one
On the third day, the entire capital was dressed in mourning, and the emperor personally led his ministers to the outside of the city to welcome Xu Jingye's coffin.
Shang Rui, who got off the imperial carriage, was wearing a dark-colored robe with dark patterns and a white jade crown on his hair. He was dressed in plain clothes and had a handsome but gloomy face.
When Xu Zizhan and his entourage saw the imperial carriage, they dismounted from their horses from a distance. None of them wore military uniforms, only mourning clothes.
The team came slowly.
When Xu Zizhan saw Shang Rui coming in person, he knelt down and kowtowed: “Your Majesty actually came in person to express condolences. I… I…” His eyes were filled with tears, and he choked for a long time without saying anything else.
Shang Rui stepped forward and supported him: "Uncle has been a soldier all his life. Now he can finally take a break. Zi Zhang, don't be too sad."
Several court officials nearby also came forward and comforted Xu Zizhan.
Afterwards, Shang Rui walked directly to the side of the carriage in the center of the convoy, lifted the white gauze curtain, and saw the coffin inside. He couldn't help but reach out and touch it, then sighed softly.
After settling Xu Zizhan and his party, Shang Rui returned to the palace and received a report from the Western Regions.
"The Wusun Kingdom is ready to make a move on the border. Last month, a group of refugees were captured in Anzhou. After investigation, they turned out to be Wusun spies who had infiltrated our dynasty. One of them even said that they went there in batches and did not know each other. They only knew that they were going to meet up in the capital. There may be hundreds of people." Helan Xun reported with a worried look on his face. After a pause, he said, "Perhaps Wusun saw that our army is now in the south and intended to launch a surprise attack."
Tian Yuan sneered and said, "How big is the Wusun Kingdom? Even if I, David, don't have General Hong's army of hundreds of thousands, I am not afraid of it."
Shang Rui pondered: "This matter is not big, but it is not small either. Especially the hundreds of people should not be underestimated. Haven't you found their base in the Imperial Capital?"
Helan Xunxun reported: "They went east in batches, and only the leaders of each team knew the specific base. When Anzhou caught that team, the leader committed suicide by taking poison on the spot."
As he was talking about this, Ming Lian came back from outside with a strange look on his face. Seeing that Shang Rui was discussing matters with foreign officials, he did not dare to interrupt rashly.
Shang Rui noticed: "What's wrong?"
Ming Lian knelt on the ground, prostrated himself and pleaded guilty, "Just now someone from the Ministry of Punishment came and said that He Xiang committed suicide in prison this morning."
Shang Rui narrowed his eyes, with a cold light in them, staring at the top of Ming Lian's head, suppressing his emotions and asking, "How do they do things?"
"After she confessed those things the day before yesterday, the people from the Ministry of Punishment were afraid that she would commit suicide, so they ordered people to watch over her all night for two consecutive days. Last night was also free of any incident, so the people on duty breathed a sigh of relief. But they didn't expect that she would bite her tongue and commit suicide when they weren't paying attention..." Ming Lian said as he put his hands on the ground, not daring to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
Helan Xun couldn't interrupt and could only watch.
Tian Yuan glanced at Shang Rui, then at Ming Lian.
Shang Rui naturally knew which was more important, state affairs or private affairs, and said to Ming Lian calmly: "Those who should be punished will be punished, and you can handle the rest." He sent Ming Lian away and continued to discuss the matter of the Wusun spies.
Xia Yue in Zhou's house is still praying that He Xiang can return safely.
Zi Jin told her that they could leave tomorrow: "When you are out of the city safely, I will ask Uncle Jiu for the lotus incense when I meet him. Yue Er, don't worry too much."
Xia Yue asked hesitantly, "Before I left, He Xiang was with Li Ji. Why is she involved with the current emperor? And..." She expressed her doubts, "I don't understand why they would seal off the city and arrest me after I escaped. Even if Hongwu is the commander of the imperial army, would he be so bold?"
Zi Jin stared at her for a long while, and decided to tell her the truth, so he asked, "Yue'er, since you know that Hongwu led the imperial army, do you know who the court sent to lead the army now that Prince Huai is in rebellion?"
