright and beautiful thing that is taking root and sprouting wildly in his body
It seems like nothing is happening.
No, before he closed his eyes, during the rapid fall, he was clearly holding the little person in his arms. The little person was ice-cold all over, and he held him tightly in his arms.
How come it's gone...
How desperate must one be to feel tired of even living? He cannot see the way forward and has no way to retreat, so he is forced to that cliff.
The ball of light that was once so fiery and warm had caused cracks in his cold and hard heart, but now it suddenly took the light back, leaving him alone in the endless darkness.
Don't even think about it.
Don't even think about it.
Don’t even think about it!
Don't even think about leaving!
The **man suddenly opened his eyes, and his eyes were bloodshot.