"It was Xu Jingye before, I've heard of that," Xia Yue replied, "but you said Xu Jingye is dead, so I don't know who it is now."
Zijin held her hand and said softly, "It's Hongwu."
He noticed that the slender fingers he was kneading in his palm moved uneasily, and his heart sank.
There had been intermittent showers since the afternoon, but now it started raining again, making a tinkling sound as the water fell on the roof tiles. However, he was unaware of it at all.
He added, "Huaizhou is thousands of miles away from the imperial capital. How could one person order a city-wide search for you in the imperial capital at the same time?" He paused, "Yue'er, do you know who he is?" He lowered his eyes, avoiding her sight, and did not have the courage to look into her eyes again.
He was afraid to see any attachment or other emotion towards that man in her expression.
Xia Yue saw that Zi Jin was deliberately avoiding her gaze and didn't even look up. She already had the answer in her heart and her mind was a mess. In the end, she still stretched out her finger and wrote the word "Who" in his palm.
When he saw this word, he seemed to muster up his courage, raised his eyes, reached out to touch her cheek, and said word by word: "If I'm not mistaken, he is my ninth uncle, the current emperor, Wei Shangrui." After saying this, his clear and gentle eyes were surprisingly calm.
As Xia Yue listened to these words, it seemed as if a sharp weapon had pierced a hole in her chest. She watched his lips opening and closing with expressionless eyes, and then her eyes probed into the hole in her heart, which was pitch black and empty.
She felt neither surprise nor resentment in her heart, as if she was listening to someone talking about an unrelated person.
Seeing that she didn't say anything, Zi Jin held her hand tightly.
The rain was still falling outside, and the damp coolness drifted in through the window. Her fingertips were a little cold, but his palms were warm.
After a moment, Xia Yue's heart seemed to be softened by the warmth. She met his gaze, raised the corners of her mouth slightly, and said in a nonchalant manner, "I'm so stupid. I should have thought of it earlier. You two look a bit alike."
Zijin tilted his head: "How is it similar?"
Xia Yue frowned, closed the distance between the two of them, put her face close to him, and pondered for a while. After a while, she surrendered and said, "But after comparing them a few more times, I don't think they are similar anymore."
Zi Jin seemed very dissatisfied with the answer. He frowned seriously, but finally couldn't help laughing and said, "You are so perfunctory." His smiling face looked particularly handsome and moving.
"How did I treat you perfunctorily?" Xia Yue glared at him.
"Don't I know you yet?" Zi Jin asked back.
"Yes, yes, of course you are a hundred times prettier, so you don't look like him." Zi Jin didn't like people making fun of his appearance since he was a child, and only Xia Yue could tease him about it. Halfway through, Xia Yue changed the subject, "I just don't know if your uncle Jiu was the same as you when he was young, missing a row of front teeth, but he insisted on pestering his sister for candy." When he was young, he changed his teeth later than other children of the same age, and he loved to eat candy, so he didn't know how many funny things he had done.
Xia Yue thought he would continue to refute her, but unexpectedly he sealed her mouth with his lips.
She was stunned and her heartbeat slowed down.
He still kissed her carefully, cautiously and reservedly, just like last time, their lips pressed against each other, without any aggressive attack, just gentle caressing.
Her face was red, she dared not breathe, she felt like she had no place to put her hands and feet, it took her a long time to calm down, she carefully used her elbow to separate the two of them a little, and said in a slightly annoyed tone: "Are you born in the Year of the Dog?"
He couldn't help laughing: "If you tease me about our childhood again next time, I will do the same."
"You are a rebel." Xia Yue said seriously.
He laughed and held her in his arms: "Tomorrow I will send you out of the city, and after I finish the things at hand, I will go to find you and your grandmother."
She looked up and said to him, "If you want to go, let's go together."
"Yes. But I have to come back with Prince Liang. I have to give an explanation to Uncle Jiu about the affairs of the Southern Region, and my father, mother, and the Yu family are involved." He said, "Although Uncle Jiu will definitely guess that I am with you, I have to save face."
"You don't want revenge?" Xia Yue grabbed his collar.
Zijin smiled calmly: "The dead cannot be resurrected, isn't it more important to be alive?"
She asked with mixed feelings: "Did Wei Shangrui use me to threaten you?"
Zijin was stunned for a moment and shook his head: "... No."
Xia Yue stared at him intently, trying to catch some clues from his face: "Really?"
He tilted his head: "If you keep staring at me like that, I'm going to kiss you again."
At this time, Chu Qin came and said that the others were waiting for Zi Jin in the front hall to discuss tomorrow's matters.
Upon hearing this, Zi Jin followed him to the front hall.
After he left, Xia Yue turned on all the lights, and the house suddenly became bright. Her room was the only one in the Zhou residence that had a secret room, so just in case, she insisted on asking Zi Jin to live with her.
So, for the past two nights, she slept on the bed and he slept on the couch outside.
Zhou's residence was no different from other places. Everyone who could enter and leave the residence had to be treated with caution, so there were no extra maids. Xia Yue had to do everything herself. Fortunately, she had always been free and easy, and because Zi Jin was here, she felt free and at ease.
Not knowing how late they would talk, she helped him make his bed first.
Unexpectedly, she shook out a longevity lock from the quilt he had slept in last night. She picked it up, held it in her hand and recalled it carefully, then she remembered that this was the thing she had always worn around her neck when she was a child.
After the gold locket in Linlangfang was lost, her mother asked someone to make another one in Jinluo. After she came of age, she never wore it again, and after a long time, she didn't know where she threw it, but she didn't expect it to be with Zijin.
Xia Yue thought about it and took the longevity lock from him.
At night, when Zi Jin returned to the room, Xia Yue had already washed up.
But she didn't sleep. She turned on the light and sat at the table to write down what Li Ji had taught her before while her memory was still clear.
Seeing that she was writing very attentively, Zi Jin did not dare to make any noise to disturb her. He quietly went to Chu Zhong to wash up before returning to the room.
When Zi Jin had packed himself up and went back to sleep, he found that the longevity lock was missing.
He searched quietly by himself, but to no avail, and became anxious. He had no choice but to walk up to Xia Yue and ask, "Have you seen my stuff?"
Xia Yue was looking back at the medical records she had written earlier. When she heard the noise, she looked up and saw his appearance. She replied slyly, "I only saw my stuff, not yours."
"Then give it back to me," he said.
"This is obviously mine."
"Dad gave it to me a long time ago."
"Impossible," she retorted.
"Dad said that when you get married, I will give you a backup dowry, and I will take care of the rest of the things in the house. This longevity lock is naturally the rest in my eyes."
Xia Yue was dumbfounded: "Who on earth did you learn to be so eloquent these days?" Before he could answer, she blurted out, "So what are you going to give me as a dowry?"
After asking this question, both of them were stunned.
He said slowly, "You are not allowed to marry anywhere."
She lowered her voice: "I won't marry anywhere. I said I want..."
But before she could finish her words, Zijin pulled her up and gave her a hug, interrupting the next words she was about to say.
He frowned and held her to his chest: "Don't say it, Yue'er, don't say the rest." He looked slightly painful, and his tone dropped: "Every time I think about it, I want to kill myself. It's all my fault."
Xia Yue pulled her hands free and held his face: "I told you I'm fine, Wang Gan and the others didn't do anything to me. I just haven't thought about getting married." She was an orphan, without parents, brothers or sisters, and even her last name was fake. What was the meaning of her life if she married into a stranger's family
But I can’t say these words to Zijin, otherwise he will feel even more guilty.
Thinking of this, Xia Yue retracted her arms and hugged him comfortingly. She noticed that he was indeed much stronger than she remembered, with long limbs, straight and stretched, and a man's arms.
They had been inseparable since childhood, even using the same perfume. But when she was at Li Ji's house, she kept things simple and had no intention of using perfume. Now, after spending two or three days with him, her body was stained with his scent.
He suddenly lowered his head and said, "Do you remember the words I carved on Mr. Qi's desk in the academy?"
Xia Yue sighed softly in her heart, how could she not remember.
"That fire would have killed me, but it was God who took pity on me and let me survive. In the past ten years, I have only had two wishes. One is to clear my father's name and clear his name as a traitor. The other is you. I am not saying these words to repay my father and mother for raising me, nor do I say these words because I think you are lonely and pitiful. I don't know when this feeling started, but I made the decision on the day you came of age." His voice came slowly, and there seemed to be dazzling stars in his eyes. "Yue'er, if you don't have anyone else in your heart, then marry me, okay? Let me love you as a man."
Xia Yue looked up at him and felt that the person in front of her was both strange and familiar.
The last time they talked about this topic was in Jinluo. He was drunk at that time, with tears in his eyes, and he didn't even dare to look her in the eye. Now, after not seeing each other for more than a year, it is not just his arms and height that have changed. He has also slowly grown into a strong and resolute man, and the heart for her in his chest has become as firm as a rock.
She put her hand on his face, first across his forehead, across his eyebrows, and then over his eyes. Xia Yue felt something was about to burst out of her eyes, and for a moment she didn't know how to speak.
He said hastily, "Don't answer right away. I'm afraid you'll use this or that excuse to evade me again."
Xia Yue nodded, but was afraid that he would misunderstand that she had agreed to what he said before, so she quickly shook her head. As her face shook, tears flowed out.
He wiped her tears with his fingertips and said, "Actually, I wanted to tell you these words after the matter in the Imperial Capital was settled, but I can't wait any longer."
She didn't continue crying. She turned around and walked to the bed, took out the longevity lock from under the pillow and handed it to him: "If I find it again next time, I won't give it to you."
When Zi Jin saw that she really took the initiative to return it to him, he felt embarrassed when he took it. His face turned red, as if he had turned back into the shy and reserved boy that Xia Yue remembered.
After the lights were turned off at night, neither of them could fall asleep for a long time.
She heard him turn over on the couch outside. He probably put her longevity lock close to her body. There were three bells as big as green beans hanging at the bottom of the lock. At this moment, with his movements, the bells made a subtle sound in the silent night.
The sound is crisp and seductive.
"Zi Jin." She called him softly.
The room was dim.
As she expected, he was not aware of her calling.
"Do you know?" She turned over and looked in the direction where he was sleeping, "There is no one more important to me than you in this world, but I almost fell in love with someone else."
two
Early the next morning, the group of people disguised themselves as the Zhou couple's servants and family servants and followed the carriage out. When they arrived at the city gate, Xia Yue's portrait was still posted, but the city gate was wide open, and the checkpoints would occasionally check the passers-by.
She was taller than the average woman to begin with, and now she looked quite heroic in her men's clothing. She did not look out of place walking among the men.
Because the city had been sealed for several days in a row, and the city gates were opened in the afternoon yesterday, there were a lot of people coming and going in the morning. The soldiers on duty glanced at them hurriedly, did not see anything suspicious, and let them pass.
Zi Jin walked in front of her.
Just as he was about to leave the city gate, Zi Jin paused slightly and his eyes fell on a young woman who was walking into the city.
The woman immediately noticed Zi Jin's gaze, looked back at him, but her eyes were calm and she even smiled at him.
Zi Jin also had some modifications, and the skin on his face was darkened a lot by Xia Yue. Logically speaking, people who were not particularly familiar with him would not be able to recognize him.
Xia Yue looked at the other person suspiciously.
Unexpectedly, the woman's eyes swept past Zi Jin, glanced at the people around him, and finally stopped on Xia Yue.
Xia Yue was afraid of something unexpected happening, so she didn't dare to look any further and turned sideways to hide behind someone else.
In the end, both sides said nothing and passed each other at the city gate.
After leaving the city, the group did not stop but continued on their journey.
Xia Yue saw that he was worried and asked, "What's wrong?"
"I saw an old friend."
"That girl?" Xia Yue asked, "Who is she?"